November 27, 2015
To Prof. Lorne Dawson, on the toxic disinfo he spreads
Dr. Anthony J. Hall
More by this author...23 November, 2015 Hello Lorne Dawson; I heard you on CBC's The Current this morning.
It came back to me that you are the same Lorne Dawson that I knew briefly when you taught in Sociology at the University of Lethbridge. Hello Lorne. I remember several discussions with you back in the day on post-modernism and such. I remember these chats were friendly and respectful. Please recall I was then in the Native American Studies Department.
I have to say I was really shocked and disappointed by your very superficial power-serving way of describing ISIL/Daesh. In my view your presentation was not balanced or credible from a scholarly perspective.
What are the origins of Daesh and its antecedants? What is the history of western imperialism's instrumentalization of Islamic terrorism for its own purposes? Did this process of instrumentalization ever stop or is it more intense and conspicuous today than ever right now? Are you an agent of this process?
What is the role of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Israel and ultimately USA in funding and arming Daesh? What are the different agendas at play in the various contestations taking place in the name of the War on ISIL?
Why has there been no follow up on the fact that an agent of the Canadian embassy in Jordan was caught helping to recruit for ISIL last March? What's your assessment of this oversight Lorne? How much does your power-serving kind of one-dimensional analysis serve the interests, including those in the previous government, that have sought to derive advantage from the political exploitation of Islamophobia?
It cannot be denied that you and your group of fellow academic terrorist entrepreneurs ignore the scholarly literature that doesn't conform with the agendas of your patrons and clients. What do you have to say about the writings of, for instance, Profs. Ahmed Nafeez, Peter Dale Scott and, in your own immediate neighbourhood, John McMurtry, Michael Keefer, Graeme MacQueen and Mohamed Elmasry?
As a supposed expert in the field, why are you and your group not dealing with Dr. Kevin Barrett's book, We Are Not Charlie Hebdo. My essay in it is entitled "Witch Hunt on Terrorism."
Adnan Zuberi has made a film about the enormous failure of the academy when it comes to accurate scholarly assessment of what is really going on in the post-9/11 world. He is also resident in your part of Ontario. It would be good for you to talk with him.
We are going to have to get together to hash some things out at some point. You and your group can't just walk away from whole categories of important scholarly work in the precise area of your supposed specialty without being challenged on your convenient oversights.
I look forward to meeting you. I remember you somewhat fondly and my sense is you will understand that its necessary to deal with the schism that has been allowed to develop on the areas of research and scholarly publication where our areas of interest overlap.
I have to say at one point in your interview I had to turn the radio off because I couldn't bear taking in any more of toxic mental imagery you were sending into the airwaves of the nation. For how many more years must we be subjected to the steady diet of disinfo depicting the imagery of self-contained Islamic extremists acting absolutely autonomously and independently out of no other motive than a radical religious ideology?
What about the concept of mercenary soldiers covertly funded to bring about outcomes that have nothing to do with creating a global caliphate? Why is Putin's war on ISIL so effective compared to the play acting involved in seeming to fight the mercenaries assigned to overthrow Assad?
Since Prof. Hiebert last wrote to me on behalf of your group I have continued my investigation into the subversion of academic integrity especially by Peter Munk's network in and around the University of Toronto.
I look forward to hearing from you Lorne. Ultimately we should set up some kind of meeting to work on the possibility of establishing bridges of collegiality, however strained, under the harsh national and international circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Yours Sincerely,
Tony Hall
Professor of Globalization Studies
University of Lethbridge
Here's the show
Prof. John McMurtry's response
Prof. John McMurtry Ph.D (University College London) Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Professor of Philosophy University Professor Emeritus University of Guelph Graduate Studies Ontario, Canada NIG2W1 Philosophy and World Problems Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)
Thank you Tony for so patiently following up on the very big and continuing lie of omission of the covert US-led founding, funding and instrumentation of the jihadi terrorists from 1980's Afghanistan to ISIL today through Libya to Syria to Mali, the links are so well established and known that it can only be a propaganda site and agents that would still repress the facts, even if at a preconscious opportunist level.
CBC as usual alas traffics almost only in such big-lie complicity with its in-box 'experts' for the purpose - - It is all so sad, comical, inveterate and tragic at the same time.
It happens coincidentally that the following vile propagandist silencing happens right now too all the way to voting for big-lie repression and collaboration with fascism at the UN almost alone with the US and the US-led coup-founded Ukraine government.
This independent report has already traveled to the Liberal government with no disclaimer in reply.
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A total of 126 member-states of the UN voted for the document and four countries — Canada, Palau, the US, and Ukraine — voted against it.
Another 53 countries, including member-nations of the European Union abstained from voting.
As many as 115 countries voted for a similar resolution last year but three countries — Canada, Ukraine, and the US — voted against it. The resolution condemns unconditionally any denial of Holocaust and expresses concern over any forms of glorification of the Nazi movement, former members of the Waffen SS organization, including the installation of memorials to them, and the ‘unending attempts to desecrate or destroy the monuments to those who fought with Nazism during World War II.
In this connection, the 3rd Committee of the General Assembly urged the member-states to adopt the laws necessary for fighting with racism and to continue taking the steps helpful for the prevention of statements powered by hatred or enticements to violence against the members of vulnerable groups.
Along with it, the resolution stresses the importance of full compliance of any such measures with international norms in the sphere of human rights. The resolution also calls attention to an active use of the Internet for the propaganda of racism and xenophobia and underlines the importance of counteraction to it in the format of international law.
Knowledge wins in the end, so we soldier on. faithfully yours, John
Comment by Prof. Michael Keefer, U of Guelph
Dear Tony,
Thanks for sharing your correspondence with Daniel Hiebert and Lorne Dawson.
In your November 23 letter you raise some crucial questions about who's funding and enabling ISIS.
Given Turkey's action yesterday in shooting down a Russian SU-24, it seems important to get information on those questions into the hands of the Canadian public.
The Erdogan government is very obviously in bed with ISIS: there's good analysis of massive Turkish complicity with ISIS from LSE Professor David Graeber ("Turkey could off Islamic State's supply lines. So why doesn't it?" The Guardian [November 18), and from Nafeez Ahmed ("NATO is harbouring the Islamic State," Insurge Intelligence [c. November 21]), among others....
All best wishes,
Michael
