By Craig McKee
It’s a challenge to interview someone you’d rather be debating. That was the case when I interviewed Canadian writer and journalist Jonathan Kay this week. Kay, an editor with the National Post, is the author of Among the Truthers, which attempts to examine and explain the world of conspiracy theorists. Why do these otherwise intelligent people believe the “bullshit” that they do, he wonders? He sees the 9/11 Truth movement as being ridiculous and based on arguments that “even an eight-year-old” would see through. I chose to try and cover as much ground in 45 minutes as I could rather than getting into an in-depth debate on any one point. I did find things in his arguments that cry out for further argument , and I will offer my analysis of his remarks in a subsequent post. I encourage readers to offer their own comments at the end of this article.
CM: What is the difference between a conspiracy theorist and someone who does legitimate research to unearth a real conspiracy?
JK: I define according to the method of argumentation of the people who advance the theory in question. I give the example of Iran/Contra, Teapot Dome, the Sponsorship Scandal or Watergate, which of course were real historical conspiracies. If you’re advancing something like this, one person will advance evidence and the other person will refute it, and by that method you Continue reading
Griffin challenged for ‘weak logic’, ignoring evidence on 9/11 'calls'
By Craig McKee
David Ray Griffin’s newest book is receiving criticism not so much from believers in the government’s official story as from his usual supporters within the 9/11 Truth movement.
In a new essay, Paul Zarembka – an economics professor, 9/11 researcher, and editor of The Hidden History of 9-11 – offers a critique of Griffin’s analysis of the subject of whether phone calls from the four allegedly hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001 were faked. Zarembka challenges the conclusions reached in chapter five of Griffin’s new book, 9/11 Ten Years Later: When State Crimes Against Democracy Succeed.
“The internal logic of Griffin’s chapter rather surprised me for its weakness,” Zarembka writes in the Continue reading
CIT would likely have said no to ‘fixed’ Toronto 9/11 hearings: Ranke
By Craig McKee
Citizen Investigation Team would almost certainly not have participated in the Toronto 9/11 hearings last month even if invited, CIT’s Craig Ranke said in an interview.
“We knew they weren’t going to give us a fair hearing, even in the unlikely event that some of our evidence was addressed,” Ranke says.
“If we had been invited, it would have been foolish for us to automatically accept knowing that we’d be walking into a rigged situation where all aspects of the discussion, and even the final report, were controlled by our detractors and their associates.”
Ranke says it’s apparent to him that one of the major goals of the hearings all along was to marginalize CIT’s evidence that a large plane approached, but did not hit, the Pentagon Continue reading
Conflict, consensus and 9/11 truth: an interview with David Ray Griffin
Griffin now focuses on al-Qaeda not flying a 757 into the Pentagon.
I met David Ray Griffin at the recent Toronto 9/11 Hearings, and heard his presentation on the anomalies of flights 77 and 93. In his talk, Griffin introduced us to his new “consensus approach” to exposing the official lies of 9/11. I did a brief interview with Griffin following his presentation, but we agreed to do a more substantial interview by email once the hearings were over. What follows is that interview. I decided against my earlier inclination, which was to write back with follow-up questions before publishing. I chose instead to present my original questions and his answers.– Craig McKee
CM: In your new book, what did you most want people to understand about the fight to expose the 9/11 inside job?
DRG: I think that the main purpose was essentially the same as previous books – laying out various types of evidence that the official story is false – plus the new aim: seeing 9/11 as an example of – indeed, the preeminent example of – a SCAD (a state crime against democracy).
CM: How has your level of optimism/pessimism changed in recent years?
DRG: I don’t know that it has changed much. I like Gramsci’s motto, combining “pessimism of the intellect” with “optimism of the will.” Intellectual pessimism about the emergence of the truth about 9/11 in the public sphere is Continue reading
Griffin’s ‘no 757’ Pentagon stance eclipses ‘consensus approach’
Griffin offers overwhelming evidence that no 757 hit the Pentagon.
By Craig McKee
The best argument I’ve found against David Ray Griffin’s new “consensus approach” to the Pentagon comes from a very reliable source – David Ray Griffin.
In his new book, 9/11 Ten Years After: When State Crimes Against Democracy Succeed, the dean of 9/11 Truth makes the strongest case yet that the U.S. government faked a plane crash at the Pentagon to deceive the world. He shows us that the strongest evidence by far shows Continue reading
Griffin’s embrace of CIT critics a setback for 9/11 Pentagon research
By Craig McKee
Over the past several years, David Ray Griffin has set the highest standard for 9/11 research. He has looked at the entire official story, showing us how every aspect of it fails to stand up to scrutiny.
His approach has been just right, and 9/11 Truth would not have achieved a fraction of what it has without his efforts.
For the first time in those 10 years, however, there’s a “but.”
His presentation at the Toronto 9/11 hearings last week on “anomalies” of flights 77 and 93 introduced some troubling elements to his position that weren’t there before. And I fear the Continue reading
My Toronto Hearings 9/11 notebook: the good, the bad, and the uninvited
September 13, 2011
By Craig McKee
While TV offers us solemn ceremonies paying tribute to the victims of 9/11, the real story continues in the fight for truth about why those people died and who really killed them.
While our corporate media continue to show us the sadness and loss from this catastrophic day, they also continue to block any of the facts. And these facts show categorically that the official narrative is an elaborate cover story for the largest and most spectacular false flag attack in our lifetimes.
On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I was in Toronto, Canada to see the long-awaited and much-argued-over International Continue reading
Toronto 9/11 hearings navigate Pentagon minefield with 'consensus'
By Craig McKee
For Graeme MacQueen, the word is – or should be – consensus.
MacQueen, a member of the steering committee for the Toronto 9/11 Hearings (Sept. 8-11), says the event was conceived as an opportunity to reach people who are not yet convinced that 9/11 was an inside job, and to show how the evidence does not support the official story. He says the fight over whether a 757 did or did not hit the Pentagon should be put on the back burner so that the hearings Continue reading
Has credibility of Toronto 9/11 hearings been hurt by pressure?
This post requires an update. In it, I expressed outrage at the appearance that a change was being made to the roster of Toronto witnesses based on pressure from the group that regularly attacks Citizen Investigation Team and ridicules the idea that no 757 hit the Pentagon. It turns out that while pressure was certainly applied, this change was at the request of the person whose name was removed from the schedule (April Gallop). Despite the fact that I said people should be angry “if” she was removed due to pressure and didn’t state this as a fact, the impression left was unfair to the organizers of the hearings.–Craig McKee
By Craig McKee
It appears that the organizers of the Toronto 9/11 hearings have utterly caved to pressure and thrown fairness and common sense under the bus in the process.
April Gallop, who was injured in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 along with her infant son, has been removed from the list of witnesses at the upcoming hearings (Sept. 8-11), to be replaced by an “unconfirmed” witness. If that replacement is assigned to make the case that a 757 did, in fact, hit the Continue reading
Eyes on the Pentagon: new Toronto event independent of 9/11 hearings
Witnesses in CIT film describe flight path to the north of the official one.
By Craig McKee
The Toronto 9/11 hearings are no longer the only game in town.
The 9/11 research group Citizen Investigation Team, which contends that no commercial airliner hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, has announced it will present a screening of its documentary National Security Alert on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in Toronto. The Sept. 11 event will also Continue reading