Japanese Have Washington Post Running Scared over 9/11

The issue, as framed by the U.S. ruling elite’s hometown house organ is very simple; a top insider in Japan’s new government has lost his marbles. The Washington Post’s apoplexy over the fact that Councilor Yukihisa Fujita isn’t buying the official version of what happened on September 11, 2001, is well reflected in the two headlines it gave to its March 8, 2010 editorial. First we have the print edition:

Poisonous Thinking in Japan

Has a conspiratorial view of 9/11 taken hold in the ruling party?

Then we have the even more hysterical headline in the electronic version:

A Leading Japanese Politician Espouses a 9/11 Fantasy

The two paragraphs below capture the flavor of The Post’s screed. I have provided some educational assistance for the reader by supplying useful links. Only the last of the six links was in The Post’s original online version.

Fujita's ideas about the attack on the World Trade Center, which he shared with us in a recent interview, are too bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus to merit serious discussion. He questions whether it was really the work of terrorists; suggests that shadowy forces with advance knowledge of the plot played the stock market to profit from it; peddles the fantastic idea that eight of the 19 hijackers are alive and well; and hints that controlled demolition rather than fire or debris may be a more likely explanation for at least the collapse of the building at 7 World Trade Center, which was adjacent to the twin towers.

As with almost any calamity whose scale and scope assume historic proportions, the events of Sept. 11 have spawned a thriving subculture of conspiracy theorists at home and abroad. The only thing novel about Mr. Fujita is that a man so susceptible to the imaginings of the lunatic fringe happens to occupy a notable position in the governing apparatus of a nation that boasts the world's second-largest economy.

The giveaway as to how frantic The Post is over this matter is that they are editorializing before reporting. That Fujita, who as a graduate of Keio University is about as plugged in to Japan’s ruling “old boy” network as it is possible to be, has abandoned the 9/11 sinking ship was not previously even mentioned in The Post or anywhere else in the mainstream U.S. press, to my knowledge.

Now The Post tells us that they have interviewed him, and here we see them running out of the interview screaming like Chicken Little. So where is the interview itself? Shouldn’t we all raise a hue and cry for The Post to print the whole thing so we can decide for ourselves whether Fujita’s "ideas" (conclusions based upon an examination of the evidence?) really "are too bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus to merit serious discussion." The Post can’t claim lack of print space. We’re in the Internet age now. We don’t really need the mainstream media to give us all our opinions pre-chewed and digested.

I’m not holding my breath waiting for The Post to print that interview, no matter how much we might clamor for it. It would be nice if Fujita taped it and publishes it himself.

David Martin