9/11 CultWatch

9/11 Truth and the Left

It seems the 9/11 'truth' movement continues to feel rather cold huddling together in the rain, and is looking for new partners. 

Ian Henshall of the Reinvestigate 9/11 group has popped up, as he usually does when he is trying to either sell his book or hopeful of an opportunity to restart (again) the truth movement. As with previous years, the approach to the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has smoked him out. This time he sees an opportunity to put out some feelers to the left, who it seems he expects to buy into his view of 9/11. 

"It seems a long time ago that the Chomskyite left - Medialens, Alexander Cockburn of Counterpunch (defying many of his own correspondents), George Monbiot (who called us a virus), et al - attacked the 9/11 truth movement as unscientific. Since those days a massive wave of experts - architects, engineers, pilots civil and military, and more - has emerged demanding a real 9/11 investigation and condemning the official story as impossible."

We could also add to that first list the Stop The War Coalition in the UK, the Green Party and the broader Anarchist movement - all areas where truth campaigners expected much warmer receptions than they got, and where attempts to establish viable bases have proved easier to start than complete.  

The Rev David Ray Griffin (not a man who has spent any time in socialist or environmental politics) seems particularly put out by this, and has written an extremely lengthy open letter to several leading leftist and green figures who have declined to embrace truth ideologies. You can view it here. 

A Letter To Fortean Times Discussing Alternative View 4

The September 2010 issue of Fortean Times has a real hagiography of AV4 by Nick Cirkovic.

You can read his rather generous take on events here. Lets see if Fortean Times print my reply, which features below:

Dear FT

 

I fear that the rarified atmosphere at AV4 may have gone to the head of your correspondent, Nick Cirkovic (Alternative View 4, FT266:38-9)

 

Cirkovic is at least correct when he stresses the importance of the mission statement of AV4 "To advance awareness and facilitate discussion of Political, Scientific and Spiritual alternatives without constraint by Consensus Reality and/or Received Wisdom". That really is this alternative view approach in a nutshell - anything that can be styled as 'different' or 'against' is promoted, with no concept of direction or quality control whatsoever. If received wisdom was that there is no such thing as climate change, Ian R Crane's 'community' would be filling the conference with speakers articulating the scientific evidence of that very change!

 

Secondly it is worth stressing the astonishing cost of this 'alternative view'. £60 to access the 'market' and lecturers on the Saturday, whilst if you simply wished to listen to Daniel Estulin's already well known take on the Bilderbergers, the cost was a whopping £15. Some 'alternative' - especially during the worst recession for a generation! Clearly ageing celebrities such as David Bellamy and Johnny Ball don't come cheap. Most laughable of all Cirkovic compares attendees at AV4 to those attending a G8 or G20 protest. Has he ever been near such an action? If so he clearly failed to notice that those organising such protests (in London and elsewhere) would never dream of charging anyone - never mind asking them for as much as 60 pounds!

 

The sad thing about what master of ceremonies Andy Thomas touches upon as 'the conspiracy view' is that it offers little or no real challenge to the status quo. The damage done to our communities is all too often done face on, by bankers, politicians and business people living and working amongst us, not behind closed doors at Bilderberg meetings.  Sadly, as the pricing structure, obsession with technology, celebrity and big names at AV4 illustrates, such 'alternatives' all too readily mirror the very world that we are supposed to be critiquing. The revolution will not be televised - but I can't help feeling that under this alternative, it may soon be on pay per view.

 

We can, and will have to, do better.

 

Paul Stott

9/11 Cultwatch

http://paulstott.typepad.com/911cultwatch/

Alex Jones To Present The One Show

Has the 'truth' movement gone mainstream, with the news Alex Jones will replace Adrian Chiles on The One Show from today?

Thankfully we are not talking about the Texas Longhorn here, but about Welsh journalist Alex Jones, who also looks rather different to the tubby Texan......

9/11 Truth Dopplegangers

The first in an occasional series of lookey-likeys........

Elmer Fudd 

Webster Griffin Tarpley

   

The Elephant In The Room, Iranian Propaganda and New York's First Responders

Being commissioning editor for Press TV must be a thankless task. 

You are running the Islamic Republic of Iran's main propaganda tool with the west, and yet half the good stories that emerge from your own country, you cannot touch. The rest of the world wants to know why Iran is hanging homosexuals, stoning women to death, crushing dissidents, flogging trades unionists or developing nuclear weapons, yet you have to fill a news channel with 24 hours worth of positive stories! 

One way of avoiding real stories such as the above, is to fill your schedule with distractor flares. This week Press TV has been serialising a 2008 9/11 'truth' movie, The Elephant In The Room, by a young English film maker, Dean Puckett. 
The Elephant is a curious film, and in football parlance very much a game of two halves. In part it tells the story of the collection of conspiracy theorists that make up the 'truth' movement, who reject the narrative that Al Qaeda carried out the 9/11 attacks in New York. Overlapping with this curious belief set is another story entirely - that of the medical and emotional problems suffered by New York City's first responders - those who entered the twin towers on the day, as firemen, police officers and medics. Many have suffered a series of problems ever since. Quite how linking the latter to the former is in anyway beneficial to the cause of first responders is beyond me, but for some reason Dean Puckett chose to do so. Why not simply make a film about first responders?

A further issue emerges. If you criticise 9/11 'truth' theories or those who propagate them, abuse is never far away. Standard responses are to allege that you are on someone's payroll, that you are a Zionist, spook or dis-informer, that the 9/11 Cultwatch blog is paid for by the CIA or some other dark forces (Actually it is not, I have just paid Typepad for the renewal via my own credit card!) 
So - that's the fiction. A fact would appear to be that the Elephant In The Room has been sold to the Iranian government, via Press TV. 

Perhaps Dean Puckett would like to give some of that dirty money to the Iranian dissidents who daily work to lessen the abuses of the Mullah's in Tehran? Perhaps the next time the Revolutionary Guard break up a protest using deadly force, or go round a University dormitory attacking students, Mr Puckett may like to ask himself which side he is on? And what the fuck he was doing getting into bed with Press TV? 

A Depressing Read

The extent to which 9/11 'truth' theories have infested discourse on Jihadist terrorism becomes ever more apparent. 

Consider the responses to this article (from Monday's Independent) on the Taiba mosque in Germany, attended by many of the 9/11 hi-jackers before they moved to Germany. Just take a read at the comments below the piece - a depressing combination of bigotry, paranoia and conspiracy theory, with the odd Islamist ostrich also taking part. 

Such currents reinforce the need for this blog, and others like it. 

What Are You Scared of Webster?

American truther Webster Griffin Tarpley has carved himself a profitable little niche on Russia Today, where he is a regular talking head. 

Whilst keen to have a platform there, visitors to Webster's website will find that once he has given us one of his pearls of wisdom, he tends to pull up his drawbridge - all comments are closed. 

What are you scared of Webster?