AZ Republican state senator believes explosives brought down the World Trade Center
“To me history is still being written on this tragedy and it is still an ongoing controversy... There's many of us that feel that there has been a cover-up" says "gun-toting female" Arizona state Sen. Karen Johnson.
[Gee, I wonder why the writer felt it necessary to call a person named Karen a "female" and add to it that she carries a gun. Hell, she lives in Arizona. I thought everyone in Arizona open carried.)
Johnson adheres in the theories of former Brigham Young University Professor Steven E. Jones, who said that explosives, not just planes, brought down the World Trade Center.
I like her!
Getting the 9/11 Memorial we deserve
by EJ Montini
April 22, 2008
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/EJMontini/22020
The Arizona 9/11 Memorial won't be altered after all, thanks in large part to a gun-toting female Republican legislator who believes that explosives more than hijacked airliners brought down the World Trade Center.
Really.
[jump for more]
What that means to the rest of us is that while the controversial monument at the state Capitol will not please many people, it survives (for now) as a perfect reflection of Arizona's view of 9/11 and its aftermath:
Sorrowful, confused, frustrated, patriotic, angry and… a little nutty.
For that, we can thank (or not) state Sen. Karen Johnson. When the Senate Appropriations Committee failed last week to approve a bill that would have removed 12 controversial phrases from the state's 9/11 Memorial, Johnson cast one of the deciding votes.
Before doing so, she said, “To me history is still being written on this tragedy and it is still an ongoing controversy... There's many of us that feel that there has been a cover-up. And there's a lot of statements on that 9/11 memorial that reflect a lot of our views that we have about it. And I think all of those need to be represented.â€
The 9/11 memorial, called “Moving Memories,†was built with $500,000 in private donations. The design allows sunlight to pass through 54 inscriptions that are laser-cut into the memorial's cylindrical metal face so that the phrases are visible in shadow on the concrete below.
The memorial became the focal point of Republican gubernatorial candidate Len Munsil's 2006 campaign against Gov. Janet Napolitano. He criticized some of the inscriptions for being everything from unpatriotic to indecipherable, and proposed knocking the thing down.
The commission itself finally decided to do some revisions, announcing that it would remove inscriptions reading “Erroneous U.S. air strike kills 46 Uruzgan civilians†and “Terrorist organization leader addresses American people,†while adding six new phrases.
But that wasn't good enough for some Republican lawmakers, who proposed legislation to remove twelve others. When the arch-conservative Sen. Johnson voted not to go along with this, I asked her why.
“As more and more people begin to open up their minds, I believe the controversy (over the events of 9/11) will grow,†she said. “When we get a new regime in Washington maybe they'll go about really investigating this thing in a way that we should have.â€
Johnson adheres in the theories of former Brigham Young University Professor Steven E. Jones, who said that explosives, not just planes, brought down the World Trade Center.
“I have terrible suspicions when it comes to our government,†Johnson told me “I haven't had faith in them for a long time. From the beginning there were thoughts in my mind about what they knew about this. Besides, this monument was done by private individuals with private money. And I think that everybody is entitled to their opinion. If it is offensive to someone else, well, I thought that we had First Amendment rights in this country. I'm not happy with all the sayings on there, but I liked some of the ones that they wanted to remove.â€
Among those, she said, were “Fear of foreigners†and “Feeling of invincibility lost.â€
“Really,†Johnson said, “weren't we afraid of foreigners after this happened? We may still be. And does anybody feel now that America is invincible? I don't have a problem with that. Although I can understand how some people do.â€
In the end, that's exactly why the memorial should stay as it is – confusing, controversial, forlorn, infuriating – because after all these years, that's still how 9/11 makes us feel.
(Column for April 22, 2008 Arizona Republic.)
Monday, April 21, 2008 at 05:01 PM
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Followup Editorial: Drinking the 9/11 Kool-Aid
According to this opinion piece, AZ state senator Karen Johnson's theories address many of the right questions.
This is a followup to the earlier blog about AZ state senator Karen Johnson written by a member or members of the Republic Editorial Board (whatever the fuck that is). My guess is that the "Bushee" in the bunch wrote this opinion piece.
Members of The Arizona Republic Editorial Board include Robert J. Dickey, John Zidich, Joanna Allhands, Monica Alonzo-Dunsmoor, Steve Benson, Phil Boas, Ward Bushee, Richard de Uriarte, Jennifer Dokes, Joe Garcia, Cindy Hernandez, Kathleen Ingley, Robert Leger, Doug MacEachern, Joel Nilsson, Robert Robb, Bob Schuster, Linda Valdez and Ken Western.
Editorial, 04/24: Drinking the 9/11 Kool-Aid
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/Editorial/22223
Politics on the edges has an odd circularity to it sometimes.
The extreme right and the extreme left have a way of connecting, almost cosmically. They often link arms against foreign entanglements such as Iraq and the intrusions of the national government into our private lives.
For vastly different reasons, they share the (not outlandish) belief that centralized power in Washington, D.C., is a dangerous thing. They just tend to . . . take . . . it . . . a . . . bit . . . far.
Which brings us to the great unifying essence that connects eccentrics at both our political poles: the conspiracy theory. On both the far left and far right, the totem at the tippy top is that they're out to get us. And we all know who they are.
State Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, recently demonstrated her membership in this club.
The state Senate, at long last, appeared poised to finally - finally! - end the debate over what sort of remembrance phrases Arizona's 9/11 Memorial should include. The legislation would have extracted some locutions that appear to be critical of the U.S.
A vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee had the measure passing narrowly - until it came to Johnson, whose vote against changing the memorial's phrases created a tie, killing the legislation for now.
"There are many of us that believe there's been a cover-up," she told Capitol reporters about the terrorist attacks.
The senator gave details about her theories. The World Trade Center buildings could have been rigged with thermite to melt girders. The aircraft could have been drones rather than the commercial airliners most of us thought we saw crashing into the Twin Towers. As to what became of the missing passengers in the aircraft that (theoretically) did not explode against the towers: "That's what I would like to know," she said.
Now, we take no issue with private citizens believing whatever fever-swamp nonsense, however outlandish, they wish about their government.
We do take serious issue, however, with a public official affecting public policy on such grounds.
If Johnson truly maintains mere "questions" about the events surrounding the 9/11 attacks, she should have declined to vote. The likely truth of it, though, is that she really does believe her government capable of destruction of the highest order and is happy to express her delusions not just as a private citizen but as an elected official.
Johnson reportedly will not seek re-election this fall. After hearing her 9/11 fantasies, we heartily approve.
Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 06:39 AM
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Arizona Senator Karen Johnson stands for America!
All is not lost. There are still brave, moral Americans wandering the halls of power out there, and before Senator Johnson retires at the end of her term :(, she should walk into the Arizona senate every frickin’ day, packin’ pearly handled and holstered pistols of truth just to totally fuck with their minds. She could have a little placard at her seat in the senate saying: “We don’t have too many questions anymore. We pretty much know who ‘did’ it.†She is armed with the awful truth, and the dweebs (and their owners) down at the Arizona Republic don’t like it.
These members of the editorial board of the Arizona Republic “newspaperâ€â€”Joanna Allhands, Ward Bushee, Robert Robb, and Ken Western (son of Best Western)—are these their actual names? I guess they’re close enough to L.A., what the hell. Someone should adopt “Ward Bushee†as a blogger pseudonym (or sock puppet, G), or as a synonym for cowardly, lying faux journalist; one whose sense of patriotism and understanding of what America is has already been thoroughly condemned by Samuel Adams (brewer & patriot) in the harshest terms. To be honest, though, I was impressed with the guy’s typing and spelling skills. Ward Bushee – good band name?
Wait ‘til Ward Bushee finally comes to understand who really “did†9/11. At this point, I really wish it was just an inside (two-term only) “Bush Administration job.†The real truth is, unfortunately, a whole lot worse and much, much more complicated. Oh for those long ago innocent 9/11 truth days when we thought it was just Bush, Cheney, Rummy, and all their Texas oil buddies attacking us. Innocence lost...
“Somebody,†however, with INSIDE ‘assets’, access, cover of authority, time and control, blew up three NYC skyscrapers after ramming remotely controlled aircraft into two of them to make it look as if it had been an attack on America by “crazy suicidal Muslim hijackers†(who supposedly worked for a dying CIA asset and friend of the Bush family). After “the attack,†these insiders had people in place to feed an official, crafted and “approved†explanation into the “official†Soviet, sorry, U.S. media-stream. Thus, following the popular modern dictum of “only speak the truth as you are about to retire,†Senator Karen Johnson was able to completely and honestly convey an understanding of these operational basics, logistics, and sleight of hand maneuvers involved in the 9/11 op, and she did so with an understanding above and beyond that possessed by some in the 9/11 truth movement itself who have been “researching†this operation for many years.
Thanks Dicktater for following this important story and posting.