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spending too much and saving too little." The national sales tax, says Gravel, will force Americans to save money. It also links to an idea he's advocated since the early 1970s: a guaranteed national income for every American. Only, these days, he no longer calls it a "national income" payment. Now he calls the guaranteed payment a "pre-bate" -- as in a pre-paid rebate on the 23% sales tax to help defer costs of medicine, food, etc. "Everyone, from the poorest person up to Bill Gates will get a check [of the same amount] from the government every year," explained Gravel.
THE 2003 SPEECH TO A HOLOCAUST-DENIAL GROUP. In 2003, ultra-right newspaper publisher Willis Carto -- a leading Holocaust "revisionist" who publishes a combination of radical right and neo-nazi newspapers -- contacted Gravel. Carto is vocal in espousing the view that the Holocaust never took place. In fact, Carto founded the Institute for Historical Review to "prove" the Nazi murder of six million Jews was "a hoax" invented "by Zionists" to make people feel sorry for Jews -- and that the famous death camp liberation documentary films were merely "special effects" created by the Jews in Hollywood. Gravel said "I knew his history with the Liberty Lobby" -- the ultra-right group Carto led while Gravel served in the Senate -- "But, here he's trying to support the National Initiative. I wasn't supporting him. He was showing support for it." At one point, Gravel referred to Carto as "a charming guy" but "pretty extreme" in his views. Gravel also said that "kooks" -- like Carto and his followers -- should support the National Initiative because they, just like mainstream citizens, "are disgusted with our government" and feel it doesn't serve their interests. "Kooks feel even more disconnected" with the political process. "With the National Initiative, everyone gets a voice in government," he added.
At first, Carto simply wanted to interview Gravel about the National Initiative for Carto's radical American Free Press newspaper. "He liked the idea of the National Initiative ... I figured it was an opportunity to discuss it. Whether it is the far right, far left, whatever, I'll make my pitch to them," said Gravel. "They gave me a free subscription to American Free Press -- they still send it to me today -- and I flip through it sometimes. It has some extreme views -- and a lot of the ads in it are even more extreme and make me want to upchuck ... Anyways, sometime later, Carto contacted me to speak at that Barnes Review Conference. I had never heard of the Barnes Review, didn't know anything about it or what they stood for. I was just coming to give a presentation about the National Initiative. I was there maybe 30 minutes. I could tell from the people in the room -- mainly some very old men -- that they were pretty extreme. I gave my speech, answered some questions and left. I never saw the agenda for the day or listened to any of the other presentations." The Barnes Review Conference is an annual Holocaust denial gathering. At the 2003 event attended by Gravel, the later sessions included a "Holocaust Revisionism Panel" and a presentation on the glory days of the Nazi Luftwaffe. You can see more about the event here and here (note: both are links to Holocaust denial groups).
"You better believe I know that six million Jews were killed. I've been to the Holocaust Museum. I've seen the footage of General Eisenhower touring one of the camps ... They're nutty as loons if they [Carto's group] don't think it happened ... Anyone who denies the Holocaust is patently off their rocker -- it's a ridiculous position ... and the idea that the [documentary] films were a hoax is just bullshit," insisted Gravel. He said he never renounced the group after he learned of what it stood for simply because "I'm not in the business of denouncing anyone. I'm in the business of promoting the National Initiative." However, he quickly added that if he had to do it again, he doesn't know whether he would skip the event or attend and "speak on the National Initiative and how they're dead wrong on the Holocaust. Their views are just lunacy. But I don't think I'd bother to go."
ENDING GENOCIDE ... AND FAULTY MEMORIES. Gravel used the topic of the Holocaust to discuss the role the US should play in ending genocide anywhere in the world. He discussed the tragedies of the Armenian holocaust, the Jewish holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. "We're not doing anything about Darfur [Sudan] and that's wrong," said Gravel. When asked if he has any regrets for the lack of US action during the genocide that happened while he was in the US Senate -- Pol Pot's murderous rule in which 21% of the entire population of Cambodia was murdered -- Gravel mistakenly said: "That didn't happen when I was there. That was later ... It was in the 1980s." Actually, Senator, Cambodia's genocide took place in 1977-79 and US Senator George McGovern (D-SD) was the lone voice then calling for the US to intervene to end the killing. "I don't know what George would have been talking about. I'm pretty sure it happened in the 1980s after I left the Senate," insisted Gravel.
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