- (Note - Mr. Kirwan's replies are clearly noted below)
-
- 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, copywritten 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 claified - 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 flunkie
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 opprtunist - 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 "marianated "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 ia 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 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 stumbeled 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 unhygenic, 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 soley 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 thretening 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 <http://www.fromthewilderness.com>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 accross 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.
-
- kirwan
-
- http://www.kirwanesque.com/politics/articles/articles.htm
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