Lieberman Ally Claims "Jewish Banking Plot" Sermon Copyright Protected -- Senator To Speak at July Hagee Event

On July 22, 2008 United States Senator Joseph Lieberman will deliver a capstone address at Pastor John Hagee's yearly Washington Christians United For Israel Summit and, presumably as an advance strike, prior to the conference, to suppress possible negative press coverage, CUFI lawyers have requested, alleging copyright violation, that YouTube remove a number of videos which contain footage from John Hagee Ministry broadcasts. As Huffington Post political journalist Sam Stein describes in a July 8, 2008 report, more than 120 YouTube videos were taken down in the sweep. It's likely that CUFI's claim to copyright violation ranges, in many of the cases of these removed videos, from shaky to dubious and all the way, in the case of journalist Max Blumenthal's mini-documentary "Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized 2007 Christians United For Israel Tour", to absurd. [below: "Rapture Ready", by Max Blumenthal and Thomas Shomaker]

However the preemptive strike will keep the critical videos out of the way at least until CUFIs upcoming conference is over. Included in the videos purged was one, showcasing audio clips from a late 2005 John Hagee sermon, in which Hagee claimed that "God sent Hitler" and that Jews are not "spiritually alive." That video, broadcast around the United States and also internationally last May, led presidential hopeful John McCain to abruptly renounce Pastor John Hagee's political endorsement. [below: the Young Turks' re-post of the "God Sent Hitler" video, still up on YouTube]

One of CUFI's lawyers told the Cutting Edge Press service, for a July 7, 2008 story, that "John Hagee Ministries, through its copyright attorneys, issued a request that YouTube remove any and all copyrighted materials belonging to John Hagee copyrights." If so, John Hagee Ministries has claimed copyright protection for John Hagee's version of conspiracy theory, identified by one national expert as clearly anti-Semitic, which closely resembled versions of the most notoriously vicious anti-Jewish conspiracy theory ever minted, "The Protocols Of The Learned Elders Of Zion," that was put out in profusion in the decades leading up to the Holocaust, internationally, in The United States and, especially, in Germany. [below: 10 minute documentary compares Pastor John Hagee's very own version, circa March 2003, of "The Protocols" with the Nazi version, as detailed in the infamous Joseph Goebbels-supervised Nazi propaganda film "The Eternal Jew"]

Pastor John Hagee's and JHM's censorship attempt has inadvertently raised a question that's potentially embarrassing both to Hagee and also to Senator Joe Lieberman, who in a speech at CUFI 2007 declared Pastor Hagee to be an "ish elochim," a "man of God" and likened Hagee to Moses; Is the promotion of a variant of the most notorious (and destructive) anti-Jewish conspiracy theory of modern times a proper educational enterprise for a 501(c)(3) 'educational" broadcast ministry such as Pastor Hagee's ? And if so, what's the didactic goal ? [10 minute documentary explores Senator Joe Lieberman's comparison of Pastor John Hagee to Moses]

Related: "Hagee's Revenge? Videos of Controversial Pastor Removed From YouTube" -- Sam Stein

Comments

[AdamWykle]

Thank you Mr. Wilson for this incredible post. These Zionists that attend this freakshow have been a barrier to the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. They lobby the Bush administration to adopt a confrontational posture toward Iran, refuse aid to the Palestinians, basically promoting their ethnic cleansing and to continue to give Israel a free hand and to act with impunity.

What's worse is that most of Hagee's loyalists are brainwashed with what their spewing. Little do they know that Palestinian Christians have been among those killed or maimed for life by Israeli bullets. The reality is that some 20% of the world's Palestinians are Christians, a community that has experienced as much suffering as Palestinian Muslims.

They have no right to call themselves Christians because they have no Christianity to them. They lack kindness and compassion.

[TheOutsider]

"Ethnic Cleansing" is a phrase used to inflame people's emotions. It has no basis in reality and it is used maliciously to defame and mock Jews, they being the victims of ethnic cleansing in WW11. When I read the posts of Adam, I get the same sense of inverted reality that I do when I listen to Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh.

[starboymikey]

No Jew I know would do anything but spit in Hagee's face!
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Lieberman reminds me of the a classic self-hating Jew, bowing and scraping before the oppressor to win favor. Whatever rhetoric he uses to praise Hagee as being a friend of Jews, the truth wears a devil's face.

Lieberman should be called on this, made to watch Hagee's hateful sermons and then explain to us what the hell he was thinking of in supporting him.

[SolarPowerGuy]

Copyright? Hey, that's Scientology's strategy! Way to go, Rev. Hagee!

[Elliott32]

Right now, Rev. Wright is thinking "God damn America...why didn't I think of that!"

Rev. Wright could also have a more valid claim to copyright protection because his sermons are American classics. Very entertaining!!! He's the most famous pastor on YouTube. More viewers than the Pope!

[BARRISTER]

Stifle Free Speach under the cloud of "copyright". These rabid utterances are already in the Public Domain and are "free use' items, and, as such, have lost their copyright protection!!

[colleen2]

Hagee's hate filled sermons are televised weekly on the public airwaves.

[Evelyn]

Putting a movie or tv show on television certainly does not void copyright protection!

[larry278]

I do hope that a number of scholars, historians, publishers, artists & others who have a vested interest in the integrity of the copyright process challenge PastorrHagees's minions attempt to copyright portions of that classic anti-Jewish document, "The Protocals of the Elders of Zion", which Pastor Hagee is found of using in his sermons, other speaking events, tracts, etc which he frequently utters, publishes, etc & attempts to pass off as his original work. Jim Hagee must be forcefully reminded that it's scholarship if you fully & properly identify your sources & get permission to quote from your sources in any way, shape, form or manner 1st pursuant to the doctrine of fair use; it's plagerism & can be a violation of copyright laws, even if the work is in the public domain. Pastor Hagee must not given a copyright as a reward for shamelessly & overtly plagarizing a classic of hatred.created in Czarist Russia. Perhaps ADL will act to prevent Pastor Hagee from profiting from his theft of intellectual property. Ill gotten gains may be called the wages of sin. Pastor Hagee must be exposed for what he is attempting. He is attempting thievary of the meanest & lowest sort. He disgraces preachers of any sort by this brazen, cheap thievary.

[wadenelson1]

"Fair use" should allow more than a sufficient # of clips to be used to report on Hagee & Co.

[fungeezer]

How does the Hagee ministries pay for all the high priced lawyers? From church donations? If they aren't paying taxes, they certainly should be.

[colleen2]

"How does the Hagee ministries pay for all the high priced lawyers? '

Perhaps his ministry is one of the grant recipients of the 'faith-based' initiatives. Pat Robertson's ministry is.