Deconstructing Deceit: 9/11, the Media, and Misinformation

Saturday, April 21st, 1:00 to 5:00 PM
"Deconstructing Deceit: 9/11, the Media, and Misinformation"

Berkeley City College
2050 Center St., Berkeley, CA

An afternoon colloquium on recent historical public perception management, information control, and propaganda surrounding the events of September 11, 2001. The two sessions will focus on media coverage and misinformation around 9/11 issues with examples of case studies concerning the destruction of the WTC towers and Building 7. See link here for more info or here for a poster of the event.

Proceedings:

Session One - History and Context: A conversation between BCC history instructor Mickey S. Huff, MA, and KPFA's Guns and Butter host Bonnie Faulkner on the weaponization of information in U.S. history and media misinformation and alternative coverage on 9/11 issues;

Session Two - Case Studies and Misinformation: Architect Richard Gage, AIA, and research scientist Jim Hoffman, MFA, will focus on the role of media perception management and misinformation in cementing the official narrative of the 9/11 attack underlying the War on Terror -- particularly regarding the destruction of three WTC skyscrapers. Gage will present factual evidence challenging media and government reports on the "collapse" of the buildings while Hoffman will analyze various official accounts of misinformation and perception management.

Q&A will follow each session. Critical thinking is highly encouraged.

The event is part of the History of U.S. Media class for BCC's Global Studies Program and is sponsored by Project Censored, KPFA's Guns and Butter, SF911Truth, Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth, and Scholars for 911 Truth and Justice. The event is free and open to the public and is wheelchair accessible.

Contact: mythinfo@mac.com

Participants:
Bonnie Faulkner, producer and host of Guns & Butter, a one-hour public affairs program that is broadcast every Wednesday from1:00pm to 2:00pm on Pacifica's KPFA Radio in Berkeley, 94.1FM. The program regularly analyzes the events of September 11th, 2001 as a pretext for permanent war, including the phony war on terror, and the rationale for the emergence of a militarized police state. Guns & Butter regularly covers in-depth analysis of geopolitics, capitalism, war and state sponsored terror, in addition to programming on other subjects including Africa, China, genetic engineering, etc. Prior to joining KPFA, she was a co-producer of Project Censored's monthly public affairs radio documentary, "For The Record." (www.gunsandbutter.net)

Richard Gage, AIA, has been an architect for 20 years and has designed numerous fire-protected steel-framed buildings. He is employed with a San Francisco Bay Area architecture firm currently performing Construction Administration for a new local $120M High School campus. He became interested in the 9/11 WTC high-rise “Collapses” after hearing the startling conclusions of a reluctant 9/11 researcher, David Ray Griffin, on KPFA radio in May of 2006 which changed his life radically and launched his own unyielding quest for 9/11 Truth, and inspired him to found the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (www.ae911truth.org).

Jim Hoffman, MFA, has been researching the September 11, 2001 attack since the spring of 2003, when he began creating the now-acclaimed 9-11 Research website. On September 11, 2003, Hoffman gave the first in a series of talks, The Twin Towers' Demolition, exposing the fraudulence of the official collapse investigations and providing direct evidence of demolition. A software developer by profession, Hoffman performed pioneering work in mathematical visualization and has co-authored articles in Science and Macromolecules for work in polymer science. (http://911research.wtc7.net/)

Mickey S. Huff, MA, is adjunct faculty in history and critical thinking at Berkeley City College, Chabot College, and Diablo Valley College. He is co-director of the alternative polling group Retropoll (www.retropoll.org) and a Community Evaluator for Project Censored. He has been teaching the course “America, 9/11, and the War on Terror: Foreign/Domestic Policy, Media, and Propaganda” as part of critical thinking in history classes for the past 4 years as well as “History of U.S. Media.” Most recently, he has participated at a number of conferences on 9/11 issues including "Lifting the Fog: The Scientific Method applied to the World Trade Center Disaster;" Project Censored Annual Media Accountability Conference on “Suppression of Information and Post-9/11 Invasions;” ACME Coalition Conference, Champlain College in Burlington, VT, "Facing the Media Crisis: Media Education for Reform, Justice, and Democracy;" and at St. Mary's College public lecture series

Retropoll Begins New Poll

Impeachment and Retro Poll
Retropoll


Retro Poll exposes how the misrepresentation of public opinion works; and how that misrepresentation undermines US democracy.

Long before John Zogby asked the question, Retro Poll asked a national random sample in November, 2003 whether President Bush’s misleading the public and Congress in order to take the country into war was grounds for impeachment. Retro Poll asked this question again in April, 2004. In the first cases 40% said yes. In the second 39%.

Long before PIPA (University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes) compared peoples knowledge of whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, worked with Al Qaeda and was associated with the 9/11 attack and then compared their knowledge with their willingness to go to war against Iraq, Retro Poll had already done exactly that. In October 2002 before the U.S.invasion, we asked these necessary factual and opinion questions on this topic and reported that 2/3 of misinformed people would support an attack while 80% of the well informed people opposed going to war. In so doing, Retro Poll--for the first time--revealed how corporate media’s “spin”—not beliefs or ideology—was the more strongly related to the molding of USpublic opinion. And there is a lot more.

If you’ve never heard of us, go to www.retropoll.org and learn exactly how the corporate media use public opinion polling to distort the public’s views about most everything. If you come away still believing that most people are “conservative” or “moderate” or “apathetic,” you may need more work on your critical thinking skills. Before you ever again think of saying that the average American doesn’t care about war, peace, justice, look at Retro Poll. We may help you understand a different truth and beyond that, how the cultural distortion is effected.

Please join our e-mail list at Retropoll. And if you want to be a volunteer pollster between April 20-29, e mail mythinfo@mac.com

Iraq and a Hard Place: Lies and Impeachment

For those with short memories, it is good to go back in the recent past and reexamine how we came about our present state of affairs. One case in point, a pivotal issue in global terms, is the U.S. occupation of Iraq. We were told by the Vice President we'd be greeted as liberators. A new book by Iraqi government insider, Ali Allawi, decires U.S. bungling of his country and exposes the Bush policy folly there. But, it's not just the bungling that's at issue here, it's the lies that brought us.

Of course, there are many cases for impeachment that could be brought by a tepid congress. Iraq is only one of many
reasons for impeachment. For an expanded list of 25 reasons for impeaching Bush, please consider these issues.

As part of the National Boycott to Impeach Committeee, let me share with you an abbreviated list of the Bush administration's OFFICIAL LIES...and this is just about Iraq. For more details on how to join this week long shopping boycott for impeachment between April 15th and the 22nd, please support the We Are Not Buying It campaign and do what you can before it's too late!

And now, our leaders...trust them.

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."

- Dick Cheney, August 26 2002

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons."

- George W. Bush, September 12 2002

"If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world."

- Ari Fleischer, December 2 2002

"We know for a fact that there are weapons there."

- Ari Fleischer, January 9 2003

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent."

- George W. Bush, State of the Union address, January 28 2003

"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more."

- Colin Powell, February 5 2003

"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons."

- George Bush, February 8 2003

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

- George Bush, March 17 2003

"Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes."

- Ari Fleischer, March 21 2003

"There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them."

- Gen. Tommy Franks, March 22 2003

"We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

- Donald Rumsfeld, March 30 2003.

"Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases."

- Bush in October 2002.

"Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda."

- Bush in January 2003 State of the Union address.

"Iraq has also provided Al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training."

- Bush in February 2003.

"… sinister nexus between Iraq and the Al-Qaeda terrorist network."

Powell in his U.N. speech prior to the Iraq War.

"We have removed an ally of Al Qaeda."

Bush in May 2003.

Stated that the Iraqis were "providing bomb-making expertise and advice to the Al Qaeda organization."

- Cheney in September 2003.

"Saddam had an established relationship with Al Qaeda, providing training to Al Qaeda members in the areas of poisons, gases, making conventional weapons."

- Cheney in October 2003.

Cheney said Saddam "had long established ties with Al Qaeda."

- June 14, 2004.

Bush said, "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and Al Qaeda, because there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda."

- June 17, 2004