NYPOST.COM Post Opinion: Editorials: USEFUL IDIOTS REDUX (in full)


Yes, I know we've all read this before, but I can't seem to resist repeating it again.

March 16, 2003 -- Gotham's Saddamites are gearing up again to peddle their seditious nonsense on the sidewalks of New York. They've even won the right to march in the streets on Saturday - though, predictably, they're still fighting attempts to keep things orderly.


But apart from when and where they should be allowed to march, New Yorkers need to pay attention to what's said at this self-styled "peace" rally.


And to take note of who's organizing it.


Because the so-called movement is no spontaneous gesture by average Americans, no matter what its sponsors claim.


It's a collection of the same, tired old radical leftists who've spent the past 40 years preaching hatred of all things American - and particularly of U.S. foreign policy, which they depict as an instrument of imperialist aggression.


As writers like Byron York and Ronald Radosh have disclosed on these pages, behind the movie stars and the pop singers who speak at their antiwar rallies lies the same collection of extremists who, even now, maintain ties to the remnants of old-line communism and even to Middle East terrorism.


Consider: Not In Our Name, the major antiwar organizer, relies for its fund raising on the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) - which, in turn, sponsors the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom.


Until recently, that group's president was Sami Al-Arian - the Florida professor just indicted on 50 counts of racketeering, extortion, money-laundering, perjury and fraud in connection with his role as the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.


IFCO also sponsors Refuse and Resist!, an actively pro-Castro group with ties to the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party - one of whose members, Clark Kissinger, has played a key role in organizing the pro-Saddam rallies.


Indeed, according to York, Not in Our Name was created one year ago by a group of left-wing extremists representing, among other groups, the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party and the International League of Peoples' Struggles, as well as the outfits cited above.


Indeed, Not in Our Name's original financial sponsor, the Bill of Rights Foundation, sent nearly all of its money to the legal defense of convicted cop-killer - and radical icon - Mumia Abu-Jamal.


Also serving a key behind-the-scenes role is Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, a front group for veteran America-basher Ramsey Clark's International Action Center - itself a front group for the communist Workers World Party.


True, not all participants are dedicated members of such extremist hate groups. But those who plan to hit the streets on Saturday need to take a long, hard look at the "leaders" they'll be following.


None of them have anything to do with peace.