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Ksm. Nasan puhelinmyyjä
Some of the most sensitive material was destroyed by Nixon's aides. Other material has been withheld for reasons of state. On March 1 Nara (the federal archive) released 500 hours' worth of hitherto embargoed tapes. They contain an illuminating exchange between the president and his religious ally, Dr Billy Graham. The 90-minute conversation took place after a prayer breakfast, on February 1 1972. HR Haldeman, Nixon's hatchetman, was also present. It was an election year. Nixon's dirty-tricks team was sabotaging the run of his most feared Democratic opponent, Ed Muskie. Graham begins by advising Nixon on campaign strategy. The evangelist has been invited to lunch at Time magazine. "You better take your Jewish beanie" (yarmulke), Haldeman jokes. Nixon is in darker mood. He broaches something that "we can't talk about publicly" - Jewish influence in the media. All the big news organs are "totally dominated by the Jews". Graham agrees, adding, piously, that it is the Jews "who are putting out the pornographic stuff". The three men concur that "the best Jews are actually the Israeli Jews". The American Jews are traitors (the Vietnam war was still raging). Nixon contends that "every Democratic candidate will owe his election to Jewish people". "This stranglehold has got to be broken or this country's going down the drain," Graham solemnly declares. "You believe that?" Nixon asks. "Yes, sir," Graham replies. "Oh, boy," replies Nixon. "So do I. I can't ever say that but I believe it." Graham agrees. It can never be said publicly: "But if you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something." Nixon did, of course, get his second term. The released tapes have been edited and pruned. But Haldeman kept a diary of the conversation. After Graham left, Nixon told his henchman: "You know it was good we got this point about the Jews across... the Jews are an irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards." As Haldeman records, Graham had earlier observed that "the Bible says there are satanic Jews and there's where our problem arises". That problem was "the total Jewish domination of the media... this was something that would have to be dealt with." —John Sutherland, The Tape of Revelations, The Guardian, (Monday 11 March 2002).
