Congratulation! To Dennis Bernstein
and KPFA's Flashpoint

by Jeff Strauhl

Hello,

Congratulations! Quite a coup in getting Ray McGovern for
a full hour, and getting him to do quite a good job exposing
the Israeli influence.
Isn't it just too bad that in return, he used your show as a
platform for disseminating two huge pieces of propaganda.

A. legitimation of the 9/11 lie and the commission which
supposedly investigated it. Why, now we can be sure that
Khalid Sheikh Mohamed (KSM) was the mastermind of the
attack, who sold it to the main sponsor Osama bin Laden.
Why, Ray McGovern said so. And KSM "admitted" that the
reason was his great disgust and hatred for US foreign policy.
This from a man who was reportedly killed twice before his
supposed capture. And he did it with 19 suicide hijackers,
at least 6 of whom are still alive, none of whom
have been proven to be present on any of the planes.
And he did it by flying planes into the WTC towers and
getting them to turn to dust and collapse at gravity-freefall
speed, in total defiance of the laws of physics. But if
Ray McGovern approves, it must all be true. He also
legitimated the work of the 9/11 Commission,
whose staff was headed by Philip Zelikow, who found
out about the motives for 9/11 from KSM, the same
Zelikow who made critical remarks of Israeli influence.
Likewise he quoted Commission/War on "Terrorism"
propagandist Michael Schuer. Never mind that David Ray
Griffin exposed the Commission as a cover-up of the
worst sort, with Zelikow being the chief lie-maker.
Interesting by the way how you didn't question
McGovern about his 9/11 take, like you questioned
David Ray Griffin last Thursday, casting doubt on his
analysis at every turn. Do you believe the official story?
In fact can you tell anyone with a straight face that
it bears any relation to reality?

B. Legitimation of the US's key interest in the region.
McGovern brought up the O.I.L. anagram, quite a good one,
but then only questioned the legitimacy of the "Israel"
part of it. The US has viewed Mideast oil as a vital interest
since before the state of Israel was created, ie 10
years longer than McGovern asserted, and likewise has
pursued military means to that end since. Did the Mossadeq r
egime in Iran threaten Israel in any way in '53? No.
Did it threaten US-British oil interests? Yes. Remember
what happened? The Mearsheimer-Walt report which McGovern
and you are all excited about completely accepts the
legitimacy of that part of the US "national interest"
in the Mideast, in fact castigates Israeli influence for
getting in the way of this interest. Brent Scowcroft and
James Baker, members of the US elite (eg Council on
Foreign Relations), whom McGovern cited as high-quality
advisers, also have criticized Israel for getting
in the way of this particular interest. And "Oil"
doesn't simply mean access for US use. It means
US control of the oil sources of its trade
rivals--Europe, Japan and China--and US control
of these sources as Peak Oil emerges. And there is
no alternative to oil, not at the rate the industrial
world uses it and the rate at which it is depleting,
"alternative energy" fantasies to the contrary
(these can only be realized in a world which
has been rearranged to eliminate the need for
constant economic growth).

Hence, the likes of Scowcroft, Baker and Zbig Brzezinski
are pushing a policy of creating some distance between
the US and Israel, lest the interest of America's elite
not be served as well as it should. lest the "legitimate"
US interests in the reason be confused with US support
for Israel's interest. Today's program served such a push
quite well. I'll remember this when the US government cuts
out the crap and simply tells its populace that Mideast
intervention is necessary to secure "our" oil.

So again, congratulations. You got a well-known analyst
to bash Israeli policy in return for being used for ruling class
propaganda purposes. Was it really worth it? Is combatting
Israeli influence worth so much that it bears accepting deeper,
even uglier facets of the offical lie?

Jeff Strahl

--"The future's here, we're it, we're on our own"--John Barlow and
Robert
Weir, 1982.