New York Governor George Pataki finally reached down and grabbed a pair today. He has told the International Freedom Center that they are not wanted at Ground Zero.

"Freedom should unify us. This center has not," Pataki said. "Today there remains too much opposition, too much controversy over the programming of the IFC. ... We must move forward with our first priority, the creation of an inspiring memorial to pay tribute to our lost loved ones and tell their stories to the world."

For those of you not familiar with this controversy, the International "Freedom" Center has been trying to exploit Ground Zero to build what amounts to an anti-American monument. They wished to build a museum to show how American intervention has ruined lives around the world and how the "peaceful Muslims" have been persecuted and terrified. Of course that's not EXACTLY how they put it, but the message remains the same.

In the spirit of cooperation, Pataki was even generous enough to offer to help find some other location for the IFC to build their museum. Of course their reply was much less gracious.

Pataki initially said the state would help the International Freedom Center find another home, but center officials said they weren't interested and considered the project dead.

As expected, not everyone is happy about the center being closed down. Mayor Bloomburg has been quoted as saying "Although I understand Governor Pataki's decision, I am disappointed that we were not able to find a way to reconcile the freedoms we hold so dear with the sanctity of the site." Of course if he thinks that the center had anything to do with freedom, he sould probably go back and read his literature again.

For more information about just what the IFC had planned, you can visit Take Back The Memorial or check out this Opinion Journal article.

Thanks to my ever-vigilant CF readers for bringing this story to my attention.

Posted by: Drew at 10:10 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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