On 9/11/06, Doug Henwood <<a href="mailto:dhenwood@panix.com">dhenwood@panix.com</a>> wrote:<div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Yup, bigtime. WPFW (the DC affiliate) turned down an interview with Moazzam Begg - the guy with a new New Press book who spent three years in US custody for nothing, 2 of them in virtual solitary in Gitmo - because they're just interested in 9/11 "Truth." I just did an interview with him, which I'll run on Thursday. Doug</blockquote><div> The Pacifica info is certainly depressing, but expected.  The interview with Begg was great.  He should run for M.P.  Apropos conspiracies: I was going over a book I read by Richard Aldrich _The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence_  I came across this quote:  The title could be "Declassification as Diversion."  "There can be no doubt that some authorities have a curious view of accelerated declassification.  In 1998 officials prepared a report on the 'Operations Security Impact on Declassification Management within the Department of Defense', for the US Assistant Secretary of Defense.  They warned that 'Declassification decisions primarily need to be assessed in terms of value to adversarial organizations [rather than] the public disclosure fot the sake of openess.'  __It also suggested that 'interesting declassified material' such as information about the assassination of John F. Kennedy could be released and even posted on the Internet as a 'diversion'.  Newly, released archives on such high-profile subjects could be used to 'reduce the unrestrained public appetite for "secrets" by providing good faith distraction material."  If investigative journalists and contemporary historians were absorbed with the vexatious, but rather tired, debates over the grassy knoll, they would no be busy probing into areas where they were unwelcome.__"  [p. 7] That is about the function of all such Grand Conspiracy theories.  They are diversions more obssessive than chess.  (In fact I believe that they occupy the same cognitive space as chess defensive ability.)  If you can't divert people with religion, sports, and television, divert the trouble makers with absurd "conspiracy theories."  So here is my absurd "conspiracy 'theory'."  The 9/11 rumor that the WTC collapsed by controlled demolition was started by some CIA psy-ops gnome.  Try proving me wrong.  Jerry Monaco </div></div>