Thursday, September 09, 2004

Round Up the Usual Suspects

By Mickey Z.

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Posted 09/09 | Add a Comment

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  1. “we are all complicit”

    aGREED. It is a deep problem but as Freire elucidated, by becoming aware of our own complicity in oppression (against others and our selves) we contribute to the humanization process. That is the value of your work Mick.

    Btw,

    1) There is a new book by Mike Ruppert called Crossing the Rubicon which supposedly gives overwhelming evidence for US gov complicity in 911. It is 600 pages with 1,000 footnotes and researched according to a police investigation (Ruppert is ex cop). I just put this out there for people to chew on.

    2) More related to Mick’s field of study, have people seen The Lion and the Desert? I just viewed it for the first time, it is an older film but excellent portrayal of the utter brutality of Western Imperialism (FDR thought Mussolini was just a swell kind of guy, maybe I read that in your book Mick). Anyway, films of such candor do not seem to get made anymore for wide audiences. The portrayal of the concentration camps for the Libyan indigenous tribe people (Bedouin) was chilling, their brave resistance movement reminded me of present circumstances in Iraq.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan  on  09/09  at  07:51 PM

  2. Mick, After re-reading your article again today at CounterPunch, I realized that you are an agnostic about 911, seemingly swallowing hook, line and sinker the entire official story (vengeful terrorists who hate America). Your take is correctly to criticize US actions abroad as causing untolled human suffering in the world, a fact that should be repeated again and again, I agree.

    However, in this case it is extremely peculiar that the mood on the ultra Left is that 911 is not to be discussed (strategically it is a distraction or a waste of time, I guess the logic goes) in light of the overwhelming evidence that the US government MUST HAVE BEEN COMPLICIT in the crime. The point is not of course to emphasize that the loss of lives on US soil is greater than the value of lives lost elsewhere (and there are many stories posted recently to remind us of this), but that such an event could occur as it did.

    From my point of view, this could be a bipartisan point to organize the country politically around, but the Left has chosen Gay Marriage instead to divide it (civil unions are just fine).

    I consider it intellectual cowardice at worst or poor strategy at best on the part of those leading Left writers, Chomsky goes without saying ("you can’t believe all those things you read on the internet, I find all those 911 conspiracy theories to be hopelessly implausible"). Counterpunch has failed in this mission as well.

    I realize not all sites want to become “911 conspiracy theory sites”, but what is wrong with looking at the evidence as it unfolds in an open minded way?

    Democracy Now! has not only failed miserably but shown itself to be nothing but an establishment puppet with their trashing of David Ray Griffin, a very thoughtful researcher was was featured on a prime time TV show here in Japan last night, which, I was astonished to see it broadcast, showed overwhelming evidence that not only did Bush fail to act, but as the host, Beat Takeshi stated: “Bush did it.”

    Everywhere around the world people are being exposed to this, but apparently in the US people are kept in the dark and fed manure, like mushrooms. Understandable from the mainstream media but not from the rad Left.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan  on  09/11  at  06:48 PM

  3. Bear in mind this article was written on Sept. 11, 2001 and thus makes no claim to information made available after that date.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from  on  09/11  at  07:36 PM

  4. Rick, just a curious aside, the Beat Takeshi you mention...am I correct in saying that is Takeshi Kitano the artist/filmaker? I’ve seen and enjoyed several of his films, and I knew he was sort of a media personallity in Japan but would not have placed him in such a context…

    Posted by RzG from  on  09/11  at  08:12 PM

  5. Right Mick, but I look forward to your updated version on 911 in lieu of new evidence.

    To RzG, yes, Kitano Takeshi is an old TV star here, some of his new films received acclaim…

    I never pegged him for the politically astute type either, but the two hour special was actually very thoroughly done, they could barely scratch the surface but what they did they did well. They concluded by positing that 911 was the new Pearl Harbor (allowed to/ made to happen). Some of the guests still didn’t know what to make of all the evidence, but Kitano concluded the program: “And I think we should add: Bush did it.”

    After seeing this program, millions of Japanese will now have a completely new take on 911.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan  on  09/12  at  05:40 AM

  6. Just to follow up on another point in this conversation with myself, I read Alex Cockburn’s comment today at Counterpunch, that “the left is in a funk, spouting nonsensical scenarious about 911.”

    As to the funk, no doubt. But it is really irritating that Cockburn who has not written anything of substance about the topic can smear a heterogeneous group of researchers, from ex cops to philosophy professors, engineers, fire fighters and so on, as the “left” involved in nonsensical conspiracy theories.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan  on  09/12  at  06:14 PM

  7. Cockburn has what some would say a fierce aversion to conspiracy theories, and I think that’s good, up to a point.  After all, the elders of Zion and the Illuminati are respectively a Klezmer band and a Jazz band, not conspiracies!...but really...I remember when after JFK he interviewed people from the Warren Comission, and proudly believes (ed?) in Arlen Spector’s magic bullet theory.

    Still, you have to admit that a lot of the 911 theories (Mossad telling Jews not to go to work that day, for example, or a plane not hitting the pentagon) are simply not feasible.  Is it feasible that it was allowed to take place, that FAA wasn’t called, etc?  But theories like Thierry Meysan’s, let alone many who actually believe that 4000 Jews didn’t show up to work that day....

    I remember Parenti scoffing at left “conspiracy phobia” and coining the phrase “coincidence theory.” Still I think that there is a difference between legitimate parapolitical research and just plain foil-helmet stuff.

    Posted by j cummings from  on  09/12  at  10:32 PM

  8. Good points Jordy, I’m not endorsing all theories (I’m not an expert on all of the 911 theories and can’t comment on the ones you raise), obviously (by definition, a theory is just that and needs evidence to support it’s conclusions), it should be case by case.

    I am familiar with Parenti’s critique of Cockburn and Chomsky re; JFK, which was on the mark and exposed many a hypocrisy on the Left. That AC can support the Warren Commissions conclusions is just mind boggling. Don’t get me wrong, AC is a hero of mine, but as I recall he also denounced GLOBAL WARMING as a conspiracy of the Democratic Party to raise funds. Now that’s a real conspiracy theory.

    I like David Ray Griffin’s methodology, which I think he described to Amy as an accumulative one: ie., at some point it becomes obvious that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark . Yes, let us distinguish between legitimate parapolitical research (see also Peter Dale Scott’s Deep Politics) and shoddy analysis.

    I remember Mike Albert wrote a piece at Z critiquing conspiracy theory vs structural analysis, I think he called it. It’s a good theory but in the end doesn’t hold water as the two concepts are overlapping.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan  on  09/13  at  06:58 PM

  9. I think everyone is afraid of Chip Berlet.

    Posted by j cummings from  on  09/14  at  10:00 AM

  10. “Berlet” sounds French to me. That would explain plenty.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from  on  09/14  at  04:48 PM

  11. Just a quick question: who is Chip Berlet, and what does his french sounding name ‘explain?’ Thanks.

    Posted by JpF from  on  09/14  at  07:05 PM

  12. I don’t know about the French bit but Berlet is this little twerp who “debated” David Ray Griffin on “Democracy” Now! a while back. He is a disingenuous mouthpiece for the centrist media.

    As for Jordy’s question, “is it feasible” that 911 was allowed to happen, the answer is yes until proven otherwise. Since there has been nothing remotely like a meaningful forensic police investigation into the entire matter (all obscured under “national security” I guess), and since much evidence has already been destroyed, we must assume the worst. As Beat Takeshi, the director of “Brother” (where everyone ends up shooting each other to death), said: “Bush did it.”

    Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan  on  09/14  at  11:18 PM

  13. K, thanks… If Mickey could contexualize the ‘french’ comment I’d be fully caught up smile

    Posted by JpF from  on  09/15  at  12:30 AM

  14. Either my sense of humor is far too subtle or you’re all far too solemn...but the “French” thing was just a joke.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from  on  09/15  at  04:29 AM

  15. Berlet is more than a little twerp...he lives to expose what he sees as “conspiracism” on the left, and is interviewed in Z magazine this month - I don’t know why David Barsamian wastes his time with him.

    It is entirely true that conspiracy theories (such as the notion that “Bush did it” until proven otherwise) are perhaps fine for supposition but not good for analysis of prospects, Berlet shared files with the ADL, and allowed himself to be a fellow traveller, as it were, with the Clintonites who were using the militia threat to create the Pre-Patriot Act decrees.

    He has made a career of criticizing “left-right” formations.  Reminds me of Nation writer David Corn, who criticized Cockburn for wanting to open up the antiwar movement to Buchanan and friends, but is now fawning over Buchanan.  Berlet is basically a guy who has found no doubt a well-renumerated niche for himself on the periphery of the left, by doing excellent research on the far-right (good) but allowing himself to be used by the government and “communitarian” statists that really run things.

    Posted by j cummings from  on  09/15  at  09:56 AM

  16. Thanks for the additional background on Berlet, Jordy. I called him a twerp because on DN! he came off sounding like a little snot, his patronizing attitude toward a serious researcher like Griffin while being very disingenuous and manipulative throughout the so-called debate. That he shared files with ADL, etc., is illuminating, thanks.

    Yes, one gets legitimacy among the left by criticizing the right, that’s the tactic.

    As for your comments on conspiracy theory, read the interview with Stanley Hilton on Alex Jones website, and elsewhere. I do not agree that analysis/conspiracy theory (whatever you want to call it) is not good for prospects. How can we know where to go if we don’t know where we are? The 911 topic is far beyond speculation or theory, there are now innumerable witnesses and pieces of hard evidence of a cover-up and that Bush/Cheney ordered the thing.  Whether people want to devote their time and energy to the topic is of course their choice, but for Alex Cockburn to smear the “left” for being involved in 911 conspiracy theory “nonsense” goes to the other extreme.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan  on  09/15  at  07:13 PM
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