It’s A Wonderful Night For A Moon-Dance
I can’t believe after all this time I still get glazed looks when I mention the Bush family’s connection to controversial cult leader Rev. Sun Myung Moon. It’s one of those “white elephant” stories that the mainstream media refuses to cover because, frankly, it sounds too bizarre to be believed. Of course, the story is out there, as any quick Google search for “Bush Family, Rev. Moon” will reveal.
I wondered if anyone will pick up on the story next month, when George H.W. Bush delivers the keynote address at the 25th anniversary celebration of Moon’s Washington Times newspaper. I’m going to guess … not. I wasn’t the only one wondering, however. Asia Times has done a neat little history of the relationship, which datess back to Bush Sr.’s tenure as CIA director:
The Bush family/Moon relationship dates “to the overlap between [H W] Bush’s one-year tenure as CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] director [1976] and the arrival in Washington of Moon, whose Unification Church was widely reported to be a front group for the South Korean Central Intelligence Agency [KCIA]“, Phillips wrote in his best-selling book American Dynasty, Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush.
During a time when the activities of the KCIA were the subject of a US congressional investigation - dubbed Koreagate - Phillips pointed out that “within Washington councils, Bush was a powerful voice against any unnecessary crackdown on the US activities of allied intelligence services”.
“One of George H W Bush’s first tasks as director of the CIA was managing the ‘Koreagate’ scandal, in which the government of South Korea and its intelligence agents had waged espionage against the US government,” said Fred Clarkson, the author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy - which includes a chapter on the Moon organization.
Moon, of course, has strong ties to the religious right (go ahead, Google “Rev. Moon, religious right”, I dare you), which makes this a very neat little threesome, indeed. But the real question, as Moon-watchers note, is why the mainstream media continues to remain silent. Moon is certainly not lurking in the shadows:
“The Reverend Moon is a monster in the laboratory of conservative politics; no one wants to think about him, yet in order to ensure his continued support they must periodically feed his appetite for tribute,” said John Gorenfeld, an investigative reporter and a longtime chronicler of Moon’s activities. “One of Moon’s paybacks at Times-sponsored events is to have his picture taken and rub shoulders with the politically powerful and well connected.”
…..
When the elder Bush takes to the podium next month, it would be surprising if the close relationship between the Bush family and Moon is scrutinized by the mainstream media, since it has been basically ignored or glossed over for decades, Hassan insists.
“It infuriates me, as one who has been in the group and often heard Moon say that he wanted to destroy democracy and take over the world, that the mainstream media has not gotten this story right,” he said. “While they have talked about corporate lobbying, they’ve neglected to discuss the lobbying and political influence of cults. Moon has been basically mainstreamed.”
Indeed, it’s a funny world we live in, isn’t it?