Lying Liars . . .

**UPDATE**: Here is another review of John Farmer's book by a former U.S. Marines combat veteran Gordon Duff writing for the Salem News (Oregon).

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I imagine it's too much to ask my conservative friends to lay aside their pitchforks and "Obama = Hitler" signs for a moment to read a book review article about how Americans were bamboozled into believing that the behavior and actions of the Bush administration, both prior to and after the 9/11 attacks, were much more stellar and heroic than was actually true.

A gentleman by the name of John Farmer wrote the book reviewed in the NY Times article referenced above. Farmer is no liberal, wild-eyed conspiracy loon - far from it. He was the attorney general of New Jersey (1999-2002), then chief counsel to GOP Governor Christie Todd-Whitman, and a federal prosecutor. Farmer went on to serve as Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission (officially known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States) chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean and former Indiana Congressman Lee H. Hamilton. Farmer's startling book was released days before the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and is an eye-opening expose into the bizarro world of right-wing deceit and incompetence on a grand scale.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

As senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, Farmer, who was the attorney general of New Jersey and is the dean of the Rutgers School of Law, investigated the derelict conduct of the national security apparatus. He was well prepared to do so. In their valuable account of the commission’s activities, “Without Precedent,” the commission chairman, Thomas Kean, and the vice chairman, Lee Hamilton, noted that shortly after the attacks, Farmer — “one of our most important hires” — ­established a victims’ assistance center in New Jersey and helped the F.B.I. uncover important evidence in garbage at Newark International Airport. But the commission’s efforts to reconstruct the tragedy itself were, at best, resented and, at worst, impeded by the sprawling defense bureaucracy and the Bush administration, both of which had much to hide. Even two reports by the inspectors general of the Defense and Transportation Departments, released in 2006, whitewashed government failures. Now that numerous transcripts and tapes have been declassified, however, Farmer draws on them to assail the government’s official depiction of 9/11 as so much public relations flimflam.

The mainstream media in this country is just as guilty as the Bush crowd for the deceptions perpetrated on the American people regarding the events surrounding 9/11. The media failed miserably at it's job of keeping Americans truthfully informed as to why 9/11 happened and how the Bush administration handled the aftermath of the attacks. That colossal failure stemmed from the corporate controlled media's craven fear of being labled unpatriotic and terrorist appeasers by the Bushistas at a time of national outrage. Basically, when the American people most needed the fourth estate to do their jobs, the cowards were cowering behind George Bush, Dick Cheney and the mighty, right-wing wurlitzer noise machine. It's why I no longer have any faith in our mainstream media - none, nada, zilch!

Anyhow, I've read a few additional excerpts of Farmer's book on other web sites and I plan on purchasing it as soon as possible to read the whole sordid story. Not sure why, but right now, out on Amazon.com, Farmer's book is selling at the incredibly high asking price of $114. I'll have to look around for someone selling it at a more reasonable cost. Although, I must say, based on the excerpts I've read so far, the $114 price-tag might just be worth it.

But getting back to my opening statement aimed at conservatives -- if you people can peel your eyes away from Fox News long enough and have even the slightest desire to be exposed to some unfiltered truth and reality for a change, read the NY Times book review article and then go out and do your own research on Farmer and his book. The truth just might set you free.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. it is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we've been so credulous. Once you give charlatans power over you, you almost never get it back.

Carl Sagan
US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996)

----k