Green jobs advocate Van Jones has resigned his position within the Obama administration, stating that a growing smear campaign by Republicans should not be allowed to weaken the administration’s work on clean energy and health care.
In a statement released early Sunday morning the special advisor for green jobs said: "I have been inundated with calls–from across the political spectrum–urging me to ‘stay and fight’. But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past."
In 2004, when Jones was the director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, he signed a petition calling for congressional hearings and an investigation by the New York Attorney General into "evidence that suggests high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur."
The petition Jones signed reflects an August 31, 2004 Zogby poll that found nearly 50% of New Yorkers believe the government had foreknowledge and "consciously failed to act," with 66% wanting a new 9/11 investigation. The 911 Truth Statement and petition were released on October 26, 2004 by an alliance of 100 prominent Americans and 40 family members of those killed during the 9/11 attacks.
The steering committee of 911truth.org issued a statement on Friday, in which it said: "As the eighth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, what doesn’t make sense to us is that media outlets choose to impugn the character of the signatories rather than carry out your responsibility as watchdogs to call attention to the as yet unanswered questions raised in the 2004 statement."
U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican who chairs the House Republican Conference, is among those who called for Jones’s resignation–a sentiment that has been echoed repeatedly by conservative members of the media in recent weeks.
Van Jones has also been under attack for calling Republican legislators "assholes" on a YouTube video. Last week, Jones realeased a statement apologizing for previous statements.
President Obama reportedly did not order Jones’s resignation and thanked him for his service to the country.
In his position as the so-called green jobs czar, Jones led the administration on green jobs policy and spending.
Read New York Times coverage at the link below.
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First of all – WTF! These are not reasons to call for anyone’s resignation. He didn’t call anyone a fascist asshole, though it is apparently justified. On the positive side we can’t count on government to solve climate change. The system is broken. Most likely Mr. Jones will have a greater impact in the private or non-profit sector.
So much for freedom of speech. Mr. Jones did the right thing. We don’t need a green jobs czar – we need an economic climate that encourages green employers.