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Lesley Hughes responds
(By Lesley Hughes) Six years ago, I wrote a column which examined evidence that the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan may have been motivated by the drive for oil and drug profits.
As background, I reported that the intelligence agencies of Germany, Israel and Russia all warned the CIA that the attacks of Sept. 11 were coming, a fact also reported in the London Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post, and on Fox News. I noted that the U.S. disregarded the warnings, but Israeli businesses took them seriously, and (sensibly) vacated the Twin Towers.
The Canadian Jewish Congress seems to have assumed that I am one of those who subscribe to a bizarre conspiracy theory that the world’s Jews were responsible for 9-11, a ludicrous idea I have never supported. As a result of the Congress’s assumption, I have been slandered as an odious anti-Semite, a claim accepted by the prime minister, by the leader of the opposition, and the nation’s media. I have also been labelled an extremist nutbar who has promoted, rather than investigated, the possibility that 9-11 was an inside job. As a result, the voters of Kildonan-St. Paul have no Liberal candidate, and a narrower debate before electing their MP.
One hopes journalists will be asking two questions: 1) Who benefits from this hysteria? 2) Is it still possible for journalists to do the work of journalism, which is to “challenge the official story” in an atmosphere of fear and ridicule? LESLey HUGHES Winnipeg
Matthew Brett is the Canadian Dimension weblog manager. The views expressed on this blog do not necessarily represent his own. Read more by Matthew Brett.
Ms. hughes
I read your 9/11 blog. Let’s not kid ourselves, the theory about Jews and Israelis is anti-Semitic. Nowhere do you ever even come close to qualifying any part of your post and specifically that sentence. One would have expected that you would have written “...and ofcourse such a theory is both preposterous and anti-Semitic.” In fact to this day you have neither retracted this part of your post or apologized for it.
Secondly, I have read Mr. Farber’s comments on the original CD post by Professor Hall:
http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2008/09/28/2110/
and this really bothers me, nowhere have I seen CJC or Farber suggest you are an anti-Semite. In fact he has written quite the opposite:
“CJC does not know Ms. Hughes and has never claimed that she herself is an antisemite.”
It’s playing fast and loose with such facts that gets you in trouble all the time.
#1. Posted by Mordechai Coopersmith on October 1st 2008 at 5:24pm
Actually, Lesley, you can thank M. Dion and his war room for the anti-Semitism slur. Apparently, when they became aware of your article they immediately labelled it as anti-Semitic and sought advice from the CJC (knowing full well that the CJC was unlikely to be anything other than anti even the smallest hint of anti-Semitism.) You were done the instant the call was made.
That said, it was not just a single article. You appeared with Troothers on a number of public occasions. Given that your name appears in the Troother’s publicity material it is a pretty clear that you have gone beyond the “just asking questions” stage. Something which, frankly, needed to be exposed to the voters of Kildonan-St. Paul.
At a guess, M. Dion underbussed you because he has enough troubles without being asked to defend the off the wall views of a candidate in an unwinnable riding.
Who benefits - M. Dion.
#2. Posted by Jay Currie on October 2nd 2008 at 7:34am
[...] Hughes responds The Canadian Jewish Congress seems to have assumed that I am one of those who subscribe to a bizarre conspiracy theory that the world’s Jews were responsible for 9-11, a ludicrous idea I have never supported. As a result of the Congress’s assumption, I have been slandered as an odious anti-Semite, a claim accepted by the prime minister, by the leader of the opposition, and the nation’s media. I have also been labelled an extremist nutbar who has promoted, rather than investigated, the possibility that 9-11 was an inside job. lesley hughes, canadian dimension [...]
#3. Posted by Hughes responds - Jay Currie on October 2nd 2008 at 11:40am
Leslie Hughes Rocked the boat. As a student and world traveler I have been exposed to countless conspiracy theories and statistics. During summer months I have worked as a regular employee in an urban center, during that time I did not hear nearly any conspiracy theories. Leslie, you made a mistake when you wrote that blog comment. It was not a mistake to write the article, but it was a mistake to publish it to a public who is not willing or ready to listen.The other mistake you made was to criticize the media. The media is a group of people that provide us with the information we want and it is a free media. By publishing this post you are joining ‘the media’. Leslie the people of Canada, speaking as a whole are not yet ready to except or even dig deeper into the shocking allegations you put to post. We are not ready because we are confused and scared about the answers. to do a simple and public and professionally run inquest into the theories which you mentioned in “get the truth’ would cost the canadian government less that 10 cents a person BUT what if that inquest actually does find corruption major corruption surrounding 9/11, Iraq and Afganistan, now I know that we have ALL heard murmers of the corruption surrounding the events up to and post 9/11 but what if an inquest actually published FACTS about major corruption. We would be on our head. The people of canada would be so enraged that our society could revolt. I am sure that if American’s got a hold of such a report the nation would become chaotic, that is what we are scared of, that is why nobody wants to hear a person with credability speaking of such issues. I commend you for your bravery in publishing such an article and attempting to dig a little deeper into such an unclear and recent event. you have answered the question and now us as Canadians must follow suit.
What would you do if you weren’t scared?
#4. Posted by Sean McCarthy on October 2nd 2008 at 3:32pm
This is impressive spin, Ms Hughes; however, that is all it is.
Leftists such as yourself have been playing this game - even before 9/11 - of cozying up with anti-Semitic (oh, excuse, `anti-Zionist’) tropes, all the while loudly denying that anything you do is anti-Semitic.
Appropriately, you appear to live in your own world. When told, for example, that you were no longer a Liberal party candidate, you were quoting as saying you felt “just like a soldier left to die the field.”
Ms Hughes, do you really think that your being, essentially, fired from your job is THE SAME as being left to die in a battlefield? Can you really justify such a comment?
It demonstrates that, in plain language, about yourself and about Sept 11, you really ought to get a grip.
#5. Posted by Whig on October 2nd 2008 at 3:53pm
http://WWW.AARONJAMESSTORY.COM MY MOTHER AND I ARE BEING TARGETED BY THE FALSE WAR ON TERROR AGENDA-The False War on Terror- an AIPEC/ U.S. *Government/ Israeli *Government initiative, does not reflect on Israeli *people or *Jews in any way Lesley’s comments are a reflection on government initiatives not anti-Semetic or anti-Jewish;
Victims of the false war on terror are enumerate and it is an afflictive entity which is affecting many-and now targets my mother and I! Winnipeg police have committed 14 attempts upon our lives towards kidnapping us from Canada to torture in the U.S. My family and I -Canadian citizens-are suffering and her health deteriorates!! -we live daily in terror b/c of Bush regime related persecution and relentless attempts upon our lives! After a barbaric U.S. Northwest Airlines profiling attack upon my mother and I, we are victim of the North American Union “harmonizing of the peripheries ‘Homeland Security’” effect/related tyranny and the ongoing violations of the 4th and 1st amendments (U.S.)against the human rights and liberties of all through the exploitation of the false opportunistic “War on Terror” mechanism that targets the American and Canadian citizen as terrorists in blatant paradox and hypocrisy against the original touted edifice of the ‘War on Terror’ in that currently through a covert and illegal juncture of U.S. and Canadian government, and as attest to the covert North American Union agenda, the U.S. is attempting to effect the murders and/or kidnapping of my mother and I to the U.S./ torture in retaliation for our exposure of Minneapolis’s and Northwest Airlines’ racial profiling attack upon us-Canadian citizens- on our 3 day trip to the United States in seek of medical consult at the Mayo Clinic. (21blacks:1 white imprisoned in MN Council on Crime and Justice declares Hennepin judiciary corrupt with “collusion between prosecution and judges to effect of targeting victims of police brutality blacks and the poor.” Local Winnipeg Police chief Keith McCaskill is an FBI asset, his bio citing clearly that he is an FBI grad and former head of Federal Bureau of Associates Northwest Chapter FBI. His affiliations with FBI and Minneapolis are being illegally exploited in order to effect our kidnapping/ murder. Media continue with censorship by wrote government design and instruction.
Aaron James 204 296 6497/ 204 889 9134 E: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
#6. Posted by Aaron James on October 2nd 2008 at 9:03pm
Canadians are perilously close to losing the right to speak freely. What’s worse is many are voluntarily giving it away. We are all in peril when a silencing chill can be thrown over any issue, even an issue some deem to be radical or disturbing.
Fight the good fight, Ms. Hughes. Those who oppose you seek to silence you with a simple label instead of honest discourse. We are on to their dangerous game.
#7. Posted by Michael Robitaille on October 2nd 2008 at 11:17pm
Lesley Hughes is only asking questions about the omissions and distortions in the official story about 9/11. Clearly it is a minefield of an issue.
She stepped on a mine and it blew her off the Liberal ticket and resulted in her being branded an anti-semite.
This does not negate the fact that there are omissions and distortions in the official story about 9/11.
It only says one must step carefully.
#8. Posted by Manfred of the north on October 4th 2008 at 3:55am
Since when has the Canadian Jewish Congress become the Thought Police of Canada? An apology was not enough? Stephan Dion said something about a process in place. Then he made his decision to fire Leslie Hughes.
Christie Blatchford, in her column of September 27, blithely disparages anyone who feels uncomfortable with the “Official” version of 9/11, as a “proper little Canadian lefty.” (In small caps I may add.}
I do not have a journalistic mind like Ms. Blatchford, nor the sensitivities of the CJC; but, I like many thousands of others who have taken the time to consider and research the utter failure of the USA to stop a handful of pathetic wannabes with a $2.95 box-cuter infiltrating and destroying the most protected airspace in the world will find that there are enough anomalies and outright truths to be found in this story that are big enough to fly a 747 through. To think that anyone entertaining a thought other than the official story is worthy of the dustbin of moral and political oblivion in this day and age is a judgement worthy of petty minds.
Stephan Dion got sand kicked in his face and now the CJC is the big kid on the beach of Canadian Politics. I would encourage Ms. Hughes to sue Mr. Dion, The Liberal Party of Canada and the Canadian Jewish Congress for slander, malicious suppression of opinion and being fired for entertaining a line of questioning that is suddenly forbidden.
This is a sad day for the body politic.
#9. Posted by Kirk Inman on October 4th 2008 at 8:28am
I read today that you’re looking into suing Harper & Dion for defamation, but the one who you should really be going after for destroying your campaign is this pompous, cowardly (because anonymous) Wpg. blogger, ‘The Black Rod’, who ‘broke’ the story and has written 2 or 3 follow-ups, incl. on this very posting http://blackrod.blogspot.com/
#10. Posted by Warren Dow on October 4th 2008 at 11:48am
re: “Winnipeg police have committed 14 attempts upon our lives towards kidnapping us from Canada to torture in the U.S. My family and I -Canadian citizens-are suffering and her health deteriorates!! -we live daily in terror b/c of Bush regime related persecution and relentless attempts upon our lives! After a barbaric U.S. Northwest Airlines profiling attack upon my mother and I, we are victim of the North American Union “harmonizing of the peripheries ‘Homeland Security’”
Talk about DELUSIONS of grandeur
#11. Posted by vildechaye on October 4th 2008 at 7:23pm
So when person X publicly support a conspiracy theory that claims Jews and Israelis are behind 9/11 - that falls under “freedom of speech”.
However, when Person Y calls person X an anti-Semite, then suddenly X decide to flush “freedom of speech” down the drain and threatens to use sue Y in order to silence him/her?
Isn’t it a sort of double standard?
#12. Posted by Demosthenes on October 5th 2008 at 9:28pm
If it quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck, guess what: IT IS a duck… Lesley Hugues told that Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks… It reminds one of the Protocol of the Elder of Zion and other assorted antisemitic lies. You ARE an antisemite Ms Hugues and no amount of whitewash will dissimulate the fact!
#13. Posted by Patricia on October 6th 2008 at 1:36pm
“Lesley Hugues told that Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks”
Obviously, you are purposely distorting what she wrote, or you cannot read.
Hughes asserted that sources of foreknowledge of the attacks included, amongst many foreign intelligence agencies, Israeli intelligence, and that they communicated this information to Israeli citizens and businesses, who paid heed to the warnings.
However, while there is abundant evidence in mainstream media and official commentary, that these foreign intelligence agencies, including Israeli intelligence, provided warnings of potential terrorism on American soil in NYC, there is no evidence of these agencies warning their citizens.
Hughes is making this assertion by assumption eg, it would be along the lines of Canadian officials hearing of unrest in Somalia and warning Canadians not to travel to Somalia in a travel advisory.
However, in any case she does not say anything about Israel, Jews, Zionists etc being part of the attacks or being complicit in them in any way.
#14. Posted by outdamnspot on October 7th 2008 at 10:04pm
I think it is absurd that Dion has made this decision. She has been a vocal activist on this matter. If the Liberals felt it was unacceptable, they should have let her go a long time ago. Why wait till the last minute?
It is disappointing Dion would succumb to political pressure from the Tories and Jewish Congress.
I was going to vote for Liberal, but they managed to lose that less than a week before polling.
Here is my thought: http://www.blables.com/article/?a=23
#15. Posted by Paul on October 9th 2008 at 6:45pm
Hi Lesley, Just to let you know Ernie died with your phone number in the bed side table next to his bed.He waited five years hoping you’d call. Wonder what Willie would say about this Karma? JoAnne & Phill
#16. Posted by JoAnne Howes on October 28th 2008 at 3:36am
The comments here by the Zionists are just ludicrous, and that last personal attack, talking about ‘Karma’ is just unbelievably tacky.
We saw the Lobby power laid bare in the Lesley Hughes incident, and we will not forget!
#17. Posted by anarchore on March 17th 2009 at 12:33am