The Roh administration and its supporters may have made many questionable statements regarding the United States, but I can’t think of anything they said that even comes close to something this toxic coming out of Japan:
YUKIHISA FUJITA is an influential member of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. As chief of the DPJ’s international department and head of the Research Committee on Foreign Affairs in the upper house of Japan’s parliament, to which he was elected in 2007, he is a Brahmin in the foreign policy establishment of Washington’s most important East Asian ally. He also seems to think that America’s rendering of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, is a gigantic hoax.
Mr. Fujita’s ideas about the attack on the World Trade Center, which he shared with us in a recent interview, are too bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus to merit serious discussion. He questions whether it was really the work of terrorists; suggests that shadowy forces with advance knowledge of the plot played the stock market to profit from it; peddles the fantastic idea that eight of the 19 hijackers are alive and well; and hints that controlled demolition rather than fire or debris may be a more likely explanation for at least the collapse of the building at 7 World Trade Center, which was adjacent to the twin towers.
For what it’s worth, Fujita denies telling the WaPo that 9.11 a hoax, and a blog at The Diplomat makes the case that Fujita, truther or not, could have been set up:
It’s certainly startling that a member of the Democratic Party of Japan with a foreign policy role should make such comments about 9/11, and the Post has every right to challenge him on this.
But is there anything new here? Fujita hasn’t just cast doubt on the US account of 9/11 in post-interview chitchat—he’s questioned it formally in Japan’s parliament. No mention was made in the Post about what the actual interview with Fujita was about, nor was a separate story about the interview available on the Post’s Web site. So was Fujita set up so the Post could get him to talk about 9/11 and then use his comments for an editorial slamming anti-Americanism in Japan’s government?
At this stage, you could make a strong case for saying yes.
Talk amongst yourselves.
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
This specious reasoning: “So was Fujita set up so the Post could get him to talk about 9/11 and then use his comments for an editorial slamming anti-Americanism in Japan’s government?
At this stage, you could make a strong case for saying yes.”
Fujita “suggests that shadowy forces with advance knowledge of the plot played the stock market to profit from it.”
Yeah, a shadowy force called Al Qaeda.
Jeffery Hodges
Uh….a lot of people question 9/11. Not just conspiracy theorists. Why can’t a foreign diplomat? In the face of very strange facts that don’t add up, who with half a brain couldn’t question 9/11, the economic crash, and just about everything else in the US?
holy shit Park Ji Sung Scored Against AC Milan YEAH!!
At least Fujita-san has backed off his WaPo comments. France’s equally wacky (and once respectable) Thierry Meyssan actually scribbled together a truther book that went on to become a national best seller.
On the other hand, I used to practice my Korean with a crazy Student-Minjung Solidarity-type at Yonsei who was convinced that everything that happened in Korean politics was the result of the machinations of the CIA. So go figure.
DLB
Some have said that trutherism has been getting more exposure recently in the international media. I’m not sure if the truther movement has been updated at all recently aside from the independent Danish researcher who claims that nano-thermite was in the dust and Richard Gage and Architects/Engineers for 9/11 Truth. So I don’t know if the claims are any more robust than they were originally. Though things like false-flag operations probably aren’t completely out of the realm of possibility. The US government has devised such plans before: Operation Northwoods
@2
Al Qaeda played the stock market and profited from it. That’s a new one to me.
Anyone who believes the CIA or any other U.S. gov’t agency is competent enough to pull off something like 9/11–and then stifle all leaks–needs his head seriously examined. A few facts not explained exactly by the narrative doth not a conspiracy make.
True, there isn’t any evidence suggesting this, at least not that I’m aware of. Something like Operation Northwoods only demonstrates that the US gov’t has thought about false-flag operations in the past. But not all of the individuals or groups that are a part of the class that gets labeled “truther” make such claims. There are many wild claims made, but even those with much more modest claims or simply skeptical or questioning parts of the narrative get implicated as “truthers.” Simply questioning the official narrative on Building 7 for example and thinking that perhaps a controlled demolition may have been involved in its collapse, is enough to get brushed as a crazy kook, conspiracy nut, “truther,” etc.
Most of the WTC Building 7 crowd seem to seriously believe that the owner/management of this huge building SECRETLY had high explosives planted inside the building’s main load-bearing columns (which would necessitate extremely loud drills / jackhammers), and then used 9/11 as a cover to bring down the building. Which of course, not only would mean advance knowledge of the attacks, but presumption that falling debris from the main towers would plausibly provide a rational explanation for WTC 7′s collapse. And the question. . . WHY? Most point out some kind of big insurance policy taken out by the owner in the days before the attacks. To those that believe even PART of this, yes, I think the words crazy kook, nut, freak, etc. apply rather aptly.
Well, I guess I should dust off my tinfoil hat. I absolutely believe the my government has lied to not only the American public, but the entire world over the “facts” of 9/11. Since 9/11 it is no longer acceptable to question the government, whereas, the Founding Fathers promoted questioning the government as the only way to live in a truly free nation. Since 9/11 the United States has been more like Hitler’s Germany than a free nation.
As a citizen of the United States it is not only my right to question my government, it is my duty. If that means you call me crazy and a kook, well, then my response is: You are a miserable excuse for an American citizen and you deserve your slavery.
I would agree that those who believe or advocate narratives complete with human agency (“owner/management of this huge building”), means and method (“SECRETLY had high explosives planted inside the building’s main load-bearing columns”), and motivation (big insurance policy) do tend to be somewhat loony. But like I said, not everybody classed into the group labeled “truthers” makes such extensive, elaborate claims with complete story-like scenarios. Many just question the official narrative or make more modest claims restricted to technical considerations and probabilities.
@2, 7, Al-CIAda.
It should be fairly obvious that 9/11 was not the work of Islamic terrorists, but actors in the US intelligence agencies, government and military along with their financial backers.
The case for controlled demolition is clear and incontrovertible since anyone who would bother to check their high school physics books would know that Newtonian laws of motion are not in dispute. Buildings do not collapse at near free-fall speed through the path of greatest resistance unless there is energy present to remove resistance. But the glaringly obvious is oft covered over by a chorus of lies.
YUKIHISA FUJITA has had the courage to broach this issue in parliament and I applaud him. The sane apprehension of reality is a rare gift these days.
OK, gauche, have another draw on that goatskin bag of ayahuasca and check back in another eon or so.
Wedge, cinemagauche, meet your right-/left-wing alter egos: the 9/11 truther and the global warming denialist.
Why is it that the second “Truther” shows up Nigel comes out. It’s like frogmouth and Dokdo, but in a bad way.
Wait, I think this thread is a Rupert Murdoch conspiracy to divert attention away from his Korean correspondent. I will not be fooled!
“It should be fairly obvious that 9/11 was not the work of Islamic terrorists, but actors in the US intelligence agencies, government and military along with their financial backers”
ah yes–the financial backers. The ol’ familiar code words for JEWS JEWS JEWS. Yes–the world-wide network of Jew bankers planned everything. Uncle Adolph couldn’t have said it better.
Gillian: BY ALL MEANS question your government. The sad, tragic failure of the press and the populace to question the diversions, propoganda, and outright lies that led us (the U.S.) to the invasion of Iraq has lead to a catastrophic waste of human life and money. But “questioning” does not mean denying the obvious or asserting the ridiculous.
As Minjok pointed out, it’s fine to bring up data that does not jibe with officially accepted versions of events. I’m fine with engineers pointing out that initial evidence suggested that damage to WTC 7 seemed insufficient to cause a collapse. (Later evidence showed much more extensive damage to the core structure than had initially been though. But I know–the conspiracy nuts will says ‘they” fabricated the later evidence. So it goes.)
Large man-made events like 9/11, as well as natural phenomena and even highly-controlled labratory experiments will produce data that is initially (or perhaps permanently) unexplainable. As Wedge pointed out, a true scientist will merely say that “this data does not support the hypothesis”. However, when, say, 98% of the data supports a hypothesis, a scientist will say that it’s a pretty damn good hypothesis. Scientists do not spin elaborate explanations that explain a tiny amount of data yet CONTRADICT a huge amount of data.
Sperwer above and the the WaPo editorial say all that really needs to be said here: “As with almost any calamity whose scale and scope assume historic proportions, the events of Sept. 11 have spawned a thriving subculture of conspiracy theorists at home and abroad. The only thing novel about Mr. Fujita is that a man so susceptible to the imaginings of the lunatic fringe happens to occupy a notable position in the governing apparatus of a nation that boasts the world’s second-largest economy.”
Gillian – aren’t you missing a Tea Party somewhere?
cmm – I make no effort to conceal my identity, but I do prefer the handle cinemagauche. I don’t care who you are, but you have a bad smell.
@15 – in the hyped up bull shit department, Global Warming is the mother load.
@14 – grade school – and to be expected here.
Slouching Tiger (#7), I recall reading that Al Qaeda moved some of its investments just prior to 9/11, apparently hoping to profit from the financial chaos, but that news report was several years ago.
Jeffery Hodges
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Gillian – aren’t you missing a Tea Party somewhere?
UN:F [1.8.4_1055]
Actually, I prefer Real Coffee, not the fake Coffee, but Real Coffee…
Who knows where the term Al Qaeda came from? It was the name of the data base of the Mujahideen that the CIA were financing and training during the Soviet-Afghan war. Among the names? Osama bin Laden.
What was the rational for invading Iraq? Even the 9/11 commission said that Iraq was not involved. So, based on THAT logic, after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, I guess the US should have invaded China, after all, Japan and China, they are both Asian…….
I do not know what happened on 9/11, but what I do know is that it took the Bush administration TWO YEARS to even BEGIN an investigation. I’ve read the 9/11 commission’s book, it doesn’t even MENTION Building 7. It openly states that it doesn’t care where the money came from/or went, that was wired to Pakistan. It was such a joke of an investigation that 7 of the 9 commissioners came out afterwards and declared it a total waste of time.
I have question. But for some reason, simply questioning the official story marks me as a quack. I guess thinking for ones self is an obsolete skill.
Here is one more question I have. If, as the official government story goes, Osama bin Laden is the so-called mastermind behind 9/11, why isn’t he listed as such on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list?
Oh, Osama bin Laden IS on the list, but NOT for 9/11.
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/laden.htm
And THIS is why noone will talk about the lie.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-ventura/for-some-the-search-for-w_b_491504.html
@26 A sad state of affairs – when even the more liberal media – engage in this type of censorship and paradigm control. And to yank an editorial by a former state governor, no less. I despise The Huffington Post.
Hermann Goering’s Quote
On War And The People
“Naturally the common people don’t want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY.”
–Goering at the Nuremberg Trials
________________________________________________
“Information is the currency of democracy.”
“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.”
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”
Thomas Jefferson quotes
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.”
– Noam Chomsky
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
Abraham Lincoln, (attributed)
No. Not all skeptics or questioners claim that “‘they’ fabricated the later evidence,” evidence which basically consisted of photographs and video footage that the NIST report suggested indicate more damage, enough so that the damage and fire fueled by office contents led to a free-fall collapse of the tower. Even taking the “later evidence” into consideration and not believing that it was fabricated, it isn’t unreasonable to be skeptical or agnostic.
I don’t know about this being so “novel.” Didn’t someone recently occupying the supreme position in the governing apparatus of a nation that boasts the world’s largest economy believe that he could personally communicate with some sort of desert sky god*?
*no relation to Dangun, the mountain sky god
If I were a Korean parent, having a cabal of truthers teaching English to kids would be no less worrisome than say, potheads and serial fornicators.
Let’s blur the lines a bit and say that everyone…EVERYWHERE… below the top three layers of the pyramid of wealth have questions. The lack of openness, or, more like the obsession with obfuscation from our “respected” officials gives most of us cause to doubt. What exactly the fuck do any of us really know of the world but what we (choose to) see? Political/religious affiliation colors everygoddamnthing we absorb then regurgitate. Questions anger those of us with things to hide.
Well, as the Old Man’s saying has it, “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”
Or maybe that old mountaineer said, “Everything is true, nothing is permitted.” I can never remember . . .
Jeffery Hodges
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