Jchron Article 261007

nemies of Free Speech origins of anti-semitism It quotes Irving describing those who call him a denier as mindless idiots . London, Friday, October 26, 2007 Irving isn’t a denier, says Oxford paper 26/10/2007 By Rachel Fletcher AN Oxford student newspaper has defended an article which claims David Irving no longer denies the Shoah . Articles in the October 12 and 19 editions of Cherwell , an independent publication for Oxford students, describe Mr Irving as a “controversial historian”.

The October 12 story states: “Irving was imprisoned in Austria in 2006 for Holocaust denial [ No it wasn’t ], although at his trial he recanted his views and is now absolutely without doubt that the Holocaust took place.” David Irving comments: ALL those nice folks are now getting into a real tangle, which is what I wanted. Anybody who says that nothing happened to the Jews in WW2 is a mindless idiot, and quite a few of them have been screeching at me recently.

Anybody willing to buy the whole $6million cargo of soap-tablets without opening at least one is equally naive. The truth, as always, lies somewhere between. I once said that getting the truth is an exponential curve: getting the first ninety percent of the facts is easy; the next five percent costs that much again; the next one per cent, that much again, and so on.

Without ever actually reaching it, you gradually approach the straight line of What Really Happened and Why, despite all the efforts of those with vested interests either way — the Jews, the circuit judges, the moneygrabbers, the journalists, the anti-Semites, and the rest — to skew it. It is the hunt for Real History, and that is what I have been engaged in for forty years now. INCIDENTALLY I have sent a warning letter to the Birmingham Post .

If any other newspaper has the $13 million to chuck away that Deborah Lipstadt ‘s Hollywood friends had, let’s see them risk it. A later article reported the Student Union’s motion condemning the Oxford Union’s invitation to Irving and British National Party leader Nick Griffin to take part in a debate on free speech. It said: “For over a decade, Irving has publicly stated that he believes the Holocaust did occur.” It quotes Irving describing those who call him a denier as “mindless idiots”.

Editors Pete Wright and Sophie Manning refused to print a correction and they rejected accusations made by students that they were helping to revive Holocaust denial, stating: ” Cherwell contained no such views, editorial or otherwise”. They said they were not intimidated by Irving: “We are free to decide our editorial stance without interference from outside individuals or organisations, but as a student newspaper with limited resources, we cannot fight lengthy legal cases.”

Noting that Cherwell subscribes to the codes of the Press Complaints Commission, they said they would not print anything “likely to lead to defamation proceedings”.