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-Caveat Lector-

Saudi Entrepreneur Adnan Khashoggi Linked to 911 Terrorists
�
PART XIV: INTERLUDE - DAVID CORN, THE NATION�S LIBERAL,
STATUS-QUOTIENT-9/11-CARD-MARKING-LIMITED-HANG-OUT
WATER CARRIER FOR HOMICIDAL, DRUG-SMUGGLING CIA FASCISTS
(reposted)

By Alex Constantine

The name is so mnemonic that once you hear it, you can never get it out of
your head: "David Corn," the Washington editor for The Nation, that
straggling house organ of the American left. Though I, a leftist, may
occasionally respect an article appearing in The Nation, it is all too often
a disappointment. The magazine is myopic, and one reason for this is the
continual recycling of celebrities of the left like David Corn, who make a
living by upsetting the apple cart, but not too much. He has an internal
limit switch. If he were to write honestly about the John Kennedy
assassination, for instance, he would most likely lose the respect of his
peers, and probably his job � therefore, he doesn't write honestly about the
John Kennedy assassination.

Instead, he finds "respectable" stories, scoops just below the headlines ...
and brushes up against smaller conspiracies routinely, but watches his
language, avoids inflammatory words like "fascism," and feigns prof
essionalism. 

The Nation claims that David Corn "broke news of the Bush-Enron oil deal."
"Did George W. Bush once have a financial relationship with Enron?" Corn
writes. The year was 1986, and "according to a publicly available record" �
that is, the book First Son, by Bill Minutaglio (so much for "breaking" the
story) � Bush and Enron "drilled for oil together--at a time when Bush was a
not-too-successful oil man in Texas and his oil venture was in dire need of
help. Bush's business association with Enron, it seems, has not previously
been reported." Except in Minutaglio's book. So far, no conspiracy. But Corn
is strolling onto the doggy path, and must hold his nose and watch his
tongue lest someone notice. "It shows the credibility of the Bush gang and
that of Enron deserve questioning when either one is talking about the
other." What's this? A conspiracy of silence? (And did Bush or Enron ever
have a serious claim to credibility?)

Ironically, David Corn, Noam Chomsky, Marc Cooper and other writers for The
Nation frown on anyone who deals in "conspiracies," and often speak
condescendingly about these geeky, paranoid mollusks. In fact, there are
"conspiracy theorists" on the Internet who probed deeply into Bush's
connections to Enron years ago (I have those postings on file, and some are
posted in the Usenet newsgroups), but along comes David Corn detailing a
conspiracy without actually using the word, and all the while praying to his
personal god that no one notices.


�The CIA doesn�t smuggle drugs ...� is the baldest lie in American history.

To be polite, Corn does a fair imitation of a dissenting writer ... for
someone who travels on a State Department visa. On November 9, 2001, Corn
boasted in an AlterNet posting that he "had been dispatched to Trinidad by
the U.S. State Department to conduct a two-day seminar on investigative
reporting for local journalists (your tax dollars at work!)." (Corn, "Why
Bush Needs to Spin the War.") Journalists who eschew conflicting with the
interests of their readers are not "dispatched" by the State Department, a
branch of government that has no use for dissident writers, and in foreign
countries has been known to plot their deaths. (And good ones do not spout
the clich� about your tax dollars.)

David Corn finds "conspiracy theories" maddening: "Please stop sending me
those emails. You know who are. And you know what emails I mean ... Okay,
I'll spell it out -- those forwarded emails suggesting, or flat-out stating,
the CIA and the U.S. government were somehow involved in the horrific
September 11 attacks." There are the ridiculous emails "about a fellow
imprisoned in Canada who claims to be a former U.S. intelligence officer and
who supposedly passed advance warning of the attack to jail guards in
mid-August. There are emails, citing an Italian newspaper, reporting that
last July Osama bin Laden was treated for kidney disease at the American
hospital in Dubai and met with a CIA official. There are the emails,
referring to a book published in France, that note the attacks came a month
after Bush Administration officials, who were negotiating an oil deal with
the Taliban, told the Afghans 'either you accept our offer of a carpet of
gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs.'"

Now, it happens that every one of these vaguely identified reports can be
found on my own web site (thus this response), so I know them well. The
sources include Le Figaro, the India Times, Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
These are "conspiracy theorists?" The articles are, in fact, published by
credible news organizations with by-lines and reputations behind them,
without exception. Le Figaro has confirmed that Bin Laden met with a CIA
agent name Larry Mitchell two months before the World Trade Center swallowed
two domestic jetliners. But David Corn is irritated by the ludicrous
"e-mails." 

"Such a plot -- to execute the simultaneous destruction of the two towers, a
piece of the Pentagon, and four airplanes and make it appear as if it all
was done by another party � is far beyond the skill level of U.S.
intelligence," Corn insists. Never mind that the 9/'' plot was allegedly
conceived by a former U.S, intelligence asset. And Corn knows the classified
agency's precise skill level? Perhaps the CIA is not so skillful, after all,
and that's why the foreign press has been blowing the whistle and David Corn
keeps receiving those "e-mails."

"Are there enough people of such a bent in all those agencies? That's
doubtful," Corn sniffs. "CIA officers and American officials have been
evildoers. They have supported death squads and made use of drug dealers
overseas." That is, they conspired to kill and drug the country for
political ends � terrorist activity. Some would call this "conspiracy
theory." "They have assisted torturers, disseminated assassination manuals,
sold weapons to terrorist-friendly governments, undermined
democratically-elected governments, and aided dictators who murder and maim.
They have covered up reports of massacres and human rights abuses. They have
plotted to kill foreign leaders...." David Corn can acknowledge this orgy of
conspiracies (all the while avoiding utterance of the c-word, which would
instantly turn him into a paranoid geek who will believe anything,
presumably) � some responsible for more deaths than 9/11 � and still argue,
"Would George W. Bush take the chance of being branded the most evil
president of all time by countenancing such wrongdoing? Oil may be in his
blood, but would he place the oil industry's interests ahead of his own?"
Excuse my language, but this is a sadistically facile argument. Would Bush
place the oil industry's interests ahead of his own? They are symbiotic, it
goes without saying, and this corrupt politician with this CIA dad is
capable of anything.

The essential problem: "Conspiracy theories may seem more nuisance than
problem," a statement contradicted by the public's continuing taste for
conspiracy theories at the cinema and on the Internet and everywhere else,
"but they do compete with reality for attention." Could it be that they
compete with David Corn for attention, and that's why he resents them?

Corn admits he cannot muster an argument to those accursed "e-mails." But in
the end, we must depend on "common sense." "The spies and special agents are
not good enough, evil enough, or gutsy enough to mount this operation." This
is the same organization that dragged the country into Vietnam and pulled a
coup in Chile, an immense bloodbath. They couldn't arrange or allow to
happen the 9/11 devastation? "That conclusion is based partly on, dare I say
it, common sense, but also on years spent covering national security
matters. (For a book I wrote on the CIA, I interviewed over 100 CIA
officials and employees.)" In the end, it comes down to "common sense" and
trust in his credentials, not a valid debunking.

So how, in a crowded room, are we to distinguish David Corn from any
"mainstream" media CIA apologist? Fact is, Corn's writing on the CIA is very
tame, old hat, in my opinion, but better than nothing. However, Corn's sense
of Black Tuesday is VERY common. He would be well advised to tune out CIA
lies and investigate their actions. Don't listen to what they say, watch
what they do. 

And find an honest line of work.




�

� 


www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please!   These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:

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<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
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