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A question for Alexander Cockburn (or two)
by Tony Priolo
September 20, 2006

Dear Mr. Cockburn,

I have often been called a conspiracy theorist myself for not accepting the readily available reasons the mainstream media likes to present for a variety of national and international issues.

I didn’t believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (largely because UN and American weapons inspectors said there were none), nor that there were links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda; nor did I believe that George W Bush won the 2000 or the 2004 election fairly, all of which leads friends and acquaintances to call me (as they have done many times in the past) a conspiracy theory nut – even though I don’t really think questioning those incidents qualifies me as a conspiracy nut.

It is funny how people link someone who does not accept the official JFK story – based on what appears to be significant evidence of two opposing autopsies as well as the famously rational and reasoned magic bullet theory - with the people who believe man has not walked on the moon, or that aliens live amongst us. This is nothing short of an unfair debating technique similar to a smear campaign; once those positions have been linked, you cannot take the link away. According to GWB and Karl Rove the crime rate went up in Texas under Ann Richards – try as she might, she could never convince people that the opposite was true; just as John Kerry was not really a Vietnam War hero, and is unfit for command, just ask the Swift Boat Veterans.

You have employed a similar technique quite well in both your recent articles.

I am a graduate of Trent University (in Ontario, Canada), and I was pleased to see you quote a letter from a professor there.

However, I do have one question – even though Professor Neumann (and I believe you are in this camp too) doesn’t believe there was “a single serious question about 9-11.”

Can you please tell me what happened to Building Number 7 of the World Trade Center complex?

How did it come down in pancake fashion much like all demolitions do?

I was visiting friends in Manhattan this past summer and they were not aware of any details surrounding building number 7, and when my son and I took a tour of the Harbour, the tour guide pointed to where the WTC buildings stood, and also that that building number 7 was almost complete (as he pointed to it), saying that it “was the last building down and is the first one up.”

Nothing hit it, and there didn’t seem to be enough damage from the outside to bring it down from all reports that I have read and heard, and if it was fire and exterior damage, how did it pancake sometime in the late afternoon of Sept 11, 2001? I have heard voice recordings of the owner (I don’t recall his name) telling someone to “pull it.” Now I am by no means a researcher or a journalist, so everything I have heard and read about it may be false, but I imagine you may have much more information regarding this and by sharing it, can put all my conspiracy notions to rest.

Could you please also explain to me why, when all of the United States of America was a no fly zone – with no planes coming or going, an airplane carrying Saudi nationals and supposedly members of the bin Laden family took off from the USA? This has been mentioned in many venues as well, and I have not heard it refuted as of yet…but then again, I guess I am easily gullible to conspiracy theories.

Mr. Cockburn, could you please shed light on these issues, so your readers and I can truly live in the knowledge of the truth; and we too can then shun the conspiracy theory nuts.

I read an excellent quote regarding truth today:

To a visitor who described himself as a seeker after Truth, the Master said,

“If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.”

“I know [replied the visitor], an overwhelming passion for it.”

“No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.”

I truly am ready to admit I am wrong in believing something is not quite what it seems with the whole 9/11 tragedy. Of course one could say the families of the victims are not ready to let go, and maybe they do not seek the truth, but rather some type of closure or retribution or some other way of dealing with their horrific losses, and therefore refute the official 9/11 Congressional Report. But I am removed from that immediate pain and passion so I think I can accept the truth you present to me.

Can you also shed some light on why it took President Bush so long to call for an official inquiry into the largest terrorist attack in American history, or the largest crime perpetuated on American soil? You see, where things get confusing is that when you ask questions like this you immediately get painted as a conspiracy theorist, but I am not necessarily suggesting GWB had anything to do with 9/11 (although the business interest of his friends and family have done very well since – that can be a coincidence if you prefer), but why not call an investigation?

Even though I must confess, I personally do not believe in coincidence based on my own spiritual and psychological beliefs, was it simply a coincidence that the plane that struck the pentagon flew over the building, turned approximately 180 degrees and hit a part of the building that was empty and under construction, when hitting the Pentagon as it approached would have been easier and meant more damage and unfortunately more innocent victims dying – thank goodness for that lucky break.

And one last comment if I may:

Just because a contracting company was called in to remove disintegrated concrete (I never knew concrete could burn), or pieces of melted and tortured metal (which usually stand bent and spiralling after a fire – at least they did in Kyoto after that massive earthquake in 1995 which caused fires that decimated large chucks of the city – there were all kinds of metal structures still standing showing how the fire had ravaged whole blocks – but I digress); just because a contractor may have been given the job from the government to remove that rubble, does not mean he is part of the plot to hide the truth – he may quite simply be doing the job he was hired to do, no questions asked? It does not mean the contractor or his employees are necessarily involved in a cover up as you have suggested, should there be a cover up at all. Nor would the Chinese damn makers have to be involved in a supposed cover up / conspiracy, they simply purchased back fill for their damn – from someone who was pretty eager to get rid of it pretty quickly – was there no evidence of any kind to be found in all that rubble?

Maybe part of the problem is, when someone doesn’t want to believe the possibility of some information or statement of fact being erroneous (an assassination, Pearl Harbour, 9/11 etc…) they do twist and turn the facts to suit their point of view, as you have suggested. The hard part is discerning the real truth – is it the one being espoused by the conspiracy theorists, or the truth being espoused by the sensible, well reasoned Philosophy Professor from my Alma mater and those that obviously agree with him.

(As an aside, have you noticed how easy it is to group all of us conspiracy theorists together – that we are all the same and all believe the same nonsense – for some strange reason, it is always taken as a given that if you believe JFK was killed by some renegade forces within the American Government or intelligence agencies, you also believe that humans have never visited the moon, and that Area 51 is covering up evidence of UFO’s – I never really got that connection myself. I wonder if they all like peanut butter and banana sandwiches too.)

Is it possible that “the problem of conspiracy nuttery has got worse” because journalists are no longer doing what they have traditionally done, dig for the truth as opposed to regurgitating the spin put out by the political machines. Unfortunate there are many examples of this, most recently the American Military and their purchasing of article space in Iraqi newspapers, and then there is Fox news.

And if I may, one last question, tell me again, why did the USA attack Iraq?