---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Justin Raimondo <raimondo.justin@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 9:07 PM
Subject: Chat with Justin Raimondo
To:
barriticus@gmail.com8:46 PM me: Justin
not sure if you remember me
8:47 PM at any rate, I'm going to be on Russia Today tomorrow
and I understand that some of your people have appeared on that
please let me know your opinion of the station
if you get a moment
8:48 PM Justin: Nothing wrong with RT. but any state-owned or subsidized media outlet is suspect.
me: yes
Justin: Theuy'll let you talk, however, and the women they send -- invariably women -- are quite comely.
8:49 PM me: that would seem to be their modus operandi
I will be on live
are you familiar with the 1999 Russian apartment bombings?
Justin: yeah, the plan is to mesmerize you with some buxom lassie thrusting them at you: hopefully it will make you pro-Russian. Hahahahah
8:50 PM those bombings were carried out by chechens, NOT the Russkies my friend
me: not likely, the breasts will not even be in the same room
I know
I have written an article about this
and part of a chapter on my upcoming book explains it
Justin: The Litvinenko story is BS.
8:51 PM me: but the people at Russia Today do not seem to have looked into me very thoroughly
Justin: why should they?
they have a lot of air time to fill
me: true
at any rate
I want to know if they would have a delay
8:52 PM or any means of preventing me from addressing their audience
Justin: well they edit of course: u aren't going to come out with some anti-Russian tirade, r u?
me: wait, I misunderstood you above
you say the official story is correct?
8:53 PM that it was the Chechens?
Justin: Who else? The Americans?
me: The FSB
Justin: This is the russian equivalent of 9/11 trutherism
and just as wacko
me: on the surface, yes
8:54 PM insomuch as that both involve governments killing their own citizens in order to carry out some objective
this one involves a Russian government doing it
Justin: please.
8:55 PM The idea that the Russians bombed themselves makes no sense. If the Putinites can't demonstrate that they're in control of events, that they can protect the russian people, then why should anyone put up with all their bullshit?
me: but the Russians did put up with it
in fact, Putin's share of votes went from two percent to electability-range in just a few months
8:56 PM Justin: I'm aware of the campaign by Beresovsky and other exiled oligarchs to promote this crazed idea.
Putin was never at two percent
me: I'm aware that not everyone who has promoted this idea is on the side of the angels
not two percent approval
two percent share of the vote in a poll previous to the bombing
8:57 PM Justin: I suppose you also believe the Litvinenko-was-poisoned-by-the-Russians -- and so was that Ukrainainan who got elected Prez.
It's all the KGB -- the Evil Russians.
Where have we heard all this before?
that was before your time
me: When you pushed the Israeli art student story, perhaps?
8:58 PM which I did not discount
simply because it can be rephrased to sound silly
Justin: Don't blame me for the art students story -- blame Fox News.
me: I don't blame anyone
I am saying that both of us have tread in waters that others find to be off-limits or crazy
8:59 PM Justin: the idea that the Israelis were interested in bin Laden's lads is hardly crazy, no matter how u rephrase it
me: likewise, it is hardly crazy to suspect that the KGB folks might kill their fellow Russians and lie about it
as they spent much of the 20th century doing that very thing
Justin: on the other hand, there is NO credible evidence that Putin bombed his own people
me: on a vaster scale
9:00 PM except that three FSB agents were arrested at the scene of one failed bombing?
that the FSB later claimed it was a drill?
but that the apartment they used had been rented months before the bombings began?
9:01 PM I am simply asking you to consider the evidence before you discount it, particularly when we are discussing the possibility of a government doing something unethical
Justin: Three FSB agents arrested at the scene is not evidence of anything: what were they arrested FOR?
me: for planting the bomb
Justin: arrested by whom?
me: actually, they were arrested after fleeing the scene
by the local police
who used bomb-sniffing equipment to verify that the explosive was hexogen
9:02 PM Justin: I don't believe a single word of it
me: same substance used in other bombings
I see that
I probably can't persuade you, then
Justin: the only fashionable, socially acceptable conspiracy theories seem to be anti-Russian. that in itself could form the basis of a very convincing conspiracy theory
9:03 PM me: this one is not even socially acceptable, I have had people turn on me for brining it up
in fact, I have nothing to gain by promoting it
Justin: but George Soros and the exiled Russkie oligarchs have very deep pockets.
9:04 PM me: Yes, Soros' deep pockets have been noted quite a bit
Justin: he hates russia. witness the Kosovo war
he funded the pro-war "grassroots" organizations like the "Balkan Action Council."
9:05 PM me: I am not involved with Soros anymore than you are involved with Putin
Justin: and why were the serio-comic Russian "moles" suddenly arrested -- after being watched for 10 years.
me: who is of course quite pro-war himself
I don't know
a conspiracy?
Justin: why now?
9:06 PM I don't know the answer to that question.
me: I don't know, I only express opinions on things after having duly looked into them
Justin: I've been covering the russophobia of the neocons and their allies on the "left" since the beginning of antiwar.com, in the 1990s.
so I've duly looked into it.
9:07 PM me: I don't doubt that you have looked into that
And I'm aware that certain parties oppose Russia for the wrong reasons
this does not discount the possibility of Russia having engaged in poor conduct
9:08 PM nor does it discount the necessity of looking into possibilities before dismissing them
9:09 PM Justin: go for it.