#73 January/February 2005
The Washington Free Press Washington's Independent
Journal of News, Ideas & Culture
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FREE THOUGHTS

FIRST WORD by Doug Collins
Home of the Timid

READER MAIL
Insurance bloodsuckers, Thanks for MCS reporting, MCS sufferer, "Three Strikes" should be struck down, The silence of the politicians

NORTHWEST & BEYOND
Olympians resist Iraq war, Land returned to WA tribes, Flame retardants give off toxic dust, Many problems with US elections, Women in Iraq face many threats, Action demanded on Sudan, Coca-Cola threatens water supplies

CONTACTS

NORTHWEST NEIGHBORS
contact list for WA progressives

DO SOMETHING CALENDAR
Northwest activist

WAR

Seattle appearance: Michael Ruppert Explains 'Peak Oil' and 9/11
by Ridger Herbst

Widespread Abuse by US Marines
from the ACLU

MEDIA BEAT by Norman Solomon
A distant mirror of holy war

POLITICS

FBI Spying Illegally on Political and Religious Groups
from the ACLU

Gonzales: Attorney General for the Country or for Bush?
by Domenico Maceri

WORKPLACE

Unfair Suspension of Sound Transit Security Officer
from SEIU Local 6

A Lockout That Boxed Employers In
by David Bacon

ELECTIONS

How the Grinch Stole the White House--Again
by Alan Waldman

Bush Lost
by Margie Burns

Reform Coalition Offers IRV to Solve WA Election Mess
from IRVWA

SAN FRANCISCO USES IRV FOR FIRST TIME
from the Center for Voting and Democracy

ENVIRONMENT

TOWARD A TOXIC-FREE FUTURE from WA Toxics Coalition

WA State Unveils Plan to Phase Out Toxic Flame Retardants
by Brandie Smith

Addiction to oil: Mother Nature vs the Hummer
by Linda Averill

Can a gas engine use diesel fuel with less pollution?
by James Bauernschmidt

HEALTH

A User-Friendly Vaccination Schedule
by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD

NATURE DOC by John F. Ruhland, ND
Pressured back to health: hyperbaric oxygen therapy

RELIGION

GOD KNEW(S)
by Hammond Guthrie

Where Is Our National Conscience?
by Todd Huffman, MD

Michael Ruppert Explains 'Peak Oil' and 9/11

by Rodger Herbst

Michael C Ruppert will be in Seattle on January 15 to speak on his latest book, Crossing the Rubicon: the Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil.

The book, which delves into the darkest secrets of the US economic system, finds "Peak Oil" as the economic stimulus triggering an internal US imperative for the attacks of September 11 2001. Ruppert approaches the investigation from the perspective of a homicide, meticulously establishing the motive, means, and opportunity of the perpetrators of the crime. He assigns his readers the task of jury, urging them to examine the evidence presented in 600 plus pages of text and 40 pages of footnotes, to decide for themselves the verdict. The book has earned a five star rating at Amazon.com.

michael ruppert photo

Ruppert appears to be on firm ground with respect to the issue of Peak Oil, able to "throw more than 500 footnoted citations at you from unimpeachable sources." His manner of delivery however, has earned him a number of enemies within the government reform community. A backlash has developed which attempts to paint him as an operative attempting to inflate oil prices by circulating the "scam story" of oil scarcity.

Ruppert's basic thesis is compatible with the views of some heavy hitters. For example, Michael T Klare, director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts, and author of Resource Wars: the New Landscape of Global Conflict, states in a recent article in the Nation, "cultural and political analyses obscure a fundamental reality: that this war [on terror], like most of the wars that preceded it, is firmly rooted in geopolitical competition."(www.thenation.com/ doc.mhtml?i=20011105&s=klare)

David Goodstein, a physicist and vice-provost at the California Institute of Technology has written the book Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil. Newsweek noted on Feb 17 2004: "Goodstein's book is not a happy read, but an important one. In layman's terms, he explains the science behind his prediction and why other fossil fuels might not do the trick when the wells run dry."(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4287300/)

Althought Ruppert provides ample evidence of the reality of Peak Oil, the outcome of his analysis does not depend on that reality. The Association for the study of Peak Oil and Gas notes: "Vice- President Dick Cheney made a speech at the London Institute of Petroleum Autumn lunch in 1999 when he was Chairman of Halliburton. A key passage from his speech was: 'That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day.' It suggested that he at that time was fully aware of the issue of peak oil."(www.peakoil.net)

The fact that members of the administration believe the reality of Peak Oil is all that is needed to validate Ruppert's assessment of "Motive."

On August 31, 2004, Ruppert spoke on his new book at San Francisco's prestigious Commonwealth Club, which has hosted appearances by such people as Dennis Kucinich, Madeleine Albright, Hans Blix and King Abudullah II.

Ruppert has a solid reputation of getting in the government's face. The June 22, 1992 issue of People magazine noted his drug-war investigations and his support from then-presidential-candidate Ross Perot.

Marc Levin, Emmy award winning Director of PBS's The Secret Government, and The Last Party and Producer of Bill Moyers' 1998 series on addiction, stated: "Mike Ruppert is a one-man crusade trying to expose America's bogus war on drugs."

Dick Gregory noted: "This is the man who cost CIA Director Deutch his guaranteed appointment as Secretary of Defense after confronting him [in 1996] at Locke High School with hard facts about CIA dealing drugs." The episode was broadcast on national television.

Ruppert's newsletter, From the Wilderness, now has 16,000 subscribers in 40 countries including 40 members of the US Congress, the intelligence committees of both houses, and professors at 30 universities around the world.

Ruppert will appear at Kane Hall, UW on Saturday January 15, 7-10 pm. The event is presented by the Citizen's Truth Alliance, and co-sponsored by Seattle Thunder www.seattlethunder.net and 9-11 Visibility Project (www.septembereleventh.org).


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