Van Jones Resigns: White House Refuses to Back Jones’ Claim of “Vicious Campaign of Lies and Smears”
White House Cut Ties to Green Jobs Czar Before More Evidence of Radical Past Revealed
Jones’ Ties to Huffington Post
More Evidence of Jones’ Ties to 911 Truthers
911 “Truthers”
With the White House, timing, is everything. Even so, we found it kind of peculiar that Van Jones, one of Obama’s special advisers and Obama’s Green Jobs Czar, released his resignation through the Council of Environmental Quality. Not only did Jones tender his resignation just past midnight Saturday-12:12 am according to ABC’s George Stephanopoulous-on a three-day weekend, Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs spent one minute Sunday morning explaining the Jones resignation on Stephanopoulos’ ABC’s This Week. For more, go to Gateway Pundit, who’s done an incredible job investigating Jones, revealing Jones’ connection to the 911 Truthers and Jones’ radical past.
Jones had this to say in his resignation:
“I have been inundated with calls — from across the political spectrum — urging me to ’stay and fight,’†he continued. “But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.”
Jones didn’t mentioned any calls from the White House or Obama urging Jones to “stay and fight”, instead, Jones claimed his resignation resulted from a “vicious campaign of smears and lies”. For Jones’ full statement, Pajamas Media’s Ed Driscoll has more.
When asked if Obama believed Jones was the victim of a vicious smear campaign, Gibbs refused to answer, instead Gibbs stated that the President “thanked” Jones for his work the past seven months in the White House. When Stephanopoulos pressed Gibbs over whether Obama “wanted Jones to go”, Gibbs reiterated Jones’ statement that Jones resigned and Jones believed he was “going to get in the way of the President, and ultimately this country, moving forward on something as important as creating jobs in a clean energy economy.” Gibbs also stated that Obama doesn’t “endorse” Jones’ previous statements”. Just what those “previous statements” were, Gibbs didn’t care to elucidate while Stephanopoulos didn’t follow up.
There was no “official” farewell or announcement of Jones’ resigning as Green Jobs Czar from the White House, only the one minute, “the President thanks Jones” on ABC’s “This Week”. Hardly a “stand by your man” when he’s facing a “vicious campaign of smears and lies”. In fact, Gibbs wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole the “lies and smears” Jones alluded to in his statement. As an Obama special adviser, Jones wasn’t vetted by the Senate.This leaves the public to wonder just how much the President knew about Jones’ radical past, and if he did know, why he hired Jones as a special adviser?
Canada Free Press found where Jones had prior ties to Huffington Post. According to the Free Press, Jones, whom the Huffinton Post has vigorously defended, was Ariana Huffington’s grassroots political director when Huffington ran for California governor in the 2003 recall election. Huffington Post is, kind of, sorta, still defending Jones as Huffpo published “Glenn Beck Gets First Scalp: Van Jones Resigns” today.
Here’s a few excerpts:
“It all began with Glenn Beck. Van Jones, under fire from the extremist television show host for his background in radical activism, has resigned from the administration.”
“Jones never denied his past affiliation with the radical left. In the ’90s, he was involved with the group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), which sympathized with Maoist-inspired peasant movements throughout the world and was organized to protest police brutality.”
“Jones, however, left radical politics and made the decision to work within the system, rather than try to overthrow it. For Beck, however, Jones’ past statements were evidence that Obama is secretly marshaling a cadre of lieutenants pushing an agenda that is “radical, revolutionary and in some cases Marxist.” (Meanwhile, in reality, Obama is backing away from even including a public health insurance option as part of health care reform. How that squares with Obama’s Marxist agenda Beck has yet to explain.)”
Lies and Smears?
Jones staunchly denied he was part of the 911 Truther movement, claiming that he didn’t know how his signature landed on a Truther statement. Even so, on September 13, 2001, two days after 3,000 Americans were murdered in the worst act of terrorism perpetrated on American soil, Van Jones was at an “Emergency Action Against Racism and War” Rally in Oakland, a rally that claimed the “violence” at 911 was due to the United States’ violence abroad. Unfortunately for Jones, he was cited in the September 11 press release while the rally was the genesis for the 911 Truther movement. The following press release is worth the read as it highlights the world Van Jones circulated in and the people he associated with prior to becoming a special adviser to the President.
From Indybay.org:
Community Gathers in Oakland to Mourn and Organize Against Racist Violence Committed by US Government
Oakland, CA (September 13) – Hundreds of people gathered at Snow Park in Oakland tonight to mourn, provide support for each other, and speak out against violent United States policies at home and abroad, which they say are the underlying reasons for unprecedented terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC. Organizing against a growing climate of racism, nationalism and anti-Arab bigotry was a focus of the rally.Organized by youth and people of color in Oakland and San Francisco, solidarity speakers included supporters of Palestine, people returning from the WCAR in South Africa, police brutality activists, anarchists and socialists, anti-gentrification activists and other people representing dozens of cultures and ethnicities. International solidarity was the theme as community and activist groups stood together against the threat of more US violence. Michael Franti of Spearhead also spoke, saying that “we need to be in a war against war.”
In addition to an open mic, people at the rally talked with friends and strangers, cried, and began coming to terms with the events of the last three days. Many people who attended have family members still missing on the east coast. And many others have been the target of increased racism and discrimination during times of crisis in the United States, like the Oklahoma City bombing or Gulf War.
A recurring theme of the speakers was the brutal violence committed by or supported by the United States government on a daily basis. “The bombs the government drops in Iraq are the bombs that blew up in New York City,” said Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, who also warned against forthcoming violence by the Bush Administration. “The US cannot bomb its way out of this one. Safety at home requires justice abroad.”
In a diverse international community shocked by recent world events, deep feelings about the United States government were expressed. A young Puerto Rican person said that “the belly of the beast had something back to eat.” A young Filipino human rights activist said that “when we found out what kind of place got hit, we were kind of glad to see the Pentagon burning. But we also know that thousands of Puerto Ricans, Haitians and other workers were in those buildings.” An African-American man who works on gentrification issues in West Oakland said that “we’re always seeing Americans drop bombs on people. We watch the Vietnamese get bombed, Iraqis get bombed, Palestinians get bombed, now it has come home to roost.” Japanese-Americans spoke about internment camps and the nuclear holocaust brought on by US militarism.
Violence and repression within the United States was also talked about. A representative of TransAction said, “We know what it’s like to experience police violence on a daily basis.” Mesha Monge-Irizarry, the mother of Idriss Stelley (who was killed by SFPD in June), also spoke: “We pray for many lives killed by this government, of black people, and of innocent black people in the third world who will be slaughtered with this terrorism retaliation.”
United States support, in the form of arms and funding, for apartheid in Israel was also discussed. “You want to know why they hate us?” asked one woman. “Forty Israeli tanks just entered Jericho tonight.”
Those present were determined to make their voices heard in an increasingly hostile, war-mongering climate scripted by the government and recited by corporate media. They also vowed to fight within their own communities against racism and hostility towards Arab-Americans. Everyone sensed that this was an important time in history, and that the stuggle against injustice requires international solidarity. “Everyone should be as wise as these inner-city youth here today,” Van Jones concluded. “We all have more in common with the working people of the earth than we do with George Bush or Colin Powell.”
An African-American man summarized his feelings: “We don’t want innocent people dying. But that’s the price we pay for the government in this country.”
By LBG
Image – 911 Truthers
