Sep 4, 2009 
The Right Blogosphere is in a feeding frenzy after someone discovered that White House “green jobs” consultant Van Jones signed a “truther” statement in 2004. As I pointed out in the last post, the “truther” statement in question is not as insane as most truther statements are, so I’m not too concerned about it.
But now rightie blogger Gateway Pundit believes he found damning evidence that Van Jones was part of the Truther movement in its infancy. This is in the form of a document at Rense.com dated September 2, 2002, that announces a march in San Fransisco calling for a congressional inquiry into September 11. You know, like the 9/11 Commission that victims’ widows like Kristen Breitweiser had to fight the White House tooth and nail to get started.
People forget that in those days there were moderate elements of what came to be called the “truther” movement. These were not the hard core who insist 9/11 was an “inside job” and the WTC towers came down by controlled detonation. Rather, these were people who felt that what media had written about 9/11 didn’t add up, and believed the Bush White House was at least guilty of gross negligence for ignoring warnings about a terrorist attack.
In 2001 and 2002 the moderate truthers and the 9/11 families calling for a congressional commission were working together loosely and dragging around the same or a similar set of questions they wanted answered. Some of these questions eventually were passed on to and addressed by the 9/11 Commission.
If pushing for a 9/11 Commission makes someone a Truther, then I argue 9/11 Commission Chairs Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton must be Super Truthers.
If it turns out that Jones really does believe 9/11 was an “inside job,” then I’d be among the first to question his judgment. But so far I’m not seeing that.
Update: Although there was talk of an “inside job” on 9/11 almost immediately after the attacks, if I can believe my own archives, the Truther “inside jobers” didn’t completely swamp the “truth commission” movement until 2006. I had thought it was earlier than that, but maybe not.
Update: Chris Good reports, “This morning, ABC’s Jake Tapper reported that Jones was on the “organizing committee” of a 2002 march in San Francisco demanding a congressional inquiry into 9/11.” Wow, a congressional inquiry into 9/11. How shocking. Not. Am I the only one who remembers how people had to fight to get the White House to agree to the 9/11 Commission?
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