Jan 30th 2011

By Kevin Ryan

Nothing moves through the path of most resistance, and certainly not the human mind.  A recent article written by journalist Robert Parry has provided another good example of this long-standing fact.   In that article, Parry exhibits an astonishing lack of knowledge about the truth movement and the questions posed by honest 9/11 skeptics as he attempts to publicly denigrate those questions and people.  The well-respected journalist Parry provides excellent examples, throughout his article, of how normally reasoned and well-researched professionals can suddenly turn into people who cannot deal with facts or evidence.  Unfortunately, Parry’s comments are correct in one sense as demonstrated by another article published in response to his.  For some people, the 9/11 truth movement is a parlor game.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/011511.html

By Robert Parry
January 15, 2011

It seems that I have upset some folks on the Left again, this time by mentioning – deep inside a story about Sarah Palin’s proclaimed victimhood over the Tucson massacre fallout – that groups like the 9/11 “truthers” also have contributed to America’s crazed political environment.

(Last October, I angered some on the Left by noting that the four previous examples of progressives trying to punish Democrats by sitting out elections or supporting third parties – 1968, 1980, 1994 and 2000 – didn’t work out very well, either in the short- or long-term. I meant the piece to be a historical review of these tactics but it apparently touched some raw nerves.)

Similarly, my brief criticism of the “truthers” prompted a wave of angry e-mails and blog postings. In part, I was accused of showing inadequate respect for the “truther” research and was scolded for not delving deeply enough into the intricate arguments behind their claim that 9/11 was an “inside job.”

I missed this bit of excellent writing a week ago, but it is definitely worth reading.  I wish all journalists would take a look at it.  Great points here.

link:  http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Memo-to-Journalists-Stop-by-Truth-Excavator-100920-174.html?show=votes

Memo to Journalists: Stop Mocking The Campaign For 9/11 Truth And Accountability

America's Decoupling from Reality By Robert Parry
September 15, 2010
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/091510.html

Robert Parry is a journalist whose work I have been very impressed by. I even agree with the overall premise of his latest article: that the United States has lost touch with reality. However, he spends several paragraphs denouncing the 9/11 truth movement as a desperate leftist effort. I find his blinders on this one subject disappointing, but it does not devalue his important work.

"...these activists, who became known as '9/11 truthers,' threw out all the evidence of al-Qaeda’s involvement... cherry-picked a few supposed 'anomalies'... recycled many of the Right’s sophistry techniques... Some supporters of the “inside-job” theory may have simply been destabilized by all the years of right-wing disinformation. Reality and real evidence may have lost all currency, replaced by a deep and understandable distrust of the nation's leaders and the news media."

After the Carter Administration failed to secure the release of American hostages held by Iran, Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan. Following this, evidence emerged, particularly during the Iran-Contra investigations, that Republicans and CIA operatives, including George H.W. Bush, William Casey and Robert Gates, had sabotaged Carter's negotiations with the Iranians and made their own deal for hostage release. Thus, the phrase 'October Surprise' was coined. The evidence and allegations mounted and eventually caused a crisis of legitimacy, and so a 'bi-partisan' Commission was appointed to 'investigate' the matter. It was chaired by Lee Hamilton, and in January, 1993 a report was released that pretended to 'debunk' the evidence that the October Surprise operation had in fact occurred. Investigative journalist/author Robert Parry, who had investigated these things at the time, has written an account of how the Commission operated under the direction of Hamilton.

(In this piece, Parry shows why any Commission with Lee Hamilton as a guiding light is guaranteed to produce pablum... Lee was only rising to his prior standards with the 9/11 Commission Report.)

Who to Trust on a Truth Commission?

While a truth commission to examine the crimes of the Bush administration has a certain appeal – especially if there’s not going to be a tough special prosecutor bringing criminal charges – there still would be the issue of who could fill the job of getting at the truth.

That's because over the past three decades, the Washington media/political establishment has shown itself stunningly inept at conducting serious inquiries that can penetrate even the most implausible cover stories if a probe’s target has influential friends in high places.

Instead, investigations into difficult questions have usually settled for politically convenient half-answers, especially when the Democratic love of bipartisanship confronts Republican anger over holding accountable someone like Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Dick Cheney or George W. Bush...

Continued...
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/062609.html

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana.

In association with justicevision.org, 911blogger.com will be putting some of their great documentary footage on the web. We're going to start with some footage of Gary Webb, a courageous journalist who exposed CIA connections to the crack cocaine epidemic in the United States. In this first video from December 1996, Webb was still employed by the San Jose Mercury News. You can read his original series which began his journey into Deep Politics, over at Narconews.com. This video, "Cocaine & the Contras", was filmed at the Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa Monica, CA, a few months after his story broke. He is accompanied by independent journalist, Robert Parry, whom Webb describes as a "pioneer" in this area. Robert Parry's website is Consortium News.com.

Gary Webb's voice was silenced in 2004, and was ruled a suicide. However, his story will still be heard.

DVD available from http://justicevision.org

Preview (Scroll down for full video.)

(A great history lesson from legendary Iran-Contra reporter, Robert Parry. His website, "Consortium News" is loaded with essential reading. -rep.)

When the Terrorists Were 'Our Guys'

By Robert Parry (A Special Report) - February 22, 2008

In 1976, when George H.W. Bush was CIA director, the U.S. government tolerated right-wing terrorist cells inside the United States and mostly looked the other way when these killers topped even Palestinian terrorists in spilling blood, including a lethal car bombing in Washington, D.C., according to newly obtained internal government documents...

...“Cuban exile groups operating under the aegis of a new alliance called the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations [CORU] were particularly active during the second half of the year,” the CIA reported. “They were responsible for no less than 17 acts of international terrorism (at least three of which took place in the US).

“Statistically, this matches the record compiled by the various Palestinian terrorist groups during the same period. But largely because the Cuban exile operations included the October bombing of a Cubana Airlines passenger aircraft, their consequences were far more bloody.”

In other words, Cuban exiles based in the United States – during George H.W. Bush’s year in charge of the CIA – outpaced Palestinian terrorists in terms of a total body count.

After the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, the U.S. government presented itself as the innocent victim of international terrorism with a moral right not only to pursue the “bad guys” across the globe but to subject some captives to torture, to lock others up indefinitely without trial, and to launch attacks that have killed many thousands of innocents.

In the years that have followed, there were few recollections of the days under the current president’s father when the bloodiest terrorists were “our guys.”

Full article:
http://consortiumnews.com/2008/022108a.html