-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- -----Original Message----- From: uri dowbenko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, 20 January 2000 09:08 Subject: Steamshovel Press E-Newsletter STEAMSHOVEL PRESS ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER, January 18, 2000 Kenn Thomas discusses Jim Keith's death and calls for an official investigation this Thursday on Extra!, the infotainment television program. Check local TV listings for the time in your area. Thomas, Greg Bishop of the Excluded Middle, Robert Sterling of the Konformist and others are scheduled to appear at Disinfo.Con 2000 in the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on February 19th. For more info go to http://con2000.disinfo.com or call 212-226-9193. Now available from amazon.com: Cyberculture Counterconspiracy, A Steamshovel Web Reader. Two volumes collecting Steamshovel web site material no longer available on the web. Cybercon also features new, never before published material, including the graphics work of Kevin Belford on the Manson family and the slaying of J. D. Tippit; essays by Greg Bishop, Acharya S, Richard Metzger, and Rob Sterling on the Pentagon origins of the internet. The following column originally appeared last fall on the old Nitro News site. Steamshovel Press presents it here for two reasons: 1. It deals with the boxer Hurricane Carter, who recently became the subject a major Hollywood movie; and 2. For some reason, it has disappeared mysteriously from the Nitro News web site! REAL CONSPIRACIES HURT X-FILES AND THE HURRICANE By Kenn Thomas Conspiracy Columnist Words from the liner notes to an old Bob Dylan record came to mind last week: "And just how far would you like to go in? Not too far, but just far enough so's we can say that we've been there." The occasion was a joint meeting of the Midwest Archives Conference and the Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists in Lincoln, Nebraska, from October 14-16. Amidst its workshops on preventative conservation, archival website design and integrated collections management systems, the archivists planned to discuss conspiracies, the topic of this column and one that should hold great importance for this profession. When a smoking gun has appeared exposing a conspiracy, it has most likely emerged from files and artifacts collected, preserved and protected by archivists. As employees of public and private institutions, archivists often serve as the first line of defense, keeping investigators away from these smoking guns. The ethical issues alone seem worthy of constant discussion, as do issues of content. Conspiracy and historical documentation are clearly two processes at odds with each other. Is it possible to document "conspiracy" history? Who actually does this and how? It wouldn't get that deep at the MAC/SRMA conference in Lincoln, however. A in the daily media, speculation about conspiracies has too many tributaries for sustained, serious discussion on an academic panel. Evidence and research is often controversial; angry tempers protect strongly held views; accusations of cover-up distortion and agent-baiting regularly occur; pressure exists to accept authoritarian institutional and official views unquestioningly. Conspiracy theories also often cut too close to the bone of contemporary affairs. The participants in Lincoln, for instance, no doubt were ill-prepared for the recent revelation - made by Ted Gunderson at an appearance of Bob Hope sex slave complainant Brice Taylor - that Lincoln has a warehouse through which kidnapped children are transported. Instead, this would be another X-Files exegesis, a panel entitled, "Where Are The Real X-Files?" It was guaranteed to keep the discussion at the level of silly TV, conspiracy's main mind control weapon. Moderator Tim Hawkins, of Freshwater Consulting in Denver, confessed that the idea for it came from drunken bar room talk among archivists. Not such an untoward origin, especially considering novelist Thomas Pynchon's observation in Mason And Dixon that conspiracy theories belong to "the quidnunc, spy and taproom wit," but clearly a lightweight approach, just far enough to say they've been there, like the TV show namesake. The panel's stated mission was to discuss "weirdness that often defies explanation, let alone documentation - Come hear stories of spirits, extraterrestrials and JFK assassination conspiracy theories." The latter chore went to University of Denver archivist Steve Fisher, who summarized the JFK material, being careful not to advocate a particular theory. He left out the theory from my book, NASA, Nazis and JFK, of course, about the aerospace connection. Episcopal minister and independent researcher Ray Boeche did a creditable job on the UFO lore, although he repeated that the first modern UFO sighting belonged to Kenneth Arnold, when readers know from my book, Maury Island UFO, that it actually happened with the Maury Island case. Boeche even addressed the issue of the Cutler/Twining MJ12 document that exists in the National Archives, basically establishing that some kind of weird spook group keeps track of extraterrestrials for the Government. This came up during the question and answer period, which generally reflected that the audience wanted a bit more than the broad stroke analyses of the main presentation. Dale Bacon of the Nebraska State Historical Society in Lincoln served as the last panelist, discussing local ghosts. Fox Mulder was listed as a panelist in the program, but in his stead the panel graciously allowed me to say a few words - not a presentation, but something to at least try to re-orient things toward the serious business of conspiracy. I passed around a few free copies of Steamshovel Press and had some copies of my books available for examination. I explained the importance of a real study of this work, and as an example, briefly explained the Danny Casolaro story and Jim Keith's recent death. I uttered the word "parapolitics," and encouraged its serious study before rejoining the audience. Why aren't archivists taking this more seriously than creating a panel at a regional conference borne of too much alcohol and television? At the conference's mixer, alcohol again inspired some discussion that a similar, more in-depth panel may be organized for the Society of American Archivists in Washington, DC. That was a glimmer of hope, but one planned for two years from now! It was only upon my return to St. Louis that I encountered a speaking event that grappled with Rubin "Hurricane" Carter the real problems posed by conspiracies. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter spoke at the University of Missouri, against the death penalty and other injustices of the justice system, but primarily about his own struggle against police JC Penney Auditorium conspiracies that twice convicted him of murders he didn't commit. The 63-year-old Carter certainly has been "far enough in," as the rock bard put it. Dylan, in fact, wrote a song detailing the story of Hurricane Carter in 1975, and it helped win Carter a new trial. But Carter would ultimately spend 19 and a half years behind bars, top performance years for what was becoming a promising career as a middle-weight boxing champion. The courts convicted Carter of gunning down four white people at the LaFayette Bar and Grill in Patterson, New Jersey on June 17, 1966. Another defendant, John Artis, did 15 years. No gun was ever found; no motive ever offered. Both men were convicted on the strength of the testimony of one Alfred Bellow, who was breaking into a factory next to the bar and, with encouragement and promises of favors from the New Jersey police, claimed to have seen the two men. He later recanted the testimony. Carter detailed this colossal miscarriage of justice in his autobiographical book, The 16th Round, published in 1974. Although the original verdict against Hurricane Carter was overturned in March 1976, he was tried and convicted again that fall. Bellow had recanted his recantation and prosecutors introduced a racial motive that inflamed social tensions in New Jersey. They weren't archivists, but a team of Canadian researchers did detailed work on the records and files of the two Carter trials, and in 1985 successfully won for him an extremely rare legal victory, a federal writ of habeas corpus, and petition for release. Justice, of course, not served, as Dylan put it, until "they give him back the time he's done", an impossibility in terms of professional boxing, where those young years are all important. Oddly, in some ways the panelists in Lincoln had more information to offer as speakers than Carter, whose appearance was prefaced by an hour-long videocast of a cable TV feature on his case. Almost inarticulate anger characterized Carter's public speaking before his arrest and during his imprisonment. Today he is quite professional, well-coiffed (as opposed to the mean skin-head image of the 60s) and his talk was replete with references to Diogenese and a self deprecating wit, calling himself a "pain in the ass" to the "mindless, knuckleheaded human beings." The videotape handled the details of the case (actually Dylan got most of them in that song); Carter mostly stood as a symbol of survival against the terrible turns wrought by real conspiracies. Unfortunately, not armchair X-Files archives, but real life. ***************** Steamshovel Press is available for $23 for four issues. Please send check /money order to POB 23715, St. Louis, MO 63121, payable to "Ken Thomas." ***************** Kenn Thomas on the Jeff Rense Show Jan 17,2000 available online at http://broadcast.com/shows/endoftheline/00archives.html ****************** Steamshovel Press. All Conspiracy. No Theory. http://www.steamshovelpress.com NEW ON THE WEBSITE. Check it out... JUST RELEASED -- Mass Control by Jim Keith (Book Review) ALT. MEDIA -- 'Magnolia': Bad Karma Ranting PS. Please tell your friends and neighbors about Steamshovel Press or forward this e-newsletter. Thanks. LYCOShop. Thousands of products! One location! http://shop.lycos.com/ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! 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