Since
9.11, many people have asked the question, "What did the U.S. know, and when
did it know it?" Mike Ruppert is one of the most prominent investigators of
this question (see copvcia.com), and he delivered lectures in Portland on April 12 and 13, and
in Eugene on April 14. portland indymedia reporters interviewed Ruppert in both
cities.

About Mike Ruppert: Ruppert's history of muckraking goes back 25 years.
In 1977, as an LAPD narcotics investigator, he discovered that the CIA was trafficking
drugs. As an independent journalist in the time since, he has targeted issues
such as the
motivations and atrocities of U.S. foreign policy, the
shenanigans of the global financial system, and the continuing
complicity of the CIA in international drug trade. Ruppert is hardly alone
in the allegations he makes. Indeed, these issues are the bread-and-butter of
'the Left' and are taken quite seriously by organizations like Fairness
and Accuracy in Reporting, publications like the
Nation, and thinkers such as Noam
Chomsky.

Attacks from 'the Left': Yet, when the subject is 9.11, some of the
most
shrill attacks on Ruppert have come from 'the Left'. Even the websites of
the quasi-anarchist Indymedia network have almost entirely ignored 9.11 investigations
in their feature sections, though posts on the topic to their newswires have
met with both accolades and criticism. "Criticism", though, is too generous
a word to describe rhetoric
that outright dismisses any 9.11 investigation without examining the evidence
at all.

Ruppert's thesis: Ruppert's thesis is simple: The government is lying
to us about 9.11. He does not claim that the government orchestrated the attacks,
only that it had foreknowledge of them and did not act to prevent them. Such
a scenario has precedent in the example of Pearl
Harbor.

Ruppert's sources: For those whose minds are open to the idea that the
U.S. Government doesn't always tell the truth, Ruppert offers a detailed, well-researched,
carefully-built case. His evidence is drawn exclusively from mainstream media
reports, government documents, and court testimony. "I refuse to speculate,"
he said in Eugene on Sunday. "That's journalistic suicide." Can the official
9.11 narrative as put forth by the U.S. Government and the corporate media stand
up to the same rigorous standards of proof? Perhaps Ruppert's critics should
start there.

Others are asking questions: Ruppert is not alone in asking questions
about 9.11. Cynthia
McKinney has called for a full government investigation, and Michael
Moore feels the media should be doing more digging, too. Other public figures
are expected to emerge soon. Last weekend, the Atlanta Journal was hosting an online poll in which nearly half the respondents said they believed the governement is hiding something about 9.11. The poll disappeared from their website but the original page is archived here.

The interviews

PORTLAND:
On Saturday, April 13, two portland indymedia reporters interviewed Mike
Ruppert in Portland. Many questions were taken from
this post, in which the reporters solicited interview questions from portland
indymedia readers.

• transcript


• AUDIO, hi-bandwidth:
  
  Part 1 (30.7 mebibytes)
  
  Part 2 (37.8
  mebibytes)


• AUDIO, faster download (16kbps):
  
  Part 1 (6.5
  mebibytes)
  
  Part 2 (8.0 mebibytes)


• VIDEO highlights will be presented at the next portland indymedia video
  showing.

EUGENE: On Sunday, April 14, two more portland indymedia reporters
interviewed Ruppert in Eugene.

• transcript


• Commentary/analysis:
  
  "9.11 investigation: Why I believe Mike Ruppert"
  
  "Mike
  Ruppert: One Man's Search For The Truth"