Digby: "Ivanwald" and 'Reactivating Sleeper Cells" & "Rolling Stone"

[KoKo]

Sleeper Cells

by digby

I know this is currently tristero's beat, but way back when this blog was just a little blogbaby, I discussed Jeff Sharlet's fascinating expose in Harper's called "Jesus Plus Nothing: Undercover among America’s secret theocrats." It remains to this day one of the more chilling articles I've ever read about the intersection of politics and religion in this country. The facts in the article are true but they are so bizarre that I think people discounted it because it's almost impossible to believe.

Or was. Now that we know about the little theocratic "sleeper cells" that have been implanted throughout the government during Bush's reign, it doesn't seem all that bizarre at all.

Just a quick recap:


Ivanwald, which sits at the end of Twenty-fourth Street North in Arlington, Virginia, is known only to its residents and to the members and friends of the organization that sponsors it, a group of believers who refer to themselves as “the Family.” The Family is, in its own words, an “invisible” association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men. Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as “members,” as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). Regular prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries. The Family maintains a closely guarded database of its associates, but it issues no cards, collects no official dues. Members are asked not to speak about the group or its activities.

The organization has operated under many guises, some active, some defunct: National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, the National Leadership Council, Fellowship House, the Fellowship Foundation, the National Fellowship Council, the International Foundation. These groups are intended to draw attention away from the Family, and to prevent it from becoming, in the words of one of the Family's leaders, “a target for misunderstanding.” <1> The Family's only publicized gathering is the National Prayer Breakfast, which it established in 1953 and which, with congressional sponsorship, it continues to organize every February in Washington, D.C. Each year 3,000 dignitaries, representing scores of nations, pay $425 each to attend. Steadfastly ecumenical, too bland most years to merit much press, the breakfast is regarded by the Family as merely a tool in a larger purpose: to recruit the powerful attendees into smaller, more frequent prayer meetings, where they can “meet Jesus man to man.”

“We work with power where we can,” the Family's leader, Doug Coe, says, “build new power where we can't.”
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/


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Yet Another "Sleeper Cell"
By Jeff Sharlet Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 07:22:27 PM EST
topic: scandals section:Front Pa

There are many, many great evangelicals working in government, almost all of them clear about the constitution and every bit as dedicated to their jobs as their counterparts of other faiths and no faith. And, for the record, there's nothing illegal about getting yourself a government job because you believe government should be led by God, so long as you perform your job competently. But from a democratic perspective -- small d democratic, that is -- there's a real problem with men and women dedicated not to democracy but to a sort of voluntary theocracy, especially when they work toward that end without regard for competence or rule of law (Goodling, Contreras above). And those of us opposed to the fundamentalist attempt to pack the bureaucracy have to recognize that this problem has been with us for decades.

What's the solution? I can hardly believe I'm writing this, but I think it's bloggers. I'm glad the mainstream media is picking up on Goodling and the Regent connection now, but there should have been reporters looking at these lower level appointments a long time ago. How did Contreras get her job? How did J. Douglas Holladay, a guy who continued to report to the leadership of The Family even as he steered U.S. foreign policy, escape notice? What was Goodling doing evaluating lawyers with far superior credentials? With newsrooms shrinking and newsmagazines sensationalizing, those kinds of stories are going to keep being ignored.

Don't blame the reporters -- blame us. It's the public hunger for ongoing soap opera scandals -- Plamegate, the prosecutors -- that drives the press to ignore the smaller workings of government. But don't just blame us -- do something about. Pick a federal bureaucracy and start learning about. See who's working there. See where else they work. Look past the big names. It doesn't take big media to bring down an unqualified or crooked official. Joe Feuerherd, of the National Catholic Reporter, forced the resignation of ultra-right Bush Catholic liaison Deal Hudson; Ayelish McGarvey, a young journalist with hardly any clips to her name, brought down Bush's FDA thug Dr. David Hager; journalist and blogger Cynthia Cooper exposed Health and Human Services Secretary Wade Horn as a fundamentalist flunky with shady ethics, leading to his resignation. Who'll reel in the next one? Could be you.

(Cross-posted at Daily Kos)

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/4/9/192227/9673