Will 9/11 cheerleader Anthony “Van” K. Jones soon be sitting on the boards of respectable American corporations? That is his plan, according to a series of posts Jones made on Twitter this week.
Jones, an anti-American communist radical who has rebranded his image as a “patriot” after being adopted by the leftist elite, has come a long way from being a 9/11 cheerleader and record producer for cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal to striding the halls of power in Washington, D.C. and Princeton while traveling the country as a motivational speaker serving heaping helpings of eco-pablum to crowds of adoring liberals.
Jones was appointed in the Spring of 2009 by President Barack Obama to be his ‘green jobs czar’ but resigned his position several months later after hints of his radical past were exposed. At the time, Jones said he was a victim of a “vicious smear campaign” of “lies and distortions.”
Jones stated on Twitter his belief that the passage of time (but apparently not repentance) will make it harder to hold him accountable for his actions as a thirty-something Yale Law grad.
The older I get, the harder it will be for the Right to throw my past views in my face. Or mock my contributions. – 29 Mar (2011)
In the same conversation on Twitter, Jones spoke of his plans to join corporate boards.
Now I’m in process of launching private ventures+joining corporate boards. Will the Right will be glad? Or mad? – 29 Mar (2011)
Jones does not say which corporate boards he is considering joining. He served on the board of the leftist Rainforest Action Network alongside fellow Obama ally Jodie Evans in the mid-2000s. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the environmental group 1Sky.
Jones is also listed on several advisory boards for liberal education and environmental outfits.
Jones may have ruled out serving on the boards of these companies in a Tweet he posted Wednesday:
SO sad. RT, @TheNewDeal: GE, Exxon, BofA, Chevron, Boeing, Goldman, Citi, WellsFargo etc PAY NO TAXES & GOP Gives Them Tax Cut! #WIunion #p2 30 Mar
Corporations vetting Jones to sit on their boards will have to consider if having someone who less than ten years ago cheered the 9/11 terror attacks with a hate-America rally held the day after the attacks is suitable. They will also have to factor in the support Jones gave to Mumia Abu Jamal, a leftist radical convicted of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel J. Faulkner.
Jones went so far in his support for Mumia that he produced and appeared on a post-9/11 anti-American propaganda album narrated by Mumia called “WarTimes, Reports From the Opposition” that was released by Jones’ record label, Freedom Fighter Music.
The album contains virulently anti-American screeds such as this ditty reported by Big Journalism:
F*** the government, they never done s*** for me
For my people their defeat is a victory
“The man” wants the whole world under his thumb,
Plunders the globe and tries to buy us off with the crumbs…
That’s not your flag, not your government
Not your war, not your President
Now is not the time to be silent
Raise your voices, raise your fist
Against the real terrorist – Uncle Sam.
Jones also appears on the album in comments where he identifies himself as part of the “global struggle against the U.S.”:
About three minutes forty-five seconds into the highlight video, there is a brief interview with Van Jones at an anti-Israel demonstration where Jones criticizes Israel and calls for Palestinian ‘right of return’ and then unloads on the United States:
“We see violence against poor people and poor people of color within the U.S. border, at the U.S. border, and beyond the U.S. border and you see U.S. tax dollars funding all of it. And so we have this now global struggle against the U.S. led security apparatus and military agenda that impacts people here and impacts people around the world and I think that we need to see our problems as linked.”
The WarTimes album was part of an anti-American propaganda campaign ginned up by Bay Area leftists to undermine the post 9/11 war effort by the United States.
Jones served on the organizing committee for the proposed War Times biweekly newspaper to undermine the war effort.
The prospectus for War Times began:
The terrorist attacks of September 11 marked the beginning of a new and frightening period in our history. Thousands of people died that day, and their families along with the country as a whole are still struggling to recover. But President Bush’s response of “permanent war against terrorism at home and abroad” has further endangered the lives and liberties of millions of people everywhere.
The world’s most powerful nation has mercilessly bombed Afghanistan and is installing a neo-colonial government of its own choosing, although that country has never attacked the U.S.
The prospectus fails to mention the Taliban government of Afghanistan allowed al Qaeda to operate from Afghanistan and protected Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda after the attacks.
The prospectus describes another of the goals of War Times was to “build a mass movement against U.S. interventions abroad and link to it the struggles for social justice. The security and livelihood of people across the globe depend on success in this fight.”
The day after the 9/11 attacks, when the rest of the country was still in shock over the cold blooded mass murder of thousands of Americans, Jones led a rally that cheered the attacks and praised the terrorists as “heroes.”
Jones was videotaped at the rally saying America deserved the attacks:
(4:38) “It’s the bombs that the government has been dropping around the world that are now blowing up inside the U.S. borders…We’ve got something stronger than bombs, we have solidarity. That dream of revolutionary change is stronger than bombs.”
One speaker at Jones’ rally praised the attacks:
(4:10) “But when we knew what those places represented, we were kind of also glad that there’s a place called the Pentagon where, where, military strategies which have killed millions of people around the face of the world (unintelligible). We know, to see that place burnin’, there was some satisfaction to it.”
Another speaker (and the crowd!) cheered the attacks and called the terrorists “heroes.”
(3:06) ” We’re always seeing America dropping bombs on people. Now the chicken is coming home to roost, as Malcolm say. (Cheers from the crowd.) We gotta deal with it. They got people so dedicated they gonna commit suicide to make their point. We gotta understand there’s a war going on that people are fighting for their own life, for their land. Right? We gotta support those people. We cannot let the lies of the media take our spirits down. We don’t want to see our people dying, innocent people dying. But in fighting a war, they don’t have the army to fight and block our warfare with the American people. Don’t call them cowards. They’re heroes that died. And they’re the people that we have to support in this case. The people of color are rising here and we gotta understand that. I just want to say we gotta support and don’t let this thing turn your spirits down. Turn ’em up!”
The rally was organized by Jones for “people of color.” According to the press release for the rally issued by Jones’ Ella Baker Center, white people were tolerated at the rally, but they were not invited to speak.
“Though people of color in particular will be invited to speak at the gathering, but everyone is welcome.” (sic)
Blatant racism and anti-Americanism such as that practiced by Jones at the rally would automatically disqualify anyone from serving on corporate boards, as would cutting a record with a cop killer. However, Jones is supported by the liberal elite.
Presently Jones serves at Princeton as a“distinguished visiting fellow in the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.”
Jones also was appointed a “Senior Fellow” at the Democratic party front group Center for American Progress after leaving the Obama administration.