There are encouraging new developments in the Ernst Zundel case, said Mark Weber during a recent hour-long guest appearance on the Jeff Rense radio show.

Zundel, a German-born civil rights activist and publicist, has been held for more than a year in solitary confinement in a Canadian prison on the pretext that he is a threat to "national security." Zionist organizations are demanding that he be deported to Germany, where he faces years of imprisonment for violating laws there that make it a crime to dispute orthodox Holocaust claims.

Among the recent developments, Weber related, have been these:

— Three US Congressman are now helpfully "working on" the Zundel case, said Weber, citing confidential information provided by Zundel's wife, Ingrid Rimland.

— Canada's most influential newspaper, the Toronto Globe and Mail, affirmed in an editorial (March 6) that Zundel is being held unjustly on a bogus "guilt by association" pretext, and that he poses no risk to people or property. "He has never been charged with a violent crime and does not urge others to commit violence," it noted. "The real danger to Canadians," the editorial concluded, comes not from individuals like Zundel, "but from a government that casually discards their most precious rights."

— A two-page article by American writer Alan Cabal in the widely read US periodical CounterPunch (Feb. 1-15) laid out the Zundel case with clarity and compassion. "The persecution of Ernst Zundel," concluded Cabal, "has been and continues to be both relentless and utterly ruthless. This most recent and ongoing episode flies in the face of a thousand years of Anglo-Saxon law. The man may hold provocative views, but he is a committed pacifist. He is guilty only of expressing an unpopular viewpoint. For him to be held in solitary confinement without having even been charged with a crime and without bail for a year while the court proceeds against him ... is an affront to justice and public decency that goes far beyond anything that Mr. Zundel has to say."

Of course, items such as the Globe and Mail editorial or Cabal's CounterPunch article cannot, of their own, free Ernst Zundel. All the same, Weber said, they make it easier for those who do have power to act with justice and common sense.

— Recently obtained documents show that Canada's CSIS agency, something like the FBI and the CIA, conspired with American officials to "get" Zundel, leading to his arrest on Feb. 5, 2003, at his home in Tennesse.

The March 17 appearance by Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review, was his sixth on the popular Jeff Rense show, which is heard across the USA on stations of the Talk Radio Network, and worldwide over the Internet through the Rense web site.

Throughout the interview, the host was cordial and supportive. Rense and Weber spoke of Ingrid Rimland's anguish and remarkable dedication. The two men also touched on current affairs, including the emotion-charge controversy over Mel Gibson's new film, "The Passion of the Christ."

Weber's appearance can be heard by going to the Rense show's online archives, and clicking on 03-17-04. It begins at around the one hour and 22 minute mark. Weber's five earlier appearances on the Rense show, all in the year 2003, can also be heard through the show's archives. They were on Feb. 10 (with Ingrid Rimland), Feb. 27, May 19, Sept. 22, and Dec. 8.

For more on the Zundel case, check out the Zundelsite, or read the IHR's background report, "Who is Ernst Zundel and Why is He in Jail?"