Greg Palast’s mixed message(?)
I heard a rather eerie news on Prison Planet podcast a couple of days ago, and I also found an article about it. The article’ title is “Palast Charged with Journalism in the First Degree” and it’s posted at Prison Planet.com; Alex Jones claimed that Greg Palast was ‘on the run’ on the podcast. The same article is posted at What Really Happened.com, and it is also posted at Morphizm (and this is where the article was posted originally?). The following is a partial copy of the article.
It’s true. It’s weird. It’s nuts. The Department of Homeland Security, after a five-year hunt for Osama, has finally brought charges against … Greg Palast. I kid you not. Send your cakes with files to the Air America wing at Guantanamo.
Though not just yet. Fatherland Security has informed me that television producer Matt Pascarella and I have been charged with unauthorized filming of a “critical national security structure” in Louisiana.
On August 22, for LinkTV and Democracy Now! we videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. It’s been a year since the hurricane and 73,000 POW’s (Prisoners of W) are still in this aluminum ghetto in the middle of nowhere. One resident, Pamela Lewis said, “It is a prison set-up” — except there are no home furloughs for these inmates because they no longer have homes.
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I heard the news and found the article shortly after Military Commissions Act of 2006 was passed, so I felt a bit eerie; I took a day or so to find out what really happened. The Department of Homeland Security apparently actually brought charges against Greg Palast. This itself is actually a rather eerie news, but ‘on the run’ claim seems to have been exaggerated a bit. Shortly after the article was originally posted, charges were apparently dropped.
Good news from the edge of reality: Exxon has changed its mind. It was only days ago that they were employing the help of their subsidiary known as the Department of Homeland Security to put a Gitmo scare into Greg Palast and Matt Pascarella for filming the oil powerhouse’s Baton Rouge refinery — and about a thousand Katrina refugees being held behind barbed wire near it. Looks like they woke up and smelled the carbon emissions.
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However, here’s a mixed message in the original article.
A personal request to readers. Many have written to ask what can be done to protect Matt and me from becoming unwilling guests of the State.
First, this ain’t no foolin’ around: Matt and I are facing these nutty charges. So spread the info. We believe that getting the word out is the best defense. Second, call Homeland Security and turn us in. They seem to have trouble finding us. If you get a reward, you may choose to donate it to the Palast Investigative Fund , a 501(c)(3) educational foundation which supports our work and pays our legal fees.
Third, ask your local library to order our book, Armed Madhouse: Who’s Afraid of Osama Wolf? Homeland Security now reserves the right to read over your shoulder at the library; therefore, the more our agents are forced to read this subversive material, the more likely we can convince them to come in out of the cold. All kidding aside, we do ask you to request your library order the book: not everyone can afford to purchase this hardbound edition.
I do not have any problem with his making his living as a journalist. I also do not have any problem with his selling his books and DVDs. It’s all good, and he should definitely do that, since good investigative reporting takes time and costs money. That said, I have to wonder what his motivation was in this particular case. Did he really try to raise money in case that he was sent to Gitmo? Did he joke around in order to calm down and not panic or did he do this to sell more books and DVDs? This was a mixed message at best, and I feel that Greg Palast kind of made him look like one of those journalists who just love selling books and getting attention *** cough *** Bob Woodward *** cough ***. I hope not, but who knows?
