John Pilger & His Crackpot Conspiracy Theories Discredited on Q&A

Menzies House contributor Vikas Nayak demomlishes crackpot conspiracy theorist (and doyen of the loopy-left) John Pilger on the popular ABC show Q&A:

There is no doubt that John Pilger has been around for a while - certainly for a lot longer than myself! As such, he is someone who should be well versed in the events that shape our world.  Yet, last night on the ABC’s Q&A, Mr Pilger seemed to be - at the least - rather confused on his own position, and in the daze of what my asking him a (admittedly poorly worded) question on a very simple point, he went on to not only make my case for me, but then began ranting on about some glorious conspiracy against Julian Assange that put him in the same league as Truthers, NWO global conspiracists, Birthers, JFK and Lincoln Penny Conspiracists... [ed: the list goes on] To put it rather succintly, his argument MAKES NO SENSE, and sounds more like the deranged rambling of a conspiracy-mongering fool.

To make this point abundantly clear, here is a video giving the full context of Mr Pilger’s initial position, and his later self-contradiction. I note particularly  how even Labor MP Craig Emerson could see the stark contradiction and logical inconsistency in John Pilger's claims of conspiracy: 

 

To summerise: John Pilger presented a grand conspiracy theory where Mr. Assange was to be extradited to Sweden for the sole purpose that he could be extradited to the U.S. In my question, I presented John Pilger with concrete evidence that, in fact, it was easier to extradite to the U.S. from the UK than it was from Sweden, and, having demonstrated this, I asked  Pilger a simple question, that may be summerised as follows: “If it's easier to extradite from the UK to the US, why do charges need to be ‘trumped up’ to get him to Sweden?” He could not answer. 

It seems clear that that this conspiracy theory lacks internal cohesion (to put it mildly). To claim the U.S. governmend needed to trump up charges against Mr. Assange to move him to Sweden such that they could extradite him from there only works if it is, in fact, easier for them to extradite from Sweden than from the UK. Yet this is clearly not the case. Mr. Pilger's logic appears to have catastrophic problems due to the fact that the key underlying premise is inherently false.

Still, as someone with an open mind about such thing, perhaps I am wrong, and as such, I am curious as to how others see it (and perhaps how Mr Pilger sees it, if my little article somehow reaches Mr Pilger’s regular source of information of world events). If I am wrong on this matter, please do let me know. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

So, as such, I invite you all to watch the above clip, and see if you have an answer to my question, or a way make Mr. Pilger's gibberish seem rational.  I await with bated breath. 

Vikas Nayak describes himself as "an Engineer and  Beer lover who is known to occasionally inform us of his political opinion". He is also a  Managing Partner at Metahype and a co-founder of Rock The Vote Australia

Comments

[Jenny]

1.

Sorry, Pilger was completely coherent and restated what everyone knows about the Assange legal case and you were simply incoherent and demolished holus bolus. Not that that was hard to do.

Try harder next time.

[steven]

2.

Mr (i use the term loosely) pilger is an extreme leftwing rabid u.s. hater.
he will try anything to attack the u.s.
he is a throw back from the 60's.

[oldskool]

3.

mark riley one week, vikas nyak the next,

O how lucky we are in australia?

John Pilger has been a fine investigative journalist and deserves respect and credit for going into places and reporting on issues that most dare not go and has done so for many many years.

your implied claim that your oustanding question has effectively brought down the credibility of John Pilger is nothing more than delusions of self importance.

this would be the worst article ever posted on Menzies house

[liberal elitist]

4.

Pilger may be a crackpot, but posting here puts you "in the same league as" truthers, birthers, and the NWO global conspiracists (aka climate change denialists) who frequent Menzies House.

[Vikas Nayak]

5.

Jenny, ok. That doesnt really address the inconsistency of his position.

steven, i dont think thats particularily relevant to the point here.

oldskool, i didnt imply any claim. The opening line and closing line of every article published on this site are added by editors. My question being unanswered yet revealing a fairly major flaw in John Pilger's reasoning however is quite intriguing.

[Vikas Nayak]

6.

Well if it really bothers you liberal elitist, you can go read my blog.

edit: oops. Correct address is here.

http://tiny.cc/dncvalentines

BTW, the fact that it got published here even with other conspiracy theory posters here indicates the value of free speech on Menzies House.

[steven]

7.

it is relevant ...
pilger claimed the U.S. governmend needed to trump up charges against Mr. Assange to move him to Sweden !!!
you know they didn't and didn't need to.
pilger's hate for the u.s. shines through.

[Vikas Nayak]

8.

Well, there are much better examples of Pilger's hate for the US (especially on that episode), this was just one where he ran into crazy conspiracy lala land.

Just on a side note, i thoroughly encourage anyone to get involved in QandA. The show is literally as good as the audience lets it be.

[oldskool]

9.

Turn it up Vikas, you ask for an opinion and then argue with that which is given you. No i don't think you deserve a backslap as you appear to have expected for your self proclaimed heroics

One need only read the title of your article to see what you are implying- its all here in the article

My question for you is this: How does claim a conspiracy make someone a "left wing,.. crackpot"?

[Vikas Nayak]

10.

The title of the re-post on this website isn't the original title i posted (which you can see on my blog at http://www.metahype.com.au). If your attacks are based completely on the re-posting editations Menzies House is entirely allowed to do to meet their quality control, i'm afraid we'll be talking past each other forever and a day.

[oldskool]

11.

ps where do you get off at dishing up this rubbish for an article and then trying to recruit others to your blog.

Is this a Mark Riley tactic?

I think in years to come people will still be talking about Mark riley's attack on abbott in the same breath as your attack on Pilger? what do you think Vikas?

[Vikas Nayak]

12.

Well Oldskool, i would be the one that got a host on a nationally syndicated TV show (of about 800k viewers) and a Labor MP who appear to agree with what seems to be an obvious contradiction in the claims Mr Pilger is making.

Thats where i get off.

I believe Mr Pilger hung himself with his own words, but if he has an explaination, its obvious this place or any other could be a forum for him to set the record straight. I believe he is dead wrong on this issue (not just because of the case of Gary McKinnon but also because of the Swedish Government vs. The Pirate Bay).

I believe in this particular instance, he has crossed the line from offering his opinion to expressing certain things as fact which are logically inconsistent, and deserved to be called out upon. The man is clearly a more experienced journalism, so if i were to apply Hanlon's Razor, would it be safe to say Mr Pilger was just being incompetent oldskool?

[Kloudz]

13.

Mr Pilger was on some bad drugs last night I think. he made no sense when answering your question (if you can call that answering). For what it's worth Vikas, I thought your question was good and deserved an answer better than the jibberish Pilger spewed up.

Worst still was his over-the-top hate of the US and everything West during the show.

[oldskool]

14.

Vikas- you most likely haven't seen some of Pilger's work in Se Asia and many other hot spots in the world when no one yet cared about the issues he was reporting on. He is no arm chair critic and deserves better treatment than some young upstart using his opinions to big note yourself.

Vikas have you read your own responses on the posts- anything contradictory there?

you can't even post a picture of yourself without showing how you can rub shoulders with some movers and shakers

[Vikas Nayak]

15.

oldskool, if its contradictory, it should be called out as such.

Look m8, you dont know me. If all you have is ad hominem, you're just going to look more and more like a tool.

[.]

16.

The climate change issue has conspiracy troofer roots on the warmenista side, not the denialists.

See David Southwell on Philip K Dick for more.

[.]

17.

Pilger thinks the Green Left Weekly preserves our freedom.

The same people who think Stalin got bad press.

FMD.

[Once WereRadicals]

18.

Methinks a bigger crackpot than Pilger was that Greg Sheridan chap. Boasting about all the Egyptians he talks to. Does this guy ever have anything to talk about other than boasting about talking to allegedly important people?

[oldskool]

19.

yes Vikas- read it

..Menzies wrote the first line and title...

I don't know you but you imply that you brought down Pilger and line up for a back slap

who are you? this week's Mark Riley

you strike me as an arm chair critic of Pilger who deserves some respect regardless of if you like him or not

Where is your evidence that pilger is a "left wing Crackpot" because someone doesn't like USa does not make them left or a crackpot

[Vikas Nayak]

20.

I dont need to imply anything.

Also, the menzies house commentary and title change dont even come remotely close to making your case for you. All they show is that they (the editors at this site) feel i took him down a peg (and to any objective observer it can look that way).

I never in my article at any one stage called him a "left wing crackpot". Infact, that phrase appears nowhere (even in the editor additions). But its nice to know what you think of Mr Pilger.

But if you want evidence that i knocked him down more than a few pegs like the Menzies House editors believe, you can just watch the video.

[steven]

21.

so what!
it is still an example.
pick a number,any number!
i chose this example.

[oldskool]

22.

I think you might need to read the title and the opening sentence

[Vikas Nayak]

23.

Where does "left wing crackpot" appear in any of those?

Seriously...even the MH written introduction doesnt call him that. It calls him a crackpot conspiracist (and doyen to the looney left).

The fact that he's left wing has little to do with the fact that this conspiracy is just plain loony.

[oldskool]

24.

I think you have answered your own question

[Vikas Nayak]

25.

Oldskool...

way to erase all doubt.

[oldskool]

26.

yes the problem is that I did watch the video and do not believe you knocked Pilger down "a few pegs"

I'm sure mark Riley is saying the same in his self dialogue

[Vikas Nayak]

27.

Hey oldskool, if you want to debate Mark Riley, you should get in touch with channel 7.

But thanks for pointing out the religious zealotry of Pilger supporters. I'll keep that in mind the next time someone points out an obvious error in a statement he makes.

[oldskool]

28.

I have no great loyalty or affiliation with Pilger.

What does motivate me though is your big noting of yourself

to spell it out clearly for you

A. you did not bring Pilger down "a peg"
B. your bragging on this site is unfounded
C. you have contradicted your tone by saying you haven't implied anything when clearly have.
D. your question was not the silver bullet you think it is

more sausage and less sizzle in future please

[Michael Sutcliffe]

29.

So, since Vikas's comment had no impact, can you explain Pilger's point. The way I see it PIlger

1. argued that getting Assange to Sweden was part of a ploy to extradite him to the US
2. agreed with Vikas that it's easier to extradite from the UK than Sweden (to the US)
3. Had the apparent contradiction (that there would be little point in extraditing someone from the UK to the US via Sweden) pointed out by the left-wing host Tony Jones
4. then rambled a bit before Tony Jones moved on

Can you point out Pilger's position on this matter (since you obviously see the logic of his point)? Does he believe Assange is being extradited to Sweden as part of an effort to get him to the US or not?

[James]

30.

I don't think this is quite so clear. If Pilger is arguing they want to get him to Sweden because in a legal sense its easier to be extradited from there, then hes wrong.

But this is taking his argument very narrowly and then proclaiming a rather sweeping conclusion (that this is a crackpot conspiracy).

Your own summary stated "John Pilger presented a grand conspiracy theory where Mr. Assange was to be extradited to Sweden for the sole purpose that he could be extradited to the U.S"

Perhaps the U.S is unable to make a case for extradition (yet) and would prefer he remain inside a judicial system that allows for extradition whilst they build a case. Before he for instance jumps on a plane to Venezuela. In this context then yes he would be extradited to a friendly country for the sole purpose of keeping a hand on him for the imminent future.

Even broader and perhaps unfairly off topic, the charges conveniently serve the purpose of largely discrediting and (for now) silencing wikileaks. Talk about contaminating the jury pool and rendering extradition to the U.S largely unnecessary by this point.

I'm sure there are other hypothetical situations that can be arrived at with a touch of curiosity.

[Vikas Nayak]

31.

James, that actually makes sense, i believe the US has done similar things (such as with Roman Polansky in France). There are hypothetical situations where the US would intervene a country's judicial process to their national security concerns (such as in Gary McKinnon's case). I just dont accept or see how such a conspiracy can hold water, when everyone is willing to concede that the UK is a far better partner to extradite from than Sweden.

[oldskool]

32.

See James' comment at #30

[Michael Sutcliffe]

33.

I'm sure there are other hypothetical situations that can be arrived at with a touch of curiosity.

If Pilger believed any of those hypothetical situations at #30 was the correct answer, he should have said so and provided a justification, and then he may have regained a little credibility. But he didn't, and therefore to most viewers, Vikas had the upper hand with his point and your comments are simply sour grapes.

[oldskool]

34.

sometimes Michael, one does not articulate well the minor details or ins and outs of a situation but can still have a strong opinion of the bigger picture.

I think this article has a focus on a micro part of a much bigger agenda

Pilger obviuosly has an opinion but does not know every micro deatil of every scenario but wants to defend someone he sees as being victimised.

[Jenny]

35.

Yes, my thoughts exactly oldskool. Lost in all this hoo-haa failed gotcha moment on Pilger's inconsistency, such as it exists or matters, is the politics of the Assange case. This being that Assange wouldn't even be in custody in the UK today fighting off attempts to extradite him anywhere to face trumped up charges were it not for WikiLeaks, an operation that struck a blow for freedom of information at the highest levels and that all freedom loving people could not but support - in principle.

All the rest is just obfuscatory, complicit noise.

[Vikas Nayak]

36.

Well Jenny and OldSkool, you've justified this existence of this article more than i have then. If it is the case that there is a specific reason that this conpiracy could stand up, then Pilger and his supporters ought to be able to articulate it.

[Jenny]

37.

You're being obtuse Vikas and the use of the bogeyman "conspiracy" rings no bells with most punters who rely on plain old commonsense. The fact that you - unlike them - don't get it, what is going on, attributing it instead to "conspiracy", woohoo, clearly demonstrates you're either dim or disingenuous.

Either way, you've lost the argument and shown yourself to be an enemy of freedom of information.An anti-libertarian, supporter of authoritarian top-down rule.

[Vikas Nayak]

38.

Err Jenny. When you say a group of people are putting a plan into place, by definition, that is called a Conspiracy.

Let me present my only exhibit to this point:

conspiracy (kənˈspɪrəsɪ)
— n , pl -cies
1. a secret plan or agreement to carry out an illegal or harmful act, esp with political motivation; plot
2. the act of making such plans in secret

source : http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/conspiracy

If you're in agreement with Pilger, then yes, you are promoting the idea of a conspiracy against Assange. However, since he is in the UK (a country which does regularly bend over for the US), attempts to move him seem counter productive to an conspiracy to extradite him to the US.

[oldskool]

39.

well vikas how could anyone stand up to your highly intellectualised question when you have this mark riley like ability to bring it all to the ground with one perfectly worded question.

Is this what you are looking for Vikas?

[Jenny]

40.

Vikas, you're not agile enough to be a contortionist.

Why do you side with Obama and Clinton against WikiLeaks?

Why do you hate freedom of information?

[Vikas Nayak]

41.

Well Jenny, how about you practise a little what you preach. How about we get your real name and photo eh?

[Jenny]

42.

Jeez, that's really lame, Vikas. I thought you were better than that.

So that's it. You were given the opportunity to state your position on freedom of speech and you squibbed and ask for my photo and real name. Me out of all the other anonymous posters here.

And you wonder why there is a Left.

[Vikas Nayak]

43.

Actually Jenny, i was proving a point. Everyone feels like they have something to hide (even on the internet). BTW, nowhere in my article was there support or opposition to Assange. He's a non-factor in this article, but since you tried to paint me as someone who opposes "freedom of information" i wanted to point out that EVERYONE has a boundary on what information should be released unconditionally.

You're in the same boat as Oldskool really. Just ad hominems without an actual argument. I hope one day the two of you mature.

[Jenny]

44.

I rest my case. You are a ruling class shill.

[Vikas Nayak]

45.

Isn't Obama the left wing party representative? Arent Gillard and co the left-wing party of Australia in power?

I mean, in both the US and Australia, the left wing are in power. Technically speaking, aren't you part of the ruling class Jenny?

[oldskool]

46.

gee wiz vikas you certainly have shown your true colours. You want to post this self promoting rubbish and you ask to be backslapped and people are intelligent enough to call you out and you get upset and become abusive.

[oldskool]

47.

Mark Riley one week- Vikas the next

[Vikas Nayak]

48.

On a side note, Channel 7 have offered me a lucaritive position in their organisation 8) /s.

[Jenny]

49.

Well, I hope it is not in copy editing.

[Vikas Nayak]

50.

Actually, its covering the Assange case. Apparently i'm the most knowledgable person in the country on the topic. 8).

[oldskool]

51.

if you consider what you did to Pilger to be newsworthy, you'd fit right in there at channel 7.

[Jenny]

52.

No they're not. The US doesn't have a left wing to speak of or a mass-based party independent of the ruling class, a party that represents the working class majority as opposed to the corporate elite. And neither does Australia today. The Greens are currently what was once the social-democratic current in Australian politics but even that is hardly left wing unless we're just speaking in relative terms.

[Vikas Nayak]

53.

cheers oldskool...i'll pass that onto koshie.

[oldskool]

54.

Vikas- could you answer me this:

how does supporting wikileaks make someone left wing?

is opposition to wikileaks now considered to be right wing?

You proberly will say you have never said this but you certainly have implied that this is the case.

[Vikas Nayak]

55.

Where did i imply it?

Just out of curiousity, what do you think i am?

A conservative, libertarian or center-right individual?

[oldskool]

56.

Q1. oh yes you have certainly implied it. Check your exchange with Jenny and the title of your article and your attempt to bring down pilger "a peg"

Q2. an opportunist up start

[Vikas Nayak]

57.

Old Skool, its cause i'm indian isn't it. Typical labor supporters for hating non-whites.

[Dan Nolan]

58.

I'm P sure Vikas supports Wikileaks. Pilger making claims about the information WL has to have a go at Greg Sheridan was ridiculous. Pilger is not a spokesperson for Wikileaks, not now, not at any time in the past.

Separate the two concepts, please.

[oldskool]

59.

That's a very stupid and strange comment Vikas,

I've said what I've said and the irony is that you have brought yourself down "a peg" or two with your silly and juvenile response.

i hope you do better and learn something from this in future.

a bit of humility and respect goes a long way in life

[Vikas Nayak]

60.

I agree. So stop being a racist.

[oldskool]

61.

that's desperate and childish

any observer can see that you are being plain stupid now

[.]

62.

The lies and stupidity of Jenny and oldskool remind me of the good old Green Left and Resistance.

Why do you find it necessary to lie about Vikas' support of wikileaks and fabricate Pilger's CV?

Useless perpetually failing sociology students, spruiking Stalinism when Mummy picks them up in a BMW, proud to smell like piss and not shower to look like "authentic" anarchist squatters.

You guys are the intellectual septic tank of the nation.

[oldskool]

63.

Gee Whizz-

my game is up

you and vikas have read me like a book

I never really had a chance against such intellectual mind readers like yourselves.

this has gone beyond stupidity- I'm done

[Varz]

64.

Oldskool, it was Jenny that first implied the political spectrum on those issues.

I think you need to get out of this emotional hole you've dug yourself and look at the topic objectively. Maybe then you might understand the flaw in the answers and opinions provided by Pilger on that show.

[.]

65.

You'd have a lot more zing to your barbs if you and Jenny didn't need to tell obvious, bare faced lies.

[Jaques]

66.

John Pilger, clearly vastly more intelligent that you and Emerson put together and vastly more experienced with first hand presence and reporting world wide unlike you.

He made a very clear case that you were too stupid and up yourself to comprehend. The matter concerns Sweden's plot to bring him to Sweden, a country recently screwed over by the USA as has been clearly seen in it exposing previously secure banking matters to the US imperialist Presidency. I don't say people should be able to rort others via Sweden but there has been an ethic broken down for the US, not for the betterment of mankind but for the US'advantageonly in tax gathering. The new World Order Bush spoke of is very well advanced (see also Rockefeller so stating in 1993.

Britain does not want to be seen sending Assange to USA, but it knows that extradition to Sweden makes him much more available for assassination as Europe is riddled with US bases and espionage and CIA killers ...probably more of them than Israeli assassins and deep espionage agents and sayannas.

He can be extraditted from Sweden with far less fuss, were he not assassinated, than from Australia or Britain.

Pilger knows a lot more about it than you and I. That morning he'd spoken to Robinson, intimately involved in the matter.Then twits like you call him a crackpot when you have less ability intellectually than the hoof of an ass.

You think that you have him on the run because you don't have the compehension ability or the intellect to stay with him. Te world is how it is because of dummies like you...pseudo intellectual ignorent jerkers.

That aside if you ever contribute 1/1000,000th of what John Pilger has contributed to the betterment of mankind you can call yourself a little man, until then you are a narcisstic pounce, what one used to disparagingly call "just a big girl" which I shouldn't say because alongside any girl you are even a bigger dummy than most men.

My father had an expression which truly suits you "if your brains were dynamite, you wouldn't have enough to blow off your hat"

John will go on being a giant in the intellectual world of seeking truth and exposing idiots liars and political criminals. He exposed another one when you opened your mouth."Bloody idiot" is a good aussie expression for you

[Lyn]

67.

Clearly Pilger has his critics:

http://www.brookesnews.com/061704pilger.html

Personally I detest people like Pilger and Robert Fisk...their reporting is so one sided it makes you ill. There is no balance in their reporting style.

[Michael Sutcliffe]

68.

this has gone beyond stupidity- I'm done

Bye.

[Jaques]

69.

You said
"ranting on about some glorious conspiracy against Julian Assange that put him in the same league as Truthers, NWO global conspiracists, Birthers, JFK and Lincoln Penny Conspiracists... [ed: the list goes on] To put it rather succintly, his argument MAKES NO SENSE, and sounds more like the deranged rambling of a conspiracy-mongering fool."

You truly are the stupidist man I have heard speak.

Ill educated Cretins like you are attracted to Q and A, and without a doubt you are certainly a title holder of both counts of description when you deny and mock the "New World Order" which the vaccuous called those of us who were educated in its origins and process, a "conspiracy theory".

Now international terrorist Bush, Gordon Brown and even the descendant of the architect of the new World Order openly admit to it, knowing the people are too dulled by propaganda and weakened by debt and depression to fight it

The conspirator "de Rothschild" real name Bauer a criminal banker who's descendants own the Central banker system, motivated illuminati freemason Wieshaupt, servant of the deRothschild criminal bankers to finance the theorists who introduced Communism and Nazism to the world..as a part of the plot.

Marx handled the communism task. He was a zionist named Karl Morcechai Levi...a zionist with name changed to deceive the public as were most of the Russian revolution conspirators and criminal who murdered the Tsar and his servants and 60 million non jews...He was a pathological liar, a practice also of the Khazar Israeli Prime Ministers...the latest "Netenyahu" changed both his real name and his orignins..claiming to be an Hebrew he is in fact a Lithuanian zionist named "Mylekowski" and his "porte parole" is an aborigine adopted name "Frieberg" calling himself "Regev")

Karl Ritter took the alternative commission of the two Wieshaupt offered . Like deRothschild, Wieshaupt...a freemason after who the Whitehouse is named...had in his gunsights a new world order. Whilst de Rothschild is said to be "illuminati" owing to his satanic dispositon it was Wieshaupt which fostered the concept...he being an associate of the Jesuits and trained by them.

Interstingly " Wishaupt [sic] believes that to promote this perfection of the human character was the object of Jesus Christ. That his intention was simply to reinstate natural religion, & by diffusing the light of his morality, to teach us to govern ourselves. His precepts are the love of god & love of our neighbor. And by teaching innocence of conduct, he expected to place men in their natural state of liberty & equality. He says, no one ever laid a surer foundation for liberty than our grand master, Jesus of Nazareth."

The problem is that Jesus of Nazareth is not only perverted by pseudo christians and "born again" alcohol and drug befuddle mass murderous lunatics (where not simply deluded) ...and Bush is one...but Jesus and his magnificent simplicty is forever overpowered by those hundreds of millions who realise the power of religion and defer to the viscious and bipolar Jewish "God" whenever they want to commit evil.

The fact is that the Jewish god, created in man's image and likeness,by captive Egyptian Jews was and largely is, the antithesis of Jesus the Christ. Thus Jesus is avoided when evil is to be done.

that would be all too much for you no doubt Vikas Nayak,you posturing doofus.

[Jaques]

70.

In closing Pilger is fair in his comments and extremely restrained considering he is speaking to and of mass murdering psychotics from the presidency of the US and its CIA and the Israeli Knesset and Mossad ...these are the atrocity driven monsters, whom doctrinaire zionists like Gillard and Howes support and who Tony Brown never allows to be seriously criticised.Media Watch made an interesting programme on the zionists in Australia demanding the SMH not print an article, the last by a very long terms expat journalist of decades in Israel...fearful he might expose something. The SMH acceeded to the Mitzvah.

It's easy to stop truth permeating...the media was bought out for that reason...to dictate corrected "truth".

Murdoch himself is an advocate of the New World order and was one of the Media which held silence of the Bilderbergers "for if the public knew what we were doing we would never have advanced as far as we have" Rockefeller 1993.

That the security seeking brains of the majority of the western population sees them avoiding education about their "leader's" atrocities and the causes and reaons behind WW1 and WW11 for example is understandable, but then critising those who have gone through the shocking revelations and fought like Pilger to seek out truth is a kind of jealousy and you are clearly jealous of John Pilger's intellect and standing.

Q and A gave you the opportunity to stand in his sunshine for a moment but the glare of his intellect and his knowledge was too much for you to bear.

Fortunately John Pilger has made some excellent doco's over the many years of US abuse and impoverishment and perversion of of Latin America and other countries.

Look on the Utube for ones over an hour long in particular. When you see him interviewing the ex CIA screwball and others you can readily see the kind of human trash in the US organisms which control the destiny of the poor and the progress of mankind in general.That the poorest people came in droves to save and reinstate Chevez after the US organised coupis itself and alone, extraordinarily compelling.

Next the US Imperialists and (Real property speculators) have in sight Cuba, an impoverished country of great beauty and great people blighted smeared invaded and belittled by successive US Presidents and who made a very logical choice to turn to the USSR for protection denied by the US.

As it stands firmly against the Central Banker family New Order.The US hungers for castro's death so their jackals can come and eat of his carcase, leaving excrement in their wake.

Pilger interview Cubans...study them.

Pilger has to deal with psycopathic liars who think we all belive the US Presidency and Israel are the "goodies" whereas in fact the US history is one of vile intrusion into 70 or 80 unfortunate nations...with the connivance of the IMF and the World Bank which serve in the deRothschild temple, dragging people down and their lands down..while we tut tut at the TV watching the countries being raped and razed so they can pay the massive interest invoicing.

There is a world which is not the narrow band of illusion you like to see and pretend it's the whole of the world. As I write innocent people are being murdered by the Israeli US Presidential conspiracy and their lands left cluttered with birth deformity causing radioctivity, cluster bombs, land mines poverty and despair.

I have no sympathy, well not much, for Mohammedanism however I can clearly see why they hate the USA...(Pilger merely exposes it)...and with good cause as the US Israeli alliance is geared to provocation and then mass murder when people fight back. You can support them too Vikas to underwrite your fear of the truth.

Those of you who criticise John Pilger neon sign your ignorance. If John made any mistake it would be like a dark grain of sand on a pure white 7 mile beach whereas yours would be a boulder standing in the Manly Corso....and it is...

[Lyn]

71.

The other side of the coin - very interesting.

Clearly Pilger has his critics:

http://www.brookesnews.com/061704pilger.html

And btw - US influence is rapidly waning, woo hoo you say....but China is about to fill the void, and mark my words they will not be as 'nice' as the Americans. China is already using her influence to mark out her territory. Africa, South America and the Pacific are her targets. We have already seen how China operates when she is not pleased...and, it is a well known fact that China as an extensive global spy network already in place. 3,000 in this country alone. Tick tock, tick tock....let's see Pilger and co carp on about Bejing in the next 30 years.

[Vikas Nayak]

72.

Alright...but didn't pilger say that hearsay could get you deported from England to go to the US?

[Whatever]

73.

Being Swedish and formerly a fan of Pilger, I have to say that I'm suprised how completely ignorant Pilger's statements are regarding Assange and the accusations brought against him by Swedish authorities.

The Swedish legal system has no interest whatsoever in Wikileaks or its relation to USA. The only thing they are interested in is trying Assange on the charges of sexual assaults and/or rape. Therefore, the question about how easy or hard it will be for Sweden to extradite Assange to the US is completely irrelevant. It's not the case and it will never be - at least not in a Swedish court room.

And if I understand Pilger correctly, he is saying that if there is a slim chance of Assange being extradited - by any country - to the US, then any charges against the man should be dropped. In other words, Pilger think Assange should be above the law. Sad.

Reading the homepage of Pilger and his rantings there about this makes you wonder how the hell he's become so successful as a journalist. He can't even bother to find out how the Swedish legal system works or what the facts are that the British judge had to take into considerations before making a decisions. Pilger does newbie mistakes like getting names completely wrong and mix up the political affiliation of people. It's like he's been drunk when he wrote it.

Pathetic.

[unknown]

74.

bravo my dear, so many think they are"smart" and they are only imbecils

[xx]

75.

I think you need glasses to read better between the lines otherwise you will stay limited

[xx]

76.

bravo darling I agree with you, so many limited around us unable to see and think with own brain

[xx]

77.

But Us wasn't lazy to "help" China to expand economy - false globalisation and democracy -and preparing to attack in the future you think that people are stupid around not knowing what Us, Uk, Israel doing around the world. But is so sad that reporters like you hide the truth, or maybe you really cant think

[AndrewJackson]

78.

The only person talking gibberish was the bald Indian guy. I assume that's you? And there was no law relating to Hicks' "illegalities" while he was overseas, not to mention a lot of his biography was about Guantanamo, a legimate thing to write about. You're just a vapid conservative apparatchik. DIAF hairless wonder.