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Showing posts with label David Ray Griffin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Ray Griffin. Show all posts
Griffin is Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Theology, Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA where he's still co-director of the Center for Process Studies.
He's authored and/or edited three dozen books, mainly in his field, but notably and heroically on 9/11 truth, Osama bin Laden, and his newest titled, Cognitive Infiltration: An Obama Appointee's Plan to Undermine the 9/11 Conspiracy Theory. More on it below.
Cass Sunstein is a well-known University of Chicago and Harvard Law School Professor before being appointed Obama's Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, in charge of "overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs," among other duties.
Distinguished Law Professor, activist, and international law and human rights expert Francis Boyle said this about both law schools and the University of Chicago's political science department, steeped in neo-con Straussianism:
"Do not send your children to the University of Chicago where they will grow up to become warmongers like (Paul) Wolfowitz and (John) Ashcroft. The University of Chicago is an intellectual and moral cesspool," referring to its political science department and law school. Its extremist economics department is much the same, indoctrinating students with predatory capitalist ideology.
Boyle's "Harvard's Gitmo Kangaroo Law School: The School for Torturers" article advised:
"Do not send your children or students to Harvard Law School where they will grow up to become racist war criminals! Harvard Law School is a Neo-Con cesspool."
"Harvard is to Law School as Torture is to Law."
Commenting on Sunstein when he was mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee, Boyle, calling him a "Neo-Con," said he'd be a "lethal" choice.
Professor Emeritus James Fetzer, Founder, Scholars for 9/11 Truth, took sharp issue with Sunstein's attempt to discredit its proponents, saying his "Conspiracy Theories" report (discussed below) is a "corrosive approach" and "massive blunder" to believe they're "obviously false!" In fact, "No one can know which theories are true or false without investigating them." That a Harvard Law professor would suggest it "is simply stunning," yet unsurprising given the source.
Fetzer's article can be accessed through the following link:
Sunstein is a notorious neo-con, abhorrent of First Amendment and other democratic freedoms, believing the rule of law is best served by subverting it.
Glen Greenwald's "The Horrible Prospect of Supreme Court Justice Cass Sunstein" article said:
"From the beginning of the War on Terror, Cass Sunstein turned himself into the most reliable Democratic cheerleader for Bush/Cheney radicalism and their assault on the Constitution and the rule of law." He also supports military commissions, illegal surveillance, and "mock(ed) the notion that Bush had committed crimes while in office."
One of his former students added: "I think (he's) an extremely ambitious man (who'd) run over his grandmother for a seat on the Supreme Court."
Apparently over the country as well, trashing it and the public interest for power, clearly the aim of his "Cognitive Infiltration" proposal.
...In January 2008, he and Adrian Vermeule published a controversial report titled, "Conspiracy Theories," they define as "an attempt to explain an event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role."
"Many millions of people hold (them); they believe that powerful people have worked together in order to withhold the truth about some important practice or some terrible event."
Citing 9/11 truth, the reason for their report, they say believers "may create serious risks, including risks of violence....rais(ing) significant challenges for policy and law....The existence of both domestic and foreign conspiracy theories, we suggest, is no trivial matter, posing real risks to the government's antiterrorism policies, whatever the latter may be."
His solution - debunk and undermine them by "cognitive infiltration of extremist groups," his modern-day version of COINTELPRO, the FBI's infamous 1960s and 1970s counterintelligence program to neutralize political dissidents, including the American Indian Movement, Black Panthers, and communists, as well as anti-war, human and civil rights activists, among others.
Rebranded, COINTELPRO flourishes more than ever against new targets, including Muslims and others in the "war on terror;" environmental and animal rights activists, and supporters of democratic freedoms over despotism and imperial wars, among others.
Sunstein wants conspiracy advocates neutralized, using "independent groups to supply rebuttals, and by cognitive infiltration designed to break up the crippled epistemology of conspiracy-minded groups and informationally isolated social networks." In other words, destroy them by conspiring against them from within, using illegal and extralegal tactics.
"Government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action."
In June 2009, Sunstein and Vermeule updated their scheme in The Journal of Political Philosophy titled, "Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures." The cause - psychological conditions. The cure - elimination by cognitive infiltration, including with "independent experts with information and perhaps prod(ding) from behind the scenes....(but not) too close (to avoid being) self-defeating" if exposed.
In fact, what Sunstein proposed is illegal under statutes prohibiting internal government propaganda, aimed at the public, though legal technicalities have never before been a deterrent.
Nonetheless, according to a March 21, 2005 Congressional Research Service report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) defines "publicity or propaganda" as either official self-aggrandizing, partisan activity, or "covert propaganda," the latter government-originated, disguised to appear otherwise, including by enlisted journalists, corrupting their profession by accepting cash to cooperate, a practice used by the Bush and earlier administrations as well as the CIA and perhaps FBI.
Griffin's New Book - A Powerful Truth Antidote
His new book is an invaluable analysis of Sunstein's proposal to undermine democratic freedoms, airbrush truth, impose censorship, and criminalize individuals who challenge official versions of patent lies, specifically 9/11, the seminal one of our time.
Critics agree, including Professor Peter Phillips, President of the Media Freedom Foundation and Project Censored saying:
Griffin's book should be "entitled 'the Courage of David Ray Griffin' (for) His continuing efforts to speak truth to power regarding issues" as vital as 9/11. Project Censored strongly recommends it at a time our democratic freedoms are at risk, including dissent, what Howard Zinn called "the highest form of patriotism."
Professor Emeritus Peter Dale Scott called Griffin our "preeminent (9/11) expert....his research....consistently careful, thorough, and objective." His new book provides "a patient, point-by-point and much needed refutation" of Sunstein's dangerous proposal. "He relentlessly shows how (he's) guilty of the very mentality he warns against: close-mindedness and refusal to debate. Those who seek to prevent 2010 from becoming 1984" must read this invaluable book.
Professor Emeritus Richard Falk said Griffin wrote "a devastating critique, (using) his formidable philosophical and theological skills."
Cyril H. Wecht, past President, American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American College of Legal Medicine called the book "brilliantly written....a scholarly dissection of (Sunstein's) sociopolitical proposal....," one essential to expose and oppose.
Discussing Sunstein's 10 theses, Griffin deconstructs their flaws, contradictions, and dangers to a free society. He also explains the legitimacy of 9/11 truth, and Sunstein's inability to refute it by disinformation, lies, suppression of facts, stifling debate, and attacking proponents.
What Obama did on September 23, calling Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 9/11 truth comments to UN General Assembly:
"hateful (and) inexcusable, particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation...."
Others attacked the comments as "abhorrent and delusional," no matter that millions around the world share them (including Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth), calling the event a crime, debunking the official account as deceitful, untrue, and destructive to democratic freedoms.
Ahmadinejad, in fact, suggested "three (possible) viewpoints:"
1. "That a very powerful and complex terrorist group" successfully circumvented US intelligence, Washington's position.
2. "That some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order to save the Zionist regime."
He said most Americans "as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view." European polls suggest it. US polls vary and have largely ducked the issue by not asking precise questions.
3. "It was carried out by a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation."
Ahmadinejad "proposed that the United Nations set up an independent fact-finding group...." He also criticized Washington for using the attack as a pretext for war against Iraq and Afghanistan. These views are verboten in the West, those expressing them pilloried as unpatriotic or worse.
Griffin is the preeminent 9/11 truth proponent and consummate scholar. Using his masterful skills, he demolishes Sunstein's arguments, ones based on disinformation, deceit, and bad analysis, not up to the standards of an accomplished liar, and no match for Griffin.
Thomas Fletcher summed it up saying:
Griffin's book "is a lucid and compelling exposure of the contempt held by the official (9/11 myth) defenders for dissenters who have seen through their Big Lie." They also fear truth that reveals their ugly agenda. "These officials expect that no one will be able to penetrate the murk of Sunstein's latest defense of the pretext for the US wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, now covertly expanding" globally. Truth is a powerful disinfectant, what government conspiracists most fear.
Some Final Comments
On September 12, Professor Denis Rancourt titled an article, "Why we love to hate conspiracy theories: 911 Truth as threat to the intelligentsia," saying:
Many on the left share guilt with the right by "vehemently attack(ing) and ridicul(ing) 'conspiracy theories' such as the present 911 Truth movement."
Why, he asks? "Is that not the modus operandi of power? Is it so difficult to believe that (the 911 attack) was not orchestrated by....religious zealot(s)? Or that those who measurably benefitted" had everything to gain? "What ever happened to 'war is a racket' and 'follow the money?' "
At issue is that "power owns the media, (and) more importantly....our jobs" and lives in other respects. Even more important than truth is how it's used - to "rebel, actually rebel and individually take back power over (our) lives." Instead, too many of "the intelligentsia" protect themselves and "the system" by being "a visceral opponent of 911 Truth....in order for power to save face."
Let others fight the good fight they may feel, but unless enough do, putting a lot on the line, wrong will prevail over right and squeeze harder for even more of what they want.
Perhaps the next "9/11" will be a mushroom-shaped cloud or other comparable state-sponsored "disaster," again blamed on foreign adversaries as a pretext for more war. Why not, given America's permanent war agenda, a topic addressed in an earlier article, accessed through the following link:
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
Part II presents four reviews of AMERICAN ASSASSINATION (2004) that afford multiple perspectives regarding its significance. The first, "Abundant and Compelling Evidence", is by David Ray Griffin, a distinguished scholar who has become the leading spokesman for the 9/11 Truth movement. The second, "No Accident", is by Bradley E. Ayers, a former Army Captain who was assigned to the CIA to manage covert operations against Cuba from May 1963 to December 1964. The third, "Target Wellstone", is by Russ Wellen, the editor of Freezerbox while it endured, who is now a staff blogger at Scholars & Rogues. The fourth, "Town Talk Review", is by Andrew Griffin, a features writer for the Gannett-owned newspaper The Town Talk.
David Ray Griffin, a professor emeritus of Philosophy of Religion and Theology at the Clarement School of Theology in California for 30 years, has today, through his books and lectures, become better known as the leading voice of the "9/11 Truth Movement." Through his investigation and analysis of the fall of the Twin Towers and mysterious collapse of World Trade Centre 7, the attack on the Pentagon and the final 9/11 Commission Report, Griffin continues to raise provocative questions about the inconsistencies and contradictions of the official version of the events of September 11, 2001. Griffin appeared on the award winning Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program “The Fifth Estate” (The Unofficial Story).
The Fifth Estate: Conspiracy Theories
On September 11, 2001 the world watched in shock and disbelief as planes flew in to New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, and Americans realized they were under attack. But by whom? What really happened? In The Unofficial Story, the fifth estate’s Bob McKeown introduces us to people who believe the real force behind the attacks was not Osama Bin Laden, but the U.S. government itself.
The authors of this important book argue that Senator Paul Wellstone's death, 10 days before the 2002 elections, was an assassination, most likely ordered by the Bush administration.
Directly confronting the widespread tendency to reject all "conspiracy theories," the authors point out that "the idea that every theory that implies the existence of conspiracy ought to be rejected out of hand" is no more rational than the idea that every such theory should be accepted. Rather, "each case has to be evaluated on the basis of the evidence that is relevant and available in that case." On that basis, they argue, if we look at ALL the relevant evidence and employ the scientific method of inference to the best explanation, we must conclude that the theory that Wellstone was assassinated is far more probable than the official theory, according to which his airplane crash was an accident.
The evidence includes several facts suggesting that the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) colluded with the FBI in a cover-up:
1. FBI agents from Minneapolis arrived at the crash site within 2 hours after the crash, even though the trip from Minnesota to Duluth to the crash site would have taken at least 3 hours--so they must have departed before the plane crashed.
2. When asked for the times at which private flights had arrived in Duluth that morning, the FAA said the records had been destroyed.
3. Considerable disinformation about weather conditions was quickly given to the press.
4. Although regulations called for the investigation to be carried out by the NTSB, not the FBI (because the crash site was not designated a crime scene), the FBI agents were there for 8 hours before the NTSB team arrived.
5. The FBI, even though there illegally, prevented the local "first responders" from taking photographs.
6. Although it was the NTSB's responsibility to determine the cause of the crash and although the FBI's prior presence was illegal, the NTSB leader publicly accepted the FBI's declaration, made before the NTSB's investigation, that there was no evidence of terrorism.
7. When the NTSB team finally carried out its own investigation, it was unable to find either the cockpit recorder, which it assumed the plane had had, or the black box.
8. The NTSB held no public hearings, claiming that it was not a sufficiently "high-profile" case.
9. The NTSB's final report concealed the fact of the FBI's participation.
10. The NTSB investigation was headed by Acting Director Carol Carmody, a Bush appointee who had earlier ruled that there was no foul play in the small airplane crash in 2000 that took the life of Governor Mel Carnahan of Missouri, the Democratic candidate for the Senate who was killed 3 weeks before his expected victory (over John Ashcroft).
The evidence also includes some facts strongly suggesting the falsity of the NTSB's official conclusion, which was that the plane crashed because the pilot failed to maintain proper speed, causing the plane to stall.
1. The plane would have stalled only if it slowed to below 70 knots, yet it was equipped with a device that emitted a loud warning at 85 knots.
2. The plane was being flown by two experienced and fully certified pilots, a fact--obfuscated in the NTSB report-that makes this kind of pilot error very unlikely.
3. The NTSB's theory fails to explain why, about two minutes before the crash, all communication was abruptly terminated and the plane began going off course.
The evidence also includes facts suggesting that the plane was instead brought down by an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon:
1. The plane's fuselage burned, although it was separated from the wings, which contained the fuel.
2. The plane's electrical system, which would be affected by an EMP, was in the fuselage, and the fire from the fuselage gave off blue smoke, which is indicative of an electrical fire.
3. An EMP could explain why the plane simultaneously went off course and lost its radio about two minutes before the crash.
4. At the same time, cell phones and garage doors in the area behaved in a way consistent with the occurrence of an EMP.
5. An NTSB spokesman professed ignorance about the existence of EMP weapons that could have brought down the plane, although the existence of such weapons had been known for several years.
An important part of the authors' case is the fact that the Bush administration would have had several motives:
1. Wellstone's defeat would return control of the Senate to the Republicans.
2. Wellstone's death 10 days before the election meant that $700,000 in the Republican campaign chest could be transferred, the very next day, to the (successful) effort to defeat Max Cleland in the Senate race in Georgia.
3. Wellstone was the biggest obstacle in the Senate to several Republican policies, such as those involving Iraq, Colombia, the SEC, tax cuts, and Homeland Security, and he was the strongest voice in Congress calling for a full investigation into 9/11.
4. Two days before his death, Wellstone reported that Cheney had told him: "If you vote against the war in Iraq, the Bush administration will do whatever is necessary to get you."
5. Wellstone had developed a 7-point lead in the polls over Norm Coleman, the Bush administration's hand-picked candidate.
Finally, with regard to the question whether the Bush administration would commit such a heinous act, the authors argue that an administration that "compounded lie upon lie to . . . send hundreds of thousands of young American men and women into harm's way [in Iraq] is not an administration that would hesitate to kill a single senator."
The authors conclude that the evidence shows beyond reasonable doubt that Wellstone was assassinated. They have, in my view, made a convincing case.
AMERICAN ASSASSINATION: THE STRANGE DEATH OF SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE by Bradley E. Ayers
Reviewer's Note: Soon after publication, Dr. James Fetzer suggested I write a "literary" review of the book, AMERICAN ASSASSINATION: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone (non-fiction, Vox Pop/DKMC, Brooklyn, NY 11218, trade paperback, $14.00, ISBN 0-9752763-0-1) jointly authored by himself and Dr. Don Jacobs, aka Four Arrows, released in October 2004.
Somewhat humbled, I pondered Jim's invitation. I knew Senator Wellstone. As a veteran in distress, his office was hugely instrumental in helping me obtain the VA disability benefits I presently survive on. Quite aside from that, I also agreed with his populist socio-political philosophy, admired his vision, courage and activism.
Former Marine officer, now a tenured McKnight/U of M professor, Fetzer is a respected friend. My relationship with Jim developed when he came to recognize my military background and history of government service, especially the involvement in CIA's in Operation Mongoose (the Kennedy Administration's secret war against Cuba and the Castro assassination attempts in the 1960s) during the period of President Kennedy's murder and other domestic assassinations.
My credentials as a prospective book reviewer include that I've been licensed as a private detective in three states for more than thirty years; and, as a former, fully rated commercial air charter bush pilot had flown into Eveleth, MN, the site of the Wellstone plane crash, many times on instruments under all varieties of weather conditions.
But, could I maintain journalistic neutrality and objectivity as a reviewer given my strong personal feeling about Wellstone and my friendship with Jim Fetzer? Keenly aware of my own limitations and inadequacies, one of the most difficult tasks I know is to critique another writer's work. I told Jim of my reservations, talked with his publisher and felt encouraged to go ahead.
With that as a backdrop, I should make it clear I don't consider myself part of America's conspiracy theory subculture, nor am I even remotely involved in Internet chatter. I prefer gathering and evaluating information the old fashioned way, making sure that what I get is the real thing.
This review will avoid preempting reader curiosity by revealing sensitive details of the book's plot line, nor will it offer judgments about the credibility of the authors' sources, the legal viability of their views and conclusions. Readers will have to make up their own minds. I offer here only a personal opinion as to the composition and merits of the work as a contribution to the troubled history of our time. I have taken the Fetzer-Jacobs book at face value.
NO ACCIDENT by Bradley E. Ayers
AMERICAN ASSASSINATION challenges the reader to render careful, critical judgment about the causation of Paul Wellstone's death, when his chartered plane impacted in a remote swampy, wooded area in northeastern Minnesota in October 2002. Was the crash an accident, a bizarre twist of fate on the eve of the fiery, outspoken liberal Democratic's predicted reelection to the narrowly divided U.S. Senate? Or was the plane's destruction the work of threatened right-wing dark forces determined to sabotage our country's elective process for political gain?
The book, in tone, theme and substance passionately assumes the later, but not without making a powerful case. The authors' thesis is structured around the fundamental, time honored considerations when appraising any crime: did a potential perpetrator have the means, motive and opportunity to commit the act; and is there human testimony, physical and circumstantial evidence to support each of these criteria?
The initial chapters of the book are devoted to building the evidentiary case for the opportune, sinister destruction of the airplane killing the Senator, his wife, daughter, campaign aides and pilots.
Fetzer and Jacobs meticulously piece together the events and identify personalities involved preceding the tragedy and those actions and developments, both official and unofficial following the crash. The authors' reach for information is extensive and goes well beyond that of the authorities. Many basic, logical questions are posed, contradictions and inconsistencies in the reactions and pronouncements of officialdom and first responders to the crash site, all suggesting a deliberate effort to tamper with or remove critical evidence from the scene.
It's primarily on the basis of this factual data, which includes verbatim quotations from local authorities, the FBI, NTSB and FAA as well as regional and national media reportage, that, an impressive scenario of a possible conspiracy and cover-up emerges. The accusative finger points to the Bush White House and the most powerful in the Administration, with the complicity of key Federal agencies.
I found the authors' brief early digressions comparing a possible Wellstone murder conspiracy and cover up with other controversial high profile deaths to be a minor distraction. All in all, this is gripping, goosebump producing reading for anyone with lingering suspicions about the performance and crash scene investigation by officials of the U.S. Government.
Having quite effectively made the evidentiary argument for post-crash concealment and deliberate spoilage of the scene, the authors' turn to the motive issue. I found these chapters to be most enlightening and absolutely essential to appreciating the breadth and intensity of the Bush cabal's animosity that may have led to Wellstone's elimination. AMERICAN ASSASSINATION brings together in its central chapters an extensive list of factors, some fairly obscure in public view, nevertheless important, clearly identifying the Minnesota Senator as a persistent and even greater future threat to the conservative Republican agenda thus becoming a target for removal at virtually any cost, even murder.
With the actual events, initial reactions and reports, documented physical aspects of the wreckage and crash scene observation and the possible motive for assassination and cover-up now before the reader, Fetzer and Jacobs offer a detailed retrospection of alleged "accidental" and "lone-gunmen" fatalities of key or high profile political figures in the U.S. over the past forty years. Comparison and parallels are drawn between these and the possible murder of Senator Wellstone. Thus, the authors' buttress their assassination conspiracy premise. They generously and fairly present and debate dissenting opinions from other contemporary scholars and observers.
At this point in the book, in their capacity as educators the authors step away from the specifics of the case and engage in serious tutoring. Several chapters of the book are devoted to a rather expansive, academic and slightly complex theoretical discussion of critical thinking. This is the methodology professors Fetzer and Jacobs applied in investigating the fatal Wellstone plane crash, and analizing the events, circumstances, evidence and other factors surrounding it.
While sometimes a little heavy on classical logic process, the effort is well intentioned and, obviously, encourages the reader's appreciation for the authors' intellectual effort in researching the Wellstone tragedy and evolving their thesis as an alternative to the official causal determination.
The truly interested reader is now, hopefully, versed in the discipline by which Fetzer and Jacobs build their case for an assassination conspiracy in the downing of the Wellstone plane. The authors' dissect, item by item, the government's handling of the event, from crash site response and investigation to the suspected manipulation of public information essentially illustrating how the Establishment system either failed or was perverted to facilitate a manufactured explanation for the crash.
A pattern of procrastination, obfuscation, buck-passing, unanswered inquires, procedural anomalies, policy circumventions, apparent incompetence, discreditation of witnesses and sources, ignorance and degradation of physical evidence value is thoroughly documented. Most disturbing is the assertion the FBI played a key part in the initial phases of the crash investigation, usurping the established role of NTSB as the responsible action agency in any fatal aircraft incident. The authors' offer a compilation of peripheral testimony, qualified sources familiar with airplane crashes and standards for investigating them.
Most disturbing, the authors' point out the Wellstone crash investigation was never subject to public hearing as mandated by NTSB regulation in any high profile case. Staunchly defending the assassination conspiracy argument, Fetzer and Jacobs, in full attack mode, rebut the final NTSB "accident" report with a vengeance. Sentence by sentence, they catalogue the reports' contradictions, lapses, selective use of evidence and testimony, manipulated phraseology, and ignorance of available information that might undermine the governments finding that crash resulted from pilot error. The authors' conclusion is that the NTSB report is a rather transparent effort to establish plausible denial and is bogus.
Finally, AMERICAN ASSASSINATION presents the reader with a variety of alternative explanations for the plane crash. Some tend toward the exotic, but are technically substantiated to a reasonable degree. Other, more conventional explanations are also posed for the reader's consideration.
Expert opinion is offered and expanded upon. The book concludes with a summary of the major points of argument, set forth in easily understood fashion.
The authors' conviction and ardency are apparent in their work, as is the thoroughness of their research. If the book has any weaknesses from a literary standpoint its the indulgent, redundant comparison of the postulated Wellstone assassination conspiracy with the murder of JFK and the questionable deaths of other major political figures in America in recent years. There is also repetitive overkill in citing the potentially compromising backgrounds of some of the key officials involved in the investigation and reporting of the Wellstone crash.
Finally, the astute reader will be a bit uncomfortable with a certain editing unevenness of the text, something that's very hard to avoid when combining the independent work of co-authors. The book also lacks a bibliography and index.
These shortcomings in no way detract from the substance and essential message of the book. Fetzer and Jacobs have produced an enormously provocative vital piece of work that should be of interest to anyone concerned that our Constitutional political process, our very lives, can be manipulated by evil forces hiding behind a façade of moral and ideological righteousness in America today. AMERICAN ASSASSINATION, if widely read, could well prompt a public outcry that might ultimately lead to a full exposition of the facts surrounding the strange death of Paul Wellstone. Fetzer and Jacobs argue convincingly that it was no accident. The book is a must read for all who search for the truth.
Editor's Note: The reviewer is a former Army special operations officer, CIA and DEA operative. He has logged more than 5,000 hours of flight time as a fully rated commercial air charter-bush pilot and is licensed as a private detective. He holds an MA in education and is the author of nonfiction books, including especially THE WAR THAT NEVER WAS on CIA operations against Cuba.
American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone By Four Arrows and Jim Fetzer Vox Pop, 199 pages, $14.00
So fierce is the competition in the crime fiction market today that only the cozy genre of mystery can still get away with a single murder victim. In padding the body count, however, authors lose sight of the first rule of a good crime novel: reanimate the corpse. In other words, the reader must get to know and care about the deceased.
When the plane carrying Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone to the funeral of a state lawmaker's father crashed, his wife, daughter, three staff members, and two pilots died as well. By writing American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone (on Sander Hicks's new Vox Pop imprint), Four Arrows and Jim Fetzer honor all the victims. But demonstrating that a crime--massacre actually--was committed requires showing how Wellstone's Senate career constituted a monument to humanitarianism that demanded to be toppled as sure as Saddam's statue in Firdos Square, Baghdad.
Unfortunately, sniping from the left that he failed to hew to the party line obscured Wellstone's achievements (documented in an appendix to the book). In fact, his comprehensive approach to progressive causes, from reforming American farm policy to opposing GATT and NAFTA, paralleled how the right leaves no stone unturned in its relentless quest to roll back any legislation that could conceivably be called enlightened.
In light of the suspicious circumstances under which he died, you can't help but think that the right saw him as not one, but a plague of gadflies that had to be eradicated. He was in fact exposed to aerial spraying--intentionally, the authors maintain--while inspecting the effect of glycophospate on Colombian coca fields. With each vote, Wellstone more and more resembled a man marching to his doom.
Not only the mainstream, but also most of the independent media has used Wellstone campaign manager Jeff Blodgett's profession of certainty that pilot error was at fault to back off from allegations of foul play. In other words, don't let them tar you with that darn conspiracy theory label because when you try to peel it off your skin comes with it.
But conspiracy theories don't only play with the Generation X-Files crowd; now they're scrutinized by the ever-more-credentialed, such as Dr. David Ray Griffin, the author of The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11. Like Griffin, Jim Fetzer is a professor of philosophy (at the University of Minnesota, Duluth) and he's polished his philosopher's stone with three books on the death of JFK. Co-author Four Arrows is an associate professor at Northern Arizona University. (Though the authors fail to describe the division of duties, the interviews Arrows conducts suggests he's the leg man.)
Applying the principles of philosophy to the crime, Fetzer claims that when an investigator examining a hypothesis violates "the requirement of total evidence," "special pleading"--intentionally selecting evidence to create a biased result--occurs.
Excluding, and perhaps removing, evidence is exactly what official bodies seem to have set out to do. Only an hour after first responders arrived on the crash site at 11 a.m., the FBI materialized on the scene. In other words, they would have departed from St. Paul at 9:30--when Wellstone's plane was taking off.
After possibly spiriting away the cockpit voice recorder, the FBI announced the crash wasn't the work of terrorists. Meanwhile, the National Traffic Safety Board's lead investigator, Frank Hildrup, when asked why there was no public hearing, responded that they were reserved for "high profile cases."
As for the cause, at first the NTSB blamed icy conditions. However, when the plane didn't land at the Eveleth-Virginia (Minnesota) Airport, its assistant manager, Gary Ulman, had no qualms about immediately taking off to search for the crash site. Others, such as National Center for Atmospheric Research meteorologist Ben Bernstein, downplayed the icing theory as well.
Besides, the Beechcraft King Air A-10 boasted an elaborate de-icing system--you learn a lot about aviation in this book--such as pneumatic de-icing boots that inflate and deflate to break ice from the leading edges of the wing and tail. And when the King Air's maintenance records turned out to be in order, mechanical problems, along with the icy conditions, were disqualified as causes.
The NTSB then turned to the highly rated pilot, Richard Conry, a favorite of Wellstone's who had passed an FAA flight check two days before. Sixty seconds after his last conversation with the ground, during which he reported no problems, the King Air began drifting south, whereas a normal landing would have continued straight west. In other words, discounting his turn in the opposite direction before crashing, the NTSB adopted the conclusion that Conry and co-pilot Michael Guess's approach was too slow, stalling the plane and causing it to crash.
But even if the pilots failed to check airspeed and altitude--an almost unimaginable lapse--they would have been alerted by an alarm in plenty of time to regain speed. In other words, by arriving at this conclusion the NTSB demonstrated the same lack of concern for public scrutiny as the FBI did when it arrived early at the crash scene. More likely, the authors maintain, the King Air lost airspeed and altitude because the pilots were unable to control it.
Understanding the crash, they believe, requires establishing why the King Air suddenly stopped communicating. Another man on his way to the funeral, driving within a couple blocks of the airport at the time of the crash experienced otherworldly cell-phone interference. He reported hearing a sound "between a roar and loud humming voice...oscillating...screeching and humming noise."
Most responsible for narrowing the authors' search for a cause was the blue smoke typical of electrical fires that streamed out of the King Air's sheared fuselage for hours after the crash.
In an arresting passage, the authors cite a Time magazine article describing microwave weapons the US is developing to knock out enemy electronics. Supposedly they're capable of unleashing in an instant as much power as the Hoover Dam cranks out in a day. The authors report, among other accidents, an F-111 that crashed or aborted due simply to the radio transmissions (electromagnetic pulses) of other US military aircraft.
Suddenly the idea of electronic-jamming equipment sending a decoy VOR (landing guidance system) signal to the King Air becomes plausible. Obeying instrumentation that's tricked into believing the plane is several degrees off course, the pilot follows the signal straight into the ground.
Possible means mapped out, what about more specific motives than the general pugnaciousness of this former wrestler's progressivism? First, at the time of the crash the Republicans' Senate majority was in jeopardy because Vermont's Jim Jeffords had bolted the party. In an attempt to redress the balance, they threw all their support behind Norm Coleman, Wellstone's opponent in the upcoming election. When Wellstone voted against granting the president power to invade Iraq, his popularity surged.
Wellstone reported that before the Senate vote on Iraq, Dick Cheney had warned him that bucking the administration could result in severe consequences for both him and the state of Minnesota. Neither was the vice president happy about the legislation Wellstone had introduced to improve protection against asbestos poisoning. Cheney had left Halliburton in a position to be sued by its insurer for asbestos claims staggering in their potential for remuneration. Only his assumption of the vice presidency granted him immunity from deposition.
After Wellstone's funeral, you may remember how Republicans claimed the event was partisan, essentially garnering Democrats free campaign airtime. This, of course, stood in contrast, to the heartfelt way the Republican party grieved--by transferring money designated to fight Wellstone to defeating Democratic Georgia Senator Max Cleland. Corporate America was equally broken up: From the instant Wellstone's death was reported by AP--the rise in corporate fortunes that a Republican Senate signified needed no spelling out to investors--the Dow rose steadily.
By unraveling the conditions under which he died, Four Arrows and Jim Fetzer have not only paid tribute to Paul Wellstone, they've brought to light the facts surrounding yet another suspicious plane crash in a lineage that extends back to Governor Mel Carnahan and Senators John Tower and Hale Boggs.
Finally, let us recall the prescience Wellstone demonstrated in his statement to the Senate on Iraq: "The United States should unite the world against Saddam and not allow him to unite forces against us."
Review: AMERICAN ASSASSINATION Book takes controversial look at Wellstone death By Andrew Griffin
I recently read "American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone" by Four Arrows and Jim Fetzer (Vox Pop) and was stunned by what I read in those pages.
Before the mid-term elections in 2002, the United States Senate was divided 50-49 with the Democrats in control. But after the 2002 elections, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minnesota, was dead and the Republicans had regained control of the Senate, with former Wellstone's replacement being former St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman, a man specifically selected by the Bush administration.
Was there more to Wellstone's death which occurred as the result of a mysterious plane crash in northern Minnesota on Oct. 25, 2002? Why did the plane go down in relatively harmless weather just a week before the elections?
Well, intrepid investigative researchers Jim Fetzer and Dr. Don Trent Jacobs (a.k.a. Four Arrows) felt there was more to the story than that provided by the government and they proceeded to investigate this tragedy. Their research, meticulously laid out in these 182 pages, should shake this country to its very foundations.
In the preface, Fetzer and Four Arrows write that in finding out whether this was an accident or an assassination they "have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the official account presented by the National Transportation Safety Board cannot be logically sustained. Its 'findings' are even contradicted by its own evidence."
And "prove beyond a reasonable doubt," they do.
There's the weather, which was claimed to have been icy and dangerous. However, this was disputed by others flying in the area.
Then there's the presence of the FBI within 90 minutes of the crash. The authors note that it would've taken agents at least three hours to reach the swampy and remote crash site. How they got there from the Twin Cities so quickly remains a mystery.
And in addition to that, the NTSB normally takes over crash sites of this nature. Why the NTSB allowed the FBI to take control is unknown.
In researching this incident, the two undertook an independent and objective analysis of the available evidence in this case, using the pattern of scientific reasoning known as "inference to the best explanation."
Fetzer and Four Arrows note how other outspoken leaders have died in mysterious plane crashes -- from Louisiana's Rep. Hale Boggs in 1972 to Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan in 2000, among others.
In a chapter titled "Motives for Murder," the authors note how Wellstone had become a "hunted man" by those on the right because of his progressive stances on issues both foreign and domestic.
The beloved lawmaker, a humanitarian and compassionate man to the very end who even came to Louisiana to speak out against the brutal conditions in the state's private juvenile prisons, had already spoken out against the U.S. anti-drug "Plan Colombia" policy. In fact there was an attempt on Wellstone's life while he was visiting the South American country in 2001.
Wellstone was also disliked by right-wing corporate interests because of his desire to "bar corporate tax dodgers from being eligible for defense department contracts" via an amendment to the then upcoming Homeland Security bill. Wellstone's amendment was deleted in the final version -- after his death.
The two conclude that Wellstone himself would greenlight their independent investigation were he here with us.
"We believe that Paul Wellstone, who was committed to truth as well as to justice for every human being, would approve of our inquiry, precisely because the issues are profound. They affect each and every one of us who believe in democracy and the American way or wishes they still could."
And while this book isn't on any bestseller lists, it's already turning out to be an underground favorite.
Book editor Sander Hicks, with Vox Pop, told The Town Talk that the first edition of 2,500 copies sold out and that the new edition will have a new cover and more information.
"This got out by word of mouth," Hicks said. "There's a buzz building."
Hicks has been in touch with Wellstone Action! and hopes to have a serious discussion about their findings with members of the Wellstone family. In the meantime he's getting the word out on liberal radio network, Air America.
Hicks marveled that a Republican wrote an Amazon.com review of the book saying that despite voting for the re-election of George W. Bush, the book gets to the "raw truth." That inspired Hicks to go forward with more related to the findings in "American Assassination."
