|
Writers Articles And Opinions |
|
|
|
29 September 2010 By Stephen
Lendman
Griffin is Professor of
Philosophy of Religion and Theology, Emeritus,
Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate
University, Claremont, CA where he's still co-director
of the Center for Process Studies.
He's authored and/or edited three
dozen books, mainly in his field, but notably and
heroically on 9/11 truth, Osama bin Laden, and his
newest titled, "Cognitive Infiltration: An Obama
Appointee's Plan to Undermine the 9/11 Conspiracy
Theory." More on it below.
Cass Sunstein is a well-known
University of Chicago and Harvard Law School Professor
before being appointed Obama's Administrator of the
White House Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, in charge of "overseeing policies relating to
privacy, information quality, and statistical
programs," among other duties.
Distinguished Law Professor,
activist, and international law and human rights
expert Francis Boyle said this about both law schools
and the University of Chicago's political science
department, steeped in neo-con Straussianism:
"Do not send your children to the
University of Chicago where they will grow up to
become warmongers like (Paul) Wolfowitz and (John)
Ashcroft. The University of Chicago is an intellectual
and moral cesspool," referring to its political
science department and law school. Its extremist
economics department is much the same, indoctrinating
students with predatory capitalist ideology.
Boyle's "Harvard's Gitmo Kangaroo
Law School: The School for Torturers" article
advised:
"Do not send your children or
students to Harvard Law School where they will grow up
to become racist war criminals! Harvard Law School is
a Neo-Con cesspool."
"Harvard is to Law School as
Torture is to Law."
Commenting on Sunstein when he
was mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee,
Boyle, calling him a "Neo-Con," said he'd be a
"lethal" choice.
Professor Emeritus James Fetzer,
Founder, Scholars for 9/11 Truth, took sharp issue
with Sunstein's attempt to discredit its proponents,
saying his "Conspiracy Theories" report (discussed
below) is a "corrosive approach" and "massive blunder"
to believe they're "obviously false!" In fact, "No one
can know which theories are true or false without
investigating them." That a Harvard Law professor
would suggest it "is simply stunning," yet
unsurprising given the source.
Sunstein is a notorious neo-con,
abhorrent of First Amendment and other democratic
freedoms, believing the rule of law is best served by
subverting it.
Glen Greenwald's "The Horrible
Prospect of Supreme Court Justice Cass Sunstein"
article said:
"From the beginning of the War on
Terror, Cass Sunstein turned himself into the most
reliable Democratic cheerleader for Bush/Cheney
radicalism and their assault on the Constitution and
the rule of law." He also supports military
commissions, illegal surveillance, and "mock(ed) the
notion that Bush had committed crimes while in
office."
One of his former students
added:
"I think (he's) an extremely
ambitious man (who'd) run over his grandmother for a
seat on the Supreme Court."
Apparently over the country as
well, trashing it and the public interest for power,
clearly the aim of his "Cognitive Infiltration"
proposal.
In January 2008, he and Adrian
Vermeule published a controversial report titled,
"Conspiracy Theories," they define as "an attempt to
explain an event or practice by reference to the
machinations of powerful people, who have also managed
to conceal their role."
"Many millions of people hold
(them); they believe that powerful people have worked
together in order to withhold the truth about some
important practice or some terrible event."
Citing 9/11 truth, the reason for
their report, they say believers "may create serious
risks, including risks of violence....rais(ing)
significant challenges for policy and law....The
existence of both domestic and foreign conspiracy
theories, we suggest, is no trivial matter, posing
real risks to the government's antiterrorism policies,
whatever the latter may be."
His solution - debunk and
undermine them by "cognitive infiltration of extremist
groups," his modern-day version of COINTELPRO, the
FBI's infamous 1960s and 1970s counterintelligence
program to neutralize political dissidents, including
the American Indian Movement, Black Panthers, and
communists, as well as anti-war, human and civil
rights activists, among others.
Rebranded, COINTELPRO flourishes
more than ever against new targets, including Muslims
and others in the "war on terror;" environmental and
animal rights activists, and supporters of democratic
freedoms over despotism and imperial wars, among
others.
Sunstein wants conspiracy
advocates neutralized, using "independent groups to
supply rebuttals, and by cognitive infiltration
designed to break up the crippled epistemology of
conspiracy-minded groups and informationally isolated
social networks." In other words, destroy them by
conspiring against them from within, using illegal and
extralegal tactics.
"Government agents (and their
allies) might enter chat rooms, online social
networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to
undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising
doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or
implications for political action."
In June 2009, Sunstein and
Vermeule updated their scheme in The Journal of
Political Philosophy titled, "Conspiracy Theories:
Causes and Cures." The cause - psychological
conditions. The cure - elimination by cognitive
infiltration, including with "independent experts with
information and perhaps prod(ding) from behind the
scenes....(but not) too close (to avoid being)
self-defeating" if exposed.
In fact, what Sunstein proposed
is illegal under statutes prohibiting internal
government propaganda, aimed at the public, though
legal technicalities have never before been a
deterrent.
Nonetheless, according to a March
21, 2005 Congressional Research Service report, the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) defines
"publicity or propaganda" as either official
self-aggrandizing, partisan activity, or "covert
propaganda," the latter government-originated,
disguised to appear otherwise, including by enlisted
journalists, corrupting their profession by accepting
cash to cooperate, a practice used by the Bush and
earlier administrations as well as the CIA and perhaps
FBI.
Griffin's New
Book - A Powerful Truth Antidote
His new book is an invaluable
analysis of Sunstein's proposal to undermine
democratic freedoms, airbrush truth, impose
censorship, and criminalize individuals who challenge
official versions of patent lies, specifically 9/11,
the seminal one of our time.
Critics agree, including
Professor Peter Phillips, President of the Media
Freedom Foundation and Project Censored saying:
Griffin's book should be
"entitled 'the Courage of David Ray Griffin' (for) His
continuing efforts to speak truth to power regarding
issues" as vital as 9/11. Project Censored strongly
recommends it at a time our democratic freedoms are at
risk, including dissent, what Howard Zinn called "the
highest form of patriotism."
Professor Emeritus Peter Dale
Scott called Griffin our "preeminent (9/11)
expert....his research....consistently careful,
thorough, and objective." His new book provides "a
patient, point-by-point and much needed refutation" of
Sunstein's dangerous proposal. "He relentlessly shows
how (he's) guilty of the very mentality he warns
against: close-mindedness and refusal to debate. Those
who seek to prevent 2010 from becoming 1984" must read
this invaluable book.
Professor Emeritus Richard Falk
said Griffin wrote "a devastating critique, (using)
his formidable philosophical and theological skills."
Cyril H. Wecht, past President,
American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American
College of Legal Medicine called the book "brilliantly
written....a scholarly dissection of (Sunstein's)
sociopolitical proposal....," one essential to expose
and oppose.
Discussing Sunstein's 10 theses,
Griffin deconstructs their flaws, contradictions, and
dangers to a free society. He also explains the
legitimacy of 9/11 truth, and Sunstein's inability to
refute it by disinformation, lies, suppression of
facts, stifling debate, and attacking proponents.
What Obama did on September 23,
calling Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 9/11
truth comments to UN General Assembly:
"hateful (and) inexcusable,
particularly for him to make the statement here in
Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where
families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths,
all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of
this generation...."
Others attacked the comments as
"abhorrent and delusional," no matter that millions
around the world share them (including Architects and
Engineers for 9/11 Truth), calling the event a crime,
debunking the official account as deceitful, untrue,
and destructive to democratic freedoms.
Ahmadinejad, in fact, suggested
"three (possible) viewpoints:"
1. "That a very powerful and
complex terrorist group" successfully circumvented US
intelligence, Washington's position.
2. "That some segments within the
US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the
declining American economy and its grips on the Middle
East in order to save the Zionist regime."
He said most Americans "as well
as other nations and politicians agree with this
view." European polls suggest it. US ones vary and
have largely ducked the issue by not asking precise
questions.
3. "It was carried out by a
terrorist group but the American government supported
and took advantage of the situation."
Ahmadinejad "proposed that the
United Nations set up an independent fact-finding
group...." He also criticized Washington for using the
attack as a pretext for war against Iraq and
Afghanistan. These views are verboten in the West,
those expressing them pilloried as unpatriotic or
worse.
Griffin is one, the preeminent
9/11 truth proponent and consummate scholar. Using his
masterful skills, he demolishes Sunstein's arguments,
ones based on disinformation, deceit, and bad
analysis, not up to the standards of an accomplished
liar, and no match for Griffin.
Thomas Fletcher summed it up
saying:
Griffin's book "is a lucid and
compelling exposure of the contempt held by the
official (9/11 myth) defenders for dissenters who have
seen through their Big Lie." They also fear truth that
reveals their ugly agenda. "These officials expect
that no one will be able to penetrate the murk of
Sunstein's latest defense of the pretext for the US
wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, now
covertly expanding" globally. Truth is a powerful
disinfectant, what government conspiracists most
fear.
Some Final
Comments
On September 12, Professor Denis
Rancourt titled an article, "Why we love to hate
conspiracy theories: 911 Truth as threat to the
intelligentsia," saying:
Many on the left share guilt with
the right by "vehemently attack(ing) and ridicul(ing)
'conspiracy theories' such as the present 911 Truth
movement."
Why, he asks? "Is that not the
modus operandi of power? Is it so difficult to believe
that (the 911 attack) was not orchestrated
by....religious zealot(s)? Or that those who
measurably benefitted" had everything to gain? "What
ever happened to 'war is a racket' and 'follow the
money?' "
At issue is that "power owns the
media, (and) more importantly....our jobs" and lives
in other respects. Even more important than truth is
how it's used - to "rebel, actually rebel and
individually take back power over (our) lives."
Instead, too many of "the intelligentsia" protect
themselves and "the system" by being "a visceral
opponent of 911 Truth....in order for power to save
face."
Let others fight the good fight
they may feel, but unless enough do, putting a lot on
the line, wrong will prevail over right and squeeze
harder for even more of what they want.
Perhaps the next "9/11" will be a
mushroom-shaped cloud or other comparable
state-sponsored "disaster," again blamed on foreign
adversaries as a pretext for more war. Why not, given
America's permanent war agenda, a topic addressed in
an earlier article, accessed through the following
link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/americas-permanent-war-agenda.html
Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the
Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/
EsinIslam.Com
|
Save
Add Comments To This Story