Australian Report on DRG Talk

[Sixy]

Found this online today, haven't seen this elsewhere on the forum....

Former spy raises 9/11 conspiracy theory

ELEANOR HALL: With the major parties battling it out over just who is responsible for 9/11, others have come up with their own views.

One industry that's thrived since the attacks on the United States five years ago is the one manufacturing conspiracy theories.

Despite the official 9/11 Commission dismissing theories, including that the attacks were a Zionist conspiracy, a survey by Time magazine has found that more than a third of Americans believe that their own government had a role in the attacks.

And conspiracies theories are continuing to find receptive audiences in countries like Britain. There a former MI5 spy is running the line that the Blair Government had a role in the subway bombings in London last year, as Europe Correspondent Rafael Epstein reports.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: It's Saturday night in the heart of London, in a hall just down the road from where the number 30 bus was blown up last year. This place is packed with more than 500 people listening to a former theology professor from California, David Ray Griffin.

As one of the world's most popular 9/11 conspiracy theorists, he argues a neo conservative cabal in government in America must have put explosives in the World Trade Centre, because it's impossible for planes to have brought them down.

DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: The only way buildings like this have ever come down in total collapse is through explosives. So the normal assumption should be, these buildings were dropped down by explosives.

The thing the journalists ought to question is anybody who says otherwise.

(sound of applause)

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: David Griffin has written two books on his theories, pointing, among other things, to President Bush's family connections with the company in charge of security at the World Trade Centre. And he uses information from Pentagon websites to argue the military could easily have shot down the planes if that was their real intention. And, remarkably, his arguments win many people over.

VOX POP 1: To be honest, it's a bit of a baptism of fire for me, this whole experience, 'cause I don't have much prior knowledge, and I'm absolutely astounded, I'm really gobsmacked.

VOX POP 2: It makes absolute sense. No one could leave here without a doubt that it was a total inside job.

VOX POP 3: It's a truth that I've believed for a long time, and exciting, that people are actually willing to listen to the other side of the story. Because the truth seems outrageous to many, but when you hear the facts, you realise that the torrid story that the press are releasing is just as outrageous as many of the so-called conspiracy theories.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: David Griffin is used to having his ideas dismissed by most in the media.

(to David Griffin) Most people think that you are mad and that the people who are listening are mad.

DAVID GRIFFIN: We are definitely angry. Yes, we are mad, we are angry (laughs). And with regard to the conspiracy theory, I responded to that. The official theory is a conspiracy theory, and so you have to judge, if you've got two alternative conspiracy theories, you've got to ask which one agrees with the evidence, which one contradicts the evidence?

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: People who doubt what you say would argue that you're just playing on people's fears and insecurities.

DAVID GRIFFIN: Ah, the governments are playing on people's fears and insecurities, and we're trying to point that out.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: David Griffin was invited here by the British 9/11 for Truth Movement, and they're developing their own ideas about the London bombings.

The other speaker tonight is David Shayler, who says he was an officer for British intelligence, MI5.

DAVID SHAYLER: What he's pointed out is very well researched. It's a question of putting perhaps documents together and so on, and then just showing how they do not correspond with the official story.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Is there anything similar with the London bombings?

DAVID SHAYLER: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's clear that there are elements of MI5, elements of MI6 who are carrying out these kind of operations across the world.

This entire war on terror was designed to cause more terrorism, by these dark forces, the shadow government, or whatever you want to call them.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: This is a gathering of hundreds in a city of more than 10 million people, but still there's a fervent belief here that these conspiracy theories are the truth.

ELEANOR HALL: That's Rafael Epstein reporting from London.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1737980.htm

- If you follow the link, there's also an audio report (more or less the same as the text version).