Every year a select group of national security types, former Cold War warriors and current spooky types, meet around Halloween to remember traitors to, and patriots of, the Republic.
The annual Pumpkin Papers Dinner and awards night has been a discrete Washington national security mainstay for 39 years and was established to remember the perfidy of Alger Hiss, the Communist spy who rose to the top ranks of the Department of State and the United Nations, and the to commemorate the actions of Whittaker Chambers, who proved Hiss’ guilt as a Soviet agent.
Each year, the Pumpkin Papers dinner – named for the decision by Chambers to hide microfilms incriminating Hiss in the pumpkins on his Carroll County farm in Maryland – is used to remind those gathered just how high and wide the Soviet penetration of US government was during the Cold War and to review the current threats to freedom, liberty, and the Republic.
In addition to reviving the issues of subversion and subterfuge, the so-called Pumpkin Papers Irregulars – the secret committee that plans the event – uses each meeting to confer the Navasky Dishonors Award.
This is named for Victor Navasky, former editor and publisher of The Nation, who has done more than anyone else to attempt to whitewash Hiss and argue that the Soviets never had a network of agents and influencers inside U.S. government.
This year, Dr Sebastian Gorka, Breitbart contributor and former National Security editor, was invited to announce the winner and the runners up for the Victor Navasky Dishonor Award.
They are:
- In 5th place, the current Secretary of Defense of the United States, Ashton Carter, for making George Orwell’s newspeak a political reality in America. Speaking recently on the death in Iraq of Delta Force Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler, Secretary Carter insisted that his death was not part of “combat operations.” This despite that fact that MGST Walker is the first American Killed in Action in Iraq since our 2011, and occurred as a result of a mission to rescue 70 hostage held by ISIS. If dying as part of a special forces rescue operation targeting ISIS jihadists does not count as combat, it is hard to imagine what does in the eye of the current administration. But given the overriding narrative that we won in 2011 and therefore withdrew, the imperative to redefine words in way that would have make Orwell proud (or horrified him?) is a clear one.
- In 4th place, the Irregulars collectively recognized the 285 members of the European Parliament, who last week voted for the resolution to recommend that American traitor and current Kremlin booster, Edward Snowden, be granted political asylum by the EU and recognized as a “defender of human rights.” Downloading terabytes of classified national security information you have sworn to protect and then running away to the Peoples’ Republic of China and then Putin’s Russia to be subsequently labelled a human rights champion again beggars the meaning of words within the English language.
- In 3rd place, the selection committee nominated none other than the sitting US Attorney General Loretta Lynch for clearing IRS Director Lois Lerner of all criminal charges relating to the political targeting of 292 conservative organizations by the executive. Despite refusing to produce her communications and taking the Fifth in Congressional testimony, somehow the DoJ and the AG could not find anything to charge Ms. Lerner with, even though, according to the ACLJ, one of the groups that applied for non-profit was still waiting 5 years later after the scandal broke.
- In second place another collective dishonor was nominated, this time for the City Council of New York. Just over one month ago, on the 100th anniversary of atom spy Ethel Rosenberg’s birth, the Council issued a proclamation stating that Rosenberg was wrongfully executed for espionage. The panel of judges was impressed with the longevity and resilience of the fellow-travellers and useful idiots of the Big Apple’s government, especially given that not only have the declassified VENONA decrypts proven the Rosenbergs’ guilt, but that none other than Nikita Khrushchev himself recognized her great contributions to the USSR in his memoirs. Perhaps the Council needs a new motto: Facts on the Left? Who needs them?!
- But lastly, and most definitely not least, this year’s Victor Navasky Dishonor Prize was awarded to John Harwood of CNBC for his performance at the recent Republic Presidential Candidates’ debate. For the 39th annual award, the selection committee believed it apposite to bring the Navasky dishonor back full-circle to the realm of the media. While all the panel hosts of the recent debate demonstrated unparalleled leftwing bias, it was Harwood who un-impressed the judges the most. From his outright serial lies to his post-event petulant tweets about how being a good journalist is about asking “hard questions” (such as: “Are you a cartoon character?,” “Shouldn’t you just resign, Senator?,” and “Can you a brain surgeon do math?), it was Harwood who out-dimmed his colleagues.
Unfortunately the awardee did not appear in person at the dinner to receive his award.