Pearl chase

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Last updated on August 6th, 2017 at 05:38 am

Phillip Adams claims:

The appalling Donald Rumsfeld observed shortly before the attack on the twin towers that political survival “needed a Pearl Harbor” …

That quote doesn’t turn up in a Google search, although similar claims have appeared in comments at various commie blogs. Sometimes the Pearl Harbor line is attributed to Dick Cheney:

Perhaps if I didn’t KNOW the NEOCONS long range goals, I wouldn’t be so quick to question 9/11 at all. But cheney said it – WE NEED A PEARL HARBOR…coincidence? I DON’T THINK SO.

And again:

Bush was hobbled from Day 1 and Cheney famously remarked that they needed a Pearl Harbour Day to shake things up and get them moving – or words to that effect.

Adams in 2005 ran the alleged Rumsfeld quote:

The word was out – via White House leaks – that Rumsfeld was for the chop. When poor Donald was forced to read the names of likely replacements, he said he’d need a Pearl Harbor to save him. Osama bin Laden obliged.

Note that Adams now directly quotes Rumsfeld; he’s previously been exposed as a quote doctor. It’s possible that the line evolved via leftoid paranoia over this Project for the New American Century document:

Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor. Domestic politics and industrial policy will shape the pace and content of transformation as much as the requirements of current missions. A decision to suspend or terminate aircraft carrier production, as recommended by this report and as justified by the clear direction of military technology, will cause great upheaval. Likewise, systems entering production today – the F-22 fighter, for example – will be in service inventories for decades to come. Wise management of this process will consist in large measure of figuring out the right moments to halt production of current-paradigm weapons and shift to radically new designs. The expense associated with some programs can make them roadblocks to the larger process of transformation – the Joint Strike Fighter program, at a total of approximately $200 billion, seems an unwise investment. Thus, this report advocates a two-stage process of change – transition and transformation – over the coming decades.

Musician Matt Bellamy summarised the above:

The outspoken singer says, “September 11 is clearly an inside job, there’s massive evidence that suggests that it was either allowed to happen or even worse, deliberately made to happen.

“There was a document called PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICA CENTURY which was made by neo-Con (right wing) writers in the 90s who supplied most of the agenda that (GEORGE W) BUSH is putting into place now, which clearly says, ‘We need a Pearl Harbor-level of event so we can have an excuse to invade the Middle East.’”

Even Adams hasn’t gone that far. Yet.

Posted by Tim B. on 04/25/2007 at 01:06 PM
    1. Somewhere in Hell, Leni is smiling.

      Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2007 04 25 at 01:32 PM • permalink

 

    1. What Cheney actually said was, “We need a vacation in pearl harbor, and some turkey sandwiches.  Not my wife’s turkey though, it taste like plastic.”

      Posted by blogagog on 2007 04 25 at 01:38 PM • permalink

 

    1. They’re still tryin’, but the words just don’t come out right.

      This, doesn’t say…

      Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.

      This…

      “There was a document called PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICA CENTURY which was made by neo-Con (right wing) writers in the 90s who supplied most of the agenda that (GEORGE W) BUSH is putting into place now, which clearly says, ‘We need a Pearl Harbor-level of event so we can have an excuse to invade the Middle East.’”

      But then, what the fuck do musicians know?

      Posted by El Cid on 2007 04 25 at 02:09 PM • permalink

 

    1. Chords.

      Well, some of ‘em, anyway…

      Posted by mojo on 2007 04 25 at 02:18 PM • permalink

 

    1. Quit lying, commie punk ass bitches.

      Posted by Latino on 2007 04 25 at 02:53 PM • permalink

 

    1. I predict that “We need a Pearl Harbor” will take its place alongside the plastic turkey, “9/11 was an inside job”, “selected not elected”, and “Bush is stupid” memes. These things will be taught in schools in coming years unless we are vigilant.

      Posted by ErnieG on 2007 04 25 at 03:27 PM • permalink

 

    1. Mark my words.  If the wild eye ones had flown the airliners into a skyscraper in downtown Cincinnati (we have a few, some over four stories tall), it wouldn’t have been caught on film.  With the whole fucking world watching it happen, live.

      Hell, more than a few people wouldn’t even care.  “Well, you know, that’s Cincinnati.  Maybe it’s a good thing.  You know, urban renewal and all”.

      But it happened in New York City with every American and most Europeans watching it happen live.  The looney left can’t spin a plausible conspiracy out of this one.  The fact that they’re trying speaks volumes about the corrupt nature of their minds.

      Posted by wronwright on 2007 04 25 at 03:28 PM • permalink

 

    1. So 911 was an excuse to invade Iraq?  So why the diversion of invading Afghanistan before invading Iraq?  If oil is reason for 911, why invade Iraq over Saudi Arabia?  Saudi has more oil; a significantly smaller population and the majority of the hijackers were Saudis.  Interesting enough prior to 911 Bush was frequently criticized as having no interest in foreign affairs.  If my memory serves me correctly, prior to 911, the French leftist paper Le Monde had a cartoon of Bush sleeping at his desk with the phone, symbolizing the world, off the hook. But I guess in the paranoid fantasy world of Matt Bellamy this was all an act to cover the true evil, sinister plans of Bu$Hilter. Next, he will claim that bin Laden is a CIA agent and that the world is controlled by the sinister man in black in the TV series The X-files.

      Posted by Mark Razak on 2007 04 25 at 03:29 PM • permalink

 

    1. Perhaps if I didn’t KNOW the NEOCONS long range goals, I wouldn’t be so quick to question 9/11 at all. But cheney said it – WE NEED A PEARL HARBOR…coincidence? I DON’T THINK SO.

      Ahh, random strings of all-caps.  (With intermittent missing capitalization where it should rightfully be.)  That’s one sure way to know you’re getting good crazy.

      Posted by RyanOH on 2007 04 25 at 03:30 PM • permalink

 

    1. Well, sure.  Workmen were in and out of those buildings for months, trucking in tons of explosives and wiring them up, and nobody noticed.  Then on the day it happened, somebody called up all the Jews who worked there and told them to stay home.  And the CIA flew empty, remote-controlled planes into the towers to set them off (the people who got on the planes must have been dropped off somewhere and shipped off to gulags in South America or China).  Incidentally, the CIA flung a missile at the Pentagon, and that plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was just a fluke.  And WTC 7 was blown up because, once you’ve dropped the other two taller ones, why not?  Bush, of course, slunk off to Florida to read goat stories to schoolkids so he couldn’t be blamed, and that whole “looking poleaxed when he was informed” thing was just an act ordered by The Real President, Cheney/Rove.  And in the six years since, no one—- NO ONE —- has come clean and confessed it all, or even sold a picture to the National Enquirer, or anything.

      Are you all clear on this now?

      Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 04 25 at 03:51 PM • permalink

 

    1. RebeccaH—OK now, you need about 180 more pages and you’ve got a best seller on your hands. It’ll be a blockbuster too, as folks like me might buy it for a good chuckle. Get to work!

      Posted by Forbes on 2007 04 25 at 04:56 PM • permalink

 

    1. But you might hear something worse – that Rupert’s given Kevin Rudd the diagonal nod, saying that young Kevvy wouldn’t make a bad prime minister.

      Nice try, Pillock.
      WTF is a “diagonal nod” BTW?

      Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 25 at 05:29 PM • permalink

 

    1. WTF is a “diagonal nod” BTW?

      Can’t say for sure, but it sounds suspiciously like a head tilt.

      Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 04 25 at 05:44 PM • permalink

 

    1. It’s a mis-quote. Mr Cheney was ‘tending to his knitting’ and actually said: “We need to pearl harder.”

      Cheers

      Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2007 04 25 at 05:48 PM • permalink

 

    1. I don’t know why the story is never framed like this: for years we did everything we could to stay out of Iraq; we bowed, scraped, appeased, and backed down; we let the UN handle everything; we ignored terrorist attack after terrorist attack (the first World Trade Center bombing, the Cole, etc.)—and even after a blatant attack on our country by Arab terrorists, we invaded Afghanistan first, and still didn’t go near Iraq. It was only when Saddam’s blustering and threatening act got really annoying that we finally had enough. For a country slavering to invade Iraq we sure took long enough getting around to it.

      Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 04 25 at 06:06 PM • permalink

 

    1. We won’t really be able to verify that this Pearl Harbour quote is false until Terry Lane mentions it in his column.

      Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 04 25 at 06:24 PM • permalink

 

    1. I think direct government involvement is way more plausible than the official fiction of 19 losers that could barely fly.

      Posted by boxofmatches on 2007 04 25 at 06:29 PM • permalink

 

    1. #1 What did Squiggy say about it, Barbara?
      ;^)

      Posted by andycanuck on 2007 04 25 at 07:16 PM • permalink

 

    1. #8 Mark Razak, don’t waste your energy trying to reason with the Phil Adamski types.  Being a Rolled Gold Leftard means never having to think logically, only ideologically.

      Didn’t Al Gore say after December 2000 “What I need now is a lot of threatening ‘Pool Harbors’”?

      Posted by Barrie on 2007 04 25 at 07:30 PM • permalink

 

    1. #3 El Cid: maybe he’s a drummer?  (I think they vaguely qualify as musicians.)

      Barrie, I think BigWoodenAl actually said “I think what we need now is a lot of threatening poo harbors.”

      Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2007 04 25 at 07:53 PM • permalink

 

    1. 20 JorgXMcKie

      maybe he’s a drummer?

      When I first glanced at what you typed, I could have sworn (and I must stop it) that you had typed druggie…:).

      Posted by El Cid on 2007 04 25 at 08:38 PM • permalink

 

    1. Don’t forget Phatty still pedals the Plastic Turkey Myth.

      Adams was a founder of the Australian Skeptics but is no longer a member, probably because of his craven gullibility.

      Since Adams swallowed the GW myth hook line & sinker, well, you can’t be a skeptic and a gullible fool at the same time.

      Posted by Bonmot on 2007 04 25 at 09:06 PM • permalink

 

    1. #22
      Perhaps the skeptics were (justifiably) skeptical of Phatty?

      Posted by egg_ on 2007 04 25 at 09:55 PM • permalink

 

    1. The truth of a matter is opposite but directly proportional to its conspiracy theory.

      Posted by Dminor on 2007 04 25 at 10:48 PM • permalink

 

    1. Phillup Adams has been a rock on the periphery of Australian politics for more than 30 years. He never changes – always a pompous, overstuffed, overpaid, black-clad snob. His biggest personality failing is his adoration of Gough Whitlam, which has gone on way too long. If Gough demanded a blow job, Adams would shove all the others aside to be the one to give it to him. Very sad for a man who thinks he is one of the nation’s elite.

      Posted by Contrail on 2007 04 25 at 10:57 PM • permalink

 

    1. “We need another Pearl Harbour,” what rubbish.  Everyone knows the US is going to make up for being late to the past two world wars by starting the next one.

      Posted by anthony_r on 2007 04 25 at 11:00 PM • permalink

 

    1. These people that fall for conspiracy theories really don’t have any idea how hard it would be to actually pull off such a conspiracy.
      Most real conspiracies are really, really simple. e.g.,
      1) “let’s kill that politician” or
      2)“let’s rip off a multinational that we are already in charge of (e.g., Enron) and try to hide the papwerwork.” or
      3) “let’s hijack a couple of planes and trash them into New York.”

      by contrast, fictional conspiracies are really complicated. Like,
      1) let’s have a quarter of a million people pretend that they worked on the Apollo moon shot but they didn’t really. And we’ll go to hollywood and do fake footage, and we’ll get the press in on the secret and everything.
      or
      2) let’s get several government agencies together to commit indiscriminate mass murder and terrorism on the American people. Everyone we ask will go along with this plan, and nobody will go to the media. Also, we’ll somehow lure some no-good extremists to catch the planes involved at exactly the right time, and we’ll fake outgoing cellphone calls from “passengers”.
      see, it’s just so complex, so implausible, so utterly ridiculous. I’m embarrassed for the people I know who take it seriously.

      But somehow it’s gaining traction.

      Posted by daddy dave on 2007 04 25 at 11:05 PM • permalink

 

    1. Phat Phil was onthe chaser last noght, and at least showed he could laugh at himself.

      The gag was the hosts wished they could have an orchestra travel around with them to start palying whnever someone got too boring or long winded, like what happens at the oscars when someone goes too long with their acceptance speech.

      The gag started with a guy sitting next to a gabby taxidriver.  All of a sudden the orchestra sitting in the back seat (with instruments hanging out the window!) started up….
      it then cut to the ABC studio with phat phil rambling on – the orchestra started up – phil apologised and got up and left!

      Posted by entropy on 2007 04 25 at 11:06 PM • permalink

 

    1. #27, daddy dave:

      The idiocy keeps gaining traction because it’s piped, full time, into everyone’s ears, non stop every day. The weak and feeble fell long ago to the idiocy, now we see the generally decent folk who simply cant find it in themselves to talk back against the idiocy being brought down by fatigue or that basic cowardice that demands a get along to go along mentality.

      The only way to stop this idiocy from spreading like the virus it is would be to inscribe each idiot lie onto a 50lbs bag of concrete mix, then mix it up and pour it down the throat of the idiot liar.

      Until we get up off our own idiocy that keeps us from honestly and rightfully fighting back with full ferocity against these liars and enemy sympathizers then we have no right to expect survival in the end.

      Posted by Grimmy on 2007 04 25 at 11:50 PM • permalink

 

    1. John Singleton describes Adams best.
      It was along these lines:-

      Phillip Adams doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, h’e doesn’t bet on horses. What he is is the perfect choice for taxpayer funded commission of the future. Adams is a million words in search of an editor.
      Phillip Adams is not a real Australian”.

      Says it all.

      Posted by Bonmot on 2007 04 26 at 12:00 AM • permalink

 

    1. Phunny that Phat Phil and Patrice write joke books for kids!

      Laughs a plenty

      How many Trotyskists does it take to change a lightbulb?

      Posted by boxofmatches on 2007 04 26 at 03:58 AM • permalink

 

    1. #10:  If anyone out there believes this stuff, can I have some of what you’re smoking/popping/drinking?  I threw my back out and will be on my way to my friendly chiropractor at 1:30 and need something to kill the pain and still be marginally functional until then.

      Thank you.

      Elizabeth
      Imperial Keeper

      Posted by Elizabeth Imperial Keeper on 2007 04 26 at 11:32 AM • permalink

 

    1. Oh yeah, well listen to this all you blind sceptics!

      Goldman Sachs went short index futures and long oil futures (a real Texas Hedge!) and then hired Tony Soprano to secret in giant wind turbines into the Gulf of Mexico just before “KATRINA” took place.

      You want proof. Well here it is!

      Email from <name redacted> to position traders on the Goldman Sachs desk at the “two Mercs”.

      “To achieve true energy independence we are going to have to Generate More Wind Turbine Power in the Gulf of Mexico.  Meanwhile, I’m off to hear my favorite Soprano at the Met tonight.  Then hope to get lucky with this new chick named Katrina afterwards.”

      Katrina Truth Squad

      Posted by yojimbo on 2007 04 26 at 01:15 PM • permalink

 

    1. Regarding #17 – I thought the expression was “as dumb as a box of hammers”, but it seems to be “boxofmatches” instead.

      Posted by SezaGeoff on 2007 04 27 at 01:40 AM • permalink

 

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