In praise of three good and decent Americans: Rabbi Michael Lerner, Cynthia Ann McKinney (soon to be Ph.D.), and Missouri Senate Candidate MD Alam
By Kevin Barrett, VT Editor
The world is falling apart. If you’re paying attention, you’re an easy target for those negative emotions: fear, rage, gloom, despair…
So take a break. Sit back, kick off your shoes, and get ready for three good-news stories…all VT exclusives!
Rabbi Michael Lerner blasts “slimy” Jewish Chronicle article, says he was NOT misled into contributing to Charlie Hebdo book
First good-news story: Rabbi Michael Lerner is still a good man, a man of integrity. I was worried about the state of the good Rabbi’s soul after reading an article in the Jewish Chronicle:
Rabbi who advised Hillary Clinton ‘misled’ over Paris conspiracy book
The Jewish Chronicle story begins with what appears to be a libelous lie:
“A rabbi who once advised Hillary Clinton claims he was misled into contributing to a new book filled with essays arguing that the Paris terror attacks in January were a conspiracy.”
That would be the new book I edited: We Are NOT Charlie Hebdo: Free Thinkers Question the French 9/11.
I was amazed by the preposterous claim that I had deceived Rabbi Lerner into contributing to the book. After all, we have a history. Lerner’s contribution to an earlier book I edited, 9/11 and American Empire v.2, was an essay entitled “What Next? Will It Make a Difference if We Succeed in Exposing 9/11 as a Fraud?” Most of the essays in that book argue that 9/11 was an inside job, just as the majority of essays in We Are NOT Charlie Hebdo support the false flag interpretation of that event. So obviously Rabbi Lerner should have known that this book, like the previous one we collaborated on, includes false flag interpretations.
But the Charlie Hebdo book is about more than just the false flag hypothesis. It’s about talking back to the media, challenging the dominant discourse, “catapulting the propaganda” back to where it came from with a couple of hand grenades attached.
Rabbi Lerner’s article is a worthy contribution to that effort.
Here is the email I sent to Rabbi Lerner inviting him to contribute to We Are NOT Charlie Hebdo:
Dear Rabbi Lerner,
I’m writing to see if would you could contribute to a book I’m editing entitled We Are Not Charlie Hebdo. It will be published by Progressive Press* ASAP. Your article “Mourning the Parisian ‘Humorists’ Yet Challenging the Hypocrisy of Western Media” would be a terrific contribution.
I’ve requested articles from Andre Vltchek (who is reaching out to Chomsky), Cynthia McKinney, and John Cobb; we’ve already lined up Pat Buchanan,* Paul Craig Roberts, Alain Soral, a Catholic humanities professor who wishes to remain anonymous,* and Laurent Guyénot. I also expect a contribution from North America’s leading Muslim politically-oriented intellectual, Zafar Bangash. We’ll include a variety of thoughtful perspectives on why one should not identify as Charlie Hebdo. As with the 9/11 and Empire book, some contributions will discuss evidence that it was a false flag, while others will consider the historical, cultural and political background and aim at defusing the “clash of civilizations.”
I will be contributing a version of the attached piece offering a Muslim view of attacks on the Prophet.
Thank you for considering this.
Best
Kevin Barrett
Rabbi Lerner has informed me that he was ambushed by the Jewish Chronicle journalist, who mischaracterized We Are NOT Charlie Hebdo: Free Thinkers Question the French 9/11 as a “conspiracy book.” In fact, much of the book concerns the historical and cultural background of the Paris attacks without addressing the question of who was behind them; and several essays take the official version for granted. After re-assessing the situation, Rabbi Lerner has charged the Jewish Chronicle journalist with writing a “slimy article.”
Here is Rabbi Lerner’s statement retracting the claim that he was “misled” into contributing to the book:
“After re-reading your invitation letter, I realize that it was my fault to not have more carefully scrutinized the letter and asked you what you meant by “false flag” since I really didn’t know what that was about, and so I should have asked for clarification. I can’t find out where or in what context to issue this apology, and I doubt that it will satisfy you much, but here it is:
“I realize that I was mistaken to claim that Kevin Barrett, the editor of the collection of articles called We are Not Charlie Hebdo, had misled me. After he showed me the original invitation, I see that I simply skipped over the part about what else would be in the book. Had I known that this would be a book claiming that the murder of staff at Charlie Hebdo was an operation that was not committed by fanatic Muslim fundamentalist extremists, but of someone else trying to get Muslims into trouble, I would have refused to have my article in that book, because that theory seems to me extremely problematic. Had I noticed the words “red flag” (sic) which appeared in his description of what else would be in the book, I should have asked him what that meant. I had not heard that theory applied to the murders in Paris, and had I read those words I might have thought they meant that the red flag was portraying Charlie Hebdo as a rampantly racist zenophobic and islamophomobic magazine in order to justify someone murdering its editor and part of its staff. I did not exercise the caution I should have to ask Kevin Barrett what that phrase meant in this context. Instead, I gave him permission to use my article and then unfairly said, when pressed by an aggressive interviewer, that I was misled to give my article to this publication. No, it was my own mistake, and so I apologize to Kevin Barrett for having unfairly accused him, though as I also told him, it would have been fairer to me had he told me then what he told me in a communication he sent me to prod me to make this retraction. Quoting Mr. Barrett: “I was surprised by the forcefulness of many of the essays arguing it was a false flag.” Well if Mr. Barrett was surprised, it would have been fair to have shared that surprise with me, so that I could have withdrawn my article from that collection. However, in the final analysis, it was my mistake, not his misleading me, that was the problem–so I apologize to him for saying I was misled and I apologize to my community for seeming to help give credibility to a conspiracy theory I utterly reject.” –Rabbi Michael Lerner
But why would I even imagine that Rabbi Lerner would have any objection to his essay appearing in a book with essays arguing forcefully that Charlie Hebdo was a false flag? (And what’s with this “red flag” stuff?) After all, the Rabbi had contributed an excellent essay ABOUT the false flag interpretation of 9/11 to my earlier book full of even more forceful false flag analyses. And my invitation to him explicitly stated:
As with the 9/11 and Empire book, some contributions will discuss evidence that it was a false flag…
*The book evolved after I sent the email to Rabbi Lerner: Progressive Press and Pat Buchanan dropped out, and Catholic humanities professor Thaddeus Kozinski dropped his anonymity.
Second VT exclusive: Cynthia McKinney is about to become DR. Cynthia McKinney
Cynthia McKinney, the six-term Congresswoman from Georgia and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate, has informed us that the final draft of her dissertation has just been approved. She has been working with advisor Peter Dale Scott of the University of California-Berkeley and other experts on the Deep State and its assassinations and false flags.
Cynthia McKinney is one of the 21 leading public intellectuals who contributed to We Are NOT Charlie Hebdo. Her article is a powerful deconstruction of the Charlie Hebdo false flag operation, and a rallying cry to truth-seekers.
If you were paying attention in 2008, like I was, you need the bumpersticker: “Don’t blame me, I voted for Cynthia McKinney.” Here is a sample of her brave and brilliant work in Congress.
Third VT exclusive: Truth-seeking Missouri Democrat MD Alam announces Senate candidacy
US Army veteran MD Alam enters into the 2016 Missouri Democratic Primary along with Jason Kander for U.S. Senate seat currently incumbent Republican Party U.S. Senator Roy Blunt. Here is the Youtube video for Alam’s Candidacy announcement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEbQvtgNA0o
MD Alam announced his candidacy in the company of friends and fellow VFW members. He is the founder of the American Muslim Political Action Committee – AMPAC which aims to counter AIPAC by organizing American Muslims. He led the 9/11/2013 Million American March Against Fear, mischaracterized by the mainstream media as the “Million Muslim March.”
So there you have it, folks: Three “good news” stories about three good Americans…a rabbi and two politicians. If all our rabbis and politicians were half as good as these folks, our country would be in much better shape.
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist is one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror.
He is the host of TRUTH JIHAD RADIO; a hard driving weekly radio show funded by listener donations at Patreon.com and FALSE FLAG WEEKLY NEWS (FFWN); an audio-video show produced by Tony Hall, Allan Reese, and Kevin himself. FFWN is funded through FundRazr.
He also has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS, and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications.
Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin; where he ran for Congress in 2008. He currently works as a nonprofit organizer, author, and talk radio host.
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