One hopes that a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll is wrong because, if it isn’t, a third of the nation seems to be slipping into La-La Land.
The poll claims that a third of Americans suspect that federal officials assisted in the 9-11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East.
Besides a lack of critical thinking, that is obviously not being taught in the nation’s schools and colleges, what could possibly explain this departure from reality?
Years before 9-11, Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States and, after the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people, took credit and praised the hijackers as martyrs, and promised eternal jihad against Americans.
It’¢s true that conspiracy theories have run wild on the Internet and, for that matter, on a few college campuses. (The University of Wisconsin has a professor who claims 9-11 was an inside job, and that the CIA was also involved in the Bali bombing, in addition to having a hand in the terrorist acts in Madrid and London.) However, normal folks with minds not in limbo were hoping the UW professor was a fluke, not the norm.
Paranoid fantasies about the government or UFO alien abduction tales often have an amusing aspect, but the nutty conspiracy theories inevitably become anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, with adherents claiming Jews are the source of all the evil in the world.
Some 50 years ago, historian Richard Hofstadter published his classic “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.” However, at that time, the goofy paranoid theories were mostly rightwing. Now, it is leftwing believers who are swallowing hook, line and sinker the conspiracy theories du jour.
George Orwell once said, “To see what is in front of one’s nose takes a constant struggle.”
Alas, if this poll is right, a third of Americans have lost the struggle. They cannot see what is in front of their noses.
I support Israel and don’t hate Jews. But some of the things the “conspiracy nuts” say has made me rethink the events of 9/11.
I am especially curious as to how those Israelis found themselves with video equipment in just such a place in New Jersey to film the attacks. And they were seen high-fiving each other with smiles.
And I have heard no explanation as to what those Israeli moving company employees were doing driving around the U.S. in trucks with traces of explosives. I have heard of at least three or four instances where the trucks were pulled over and the drivers giving hard-to-believe explanations. One truck stopped in New Mexico was supposedly moving furniture from Texas to Chicago but could not explain why they were in New Mexico, miles away from the most direct route.
Personally, I subscribe to the 90/10 theory. 90% of all people, no matter what nationality, race, color, religion, etc. are hard working, decent, honest people. 10% of all the same people are complete assholes.
I don’t think all conspiracy stories (or all conspiracy nuts for that matter) should be dismissed out of hand. For example I think it’s possible that Oswald didn’t act alone, The US Gov probably knows more about UFO’s than they are letting on about (probably less than France though.)
Regarding 9/11, I really don’t subscribe to the theory that this was a US or Israeli operation to bring about change in the Middle East (or whatever motive is spinning around this week.) I do think that people high up in the US system knew that something was up that day, simply that they also “new” something was up hundreds of other times when nothing happened at all.
9/11 was an exceptionally brilliant and devastating hack of a system by a relatively small group of men. I really think that those (or something close to it) seem to be the facts. Those who are suddenly post 9/11 building demolition experts, digital photography experts or Airframe experts are just talking out of their posterior orifices. I have the same opinion of them that I have for the anti-moon landing bunch. “Get a life.” There are lots of real conspiracies out there, why chase the fake ones?
I think Israel, through surveillance, knew something was coming down and probably told the U.S. They possibly knew an attack on N.Y.C. was coming but had no detailed specifics. The Israelis maybe got lucky and were in a good place to film the attacks and were seen congratulating themselves.
But the moving vans with traces of explosives just can’t be explained away.
Um, where exactly did you get this information? Here? http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fiveisraelis.html T
That stuff is not credible. In any case, it’s really not possible to sort out exactly what happened in New York that day. There will be rumors and counter rumors, some people are so bent on pinning 9/11 on the Jews or the US Gov that they are going to read all kinds of stuff into it.
There were dozens of people in good places to film the trade towers destruction, only two to my recollection filmed the first aircraft crash, one was French and the other was South African I believe.
There was a police radio call of Arabs celebrating on a rooftop, I heard that one myself (and may have taped it, I have an archive of radio calls from 9/11 including a report of the second tower collapsing by one of the local PDs.) This stuff was being streamed by several sources and I have a way with computers.
Here’s two links I found in ten minutes:
Recently, the chief stopped a U-Haul van in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, near the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Alamogordo. According to the Alamogordo Daily News, the two truck drivers had Israeli driver’s licenses and claimed they were hauling furniture from Austin to Chicago. Yet the rental agreement had expired two days earlier and New Mexico was way off track from the Austin to Chicago route. The Israelis then changed their story – they claimed they were dropping off furniture in Deming, New Mexico. But they could not provide a delivery address in the town. Also, their rental agreement was only for intrastate use in Illinois. Inside the truck, Chief Green found junk furniture not worth moving anywhere and 50 boxes that the Israelis claimed were a “private delivery.†The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) took the Israelis into custody and if history proves consistent, we will never hear anymore about the Israelis, why the truck was near a major U.S. nuclear laboratory, and what was in the boxes.
Since well over a year before September 11 and ever since, there have been repeated stories about Israelis being picked up driving trucks near critical infrastructure sites, taking pictures of sensitive and classified facilities, and even videotaping and celebrating the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. The FBI, US Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, US Coast Guard, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, US Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and numerous local police have investigated the Israelis, many who claimed to be “art students,†probing the security of the offices and homes of U.S. law enforcement and military personnel. Israelis sticking to dubious explanations have been caught sneaking around Texaco oil terminals in Corpus Christi, Texas; the AWACS base at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington; the Interstate 40 Hernando de Soto Bridge in Memphis; the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Philadelphia; and Federal buildings in Miami, San Diego, and New Orleans. Every investigation was soon taken out of law enforcement hands and shut down. Some brave media reporters have tried to expose what appears to a number of seasoned law enforcement and intelligence a major intelligence gathering operation. Carl Cameron of Fox News reported the Israeli espionage activity in December 2001, only to see his story suddenly pulled from the Fox News web site. Washington DC’s ABC Channel 7 news anchor Dale Solly also reported on the Israeli activity in March 2002. After expressing an interest in pursuing the story further, Solly suddenly died of a heart attack at the age of 53 shortly before driving to the station to anchor the evening news. His story was similarly removed from the Channel 7 web site.
Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen05242003.html
In October of 2001, three more Israeli “movers†were stopped in Plymouth, PA because of their suspicious behavior. These “movers†were seen dumping furniture near a restaurant dumpster! When the restaurant manager approached the driver, a “Middle Eastern†man later identified as Moshe Elmakias fled the scene. 151 The manager made note of the truck’s sign which read “Moving Systems Incorporated†and called the police.
Then the police spotted the truck, two other Israelis – Ayelet Reisler and Ron Katar began acting suspiciously.152 The Plymouth police searched the truck and found a video. The Israelis were taken into custody and the video tape was played at the police station. The video revealed footage of Chicago with zoomed in shots of the Sears Tower. 153 The police quickly alerted the FBI and it was also discovered that the Israelis had falsified travel logs and phony paperwork on them.154 They were also unable to provide a name and telephone number for the customer that they claimed to have been working for. These Israelis were up to some sort of dirty business, and you can be sure it had nothing to do with moving furniture.
On October 10, 2001, CNN made a brief mention of a foiled terrorist bomb plot in the Mexican Parliament building. They promised to bring any further developments of this story to their viewers, but the incident was never heard of again in America. But the story appeared in bold headlines on the front page of the major Mexican newspapers 155 and was also posted on the official website of the Mexican Justice Department. 156 Two terrorist suspects were apprehended in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. Caught red-handed, they had in their possession a high powered gun, nine hand grenades, and C-4 plastic explosives (great stuff for demolishing buildings!) 157 Within days, this blockbuster story not only disappeared from the Mexican press, but the terrorists were released and deported! The two terrorists were Salvador Gerson Sunke and Sar ben Zui. Can you guess what their ethnicity was? Gerson Sunke was a Mexican Jew and Zui was a colonel with the Israeli special forces. 158 Can you say “Mossad?â€
In May of 2002, yet another moving van was pulled over in Oak Harbor, Washington near the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. Fox News reported that the van was pulled over for speeding shortly after midnight. The passengers told the police they were delivering furniture, but because it was so late at night, the police weren’t buying the story. A bomb sniffing dog was brought in and the dog detected the presence of TNT and RDX plastic explosives in the truck (great stuff for demolishing buildings!) Both Fox News 165 and the Ha’aretz newspaper of Israel 166 reported that the two “movers†were Israelis
Source: http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?3307S
I really don’t know for sure. These reports don’t exactly sound like nefarious plots by the Mossad to commit acts of terrorism in the US do they? I guess one can make an argument based on this stuff that Israel is working behind the scenes to embroil the US in some kind of world war with the Arabs.
I mean, a bunch of Saudis came into the US, took flying lessons at US schools, violated all kinds of rules in the process (they did touch and goes at closed airports, didn’t file flight plans etc.) They generally acted like loonies if you believe the reports, bu?t no one even noticed them until they killed a bunch of people.
Moral of the story? One can treat every strange action by a foreigner as a terrorist plot or stop being so paranoid and go about one’s business. Certainly people will do bad things but the US doesn’t need to respond with carpet bombs, just like Israel doesn’t need to destroy Palestine because some idiots kidnapped a few solders.