April 23, 2009, - 12:31 pm
Death Threat From the Anti-Semitic Far Right: Man Already Convicted in 14 Anthrax Incidents “Warns” Me
By Debbie Schlussel
As longtime readers know, in the past several years, I’ve gotten a lot of death threats, ALL of them from Muslim residents of the United States a/k/a the “moderate” ones. Three of the four have been prosecuted, but the Justice Department refuses to pursue the most scary and frequent of the death threat perpetrators (Lola Elzein, who contacted me six times with escalating threats of rape, torture, and death to myself and my family members).
But yesterday, I got a not-so-veiled threat from a man named Chad Castagana, who is on the right . . . the far, far, nutty right. He was, in the past, an alleged frequent commenter on Free Republic under a fake name (not to say Freepers are like him, most are not), and he has a far-right blog.
Mr. Castagana was upset that I wrote about Pat Buchanan’s history of anti-Semitism and his latest–a column on how the Jews (he says) killed Christ, and now they are “killing” Nazi mass-murderer John Demjanjuk–and how Sean Hannity continues to promote Buchanan’s anti-Semitic screeds, including a pro-Hitler book.
Mr. Castagana told me that if I continued to write about Buchanan’s anti-Semitism and his alliance with Sean Hannity, that I would end up like Irv Rubin, the now-deceased head of the Jewish Defense League (JDL). Mr. Rubin was mysteriously assassinated in federal prison while he was awaiting trial. Here is an excerpt of his e-mail, from which I’ve redacted his pro-Buchanan/Hannity vitriol:
From: Chad Castagana zopix2@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 7:22 PM
Subject: Sean Hannity an antiSemite ? You’ve got to be kidding!
To: Debbie Schlussel
. . . . Remember what happned [sic] to JDL founder Irv Rubin?
I offer that not as a comparason, but as an example where . . . views can take an individual. . . .
C.
Castagana’s e-mail became all the more frightening after I googled him and learned that he has already been convicted in federal court of anthrax hoax threats–he sent envelopes containing soap powder to Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”, talk show host David Letterman, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, Democrats Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. Since this nut, Castagana, is now on probation (he was ordered to get psychiatric help) and believes I’m somehow a liberal because I’ve written about Pat Buchanan’s well documented anti-Semitism and his well-documented promotion by Sean Hannity, I certainly hope I won’t be the victim of a similar crime by this loon.
It’s no coincidence that each of those who sent me death threats are anti-Semites and that the one on the far right–the only non-Muslim–is a Pat Buchanan/Sean Hannity fan. There is a lot in common with Pat Buchanan’s followers and extremist Muslims. They all hate Jews and Israel.
I’ve already contacted the FBI about Castagana’s e-mail, which I take very seriously.
It would seem appropriate for Hannity and Buchanan to disaaociate themselves from these followers. Hopefully they will do so, but I’m not holding my breath.
[CF: HUH? THIS IS WHAT PAT BUCHANAN’S SUPPORTERS ARE ALL ABOUT–ANTI-SEMITISM. DID YOU MISS THE COMMENTS I POSTED FROM HIS ANTI-SEMITIC FANS ABOUT HIS DEMJANJUK COLUMN? IT’S NO COINCIDENCE HE WAS SUPPORTED BY NEO-NAZIS WHEN HE RAN FOR PRESIDENT. AS FOR VANNITY, HE REFUSED TO DISAVOW NEO-NAZI HAL TURNER AND, INSTEAD, PRETENDED HE DIDN’T KNOW HIM AND HADN’T BEEN FRIENDS WITH HIM FOR A DECADE. DS]
c f on April 23, 2009 at 1:21 pm