Update: After this got picked up by Juan Cole a blogger with experience of Eisenstadt is saying it is a hoax, (or at least the guy is a wannabe more than anything) I’m trying to get to the bottom of this but as satire it does hit its targets I suppose.
Update 2: Well the jury is in and it is not what it appears to be, the guy changed his name to Martin to escape detection (now foiled as the last bout of activity now puts hoax as top result for his name!). If he means to help the antiwar cause he has not, my guess is he is after a media career does hold right wing views and thinks this is a funny satire of what the left thinks of the occupation. I will leave the rest of the post as a lesson in fallibility! I’m sorry to those who like me were taken in by this. Martin Eisenstadt or whoever he really is is invited to come here and explain his work and what his motivations are.
Old post below the fold-
I cannot urge you enough to watch this youtube clip and post it yourself, an American- Martin Eisenstadt who is thought to be this guy (pretty well much confirmed see below for his own blog posts) talking at the ‘Baghdad Business 2 Business EXPO‘ about business opportunities in Iraq, he evangelises about casinos in the green zone (built with slave labour incidentally), bringing in former Soviet Union and Thai ‘masseuses’ and is horrifically so racist it is difficult not to feel sick and as Raed Jarrar says-
ladies and gentlemen, please meet the new US strategy to unite Iraq: Giuliani/McCain’s adviser (Mr. Eisenstadt) wants to use the same uniform for Iraqis who serve in the Green Zone. So whether you were a Sunni, Shiite, or Kurd, you will be working in the brand new casinos with the saaaaame outfit. This approach seems to have been tested before in the U.S. before exporting it to Iraq. Mr. Adviser says that “we also had a racial problem between the indians, the caucasians from europe and the blacks from africa but somehow casinos have managed to fix that”. Then he adds: “only 20 years ago indians were drunk and homeless and committing crimes, today they are prosperous and wealthy driving mercedes and their kids have gameboys and play stations”. But only “the indians”, but also “have the black people with the sports have managed to advance themselves”.
After 7000 years, finally we have someone who knows how to unite iraqis, and it’s been tested on other people of color too! amazing!
This is the naked face of imperialism, utterly greedy, endlessly racist and brutally arrogant.
Update: This is his blog post on February 11th, the Expo was held 15-17th of February
Casinos and the Middle East – intriguing meetings
February 11th, 2008 . by Marty
While I’m not at liberty to divulge details, suffice it to say I was at a very intriguing meeting of the minds the other night in Beverly Hills at the house of Ron Burkle. The discussion centered around the prospects of using casinos to transform the Middle East. Bush’s one mistake was his misguided focus on the spreading of democracy to the East, when he should have been taking a page from Ronald Reagan’s strategy of the Cold War – the spreading of free markets and capitalism. And what better manifestation of capitalism is there than casinos? (just ask your local Comanche or Sioux).So there I was with Mohammed Ali Al Hashimi of Dubai-based Zabeel Investments on the one hand, and the dashing Vegas entrepeneur Andrew Sasson (the Light Group). And we got to talking about the potential for expansion in the service and hospitality sectors not just in the Emirates, but in Iraq proper. Show me a place where casinos have not prospered and bettered the prospects of the surrounding communities? Strangely enough, some old-school members of the internationalist wing of the Democrat party were present at Ron’s house that night (Dukakis, Bill Richardson, Wesley Clark et al) and Warren Christopher, of all people, chirped up “you can’t go wrong with casinos.”
And his post on the 14th-
Heading off on Middle East fact-finding mission
February 14th, 2008 . by Marty
I’m at Dulles now in the departure lounge waiting for the flight. Walking into the terminal, I’m struck by ebb and flow of new immigrants meeting their families. Carrying boxes and parcels, taped together – tied together with string, hope, gumption and luck. All looking for the American dream of freedom. Immigration’s a touchy issue, but for the few that are let in, you can see the tears of joy. Let’s hope we can continue to export that dream of freedom and democracy so all peoples can enjoy American-style liberties in their own lands. Sorry to get emotional there, but airports do that to me.
So I think it is fair to say this is the same Martin Eisenstadt -(I am proud to announce that I recently accepted an offer from the McCain campaign to serve as “a Liaison with the Jewish community” and “foreign policy advisor”.) He also has something against LGBT friendly firms. I suppose this could be used to attack the McCain campiagn but it must be said he claims leading Democrats also liked his casino imperialism.
PS. If anyone can stand to watch this enough to do a transcription that would be good, I can’t it disgusts me too much, fuck me he even talks about ‘trickle down’ economics for the lucky waiters, masseuses and gardeners. It’s like a human walking talking Shock Doctrine.
Ten Percent 
27 June, 2008 at 6:46 am
Thanks for posting this, this moron is a joke – “human walking talking Shock Doctrine” indeed.
“Democracy is a first step, but it needs to be followed up by capitalism and entertainment”!
“We are all one, we all work for the casino”!
The Indians and blacks have managed to advance themselves through working for casinos!
Millions of people killed and displaced and raped and injured at the behest of Israel and a small cabal of mostly Jewish American neocons … for casinos? The enslavement of the Iraqi people will not stand for much longer, they will drive these vomit-inducing excuses for human beings out just as surely as they drove their British invader-occupiers out at the early part of the previous century.
27 June, 2008 at 10:40 am
Christ, Eisenstadts blog is unhinged. I hope that he isn’t really as influential as he presents himself to be. He thinks that a scarf worn on a Dunkin’ Donuts advert was an assualt on Western civilisation. He thinks that companies with an inclusive LGBT policy ought to be boycotted. He calls security on delegates at AIPAC conferences who fail his ‘Jewishness’ test. And he’s hoping for an attack on Iran before Bush leaves office.
What a prong.
27 June, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I clipped it and it got picked up by Prof. Cole on his blog.
27 June, 2008 at 2:45 pm
[…] He has enraged some Iraqis, thus, even in a minute way, hurting relations between real Iraqis and real […]
27 June, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I’m sorry to everyone if this is a satire, as William Wolfrum has some indications this has some strange provenance.
27 June, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Damn. Just finished transcribing it. All for nowt.
27 June, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Sorry Sim-O, I’ve been emailing both Raed and Wolfrum and Eisen-whoever has emerged as not legitimate, I don’t know what the guy’s angle is but with some digging hopefully we’ll find out what this is about. Simply his career or a political angle. It’s made for a shitty end to the week!
27 June, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I believe you that the story is a hoax.
Juan Cole reports things that never get picked up anywhere. I’m not sure what I think of him.
27 June, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Hey Renegade, yep at this point it appears the guy has some dodgy provenance and I hope to get to the bottom of this. I think Juan Cole is good mostly, but as this has shown sometimes other parties make a concerted effort at misrepresentation for whatever reason and that sometimes can trip you up.
27 June, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Not a worry, Rick. So now we know this guy is a joke, not just pejoratively, but literally as well.
27 June, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Thanks Ann.
If Eisen-whoever communicates as to his motivations in making this I will post it.
29 June, 2008 at 11:22 am
“If he means to help the antiwar cause he has not, my guess is he is after a media career does hold right wing views and thinks this is a funny satire of what the left thinks of the occupation.”
Rick, there’s no logic to your reasoning. As an Iraqi I think this ahmedinajad lookalike is great because he captures very much the attitude and intentions of the occupiers and uses (Iraqi style) subtle satire to do it. I actually believed it up until the orange uniforms came up. What is your problem with it? Who are the left? The likes of Agent Deception Goodman of DM, the good left gatekeeper? The Anti War movement has achieved nothing — in Britain they’re led by the likes of Saddam’s relatives whose association with the British government goes back many decades. The only way to stop our western dictators is through something like the trade unions and total nationwide strikes, however in Britain the trade unions are controlled by zio-fascist and totally back the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
29 June, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I think to get my logic you need to look up this guys history and how he has presented himself as a right winger and political operative. If it’s satire (and the views he espouses yes are to be found in the occupiers) he does not present as such which damages anti occupation people (that might be the purpose).
Um, I would like some links to back up what you say about the anti war movement although I grant you we were not effective. You’re right about the need for strikes but I disagree with your characterisation of our unions and I really don’t know where you get ‘zio-fascist’ from.
30 June, 2008 at 4:02 am
will do later.
30 June, 2008 at 8:03 pm
This is the hateful Ann Clwyd’s website.
http://www.labourfriendsofiraq.org.uk/whoweare.shtml
which had the devil’s claw in the top left taken off recently after I commented on it. Clwyd was a most outspoken and vehement proponent of the invasion of Iraq, she and blair repeated the mantra that th Iraqis wanted to be sacrificed to be saved. Look at her disgusting condescending website and the list of supporters which includes the Trades Union Congress (which has been pro Israel since the 60’s and also includes a list of zionist groups some of whose members have openly (see Guardian etc) argued strongly for the use of torture.
Unions promised nationwide strike action in 2003 if Britain went to war, yet they remained absolutely silent when it happened.
As for the anti war movement, at the head of it you have the suspicious character Anas AlTiktiti, a relative of Saddam. Of all the millions of Iraqis outside Iraq..
1 July, 2008 at 12:10 am
Yes Ann Clwyd was a revolting hawk for the invasion of Iraq, (what was the ‘devil’s claw’?) and yes it looks a dodgy mob, Engage and Harry’s Place are linked. But I don’t think it is fair to label all unions as one thing because LFI claim TUC connections, the TUC have numerous affiliated groups but that doesn’t define them. However they did fail to treat Blair’s leadership with the the opposition it deserved, once he was set on supporting Bush they should have stopped funding then, but it’s also in the context of an ongoing process of removing unions power and ceding control to corporations. The unions were not just unable to stop Iraq being attacked they have been suppressed in general. The truth is Britain is nowhere near as free and democratic as it pretends to be (pathetically we still have a royal family!). Any union leader who has been pro-torture absolutely should be removed from office. The thing is the unions are made up of a few govt supporting shills and many who are bitterly disappointed but seem stuck in Labour, there are some brilliant ones who are speaking out though.
Anas Altikriti does say that they left Iraq as his family were opposed to Saddam
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=537
Also I would not say he is head, he is a prominent member but it is a wide coalition with a great deal of sincerity.
But in a general sense yes the British people failed to control their govt. from engaging in supporting Bush’s war crime. And the parties through political friends of Israel groups remain committed to Zionism and thus pursuing agendas based on only Israel and client regimes being allowed to prosper in the Mid East. Iraq down, Iran to go, that is the slow burning drive of our elites.
So it is essential to build broad coalitions of opposition to expose & fight this imperialism, that’s my thought.
2 July, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Rick – great work intiatially and the followup. But I wouldn’t be so quick to believe it’s a “hoax” — or at least not in the way Mr. Wolfrum describes. Shakesville (lead by fired John Edwards blogger Melissa McEwan) itself has done this kind of hoaxing several times in the past. This sounds very similar to their M.O. of their recurring “character” named Benjamin H. Grumbles – which was a spoof of a very real {though unfortunately named} person in the Bush administration.
A couple possibilities come to mind: Either Shakesville is now trying to discredit a very real neocon pundit {however despicable} by claiming he doesn’t exist.
Or maybe it is an elaborate hoax… but that Wolfrum and Shakesville are the hoaxsters themselves. Given their history with the Grumbles thing, that wouldn’t surprise me in the least. Doesn’t it seem strange to you that nobody cared who this Eisenstadt guy was until Wolfrum started to “expose” him several weeks ago? It was only AFTER that when the YouTube video occurred. Sounds to me like a guy who put all this work into a prank and got frustrated that no one was noticing. If it’s true, then I got to hand it to Wolfrum: viewed as a satire, the video is very funny, and more importantly, he’s now fooled all of us twice.
2 July, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Hey Perny, This could get quite X files-y!
The impression I get is the guy is certainly trying to be better known/advance his career but as what- right wing operative, Coulter ish pundit or satirist. I don’t know enough about shakesville’s activities to be familiar with their MO, although I have emailed with Wolfrum and my judgement is he is genuine in exposing this person. One thing is the sentiments expressed are genuine to the occupation project however obnoxiously expressed, Eisen-thingy might be genuine in his wish to appear important in the business of the exploitation of Iraq, the rub is he is not as important or connected as he presents.
But if it is satire to present it as real has backfired as it has not hit its target.
3 July, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I don’t know if I buy that this guy Wolfrum is behind all this. I started reading Wolfrum’s posts and I must say, “what a jackass!” He is almost always snide and petty, a classic bully and tattletale. To me, Wolfrum comes across as a jealous little man not nearly creative enough to engage in satire. Have you read his posts? He fancies himself some sort of internet censor who in my estimation would have made a great Nazi art critic. I think most likely, like you said, Mr. Eisenstadt is a small fish trying to inflate his credentials.
4 July, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I guess you are not a fan! Don’t know his satire stuff really but yeah Eisen-thingy is not all he claims, yet the video does convey some cultural truth, those attitudes do exist.
9 July, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Isn’t it interesting that Cole’s blog had two comments on it that were basically exactly like the two above? The first one claiming that maybe I was the hoaxer, and the second one saying I wasn’t the hoaxster, and that I’m a complete piece of crap. (I’m fine with being called crap, mind you.) The commenters at Cole’s post named themselves differently, however. But that shouldn’t be surprising, considering Abrad’s/Eisenstadt’s love of using sockpuppets to get his name out there. So, in this case, it’s used to defame me (though honestly, I don’t really care. He can play his game all he wants. I’m just enjoying outing him as a hoax. It’s become a hobby of sorts. Like stamp collecting).
I have no problems with satire, obviously, but when the purpose is too deceive (such as I was deceived, such as Cole was Deceived, Such as Raed was deceived, such as Rick was deceived, etc.) then I declare it fair sport to out the hoaxer.
But using Benjamin H. Grumbles as an example of Shakesville trying to “hoax” anyone is outright hilarious.
In conclusion, I’m right about Abrad2345/Eisenstadt. And really, in the end, isn’t being righteous about being right all that matters? 😉
Regards,
Bill
10 July, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Hey Bill, yep still waiting for Esien-thingy to exhibit some integrity and explain himself.
14 November, 2008 at 9:41 pm
[…] AWOL or any number of Rove tricks). Also worth noting the hoax that would entail talking about the exploitation of Iraq is ignored, political gossips reign. Posted in Media. Tags: […]