Mr. Smith goes to Iraq

“I am an anarchist; I seek to tear down hierarchies in my personal interactions, organizing structures, & society at large. I am a revolutionary; this US-dominated global capitalist system is inherently flawed & I aim to help accelerate its inevitable collapse & create a truly sustainable & egalitarian society. I work for peace in my personal interactions and I oppose all wars waged by governments to ensure their dominance, but I am NOT a pacifist; I find nonviolent tactics powerful and effective, but violence & property destruction have always been an essential part of revolutionary movements & support everyone's right to self defense.”

The quote above is from a self-description posted on his website by ISM member Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith now uses the name Joseph Carr. Criminals frequently use aliases in order to not be identified while breaking the law and Smith/Carr is no exception. Smith/Carr just returned from the Palestinian Authority on November 7th after being there for three months on a visa he obtained from the Israeli government under his new false identity while he worked there with the ISM. In fact, he openly boasts in his own emails that he entered Israel illegally four times at four different entry points to interfere with anti-terrorist operations of the IDF and has his own special ways to deceive border police.

It’s entirely possible he changed his identity because the Israelis deported him earlier as Joseph Smith, but obtaining a new passport for such purposes is a felony in the Untied States. Of greater interest though is the fact that under the name of Carr, Joseph Smith visited Iraq and areas of Fallujah where US forces were fighting Ba’ath Party insurgents and other allies of the PLO who also oppose the United States . During this trip to Iraq Joseph Smith boasted how his US Passport provided by a country he detests, got him easy access to certain areas.

Joseph Smith first came to light in March of 2003 when Olympia , Washington student and anarchist Rachel Corrie was accidentally killed by an Israeli bulldozer that Corrie chose to interfere with by being a human shield while it was clearing suspected weapons smuggling tunnels in Gaza . Smith, who is another anarchist and ISM member who knew Corrie at Evergreen College , professed to being an eyewitness to Corrie’s death. However, his eyewitness accounts on more than one occasion did not match up. He also alleged he took photographs of the area and Corrie just before her death that also later did not match up.

One quote by Smith about Corrie’s death is very telling:
"The spirit that she died for is worth a life. This idea of resistance, this spirit of resisting this brutal occupying force, is worth anything. And many, many, many Palestinians give their lives for it all the time. So the life of one international, I feel, is more than worth the spirit of resisting oppression."

Smith has no job to speak of. Yet how does he support himself and travel internationally and all over the United States for the ISM? ISM-USA is not an organization that is listed as a non-profit or for profit entity. Who is funding this guy?

He describes himself as an “activist,” a “performance artist” and a “poet,” and emphasizes he is gay. He claimed earlier to be an activist for the Christian Peacemakers Team, a Quaker-based organization that maintains it is nonviolent and seeks to ameliorate world trouble spots. Yet on Smith’s own website in his “statement of identity,” we see he rejects pacifism and calls for revolution through violence, something that would certainly doesn’t sound very Quaker-like.

I hope Homeland Security is watching this guy.