|
(Note - Mr. Kirwan's replies are clearly noted below. Kirwan's original
article can be found here.)
Last week, in response to Mike Ruppert's lecture at the University of
Washington on January 15, a number of articles have appeared on the Internet
attacking Mike's remarks by way of misreading, misinterpretation, and the use of
fallacies of logic, all of which belie profound ignorance not only of the
essence of his statements in this particular lecture, but of his entire
journalistic history. - Carolyn
KIRWAN: Thanks for your response. However, the article, which caused so many
to write was written by Ken Levine, who I understand is the paid agent of Mike
Ruppert. Neither man has chosen to write to anyone directly, about this very
unusual and direction changing, copy written story, that recently appeared on www.fromthewilderness.com, for free. Forgive me if I find your remarks to be
less than I expected, from someone who has apparently misunderstood. When I
write something that others do not agree with, they write to me, and I answer
those people as honestly as I can. I chose to write to Jeff Rense about this,
because he posted the story. As it happens he printed my remarks, along with the
original story. Had my article been factually inaccurate I expected to hear from
Mike or Ken - but nothing has so far arrived. Is that because writing directly
to those who question either his motives or his direction, is not something that
Mr. Ruppert does, as part of an unwritten pact he believes he has with his
followers? Or does this have to do with only responding to subscribers? Whatever
the truth of the situation may be - Mike and Ken have remained silent.
A number of other people have picked up the metaphorical cudgel on Mile's
behalf, over this issue - and they have written about their responses to me, and
to others. I have answered all who wrote to me, and I will answer Mike or Ken
should either man finally come from the shadows that surround "the wilderness"
and finally speak for themselves; to all of us who care about what his newly
unveiled departure seems to mean for those interested in 911.
CAROLYN: First, certain reading-challenged and logic-impaired individuals
have accused Mike of telling his audience to "forget about 9-11 and just go
on with our lives." I'm referring specifically to articles by Kurt Nimmo
and Jim
Kirwan. As reported by Ken Levine at the From The Wildernesswebsite,
Mike simply told his audience not to cherish "pipedreams of launching
criminal action against the Cheneys, Bushes, et.al." I am a subscriber to
From The Wilderness, Mike Ruppert's newsletter, in which I receive
up-to-the-moment email regarding news breaks and Mike's events. No one sent me
an email instructing me "not to talk about 9-11." In fact, just this
past week, I once again lectured in detail to my U.S. history classes regarding
the truth and lies of September 11, 2001, and I will continue to do so because,
like the assassination of John F. Kennedy, it is a watershed moment in U.S.
history and possibly the twenty-first century, and Mike Ruppert could not agree
more with that assertion.
Mike's remarks are a far cry from the corporate media-like distortions of
Kirwan who claims that Mike is telling people to "just get on with your
orderly life" or "just go shopping" or "just go along to get
along." Moreover, a huge portion of Mike's book, Crossing the Rubicon, is
devoted to U.S. government foreknowledge and planning of the heinous crime of
9-11. Nowhere does he say, "Ok, just forget about what I wrote in my book
and pretend that 9-11never happened." As a matter of fact, he is adamant in
Rubicon that in order to understand the big picture of Peak Oil and the phony
"war on terrorism," one must understand 9-11 because all three
realities are dependent on each other.
KIRWAN: Carolyn, what I said was a distillation that any sentient person
would come to, after reading the PR piece that Ken Levine created. As Ken is a
paid-for speaker on Mike's behalf, Mike cannot have it both ways. Either he said
something different than what Ken wrote - and that needs to be clarified - or
Mike is fine with the presentation that went out to the world on From the
Wilderness, and appeared as it was submitted to www.rense.com
and others. There
is a disconnect here, because those who attended the presentation say that Mike
said something different that what Ken laid out in the PR piece.
Whenever anyone uses a flack guy, a promoter, or a flunky to represent what
was given in a presentation - as opposed to simply furnishing a transcript of
that presentation - then there will obviously be some misinterpretations. If
these misunderstandings rise to the level of altering the thrust of what was
intended - then the person that all of this crap is swirling around needs to
hold a press conference and clear the air. That's if you're one of the mighty.
If you're just a person interested in what direction a critical piece of
information will now have, and how that will be treated by others, because
you've changed your mind - then you answer those who question you directly.
Mike, as a former LAPD officer, is proud former member of the mainstream. I
have not been in that position, so I find no need to have a spokesperson. If you
find my remarks to be too "corporate" then I think you may have
misinterpreted what I was saying about the topic - which was what appeared to
most, to be a parallax view of 911 - one that was being heralded by Mr. Levine,
and attributed to Mr. Ruppert.
As for Mike's views on Peak Oil and other diversions I did not comment
because I don't care how he sees that. Mike is someone that I see as an opportunist - that would be one who is more interested in what things can do for
him, than what he might be able to do for anyone else: when it comes to his
views and "insights" concerning the events that surround 911.
CAROLYN: Having just published Rubicon, Mike now finds himself in the
position of many social justice researchers which is that world events are
escalating so rapidly that one barely publishes one's analysis of these events
until they are upstaged by other events. One event, which in the long-term will
not be upstaged, is the reality of Peak Oil which critics of Mike refuse to
accept because they are unwilling to look objectively at the irrefutable
evidence of it. (Life After the Oil Crash and
The Background Is
Oil.)
Last week's attacks on Mike Ruppert are marinated in ignorance. To say as
Nimmo does that "Mike Ruppert offers nothing except scary predictions of
'peak oil' and a weak palliative while hawking his latest book . . . ,"
reveals Nimmo's lack of knowledge of nearly a decade of superbly-researched
articles by Ruppert available on his website. Kirwan asserts that Mike charges
for his thoughts and forces his readers to pay for his articles. Again,
ignorance. One need only visit the From The Wilderness website to see that
hundreds of free stories are available, interspersed with occasional stories for
"subscribers only."
KIRWAN: It would appear Carolyn, that Mike's remarks were "marinated"
in arrogance - and I submit that perhaps that is the reason so many have
come forward over the years with their criticism's of Ruppert the man. I've been
writing on-line for the last three years or so, and when a critical story was
breaking in the early days, the pivotal stories that appeared on Ruppert's from
the wilderness - were charged for. That is a decision that affects everyone
individually - I tend to see that as being more about the money than it ever was
about the content of the story - just my view.
CAROLYN: Perhaps the most blatant display of ignorance is the charge leveled
by Kirwan and Nimmo, which Nimmo calls, "Gold-Plated Activism." I
don't know anyone in America, including myself, who doesn't have some baggage
around money. How not when living in a fascist empire? However, as an author who
has published two books in my lifetime with alternative publishers, I can attest
to the negligible income that non-mainstream authorship brings with it. No hefty
book advance such as Hillary Clinton received, no full-time, handsomely-paid
publicists whose job it is to promote the book, and no likelihood that one's
work will ever become a best seller and receive numerous printings. All for the
"exorbitant" price of $15.95 per copy?
KIRWAN: I have a publishing history as well, and like most of us, there have
been some successes and many failures. I have not written any books, on-line or
elsewhere. My work however has been the topic in many publications, enough so
that I can say that I'm familiar with the economics of the industry. No one who
lives and works in the creative arts has a right to expect their efforts to pay
for their overhead.
People do what they do, because they must, and paying the bills, while
staying alive, becomes an additional responsibility. This is especially true of
those who live on the edge, and choose to challenge the conventional world -
about anything. When I came into the on-line world I wanted to find a way to get
exposure for my illustrations. It soon became apparent that this could happen,
provided that I did the work pro bono. However, because of the technical
limitations of publishing complex images on the net - I found that I was drawn
to writing - not because I'm that great a writer, but simply because that was
about the only avenue open, to those who wanted to participate in the continuing
dialogue. It was in that milieu that I stumbled over Mike Ruppert and his
rather odd policies - which I still think are crap!
CAROLYN: Nimmo completely distorts Mike's advice regarding investment in
precious metals and paying off credit card debt as an obscene indulgence of the
middle class. Once more, ignorance reigns. Had Nimmo and Kirwan been following
Ruppert's painstaking research over the past decade and that of his fellow
activist and mentor, Catherine Austin Fitts, they might have grasped the
profundity of Ruppert's advice. Yes, Mike used the dreaded "I" word:
investment. However, because Nimmo and Kirwan only see dollar signs when they
hear the word, they do not comprehend its broader definition.
Now here, I must be especially hard on Nimmo who resides in the same town as
I. Yes, it is true that here in Southern New Mexico, the average income is
$24,000 a year, and many people do live, as he says "hand-to-mouth on
Wal-Mart wages." What is also true is that some of those same folks have
been driven into the rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul credit card nightmare in order to
establish credit or to try to dig themselves out of a bad credit history at an
interest rate of 20 percent or higher. It is also true that investment in gold
does not require astronomical sums of money. One can begin investing in gold for
as little as $200. And no Kurt, it's not necessary as a consequence of Peak Oil
to, as you say, be "pushing a wheelbarrow down Main Street, piled with
useless greenbacks to buy a loaf of bread," because at that point, the $200
worth of gold that you bought in 2005 may be worth $1,000 or more.
Nimmo suggests that Ruppert should offer people "political
alternatives." And what "political alternatives" would those be,
Kurt? Which part of "rigged elections" in 2000, 2002, and 2004 did you
not understand? Had you been following the career of former Wall Street banker
and former Undersecretary of Housing and Urban Development Catherine Austin
Fitts, had you been informed of her firing from HUD when she discovered that the
U.S. government was being run as a criminal enterprise, and when her company and
assets were seized by the feds to shut her up because she had uncovered massive
fraud in HUD having to do with CIA drug trafficking in South Central Los
Angeles, and had you learned about her Solari model of transforming the economy
of local communities and preparing for Peak Oil's reversal of globalization by
compelling us to live, shop, produce, and survive locally, you might not be
stuck in the ineffectual, anachronistic paradigm of "political
alternatives."
So Kurt, you think there's going to be a social revolution in this country
and that "massive, unrelenting activism" will carry the day? Perhaps.
But think a bit further about the militarization of local police forces, the
"Robocop" tactics that will be used against dissidents, and yes, our
own proximity, as well as the proximity of millions of other Americans to
military installations. You think the unemployed and working poor are in pain
now? You ain't see nothin' yet. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not,
Peak Oil is a reality that will eviscerate the American psyche and decimate the
American way of life as we know it, and from whatever economic status we
inhabit, we will see massive impoverishment and loss of life. You don't own a
home? Neither do I, but this isn't about owning a home. It might be about
learning how to grow food in the front yard of wherever you live. Whether that
translates into social and economic revolution remains to be seen. What is
self-evident is that revolution will never happen until that kind of pain
descends on the psychotically-deluded American citizenry, particularly the
middle class, who will be obliterated as a result of their ignorance of survival
skills that many working poor and penniless individuals already possess.
Because I believe that the word "investment" is not inherently unhygienic, I am networking with individuals and organizations to bring Catherine
Austin Fitts to my community later this year to talk about the bigger picture of
"investment" in terms of time, money, ideas, and information. My intention
and hers is to create ground on which the working poor, the middle class, and
activists can stand together to produce a sustainable future for ourselves and
our community.
Perhaps Nimmo and Kirwan do not believe that people should get paid what they
are worth or equitably reimbursed for countless hours of research which exacts
enormous time, money, and other resources. I do. Had either of you bothered to
examine Ruppert's voluminous libraries of research, you would have discovered
long ago that he will never be compensated sufficiently for his "effort"
no,
not even if he had several New York Times best sellers and was interviewed by
every mainstream network on earth.
KIRWAN: I'm so glad that you feel as you do about money and getting paid
Carolyn, maybe your philosophy might be something that could be extended to the
real world, especially when it comes to the creative arts, and our dealings with
your friends in the upper reaches of the atmosphere? If the wealthy paid their
bills, and if the powerful honored their promises (perhaps that will happen when
pigs begin to fly), then perhaps the creative foot solders of the world might
not find the economics of their worlds - quite so difficult to bear. But it has
ever been thus, as you might say. Which is why so many seem to find the
complaints of Mr. Ruppert, concerning how he is compensated, to be such a
non-starter.
Charging for information in the middle of a growing revolution is not
something that dedicated people tend to do. Especially not when what is being
reported on is not solely the product of Mike Ruppert's research alone - many
thousands of people have contributed to this continuing nightmare. What is
important is the dissemination of the knowledge, and not the W-2 that Mike will
have at the end of the year, for his many performances around the nation. Mike
needs to decide what he wants to do when he grows up. Will he become a
performer, a politician, or a writer with a conscience - one who does all that
he can to untangle the facts and clear up this Tsunami of LIES, LIES & MORE
LIES - that is threatening to engulf the planet.
CAROLYN: Most of us have been programmed to depend on the corporate milieu to
motivate and sustain us. We have come to believe that if we are not welcomed
into its fold and given its blessing, we cannot survive. Mike Ruppert took years
of attacks and threats on his life by the federal government and turned them
into a truth-telling, professional, and credible journalistic enterprise
demonstrating that such endeavors can be built from the ground up without
selling one's soul to corporate media. At his "Truth And Lies of 9-11"
lecture at Portland State University in November 2001, Ruppert stated that with
the additional money his work had generated after 9-11, he would hire more
reporters and write more stories that were rarely being reported elsewhere. He
did just that, hardly an act of "money over principle" or
"personal opportunity over innovation," as Kirwan charges.
KIRWAN: I stand by what I said both in the article I wrote, and what I've
said above. The truth of this will be found in the importance that is recognized
or doubted in the future for www.fromthewilderness.com.
There is another aspect to all of this Carolyn, and that is something you may
know very little about - that would be the gut reaction. Whenever I come across anyone who is as phobic about copyrights as Mike Ruppert obviously is, that
sends up a series of questions about motive and credibility. Obviously this
isn't the case in all people, or Mike wouldn't be where he is today - but the
way he has studiously avoided addressing this controversy, is more reminiscent
of the behavior of bought and paid for politicians, than it would seem to be
related to, all those heartfelt writers just trying to get their stories out.
CAROLYN: Similarly, Catherine Austin Fitts has given us the Solari model of
economic and personal transformation, outside the box, beyond paradigms that no
longer serve. In my opinion, Ruppert and Fitts deserve, as any of us does, to be
equitably compensated for their genius and their courage.
KIRWAN: No one deserves money - some acquire it, others may earn it, and some
steal it - but the circumstances in each case are the determining factors. If
Mike's publications have not earned him sufficient money, then he needs to get a
new agent. If that agent is misunderstood and creates more trouble for Mike's
"ideas" than he brings in - by way of new attentions - then he needs
to apologize to his loyal public, and change agents. Yet that is only the
commercial aspect of this whole affair - what concerns me are the ethics of
Mike's personal bottom line - Who is he? The fact that this dialogue is taking
place at all - is proof that Mike Ruppert has not handled this problem well at
all!
CAROLYN: Mike Ruppert never, I repeat never, said, "Forget about 9-11
and go on with your life." Over the years, he has given us a "map" of which 9-11 is an integral part of a seamless web. While Nimmo
and Kirwan construct their straw man arguments, they are not dealing with Mike's
evidence. But then neither do the corporate media stenographers of the Bush
regime who Kirwan and Nimmo claim to be so unlike.
KIRWAN: I don't think anyone ever has referred to me, or to my work, as
having anything to do with being a "corporate media stenographer"
until you Carolyn. Unlike Mike, my life's been an open book. But I'll let my
work speak for itself, the political work that I've done has always been free to
the public.
|
studios