SpitRain VII

This is another of those “two-fer” awards, and in this case, they’re a couple, so they’re living in sin… You’ll remember Spit-Rain comes from the Armenian saying, “He’s so shameless, if you spit in his face, he’d think it’s rain.”

One of the shameless absurdities we’re treated to by Dr. Mallory Moss, the lead culprit of our story, is how her then-boyfriend-turned-fiancé proposed to her in the “beautiful” city of… Baku. Apparently, it rivals New York, Paris, and Rome, according to this betrothed-of-an-Azerbaijan-lobbyist, Jason Katz. Katz is described as “founder and principal” of “The Tool Shed Group” which is registered, under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), as a lobbyist for the Azerbaijani consulate in LA. Interestingly, he also had a relationship with another SpitRain Award winner, the American Jewish Committee, a recently reformed former Armenian Genocide denier. Katz was the former Director of Public Affairs and Public Relations for the AJC. It seems he was thoroughly imbued with anti-Armenianism while working there, as you’ll see below.

This pair is thoroughly two-faced, much as other Jewish deniers of the Genocide. Moss tries to establish her credentials by telling us she is “a child of a Jewish lobbyist and a Catholic advice columnist.” Katz works on his bona-fides in a Huffington post article, “Disabilities in America and My New Phamaly,” wherein he describes his experience with a troupe of disabled actors, managing to insert that his significant other, i.e. Moss, has bipolar disorder. I’m no stickler for propriety, prissiness, or pomp, but using one’s girlfriend’s condition to build street cred seems tacky. The other tacky, even egotistical, aspect to this couple is Moss’ constant use of big words she learned in psychiatry school— xenophobia, androphobia, venustraphobia, hyperboliphobic, lyssophobia—which appear in the first of her three offending articles, “Azeris are damn fine looking people.”

Yes, really, that’s the title of an article from February of this year. We also learn from this “fantastic” piece of journalism that “There are Mountain Jews who live in Guba, who live side by side with their Muslim neighbors and in fact are aided in renovating historic homes and synagogues in the region. Catholics are not threatened nor are the many religious and ethnic sects in Azerbaijan.” Ah yes, Azerbaijan, where no one is mistreated, not journalists, not the Tats, not oppositionists, not the Talysh, not youth activists, not Daghestanis. And, of course, the author shares her “insight” with us when she writes “The U.S.’s recent condemnation of last fall’s elections was short-sighted and reflected ignorance of the context of the elections and an emerging democracy. Azerbaijan is an important ally both for its sources of natural gas and oil, Muslim tolerance and Western values. Shouldn’t we spend more time strengthening our relationship with this nation rather than nitpicking its growing pains?”

But it gets better. Two months later, ON APRIL 24, Dr. Mallory Moss was at it again. This time, her “wisdom” appeared in the blog run by The Hill, a publication that generally covers Congress. The article, titled “The language of genocide” staggers all over the genocidal map of our planet—Jews, Native Americans, Tutsis— but somehow misses Armenians, the prototypical victims of modern genocide. That’s no accident. All the reasonableness Moss spouts is so she can discuss Khojaly-1992, the murder of civilians committed by anti-regime Azeris (to discredit Baku’s government of that time) that Azerbaijan attributes to Armenians. Coincidence? I think not. It seems The Hill Blog has a history of running pro-Azeri pieces, so what better time to slam Armenians than on our most somber day?

But it doesn’t end there. Psych Nurse Moss came out with “Boko Haram and the relevance of genocide” on June 16, once again in the offending blog. This time, ensconced in otherwise reasonable-sounding thoughts, Armenians are effectively equated to Boko Haram, the murderous Nigerian rebel group. You know why? It’s all because the California State Assembly passed a resolution recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh’s statehood!

It’s certainly very strange that a “Board Certified Nurse Practitioner of Psychiatry” (along with other related credentials), as Moss is described in the biographical blurbs accompanying her articles, is churning out anti-Armenian propaganda. It is even stranger when we learn, from those same blurbs, that she has worked with Dr. Leo Kuper on the Sudan genocide. Kuper has been stellar when it comes to the Armenian Genocide. Talk about taking advantage of someone else’s credibility! What a leech this woman is!

But what’s worse is a guy who has his girl doing his dirty work for him. Fiancé Katz, as a registered foreign agent, is required to report what he’s done for his clients once every six months, even if it’s just to say that he’s done nothing. It turns out the last report filed by The Tool Shed Group regarding Azerbaijan-related work was in April of 2012. Maybe Katz is trying to avoid the negative connotations of lobbyist-generated publicity by demonstrating poor taste (at least) and abusing his fianceé to put out anti-Armenian attacks and pro-Azerbaijan puff pieces.

It seems this is only the beginning, since Moss has registered five websites with names like Bakuwoman.com and meetazerbaijan.com. Clearly, she/they are hatching some more propaganda plans. Who knows, maybe one or both of them, Katz and Moss, are vying for the “chief denialist” position at the Anti-Defamation League once Abe Foxman retires next Summer. What are we to do?

First, we should deluge The Hill (Editorial department: jennifery@thehill.com) with notes expressing our dismay and disgust at their bias in running these types of pro-Azerbaijan articles, especially when the timing is very obviously hateful and spiteful. Then we should question why flacks like Katz are getting away with breaking the law. Dr. Kuper should be contacted and asked to publicly disassociate himself from Mallory Moss. But most importantly, we, any and all of us, should be striving to get truthful articles published by The Hill and others.