Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff Respond to Chip Berlet

Outrageously, Berlet categorizes progressive intellectuals such as Peter Dale Scott, Michael Parenti, David Ray Griffin, Michel Chossudovsky, and by innuendo the two of us, as dangerous conspiracists. He uses a straw person technique by positing former LaRouche analyst Webster Tarpley, and the Church of God Evangelistic Association founder David J. Smith in the same category as the progressive intellectuals listed above. …

In his recent essay “Toxic to Democracy,” Political Research Associates Senior Analyst Chip Berlet uses the very same methods of demonization by association that he so strongly opposes. Berlet convolutes historical context, ideological differences, and progressives vis-à-vis extreme conservative, neo-con, libertarians in a diatribe of meaninglessness.

Berlet lumps valid academic research on State Crimes Against Democracy in with anti-Semitic jingoism and far right wing extremism.
He suggests that any research that even implies some sort of conspiracy is dangerous and suspect, seemingly forgetting a long list of proven US and other government conspiracies including: Operation Mockingbird, cointelpro, Gulf of Tonkin “Incident,” October Surprise, CIA-Contra Dark Alliance, Iran-Contra, WMDs and Iraq Invasion, and the overthrow of governments in Iran, Guatemala, Haiti, Chile, Greece, Indonesia, Panama, and many others.

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See also:

Right Woos Left:
professional anti-conspiracist Chip Berlet defends Bush regime’s 9/11 claim of “surprise attack”
“Berlet’s page spends more energy pointing out that anti-semites believe there was a conspiracy on 9/11 than discussing the credible evidence of complicity. It’s a relatively clever smear campaign.”

The New Pearl Harbor:
A Debate On A New Book That Alleges The Bush Administration Was Behind The 9/11 Attacks
“In a new book, well known theologian David Ray Griffin, alleges the Pentagon may have been hit by a missile on Sept. 11 and that the Twin Towers collapsed from a controlled explosion. The book has been hailed by many who question the official record of what happened on Sept. 11. But Chip Berlet of the Political Research Associates, who has studied conspiracy theory movements, charges Griffin’s book doesn’t hold up because it is based on faulty premises and unreliable sources. Today we have a debate on the book and what happened on 9/11.”