My Alma Mater: Veritas Lost

by Stephen Lendman 

As a Harvard alumnus, class of '56, the year Jack Kennedy was commencement speaker when still a Senate member, I'm appalled that Harvard transformed itself from institution of higher education during my college years to its present deplorable state.

The school is now an institution of state-sponsored indoctrination, not learning.

What education is supposed to be all about was abandoned in favor of manipulating the minds of students to support US wars of aggression on invented enemies, flu/covid kill shots designed for mass-extermination and the scourge of Israeli apartheid — while turning a blind eye and deaf ear to unparalleled crimes of war and against humanity by the empire of lies, its Western vassals and Ukrainian Nazis.

No patron saint of human rights, Harvard offered former HRW director Kenneth Roth a research fellowship at the school's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

The school then arbitrarily withdrew the offer over Roth's legitimate criticism of Israeli apartheid ruthlessness against long-suffering Palestinians — in cahoots with its US/Western patrons.

In response on Friday, ACLU executive director, Anthony Romero, denounced the move as follows, saying:

"If Harvard's decision was based on HRW's advocacy under Ken's leadership, this is profoundly troubling – from both a human rights and an academic freedom standpoint."

"Scholars and fellows have to be judged on their merits, not whether they please powerful political interests."

"We urge Harvard to reverse its (unacceptable) decision."

Asked about his relationship with Harvard's Kennedy School dean, Douglas Elmendorf, Roth said the following:

They "had a perfectly pleasant chat for about half an hour or so, but toward the end he asked the question:"

" 'Do you have any enemies?' "  

"And I said: I've got many. That's a hazard of the trade."

What Elmendorf was "clearly driving at was (apartheid) Israel," said Roth. 

"He didn't want to hear about how I've been sanctioned by China, Russia, or attacked by Rwanda or Saudi Arabia."

All he wanted to know was 

Roth's views on Israel.

Roth believes that Elmendorf bowed to pressure by (pro-apartheid) Zionist donors to the Kennedy School and thus withdrew the fellowship offer.

"I falsely assumed that the dean of the Kennedy School values academic freedom," he said. 

"Maybe I'm naïve in retrospect, but I assume that criticism of Israel, as criticism of any other government, is just par for the course." 

"That's what a leading foreign policy center does."

"It is the role of a human rights defender to call out governments harshly, to take positions that are unpopular in certain quarters, and to antagonize those who hold power and authority."

Following earlier CIA pressure in 2017 when unindicted war criminal, Mike Pompeo, ran the machine for the manufacture of crimes of war and against humanity, Elmendorf disgraced himself by withdrawing a visiting fellowship offer to heroic, truth-telling whistleblower, Chelsea Manning, shamefully calling it "a mistake."

At the time, Manning tweeted:

"Honored to be 1st disinvited trans woman visiting @harvard fellow?"

"They chill marginalized voices under @cia pressure ???"

"This is what a military/police/intel state looks like."

"The CIA determines what is and is not taught at Harvard."

"(N)o more secrecy, surveillance, torture, murder, and genocide…abolish the @cia…"

And this at the time from ACLU lawyer/transgender rights activist Chase Strangio, saying:

"It doesn't surprise me that an institution that has produced many of our most dangerous war criminals & architects of our military & prison apparatuses would remain beholden to the state."

"Yet, the decision to withdraw Chelsea Manning's visiting fellowship in the middle of the night without coherent explanation is disgraceful even for Harvard."

"Chelsea is a beacon of humor, brilliance and resilience in a time when her words and leadership are needed more than ever."

"Harvard should have felt honored that she would accept the association with an institution so tainted with the blood of its victims – from the occupation of much of Boston and Cambridge to the production of monsters in positions of governmental (and corporate) power."

"That they are willing to stand by their decision is a testament to the disturbing control the CIA has over them."

"It is also cowardly plain & simple & a reminder to all of us to stay vigilant…& depend only on the power of our collective action to lift up the voices of our true leaders."

The Obama/Biden regime tortured, imprisoned and otherwise abused Manning for courageously doing the right thing — before ending her ordeal.

The Kennedy School disgraces its namesake.

The same goes for the university overall, a national security state ally, a supporter of its war crimes, its genocidal kill shots and ally of apartheid Israeli ruthlessness.

Separately, Roth sharply criticized Harvard's nonexistent support for academic freedom.

The long ago model of higher education transformed itself into a national disgrace for having sold its soul to the imperial state, corporate interests, the Jewish state and Ukrainian Nazis for big bucks.

A Final Comment

Harvard's withdrawal of Roth's Kennedy School fellowship likely stems from HRW's April 2021 report, titled, "A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution" while he was its executive director.

The damning report documented Israeli "crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution," adding:

Its findings are "based on an overarching Israeli government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians and grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem."

Its ruling regimes "methodologically privileg(e) Jewish Israelis while repressing Palestinians, most severely in the occupied territory."

The report's 213 pages documented Israeli crimes against long-suffering Palestinians.

There's no ambiguity about how "Israel's regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations" of virtually every shape and kind imaginable, as B'Tselem explained in its own detailed analysis.