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Hunter S Thompson on 911Realplayer audio-transcript

by Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Who stands to benefit? Who had the opportunity and the motive? You just kind of look at these basic things...
who stands to benefit? Who had the opportunity and the motive? You just kind of look at these basic things,

Hunter S Thompson on 911

Hunter S. Thompson, talked to Mick O'Regan
from Radio National's Media Report.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
6:15am - Thursday 29 August  2002

Realplayer audio
http://abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/mediarpt/audio/hunters290802.ram


please note the transcript has been edited as well as CENSORED .
transcript:

Mick O’Regan: Unlike Walter Cronkite, Hunter S. Thompson is a stirrer, a deliberately provocative commentator and a freewheeling iconoclast, infamous for his relentless critique of the American government and military.

He lives in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and that’s where I found him at the end of a less than perfect telephone line, to ask his opinion of the state of the US media.

Hunter S. Thompson: Well let’s see, ‘shamefully’ is a word that comes to mind, but that’s not true in the case of The New York Times, The Washington Post, but overall the American journalism I think has been cowed and intimidated by the massive flat-sucking, this patriotic orgy that the White House keeps whipping up. You know if you criticise the President it’s unpatriotic and there’s something wrong with you, you may be a terrorist.

Mick O’Regan: So in that sense, there’s not enough room for dissenting voices?

Hunter S. Thompson: There’s plenty of room there’s not just enough people who are willing to take the risk. It’s sort of a herd mentality, a lemming-like mentality. If you don’t go with the flow you’re anti-American and therefore a suspect. And we’ve seen this before, these patriotic frenzies. It’s very convenient having an undeclared war that you can call a war and impose military tribunals and wartime security and we have these generals telling us that this war’s going to go on for a long, long time. Maybe not so much the generals now, the generals are a little afraid of Iraq, a little worried about it, but it’s the civilians in the White House, the gang of thieving, just lobbyists for the military industrial complex, who are running the White House, and to be against them is to be patriotic, then hell, call me a traitor.

Mick O’Regan: Do you think that most of the American media, or say most of the influential American media has bought that patriotism line, and as a result are self-censoring themselves?

Hunter S. Thompson: There you go, self-censorship, yes, that’s a very good point. Yes, I would say that. Now there are always exceptions to that but there’ve been damn few. Yeah.

Mick O’Regan: So is it the White House laying down what they think is appropriate journalism, or is it the news media outlets deciding that they have to be patriotic, that they’re under some sort of undeclared duty at the moment, to somehow reflect the patriotism of the American public?

Hunter S. Thompson: Well it goes a little deeper than that, because this Administration is well on the road to seizing power, and Tom Dashell, the Senate Democratic leader the other day accused Bush of trying to seize dictatorial powers. Now that was a big breakthrough, and I’m starting to sense that the tide may be turning against the President; we have to beat this bastard one way or another. And the American government is the greatest enemy of freedom around the world that I can think of. And we keep waving that flag, freedom, yes, these people are flag-suckers.

Mick O’Regan: What about the language that’s being used to describe the so-called undeclared war? I mean there have been criticisms in the mainstream press in Australia that journalists have too readily taken up the language of politicians and bureaucrats, that they have uncritically declared the war against terror without really thinking it through; what’s your assessment of the situation in the States?

Hunter S. Thompson: Well I’m glad to hear that – you’re talking about Australian journalists?

Mick O’Regan: Yes.

Hunter S. Thompson: Yes, well that’s good. Congratulations boys. There is not much of that in this country yet. This over here is the most paranoid, most insecure country that I’ve ever lived in, I mean it’s the worst this country has been since I have ever seen it.

Mick O’Regan: Do you feel like there’s a restriction of media freedom at the moment? Is there a restricted space for media freedom?

Hunter S. Thompson: I wouldn’t say it’s a restricted space, but it’s a dark and dangerous grey area to venture into. Several journalists have lost their jobs, columnist Bill Maher on ABC, but some people were made an example of early on. The media doesn’t reflect world opinion or even a larger, more intelligent opinion over here, it’s just this drumbeat of celebrity worship and child funerals and hooded prisoners being led around Guantanamo. No I’m very disturbed about the civil rights implications of this, and everybody should be.

Mick O’Regan: So just on journalists who may have lost their jobs, are you saying that people who came out and were fearless in their critique of the government or the government’s policy, that those people actually lost their jobs as journalists?

Hunter S. Thompson: Well I can think of two that come to mind right in the beginning. I haven’t heard of any since. But I think Bill Maher, there was some kind of rave after 9/11 that all these people, cowards, you know these dirty little bastards, who snuck up on us and pulled off what amounts to a perfect crime really, no witnesses, very little cost; talk about cost-effective, that was a hell of a strike. I’m not sure I’d call them cowards, but that’s what Bill Maher said on TV and he said he considered our missile attacks on unseen victims, wedding parties etc. that that was cowardly. Whacko. Well that brought a huge tidal wave of condemnation that came down on him. And that was the ABC, yeah.

Mick O’Regan: So at the moment people don’t want to hear that sort of criticism, they want people to rally round the flag and support the military?

Hunter S. Thompson: I think that’s right, and I think the reason for that is that they don’t want to hear it because boy, that’s going to be a lot of agonising reappraisal, as they say. What reality is in this country and the world right now. Yes, popular opinion in this country has to be swung over to “the White House is wrong, these people are corporate thieves. They’ve turned the American Dream into a chamber of looting.” It would take a lot of adjustment, mentally.

Mick O’Regan: At the moment, even in Australia, the media is preparing for the first anniversary of the attacks in a couple of weeks from now. How is the American media preparing to sort of commemorate the first anniversary of the September 11th attack?

Hunter S. Thompson: You would never believe it, it’s so insane. This is a frantic publicity. Every day on television the President’s on TV at least once a day, and celebrations of the dead, the patriots, exposes on Al Qaida, it’s just relentless, in fact 25 hours a day, of just how tragic it was and how patriotic it was, and how much we have to get back at these dirty little swine, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised for as hideous and dumb as it sounds, an invasion of Iraq on September 11, yeah I’ll get out and take a long shot bet on that.

Mick O’Regan: That you think that the occasion might actually be used as a way of using that popular fervour or that popular patriotism as an appropriate day to launch an invasion?

Hunter S. Thompson: Well it seems like that to me, because that’s their only power base really, is that frenzy of patriotism, and it’s our revenge strike, you know, Uncle Sam gets even. If that’s going to work at all, there would be no time when it would work better when everyone in the country is cranked up into emotional frenzies. I myself am getting little teary eyed like watching some CNN special. This reminds me exactly of the month after the attack when there was just one drumroll after another after another. But there is some opposition now popping up in this country, a lot of it.

Mick O’Regan: Could I take you back to September 11th. What I’d really like to know is your reactions. And I know you said you were writing a sports column for ESPN when the planes hit the towers, but could I get you to tell that story of when you found out about it and what you were doing and what your reaction was?

Hunter S. Thompson: I had in fact just finished a sports column for ESPN. Here it is: ‘It was just after dawn in Woody Creek, Colorado when the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York City on Tuesday morning. And as usual I was writing about sports. But not for long. Football suddenly seemed irrelevant compared to the scenes of destruction and other devastation coming out of New York on TV.’

Mick O’Regan: You went on to say in that article, which I have in front of me, that ‘even ESPN was broadcasting war news. It was the worst disaster in the history of the United States.’ Do you think that the event completely transformed the way in which Americans see themselves and their own vulnerability?’

Hunter S. Thompson: No, the event by itself wouldn’t have done that. But it was the way the Administration was able to use that event. Even use it as a springboard for everything they wanted to do. And that might tell you something. I remember when I was writing that column you sort of wonder when something like that happens, Well who stands to benefit? Who had the opportunity and the motive? You just kind of look at these basic things, and I don’t know if I want to go into this on worldwide radio here, but –

Mick O’Regan: You may as well.

Hunter S. Thompson: All right. Well I saw that the US government was going to benefit, and the White House people, the republican administration to take the mind of the public off of the crashing economy. Now you want to keep in mind that every time a person named Bush gets into office, the nation goes into a drastic recession they call it.

Mick O’Regan: It seems a very long bow to me, but are you sort of suggesting that this worked in the favour of the Bush Administration?

Hunter S. Thompson: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I have spent enough time on the inside of, well in the White House and you know, campaigns and I’ve known enough people who do these things, think this way, to know that the public version of the news or whatever event, is never really what happened.

Mick O’Regan: Well let me just ask you on that. I mean you’ve pioneered a form of journalism called Gonzo journalism, in which it’s almost like there’s no revision. What you see and feel is what goes down on the page, and it’s that first blush, that first image that hits the readership. Does that mean that in a way it’s hard for you to appear credible within the US media because people would say Oh look, that’s just another conspiracy theory from a drug-addled Gonzo journalist like Hunter S. Thompson?

Hunter S. Thompson: Yeah, that’s a problem. I’m not sure if it’s my problem or other people’s, or their’s, but I stand by this column and the one after it. I’ve been right so often, and my percentages are so high, I’ll stand by this column that I wrote that day, and the next one. So what appears to be maybe Gonzo journalism, I’m not going to claim any prophetic powers, but…

Mick O’Regan: Well one of the things you do say in that first article you wrote, you say, ‘It’s now 24 hours later, and we’re not getting much information about the 5Ws of this thing.’ Now by the 5Ws I’m presuming you mean the Who, the What, the When, the Why and the How. Is that still how you feel, that a year later those key questions haven’t been answered?

Hunter S. Thompson: Absolutely. It’s even worse though. How much more do we have than we had a year ago? Damn little, I think.

Mick O’Regan: Hunter Thompson, will you be at home watching the commemoration programs on 11th September? Will you be among the audience, which I imagine will number tens of millions of people who watch what happens in New York?

Hunter S. Thompson: That’s a good point, that’s a good question, and yes, it’s soon, isn’t it? No, I won’t. I think I’ll grab Anita and take a road trip. We’ll just go off and have a little fun. Why sit around and watch that stuff?

Mick O’Regan: US journalist, Hunter S. Thompson with a very personal and idiosyncratic view of September 11.




-
by Book
I have just listened to the web broadcast with the interview with Hunter S Thompson, and I do agree with his comments as to the way that the whole issue of 9/11 has been dealt with.

Afterall, it is a known fact that the US has been trying to negotiate an oil pipeline through Afganistan since the early 90's. Dont get me wrong though, I believe that the attacks on 9/11 were an act of terrorism, but the Bush administration used this as a vehicle to gain access to Afganistan and install a 'friendly' government to ensure that this pipeline went ahead. To my knowledge, it has now been constructed.

It confounds my believe that, with the present climate that exists with Iraq, that it was in fact Iraq who was behind the 9/11 attacks in the first instance, but it was used to the advantage of the Bush administration to meet their own ends.

The worst thing of all though, is that eventhough the US government is 'fighting for freedom' - those rights are being taken away. And it is now affecting the UK with new legislation regarding heavy surveillance of the internet.

I find it quite ironic how the 'West' is now becoming the thing it most fears - a dictatorship. You have only to look at the poor excuse for elections in America to see what I mean. (Tell me there was nothing spurious about that!)

On the point of the media, Hunter himself put forward is the fact that the majority of western (and eastern in my opinion) media cannot be relied upon in these times as all you will hear is nothing more than propaganda. You need only look at the newsreels from WW2 to see that this always occurs. So all we have left is Gonzo journalism...then so be it. I would sooner believe the first initial writings of someone who knows what he is taking about - rather than the White House / Westminster feed networks and tabloids.

Alas, is it not ironic also that the public on both sides of this future conflict are in the same boat? They receive the same spew from the Al'jazira news!! So it would seem that it is the public yet again caught in the middle of this conflict between two governments who are as bad as each other.

Once again we stand on the edge of an abyss, only this time I dont think we'll keep our balance.
by Mirrored Hallway
HST' voice needs some passing along. Email the link to friends and try to get the word out. Change is the moment you stop being so lazy, that's all it takes. We are the weird, its our time.
by hunter
Hunter as a great american neg;ected o ad hat he US tends o kick ass and ask UN security council etc/ hen kill
by James
Listen now:
Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page:
Here's an MP3 of the interview that you can download and save for future reference (or burn to CDs to give to others).

I have a program called "Total Recorder" and it's fantastic for recording streaming media. It's $12. A great deal -- very useful for stuff like this. I listen to internet radio streams often, and it's easy to grab all kinds of stuff -- music too.

The standard edition is the $12 one and you can find it here. I wish more people had it because there would be more political audio floating around places like SF IndyMedia if that was the case.

http://www.highcriteria.com/productfr.htm#prod_TR
by marco
Listen now:
Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page:
I ran some noise reduction and then saved it at
16x16 to make it a much smaller mp3. 4+MBs instead
of 15 or so.

If you don't need all the sound quality involved in
the earlier mp3, feel free to grab this one.

marco
by CHRISTIAN SAVAGE
CAN YOU REALLY DISAGREE WITH THIS GUY? GRANTED HE IS A LITTLE OFF BUT, HONESTLY IN YOUR HEART OF HEARTS YOU KNOW WHATS UP! DONT YOU?
by CS
In memory of a true american hero,
RIP Hunter S Thompson 1937-2005
by the globe and mail

Hunter telephoned me on Feb. 19, the night before his death. He
sounded scared. It wasn't always easy to understand what he said,
particularly over the phone, he mumbled, yet when there was something he really wanted you to understand, you did. He'd been working on a story about the World Trade Center attacks and had stumbled across what he felt was hard evidence showing the towers had been brought down not by the airplanes that flew into them but by explosive charges
set off in their foundations. Now he thought someone was out to stop him publishing it: "They're gonna make it look like suicide," he said. "I know how these bastards."

That's how I imagine a tribute to Hunter S. Thompson should begin. He was indeed working on such a story, but it wasn't what killed him. He exercised his own option to do that. As he said to more than one person, "I would feel real trapped in this life if I didn't know I could commit suicide at any time."
by Fattie
Another suspicious death in the long, long list of mysterious deaths? Not to mention the mysterious "lives" -- i.e. the "terrorist hijackers" who are still alive, and were never even in the US on 9/11.
Alex Jones (Infowars) has a lot of the truth -- if only people would listen -- as does Dave von Kleist (The Power Hour) -- just watch the video of 911: In Plane Site and be prepared to believe your own eyes.
A 757 hit the Pentagon? No way.
When is someone going to tell us the truth about 9/11, the New World Order and now the Puritanisation/Christianisation of the United States?
by personman
...two shots fired from an automatic weapon yet...no bullet is in the chamber!!!! one of the bullets was found behind hunter in the oven hood.his wife has heard a "click", she has heard "him do it" and she has heard " a muffled noise." his family was in the room with him as he pulled the trigger. his family was not there. his son was there and heard what sounded like " a book falling." his son was not there. hunter was in the kitchen. he was in his study. his son was in the house when the police arrived. his son was out back when the police arrived. hunter had discussed killing himself. he had not shown signs of premeditation. he was horribly ill. he was suffering from arthritis. hunter was writing about 9/11 AND underage/gay callboys with ties to the government.

hmmmm... condense the double think and list the facts. look for motive/benefit and what do you get??? suicide or murder??? the mishmatch of factual/scientific reports outway the motives for him to kill himself. if this was a premeditated event why have so many versions of the event. i have yet to hear about finger prints and powder burns or any other forensic info. just a flood of emotional drivel and murky motives for immolation.
by The Catcher On the Rye (vanosman [at] hotmail.com)
.The above contact fields are optional and will be publicly visible with your article.
by repost
For a debunking of this and other things like it see:

http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/pentagontrap.html
by 9-11 SKEPTIC
Every time Hunter goes near anything controversial, like 9-11 or the JFK or RFK assassinations, this Australian shit-sack interviewer immediately cuts him off and starts attacking his credibility, in the classic corporate shill manner, and Hunter JUST LETS HIM GET AWAY WITH IT!!!
Hunter Thompson was a next door neighbor to the Prince Bandar, the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. I believe the Prince divulged sensitive information to Dr.Thompson and aroused his interest in doing his 911-Bush conspiricy story. Only a hunch, but get back to me with your opinion.
by Jack Jones
Just because Hunter Thompson said that he would "feel trapped if he couldn't commit suicide at any time" doesn't necessarily mean he had any REAL intention of doing it. It probably just gave him a sense of freedom, the sense that we are not trapped in this life and can go beyond it, as we are all destined to one day whether we like it or not.
by Kemp (journalismegonzo [at] hotmail.com)
I understand that we all have trouble to accept HST's death, and it's even harder to accept as a suicide. A murder would be almost a relief, because in this case, we could turn or frustration, anger & grief toward someone... We could hate instead of just mourn & weep, wich is an easier feeling to deal with. Sadly, I can't convince myself taht his death was something else than suicide. Not only because of the note, dated 4 days before his death, he left to his wife :
"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun -- for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax -- This won't hurt."
but also because I've read his books... Hunter S. Thompson wasn't just this crazy guy shouting & shooting at any time, experiencing drugs and weird trips... Behind all this, you can feel a real, true despair as he looks upon the world and sees it as it realy is : a place of Fear & Loathing, as he said...
My favorite book is The Rhum Diary, wich is unique in Thompson's work. In this one, you can sense a melancoly, a sadness devoid of violence. In The Proud Highway, some of his letters are, also, filled with this sense of doom.
I still mourn him, and, as I keep reading his books, am more and more aware of the void he left behind him...
by ZAch (zmaraziti [at] yahoo.com)
Hinter killed himself!!! this is a fact...i live in aspen and have even talked with his wife...anybody in aspen know for sure that hunter shot himself....hunter was sick and he did not wanna die cause he was sick he LOVED his guns and would rather have died from his guns then natural causes.........theres no doubt in my mined or in ANY bodys mind in aspen that hunter shot himself...Hunters death is NOT mysturios.....9/11 however is very!
by semolina fish
we've lost a great literary mind and social observationist.

I think of suicide as the easy way out yet sometimes, as HST said, "some people are not meant for this life".

HST certainly lived an amazing life but in doing so observed the lowest forms of human life who do not deserve this life. Then again maybe we are all in hell and the scum are the ones who do deserve to live this life. God knows the good people in this world (such as HST) dont deserve to watch the planet become defiled by these suit n' tie wearing, oil drinking, liberty taking, hypocrite, liars and cheats people seem to vote in.

I ask the real americans to stand up and use your vote to oust the charletons who are seeking to rob you are your rights and muslims of their lives. If someone calls you a "traitor" for speaking out then call them "treasonous" for trying to suspend your right to free speech which your whole system is based upon and allows.

Considering HST is the father of gonzo journalism i feel i must add this titbit at the end.

You may be the president of the US, you may own oil companies, you may have the CIA to sell drugs for war funds and kill people who get in your way...
...but the truth will prevail and your whole warmongering family is going down.

R.I.P Hunter S. Thompson. Finally you have learned the truth.
by Max Koff
What captivated me most about HST reading his books and material was his uncanny cleverness, witticism, and his eccentric tendencies. Watching him in interviews was an experience, as his wit, intelligence, and quick tongue was uncanny. So keen and perceptive as to seem preternatural. One of the main things I got through his writtings is that you should always keep the objective in mind, never assume that anyone around you is anything but a potential menace. I remember him at a college speaking I believe UC Colorado someone asked him how he did it, "How was he able to escape structure (society) as they felt they were a prisoner of" His answer was "You have to run real fast, and not get much sleep." Classic Thompson. As far as his death I cried that mourning I herd because I dawned on me that we lost one of the greats a man of his time. The only thing that sticks out in my mind thinking after his death after all the different stories, scenarios, and conspiracy theorys I remembered in his documentary "Breakfast with Hunter" toward the end Hunter holds up a polaroid photo of a hazy shot of him slumped on a bed with a lonely, broken, and basically just a sad image and comments to lala nubulsi "remember when you asked me how I feel, and why?" then he shows the photo to lala and makes a comment along the lines of "this is how I feel" as she replys "oh that's sad" my point is yes I think Hunter had been thinking about this for a long time, and from the reports in the news he had been in best of spirits days before except the phone call he made sounding scared that he might be killed by unseen assassins but I think deep down he was suffering, no more fun, and he knew he did not want to go out like that " In the BBC documentary "The Road to Hollywood" with Ralph Steadman toward the end they actually go to a funeral home to arrange his own burial where he already had his funeral planned more than 28 years ago.

"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun _ for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax _ This won't hurt."


What does this mean now that Hunter is gone. Speaking of Bush Jr.
"He has done alot of damage over here, and he is trying too. I guarantee his next move will be to over rule the Freedom of Information Act which is key for the survival of political journalism in this country, I'm concerned about the civil rights implications of this and everyone should be." Hunter Thompson

"It was quite remarkable the fore sight hunter had as the '72 presidential campain progressed" -George Mcgovern




by stan (p5tan [at] hotmail.co.uk)
Hi all could any 1 help me with what i have to say is one of the gratest things of all time hunter s thompson and fear and loathing. in the book it says the original recording was hard to desifer and is written in script form from what can be made out. i bealive it would be an intresting thing to listen to and it must be some where out in he big wide web world

so any advice people on where i would be able to find hunter s thompsons actual tape recording as he is doing it would be great please e mail with any advice
This interview is old info so we know his inside info was very correct about the planned demolition charges that brought down the twin towers,but I still would not be one bit surprised if Hunter was killed by the administration's hit men . Hunter had dirt on the obscenely greedy murderous bastards that stole the elections and turned the U.S. into new nazi land and Hunter would've released it to the public A.S.A.P. if he found more .
IF Americans knew actual true history they wouldn't be so ignorantly patriotic , so many are trained just like Pavlov's dogs , they know nothing else and/or they are in extreme denial supported by their military complex culture .
KARMA never forgets and always comes to the deserving .
by Jim Sofra (sofrajones [at] telus.net)
Evening folks.

Weasel Boy is about to deliver the State Of The Union Address in a few minutes.

Just finished listening to Hunter in that recording posted above, something I do before every SOTU.

I miss the good doctor, immensely.
by R. N. Harris
This being the opinion on a critical point in American history from a trusted political observer, Hunter S Thompson.

This recording will only gain importance as time passes.

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