When Prophets Become Historians: The Map Makes All the Difference

WHEN PROPHETS BECOME HISTORIANS: The Map Makes All The Difference
Reflections for Act 2: From the Wilderness' Peak Oil Blog

Carolyn Baker


It was the fall of 2000, and I was surfing the Internet one Sunday afternoon, when for some strange reason, God knows why, I Googled “CIA And Drugs.” A plethora of sites appeared, and I began clicking on them, one by one. I was most intrigued with the story of Celerino Castillo since at that time, I was living in Texas, and welcomed any information about muckrakers from the Lone Star state. The next day I called Castillo thinking I’d get his voicemail, but I got him, and we talked for an hour. He emphasized that the one person I should learn more about was Mike Ruppert.

I began visiting the From The Wilderness website daily and soon became a subscriber. Being a curious investigative researcher and a college professor, I decided to email this Ruppert guy and see if we could have lunch during a trip I would soon be taking to Los Angeles. After reading all that he had endured over the years, I felt almost apologetic approaching him with such a suggestion. After all, I could have been Valerie Plame on a covert mission from “The Company” to make his life even more of a living hell than it had already been. On the contrary, Mike welcomed me warmly, and we became friends.

On another Sunday afternoon in September, 2001, I checked my email and found a special FTW bulletin for subscribers informing us that the U.S. stock market was about to tank—that the situation was dire, and something huge was on the horizon. Forty-eight hours later, that “something” blindsided the nation and the world, except for those many individuals who had received warnings, and for Mike who although not knowing what the “something” was going to be, had been connecting the dots and probably was not as surprised as the rest of us were.. Almost immediately, he put the stock market under his investigative microscope and illuminated the insider trading prior to 9-11 that has become one of the most solid pieces of evidence for U.S. government orchestration of the attacks.

In late 2001, I visited Mike again and then returned to the college classroom where for over a year, I felt terrified of discussing what I now knew to be true—that key members of the Bush Administration had foreknowledge of and perpetrated the events of 9-11. Only a fool would speak openly about this to a room full of students, I thought. But as the months passed and an avalanche of additional investigative reporting appeared in alternative media, I found myself no longer willing to remain silent on the issue.

By this time, I had also met and spent many hours on the phone with Catherine Austin Fitts. As I learned more about 9-11, the CIA’s longtime involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering through the stock market and U.S. banks, as I studied the nightmare of dirty tricks at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as I researched the rigged elections of 2000 and the $4 trillion dollars missing from the federal government, as I began to learn about Peak Oil, and as the torrent of lies and phony intelligence preceding the Iraq War catapulted the U.S. into an invasion of that nation, the dots in my awareness were connecting. Damn! I was developing a map.


Today, as I listen to progressives rant about the Iraq War, global warming, the shredding of the Constitution as a result of the U.S.A. Patriot Act, the pandemic of corruption in Washington and in corporate America—as I hear them acting oh so surprised at the realization that their country has become a fascist empire, I feel fortunate and deeply, deeply grateful to From The Wilderness—Mike, Catherine, Cele Castillo, Dale Allen Pfeiffer, Richard Heinberg, Dmitri Orlov, Paula Hay, Matt Savinar, and a host of individuals who, like Mike Ruppert, are “information cops” and are sharing with the world what they have discovered as a result of onerous, diligent investigative research.

Has FTW gotten it wrong on some occasions? Absolutely. Imperfect human beings cannot be on target one hundred percent of the time, and I’m quite certain that FTW will get it wrong again; however, in the same sentence, I hasten to add the question: How often has mainstream news gotten it right—I mean really, really right? Even the most astute investigators are neither omniscient nor clairvoyant, but those who tend to get it right most of the time are those who have not only read the research, but have lived it. As I’ve listened over the years to the stories of Mike, Catherine, Dmitri and others who have nearly paid with their physical lives, I’m reminded that being able to read the tea leaves incisively has everything to do with what one has experienced as well as what one investigates.

Go to your computer or your TV, if you have one, and check out mainstream news. If you have been a subscriber to FTW for the past five years, you will not be surprised by anything you hear. If you’ve read Crossing The Rubicon, by Mike Ruppert, you’ll be even less surprised. I’ve probably given the book to fifty people and told at least fifty more to go buy it themselves. Currently, 42% of the American people believe that 9-11 was an inside job. Over 70% want another (next time authentic) investigation. The FTW “prophets” of years gone by have now become historians.

My own book, U.S. HISTORY UNCENSORED: What Your High School Textbook Didn’t Tell You will be available later this summer. Not only has the FTW map served me superbly in navigating present time, but in illuminating our nation’s history as well. As for the future, while FTW is not in the business of offering “hope” it does offer us a treasure-trove of information that provides options, and while there is no “perfect plan”, and there are countless unknowns, it is reassuring to know from experience that having a reliable map makes all the difference. Act 2: From the Wilderness' Peak Oil Blog promises to add an important piece to that map.

Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. is an adjunct professor of history and a freelance writer for From The Wilderness. She has recently launched her new website Truth to Power at www.carolynbaker.org

Introductory Message from Mike Ruppert

INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE FROM MIKE RUPPERT

Welcome to FTW’s new blog. Things are happening fast, almost too fast. But for those who have been FTW subscribers for even just a few months, it is difficult not to have the feeling that we have a major head start on events.

This blog is intended to serve as an information-sharing resource as we enter some very tough times. I strongly recommend that those who participate have at least some familiarity with the following: Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil; Denial Stops Here, The Truth and Lies of 9/11, and Wall Street’s War for Drug Money.

There are also many back stories from our archives that will make your participation in this important message board more rewarding. Three of the many I would recommend are Eating Fossil Fuels, Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century and Globalcorp.

The world situation is deteriorating rapidly—we all can see that. What is important is that we accelerate and empower our collective work in the recognition that answers and solutions are not going to be coming from the government, and the only thing we can expect from big business is more of the same inertia that is leading the human race towards the collapse of civilization and the precipice of extinction.

But the better-than-expected good news is that individuals and communities all over the world, especially inside America, are not only waking up but taking action. However, many of these developments, and the knowledge that is emerging as many communities strive to relocalize with a renewed sense of urgency, are well below our radar screens.

The information and predictions contained in Denial Stops Here are coming true in spades and at warp speed. What has been so deeply gratifying for me personally has been all the feedback I have received from many places telling me that people have not only been taking FTW’s message and information to heart, but that they have also been acting on it as well.

As Catherine Austin Fitts says, “No one is as smart as all of us.”

Tell us what you have learned. Tell each other what you think (in the spirit of cooperation and helpfulness). Share and discuss with only one prime directive, “What can we share here that will save lives by providing people with choices, experience, strength and hope”? This is the place for it.

This list is going to be moderated by one of the most wonderful human beings in the world, Jenna Orkin. Jenna is an activist and someone who is thoroughly familiar with FTW’s body of work. She—with my full backing—will decide what goes up and what does not. Needless to say ad hominem attacks on anyone and excessive profanity are out. (Although occasional profanity might undoubtedly be called for and appropriate.)

This blog is here so that people who care can help each other, and I hope that this blog will provide more evidence of what all of us at FTW have accomplished and of what people armed with a good map can do.

My most special gratitude to Jamey Hecht, Stan Goff, Dale Allen Pfeiffer, Michael Kane, Carolyn Baker, Lindsay Gerken, Dmitry Orlov, and every writer who put FTW on the map over these last eight years.

Michael C. Ruppert
Publisher/Editor
May 1, 2006