Joel Brinkley: U.N. representative’s past casts shadow over council’s mission

Sacramento Bee ^ | 12/15/8 | Joel Brinkley

[SmithL]

Millions of Americans believe that the Sept. 11 attacks were not the work of Muslim fundamentalists. They like to call the strikes "false flag" operations — a conspiracy planned and executed by the Bush administration.

Why? Under this unusual theory, the attacks provided Bush and his aides the pretext to launch "international wars" and to enact polices that "led to widespread denials of rights under the pretext of 'homeland security.'" So writes Richard Falk, an emeritus professor of international law at Princeton University — and also a special representative of the U.N. Human Rights Council, charged with investigating Israeli abuses against the Palestinians.

Anything believed by millions of Americans, according to (perhaps suspect) public opinion surveys, can hardly be called an "underground" movement. But I, for one, had never heard of this until a row broke out last month between Falk and U.N. monitors who try to defend Israel.

What does this have to do with Israel and the Palestinians? Nothing, really — except that the U.N. monitors who already view Falk with grave distrust are now throwing up his advocacy of the 9/11 conspiracy theory as further evidence that he is not qualified to serve as an important U.N. envoy.

Of course, Falk's supporters on the council — Egypt, Pakistan and other members of the Islamic conference — are not bothered by any of this. That should be no surprise. If the Bush administration actually perpetrated the Sept. 11 attacks, then the world's distrust of Islam would be largely unfounded.

...But I do care that the man whose job now is to help the Islamic states pursue their vendetta against Israel also believes that the U.S. government is capable of such unspeakable evil. What does that tell you about his frame of mind for his United Nations job?

[SmithL]

Joel Brinkley is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for The New York Times and now a professor of journalism at Stanford University.

[TheThinker]

...But I do care that the man whose job now is to help the Islamic states pursue their vendetta against Israel also believes that the U.S. government is capable of such unspeakable evil. What does that tell you about his frame of mind for his United Nations job?

Joe the Plumber's prediction about the destruction of Israel thanks to Obama might end up to be true. I fervently hope not. But, given the kind of incredible stupidity that Joel Brinkley perpetuates and the fact that he is such a position of influence, you can hardly blame Joe for his fears.

[TonyStark]

If there were such a thing as put options on stupidity, I’d bet the farm on them. You simply can’t underestimate humanity capacity for extreme idiocy.