Ernie Lazar
Ernest Lazar also Ernie Lazar (born 1945) is a "conspiracy buff",[1] researcher, and archivist of American nationalist and anti-communist organizations and individuals. Since 1980 he has flooded the FBI with thousands of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests obtaining over 600,000 pages of documents on over 2,000 individuals. Recently Lazar has posted hundreds of his FOIA FBI files on the Internet.[2]
Lazar once had a dispute with the FBI over a $4800 search fee request. The way he got around the fee was to claim he was a freelance journalist.[3]
Lazar was also interested in former communists who were FBI informants and records pretaining to the CPUSA in general. One of Lazar's "discoveries" was that Jewish conservative columnist George Sokolsky was an informant for the FBI.
Lazar has posted on the leftist OpEdNews site denouncing conspiracy theories.[4]
Contents
John Birch Society obsession
Back in the 1960s Lazar as a teenager was a liberal--if not a radical--and would have political discussions with a police relative over the issues of police brutality, drug use, and police corruption.[5] One day he obtained a copy of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin from the same relative containing J. Edgar Hoover’s comments on a particular subversive organization. Lazar decided to write a letter to the editor of his local paper concerning Hoover’s remarks. Lazar took offense when a member of the John Birch Society challenge his letter and replied, "Is it just coincidence that Ernie’s words so arty, sound just like the Communist Party?"[6]
He soon began his lifelong research--some calling it an obsession--on the John Birch Society and by 1980 started requesting files from the FBI seeking to obtain personal information on members of the organization. He eventually obtained the entire file on the John Birch Society, all 12,000 pages from the FBI. From there he branched off into investigating other conservative and nationalist organizations.
Highlander Folk School
Ernie Lazar has defended Martin Luther King and the so-called Civil Rights Movement implying there was no communist connection to the movement. In his paper on the Highlander Folk School he released selective memos from FBI investigations claiming there was no communist control of the school.[7] It is a well-known fact FBI director J. Edgar Hoover suspected King was a tool of the communists.
Academic interest
Academic researchers of the radical right have used his documents and one university requested at some point in time they be donated to their special collections library. Lazar has compiled a "Bibliography of Academic Theses and Dissertations on the American Right".[8]
Jewish controversy
It has been suggested Ernie Lazar is Jewish and is an operative of the ADL.[9] [10] Lazar has denied any connection with the ADL and claims he was not raised in any religious tradition by his adoptive parents.[11]
Notes
- ↑ Research into extreme right individuals, groups, and their assertions
- ↑ Ernie Lazar FOIA Collection
- ↑ JREF forum post
- ↑ Purpose of Conspiracy Theories
- ↑ Ernie Lazar's Content, The Education Forum
- ↑ Research into extreme right individuals, groups, and their assertions
- ↑ Martin Luther King Jr. and the "communist training school" controversy
- ↑ Theses and Dissertations
- ↑ Ernie Lazar Exposed
- ↑ YouTube comments
- ↑ FALSEHOODS REGARDING ARTICLE ON ERNIE LAZAR
