Tuesday, August 28, 2007

"Noooooooo, Robert Fisk. Don't go down the black hole!!!"

Robert Fisk is getting a lot of flack these days, and it is not coming from those one would expect -- those shrill "ravers" as Fisk likes to describe those people who like to throw chairs and tables around ranting about why nobody takes them seriously when they express their doubts about 9/11. No, this time the flack is coming from those esteemed defenders of the official myth of 9/11 in the so-called "left".

In case you missed it, Fisk wrote a quasi-polemic piece titled: "Robert Fisk: Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11," which generated a backlash from the keepers of the faith like Manuel Garcia Jr. and Andrew Bolt from the "Herald Sun."

Fisk's story can be read here: news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2893860.ece

Fisk starts his piece tepidly enough, saying how he doesn't think the Bush administration could have pulled off 9/11 because of their incompetence in the Middle East. He writes:
"the Bush administration has screwed up everything – militarily, politically diplomatically – it has tried to do in the Middle East; so how on earth could it successfully bring off the international crimes against humanity in the United States on 11 September 2001?"
... however, Fisk proceeds to lay out a case for the opposite conclusion -- that maybe they are not as incompetent as they seem:
"I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11. It's not just the obvious non sequiturs: where are the aircraft parts (engines, etc) from the attack on the Pentagon? Why have the officials involved in the United 93 flight (which crashed in Pennsylvania) been muzzled? Why did flight 93's debris spread over miles when it was supposed to have crashed in one piece in a field?"
Here Fisk, though not exactly practicing "doublethink" (the ability to hold on to two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them) is coming very close to practicing that talent.

But, I don't want to rant or "rave" on Fisk however. I actually admire him for taking a step into the "blackhole" with the rest of us "troofers," as the counter-9/11 conspiracy types like to call us (I am not sure what that implies, but I guess it is their lame attempt at humor). No, this article has to do with the attacks by the "left" on Fisk for doing "crimethink," which is the worst crime one can commit according to the Outer Party in Orwell's 1984. By Fisk thinking out of the box(cutters) and expressing doubts about the official story he is, in effect, committing a horrible, unspeakable act which must be rectified at all costs.

And, who should come to the rescue to save Fisk from his doubting-thomas self but Manuel Garcia Jr. who can barely contain himself in his latest piece posted on CounterPunch.org (ouch!): "You Are Now Entering a Black Hole: 911 Emergency! Calling Robert Fisk!"

("Fisk, grab my hand! don't go there, I can pull you baaaaaak!")

In this article Garcia shares his correspondence between Carmelita McQuillan with the readers of CounterPunch.org. McQuillan seems to be saying that "look, maybe there is something wrong with the official story because even Robert Fisk has his doubts about what happened on 9/11." Garcia counters that "Robert can find all of his answers (to his 9/11 Truth questions) at: wtc7lies.googlepages.com/home

(This may come as miraculous news to all those Truth activists who for so many years were diligently looking for the fount of 9/11 truth. Now you have it. Garcia has found the oracle of truthiness, and it is just one web-link away. Hallelujah! Just make sure the fumes from the oracle don't knock you off your tripod into the abyss of dialectic sophistry.)

Garcia proceeds to enlighten Fisk in his article with his unparalleled logic and supernatural understanding of physics. Here he lays down an explanation for why debris from flight 93 was found over a wide area of Pennsylvania:
"On flight 93 parts spread over miles, not so surprising. When a big jet plows into the ground at full speed, one can expect a large explosive force that can scatter aluminum shrapnel far and wide. Also, when an airplane is overstressed (which may have happened with Flight 93, I don't know) it might begin to break up in flight, and pieces can fall off. I have seen a landing gear door on the freeway, from a small plane, clearly recently dropped (freeway next to an airport)."
Oh really, Garcia? So, if a plane hits at high speed into the ground you are going to have a debris field over many miles in a STRAIGHT LINE instead of radially spread out? Are you living on earth or on some parallel universe where metal, and organic debris, follow some other force of nature?

Also, Garcia's "over-stressed plane" scenario is just unsubstantiated speculation. When in history have we ever seen a plane begin to break up into small debris in mid-flight when it hasn't been hit by a missile? His small plane losing a door on the freeway doesn't cut the empirical-truth mustard either.

But, like so many other defenders of the official story of 9/11, cartoon physics are applied regularly to explain phenomenon that defy logic, and, because people are so desperate for someone to tell them that their government couldn't possibly do such an unspeakable act, they turn off that part of their brain that one would normally use for higher cognitive thinking.

And, Garcia isn't the only one who has taken a swipe at Fisk recently (and, I am sure there will be more of that to come). Andrew Bolt from the Herald Sun wants all such nonsense-talk nipped in the bud as it is upsetting liberals like himself and Tony Blair. He writes: "Are they all mad?":
"Unlike Sheen, Fisk can't be dismissed as just another crank who represents no one.

He is welcome in almost any ABC studio even today, his documentaries are reverentially presented on SBS, his books sell well in modish shops, and even at the end of his bizarre Sydney speech, the audience gave him a long and loving ovation.

This is the kind of madness in the Left that so worries Blair. And if it worries even a leader of that Left, it sure frightens me."

www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,18636966-25717,00.html
Now this may come as news to many readers: Tony Blair is the leader of the Left?! Wait, let me do some quick doublethinking to fully appreciate Bolt's assertion: Tony Blair's liberal government helped kill a million Iraqis; Tony Blair's liberal government is the Iraqi people's savior. 2 + 2= 5.

Ahhh, yes, that's better.

This is what is being asked of us today; the powers that be are hoping we will voluntarily do doublethink and turn off our capacity to question reality without having to resort to physical torture in Room 101.

But, if enough of us, especially those with Fisk's reputation and creditials begin to dig deep into the morass of 9/11, and, as a consequence excavate the horrible truth and are vocal about it, we will be a unbeatable force to reckon with.

• • •


For an excellent commentary on Robert Fisk and 9/11 censorship, see:

"Robert Fisk and the closet of media 911 self-censorship":
wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/3183