A REPORTER'S DILEMMA
A REPORTER’S DILEMA
by William Thomas
willthomasonline.net exclusive
It was late when I put down the phone. Alone in darkness as total as my own, I tried to calm my whirling thoughts. What should I do with this information? Why don’t we learn from the past? If this story was true, how could anyone even consider another Hiroshima? In 40 years of reporting, from the tumultuous streets of ‘60’s protest, to bitter logging blockades, the oil-fired hell of Kuwait, Washington’s covert “chemtrails” climate control campaign, and White House complicity in 9/11 — I had never been handed a story as explosive as this. Unable to sleep, I continued to grapple with the journalist’s most nightmarish quandary: To run with it or not, that was the only question. Writing the story was as nerve-wracking as walking through Kuwait’s minefields looking to save oiled birds. Weighing my responsibilities between “crying wolf” and being severely bitten, against potentially millions of unsuspecting lives — I finished it on the 12th.
Fridays are a news black hole. Nobody anticipating the weekend would pay any attention to an apocalypse that was not Hollywood entertainment. I held it back.
For another 48 hours I continued weighing my decision to launch. If the story I had been told was untrue and I released it online, I would unnecessarily alarm untold numbers of people. And destroy a lifetime’s journalistic credibility. There was no way to document a secret as closely held as this. Over six days of intensive online research I still could not find any source reporting the nuclear aspect of the Israeli strike.
This made Monday’s decision even more hellish. But two credible informants had confirmed it, fulfilling the minimum reportorial requirement of two independent sources. If I went with my best and long-trusted source — if one nation was about to get away with attempting to drop a nuclear bomb on another — should I still refrain from feeding into “Internet hysteria” by withholding the most inflammatory information I’d ever been given?
As a veteran reporter, I knew that some truths are best withheld for release at a later time. But the clock was ticking. If I kept silent, would a fourth Israeli strike succeed, changing forever the world as we and our children would know it?
Despite encouragement by a willfully ignorant and craven press, onboard a wounded blue space colony Could the use of any nuclear weapon by any country be tolerated? Given the inevitable recirculation of revenge and atmosphere, what goes around comes around.
What does killing children and poisoning wombs make us? Once the nuclear genie was uncorked, where would escalation end?
Didn’t everyone deserve to know the risks being run by a handful of men? As a professional pledged to tell the truth, wasn’t I obliged to honor your right to informed choice by warning of the most dangerous gambit undertaken by any nation since my own country of birth had sent the Enola Gay downtown? Concern for my own life could not determine how I would proceed. But my source’s safety was another matter. He had wrestled with his own demons to impart a few convincing details. And even after deciding to come forward, I knew that he would be immediately identified by U.S. intelligence agents, whose next visit could result in the use of handcuffs. Or worse.
In the end, with no other news outlet picking up this story, I realized that I had to report it.
GO
“Israeli Nuclear Strike On Iran Turned Back” was posted on January 16. Within the first hour, my webmaster reported 60 news groups picking it up. By the second hour, 140 military, financial and academic news groups were discussing it. Many of the web’s busiest ‘sites were already reposting it on their front-pages, and countless networks were distributing it on their email lists.
The power of the world’s second great Superpower to respond was breathtaking. In the blink of a cursor, 40 persons every second began clicking onto willthomas.net. Within 24 hours, nearly 40,000 people had read my story there. Easily ten-times that number had seen it from other sources. The blowback I’d risked never materialized as strangers vigorously defended my professional record and integrity.
Those who unknowingly go on about their lives owe everything to everyone who participated in the distribution and defense of this breaking story. By focusing the intense light of scrutiny into the blackest of black ops, Armageddon has once again been postponed.
MEN IN BLACK
Within four hours of my story being posted online, the operatives who keep tabs on my primary source were knocking on his door.
“These are serious guys,” he informed me when I reached him for a follow-up. But this time they were acting as “point people” sent to deliver a message from a list of governments and intelligence agencies that took 45 seconds to recite. “I timed them,” he said. Explaining that he had not gotten into “quote unquote ‘trouble’,” my source said the agents were not as cranky as their previous chats. Maybe they’d gotten some sleep since our online revelations had derailed Rumsfeld’s ordered ground assault on Iran in the spring of ‘06. After making strong noises about “security” and mentioning me by name, the “Bobbsy Twins” told my contact that we had “stepped on some toes”—and “tweaked a nose” belonging to Israeli President Ehud Olmert, who suddenly had some questions to answer. “Always good to know that you can get on the agenda of the Knesset,” my source chuckled.
But playing hard ball with a story as touchy as Semtex was no joke, we both knew. Driven by their concern over an out-of-control “king Georgie”, his informants in turn had risked severe personal penalties for “transgressing the capitol ‘T’ word” in revealing the racetrack diversion. That’s “T” as in “treason”. Though eventually identified by U.S. intelligence services, these insiders faced no reprisals, my guy was assured. “In the end, they thanked me,” he said. Opting for the side of angels, a host of political, military and intelligence heavies had drawn a line and “approved the information getting out, because they didn’t like the direction things were going.”
As the leakers themselves had put it, they did not want to be “spectators in Armageddon.” While not exactly thrilled by our disclosure, all sides were satisfied: Israel had delivered the message they wanted to send. And those concerned with averting a catastrophe had in turn delivered a message to Jerusalem: “You are being watched. And people are no longer afraid to talk.”
This was big, my source stated, “because normally to get out this level of his information, the agent is either on his deathbed, or quitting and going to Morocco — where he will be on his deathbed soon.” He laughed again.
Who else’s eyebrows had our story raised?
“You had huge financial people coming in,” my source replied. “You could see the hiccup go though the pipeline.” “We tracked that, too,” I assured him. “Even the UN came by to read it.” “Shake the trees and see who jumps out,” my friend agreed. Other major parties picking up our story included some of the Balkan states, as well as the Italian financial markets. “Why Italy?” I didn’t get it. “The Vatican,” he retorted. “I shit you not. As one of the key points—the lynch points—the Vatican paid attention to this.”
BUS DRIVERS
Suddenly, our connection was broken. Instead of being replaced by a dial tone, my source and I each heard a “busy” signal. We both got the message.
“Tell me more about the Vatican,” I said for the benefit of our listening audience after reestablishing contact with my source.
“They closed off two-stories of the Catacombs within hours of the story,” he resumed. Why the Catacombs?
“That’s where some of the information of what’s to come is kept,” I was informed. When a leak this big sounds alarms in the Vatican, he continued, as a careful Jesuit intent on global power plays, “You go back to your playbook and make sure it’s where you left it, and that it’s still open to the page you were on. Then you get on the phone and ask [your compadrés] to look at theirs.”
Everyone has an agenda. But unlike everyone else in the business of religion, “the Jesuits have the longest scale mentality,” my source continued. “They know what the end is supposed to look like, and they have the mentality to put all the people and pieces together to get there.
“The bus is still moving forward. The Jesuits are the bus driver, and the Vatican is putting gas in the tank. You can do whatever you want — look out the window, kill the person next to you, go into the bathroom and have sex—but you’re still on the bus,” Brown said.
Power politics revolves around cash, he continued: “Who has the money, who wants the money, and who says they can do business? You never really have all three in the same place. Except in the Vatican.” With its own army, and de facto UN representation through the Italian government, “they are a country unto themselves.”
Yet in reality, he added, “There are no borders. There are financial districts, spheres of financial influence.”
Those with the most gold make the most rules, I supplied. In addition to the Church’s vast accumulated treasures, the folks who own the most land on Earth are…
“The Vatican. The Jesuits. They’re the deciding factor,” my source finished. “They put people in places of power, then they go back to the money people”—and direct how funds reach those at pivotal levels.
Of course the Vatican would be interested, I mused. “The use of atomics changes everything; changes the board game.”
As for Israel attempting to explode a nuclear device over Iran, my source returned, “Them doing it is not a surprise; the timing is not a surprise. People talking — that’s a surprise. No longer can the Israelis expect to do something in broad daylight and get away with it.”
Now that we were playing with prelates who would not hesitate to arrange “accidents” for those who jeopardized their plans, did my wise friend have any concluding words of advice?
“Eyes open,” came his reply. “These are the first two words and the last two words of the session I went through with those guys.”
Denial is no longer an option. When fear and superstition rule, “Seeing what actually is, as opposed to what we were told, is to see it differently,” my source was instructed. Otherwise… “You’re being controlled by them.”
“Them” meant my former mentors.
BLACK ROBES
“I’m so proud to have broken this story,” I said smiling. “And I hope the Jesuits are proud of me.” Having been taught by the black robes at Marquette University, I would be forever grateful for the training and encouragement I’d received during my formative years as a reporter and activist. But while I respected their rigorous minds, I could not always condone the methods used by the Society of Jesus. There are compelling reasons why “Jesuitical” has come to mean “devious” in several languages. Morphed from a military company to battle 15th century Moslems, the largest Catholic order later ran their machinations in feudal Europe, China and Japan — before becoming renowned for their courage and manipulations in the Americas. Accused of murdering presidents and popes, instigating wars and toppling governments, the extreme oath of allegiance taken by advanced S.J. members to their Superior General in Rome is said to legitimize any act or infiltration in the name of God’s “greater good”. [www.answers.com; www.newadvent.org]
Where have we seen that before?
With their top general supposedly running the Vatican, I would not care to be on the poop list of these highly disciplined and intrigue-infatuated priests.
“Fortune favors the bold,” my source reassured me “And so do the Jesuits. If you show yourself to be a worthy opponent, they can respect you. And through that respect you gain longevity.”
In that case…
“There is something I left out of my article,” I assayed.
“I noticed,” he said.
I would have to finish it soon.
Photo Captions
William Thomas after returning home from Kuwait oil fires -Will Thomas photo
Jesuits rule -beajesuit.org