Charles Mudede.
A while back on JREF I missed a
cogent post on a
topic I raised (somewhat coyly), perhaps because it was the last one on the page (that said, I've never bothered with the 'ignore' function, which at that time often necessitated scrolling over large numbers of sequential posts by imbecilic trolls - one of them was sometimes making hundreds a day in a blatant effort to 'flood' the thread into oblivion).
Kevin correctly surmised that I was referring to Charles Mudede's article, published in Feb 2008,
"The Education Of Amanda Knox", in which Mudede recounts what he claims is a conversation with a former colleague of AK's
"You know," Matthew said, leaning toward me, "a lot of people are saying she is a sweet girl and they can't believe she could have done such a thing. But, to be honest, I'm not surprised she is a suspect. Really. The first time I met her, when I got the job here, she asked me if I was Jewish. I told her I was. She then screamed: 'My people killed your people,' and began laughing hysterically. I didn't know what to say. She just kept laughing about her Germans killing my Jews. After that, I did not like her. She really freaked me out."
But when Kevin says;
"This quote, despite the fact that it's anonymous and second-hand, gets frequently cited amongst the guilter community as evidence that Amanda was the sort of person likely to commit murder", he is understating - it's not just that it's "frequently cited amongst the guilter community", it was used in countless press articles thoughout Knox's remand, idictment and conviction, but almost never with its source (which must piss off Charles Mudede - or does it?). The hacks in question were, as usual, simply quoting each other.
This is a subject that is very difficult to broach without bringing down a ****-storm of accusatory hypocrisy from PC zealots hiding behind the doctrine of "tolerance" (yes, it is ironic).
Which is problematic, because I firmly believe that this "anecdote" Mudede included in his article is the key to explaining the (otherwise inexplicable) hate-campaign against Amanda Knox, which subsequently seems to have been stoked up via connections in the press and media (particularly British and Italian), and the establishing of the quite bizarre PMF and TJMK websites. It would seem that AK is seen as an exemplar of anglo-Saxon or 'Nordic' ethnicity and mores (her antecents are predominantly German), and is thus viewed in certain quarters as being (quite literally) a latent, congenital "racist" and "antisemite".
This is never explicitly stated, but often revealed in not particularly subtle ways - for instance, one of those arm-chair "analysts" made the
sinister observation that in AK's highlighter drawings her hair was in "typical German plaits" (!!!). Then a certain moderator on The Guilter Forum, when she was being harangued in a radio interview about the case, blurted out that "holocaust denial should be punished with life imprisonment", a somewhat revealing brain-fart given the context.
I'm pretty certain that Mudede's "interview" with his pseudonymous "old friend" is lent authenticity in the minds of some people by the
Youtube clip of Amanda and some buddys from some years back, in which one (crassly) says to another " ....you dirty jew!". AK hangs out with antisemites! She wasn't outraged by the remark! She IS an antisemite! (Worth noting is that the recepient of this witticism, who IS Jewish, remains a friend of AK's and staunch advocate of her innocence (I could be wrong, but it might be he who travelled to Italy as character witness for her).
It's actually quite possible that the youtube clip gave Mudede the idea for his article in the first place. Having convinced himself in the first months after her arrest that AK had "accused" an innocent Patrik Lumumba out of innate "racism" (if you refer to your PC lexicon, the definition of a "racist" is a white European/caucasian), he may have decided that he was playing his "race card" a little too often (which he certainly does) and he needed some other means of persuading people that AK is a typical "blue-eyed devil". How better than some none-too-subtle innuendo to the effect that she is also an "antisemite"?
Quite bluntly, it seems to me that once you're perceived by a hysteria-prone section of the jewish population as an "antisemite", even by the most tenuous inference, you will NEVER be seen as anything else - it's like a switch gets thrown in their minds which can never be reset. No apology or explanation, and no punishment of the offender will ever placate them. "Antisemites are everywhere, hiding their true nature, and deep in their hearts they're wishing for another holocaust!" So we need to get them first.
Whether Mudede was aware of, and intended the scale of the antagonism he was going to mobilise against her I don't know, but I wonder if Amanda is aware of him and what he's written, and what she would have to say about it.
In an email exchange he made this thoroughly disingenuous (if not obtuse) statement;
“sorry, the person who told me that, and I named where he worked, and so he and his co-workers knew who i was talking about, never came out and challenged my reporting of his words.
my source is as good as gold.
sorry to tell you this.”
What he’s saying is; "just take my word for it" and that witnesses to this exchange between Amanda and "Mr. X", which took place at some unknown date at the World Cafe would instantly know who and what he's talking about, and are endorsing Mudede with their silence. Yeh, right.
However, one could equally well deduce that no-one who was present remembers it. Or that no-one else was present. Or that Mudede distorted actual words and events beyond recognition. Or that "Mr. X" made it up. Or that Mudede did. Etc'.
On Mudede's form, I see no reason to simply take his word for anything, and I'd like to see the matter clarified once and for all.
