NATO’s Holocaust Problem |
A NATO member state has criminalized a Jewish citizen for Facebook speech and invokes the Alliance as cover. The Alliance text remains operative.
NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence has been headquartered in my birth city of Riga since 2014. Its founding member states are Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and the United Kingdom. Its published mission is to research and counter the strategic information operations that threaten democratic societies and defend the Alliance’s information environment. Lithuania helped build that institution.
The same Lithuania has filed a 220-page criminal indictment against a Jewish citizen of Lithuania for a single Facebook post.
The contradiction is not technical. It is textual. The Alliance text says one thing. The Fridman file says another. Both documents now sit in the public record of the same Alliance.
The Washington Treaty’s preamble, signed April 4, 1949, reads: the Parties “are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.” That language has not been amended in seventy-seven years. It remains the operative entry condition.
On July 10, 2024, the Heads of State and Government issued the Washington Summit Declaration. It says: “We are bound together by shared values: individual liberty, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.” The President of Lithuania signed.
On June 25, 2025, the Heads of State and Government issued the Hague Summit Declaration. It says the Allies “remain united and steadfast in our resolve to protect our one billion citizens, defend the Alliance, and safeguard our freedom and democracy.” The President of Lithuania signed.
Three texts. Three signatures. One operative Alliance commitment.
On October 30, 2025, the Vilnius District Prosecutor’s Office filed a 220-page criminal indictment against Artur Fridman, a Jewish citizen of Lithuania, over a Facebook post made on May 9, 2024, at his grandfather Aron Fridman’s grave at Antakalnis Cemetery. Aron Fridman volunteered for the Red Army to fight Nazi Germany. The charging statutes are Article 170² §1 and Article 313 §2. Lithuania has restricted Mr. Fridman from leaving the country.
The basic Fridman record is set out in The Prosecution of Artur Fridman, The Indictment That Put........