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Friday, May 1, 2009:
Ezra Pound and the Federal Reserve
The photograph above was taken by United States Armed Forces at a detention camp north of Pisa, Italy, to which Ezra Pound had been delivered by Italian forces on May 24, 1945.
Arguably the greatest American poet of the twentieth century; Pound was arrested by U.S. forces in Italy on charges of treason for having conducted radio broadcasts critical of the United States government out of Italy while the United States was at war with that country during World War II.
For the first twenty five days of his incarceration, Ezra Pound was kept in an open cage, exposed to the elements. After this he was provided with a tent. Despite the fact that he is suspected to have suffered a nervous breakdown during this time, Pound actually managed to write a series of ten poems known as "The Pisan Cantos".
In the first clause of its third section, the third article of the Constitution for the United States of America declares:
"Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."
It is certainly plausible that Pound's willingness to engage in radio broadcasts from Italy during a time in which the United States was at war with that country could be construed as 'giving aid and comfort' to the enemies of the United States. From this point of view there is certainly no basis upon which to challenge his arrest by U.S. military forces at the end of World War II. In fact, the only reason to make any protest whatsoever about Pound's arrest on charges of Treason is the fact that - having been arrested on such serious charges - he was never actually brought to trial!
After finally being transported to the United States in 1946, Pound was found "incompetent to stand trial" by a "special jury" and subsequently held in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. for twelve years. In a very controversial decision in 1949, the Library of Congress would award Pound the first ever "Bollingen Prize" for the Pisan Cantos.
Finally being declared permanently unfit to stand trial, Pound was released from St. Elizabeth's in 1958 ...apparently on the agreement that he would leave the United States and never return.
(Is it not strange that - after having found Pound's broadcasts during the war so egregious as to insist on having him arrested for treason in the wake of World War II that he would be summarily declared insane on his arrival in America and then - after being declared to be permanently incapable of standing trial that he would be released? If someone suspected of treason is considered to be mentally healthy enough as to pose no threat to themselves: shouldn't we expect that they would be tried immediately upon their release?)
Why was Pound released after twelve years in St. Elizabeth's and then never tried on the charges of treason for which he had been arrested? We will never know: but this should not stop us from making an educated guess!
During his stay in St. Elizabeth's, Pound was frequently visited by a man named Eustace Mullins who worked in the Library of Congress. Finding Pound to be perfectly lucid, Mullins asked the poet to explain why he was being held in St. Elizabeth's as a mental case. When Pound asked Mullins if he had any money with him and Mulllins presented a ten dollar bill, Pound suggested that to understand why he was being held in St. Elizabeth's Mullins would simply need to undertand the meaning of the three words inscribed on the top of the front of that piece of currency: "FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE".
Pound believed that the men in charge of the Federal Reserve System had been responsible for getting the United States involved in the First World War as well as the Second World War. These two wars had left the United States saddled with a nearly unsustainable debt to the Federal Reserve System. Pound also objected, in principle, to the idea that these bankers could hold a monopoly power to issue a fiat currency as the currency of the United States and then charge interest to the United States government for the use of its own money; a currency which the bankers themselves were allowed to issue from thin air.
Was Ezra Pound allowed to leave St. Elizabeth's and the United States for fear that someone as noteworthy and eloquent as Pound might very well have sought to defend himself by pointing out the dangers posed to the American people by the continuing existence and practices of the Federal Reserve System?
Please listen, study, and decide for yourself!
Friday, May 1, 2009:
Ezra Pound and the Federal Reserve
NOTE: During this broadcast, I read some of the text of Pound's own broadcasts from Italy during WWII. There are two groups of people to whom - I would like to make it clear - I feel no need whatsoever to offer any apology whatsoever for the manner in which I have done this: Jews and Nazis (whether "neo" or otherwise).
To begin with - I will not apologize to those people of Semitic descent who might object to my making any reference to Ezra Pound whatsoever. I would ask that they consider that - rather than apologize afterwards - I have unilaterally chosen to edit out (as much as possible) the more anti-semitic comments made by Pound in these particular broadcasts.
Similarly, I will not apologize to those Nazis or Nazi sympathizers who object to my having made such edits.
More fundamentally, I would like to ask all readers and listeners to consider this: ...Though it is almost certainly true that modern banking - even the dishonest practice of fractional reserve banking - may well have been invented by jewelers and bankers of Hebrew descent ...such practices have long since come to be used by people of a variety of races and religious creeds.
By the same token, I would like to address myself to those who might be inclined to disregard Ezra Pound or his comments as a whole - or, indeed, ANY criticism of the Federal Reserve system - on the basis that Pound and other people who criticize the Federal Reserve system sometimes harbor - or express - anti-semitic sentiments.
Men and women should only be prosecuted for those things that they DO which have been identified as criminal acts ...not for what they ARE or what they are associated with by virtue of their birth and identification with a particular race, gender, creed or color.
To all concerned, I would ask that you please read the Wikipedia article on Ezra Pound where you will find that Pound, himself, is said to have renounced his earlier anti-semitism in commenting that... "In sentences referring to groups or races 'they' should be used with great care. re USURY: I was out of focus, taking a symptom for a cause. The cause is AVARICE..." and in saying ""The worst mistake I made was that stupid, suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism."
If there are solid grounds on which we should object to the Federal Reserve System - let those stand on their own, separately from any bias or erroneous asssumption that the Federal Reserve System is run by Jews ...a faulty argument upon which we should fully expect any grievances with the Federal Reserve to be regarded as suspect at best and that by the most generous characters only.
In Liberty!,
James Hines
Ezra Pound and the Federal Reserve
The photograph above was taken by United States Armed Forces at a detention camp north of Pisa, Italy, to which Ezra Pound had been delivered by Italian forces on May 24, 1945.
Arguably the greatest American poet of the twentieth century; Pound was arrested by U.S. forces in Italy on charges of treason for having conducted radio broadcasts critical of the United States government out of Italy while the United States was at war with that country during World War II.
For the first twenty five days of his incarceration, Ezra Pound was kept in an open cage, exposed to the elements. After this he was provided with a tent. Despite the fact that he is suspected to have suffered a nervous breakdown during this time, Pound actually managed to write a series of ten poems known as "The Pisan Cantos".
In the first clause of its third section, the third article of the Constitution for the United States of America declares:
"Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."
It is certainly plausible that Pound's willingness to engage in radio broadcasts from Italy during a time in which the United States was at war with that country could be construed as 'giving aid and comfort' to the enemies of the United States. From this point of view there is certainly no basis upon which to challenge his arrest by U.S. military forces at the end of World War II. In fact, the only reason to make any protest whatsoever about Pound's arrest on charges of Treason is the fact that - having been arrested on such serious charges - he was never actually brought to trial!
After finally being transported to the United States in 1946, Pound was found "incompetent to stand trial" by a "special jury" and subsequently held in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. for twelve years. In a very controversial decision in 1949, the Library of Congress would award Pound the first ever "Bollingen Prize" for the Pisan Cantos.
Finally being declared permanently unfit to stand trial, Pound was released from St. Elizabeth's in 1958 ...apparently on the agreement that he would leave the United States and never return.
(Is it not strange that - after having found Pound's broadcasts during the war so egregious as to insist on having him arrested for treason in the wake of World War II that he would be summarily declared insane on his arrival in America and then - after being declared to be permanently incapable of standing trial that he would be released? If someone suspected of treason is considered to be mentally healthy enough as to pose no threat to themselves: shouldn't we expect that they would be tried immediately upon their release?)
Why was Pound released after twelve years in St. Elizabeth's and then never tried on the charges of treason for which he had been arrested? We will never know: but this should not stop us from making an educated guess!
During his stay in St. Elizabeth's, Pound was frequently visited by a man named Eustace Mullins who worked in the Library of Congress. Finding Pound to be perfectly lucid, Mullins asked the poet to explain why he was being held in St. Elizabeth's as a mental case. When Pound asked Mullins if he had any money with him and Mulllins presented a ten dollar bill, Pound suggested that to understand why he was being held in St. Elizabeth's Mullins would simply need to undertand the meaning of the three words inscribed on the top of the front of that piece of currency: "FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE".
Pound believed that the men in charge of the Federal Reserve System had been responsible for getting the United States involved in the First World War as well as the Second World War. These two wars had left the United States saddled with a nearly unsustainable debt to the Federal Reserve System. Pound also objected, in principle, to the idea that these bankers could hold a monopoly power to issue a fiat currency as the currency of the United States and then charge interest to the United States government for the use of its own money; a currency which the bankers themselves were allowed to issue from thin air.
Was Ezra Pound allowed to leave St. Elizabeth's and the United States for fear that someone as noteworthy and eloquent as Pound might very well have sought to defend himself by pointing out the dangers posed to the American people by the continuing existence and practices of the Federal Reserve System?
Please listen, study, and decide for yourself!
Friday, May 1, 2009:
Ezra Pound and the Federal Reserve
Download | Duration: 00:00:00
NOTE: During this broadcast, I read some of the text of Pound's own broadcasts from Italy during WWII. There are two groups of people to whom - I would like to make it clear - I feel no need whatsoever to offer any apology whatsoever for the manner in which I have done this: Jews and Nazis (whether "neo" or otherwise).
To begin with - I will not apologize to those people of Semitic descent who might object to my making any reference to Ezra Pound whatsoever. I would ask that they consider that - rather than apologize afterwards - I have unilaterally chosen to edit out (as much as possible) the more anti-semitic comments made by Pound in these particular broadcasts.
Similarly, I will not apologize to those Nazis or Nazi sympathizers who object to my having made such edits.
More fundamentally, I would like to ask all readers and listeners to consider this: ...Though it is almost certainly true that modern banking - even the dishonest practice of fractional reserve banking - may well have been invented by jewelers and bankers of Hebrew descent ...such practices have long since come to be used by people of a variety of races and religious creeds.
By the same token, I would like to address myself to those who might be inclined to disregard Ezra Pound or his comments as a whole - or, indeed, ANY criticism of the Federal Reserve system - on the basis that Pound and other people who criticize the Federal Reserve system sometimes harbor - or express - anti-semitic sentiments.
Men and women should only be prosecuted for those things that they DO which have been identified as criminal acts ...not for what they ARE or what they are associated with by virtue of their birth and identification with a particular race, gender, creed or color.
To all concerned, I would ask that you please read the Wikipedia article on Ezra Pound where you will find that Pound, himself, is said to have renounced his earlier anti-semitism in commenting that... "In sentences referring to groups or races 'they' should be used with great care. re USURY: I was out of focus, taking a symptom for a cause. The cause is AVARICE..." and in saying ""The worst mistake I made was that stupid, suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism."
If there are solid grounds on which we should object to the Federal Reserve System - let those stand on their own, separately from any bias or erroneous asssumption that the Federal Reserve System is run by Jews ...a faulty argument upon which we should fully expect any grievances with the Federal Reserve to be regarded as suspect at best and that by the most generous characters only.
In Liberty!,
James Hines
Posted by James Hines at 5/12/2009 8:56 PM 
Categories: 2009,May 1,Saints and Fools
Tags: St. Elizabeth's Hospital Ezra Pound Treason Federal Reserve Bank
Categories: 2009,May 1,Saints and Fools
Tags: St. Elizabeth's Hospital Ezra Pound Treason Federal Reserve Bank
Very interesting, James. It would certainly seem that ANY criticism of the Fed Reserve is 'un-American' judging from what has been done to its critics... outside, above and beyond the consideration of any personal prejudices these folks may have held. Pelley is quoted in later years as saying (and this is the closest thing to an apology he ever offered), "I have discovered enough of my own people mixed up in the shenanigans to ever blame the jews alone again." See also the strange case of Percy Crosby, artist/author of the famous Skippy comic strip. Certainly NOT anti-jewish, but smeared and locked away as "crazy," not to mention his outspoken opposition to the growing socialist/communist tone of the ruling administration. Rather scary to see how such trouble-makers were dealt with...
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