Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Richard Falk, 9-11 and the United Nations

Sometimes the lies and evil intent of humanity overplays itself. Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, a man whose supposed expertise is pointed to by many pro-Palestinian groups including the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), was today condemned by Ban Ki-Moon Secretary General of the United Nations. Falk, on a recent blog posting has written about 9-11, the destruction of the world trade center, and insisted it was a conspiracy and the cover-up was the work of the United States government.

In an article, “Ban Ki-moon condemns UN Palestinian human rights official for backing 9/11 slurs,” Natasha Mozgovaya and Shlomo Shamir state “In a rare condemnation by the UN of an official within the organization, Ban said Falk's remarks were "an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in the attack."

Falk who had already revealed his thoughts in the preface to one of David Ray Griffin’s books, in his blog posting used the assassination of a Swedish leader and the shootings in Arizona to persist in his conspiracy theories. He writes”

What fuels suspicions of conspiracy is the reluctance to address the sort of awkward gaps and contradictions in the official explanations that David Ray Griffin(and other devoted scholars of high integrity) have been documenting in book after book ever since his authoritative The New Pearl Harbor in 2004 (updated in 2008). What may be more distressing than the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events: an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials.
Several persons, including the United States Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, have asked Ban to remove Falk from his position. But the answer seems to be that he was appointed by the “the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, a 47-nation body created by the UN General Assembly in 2006,” and therefore cannot be removed by the General Secretary.

Here is an interesting explanation by UN Watch Director Hillel Neuer about the problems with the UN's Human Rights Council.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

IPMN condemns Falk's 9/11 Trutherism in 10...9...8...7...oh, look, a bunny!

David Fischler
Woodbridge, VA

Viola Larson said...

I needed a laugh today. Thanks David.

will spotts said...

Do I remember rightly that Westminster John Knox Press (Presbyterian Publishing) published one of Griffin's 9/11 truther books?

Viola Larson said...

Yes they did. I don't remember which one, but it caused quite an up-roar.

John Shuck said...

The Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11. Excellent book.

His latest, Cognitive Infiltration is especially important as it challenges efforts to silence the 9/11 truth movement.

What is more dangerous, the 9/11 Truth Movement or efforts to silence it?

John Shuck
Elizabethton, TN
Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth

will spotts said...

Thanks John - that was the one I couldn't quite remember.

To answer your question - that really depends on whether or not the truther hypothesis is true. If it is, then you are right; if not, then it is an atrocious thing to propogate.

John Shuck said...

Thanks Will.

For the record, "Truther" is a demeaning and dismissive designation.

In response to your answer, how do you know it something is true until it investigated?

Nixon said he wasn't a crook and Clinton said he never had sex with that woman. Yet conspiracy theorists and truthers insisted on investigating fully.

Should they have been silenced?

Speaking for myself (and I think many would agree with me, including Richard Falk): I am interested in the events of 9/11 and I question the official conspiracy theory (that includes the 9/11 Commission Report) because I am looking for truth, not claiming I have found it. There are many, many unanswered questions.

The most logical, reasonable way to get folks like Richard Falk to stop asking questions about 9/11 is to answer the questions he is asking.

If any of the readers of this blog would even like to know the questions, I would recommend David Griffin's latest book, Cognitive Infiltration.

In this book he responds to an essay by Cass Sunstein. Sunstein advocates in this essay for the government to infiltrate the leaders of "conspiracy movements" such as the 9/11 Truth Movement, much as the FBI infiltrated the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s.

In response to the essay he lays out his case for further investigation into this very important matter.

John Shuck
Elizabethton, TN

Anthony J. Hall said...

The line of attack on Prof. Falk's (and Prof. Griffin's) credibility is only possible because of the unwillingness of many so-called progressives (ie Matt Rothschild, George Galloway, Amy Goodman, Adrianna Huffington) to assess and condemn the propagandistic lies, distortions, and have truths used to justify the 9/11 Wars. The result is that Arab and Muslim peoples, including Palestinians, have been collectively demonized clearing the way for Islamophobia and the massive violations to which they have been subjected in the name of the so-called Global War on Terror.

Demand that Prof. Falk be allowed to finish the second half of his mandate as special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967. Investigate 9/11.

See The UN, Israel-Palestine and 9/11 Scholarship: A Discussion with Prof. Richard Falk

Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEgnJuqPxQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb6JQq08oDY

Part Three
http://www.youtube.com/embed/J_OvmdZqA-c

Viola Larson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Viola Larson said...

Anthony,

I believe this was written by you:

"Harper’s campaign applied a variation of the tactics employed during the Cold War by Joseph McCarthy’s infamous Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities. In late September the Harper Team’s news releases went ballistic in its McCarthyesque push to characterize as un-Canadian each and every citizen who calls attention to the simple fact that the Bush-led War on Terror rests on nothing but an unproven conspiracy theory.That untenable official conspiracy theory begins with the premise that 19 Saudi high jackers armed with nothing but box cutters, a smattering of flight training and jihadist zeal succeeded in executing the most devastating attack on the continental United States since the War of 1812."

At http://911blogger.com/node/18067


If anyone wonders who Harper is go here and listen to a video of the PM of Canada speaking about Israel. It is very good. http://naminghisgrace.blogspot.com/2010/11/prime-minister-of-canada-on-anti.html

I will not argue with people touting conspiracy theories, it could go on forever, because there is always another theory to answer with.

Anonymous said...

Hello Viola.

Your use of the term "conspiracy theory" is nonsensical. A conspiracy is when two or more people get together to plan collaboration on a crime. On Sept. 11, 2001 we were delivered a conspiracy theory pointing to 19 Saudis said to be operating under the guidance of Osama bin Laden.

The lead counsel of the 9/11 Commission wrote a book explaining how the body charged to investigate 9/11 was consistently lied to by the government officials. Why were these officials not charged with perjury? Why are not the issues they lied about being revisited through further investigation?

Why can't we get a proper investigation in Canada on the Canadian aspects of the 9/11 debacle? After all, Canadian armed forces are in Afghanistan because of an unproven explanation of 9/11. Canada is a member of NORAD which still has a lot of explaining to do about its inaction on 9/11, and 24 Canadians died in the Twin Towers. Their memory should be respected by stopping the 9/11 cover-up and doing a proper investigation, one that that Stephen Harper and the leader of the fake opposition, Michael Ignatieff, would never allow. So trust in government evaporates, as is happening, for instance, in Egypt.

The Co-Chair of the 9/11 Commission proclaimed it was set up to fail. 9/11 Commission member Max Clelland quit in disgust, pointing to the politicized nature of the flawed investigation. Bush's first choice to head the 9/11 Cover-Up Commission was Henry Kissinger, lawyer in Unocal's pipeline negotiations with the Taliban of Afghanistan.

The black boxes at ground zero could not be found, but, lo and behold, Atta's passport appeared admidst the nano-thermite-laden dust from the three pulverized WTC Towers. What a miracle! The questions and internal contradictions go on and on.

Are you seriously proposing closing the book on such a seething mess of unanswered questions and well documented official lies? As Prof. Falk said in my recent interview with him, it is the responsibility of citizens to ask questions of their governors and to act on what their knowledge and conscience demands of them. Prof. Falk distinguished citizens from subjects. Subjects are supposed to do what they are told, not ask questions and keep their mouths shut. Is that what you are proposing Viola, that we should act as subjects rather than citizens?

Close your mind to the disparity between the content of the official conspiracy theory and the substance of the evidence if you must. Sometimes its hard to put aside self-justifying fantasies. But millions of people refuse to be hoodwinked on this one. This particular set of lies is so stupendous, and so consequential for the geopolitics of the world that growing millions of global citizens are demanding answers from the same network of fraudsters that kept the thug Mubarak in power for 30 years.

Only 9/11 Truth will end the 9/11 Wars. Investigate 9/11.