Troofers in Training

Sometimes I feel bad about making fun of these people, it does seem kind of cruel on occasion, but I can't help it, they keep on saying such silly things. I discovered this video on 911 Blogger, of Mia Hamel at the 9/11 Accountability Conference discussing ways to prepare to sell 9/11 "truth" to the public.

9/11 hit me, about two years ago down in Tampa Florida, I started Googling and it hit me like a bolt of lightning. And it totally shattered me for the longest time. And then I decided, well I am going to do something about it. So I want you to know, like everything I have done has been conscious. I was not an activist, not politically oriented or anything like that. I took a lot of stops that were like conscious, like uhh... I started to prepare myself doing exactly like Carol said, I started, I thought, well if I am going to talk to other people about this, I had better learn it myself, so I sat down, and I did my little flashcards where I put, you know, which flight hit which tower, and 8:46 and 10:03 and what happened and then the Pentagon and Flight 93. And then I started to like, expand my circle and at the same time I started doing things to help me stay centered. I started taking Tai Chi classes, I thought if I am going to do this, I am going to have to train myself, because I am going to put myself in situations that I am not used to being in, and I am going to have to perhaps be in situations that are confrontational. You know, in situations that are uncomfortable. So I had better get myself more centered and I have tried to do that. Actually it has been wonderful, I have lost 35 pounds, I feel great, and I got a whole bunch of new friends.

So you too can join the 9/11 Truth diet program! Somehow I have this image of a 9/11 truther movie coming out in a few years with a Rocky-like training montage of middle-aged women doing Tai Chi preparing to combat the New World Order...

Eric Williams at the 9/11 Accountability Conference

I tried to post this directly from You Tube, but it is not cooperating, so I will try again. Someone posted video of Eric Williams, you know that guy who had nothing to do with the 9/11 Accountability Conference, being interviewed at the 9/11 Accountability Conference.



The interviewer asks him about the controversy, to which Williams denies that he is a Holocaust denier, but insists Auschwitz had a swimming pool. I don't get that either. Anyway, he denounces "Screwloosechange.com" as an "anti 9/11 truth" site, to which the interviewer adds that it is disinformation.

Apparently without realizing the stunning irony, Williams then asks people to consider the source of information, referring to Screw Loose Change. I could not agree more, which is why we pointed out that his "book" sources neo-nazis, proven liars, and people who believe we are controlled by an alien race of lizard people.

Good advice indeed, Eric.

Moron Kevin Barrett

Our favorite folklorist tries to put a big smiley face on the 9-11 Accountability Conference, but it sounds like the Accountability was a little overdrawn:

The downbeat analysts cite statistics, as downbeat analysts often do. The organizers had hoped that over a thousand would attend. When “only” several hundred came, they faced financial problems, as well as a problem of perception.

Yeah, they had that little problem of perception with Holocaust Deniers like Eric D. Williams and (cough, cough), Kevin Barrett being at the conference, instead of Alex Jones and Dylan Avery. Of course, that's hard to differentiate from other icebergs that the 9-11 Denial movement has run into over the course of the last several months. But any notion that this is an explosively growing market should be put to rest now.

Deja Vu All Over Again

I was watching the video of the recent Arizona conference. It is full of rather interesting moments, including our very own Pat, but I found this part especially amusing (mostly because it proved me right once again). Jim Marrs from 26:35 in:

I interviewed Sergeant Lauro Chavez who was with US Central Command, he said that on the morning of 9/11 they were in the middle of wargame exercises. One of the exercises involved hijacker airplanes being flown into the World Trade Center. When it happened, they were flabbergasted, they turned on CNN, they were watching the same scenes we all saw, they said how can it be that what we were here wargaming has now happened in real life. And I am sure that most of those people are still in the military, most of them are still quiet. They are not sinister conspirators, but they all participated in what happened on 9/11. And that's why we haven't heard anything out of it. As long as the official position is that it was Osama bin Laden and his 19 hijackers, these people will continue to be quiet.

Uhh Jim, those people did not participate in 9/11, in fact the man you interviewed did not participate in 9/11! As I mentioned 6 months ago, even though Lauro Chavez was proven to be a total fake, that will not stop conspiracy theorists from citing him as a source. This would make no less than 3 members of the "Scholars" who have cited him as a witness AFTER it already came out that he was a complete fake. Do these people have any standards whatsoever for evidence? That is an honest question, I would really like to know. Is there anything at all they will not cite as evidence if it supports their viewpoint?

Both Sides Now

Our buddy the Bird reports further on his weekend with the Deniers:

Santa Claus-bearded geezer Jim Marrs, who could pass for a cross between Wilford Brimley and Windfall Willie (the mascot of the AZ lottery), came to Williams' defense.

"Can I lay this to rest right now?" tweeted Marrs. "Eric Williams is right here. Did people get killed in World War II as a result of state policy?" he inquired of the Holocaust denier.

Williams replied in the affirmative. To the heavily mustachioed Marrs, that ended the matter.

But as the taloned one continued his queries, the crowd grew restless with demands that this bluebird be booted. That'd be The Bird they wanted tossed, not the adored Sir Eric, who wrote a vile volume asserting there were no mass executions via gas chambers at Auschwitz. How ironic, since The Bird was the only member of the working media present.

Eventually, the pep rally turned ugly for this feathered fiend, to the extent that a security guard forced The Bird to leave the hall. Therefore, for a few minutes, there was no press at the press conference. How, um, de-press-ing! Sanity prevailed in the form of Philadelphia lawyer Phil Berg, the moderator for the event. Berg came outside and instructed that this journalistic jaybird be let back in. He then told the crowd that members of the working media (that would be moi) must be given deference, since (ahem!) it was a press conference, after all. The Bird was allowed to interrogate the panelists unmolested after that.

As you can see, Stephen really has a way with words; his column is definitely one to savor. Let me add too that Berg was quite sensible in allowing him to ask a little more than his share of questions, seeing as how he was the only real MSM representative at the confab. And he even kindly deferred to me on one question, which allowed me to have my little fracas with Uncle Fetzer (not that the Bird didn't have his own tussle with the McKnight prof, as you'll see if you read the entire article).

Devvy Kidd was also at the conference, but her quarrels were more along political lines:

On Saturday morning I attended a networking/political action workshop. After fifteen minutes I wanted to simply gag. Although I'm sure it will be denied, there was a whole lot of socialism being pushed at that conference. The instructor was a very nice lady, but her presentation, using an overhead projector, was all about social action, collectivism, working together for human rights around the world, workers rights; an endless laundry list. I'm sorry, but I have spent the past 17 years studying world history (not the bunk one gets in the public indoctrination centers called public schools or from the boob tube), but actual events. This includes understanding socialism, communism, fascism and delivery systems for these ideologies, i.e., specific dialect. I saw no reason for this type of activism to be a focus of networking to bring facts about 911 to other Americans. As Phil Berg pointed out in his flyer available to attendees: "Accountability = responsibility and that we must unite and move forward on points that we agree with and put aside our differences." That's why I was turned off with the inserting of social causes from "progressives" into this conference. It was distracting and will push people away who understand the game and how it's played.

She has somewhat of a different take on Stephen's performance at the Pep Rally--err, press conference:

Instead of reporters and media attendees asking a question and the panel returning with a response, virtually without exception, questions from the media "gallery" was endless proselytizing for their favorite cause or complaining that organizations like MoveOn.org and Cindy Sheehan have refused to join with them in the effort to get accountability regarding the events of September 11, 2001. It was quite nauseating and some of the panel members fell for it instead of simply providing crisp, concise and clear answers to questions that only arrived after endless speeches. One local reporter in attendance disrupted the press conference for a full 30 minutes by repeatedly insisting one of the organizers was "anti-Semitic." Apparently, local media were comparing those attending this conference to holocaust deniers.

This is a dodge that I've seen over at 9-11 Blogger too. For the last time, we are not accusing all 9-11 Truthers of being Holocaust Deniers. That would be almost as stupid as some of the things you guys come up with. What we are saying is that if you hang out with Holocaust Deniers, we're going to point out your obvious lack of critical thinking skills. We're going to use that against you every single time, because it's a whole lot easier than arguing whether the hijackers are alive, and it moves large quantities of folks off the fence to our side very quickly.

One thing they both agree on is Phil Berg:

I also had the pleasure of meeting Phil Berg; see here for his latest. Media hacks who get paid to promote the government's fairy tale will call people like Mr. Berg a crack pot or lunatic. Funny, I didn't get that impression from this former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania.

I'm not a big fan of Berg myself, but he handled himself extremely well at the press conference. Speaking of which, Devvy reminds me of something particularly loony that one of the supposed "press" members suggested:

During the press conference one media rep gave his speech and then said that "they" (never did find out who "they" are) intend to shut down every major freeway in this country early next year.

You want to see Troofers getting their heads handed to them, just try this freeway shutdown.

Get Physical With Kevin Barrett

The Feathered Bastard posts another update on his Sunday at the 9/11 conspiracy conference:

Next to her, unbeknownst to me at first, was Prof. Kevin Barrett, who kept acting like he wanted to get physical with me. He grabbed my tape recorder a couple of times, but I wouldn’t let go. And he kept bumping into me on purpose as I walked next to him. Basically he called me a piece of crap, worse even than Sean Hannity! (Sniff.) He seemed to get even more ticked as laughed at his insult. By that point we were in the lobby of the hotel, with plenty of witnesses around, and I would’ve loved for Barrett to take a swing at me, because then I’d be able to defend myself without worrying about him lying about it after the fact. Though he’s tall, he’s also soft and nerdy. Any physical confrontation begun by him wouldn’t have lasted long. And it certainly wouldn’t have concluded in his favor.

Shoah Shirker's Sales Soar

Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times went back for another round with the Deniers.

Holocaust denier Eric Williams was present and he did have a booth where he was selling his T-shirts, DVDs, and books — all but his infamous The Puzzle of Auschwitz. I spoke to him, and he informed me that he was planning to re-release his Shoah-shirking tome due to popular demand. He also told me he’d made a nice bit of scratch at the conference, and I believe him because one guy was writing him a check for some merch as I approached. He seemed quite proud of the fact that conference keynote speaker Meria Heller had quoted him so glowingly during her Friday address.

Fatty Arbuckle remains the last person whose career suffered from too much notoriety.

Meria Heller's Keynote Address to the Kooks

Lots of amazing bits in this address. At 20:49 she quotes from a "great book" called The Puzzle of Fascism, which of course is one of Eric D. Williams' efforts. Apparently one of the aims of the conference is to rehabilitate Eric's name.

All I can say is that I hope they succeed in convincing 9-11 Deniers that, as more and more people at 9-11 Blogger are claiming, Williams is not a Holocaust Denier. Hey, folks, I have his book, from the brief period that he had it available for free on his website.

Meria spends a fair amount of time talking about the Holocaust; but she talks about the Holocaust in Iraq and Afghanistan, about the "silent' Holocaust of Global Warming, about the Holocaust of Arizona's desert which is being developed at the rate of an acre an hour.

More nuttery than you can imagine. At 22:45 we discover that Meria's got something in common with the John Birch Society:

"We have flouride in our water, which is a mind-control drug."

At 23:20:

"We have contrails and chemtrails poisoning our skies. We have polluted fish, intersex fish (?), fish with Ebola and kidney disease."

Who knew fish had kidneys?

At 30:08:

"We have leaders and members of this administration with dual citizenship with other countries. Well, whose agenda are they following?" (A helpful member of the crowd says, "Israel.")

At 36:15:

"We need to account for Operation Paperclip, which enlisted the worst Nazis in our NASA and our CIA. Whose agenda are they following?" (Mercifully nobody suggests "Israel.")

At 38:30 she puts on a V for Vendetta mask. This seems to be the hot new movie for the crackpots.

At 45:12 (talking about the morning of 9-11):

"Bush was not protected by the Secret Service, nor was his exit route changed. His plane took off from Florida without any fighter jets protecting it. Why not? What did they know? Did they know he wasn't in any danger? Dick Cheney right away was smuggled into a hole like Punxatawny Phil."

Uh, pardon me for pointing this out, Meria, but wasn't Dick Cheney also in no danger? So why was he "smuggled into a hole"?

"Flight 93 supposedly went down in Shanksville, even though no plane parts, passengers, luggage or anything else was at the scene; maybe the government shot it down."

Also, check out the parody she does of the Star Spangled Banner at the end.

Update: BG points out in the comments this email (scroll down a bit) exchange he had with Meria about Richard Andrew Grove.

Grove's one of my favorite 9-11 figures; the clip that Meria played on her show was memorable indeed. He must have rambled on for 45 minutes and while he entertained, at the end of the show you were left trying to figure out exactly what he said and saw.

As I remember it, some companies had prepared software for other companies and he was involved and discovered that this software was being used to launder money, and he was supposed to be in the Twin Towers on 9-11 to confront some manager at Marsh & McClennan but he had been fired so he was just going back to the office as a favor to other people and so he was a little bit lackadaisical about getting there on time and as a result he survived.

James wrote a great post here in July about his appearance at the Chicago Trutherfest.

151-Proof Troof; My Afternoon With the Deniers

Update: See also Stephen's terrific and much better written summary of the event.

Okay, just got back from the Chandler 9-11 Accountability Confab. So that I don't get accused of burying the lede, Eric D. Williams was there! So much for him being disassociated with the event. In fact, one of the conference organizers (a very nice guy named Lloyd) told me that Eric has a table in the Vendors' room to sell his tracts. Presumably The Puzzle of Auschwitz has been left behind in favor of The Puzzle of 9-11.



(Click pix to enlarge)

Fortunately, I went with Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times, because otherwise we would never have gotten into the press conference, which was filled with "Truthers". As it worked out, Stephen was the only "real" media at the event; unless you consider the Idaho Observer real media.



The panel taking the questions were (reading from left to right): Meria Heller, Jim Marrs, Steven Jones, Janette McKinlay (9-11 artist), Sander Hicks, Kent Knudson (local knucklehead) and Uncle Fetzer. Stephen didn't waste any time asking them how they could talk about "Accountability" without being accountable for having a Holocaust Denier. A groan rose from the crowd. Amazingly, Janette McKinlay said, "Well, Eric's right here! Let's ask him! Do you think that horrible things happened to a lot of people in World War II?" When Eric dutifully acknowledged this meaningless assertion, she appeared to consider the matter settled.



Fortunately Stephen was not to be deterred with this. He asked about the credibility of sources; did people think that Eric Hufschmid is a credible source. Fetzer got on his high horse and declared that while Hufschmid's Holocaust musings were indeed unfortunate, when it came to 9-11, Hufschmid was an "exemplar in excellence in research."

Bob McIlvaine (9-11 father) introduced himself prior to asking a question, and got a round of applause, leading Stephen to ask if this was a press conference or a pep rally. I winced at this, but obviously Stephen didn't know the circumstances. Jon Gold gave some heated comments.

At this point the crowd drew restless. "Throw him out!" By this point I had separated myself from Stephen physically (not from fear, but to make sure one of us could at least remain as an observer). A man who identified himself as hotel security arrived and started escorting Steve out the door. Fortunately, cooler heads (including Phil Berg, who was the moderator) prevailed and after a minute or two he was allowed to remain.

There was a lot of "what can 'we' do" to hold the government accountable for 9-11, which was a pretty good clue that these were not media people asking questions. Berg finally asked how many real working media were in attendance, and about 3 people raised their hands, including the guy from the Idaho Observer.

I got a chance to ask one question, so I tried to make it a zinger without appearing to be a Debunker. Was the 9-11 Truth Movement being infiltrated by the government and/or cults? I pointed out the Haupt/Jamieson dustup video that I'd seen at 9-11 Blogger. Fetzer took the bait, talking about how of course that the FBI was trying to infiltrate them, but that Haupt was not a agent, he was just a nut. Ah, an opening! So I quickly asked why, if he felt that Haupt is a nut, did Fetzer link to 9-11 Researchers at the top of the (new) Scholars for 9-11 Truth site.

Fetzer just about turned purple. Was I accusing him of guilt by association? No, I said, but the link is very prominent at the top of his page and I asked aren't there some things, like the Star Wars Beam Weapon from Space that are dead ends? Well, I threw in the "from space" bit intentionally because I knew that would set him off on how Judy Wood had never said it was from space, to which I retorted that she was the one who called it a Star Wars Beam Weapon, of course people were going to assume it was from space.

Fetzer did a spiel on how areas of research couldn't be closed off without study that this was how science advanced, and (getting back onto the guilt by association thing) that just because one was a kook on one thing you couldn't assume they were a kook on another, and he pointed out that Sir Isaac Newton belonged to some weird cult--I can't remember what it was--and that did that mean his theory of gravity didn't hold. And I did the nodding head thing to assure Fetzer that I was being swayed by his argument and sat down. Fortunately Jones wouldn't let the slander against Sir Isaac Newton go uncorrected; he had personally seen the great scholar's bible or something during a trip to England and was absolutely sure that he was a Christian, not a member of this weird cult that Fetzer was claiming. And as for the Star Wars beam weapon, Greg from the DC group was submitting a paper to JONES on the possibility. So I brown-nosed the teacher by piping up that "It's an energy issue, right?" and he said, well actually it's power, but he gave me a nod of approval. So I felt I had pretty much pulled of a pretty good imitation of a Jones groupie, not a debunker.

Stephen did get to ask the panel members whether they felt Flight 77 had hit the Pentagon. No big surprises. Jones averred that the subject needed more study while mostly thinking it was AA77; only Sander Hicks said he had no doubt it was Chic Burlingame's plane. Fetzer and the rest were firm in the "no-plane at the Pentagon" camp.

After the conference a guy came up to me and asked if I was Patrick Curtiss. I said no, looking at his badge. It said 'Lloyd" and I remembered that a guy by that name had mentioned me on Air America. He asked again, was I Patrick Curtiss from Screw Loose Change?

Well, no, I was not Patrick Curtiss, but I was from Screw Loose Change. So we talked for about ten minutes, and he absolutely thanked me for exposing Eric, saying that the movement had to absolutely dissassociate itself from characters like him, that he absolutely felt they needed solid criticism from people like me. I mentioned how stunned I was when they pointed him out in the crowd, and he just about floored me when he mentioned that Eric still had a booth in the Exhibit Hall. I mean, the only thing dumber is if he turns out to be selling the Puzzle of Auschwitz along with his 9-11 Denier books.

And then a very nice and somewhat scary lady from the LA Truthers engaged us for awhile with the six hijackers are alive, there's no fire in this one picture at the Pentagon and the clocks stopped at 9:31 not 9:37... ad infinitum. And we'd point out the BBC story was early, that if the Loosers wanted to make a mint on their next movie they should go over to the Middle East and find one, that yes, there are many pictures showing the fires at the Pentagon, that there's nobody who says there was a bomb that went off at 9:31. It was all very entertaining, but as I pointed out, why, when I had the answers for 37 straight bits of BS did she think that the 38th was either going to stump me or convince me that 9-11 was an inside job. I think the Truthers are like the IRA; they think the Debunkers have to be right 100% of the time; they only have to be right once. As if there isn't a little thing called credibility that is used up after 37 tries.

Sander Hicks came over after hearing us debating and he was also very pleasant. I should have given him a complete profile, but when I asked him if he thought Mohammed Atta was on Flight 11 he said yes, he was the lead hijacker. He did go into the ISI connection and had some interesting things to say, but I didn't really get why he thought the US had supposedly had the head of the ISI fired if they were behind the operation; surely they should have thanked him for helping out?

He offered me a copy of his book, The Big Wedding, and even autographed it: To Pat: Screw Loose Facts. Then he was out and we were back with Lynn from LA who had a dozen other bits that she wanted to try out on us. At one point she felt compelled to tell us some really bizarre story about how the stone on one of her rings was squeezed out from the hand of a statue of a saint or maybe it was from her hand, and that she had witnessed ten miracles in her life. Stephen got that on tape, I think; I'll ask him to transcribe it because it was the only time all day I didn't have a rejoinder.

She got into the cellphone calls, and she tried all the gambits--Barbara Olsen, Mom, this is Mark Bingham, cellphones don't work at altitude. Finally I turned to Stephen and pointed out that she could go on like this all night and we packed it in.

I took some digital movies as well and will see about getting that up. I got some of Fetzer's ire on tape.

More Shoddy Journalism

Now if the media wants to run articles on conspiracy theorists, that is fine, controversy sells papers. But it is just bad journalism to promote their causes without even asking the most basic questions. In this case the Arizona Republic runs another puff piece promoting the Chandler conference. It included this gem:

Marrs, who has written about the Kennedy assassination and other topics, said there are problems with the official story of Sept. 11.

"No one has offered up any proof of who these hijackers actually were," he said. "According to the European media, half (of the alleged hijackers) are still alive in the Middle East, meaning their identities were stolen."

It is now up to half? Jim Fetzer insists it was 5,6 or 7. You would think the fact that they can't even agree on a number would indicate the credibility of their claims.

Update: The Feathered one takes on this story too. He calls up the reporter and gets an interesting response, err... non-response:

If Scott or any of her editors at the Repugnant had bothered to use the Google search engine on their ‘puters, they might have discovered information on the conference’s anti-Semitic ties, the controversy over Eric Williams being involved, and the origins of some of the fables being peddled by the 9/11 conspiracy crowd. But both Scott and her editors are LAZY JOURNALISTS! I called Scott, and all she could muster in response was “I don’t like to comment on my work.” Don’t like to comment? What sort of pathetic excuse for a reporter are you? How can you be a member of the fourth estate and not be prepared to defend your reporting, or lack thereof? What a joke.

The Word from the Bird

Our buddy Stephen Lemons is back with an amusing wrap-up of the events at the 9-11 Accountability Conference since we dropped the Zyklon-B on them about Eric Williams' Holocaust Denial. Kevin Barrett and Sofia come in for special delousing:

Though Barrett proclaimed to this heron that he's not a Holocaust-denier, his off-color commentary on the Final Solution was cited by Dylan Avery as one reason he wasn't attending. In an e-mail published on the Web site www.oilempire.us, Barrett said he could not dismiss the propaganda of Holocaust deniers like David Irving and Ernst Zundel, the latter of whom's currently doing five years in a German clink for anti-Semitic agitating.

And:

Half-baked Hufschmid additionally asserts such drivel as "The Jews created anti-Semitism in Germany to drive Jews out of Europe and into Palestine, and to unify Jews, and to bring pity to Jews." Such repulsive opinions aside, Hufschmid's a major source for 9/11 deniers, specifically for the video 9/11 Mysteries, whose director, known only as Sofia, will be present at the conspiracy confab.

Assorted Nuts

The Feathered Bastard lays one on the chin of an East Valley Tribune reporter who wrote the piece AP picked up a couple days ago on the 9-11 Accountability Conference in Chandler while somehow missing the whole story about Eric D. Williams.

But even if Markham was unaware of Williams’ Holocaust-denying book The Puzzle of Auschwitz, and did not know that several scheduled speakers have flaked on the kook convention since the Williams debacle broke, why pen a story that treats 9/11 conspiracy buffs as if they’re no more controversial than Civil War reenactors? Doesn’t the guy have Google on his ‘puter? Check this typical passage:

There are plenty of differing theories on what happened on Sept. 11. One is that government-planted bombs, not terrorist-hijacked jetliners, brought down the Twin Towers. And another is that an air-to-air missile shot down United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

At no point is someone quoted dismissing or criticizing such crackpot views, even though conference spokesperson Pete Creelman admits (after the jump) that “he doesn’t have proof of the government’s complicity.” Huh? Then why interview this guy without asking him any tough questions, like “Why do you believe in something you have no proof for?” Seems like a logical line of inquiry to me.

In fairness, the mainstream media may just think this stuff is self-evidently crackpottery.

AP Misses Story on Chandler Conference

You'd think they'd pick up on the mention at the bottom of the front page of the confab's website:

As a result of the controversy surrounding Eric D. Williams, he has stepped down from involvement in the 9/11 Accountability Conference. The 911 Accountability Conference does not support Holocaust denial, nor does the 9/11 Truth Movement. No speaker listed here is known to have published works related to the Holocaust.

But no, they run a straight piece on the Deniers:

Theories on what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, include one that the government planted bombs to bring down the World Trade Center towers and another is that an air-to-air missile shot down United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

"We don't believe we've been told the whole truth about what happened on that dreadful day," said Pete Creelman, a member of 911 Truth of Arizona, based in Phoenix.

The local group is one of many nationwide that have sprouted since the attacks. The group meets twice a month in both Phoenix and Mesa. Nearly 300 people have bought tickets to the conference. Organizers are hoping to double that with tickets sold at the door.

I don't have any benchmarks to compare that to; IIRC the LA conference got about a thousand attendees, but it's hard to say whether getting 50% of your attendance in walk-up traffic is normal. I believe Creelman is the guy who's supposedly been trying to get in touch with me for a "Dialogue with Debunkers"; apparently his investigative skills (see update) are up there with Dylan Avery's, since the email addy's up there at the top right.

Update: Creelman and I exchanged a few reasonably pleasant emails this afternoon, and he forwarded to me an earlier email which did look to be correctly addressed to me, so either I or my mail server screwed up. Either way, my crack about his investigative skills is unfair.

Still Moron 9-11 Accountability

I listened to the "Truth to Power Hour" (which, in typical troofer fashion, is three hours long) on Air America Phoenix yesterday afternoon. There was only a half-hour dedicated to the 9-11 Accountability Conference, with convicted felon and conference organizer Kent Knudson and filmmaker Penny Little appearing with Farias to discuss the event. Amusingly, one of the callers briefly mentioned Eric Williams, but Farias quickly got him off the phone. Then our buddy the Feathered Bastard called in and got in Knudson's grill about Williams' being listed as the Conference Director until his Holocaust Denial threatened to derail the whole event. Knudson repeated the lie that Williams had never been the Conference Director or owned the website; do these people seriously think nobody can check on this stuff? They're like five-year-old kids who keep lying in the hopes of buying another ten minutes before the inevitable spanking.

I did hear another ad for the conference on the show. Hilariously, they mentioned three particular features: Alex Jones, Jason Bermas, and "Dialogues with Debunkers". Anybody care to guess how many of those will actually be at the confab? Hint: It's a nice, round number.

Meanwhile, Kevin "the Holocaust as taught in America is a hideously destructive myth" Barrett is still planning on attending, but he wants everybody to know that he's not a Holocaust Denier, according to his show last night. Dylan noted that he was not attending partially because of the 800-pound gorilla in the room, Eric Williams. Do-Over boy cannot afford to be associated with Holocaust Deniers. Barrett chirped in to say that if he couldn't associate with Holocaust Deniers, he'd have to give up going to Morocco, because nobody there believes in the Holocaust. Way to slander an entire country, Kevin!

9-11 Accountability Conference Screwing Speakers?

This confab seems to be falling apart at the seams. Alfons, the leader of the Veterans for 9-11 Truth group griped recently on a Yahoo group that Kent Knudson, the leader of the local group, had reneged on a promised airline ticket:

Bad news, I won't be at the 9/11 Accountability: Strategies and Solutions Conference. Kent is refusing to send me an airline ticket. Eric Williams had called me and promised to pay all expenses, including transportation. Then Eric stepped down as co-chair of the conference due to protest about him being a holocaust denier. When I called Kent he acted very strange, told me I would have to share a room with 10 people, made it pretty clear that he did not want me at the conference. Said if he sent me a ticket I could just cash it in, and not come to the conference. Kent told me I would have to raise the money for a plane ticket, and then he would reimburse me for it. I would need about $600.00 to get down there, and then I would run the risk of not being reimbursed. Because of the way Kent behaved on the phone I don't trust him, he was gruff and rude, and now has not returned my calls, or emails.

I have been able to get $400.00 in pledges, but I really don't think I should have to pay for anything.

But eventually Alfons decided to go:

With a lot of help from my friends, mostly v911ters, I have the plane ticket (a good deal at 400 bucks one stop 8 hours total time, saw tickets prices at up to 1400 for coach), now I have to get enough for a cab ride to the airport. I am working on a way to get nearer to the airport via bus, then take a cab the rest of the way, saving 30 bucks. I am going to ask some friends here for a ride, I hate to impose, but I will if I have to. I have a friend that lives in Chandler, a Truther, so I have the ride from the Phoenix airport to the conference covered.

But Alfons' problems didn't stop there:

Members help me out here please. How should I respond to Kent's query? Kent is the chair at the 9/11 Accountability: Strategies and Solutions Conference. He seems to think v911t does not deserve to speak at this conference. He seems to want to put me in a small room off to the side, the Dialog Room.

Kent Quote:
"We need to know what Veterans have to say about 911 Accountability. If it doesn't deal directly with 911 Accountability then it might fit better in the Dialogue Room."

Sounds like a regular Chinese Fire Drill. According to the Vendors' page, 22 of 39 vendors' booths are taken. The conference schedule is ever-changing; the Scholars United panel is now less optimistically titled "Scholars Discussion". Entertainment on Friday evening includes "911 Humor With Ray Villa". Let me guess, "Boxcutters? Hahaha!"

Kevin Barrett Remains Under Fire

Our buddy the 9-11 Conspiracy Smasher has a long post from Mark Roberts (that was appended as a comment to the Feathered Bastard's post on Barrett). Great reading!

Free At Last!

Okay, looks like Knudson knuckled under and removed some of the confirmed "no-shows" for the 9-11 Accountability Conference in Chandler. Local ACLU head Alessandra Soler Meetze, the Looser than Words crew and Alex Jones have all been dropped from the program. Eric Williams is still mentioned on the Vendors' Page, however.

BTW, a little bird told me that I may be "challenged" to appear at the Accountability Conference myself, to which I reply that there's an email addy over at the right where challenges may be sent. Air America Phoenix/Nova M Radio has been running ads for the conference mentioning something about a "dialogue with debunkers" and I was actually cited over the air during Saturday's "Truth to Power Hour" on that station. Send me an email guys, I won't bite your heads off, and I'll let you make your pitch.

The Incredible Non-disappearing Conference Speakers

As we have been reporting the last couple of weeks, speakers are dropping out in mass from the 911 Acountability Conference, Alex Jones, Dylan Avery and his bunch, and the ACLU's Alessandra Soler Meetze, at the minimum. You couldn't tell from reading their webpage though, they are all still listed as speakers. In fact, Alex Jones is listed several times.

Our feathered friend has more on this:

It’s less than two weeks before the 9/11 Accountability conference is to be held in Chandler, AZ, and a whole week after the AZ ACLU’s executive director Alessandra Soler Meetze withdrew her name as a participant. But 911Accountability.org is still listing her name under its “Confirmed Speaker” roll on the “Program” page, and it still has her photo and bio posted along with other participants. I contacted Meetze. She tells me she still has no plans to attend and has asked Kent Knudson — the “chief cook” of the conference, as he titles himself — to remover her name. When I called Knudson, he says he’s too busy to take it down and that it might have to wait until after conference. He hung up on me before I asked if he was going to take down Loose Change director Dylan Avery’s name and the listing for Avery’s production company Louder than Words, since Avery has stated that he will not be there.

They're Getting the Band Back Together!

No, not the Beatles, man. The Scholars! With all the sad news coming out of 9-11 Accountability, it would be easy to miss the joyous tidings that Uncle Fetzer is going to appear with Steven Jones and Kevin (Holocaust is a myth) Barrett on a panel called Scholars United!

Eric Williams Still In, Loose Change Out At 9-11 Accountability?

James reported yesterday that Dylan Avery announced on the Alex Jones show that he would not be appearing for the 9-11 Accountability Conference. The Louder than Words crew reveal a bit more in their press release today:

Louder Than Words LLC will no longer be able to participate in the upcoming 9/11 Accountability Conference in Arizona on February 23rd - 25th, due to the involvement of Eric D. Williams who has authored a book promoting Holocaust denial, entitled "The Puzzle Of Auschwitz."

Louder Than Words LLC does not associate in any way with Holocaust denial groups, hate groups, or fringe conspiracy theory groups of any kind. We regret not being able to attend, and this does not reflect in any way our passion for seeking the truth regarding 9/11.

We apologize to anyone who was anticipating our presence.

First of all, kudos to Dylan, Korey and Jason for making this announcement. They did the right thing.

Second, this apparently confirms what Stephen Lemons has reported at the New Times, that Williams is still involved behind the scenes.

Dylan confirms it on the Looser forum:

Eric is still attached to the conference. And apparently Kevin Barret has made some off-color remarks concerning the Holocaust as well. It's a very unfortunate situation for all involved.

Dingdingding! We have a winner in our "Can you guess who said this contest":

Begin forwarded message:
From: Khidria
Date: December 14, 2005 11:08 AM : Dec 14
To: Mark Robinowitz
Subject: Fwd: Holocaust Fundamentalism - You WILL Believe--By Mark Green

However one feels about Green's perspective, and whatever the facts about WWII, it seems tragic that systematic Zionist Big Lies (we just want a homeland, not our own state; the Arabs started it; it was a land without people for a people without land; the Germans hated Jews for no reason whatsoever, just like the Arabs do now; the Palestinians left voluntarily in 1948 under orders of the Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem; most of the so-called Palestinians were not really from Palestine; the Arabs started the 1967 war; allegations of disproportionate Jewish influence in the American academic, media and financial sectors are false and anti-Semitic; the attack on the Liberty was a mistake; the Iraq war is about democracy or Saddam or US security or Peak Oil or anything except Israel, etc. etc.) have cast legitimate doubt upon ANYTHING Jews say about Jews and their recent history, including the Holocaust. As a rational person who is not a specialist in the subject of WWII, but who has studied the history of Zionist Big Lies vis-a-vis Palestine, I cannot possibly dismiss the arguments of people like Green, Irving, and even Zundel. And even if the 6-million-deliberately-murdered-for-purely-ethnic-reasons figure is correct--which it very well may be; I have grown agnostic on that after studying the Big Lies of Zionism-- I would still have to characterize the Holocaust as it is taught in the US as a hideously destructive myth. (A myth is a sacred, worldview-inaugurating story its users believe to be true.)
The upshot: nobody in the debate should be boycotted or vilified; nobody should be arrested for expressing honestly-held opinions; all voices should be heard; and the destructive myths and mind-numbing censorship imposed by Zionism must be swept clean so an honest assessment of history can emerge--at which point the Holocaust revisionists may very well be proven incorrect. And even if they are, they obviously should not be harassed or vilified, much less jailed!!
In the meantime, voices like Green and AFPN should be heard and subjected to rational criticism, not vilified or silenced. And the use of state power to enforce Holocaust Fundamentalism must end!
Kevin

Big hat tip to JREFer Maccy.

Update: But in news that may save the conference, Jim Fetzer has now agreed to appear on the "Scholars United" Panel.

Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

Update II: See also the Feathered Bastard's post on this.