Replies to Mr Beams article by Boston 9/11 Truth activist Christopher Gruener follows.
You can respectfully email Mr Beam at beam@globe.com.

Boston 9/11 truth responses are below the article.

The return of the black helicopters
By Alex Beam

Globe Columnist / June 30, 2008

My friend, the critic Katherine Powers, has spotted an interesting theme in books flowing across her desk for review - paranoia. Coming this fall: John Demos's "The Enemy Within: 2,000 Years of Witch-hunting in the Western World." Demos is a Bancroft award-winning historian emeritus at the World's Second Greatest University (Yale), who once wrote a Wall Street Journal commentary suggesting that it might be time to pardon America's 17th-century witches. So soon?

Then arrives "Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11," by University of California history professor Kathryn Olmsted. Hot on its heels comes "Paranoia: The 21st Century Fear," by brothers Daniel and Jason Freeman. The Freemans published a self-help book in Britain called "Overcoming Paranoid & Suspicious Thoughts: A Self-Help Guide Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques."

As part of their research, the Freemans circulated a "Paranoid Thoughts Questionnaire" to 1,200 people, inquiring how often they felt that "People are laughing at me," or if they "suspect that someone has it in for me." That's easy! All the time. They concluded that "about a third of the population are regularly bothered by suspicious or paranoid thoughts."

Did I mention that the new X-Files movie, "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" is coming out this month? Yes, Chris Carter, David Duchovny, and Gillian Anderson are back for another payday. You may know that the lynchpin of the entire galactic conspiracy, the Cigarette Smoking Man, passed away under mysterious circumstances a few years ago. I wonder what killed him? The coffin nails, or . . . the oil?

H.L. Mencken's famous definition of Puritanism was "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." The definition of modern American paranoia is: Someone, somewhere is out to get you. My favorite description of a paranoid, attributed in various forms to the writer William S. Burroughs, is: a man with all the facts at his disposal. So, on the one hand, actor Warren Beatty looks foolish railing about Google's power to record almost every Internet search in the world. On the other hand, well, you get the picture.

What are the great conspiracy theories of our time? Sept. 11 spawned a host of paranoid illusions, numerous enough to fill up the next edition of the psychiatrists' diagnostic manual. I see that the lunatic website 911truth.org, formerly ground zero for the most noxious "George Bush blew up the World Trade Center" myths, has moved on to new concerns. Among other things, they worry that the Bush administration plans to attack Iran before leaving office. I do, too.

The presidential campaign has served up plenty of catnip for conspiracy theorists. Fairly bonkers conspiracy monger, former BBC staffer David Icke, has asserted that the British royal family, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama are related to oversize, blood-drinking reptilians from the star system Alpha Draconis. What about Wolf Blitzer? He has that Draconis air about him. According to the always-reliable online encyclopedia Wikipedia, "Icke's speaking engagements can draw a substantial audience in Canada."

Another hallmark of Election-Conspiracy 2008: The twin Manchurian Candidate theories. The reference is to Richard Condon's 1959 novel, later moviefied, about a prisoner of war whom nefarious Asians program to enter American politics and become an assassin. One fringe theory has it that Indonesian Islamists programmed the young Barack Obama to reenter the United States as a "sleeper" agent for radical Islam. The parallel, disturbed-universe version holds that John McCain's North Vietnamese captors programmed him to return to the United States and destroy our body politic.

Wait! Wasn't "The Manchurian Candidate" re-released into theaters in 2004, the last year McCain stood for election? Coincidence, or something more?

Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com.

###

The following is a letter I have sent to Alex Beam in response to this article "The Return of the Black Helicopters" in which he characterizes www.911Truth.Org as "the lunatic website".  - Chris Gruener
 
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:42 PM
To: beam@globe.com

Subject: Re your article "The Return of the Black Helicopters"

Hello Alex.  I trust you will be able to put a face to my name by recollecting the days when our boys played on the same Newton soccer team.  However, I am writing to you today in my capacity as the Secretary for the Boston 911 Truth Committee (www.Boston911Truth.Org ) .   In particular, I would like to respond to your 7/1/08 Boston Globe article titled "The Return of the Black Helicopters".
 
I read with concern your characterization of one of our affiliated groups, 911Truth.Org, as "the lunatic website".  What exactly do you mean by this term?  Also I am not aware of an article published on that website which states categorically that "George Bush blew up the World Trade Center".  If you could reference that particular article for me I would be very grateful.
 
As you may be aware, numerous significant questions remain unanswered in the aftermath of 9/11/01.  These questions are being asked by family members of those who were murdered in the attacks as well as by hundreds of credentialed research scientists, structural engineers, architects, military officers and others.   Since the events of that day were used for the justification of the attacks upon Iraq and Afghanistan and will in turn be used to legitimize the attack upon Iran, which is implicitly threatened now, don't we owe it to those who have lost their lives so far and those who may soon sacrifice their lives in these wars to address these unanswered questions? 
 
You make reference to paranoid thinking throughout your article.  As a mental health professional it is my understanding that characteristics of "paranoid thinking" include a tendency to refuse reasoned, respectful debate in preference for name calling, character assassination and the wholesale dismissal of the concerns of people with whom the paranoid thinker does not agree.  While I know that this is not your personal style, or the real attitude of your heart, I fear the causal reader of "The Return of the Black Helicopters" could easily conclude otherwise. 
 
You will note below, an article I wrote to explain my own reluctant transformation from a believer of the official 9/11/01 myth into a dedicated 911 Truth Activist.  Would you be willing to invest significant time to review some or all of the materials linked there?   My article is then followed by a 911 Truth Resource Page.  This page is something we send out to everyone who inquires about the concerns of our organization.  If you you find in your exploration of these materials evidence of "lunatic" accusations or genuinely paranoid thinking, I will be extremely appreciative of your specific feedback and will follow up with removing those materials from our resource guide.
 
Thank you very much for taking the time to give careful consideration to my concerns, Alex.  I look forward to running into you on the soccer field in the coming school year.
 
Sincerely,   
 
Christopher Gruener
 
Secretary for the Boston 911 Truth Committee
Clinical Member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Massachusetts Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Lic. #646)
Massachusetts Licensed Mental Health Counselor (Lic. #1286)
 
###
 
How I Became A  9/11/01 "Conspiracy Nutcase"
 
I am writing this article in my capacity as the secretary for the Boston 911 Truth Committee.  However, I am also writing with my professional role as a licensed psychotherapist in mind.  In that latter role I have served as an in-patient family therapist for drug addicted youth with the Phoenix House Foundation, an outpatient therapist for patients transitioning back into our community from nearby Bournewood Psychiatric Hospital and, for the past 15 years, as a private practice clinician at my office in Newton Massachusetts.   It is both from this professional perspective, and from the point of view of being a belated "convert" to the 911 Truth Movement as well,  that I have contemplated, with interest and concern, the tendency of many media spokespeople to characterize 911 Truth Activists as "Conspiracy Nutcases" who merely seek to confirm their preconceived paranoid conclusions.   
 
Not long after 9/11/01 one of my therapy clients came to me nearly in tears saying that she had discovered the attacks of that day were, in her words, "an inside job".  Naturally, I assumed my client was suffering from delusional paranoid thinking.  I attempted to calm her down and to reassure her that her fears couldn't possibly be true.  By 9/11/03, however, I was apologizing to this client for my ill informed and presumptuous response to her concerns.  And by 9/11/04, I was actively participating in the development of the 911 Truth Movement.  
 
As a family therapist I have seen first-hand how powerful is the tendency toward denial when a client must come to terms with the reality that an emotionally or physically abusive parent has betrayed their trust through verbal abuse or physical assault.  It hurts, and it is terrifying to confront such betrayal.  But the walk along the winding path of emotional healing, which can potentially lead to forgiveness and reconciliation, can not begin until that pain is faced and the attendant anger, fear and sadness fully felt.  
 
Our highest government servants are to all of us Americans, in an unconscious fashion, much like national "parent figures".  We look to them to keep us safe and provide for our collective needs, similar to the way a child looks to her or his parents to provide safety and support.  So from a psychotherapy perspective, it is not at all surprising that any American  would find it difficult to face and confront the possibility of acts of national betrayal and murderous treason by our leaders.  For me, the evolving realization that we may have been betrayed by those entrusted with responsibility for our protection was a slow and frightening process  - the exact opposite of a leap to preconceived ideas I yearned to prove true.
  
Unlike the eager conspiracy theorists imagined by some in the press, my slowly evolving realizations  - that the formal 911 Commission Report was essentially false at its worst and deliberately misleading at its best - did not at all confirm the world view I wished to uphold.  Nonetheless, as the damning evidence of lies and distortions became increasingly clear and the scientific evidence mounted, I was eventually forced to confront the dark truth behind the attacks of that day.  I believe this process of confronting a painful truth of national betrayal on 9/11/01- a truth that I initially denied - was for me very similar to the process my psychotherapy clients have gone through when addressing childhood wounds.  I also believe our collective natural yearning to entrust our safety to our political leaders, and our understandable fear of being in opposition to these powerful parent figures, is a significant factor, though an essentially unconscious one, in our reluctance to confront our leaders and demand the Truth.
 
The truly paranoid mind tends to label and caricature people rather then enter into dialog and debate.   It is interesting to note, then, the way in which writers in the popular press go about discounting the concerns of the 911 Truth Movement.   I have observed that these writers generally "debunk" the 911 Truth Movement as a whole by attacking the more peripheral issues raised by the movement while avoiding dialog on - or the offering of  concrete evidence as rebuttal to -  the central issues raised by the movement's researchers.  For example, Popular Mechanics published an article which attempts to debunk issues raised by the 911 Truth Movement.   One can review this article in full via this link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html .   However, 911 Truth researchers challenge both the logic and veracity of many elements of both this Popular Mechanics article and the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report as well.  
 
 An articulate reply to the Popular Mechanics article, written by Jim Hoffman, can be found at  http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/gopm/index.html and a more detailed analysis is available by reading Prof. David Ray Griffin's book  "Debunking 911 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics" available at http://www.amazon.com/Debunking-11-Mechanics-Defenders-Conspiracy/dp/156656686X .   Similarly, a concise critical analysis of the work of the 911 Commission is available at http://911research.wtc7.net/post911/commission/report.html  and a more detailed analysis can be explored in "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions", also by Prof. Griffin and available at http://www.amazon.com/11-Commission-Report-Omissions-Distortions/dp/1566565847 .  But sadly this effort at dialogue and debate offered in good faith by the 911 Truth Movement is generally met with an unresponsive silence from the 911 Truth "debunkers".   So who is it in this attempt to explore the truth of 9/11/01 that is functioning in an irrational or paranoid way? 
 
Authentic dialog has at least two essential components.  The first is making an effort to find common ground.  Where do we have some degree of agreement that can serve as a jumping off point for exploring our points of disagreement?  With this in mind, a careful review of Dr  Steven Jones' paper, "Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction" is in order.  This paper was recently published in the respected "Open Civil Engineering Journal" and can be downloaded at http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/content.php?TOCIEJ/2008/00000002/00000001/35TOCIEJ.SGM .  A second element of authentic dialog is a willingness to respond to reasonable questions raised by individuals who have an obvious personal stake in finding answers to their questions.  With this in mind, I would encourage the reader to link to a list of questions raised by family members of those who were murdered on 9/11/01 via "The Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Commission" at  http://www.911independentcommission.org/questions.html .  These question were not responded to by the commission.  This You Tube brief video highlights some of the most significant among these questions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt2-E0VyLL0 .   
 
I do understand that there is a great deal of both well intended misinformation and deliberate disinformation available on the internet with regards to the events of 9/11/01.   I believe, however, that anyone wishing to more fully understand these events, and the concerns of the 911 Truth Movement that have arisen from these events, will find the resources listed below to be highly reliable. I invite those who are drawn to support the formal US government supported interpretation of the events 9/11/01 to explore these resources and to enter into dialogue about your perspective with me and others in the 911 Truth Movement.   
 
Christopher Gruener
 
Secretary for the Boston 911 Truth Committee
Clinical Member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Massachusetts Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Lic. #646)
Massachusetts Licensed Mental Health Counselor (Lic. #1286)

###

3 July 2008

Alex Beam
Boston Globe

Dear Mr. Beam,

Similar to you and your friend, Katherine Powers, a friend of mine spotted
your article, "The return of the black helicopters," with the theme that is
so prevalent in the mainstream -- denial. Denial as a response to paranoia
is not only sad, but dangerous. What do I mean by that?

Let me first clarify things by stating that my primary concern is your
characterization of the website, 911Truth.org, as being "lunatic." Why do
you say that? You never really explained.

"Sept. 11 spawned a host of paranoid illusions, numerous enough to fill up
the next edition of the psychiatrists' diagnostic manual." -AB

Is there a river of paranoia running through the heart of this country?
Absolutely. But you're diagnosis of its primary cause is misplaced. The
paranoid illusions that were spawned on and after Sept. 11, 2001 lead
directly to the White House, the Pentagon and their spin-masters, and not
the the authors, filmmakers and webmasters who have since observed,
contemplated and commented on the phenomena. The "Axis of Evil," the alleged
"War on Terror," and the ridiculous notion that people living in the Middle
East, the Near East, etc. hate and want to kill us because we have a
democratic government based on liberty and freedom are all myths generated,
and dare I say "fabricated," by a delusional, out-of-control executive with
the support of an impotent, ill-informed legislature and a lethargic press,
all leading to pre-emptive war, the erosion of personal liberties and the
gross manipulation of law to justify torture. And most people know it and
are tired of it.

What was "lunacy" was the Bush administration's 14-month opposition and
subsequent stonewalling of any investigation into 9/11, against the
consensus of the public at-large and the victim families, in particular.
Equally lunatic was the fabrication and manipulation of intelligence to
justify the attack, invasion and occupation of Iraq. And now, the suggestion
of a pre-emptive attack on Iran is proving to be the height of lunacy, so
much so that the military, itself, is calling the president and vice
president to task.

We SHOULD be overly scared, aka paranoid.

Regarding the claims on websites like 9/11truth.org, there are scores of
high-ranking military and intelligence professionals who dare to challenge
the veracity of the conspiracy theory put forth by the Bush administration
and its Commission concerning 9/11, along side millions of Americans who
have doubts about what they've been told. I'm one of them and I take extreme
exception to being called a lunatic for questioning the 9/11 story. Not too
long ago, someone claiming that child abuse was rampant among the clergy of
the Roman Catholic Church could have easily been labeled "paranoid" or a
"lunatic." Certainly, the perpetrators of those crimes and their superiors
denied their culpability when first confronted. I guess the Globe writers
who eventually won a Pulitzer for uncovering the priest sex abuse scandal
were lunatics, as well -- until, that is, they proved themselves to be
right.

Haven't we learned that what might be morally inconceivable is not
necessarily unlikely? These issues are far too important to resort to
name-calling, stereotyping and slander. Innocent people are dying in war --
on both sides -- due to the paranoia imposed on us by our government;
paranoia which does, in my view, accurately equate to terrorizing us into
submission to their ambitions for war.

So whether it's the story of 9/11, the justification for war and torture, or
the loss of our freedoms, on the 4th of July, at least, please afford us the
dignity to exercise our right to question the behavior of the people running
our government without publicly trying to slander us.

Thank You.

Mark McKertich
Boston, Mass.

###

Subject: The return of the black helicopters - July 1, 2008
Date: Tue, July 1, 2008 16:23
To: letter@globe.com
Cc: beam@globe.com

The return of the black helicopters
By Alex Beam
Globe Columnist / July 1, 2008

Dear Mr Beam,

I certainly hope that the Freeman's book you mention in the captioned article, "
Overcoming Paranoid & Suspicious Thoughts: A Self-Help Guide Using Cognitive
Behavioral Techniques," becomes a best-seller. I can not think of a better way
for many to begin to understand that they must start to use their own
investigative skills and reasoning to come to rational conclusions rather than
rely on the sound bites of main stream media for any analysis.

Your disconnected screed over a definition of "a paranoid" seems to only
bolster the fact that humanity is indeed at a point where every individual's
action is capable of being recorded. One need only be aware of main stream
media's headlines during the past couple of years to begin to understand the
means and motive of any government to be able to track and analyze as much
data as possible.

My instant concern is being called a "lunatic" by you for publishing a belief
that you apparently agree with. That you fail to mention the irony of this
will be lost on most of your readers, however, as many will continue to read
to find that you redeem yourself in the following paragraphs with some
sensationalist "reporting" that serves to keep your column in their minds eye.
(Isn't this a definition of "yellow journalism"?)

Thank you very much for the live link to our website. Those truly interested
will quickly perceive that we have not abandoned the 9/11 issue as we continue
to call for an investigation of the criminal events of that day worthy of any
run-of-the-mill murder investigation instead of the white-washing, deceit and
agency in-fighting that has been observed. It is these incontrovertible facts
that will lead any reasonable person to suspect that the conspiracy
promulgated by the powers that be, that a madman in a cave half way around the
world aided by 19 young Arabs with boxcutters was able to surprise the largest
and best funded military defense system on this planet, has a very small
chance of probability when compared to a number of more reasoned possible
conspiracies.

"Paranoid illusions?" Only by those who are presently getting away literally
with murder. In the words of former Attorney General John Ashcroft, "History
will not judge this kindly."

Peace and enlightenment,

Dan M Nalven