Panetta Report 2: Leon Panetta Paid Tribute to Pro-Communist Peace Activist

Panetta Report 1 here.

Leon Panetta

While a Southern California based congressman in the 1970s and ’80s, CIA director and Obama Secretary of Defense nominee Leon Panetta, was close to a pro-communist, Santa Cruz based “peace activist” named Lucy Haessler.

In spite (or perhaps because of) Haessler’s involvement with the Women’s International Democratic Federation, Panetta placed a tribute in the Congressional Record, April 11, 1984, to mark Haessler’s 80th birthday.

Panetta noted that Lucy Haessler attended several conferences of the East German based organization in France, the Soviet Union, Poland and East Germany.

He did neglect to mention however that the W.I.D.F. was a well-documented Soviet front.

Congressman Panetta also commended Haessler for her activism in opposition to the Vietnam War and the deployment of US Cruise and Pershing II missiles in Europe. Haesslers activism in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Women Strike for Peace, are also noted. Both organizations were also affiliated with another Soviet front, the World Peace Council and were heavily infiltrated by the Communist Party USA and its allies.

Congressman Panetta rounded off the tribute by hoping that Mrs. Haessler would “continue her valiant efforts, and with her help, we may yet realize her 80 year old dream: Peace on Earth.”

 

This tribute raises an important question. In the context of the time, in what was effectively the height of the “Cold War,” why did Congressman Panetta consider it appropriate to praise an activist so clearly sympathetic to the “other side?” The Soviet affiliations of the Women’s International Democratic Federation were well known at the time. Given Panetta’s close ties to the Santa Cruz left, including to long time communist Hugh DeLacy and his own leftist views, it is inconceivable that Panetta did not understand the significance of Haessler’s activism.

When confronted about the tribute by Human Events magazine in their May 12, 1984 issue, Panetta pleaded ignorance of the far left nature of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, but indicated that if he had known, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

Said Panetta, “Let me tell you something. I dont know if you know about Santa Cruz, but Santa Cruz is a center for people who’ve been activists in all kinds of organizations. If I started doing those kinds of checks on people who help out… I’d never stop. Its that kind of place.”

Panetta also described Lucy Haessler as, “An activist in Democratic politics, and worked in the campaigns ever since I’ve been running.”

Lucy Haessler organized the 1979 national Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Biennial Conference at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Haessler invited three main speakers: Communist Party affiliated scientist and “peace” activist Linus Pauling, Randall Forsberg, founder of the thoroughly socialist infiltrated Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and Rep. Leon Panetta.

Leon Panetta might claim that Lucy Haessler was just another Democratic Party activist. However in 1966, Lucy Haessler and her then husband Carl Haessler, a Detroit United Auto Workers official and former Socialist Party USA member, sponsored an event that put them firmly in the Communist Party camp.

April 28, 1966, Carl and Lucy Haessler were sponsors of the Herbert Aptheker Testimonial Dinner, held on the occasion of the Communist Party USA’s senior theoretician, Herbert Aptheker’s 50th birthday, the publication of his 20th book and the 2nd anniversary of the American Institute for Marxist Studies. The event was held in the Sutton Ballroom, The New York Hilton, Avenue of the Americas, 53rd to 54th Street, New York City. Almost all speakers, organizers and sponsors were known members or supporters of the Communist Party USA.

 

Note that Mr. and Mrs. Haessler’s names appear on the sponsors list right above that of then Communist Party USA Chairman Gus Hall.

 

It is quite possible that Leon Panetta was not aware of the depth of Lucy Haessler’s Communist Party affiliations, he might just not have known of all of his close friend Hugh DeLacy’s communist background.

It seems strange however, that both of the Panetta Congressional Record tributes we have identified so far, were awarded to Communist Party affiliates.

As Director of the CIA, and probable US Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta is entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding US National Security. Should it then be of concern that Panetta has been on such friendly terms with clear enemies of that security? Is there a hint here of the fox guarding the chicken house?

The US Senate needs to do its job. Before he is approved for the most important defense post in the nation, Leon Panetta needs to do some explaining to the American public.

Which of the 100 Senators sworn to protect the Constitution of the United States of America has the courage to put personal popularity to one side and begin asking Leon Panetta some very probing questions?

Panetta Report 3 here

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21 thoughts on “Panetta Report 2: Leon Panetta Paid Tribute to Pro-Communist Peace Activist

  1. Leon Panetta appears to be just one of many heads bobbing in cesspool of Anti-Americanism these days. Our faux President has surrounded Himself with a ominous colletion of Marxist Idealoges and various anti-Ameican criminals (such as Bill Ayers and wife, Corrupt Union Officials, George Sorrosa a gaggle of Czars etc.)

    Obama is not qualified to be President if for no other reason than the fact that His Father was not an American Citizen (as required by the Constitution.)

    When the Supreme Court; Congress and the Senate are so paralyzed with fear over an imagined “Black Backlash” from a very miniscule section of our otherwise strongly patriotic, productive Black community.

    There are far more dangerous members in our White Community that have the capacity and the will to do this Nation more harm than any other group within our Government and unprotected borders.

    Panetta is a symptom of a more serious condition, the devisiness
    of playing one group against another to foment angst and discord.
    By injecting the racism ploy and suspicion into any possible situation is the “Devide and Conquer Stratigy” of history.

    We are living in enlightened age, where knowledge and truth can be found with a few strokes on the keyboard of a computer. To cure our present problems; we must first deal with the source; get rid of Obama and His administration and replace it with HONEST,PATRIOTIC,
    CITIZENS, and we will turn the corner of this gloomy international situation we find ourselves in.

    Jon Dee

  2. As noted in The Obama Timeline, Panetta’s anti-military daughter Linda has been seen publicly with Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega. She is a leader of the School of the Americas Watch, an organization dedicated to shutting down the School of the Americas, a CIA-related training ground for pro-U.S. military officers in the Western Hemisphere.

  3. I got a call from a friend out west that China landed on the west coast 3 or 4 days ago and uniformed Chinese soldgers by the millions have been spreading out across the country. I didn’t think much of it. However, just looked outside to some noise and saw about ten large truck loads of armed Chinese going down the road.

    However, there’s not been a word about it in the news, now has any congress person mentioned it.

    Wait, ….. I hear some gun fire ….. Oh hmmmm, it’s late, guess I’ll go feed the cat ….

    Panetta you say, hmmmm, name does ring a bell. ………

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