In the Kingdom of Fear.

[Matthew X]

Gonzomeister Hunter S Thomson on 9-11.
Q: what I'd really like to know is your reactions on September 11th .. 
could I get you to tell that story ...

A: ... in a low-key way, I had in fact just finished a sports column for 
ESPN, and no sooner gone over the wire, and I was on the phone with editor 
john walsh, he was saying you have to write about this disaster.
I'd been gong to bed after, I guess my column was late -- TV was on, just 
for the news, and I happened to see the first plane hit in my fogged 
condition -- I'd been up all night writing the column ... I don't know why, 
I'd seen enough real -- yeah there was no mistaking the reality of that, 
didn't make much sense, and it still doesnâ??t really but -- here we go, 
this is a column I wrote, lets see -- "It was just after dawn in Woody 
Creek, Colorado when the first plane hit the WTC in NYC on Tuesday morning 
and as usual I was writing about sports. But not for long. Football 
suddenly seemed irrelevant compared to scenes of utter devastation coming 
out of NY on the television.

Q: you went on to say in that article which I have in front of me that even 
ESPN was broadcasting war news. It was the worst disaster in the history of 
the US. do you think that the event completely transformed the way in which 
Americans see themselves and their vulnerability

A: No, the event by itself would not have done that. I've seen planes hit 
the Empire State Building before, I've been blown totally out of my mind, 
people have been killed, but it was the way the administration was able to 
use that event and use it as a springboard for anything they wanted to do. 
Now that may tell you something. I remember when I was writing that column, 
you sort of wonder when something like that happens, well, who stands to 
benefit, You know, it's like murder, you know, who had the opportunity and 
the motive, you just kinda look at these basic things, and Uh, I don't know 
if I want to go into this on world-wide radio here, but

Q: You may as well

A: All right, I thought that the US government was gonna benefit, and the 
White House people. I thought, a distraction to take the mind of the public 
off of the crashing economy. Now you want to keep in mind that every time a 
person named Bush goes into office, the nation goes into a drastic 
--recession, they call it.

Q: It sounds almost like the plot of that film Wag the Dog, where film 
producers sort of concocted a national event to inspire patriotism to take 
the public's mind off misdemeanors committed by the president, I mean, it 
seems a very long bow to me, but are you sort of suggesting that this 
worked in the favor of the Bush administration?

A: absolutely, I sort of had time on the inside of the white house and of 
campaigns and I know enough to know that the public version of an event is 
never really what happened, and these people I think are willing to take 
that even further so that I don't assume that I know the truth about what 
went on that day and yeah, well, I just look around and who had the motive, 
who had the opportunity, the equipment, and the will. These people were 
looting the treasury and they knew that the economy was going into a spiral 
downward

Q: from this distance though it does seem extraordinarily conspiratorial 
that you, that you could sit there and you could see the hand of the US 
government in that rather than saying international terrorists bent on 
somehow hurting America and the American people. What sort of reaction did 
your views get amongst other journalists?

A: (Laughs) well, it was greeted universally with kind of nervousness and 
almost nobody agreed with me. No it was about 99 to 1. But since then...

Q: Did you publish those views anywhere?

A: I'm not sure if Iâ??ve said that, but if I haven't I meant to, let's see..

Q: I was going to ask you for the reaction to them, because I mean I don't 
want to seem Pollyanaish here but it does seem an extraordinary conspiracy 
theory that you're putting forward, that your first reaction was that it 
was the US government rather than an enemy of the US government

A: well, you want to keep in mind that I have lived not just through but 
very close to a lot of real tragedies in this country, and let me ask you, 
do you think that you know who killed John Kennedy or Robert Kennedy?

Q: Look, I have to say that I was a boy at the time, and no I havenâ??t 
read the warren commission report, but it seemed to me that in this case, 
there were so many more people involved, it would seem to be much less 
likely some sort of internal conspiracy

A: well, it does, well I can see where you're a little edgy accepting this 
from me,

Q: well, let me just ask you on that, you've pioneered a kind of journalism 
called gonzo journalism in which it's almost like thereâ??s no revision, 
what you see and feel is what goes down on and it's that first blush, that 
first image that hits the readership. Does that mean that in a way, it's 
hard for you to appear credible within the US media, people would say that 
"oh that's just another conspiracy theory from a drug-addled gonzo 
journalist like Hunter S. Thompson"?

A: yeah, that's a problem, Iâ??m not sure if it's my problem or other 
people's -- or theirs. I mean in this column and the one after it -- I've 
been right so oftem, my percentages are so high, I'll stand by this column 
that I wrote that day, and the next one. So that, what appears to be maybe 
gonzo journalism... Well, I'm not sure, I'm not going to claim any 
prophetic powers but

Q: One of the things you do say in that first article you wrote, you say, 
"It's now 24 hours later. we're not getting much information about the 5 Ws 
of this." Now by the "5 Ws" I'm assuming you mean, the who, what, why, how 
-- is that still how you feel, that a year later those key questions 
havenâ??t been answered?

A: Absolutely, it's even worse now -- I mean this is just a suggestion, 24 
hours later 5 Ws. We're still not getting -- well how much have we got 
beyond that? How much more do we have than we had a year ago? Damn little, 
I think.
We know a lot about the firemen who died. A lot about the people who stole 
the money from their charity funds, A lot about the people who donated all 
that blood, the red cross had to throw away 5 tons of blood, something like 
that, that may be exaggeration, But no, I will stand by almost all my, uh, 
well, no no, get a grip on yourself, Doc, when you talk like that...

Q: Well, just, Hunter S Thompson, let me ask you about your new book I mean 
"The Kingdom of Fear, Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child of the 
American Dream". It's a very apocalyptic title. Has this book, this new 
book, has it come off your reflections about Sept 11th and how it was 
handled by the American media?

A: well, it came off of yeah, the atmosphere in this country as of 
September 12. Yeah, kingdom of fear. That's the way I see this country and 
thatâ??s -- Iâ??m not writing just a long screed, you know, front to back, 
I'm not writing a political tract. But in the book, I'm trying to explain a 
little bit about how I got this way, and why you should pay attention to my 
predictions

Q: is this a critical time for the credibility of US journalism, how this 
current war, how it's being covered and who it's being reported on and the 
sort of information US people get? Is this a critical test of the 
credibility of US journalism?

A: I think definitely, but Iâ??m not sure how much credibility US 
journalism really has, given that we in 5 years we lost 2 presidents and a 
civil rights leader to mysterious bombs and assassins, you know, bushy 
haired strangers, and US journalism has never dug out the truth about that.
One of my great shames as a journalist is that I still don't know who 
killed John Kennedy. There's no doubt that I don't know and there's not 
much doubt that journalism in general doesn't know, and in a lot of ways 
that may be because we haven't asked. When I say asked, I mean the people 
who uh --well most of the witnesses were killed, werenâ??t they?

Q: but does that need for certainty, is that what underpins your critique, 
that US journalism has failed to provide in your life the key answers to 
key events that you needed answered?

A: well, I would say that and would include myself, I worked as hard as 
anybody -- the rules really changed when Reagan came in and started these 
test invasions of other countries, and when they decided to test the policy 
of no more battlefield access for any journalist. See, Vietnam was totally 
different, and that's why we got that war ended. But, I start with Grenada 
and thatâ??s in this book too. You could see it forming right there. I'd 
never seen journalists beat up by military police and hogtied in the middle 
of the road. I'd always had press pass and access. But when the military -- 
the Pentagon reallyâ??-thatâ??s when they seized the advantage and never 
gave it up. The military still are not letting people know what's happening 
in Afghanistan and wherever they're fighting. Itâ??s always press releases 
or staged events

Q: Hunter S Thompson, do you think that the so called gonzo style of 
journalism for which youâ??ve become famous and some would say notorious, 
do you think that there's a specific legacy that makes that type of 
journalism work, makes it more necessary at the moment?

A: Well, I've never defined that term even for myself

Q: what do you think it does mean ?

A: Well, from my point of view it means being very skeptical of any 
pronouncements of authority, and that as a gambler, it's a bit of an even 
bet that if you question the statements and truths of the white house that 
more often than not youâ??ll be right, and I just try to get as close to 
the truth as possible in order to find out what's really happening, and in 
fact a lot of times itâ??s weirder than what happens in my stories. I mean 
the truth is usually stranger than fiction. At least in my life.

Q: HST, will you be at home watching the commemoration programs on the 11th 
of September? Will you be among the audience which I imagine will number 
tens of millions that watch what happens in New York?

A: that's a good point, thatâ??s a good question and, no I wonâ??t -- I 
think I'll take a road trip or just go off and have a little fun. Why sit 
around and watch that stuff? Now what I'm afraid of, see is that that's 
going to be a cover for a sudden move on Iraq -- you know, that that little 
monster will come on and take the TV and say "today we invaded Iraq". Now, 
this seems so impossible that I'd be happy to lose money on it if I bet on 
it, but it seems too logical for that kind of Texas thug mindset that this 
is a time to do it. I can't think of a better time if I was gonna do it, 
letâ??s put it that way.

Q: Because the nation's effectively distracted by the commemorations in NY 
that itâ??s almost like saying "Quick while no oneâ??s paying attention 
let's invade another country"

A: exactly, and itâ??s so cynical and so stupid and so self-defeating in 
the long run that youâ??d think that nobody in their right mind, no 
president would plunge us into a war like that, with no allies and no __the 
other side of the world

Q: just out of interest, for these kinds of comments to be broadcast on 
this network, which is part of the public broadcasting network, it occurs 
to me that you probably wouldnâ??t hear those sorts of comments on many 
other outlets in the US. Where would ... to give voice to your conspiracy 
theories about the role of the US government.?

A: well. I definitely will be when this book comes out in December. Now 
unfortunately we're going to have this election here in November. And 
that's going to be a really key time in this country to vote. I've been 
working on this book for so long, I feel like Iâ??ve been in a 
decompression chamber of some kind.

Q: Where else would people hear views like yours. I know theyâ??re coming 
out later in the year in your book, But across the US media, where would 
these very critical comments such as the one you've been making come out?

A: where else, eh? Where indeed. I know a lot of journalists across the 
country who would agree with me. But whether theyâ??re writing this stuff 
and saying it in public I donâ??t know. Now you could ask Maureen Dowd 
whether she feels Iâ??m right. Boy, it really is lonely out here.

Q: HST, just as a final question -- it's a big question, let me ask it 
anyway. How did you see, as a critic on the left of â?¦ how do you see the 
future of journalism in your country?

A: Well, I have a very dim view of it, I guess which I really thought was 
unbounded after Watergate but right now, thereâ??s not a hell of a lot of 
reason to be optimistic about it, because of the uh, not just because of 
this one huge scam they pulled off here, but because of the everyday 
reality of, uh, journalism is celebrity-driven. The news over here barely 
covers, ...I watch some BBC and some CNN foreign news, world news that 
doesnâ??t get into the country. I read Paris herald tribune that kind of 
news doesn't get through in this country. You have to read the NY Times 
very carefully to maybe see what they're talking about. But, I don't think 
my views would be seen as absurd or out of the question in most countries 
of the world.

Q: Do you ever worry given the climate and the surge of patriotism in the 
country, that you could be personally at risk, that your own personal 
security might be threatened

A: yeah, I think about it. Definitely could be true

Q: have there been occurrences youâ??ve been threatened?

A: oh yeah. I have been all my life. But in journalism, that sort of goes 
with the territory, thereâ??s going to be threats and thereâ??s going to 
be... people are very unhappy -- knock knock -- It's a matter of luck.
I pretty well stuck to my battle plan, yeah they tried to come after me, 
the federal government, all kinds of governments, Iâ??ve had constant wars 
in courts, I keep some of the finest criminal lawyers on retainer. But 
that's how it goes -- the stork didn't bring the bill of rights, you have 
to fight for it.

Q: So that's how you'd see yourself, as fighting for freedom of speech in 
America?

A: Absolutely.
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=201001&group=webcast