Prominent libertarian Thomas DiLorenzo voices support for 9/11 truth

This article has set a long time in the rafters but I finally had time to compile a relevant account of the following matter, which should be of interest to free-market types, conspiracy researchers, 9/11 truthers, and liberty-minded folks of all stripes.

On April 6, 2012, economist Thomas DiLorenzo was a guest on Dr. Kevin Barrett's radio show on AmericanFreedomRadio.com [The hour-long DiLorenzo interview begins in the 2nd hour of the 2-hour MP3 here.] Dr. DiLorenzo needs no introduction to the liberty-oriented audience, but here are some links:

• Wikipedia
• Media Feed for Thomas J. DiLorenzo -Ludwig Von Mises Institute
• DiLorenzo's LewRockwell Archives

Dr. Kevin Barrett made international news in 2006 when he dared to question the official government story on 9/11/01. You can read a NY Times story about his case here:
'A Skeptic on 9/11 Prompts Questions on Academic Freedom.' As Dr. Barrett pointed out in a recent program,

"I got witch-hunted out of the University of Wisconsin for researching and speaking out on controversial subjects like 9/11 and Palestine. The witch hunt, presumably ordered by folks like Karl Rove, Lynn Cheney and ACTA and carried out by local troglodyte politician Steve Nass, aimed to scare American professors into silence. Fortunately there are still brave folks in the academy who won't be silenced!"

What's notable and interesting about Barrett's show is that he almost always asks his noteworthy guests about their stance on 9/11 truth- not shying away from controversial issues. In addition to DiLorenzo and countless others on his show, Barrett has questioned CIA analyst Philip Giraldi, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Pat Buchanan, and Juan Cole about 9/11 being an inside job. Buchanan, who often poses as an anti-establishment populist to peddle his books yet endorsed George W. Bush in 2004, became extremely uncomfortable with the 9/11 questions. Pat asked Kevin if they could "move on", insisted Dick Cheney was his good friend and that he could never have taken a part in such a thing. It is an absolute must hear. Professor Juan Cole, supposedly a critic of Israel, went berzerk on another show claiming that white people mistreat Jews and ended up hanging up on Kevin soon after the 9/11 questions began. It is an absolute classic.

Many 'mainstream' libertarian, free-market types also seem to shy away from "taboo" subjects such as 9/11 and other conspiracies. There are exceptions, such as Judge Andrew Napolitano, Paul Craig Roberts, and Jesse Ventura. The majority of early Ron Paul presidential supporters, according to Paul himself, were 9/11 truthers, listeners of the Alex Jones show. This despite the fact that Paul later ended up giving wildly differing and conflicting views on his stance about 9/11 conspiracies from week to week, depending on who he was talking to. Mitt Romney endorsee Rand Paul has never cast doubt on the establishment's official 9/11 story, and in fact promotes the nonsense regularly by defending Dr. Shakil Afridi, currently imprisoned in Pakistan, whom Paul contends "provided key intelligence to the United States leading to the death of Osama bin Laden and risked his own life to help the U.S. military find and kill its most-wanted terrorist." Rand Paul's positions should come as no surprise though, because as the London Telegraph recently reported, "Rand Paul is no Ron Paul, and he'll go to Israel to prove it". [Also here.]

DiLorenzo, on the other hand, deserves some credit for having courage to speak the truth when put on the spot. Here are some of the highlights from the Tom DiLorenzo interview:

Barrett: [1:16:20] "I think some of the energy behind the Ron Paul movement and related movements is coming from the fact that people are waking up to these just gargantuan grotesque abuses of the Constitutional powers , ya know- not just these undeclared wars - but a culture of just complete over-the-top criminality.

DiLorenzo: Right.

Barrett: Covert operations community, the secrecy, uh and the 9/11 truth movement of course is one very strong example - that's how I got into this whole politics game. Have you looked into those issues?

DiLorenzo: Uh- well I've read- ya know um I'm an economist, and so I - I don't get into everything, but yeah I've read a lot about these things and I think they're getting bolder and bolder with their tyranny because they think that this war- so-called war on terror gives them a carte blanche excuse to do just about everything, anything, to us..."

The two go on to discuss "totalitarian control over the public", such as warrantless searches, TSA, etc., DiLorenzo suggests people read "War is the Health of the State" by Randolph Bourne (1918) and notes "in wartime mommy and daddy of course is the federal government.."

[1:26:00] DiLorenzo: "That's why every couple of weeks or month or so they bring out some new boogeyman - they had a police chief of New York City last week on TV saying they claimed that on the internet somebody in a cave in Afghanistan claimed that he wanted to bomb New Yorkers again. And so we're all supposed to scream in terror and give up our civil liberties because the police chief of New York claimed that some anonymous guy said something nasty about New Yorkers. And uh, but that's part of the game ya know the [?undeciphered?] has to be kept in a constant state of freight. and so the government can take our freedoms from us. 

Barrett: Yeah you know I think that's absolutely right that insight, they regress people to some sort of childlike state - or childish I guess,
TD: "Yeah."

Barrett then discusses mind control techniques, and "the Gruen Transfer". [1:28:00] DiLorenzo discusses "chickenhawks". Barrett poins out "Israel is running our foreign policy". The two discuss Iran being sold as an alleged threat. DiLorenzo points out that government needs to find a boogeyman to justify wars and states "as an economist I follow the money first and foremost." DiLorenzo notes that we are "slaves to a military empire," a welfare-warfare state, and that in an empire, people are "cannon fodder and tax slaves."
DiLorenzo then discusses his book The Real Lincoln and notes that Lincoln defended the enshrinement of slavery as well as spoke of invasion and bloodshed over tax collecton in his first inaugural address. [March 4, 1861]. DiLorenzo explains that Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and arrested some 15,000 people, shut down 300 newspapers, imprisoned editors, imprisoned and deported U.S. Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham (D-Ohio), attacked separation of powers, and declared himself dictator. DiLorenzo remarks "that's why neocons like him so much."

Near the end of the program, Barrett successfully revisits the subject of 9/11 truth:

Barrett: [1:53:43] "We only have a minute left. I'm well known to be active in the movement of people who think that neoconservatives and some other um, allied forces orchetsrated the events of 9/11 precisely in order to create this kind of permanent state of emergency, with an executive dictatorship. Uh, are you at least on board with the call for a new investigation- for any- for a real investigation of what actually did happen on 9/11?

DiLorenzo: "Yeah well I don't put anything beyond- uh uh uh ya know- I am --(stammering)-- I'm as skeptical as anybody over the government, let me put it that way. I mean they have - they have dropped nuclear bombs on, on innocent people. So compared to 911, ya know, that's ya know, many orders of magnitude worse. So uh, so why not. Ya know, on the earlier point you made, ya know there was a famous supreme Court case called Ex parte Milligan where in 1866 where the Supreme Court said it's especially during wartime when we must be dilligent to protect Constitutional liberties. Because thats when politicians try to destroy them and to destroy them forever."

KB: Hear hear. and when the war is completely imaginary- it seems to have been made up by the government in order

TD: Thats right.

KB: to create those powers, thats really when you have to watch out for them.

TD: I think that's exactly what the Supreme Court had in mind in 1866, that point that you just made

KB: Okay well thank you Thomas DiLorenzo, it's been a wonderful converation. I appreciate your excellent work, keep it up.

TD: Thank you, thanks for having me and have a great weekened. Happy Easter to everybody.
KB: Okay you too, happy Easter to you, and to all our listeners. That was Thomas DLorenzo. You can find links to his work by way of the truthjihadradio.blogspot.com website. He writes for LewRockwell.com. We'll be back next week, God willing. So until then, have a great weekend!

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