Lee Duigon
August 1, 2004
With a candid camera and a tape recorder
hidden in his sunglass case, Alan Lipton
on May 17, 2003, found himself in "a
den of demons" — an auditorium
packed with anti-American, pro-communist
protesters organizing for mass demonstrations
in New York and Philadelphia.
"This was not a fun project to do," he
said. "I was completely trapped back
there. Had I been exposed, I would have just
charged for the door."
It was all in a day's work for the Protest
Warriors.
In March of 2003, “Protest Warrior” was
just Alan Lipton, Kfir Alfia, and a website.
Today it has 6,000 members, coast to coast,
and is still growing — after appearances
on Fox News, MTV News,
and the Rush Limbaugh radio show.
Their mission is simple: to confront anti-American,
antiwar protesters wherever they appear — on
city streets, on college and high school
campuses, anywhere.
"It's become our full-time job," co-founder
Kfir Alfia said. "We support ourselves
by the sale of products on our website — T-shirts,
stickers, mugs, and posters. I had to quit
my engineering job so I could do this."
Just over a year ago, Kfir was working
in San Francisco when his friend Alan Lipton,
from Texas, came out to visit him.
"The left-wing ideology is so dominant
in San Francisco; I was getting frustrated
just living there," Kfir said. "We
decided to go to one of their demonstrations
just to see what it was like — and
that gave us the idea for Protest Warrior.
I mean, the Left had a virtual monopoly on
street action. Well, what if we staged counter-demonstrations?"
They set up their website (protestwarrior.com)
and watched in amazement as people all over
the country flocked to it, "wanting
to join up. We had no idea it would strike
such a chord," Kfir said. "It's
a little overwhelming, just trying to keep
track of our growth."
An Answer to A.N.S.W.E.R.
Some
of the biggest antiwar marches so far have
been spearheaded by International A.N.S.W.E.R.
("Act Now to Stop War and
End Racism").
Alan decided to infiltrate A.N.S.W.E.R.
last year. He traveled to New York, rented
a cheap room, and practiced the art of clandestine
filmmaking.
"I also didn't shave or shampoo my
hair for a few days," he said, "so
I looked like the prototype hard-core commie."
The results of his investigation can be
viewed on the PW website, a computer-playable
video called "A.N.S.W.E.R. Infiltrated." Unaware
that they were being filmed, the protesters
made no effort to disguise their real agenda.
In nineteen minutes of video, they reveal
themselves as anti-American, anti-Israel,
anti-capitalist, anti-Constitution, anti-Christian,
and unabashedly, rabidly communist.
Other videos available for viewing on the
website show "peace marchers" cursing
at the Protest Warriors, shoving them, and
destroying their signs. It is a face of the "peace
movement" seldom seen on prime-time
television news.
"We've gotten very interested in A.N.S.W.E.R.," Kfir
said. "For instance, who's funding them?
When we find out, we'll put it on our website.
If some of these leftist groups had to release
information about their funding sources,
I think a lot of people might not want to
be part of it anymore."
What's Next?
As Protest
Warrior continues to grow in membership and
media exposure, its mission may be broadened,
Kfir said.
"We've concentrated on the war, so
far," he said, "but the war in
Iraq won't go on forever, and we plan to
tackle other issues.
"We staged a counter-protest this
spring in Washington, D.C., when they had
that huge march for abortion. We're going
to be protesting abortion more and more,
and we'll probably get involved in the defense
of marriage, too."
All of these issues, he said, are connected. "The
antiwar groups use the Iraq War issue to
attach to all the other issues they push — abortion,
gay rights, socialized medicine. They're
communists, anarchists, and they want to
overthrow the current government of the United
States.
"The news media won't cover that aspect
of it, but we will."
Protest Warriors fund all their activity
with their own money, plus proceeds from
the sale of products on the website.
Kfir and Alan, both 30 years old, are Jewish.
Most of their 6,000 members, they said, are "very
religious Christians."
"It's a natural alliance," Kfir
said. "We're all strongly in favor of
the Judeo-Christian tradition, obviously.
I suppose these are religious issues as well
as political issues, but Alan and I haven't
dealt with that. We've got more than enough
to do just to keep up with what we have already."
In addition to the videos produced by Protest
Warrior, the website features TV and radio
news clips, feature stories about Protest
Warrior "operations" at high schools
and colleges, and upcoming demonstrations.
For the time being, Kfir and Alan are busy
preparing for the Republican National Convention
in New York City at the end of August — slated
to be targeted for many protests by A.N.S.W.E.R.
and related groups. News reports in the New
York market anticipate the arrival of tens
of thousands of protesters.
"We'll be ready. We'll be there," Kfir
said.
Stay tuned.
Lee Duigon is a Christian free-lance writer and contributing editor for the
Chalcedon Report. He has been a newspaper editor and reporter and a
published novelist.
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