Oriental Rugs the O'Connell Notes

Notes on Kenneth R. Timmerman

Here are some of Ken Timmerman's recent charges.

Ken Timmerman Claims: "Iranian intelligence operatives helped train the 9/11 plotters before the attacks on America, providing passports, safe haven, logistics support and training in aircraft hijacking."

The Truth: Does this sound familiar, Ken is recycling the Neocon line on Iraq. Replace Iranian with Iraqi and it is the same nonsense that we heard in the lead up to the War in Iraq. The same foolishness that the 9/11 Commission showed to be false.

Ken Timmerman Claims: Iran has been sheltering Osama Bin Laden at a secret safe house dug into a mountain in the outskirts of Tehran.

The Truth: This has been floated by fabricators but not taken seriously by serious journalists.

Ken Timmerman Claims: The CIA knew about Iran’s ties to Bin laden and his Al Qaeda organization long before the September 11 attacks, but failed to act on its own information.

The Truth: Either Ken is raising snakes in his hat or this is another little gem that somehow escaped the 9/11 Commission.

Ken Timmerman Claims: An Iranian defector, who gave the CIA two-months advance warning of a “massive attack on America” scheduled to occur on September 11 was brushed off as a “serial fabricator” and “unreliable.” Once his information was confirmed, the CIA attempted to discredit the source, instead of track down his information.

The Truth: Ken desperately wants to link Iran and 9/11. The problem is that Osama Bin Laden and al Qaiada is Sunni/Salafist/Wahhabi and Iran is a Shia Theocracy. Osama Bin Laden is an enemy of Iran and has very different goals them Shia Iran. This claim is about as believable as the story about the joint Baptist/Orthodox Jewish Evangelism drive... It is not going to happen.

Ken is pushing this line because it is the current line that Israeli Intelligence is pushing. Likud wants war with Iran as long as we fight it, not them. Ken sees what they do for his competition so he is trying to jump head first into the Neocon gravy train. Ken has not been very successful as a reporter.

Photo: www-hoover.stanford.edu

Kenneth Timmerman is a former Time magazine reporter. His mix of good writing, solid investigation, poor ability to draw conclusions and right wing lunatic fringe activism tends to marginalize his work. Ken needs to decide if he is a journalist or a politician. Timmerman ran unsuccessfully for US Senator from Maryland losing convincingly in the Republican Primary.

Timmerman is a frequent guest on Don Kroah’s right wing talk radio program. Kroah's show is vaguely Christian but primarily a front for the Republican party.

Review - Selling out America

Ken Timmerman Should be Ashamed of Writing - "Defector Says Iran Played Role in 9/11"

N.B. There is speculation among Timmerman watchers that he may have become "unhinged" while in the custody of the Fatah in the 1980s which affects his perceptions of reality to this very day.

Ken tries to folllow the AEI/Likud Neocon track but the problem is that the Israelis do not trust Timmerman. So he continually panders to them hoping to break into the money and power.

"In the "Hate to Win?" interview, Kenneth Timmerman, author of Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America, summarized the state-supported use of hate in the Muslim world to support a war on America. For example: “There is a struggle underway for the soul of Islam between the preachers of hate and the preachers of peace. Unfortunately, as I document in my book, the preachers of hate are winning. I say this because from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, state-appointed clerics are preaching to the faithful that it is their ‘duty’ to murder Jews, because Jews are ‘rejected’ by God, who turned them into ‘monkeys and pigs.’” Unfortunately, Timmerman chose to focus upon only evidence of the Muslim use of hate. Even if everything Timmerman wrote is correct, his research does not amount to even a half-truth. A half-truth is a lie. In the American court system, witnesses promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Timmerman’s choice of focus serves only as a basis for supporting endless wars in the Muslim world for the benefit of the Likud Party of Israel at the cost of the lives of American Christian soldiers." Kenneth Timmerman by Paul Sheldon Foote

"Kenneth R. Timmerman: I first began reporting on the Middle East during the 1982 war in Lebanon as a radio stringer, and promptly wound up kidnapped by Fatah guerillas in Beirut and held for 24 days in a cellar prison. It was an experience that changed my life; among other things, it taught me firsthand how important freedom is. It also gave me a fascination with various cultures of the Middle East." Timmerman

Iranian-Americans are Bad - The Washington Times: Moonie/Likudnik Commentary