Former Minnesota Governor, actor and wrestling star Jesse Ventura has publicly questioned the official version of events behind 9/11 and gone further than ever before in citing Operation Northwoods and the Gulf of Tonkin as examples of how the government has planned and carried out staged war provocations in the past.
Ventura has temporarily left his Baja Mexico surfing lifestyle to lend support to Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman. At a press conference yesterday Ventura said that the Republicans and Democrats were "destroying our country" and its political process. Sporting a beard and dreadlocks, the former Vietnam veteran also criticized the Iraq war.
Alex Jones and his film crew were able to set up a last minute interview with Ventura at a San Antonio restaurant after his appearance before a packed house at UTSA.
Ventura first stated that he had many unanswered questions about 9/11. The former Governor cited Operation Northwoods , a 1963 Joint Chiefs of Staff plan to stage terror attacks and kill American citizens to start a war with Cuba, as an example of how the U.S. government wanted to kill its own people and blame it on foreign enemies to justify war. Ventura found it painful, having dutifully served himself, that elements within the government would go to such barbaric and deceitful lengths to con its own populace into supporting militarism.
Ventura then raised the issue of the Gulf of Tonkin, citing recently released declassified information confirming that American ships were never attacked and the incident was manufactured in order to provide the entree to the Vietnam war. This was particularly unpalatable for Ventura because he joined as a Navy Seal on September 11 1969, fought in Vietnam and lost many friends there.
Ventura asked that if the U.S. government were prepared to stage such a gargantuan historical event in terms of its significance in leading a nation to war then, why they would they refrain from doing so again today?
Ventura also highlighted 9/11 itself in contrasting the lax response of NORAD air defense to the four commercial airliners on 9/11 compared with the immediate interception of golfer Payne Stewart's Lear Jet in October 1999.
Ventura said that the argument that Americans should give up liberty in exchange for security in the war on terror was horrible and that government should never be trusted. He encouraged Americans to be skeptical of anything the government claims in light of their past duplicity.
Ventura seemed visibly upset during the interview, calling the American public apathetic, seemingly wanting to say more, and was very cynical that any real investigation would take place having already witnessed the 9/11 Commission's whitewash.
Ventura had previously aired his skepticism of the official version of events on Jay Leno and elaborated on a 2004 radio show but the former Governor went further than ever before during this interview.
