911Blogger: The Catholics Did 9/11

Re: http://911blogger.com/news/2011-01-21/seymour-hershs-new-book-detail-how...

Full disclosure here: I was born into a Catholic culture, and though neither of my parents is religious I was baptized and, to please a grandmother who had become religious in her old age, received my first communion. I "believed" until I was about 8 years old (mainly because of grandma) and my only interest in Christianity since has been historical and to the extent that Jesus' message can be discerned from the new testament, in its moral, not supernatural content. I do not feel any particular affinity towards Catholicism though I believe that as with any other spiritual tradition it has not been *entirely* negative in its effects on humanity. In some cases the church has been the only champion of the poor and oppressed--most notably in those countries (mainly in Latin America) where Liberation Theology has flourished. Historically I see the Catholic Church as a powerful establishment institution, one with a complex history of power struggle with other elites.

With that established, let me get to the point. It appears that Seymour Hersh, no friend of 9/11 truth, recently gave a speech in Doha, Qatar, where he shared some of the alleged facts he was to reveal in his upcoming book on the Bush/Cheney years. Denounced by some in the mainstream media as a conspiracy-laden rant, Hersh's speech is described in part by the website Foreign Policy:

"[The] attitude was, 'What's this? What are they all worried about,
the politicians and the press, they're all worried about some looting?"
Hersh was quoted as saying. "Don't they get it? We're gonna change
moseques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody's gonna
give a damn.' That's the attitude. We're gonna chance mosques into
cathedrals. That's an attitude that pervades, I'm here to say, a large
percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command [JSOC]."

He further claimed that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Vice Admiral William
McRaven and others in the JSOC were members of the "Knights of Malta"
and "Opus Dei," two little known Catholic orders.

"They do see what they're doing -- and this is not an atypical
attitude among some military -- it's a crusade, literally," Hersh
reportedly continued. "They see themselves as the protectors of the
Christians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th
century. And this is their function."

He added that members of these societies have developed a secret set
of insignias that represent "the whole notion that this is a culture
war" between religions.

It was President George W. Bush who first invoked images of a holy war in the Middle East, when he suggested soon after Sept. 11, 2001 that the US was on a "crusade" in the region.

The "Knights of Malta"
were a Catholic order founded in 1085 as a group of monks who cared
for the wounded. It evolved into a military order that safeguarded
Christian pilgrims from Muslims during the nine "Crusades," where
Europe's Christian states laid siege to Muslims for control of Jerusalem.

"Opus Dei," popularly depicted in the Hollywood film "The DaVinci Code," was founded in 1928 and officially accepted as part of the Catholic church in 1947. The group's website claimed their principle calling was to bring about a "Christian renewal" around the world.

911Blogger put this story on their front page, though it would seem not to  have much to do with 9/11--Hersh certainly does not draw any connections, and presumably would only argue that Arab Muslims' attack on America served as a welcome pretext for the evil Bush/Cheney and Catholic Cabal to launch their crusade.  Enter the comments, where user John Parulis helps to "connect the dots":

http://911blogger.com/news/2010-01-17/connections-connections

I've been talking about Opus Dei possibly connected to 9/11 for some
time. Glad someone of Hersh's caliber gets it too. . There's a lot there
worthy of serious investigation and someone already has. It's Robert
Hutchison's Their Kindom Come Inside the Secret World of Opus
Dei. When I read this book, I didn't expect to find Hutchison's focus to
be so weighted on Opus Dei banking and financial misdeeds and even
perhaps murder -( Clavi banking scandal ). The marks of secret society
are written all over the events of 9/11.To do something as extreme as
9/11 indicates a high degree of religious belief, because religions have
specialized in this type of brutality for millennia. Especially
religions interwoven with military power. These people are extremely
dangerous and they hold the reigns of power. If this battle is to be won
then it may have to see the energization of a healthy spirituality- a
people friendly-earth friendly spirituality like the First Nations
people held sacred. And a healthy dose of exposure of the darkness. Way
to go Hersh!

Submitted by John_Parulis on Sun, 01/23/2011 - 1:55am.

 

I guess "The marks of secret society
are written all over the events of 9/11" is one of those claims like "the attack had all the hallmarks of al Qaeda" - we just have to take the experts' word for the fact that it did, whatever those marks may be.  In the case of secret societies and 9/11 I assume it has something to do with the symbolism of the Pentagon and, um, the secret handshakes that, uh....  OK, so maybe I need to read more Alex Jones.

I am not here trying to argue that Opus Dei are a group of misunderstood nice guys--it's a right wing faction in the Catholic Church, one that is opposed to Liberation Theology and seems to be as interested in Mammon as in God.  If there is compelling evidence of their involvement of 9/11 it should be discussed, of course.  It seems however that there isn't such compelling evidence either for Opus Dei's involvement or for the role played in 9/11 by any Catholic cabal.  That there have been religious zealots discovered acting inappropriately in the conduct of their military duties is certainly true, but to suggest that "turning mosques into cathedrals" is actually a goal of the U.S. military in Iraq or anywhere else is absurd, and it sounds more like something that someone would say to Arabs and Muslims in order to sow discord between the world's billion muslims and billion christians - much as the war on terror itself seems designed to do.  In any case, we know how 911Blogger feels about people pointing out how fervent Zionists are everywhere to be found in the story of 9/11 and its coverup--does their sensitivity to pseudo-religious identities not extend to Christians?  Apparently not.