No Longer In the Wilderness

FTW, December 5, 2001 - On November 28^th an estimated 1,000 people cameá from as far away as Seattle and San Francisco to Portland State University to see FTW Publisher/Editor Mike Ruppert give a 2.5 hour lecture and documentary presentation on the events surrounding the September 11^th attacks and their aftermath. Starting with an offer of $1,000 to anyone who could show that any of the sources he cited were not authentic or misrepresented, Ruppert launched into an display of more than 40 visual exhibits showing government complicity in and foreknowledge of the attacks.

The event was organized by the campus newspaper The Rear Guard and its editor Dimitris Desyllas. "I never expected that we would have this kind of turnout," Desyllas said. "But it is obvious that the public has very deep concerns about what we are being told and what the government is doing. We eventually brought in 860 chairs and there were people all around the walls and on the floor." One of the volunteer videographers at the event was a Native American spiritual teacher of the Dakota Sioux nation, Skip Mahawk. Mahawk, then with the 101^st Airborne Division, won the Congressional Medal of Honor at the legendary 1969 Vietnam War battle known as Hamburger Hill. Mahawk refused to accept the decoration.

Ruppert's lecture was full of documentary evidence. After pointing out - among other things - that the Chief of Pakistani intelligence (approved for his position by the CIA) ordered a $100,000 wire transfer to lead hijacker Mohammed Atta; that the Bush family had business dealings with the bin Laden family through the Carlyle Group, that the U.S. and British governments had extensive military deployments already in the area before the attacks, and that the Bush administration had ordered the FBI to stop investigating two relatives of Osama bin Laden living near CIA headquarters this January, Ruppert launched into the centerpiece of the lecture which was a visual presentation of his timeline of events around September 11th - which left some members of the audience in tears. See: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/
11_02_01_lucy.html.

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Special attention was also paid to a newly resurrected Unocal pipeline to transport oil and natural gas from the Central Asian republics to the Pakistani coast for sale to China and Japan. Henry Kissinger is on both ends of that deal.

Audience reaction and anger was strongest as Ruppert presented selected quotes from "The Grand Chessboard," a 1997 book by former Carter National Security Advisor and member of the Trilateral Commission, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Those quotes - along with maps of Central Asia - indicated clearly that the current war had been in the planning stages for at least four years. Two particular quotes from Brzezinski indicating the need for a Pearl Harbor-like attack evoked boos and hisses for the intelligence expert and professor who also served in the Reagan Administration.

Ruppert closed the lecture with an analysis of the assault on American civil liberties since September 11^th in the form of the so-called PATRIOT Act and several unilateral decisions made by President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft which have effectively nullified three amendments to the Bill of Rights and taken away part of another. He also showed documentary evidence from Congress supporting his claim that the Bush administration was going to loot the Social Security Trust Fund.

The audience responded to the lecture with a two minute standing ovation.

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-- Mike Ruppert's website and information on his subscriber-based newsletter "From The Wilderness" is located at http://www.copvcia.com. Anyone interested in arranging a 2002 lecture appearance can obtain additional information by contacting the office manager at 818-788-8791 or by emailing service@copvcia.com.

Click on image to enlarge.