The Ghastly Mr. Mulberry

Lee Kaplan calls himself many things: “investigative journalist,” columnist,” and “intelligence analyst” are among them. Now add “Mr. Mulberry” to the mix. It’s about as honest as the other descriptions, so at least he’s being consistent. In actuality, he’s a guy who has little else to do than harass anyone who may be working on countering the masive amounts of destruction and despair caused by the U.S.-funded occupation of Palestinian territories.

He may soon be able to call himself “felon,” however, with some credibility. The General Counsel of the House of Representatives has launched an investigating of Lee Kaplan for impersonating a congressional staffer. On Sept 1, Donna Baranski-Walker, the Executive Director for The Rebuilding Alliance, posted this on the organization’s blog:

A couple of weeks ago, we began our third teleconference with a senior staffer for Congresswoman Anna Eschoo. However, as participants convened, “Mr. Lee Mulberry” claimed that he was a member of Congresswoman Eschoo’s staff, said that the teleconference was illegal, and made derogatory remarks about our guest speaker from Gaza (”he’s a terrorist”) before we were able to restore order by muting his call. Because of this disruption by the rogue caller, the teleconference was re-scheduled.

After some detective work, we discovered that “Mr. Mulberry” was, in actuality, Mr. Lee Kaplan, who had previously contacted Congresswoman Eschoo’s staff insisting that such teleconferences were illegal. Contrary to his assertion, the staff’s legal counsel learned from Alliance for Justice and the California Association of Non-Profits that the Rebuilding Alliance has the “right and responsibility” to lobby (including conducting teleconferences) within the 501(h) guidelines established by the United States tax code. In response, Rep. Eschoo’s Chief of Staff, Mr. Jason Mahler, said “We take it very seriously [when] someone impersonates a member of staff and proceeds to insult our constituents” and opined that that Mr. Kaplan’s actions were “extremely unusual and likely illegal.” Thus, one outcome of Mr. Kaplan’s outrageous action is that the General Counsel of the House of Representatives is now investigating him for impersonating a congressional staffer.

Lee should try harder to disguise himself. To aid him in his future name choices, I’d like to offer this list:

John Barnett, John Bigboote, John Camp, John Careful Walker, John Chief Crier, John Cooper, John Coyote, John Edwards, John Fish, John Fledgling, John Gomez, John Grim, John Guardian, John Icicle Boy, John Jones, John Joseph, John Lee, John Littlejohn, John Many Jars, John Milton, John Mud Head, John Nephew, John Nolan, John O’Connor, John Omar, John Parrot, John Rajeesh, John Ready to Fly, John Repeat Dance, John Roberts, John Scott, John Smallberries, John Starbird, John Take Cover, John Thorny Stick, John Two Horns, John Whorfin, John Wood, John Wright, and John Ya Ya.

This isn’t Lee’s first trouble with the law, which he claims to want to hold so many others in organizatins such as ISM accountable to. In a federal libel suit against David Horowitz, the Center for Jewish Community Studies, Joe Kaufman, Daniel Pipes, Campus Watch, and the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, Riad Elsolh Hamad of the the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund also names Lee on page 37. Kaplan works for Horowitz in The Center of Study of Popular Culture which has changed its name three months ago, after the lawsuit to the David Horowitz Freedom Center The press release from PCWF can be found on this blog as well.

Horowitz is also busy fending off a libel suit lodged by Stanford University’s Joel Beinin in response to the far-right pundits plastering of the professor’s mug on the cover of a booklet titled “put the professor’s photo on the cover of a booklet titled “Campus Support for Terrorism.”

There’s an interesting distinction to be made in all this; Kaplan, Horowitz and those they work with demand in one heated diatribe after another that NGOs, activists and anyone working with Palestinians in the occupied territories be held accountable to the law. But they seem to think being held accountable is a one-way street. Lee & Company prefer to keep their battles out of the courtroom, and instead spread innuendo, rumor and blind speculation lacking any support. In contrast, their targets — those that are alleged to be in league with terrorists — take their complaints to the legal system. They don’t hide their identities, invade conference calls or pretend to be the aides of congresswomen. They allow Lee and his cohorts a luxury that would never be returned in kind: To be faced by their accusers in a public forum where accertainable fact is what matters.

Anyway, while the lawsuits keep piling up, no doubt Lee is busy getting his next disguise in order. He should just remember to work on his name a little more diligently before attending any more teleconferences.

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