House Subcommittee Presentation Equates 9/11 Truth With Terrorism

wow, don't question the official conspiracy theory about 9/11, otherwise you're with the terrorists...

House Subcommittee Presentation Equates 9/11 Truth With Terrorism
Represents the internet, sites such as myspace and youtube as a virtual terror training camps

Steve Watson & Paul Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, Nov 13, 2007

A House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on "Terrorism and the Internet" held last week, and broadcast on C-Span, featured a panel of "experts", including representatives formerly of the RAND Corporation and the Simon Wiesenthal Center who presented 9/11 truth websites sites alongside sites that celebrate the attacks and offer training in terrorist tactics.
[align=left] The hearing was chaired by Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, and ranking Republican, Rep. Dave Reichert. It was supposed to focus on the use of the internet by "home grown terrorist recruiters" yet in a shocking move it blatantly related the 9/11 truth movement with so called radical "jihadists".
In a very poorly prepared and delivered PowerPoint splurge, Mark Weitzman (pictured far right) stated: [/align]

[align=left]"Some of these are conspiracy theories that present a closed view of the world, such as blaming 9/11 as an "outside job"(?) or blaming outside groups such as the U.S. government, or er the Jews etc, some of these are pro-Iraqi insurgency videos, some of them are media portals that people can enter into, ones that you saw earlier with the flags, the U.S. flags show that thy were based on U.S. servers..."[/align]

[align=left]Under the heading "Internet: Incubator of 9/11 Conspiracies and Disinformation" Weiztman threw in video of WTC building 7 collapsing on 9/11 as posted on various 9/11 truth affiliated websites, along with screen shots of the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth site and other sites, such as Killtown's, who raised awareness of this. [/align]

[align=left]"We need to be aware of the empowering effect of the internet upon extremists, we must have researchers and responders for both the technical and and linguistic skills to keep us informed and to be able to respond to what is online. We must make users aware of the misinformation and of the techniques used by extremists." Weitzman continued.[/align]

[align=left]The entire hearing can be viewed online at http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_...[/align]
(Article continues below)


Weiztman's presentation represents the latest disgusting effort to lump in the movement to uncover the truth behind the 9/11 attacks, a movement which includes hundreds of first responders, firefighters, police, former intelligence officials and the largest 9/11 families representative group, with jihad groups and real Islamic extremists in order to demonize it.
Later on in the hearing, former RAND corporation director Bruce Hoffman re-iterated Weitzman's presentation, stating "These falsehoods and conspiracy theories have now become so ubiquitous and so pervasive that they are believed, so you have almost a parallel truth, and it has become a very effective tool for recruiting people."
Whichever way Hoffman dresses this up, it is plain fact that we have not been given the truth about what happened on 9/11. We have been subject to a "received truth", an official story that when compared with physical evidence does not hold water. In the absence of any real independent investigation, the evidence unearthed during six years of research by individuals and groups who want the truth has made the issue a phenomenon.
In recent polls up to 80% of Americans do not believe they have been told the truth about 9/11. Respected intelligence veterans agree with them. NIST, the body tasked with investigating the collapse of the buildings "cannot explain" why they fell. Yet corporate academics such as Bruce Hoffman continue to insinuate that the truth about 9/11 is and always has been set in stone and any deviation from the official story is a "falsehood".
To then implicitly suggest that the millions of Americans who have questioned the government version of events on 9/11 are synonymous with a vast minority of violent extremist radicals is either extremely ill informed or purposefully misleading.
Over recent months we have witnessed a growth in this disturbing trend to attempt to equate peaceful 9/11 researchers and truth activists with violence and extremism. The prime culprits have been establishment "news" hacks who are raising the same talking point ad infinitum, dubbing the global truth movement "anarchists" and violent individuals who may be aiding terrorists.
Talking heads such as Fox News bigot Bill O'Reilly and his frothing caricature Glenn Beck over on CNN, have specifically targeted 9/11 truthers in segments designed to portray the movement as dangerous and sow the seed in the minds of what viewers they have left that peaceful truth seekers are actually in league with violent terrorists.
People like O'Reilly and Glenn Beck would relish the opportunity to have their baseless allegations "proved right", and should some act of violence or terrorism be carried out, whether real or staged, they would love to blame it on the 9/11 truth movement, in a similar way to how the patriot movement was blamed for the OKC bombing in 1995.
The bill to which these hearings are tied, H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, defines "violent radicalization" as "The process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change."
It further defines "homegrown terrorism" as "The use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."
The bill's reference to how "The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens," is shocking.
Remember, the bill is not aimed at "Al-Qaeda" websites or arabic forums that post alleged Bin Laden video tapes, it is aimed at American citizens using American based websites, like the very one you're reading now.
The opportunity for the state to seize upon violent posts left by trolls and use them to entrap peaceful 9/11 truthers under the guise that they "promoted violence" should be a major concern for us all.
Our message is simply this - don't even try it.
We have preached a doctrine of absolute non-violence from the very beginning and we will continue to do so. Anyone who calls for violence in a message board post is either a Fed, a Mom's basement dwelling troll who spends their entire day attempting to debunk the 9/11 truth movement, or a completely deluded moron who is unrepresentative of the vast majority of the 9/11 truth movement.
Those individuals who advocate violence should be sought out and investigated individually. Any plans to try and entrap prominent 9/11 truth movement figures using guilt by association should be abandoned immediately and we will ceaselessly emphasize this point until this current wave of propaganda subsides.
Aside from the attack upon 9/11 truth groups, the depiction of the internet as a whole drawn up by the House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing is farcical. The panel does it's best to present the entire internet as some sort of vicious hate filled breeding ground for radical murderous terrorists. They give the impression that the youth of America are being recruited in their thousands to take down the country in some sort of monolithic war of civilizations. They depict myspace and youtube in such a way as to leave the average American viewer with the impression that those websites are akin to terror training camps.
One cannot help being reminded of the film reels of the McCarthy hearings of the early 1950s as the House is presented poorly thrown together slideshows that suggest that there are dangerous terrorists everywhere, on all manner of internet chat rooms, forums and message boards recruiting American teenagers to wage Jihad.
The informed masses can see through this garbage, they understand that freedom and the peaceful push for truth are the only way to counter any form of extremism. Thus the continued effort by the authorities to diminish civil liberties at home, to wage unprovoked aggression abroad and to demonize those who question such moves is contradictory to their own logic of fighting a "war on terror". Unless, that is, the war on terror is a fraud, perpetuated on a basis of fearmongering power politics.
Action alert:
If you live in California and Jane Harman is your representative, please alert her to our concerns. If you're in Washington state and Reichert is your rep, make your feelings known to him.
CSPAN has been more than fair to 9/11 truth in the past. Last year they broadcast Alex Jones' American Scholars Symposium, in 2005, they broadcast David Ray Griffin, and they will probably listen to feedback regarding this broadcast.
Finally, ask the Simon Wiesthenthal Center (Mark Weitzman in particular) to stop conflating terrorist violence with 9/11 truth, and even though he has not extended the courtesy to us, be polite;
[email protected]

Homeland Security Links 9/11 Truthers to Taliban [align=left] Barbara Peterson
Op Ed News
Thursday November 15, 2007[/align]
Do you remember when Bush Jr. said, â??either you are with us, or you are with the terroristsâ?�? Well, he meant it. Homeland Securityâ??s sub-committee on terrorism risk assessment convened a hearing on 11-06-2007 to discuss â??using the Web as a weapon â?? the Internet as a tool for violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism.â?� In a video of this meeting, which was last aired by C-Span on 11-12-2007, members of the sub-committee clearly pointed to Internet sites that question the legitimacy of the official 9/11 story as tools for recruiting terrorists.
During the course of the hearing, Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center displayed a Power Point Presentation illustrating what his organization considers terrorist recruitment sites. Here is his testimony:

To illustrate the trends described above, we have put together a short PowerPoint demonstration. Without going into deep detail in these written remarks, I would like to offer some brief descriptions of the material that will be shown. The presentation begins with a look at how 9/11 is viewed in some eyes online, including those who applauded it as well as some conspiracies sites. The presence of the conspiracy site is significant, since so much of what passes as fact online is actually based on some form of conspiracy...
Next is a series of sites of media portals which show some of the varied methods that the Islamists use to get their message out, including some based on United States servers. These are followed by some looks at charts and other manuals on how to use violence, along with a novel interpretation of jihad that calls for an â??electronic jihad.â?�

(Article continues below)


One of these â??media portalsâ?� displayed in the Power Point presentation is Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. This site is sandwiched between a Taliban training manual, and several Taliban recruitment sites showing how to make bombs, take captives, and blow buildings up.
Representative Jane Harmon posed the following question to Bruce Hoffman regarding the connection between 9/11 â??conspiracy theoristsâ?� and terrorists: â??So this movement develops them into violent killers?â?� Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University security studies professor, and Chairman of the Rand Corporation in Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency, stated that â??falsehoods and conspiracy theorists have become so ubiquitous and believed that you almost have some sort of parallel truth, and it has become a very effective tool for recruiting people.â?� The â??peopleâ?� he is referring to are potential terrorists. Mark Weitzman stated: â??These people are constructing their own version of reality, full of conspiracy theories, full of doctored videos, that will recruit or inflame the emotions.â?�
By portraying sites such as Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth as terrorist recruitment organizations, the Department of Homeland Security has taken a dangerous step towards punishing anyone who questions the government. If you go to the A&E Website, you will see that it is a group of â?? 212 architectural and engineering professionals and 518 other supporters including A/E students who have joined...in demanding of Congress a truly independent investigation of the collapse of the WTC buildings.â?� Their mission statement is, â??To research and to disseminate the truth of the 9/11 â??collapsesâ?� of all 3 WTC high-rise buildings to every architect and engineer.â?� I cannot find any indication that this site promotes terrorism, much less recruits terrorists for the Taliban, yet the Department of Homeland Security has taken the stance that the site is â??intended to recruit or inflame the emotionsâ?� (Weitzman, M.), and lumps it in with sites disseminating the Taliban Training Manual, and advocating suicide bombings.
Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute - The Search for International Terrorist Entities went on to blame the Internet for Bush Jr.â??s failed â??war on terror,â?� and Representative Charles Dent stated that one possible way to help fight purported Internet terrorism would be to â??turn the Internet into a less reliable source of informationâ?� by putting up phony Websites to collect information on terrorists as well as disseminate false information. Parry Aftab, Executive Director of Wiredsafety.org, also suggested that the government should collect IP addresses of suspected terrorist Websites to aid in the fight against terror on the Internet. Websites such as Architects for 9/11 Truth for instance?
If all Websites that disagree with the official government explanation of the collapse of the WTC towers is placed on a list of suspected terrorist Websites, what is next? Like Bush Jr. stated: â??either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.â?�

Consider the source. Brief bio of Barbara Peterson, who wrote the above article:

Quote:

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Barbara is retired from the California Department of Corrections, where she worked as a Correctional Officer at Folsom Prison. She was one of the first females to work at the facility in this classification. After retirement, she went to college online to obtain a Bachelor's degree in Business, graduated with honors, then started her own company. One day Barbara would like to visit the land of Israel, where a tree was planted in memory of her grandmother. Of Jewish heritage, she believes that Israel is the promised land. Her philosophy is this: You are on this earth for a reason - to fight for the light. Your words are swords that penetrate the darkness with truth and light. You have a purpose.

Homeland Security Links 9/11 Truthers to Taliban

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I wonder how long it will be until the gov't decides they need to regulate the internet to "protect us"?

...seems like George Orwell was of by about 25 years.

PC :smokin:

They aren't protecting us, they are protecting themselves. This is a lousy and desperate attempt to stir public opinion, which is only going to create "terrorists" or IMO, "freedom fighters" in our homeland. If they keep this up, there will be more and more people becoming anti-American and labeled as "terrorists." This is what they want.

Kiss my ass you cowards, I'm still voting for Ron Paul. :D

and it also links it to the patriot act, if you're considered a 'terrorist' (which is any crime) then you have no due process, you can't face your accusers, you're jailed indefinitely...you have no rights.

in this case, it's thought crime.

this is the dictatorship.

These 911 nutballs are free to say whatever they want and nobody cares, including the Government, thats the "truth"

Now they imagine conspiracies against themselves, talk about "illusions of granger"

Delusional simpletons who think the bogeyman did it, and know in a desperate attempt to keep their paranoid fantasy alive, the bogeyman is after them.