Weatherby disputes Cooper's letter to the editor

In response to "Mr. James E. Cooper's "Letter to the editor", dated July 2, 2008 " …while another audience member contends it was all a set-up by SRA".

I have written a couple of responses to "James E. Cooper's" letter. The first response was much more detailed but too long for the Mountain Home News to publish (over 3,000 words). It clearly delineated all the pieces of misinformation contained in Mr. Cooper's letter. The second cut down version was in hopes that the Mountain Home News would actual print it and thus the truth.

Finally, here is a plain and simple response. Virtually every significant detail of outlandish behavior contained in Mr. Cooper's letter regarding myself, (and others that I witnessed) at the Glenns Ferry meeting is an outright lie. I did not witness everyone that Mr. Cooper with his amazing powers of observation and super human ability to be everywhere at once, claims to have witnessed, but I was within about 4-8 feet of several of the people about which Mr. Cooper makes claims including, Andrea Shipley, and who turned out to be Blair Koch though I had never met her before and did not know who she was until very recently. And thus I was apparently very close to the woman with "the red top" if she actually existed, though I did notice any such landmark as Mr. Cooper did.

What aren't outright lies are twisted beyond recognition, or are insignificant. To be sure, people were upset when the Elmore County sherriff's deputies appeared during Mr. Gillispie's talk to arrest a well-known anti-nuclear activist, Peter Rickards, whom I do know. And yes, people were very upset and there certainly was a substantial amount of yelling from throughout the room, but Mr. Cooper's description of the overall scene, individuals actions, including mine, and his assertions of some type of conspiracy is total fantasy.

In actuality, the entire scene was created by Gillispie's front man Doug McConnaughey's inappropriate attempts to prevent access to a public meeting by Dr. Rickards. Mr. Cooper's "amazing powers of observation" have been thoroughly discredited as he can't even identify Ms. Blair Koch, about whom he wrote in his letter. I have personally contacted Mr. Cooper, but he was just too busy to talk and apparently chooses not to discuss his letter with me.

The question in one's mind must be why Mr. Cooper would write such a ridiculous and slanderous letter if there wasn't at least SOME substance to it. First of all, the likelihood that he actually wrote it without assistance from Gillispie's "Gang" is near zero. It was almost surely written by a coalition of Gillispie's people even if James E. Cooper actually typed the words (which I even question). If you have ever attended even one of the Gillispie Gang's meetings of misinformation, which many of you have, then you understand this is what Gillispie does. He immediately attacks anyone who questions his lame proposal. I have questioned him about as much as anyone, in my continued attempt to get Gillispie to tell the truth. Therefore, it is most important for him to slander me in his pathetic attempt to discredit me.

I am reasonably sure James E. Cooper has never even heard me speak. To be sure, he has never heard me say the things of which he accuses me, nor has he seen me do the things of which he accuses me, for one simple reason, I did not do or say them.

What will almost surely eventually surface will show that Mr. Cooper is involved with Gillispie's Gang rather than being a simple, "Audience Member" at Glenns Ferry. If you can believe anything that he says he is at the very least a stockholder, though he says he actually bought it after he "wrote" the letter but before it was published.

The real reason for Mr. Cooper's letter is the fact that following the Glenns Ferry meeting where Mr. Gillispie clearly stated he graduated from MIT, I called MIT and obtained a fax from MIT "certifying" they have "no record of attendance… or degrees awarded for:" "Don or Donald Gillispie. I have provided a copy to the Mountain Home News. Anyone who will falsify their credentials should go back to Virginia and find a new line of work. Don't try it in Idaho Mr. Gillispie. It is even interesting to examine the circumstances under which Mr. Gillispie made his fateful MIT claim. He made it when he verbally attacked an Elmore County mother and audience member for stating her concerns about Gillispie's proposal. (Shouldn't being an Elmore County mother be enough credential to express her opinion?) Only after the verbal attack on her credentials to question his proposal, did she then question Mr. Gillispie's credentials. He clearly stated he graduated from MIT. The fax from MIT shows that is simply not true. This is not the type of person anyone wants building a nuclear power plant anywhere, but certainly not in our Idaho.

There is ample permanent documentation to disprove almost everything Mr. Cooper that the Gillispie Gang snookered into including in his slanderous letter. That would include my record on Owyhee County P & Z where I managed to accomplish some very good things for Owyhee County people.

Oh yes, let's not forget, I have never alluded to being involved with any wind farm, of any size, in either public, or private, let alone one of 5,000 turbines. I could only wish the Mr. Cooper's fantasy were true. I wouldn't love to be involved in such a great project of clean renewable energy, because it is the right thing for Idaho and the entire country. Mr. Coopers assertions about my involvement in a 5,000 turbine wind farm, plainly demonstrates his total ignorance on energy issues. A 5,000 turbine wind farm could produce as much as 10,000 MW or more and would be one of the largest in the world. It would be large enough to power a substantial portion of the entire Northwest at peak production. This is pure fantasy in James E. Cooper's mind, most probably placed there by Doug McConnaughey, Martin Johncox, and Don Gillispie, who have been trying to spread that ridiculous rumor for close to a year now (also clearly documented).

I am more than happy to provide as much information to anyone who has further interest. My e-mail address is owyheeenergysummit@frontiernet.net.

Just let me know what questions you have, how to best to get in touch with you and when. I will get back to you as soon as I can get.

Joe Weatherby

(Editor's note: All right, that's enough on this incident. Everybody has had their chance at this. No more letters on this subject. The name calling is getting out of hand. Let's move on to other issues concerning the nuclear plant, ones that are actually substantive to the pluses and minuses of locating such a facility in Elmore County.)