Dave Neiwert attacks Jerome Corsi for linking the Fort Hood shooter with Obama and doesn’t debunk one word Corsi says
Neiwert’s response to Corsi’s story linking Nidal Malik Hasan to Obama: ad hominem attacks and diversion. Once again showcasing why Neiwert is a Fraudie nominee
by Larry Simons
November 7, 2009
Liberal blogger Dave Neiwert is up to his old tricks again: When he doesn’t like something someone says about Obama or anything else he supports, he simply just calls them nuts, denies that it is true, links to his own articles in an attempt to debunk his opponent and most importantly, does not debunk ONE WORD of the article he is condemning.
In his latest article at Crooks and Liars, Neiwert slams author Jerome Corsi for writing an article on the website World Net Daily entitled, “Shooter Advised Obama Transition”, in which Corsi claims that Nidal Malik Hasan, [the alleged gunman who killed 13 fellow soldiers and wounded 30 at the Fort Hood Army post in Killeen, Texas on Thursday] was a participant at a Homeland Security Policy Institute Presidential Transition Task Force.
The document that was published on May 19 titled, “Thinking Anew – Security Priorities for the Next Administration: Proceedings Report of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force, April 2008 – January 2009," lists Hasan’s name on page 29 under a list of Task Force Event participants, not as members of the Task Force.
[click to enlarge]
Hasan was attending the meetings as a member of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine faculty at George Washington University. Corsi says in his article that the deputy director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, Daniel Kaniewski, told him in a phone interview that the Nidal Hasan listed as attending the meetings of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force was the same person as the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre.
Whether all this means anything is one thing. What does have meaning is the blatant dodge, deflect and ignore tactics used by liberal blogger Dave Neiwert in his Crooks and Liars article, “WND conspiracist’s bogus claim: Hasan advised Obama’s transition team”. In the article, Neiwert posts a captured screenshot of Corsi’s story from World Net Daily, a segment of Corsi’s story and a segment from a story from Media Matters, and immediately Neiwert goes straight into attack mode from that point on until the end of his story.
One thing you won’t find in Neiwert’s story; a refutation of Corsi’s story. The only part of Corsi’s story that should be called into question is the fact that Corsi appears to have misrepresented his story by the headline he chose. His headline was, “Shooter Advised Obama Transition”, but in Corsi’s article he says this:
“While the GWU task force participants included several members of government, including representatives of the Department of Justice and the U.S Department of Homeland Security, there is no indication in the document that the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition, other than to serve in a university-based advisory capacity.”
Then he says:
“Daniel Kaniewski, deputy director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University affirmed to WND in a telephone interview this morning that the Nidal Hasan listed as attending the meetings of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force was the same person as the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre.
Kaniewski said Hasan attended the meetings in his capacity as a member of the faculty of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine, not as a member of the HSPI Presidential Task Force.”
Neiwert does have a point that Corsi’s headline and what is said in the story itself appear to be complete opposites, but one thing Neiwert does not do is offer any refutation of the fact that Hasan’s name does appear on the Task Force Event Participant list. The participants in the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force were apparently more important than just people who signed up to attend a few meetings; they were each mentioned by name in the HSPI Proceedings Report.
These participants were obviously not just the equivalent to people who gather around to hear a political speech. They were participants, not mere bystanders or observers. If this had happened under Bush and Hasan’s name was on some participants list that were connected to a Bush transition task force, not only would Neiwert have already written and posted five stories about it on Crooks and Liars, he would be calling Hasan a right wing extremist, a lone wolf assassin and linking him with Ron Paul, the Patriot/militia movement and calling him a terrorist.
Naturally, since Hasan was involved in a Presidential Task Force for Obama, he’s none of those things. In fact, if you even think anything negative of him, then you’re a kook. Here are the words Neiwert uses to describe Corsi: ‘Wingnut’, ‘conspiracy-meister’ and ‘extremist’.
After the Media Matters portion Neiwert posted, the next five paragraphs of his article are nothing but one long ad hominem attack on Corsi, not one word of it anything resembling a refutation.
Neiwert attacks Corsi’s books, “The Obama Nation”, “The Late Great U.S.A.”, his swift boat book and a book he did about the militia movement. What does all that have to do with Corsi’s story? Not a goddamned thing. How does mentioning Corsi’s past books refute him on the Hasan story? It doesn’t. It’s Neiwert’s way of saying, “Damn, I can’t refute a word of it [panic, panic, panic]….ohh, uh, by the way, Corsi’s books are crap, his associations are crap, he’s a liar and a kook, don’t believe Corsi, he’s a nutball.”
It’s the old tiresome “I can’t attack his facts, so I will attack HIM” tactic that I have seen all too often in my political journey. Notice Neiwert didn’t attempt to say, “Here’s why the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University is crap and false”. He can’t. They exist.
Notice Neiwert didn’t attempt to say, “The May 19 report entitled "Thinking Anew – Security Priorities for the Next Administration: Proceedings Report of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force, April 2008 – January 2009 is crap and made up”. He can’t. It’s real.
Notice that Neiwert didn’t attempt to say, “Hasan’s name isn’t really on that Task Force participants list”. He can’t. Hasan’s name is on it.
Neiwert didn’t have a choice but to rattle off the ad hominem attacks. He was in a corner; in panic mode. He didn’t have a refutation to offer his 12 readers, so it was time to attack, attack, attack.
Neiwert’s purpose is very clear: when someone goes on a shooting rampage, all Neiwert looks for is that the perpetrator believes some unpopular view or “theory” and bingo, they are a right wing extremist. It doesn’t matter to Neiwert how distant the connection is, or if there is a connection at all. If someone kills 15 people at a mall and it turns out they might have [at some point in their life] just heard of Alex Jones, they are a lone wolf, right wing extremist.
But Hasan can be a participant of a Presidential Task Force for the Obama transition, and to Neiwert, if you even say that out loud, let alone draw a connection from it, you are the world’s biggest kook.
Here is video showing Hasan at the Homeland Security Task Force conference









