Things have been a wee bit hectic for me as of late but this is certainly nothing new or surprising to me since I have always tried to 'be prepared' and to expect the unexpected. Oftentimes, I think, if we expect something to happen in a certain way, at a certain place and time, then probabilistically speaking, it will not happen in the way we expect since we are selecting one possibility of many possibilities and the probability of that particular expectation happening in the way we expect it to happen is made even more improbable by virtue of our expectation of it.
For example, I was recently reading a book called the Mothman Prophecies by John Keel
which talked about the catastrophic collapse of the Silver Bridge which crossed the Ohio River and which linked Gallipolis, Ohio with Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Over 40 people were killed when their cars dropped into the icy depths of the river below. The catalyst for the bridge's collapse was a big traffic jam on the bridge due to a defective traffic light that failed to go green. The red traffic light was reminisent of those red eyes of the Mothman creature that terrrorized the people of Point Pleasant so many years ago.
Well, no sooner had I read this book then something a little strange happened. I was driving over a major bridge while working my new job (I'm glad I'm out of that Home Depot) and well (don't ya know), sure enough, there was a major traffic jam on the bridge due to road constuction. I sat there fretting, thinking to myself, "Yikes!!, Holy jeepers creepers!, he we go again, I was just reading about this in that Mothman book!"
But then no sooner had the above comment crossed my mind then I also thought the following: "Well, if I'm thinking about it then its likely NOT going to happen since these kinds of things happen when we least expect it if there is no physical evidence to tell us that, probabilistically speaking, it will most likely happen. There was no physical evidence to show me that this bridge was most likely going to collapse and the odds of it happening at that moment, when I was thinking and worrying about it, even made it more improbable simply because I was expecting it to collapse, at that moment, in a certain way, at a certain time.
Suddenly I felt better!
In a way it was like the reverse of winning the lottery. If you expect a certain number to come up then the odds of you winning, at that particular time is even less only because of your expectation and your thinking about it. When it comes to blind prophecies and "chance" then the best approach is to expect the unexpected. However, by knowing the observable facts one can predict more or less probable outcomes relating to future events but one can never really know what the outcome will exactly be.
But our unconscious fears know exactly how things will be and so they often become as we imagine things to be. We can predict an outcome if we make it so from our own fears.
Phantams of the future, within our subconscious, can feed the fears of the present and the fears of the present can feed the phantams of the future bringing them closer and closer together until they unite in one blinding flash.
As I stated in an earlier blog, the Bush regime and many of these so called 'alternative web sites' which are staged and funded by big bux backed government cointelpro agents, are using propaganda to fan the flames of our collective fears, like that fear that I had while crossing that bridge, as a means to control the minds of the masses similiar to the way the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels used fear as a tool for mind control during the reign of the Third Reich, reinforced by the draconian controls implemented by that failed chicken farmer Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS and the Gestapo, who used black magic and any religious doctrine he could find which could justify his racial ideas and 'name calling.'
Religon and fear make a most volitile, but most effective mix.
And of course we cannot forget that paranoid failed art teacher, Adolph Hitler who directed that whole show and who in the wake of tens of millions of deaths tried to establish and old world order that is as old as the hills and is what we today really call the "new world order," that the paranoid George Bush is hell bent on achieving. But it is really just a continuation and repetition of that first attempt of that old order by kings and monarchs in the past to establish complete control of their world and every living creature on it.
Those who ignore the facts of history are doomed to repeat it.
The mind control and propaganda generated by the US government propaganda machine is an incredable effort of time, money and resources that the government invests in so as to control the minds of its own citizens so that the well being of those few who are presently in power is entirely dependent on the ill being of the many who follow them.
This control of the minds of the masses by the US government is contingent on propaganda and fear based programing that is rendered effective by deep human trauma generated by staged catastrophic events that the government imposes or allows to be imposed upon its very own people such as 911, Pearl Harbor, failed economies, the last but not least being the endless horrors of reciprical destruction that certain psychopathic elements within the government engage in for the purpose of complete dominance and monolithic control of everthing on this planet.
These fear mongers are obsessed with control and anyone who does not have such an absolute obsession as they do is caught by surprise by their quick minds and cold logic, and are indeed at a supreme disadvantage, much as a deer is at a disadvantage when frozen in the headlights.
It is as if such people are made out of wood with wooden expressions, wooden feelings and wooden attitudes.
People of wood
You try to articulate your feeling that something is very wrong in this world to such wooden people. You are upset, angry, frustrated. That makes it even more difficult for you to say what you wish to say. Then these intellectual obseessives quickly rebuff what you say with cool cold detached logic and with distorted facts taken as objective facts. Or perhaps they omit facts at key points in the discussion. They speak with absolute authority and certainty. Your taken back by this absolute certainty. You simply can't articulate what's missing from their cold logic. Something essential is missing but you can’t formulate it, you can't put it exactly into words. You speak, you try to articulate what cannot really be articulated, you hesitate and then you miss your chance to be heard...
No doubt there are many of these wooden people who are "readers" or cointelpro operatives in certain sectors of the US government, doing something similar to what Robert Redford was doing in the movie "Three Days of The Condor," where such operatives sit websites ALL DAY long that they see as anti government or subversive and then they spend all their time spreading lies, false facts and disinformation using their own websites, blogs, and/or disruption of discussion groups etc. to further confuse the factual truth. Many people will not believe this since they cannot imagine any group within our very own government who are obsessed enough to do this. But for a psychopath this is standard operating procedure to get what they want.
A tree will not absorb nutrients from the soil because of what is simply called "capillary action."
No, it goes deeper then that.
A tree absorbs nutrients from the soil because it has a need.
The need for these people of wood are lies and deception to feed their quest for dominance and power.
I posted below a post from Laura Knight's blog including a most interesting article she linked to in her post by Joe Quinn of the Signs Of The Times. I find both of these individuals to be one of the most objective reporters on the entire web. It is most refreshing to know that such people are actually still out there. As Bees collect honey these individuals and others (but not many) collect facts and information to present to the American people and to the rest of the world to expose the great deceptions which effect us all like some mind altering drug. Such individuals are needed to balance the equation from the imbalance created by the liars and deceivers.
It is unfortunate but man's intellect often becomes his worse enemy. We have opinions
based on what we are told from others. Our knowledge is often popular "opinion knowledge" based on simplistic intellectual inventions and childish mental constructs to validate and preserve our deeper primal motivations that come from our subconscious. We feed on this popular opinion because it reinforces our feelings of security...it feels good and secure to be part of the herd and be like everyone else. We feel safe and secure in the herd.
This lack of man's discrimination between what he 'opinions' as reality and his KNOWLEDGE of 'reality-as-it-is' by direct perception are the basis of all his delusions and follies. These delusions are what blinds a man in such a way that he cannot objectively distinguish between what he truly knows and what his opinions are. They mix in his subjective mind and what he knows is what is really called popular opinion and popular opinion is what he thinks he knows, the end result being, he knows nothing and believes everything he hears. He knows nothing because he thinks he knows everything.
Then, based on what he hears he names things, as only man can do. Only man can name things.
Whatever the intellect names it often corrupts. This is most unfortunate. The intellect names it and the name now becomes the reality and the 'direct-perception-as-it-is' becomes a fantasy. The intellect cannot perceive reality as it is, it could only point to it, it simply gives direction as to where to look.
It takes the use of ALL our faculties to perceive reality and finding the truth. Our thinking, feeling, and our 'sensing instincts' are all required, that is, it takes a 'sense' that is 'common' to all of our three modes of perception. In short it simply takes common sense to percieve reality more objectively.
This failure of the people to percieve 'reality-as-it-is' leads to it's inversion. This is evident as we allow our precious freedoms to be progressively eroded by our imperial leaders so they can 'protect' us.
Yes indeed, we're giving it away voluntarily. In fact we CHEER giving our freedoms away so Big Brother can protect us.
Yeah, we even give more then a cheer, we give it an ovation.
No, I am to be corrected. Actually we are giving away all our freedoms with a STANDING OVATION with whistles, boot stomping, hoots, cat calls, loud clappling, and thunderas applause!
But no, we want even more. We want an encore.
Laura Knight says in her article
Canary In The Mine something very important regarding the proper way to approach objective truth:
"Perhaps you now have a better idea of why I am writing to you. The ways and means of "finding the truth" include divesting ourselves completely of "sacred cows," of beliefs, of assumptions, and utilizing the scientific method in its original and most beneficial manner: to observe, to share data, to be critical of our own observations, and to formulate hypotheses and test them".
We listen to the 'ordinary' news sites like TV and the newspapers and we often NAME other sites as 'alternative news sites' but it is often the same voice of that same great deceiver, that is, it is the voice of those who have the money and time to sell the great lie to those who perceive only with the intellect based on what they hear and not on what they know.
A prime example of this type of government deception that is promulgated by a so called "alternative news site", is one such site called Above Top Secret regarding their take on the Pentagon Strike. They are a good example about how goverment cointelpro agents incideously mask themselves as truth seekers.
I posted a below a blog from Mrs. Knight which shows just how prevalent this deception is and just how deep it goes down the rabbit hole. Joe Quinn's article, which is linked to in her
Blog, and his subsequent heroic analysis of that article that is in the Above Top Secret Forum clearly shows just how such deception depends on SUBTLY jumping over facts with erroneous conclusions to mislead and confuse the issue so that it eventually becomes a non issue.
This is all done consciously, with intent to decieve. This evil comes from the intellectual spheres, where the deepest evils lie...conscious evil.
Such is the way of the propaganda machine called the US government.
A most informative blog indeed.
Look and learn...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07 January 2006
COINTELPRO Updates: Above Top Secret Forum
Things have been pretty interesting around here in the past week. Seems that Joe Quinn's critique of the Above Top Secret forum posting about
the 757 that did NOT hit the Pentagon has hit a nerve. The first indication that we had that something was up was the fact that the Signs of The Times site statistics had a bit of a surge.
Now we keep a pretty good eye on our site statistics because we like to know what subjects really interest our readers. So when there is a surge, we know we are doing our job. This is most particularly true with the publication of the
Pentagon Strike video obviously, so many people "resonated" to the facts presented in this video that the current number of viewers is approacing 600 million.
Yes, that's right: 600 MILLION. It will soon be one of the most widely disseminated items ever to be published on the internet.
For the "Powers That Be," that's a problem.
The result of this statistical analysis is the fact that we KNOW that hundreds of millions of people do NOT believe that a 757 hit the Pentagon. They would not be avidly sharing the Pentagon Strike video with their family, friends, acquaintances, to the extent that they have done so if they were not trying to use it as a way of communicating something that is difficult to put into words, not to mention dangerous considering the Fascist takeover of America by Bush and the Neocons.
Enter: Above Top Secret Forum.
Well, actually, we hadn't really paid too much attention to the ATS forum until it became almost a daily event for someone to send us, or post to our
modest discussion forum, the link to this ATS post by "CatHerder." (Gee, even the name of the poster gives a COINTELPRO impression; imagine someone trying to herd cats?! That's probably how the PTB view people - a bunch of disorderly cats that need to be herded in a particular direction.) We didn't know that the ATS forum moderators had made thinly veiled negative references to our own work in their manipulative posts as we show in the
SIGNS OF THE TIMESWe ambled over to ATS to read the article and recognized it immediately for what it was: a slick, manipulative piece of journalism designed to take in individuals who are easily bamboozled. After the first time or two that the link was posted to our forum, then people began to try to post the entire article. We rejected it a dozen times or more simply because it was what it was: disinformation. The fact is, we are in the news publishing business because we intend it as a teaching tool, and we try to check material for validity and to weed out as many lies as possible so our readers don't have to waste a lot of their valuable time reading garbage. Unlike sites such as Rense.com and others, which publish just about anything indiscriminately, we DO try to publish responsibly. If we utilize mainstream articles that we suspect are "agenda slanted," we try to add comments pointing out the obvious, or at least publish such an article juxtaposed against another that makes clear the agenda. We also use flashbacks to remind readers that a current article may be saying something exactly the opposite of what was said a few weeks, months, or even years ago. In short, our idea is to help readers learn to think, to spot the deceptions, and to develop or refine their own internal BS meters.
At the same time, as noted, we DO keep a close eye on our statistics so that we know what items interest the greatest number of people which then prompts us to do more research on those items so as to bring to our readers more material that will satisfy that desire for information.
As I said, we hadn't really paid a lot of attention to the ATS people up to the point in time when a cadre of what we think of as COINTELPRO "floaters" repeatedly tried to force us to publish the ATS CatHerder piece on our own website. Based on our assessment of the piece, it would have been the same thing as publishing - and giving credibility to - disinformation. We simply weren't going to do it - without commentary as we do when we publish any piece that we consider to be "agenda directed." The problem was, it was such a long and slippery piece that it needed quite a bit of writing just to deal with the nonsense presented as "logic." We didn't have the time or the inclination. Yet, over time, the questions from sincere readers kept coming in and made us aware that the ATS article was obviously an item that our readers wanted us to address.
In the end, that was exactly what we did: we published it with commentary.
I rather think that if we had published it as a regular news piece on the
Signs of The Times daily pages with NO comment, what happened next would not have happened.
But first, let me mention that we did get a lot of positive feedback on the article from readers, including several entries to our discussion forum, one of which really made us laugh:
I want a bumper sticker and a t-shirt that reads.... "Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 and Neither Did a Boeing 757"
We just may see what we can do about that! I expect that such an item would sell in the millions based on the popularity of the Pentagon Strike video dissemination stats!
Now, off to the side, I was, at that moment in time, coincidentally, involved in a discussion with a couple of well-known Anti-war activists about my previous blog post:
How to Spot COINTELPRO Agents . I had written to these people in a private email on Jan 3rd:
I have been thinking about a lot of things over the past few days and decided to make an experimental post to my blog. It was an interesting exercise because re-reading and re-thinking always leads to new understanding.
One of the things that stood out for me in the section about Rick Ross and his "cult awareness network" was this from the Cletus Nelson piece I included (published on The Lew Rockwell site):
"Evidence suggests that these unsubstantiated claims which continue to shade our perception of the events at Mt. Carmel can be attributed to a small cadre of para-political "watchdog" groups.
"... in the lucrative realm of public policy activism lurk a number of pro- government advocacy groups whose very existence rests upon the notion that cult activities, political extremism or some other unnamed evil constitutes a dangerous threat to state power.
"In order to identify the alleged thought criminals in our midst, operatives aligned with these private surveillance networks infiltrate unconventional spiritual or religious movements, maintain files on American citizens, and work closely with both media and law enforcement to target individuals and organizations whose beliefs run counter to establishmentarian beliefs.
"In essence, these ersatz defenders of human rights act as de facto spokesmen for our emergent surveillance society. It’s COINTELPRO redux, only this time with help from a network of dubious, yet-well compensated agents."
Even though I already *knew* that it was so at some level, I hadn't really given much conscious thought to the fact that so-called "watchdog groups" that rant "cult, cult, cult" [or a Boeing 757 hit the Pentagon] are evidently aligned with the National Security State as this article suggests.
In short, any group or individual who goes around with the kinds of rants that Weidner, Bridges (and his buddy Storm Bear Williams and gang)do, are clearly "operatives" that work closely with media and law enforcement to target individuals and organizations whose beliefs run counter to the state sanctioned Mind Control System.
We have to learn how to sort the true from the false.
Nobody was greener than I was back in summer 2001 when it all began... and if it hadn't been for the C's, I would already be toast. But I learned a lot while skirting the edges of disaster and one of the things that has stood me in good stead is a little hint from Gurdjieff:
"A decent man will behave decently even if he thinks that he has been treated unjustly or wrongly. But many people in such circumstances show a side of their nature which otherwise they would never show. And at times it is a necessary means for exposing a man's nature. So long as you are good to a man he is good to you. But what will he be like if you scratch him a little?"
When dealing with COINTELPRO, you don't even have to treat someone unjustly or wrongly, generally just disagreeing with them will do. Or doing something they don't want you to do. Just small "scratches" usually sort people out.
The very next thing that happened - within hours of writing the above - was that we received an email from Above Top Secret as follows:
Mark - mark@abovetopsecret.com From : USA wrote : I am disgusted by your accusation that AboveTopSecret.com, LLP is a "Government funded damage control outlet" I ask that you retract that lie.
My partners and I have spent the last several years building that site and have NEVER received a nickel from ANY government, never been asked to do ANYTHING for or by ANY government and NEVER WILL.
The fact we attract logical members who present THIER analysis and ask that other members treat them with COURTEOUSNESS and keep the discussion at an ADULT level sans flames and rediculous off topic commentary does NOT make us anything more or less than what we are. The number ONE destination on the internet to FREELY Deny Ignorance.
It is truly SAD that when a site allows ALL sides of an issue to be heard people like YOU who believe hook line and sinker there is a conspiracy where there may or may not be one, feel the need to falsely accuse us of being crooked. It makes me SICK and SAD for you.
You obviously haven't read the THOUSANDS of posts that actually SUPPORT your perspective on our site, no that would be too much work wouldn't it?
Much easier to cast a negative light upon our site in the hopes of getting yourself some attention isn't it?
Thoroughly disappointed in and DISGUSTED with YOU.
Springer...
Partner,
AboveTopSecret.com, LLP
Note: the IP that was logged from this post tracks back to Geary,Oklahoma.
I forwarded the email to the group of Anti-war activists I was discussing COINTELPRO with along with the following comments:
...here is a perfect example of the principle I mentioned last night: how a person behaves when you "scratch" him a little.
"A decent man will behave decently even if he thinks that he has been treated unjustly or wrongly. But many people in such circumstances show a side of their nature which otherwise they would never show. And at times it is a necessary means for exposing a man's nature. So long as you are good to a man he is good to you. But what will he be like if you scratch him a little?"
Yes, we have read the posts that supported the conspiracy view of 9/11 on their site, but we also read their own posts where they worked very hard to make those who supported the insider complicity argument feel stupid.
This [email from AboveTopSecret reveals the same kind of outrage that comes from people like Vinnie and Jay and the gang... they are "outraged" and "sick and sad" for us and so on and so forth. Smoke and mirrors.
And of course, we are "invited" to feel guilty by accusing us of us "casting a negative light" in order to "get attention."
What "Mark" is most exercised about seems to be the suggestion that Above Top Secret is a "government funded damage control outlet." Methinks he protests too much.
Now, what would have happened if he had written to me and said: "Hey, I read your piece and even though we disagree on the subject, I would like to object to being labeled a disinfo source. I set up the site for the same reasons you have your site: to find the truth. I just don't see any evidence of what you are saying... " etc etc...
But, since he is not there to argue the evidence, but rather to promote the lies, he can't do that. And people like that only know one way to function: to seek to destroy the other views by ridicule, shaming, playing guilt cards, aggressive insults, etc. Even if they try to mask their behavior by platitudes about being adult and courteous, they belie it by their own words. In other words, they know the words, but not the music. They are blind to their own lack of courtesy to the truth.
Or, they are disinfo...
My money is on the latter.
Ark responded to Mark/Springer of AboveTopSecret as follows:
To: mark@abovetopsecret.com Date sent: Wed, 04 Jan 2006 08:10:18 +0100 Subject: Re: Your false accusation
On 4 Jan 2006 at 0:08, mark@abovetopsecret.com wrote: > You obviously haven't read the THOUSANDS of posts that actually SUPPORT your > perspective on our site, no that would be too much work wouldn't it? > > Much easier to cast a negative light upon our site in the hopes of getting > yourself some attention isn't it? > > Thoroughly disappointed in and DISGUSTED with YOU.
Well, if you are welcoming posts supporting our perspective, than you should be also happy (rather than disapointed and disgusted) that there is another view supporting our perspective - namely OUR view.
Regards,
ark ################################################## Dr Arkadiusz Jadczyk http://quantumfuture.net/quantum_future/homepage.htm
Somebody must have been reading our minds, or at least, they saw the glitch and hurried to smooth it over. The next day, an email came from another AboveTopSecret "partner" - to Ark's private email address rather than the site address. Obviously, he got this from Mark/Springer, above.
To: Arkadiusz Jadczyk Subject: Your 9/11 article on your website... Send reply to: From: "SkepticOverlord" Date sent: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 07:56:16 -0600
Greetings...
It has come to our attention that your article here: http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/Above_Top_Secret_article.htm Is in violation of our clearly stated Creative Commons Deed, linked here: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/cc.php?tid=79655&pid=816414 You have developed a derivative work (your content, integrated with our content) for commercial purposes (to promote the sale of a book.)
This is in clear violation of our stated license. The concept of "fair use" does not apply in this case since your current utilization of our material is in clear violation of our stated use rights.
However, in the interest of balanced debate on this subject, we do not necessarily desire the material to be removed from your site. We would be happy to see it to remain if you would kindly make the following changes: 1) Comply with the "BY:" attribute of our Creative Commons Deed (proper link and attribution). 2) Alter the HTML file name so that it does not contain our site name. 3) Alter the images directory so that it does not contain our site name. 4) Remove the text link at the bottom that promotes the sale of a book in context with your article (the banner link at the left for the same book can certainly remain since it is not in context with the text of your article).
Thank you in advance for your consideration and cooperation.
Bill, aka "SkepticOverlord" Community and Technology Director Partner in AboveTopSecret.com, LLP
Note: Skeptic Overlord's email came from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nothing unusual about that.
Since there was already clear identification of the author and source of the article in the first paragraph of our article, including an ACTIVE LINK to same, it seemed to us that the primary issue that AboveTopSecret had with us was the naming of the file and images folder on our website. Anyone familiar with our website knows that there are thousands of files, most of which are named after the subject matter they contain, which is the easiest way for us (or anyone) to keep track of them. If we want to find a file and make a correction, addition, or whatever, that's how we find it in the list.
Now why, we asked ourselves, would AboveTopSecret be concerned about the name of the file and the name of the images folder on our website?
There was only one obvious answer: they were concerned about search engines, that a search engine would display a link to our damning analysis of their Pro-government agenda among the returns given to anyone searching for "Above Top Secret." In short, they wanted to "own" the phrase and to monopolize the views of readers.
Not a very good example of their claimed desire to present "all sides of a question," now is it?
So, Ark replied:
To: skepticoverlord@abovetopsecret.com Subject: Re: Your 9/11 Article Date sent: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:14:36 +0100
On 5 Jan 2006 at 14:16, skepticoverlord@abovetopsecret.com wrote: > It has come to our attention that your article here: > http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/Above_Top_Secret_article.htm > > Is in violation of our clearly stated Creative Commons Deed, linked here: > > http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/cc.php?tid=79655&pid=816414 >
Hi,
Sorry to say, but what you say does not make any sense whatsoever.
Can you explain? Do you mean that it is your policy to be a governement agency? Or what?
Regards,
ark
Skeptic Overlord was fast on the draw. He responded:
From: "SkepticOverlord" Copies to: simon.gray@abovetopsecret.com Date sent: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 11:54:17 -0600
For now I'll ignore the insult and try to remain cordial.
From our vantage point, the manner in which you presented the content of your article here: http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/Above_Top_Secret_article.htm
Appears to be designed to capitalize on our content both for commercial purposes (the selling of a book) and user confusion (file and directory names "above_top_secret").
For now, we're hoping to assume that non-compliance with our Creative Commons License (http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/cc.php?tid=79655&pid=816414 ) is accidental. And that no malicious intent is behind using our unique site name in the naming conventions of your content.
(More information on creative commons here: http://creativecommons.org/ )
The non-compliance is related to two issues:
1) Your author, Joe Quinn, and has developed a derivative work based on our material. This is not allowed under the terms of the linked CC deed. 2) Our content is used in conjunction with solicitation for the sale of a book titled, "9/11: The Ultimate Truth". This is also a violation of the terms in our linked CC deed.
The CC deed link is provided at the bottom of every piece of content on our site, and clearly provides information on how our material can be reused.
In addition, including our site name as a part of the naming system for the HTML file and subdirectories is indicative of potential malicious intent to confuse web surfers and search engines. We hope this is accidental.
We believe our request for changes to be in the spirit of collaborative debate on these important issues. Rather than insist our content be removed (which is within our rights under the clearly stated usage guidelines), we're asking for the following: 1) Comply with the "BY:" attribute of our Creative Commons Deed (proper link and attribution). 2) Alter the HTML file name so that it does not contain our site name. 3) Alter the images directory so that it does not contain our site name. 4)Remove the text link at the bottom that promotes the sale of a book in context with your article (the banner link at the left for the same book can certainly remain since it is not in context with the text of your article).
Thank you. "SkepticOverlord" Community and Technology Director Partner in AboveTopSecret.com, LLP
So, we were right: there it was, explicitly stated: "including our site name as a part of the naming system for the HTML file and subdirectories is indicative of potential malicious intent to confuse web surfers and search engines. We hope this is accidental." The rest was just nonsense.
They apparently do NOT wish for any alternative view of what they are promoting to be available. Control of search engine results is solely what they are after. That suggests some serious COINTELPRO thinking has gone into the website AboveTopSecret, especially in terms of vectoring websearches and seekers of information. Ark was curious about these two approaches, the "good cop, bad cop" routine. So, he wrote back to "Skeptic Overlord," (geez, that "handle" is sure suggestive too!)
Notice also that a CC of the above email has been sent to a "Simon Gray." Hmmmm.... Who is Simon Gray? We'll get to that soon enough...
From: Arkadiusz Jadczyk To: Subject: Re: Your 9/11 Article BCC to: sott@signs-of-the-times.org Date sent: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 19:20:21 +0100
> For now I'll ignore the insult and try to remain cordial.
Hi,
Does that mean that you do not agree with the Mark (mark@abovetopsecret.com ) who wrote to us:
"Much easier to cast a negative light upon our site in the hopes of getting yourself some attention isn't it? Thoroughly disappointed in and DISGUSTED with YOU."
I undestand from his letter that he (or you?) was not happy with our criticism, but he did not provide any argument why our tentative conclusion was incorrect.
Now you seem to provide arguments that our tentative conclusion was correct, right?
So, if I am correct, in a sense you are arguing with mark@abovetopsecret.com.
Can't you guys solve these problems within your institution?
Regards,
ark
Skeptic Overlord replied:
From: "SkepticOverlord" Copies to: simon.gray@abovetopsecret.com Date sent: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 12:41:10 -0600
I'm not aware of what Mark had sent you. However, is has no bearing on the reality that your article violates our published usage rights.
In my position as Community Director, I have no desire to debate which point of view is more valid or not, only to resolve the issues I've outlined in both of my emails.
Pleased indicate your intent specific to the concerns I've communicated.
Thank you.
Ark forwarded the comments of Mark/Springer to Skeptic Overlord who then responded:
From: "Arkadiusz Jadczyk" To: "SkepticOverlord" Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 06:01 PM Subject: Your 9/11 Article
> I'm not aware of what Mark had sent you.
OK, Here it is: [Mark/Springer's email snipped] And here is what I wrote back to him:
"Well, if you are welcoming posts supporting our perspective, than you should be also happy (rather than disapointed and disgusted) that there is another view supporting our perspective - namely OUR view."
I still keep the same attitude. Only through an open discussion and analyzing all the available data there is any hope of ever getting to the truth.
Kind regards,
ark
One thing that was becoming abundantly clear was that AboveTopSecret.com was NOT the least bit interested in really searching for the truth of anything. So far, their only issues were commercial and suppressing competing information. We next received an email from another individual who wrote:
Date sent: 5 Jan 2006 18:23:38 -0000 To: Arkadiusz Jadczyk From: computerbball23@yahoo.com Subject: ATS catherder article rebuttal
Amar - computerbball23@yahoo.com From : USA : California wrote :
I was wondering if you would please comply with ATS's terms of service and creative commons license so that we can discuss your debunking article of Catherder's Pentagon plane crash article. I am not a government agent and neither is Skeptic's Overlord of AboveTopSecret. I am just a normal human being that is wanting a fair argument on what really happened at the pentagon and using your article to discuss the controversy at ATS will help a lot, but we can only use your website if you comply with ATS's rules.
thank you,
Amar
Well, since we had, as far as we knew, from the beginning, complied with the standard legal requirements of Fair Use for criticism and analysis, (including source and link), it seemed that the AboveTopSecret forum Overlords were putting pressure on members of their own forum to put pressure on us so the members could discuss our analysis of CatHerder's disinfo piece in the forum that claimed to be willing to discuss all sides of an issue! Ark decided to see if he find out what was really going on:
To: skepticoverlord Date sent: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 20:26:10 +0100 Subject: Re: Your 9/11 Article
On 5 Jan 2006 at 13:05, SkepticOverlord wrote: > As requested, please focus on the issues I've itemed in my emails. > > Thanks.
Hi,
Just a while ago I got the following:
[Amar's message, quoted above, snipped]
Can you tell me who is "Amar"? Or is it you in disguise? The IP suggest the second conjecture...
ark
At the same time, we decided, in the spirit of cooperation, to see if we could come to an agreement. Ark wrote the following:
From: Arkadiusz Jadczyk To: skepticoverlord@abovetopsecret.com, mark@abovetopsecret.com, computerbball23@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Your 9/11 Article Date sent: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 21:13:44 +0100
Hi,
here is the more technical part:
On 5 Jan 2006, at 11:54, SkepticOverlord wrote: > > >From our vantage point, the manner in which you presented the content of > >your article here: > http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/Above_Top_Secret_article.htm > Appears to be designed to capitalize on our content both for commercial > purposes (the selling of a book) and user confusion (file and directory names > "above_top_secret").
The intent of the article is self-evident: education and, to some extent, parody.
> > For now, we're hoping to assume that non-compliance with our Creative Commons > License ( http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/cc.php?tid=79655&pid=816414 ) > is accidental. And that no malicious intent is behind using our unique site > name in the naming conventions of your content.
"Above Top Secret" is a common phrase, long in use.
> > (More information on creative commons here: http://creativecommons.org/ ) > > The non-compliance is related to two issues: > 1) Your author, Joe Quinn, and has developed a derivative work based on our > material. This is not allowed under the terms of the linked CC deed.
Joe Quinn's work is not "derivative." It is transformative commentary and parody. In a 1994 case, the Supreme Court emphasized Transformative in Character as being a primary indicator of fair use.
* Has the material been transformed by adding new expression or meaning?
* Was value added to the original by creating new information, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings?
In a parody, for example, the parodist transforms the original by holding it up to ridicule. Purposes such as scholarship, research or education may also qualify as transformative.
All of these apply in this instance.
2) Our > content is used in conjunction with solicitation for the sale of a book > titled, "9/11: The Ultimate Truth". This is also a violation of the terms in > our linked CC deed.
It is not a violation of copyright law as defined above.
> > The CC deed link is provided at the bottom of every piece of content on our > site, and clearly provides information on how our material can be reused.
Thanks. We'll stick with standard copyright law.
> > In addition, including our site name as a part of the naming system for the > HTML file and subdirectories is indicative of potential malicious intent to > confuse web surfers and search engines. We hope this is accidental.
From our point of view, it is the simplest way to identify the file in the many thousands of files on our website(s).
> > We believe our request for changes to be in the spirit of collaborative > debate on these important issues. Rather than insist our content be removed > (which is within our rights under the clearly stated usage guidelines), we're > asking for the following: 1) Comply with the "BY:" attribute of our Creative > Commons Deed (proper link and attribution).
As soon as the webmaster returns from Ireland, we'll have him make the requested changes.
2) Alter the HTML file name so > that it does not contain our site name.
Sorry, but that is not possible. As noted above, it is the easiest way to identify the file among the many thousands of files on our website(s).
3) Alter the images directory so that > it does not contain our site name.
Sorry, but that is not possible. As noted above, it is the easiest way to identify the files among the many thousands of files on our website(s).
4) Remove the text link at the bottom that > promotes the sale of a book in context with your article (the banner link at > the left for the same book can certainly remain since it is not in context > with the text of your article).
In the spirit of cooperation, we will agree to this request.
Regards,
ark
The only response was the following:
To: Arkadiusz Jadczyk Subject: Re: Your 9/11 Article From: "SkepticOverlord" Date sent: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 21:40:13 -0600
Please confirm if this is your correct mailing address: Laura Jadczyk Dluga 40 m3 Castenau Barbarens, 32450 FR
(Obtained from the public domain record)
Thank you.
Now, let's come back to the question: Who is Simon Gray??? Frankly, until this little tempest in a teapot, we had never heard of the guy.
As it happens, a little investigation produces the following WhoIs information about AboveTopSecret.com:
Registrant:
Gray, Simon 1 Sackville Close Swindon, Wiltshire SN3 3EJ UK
Domain Name: ABOVETOPSECRET.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact: Gray, Simon simon.gray@abovetopsecret.com 1 Sackville Close Swindon, Wiltshire SN3 3EJ UK +44 1793 486619 fax: 999 999 9999
Record expires on 19-May-2013. Record created on 18-May-1997. Database last updated on 6-Jan-2006 08:22:18 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS4.DNSMADEEASY.COM 216.88.44.132 NS3.DNSMADEEASY.COM 64.246.42.123 NS2.DNSMADEEASY.COM 66.80.146.131 NS1.DNSMADEEASY.COM 69.10.137.166 NS0.DNSMADEEASY.COM 66.80.146.130
What is MOST interesting is that the information on this WhoIs entry was updated on 6 January 2006. Wonder what triggered that? I also wondered what it said before January 6, 2006? At first we thought that the "database" meant just the general website database, and that it was, perhaps, just generally "updated" according to some schedule and this meant nothing. So, we did some experiments with our own WhoIs data to see what the results would be. Sure enough, it is when the "client" themselves go to the database to add, subtract, correct, or change information that it is recorded as an "update."
Next I found an interesting post on a discussion forum named BELOWTopSecret.com (thread name: ABOVETOPSECRET.COM CIA)as follows:
I did a trace route on http://www.abovetopsecret.com/, the Node Name is listed and maintained by the government.
IP Address 213.206.128 213.206.129 213.206.130
Node Name Gov-bb21-lan-14 Gov-bb22-lan-15 Gov-bb23-lan-16
Location Langley, Virginia
MS 60
Network Used whois.nic.mil (for military network information)
It was difficult to get the IP Address, It was spoofed and looped over 9 times. Anyway Langley, Virginia is where the CIA headquarters is. I?m more than concerned.
The discussion on that board is interesting because we notice "Springer" there and a general "ha ha that was a great joke" attitude about the above quoted "find." Looking further, we discover the raw whois output for belowtopsecret.com:
Registrant: Gray, Simon 1 Sackville Close Swindon, Wiltshire SN3 3EJ UK
Domain Name: BELOWTOPSECRET.COM
Administrative Contact: Gray, Simon simon.gray@abovetopsecret.com 1 Sackville Close Swindon, Wiltshire SN3 3EJ UK +44 1793 486619 fax: 999 999 9999
Technical Contact: Network Solutions, LLC. customerservice@networksolutions.com 13200 Woodland Park Drive Herndon, VA 20171-3025
US 1-888-642-9675 fax: 571-434-4620
Record expires on 21-Oct-2013. Record created on 21-Oct-2003. Database last updated on 7-Jan-2006 06:48:53 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS3.DNSMADEEASY.COM 64.246.42.123 NS4.DNSMADEEASY.COM 216.88.44.132 NS2.DNSMADEEASY.COM 66.80.146.131 NS1.DNSMADEEASY.COM 69.10.137.166 NS0.DNSMADEEASY.COM 66.80.146.130
Again we notice that the WhoIs database was updated just today, January 7, 2006. Seems that the issue of whether or not AboveTopSecret may be COINTELPRO has provoked a flurry of "updating" activity.
Again we wonder: Who is Simon Gray?
On the AboveTopSecret website you will find the following:
ATS Weekly: Edition 001 July 19, 2005
A Word From Our Founder This is a fantastic time for AboveTopSecret.com. Over the past few years we have seen tremendous growth in many ways, most notably in terms of the sheer amount of people who visit the ATS websites. These people have formed together into a collective virtual community, and together have expanded the wealth of information on our website to nearly a quarter of a million accessible pages, making us one of the most highly regarded websites of our genre.
Moderator's Musings When thinking about what to write here, the first thing I thought about was how much I personally appreciate ATS. So this little article is a BIG thank you to everyone that makes ATS what it is. Thanks to Simon for creating ATS. Thanks to SkepticOverlord for the continued work to improve and protect the site. Thanks to the Staff who do a wonderful job keeping the quality of input here the best on the Net. [...] From the Front Office Welcome to the first edition of the newly tooled and re-imagined ATS newsletter. Just twelve days ago one of your board adminstrators, William One Sac, thought it might be a good idea to resurrect Simon's old email newsletter. It ended up being such a good (and obvious) idea, several people worked diligently behind the scenes to make sure it happened in a way everyone could be proud of. And for members of the AboveTopSecret.com discussion board community, there's a great deal to be proud of.
Interestingly, a search on google for Simon Gray brings up the following result:
Who besides Simon Gray and the 'Bildebergers' can you source regarding US concentration camps stowing & drugging 2 million americans? & tell us Simon's credentials? TIA
Registrant: Gray, Simon (ABOVETOPSECRET-DOM) 1 Sackville Close Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Domain Name: abovetopsecret.com
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact: Gray, Simon (SG2699) simon@ABOVETOPSECRET.COM 1 Sackville Close Swindon Wilts SN3 3EJ UK (01793) 486619
Record expires on 19-May-2001. Record created on 18-May-1997. Database last updated on 24-Aug-2002 12:09:13 EDT.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS.LIQUIDWEB.COM 64.91.224.2 NS1.LIQUIDWEB.COM 64.91.228.2
Did you notice that Sackville Close is now partly in California and partly in UK? How interesting! Well, we are not going to criticize anyone for fudging on their home address. Considering the kinds of attacks that we have experienced in this "business," we don't hold it against anyone for wanting to protect themselves from lunatics.
Figuring out just who Simon Gray is has actually been turned into a promotional enterprise at AboveTopSecret.com. It looks like they are trying to create a legend. (Which reminds me that their own material is presented in the context of a huge commercial enterprise that is obviously focused on making money!)
WIN 10,000 POINTS! "Who is Simon Gray?"
William posted on 26-8-2003 at 09:50 PM
Now that we have a nice shiny new points system... let's have some fun!
Who is Simon Gray?
What does he do? What does he look like? What are his hobbies? What does he eat? Does he shave? Perhaps he fancies a certain kind of ladies under-arm deodorant?
These are the burning questions that have tormented the denizens of Above Top Secret for years-on-end.
Well, now is your chance to add the fiction that has become legend that will become myth. Help us paint the complex tapestry of the person known as, "Simon Gray" so that the legend may become larger than life... nay, larger than the planet... nay, larger than the solar system!
Post your best prose. Find your best photos. Describe your best "Simon Gray".
The winner, as judged by forum staff, will receive 10,000 bright shiny new points directly from the ATS mint. These points are good for any merchandise in the ATS store and may not be redeemed for ladies under-arm deodorant.
Well, AboveTopSecret.com begins to look like a dramatically STAGED "experiment." And I use the word "staged" deliberately. Have a look here:
Deja vu, all over again
2005 has been a year of the sequel, the remake and the revival - and no bad thing for all that
Mark Lawson Friday December 30, 2005 The Guardian
Was 2005 the year when art ran out of ideas? December always encourages retrospection but looking back at the culture of the last 12 months constantly involves a double jump as every new idea seems to have an old one behind it.
[...]
A similar generosity is possible towards the number of repeats in theatre this year. These were not lazy restagings but exuberant rediscoveries, including an improbable pair of Schiller hits (Don Carlos and Mary Stuart), little-known Ibsens (Pillars of the Community) and John Osbornes (Epitaph for George Dillon), and a neglected Simon Gray (Otherwise Engaged.) All of these productions imbued the word "revival" with an almost medical meaning.
Is the Simon Gray of AboveTopSecret.com the playwright, Simon Gray? Before discarding that as a possibility, I thought I would pull on that thread a bit. Encyclopedia Brittanica tells us:
Simon Gray born Oct. 21, 1936, Hayling Island, Hampshire, Eng.
[...] British dramatist whose plays, often set in academia, are noted for their challenging storylines, witty, literary dialogue, and complex characterizations.
Gray alternately lived in Canada and England, attending Westminster School in London; Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (B.A., 1957); and Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1961). While working as a university lecturer in both countries, he wrote satiric novels and farcical plays for stage and television. His first stage play was Wise Child (1968), which features a criminal transvestite.
Gray's first international success was Butley (1971; filmed 1974), a play about a petulant university professor whose venomous wit masks an inner emptiness. Similarly, Otherwise Engaged (1975) concerns a sardonic publisher who strives to isolate himself but is prevented from doing so by a series of dramatic interruptions. Quartermaine's Terms (1981) is the sadly comic story of a gentle, ineffectual English teacher. Among Gray's other plays are Spoiled (1971), The Rear Column (1978), The Common Pursuit (1984), Hidden Laughter (1990), Cell Mates (1995), Fat Chance (1995), and Simply Disconnected (1996).
As I pursued the thread, I came to the idea that the playwright, Simon Gray, is NOT the "Simon Gray" of AboveTopSecret - unless he is having a good laugh at everyone's expense. See also:
Disgruntled drollery, Saturday March 5, 2005, The Guardian, a review of The Smoking Diaries, by Simon Gray.
Then there are excerpts from a review of the play mentioned in the above quoted Guardian article.
So much for Simon Gray, the playwright. He lives in London, as one source mentions, not Sackville Close. Problem is, NO Simon Gray lives in Sackville Close that I could discover.
One of our researchers who lives in UK wrote:
There is a thread here that might add to what you have so far: I found it from searching against the postcode, as the address just sounded weird to me. I worked in Swindon for about six years and as far as I remember the area where Sackville Close is, comprises mostly old Victorian terraced houses in a none too inspiring part of the town. If you lived there and had any money you would probably use it to move somewhere else!
The link goes to the Let's Roll 9-11 discussion board where the topic is: Above top secret, is it Dis info?
Apparently, others have been asking similar questions for some time now and the details given at the above link are quite revealing.
We find tracks of AboveTopSecret's Simon Gray rather early on the web:
Topic in alt.magick.sex
Simon Gray Jul 6 1999, 8:00 am Newsgroups: alt.magick.sex From: "Simon Gray" Date: 1999/07/06 Subject: GREAT WEBSITE
www.abovetopsecret.com !!!
Under "free.uk.info" we find another:
Newsgroups: free.uk.ufo From: "Above Top Secret" Date: 2000/03/22 Subject: www. Above Top Secret .com - The UK's ultimate website for US conspiracies
http://www.AboveTopSecret.com
This is the UK's ultimate conspiracy website for those interested in Area 51, secret government projects, aircraft programs including a very detailed Aurora page, agencies, and even hacking information.
Multi-award winning information.
-- Simon Gray - Webmaster/Researcher of www.AboveTopSecret.com E-Mail - s...@abovetopsecret.com
And so on. If you go to the above links, you can click "find messages by this author" and you will get 184 returns, among which are the following:
Movies http://www.hotmoviez.com -- Simon Gray - Webmaster/Founder of http://www.AboveTopSecret. com E-Mail - s...@abovetopsecret.com Get Paid For Nothing! ... alt.2600.hackerz - Jul 13 2000, 8:10 pm by Above Top Secret - 6 messages - 6 authors
Cheat AllAdvantage If you're interested in getting paid for NOTHING, then check out http://paid4surf.abovetopsecret.com alt.2600.hackerz - Jul 13 2000, 10:53 am by Above Top Secret - 3 messages - 3 authors
Make $100s surfing the net!!! How would you like to earn $100sa month by surfing the internet? A brilliantly simple form of income that requires no effort at all. ... alt.best.of.internet - Apr 1 2000, 7:21 am by Above Top Secret - 1 message - 1 author
Earn $100s surfing the web!!! How would you like to earn $100sa month by surfing the internet? A brilliantly simple form of income that requires no effort at all. ... alt.make.money - Apr 1 2000, 6:27 am by Above Top Secret - 2 messages - 2 authors
Make money surfing the net!!! How would you like to earn $100sa month by surfing the internet? A brilliantly simple form of income that requires no effort at all. ... free.uk.ufo - Mar 31 2000, 9:01 pm by Above Top Secret - 1 message - 1 author
www. Above Top Secret .com - The UK's ultimate website for US ... http://www.AboveTopSecret.com This is the UK's ultimate conspiracy website for those interested in Area 51, secret government projects, aircraft programs ... free.uk.ufo - Mar 23 2000, 3:27 am by Above Top Secret - 1 message - 1 author
www. Above Top Secret .com Check out this website for information about Area 51, UFOs, secret facilities, organisations, government projects, the New World Order, and more. ... alt.paranet.ufo - Mar 21 2000, 3:43 pm by Above Top Secret - 1 message - 1 author
MYSTERIOUS CALIFORNIA TEST FACILITIES McDonnell Douglas "Llano" Facility Lockheed "Hellendale" Facility Northrop "Tejon Ranch" Facility www.abovetopsecret.com/southcal.html alt.alien - Jul 26 1999, 5:07 am by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
MYSTERIOUS TEST LOCATIONS McDonnell Douglas "Llano" Facility Lockheed "Hellendale" Facility Northrop "Tejon Ranch" Facility www.abovetopsecret.com/southcal.html alt.alien.wanderers - Jul 25 1999, 5:07 pm by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
29 PROTOTYPE STEALTH AIRCRAFT BLACK PROJECTS , SECRET UNDERGROUND DULCE FACILITY , 29 PROTOTYPE STEALTH PLANES , ALIEN/GOVERNMENT COLLABORATION http://www.abovetopsecret.com/lecture.html alt.alien.wanderers - Jul 22 1999, 3:56 pm by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
ET Exposure Law (page now updated) www.abovetopsecret.com/etlaw.html !!! alt.alien.visitors - Jul 9 1999, 5:29 am by Simon Gray - 2 messages - 2 authors
AURORA in detail !!!!! The following website has been updated an incredible amount, including an Aurora page with an amazing amount of detail !!! www.abovetopsecret.com !!! alt.conspiracy.area51 - Jul 8 1999, 9:20 pm by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
GREAT WEBSITE www.abovetopsecret.com !!! alt.magick.sex - Jul 7 1999, 3:05 am by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
COOL WEBSITE www.abovetopsecret.com , now hugely updated !!! -- Simon Gray - Webmaster www.AboveTopSecret.com alt.alien.visitors - Jul 7 1999, 2:07 am by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
AREA 51 and RELATED PAGES go to www.abovetopsecret.com alt.conspiracy.black.helicopters - Jun 21 1999, 2:18 am by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
COOL WEBSITE www.abovetopsecret.com has some cool information which may be of interest !!! alt.fans.chat2 - Jun 16 1999, 11:10 am by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
COOL WEBSITE www.abovetopsecret.com is a very interesting site. Why not check it out! alt.sport.air-guns - Jun 15 1999, 5:56 am by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
COOL WEBSITE Great website at www.abovetopsecret.com ! ! ! alt.sport.table-tennis - Jun 15 1999, 1:13 am by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
COOL WEBSITE www.abovetopsecret.com ! ! ! alt.sport.horse-racing - Jun 15 1999, 12:41 am by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
COOL WEBSITE www.abovetopsecret.com !!! alt.sport.darts - Jun 14 1999, 4:14 pm by Simon Gray - 1 message - 1 author
I leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusion about whether or not AboveTopSecret was setting itself up as a money making venture, or to be a "vacuum cleaner" operation. Of course, the two objectives are not mutually exclusive! One thing is certain, this "Simon Gray" was way too busy and energetic to be the playwright. Whoever it was, it looks like he's out to make a million bux one way or the other. This frenzied promotional activity for the past 7 years or so will become quite interesting when we consider "Christian Bailey," (coming up) so keep it in mind.
I would also suggest that the reader go to the webarchive and go back over the history of AboveTopSecret.com and notice that it was quite obviously set up to draw in alternative researchers from the very beginning. Why? Obvious answer is to vector ideas. Re-read my post on COINTELPRO.
I'm still amused at the idea that "Simon Gray" of AboveTopSecret.com is obviously a Brit "specializing" in American conspiracies . It seems that this is not exactly an isolated case. In recent times the Pentagon's contract with another Brit, for the purposes of spreading disinformation, came to the attention of the mainstream media. Let's look at the strange case of "Christian Bailey.":
So, just who is Christian Bailey?
A 30-year-old Oxford graduate with no public relations experience was the recipient of a $100m (£56m) contract from Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defence for buying space in Iraqi newspapers to place deliberately one-sided stories written by US "psy-ops" troops, at a time when the chaos of Iraq makes genuine journalism all but impossible and when journalists risk their lives on a daily basis to report the truth.
[Deliberatly ONE SIDED STORIES? Shades of AboveTopSecret!]
The office building situated at 1420 K Street NW has nothing obvious to commend it other than its prime location. Just a couple of streets from the north-west gates of the White House, it sits in the heart of lobbying land - the K Street corridor that represents one of the most crucial centres of power, influence and money in the United States.
This grey building, neighboured to one side by an off-licence and to the other by a travel agent, is home to the Lincoln Group, a previously little-known "business intelligence" company headed by a heretofore little known young Briton, Christian Bailey, an Oxford graduate and consummate net worker. He is at the centre of a mounting storm of controversy surrounding the Bush administration's covert propaganda war in Iraq.
[It will be very useful to have read the links to the "Let'sRoll9-11 discussion board given above to see the connection between AboveTopSecret.com and the covert propaganda war in Iraq. VERY interesting connections those folks found!]
It was recently revealed that Bailey's company was the recipient of a $100m (£56m) contract from Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defence for buying space in Iraqi newspapers to place deliberately one-sided stories written by US "psy-ops" troops, at a time when the chaos of Iraq makes genuine journalism all but impossible and when journalists risk their lives on a daily basis to report the truth.
[Deliberatly ONE SIDED STORIES? Shades of AboveTopSecret! And we notice how vigorously they tried to place those stories on our own site! Does this mean that CatHerder is "psy-ops"?]
As part of the project - in which the US military hid its involvement - Lincoln Group staff paid Iraqi journalists to write similarly misleading stories about US forces and the Iraqi government that ignored anything negative about the occupation. One headline read: "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism."
The revelations have created a furore. President Bush is said to be "very troubled" by the news, while on Capitol Hill members of both the Senate and House armed services committees demanded inquiries. The Pentagon said it would launch an immediate investigation.
Much is unclear about the Lincoln Group, its youthful executive vice-president and his string of previous companies that have left only the faintest paper trail. Indeed, Christian Bailey may not be his real name: a number of student associates said at some point during his four years that he changed his name from Yusefovich - an unlikely surname for someone called Christian.
[Shades of Simon Gray and AboveTopSecret.com!]
The Independent has been unable to confirm this. Yet the details known about Bailey and the contract his company won provide a remarkable insight into the way influence and power operate in Washington. Just two years after arriving here, Bailey, 30, who has a penchant for socialising, has apparently developed contacts both within the Republican establishment and the world of private intelligence.
[Shades of Simon Gray and AboveTopSecret.com!]
Senator John Warner, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said of the false news operation: "I remain gravely concerned about the situation." Since the controversy broke Bailey has kept a low-profile and has offered just the fewest public words about his organisation and what it does. (He failed to respond to requests for an interview.) It also appears a number of internet references linking him to the Republicans can no longer be found.
[Shades of Simon Gray and AboveTopSecret.com!]
Yet it is clear the Lincoln Group and its contract with the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element, part of the Pentagon's Special Operations Command, is inextricably linked with Bailey. He apparently named the company and its various offshoots after Lincoln College, Oxford, from which he graduated in 1997 with an MA in economics and management. [abovetopsecret.com was registered in 1997]
[Shades of Simon Gray and AboveTopSecret.com! Registered in 1997... ]
Many observers have been surprised Bailey, from Surrey, has been awarded such a sizable contract, give that he appears to have no experience in public relations. Indeed, since he moved to the US in the late 1990s, he has spent much of his time in private finance, working in hedge funds in San Francisco and New York.
[Shades of Simon Gray and AboveTopSecret.com! See webarchive history of the website.]
It appears he has been especially interested in new technology markets. A brief biography presented by the organisers of a conference held earlier this year in Dubai at which Bailey was listed as a speaker, said he had worked in Palo Alto, California, "where he advised portfolio companies and identified, evaluated and developed emerging technology investments".
[Shades of Simon Gray and his sorta UK and sorta California address...]
The Briton has always enjoyed a reputation for business. Several Oxford associates said it was rumoured that the popular student kept two computers in his room to monitor the stock markets. Bailey has said he founded and sold two companies while an undergraduate. "He was quite enterprising, I believe," said Graham De'ath, of Winchester, who was in the same year.
[Shades of Simon Gray and AboveTopSecret.com and his "make $100s surfing the net scams!]
Kate Smurthwaite, who is now a stand-up comic but shared a flat with Bailey in his third year, told The Independent that the young entrepreneur hired a personal assistant to work for him in his student digs as he ran an operation selling self-help advice on cassettes.
[Shades of Simon Gray and AboveTopSecret.com and his "make $100s surfing the net scams!]
He also had a reputation as a hard-working networker. While in New York he became treasurer of the Oxonian Society, a club for graduates of Oxford and other universities, which invites high-profile figures to speak. He was involved in at least one charity fundraising effort with other hedge-funders. Perhaps of more significance, Bailey became the co-chairman of the New York chapter of Lead21, a networking group for young Republicans. At least a dozen of its members have gone on to work for either the Bush administration, Congress or the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
[Shades of Simon Gray and AboveTopSecret.com!]
During a Lead21 trip to the Republican National Convention in New York last autumn, Bailey said of his colleagues to one reporter: "These are going to be the big supporters, the big donors, to the Republican Party in five years."
According to other members, Bailey was very popular. Auren Hoffman, chair of Lead21 and chairman of the Stonebrick Group, a San Francisco-based consulting firm, said Bailey was a good friend. "Christian is a terrific guy personally. Everyone I know that has ever met him instantly likes him. He is very likeable and charming. Very intelligent. Very interesting."
[Shades of psychopathy!]
When he moved to Washington, his reputation as a networker continued. He often hosted parties at home and mixed with a set of young, up-and-coming journalists and congressional staffers. He enjoyed a reputation as a good cook, a welcoming host and for making cappuccinos with a machine in his kitchen. He also enjoyed flying: Federal Aviation Administration records show that he is qualified to fly aeroplanes and helicopters.
[Sounding more and more like Simon Gray and AboveTopSecret.com]
How and when did Bailey make the switch from hedge funds to private intelligence and PR? One clue is provided by the Alternative Investment News newsletter of 1 March 2003, just weeks before the invasion of Iraq. It reported Bailey's hedge fund, Lincoln Asset Management Group, had launched a buyout fund to start buying companies in the defence and security industries. Bailey said he had obtained commitments of $100m from six institutional investors, whom he declined to name.
Apparently with an eye to the preparations for war being made in the deserts of northern Kuwait, he added: "[The] timing is extremely good to look at defence companies." Shortly afterwards, a subsidiary called Lincoln Alliance Corp was established, offering what it called "tailored intelligence services [for] government clients faced with critical intelligence challenges".
By last autumn Bailey had formed another Lincoln subsidiary, called Iraqex, which seems to have formed a partnership with another American PR firm called Rendon, famous in Washington for having promoted Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress.
[DO take a look at the links to the "Let'sRoll9-11 discussion board given above to see the connection between AboveTopSecret.com and the covert propaganda war in Iraq. VERY interesting connections those folks found!]
At some point Bailey also went into business with Paige Craig, 31, a former US Marine who served in Iraq and elsewhere. [Bailey and Craig are flatmates in a fashionable part of Washington, close to U Street. The flat is just yards away from Café Saint- Ex, popular with young professionals.]
[Hmmm.... wonder if Paige Craig and CatHerder are one and the same???]
In September, Iraqex won a $6m Pentagon contract to design and execute "an aggressive advertising and PR campaign that will accurately inform the Iraqi people of the Coalition's goals and gain their support". It appears one project was an attempt to persuade the Iraqi and US public that Iraqi troops played a vital role in last year's effort to clear Fallujah.
A strategy document obtained by ABC News revealed the Lincoln Group was seeking to promote the "strength, integrity and reliability of Iraqi forces during the fight for Falujah". In reality, most assessments suggest the small number of Iraqi troops present were minimally involved.
But the real breakthrough came this summer when Bailey's company, having again changed its name to the Lincoln Group, secured a $100m contract for information and psychological operations. Part of the contract was for placing "faux" news stories in some of the 200 Iraqi-owned newspapers that now exist.
[Sounding more and more like AboveTopSecret.com all the time!]
Pentagon officials have said that, while not factually incorrect, these stories only presented one side of the story and would not include anything negative about the occupation. It was reported this week that the $10Om was part of a larger $300m "stealth PR effort" in a number of countries around the world.
[Indeed, CatHerder's piece was not "factually incorrect," it certainly only presented one side of the story and did not include anything negative to that version. And now, AboveTopSecret.com seeks to do "damage control" on Signs of the Times "transformative" work by demanding the file names be changed. A consummate networker indeed!]
One PR consultant with experience of the private-intelligence sector, said: "Doctrinally, this is all part of what the military calls information superiority. It is part of the plan for what they call, rather upsettingly, full-spectrum dominance. The truth is that it is just propaganda. And there has always been propaganda in a war. And this is a war, so ... thus runs the thinking."
[Information superiority? Full spectrum dominance? That is the obvious agenda behind AboveTopSecret's demands for file name changes.]
According to reports from former Lincoln employees, their main task was to take news dispatches, called storyboards, which had been written by specially trained psy-ops troops, have them translated into Arabic and then distribute them to the newspapers. They would also deal directly with members of the Iraqi media through something called the Baghdad Press Club, a group of journalists who were paid to write and publish positive stories. Typically, Lincoln paid newspapers between $40 and $2,000 to run the articles as either news or adverts.
To help it carry out its work, Bailey and Craig - the latter is apparently responsible for most of the Iraq-based end of the business - have reached out to some of the foremost specialists in security and intelligence. Among "advisers" listed on their website is Andrew Garfield, a former British military-intelligence officer and specialist in psychological warfare who has advised the Ministry of Defence. In an e-mail to The Guardian Garfield confirmed his collaboration with Lincoln but gave no details.
Another adviser is Colin Rees Mason, who two years ago received an OBE for his service as a lieutenant-colonel in the Territorial Army, and who for almost 20 years has been a consultant to the Centre for Operational Research and Defence Analysis, a subsidiary of BAE Systems. The Lincoln Group also has Republican links. Among lobbyists registered to represent it are Charles Black, an adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr and Marlin "Buzz" Hefti, who served as a director at the Pentagon.
Lincoln Group also lists as a partner the Virginia-based private intelligence group WCV3 Security. Last year that company's executive vice-president took unpaid leave to produce Stolen Honour: Wounds That Never Heal, a film that, at a critical time in the presidential election campaign, condemned the Democrat John Kerry and questioned his version of events in Vietnam.
[Can we say Swift Boat = AboveTopSecret.com?]
Despite the concern on Capitol Hill about the placing of false stories in foreign media outlets - a practice that dates back to the Cold War - it is unknown what will be the outcome of the Pentagon's investigation. It is also unclear how the controversy has affected the ability of the Lincoln Group or Bailey to fulfil its contract. In a statement the company said: "Lincoln Group has consistently worked with the Iraqi media to promote truthful reporting across Iraq. We counter the lies, intimidation, and pure evil of terror with factual stories that highlight the heroism and sacrifice of the Iraqi people and their struggle for freedom and security."
Yeah, right.
The London Times had more revelations about "Christian Bailey" with a slightly different take on the Golden Boy. Now he's an unlikeable geek with delusions of Grandeur. Well, in a world of psychopaths, they DO rise to the top!
British geek made millions running the Pentagon's propaganda war in Iraq
IT WAS astounding enough for Washington’s political elite: last month they discovered that the man at the heart of a scandal over the planting of US propaganda in Iraqi newspapers was a dapper but unknown 30-year-old Oxford graduate who had somehow managed to land a $100 million Pentagon contract.
What is even more remarkable however, after an investigation by The Times, is that just ten years ago Christian Bailey, whose US company is under investigation for planting fake news stories in Iraqi newspapers, was a nerdy, socially awkward English school-leaver called Jozefowicz.
The transformation of the geeky but ambitious Christian Jozefowicz, who just a few years ago was growing up in a modest terraced house in Godalming, Surrey, to the charming, baby-faced multimillionaire Christian Bailey now rubbing shoulders with some of the most powerful figures in Washington — and who next year will probably face questions on Capitol Hill about his company — is one of the more extraordinary stories to have emerged from the Iraq war.
This month it was revealed that Mr Bailey’s US company, the Lincoln Group, was the recipient of a Pentagon contract to help to fight the information war in Iraq. It then emerged that the company was paying Iraqi journalists to plant optimistic news “stories” in Iraqi papers that had been written by the US military.
Interference with the press touches a raw nerve in America. The fake stories revelation provoked a furore among Republicans and Democrats. President Bush said he was “very troubled” by it. Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, has promised a Pentagon investigation. Congress plans hearings into the scandal.
The journey from the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, which Mr Bailey left in 1994, to the heart of K Street in Washington, the centre of money and influence in the US capital, has been remarkably rapid. Today he has a reputation in Washington for being a socialite with links to influential Republicans. He is a helicopter and aircraft pilot and his home is in a fashionable area.
Through a Lincoln Group spokesman, Mr Bailey answered questions from The Times to help to explain how, at just 30, he landed the Pentagon as an important client. He was born Christian Martin Jozefowicz on November 28, 1975, in Kingston upon Thames, to Jerzy and Anne Jozefowicz.
His father, a Polish architect, died in April 1998. His mother, who has since reverted to her maiden name of Seifert, was born in West Germany. The family lived in East Molesey, southwest London, before moving to Godalming, Surrey.
["Simon Gray" registered AboveTopSecret in 1997, put an entry page up in 1998, and got down to "business" in 1999]
Mr Bailey’s Royal Grammar School contemporaries recall a business-obsessed, “geeky” individual with few friends. “He was a nerd at school,” one told The Times. Another described him as a “school joke” who told everyone he was going to be a millionaire. He was the first at school to have a mobile phone and was interested in early versions of the personal computer.
He founded a Young Enterprise company, Chameleon, which led to his selection as one of the top six Young Enterprise participants in Britain.
[Ah! A "signature!" Reptilian and covert!]
His school yearbook records Christian Jozefowicz as “Mr Business himself” and that he was elected vice-president of the International Student Forum, a business gathering in the US. In 1994 he won a place at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read economics and management. He kept computers in his room, thought for monitoring the stock markets.
In his third year at Oxford he hired an assistant to help him to run his first proper company, Linck Ltd, which sold self-help tapes. In 1998, he changed his name to Bailey. “Following his father’s death, Bailey assumed the name for family reasons, something which children commonly do,” a Lincoln Group spokesman said.
[Question is: why "Bailey?" He "assumed" a name that had no relation to his own family as "children commonly do"??!!! Not many children I know about...]
In the late 1990s he moved to San Francisco to try his hand as a dotcom entrepreneur, and then to New York, where he became treasurer of the Oxonion Society, a club for intellectual Anglophiles. He became co-chairman of a networking group for young Republicans. With his Republican contacts growing, Mr Bailey moved to Washington, where he spotted a golden business opportunity: the looming war in Iraq. He formed a partnership with Paige Craig, a former US Marine who served in Iraq.
[In the late 1990s, Simon Gray shows up on the internet promoting all his money making schemes... he has obviously given them up because he found bigger fish to fry.]
In early 2003, just before the invasion, Mr Bailey formed a Lincoln subsidiary, the Lincoln Alliance Corp, offering “tailored intelligence services [for] government clients faced with intelligence challenges”. He also formed another subsidiary, Iraqex, which won a $6 million Pentagon contract to launch “an aggressive advertising and PR campaign that will accurately inform the Iraqi people of the coalition’s goals and gain their support”.
[By this time, he had created his AboveTopSecret disinfo forum which he undoubtedly proudly displayed during his sales presentation!]
The big breakthrough came in June this year when the Pentagon awarded the Lincoln Group a contract worth up to $100 million over five years to support the US military’s “joint psychological operations”, known as “psyops”.
[Sure. He's proved he can attract and disinform lots of people via AboveTopSecret.com, so why wouldn't they want to give some big bux to someone so clever?] Lincoln group defended the planting of stories and the company has emphasised that none of them were factually incorrect. “By not speaking through the local media, the coalition would allow a vacuum for rumours and untruths perpetrated by the insurgents’ thuggery and threats,” a spokesman said.
LIFE AND WORK
November 28, 1975: Born Christian Jozefowicz, Kingston upon Thames
1987-94: Attends the fee-paying Royal Grammar School, Guildford
1993-94: Listed on electoral roll as Christian Jozefowicz-Seifert
1994-97: Obtains a 2:1 in economics and management from Lincoln College, Oxford. While at university, runs Linck Ltd. [Registers the domain: AboveTopSecret.com]
October 1998: Founds Linck Corporate Finance under the name of Christian Bailey. Fails to declare previous surname or other directorship [Blank page on AboveTopSecret.com for all of 1998]
1999: Moves to America [Launches AboveTopSecret.com Begins actively promoting the site, attracting members, creating an effective disinfo vector to use in his future sales presentations.]
2003: Co-founds Lincoln Group, now subject to investigation into planting of US military propaganda in Iraqi newspapers
Though the timeline is highly suggestive, much of the above is unprovable conjecture. I think it is entirely possible and "in character" that someone is using the name of the playwright, Simon Gray, to "dramatize" disinformation via the AboveTopSecret.com website and that someone may be "very close" to "Christian Bailey" if not Christian Bailey AKA Jozefowicz.
To finish of this little survey, let's look at one of "Christian Bailey's" co-horts in crime - mentioned in the above article from the Guardian .
See: The Man Who Sold the War: John Rendon, Bush's general in the propaganda war
"Rendon is a man who fills a need that few people even know exists. Two months before al-Haideri took the lie-detector test, the Pentagon had secretly awarded him a $16 million contract to target Iraq and other adversaries with propaganda. One of the most powerful people in Washington, Rendon is a leader in the strategic field known as "perception management," manipulating information -- and, by extension, the news media -- to achieve the desired result. His firm, the Rendon Group, has made millions off government contracts since 1991, when it was hired by the CIA to help "create the conditions for the removal of Hussein from power." Working under this extraordinary transfer of secret authority, Rendon assembled a group of anti-Saddam militants, personally gave them their name -- the Iraqi National Congress -- and served as their media guru and "senior adviser" as they set out to engineer an uprising against Saddam. It was as if President John F. Kennedy had outsourced the Bay of Pigs operation to the advertising and public-relations firm of J. Walter Thompson."
One thing that is abundantly clear is that AboveTopSecret.com is COINTELPRO, pure and simple. Perhaps many of the members and even moderators are unaware of this, and are sincere seekers of truth. It is for such individuals, unaware and unused to the wiles of the pathocracy that the previous posts have been written.
In conclusion, even though much of what I have conjectured is unprovable, and we note that the Guardian article comments on the "lack of paper trail" left by Bailey, the few data bits I have found, along with the timeline and "knowing the nature of the beast," I reckon I'll put my money on Christian Bailey and his gang being the "Simon Gray" behind "AboveTopSecret.com".
posted by Laura Knight Jadczyk @ 4:40 AM 5 comments links to this post
02 January 2006
How to Spot COINTELPRO Agents
The subject of COINTELPRO comes up quite a bit on our websites and has done so since we became fully aware of its activity in the various "alternative news/views" movements back in late 2001. Up to that point in time, we were thinking that it was probably likely that, now and again, a group might be infiltrated by an agent for a specific purpose. What we were NOT aware of was the vast, overarching program that seems to be in place for the primary purpose of controlling absolutely everything via the control of the minds of the masses!
Yeah, that's a pretty unbelievable project to contemplate, but for groups with unlimited resources and the agenda to stay on the top of the heap, it's really not so hard. And never has this activity been more evident than in the 9/11 Truth Movement which I want to discuss here. But, before getting to that specifically, let me give a little background.
Some time ago I published an article entitled "Cosmic COINTELPRO" which said, in part:
Richard Dolan’s UFOs and the National Security State is the first comprehensive study of the past 50 years of the U.S. Government’s response to the intrusion of UFO phenomena in America. The compiled evidence - which includes government documents - suggests that a group of specialists working in the shadows, set up and executed the most massive cover-up in the history of government; and that the Human Potential movement and the subsequent New Age movements, were key elements of this cover-up. In other words, they not only have used the “colorful community” of alternative ideas as an unwitting tool of disinformation, it is highly probable that most of it was literally created by them as COINTELPRO. Dolan writes:
By the mid-1940s, America’s intelligence apparatus had reason to believe that there were artifacts in the skies that did not originate from America, Russia, Germany, or any other country. These objects violated some highly sensitive military airspace, and did not appear to be natural phenomena. One may presume that the affected national security authorities made it an immediate obsession to determine the nature and purpose of these objects, and we may infer that the issue probably became a deep secret by 1946, or 1947 at the latest.
It was at this precise moment in time that the so-called Human Potential movement was “born.”
Do we think that this was a coincidence?
By the mid-50s, it was becoming obvious that things were getting out of control and in August of 1956, the FBI began its COINTELPRO operation. When traditional modes of repression (exposure, blatant harassment, and prosecution for political crimes) failed to counter the growing insurgency, and even helped to fuel it, the Bureau took the law into its own hands. Its methods ranged far beyond surveillance, and amounted to a domestic version of the covert action for which the CIA has become infamous throughout the world.
Usually, when we think of COINTELPRO, we think of the most well known and typical activities which include sending anonymous or fictitious letters designed to start rumors, among other things, publishing false defamatory or threatening information, forging signatures on fake documents, introducing disruptive and subversive members into organizations to destroy them from within, blackmailing insiders in any group to force them to spread false rumors, or to foment factionalism, and so on.
What a lot of people don’t keep in mind is the fact that COINTELPRO also concentrated on creating bogus organizations.
These bogus groups could serve many functions which might include attacking and/or disrupting bona fide groups, or even just simply creating a diversion with clever propaganda in order to attract members away so as to involve them with time-wasting activity designed to prevent them from doing anything useful. COINTELPRO was also famous for instigation of hostile actions through third parties so that it looked like just a "disagreement" between two individuals or groups, a "food fight" or something, and there was no way to connect it to any government operation.
Now, let us take a few logical steps. The UFO problem emerged into the national consciousness in 1947, or thereabouts. Not long afterward, a lot of people began asking a lot of questions. The government wasn’t answering, and so the people began to band together to find out the answers for themselves. They started forming groups. And this is where things get just a bit curious. The thing that was most threatened by the UFO/alien issue seems to have been the Standard Monotheistic Religions. Religion seems to be a necessary component of political control. Social control - that is the mainstay of religion - was most definitely under threat. In fact, what seems to be true is that it is not even clear that religions - as we know them - would have survived a full disclosure. So the logical conclusion is that part of the main reason for the cover-up was to “protect the religious status quo ” - or to create a new "religion" by which masses of people could be controlled.
As things stood at the time, protecting the religious status quo - mainly the social controls that stem from religion - was iffy at best. After a century of scholarly investigation into many religious texts, and the raising of many questions about the “old time religion,” there were a lot of people in society who were most definitely turning away from religious dogma. It’s fairly simple to take the next logical step and see that a combining of the questions of those who were disenchanted with religion, with the questions of those who wanted to know just what the heck was going on in terms of possible “extraterrestrials,” was seen as a dangerous and explosive mixture.
Something had to be done.
The activities of COINTELPRO in attempting to neutralize political opposition have been pretty well exposed. But we are now considering the fact that, in addition to political activists, it seems that COINTELPRO has particularly targeted groups that are seeking the truth about the interactions between the US government and Ultra Terrestrials, or so-called “aliens.” That a long-time cover-up of these matters has been in effect is certainly evident to any careful researcher.
The COINTELPRO files show the U.S. Government targeted a very broad range of religious, labor and community groups opposed to any of its agendas, and it is only logical to assume that the same type of operation would be created to cover up the “alien agenda.” Such a theoretical COINTELPRO operation also goes far in explaining why, when the sincere researcher of UFO phenomena enters this field, he or she discovers only lies, lies, and more lies; confusion and disinformation. That is most definitely the signature of COINTELPRO.
Considering all of this, would anybody care to suggest that it did not also occur to the Powers that Be that the chief means of diverting attention and covering up the truth would be to literally fund and create the “New Age” and “Human Potential movement" so that it would follow their agenda of keeping secrets? So that it would create a New Religion of Aliens that THEY controlled?
In other words, it is extremely likely that the most successful and popular of Metaphysical Mavens and New Age Impresarios are COINTELPRO agents - either conscious or dupes of those who are. The objective seems to be to attack and “neutralize” those who are seeking the answers. Those who are sincere, who do bona fide research and seek to explicate the truth, are infiltrated, attacked, and marginalized according to standard COINTELPRO procedures.
What all of this seems to suggest is that the Powers That Be (PTB) have developed COINTELPRO to an all new level of Social Shaping, Cultural Brainwashing, and the main targets of this activity would include virtually anyone who is seeking the truth about the shifting realities of our world. The cases of COINTELPRO activities against political groups must be no more than the tip of the iceberg, given that the great bulk of COINTELPRO-type operations remain secret until long after their damage has been done. By all indications, domestic covert operations have become a permanent feature of U.S. politics and Social Programming, and it is hardly likely, considering the evidence, that the New Age and Human Potential fields are exempt.
The implications of this are truly alarming. Those who manage to get close to the truth of these matters, despite the many obstacles in their path, face National covert campaigns to discredit and disrupt their research and reputations. Clearly, COINTELPRO and similar operations under other names also work to distort academic and popular perceptions of the problems facing our world. They have done enormous damage to the search for the Truth.
“Terrorism is changing. New adversaries, new motivations and new rationales have surfaced in recent years to challenge much of the conventional wisdom...” wrote Dr. Bruce Hoffman, Director of RAND. And he was right. The only problem is, the reader is largely unaware of the definition of “new adversaries” that might be implied in his remarks.
I think that it is pretty easy to "read" the 9/11 Truth Movement into the above description of COINTELPRO in the "New Age." In fact, after all that practice, it must have been a piece of cake to just move in and co-opt those who were suddenly drawn into an "alternative" point of view by 9/11. A lot of people who have absolutely no interest in metaphysics, religion, and so forth, DO have an interest in politics and history and current affairs. I'll never forget reading John Kaminski's article "Agents Provocateur?" where he describes where he was and what he was doing at that fateful moment on September 11, 2001:
I remember that day all too well. I was standing in front of my TV. I had just awakened and flipped it on, intending to zap the clicker to ESPN to catch the latest sports news, a typical daily habit that occurs just before I stumble into the kitchen to make my coffee. By chance, the tube was set to NBC, where the plastic Today show commentators were talking about a plane that had crashed into the World Trade Center. So I never changed the channel. I just stood there, eyelids glued apart, and watched as plane number two glided into the south tower, and into history.
I just stood there, I don't know for how long. Eventually I turned around, made the coffee, and listened to the aghast commentary of the NBC crew. I don't remember now what it was triggered my next verbal outburst, whether it was Katie Couric reporting the government saying it was Osama bin Laden who was behind the attacks, or some vaguer speculation about Arab terrorists.
I only know I turned around, stalked into the living room, and then with the most certain self-assured vehemence I have ever shown in my life, started bellowing: "No way! No freaking way!"
I knew then, right then and there, that 9/11 was an inside job. ... Nothing I have seen, heard, or read since has caused me to feel even the merest shadow of a doubt about what I felt at that moment.
There are millions of people who had the same reaction, but very few of them in a position, or with the talents, to say or do anything about it. And most of them are not into "metaphysics, religion, or researching strange phenomena." That's too bad. There's a lot about COINTELPRO that we all could learn together.
Now, one of the interesting things we have observed about COINTELPRO is the way it shifts and warps in response to possible exposure. I believe that I was the first to realize the extent and nature of the operation, and I began publishing my speculations about it in the Adventures With Cassiopaea series back in early 2002. Not too long after that, individuals that I KNEW to be "agents" of COINTELPRO began to start ranting about COINTELPRO and pointing the finger this way and that way. Up to this point in time, the lid had pretty much remained shut on the subject - I guess they were hoping that people would forget about it, or think that it was over and done with back in the 70s, nothing to worry about now!
But nope, I saw it and wrote about it and they just had to do something. So, in typical COINTELPRO fashion, they started producing endless noise to obscure the signal. Particular attention was paid to me; I guess I had to be punished for daring to call a spade a spade. I was accused of being COINTELPRO myself, of being funded by George Soros, my husband was accused of being an "ex cold war nuke scientist," and the previous attacks that had alerted me to the COINTELPRO problem to begin with - vile and vicious defamation, character assassination, and so on - ramped up to an unbelieveable level.
As usual, I learned a lot by observing and doing research to find out who was connected to whom.
Of course, once I began publishing such exposes, the program shifted again. The internet was already being scrubbed of articles and stories that did not support the government 9/11 claims that had been published in the early days after 9/11. Seems like some additional scrubbing took place in removing material that might link various agents together. Additionally, such resources as the "whois" services became useless with the use of "proxy registration" of websites. Many things that had been on the web before 9/11 suddenly disappeared. Many things also disappeared from the usually reliable webarchive as well. In some instances, we had the foresight to archive pages, but not always. I even have some pages archived and certified in my files. They may come in handy someday.
With over 100 researchers in our Quantum Future Group, scattered around the globe, we have even resorted to sending a member out to do hand searches in various places. In one case, the member was shortly afterward visited by some "Israeli Art Students." How's that for "personal attention?"
Not long after I published research findings on the people behind GodlikeProductions Forum, we received an email warning, and two "personal contacts" of a threatening nature. Let us just say that when you begin to find connections between such popular websites and drug and pedophile rings, you are cruising into dangerous international trafficking waters and discretion may very well be the better part of valor. I removed the article from our website, though I do still send it to researchers who ask for it privately. I should note, while on the subject, that this is not uncommon: to find such connections; after all, that's one of the ways that secret agencies make their money - drugs and human trafficking, including children - and have the means to control government officials: blackmail. It's a pretty handy set-up: provide the drugs and the sex, get photos and movies or recordings, and voila! Instant control of just about anybody!
So, while I can't take the risk of telling exactly who is who here, just let me give a general warning: drugs and pedophilia - and even arms trafficking - are connected to a lot of people who you would never, ever suspect! Imagine! A popular New Age teacher giving seminars on such things as how to create your higher astral body and meet your angel guides (for example) who also runs a cover operation for shipping arms to CIA sponsored guerilla groups and ALSO has programs for "special children"? Can we say "Star kids" and "Indigo?"
Getting back to 9/11 and COINTELPRO in that venue: if you don't already know that probably 80 to 90 percent of what is out there is noise, then you might want to get up to speed pretty fast.
Now, let's get down to some specifics. There's a new guy on the 9/11 scene who just sort of appeared out of nowhere: Daryl Bradford Smith.
Daryl has declared himself to be the "Black Mamba" of the Truth Movement!
Well, I DO declare! Hush my mouth and shiver my timbers!
I've been watching Mr. Smith (funny, that reminds me Agent Smith in The Matrix!) for a bit now. Among his earlier publications was a sort of "how to recognize agents in the 9/11 Truth Movement guide". It was simple, straightforward, easy for anyone to understand. Even though something about it was disturbing, I included it on Signs of the Times one day.
Recently, I had an exchange with a few other 9/11 researchers on the subject of DBS, and I'd like to share a few excerpts:
Daryl is telling us he has commandeered the 9/11 skeptics movement.
Hoo boy! Well, I've got this handy little booklet here entitled "How to Spot a Spy," which was put together back during the days of the "Global Movement for Justice and Eco-Peace," when COINTELPRO was running rampant and some of those groups learned the hard way. It was sent to me by a member of QFG (thanks DS) I've been thinking about updating it and making it available to 9/11 researchers. Here is what it says, mainly, synopsized and skipping some repetitive stuff:
How To Spot a Spy
One way to neutralize a potential activist is to get them to be in a group that does all the wrong things. Why?
1) The message doesn't get out. 2) A lot of time is wasted 3) The activist is frustrated and discouraged 4) Nothing good is accomplished.
FBI and Police Informers and Infiltrators will infest any group and they have phoney activist organizations established.
Their purpose is to prevent any real movement for justice or eco-peace from developing in this country.
Agents come in small, medium or large. They can be of any ethnic background. They can be male or female.
The actual size of the group or movement being infiltrated is irrelevant. It is the potential the movement has for becoming large which brings on the spies and saboteurs.
This booklet lists tactics agents use to slow things down, foul things up, destroy the movement and keep tabs on activists.
It is the agent's job to keep the activist from quitting such a group, thus keeping him/her under control.
In some situations, to get control, the agent will tell the activist:
"You're dividing the movement."
[Here, I have added the psychological reasons as to WHY this maneuver works to control people]
This invites guilty feelings. Many people can be controlled by guilt. The agents begin relationships with activists behind a well-developed mask of "dedication to the cause." Because of their often declared dedication, (and actions designed to prove this), when they criticize the activist, he or she - being truly dedicated to the movement - becomes convinced that somehow, any issues are THEIR fault. This is because a truly dedicated person tends to believe that everyone has a conscience and that nobody would dissimulate and lie like that "on purpose." It's amazing how far agents can go in manipulating an activist because the activist will constantly make excuses for the agent who regularly declares their dedication to the cause. Even if they do, occasionally, suspect the agent, they will pull the wool over their own eyes by rationalizing: "they did that unconsciously... they didn't really mean it... I can help them by being forgiving and accepting " and so on and so forth.
The agent will tell the activist:
"You're a leader!"
This is designed to enhance the activist's self-esteem. His or her narcissistic admiration of his/her own activist/altruistic intentions increase as he or she identifies with and consciously admires the altruistic declarations of the agent which are deliberately set up to mirror those of the activist.
This is "malignant pseudoidentification." It is the process by which the agent consciously imitates or simulates a certain behavior to foster the activist's identification with him/her, thus increasing the activist's vulnerability to exploitation. The agent will simulate the more subtle self-concepts of the activist.
Activists and those who have altruistic self-concepts are most vulnerable to malignant pseudoidentification especially during work with the agent when the interaction includes matter relating to their competency, autonomy, or knowledge.
The goal of the agent is to increase the activist's general empathy for the agent through pseudo-identification with the activist's self-concepts.
The most common example of this is the agent who will compliment the activist for his competency or knowledge or value to the movement. On a more subtle level, the agent will simulate affects and mannerisms of the activist which promotes identification via mirroring and feelings of "twinship". It is not unheard of for activists, enamored by the perceived helpfulness and competence of a good agent, to find themselves considering ethical violations and perhaps, even illegal behavior, in the service of their agent/handler.
The activist's "felt quality of perfection" [self-concept] is enhanced, and a strong empathic bond is developed with the agent through his/her imitation and simulation of the victim's own narcissistic investments. [self-concepts] That is, if the activist knows, deep inside, their own dedication to the cause, they will project that onto the agent who is "mirroring" them.
The activist will be deluded into thinking that the agent shares this feeling of identification and bonding. In an activist/social movement setting, the adversarial roles that activists naturally play vis a vis the establishment/government, fosters ongoing processes of intrapsychic splitting so that "twinship alliances" between activist and agent may render whole sectors or reality testing unavailable to the activist. They literally "lose touch with reality."
Activists who deny their own narcissistic investments [do not have a good idea of their own self-concepts and that they ARE concepts] and consciously perceive themselves (accurately, as it were) to be "helpers" endowed with a special amount of altruism are exceedingly vulnerable to the affective (emotional) simulation of the accomplished agent.
Empathy is fostered in the activist through the expression of quite visible affects. The presentation of tearfulness, sadness, longing, fear, remorse, and guilt, may induce in the helper-oriented activist a strong sense of compassion, while unconsciously enhancing the activist's narcissistic investment in self as the embodiment of goodness.
The agent's expresssion of such simulated affects may be quite compelling to the observer and difficult to distinguish from deep emotion.
It can usually be identified by two events, however:
First, the activist who has analyzed his/her own narcissistic roots and is aware of his/her own potential for being "emotionally hooked," will be able to remain cool and unaffected by such emotional outpourings by the agent.
As a result of this unaffected, cool, attitude, the Second event will occur: The agent will recompensate much too quickly following such an affective expression leaving the activist with the impression that "the play has ended, the curtain has fallen," and the imposture, for the moment, has finished. The agent will then move quickly to another activist/victim.
The fact is, the movement doesn't need leaders, it needs MOVERS. "Follow the leader" is a waste of time.
A good agent will want to meet as often as possible. He or she will talk a lot and say little. One can expect an onslaught of long, unresolved discussions.
Some agents take on a pushy, arrogant, or defensive manner:
1) To disrupt the agenda 2) To side-track the discussion 3) To interrupt repeatedly 4) To feign ignorance 5) To make an unfounded accusation against a person.
Calling someone a racist, for example. This tactic is used to discredit a person in the eyes of all other group members.
Saboteurs
Some saboteurs pretend to be activists. She or he will ....
1) Write encyclopedic flyers (in the present day, websites) 2) Print flyers in English only. 3) Have demonstrations in places where no one cares. 4) Solicit funding from rich people instead of grass roots support 5) Display banners with too many words that are confusing. 6) Confuse issues. 7) Make the wrong demands. 8) Compromise the goal. 9) Have endless discussions that waste everyone's time. The agent may accompany the endless discussions with drinking, pot smoking or other amusement to slow down the activist's work.
Provocateurs
1) Want to establish "leaders" to set them up for a fall in order to stop the movement. 2) Suggest doing foolish, illegal things to get the activists in trouble. 3) Encourage militancy. 4) Want to taunt the authorities. 5) Attempt to make the activist compromise their values. 6) Attempt to instigate violence. Activisim ought to always be non-violent. 7) Attempt to provoke revolt among people who are ill-prepared to deal with the reaction of the authorities to such violence.
Informants
1) Want everyone to sign up and sing in and sign everything. 2) Ask a lot of questions (gathering data). 3) Want to know what events the activist is planning to attend. 4) Attempt to make the activist defend him or herself to identify his or her beliefs, goals, and level of committment.
Recruiting
Legitimate activists do not subject people to hours of persuasive dialog. Their actions, beliefs, and goals speak for themselves.
Groups that DO recruit are missionaries, military, and fake political parties or movements set up by agents.
Surveillance
ALWAYS assume that you are under surveillance.
At this point, if you are NOT under surveillance, you are not a very good activist!
Scare Tactics
They use them.
Such tactics include slander, defamation, threats, getting close to disaffected or minimally committed fellow activists to persuade them (via psychological tactics described above) to turn against the movement and give false testimony against their former compatriots. They will plant illegal substances on the activist and set up an arrest; they will plant false information and set up "exposure," they will send incriminating letters [emails] in the name of the activist; and more; they will do whatever society will allow.
This booklet in no way covers all the ways agents use to sabotage the lives of sincere an dedicated activists.
If an agent is "exposed," he or she will be transferred or replaced.
COINTELPRO is still in operation today under a different code name. It is no longer placed on paper where it can be discovered through the freedom of information act.
The FBI counterintelligence program's stated purpose: To expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, and otherwise neutralize individuals who the FBI categorize as opposed to the National Interests. "National Security" means the FBI's security from the people ever finding out the vicious things it does in violation of people's civil liberties.
A slight breach in orthodoxy is sufficient to terrify authoritarian ideologues who see in it the collapse of the system of thought control that has been so effctive in depoliticizing American Society. Noam Chomsky.
And that's about it for the booklet: How To Spot a Spy!
Now, getting back to Daryl Bradford Smith and the above referenced article where he claims that he is the "Black Mamba of the 9/11 Truth Movement," let's look at this article which seems to be designed to implicate a Mr. Jon Carlson as a COINTELPRO agent.
First of all, I would have liked to have seen more facts about Carlson and less "ranting." I don't know who Jon Carlson is and DBS didn't do anything to enlighten me except rant and rave and make himself look foolish. However, I can certainly understand a tendency to rant now and again out of sheer frustration.
Having said that, I think that it is dangerous to fall into a "it's either black or white" judgment mode because that is what THEY do and what THEY promote. In a sense, it is the difference between the "good vs evil" via strict laws and NO justice (the psychopathic way) as opposed to the more natural and human Law of Three which posits "there is good and there is evil and there is the specific situation that determines which is which."
I know that the majority of people aren't interested in, or can't deal with, concepts of metaphyisics, religion, hyperdimensional manipulations, and so I was very glad to get the Ponerology material because that "brings it home" to 3 D. Even the guys at the truck stop can understand how an evil government can come to power with this material.
Nevertheless, there ARE many surpassingly strange things on this planet and we need to have theories and explanations that accommodate those things or we are no better than the Catholic church born out of materialistic Judaism which is the underpinning philosophy that led to the mess we are in in the first place. Judaism has been promoting the purely material, linear explanation of reality for a very long time. And anybody who goes in a different direction is immediately attacked and/or vectored. That fact should give some pause to a serious thinker.
I want to try to explain what I mean here by commenting on Smith's rant:
DBS writes: Can you see a pattern with UFOs?
# Steven Greer is very active in promoting UFOs with his Disclosure Project.
LKJ: I don't know if DBS has a particular reason for naming Steven Greer or not. I think, based on what he says further down, that his chief issue with Steven is that he is Jewish. So what? My only beef with Steven Greer is that he specifically promotes UFOs as ETs from outer space, i.e. distant worlds, phyisical explanation, and that they are just "very advanced" and therefore must be "here to help us." (You know, a being can't be more advanced if they are not "good." This is a fatal error!)
Now, first of all, let us understand that the mainstream media of the United States is, by and large, controlled by Zionists. So is the government. So, you can pretty well figure out that what is being promoted by the media and or the government is what the Zionists want you to believe.
And so, we come to the realization that the image of "aliens" that is most widespread in the U.S. is, by default, the explication that the Zionists WANT everyone to believe. This in no way obviates the reality of the phenomenon. In fact, that the phenomenon has received so much "smoke and mirrors" attention should tell us that it is serious and real, and most definitely NOT what the MSM presents.
DBS: # Stanton Friedman claims be one of the pioneers in UFO exposure.
LKJ: I've communicated with Friedman a few times over the years, have met him personally, and I don't think that he is doing any deliberate disinformation. He is sincere, works very hard, and even though I don't agree with his approach - Stanton is another one who is hard on the heels of finding a "material explanation" for UFOs - that they are ETs from distant worlds in our material, 3 D universe, I don't question his integrity. At least not at this point. He has never given any reason for anyone to question it. So, I don't get DBS' point here unless - again - his point is that Stanton Friedman is Jewish. If that is the case, then we have a better idea of what DBS is up to.
DBS: # Art Bell has been promoting aliens and other ridiculous ideas for years on his coast-to-coast radio show.
LKJ: Can't argue with the fact that Art Bell has been promoting ridiculous ideas for years, but notice that this is fairly typical of the whole ET/UFO situation: it is so obscured by noise that the true signal is completely missed.
Years of digging through cases has convinced me that there IS a signal but that the whole UFO/New Age approach is vectored by disinformation.
If you look at the pattern of disinformation surrounding 9/11, you will see exactly the same pattern of disinfo that surrounds the whole UFO/ET issue. And once you see that, you can draw the obvious conclusion that the noise exists for the very purpose of obscuring the signal. There is, so to say, an ET 9/11 - the real deal - and tons of "false research sites" promoting stupid ideas, even outrageous claims that give the whole field a bad name.
So, either DBS has fallen for this disinfo regarding UFOs and ETs in the same way that many people will be disgusted over the 9/11 Truth movement because of similar activities of disinformation artists within the 9/11 Truth movement, or DBS is one of them. Is Art Bell also Jewish? I don't know. But maybe that is DBS' point.
DBS: The pattern I see is that many of the people who are actively promoting UFOs have strong ties to Israel, or to other Zionists. How many real Jews promote UFOs?
LKJ: I fail to see what "real Jews" - or "not real" Jews - or Jews at all - have to do with the subject here. It is certainly true that the Zionist controlled media and the complicit Bush Administration are largely responsible for the disinfo about 9/11... So, just think about that for a minute. Ask yourself why the owners of the media would promote so much nonsense about UFOs ??? It is EXACTLY the same thing as why they promote so much nonsense about 9/11!!! Because there IS a "real signal" that has to be obscured!
Do you really think that if there was nothing to it that they would spend so much time obscuring it with nonsense???
Do you think that if it was really a benevolent phenomenon that they would spend so much time trying to present it as one???
But none of that has anything to do with being Jewish.
DBS::Can you figure it out?
LKJ: Question is, can DBS figure it out. It looks like he has fallen into the disinfo, smoke and mirrors trap, or... he is part of it. One thing is certain: he is promoting hate.
DBS: These UFO researchers claim to be truth seekers who want the government to stop lying about aliens, but they lie to us about Israel's role in 9/11, the attack on the USS Liberty, the assassination of President Kennedy, and other crimes.
LKJ: I'm not exactly sure what DBS is trying to say here. Is he saying that the government lies about aliens AND 9/11 and the attack on the Liberty, AND the assassination of JFK, therefore, somehow he concludes that this proves his point? (Which it doesn't.)
OR, is he saying that UFO researchers who want the government to stop lying about aliens then turn around and lie themselves about 9/11, JFK, etc... ?
I don't really hang out with the "Aliens are here to save us" gang, Jewish or not, so I'm a bit in the dark on who he is talking about here. Everyone I know who is a so-called "UFO researcher" knows quite well that Israel played a big role in 9/11, that MOSSAD was behind the USS Liberty attack, and that JFK was not assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.
But, in the event that there ARE "UFO researchers" who subscribe to the government disinfo campaign about JFK and 9/11, and other things, I will point out that this just demonstrates how effective COINTELPRO can be. Many, many people have had experiences that make them desperate for an explanation, for a "shelter" from the government instigated ridicule and denial. That makes them RIPE to be taken in by someone who claims to represent a "strange- phenomena- friendly port in the storm." And THEN, once they have "anchored" in that port, they are susceptible to being influenced by the other ideas. It is standard disinfo/cointelpro.
DBS: Also, they lie to us about the role of the media, the banking families, and the Mossad, and they lie about the creation of Israel.
LKJ: Again, it's a bit hard to follow DBS' argument. Who is lying? The Government or UFO researchers? I think he means UFO researchers - specifically Jewish UFO researchers - in which case, again, he ought to be more specific because I certainly don't know any UFO researchers, Jewish or otherwise, who lie about any of those things. I do know quite a few that don't have much interest in those subjects, in the same way that people that are interested in researching banking families and MOSSAD and so forth don't usually have much interest in UFOs. As noted above, many people who were never interested in religion, metaphysics, UFOs, or anything else out of the mainstream interests of the guys at the truckstop, certainly knew instantly that 9/11 was an inside job. I think that if there are UFO researchers who are what DBS describes, then we have to seriously consider them as disinfo or even COINTELPRO set-up organizations. And I should point out that such operations are not restricted to Jews by any stretch of the imagination.
DBS: Some of these people, such as Art Bell, go even further by defending the government story of 9/11 and other crimes.
LKJ: Sure. Art Bell is COINTELPRO from bottom up. Why can't DBS see the connection??? The trap? Or is he deliberately not seeing it?
DBS: These people also promote one another, but they criticize or ignore people who are exposing the Israeli / Zionist connection to these crimes, such as myself, Eric Hufschmid, and Michael Collins Piper. Do you really think it is a coincidence that they don't like us?
LKJ: Well, I could say the same thing with a lot more documentation to back it up, for sure. If you read Joe Quinn's new piece Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 - and Neither Did a Boeing 757 , toward the end, there is a very clear explication of COINTELPRO in action that makes it pretty clear that NOT linking to Signs of The Times is an almost certain indication that a website is COINTELPRO. We certainly notice a lot of so-called UFO research sites that don't link to Cassiopaea except to refer to us as a "cult" or to publish defamatory remarks about us. Again, from what we have learned over the years, that's an almost certain indicator that the website is COINTELPRO.
I am willing to bet that the majority of such UFO researchers as DBS describes ALL promote the alleged "aliens" as PHYSICAL entities from distant planets with a more advanced civilization and benevolent agendas.
Well, actually, in the years since I started talking about hyperdimensional realities and a NEGATIVE "control system" similar (but more developed) to what Vallee has talked about, there has been a "reaction" in that some of the UFO disinfo trappers have started talking about something similar. But in all cases, they talk about it as a "benevolent" phenomenon. The recent TV series, The 4400 is an example. 4,400 people are abducted "from the future." Now, certainly, our Cassiopaean Transmissions claim to come "from the future," but those same C's say, unequivocally, that no "positive" being ever "abducts" anyone. Not EVER. The "good guys" don't "play chess", preferring to work within the natural order of things as a courtesy toward Creation. But here, on network TV, we have a program that mixes all the nonsensical alien stuff with our own work in such a way as to corrupt it and discredit it. Typical COINTELPRO.
The fact is, if a person does NOT allow for the hyperdimensional hypothesis, and if they are truly sincere about their seeking of answers and their desire to promote truth, they WILL be "taken out" one way or the other. We have seen it happen time and again.
And I am not saying that anybody needs to believe it; just take it as a theory and work with the theoretical constructs in terms of self-defense. If you don't, you are TOAST. Take that to the bank!
DBS: Who is Jeff Rense? Try to find information about this man. People will justify his secrecy on the grounds that he is afraid for his life, which is justifiable. However, it is also possible that he is hiding something more sinister. His stepmother, Paige Rense, is editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest. This is one of the magazines owned by Si Newhouse.
LKJ: Well, Rense is a cipher to me, too. I only recently learned that he is a close pal of Jay Weidner and that he and Jay and Vincent Bridges used to be members of Ray Flowers group. The C's pretty clearly indicated Flowers as a COINTELPRO handler. From my point of view, after a long period of observation, Rense is out there pushing the alien noise agenda in a big way. He is a "tar baby." All the folks (and there are MILLIONS of them) who KNOW that the reality is strange, or who have had truly traumatic experiences (I think a lot of it is gov mind control programs) rush to be enfolded in the arms of anybody who will give them some validation, some peace of mind about what has happened to them. And then, they are RIPE for being vectored.
This is a horrible situation, when you think about it. And it is doing nobody any good for people like DBS to come out and simply negate the reality of millions of people and make it an "either/or" or "black/white" proposition. That is exactly what the Zionists/Fundies /Bush Reich do!
DBS: For all we know, Jeff Rense truly believes in UFOs, and associates of Si Newhouse or others are encouraging his UFO habit. See our article about the media if you never heard of Newhouse.
LKJ: I don't think Jeff Rense really "believes" what he promotes. Keeping in mind the close connection between Weidner and Rense, is very instructive to read the entire Weidner exchange that I published on our website . (Weidner is referred to as "Alvin Wiley" and Vincent Bridges is referred to as "Maynerd Most" in many articles.) Some of the beliefs that Weidner espouses, that come up here and there in startling clarity, are truly scary. So, if Rense is a friend of Weidner, and it's a certainty (in my mind, you read the material and decide for yourself) that Weidner is COINTELPRO, then a lot of strange connections begin to make sense. But, I'll save all of that research for another post.
Suffice it to say that Rense publishes attacks on Art Bell, and now DBS is publishing attacks on Rense AND Art Bell. Looks like a typical COINTELPRO three way food fight designed to divert and distract and make a lot of noise and confusion.
Yes, indeed, these people KNOW that the UFO thing is NOT a physical, benevolent phenomenon. And that is exactly why they promote the opposite. And that is why we were targeted by them so early in the game. Read my article "Something Wicked This Way Comes" for insight on this one.
DBS: Why is Jeff Rense posting so many articles from Jon Carlson, Karl Schwarz, and UFO supporters? Is this your idea of serious journalism? If not, please do not support him.
LKJ: See above. DBS' journalism isn't much better.
DBS: If you cannot help, get out of my way
I am calling for Jeff Rense to immediately stop promoting Jon Carlson. Carlson belongs on the list of suspects in the 9/11 disinformation campaign, and anybody -- including Rense -- who continues to promote this man after reading his latest articles should also be considered a suspect. And Karl Schwarz should also be investigated. I also want Rense to stop promoting UFO theories. A photo that shows a blurry object in the sky is nothing more than a photo of a blurry object. Anybody who claims the blurry object is a spacecraft with aliens from Alpha Centauri is incapable of proper reasoning, or a disinformation agent who is trying to make conspiracy theories seem idiotic. People who truly believe aliens are flying around the earth should get out of the 9/11 movement and stop pretending they they are 9/11 researchers. We don't need idiots in this movement. This is a serious fight against a lot of intelligent Zionists, and we don't need morons giving us a bad image. We need to attract people who can think, not idiots who believe aliens are making crop circles, or lunatics who believe in Paranormal Holiday Stories. We will not defeat the Zionists with a horde of morons.
LKJ: Well, obviously, since my husband is an internationally known theoretical physicist, and the average IQ of the QFG is probably somewhere around 130, DBS just comes across as wildly flinging mud without rhyme, reason, or good sense. His arguments are little better than what might be constructed by an average 9 year old. At the beginning of his interview with John Kaminski, he talked about the "4,000 year old" Jewish messianic beliefs. Just one of his ignorant comments.
Again, just as the noise around 9/11 turns people off to the truth, (people like DBS) so does the noise around the UFO/alien issue turn people off. (people like Art Bell). Ideas that leave out whole, major, slices of reality - of phenomena that DOES happen - do no service to anyone and only add to the noise. But then, maybe that is DBS' agenda?
DBS: If Rense wants to promote UFOs, then he should return to his previous web site, www.sightings.com
LKJ: Rense can't. He sold the domain to Henry Winkler, a noted Zionist.
DBS: Discussions are acceptable; Deception is a crime It is acceptable to discuss the issue of whether there is a god, and whether there are several gods, but it is not acceptable to point to a blurry object in a photograph and claim that the blurry object is God.
LKJ: Gee, thanks DBS for giving us all permission to think and discuss things! And if "deception is a crime," do we arrest him now for lying about the 4,000 year old Jewish Messianic tradition? His little rant about the photo of God, etc, is actually standard disinfo ... It's called "setting up a straw man so you can knock him down." So, does that make him a disinfo artist also???
Good question. But if he's the best they've got, Rense doesn't have anything to worry about. But, maybe that's the point.
One thing we have learned is this: the disinfo only gets subtler and subtler. Once you avoid one trap, the next one is laid...
DBS: Likewise, it is acceptable to discuss the issue of whether there are aliens on the earth, but it is not acceptable to point to a blurry object in a photograph and claim that the blurry object is an alien spacecraft.
LKJ: Aside from being tediously asinine, the above is rather confusing coming, as it does, after all else he has said on the subject up to this point. However, we happen to agree with him that it is not acceptable to point to blurry objects and declare that they are alien spacecraft. We don't do that. But this remark seems to contradict what he said earlier:
"People who truly believe aliens are flying around the earth should get out of the 9/11 movement and stop pretending they they are 9/11 researchers. We don't need idiots in this movement. This is a serious fight against a lot of intelligent Zionists, and we don't need morons giving us a bad image."
LKJ: So he has contradicted himself, after doing the "set up a straw man so you can knock him down" routine, he has knocked himself down.
At the end of this really nutzoid piece of writing, DBS closes with:
Daryl Bradford Smith will no longer tolerate the contamination of evidence of Israel's complicity in world domination. They are mixing UFOs, crop circles, Remote Viewing, and other drivel to discredit the hard evidence of Zionist crimes.
Do not post Smith's material on any site that promotes such nonsense, and don't support the radio hosts who promote it.
I also am asking John Kaminski to stop posting articles on the Rense web site. John, why are you supporting Rense?
People who knowingly deceive people are criminals; con artists; swindlers. The UFO swindlers belong on the list to be guillotined. They are giving the subject of "conspiracies" a bad image, which in turn is allowing corruption to continue.
Please read our earlier article about the guillotine list before you complain about the previous paragraph.
If you think UFOs are real, all you have to do is Remote View the people at Coast to Coast radio, and others like them, and watch them laugh at the Useful Idiots who believe their nonsense.
Hmmm.... "Useful Idiots." I've heard that phrase before. Yes, it's coming to me now: I was introduced to the concept by none other than Jay Weidner.
Now, let's look again at this apparent food fight between Daryl Bradford Smith and Jeff Rense.
I did some checking around and it seems that DBS appeared out of nowhere, as far as we can tell, in February. His domain name was registered on February 8, a few days after our researchers had finished one research project and begun another project that were both related to determining and possible future exposure of, COINTELPRO, but I can't disclose either of them just now. Just suffice it to say that the emergence of this present situation relates very closely to those projects and suggests that the objects of our investigation must have friends in high places who are now setting up this present apparent food fight as a smoke screent. Rr-read this last sentence and read between the lines, please. Smith's domain was registered by proxy, by the way. I'm not even sure the guy really is in France. All that could be smoke and mirrors. His website help is based in Sarasota, Florida. In a rather short period of time, he was able to get more or less "high profile" (in alternative news context) interviewees on his show. What's up with that?
He gets all kinds of promotion from places like Godlike Productions (which we know a lot about, and which, by the way, continuously attack and defame us in truly vicious and illegal ways)and some other strange people, but when you listen to his shows, they are mostly just ignorant pot stirring. It's almost like DBS is a straw man himself, being set up to be knocked down by Rense.
Now, based on what I KNOW to be true, if he is doing these shows in France, he is breaking the law. Promoting hate, as he is doing, is illegal in France.
Anyway, less than two weeks after DBS registers his domain name, (a short time after our researchers had started the project mentioned above), Jay Weidner launched an odd "attack" on our webmaster, as I chronicled here. (Don't skip this one, it's a doozie! You wanna know how these guys operate? Read it and weep if you don't fall off your chair laughing!)
Of course, that could all be coincidental. But there were other "coincidences" related to this same gang. As it happens, immediately after Rense had me on his show to discuss my article "MOSSAD and Moving Companies", at which time he also published Jay Weidner's defamation of myself, my husband, our children, and QFG, Jay Weidner registered "cassiopaea.net" (which is referenced in the above linked exchange.
I had the feeling when Rense invited me on his show, and then published the defamatory piece by Weidner at the same time, that there was a particular agenda. I had the strong feeling that it was his intent to draw me out on the issue of MOSSAD and Zionists, to get me to say things that are illegal to say in France. Well, I refused to be drawn. I later wrote about this as follows (though, at the time, I had no idea of the close relationship between Rense and Weidner.)
As many of you know, almost exactly a month ago, I was invited to talk on the Jeff Rense show as a consequence of the MOSSAD and Moving Companies Article. What was rather surprising was the fact that Maynerd Most and Alvin Wiley saw fit to send in a libelous article to Rense about us. (Keep in mind that the term "libel" refers specifically to lies.) Rense put the article as an addenda at the bottom of an article written by Richard Sauder that mentioned Cassiopaea as a possibly valid source of factual information. We found it to be incomprehensible that Rense would invite me to speak while, at the same time publish an article libelling me. Rense himself explained that he had published articles by Alvin Wiley before and always found his research to be good. When he was notified of the facts of the situation and provided with evidence of Wiley and Most' lies, Rense removed the libelous piece and apologized.
We have certainly noted that Wiley occasionally writes op-ed pieces on political subjects, generally denigrating the Bush Regime in a mild way and that Most and his other co-horts are fairly active in political comments of a similar nature - decrying the war, the plight of the Palestinians, and so on.
So, it was certainly curious to discover that Wiley and Most would suddenly emerge in opposition to some obvious conclusions about the 9-11 event and possible government complicity. After all, we here at Signs are basically on the same page with Most and Wiley in political position, right? We are all Pro-humanity and anti-War, right? Even if we don't agree philosophically, we will certainly find a common ground politically, right?
One would think so. But we notice in Kevin MacDonald's CofC that the chief way to take apart an individualistic society is to turn the individuals against each other.
What a concept!
After all, even if - in my opinion - Wiley and Most are off in la-la land with their claims to esoteric traditions - I would have to admire any work they do to promote humanity as a whole and the anti-war position.
But exactly the opposite happened here. And I was puzzled.
Maynerd of Arabia?
Maynerd Most, journalist?
Back on 9-11, as I noted in the MOSSAD Happy Dance, I was extremely puzzled by the fact that Maynerd Most and his gang were crowing with delight at the destruction of the World Trade Center. After all, with his penchant for dressing up in Arabic outfits, that seemed to me to be a bit foolish.
At a later point in time, I really began to wonder about this possible connection to Islamic terrorists since I did find a link between Mujaheedin and Drunvalo Melchizedek and there were many connections between Maynerd Most and Alvin Wiley and Drunvalo.
However, iIt was only after a period of long observation that this theory was discarded. After reviewing the material presented in the MOSSAD and Moving Companies article, the light bulb went on and I realized that it was truly COINTELPRO at its finest.
Back to Wiley and Most and the Rense show affair.
Two days after this show, it seems that Alvin Wiley - remember Alvin? A guy who regularly posts articles attacking the Bush Administration? We are anti-Bush too, so one would think that we are "in the same camp," so to say - well, Alvin Wiley purchased "cassiopaea.net" to set up an ANTI-Cassiopaea website! (For details, see the Wiley Correspondence, and scroll to the end where these letters are posted)
Huh?
Shortly afterward, Maynerd Most and several others (though they may have just been different identities of Most himself) joined the casschat discussion list in order to begin a campaign of disruption and flaming.
Meanwhile, we discovered a website called "The Ross Institute" which appears to be VERY serious and informative. Their disclaimer states:
The information within the Ross Institute archives has been collected to offer the public a resource concerning groups called "cults," controversial organizations and movements. However, the mention and/or inclusion of a group or leader within this archive does not define that group as a "cult" and/or an individual mentioned as either destructive and/or harmful. Instead, such inclusion simply reflects that archived articles and/or research is available about a group or person that has generated some interest and/or controversy.
All the information archived must be evaluated critically, through a process of independent and individual judgment. Please note that there are links often prominently posted at the top of each individual page to a group or movement's own official website, which reflect their views. It is important to see what they have to say.
And lo and behold, what do we find on the Ross Institute list of Dangerous Cults?
Why, a link to Maynerd Most' "take" on Cassiopaea!
Now, this is going to get VERY juicy in just a minute, but before we get to the BEST part, let me just present a little exchange Ark had with Rick Ross of the Ross Institute List of "Dangerous Cults!":
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From: Arkadiusz Jadczyk To: info@rickross.com Subject: correction to your lkinks.html Date sent: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 18:55:36 +0200
Hi,
My name and name of my wife is mispelled in The Cassiopeia's (Ark Jadcyzk and Laura Knight-Jadcyzk)
It should read "Jadczyk"
And if you don't mind, would you be so kind and provide also a link to the original web-site of Laura and Ark Jadczyk? http://cassiopaea.org
Thank you,
ark
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From: "Rick Ross" To: "Arkadiusz Jadczyk" Subject: Re: correction to your lkinks.html Date sent: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 17:02:59 -0400
The spelling will be corrected, but there seems to be problem. The link you point out on the Institute Links page seems to go to a commercial promotions page. Where is the information specifically warning about a destructive group? Have you deleted it?
Rick Ross www.rickross.com
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From: Arkadiusz Jadczyk To: "Rick Ross" Subject: Re: correction to your lkinks.html Date sent: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 07:48:33 +0200
Hi again,
First of all in The Truth about Cassiopeia: Ouiji Alien Alert you link to vincentbridges.com.
Maynerd Most is a liar: See: http://cassiopaea.com/archive/most.htm http://cassiopaea.com/archive/wiley.htm
It is true that we have a politically oriented http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/signs.htm
and scientifically oriented http://quantumfuture.net/quantum_future/homepage.htm site.
But in no way our site fits the criteria of "destructive cults".
Therefore Maynerd Most lied again when trying to discredit our site and us by suggesting to you that "Arkadiusz and Laura Jadczyk are a cult".
What I propose is: either delete the link completely, or, if you want to keep the link to the site full of lies about me and my wife, like vincenbridges.com, please be fair and add also the two links above which document the true destructive nature of Maynerd Most and Alvin Wiley.
On our site "cassiopaea" we pursue similar goal as you do. See for instance http://cassiopaea.org/cass/schwaller1.htm
Listing us as a "cult", what Maynerd Most suggests, is an error on your part. You probably did not check his facts.
The two pages: http://cassiopaea.com/archive/most.htm http://cassiopaea.com/archive/wiley.htm tell the truth about the man your link promotes.
Sincerely, Arkadiusz Jadczyk
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From: "Rick Ross" To: "Arkadiusz Jadczyk" Subject: Re: correction to your lkinks.html Date sent: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 07:03:37 -0400
The spelling will be corrected.
To better understand the site and the Links page specifically, see the following:
http://www.rickross.com/disclaimer.html
Your request to add additional links is refused.
Rick Ross www.rickross.com
Regarding Rick Ross, Cletus Nelson, a Los Angeles journalist, writes (published on The Lew Rockwell site):
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To best understand why agents of the federal government massacred the members of a small Texas church, it behooves the conscientious WACO historian to closely examine the social forces lurking behind this unprecedented disaster.
If there is one sustaining thread which runs throughout this deadly exercise of state power, it is an endless pattern of deception.
From the very outset, the public was falsely led to believe a multiracial spiritual community was largely comprised of gun-running "rednecks" steeped in violent apocalypse theology and martial rhetoric.
As if to further darken the picture, thinly veiled allegations of child abuse and cultic phenomenon were widely circulated on television and in the mainstream press. This egregious use of what media analysts refer to as "negative framing" would seal the fate of the controversial 7th Day Adventist sect when it was deemed politically expendable by Washington officials.
Evidence suggests that these unsubstantiated claims which continue to shade our perception of the events at Mt. Carmel can be attributed to a small cadre of para-political "watchdog" groups.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with citizens banding together to expose government waste, combat police brutality, or warn the public of faulty or dangerous products.
However, in the lucrative realm of public policy activism lurk a number of pro-government advocacy groups whose very existence rests upon the notion that cult activities, political extremism or some other unnamed evil constitutes a dangerous threat to state power.
In order to identify the alleged thought criminals in our midst, operatives aligned with these private surveillance networks infiltrate unconventional spiritual or religious movements, maintain files on American citizens, and work closely with both media and law enforcement to target individuals and organizations whose beliefs run counter to establishmentarian beliefs.
In essence, these ersatz defenders of human rights act as de facto spokesmen for our emergent surveillance society. It’s COINTELPRO redux, only this time with help from a network of dubious, yet-well compensated agents.
One such organization is the Cult Awareness Network (CAN). Although the legendary cult-busters have since disappeared from the public spotlight after suffering a ruinous civil judgement, the once prominent watchdog group still enjoy an infamous place among WACO researchers. Indeed, the first stirrings of the Koresh investigation began when a CAN affiliate named Rick Ross allegedly "deprogrammed" various former Davidians and contacted BATF officials with lurid tales of child abuse and illegal machine guns. [...]
Few bothered to question the credibility of an organization which has flung the "cult" smear at Catholic monasteries, yoga groups, and even Karate classes! Instead, the public recoiled at the stunning accusations leveled against the besieged religious group. Meanwhile, far below the media radar, longtime critics of CAN noticed a familiar modus operandi. Citing outspoken CAN opponent Dr. Gordon Melton, Carol Moore notes that the organization "has found two successful methods of disrupting groups: first, false anonymous charges of child abuse and second, kidnapping and ‘deprogramming’ members."
In the aftermath of the tragic conflagration, Ross would justify the fatal tank attack in a self-serving letter to former Attorney General Janet Reno. "One thing is sure, David Koresh was an absolute authoritarian cult leader who exercised total control over his followers/victims. In the final analysis, he decided to end the conflict." However, Ross would later be subjected to the withering cricism of Princeton University religious scholar Nancy T. Ammerman in a report prepared for the Department of Justice which challenged CAN's ersatz expertise:
"Although these people often call themselves ‘cult experts,’ they are certainly not recognized as such by the academic community. The activities of CAN are seen…as a danger to religious liberty, and deprogramming tactics have been increasingly found to fall outside the law. At the very least, Mr. Ross and any ex-members he associated with should have been seen as questionable sources of information." [...]
Thus it is imperative that we closely scrutinize the information disseminated by the watchdog element and its relationship with government agencies – lest we witness further atrocities (and the ensuing cover-ups) on American soil.
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Hmmm... Well, well, well.
Maynerd Most and Alvin Wiley DO keep INTERESTING company! No wonder they went bananas over the MOSSAD article!
Coming back to Mr. Rick Ross, implicated in the Waco affair and a host of other unsavory activities that exactly fit what Kevin MacDonald has described in his study of the destruction of Western Civilization, I suppose we should be honored that our status has been bumped up so as to require the special attention of so accomplished an agent! Aside from the fact that it proves our point that the agenda of Most and Wiley and gang, from the beginning, has been to run a COINTELPRO on us - it also leads us a bit closer to the center of the web - the Masterminds of Global Terrorism.
The final email from Mr. Rick Ross is a little reply to Ark's question: "Did you really write the following:
I was not "fined $2,500,000.00." This was a civil judgment, not a "fine."
"I was never charged with "kidnapping," but instead "unlawful" or "false imprisonment."
Just curious,
ark
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From: "Rick Ross" To: "Arkadiusz Jadczyk" Subject: Re: correction to your lkinks.html Date sent: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 09:28:18 -0400
See http://www.rickross.com/reference/scientology/Scien47.html
The site you are quoting has received recognition within the Hall of Flames section titled Flaming Websites. See
http://www.rickross.com/flamingwebsites.html
Note: See the listing/link for "Rick Ross: Guardian of the truth or garner of attention?"
This site received a maximum four flame award level, quite a stunning achievement.
Let me know when your website work is complete and I will review it for a possible award. Maybe you can earn four flames too.
Rick Ross www.rickross.com
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Frankly, we think we deserve FIVE FLAMES for spotting COINTELPRO in action, especially with so many apparent links to MOSSAD.
As far as Signs is concerned, the litmus test has been applied: we KNOW Maynerd Most and Alvin Wiley are liars and Rick Ross supports their websites and refuses to post a prominent link to the report on Maynerd Most - verified in every particular.
Remember Maynerd Most? The guy doing the MOSSAD Happy Dance on 9-11 along with the moving guys on top of a truck who were watching the WTC burn? Remember Maynerd Most and Alvin Wiley? The guys who have devoted their lives to flaming and libelling Cassiopaea? And all we ever did was decline to be taken over by them.
That says it all.
Coming back now to DBS and his operations in France.
We notice that DBS uses the title: "The French Connection" .
Have a look here for the notice on my French Connection pages which were begun on March 8, 2003.
Now, obviously, I can't talk about The French Connection (mine, not DBS') for very particular reasons. But, even though I can't reveal certain details, I'm going to tell a little story that I hope will enable the reader to "read between the lines." Also, refer again to what I wrote above about drugs and human trafficking and governments and you'll have some idea of some of the forces behind the fact that I can't talk about what was there. These same forces are probably behind the events I am going to recount.
Some background: Recently a reader sent me an item that was posted on Montalk's forum:
Signs of the Times wrote:
Comment: Yes, it HAS been a "good year" for the American People, but not in the way Bush is describing it. It's been good because I.Scooter Libby was indicted, possibly leading to more indictments next year; Abramoff is getting ready to sing his lungs out, possibly leading to more indictments of Bush cronies; the Patriot Act was NOT made permanent; Bush crony, Harriet Meiers didn't become a Supreme Court judge; Bush and his Gang have been exposed as vile torturers, and breakers of the Law of the Land, and the possibility of Impeachment is looming on the horizon for next year. Yes, indeedy, it's been a good year for the American People, but a veritable annus horribilis for Bush. Let's make a New Year's wish for Bush: May you get everything you deserve in the coming New Year!
Montalk forum writer:
This was the lead comment on the C's Signs of the Times page (http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/signs.htm). Unusually positive outlook from them. I wonder if they are engaged in a bit of the wishful thinking they are usually so disdainful of. Sure, when you put it the way they just did, this was a great year for us and a bad year for TPTB, or at least Bush. Could it have been orchestrated to only look bad for him, or are the forces of goodness and STO-ness actually winning?
Perhaps these minor victories have been handed to us only to give us a false sense of victory, in turn breeding complacency? I find it hard to believe that any real positive change could be underway re: Bush. Perhaps TPTB are tiring of him, or lulling us into false hope before the next major "event." But it does seem odd that the group that is always so quick to warn of the dangers of good news is celebrating; perhaps someone is pulling their strings also, or always was.
For those who don't know, Montalk is a young kid who used to be a member of QFG. There was a parting of the ways between him and QFG during the awful summer of 2003 when the events were transpiring that I was writing about in the French Connection. At that time, QFG discovered that Montalk had a number of articles on his site that advocated keeping guns, storing food, joining militias, and hanging out with some pretty fringe characters who are undoubtedly "vacuum cleaner" operations.
Even though these were "old articles" and modified by additional commentary, based on what was happening "on the ground", so to say, in France, we could see that this was a disaster waiting to happen. At that very moment, due to the actions of Vincent Bridges and Jay Weidner in concert with Jeff Rense, Ark and I and the Signs Team were being harassed by a strange group of individuals in France who had some close connections to the French Gendarmerie which was under the control of Nicolas Sarkozy, a close friend of Netanyahu. (Yes, we have enemies in very high places; why do you think so much energy is concentrated on attacking, defaming, slandering, and even physically threatening us?) And so, we relied on the idea that, if we ASKED him to remove those articles, or to publicly distance himself from those ideas, for our safety, and to trust us that we weren't just being paranoid here, he would do so and we could pass through this danger and talk about it later. But he neither trusted our assessment of the situation, nor was he willing to act in favor of our safety.
Certainly, what Montalk had written on his website was pretty "ordinary" in the U.S. Recently Montalk defended his writing by pointing out that it
goes entirely along with law and encourages the involvement of government, as well as seeks reduction in handguns which so many gangsters and thugs like to use. It encourages responsibility among citizens and alleviates some burden off law enforcement and the military, much like the system in Switzerland. Now, how would this attract attention from three-letter federal agencies as the Cass team claims? How would this advocate the stockpiling of weapons for a physical revolution? It wouldn't...the article is a peaceful solution to the gun issue.
Guns are a last resort, but not one to be dismissed...
Frankly, despite Montalks protestations, I don't think that the above should be considered a "safe" thing to write on one's website in any country considering the state of the world and the Bush Reich's "war on terror." The reader might want to go and read this essay, and then go back and read "How To Spot a Spy" that I have transcribed above and draw some conclusions of their own. I think that any individual who is concerned about possibly being put on a list to be spied on or picked up and tossed in a gitmo camp should stay away from ANY website that even hints that it supports armed insurrection. It may be "technically legal," but then, the folks at Waco were technically legal also. After Rick Ross did his "they're a dangerous cult" rant to the authorities, nobody cared about legal technicalities: they were all burned to a crisp.
More than that, Montalk completely ignored the exact terms of what we were saying to him: that we were being set up, we could see it, and rational thinking has no bearing on a set-up. Set-ups rely on "knee-jerk" reactions being set off by false claims and taking things out of context. That's a historical fact, and those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Being associated with Montalk and his militia/gun-toting ideas - while living in France where what he was calling "reasonable" ideas are NOT acceptable - at that point would have gotten us thrown out of France in a heartbeat! Or worse, accused of being a cult with designs on the safety of God knows who, surrounded and burned out. Notice Montalks reference to "three letter agencies," as if that was the main thing we were worried about. That is completely disingenuous because of what I wrote to him at the time which included:
I am not sure you realize how all of the recent exchanges have affected us here. I'm not even sure that you understand what danger you have put all of us in. You don't have children, and it is not automatic for you to think of the consequences of actions, associations, and so on - and how it might affect everyone you love.
Well, I DO think about it all the time - not just for our family here - but for the group at large.
At this moment, it begins to look like an array of "set-ups" all the way around us, all designed to define us as a "dangerous cult." ...
At the present moment, in fact, right after the Rense article/show - someone (we don't know who) filed a complaint against us for doing "psychological damage" to them - that we are a "dangerous cult."
At any event, French intell is RIGHT NOW investigating ALL OUR CONNECTIONS. And you can bet that they will be reading everything on YOUR site also....
The fact it, Montalk had a lot more information about the situation than he has revealed on his website to date. The urgency of the matter - to take action right now - was completely lost on Montalk. He delayed, fiddled around, and wrote endless emails arguing his right to say "reasonable things" on his own website, and endlessly debating whether we might be mis-reading the situation, and maybe we were wrong, and so on and so forth. Meanwhile, days were passing and the danger was growing. Either he didn't get it, or he got it all too well and all this was just "delaying tactics." Things were happening so fast that I couldn't even write fast enough to keep up with them. More than that, there were things we could not write about without putting ourselves in greater danger. In more recent times, he has written about the matter as follows:
This article was just an idea I came up with while researching the subject for a literature class. In the way it's written, it would be benign even in the eyes of federal agencies who may instead nod at its advocacy of responsibility. The only thing the Cass team is threatened by is the illusion they created by taking selected parts out of context and ignoring the rest.
As it turned out, we were right and Montalk was wrong. Those are the facts on the ground. It was no illusion, and we pointed out from the beginning that anything that COULD be taken out of context would be, and that was the point.
Indeed, the situation grew and escalated and Ark and I were eventually summoned for interrogations. We were photographed and fingerprinted. I was ill at the time, but that didn't make any difference: the interrogation lasted almost four hours. Among the prepared questions (I was allowed to see the questions exactly one hour before they were addressed to me on the record), was the loaded one: "What is your relationship or association with the internet character known as Montalk and his ideas?"
Yup. There it was. The question that, had we answered that he was a friend and member of our group, considering his "advocacy of armed insurrection" and having guns in the closet, would have led - at the very least - to an assessment by the French government that we were potential threats to the public order.
Now, as it happened, prior to this interrogation, several other things were going on in relation to the growing threat that Montalk did not know about. Z*** was an individual who showed up on our doorstep in France (at exactly the same time) with the stated intention of "protecting" me from the many dangers he assured me were "out there" waiting to "take me out." His ideas included arming ourselves to the teeth and creating some kind of heirarchical structure where the only people who had access to me were ones vetted by - who else? - Z***! He claimed to be ex-special forces, trained in all kinds of high-falutin' martial arts and whatnot. When I politely, but firmly, refused his offers of "personal security," he left, stealing a number of things from our house before he went. I suspect that he took these items to turn them over to his Voodoo masters so they could try to make big, ugly ju-ju against me. (Sorry guys, doesn't work on me.) So, we had Weidner, Bridges (and Rense by default) broadcasting widely that we were a dangerous cult holed up in the French countryside, an association with a website that advocated guns and armed insurrection, had published a checklist to "Spot the OP," (xenophobia), and a guy on our doorstep with military connections and undoubted connections to some real cult action. (We never did find out much more about him in this respect to any degree of certainty because we sent him packing.) Meanwhile, a formal complaint that we were a cult had been filed in France, and our applications for permanent residence were an open case which included thorough background investigations by French Intell agencies.
What a set up!
We decided to consult the C's about this. The C's pointed out the fact that a trap was being laid, and something needed to be done immediately.
Of course, as described, we first gave the opportunity to Montalk to create the needed distance himself. As a member of the QFG, he was told what the danger was, was asked to do what was necessary to distance QFG from perceived association with radical, revolutionary, and even violent philosophies. We explained that it didn't matter that what he was writing was legal and acceptable in the U.S., or that he had written commentary that encouraged "government involvement" and "reduction" in handguns. What mattered was the environment WE were in, and observing history and how other groups had been similarly set up and the fact that, at that moment, we were being thoroughly investigated and even a whiff of anything "off" would be fatal.
Ark and I - and several other QFG members - wrote to him explicitly that these associations were dangerous to QFG and its entirely peaceful, philosophical aims, under the circumstances that prevailed at the time, and to please distance himself from those groups and ideas for the sake of the safety of all. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. It was easier to accuse us of being "threatened by .. the illusion they created by taking selected parts out of context and ignoring the rest."
We weren't taking anything out of context, we were taking everything IN context, in the context of historical precedent and a realistic evaluation of the clues in the environment.
It was exactly the same dynamic as it was with Vincent Bridges. He was into the Nazi black magic stuff while Ark and I and the nascent QFG were being attacked by agents of the ADL about those issues back in the summer of 2001, and when we spoke to him explicitly asking him to publicly distance himself from that nonsense for the sake of the safety of QFG, he refused. We then had to take steps of our own to make it clear to our readers that we in no way supported or subscribed to such ideas.
It seems that in both cases, Montalk and Bridges were so "identified" with their ideas, with their formulations of reality, that criticism of those formulas was taken as criticism of themselves. They don't even have to be conscious to be agents.
On the other hand, maybe they aren't so "identified" and ARE conscious of what they are doing?
We can't say.
I can say that now, after having read the little booklet on How To Spot a Spy that I have reproduced above that both of them fit the criteria for COINTELPRO agents provocateur. Can't you just see it? QFG is already accused of being a Cult by the Bridges/Weidner/Ross/Zionist disinfo campaign and what happens to cults with guns? Think Waco. We did due to the following C's session (mentioned above):
August 17, 2003
Q: (L) So what was Z**'s agenda?
A: You figured that one out.
Q: (J) Yeah he wanted to "cultify" us.
A: All of these many activities stem from the same "urge." Think about Waco and guns. Put that together with [Montalk] and his guns and you and the charge of "cult."
Q: (L) He could get us killed!
A: Stop and think about the possibility that your work was known in advance and all the preparations were made in advance to make the charge of cult mean what it does today.
Group laughter and shock at concept.
Q: (L) Was it done via time travel?
A: Not necessary. "Mass dreams of the future" anyone?
Q: (L) That's a book where people get progressed into the future and see the future. It's kind of like time travel in your head. (JH) Is that sort of like remote viewing?
A: Oh indeed!
Q: (L) So they can see the future, which has something to do with the Montauk project. And they obviously sought to do something about the future by adjusting the present, in a way. Hmmm... Montauk, Montalk... it even has a signature for anyone who cares to see it! (JH) Do the guys in the Aviary have anything to do with it?
A: You would not believe how many are involved. Many innocently of course.
It is an experiential fact that because Montalk refused to disassociate from his armed encampment ideas, QFG was placed in a very dangerous situation, especially when you include the concurrent activites of Bridges, Weidner, Rense, and then Z*** added to the local "elements" with Zionist connections. A simple request for him to publicly distance himself from those kinds of activities was met with stubborn refusal and QFG was obliged to take action to protect our lives, our liberty, and our work. It was that simple.
Now, was this a case of just Montalk's ego? In the case of Bridges and his Enochian Nazi Magick shtick, was it just his ego and his firm belief in that nonsense? Or was it something deeper?
In any event, we prefer to make it clear that we do NOT promote "revolution" or violence of any kind as the answer to the world's problems. In more recent times, Montalk has engaged in further self justification as follows:
Guns are a last resort, but not one to be dismissed...look at Nazi germany which was disarmed before the Nazis assumed control and thus left the Jews unable to resist, and look at Iraq which the Cass team cheers on for resisting the American occupation with guns and bombs. It's hypocrisy for the Cass team to both dismiss the idea of guns and simultaneously cheer their use in Iraq because America could be no different in the future. It's better to have these available and decide not to use them, than have them banned before they're needed. And if legalized, they should be used responsibly as I wrote in the article.
I think it is going way off the deep end to suggest that Signs of The Times "cheers" the use of guns in Iraq. We abhor violence of any kind. Repeatedly, readers write to us asking what to DO, and our answer is always and ever non-violent solutions. Note also that Montalk says above that he expects America to be engaged in armed violence in the future. Again I would warn anyone who does not wish to be placed on a list of people to be surveilled and/or removed to places like Gitmo, to NOT associate with any groups that promote such ideas. They are "vacuum cleaner" operations, collecting names and data for future use. It's that simple. As for QFG and its non-violent philosophies, we reiterate: Our personal safety depends on our position being made clear to the very real forces we must deal with on a daily basis. Perhaps Montalk doesn't have to worry about such forces?
In the final analysis, we can't say for sure that Montalk is COINTELPRO even if the indications suggest it. What we can say is that he is definitely not someone you would want to have to rely on in a difficult situation. But, people like Montalk and Bridges are useful in another way made clear in the following story:
A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"
"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.
"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.
"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up." The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
"Excuse me!" he called to the man.
"Do you have any water?"
"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in."
"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.
"There should be a bowl by the pump."
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.
The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, and then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.
"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.
"This is Heaven," he answered.
"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too."
"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell."
"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"
"No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind."
So, coming back to Daryl Bradford Smith, there are all these funny confluences, combined with DBS' ignorant rant about anybody who talks about UFOs ought not to be in the 9/11 "research" field, and it has just set the warning bells ringing like mad in my head.
What also made me wonder was him coming out with his rant about disinformation artists at the precise time he did. Now, yeah, I've been writing about this for quite some time - having been victimized by it directly and in front of thousands of witnesses. But again, let me point out that it was only AFTER I started writing about it in the way I did, that quite a few other folks "got on the bandwagon." It was only shortly after I mentioned in an article a while back that Rense never gets defamed or attacked that he suddenly started coming up with "the Jews are attacking me" nonsense and "Rense is on the gov list of disinformation sites". Reading his so-called "attack" descriptions tells me that he hasn't got a clue about what kinds of things they can do. Seems rather like damage control to me. Especially when you consider his relationship with Zionist, Henry Winkler. It's all show.
So, more and more I'm beginning to think that DBS is just set up to go after Rense as his own "personal attacker." In this way, it will actually garner sympathy for Rense. DBS is just a "useful idiot" and expendable.
In short, I think that Daryl Bradford Smith is a tar baby. His "attacks" on Rense are just smoke and mirrors. Too many coincidentally "connected" things here. Call me paranoid if you like, but after more than 6 years of this kind of thing, experiencing it, observing it, experimenting and watching reactions, I'm getting pretty good at spotting it. And spotting it is crucial if you want to survive.
I learned a lot from Vinnie and Jay. Thanks, guys.
posted by Laura Knight Jadczyk @ 10:31 AM 0 comments links to this post
01 January 2006
Is the Above Top Secret Forum COINTELPRO?
It's been pretty busy around here over the holidays. We gave a Christmas party and the Photo Album is HERE. I did a lot of baking for Christmas, but we decided to "opt out" of the whole commercial gift-giving thing. Meanwhile, Signs editor, Joe Quinn has been working on a piece that was finally uploaded yesterday entitled: Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11 and Neither Did a Boeing 757 Among the most interesting things to come out of this particular project were several clues that the "Above Top Secret" forum that is so popular among those asking questions about our reality, may not be what it is cracked up to be. In fact, the more Joe looked at it, the more it looked like COINTELPRO. Joe's article is well worth reading in its entirety, but I want to just quote a few segments that deal specifically with the Above Top Secret Forum. The first thing I noticed that rang the alarm bells was this:
After the release of the QFG Pentagon Strike Flash Animation on August 23rd, 2004, a veritable onslaught of new articles were published that sought to dismiss the "no plane at the Pentagon" theory. One such article, that is frequently referenced by certain '9/11 reseachers' was authored by a member of the forum at the "Above Top Secret" (ATS) website. Interestingly, the article was written just a few weeks after the release of the Pentagon Strike Flash animation, which by then, was winging its way around the world and into the inboxes of millions of ordinary citizens. Perhaps you were one of them...
What's so interesting? The timing: the ATS article was apparently published on Sept 11, 2004 which is almost exactly two weeks after the Pentagon Strike was published. You'll see why this is important in a minute. Joe includes pretty much the entire ATS article and photos in his discussion, and I was really surprised at what it boiled down to: little more than hot air and prestidigitation! I had read it myself some months earlier and had the impression that it was well researched and made solid points. But it took Joe's careful analysis to show me that, just like so many others, I had been impressed by a smoke and mirrors show! I don't want to spoil that part for the reader, but I do want to get to the point about the Above Top Secret Forum here. Joe writes at the end of his analysis of the ATS article:
It is unlikely that Flight 77 struck the Pentagon because the available evidence is not consistent with the impact of a 757 airliner.
As I have already stated, the best approach for any 9/11 researcher with honest intentions would be to wipe from their minds the official version of events and take the attitude of someone who has just returned from a 5 year trip to the outer reaches of the solar system, during which time they had no communication with planet earth. If such a person were given all of the publicly available evidence and furnished with knowledge of the effects of airplane crashes and that of missile impacts, it is highly improbable that such a person would conclude that a 757 caused the damage at the Pentagon.
Why?
Because the evidence suggests otherwise.
Again I will state that it is only because of the claim by the government and the media that Flight 77 hit the Pentagon that anyone would ever try and suggest that a 757 did the damage. The evidence that Flight 77 did not hit the Pentagon is so abundant that we continue to be amazed that apparently intelligent people are nevertheless very capable of ignoring facts and concocting elaborate (and often absurd) theories to avoid having to accept that which is right under their noses.
In the months that followed the 9/11 attacks, it was websites like Signs of the Times that took on the job of debunking the clearly false official story about 9/11, in particular the attack on the Pentagon. While we certainly expected a response to our efforts from mainstream newspapers and other government shills, it came as somewhat of a shock and disappointment to realise that other alleged 9/11 researchers joined the attack and attempted to debunk our debunking of the official story. The result is that many honest 9/11 researchers are having to engage in the type of "third level" debunking that I have presented above - a debunking of a debunking of a debunking as it were.
Of course, over the course of the past 4 years, we have become much more familiar with the disinformation tactics of government CoIntelPro. In modern day Iraq, it is generally understood that one of the main roles of US and Israeli intelligence agencies is to foment ethnic strife among the Iraqi people. The logic behind this is that if the Iraqis are fighting themselves, they have less time and energy to fight American soldiers. It should come as no surpise then that the same tactics have been used by US intelligence agencies to deal with honest 9/11 research. But the task of getting honest people who share a common goal to fight with each other is not easy. It requires infiltration over a long periods of time coupled with subtle manipulation of the parties involved. Thankfully for the intelligence agencies, there is another much easier way: you simply have one of your own operatives pose as a Sunni Insurgent or an honest 9/11 researcher and have him attack his fellow insurgents/researchers. Hey presto! You've just created "division" and "infighting" which distracts and confuses the enemy. In the case of 9/11 the "enemy" are the honest 9/11 researchers and the members of the public who look to them for information.
The question then is: are we dealing with such a manufactured group in the Above Top Secret website and forum?
It's hard to tell. There are without doubt many sincere U.S. and other citizens and web site owners who promote the official story about 9/11 because they believe (or perhaps need to believe) that the government is telling the truth. Equally certain is the fact that there are many US citizens and website owners who know for sure that the government story is false, yet have been consciously recruited to push this story on the public. Members of the latter group are simply doing their job, but their influence is most directly felt among members of the former group who want to believe the official story.
Having said that, after reading through the long ATS thread that followed the posting of "CatHerders" article, I have come to the tentative conclusion that the ATS website is just one more government-funded damage control operation, albeit a very subtle one. I will explain why I came to this conclusion.
CatHerders article was received with much fanfare on the ATS forum, and much debate and analysis ensued with the thread finally reaching 125 pages. As the discussion and debate raged, it became apparent that many were convinced by CatHerder's article, but just as many were not. On the 8th page of the thread, two of the three owners of the ATS website weighed in and attempted to silence the naysayers with some large fonts and guilt trips. For example, "SkepticOverlord", "one of the three ATS amigos and co-owner of Abovetopsecret.com" wrote:
"It's very disappointing to see ignorance embraced like this [referring to those who were not embracing Catherders article as "the truth"] Why? Because the real information is not wrapped up in an exciting Flash animation with angry metal grind? [referring, undoubtedly, to our Pentagonstrike Flash] Shall we change our motto? Ignorance Embraced [the ATS motto is "deny ignorance" which seems to be a twist on the QFG motto: Knowledge Protects, Ignorance Endangers.] I still remember speaking to my brother (who was on the highway at the time) calling me that evening, haunted by the memory of a brief glimpse of faces in the windows of the 757. Especially when he discovered his friend was on the flight later that day. This is a sad moment for ATS. I feel like I now see faces."
Very moving. Very manipulative, too. "Springer", another Co-owner, then added the following:
PITIFUL... "CH" (Catherder) has proven his/her POINT beyond much of anything that even comes close to logic... But ALAS, as S.O. (other ATS co-owner) Points out, it is NOT wrapped up in a pretty flash animation filled with BUNK so it must NOT be beleived... [another obvious reference to the Pentagon Flash.] Sad Day for ATS indeed..."
Yes indeed, there's nothing like subjecting your subscribers to a little guilt trip to get them in line.
What is clear from reading the thread is that the owners of the ATS site and the author of the article in question are of the opinion that Arab terrorists, as they are presented by the US government, are real and that a group of them hijacked four planes and attacked the US on 9/11. The only "9/11 conspiracy" that these people hold to then is that the US government may have let 9/11 happen, and the fact is that there are many self-described 9/11 investigators who promote the same idea. You could call it "9/11 conspiracy lite", designed for those who lack the stomach for the unsavory reality of what 9/11 actually meant and where it is taking us.
The problem with such an explanation is that it subtly suggests that, in 9/11, what we are dealing with is nothing more than corrupt government or a few corrupt men, and we all know governments are often a little corrupt, right? The obvious solution, of course, is to simply remove the corrupt government or the few men and we can then get on with the job of fighting those damn "terrorists".
What is missing, however, is the awareness that the "terrorist threat" that came front and center after 9/11 is crucial to the entire conspiracy. It is Bush's "war on terror" that plagues the world to this day, long after 9/11 has lost its edge and drifted to the back of the collective consciousness. It is the threat from "Islamic terrorists" that has led the US military to massacre 100,000 Iraqi civilians over the past two years, and you can be sure they are only getting started. Proponents of such a theory expect us to believe that the fact that terrorist hijackers gifted the Neocons with the justification to accomplish their long-held goals is just a matter of good luck!
Anyone that researches the 9/11 event and, most importantly, the background to American and Israeli plans for the Middle East and Israeli government penetration of the American political system, cannot but come to the conclusion that the 9/11 attacks, in their entirety, must have been stage-managed by those who stood to benefit most from the attacks. The fact is, if your goal is to sell the lie that 'Arab terrorists' hijacked planes and flew them into buildings, you don't need to involve real Arab terrorists or real hijacked planes. Indeed, it would not even be advisable to do so given the logistics of getting Arab hijackers, or people masquerading as Arab hijackers, to give their lives in service to your plot and avoid the distinct possiblity that details of the plot would be leaked. No, all you need to do is to make it appear that way with some well placed evidence and then claim that it is so.
We notice that very few items of so-called "conspiracy theory" have rattled the "Bushes" quite like our Pentagon Strike Flash did. The Pentagon Strike video came out on August 23rd 2004. Probably nobody really noticed it at that point, but it hit a chord of response in the hearts of millions of people around the world. They began to madly download and forward it to their friends and relatives. Latest stats on how many people have viewed it to date are 500 million!
Apparently it even landed in the email box of the Editor of the Washington Post, which is why Carol Morello sent us an email asking for an interview. Or so she said. My suspicion was that the Post was instructed to do "damage control", albeit oh, so gently!
Now, look at this mini-timeline:
August 23rd 2004: Pentagon Strike Video which propagates wildly for a month.
September 11, 2004: CatHerder post to Above Top Secret forum.
September 21st 2004: First contact by Carol Morello of the Washington Post
October 7th 2004: Washington Post article
It was an interesting feeling to know that if they hadn't seen the Pentagon Strike before, certainly George and Dick, Karl and the gang were watching it after the Washington Post wrote an article about it.
October 19th 2004: George Bush visits New Port Richey - a previously unscheduled "whistle-stop" on his campaign trail. NPR is very small, not likely to be a major target of any presidential candidate, but it just happens to be Laura Knight-Jadczyk's hometown. It was our initial reaction that Dubya's visit to Laura's little home town - certainly of no importance on the campaign trail - was deliberately done to send a message to her. Fact is, her daughter's ex-boyfriend wrote to tell her that he had been among those selected to shake the hand of George W. himself! Now, how's that for a coincidence?
As to exactly what Carol Morello of the Washington Post wrote to Laura, here is the pertinent passage which is actually quite revealing:
A couple of editors here saw the video/film, and I was asked to find out what I could about it. As you can imagine, we continue to have an intense interest on the attack on the Pentagon and the people who were affected.
I've just begun reporting, so it would be premature to tell you what "perspective" my story would have.
My initial impressions are that the questions and theories expressed in the video got a spurt of attention in early 2002, after the publication of a best selling book in France, then the furor died down for a while, and now they have re-emerged with the extraordinarily wide dissemination of this video on the Internet.
The 911 Commission report appears to have done little to dampen the controversy. I hoped to speak to you about how and why you posted it on your web site, what kind of response you've received and what you think about it. […]
Notice that she attributes the resurgence of interest in the "Pentagate" problem to the Pentagon Strike video. Can we say "damage control"?
And if there is damage control, then that means there is damage.
Up to this point in time, the only acknowledgement the administration ever gave to such issues was to refer vaguely and dismissively to "conspiracy theories". Now, suddenly, it seems that dealing with the "conspiracy theories" in a direct manner was seen to be imperative. "9/11: Debunking the Myths" came out in Popular Mechanics Magazine in March of 2005, just five months after the Washington Post article. That's pretty fast work.
Under the tutelage of Editor in Chief Jim "Oh look, a tank!" Meigs, Popular Mechanics assembled a team of researchers, including "professional fact checkers" (impressive eh?) to debunk the 16 most common claims made by conspiracy theorists about 9/11. Unsurprisingly, the PM editors claim that, in the end:
"we were able to debunk each of these assertions with hard evidence and a healthy dose of common sense. We learned that a few theories are based on something as innocent as a reporting error on that chaotic day. Others are the byproducts of cynical imaginations that aim to inject suspicion and animosity into public debate."
In fact, a careful analysis of the article shows that at most, just three of the sixteen claims could have been the result of "reporting error", forcing us to assume that, in the razor-like, emotionally unclouded cerebrum of Jim Meigs, at least 13 of the conspiracy claims about 9/11 are the result of "cynical imaginations aiming to inject suspicion and animosity into public debate".
The sad fact is that, while Popular Mechanics claims to be interested in understanding what really happened that day, their rebuttal of sixteen of the most common claims by so-called "conspiracy theorists" about 9/11 isn't worth the $3.57 of server space that it has so far cost them to publish it.
If there is one glaring hole in the arguments put forward by 9/11 conspiracy "debunkers", it is the fact that such people have never come up with a reasonable argument to explain why, in the wake of 9/11, so many obviously intelligent citizens became gripped by the uncontrollable urge to continually waste their time recklessly and fecklessly "injecting suspicion and animosity into public debate" for no apparent reason. It really is a mystery. Maybe they're trying to take over the world or something.
On the other hand, it doesn't take a degree in psychology to understand the primary motivations of the conspiracy debunkers. You see, the very last thing that many Americans (and others) want to believe is that their government would attack its own people. For 9/11 "debunkers", logic and intellect have no part to play in investigating the question of what really happened on 9/11. It's pure emotion all the way.
In the beginning, on the morning of September 11, 2001 we were all united in our emotional reactions: shock, horror, grief - (and not to forget: jubilation from a bunch of Israeli Mossad agents). As the emotion subsided, most went on with their lives, but a few stood on, brows furrowed, scratching their heads. After considerable digging and research, it became obvious that the official story did not satisfactorily answer all of the questions, and the fact that officials were refusing to answer those outstanding questions, gave rise, logically enough, to a "conspiracy theory".
Not long thereafter, the debunkers stepped in, not because they had the answers to the outstanding questions, but because they had their emotional buttons severely poked by the fact that someone was saying that their government was lying! Sadly, the editors at PM are no different, and their little fear-inspired rebuttal of 9/11 conspiracy theories is of little actual use to anyone, least of all to those who really do want to know the truth of 9/11. Far from approaching the matter with an open mind (which is crucial in any attempt to find the truth), it is clear that Popular Mechanics' "professional fact checkers" began with the premise that the US government was not lying about the main events of 9/11, despite all of the evidence to the contrary. From there, the objectivity and integrity of their research went sharply downhill as they busied themselves with hunting down the very same sources that provided the official story to confirm that the official story was in fact correct. Apparently, in "debunkerland", it is completely reasonable to ask U.S. government representatives to testify that the U.S. government is squeaky clean and then present that evidence as "fact". It is also kosher, we assume, to have a murder suspect double as a credible court's witness in a murder trial.
For those of you who have looked unemotionally at the events of 9/11, it is not unusual to be left wondering how those members of the US government who were clearly complicit in the murder of 3,000 of their own citizens can remain so smug and seemingly self-assured. To find the answer we need look no further than the Jim Meigs' of this world. You see, it is people like Meigs who lack any love or appreciation for the truth and worship only their subjective view of the world that make it so easy for big government to commit big crime.
At present there are millions of Americans and others around the world who, aided by the years of social conditioning and media mind programming, drew a very clear line around what they would and would not believe about their government and country. Most of what was inside the line was "feel good" stuff about "greatest democracy on earth" and other jingoistic nonsense, with perhaps a few admissions that "sometimes bad things happen" and "not everyone is a saint". This mindset provided (and continues to provide) a perfect opportunity for unscrupulous US politicians to literally get away with the murder of which most of the US public refuse to believe they were, and are, capable.
The result is that, for all intents and purposes, today there are two Americas:
- The America of the average American citizen which is little more than a government-provided dream world.
- The real America of the corrupt politicians and the select few who run the country, and much of the rest of the world.
Luckily for the select few, this second, real America just happens to lie outside of what many ordinary Americans are willing or able to believe is possible. Lest anyone think otherwise, the setting up of any accusation against government as being the domain of "conspiracy nuts" is not the result of pure coincidence. Conspiracy theories are as old as the first lie ever told and the subsequent attempts by the liar to avoid exposure.
Most people think that "conspiracy theories" are made up by "conspiracy theorists", but the term "conspiracy theory" is most often used by those people who have most to gain from the ridicule of the allegations that are directed at them. The tactic has been used to such great effect over the years that certain high crimes committed by government have become the touchstone by which all other "conspiracies" are measured.
Take the folks at Popular Mechanics. In dealing with 9/11 they simply couldn't resist referencing that other most despicable crime committed by a US government - but of course, to them it just another "theory":
"Don't get me wrong: Healthy skepticism is a good thing. Nobody should take everything they hear--from the government, the media or anybody else--at face value. But in a culture shaped by Oliver Stone movies and "X-Files" episodes, it is apparently getting harder for simple, hard facts to hold their own against elaborate, shadowy theorizing."
Did you catch it? The reference to Oliver Stone can mean only one thing: Jim's "fact checkers" contacted the CIA, and they told him straight up that some bullets really can do magic things.
So far, we have been generous to the people at Popular Mechanics. We have assumed that they are simply well-intentioned but misguided souls. However, it appears that there is a more sinister, and dare we say it, "conspiratorial" side to Popular Mechanics' "innocent" debunking of 9/11 conspiracy theories. You see, it turns out that one of the main contributors to the article is one Benjamin Chertoff, a cousin of the new Dept. of Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff.
American Free Press' Christopher Bollyn, who dug up the information, also claims that Ben Chertoff's mother was a Mossad agent. While there is, as of yet, no evidence of any working relationship between the two, it is certainly noteworthy that the cousin of the current Homeland Security Chief, (who, in his previous incarnation as head of the Justice Department's criminal division was instrumental in the release of obvious Israeli spies before and after 9/11), happens to be behind a high-profile attempt to debunk 9/11 conspiracy theories.
So if you happen to stop by the sorry article in question, don't be fooled or intimidated by the word "science" in big bold letters on the Popular Mechanics page. In Europe, McDonald's drink cups have the words "I'm loving it" emblazoned across them in various languages, regardless of what you put in them. Credit by association or juxtaposition is one of the oldest tricks in the book of mass mind programming. Just because "they" say it, doesn't make it so. This simple, logical statement is a salient lesson for us all in these heady days where disinformation masquerades as truth and even "innocent" fun-loving "boys with toys" have become obedient workers in the lie factory.
According to another 9/11 researcher :
"The editors of Scientific American followed in the footsteps of Popular Mechanics in exploiting a trusted brand in order to protect the perpetrators of the mass murder of 9/11/01. The column by Michael Shermer in the June, 2005 issue of Scientific American, titled Fahrenheit 2777, is an attempt to deceive the magazine's readers into dismissing the overwhelming evidence that 9/11 was an inside job without ever looking at that evidence. More specifically, Shermer attempts to inoculate readers against looking at the decidedly scientific refutation of the official story… […]
Shermer's column exhibits many of the same propaganda techniques as the ambitious feature article in the March issue of Popular Mechanics by Benjamin Chertoff, for which Shermer professes admiration:
'The single best debunking of this conspiratorial codswallop is in the March issue of Popular Mechanics, which provides an exhaustive point-by-point analysis of the most prevalent claims.'
Comparing the two attack pieces is instructive. Both pieces mention a similar range of issues, with Shermer adding Jewish conspiracy rumors and UFOlogists to the mix...
This last is undoubtedly a direct reference to Signs of The Times, while avoiding giving a direct link to our website out of fear that the reader might be influenced.
Shermer uses an array of deceptive methods to persuade the reader that challenges to the official story of the 9/11 attack are worthy only of ridicule and should not be scrutinized. His primary technique is to use hoaxes and unscientific ideas to "bracket" the valid ideas that he seeks to shield the reader from.
That Shermer went to such great lengths to thoroughly misrepresent the painstaking, scientific, evidence-based work of many researchers is a testament to the success of the Pentagon Strike Video! It really stepped on a sore toe. And that tells us something important, the same thing Carol Morello of the Washington Post wrote:
"…the questions and theories expressed in the video got a spurt of attention in early 2002, after the publication of a best selling book in France, then the furor died down for a while, and now they have re-emerged with the extraordinarily wide dissemination of this video on the Internet."
We notice that never, in any of the two major "debunking" articles that followed fast on the heels of the Pentagon Strike video, was the video ever even mentioned by name, nor was our website mentioned. Other books, other researchers, other websites were mentioned, but the deliberate avoidance of Signs of The Times - the origin of the Pentagon Strike, was conspicuous. We notice the same trend in the Above Top Secret forum.
Again we point out: debunkers are sent in only when damage control is needed. And damage control is only needed when it is thought that there might be damage. That means that the Pentagon Strike is understood clearly, in the minds of the perpetrators, to be the weak link in their chain of lies.
Debunkers are sent in not to give answers to the outstanding questions, but to push the emotional buttons of the public, to reassure people who really want "a reason to believe" that their government is not lying to them.
Since so many people have been writing to me and asking how to spot COINTELPRO, I think I am going to devote an entire post to that subject. Stay tuned.
posted by Laura Knight Jadczyk @ 3:00 PM 0 comments links to this post
27 November 2005
Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil
Pathocracy is a disease of great social movements followed by entire societies, nations, and empires. In the course of human history, it has affected social, political, and religious movements as well as the accompanying ideologies… and turned them into caricatures of themselves…. This occurred as a result of the … participation of pathological agents in a pathodynamically similar process. That explains why all the pathocracies of the world are, and have been, so similar in their essential properties. … Identifying these phenomena through history and properly qualifying them according to their true nature and contents - not according to the ideology in question, which succumbed to the process of caricaturization - is a job for historians. […] The actions of [pathocracy] affect an entire society, starting with the leaders and infiltrating every town, business, and institution. The pathological social structure gradually covers the entire country creating a “new class” within that nation. This privileged class feels permanently threatened by the “others”, i.e. by the majority of normal people. Neither do the pathocrats entertain any illusions about their personal fate should there be a return to the system of normal man. [Andrew Lobaczewski, Ph.D. (psychology); Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes]
I had thought I was "done" with psychopathy. After being victimized by a few of them, researching and publishing the material, I had really had enough. I mean, how much of that sort of thing can you read and digest without going completely bananas? But, apparently the universe still wants me to learn more. About a month ago I received an email from a Polish psychologist who wrote as follows:
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen. I have got your Special Research Project on psychopathy by my computer. You are doing a most important and valuable work for the future of nations.[…] I am a very aged clinical psychologist. Forty years ago I took part in a secret investigation of the real nature and psychopathology of the macro-social phenomenon called “Communism”. The other researchers were the scientists of the previous generation who are now passed away. The profound study of the nature psychopathy, which played the essential and inspirational part in this macro-social psychopathologic phenomenon, and distinguishing it from other mental anomalies, appeared to be the necessary preparation for understanding the entire nature of the phenomenon. The large part of the work, you are doing now, was done in those times. … I am able to provide you with a most valuable scientific document, useful for your purposes. It is my book “POLITICAL PONEROLOGY – A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes”. You may also find copy of this book in the Library of Congress and in some university and public libraries in the USA. Be so kind and contact me so that I may mail a copy to you. Very truly yours! Andrew M. £obaczewski
I promptly wrote a reply. A couple of weeks later the manuscript arrived in the mail. As I read, I realized that what I was holding in my hand was essentially the chronicle of a descent into hell, transformation, and triumphant return to the world with knowledge of that hell that was priceless. The risks that were taken by the group of scientists that did the research on which this book is based are beyond the comprehension of most of us who have grown up in the West. Many of them were young, just starting in their careers when the Nazis strode in their hundred league jackboots across Europe. These researchers managed to live through that, and then when the Nazis were driven out and replaced by the Communists under the heel of Stalin, they faced years of oppression the likes of which those of us today who are choosing to take a stand against the Bush Reich cannot even imagine. And so, since they were there, and they lived through it and brought back information to the rest of us, it may well save our lives to have a map to guide us in the falling darkness. The full article is located HERE. Read it and weep.
posted by Laura Knight Jadczyk @ 7:41 AM 0 comments links to this post
25 June 2005
The Book of Q and Christian Origins and The Bible Fraud
The Book of Q and Christian Origins by Burton L. Mack
Book Review
Note: Q is short for the German word Quelle (which is source). Q is one of the two sources for Matthew and Luke, the other being old Mark, but the unknown lost source is now named Q. While this subject comes up under the subject heading of Q hypothesis - (synoptics criticism), since the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, it really isn't a hypothesis anymore. But it looks like that subject heading will stick. But more and more books are indexing Q as Sayings Gospel Q. The first layer of Q is known as Q1.
June 11, 2005: Two years ago I wrote a bit about Christianity based on the research I had done up to that point. In recent months, I have revisited the subject at the suggestion of several people, one of whom promoted the book by Tony Bushby, The Bible Fraud. This book was already on hand in our library, but I had discarded it in disgust at the time I originally began to read it (in 2002, I believe) because I had noted a "twisting" of the facts in the first chapter. However, at the urging of a correspondent, I revisited this book, reading it through to the end. Indeed, there were a number of interesting references, but again I found it to be a frustrating read because these references were often used in a very loose way intended to support the incredible leaps of assumption, and a wholly fantastic story. Bushby, like so many others, began with the assumption that at least SOME of the "facts" of the narrative gospels were true, however distorted or misrepresented.
In any event, reading Bushby's book started me off on the search for Christian origins again, and that led me to The Lost Gospel by Burton L. Mack. Let me say in advance that I highly recommend this book, and I hope that the excerpts I am going to present here will stimulate interest in the details that Mack presents in his fascinating discussion of the discovery of Q (the theorized source document for the basic ideas of Jesus) and the subsequent analyses that helped to extract the truth of early Christian history.
Mack begins his discussion saying:
Once upon a time, before there were gospels of the kind familiar to readers of the New Testament, the first followers of Jesus wrote another kind of book. Instead of telling a dramatic story about Jesus' life, their book contained only his teachings. They lived with these teachings ringing in their ears and thought of Jesus as the founder of their movement. But their focus was not on the person of Jesus or his life and destiny. They were engrossed with the social program that was called for by his teachings. Thus their book was not a gospel of the Christian kind, namely a narrative of the life of Jesus as the Christ. Rather it was a gospel of Jesus' sayings, a "sayings gospel." His first followers arranged these sayings in a way that offered instructions for living creatively in the midst of a most confusing time, and their book served them well as a handbook and guide for most of the first Christian century.
Then the book was lost... to history somewhere in the course of the late first century when stories of Jesus' life began to be written and became the more popular form of charter document for early Christian circles. [...]
For the first followers of Jesus, the importance of Jesus as the founder of their movement was directly related to the significance they attached to his teachings. What mattered most was the body of instructions that circulated in his name, what these teachings called for in terms of ideas, attitudes, and behavior, and the difference these instructions made in the lives of those who took them seriously. But as the Jesus movement spread, groups in different locations and changing circumstances began to think about the kind of life Jesus must have lived. Some began to think of him in the role of a sage, for instance, while others thought of him as a prophet, or even as an exorcist who had appeared to rid the world of its evils. This shift from interest in Jesus' teachings to questions about Jesus' person, authority, and social role eventually produced a host of different mythologies.
The mythology that is most familiar to Christians of today developed in groups that formed in northern Syria and Asia Minor. There Jesus' death was first interpreted as a martyrdom and then embellished as a miraculous event of crucifixion and resurrection. This myth drew on Hellenistic mythologies that told about the destiny of a divine being (or son of God). Thus these congregations quickly turned into a cult of the resurrected or transformed Jesus whom they now referred to as the Christ... The congregation of the Christ ... experienced a striking shift in orientation, away from the teachings of Jesus [...]
Narrative gospels began to appear. [...] These gospels combined features of the martyr myth from the Christ cult with traditions about Jesus as he had been remembered in the Jesus movements, thereby locating the significance of Jesus in the story of his deeds and destiny. Naturally, these gospels came to a climax in an account of his trial, crucifixion, and resurrection from the dead. They followed a plot that was first worked out by Mark during the 70s in the wake of the Roman-Jewish war. The plot collapsed the time between the events of Jesus' life and the destruction of the Jerusalem temple which took place during the war. Mark achieved this plot by making connections between two sets of events (Jesus' death and the temple's destruction) that could only have been imagined after the war. His gospel appears to have been the earliest full-blown written composition along these lines, but once it was conceived, all the narrative gospels used this same basic plot. [...]
The first followers of Jesus could not have imagined, nor did they need, such a mythology to sustain them in their efforts to live according to his teachings. Their sayings gospel was quite sufficient for the Jesus movement as they understood it. [...] Even after the narrative gospels became the rage, the saying gospel was still intact. It was still being copied and read with interest by ever-widening circles. And it was available in slightly different versions in the several groups that continued to develop within the Jesus movement. Eventually, the narrative gospels prevailed as the preferred portrayal for Christians, and the sayings gospel finally was lost to the historical memory of the Christian church.
Were it not for the fact that two authors of narrative gospels incorporated sizable portions of the sayings gospel into their stories of Jesus' life, the sayings gospel of the first followers of Jesus would have disappeared without a trace in the transitions taking place. [...] But Matthew and Luke each had a copy of the sayings gospel... It was this fortuitous coincidence that made it possible in recent times to recover the book [...]
By reading Q carefully, it is possible to catch sight of those earlier followers of Jesus. We can see them on the road, at the market, and at one another's homes. We can hear them talking about appropriate behavior; we can sense the spirit of the movement and their attitudes about the world. A sense of purpose can be traced through subtle changes in their attitudes toward other groups over a period of two or three generations of vigorous social experimentation. It is a lively picture. And it is complete enough to reconstruct the history that happened between the time of Jesus and the emergence of the narrative gospels that later gave the Christian church its official account of Christian beginnings.
The remarkable thing about the people of Q is that they were not Christians. They did not think of Jesus as a messiah or the Christ. They did not take his teachings as an indictment of Judaism. They did not regard his death as a divine, tragic, or saving event. And they did not imagine that he had been raised from the dead to rule over a transformed world. Instead, they thought of him as a teacher whose teachings made it possible to live with verve in troubled times. Thus they did not gather to worship in his name, honor him as a god, or cultivate his memory through hymns, prayers, and rituals. They did not form a cult of the Christ... The people of Q were Jesus people, not Christians. [...]
In Q there is no hint of a select group of disciples, no program to reform the religion or politics of Judaism, no dramatic encounter with the authorities in Jerusalem, no martyrdom for the cause, much less a martyrdom with saving significance for the ills of the world, and no mention of a first church in Jerusalem. The people of Q simply did not understand their purpose to be a mission to the Jews, or to gentiles for that matter. They were not out to transform the world or start a new religion.
Q's challenge to the popular conception of Christian origins is therefore clear. If the conventional view of Christian beginnings is right, how are we to account for these first followers of Jesus? Did they fail to get his message? Were they absent when the unexpected happened? Did they carry on in ignorance or in repudiation of the Christian gospel of salvation? If, however, the first followers of Jesus understood the purpose of their movement just as Q describes it, how are we to account for the emergence of the Christ cult, the fantastic mythologies of the narrative gospels, and the eventual establishment of the Christian church and religion? Q forces the issue of rethinking Christian origins as no other document from the earliest times has done. [...]
With Q in view the entire landscape of early Christian history and literature has to be revised. [...]
The narrative gospels can no longer be viewed as the trustworthy accounts of unique and stupendous historical events at the foundation of the Christian faith. The gospels must now be seen as the result of early Christian mythmaking. Q forces the issue, for it documents an earlier history that does not agree with the narrative gospel accounts. [...]
The issues raised are profound and far reaching. [...] They strike to the heart of an entrenched reluctance in our society to discuss the mythic foundations for attitudes and values, both shared and conflictual, that influence the way we think, behave, and construct our institutions. Q can hardly be discussed without engaging in some honest talk about Christian myth and the American dream. [The Lost Gospel by Burton L. Mack]
Well, you can say that again!
Christians, as a whole, are not comfortable with myth. Again and again we hear stories about this or that group of Fundies that want to ban such things as The Wizard of Oz, or Harry Potter, or Grimm's Fairy Tales. We hear stories of censorship and exclusion of other ideas. The Christian mentality takes itself and its own myths way too seriously. They have to in order to maintain their "rightness." This "rightness" is fundamental to the lynchpin of Christianity: Faith.
Faith that can "move mountains" is promoted by Christianity as the necessary thing that the "faithful" must cultivate in order to receive the benefits that are promised by the religion. And so it seems that admitting, reading, discussing, myths in general is perceived as opening a door to the insinuation that maybe - just maybe - Christianity itself might be a myth.
The example of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac, has been trotted out for ages as the supreme example of how one is to approach the "god". One must be willing to give the god anything and everything! This "Faith" is an essential part of the "covenant" with the god - a sort of "act of trade", so to say. You must "believe in Jesus and his atonement" to be saved.
What would happen if a good Christian was to read the myths of other cultures and discover that the story about the almost sacrifice of Abraham in the Bible is actually nearly identical to a Vedic story of Manu? Mack writes about the Christian resistance to myth as follows:
This strong resistance [to myth] is ... a peculiarity integral to the Christian myth itself. The Christian myth was generated in a social experiment aware of its recent beginnings, and because the myth was about those beginnings, early Christians imagined their myth as history. The myth focused on the importance of Jesus as the founder figure of the movements, congregations, and institutions Christians were forming. Thus history and myth were fused into a single characterization, and the myths of origin were written and imagined as having happened at a recent time and in a specific place.
Christians of the second, third, and fourth centuries found themselves troubled by the resemblance of their myths to both Greek and Jewish mythologies. They could distance themselves from these other cultures and distinguish their myths from the others only by emphasizing the recent historical setting of their myths and the impression given by the narrative gospels that the myths really happened. [The Lost Gospel by Burton L. Mack]
What seems to be so is that it is generally individuals who have been "disenfranchised" or who feel helpless and at the mercy of the forces of life - whether they manifest through other people or random events - who are those most likely to seek such faith, such a surety that their myths, and theirs alone, are the RIGHT ones. They feel acutely their own inability to have an effect in the world, and they turn their creativity inward to create and maintain their subjective "faith" in opposition to objective reality. They then spend an enormous amount of energy editing out all impressions that are contrary to their system of illusion. They become "The Right Man" (or woman). It is extremely important to get others to believe in their illusion in order to confirm its "rightness", even if they claim, on the surface, that "everyone has the right to their own opinion". The fact is, they cannot tolerate anyone else’s opinion if it is different from their own because it threatens their "rightness". And this is the reason that they are so "serious" and rejecting of such frivolity as myths, fairy tales, and so on.
This rightness must be maintained at all costs because, deep inside, the Right Man (or woman) is usually struggling with horror at their own helplessness. Their rightness is a dam that holds back their worst fears: that they are lost and alone and that there really is no god, because how could there be a god who loves them if they have to suffer so much? Their inability to feel truly loved and accepted deep within is, in effect, like being stranded in a nightmare from which they cannot wake up.
Faith. This is the thing that, historically, has caused individuals to engage in violence against other human beings.
This "faith" can be induced by manipulations and promises of heavenly or other rewards, this "rightness" of one’s views, of one’s god, and what the god is supposedly "revealing" to the leader, and this can then be used to manipulate other people to do one’s bidding.
And so it seems that the requirement of "faith" and "worship" of an object of cultic value such as Jehovah, Yahweh, Jesus or Allah is the means by which human beings can be induced to commit atrocities upon other human beings.
But that is not what the Jesus people were about originally.
Mack's discussion shows how the Jesus movement was a vigorous social experiment that was generated for reasons other than an "originating event" such as a "religious experience" or the "birth of the son of God."
The Jesus movement seems to have been a response to troubled and difficult times. Mack outlines and describes the times, and shows how the pressures of the milieu led to thinking new thoughts about traditional values and experimenting with associations that crossed ethnic and cultural boundaries. The Jesus movement was composed of novel social notions and lifestyles that denied and rejected traditional systems of honor based on power, wealth, and place in hierarchical social structures. Ancient religious codes of ritual purity, taboos against intercourse across ethnic boundaries, were rejected. People were encouraged to think of themselves as belonging to the larger, human family. Q says: "If you embrace only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?"
The Jesus people not only rejected the old order of things, they were actively at work on the questions of what ideal social order they wanted to manifest and promote. The attraction of the Jesus people to its followers was not at all based on any ideas to reform a religious tradition that had gone wrong, nor was it even thought of as a new religion in any way. It was quite simply a social movement that sought to enhance human values that grew out of an unmanageable world of confusing cultures and social histories. It was a group of like-minded individuals that created a forum for thinking about the world in new ways, coming up with new ideas that included the shocking notion that an ethnically mixed group could form its own kind of community and live by its own rules. Mack writes:
At first no one was in charge of the groups that formed around such teachings. Conversation and mutual support were enough to encourage an individual to act "naturally," as if the normal expectations of acquiescence to social conventions did not apply. As groups formed in support of like-minded individuals, however, loyalty to the Jesus movement strengthened, a social vision for human well-being was generated within the group, and social codes for the movement had to be agreed upon . Why not ask when in need and share what one had when asked, they wondered? Eventually, therefore, the Jesus movement took the form of small groups meeting together as extended families in the heady pursuit of what they called God's kingdom.
To explore human community based on fictive kinship without regard to standard taboos against association based on class, status, gender, or ethnicity would have created quite a stir, and would have been its own reward. Since there was no grand design for actualizing such a vision, different groups settled into practices that varied from one another. Judging from the many forms of community that developed within the Jesus movement, as documented in literature that begins to appear toward the end of the first century, these groups continued to share a basic set of attitudes. They all had a certain critical stance toward the way life was lived in the Greco-Roman world. They all struggled not to be determined by the emptiness of human pursuits in a world of codes they held to be superficial. [...] Despite these agreements, however, every group went its own way and drew different conclusions about what to think and do. [The Lost Gospel by Burton L. Mack]
In addition to reconstructing the times in which the Jesus people lived, Mack presents the Q document itself, showing that it was built up in three layers, each layer being additions made in response to external pressures on the group. What is most interesting is the analysis of the first layer, the one that must be composed of the actual teachings of the man called Jesus. It seems that Jesus' challenge to his followers was to take a deeper look at their world and challenge it in how they lived their lives.
Seven clusters of teachings, or sayings, emerged from the study of Q, and each of these express a coherent set of issues. These sayings comprise a comprehensive set of sage observations that delight in critical comment on the everyday world and unorthodox instructions that recommend unconventional behavior! The ever-present theme of Jesus' teachings was a review of life and conventional values that promoted the idea that customary pretensions are hollow, wealth, learning, possessions, secrets, rank, and power are meaningless in terms of the true value of a human being. Jesus was promoting the idea that the Emperor is naked, though in no way did he propose any idea of changing the system. Implicit in his critique is the idea that there is a better way to live. The challenge was to be able to live without being consumed with worry even if one was fully aware that the world "out there" was a dangerous jungle that required care to navigate.
When fully analyzed and compared with other norms of the time, Jesus emerges as a man living the life of the popular philosophy of the Cynic. This is striking because the Cynics are remembered as distinctly unlovable because they promoted biting sarcasm and public behavior that was designed to call attention to the absurdity of standard conventions. Cynics were:
"critics of conventional values and oppressive forms of government. [...] Their gifts and graces ranged from the endurance of a life of renunciation in full public view, through the courage to offer social critique in high places, to the learning and sophistication required for the espousal of Cynic views at the highest level of literary composition. Justly famous as irritants to those who lived by the system and enjoyed the blessings of privilege, prosperity, and power, the Cynics were rightly regarded for their achievement in honing the virtue of self-sufficiency in the midst of uncertain times.
The crisp sayings of Jesus in Q show that his followers thought of him as a Cynic-like sage. [...]
These popular philosophers of a natural way of life did not wander off to suffer in silence. Their props were a setup for a little game of gotcha with the citizens of the town. [...] The Cynic's purpose was to point out the disparities sustained by the social system and refuse to let the system put him in his place. [...] The marketplace was the Cynic's platform, the place to display a living example of freedom from social and cultural constraints, and a place from which to address townspeople about the current state of affairs. [...] The challenge for a Cynic was to see the humor in a situation and quickly turn it to advantage. [...]
In our time there is no single social role with which to compare the ancient Cynics. But we do recognize the social critic and take for granted a number of ways in which social and cultural critique are expressed. These compare nicely with various aspects of the Cynic's profession. For example, we are accustomed to the social critique of political cartoonists, standup comedians, and especially of satire in the genre of the cabaret. All of these use humor to make their point. We are also accustomed to social critique in a more serious and philosophical vein, such as that represented by political commentary. And there is precedent for taking up an alternative lifestyle as social protest, from the utopian movement of the nineteenth century, to the counterculture movement of the 1960s, to the environmentalist protest of the 1980s and 1990s. The list could be greatly expanded, for much modern entertainment also sets its scenes against the backdrop of the unexamined taboos and prejudices prevailing in our time. Each of these approaches to critical assessment of our society (satire, commentary, and alternative lifestyle), bears some resemblance to the profession of the Cynic sage in late antiquity. [...]
Noting the Cynic's wit should not divert our attention from their sense of vocation and purpose. Epictetus wrote that the Cynic could be likened to a spy or scout from another world or kingdom, whose assignment was to observe human behavior and render a judgment upon it. The Cynic could also be likened to a physician sent to diagnose and heal a society's ills. [...] The Stoics sometimes claimed the Cynics as their precursors. [...]
[The Cynics] were much more interested in the question of virtue, or how an individual should live given the failure of social and political systems to support what they called a natural way of life. They borrowed freely from any and every popular ethical philosophy, such as that of the Stoics, to get a certain point across. That point was the cost to one's intelligence and integrity if one blindly followed social convention and accepted its customary rationalizations. [...]
What counted most, they said, was a sense of personal worth and integrity. One should not allow others to determine one's worth on the scale of social position. One already possessed all the resources one needed to live sanely and well by virtue of being a human being. Why not be true to the way in which the world actually impinges upon you [objectively]? Say what you want and what you mean. Respond to a situation as you see it in truth, not as the usual proprieties dictate. Do not let the world squeeze you into its mold. Speak up and act out. The invitation was to take courage and swim against the social currents that threatened to overwhelm and silence a person's sense of verve. [...]
The Jesus people are best understood as those who noticed the challenge of the times in Galilee. They took advantage of the mix of peoples to tweak the authorities of any cultural tradition that presumed to set the standard for others. They found a way to encourage one another in the pursuit of sane and simple living. And they developed a discourse that exuded the Cynic spirit. [...]
Beliefs were not a major concern. Behavior was what mattered and the arena for the action was in public. The public sphere was not subjected to a systematic analysis, however, as if society's ills had been traced to this or that particular cause. The social world was under review, to be sure, for the behavior recommended was intentionally non-conventional, mildly disruptive, and implicitly countercultural. But there is no indication that the purpose of this behavior was to change society at large. The way society worked in general was taken for granted, in the sense of "What more can one expect?" Instead, the imperatives were addressed to individuals as if they could live by other rules if they chose to do so. [...] It is important to see that the purpose of the change was not a social reform. The Jesus people were not organizing to fight Roman power or to reform Jewish religion. [The Lost Gospel by Burton L. Mack]
Apparently many responded to the movement and associations of like-minded people began to form. And then, something very interesting happened... Suddenly, in the next layer of Q, a heightened sense of belonging to a movement becomes obvious because injunctions given as aphorisms now become rules supported by arguments. At this point, the idea of the "Kingdom of God" enters the picture. This "Kingdom" was, apparently, a realm or domain in which the rule of God is actualized. The rule of God is what the Q people said they were representing in the world. For the Jesus people, this meant something quite different from what Christians now assume it to mean. First of all, there was nothing at all apocalyptic about it (all that came later). For the Jesus people, the Kingdom of God was compared repeatedly to the natural process of growth as witnessed in Nature. Everything about this "Kingdom of God" was practical, having to do with things that can be accomplished in contrast to the conventional life.
God's kingdom can be announced, desired, affirmed, claimed, and signaled in a given human exchange. Thus the link between the notion of the rule of God and the pattern of Q's countercultural practices is very, very strong. [...]
If the present forms of rule were far from the ideal, and the people knew it, something other than philosophical speculation was called for. The ideal kingdom had to be imagined as an alternative order with some relation to the present status quo. [...]
The language of rule or kingship came to be used as a metaphor for personal self-control. The term king no longer had to refer to an actual ruler, and kingdom no longer had to refer to a political domain. "King" became a metaphor of a human being at its "highest" imaginable level, whether by endowment, achievement, ethical excellence, or mythical ideal. "Kingdom" became a metaphor for the "sovereignty" manifest in the "independent bearing," "freedom," "confidence," and self-control of the superior person, the person of ethical integrity who thus could "rule" his "world" imperiously.
Stoics internalized the image of the king and idealized the individual who ruled his passions and controlled his attitudes even in circumstances where others governed his existence. Their strategy was to be hopeful about the constructive influence of such individuals on society. A popular Stoic maxim was "the only true king is the wise man." Cynics were not as sanguine about the philosopher's chance of influencing social reform, but they also used the royal metaphor to advantage. In their case, taking control of one's life required extrication from the social scene. [...]
The use of the term kingdom of God in Q matches its use in the traditions of popular philosophy, especially in the Cynic tradition of performing social diagnostics in public by means of countercultural behavior. The aphoristic imperatives recommended a stance toward life in the world that could become the basis for an alternative community ethos and ethic among those willing to consider an alternative social vision. [...] The language of the rule of God in Q refers not only to the challenge of risky living without expectation that the social world will change but also to the exemplification of a way of life that like-minded persons might want to share. The God in question is not identified in terms of any ethnic or cultural tradition. [The Lost Gospel by Burton L. Mack]
The match between the Cynics and the Jesus people is not exact in all cases because the Jesus people DID have an interest in the "Divine" aspect of "God." Unfortunately, there is little in the Q document that explains this Divine source other than the fact that the Jesus people represented it as a "Father" and those who could successfully resist the ruin of social evils were the "children of God." The way the Jesus people referred to God was a bit more serious than the way the Cynics referred to such ideas. The Q people were concerned with the care of their members as a "family." I would suggest that there was a perception of differences in human beings among the Q people, though Mack does not make a special point of analyzing that issue.
Mack continues to examine and identify the stages in the Jesus movement, including the point at which the movement experienced rejection, criticism, and censure. A sudden shift in tone is noted in the third layer of Q. This is one of the more interesting parts of the book which describes an extremely troubled phase of the movement. There is a concern with loyalty noted, which suggests that there had been pressure from some outside authority, and betrayal from within. At this point, the role of Jesus was expanded, and this seems to have been related to mutual recognition of other "Jesus people." The movement must have been growing quite fast and threatening the authorities, and some action must have been taken which resulted in the need to find criteria for who was or was not a real follower of the teachings. So it was that concern for loyalty to the teachings resulted in the need to recast Jesus as the authoritative founder of the movement whose teachings must be "kept". That is to say, the shift in focus was from the teachings to the teacher. The next step was, of course, loyalty to Jesus himself.
The question is, of course, what happened? The document doesn't tell us, though it hints at the nature of the problem by virtue of the additional text that dealt with the issues. There were, obviously, painful experiences that were turned to a lesson. Mack suggests that the formation of Jesus people "families" must have seriously offended certain authorities. He writes:
This concern for loyalty to the movement is matched by signs of social distress. Tensions within the movement are indicated by the saying on scandals and the instruction to forgive a brother if he has a change of heart. But changes of heart have apparently not been the rule. Families have been torn asunder and the divisions have been rationalized as fully in keeping with the importance and purpose of the movement. Painful? Yes, but to be expected.
It seems that families were being split, and ethnic conventions were being personally challenged over loyalty to the movement. The evidence indicates that this occurred in relation to Judaism.
The story of the Beelzebub accusation is about rejection, conflict, and labeling Jesus and his followers as agents of a foreign (Syrian) god. Jesus' retort about "your sons" turns the challenge back upon his questioners and directs the issue of conflict to the social world that Jesus shares with them. There are instructions about what to do in case one is called before the village authorities. [...]
The people of Q2 had not organized their movement to become a society with membership requirements and officers, much less with rites of entrance. But the rule of God that they represented was certainly in the process of being reconceived as a discrete domain or kingdom, and there was now a great deal of talk about "entering into" the kingdom or being excluded from it. [...] Loyalty to the Jesus movement had run up against the challenge of Jewish propriety and the question of belonging to the people of God as the children of Abraham, or Israel. And the Jesus people had taken this challenge seriously. The evidence for this includes the repeated appeals to biblical traditions, the preaching of John about the children of Abraham, the import of the Beelzebub accusation, and the list of counter charges leveled against Pharisees and lawyers. [The Lost Gospel by Burton L. Mack]
Here we find the most fascinating twist of all in the development of Christianity. If the Jesus people had not been attacked by the Jewish authorities, they would not have sought to justify their movement in terms of the Jewish religion. It was only in defense that they did this. They ran afoul of the Pharisaic code, probably because they had Jewish members whose families were horrified at the participation of their children or relatives in the new movement. The issue of loyalty came to be phrased as a "Jewish" question, and the Jesus people felt they had to answer it in Jewish terms.
One can easily understand how this situation might have developed if loyalties to the Jesus movement began to wear and tear at the fabric of families and villages in which Jewish sensibilities were strong. One can imagine a family worried about the involvement of some of its members in the Jesus movement. Attempts at dissuasion could have and must have taken many forms. But insisting upon traditional family loyalties, throwing up Pharisaic standards, and making arguments for preserving Jesus' identity were apparently the ploys that struck home. They were in any case the ones that got a response from the Q people. And they triggered a spate of counter-charges that determined the emerging self-identification of the Jesus movement. [...]
The charges against the Pharisees and lawyers are especially interesting in this regard. The issues under debate were just what one might expect - washings, giving to charity, tithes, justice, honor, and knowledge. The list combines items typical for the Pharisaic code of ritual purity with items for which scribal representatives of the temple system of courts and taxation would be known. Such standards had apparently been held up as exemplary by families and village leaders seeking to chide their Jesus people into postures of propriety. Apparently the people of Q were not impressed. [...]
True to their Cynic heritage, the Jesus people were still capable of engaging in a bit of caustic riposte. The Pharisees were like tombs (so much for their desire to be honored), and the lawyers treated people like beasts of burden (so much for their claims to know the law and administer justice). [...]
Lo and behold, the people of Q linked the Pharisees and lawyers to the history of what their fathers did to the prophets. ...
That is some ante. ...
It is clear that the offense had registered and that the defense would be to beat the Jewish exemplars at their own game. [The Lost Gospel by Burton L. Mack]
And so it was that the Jesus people turned to the labor of mythmaking. They had to find ways to best their critics by turning their own words against them. They began to search for self-justifying arguments, examples in support of their own movement. They were only doing it in the sense of the Cynic system of argumentation, but the results were nonlinear. What they presented as their arguments was then adopted as REAL, and the Jesus people made an implicit claim on the cultural heritage of the Jews.
It is clear that the individuals who did this were not well versed in the Jewish writings. They made no appeals to such obvious things as the promises to the patriarchs, the priestly covenants, the Mosaic law, the Davidic covenant, and so on. Most of the allusions to Judaism were taken from popular oral traditions that would have been available to non-Jews of the time.
It is almost as if, when challenged by a Jewish orthodoxy, the Galileans appealed to what they knew of the popular epic traditions of Israel generally shared by Jews, Samaritans, and Galileans. [...] The people of Q worked these stories to their own advantage on the one hand, and to the detriment of their detractors' claims to represent the true form of Israel on the other. [...]
The Jesus people were encouraged to think of themselves as "fortunate" because they were treated just as the prophets had been treated [by the Jews in ancient times.] The logic was that the epic tradition supported the Jesus people because they, like the prophets, registered appropriate criticism of the status quo. The motif of the killing of the prophets could also be cited to embarrass their detractors because they, just as the fathers always had done to the prophets, were wrongfully "persecuting" and "killing" the Jesus people. [...] The way the Jesus people of Q used the motif was not a particularly clever manipulation of the Hebrew scriptures of the logical thrust of the biblical epic. They simply took what there was in the Jewish reservoir of stock images and turned it against their detractors. [...]
Their achievement was a popping of pompous balloons and a freaky delight in seeing themselves reflected in the story at its most embarrassing turns. Think of Jonah. Were the Ninevites Jews? No. Did they not repent at Jonah's preaching? Yes. Now think of Jesus and the Jesus movement in the very same light, only brighter.
Remember the Queen of the South (Sheba)? Was she a Jew? No. Did Solomon withhold his wisdom from her? No. See? Something greater even than Solomon is here.
And the story of Noah? Be careful whose side you are on. Everyone else perished you know. It is going to be the same story... And the same goes for Lot and the city of Sodom. He was called out; they were destroyed.
So there is your epic, they seemed to be saying, if you want to know what we are about, read it. [...]
Their movement certainly was not generated by an apocalyptic hysteria or persuasion of imminent judgment any more than it was by a drive to reform or restore some ethnic identity based on the promise inherent in the biblical epic of Israel. In both cases, the appeal to examples from the epic and the threat of an apocalyptic judgment, the Q people invaded the territory of their Jewish detractors and used their own idioms against them.
And yet, once involved in such an imaginative exercise, polemical as it surely was at first, a curious fascination with the broadened horizon seems to have developed. To think of the Jesus movement taking its place in the grand scheme of things, from the very "foundation of the world" to the "day when the son of man appears" was not a bad idea. No one could have started, either with the thrust of the Hebrew epic, or with the pull of an apocalyptic hope, and come up with a plan for just such a movement as the Jesus movement. But once it was there as a movement in the process of social formation, worthy of the loyalties of those within and threatened by the cuffs of those without, finding a place in the sun was exactly what the movement needed. And what a place to take, aligned with the "little ones" whose pedigree reached back to the beginning and who already knew in advance how the final judgment would go. [The Lost Gospel by Burton L. Mack]
Mack next takes the reader through the process of exactly how the subsequent myth was built, layer by layer, and it is fascinating. Effectively, what happened was that a group of people created a myth of broad - even global - horizons by elaborating on the sayings of an unlikely sage of Cynic persuasion who was reconceived as a wisdom teacher, an apocalyptic prophet, the son of God, and the means of atonement for all the world's sins if people will just "believe." By degrees, Jesus was saying things that only the wisdom of God could reveal. An amazing accommodation with Jewish piety against which earlier battles had raged was made, and Jesus was now quoting scriptures as proof texts that he was the son of God whose kingdom would only be revealed at the end of time.
This brings us back to the fact that Christians don't like myths. At some level they surely know that Christianity based on the narrative gospels is a myth, but they are in denial. They cannot deal with the fact that, for the original followers of the teachings of Jesus , there was no need to claim any epic legitimacy. To them, Jesus was simply a Cynic sage whose insights were tried and tested and found to be good. His success was in his masterful Cynic discourse that challenged others to try a different way of living.
The most ironic thing about the development of Christianity as a global religion is that it has aligned itself with Judaism as a "daughter" when, the facts indicate that the adoption of a "Jewish" heritage was merely the result of a defensive maneuver. The Jesus people simply usurped the epic of their main detractors and used it against them. "Get off our backs. Your own history should tell you that what we represent is a critical voice in unhealthy times and has always been needed. See, we are OK even on your own terms." It was never intended to be a serious alignment.
The conclusions to be drawn from the story of Q are therefore obvious. The followers of Jesus were normal human beings, responding to their times in understandable ways, investing intellectual energy in their evolving social experiments, and developing mythologies just as any society-in-the-making does. As for methods and means toward the creation of a mythic universe, the Jesus people also performed according to normal patterns. They assessed their social and cultural context with critical care, laid claim to the cultural traditions most relevant and ready at hand, sorted out the combinations most appropriate to their movement, and borrowed creatively from the mythologies current at the time. [...]
Q's story puts the Jesus movements in the center of the picture as the dominant form of early group formations in the wake of Jesus, and it forces the modern historian to have another look at the congregations of the Christ. The congregations of the Christ will now have to be accounted for as a particular development within the Jesus movements, not as the earliest form of Christian persuasion and standard against which the Jesus movements have appeared as diluted accommodations to banal mentalities.[...]
Q documents a Jesus movement that was not Christian. The Jesus movement that produced Q cannot be shunted aside as a group of people who missed the dramatic events portrayed in the narrative gospels. They cannot be dismissed as those who mistook Jesus, failed to understand his message, or misunderstood their mission to found the church. The reason they cannot be dismissed is because they were there at the beginning. Q reveals what Jesus people thought about Jesus before there was a Christian congregation of the type reflected in the letters of Paul, and before the idea of a narrative gospel was even dared. [...]
Q is the best record we have for the first forty years of the Jesus movements. There are other snippets of early tradition about Jesus, but they all generally agree with the evidence from Q. [...]
Q's challenge is absolute and critical. It drives a wedge between the story as told in the narrative gospels and the history they are thought to record. The narrative gospels can no longer be read as the records of historical events that generated Christianity.
Q puts us in touch with the earlier history of the Jesus movements, and their recollections of Jesus are altogether different. The first followers of Jesus did not know about or imagine any of the dramatic events upon which the narrative gospels hinge. [...] All of these events must and can be accounted for as mythmaking in the Jesus movements, with a little help from the martyrology of the Christ, in the period after the Roman-Jewish war. The narrative gospels have no claim as historical accounts. The gospels are imaginative creations whose textual resources and social occasions can be identified. The reasons for their composition can be explained. They are documents of intellectual labor normal for people in the process of experimental group formation. [...]
From the above, we can almost understand why so many must insist on denying these conclusions. So much energy, for two thousand years, has been put into this mythology, into related mythologies, including an entire industry that today tries to come up with novel and alternative explanations for who Jesus was, whether or not he was married, did he did of a blood clot, is the Shroud of Turin authentic, and so on and so on. It seems, based on the Q document, that it is unlikely that Jesus was even Jewish.
Mack is NOT saying that there was not something going on at that period of history. Clearly there was. Clearly, there WAS a teacher and a teaching and followers. Of that, there can be no doubt.
Biblical scholars, of course, work very hard trying to find ways to "enhance" the picture of Jesus. For a very long time, they (and even alternative writers such as Bushby, Lincoln, Leigh, Baigent, and others) have assumed that Jesus was a unique individual, and his teachings and life must have been novel. But even this approach has failed to save the story told in the narrative gospels. When scholars reveal the results of their work outside scholarly circles, there is generally an anguished public outcry. People cannot bear to be told that Jesus did not say what Matthew, Mark and Luke say he said, and the scholars who are trying to save the buns from the fire don't seem to be able to adequately explain to the public how they arrive at their conclusions. There is a complete lack of basic knowledge on the part of the general public about the formations of early Christianity, generally encouraged by the purveyors of the "religion" itself. "Thou shalt not ask questions," they intone solemnly, and the threats of hell-fire and damnation are intimated for those who even open the cover of a book on the subject.
The average Christian is horrified to think that Matthew was either lying, or was mistaken, or he made it all up and didn't bother to inform the reader that he was making stuff up. Mack deals with this issue in some detail and even if the explanation will produce discomfort in many Christians, the explanation is "eminently understandable." The fact is, the authors of early Christian texts, following a tradition of Greco-Roman attitudes and practices with regard to sayings or maxims of a teacher, felt perfectly free to attribute new sayings, and even deeds, to Jesus. At various points in the history of these early groups, when certain tensions arose, it was seen as necessary and useful to recast the character of Jesus by speech attribution and narrative changes. This is exactly what was done, and the evidence is in the textual analyses. It was in this sense that the history of the Q community was traced.
At the first stage, the discourse was playful and the behavior public. The people of Q were challenging one another to live a life of integrity despite the social repercussions.
The second stage was that of forming groups. Apparently, these experiments in behavior produced satisfying results and more and more people were attracted to the idea. Human relationships became a particular focus, and there was no evidence of any idea of reforming society or any demand for conversion of outsiders.
And then, the third shift: apparently, when groups were formed, this attracted very negative attention. The distress signal in the text is evident, and it is also evident that it was not a consequence of weariness with reproach or discouragement, but rather that there was a definite and dangerous social conflict relating to certain members of the Q groups.
And then, a nother stage occurred, a period during which the people of Q began to see themselves as carriers of a social movement with a purpose in the grander scheme of things.
It was in this context that the ideas of the Christ cult of northern Syria overshadowed and even erased the memories and importance of Jesus, the Cynic teacher. As Mack points out, the cost of surviving the Roman-Jewish war must have been very high. This part of the discussion is particularly interesting, and one can speculate on the possibility of an esoteric tradition being combined with the social experiment and coverted into a history. The "real" Jesus disappeared from the story because the narrative gospels told a more exciting tale that promised wonderful things in terrible times, and Jesus became the "lynchpin" of all history.
Mack's conclusions regarding the importance of this even on our world are quite startling considering the events that have transpired on the world stage since he wrote this book.
The question now is whether the discovery of Q has any chance of making a difference in the way in which Christianity and its gospel are viewed in modern times? The question is quite serious, because neither the university, nor among knowledgeable people in our society, nor among the Christian churches, have the results of biblical scholarship ever made much of a difference. [...]
The discovery of Q effectively challenges the privilege granted the narrative gospels as depictions of the historical Jesus. The difference between the narrative gospels and modern retellings of the story can no longer lie in the distinction between history and fiction. The narrative gospels are also products of mythic imagination.
The difference lies in the status of the gospels as foundation stories for a religion in distinction from interpretations of that story in genres of a surrounding, secular culture. So the modern critic who seeks to understand a public outcry over Jesus is now confronted not only with the question of modern myth and ancient history, but also with the more interesting question of the reasons why the gospels are so hard for moderns to recognize as myth. [...]
Myths, mentalities, and cultures go together. Myths are celebrated publicly in story and song. Mentalities are nurtured just beneath the surface of social conventions by means of unexpressed agreements. Myths, mentalities, and cultural agreements function at a level of acceptance that might be called sanctioned and therefore restricted from critical thought. Myths are difficult to criticize because mentalities turn them into truths held to be self-evident, and the analysis of such cultural assumptions is seldom heard as good news.
Christian myth and Western culture go together. [...]
To acknowledge publicly that [the American Dream] may owe something to the legacy of western Christian culture is, on the other hand, taboo.
The exception to this general rule occurs, interestingly enough, when pressure on public policy and patriotism results in exaggerated expressions of those values for which our nation stands. We have a history of such platitudes: new world, new land, new people, righteous nation, manifest destiny, city set on a hill, liberty enlightening the world, a beacon for the homeless, one nation under God, moral majority, defenders of the free world, and new world order.
These truisms signal a messianic mentality.
When times are not perceived to be critical, it is easy to discount these expressions as the harmless formulations of a well-meaning people. Then we are willing to recognize the influence of Christian symbols on our self-understanding. But in periods of critical decision, when the rhetoric is used by our leaders in support of some national interest, few find it easy to blow the whistle and ask for debate on the reasonableness of attitudes rooted in religious convictions. Why? Is it because we do not dare, or because we do not know how to criticize our myths? [...]
We do not know how to talk about the mentalities that underlie a culture's system of meanings, values, and attitudes. Some cultural critics are saying that it is time we set to work at cracking that equation.
I also think that the time is right. Americans have lost their sense of our nation's innocence, though the rhetoric of the righteous nation continues to be heard from our leaders.
The recent history of what we have done with our technology and power throughout the world is troubling, as are the human cries for help from around a world grown small and yet too large to handle. The list of concerns has run off the page, and we seem to be overloaded with unsolvable problems and strife, and ecological responsibility. For thoughtful people, the issues have to do with assessing the chances for constructing sane and safe societies in a multicultural world while understanding the conditions for predation and prejudice, power abuse, and violence. In either case, it is irresponsible not to engage in public discussion of our own system of cultural values. [...]
In order to understand ourselves and register reasons for our social options, cultural analysis will have to include a comparative evaluation of mytholgies. And that means having a close look at our own mythology.
Q should help with this analysis by breaking the taboo that now grants privilege to the Christian myth. That is because the story of Q gives us an account of Christian origins that is not dependent upon the narrative gospels. ... Christian mythology can now be placed among the many mythologies and ideologies of the religions and cultures of the world. The Christian myth can be studied as any other myth is studied. It can be evaluated for its proposal of ways to solve social problems, construct sane societies, and symbolize human values. [...]
So the times are troubled for thinking Christians who wonder about the social and political consequences of Christian mythology in its secular dress.
The effect of Christian mythology has not always been humanizing. The Captain America Complex, a book by Robert Jewett has traced our zealous nationalism to its biblical roots.
Others have reflected deeply on the Christian persuasions that have undergirded colonial imperialism, the taking of the West, the Indian wars, and the slave trade.
Still others have studied the relationship of the gospel story to the profile of the American hero, the American dream, and the destructive politics of righeousness wherever we have intervened in the affairs of peoples around the world.
The conclusion seems to be that the Christian gospel, focusing as it does on crucifixion as the guarantee for apocalyptic salvation, has somehow given its blessing to patterns of personal and political behavior that often have had disastrous consequences. [...]
Q's challenge to Christians is therefore an invitation to join the human race, to see ourselves with our myths on our hands and mythmaking as our task. [The Lost Gospel by Burton L. Mack]
After reading Mack's book, Tony Bushby's The Bible Fraud is even sillier than I originally thought. It will have to join a host of others - including Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the Da Vinci Code, The Templar Revelation, The Jesus Conspiracy, Jesus the Magician, and just about everything that assumes a priori that there is ANYTHING even remotely historical in the narrative gospels - on the trash heap.
Yes, it's all a fraud, no doubt about that, but not exactly the way so many are claiming nowadays when they create their equally ridiculous "New Age" or "alternative" mythologies to replace the Dead Man on a Stick nonsense.
I say good riddance to all of it.
posted by Laura Knight Jadczyk @ 6:52 AM 2 comments links to this post
16 May 2005
A Spring Morning In The Autumn Of America
This morning I read John Kaminski's essay with the above title. I want to share it with any readers I may have here because it is a fine sequel to my own piece "Backroads To The Farm." 'Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone' By John Kaminski skylax@comcast.net 5-16-5 Mornings on my porch these days are exquisite. I pry myself from my bed and shuffle out into paradise in this (what I call) cool Florida spring. Every day starts out at 70 degrees. Sun flashes through the dense foliage, creating lush shadows and undulating sunbeams flecked with shimmering dust motes. The mockingbird symphony (somewhere between Vaughn Williams and Wagner, I fancy) is backed by a chorus of owls chanting their baritone refrain. If you listen closely you can discern the words. In fact, you may discern any words you want. I choose to hear "what a world, what a beautiful world." Eight o'clock on a sunny May morning. It's hard to see anything wrong with the world those first few moments each morning on my porch. Then I remember. Reality intrudes. The e-mails. That fascinating and disturbing window on the world. After careening through hundreds of them every day, disconnected thoughts begin flowing through my brain, even before I put on the coffee. When I write something, people are always asking me for references, links or citations, and I seldom can remember them, because I have traveled too fast through too much cyberterritory during the previous day to be able to cite chapter and verse. It's the ideas that stick, though I often don't remember which e-mail said what. This morning it's this one. We grew up thinking our leisurely middle class lifestyle was the way life has always been. Some of you white haired curmudgeons out there will remember a wacky TV show called "The Life of Riley," one of those carefree '50s half hour sitcoms where the bumbling head of household was lovably inept and perpetually bamboozled - and appreciated because of it. Such an innocent time. One recent e-mail pointed out that this social condition - the very existence of a middle class - was created by the aftermath of World War II, when the government assisted all its military survivors with generous loans. The result was a surge in college degrees and individual home ownership. First the first time in history, a legitimate middle class was created. It had never existed before, which was something I never realized. But now, today, in A.D. 2005, it was being deliberately exterminated. And might never exist again. One of the reasons this sad state had come to pass, as I recall, was that these same auspicious conditions for prosperity also created something very dangerous to the ultimate health of the planet - out-of-control human reproduction and an out-of-balance infestation of corpulent human locusts. It's like the climate in Florida. Every possible species of animal thrives here. Eagles live comfortably in towns. Alligators grow 14 feet long and aren't afraid to waddle anywhere, as some people with missing limbs will attest to. Heck, in Florida, the cockroaches - and their Schwarzeneggerean cousins, the mighty palmetto bugs - will stand up and fight you if you get in their way. No foolin'. Life thrives here. With such a rich country and a government that actually supported its population, after World War II, the population exploded. All over the world, too. The world's population quadrupled in the 20th century. So it wasn't long before our controllers, the rich elite who get a very different education than we peons do, surmised that too many people put too much of strain on the world's resources. Or maybe it was just their control of the world's resources that they were talking about. In any case, they developed a plan - they being some think tank called the Club of Rome - that population had to be reduced radically if the elite were to continue to live comfortably in their opulent, Wackenhut-guarded enclaves. If you're old enough, you might remember the days when the medical profession actually tried to make you healthier. Rather than today, when all they try to do is rob you and kill you, or at least maim you for life so you'll be forced to buy more medicines. Now this Club of Rome thing has reached hyperdrive. Most of allopathic medicines are outright poison, as is most of the corporate food supply. You definitely can't trust what your doctor says. And the brave military men and women who devotedly follow the orders of our nation's so-called leaders? Well, instead of getting free college and a loan guarantee to buy a house, they get a guaranteed case of terminal cancer (cleverly inflicted by their own poisoned ammunition, as well as their toxic vaccinations, so they can spread their maladies to their families and thereby reduce unwanted and unsightly population more quickly, not to mention the benefit to the government that paying parsimonious death benefits is much more economical than shelling out for lifelong medical care) - all this, of course, assuming that they survive their military assignments, which, in this sad day and age, has become less and less likely. Now, some of you, particularly some of you young whippersnappers, might say to me: "You're living in the past, Old Geezer. You've got to get with the program." They don't realize what the program is. They've reaped the harvest of living in a very fortunate time, for some. And they can't see beyond the parameters of their own pleasant porches to understand the world is really not something of their own creation, but rather it is something they just happened to stumble into, and most of us never really perceive what we have been given, or who has given it to us, or what plans they - the ubiquitous, amorphous and unidentified "they" - have in store for us. The thought that our middle class lifestyle is going the way of the dodo bird really saddens me. How lucky we had been to have had such an elysian existence for so long. I console myself by thinking perhaps it was only karma that it had to end, since the vaunted American way of life was constructed on the extermination of the native Indians, nourished by the blood of innocent black people lying dead in the fertile Alabama dirt, and sustained by the blood of the unsuspecting peasants all around the world who never possessed this kind of leisurely life in which we have for so long langoured. Perhaps it is only poetic justice that we would one day wind up in the same condition we ourselves (OK, or our forebears) have inflicted on so many others. What goes around comes around, right? In the same way that religious hysterics always predict Armaggedon in their own generation (trapped in a blindness that prevents them from seeing the mathematical unlikelihood of any such prediction), another e-mail pretended to know what the overall plan for the decaying United States was, that it was being brought into line by the global elite to simply be another province of the World Management System, and hence Bush and his psychopathic partners were being instructed to destroy America's reputation and make it the pariah of the world, so it would be attacked by a new coalition of the outraged and dragged down to the level of, say, Zimbabwe, so it would be easier to control by those who control everything. That the U.S., with the help of quislings like Bush and Clinton, was simply being set up to look bad, so that the rest of the world would eventually get fed up and destroy us as being a menace to humanity, which we definitely are. It is hard to deny that this is the way it looks. More and more you read stories that America has lost its mind. And a cursory review of history, objective history, clearly reveals that it never had a heart. Oh sure, the people had a heart. People everywhere have hearts. But once things congeal into a monolithic government, the heart seems to disappear, and wholesale rape - even of one's own self - seems to inevitably be the order of the day. So, as I sit on my porch, and a new strand of spring green ivy creeps eagerly up the weather-rusted screen, stretching out its tendrils to greet the infinite possibility of a new day, I review the two remembered e-mails, which forewarned of the death of the middle class, and the deliberate sabotage of the American dream. And then one other e-mail flits across the clouded screen of my bittersweet attention. It was from a doctor in Pennsylvania who often buys my books, and sends me both frequent contributions and books she thinks I need to read (and she's always right about that). In her note was a stark fact. Since 1970, the percentage of population diagnosed as sociopathic (who the heck knows how they quantify these things?) has tripled. For those who have trouble with the word, a sociopath is simply someone without a conscience. "Sociopaths are interested only in their personal needs and desires, without concern for the effects of their behavior on others," according to The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. As you may have realized, this is now the new way of life in America. The diagnosis, according to standard medical textbooks, is clinically deranged. I mused momentarily on that scary fact. It explained a lot of things. Combined with the corporate consolidation of media in the late 20th century, it explained the death of popular music. And the loss of conscience in our nation's newspapers. Perhaps it even explained how a whole society could fail to object to an unjust war ostensibly waged on its behalf that was murdering hundreds of innocent people every day. It explained the effects of Prozac, Ritalin, fluoride, and beyond that, the heartless zombification of America. It explained how everyone could overlook the facile lies being used to justify the sociopathic behavior of America, because sociopaths do not object to sociopathic behavior. Why should they care? It's not their problem. As you know, a simple mind like mine tends to reduce these complexities to simplicities by saying the real problem is religion, on the theory that once they can make you believe things that you know in your reasonable mind are not true, they can make you believe anything. But I won't bore you with any more of that just now, although this is definitely not to say I won't in the future. So as the sun streams through my dusty porch, and little lizards frolic on the languid leaves of the elephant ear plant that climbs high up my mottled Australian pine, and the squirrels fight the sparrows for the last few fragments in the bird feeder, I make a mental note of things I must do to face the day, items to acquire, people to meet, foodstuffs to purchase. In the peace of the spring sun I notice that missing from my list is anything about whose life I may improve or what wrong I may attempt to right today, and as I write today I make a mental note that this may be the very difference from the world we have and the world we want. And the porch tells me, go outside now. You have done all you can do here. But keep your eyes open for something you can do for someone. It may make all the difference in the world, not only for the world, but for yourself. Love is contagious, you know. And the revolution for a decent world begins in your own heart. *********** John is one of the few people who seems to really appreciate what it is like to live in Florida - what it WAS like, in any event. Outside my window now is a grove of Oaks and Lebanese cedars in the park of the Chateau in which I live with my wonderful Physicist whose obsession with math equals my obsession with history. There is a nightingale nesting in the trees and the song is so similar to the Mockingbird that sometimes at night, when I hear the singing, in the dark, I can imagine I am back at The Farm. I can smell the mingled scents of the house, feel the air, hear the rustle of the cabbage palms, taste the water from the old hand-pump, and I weep inconsolably. Then, I pull myself together and continue to fight the gathering darkness that few of us can see behind the singing birds and rustling green leaves of Spring. Will this one be our last? When I ask myself that question, somehow it renews my will to go on. My children - all the world's children - deserve Springs such as I have experienced. And so, the butterfly continues to flap her wings. It is Spring, after all.
posted by Laura Knight Jadczyk @ 5:16 AM 0 comments links to this post
26 April 2005
Backroads to The Farm
By way of introduction, I thought I would share an excerpt from my autobiography of the soul: Amazing Grace:
I grew up in the deepest South, the Gulf Coast of Florida, and our family history here goes back over a century before my birth. The old tintypes and yellowed photographs of our ancestors were displayed proudly by my grandparents. Everywhere we went, there were places that “used to be” like this or that, where some memorable event occurred in the days when horses and buggies were the only means of transportation. There was a sense of belonging here.
And as I grew up, sheltered within the vibrant green canopy of my grandparents’ farm, sheltered in its turn within a primeval landscape, a time that has now passed by forever became my own home and held my own history.
With almost inexpressible poignancy, I think back to cruising Florida coast roads during endless summer nights, driving down the center line on two lane blacktop in my brother’s ’57 Chevy with the top down; our headlights were the only lights in the onrushing wind and darkness. We drove on, enchanted by this salty and balmy air, the fields of brilliant stars above us, nothing on either side of the road for miles but salt marsh and the Gulf of Mexico in the distance.
This fragile time was not to last. The northern developers came down and bought up the land in a dispossession of the old homes of so many people. Our original family home is gone with that time, when the world seemed simpler and the constellations shining above our heads were the only lights in the velvet blackness of the night.
Everyone in the family called it The Farm with capital letters. An old Florida Cracker style farmhouse already a century old when my grandparents bought it in the Great Depression of the 1930s, it came with eleven acres, a tidal spring or “bayhead,” and half a dozen huge grafted pecan trees of several varieties.
The Farm was situated nearly three miles from the nearest neighbor, on a stretch of the Old Dixie Highway bypassed when the new Highway 19 was built a mile or so to the east. The house faced the Gulf of Mexico with a shaded front porch a hundred yards away from the lime rock road. On the opposite side of the road a broad expanse of tidal flats stretched away to the Gulf for about a mile, dotted by little islets of cabbage palms and cedar trees and palmettos. It was a setting entirely appropriate for a brontosaurus to graze.
The bootleggers of Prohibition times ran their illicit trade along the Old Dixie Highway. About five miles to the north of The Farm was a little town called Aripeka, named (supposedly) after a semi-legendary Indian chief. Aripeka is “The Town Time Forgot”.
A little bit north of Aripeka once stood an elegant resort, raised up in the middle of nowhere, which extended regular hospitality to such luminaries as the great Babe Ruth and Scarface Al Capone.
The Farm was the greenest and lushest place I have ever seen. Along with pecan trees, there were several tall cedar trees, cabbage palms, a camphor tree, orange and tangerine trees, fig and pear trees, and a wide variety of semi-tropical shrubs scattered over three acres of thick green lawn. Climbing roses and honeysuckle grew up a big trellis on one side of the porch, and wisteria meandered on another trellis to the north of the house.
The house had no electricity or indoor plumbing, but there was an outhouse to the back of the barn, and a big iron hand pump in the backyard. The whole place, except for the long front drive, was surrounded by pine woods. It was, quite literally, paradise.
My grandparents bought the house as a vacation home, and it was furnished with no longer stylish, too-treasured-to-be-thrown-away antiques and cast off furniture from various family households. The cupboards were stocked with stacks of odd dishes from many times and places, and a special shelf held the row of kerosene lamps always ready for duty.
The key was hidden on a rafter on the back porch, and if you used anything in the house, you replaced it and you always left it cleaner than when you arrived.
For years, various relatives and friends of the family had enjoyed the use of The Farm, and with all the coming and going, and an occasional hired helper, a large garden was kept year after year in the black muck adjacent to the bay-head in the back. The Gulf high tide pushed through the porous lime-rock against the shallow aquifer, and fresh groundwater rose and watered the garden faithfully twice a day. Grandpa kept his garden like his mind, carefully planned and geometric, growing excruciatingly straight beds of highly prolific things like okra and squash. Rutabagas grew big as pumpkins and collards big as palm fronds. Grandma was able to indulge her obsession for “putting food by” and canned endless bushels of pickles, corn, peas, peas, beans, beets and more.
The “bayhead” was a slow freshwater spring which rose and descended with the tides also. When Grandpa waded in to clean it out, intending to make a fish pool and lily pond, he found an old polished chunk of limestone with a name and two dates carved into it. It was obviously a gravestone. The bayhead was thereafter allowed to grow wild. This became for the kids, my brother, cousins and myself, a challenge to our courage, a place of mystery and foreboding known as “The Spring!” The gravestone was placed as a curio on the hearth in front of the fireplace, joining a gigantic turtle shell big enough to cover the entire fireplace opening.
Rattlesnake skins from “big ones” killed by Grandpa hung on either side of the door to the dining room. The still attached rattles rustled slightly every time you walked through that door, whispering softly “watch out!”
There were, of course, some little drawbacks to the place: the above-mentioned rattlesnakes, cottonmouth moccasins, and mosquitoes. Grandpa solved the mosquito problem to some extent by installing screens on all the windows, and screening in the porch, but life with mosquitoes is just something that a person learns to deal with in Florida
Sitting on the front porch in the expansive shade of those massive old pecan trees, listening to the rustling of the cabbage palms and the droning of mosquitoes outside the screen, watching the sun descend the last quadrant of the sky to set behind the distant, silhouetted bayheads, is a memory of inexpressible poignancy. Sometimes an entire day would pass without the sound of a single automobile. And if we heard a car in the distance, it was usually someone we knew on their way to The Farm.
The Old Dixie between the Farm and Aripeka was empty of any other dwelling. There had been a couple other houses up the road, old farmsteads still in use during Prohibition, but they had long since burned down.
When I was about 14, the “parent house” still stood about 300 yards to the south. The Farm had been built by the owner of this larger house as a wedding gift for one of his children. The big house was a rather grand plantation-type affair with a detached kitchen connected by a covered walkway. It was a glorious and mysterious place. We spent many days wandering slowly through it, savoring the ghostly atmosphere, straining to catch the echoes of life and laughter that must have permeated its walls. But we heard only the rustling palms, droning insects, and the calling of an occasional distant bird. The grounds surrounding the house always seemed to be cloaked in a preternatural stillness that added to the thrill of exploration.
Later on, when we were no longer living at the Farm, the big house burned to the ground. I felt deeply the loss of its history and meaning and essence. In later years, I heard rumors of the wild boys who bragged about burning that gracious old home. I was sickened and sad. What poverty of soul must exist in those who would derive satisfaction from such wanton destruction?
I was forced to sell The Farm in1989. It broke my heart. But, it’s just as well. Nowadays, the sunset view from the porch is blocked by nearly a mile of identical houses built on man-made canals carved out of the prehistoric salt marsh. The honking of horns, squealing of tires, the drone and stench of a sewage treatment plant, have replaced the rustle of cabbage palm, buzz of insects and silence of that clean, balmy air we breathed so long ago. Even the “greenness” of the place has faded. But, for the time we were there, it seemed to have the same effect on me that it had on all the other living things there: growth.
The Old Dixie Highway was, for a while, a time warp - frozen by the spirits of bygone days - some gracious and beautiful - some violent and twisted - some narrow, like the road where they lived and moved. The whippoorwill no longer sings at my grandfather’s Farm and the woods where we once hiked and hunted is a golf course now. U.S. Highway19 is the world’s longest parking lot. Take a number and get in line!
Time flows on.
The house was rather primitive. We had only the fireplace for heat, and an old gas range in the kitchen that required bottled gas on a regular basis, but after all of the events of the past years, getting settled down in the old house was truly like coming home. It was familiar. Every object settled in its precisely correct place according to the designs of my grandfather. A barn full of interesting items waited to be explored: an old “woody” station wagon, a big diesel engine. The tool shed held sets of tools for every design and purpose. The storage shed contained an old Victrola, boxes of magazines from the 20’s and 30’s, trunks full of old clothes, and jar after jar of old coins among the treasures.
There were also boxes of books. In one, I found a book with a rather off-putting title, seemingly about politics, in which I had no interest: “The Story of A Secret State” by Jan Karski.
Nevertheless, I picked it out of the box and opened it to read a page or two.
“On the night of August 23rd, 1939, I attended a particularly gay party. It was given by the son of the Portuguese Minister in Warsaw, Mr. Susa de Mende…”
For some reason, I continued to read with inexplicable fascination. I realized I was holding my breath. I read on.
“On the night of September 1, around 5:00 am., while the soldiers of our Mounted Artillery Division tranquilly slept, the Luftwaffe roared through the short distance to Oswiecim undetected and, perched above our camp, proceeded to rain ablating shower of incendiaries on the entire region. At the same hour, hundreds of the powerful and modern German tanks crossed the frontier and hurled a tremendous barrage of shells into the flaming ruins.
“The extent of the death, destruction and disorganization this combined fire caused in three short hours was incredible.”
My heart was pounding painfully in my chest, but there was no way I was going to put this book down. I’m sure I must have had dinner or something, but since I always had the habit (deplored by my grandmother) of taking my books to the table and reading while I ate, it’s a certainty that I wouldn’t remember it. I was no longer at the farm because I was over there: in Europe, in Poland fighting the Nazis.
A child’s goals and perspectives in life are formed at crucial stages of imprinting. And, perhaps this was one of those times when my mind was open and waiting for seeds to be planted, only to bloom many, many years later.
Perhaps this could have been the awakening of a certain awareness sleeping fitfully since the time of my birth. One thing is certain: the thread of events in Nazi Germany, both tragedy and hope, wove themselves through my life like a ribbon of darkness and light.
The nightmares began then. I dreamed of endless vistas of dead bodies in cratered landscapes. Planes flying ceaselessly overhead in smoking red skies. Soldiers, terror and tears; rivers of tears, where serpents writhed, flowed across the land. I had lost my balance internally and at the same time I had found the first firm footing of my life.
Now nothing interested me at all except to try to understand how so great and terrible an event as the Holocaust could happen on the face of the Earth if there was a God in heaven.
I felt that my life, the lives of many others, depended on being able to see it coming.
And today, I see it coming. The thing that hurts the most is to realize that, in this cycle of history, America is Nazi Germany and George Bush is playing the part of Hitler.
I would give anything to be able to go back to the farm, to experience for just one hour again the sweetness of the honeysuckle in the balmy salt air, to hear the rustling palm trees and skeeters humming outside the screen of the old front porch, and to believe once again that the America I knew and loved was exactly what I thought it was: decent and Christian and hospitable like my family, my home, my world.
But instead, I see this world gone mad, a nightmare from which I cannot awaken, and Lord help us! The price that will be paid for that self-righteous blindness is more than I can bear to see…
Oh, if I could only drive that backroad again and turn in the driveway to the farm… and just go home and rest.
posted by Laura Knight Jadczyk @ 12:59 PM 0 comments links to this post
