Raimondo responds to this post from yesterday, stating:
The willful blindness of Israel’s partisans is running smack up against a widely-circulated report in the mainstream media that Israel’s Finance Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was tipped off to the London terrorist attacks.
A news report from Associated Press reports:
“British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday’s explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city, a senior Israeli official said.
“Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had planned to attend an economic conference in a hotel over the subway stop where one of the blasts occurred, and the warning prompted him to stay in his hotel room instead, government officials said. … Just before the blasts, Scotland Yard called the security officer at the Israeli Embassy to say they had received warnings of possible attacks, the official said. He did not say whether British police made any link to the economic conference.
“The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his position.”
I am not going to go into all the petty little attacks on me- I am ‘small-minded,’ I am a ‘little neo-con shit,’ the title of this blog is ‘icky’ (Balloon Juice is hot air– real icky, hunh?), I am full of ‘hate,’ etc. ad nauseum.
What I will take issue with is Justin’s characterization of events and desperate desire to cling to and distort a Stratfor report so that he may peddle his vile little conspiracy theories.
The AP report that Justin bases his entire theory on was made at the heat of the moment, when no one knew what was going on. In that report, it was stated that Netanyahu knew BEFORE the attacks that they were going to happen (not to mention the report states it was the Brits who told Netanyahu in that story, so we would have to presume that Israeli intelligence warned the Brits but failed to tell their own government officials). Every subsequent report from that point on has corrected the record, and pointed out that Netanyahu was notified of the explosions AFTER they occurred. Justin calls that a cover-up, or scrubbing the public record. I call it correcting the record and doing additional reporting.
There is probably a good chance that Israeli intelligence did tell British authorities that Britain might be ripe for an attack. After all, the G-8 summit, was taking place, London was in the running for the Olympics (and terrorist organizations elsewhere had seized upon this issue), and a whole host of other events, notwithstanding the presence of a great number of Islamist radicals in England, make it perfectly reasonable to assume that England would at some point be a target.
There probably were vague rumblings. Like, say, an internal memo that states ‘Bin Laden Intent on Striking US.’ But, hey, if it can save some lives, I can offer up some ‘intelligence’, too. Here ya go, Justin:
– Chechnyan rebels will attack Russia again.
– Zarqawi plans to blow something up in Iraq.
– North Korea will continue to be a pain in the ass throughout 2006.
– Democrats and Republicans will both have candidates in the 2008 election.
– Justin Raimondo will still be an idiot tomorrow.
– Al Qaeda will attack someone in the west again. They will probably use explosives and hit civilians
That was helpful, wasn’t it?
As the Stratfor memo states:
Contrary to original claims that Israel was warned
Jimmy Jazz
So which Protocol were the Elders of Zion following again? I get confused.
The goofiest part of all of this is even the initial report claimed the Brits warned the Israelis, not the other way around.
As far as consipiracy theories involving Israel go, I imagine they have might have stuck some of the crappy intelligence that Colin Powell used for his Iraq song and dance into the pipeline, but intentionally withholding specific knowledge of attacks? Nah.
JG
He’s just jealous because you’ve got the best blog on the internets.
farmgirl
John — Thanks for picking up on the “bin Laden Determined to Strike in US’ idea. I did wonder in your earlier post how Raimondo could POSSIBLY not see the irony in his own comment:
“My short book […] shows that Israel wasn’t behind the 9/11 attacks, as many in the Arab world allege, but that they did have some knowledge that a terrorist attack was about to take place on American soil and somehow neglected to tell us about it.”
Somehow Israel isn’t the first thing that comes to mind on reading “they did have some knowledge that a terrorist attack was about to take place on American soil.” Glad I’m not the only one.
David R. Block
LOL. Now John, letters that large are the internet equivalent of screaming. Tsk, tsk.
[/sarcasm]
That boy doesn’t have issues, he has a freakin’ subscription.
ppgaz
Great punchline. The only thing I’d add is to make the Bite Me flash.
Tim F
This is like beating up a retarded kid. You could sort of justify it as exercise, but there’s not much glory in it.
KC
Gawd, this is great, John. I just went through a conspiracy drill with a good friend of mine. At some point he saw that lousy excuse for a conspiracy theory film, In Plane Sight, and was convinced by it. It basically posits that the tragedy of 911 was caused by individuals, “groups,” or “agencies” in the American government. It never actually says who the guilty parties in government are, just shows us a lot of pictures of George Bush, one picture of Bill Clinton, and intimates the military was involved somehow. I watched it at his behest and my conclusion was pretty simple: I’d seen more convincing Roswell incident stuff. It’s amazing how people get taken in by this conspiracy crap sometimes.
SoCalJustice
I wonder how much spittle Raimondo had to wipe of his computer monitor after that screed…
In addition to his insane obsession, the projection on display in that post was nothig short of pathetic.
And can we please stop the tedious discussions over whether Justin is “right-wing” or ‘”left-wing.” He is a resident of that strange area in the lunatic fringe.
Apologies for my post on the last thread. I was just going by his self-characterization. You are clearly correct.
Tony Alva
Go on with your bad self John…
The guys a Moron with a capital “M”. Stay angry and continue to preach the gospel of pragmatism.
SoCalJustice
Er,
nothignothing, rather.And speaking of insane – Justin – since I know you’re reading this, remember when you wrote this on your blog:
God, but I’m having an indecent amount of fun over at the Huff-blog!
(In another post on basically the same topic as 95% of your others?)
What happened? Why’d you stop having your indecent fun over there?
And did Sharon or Netanyahu or Alan Greenspan know before you that you were going to stop posting there?
kl
That hurricane isn’t the only Dennis* blowing hot air and going around in circles.
*Justin’s real first name.
Johno
Actually John, I did find that one part a lot more readable than the usual font you use.
Much love.
Dr. Weevil
One hint of Raimondo’s dishonesty is his weasel-worded reference to a “widely-circulated report” implicating Israel. When reports circulate widely, sometimes it’s because they’re true, but just as often it only proves that there are large numbers of people who would like them to be true, people who may be bigots or fools or liars or all three. This one seems to fall in the latter class, but Raimondo and others will keep on circulating it as widely as they can, and then take their own actions as evidence that it’s true.
p.lukasiak
one word of advice, John….
ignore the trolls. Even the ones like Justin R. who have their own blogs.
Marcus Wellby
Conspiracies can be fun. They make for great storylines — X-files anyone? Hell, secret alian ships at Area 51 is a great STORY – not true, but great fun to read about.
Raimondo, that boy at got nothing on whatreallyhappened.com — that’s the clearing house of all zionist conpiracy theories. Even a few good “holocaust never happened” threads thrown in for good measure.
I guess, to some, its a lot easier to blame the Jews. Makes the whole terrorism matter seem so simple and containable. But really, its only slighly more simplistic than “they hate us for our freedoms”.
Rick
John,
It should be telling that Raimondo was too extreme for FreeRepublic even back in the halcyon year of 1998.
I couldn’t get banned until 2K.
Cordially…
Orcfist
Here are some good links on the sorid history of Justin and his sick pals.
More here.
Read through…did you know our dear Dennis was once a gay prostitute?
Jimmy Jazz
And by linking him to Jeff Gannon through Kevin Bacon, all plots are revealed!
Um….sorry, got carried away.
Brad R.
I hope this helps:
Bite Me.
Effin’ brilliant :-)
Kimmitt
I suppose that this is kind of necessary, but dude, nobody cares what these guys think.
HH
An attack from Justin ‘Moonbat’ Raimondo is a badge of honor. Congrats.
Caelestis
I took him to task for going after Debbie Schlussel when she exposed Marla Ruzicka. He never got back to me, I guess he didn’t catch that I’m a neocon.