Me as the 3 of ♥

The U.S. military had the clever idea of identifying and prioritizing the Saddamist enemy by assigning each of the leaders a playing-card equivalent: Saddam Hussein himself was the ace of spades, on down to the 2 of clubs. This idea then caught on and all sorts of decks of cards proliferated. For example, newsmax.com offers a “Deck of Weasels.”

Enter the well-known French author Thierry Meyssan. He’s best known for his creative notion, turned into a bestseller, 11 Septembre 2001 : L’effroyable imposture (translated into English as 911: The Big Lie), arguing that there was no plane that hit the Pentagon; rather, this was a U.S. government conspiracy to justify the war on terror. Well, Meyssan in August 2003 designed cards of “Les 52 plus dangereux dignitaires américains” (also available in pdf format). Better yet, they are available in English and Italian translations.

Not only are many of my friends there, but so am I, starring as the three of hearts.

Do I really need to point out that both of Meyssan’s description of me is as distorted as his understanding of what happened at the Pentagon that terrible day?

Asserts that Muslims cannot “melt” into US Society and thus recommends their exclusion from Civil Service and the Army. A chief organizer of the witch hunt on US campuses, he orchestrated the eviction of academics favorable to Palestinian rights.

In brief, I have never called for the exclusion of Muslims, only reluctantly concluded that given the campaign of militant Islamic violence, there must be special attention paid to them. Campus Watch is not about Palestinian rights but about the failure of Middle East studies in North America. And the notion that I have orchestrated any academic’s “eviction” is the purest Meyssanian fantasy.

Daniel Pipes, a historian, has led the Middle East Forum since its founding in 1994 and currently serves as chairman on the board of directors. He taught at Chicago, Harvard, Pepperdine, and the U.S. Naval War College. He served in five U.S. administrations, received two presidential appointments, and testified before many congressional committees. The author of 16 books on the Middle East, Islam, and other topics, Mr. Pipes writes a column for the Washington Times and the Spectator; his work has been translated into 39 languages. DanielPipes.org contains an archive of his writings and media appearances; he tweets at @DanielPipes. He received both his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard. The Washington Post deems him “perhaps the most prominent U.S. scholar on radical Islam.” Al-Qaeda invited Mr. Pipes to convert and Edward Said called him an “Orientalist.”
See more from this Author
Gaza’s Powerful but Usually Cowed Clan Leaders Called on Gazans to ‘Launch a Popular Uprising’ and for Hamas to ‘Lift Its Hand from Gaza Immediately’
For a Sunni, An Alawite Ruling in Damascus Compares to an ‘Untouchable’ Becoming Maharaja or a Jew Becoming Tsar
Misconduct Fits a Pro-Hamas Strategy That Involves a Logic of Suffering and Martyrdom
See more on this Topic