Thanks everyone for your thoughts and comments.  Russ' message, and the emails leading up to it, comes closest to my thoughts on what this very odd episode is about.  

It's only my opinion because I still haven't been able to reach this Bud guy.  Still, even without his input, my best guess is that this whole thing was intended, as Russ says, to distract us and waste our time.  I also think it was intended to discredit us here in PDX and, by extension, slime the entire 9/11 truth movement.

If we had taken this guy at his word, accepted the story as true and just run with it, we'd have discredited ourselves in a very public way.  And like all things on the Intertubes, it wouldn't go away. 

We'd be stuck with whatever reputation the blogosphere decided we'd earned, and I doubt the general trend would be very flattering.  Worse, we'd deserve it for ignoring a cardinal rule of reporting by failing to do even the most basic fact checking.

Publicizing this fiction would have given 9/11 debunkers everywhere a great boost.  We'd have seen Intertubes comment centering on the idea that, since these particular trooofers are mindless idiots, therefore the entire 9/11 movement is comprised of identical mindless idiots. 

You know that drill; it's a pretty basic tactic to discredit an entire movement by claiming the questionable actions of a few members of one small group represent mainstream thought among all members of the broader group. 

Which means, therefore, if Group A (us) thinks such and such and acts accordingly, then Group B (the overall 9/11 truth movement) -- which is a superset that includes Group A along with maybe thousands of other groups, all of whom disagree with the actions of Group A...  Despite all that, and its dependence on complete lies, this tactic claims that Group A represents the consensus opinion of the entire movement.  Ergo, Group B -- the whole shootin' match -- is by definition as full of shit as is Group A.

Whew; that took a lot longer than it should have...  I hope it made a little sense.

Anyway, this is a common disinfo practice designed to destroy the credibility and reputation of anyone who seems to be getting close to uncovering and going public with some item that the powerful want to remain buried.  Mr. Bud was just showing off the digital version, modified slightly to conform with the culture and practices of the Intertubes age.

Fortunately, the thing smelled right away because it's just not possible any more to keep a lid on what amounts to a full-blown militarized police and/or FEMA raid, involving violence and "mass illegal searches and arrests of our attendees, staff, and the local population of North Lake County, Oregon." 

The fact that this story still doesn't show up anywhere on the net, even though it's been nearly a week since these events allegedly took place, is almost proof in itself that it never happened.

So that's what I know and what I can guess, at least without being able to reach this Bud guy.  As I said earlier, I'm going to give it a good faith effort again today but, if I don't get results by mid-afternoon, to hell with the whole thing.  I don't really have a problem getting scooped if, in fact, this turns out to be true and somebody else picks up the story first.  The objective is getting the word out, and I don't much care who does the work.

I DO have a serious problem with being exposed as a bunch of gullible idiots who can be manipulated so easily and who will believe just about anything, as long as it confirms our view of the basic fascist malevolence and massive criminality of the Bushies in particular and, in general, condemns the US system of rapacious, destructive, dead-end capitalism.

I'll check back in if I reach this guy and if I think there's any reason to pursue the story further.

Interviewed by Rolling Stone, my ass.

wp