Korey Rowe Busted for Heroin Dealing

Wow, sad news.

"Loose Change" filmmaker Korey Rowe, 27, of Oneonta, was arrested Thursday by Oneonta police and charged with sale of heroin.

According to a media release from the police, Rowe was arrested with 19-year-old Daniel Marte Jr. of the Bronx after the two men sold seven packets of heroin to an undercover police officer.

I know that some folks will have a hard time believing this, but I really didn't dislike the Loose Change boys and don't wish them ill at all. Assuming this is true, Korey's going to be serving some pretty hard time.

Dylan Avery and Korey Rowe Interviewed

Dylan Avery and Korey Rowe are inteviewed at the "Treason" conference by ABC News. It is worth it just to laugh at Dylan's goofy haircut. In the second part Korey actually brings up all the money they have donated (yeah right) and then bizarrely claims the "Tea Party" movement originated in the 9/11 truth movement. Who says truthers don't have a sense of humor?

Deadbeat Dylan?

I spent an interesting hour on the phone last night with Matthew Brown. Matt was the executive producer of Loose Change 9-11 An American Coup; his name appears in the opening credits in between Korey Rowe and Dylan Avery. Matt shared quite a bit of behind-the-scenes information with me which I will cover in several subsequent posts. But I thought I would start with a discussion of the Avery Foundation. As some of you may recall, this was supposed to be a charitable organization that Dylan claimed would end up donating more to the first responders on 9-11 than Greenglass did with United 93 and Oliver Stone did with World Trade Center.

Well, you know where you can take that pledge; to the bank of broken promises, where Dylan's already overdrawn. But it gets worse. Matt mentioned that he had located a few high net worth individuals who were prepared to donate around $230,000 to Dylan's charity to get it started. That's right, almost a quarter of a million dollars, which could have been helping first responders as we speak. But, as you can probably guess, Dylan and Korey didn't get the paperwork completed to set up the charity, and the proposed donors found other places to give their money.

Up until recently, the Avery Foundation's website had a little note saying that they were in the process of filing the necessary paperwork; hilariously, it doesn't say that any longer. Instead, there's this:


Yep, Dylan and Korey are refusing to pay their executive producer the money he's owed from the sales of the DVDs. Incidentally, Matt mentioned that LC911AC has sold about 15,000 copies, about half of those to the Netflix DVD rental company.

I will have much more information to share over the next few days, but this was too delicious not to post on immediately.

Update: Microcinema Interational writes in the comments:

Please note that neither Microcinema nor writer-director Dylan Avery or producer Korey Rowe are associated in any way to www.theaveryfoundation.org. If you would like to visit the official website for The Avery Foundation, go to: www.theaveryfoundation.com.

Should you be interested in speaking directly to the President of The Avery Foundation, please write to: info@microcinema.com, Attention - Patrick Kwiatkowski.

But of course, if you go to www.theaveryfoundation.com, it redirects to the same page as www.theaveryfoundation.org.

Update II: Well, they fixed that. Of course there going to have some work to do to fix Google, which will show the Avery Foundation here for awhile.

Those Wonky "Truthers"

A perhaps overly-sympathetic article on the creeps:

At first glance, the scene outside last week's 9/11 Film festival resembled that of any other big, protest-oriented event. Truther organizations such as the Northern California 911 Truth Alliance and Project Censored crammed the lobby of Oakland's Grand Lake Theater, setting up tables with books; DVDs; "Wake Up and Smell the Fascism" bumper stickers; rubber stamps with the slogan "9/11 was an inside job;" pictures of Hendrix, John Lennon, and Mahatma Gandhi; and "Deception dollars." Middle-aged white guys with long hair and tie-dyed shirts milled around the room, greeting each other like old friends. It looked and felt like a typical crowd of rabble-rousers — at least until you listened in on their conversations.

Yep, the grey ponytail crowd was apparently out in force, with David Ray Griffin speaking and several dense films on the agenda. And one bit of lighter fare:

Wednesday night wound up being the cool, hip-hoppy half of the festival and Thursday the nerdy, academic half. The main draw on Wednesday was the world premiere of Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup, the latest of a series made by twenty-five-year-old director Dylan Avery. His films, which feature slick hip-hop soundtracks and VH1-style editing (the new one is narrated by actor Daniel Sunjata) mark the apex of popular success for 9-11 conspiracy-theory material. According to producer Korey Rowe, it is the most downloaded movie in the history of the Internet. During the post-screening discussion, no one challenged Avery's premise that 9-11 was planned and coordinated by the US government, or that the World Trade Center collapsed because of a controlled demolition, rather than a plane crash or fire damage. Instead, audience questions ranged from basic (i.e., "Why do you call the film Loose Change) to specific ("Why was Obama included in the closing of this film?"). Cleary, Rowe and Avery were preaching to the converted.

We also get a new theory:

"Dr. Griffin, regarding the reason for taking down World Trade Center 7: One theory is that it was an 'SCIF' — a Secure Controlled Intelligence Facility. This theory holds that the key CIA agents who were responsible for 9-11 were told to come to World Trade Center 7 for a debriefing that afternoon, and WTC 7 was taken down for the purpose of killing these CIA agents, thus covering up key evidence. What is your opinion of this theory?"

Actually, SCIF stands for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, but otherwise the theory seems only to lack one little thing: evidence.

Korey Rowe Interviewed

Korey Rowe, the quiet one of the Loose Change trio, gets interviewed for a website called "The American Dream". It turns out he is a panconspiracy believer like Jason Bermas.

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

I don't ask this to make fun. I ask because I really seek the answers.

— Are UFOs real? Are there unidentified flying objects?

Yes.

— Did we land on the moon in 1968?

No.

— Did Bush knock down the towers?

No.

— Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?

No.

— The Oklahoma City bombing? Wasn't that just another U.S. government terrorist exercise?

Correct.

— Waco. We burned kids, right? You can see flames shooting out of the tanks.

Not 100 percent.

— Is Bigfoot real?

Sure.

Although for pure losing touch with reality, he rewrites modern politics.

NAD: Oh ... one more thing [you are probably too young to remember Columbo, right?]Did Bush and whomever steal the elections — with all this already in mind?Do you ever wonder about that?

KOREY ROWE:Votes do not have anything to do with an election.The electoral college puts whom they want in power.

Odd, the candidates seem to spend quite a lot of time campaigning for those votes regardless...

Korey Rowe's DD-214

Apparently in response to inquiries regarding as to whether he deserted the Army or not, Loose Change co-producer Korey Rowe posted a worksheet for his DD-214 on their blog. According to it he was discharged in 2005. Oddly enough though it shows his rank as PFC, while he went by the higher rank of Specialist earlier. Korey says that he is now using his GI Bill to go to college. Good for him, maybe he will learn something.

Screw Fabled Enemies

Jason Bermas, Korey Rowe and Alex Jones are collaborating on this film. Here's a clip:



Jennings is, of course, just plain wrong about the time. The Office of Emergency Management was not evacuated until 9:30. If a bomb had exploded in WTC 7 shortly after 9:00, why is Jennings the only person who describes it. There were many people in WTC-7 after 9:00, as described by the firefighters and EMS people like John Peruggia.

What he describes as an explosion is simply the collapse of the North Tower. The Terror Timeline gets this one right:

Among them are Barry Jennings, a City Housing Authority worker, and Mike Hess, New York’s chief lawyer who is also a longtime friend of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The two had gone up to the 23rd floor headquarters of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management some time before 10 a.m., but found it empty. (It was evacuated at 9:30 a.m.; see (9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001.) They headed downstairs but became trapped around the sixth floor by smoke and debris that filled the staircase as a result of the North Tower collapsing at 10:28 a.m.

Note the editing; there are several places where the film clearly jumps. Note as well that Bermas claims they were "trapped there for the rest of the afternoon". Obviously this is incorrect; the Terror Timeline notes they were rescued between 12:10 and 12:15 PM; had they been trapped there all afternoon they would have died when the building collapsed.

Jason says he hopes to have the movie ready by September 1. Of course if you go to the website, it says "Coming in June", so they've already missed one deadline.

Is Korey Rowe Still a Deserter?

We haven't heard much on this lately, so I was surprised to hear this bit on the Jeff Farias show from the 15th.

Farias: Hey one more thing, on a more personal note. A few months ago we were getting reports that the military was going after Korey Rowe, trying to get him, saying that he was being called back in, stop loss, whatever. What's his status, what's going on with his case?

Bermas: Well I really can't comment on what Korey's case is, I just hope that it is hurried along, and that we can find a resolution to it. Korey is a veteran, he served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and I really don't think it is fair that they are trying to send him back to the Middle East.

Rochester Report

Our commenter Patrick was present for a screening of Loose Change Final Cut and for the apres-film beverages, and gives us the following report in the comments on the last post, which is good enough to pull out to the front page:

My God, what a fun night with the Troofers in Rochester. Dylan and Korey showed up; I stuck with (or, near) them and their local crew the whole night, including the bar afterwards.

Believe me, these freaks are worse than you could ever imagine. (And actually, not to say that about Dylan and Korey; I have to admit they seemed like affable fellows).

I'll post more later, but just some random thoughts ...

After the movie, outside, I passed out a rather innocuous leaflet, just suggesting that people read this blog and 911myths.com and debunking911.com. At the top of the leaflet, I typed the link to Mark Robert's PDF of Loose Change Creators Speak.

I was actually in a rush to do this. I printed it out on my computer; made it half a page to save on waste. I went to Kinko's, copied it, made some really bad cuts with their splicer or whatever the hell that is; in the end, it looked like a completely unprofessional job.

For this, throughout the whole night, I was branded a Secret Service spy.

I haven't been photographed like that since high school athletics and my sister's wedding. At the bar, some ass was waiting in his car, engine running, for my trip outside for my occasional cigarette break. He was photographing me from his car. What a waste of both fossil fuels and human DNA.

Back in the bar, I was getting more than the occasional stare and more than the occasional cell phone grab.

Wait not to mention - I intended to leave after one beer. One of the douchebags seriously stalked me. I double-backed twice, finally confronting him (although I had no intention of doing so). He accused me of having a gun and asked me if I had all the proper licenses and registrations for that gun. He had his hands in his pockets, and I was (hate to admit it) seriously scared of what that nutjob might do, so I ran back into the bar.

At the bar, I met Squeaky Fromme incarnate - apparently the person who organized the Loose Change showing (her name, I was told by the bouncer, is Wendy). During the time prior to her creating physical space discomfort (I'm sure that she, like Squeaky, knows how to do this), I thought, "No, she's not getting into a staring contest with me, that can't be true, I'm making that up," but, no, she wanted a staring contest, had the bartender take some pics of me with her camera and later confronted me with "So what are you doing here".

Now, normally, if a woman said "So what are you doing here" at a bar, I would be flattered, perhaps intrigued. But her words were vapid, empty, disturbing. And hurtful, at least as to how Human Being 1 should be treating Human Being 2. And she kept going, disturbing me with her emptiness and loneliness.

Anyway, after some more fun events, I took a cab home, having become officially cab-drunk and going-back-to-my-car-paranoid.

But ... to leave you with two other highlights.

At the Q&A session after the showing, a gentlemen said something like, "Could you recommend resources that link the Israelis and the Mossad with 911?" I instantly heard the paraphrase - "Could you tell me how to blame 911 on the Jews?" I screamed "HEINRICH HIMMLER". Very funny moment, for me and about 15-20% of the crowd.

And I was struck by the fact that Korey promised that after lawyer fees (I'm a lawyer, I understand), ALL of the money that they were making would go to the 911 truth movement (whatever that means) and first responders (we can verify what that means). Prior to that - during the movie - I saw a big jar with a sticker that said all proceeds go to first responders (and some cash in that jar). Also, this was billed by the theater as a "benefit." So ... was this a charity event? Are all of their events charity events? I knew that, during the Q&A, I would get one question. So I asked if they were properly registered as charity solicitors with the State of New York. He tried to say that they were an LLC (so what) and then that they were a 501(c)(3) (which would be a lie), but then had to admit that they weren't registered as parties allowed to solicit contributions for a charity.

Like, I said, I'm an attorney. But then, very minor. Sounds like a job for the Attorney General!

Sounds very much like they are doing everything by the seat of their pants.

Great job, Patrick!

Loose Change Boys and the Anti-Tax Nuts

Last year I posted on how the Loose Change boys attended a conference sponsored by an organization called the Freedom Law School, which is not an actual law school, but one of those organizations that teaches you (for a price of course) that you do not have to pay income taxes. They are also affiliated with various anti-Semitic groups, and are even on the ADL's and Southern Poverty Law Center's watchlist.

Well they must not be selling enough DVDs and need the money, because at least one of them is back this year to attend the "2007 Texas Justice, Peace, and Freedom Conference" (co-sponsored by the American Free Press), along with a host of other truthers, including Dave von Kleist, William Rodriguez and April Gallop. Ron Paul, they report, could not make it because of a scheduling conflict, although he has apparently spoken to the group in the past.

What Really happened on 9/11? Come and hear from director of the most widely seen alternative 9/11 documentary: Dylan Avery, Korey Rowe or Jason Bermas

One of the creators' from Loose Change 9/11 will share how over two years of research took what started out as a Fictional Story and turned it into a Documentary. Loose Change has become the most Internet Watched documentary about 9/11.

Don't ask me why fictional story and documentary are capitalized.

The Korey Saga Continues

Lord only knows what's really going on, but it certainly appears that the notion that this was a simple paperwork error seems to be out the window.

Oneonta film producer Korey Rowe has been returned to his unit, which is gearing up for its third deployment to Iraq since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March 2003.

I'm going to hazard a guess that he won't be going with them.

Rowe’s colleagues at Louder Than Words said they do not know what will eventually happen but have been in contact with Rowe.

"Every other day (Rowe says) the situation is different," said the group’s administrative assistant Kristy Kissner on Monday.

Army deserters are rarely court-martialed and are usually either returned to their units or discharged from the Army, according to an Associated Press report last month.

Korey Makes Fox News' Website

In a story that raises more questions than it answers:.

Korey Rowe, 24, who served with the 101st Airborne in Afghanistan and Iraq, told FOXNews.com that he was honorably discharged from the military 18 months ago — which he said he explained to sheriffs when they pounded on his door late Monday night.

“When they came to my house, I showed them my paperwork,” Rowe said. “The cops said, 'You’re still in the system.'”

Korey professes bafflement at how they found him:

“A warrant for my arrest came down and showed up on the sheriff’s desk,” Rowe said. “Where it came from and why it showed up all of a sudden is a mystery to me.”

Of course this mystery has been solved; it was Secret Agent Dylan Avery who got caught trying to photograph an Air Force Base:

Air Force Office of Special Investigations personnel notified the Oneonta Police Department there was an outstanding desertion warrant for Rowe, city Police Lt. Cameron Allison said.

"An individual was warned about taking pictures on military property in Rome, N.Y.," Allison said Wednesday. "The vehicle was registered to Korey Rowe."

Dylan Avery, the creator of the original "Loose Change film," said he was in Rome alone to film the base and was driving the car.

(It helps if you hum the Johnny Rivers' tune while reading that part).



But the Fox News story does give us some more comic bits:

There were at least five sheriffs on hand for his arrest, Rowe said. They told him he had an active-duty warrant from the military.

“They pulled a whole operation. They cut my phone lines. They came from the woods. It was crazy — it was ridiculous,” he said.

Otsego County Sheriff Richard Devlin said his understanding was that the arrest was much less dramatic and more routine than Rowe described, though he hadn't confirmed the details with the officers involved.

(You could hum the theme to "X-Files" for that part.)

Alex Jones will be disappointed at this:

“I don’t think there’s any nefarious purpose or political stunt, or that anybody’s trying to shut me up,” Rowe said. “At the same time, I can’t be sure about that.”

Come on, Korey! Your film is going to bring down the Chimpy Shrub McHitler regime! Of course they're trying to shut you up!

Okay, So Korey Was a Deserter

At least according to the local paper:

A source close to Rowe’s family said the 24-year-old was at the end of his active-duty enlistment in the summer of 2005 and was trying to avoid serving a second tour of duty in Iraq under the Army’s stop-loss policy. That policy, in place since the end of the Vietnam War, authorizes the military in wartime to keep a soldier beyond his or her active-duty enlistment termination date.

More details on the prior arrest that Alex Jones mentioned:

In the summer of 2005 and with just a short time before his four-year enlistment was to expire, Rowe was arrested in the town of Oneonta for driving while intoxicated, the source said.

Oh my gosh, they drink? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.

I am not going to make any judgments about Rowe's desertion issue, although others (especially those who've served their full hitch) may not feel similarly.

Interestingly it is claimed that Dylan's attempt at being a Secret Agent at NEADS resulted in the bust:

A trip last week to film the former Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome led to the arrest of Oneonta resident Korey Rowe for allegedly deserting from the Army in 2005.

Air Force Office of Special Investigations personnel notified the Oneonta Police Department there was an outstanding desertion warrant for Rowe, city Police Lt. Cameron Allison said.

"An individual was warned about taking pictures on military property in Rome, N.Y.," Allison said Wednesday. "The vehicle was registered to Korey Rowe."

:)

You can't make this stuff up, folks!

Korey Freed!

At least that's what he indicates in this brief video:



Although he claims to be a political prisoner, he also says that he's been released but he's going down to Fort Campbell to make sure he's completely out of the system. He closes with a thanks to Alex Jones and says "Screw Loose Change, I'm not going anywhere!"

Of course, there are two problems with that last part. He is going to Fort Campbell by his own account. But also, we were not making any dire predictions for his future, Alex Jones was. During today's show Alex predicted that Korey was going to jail for 5-10 years and that we'd never see him again. Jones also indicated that he had known that Korey was a deserter.

"I knew that Korey had left the military and hadn't gone back and it was just kind of a footnote in my mind... this is clear, this is the Pentagon coming after us, there is no debating this... And you know what, he did leave them. He left a government that has been run by deserter, traitorous scum. He left the Nazi military ladies and gentlemen and that's who runs our government... And now he gets to go to prison... This is army intelligence, you can guarantee it! Korey's going to spend 5-10 years in prison folks. You'll never see Korey Rove (sic) again."

He also does a horrible job of pronouncing Oneonta (it's OH-nee-on-ta, not "Oh-toh-nia").

Anyway, like I said earlier I bear Korey no ill will. I disagree with his movie, but I honor his service and I would be happy to learn that he had fulfilled his hitch and this was indeed a bureaucratic snafu. Unlike Alex Jones, who was probably hoping to milk this for more publicity for Loose Change Final Cut.

More Korey Rowe Updates!

Dylan reports that he's talked to Korey:

He's fine. He'll be home safe and sound in a week or so.

According to Alex Jones, he's been busted on these charges before:

Rowe enlisted in the Army in August 2001 and left in June 2005. He has been out of the Army for over two years. He was previously arrested under similar circumstances but was immediately released.

Sorry, James, but somebody's already registered FreeKorey.com

BTW, I don't feel any schadenfreude about this. I oppose their movie but I don't feel any particular animus towards the Loosers, and Korey has given me no reason to dislike him on a personal level.

Free Korey!

Allahpundit on Hot Air comments:

Via the boys at SLC, who through a herculean effort have managed to suppress their bubbling schadenfreude at the news.

Sorry Allah, I have been on vacation. All those fruity rum drinks have gone to my head....

Dylan Avery adds:

And, as always, JREF is running rampant with insults and immaturity.

These people can pick on Korey all they want, but unless any of them had the courage to pick up a gun and go overseas, they don't have a leg to stand on.

The nerve of these people.

Yeah OK Dylan, you want to compare DD-214s sometime?

I am considering using those entrepreneurial talents I learned in B-school and making up some "Free Korey" black t-shirts. You have to admit, idiots who will buy anything are the ultimate marketing demographic.

Korey Rowe Busted for Desertion

I'll admit, I assumed that he had served his full hitch, but apparently that is not the case.

"We developed information that he was at a county Route 47 residence in Oneonta last night," Devlin said Tuesday.

Rowe was arrested on a "military warrant" that Devlin said was brought to the attention of deputies by the Oneonta Police Department, who received information from a source outside of that department.

The article states that deserters are not often prosecuted, with only about 5% actually getting court-martialed, although I'd guess that goes up with the prominence of the person and the openness of the desertion.

Hat Tip: BJE (over at JREF).

Update: Our buddy SFC B (aka Detailed Recruiter) provides some context in the comments section:

Obviously I know nothing about Rowe's situation specifically, but I'm willing to hazard a guess about what has happened.

Recently the Army did an IRR muster where Soldiers currently in the IRR were ordered to report for a physical.

This is not the first time such a muster has happened, however, unlike previous musters, the Army was, apparently, very serious about this, and actually declared those who failed to report as AWOL.

I'm willing to bet that Rowe received such orders, ignored them, was declared AWOL, and a warrant was filed.

Rosie Gets Her Experts

Try not to laugh: Reading from left to right, Dylan Avery, Korey Rowe, and Willie Rodriguez will appear on May 24.

Maybe Rosie has the wrong idea of what it is that a building engineer (WR) does?