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Jesse Ventura Tells AFP He Won’t
Back Off Publicizing 9-11 Views
By Mark Anderson
On
April 9, this editor for AMERICAN FREE PRESS had the opportunity to
speak directly with famed ex-professional wrestler, author and former
governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura in order to discuss a host of
subjects, including censorship of his column on the Sept. 11 attacks
and his provocative conspiracy show, which airs on cable television.
Ventura
confirmed that his TRU-TV cable series on major conspiracies, which
some assumed had been canned after its first installment concluded
early this year, is alive and well. A new season with 10 episodes will
hit the airwaves in the fall of 2010, he said.
While
the former Navy Seal who became a high-profile independent Minnesota
governor would love to specify the 10 topics, he was not yet fully at
liberty to reveal what they are, though he did say one is about the
shooting of John F. Kennedy. “Initially there were seven
episodes; now they’re ordering 10 more,” he stated
in an upbeat manner, while noting that some decisions still have to be
made on what will air and in what order.
“We
have 20 conspiracies that we’ll have to pare down to 10.
I’ll have to battle with the network, but in the end
we’ll settle on 10 of them. They promised JFK. There is no
pecking order at all.”
The
straight-talking Ventura had just finished filling in for
CNN’s Larry King Live as a guest host when he spoke with this
AFP writer. Notably, Ventura had Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) as one of the
guests on the show the evening of April 9. Another was
“defrocked” former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich
who, despite harboring more liberal views than Paul, concurred with the
Texas congressman on several matters, particularly Paul’s
insistence that the United States end its interventionist foreign
policy that is a factor in bankrupting the nation.
Ventura,
though he appeared on an establishment media show, remarked without
hesitation that America’s constant wars continue because
certain connected people get rich from them.
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Ventura
may be famous for having been a wrestler, but his brawn is complemented
by brains and a tough-mindedness often missing in political and
journalistic discourse these days.
One
of the main issues he wrestles with now is resistance to his frank
discussion of the conventional story of what really happened on
9-11-2001. Recently, The Huffington Post Internet
news site quickly took down a column Ventura had posted there that
questioned the government’s 9-11 story. Ventura’s
column mentioned San Francisco architect Richard Gage, whose group,
Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth, has grown to more than 1,100
architects, engineers and other technical experts who have presented
considerable evidence to challenge conventional 9-11
“wisdom.”
Ventura
minces no words when it comes to 9-11, which is the touchy topic that
likely is the main factor keeping corporate news organs from reviewing
a book on conspiracies written by a man who commands the attention of a
large cross-section of Americans, including young activists.
Ventura was well received by thousands of young activists at Paul’s huge
counter-convention
for renegade Republicans and independents in Minneapolis in September
2008, held at the same time as the establishment Republican National
Convention nearby in St. Paul. This AFP writer first met Ventura there
and shot a video interview of him, discussing ballot-access laws and
other hurdles that make it hard for independent and “third
party” candidates to get elected to office and make needed
changes.
In
2004, Ventura found himself informing young Americans by conducting a
class on third-party politics as a guest teacher at Harvard University,
where he attracted a record turnout of 300 students in the lecture hall.
While recalling that The Huffington Post
pulled his 9-11 article only one hour after it was
posted—much faster than the 24 hours some readers
assumed—Ventura indicated he will not drop the 9-11 issue.
Ventura
agreed with this writer’s observation that pure logic demands
that we question how airplane impacts and jet fuel fires alone could
destroy both 110- story towers (the government theory).
“How
could [the twin towers] be pulverized into powder [by a
fire]?” he said. “[The destruction of the towers]
threw steel girders 500 feet.”
He
recalled the irony of Arianna Huffington bugging him for a long time to
post his articles on her Internet site, only to mistreat him later.
“She
was on my case for two years,” he said. He remarked that
while the policy of the Post is, “they don’t do
conspiracy theories,” the Post
will not hesitate to run articles on other conspiracy theories,
including the government’s conspiracy theory on Osama bin
Laden’s alleged deep involvement in masterminding 9-11.
Ventura’s one other column submitted
to the Post,
about the Obama administration’s war on drugs, was posted
without a problem. But Ventura will not write for the Post ever again.
Meanwhile, he is chagrined that his latest book, American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies and More Lies That the Government Tells Us,
has been on the New York Times Bestsellers’ List for more
than four weeks at the time of this interview, but that the Times and
other major media seem indifferent to providing more publicity.
“Nobody
in the mainstream press has reviewed my book,” he said.
“I brought that up on Larry King Live tonight. I get the
feeling it could be another two months in the top 10—and it
still won’t get reviewed.”
Ventura
also told AFP that the BBC denied his recent request for legal
permission to use well-known news footage on his TRU-TV series that
shows a BBC reporter reporting that World Trade Center Building
7—the third building to crumble that day, though it was not
hit by a plane—had already fallen, when, at the time she
reported it, the building had not fallen yet and was clearly visible in
the background, along the Manhattan skyline.
“All
we wanted to do was ask the reporter, ‘Who told you that
building had collapsed?’ ” Ventura said.
“She got done with the broadcast at 5 p.m., and the building
did not collapse until around 5:20.”
Mark Anderson is a longtime newsman now working as the deputy editor for American Free Press.
Together he and his wife Angie provide many photographs of the events
they cover for AFP. Mark welcomes your comments and inputs as well as
story leads. Email him at at [email protected].
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(Issue # 17, April 26, 2010)
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