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Mark Twain said, “If you don’t read the newspaper,
you’re uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.”
According to Toronto writer
Barrie Zwicker, this is the
sorry truth about the officially accepted version of September 11, 2001,
which he dissects in his new book Towers of Deception: The Media
Cover-Up of 9/11.
As a media
critic, Zwicker’s credentials are impeccable: in addition to his
commentaries on CBC Radio and Vision TV, he has worked for the Toronto
Star and The Globe and Mail, and taught journalism at Ryerson University
for seven years.
 Common
Ground: According to a few polls taken
in the US and Canada, there is a notable lack of faith in the official
story on 9/11. Why do you think this disbelief persists, in spite of the
lack of media interest in an alternative take on 9/11?
 Barrie
Zwicker: The disbelief persists because
despite the drumbeat of the official story, and despite the nearly utter
failure of the mainstream media to raise questions about the absurdities
and impossibilities of the official story, ordinary, decent people,
using their own senses and adding two and two, smell something fishy.
Especially because the people promoting the official story, namely the
White House and the big media, also promoted the lie of WMDs in Iraq,
and have lied and covered up on other large issues. What I call the
apologist community has more and more to answer for.
The early
August Scripps Howard/Ohio University nationwide poll shows 36 percent
of the US public “… suspects 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.” The same poll shows “… anger
against the federal government is at record levels.” The most common
thing that Americans tell me is that the Bush regime is capable of
anything and that it will stop at nothing. I agree.
CG:
You were skeptical early on about the official story on 9/11. What was
it that gave you your initial doubts?
BZ:
My initial doubts arose before noon on
the day of 9/11, based on the absence of any USAF response to the
multiple hijackings, over a drama in the skies that lasted almost two
hours. As a person always very interested in aviation, I knew that this
quite simply was impossible. It turned out I was the first journalist in
the world to go on national TV to question the official story.
CG:
If 9/11 were a conspiracy against the American people, it would
presumably require the involvement of hundreds, if not thousands of
people, to play their respective roles and maintain silence afterwards.
What do you say to critics who say people can’t keep secrets, and that
something this big is bound to get out?
BZ:
For one thing, I point to the Manhattan
Project, in which the US developed and then exploded the first atomic
bomb. Conceived in 1939, the Project, by its completion, involved 43,000
people at 37 facilities in 19 states and in Canada. It was kept entirely
secret. Who knew about the stealth bomber until the military chose to
reveal it? Who knew about the U-2 spy plane until one was shot down over
the USSR, thereby wrecking the Paris peace talks? Large secrets can’t be
kept? Gimme a break!
CG:
Many will be willing to go with you as far as the idea that the White
House had forewarning of the attacks but allowed them to go through for
political gain. But they will reject the idea of direct government
involvement. What do you say to them?
BZ:
In any crime, you have to search out all the evidence you can and then
find out which suspect the evidence points to more than any other
suspect. In the case of 9/11, the smoking guns are all pointed at the
White House. Some people shrink from this observation out of a sheer
established trust in government, or the belief that government would be
incapable of such a heinous crime. Such a belief is unjustified by the
evidence of what previous governments throughout history have done. Keep
in mind what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in The Sign of Four: “Whenever
you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however
improbable, must be the truth.”
CG:
In your book and DVD, you cite the declassified Operation Northwoods, a
planned “false flag” operation that nearly came to be 30 years ago. Can
you tell us more about this plan for a staged domestic terror attack?
BZ:
The frightening thing about Operation Northwoods was that the whole of
the US Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously signed off on it. It involved
American citizens being killed, to make more real the lie that the
Cubans were carrying out “terrorist attacks” against the US.
Furthermore, most of the advisors around then President John F. Kennedy
were in favour of the horrible ruse, which would have led to the
invasion of Cuba back in 1962. The rot of criminal, immoral,
death-dealing deception was already that deeply rooted in the US White
House then. Is today’s White House more pure?
CG:
In your book, you state that it is the cumulative weight of evidence,
rather than any one incident that leads you to believe 9/11 was an
inside job. If you were to name the closest thing to a smoking gun, what
would that be?
BZ:
Smoking guns include the near freefall collapse – controlled demolition,
for example – of WTC7. The non-appearance of the USAF for almost two
hours on 9/11, and Bush saying he saw on ordinary TV the first plane
hit, when footage of the hit was not aired on ordinary TV until the next
day, come second and third in my lineup of smoking guns.
CG:
Can you tell us more about World Trade Centre building number seven?
BZ:
As mentioned, it was a matter of controlled demolition, which Larry
Silverstein, the building’s owner, later admitted in the PBS documentary
Rebuilding America. The question is could Osama bin Laden have been able
to infiltrate his al Qaeda agents into WTC-7 weeks in advance and plant
the required explosives? If he did have that power, how come the
administration, and of course, the mass media in general, pay so little
attention to this amazing power of Osama’s as to make WTC-7 a
“non-building” to this day? Why does the 9/11 commission’s report not
mention its collapse whatsoever?
CG: In your
opinion, which techniques are being used to cover up the real story?
BZ:
They’re more than techniques. As I have written about extensively in my
book, there are deep and widespread realities of the media that create a
de facto censorship regime as powerful as Pravda and Izvestia ever were
in the old Soviet Union. You have to start with the owners of the
corporate media, who are closely supportive of the Bush White House. The
Fox News network is, in effect, a privatized, propaganda network at the
disposal of Bush and company.
Add to this the
traditions of journalism – he said, she said journalism, for instance –
that treats lies and truth equally. And that journalists live in the
same fiction-ridden society as everyone else, and are not, despite their
pretensions, immune from “Big Picture BS.” As well, many, if not most,
journalists are careerists and learn which stories or actions will get
them raises and promotions, and which will get them into hot water. Put
all these factors and many more, including peer group pressure, together
and you get a situation akin to a school of fish; they all learn in
which direction to swim and they all swim in that direction together.
CG:
Of the independent researchers and/or writers digging into this matter,
whom do you follow and respect?
BZ:
There are many. And many, if not most
of them, are ordinary, unsung people I meet in various cities who are
doggedly pursuing 9/11 truth and trying to share it with their families,
neighbours and colleagues. Of the better-known 9/11 truth activists, I
think my greatest respect and admiration must go to Dr. David Ray
Griffin, now the author of four books about the truth of 9/11. I devote
a chapter to him in my new book.
Michael C.
Ruppert, although he has, unfortunately, made some negative and
unnecessary remarks about the 9/11 truth movement, remains a giant of
the movement in my eyes nevertheless. He was about the earliest out of
the gate, and when he spoke in Toronto in January of 2002, he pried my
eyes open much wider than they were at that time. He connected the dots
between the CIA, Wall Street, the illegal drug trade, corruption in the
US government and 9/11. I believe his video, Truth and Lies of 9/11, was
the first of its kind, based on a talk he gave in Portland, Oregon, in
November 2001. He now focuses almost exclusively on Peak Oil and again,
not only was he early on that, but he has also helped boost the
visibility of the coming end of the age of oil, which will be
civilization-shaking.
CG:
Given your conclusions about 9/11, do you have suspicions about the
attacks in Bali, Madrid and London?
BZ:
More than suspicions. In my book, I list 18 false flag operations,
including Madrid and London. I also believe Bali 1 and Bali 2 were false
flag ops. More recently, the trans-Atlantic exploding shampoo terror
fraud was obvious from the beginning, as was the roundup of 17
“terrorist suspects” in Toronto in June of 2006.
CG:
In the past, mainstream media has shown its readiness to give nominal
coverage to activists and their campaigns, only to dismiss them, or
reduce the concerns to just one more scare story in a barrage of
manufactured news. Are you concerned this could happen with your
message?
BZ:
There are signs that, spurred by the
inescapable imperative of news organizations to play up anniversaries in
a big way, that even the mainstream is having to recognize there are a
lot of people who are not on board with the official story. But after
the fifth anniversary passes, there will be a tendency to once again
relegate all 9/11 truth activity to the memory hole. Of course, other
developments, especially one or more other horrendous false flag ops,
could change the whole picture, probably much for the worse.
CG:
Many people would prefer to ignore or reject your conclusions. For to
take any of it seriously means more than a co-opted or complicit media;
it means we are governed by monsters and there is no social contract.
What do you say to the people who reject your thesis, for fear of
looking into the abyss?
BZ:
I sympathize with people who do not want, as you so well phrase it, to
look into the abyss. It takes courage and a dedication to follow the
truth wherever it may lead, however discomfiting or even threatening to
the well- being of oneself and one’s family.
At the same
time, I think our best chance to get out of our multiple messes is to
face them squarely, take the bull by the horns and join the struggle for
a safer, saner world. In a way, I agree with Bush, and with Jesus, in
their stating, “You’re either with me or against me.” One of the most
dispiriting things is to encounter people who say, “I know what you say
is true, but I don’t intend to do anything about it.” Would they say
that if their doctor diagnosed them with cancer?
CG:
Do you see any chance in the near future of reversing a trend toward
reduced civil rights, military expansion and global atmospheric
breakdown?
BZ:
If by near future you mean five years, yes. I also think that if we the
people have not seriously undermined the ruling hyper-militaristic,
super-deceitful, power-mad oiligarchy of ruthless greedsters, they will
have declared martial law and moved to full-fledged fascism. I do not
say this lightly. I mean the kind of genocidal fascism that Hitler
practised. Today’s oligarchy was spawned by the same forces – runaway
corporatism and ideology – that fueled Hitler’s Third Reich. We either
stop them, or we, and our children – those who survive – will be living
in the Fourth Reich, which may be the ultimate fate of humankind, which
is not wired for survival.
As the resources run out, Earth will be a pathetic place, where a few
ultra-wealthy live in fortified places, while the vast majority either
die or barely survive. A successful revolution might be as unlikely as
bringing the oil back. I think we have to imagine how good life on Earth
could be if we smarten up and learn to live together, and how bad it
could be if the present trends continue.
Remember, the
present trends, or at least most of them, are toward dystopia. To
overlook this is to engage in fatal denial. Denial is probably the main
Achilles’ heel of the species known as Homo sapiens.
There
are too many great websites to list; here are a few to get you started:
www.911truth.org
www.oldamericancentury.org
www.mujca.com
www.truthout.org
www.citizenscourt.com
www.911blogger.com
www.podcasts.com
Events:
September 8-11, New York City- Be part of history. Come to NYC for the
5th anniversary of 9/11.
info@ny911truth.org
September 11-17, 2006, Washington, D.C. People will convene and move
through the legal recourse needed to redress the government. The “War of
Lies” has passed the $500 billion debt mark and 3,000 Americans are
dead, along with hundreds of thousands in the nation we “saved.” Freedom
and liberty have been sold out to a federal police force. All Americans
have been affected by corporate and limited liability governments and
municipal codes. The time has come for a change. See
http://www.911citizenscourt.com/index.php
Magazines: Global
Outlook ( www.globaloutlook.ca
). Books by David Ray Griffin: The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and
Distortions;
9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out; Christian Faith and
the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action
Videos:
9/11 Press for Truth
Everybody’s Got to Know Sometime
The Truth & Lies of 9/11
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1982-2006 Common Ground Publishing Corp.
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