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Christopher Bollyn
Responds to Michael Piper's Lies
About Willis Carto's "Chavez Project"

29 November 2006

Although I am not at all inclined or interested in discussing American Free Press (AFP), that fired me on baseless allegations, I find myself, once again, compelled to defend my name and clarify the details of my trip to Venezuela, which I made on behalf of Willis A. Carto, the publisher of that newspaper, last February.
I presented a packet of material and 9/11 information to an official from the Ministry of Communication in Caracas, February 2006
Click photograph for high-res version



Yesterday, it was brought to my attention that Michael Piper of American Free Press was still spreading vicious lies about me on his Internet radio show, which is carried on the RBN network.   So I listened to a bit of his program from November 28 and was shocked to hear him tell a whole slew of bold-faced lies about my trip to Venezuela.

Click here is an audio excerpt (only 500 kbytes)
The full show is at the RBN archive for Tuesday, November 28, 2006:
http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Piper06.html

It is important to note that Piper is fully aware that he is lying.  He is very well informed of my trip to Venezuela and the obstacles encountered, as a matter of fact he is the one who suggested I go there in the first place.

I even personally hand-delivered signed copies of his books, which I had brought from Washington, to the government of Venezuela in Caracas.

Having seen how Piper lies so easily and frequently to his listening audience, I would seriously question anything he says or writes.

Piper is clearly working with others to try and defame me.  He clearly conspired against me with Lisa Guliani and Scott Makufka (a.k.a. Victor Thorn) after I was beaten and TASERed by undercover cops last August.  He also gave an ultimatum to Mr. Carto that if I were to attend the Labor Day conference in Washington, he would stay away.

Now he continues to spread vicious lies about me on his radio show.  Why is he doing this?  Who is he serving?

Is it because AFP is withholding thousands of dollars that they raised for my legal defense fund?  I know that many donors and subscribers have called and written to AFP asking for an explanation about why they fired me and why they are keeping the money sent for my legal defense.

I was suddenly and unexpectedly fired from AFP on October 7, 2006.  The note of dismissal, which came by email, accused me of baseless charges which have never been substantiated.  At the time I was dismissed, AFP had been collecting money in my name for nearly two months.

It should be noted that I am just one more (former) employee of AFP who has been treated this way.  In the six years that I worked for Willis A. Carto, who ran the erstwhile Spotlight and who runs American Free Press, I have seen other good people suddenly dismissed.  Tom Valentine and Raphael M. Johnson are two people that the public might know who were suddenly dropped from the paper, or Carto's historical magazine The Barnes Review, for no apparent reason.  I know them both personally and that they are both Christian intellectuals with great talent.  Why were they fired?

About the Venezuela trip there are several key facts that need to be clarified:

I was sent to Venezuela, from Europe, by Willis A. Carto, publisher of American Free Press, for one specific reason – to try and get financial support for AFP from Venezuela's generous populist president, Hugo Chavez. (See email in green box below.)

It was my idea and initiative to bring William Rodriguez to Venezuela, as a friend and survivor from 9/11, in order to inform the Venezuelans about the false flag terror attacks.  Since we had worked together and he speaks fluent Spanish, I asked AFP to let him join me in Venezuela. (See email in 2nd green box below.)

I succeeded in presenting the materials that Michael Piper and AFP gave me for the president, although I did not meet him personally.  Rodriguez and Jimmy Walter, both of whom I had invited to join me in Venezuela, stayed many weeks longer (at Walter's expense) but were not able to meet Chavez either. 

At the time, I was in Europe covering the Ernst Zundel trial in Mannheim and had made excellent contacts with Lebanese and Syrian leaders at the Axis of Peace conference in Brussels.
See http://www.axisforpeace.net/article681.html


Lebanese Prime Minister Selim al Hoss went up to podium at the end of the Brussels conference to speak with Christopher Bollyn and get more information on 9/11 and related issues.

Click photograph for high-res version



I thought that AFP should send me to Lebanon and Syria, but AFP was more interested in sending me to Venezuela – on what can only be described as a wild goose chase. 

Here are a couple email messages that document my assertions.  The first in my note to William Rodriguez and Jimmy Walter, which first broached the subject of going to Venezuela:
 

Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 
From: "Christopher Bollyn" <afp_europe@yahoo.com> 
Subject: Bollyn Article on Sharon, Mossad, and 9-11 
To: "Jimmy Walter" <jwalter@reopen911.org> 
CC: "William Rodriguez" <wroudy@yahoo.com> 

Jimmy and William,

Here is my latest article on Sharon, Mossad & the Media - and 9-11. 

William - I will be in Miami next week and will be going to Venezuela in the coming weeks to try and enlist support from Chavez for AFP.  Have you ever been to Venezuela?  Would you like to go?

CB


 

Rodriguez responded the same day:
 

Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 19:04:47 -0800 (PST) 
From: "William Rodriguez" <wroudy@yahoo.com> 
Subject: Re: Bollyn Article on Sharon, Mossad, and 9-11 
To: "Sam Brand" <afp_europe@yahoo.com> 

HI Chris!!! Great article. I have been trying with the Venezuela's Embassy political affairs person here in Washington and no success. I will definetely interested in going to Venezuela and talk to Chavez and his tv channel TeleSur. I believe he will not only be interested in what I have to say but will want me to talk to his emergency response experts to learn about the mistakes after 9/11 to help victims. See what you can do. I am ready to fly!!!!!

Willie R.


 

I then went to Washington, where Michael Piper gave me signed copies of his books for Hugo Chavez.  These I presented, along with material about 9/11, in a packet to an official from the Ministry of Communication in Caracas (see photo at top).

Michael Piper was involved in sending me to Venezuela.  Mr. Carto had initially wanted him to go, but Piper passed the task on to me saying he was "in neither the physical nor mental state to be able to do such a thing."
 
 

From: "Michael Collins Piper" <piperm@lycos.com>
To: afp_europe@yahoo.com, "Chris Petherick" <afpeditor@americanfreepress.net>, "Chris Petherick" <cjpetherick@hotmail.com>, "paul angel" <afp.production@verizon.net>
CC: angel@his.com, piperm@lycos.com
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 16:47:20 -0500

Subject: Various American Free Press items including Chavez project

Dear Chris and Paul and Christopher (Bollyn):

On Wednesday Willis asked me to come in to discuss a project that he had in mind.

Essentially, Willis proposed the idea that I approach the Venezuelan Embassy with the following plan:

1) that they fund massive numbers of AFP subscriptions here in the United States to political party officials, members of Congress, etc;
2) that they fund a trip for me to Venezuela to do a favorable book about Hugo Chavez.
3) that AFP would publish a series of nice articles about Chavez

On its face, this sounds interesting and exciting.

I noted several reservations:

1) I am not a very good salesman and am in neither the physical nor mental state to be able to do such a thing effectively. I suggested that Christopher Bollyn would be far more effective in such a role as he would be. (Sorry to throw that on your lap, Christopher!)

(Willis countered by saying that my books were a good ground-breaker for such an effort, but I countered that, well, if my books were a key to it, they WERE published by American Free Press and Christopher could use them as part of his sales pitch.

(Willis responded by saying that, "Well, Christopher is in Berlin" (or somewhere abroad) and I pointed out that it would probably actually be BETTER to approach Chavez through one of his FOREIGN embassies rather than through the Embassy in Washington.

2) I pointed out to Willis that I was already aware, through a variety of venues, that Chavez has a similar network in place in Washington already, through a Venezuelan information office; and

3) Although Chavez is a critic of the US, he already has some major US public relations firms flacking for him;

4) That even if we could get our foot in the door, however unlikely, there would inevitably be Jewish clucking and hell-raising and they would back off; note, for example, that even though Chavez has been friendly to the Arabs, etc, his government had some jet deal, if I recall correctly, with the Israelis.

At this juncture Willis acknowledged that his Chavez project was very similar to other efforts he had hoped to make through Andrew St. George with Arab contacts in Washington and that none of them had ever gone anywhere over some 25 years.

THEN, I noted the major SERIOUS consideration:

if my reading of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is correct, such a "deal" between American Free Press, an American corporation, and a foreign government would trigger FARA and require that AFP register as a foreign agent of a foreign government, especially considering the funding aspect.

Although FARA (which text can easily be found on the Internet) has provisions that theoretically exempt newspapers, the wording in that regard (and in other aspects) is ambiguous enough that AFP could get itself in a real fix. Although the Jews manage, through various ways, to get around FARA in promoting Israeli interests, they are, after all, God's Chosen People and are exempt from normal laws. The Justice Department
would just absolutely love to nail AFP as a "foreign agent"----funded "by an enemy of America," blah blah blah.

Willis got angry at this point and said that "You always want to argue with me and throw water on my ideas."

(This is the theme that he developed in the mid-1990s when I raised questions about the propriety and worthiness of ideas and projects and devilry by folks such as Todd Blodgett and Gregory Douglas.)

I responded that: "I just express my opinion, based on information that I do have, and then you accuse me of being argumentative. I'm just trying to keep you and Jim Tucker and Chris Petherick and AFP and everybody else from getting prosecuted by the Justice Department. If you want me to be a shameless yes man, then I will be a yes man. yes, Willis, you are right about everything," I said, "You are never wrong."

----Mike


 

The purpose of presenting this information is to defend myself against the outrageous lies of Michael Piper and not to defame American Free Press.  My hope has always been that AFP would become an excellent and widely-read newspaper for American patriots.  During the 6+ years that I worked for AFP, I did my best to make that happen.

Regarding Venezuela, I have written several articles prior to, during, and after my visit in February 2006:

"Letter From Venezuela"
 • www.zeitenschrift.net/news/sne-2506-chavez.ihtml
 • BollynLetterFromVenezuela2006.html

"Chavez Influence Growing"
 • www.americanfreepress.net/html/chavez_influence_growing.html