Correspondence with Jake Adelstein
May 14th, 2008After reading, This Mob Is Big in Japan, Jake Adelstein’s compelling Washington Post piece about organized crime in Japan, I decided to write to him to see if he had any comments on Benjamin Fulford’s remarkable claims. I was pleasantly surprised when Mr. Adelstein wrote back. Our correspondence is below.
From the beginning, I didn’t know what to make of Benjamin Fulford, and I still don’t. Most of what I had read about Fulford made the guy out to be off his rocker, despite his undeniable success as a business writer in Japan with Forbes magazine, and on his own. None of what I’d read about Fulford, though, had been written by anyone remotely qualified to comment on the matter. After all, how many English speaking experts on the Japanese underworld were writing about the Fulford situation? I looked and I couldn’t find anything of that nature.
So, what would someone, who was more knowledgeable, have to say?
I was expecting, maybe even hoping, that Jake Adelstein would lambaste me and the rest of the foil heads for even entertaining what Fulford had to say.
But…
I’ll let you decide what to make of it. I don’t want to say what I think about Jake Adelstein’s comments because I don’t want to put words in his mouth. I will say, however, that he seems to be walking a fine line—which is both understandable, given his mortal enemies, and fascinating. Also, I appreciate his willingness to offer comments on a topic that can’t even be considered in mainstream circles at all.
Jake Adelstein’s comments appear on Cryptogon with his permission.
Here is the email that I sent:
Mr. Adelstein,
I read your recent piece, “This Mob Is Big in Japan,” in the Washington Post with great interest.
I maintain a site called cryptogon.com that looks at—shall we say—less than obvious factors behind events.
I would be VERY interested in your take on Benjamin Fulford. I suspect that you’re aware of him and his incredible stories, but, in case you’re not, just type his name into Google:
http://www.google.com/search?q=benjamin+fulford&ie=UTF-8
I was agnostic on the situation. I basically put it out there with warnings and caveats, etc. Some of my readers in Japan sum it up as a case of mental illness; in short, Fulford should seek help. But there are a couple of nagging data points with Fulford (forget his secret societies and ninjas for a moment).
1) From 1998 until 2005 Fulford was the Asian Bureau chief for Forbes magazine.
2) He did, in fact, conduct a strange interview with David Rockefeller.
If there is anything at all to the stories Fulford is telling, I can’t think of a more qualified person to comment about it than you because of your proximity to the groups that Fulford talks about.
Anything at all that you choose to reveal to me will be kept in the strictest confidence. Unless you explicitly tell me that I am authorized to reveal information, I will not publish it. If the entire thing seems totally absurd to you, please understand that I am asking these questions innocently, as someone who is ignorant of the situation “on-the-ground” in Japan.
If you choose to use encrypted email, I have provided my public key below.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Kevin FlahertyEditor/Owner cryptogon.com
—–BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK—–
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Jake Adelstein’s response:
Mmm…when I first tried to get my story published—I was accidentally emailed a note by an editor that said—“This story sounds like bullshit. Maybe the guy is nuts? Could we have another Benjamin Fulford on our hands?”.
I was not pleased with that comment. Yes, it does seem like an unbelievable story. The FBI helping a yakuza get a liver transplant and then getting screwed out of what they were promised—the idiot reporter who gets “marked for death” because he uncovered The Truth.
But in reality, everyone is simply acting in accordance with their motives. The FBI wanted data—why? The National Police Agency gives them very little. Goto wanted a liver—he wanted to live. He was willing to rat out his pals in order to stay alive. I wanted a scoop—I was just too dumb to figure out what had happened.
My article represented a problem for him. It’s not smiled upon by the yakuza to make a deal with the cops—nor is betrayal. He’s a crafty SOB (Senior Old Boss) so maybe he can lie his way out of this—but he understood that if my article was printed—he would lose face and possibly be killed. He has two sons following in his foot steps. He just wanted to make sure his legacy was untarnished so that his sons could continue to flourish.
If he could have clipped me, the story would have never been written. I tried giving the materials to Japanese news reporters but none of them could get confirmation and since I had collected everything—I decided to write it myself.
I never had a story vetted so hard in my entire life. I have an incredible respect for the Washington Post. I also respect their ability to get confirmation where no one else could.
I think Ben Fulford has done some good work. He has stepped on a lot of toes in Japan and Japan is a country that makes you become a conspiracy theorist. He knows a lot about Japan. If he gets a lot of flack, it’s because it seems like sometimes he takes a piece of solid truth and stretches it to fit a theory.
There are many things here that might make even a reasonable guy kind of paranoid. see: http://www.asiaquarterly.com/content/view/119/40
Basically, I still think most human behavior, on the criminal level, boils down to what my homicide detective pal used to call “the three motives”. It’s a term that is kind of a play on “the three poisons” from Buddhist lingo. 1) Profit 2) Chicks/Dudes and 3) grudges. In Japanese “kane, onna, enkon.” Politicians hang with yakuza because it helps them secure power/profit and/or they think it’s cool to be yakuza. I think Ben is much better when he’s not focussed on the 9/11 story. He may be right about that as well—who knows?
I’ll be looking forward to reading more of Jake Adelstein’s work.
Wow! Awesome connection and follow-up, Kevin. It’s stuff like this that makes you the hands-down best blog for less than obvious factors behind events
This Ben is one fascinating guy. Personally I feel I can trust Jake with his story 100%. It rings true and jibes with my sense of the world. Ben on the other hand is delusional in my opinion. He is a bright guy but he is nuts. I have worked with mad people on professional basis and there are moments when you just know you are about to hear something insane – you can actually anticipate it coming. And sure enough they go off and say stuff like “If I don’t like people I can call and THEY will send bombers to kill them”. That what Ben sounds like.
His saying that people better start listening to him or he can have a secret society kill them is not reality. If he really had the power to direct secret societies, he would not be saying this in the media. No way. At best he would be considered a loose cannon and a liability. If there was a secret society behind him they would stop being behind him as soon as he started threatening supposedly all powerful people on TV and radio. Why would you tip your hand and risk starting a clandestine war? You would try to negotiate in good faith first. If that didn’t work you would conduct a decapitation strike without warning. It only makes sense not to open the kimono and let the other guys take a swipe at you first.
He has a great story though and it was a pleasure to see the interviews. A very original thinker. And just lucid enough to make people think that he knows something. Japanese just eat this shit up! They are huge on conspiracy stuff. Having worked in Japan and US for HUGE Japanese companies I can tell you that they love those Gaijin who can speak Nihongo. Its fascinating to them just like watching a trained monkey doing tricks.
I’m one of the folks who commented on the original post about Ben Fulford’s rant, and I have to agree with Mad Ruski’s comments. Jake Adelstein seems to have his head screwed on right, but Fulford is either loony or goofing. ITs not that he isn’t saying a lot of the right things, it’s his tendency to inject himself into his stories. His claim to having been invited to serve as Minister of Finance was one of the more obvious departures from reality. And anytime anyone mentions ninjas in other than a historical context, you can be fairly certain you are being taken for a ride.
That said, as Mad Ruski mentions, he speaks Japanese well and even serves as an occasional news commentator on one of the networks here. I think his best-selling book so far has been on 9-11, which he calls for a false flag op, and which probably contributed to a long expose on Sekai Maru Mie, which is one of Japan’s most popular variety shows, last year. So, I think his heart is in the right place, but he’s not a 100% reliable narrator IMHO.
“just like watching a trained monkey doing tricks”
haha!
the first time i lived in Japan, 22 years ago, my flatmate and i used to call the gaijin on tv– who really were a big novelty back then–“talking monkeys”.
seems like we weren’t the only ones to use that analogy!
I don’t really know much about Fulford, apart from some snippets I’ve read on cryptogon in the past, and I am too busy with work at the moment to look into it properly.
But what I do know is that sometimes very smart people become manic-depressive. And in a manic phase, a person is prone to say things that are not really connected to reality. But that does NOT mean that they are no longer very smart.
The problem is to work out how to filter out the delusions from the real stuff. It probably can be done, but you would need to look at the material very carefully and have quite a bit of background knowledge to begin with.