Updated:Marc Garlasco is NOT an Nazi memorabilia collecting whack job. – Garlasco admits to being a collector, but denies he is a Nazi

This story is one of the one’s burning up the Meme charts. Problem is; it’s not the same guy.

Mere Rhetoric has the update:

ORIGINAL: Thanks to everyone who’s emailing about this in the context of the Marc Garlasco controversy, but I intentionally passed up mentioning the “Flak88” who posts regularly on Stormfront.org. I’m sure it’s not the Marc Garlasco Flak88 who posts on the medals forums.

The Stormfront Flak88 is the top hit for a bunch of searches on that handle, not least of which is “flak88 israel.” But the Stormfront Flak88 is a vulgar racist who complains about unclean Turks and then complains even more that they’re the only ones in Germany who sing nationalistic songs. He has challenges spelling, writing sentences, and conveying thoughts. He lists himself in Europe while the Marc Garlasco Flak88 puts New York in all his profiles. Same handle, different guys.

If it was proven that the Marc Garlasco Flak88 was the same as the Stormfront Flak88, I’d consider that strong evidence against my previous post. For all his faults real or imagined, the HRW Marc Garlasco is neither crude nor stupid. I would guess that he clings very, very tightly to the belief that he’s a history buff who happens, for purely familial reasons, to be utterly fascinated by the Nazis.

I think that’s one convenient bridge too far, and that his obsession colors the rest of what he does. I think he has very strong but tangled beliefs about Jews and the Jewish state that spring from a place that has nothing to do with level-headed analysis. But nothing I’ve read and no one I’ve spoken to leads me to believe he’s an unsophisticated racist like Stormfront Flak88.

It’s easy to get over-excited about these things, and collector Garlasco’s medals are insanely creepy. But we shouldn’t get distracted from the real scandal. This guy has spent the last few years producing untenable anti-Israel boilerplate for human rights organizations, UN committees, and international tribunals. Every time pro-Israel groups suggested that no one could make this many mistakes innocently they were told to stop “stifling legitimate criticism of Israel with implicit accusations of antisemitism.” Hmmmmmm.

UPDATE: Also: while it’s normally a good guess to associate “88” with the well-known hate symbol, in this case its a relatively innocuous reference to the 88mm caliber Flak gun.

Again: Garlasco’s not a vulgar racist. He’s simply not. He’s someone torn by sensibilities that make him wildly inappropriate as a choice for a Middle East investigator. How he got to that position and stayed in that position despite error after debunked error goes to the heart of HRW’s inappropriate obsession with and bias towards Israel. They couldn’t notice anything wrong with the way he approached the conflict because, well, that’s how they all approach the conflict. That’s the scandal – that despite having ideological inclinations and personal tics, he fit right in.

So, let’s draw back the cannons a bit. This fellow might be many things; but what he is accused of being here is just not true. This is why it pays to do very good research before firing off libels. Keeps your credibility in check and can also keep you out of court as well.

How come a high school dropout has to educate people; with degrees and such, to this fact? What Oddball times we live in! 🙄

Update: After having people pester the hell out of me for a week. I will give this update. Here is Garlasco’s response to the accusations:

NEW YORK – I’m used to taking heat for my job as a military analyst for Human Rights Watch, because our findings that this government or that armed group has violated the laws of war frequently provoke accusations that we’re biased or siding with the enemy.

Now I’ve achieved some blogosphere fame, not for the hours I’ve spent sifting through the detritus of war, visiting hospitals, interviewing victims and witnesses and soldiers, but for my hobby (unusual and disturbing to some, I realize) of collecting Second World War memorabilia associated with my German grandfather and my American great-uncle. I’m a military geek, with an abiding interest not only in the medals I collect but in the weapons that I study and the shrapnel I analyze. I think this makes me a better investigator and analyst. And to suggest it shows Nazi tendencies is defamatory nonsense, spread maliciously by people with an interest in trying to undermine Human Rights Watch’s reporting.

I work to expose war crimes and the Nazis were the worst war criminals of all time. But I’m now in the bizarre and painful situation of having to deny accusations that I’m a Nazi.

The Second World War turned my grandfather, who was conscripted and served on an anti-aircraft battery, into a staunch pacifist. He couldn’t understand why I went to work at the Pentagon, where I was on 9/11, of learning from his experiences – the horrific stories he told me late in life of seeing the bodies he shot down fall out of the sky. It wasn’t until he died that I really took his lessons to heart, and decided to use my military expertise to try to lessen the horrors of war.

So I left my government career and joined Human Rights Watch to use my expertise in weapons systems and targeting to push soldiers to protect civilians, to uphold the laws born in the ashes of the Second World War. My first investigation took me to the bomb craters in Iraq and brought me face-to-face with the survivors and other victims of the strikes I helped plan. It was a traumatic experience and provoked much soul-searching. I thought often of my grandfather.

As an American child, I learned that Germans were the bad guys; as I got to know my grandfather, I realized that not all Germans were Nazis. Because of him, and my great-uncle, a gunner on an American B-17 bomber, I developed an interest in German and American war memorabilia, and I wrote a long monograph, published last year, on German Second World War Air Force and anti-aircraft medals.

I’ve never hidden my hobby, because there’s nothing shameful in it, however weird it might seem to those who aren’t fascinated by military history. Precisely because it’s so obvious that the Nazis were evil, I never realized that other people, including friends and colleagues, might wonder why I care about these things. Thousands of military history buffs collect war paraphernalia because we want to learn from the past. But I should have realized that images of the Second World War German military are hurtful to many.

I deeply regret causing pain and offense with a handful of juvenile and tasteless postings I made on two websites that study Second World War artifacts (including American, British, German, Japanese and Russian items). Other comments there might seem strange and even distasteful, but they reflect the enthusiasm of the collector, such as gloating about getting my hands on an American pilot’s uniform.

I told my daughters, as I wrote in my book, that “the war was horrible and cruel, that Germany lost and for that we should be thankful.” I meant what I wrote. And because of the intense suffering during the Second World War and the genocidal campaign against the Jewish people, I spend my days doing what I can to ensure that such horrors are never allowed to happen again.

I am not playing any of the fucking idiotic games of “Why would you believe him, he’s a lefty!” Okay? You wanna play that bullshit, fine; do it elsewhere. Because I do not play that shit here. 😡 I am more the willing to take this man’s word for it. He’s a collector and that’s it. Subject fucking closed.

I just find it quite interesting, that the same group of people on the right; that condemn identity politics on the left; partake in the same sort of behavior themselves — when it comes to the Jews and the fucking Holocaust. Yes, it happened, Yes, it was horrible. Does this mean that I have to kiss the fucking ass of every fucking Jew alive? I think not.

My point is, get off this guys ass, okay? We’ve got more important battles to fight. This is not one we should be bothered with.