Van Jones was honored by Jimmy Carter, RFK daughter
Obama's communist former green-jobs chief feted as 'human rights defender'
Posted: February 08, 2010
9:36 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2010 WorldNetDaily


While leading a communist revolutionary organization that opposed the U.S. government, President Obama's controversial former "green jobs" czar, Van Jones, was honored by and maintained a working relationship with Mary Kerry Kennedy, the activist daughter of Robert F. Kennedy.

Jones also received an award during his communist leadership period from a group on which former President Jimmy Carter served as an adviser.

In the 1990s, Jones was the leader and founder of a radical group, the communist revolutionary organization Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM. The group's official manifesto, "Reclaiming Revolution," boasted "we also saw our brand of Marxism as, in some ways, a reclamation."

In 1998, both Carter and Kerry Kennedy were on the board of the Reebok Human Rights Awards, which selected Jones as one of four activists from around the world to receive its annual award.

In 2000, Jones was honored by Kennedy again when the activist gave him the "Kerry Kennedy Cuomo Human Rights Defender" award.

In 2004, Court TV aired "RFK: Our Children, Our Future," a documentary on the legacy of Robert F. Kennedy's commitment to human rights, which featured Jones as a commentator alongside Kerry Kennedy.

WND also found that in 2004, Jones spoke at a human rights event in Puerto Rico at which Kennedy was the motivational speaker.

At a 2005 event televised by PBS, Jones was asked about his relationship with Kennedy.

"It's really because of the issue of police brutality in the United States has moved from the margins of public consciences to the center of moral concern – because of what the police are doing and what they are getting away with," said Jones.

"Kerry Kennedy Cuomo was a part of that process and she has been really working very hard to make sure that if she speaks about human rights she is not just talking about somebody else's country or somebody else's problem," he said.

In 2006, Kennedy and Jones appeared together at other events.

'We agreed with Lenin'

Jones' communist group STORM was founded in 1994 and disbanded in 2003.

"We agreed with Lenin's analysis of the state and the party," read STORM's manifesto. "And we found inspiration in the revolutionary strategies developed by Third World revolutionaries like Mao Zedong and Amilcar Cabral."

Cabral is the late Marxist revolutionary leader of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands.

WND previously reported Jones named his son after Cabral and reportedly concludes every e-mail with a quote from the communist leader.

STORM's newsletter boasted "we also saw our brand of Marxism as, in some ways, a reclamation."

STORM worked with known communist leaders. It led the charge in black protests against various issues, including a local attempt to pass Proposition 21, a ballot initiative that sought to increase the penalties for violent crimes and require more juvenile offenders to be tried as adults.

Speaking to the East Bay Express in 2005, Jones said he first became radicalized in the wake of the 1992 Rodney King riots, during which time he was arrested.

"I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist.

In the early 1990s, Jones also founded and led Bay Area Cop Watch, which has been accused of anti-police activities. WND previously reported Jones signed a petition calling for nationwide "resistance" against police.

Jones went on to found the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, named after a little-known civil rights firebrand and socialist activist.

Jones served as Obama's "green jobs czar" until he resigned in September after it was exposed he founded a communist revolutionary organization and signed a statement that accused the Bush administration of possible involvement in the 9/11 attacks. Jones also called for "resistance" against the U.S.

Succeeding revelations about Jones by WND included:

* Jones previously served on the board of an environmental activist group at which a founder of the Weather Underground terrorist organization is a top director.

* Jones was co-founder of a black activist organization that has led a campaign prompting major advertisers to withdraw from Glenn Beck's top-rated Fox News Channel program.

The revelation followed Beck's reports on WND's story about Jones' communist background.
* Jones and other White House appointees may have been screened by an ACORN associate.

* One day after the 9/11 attacks, Jones led a vigil that expressed solidarity with Arab and Muslim Americans as well as what he called the victims of "U.S. imperialism" around the world.

* Just days before his White House appointment, Jones used a forum at a major youth convention to push for a radical agenda that included spreading the wealth and "changing the whole system."

* Jones' Maoist manifesto while leading the group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, was scrubbed from the Internet after being revealed by WND.

* Jones was the main speaker at an anti-war rally that urged "resistance" against the U.S. government – a demonstration sponsored by an organization associated with the Revolutionary Communist Party.

* In a 2005 conference, Jones characterized the U.S. as an "apartheid regime" that civil rights workers helped turn into a "struggling, fledgling democracy."

* Jones signed a petition calling for nationwide "resistance" against police, accusing them of using the 9/11 attacks to carry out policies of torture.

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