The Alternative Media Ignores The Story of Australian Union Leader Kevin Bracken Who Questioned The Official 9/11 Story

Mike Keating Source: HWT Image Library

The Excavator

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” These are words are prophetic, especially when we judge them in the context of the alternative media’s silence regarding the serious and science-based questions surrounding the September 11 terrorist attacks. Included in the alternative media are outlets like Antiwar.com, Democracy Now, AlterNet, Common Dreams, Counterpunch, The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Truthdig, and Truthout. On most issues these sites knock it out of the park, but when it comes to the questions about the 9/11 attacks, they’re too afraid to even step up to the plate and assume the responsibility of informing their readers/viewers about the most critical event of our lifetime.

As the blogger pfgetty points out in this post on 9/11 Blogger, these alternative media organizations are ignoring a hugely important story about Kevin Bracken, the president of Australia’s Victorian Trades Hall Council, and secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, who questioned the official story of the 9/11 attacks on Wednesday October 20th on a morning talk show hosted by Jon Faine. You can hear the interview here. Bracken told Faine; “I believe the official story is a conspiracy theory that doesn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny.”

Bracken’s immense influence among the working class community in Australia is what makes his public stance on 9/11 all the more remarkable, and historical. The Victorian Trades Hall Council, of which he is president, is an organization that was founded in 1856. It consists of over 400,00 members, and represents “60 affiliated Trade Unions and Professional Associations, and eight Victorian regional Trades and Labour Councils” in Victoria, Australia. Bracken’s other leadership role is in the Maritime Union of Australia, which has 10,000 members, and is an affiliate of the International Transport Workers’ Federation. Neither of the two organizations have followed Bracken in questioning the official story about the 9/11 attacks.

To learn more about this story, here is an excerpt from an article written in the Herald Sun on Wednesday October 20 by Shannon Deery called Trades Hall president Kevin Bracken calls 9/11 ‘conspiracy’:

Kevin Bracken, who is also the secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, sparked a flood of angry calls after calling into ABC talk-back host Jon Faine’s program this morning, the Herald Sun reports.

“I believe the official story is a conspiracy theory that doesn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny,” Mr Bracken said.

“In my mind the buildings were imploded.”

Faine thought the call was a hoax.

“I challenge you to a public debate,” Mr Bracken said.

“Aviation fuel doesn’t get hot enough to melt steel and no high rise steel frame building before or after September 11 has ever collapsed due to fire.

“I stick to scientific fact.”

Faine described the claim as a “nutter theory”.

Trades Hall secretary Brian Boyd said Mr Bracken did not speak on behalf of the organisation.

Bracken’s remarks received immediate and widespread support, as well as harsh ridicule, including by Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who said they were “stupid and wrong.”