Truth Troubadour Blog: Vic Sadot Expelled from Northern California 9/11 T...

Truth Troubadour Blog: Vic Sadot Expelled from Northern California 9/11 T...: Taking to the streets with Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance ,  and serving as a reporter for No Lies Radio   at the Anti-Iraq...

Vic Sadot Expelled from Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance in Quickie Vote on 6-04-15

Taking to the streets with Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance, 

and serving as a reporter for No Lies Radio 

at the Anti-Iraq War Demo in San Francisco in 2008. Vic Sadot

Tonight I was expelled from the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance by an un-announced vote of 5-0-4, which I requested be delayed until the next regular meeting so that everyone could participate in the matter and study the issues. I was asked to leave the room after a long discussion that claimed that I was "obliged to inform the group that Barbara Honegger would be coming to the last meeting". She had sent me an email saying she might drive up from Santa Barbara to a meeting sometime to confront whoever was keeping her film from being shown in 2014, and to inquire about some "deal" to make her film wait until Ken Jenkins' "Pentagon Plane Puzzle" could be made and screened opposite her film in 2015. I had no idea if she would really come all that far to Berkeley, but she did. I had told some of her fans that she might be coming.

At any rate, Barbara's film was voted into the 2015 N CA 9/11 Truth Film Festival by a vote of 16-0-1 at that last group meeting on 5-21-15. The expulsion was the blowback on me. I kept this controversy within the circles and listserv of the group. But the expulsion no longer obliges me to worry about the group's reputation, which I was trying to protect. This is my perspective, and why I think this conduct has much to do with maintaining integrity inside the Truth movement. 

In my mind, I served the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance very well in many ways, not the least of which was as a whistle-blower. In fact, that was my best service to the group. Often you must be prepared to pay the price when you feel that you are standing up for a principle.

I was active in the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance since the fall of 2008 with little conflict at all. It was in the last year and a half that I encountered major stress and resistance in dealing with 3 of the group’s decisions, as well as what one friend described to me as their “situational ethics”, which is something very different from “integrity”.

The 3 issues I raised within the group in the past year were: (1) The Censorship of the entire Pentagon section of the film by Massimo Mazzucco,"September 11 - The New Pearl Harbor". 

(2) The suppression of Barbara Honegger's then-new 2013 film, "Behind the Smoke Curtain: What Happened at the Pentagon on 9/11, What Didn't, and Why It Matters". (3) The vote to not allow Bonnie Faulkner to have her regular seating at the Grand Lake Theater in 2014, which I felt was based on personal hostility and specious grounds. 

(1) The Censorship of the film by Massimo Mazzucco,"September 11 - The New Pearl Harbor"
Why was the group and Mazzucco never told that his entire Pentagon segment was not shown at his Bay Area debut screening? And why did we not find out about that until after the film festival? I would not let go of that one until it was acknowledged and apologized for, which after about 4 months, it finally was. The “situational ethics” that I refer to is that some members seem to feel that “censorship” would have been okay as long as no one found out about it. Some felt that it was not proper for me to directly ask my friend Max Mazzucco about it.

In fact, I did raise the question to Ken Jenkins at a meeting shortly after the 2014 film fest. Marilyn Langlois should remember that because she too felt that Jenkins should not be promoting and selling copies of the unauthorized edited-by-Jenkins version of Mazzucco’s work and pitching it as the “science safe” version of the film. We both told Jenkins that we thought that that was completely disrespectful of the Artist/Director who had contributed his work to N CA 9/11 Truth Alliance. I wrote to Mazzucco after bringing the matter to the group who wanted it brushed under the rug. Much of the group wanted this 9/11 Truth "Censorship" Elephant in the Room to simply go away.

What’s more is that I had been the one who, in a group meeting before the 2014 Festival, raised the question  to Jenkins as to whether he had a problem with Mazzucco’s Pentagon interpretation. I asked him, "Doesn’t it have a similar take on the Pentagon to what Barbara Honegger says, which you oppose so strongly?" I asked him then and there if he was screening Mazzucco’s Pentagon perspective? He assured me and the group that he had no problem with showing Mazzucco's film other than time constraints, which I accepted. Yet it was censored, and the censorship was kept a secret from Mazzucco and the group.

Max Mazzucco: Questions & Answers about his understanding of his agreement with Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance and Ken Jenkins. Sent by Max Mazzucco to Vic Sadot October 4, 2014, saying: Please feel free to circulate my emails to you to anyone you wish. 

1 Were you ever told that it was your "Pentagon section" that was the section that was going to be cut from our public screening in the SF Bay Area? Or just that we had a time problem?

No, I was never told. It was always presented to me as a time problem.

2 Were you told by Ken Jenkins that he personally, or that we as a group, the Northern CA 9/11 Truth Alliance, had a problem with the Pentagon part of your documentary?

Yes, but only when we talked first. At that time he tried to talk me into changing it, pushing the yes-Boeing theory. I obviously disagreed.

3 Or was the matter of editing presented to you as simply a matter of serious finite time constraints? It just needed to be shortened! Like that?

Yes. By the time it came to discussing the screening, only the length factor was mentioned. (The Pentagon issue had already been covered, as you can read below).

4 Did Ken Jenkins ever refer to this Open Letter to Massimo Mazzucco from about a year ago? Did he have any dialogue with you to let you know that he had a strong position in agreement with this document so critical of your film? Or were you not told about that? http://www.scientistsfor911truth.org/docs/Mazzucco_letter_Oct2013.pdf  

Yes he did, initially, as I've said. We got into an argument, and I explained to him why I believe the Legge document is essentially trash. In any case, I told Ken I was ready to change my mind (on the Pentagon) if he could provide the answers to the questions I raise in the film.

I then sent the questions to Ken, but he never replied.

In essence, I believe that Ken cut out the Pentagon chapter using the "film length" issue because he could not convince me to change my mind on the issue.

If you have a chance, ask Ken why he never replied to my questions on the Pentagon (attached below). He himself asked me to send them, and told me "there is an answer for each and every one of them".

Please feel free to circulate my emails to you to anyone you wish.

Massimo

If you have a chance, ask Ken why he never replied to my questions on the Pentagon (attached below). He himself asked me to send them, and told me "there is an answer for each and every one of them".

Please feel free to circulate my emails to you to anyone you wish.

Massimo

Hi Ken, these are the questions we've talked about. I look forward to hearing your answers.

1 - Given that at least half of the right wing did not penetrate the building [it would have hit above the 1st floor slab], can you explain why no recognizeable parts of it can be seen outside the Pentagon?

2 - Given that the tip of the left wing should have impacted the 2-3 windows to the left of the 30-foot gash, can you explain why those windows are still standing after the impact?

3 - Given that neither the horizontal stabilizers nor the tail penetrated the facade, can you explain why no recognizeable part of them can be seen outside the Pentagon?

4 - How could the fuselage, which is the weakest part of the plane, penetrate the facade almost entirely [which the official version maintains], while part of the wings, the stabilizers and the tail, which are relatively stronger, were unable to do so and "were shattered in a thousand pieces" instead? [which is what the official version maintains].

5 - Can you explain what happened to the core of the two engines, which is built with components so strong and resistant to be considered practically indestructible? Can you explain why the two engines, which were traveling at 530 mph, did not punch two clear exit holes through the C ring and beyond?

6 - Given that, according to the Pentagon Building Performance Report, "Columns 3G, 3H, 3J, and 5J were damaged but still standing, although in the direct path of the fuselage...." and that, according to the same report, "It is highly unlikely that any significant portion of the fuselage could have retained structural integrity at this point in its travel," and that "The aircraft frame most certainly was destroyed before it had traveled a distance that approximately equaled the length of the aircraft," can you explain what caused the "exit hole" in the C ring of the Pentagon?

(2) It was my feeling that the then-new 2013 film, "Behind the Smoke Curtain: What Happened at the Pentagon on 9/11, What Didn't, and Why It Matters", made by Ben Collet and Mark Snyder of 9/11 Truth Seattle from their presentation of Barbara Honegger, was suppressed.
There had been a straw poll that went 11-1 to show the film with Jenkins being the one. Mr. Jenkins was perplexed with Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth founder Richard Gage for saying he really meant his endorsement of the Barbara Honegger film. The majority of the group seemed to want to allow both sides of the Pentagon controversy to be allowed to be screened. Ken Jenkins refused and said he would not do the film festival if we showed that film. He had requested that we all watch the Frank Legge video because it used the “scientific method” of counting up the number of eye-witnesses that said they saw a jet hit the Pentagon.
  
David Ray Griffin rejected this as being a "scientific method" in his 2011 book "9/11: Ten Years After: When State Crimes Against Democracy Succeed", since many of the witnesses could be considered "elite" in their ties to corporate media and the military. I recommend Chapter 7 "The Pentagon: The Consensus Approach", in that book.

Jenkins eventually negotiated a deal with the group to show part of Barbara Honneger's film in 2015, not 2014, if the group would give him a whole year to make a film opposing her point of view. He apparently did not think Frank Legge's video he challenged us to see was up to the challenge of Barbara Honegger’s "What Happened at the Pentagon on 9/11, What Didn't, and Why It Matters" in 2014. So we all worked on the 2014 9/11 Truth Film Fest in spite of these disagreements, and we delivered a good festival as a team.

Bonnie Faulkner at her table in the lobby of Grand Lake Theater at a past 9/11 Truth Film Festival

(3) Shortly before the 2014 film festival, both I and Allan Rees of No Lies Radio asked the group to revisit a seemingly spiteful vote to not allow Bonnie Faulkner, host of Pacifica's "Guns & Butter" Radio Show, to have her normal seating place in the lobby of the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, CA, as in years past. It was ostensibly because she was not doing the MC chores in 2014. Allan Rees and I both advised the group that this seemed like picking a fight with Bonnie Faulkner for no good reason. They refused to reconsider their vote to move Bonnie to the sidelines.

When the event happened on Sept. 11, 2014  and Bonnie worked things out with Carol Brouillet, thus allowing Bonnie to take her normal table position without a major blow-up. Then it was Carol who came under attack by Ken Jenkins and the 2014 MC of the Festival for “over-ruling the vote of the group”. Hey, I worked on the event like a team player in spite of losing on the Faulkner and Honegger votes that year. I came in the night before the event to load in and set up equipment. During the all day festival I ran the zoom lens on the camera for the No Lies Radio live-stream.

www.noliesradio.org

Let’s move now to the spring of 2015. I missed the 4-16-15 N CA 9/11 Truth Alliance meeting due to a flu cold that messed with me for several weeks. But the minutes for that meeting stated this: “Group had talked about doing the Pentagon this year for Honegger, whether a plane hit it or not. Honegger has done a number of films around the country Videotaped in Seattle for over three hours. Straw vote showed 11 to 1 in favor. Over 100 eye witnesses saw what happened at the Pentagon, no one saw a missile, only a plane. Very controversial topic within the movement. If it’s divisive maybe stay away from it.”

This made me wonder if the deal we made last year would be honored on Sept. 10, 2015. Then the film was left off the list of films under consideration. I asked the acting secretary to put it back on the list, and she did. I also spent many hours creating two DVD’s to hand out to the group of films to consider showing in 2015, which I proposed should include the Sandy Hook School, Newtown, CT event of Dec 14, 2012, the Boston Marathon Mass Casualty Martial Law Drill of April 15, 2013, and the Charlie Hebdo magazine event in Paris starting on January 7, 2015 and going several days after that. I have been the main person doing the N CA 9/11 Truth Alliance Facebook interface for the group. And I did some work on the SF911Truth.org home site as well from time to time.

This move to expel me from the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance will be spun in terms of ugly character assassination with Ken Jenkins as the victim of a “campaign of hostility”. That seems to work just fine. But it is not the truth! I remain a principled and dedicated multi-issue activist and artist. I reject this attempt of the last year and a half to make these 3 issues into something other than what they are, or what they should have been dealt with as, namely, a debate over these 3 items and how N CA 9/11 Truth Alliance handled them. It may also be a factor in my expulsion that I had downloaded about 25 mostly short videos and handed out DVD copies over the course of several meetings in 2015 for consideration for the 2015 9/11 Film Festival in September. None were accepted. Here's the detailed blog on that project! An Alternative 9-11Truth and False Flags Film Festival - Truth Troubadour Blog 2-21-16 by N CA9/11 "Truth" Alliance Expelled Whistleblower Vic Sadot

This is a petty power game. But the 9 people there tonight seem to be fine operating this way. So I will part with dismay and disappointment at this move. Those who participated in this quickie vote to expel a dedicated truth-seeker and truth-teller have made a serious mistake in judgment. Shame on you! If the decision is re-visited, it will not be upon my initiative. So you got your way. But you just lost the kind of friend who is willing to tell you the truth about what is principled conduct, and what is not acceptable conduct, for a 9/11 Truth organization, particularly in the devious manner of dealing with Max Mazzucco, Barbara Honegger, and Bonnie Faulkner. Celebrate your loss!

Fare thee well, everyone! Fare thee well!

Vic Sadot

All Truth Troubadour Blogs end with a song! For this occasion I have selected Mad Cowboy Disease because it is the music video that I submitted for consideration for the upcoming 2015 Grand Lake Theater 9/11 Truth Film Festival. I had "An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King" featured in 2013 and "Blowback or Bloody Treason" featured in 2014. Given the way things are going, I am not sure that I will be attending this year. I will look for another 9/11 Truth venue to sing songs from the September 11, 2011 released 16 song CD titled "9/11 Truth & Justice Songs". Have guitar! Will travel!

Free Songs at Sound Cloud by Broadside Balladeer