Conason spent most of his time responding to questions. The thing that impressed me most about his responses was his strong pragmatic streak. Although his book has a Big Concept and deals with national issues and foreign policy, he constantly encouraged people to think about things they could do to advance their views. He told people to focus on things they could do themselves and with people they know, and the larger picture would take care of itself.
I asked him how he thought the BBC would come out in its current confrontations with the Conservative Party and Tony Blair's prowar faction of the Labour Party. He explained some of the background of the controversy and said the current attacks on the BBC were comng from Conservative circles (like the Daily Telegraph) who don't like its independent journalism, and also from media barons who would like to privatize the whole thing.
He mentioned that he listens to the BBC regularly and that its Iraq War coverage was much better than that of most Amerian media outlets. And he also had a suggestion. Since Tony Blair values his popularity in America, he thinks that if Americans wrote letters to Blair telling him it would be a terrible thing to have the BBC suppressed, it might have some positive effect. (See Conason on the BBC here.)
A couple of people in the audience pressed him on the idea that Bush & Co somehow had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. He insisted that he had never seen any evidence for their foreknowledge. But he did talk about how the Bush Administration had been negligent in dealing with the al-Qaeda threat in the months prior to 9/11.
(Cont. in Part 3)
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