Now Investigate The Big Story
By Ian Gurney
6-3-4
An open letter to America's editors and journalists.
The contrite manner in which the New York Times and the Washington Post admitted to being "conned by the neocons in the Pentagon" does not excuse what was, in plain language, a massive and inexcusable lapse of editorial and jounalistic integrity. In short, the mainstream media in the US lied to the American people from September 11th. onwards.
There was no connection between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. No connection between Saddam and September 11th. There were no Weapons of Mass Destruction. There were no nuclear weapons programmes, no uranium yellow cake from Niger. There was no threat to the United States from Iraq, no possibility of Saddam launching WMD's within 45 minutes.
Yet journalists, many of them supposed "top class investigative journalists" were totally unable to sort the truth from the falsehoods put out by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfowitz, Luti, Feith, Abrams, their good friend Chalabi and the other neo-conservatives in the White House, Pentagon and the Office of Special Plans. Why was this? Fear of not towing the "patriotic" line? Fear of being called "anti-American"? Fear of losing your job? Fear of losing influence and access in the corridors of power and the offices of the establishment?
Excuse me! I thought the job of a good journalist in a democracy was to challenge the establishment, question their motives, report their misdeeds and uncover their lies and sophistry. Only Seymour Hersh got things right, and for his pains Richard Perle called him "The closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist". That's something Sy Hersh should be extremely proud of. Journalism is not meant to walk hand in hand with the establishment, with politicians or with those who wield power. It is the job of the journalist to report the truth. To find out what is really going on. Nothing else will do. If you lie to the public then they will not believe you next time. Remember the little boy who cried wolf?
How best, then, for the US mainstream media to once again become respected and more importantly, believed, by the American public. Well, how's this for an idea. Why not investigate the biggest newspaper story of all time. Make your name as the journalist who uncovered the greatest crime ever committed in America. Win the Pullitzer prize. Become more famous than Woodward and Bernstein. Scoop the entire world with the most important story of all time. How? Simply investigate which companies and which individuals profited by placing "PUT" options on US airlines in the days before September 11th. There must be a paper trail that shows who made those "put" options and by checking the people involved with those companies and who their major investors are, it should be possible to find out once and for all who REALLY knew beforehand about September 11th. Perhaps an investigation into the Carlyle Group, with whom the bin Laden family invested heavily would be a good place to start, followed by The Freemont Group, owned by the Bechtel family, who also have the bin Ladens as investors. Both companies also have very close connections to the Bush family. Maybe Richard Perle's investement vehicle, Trireme Partners is also worth a look?
A parrallel line of enquiry should also investigate who told San Francisco's Mayor Brown not to fly on the 10th. or 11th. of September. Did that information come from the White House, perhaps from Condoleezza Rice as some allege?
By thoroughly investigating these matters it should be possible to finally uncover who it was that REALLY planned and excecuted the greatest criminal event in America's history. Now surely, isn't that a story worth investigating?
Copyright Ian Gurney June 2004. Ian can be contacted at info@caspro.com
Ian Gurney is a journalist, broadcaster and author of the bestseller "The Cassandra Prophecy" published by International Global Press. ISBN 0953581314.
Informant: Vince Bradley
6-3-4
An open letter to America's editors and journalists.
The contrite manner in which the New York Times and the Washington Post admitted to being "conned by the neocons in the Pentagon" does not excuse what was, in plain language, a massive and inexcusable lapse of editorial and jounalistic integrity. In short, the mainstream media in the US lied to the American people from September 11th. onwards.
There was no connection between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. No connection between Saddam and September 11th. There were no Weapons of Mass Destruction. There were no nuclear weapons programmes, no uranium yellow cake from Niger. There was no threat to the United States from Iraq, no possibility of Saddam launching WMD's within 45 minutes.
Yet journalists, many of them supposed "top class investigative journalists" were totally unable to sort the truth from the falsehoods put out by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfowitz, Luti, Feith, Abrams, their good friend Chalabi and the other neo-conservatives in the White House, Pentagon and the Office of Special Plans. Why was this? Fear of not towing the "patriotic" line? Fear of being called "anti-American"? Fear of losing your job? Fear of losing influence and access in the corridors of power and the offices of the establishment?
Excuse me! I thought the job of a good journalist in a democracy was to challenge the establishment, question their motives, report their misdeeds and uncover their lies and sophistry. Only Seymour Hersh got things right, and for his pains Richard Perle called him "The closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist". That's something Sy Hersh should be extremely proud of. Journalism is not meant to walk hand in hand with the establishment, with politicians or with those who wield power. It is the job of the journalist to report the truth. To find out what is really going on. Nothing else will do. If you lie to the public then they will not believe you next time. Remember the little boy who cried wolf?
How best, then, for the US mainstream media to once again become respected and more importantly, believed, by the American public. Well, how's this for an idea. Why not investigate the biggest newspaper story of all time. Make your name as the journalist who uncovered the greatest crime ever committed in America. Win the Pullitzer prize. Become more famous than Woodward and Bernstein. Scoop the entire world with the most important story of all time. How? Simply investigate which companies and which individuals profited by placing "PUT" options on US airlines in the days before September 11th. There must be a paper trail that shows who made those "put" options and by checking the people involved with those companies and who their major investors are, it should be possible to find out once and for all who REALLY knew beforehand about September 11th. Perhaps an investigation into the Carlyle Group, with whom the bin Laden family invested heavily would be a good place to start, followed by The Freemont Group, owned by the Bechtel family, who also have the bin Ladens as investors. Both companies also have very close connections to the Bush family. Maybe Richard Perle's investement vehicle, Trireme Partners is also worth a look?
A parrallel line of enquiry should also investigate who told San Francisco's Mayor Brown not to fly on the 10th. or 11th. of September. Did that information come from the White House, perhaps from Condoleezza Rice as some allege?
By thoroughly investigating these matters it should be possible to finally uncover who it was that REALLY planned and excecuted the greatest criminal event in America's history. Now surely, isn't that a story worth investigating?
Copyright Ian Gurney June 2004. Ian can be contacted at info@caspro.com
Ian Gurney is a journalist, broadcaster and author of the bestseller "The Cassandra Prophecy" published by International Global Press. ISBN 0953581314.
Informant: Vince Bradley
Starmail - 4. Jun, 17:50
