Portland's Willamette Week covers 9/11 Truth

Last week, Portland 9/11 Truth hosted an evening with Mary Starrett and representatives of Evangelicals Against the War. At the last minute, we were told we couldn't use the leftist bookstore where we usually hold our meetings and presentations, because members of the store's collective felt that Starrett and the evangelical folk (who are very savvy and very outspoken about 9/11 Truth) would be "violating their safe space." A reporter from one of the two local alternative weeklies thought this was an interesting angle (because clearly the truth about the events of 9/11 doesn't rate on its own /snark) and covered the event in both her online column and an editorial in today's print edition.

A video of Starrett's presentation was posted as a blog last week. I encourage people to watch it not just for Starrett, who was the Constitution Party's candidate for governor of Oregon last year, but for the speaker from Evangelicals Against the War, whose comments preceed her talk. I'll be the first to insist that we disagree on many important issues. At this juncture in history, however, I want to make some kind of alliance with anyone who recognizes that the lies about 9/11 are at the root of a genocidal war abroad, and an Orwellian subversion of our civil liberties at home, and these people do.

And feel free to offer a little truth to Portlanders in the comments here: Willy Week.

They published my comment...

and the comment of another Truther, although that may be because we were both mentioned by name in the article.

I encourage everyone who either agrees with or can deal with Starrett's views on non-9/11 matters to send some love her way -- I'll alert her to any comments here on blogger. In addition to being candidate for governor, she is a prominent local media figure of long standing who expressed doubts about 9/11 on the very day ON THE AIR on her radio show on a Christian network. And then she got fired. She told me that almost all the feedback she receives regarding her 9/11 views is negative.

How can we tell her of our support?

Casseia, I will be glad to send a note of support to Starrett, but I do not know how to do that. Where shall we send it?

Meanwhile, I sent this comment in to the Willamette Week. I wonder if they will publish it:
__________________________________________

I believe the 9-11 issue transcends all divisions between conservative and liberal, and that it trumps any other issue in terms of importance to democracy in this country.

Anyone looking at the evidence will conclude that the 9-11-01 atrocity in this coutnry was perpetrated by elements at the top of our own government, possibly witht the help of foreign intelligence agencies. Readers interested in considering the evidence should research what happened to WTC #7 on that day. Also find out about the five war games arranged for the same date, and coordinated by our current VP, which totally disabled US air defences. Also look into the Pakistani ISI connection, in funding the operation.

Thanks, Student

Right now I don't have an email or snailmail address for her that she has told me is okay to make public. I'll work on getting that, but I'll also make sure she knows about any comments left for her here on 911blogger.

Support & Publicize 9/11 Truth.

How about leaving her some postive comments here:

http://wweek.com/editorial/3317/8634/

You don't even have to register to comment and they don't publish your email address. Very easy.

Good idea.

Expose the Portlanders to some Truth and it's two birds with the same stone.

Please mention to her on my behalf:

Your position, in clearly stating your suspicions regarding the events of 9-11-01, shows considerable courage. I thank you for that. This is patriotism in the truest sense.

I believe the 9-11 issue transcends all divisions between conservative and liberal; and, further, that it trumps almost any other issue, in terms of its importance to democracy in this country. I do in fact wonder if we still have democracy at this point. I also wonder if we have a free press.

Thank you for sharing the concerns of many in your courageous stance on the 9-11 tragedy.

Casseia, you were there?

Casseia, you were there? Darn, I was too, but I didn't know anyone from this site was going to be there, or I'd have made a point of saying hi. I live in Salem so I don't get to drop in so much as I'd like; in fact that was my first time. Hopefully not the last.

For the record, I very much enjoyed the whole meeting, except for the verrrrrrrrrrrrrry slow ordering line at the bar. It took me about 15 minutes to order my sandwich, making me late for the start of the meeting! I'm glad to have the video on Google so I can see what I missed. :-)

Want to figure out 9/11? Ponder the 9/11 "Mineta Stone"

Ah yup, I was

as was Col. Jenny Sparks and jackgabel from here at blogger!

We used to have a regular attendee who was from Salem and was trying to get a group started down there -- I think we've lost touch with him, but we can dig around. Did you catch that we're (very likely) going to host David Ray Griffin on May 21 and Bob Bowman in June? Let me know if you want to be on the subcommittee for either or both -- there's undoubtedly stuff you could do at a distance. You can email me through my contact page (if you click on my user name.)

as a former pdx citizen...

this is good to see. i miss wandering washington park.
http://anti-neocons.com/

Ah, Wolfowitz, I didn't know that!

You may remember Willamette Week as snarkiness central, but that role has now been taken by the Portland Mercury for the most part.

the wolf has roamed this country...

far and wide. i can't rhyme right now, i'm watching little house...i think doc is gonna slug edwards.
http://anti-neocons.com/

Our little friend JamesB makes an appearance!

In the comments, to further catapult the propaganda conflating 9/11 Truth with anti-Semitism and that other thing! Thanks James!

Show "You are welcome" by JamesB

I didn't think you were, actually.

Probably because I've pretty much forgotten him. It's going to be a lot more difficult to move on for you, I can see. Sorry about that -- letting go of someone so important to you is hard, isn't it? As I said in the article, 9/11 Truth makes strange bedfellows, and ones who may not agree at all on anything other than opposition to the 9/11 lies and the 9/11 wars, so I place much less importance on who funds conferences like this (not none, but less) because I know it has nothing to do with the views and objectives of the people you mention.

I'm not too impressed with the ADL because they seem to lack any awareness that the primary victims of the coming Holocaust are not Jews, but Muslims. Therefore, I don't look to them for information to inform my politics. But hey, if the only strategy you can think of to counter 9/11 Truth is to use misleading conflations and smears, they're probably a good resource for you.

Show "ADL and Willis Carto" by JamesB

Now don't take the bait, everyone...

...like I did! James is a clever bugger, he is. It's likely all that "Paul Revere" tot was just a trap to, as T.A.M. suggests, make Screw Loose Change look good! And it worked; as I said on their comment's forum, well played!

That being said, H. deniers are the fringe of the fringe. I've never met a live one. But, James love, if I ever trip over one, you'll be the first to know.

Well, maybe not "first"...perhaps "third" or "fourth"...

Impeachment. Accountability. A better world.

smears won't work

So how do you feel

Great. How about you?

What do our subjective feelings have to do with anything? Let's talk about what we think, instead. This may be more analysis than your post is worth, but here goes anyway:

about major figures in the 9/11 Truth movement like Steven Jones, Kevin Barrett, Dylan Avery and Webster Tarpley attending a conference co-sponsored by the American Free Press, a newspaper founded by Willis Carto, a man who the anti-Defamation League called "one of the most influential American anti-Semitic propagandists of the past 50 years"?

Why should people care what the ADL says? They're a vicious gang of smear artists, just like the folks who write stuff like the PM hit piece -- only less subtle and polite. If you navigate by what the ADL says, you're a victim (or an aide) of rhetorical terrorists, and you'll eventually be an adjunct of the ADL. We have more than enough of that already. Are the ADL interested in bringing out the truth about 9/11, or in suppressing it? Whose side are they on? Why are they always falsely smearing people and using vague, loaded-language intimidation tactics instead of solid commentary? And most pertinently here, why are you using them as a source, implying that we should heed them?

By contrast, has Willis Carto or the AFP tried to shout down and intimidate any part of the movement? No? So why are you trying to do it to them, using the abhorrent ADL as your source?

http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/2007/03/911-deniers-attending-confe...

You know, I am starting to think this is what you call a trend.

You know, I am starting to think you would actually like people to think that, and to adopt the views of the ADL about it. Your comments seem singularly designed to accomplish that goal.

Should we get into how buddy-buddy the ADL is with the very entities in our gummint (FBI, BATF, etc.) which are complicit in the terrorism being wreaked against us over the past decades? Should we compare the resources of the AFP and the ADL, to see which one is in a position to be the bully?

9/11 truth has multiple enemies. One of them is self-anointed libel-happy censorship/intimidation outfits like the ADL. The AFP, by contrast, is sponsoring and promoting 9/11 truth, and not seeking to intimidate anyone.

Is it really so hard to identify which side these groups are on? I don't think so. This is a big issue and a big movement; there are going to be tons of "strange bedfellow" encounters. Hell, I'll even hold my nose and stand alongside the ADL, if by some miracle they break with tradition and start fighting for openness and honesty re: 9/11. (I still wouldn't like them, but I'd work with them where possible.) If you're going to demand agreement on everything, or even much of anything beyond 9/11, you're going to splinter the effort.

I believe we can speak with 1 voice on 9/11, while retaining our individual views on other matters. If you have an issue which you think is an exception to that spirit of unity, I say you need to make a real case for it, not rely on prejudiced smear material from the ADL.

Want to figure out 9/11? Ponder the 9/11 "Mineta Stone"

Didn't read the article yet

but I watched the video you posted last week and I second your recommendation to watch - it's a beautiful portrayal of the political diversity in the movement.

The Eleventh Day of Every Month

Congratulations...

On your coverage.


"So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies."

Richard Cheney - Chief Executive Of Halliburton