WNN refused at first to release a recording of the program to other major television networks, but online users uploaded thousands of copies of the program recorded from their televisions to video-sharing websites, while WNN executives complained of copyright violations to the managers of those websites. Despite their efforts, tens of thousands of nameless volunteers helped continue to spread the videos online. Finally, WNN gave in and decided to release its own official version of the video instead.

The numbers of Internet downloads of the program went through the roof, not only here in the United States but also around the world as the video “went viral” in net-speak. Blogs and forums buzzed with comments both for and against the program's various participants. Rumors ran wild, and facts often got lost in the tussle.

AJ, Michaela, Lizzie, Janice, Justin, Catherine, Paul, Lenore, and a few others sat watching TV the evening following the broadcast from their safe house. AJ, who had the remote control for the TV, flipped from channel to channel as they sampled the overall response.

An attractive, young newsreader with blond hair said, “At the top of the news tonight, WNN's bombshell broadcast last night stunned the nation during which two of Dolf Spitzer's guests accused both the banking system and the federal government of involvement in a money laundering scheme to finance terrorism. The program, which featured former Western American Bank CEO Paul Regan, previously thought to be lost at sea, and former Vice-President of Operations at Hanover-Rush Bank, Justin Knight, presented what some experts are now calling 'crazy conspiracy theories' about the current financial crisis and the monetary system. The White House also took umbrage at the program, claiming that the two men, whom the White House press secretary referred to as 'terrorists, criminals, and economic traitors,' shouldn't gain what he termed 'unwarranted press exposure for their traitorous acts.' Correspondent Judy Williams has more.”

The scene shifted to another young woman with a microphone in her hand standing outside the White House.

“White House aides tell us that the FBI currently has Justin Knight, one of the guests who appeared on the controversial program, under investigation for suspicion of terrorist activities. Knight, an apparent victim of a shooting in lower Manhattan last week while the FBI rescued his daughter from kidnappers, appeared on the program claiming that his former employer, Hanover-Rush, ordered him shot and kidnapped his daughter. This claim was corroborated later in the evening during a stunning, last minute press conference by FBI Director Fred Cooper, who used the same opportunity to announce his immediate resignation. Knight also claimed that unknown persons murdered his wife, the late Amanda Knight, six years ago because she discovered a secret money laundering operation within an account maintained by the bank for Holloway Industries, a beltway defense contractor.”

The scene switched to a man in a dark suit.

“Well, clearly Mr. Knight suffers from some sort of mental illness. The wild allegations he made simply don't add up, no matter what the former FBI Director may have said. In light of his many years of service, I would like to point out that the President believes the FBI Director's comments were taken out of context and distorted by the media. At no time did the Director state that Hanover-Rush Bank may have orchestrated the kidnapping of young Michaela Knight. All he said was that the President ordered the FBI not to pursue the kidnappers, a decision made for reasons that must remain classified.

“While I agree that this creates a very unfortunate and uncomfortable situation for the President, I want to assure the American people that at all times both the President or our party worked for the best interests of the United States. We also have reason to believe that the opposition party may have orchestrated this program's release, which does not surprise me with the presidential election less than two weeks away. WNN is well known for politically leaning that way. The American people detest this kind of electioneering which will almost certainly backfire on the opposition party's candidates.”

The camera pointed again at Williams. “Opposition Party spokespersons expressed outrage over these charges, claiming that the White House invented what opposition leaders called 'the nonsense' regarding opposition involvement with the WNN broadcast behind the scenes. Their nominee's campaign manager made a short statement in reply to White House charges.”

Once again the camera changed, this time to a different man in a dark suit with a tag line giving his name and position as campaign manager for the opposition's presidential campaign.

“I believe the American people will easily see through this little charade the White House created. The current administration caused the financial crisis with their failed policies which rewarded the rich at everyone else's expense. Unfortunately, after the election we will have to clean up their mess, but our candidates can handle the difficult task that lies ahead after they get elected. The broadcast was merely a commercial for the ruling party's insane pro-gun policies, which we heartily condemn. Americans are tired of the 'Old West' policies that continue to put innocent people at risk on the streets every day. We commit our party to ending the scourge of handgun violations in the country today.”

Once again, Williams continued her report saying, “No one in either party discussed the allegations raised by the two former bankers that the government itself, in collusion with the Federal Reserve, authored the financial crisis. Even Wall Street stayed surprisingly mum on the subject. Many financial experts normally willing to discuss economic issues refused to comment on this story.

“However, the office of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve did issue a short statement today condemning the notion that Fed policy has intentionally taken the economy to the brink. The statement says that irrational exuberance by the lending industry in combination with foolish borrowing by lower income home buyers caused this crisis and that blaming the Federal Reserve for such behavior borders on absurdity, especially with the Fed recently stepping up to the plate and taking all necessary measures to calm the financial chaos.”

Michaela said in astonishment, “But they're not talking about what Dad and Mr. Regan actually said! They're making it sound like Dad is a terrorist!”

“We know,” Lizzie replied, “but be quiet so we can hear.”

AJ flipped the channel. This time, they found a small panel discussion reviewing the program. Pictures of Justin and Paul adorned the corner of the screen, along with Justin's Uncle David, Harry Peterson, and Barry Bradford. This left only minimal space for the person speaking to appear on screen.

The host spoke. “One of the most interesting allegations to come out of the video featured Paul Regan claiming that federal regulators improperly shut down his bank in retribution for his refusal to continue to funnel money to potential terrorists. What do you think about that?”

“Well,” said his first guest, “you have to consider the source. Regan ran his bank into the ground, and the FDIC took swift action to repair the damage. Clearly, Regan wants to distract our attention from this most important fact.”

A second guest on the panel spoke up.

“That may not be entirely true, Jack. After all, many questions arose at the time of the takeover as to why Western American fell. Experts who followed the bank's financial picture closely expressed surprise at the time regarding the failure, particularly given the fact that the bank still had such a high rating from regulators just one month prior to the takeover. It raised a lot of questions regarding how regulators handled that case.”

“Yes,” Jack agreed, “but clearly the government needed to show that it can handle the current crisis, doing everything they can to stop it, or at least to slow it down. They received a lot of criticism leading up to the Oregon Mutual takeover about how long it took to shut down that bank's operations. They wanted to take quick, decisive action in the case of Western American before things got out of hand.”

AJ flipped the channel again. This time, they saw a news report of a rally in New York City. The scene showed a packed wall of people, a literal sea of humanity marching down the street, shoulder to shoulder, carrying signs and banners that said things like, “Silver is money!”, “End Legalized Fraud”, and “Audit the Fed!” They even saw a few signs with the initials AU on them.

The news anchor's voice-over said, “Police broke up an impromptu and illegal demonstration near Wall Street today as protesters, reacting to the contents of the WNN program, took to the streets denouncing what they claimed are the illegal activities of the Federal Reserve and the government. Organizers claim that over 10,000 people participated in the rally, although police who raided the demonstration and carted away the ringleaders disagreed, saying that the number of demonstrators amounted to a few hundred at most. Our own estimate suggests the actual number may have been somewhat greater than police estimates.”

The scene cut back to the news studio where the anchor said, “The allegations voiced in the program raised a lot of hackles on Capitol Hill. The Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee ripped into Knight and Regan, accusing them of siding with terrorists. In an interview recorded earlier today, here's what he had to say.”

The scene changed to a politician whose name appeared below his image on screen. “The suggestion that the United States government financed terrorism is quite possibly the most offensive piece of filth I've ever seen in my 30 years in public life. We cannot simply stand by and let these two over-privileged rich boy crybabies disparage their country on national TV. It's a disgrace, I tell you, an absolute disgrace. My committee will conduct hearings to investigate, which I confidently believe will exonerate the administration. I only wish we could avoid giving Knight and Regan even this much attention, but I promise you that we will serve justice, and they will answer for their scurrilous charges.”

The reporter interviewing the politician asked, “So you don't believe Knight and Regan when they claimed that a highly placed administration source told them that the President ordered the FBI to manufacture a case against Knight?”

“Absolutely not!” the politician blustered. “The suggestion is offensive.”

“What about the FBI Director's corroboration later the same evening?”

“Critics have taken his comments out of context. The Director didn't say that Hanover-Rush had anything to do with the events. All he said is that the White House directed that he not waste time following up on the kidnappers, since the video itself was the top priority.”

“But don't you think that video raises questions about the nature of the current financial crisis?”

“To the contrary, I agree with Chairman Bradford that it shows how dangerous it is to conduct monetary policy in public. The entire context has been intentionally altered to create a false appearance that some kind of conspiracy has ruled America over the years. The idea is preposterous.”

“What about reports that the agent in charge of the investigation of Mr. Knight is Paul Regan's daughter, a career agent with the FBI?”

“Well, I think there you've put your finger on the nub of the matter. This may tie into the reason the President had for setting priorities in the case. I believe this program will backfire spectacularly against WNN, Regan, and Justin Knight. I feel sorry for the daughter, though. One can only imagine the shock she must have experienced upon learning that her father still lived.”

Catherine said nothing but shook her head slowly, disgusted.

“The FBI removed Special Agent Regan from the case today, and FBI Director Fred Cooper formally presented his written resignation at the White House. Does that affect your perception of what happened?”

“No, I have it on good authority that the White House applied no pressure at all to the FBI Director. In fact, the President didn't want to accept his resignation! The Director removed himself from office completely on his own. Given the maliciousness of the offensive allegations raised by the disgraced bankers in this case, I guess I cannot blame him. I know that the President himself didn't blame him.”

“Well,” Catherine spoke up, “the Director was right. He ended up resigning, although I never expected him to do it as dramatically as he did! I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the Oval Office when he handed in his written resignation!”

AJ flipped the channel again. This time, they saw a well-known nighttime comedian doing his opening monologue.

“So did you hear about the disgraced bankers who snitched on their colleagues?”

The audience laughed.

“Yeah, it made big news. Justin Knight, a banking blue blood, appeared on a WNN news program with disgraced Western American Bank's ex-CEO, Paul Regan. The two claim that our entire money supply is based on debt! Well, I don't know about you, but my credit card statement agrees with them. My money is nothing but debt!”

The audience laughed again.

“Still, it kinda makes you wonder, though, doesn't it? I mean, the politicians keep tripping all over themselves to bail the bankers out, and along come these two guys telling us that bailing out bankers is part of the problem, not the solution.”

Cheers and applause interrupted him.

“No, no, now calm down. Don't you realize the politicians are on our side?”

The audience booed this comment.

“Well, think about it! We know it's true. After all, both the ruling and the opposition presidential candidates keep telling us so.”

Laughter again came from the audience.

“Even worse, we believe them!” More laughter.

“It kinda makes you wonder, though, if these guys are really bankers. Our staff did a little digging and found that in fact they're really just stunt doubles for two of Hollywood's hottest stars.”

A picture of two actors' bodies appeared on screen with Justin and Paul's heads crudely pasted over those of the actors. The audience laughed again.

“Probably just landed on their heads too many times during the car chase scene in their latest movie, Drag Fast. In fact, Entertainment This Week reported that the stunt doubles hit their heads at least five times each as their cars rolled over during the twelve-and-a-half-minute chase scene. So we figure that must be why they're no longer smart enough to accept government bailout money!”

Some members of the audience roared at this joke, although others just groaned.

AJ flipped the channel again, this time back to the panel discussion they saw earlier.

“Well,” said one panelist, “I think that Knight and Regan spoke unnecessarily negatively about debt. The creation of more debt is not necessarily bad, like getting cancer. Debt lets us have things now we otherwise would have to wait for. In some cases we might not even be able to have them at all without debt. “

The host interrupted. “But shouldn't we be encouraging people to save rather than go into debt?”

The first man replied, “Credit helps people make money by using their money to help others. You can get in trouble with credit, but credit can also be fantastic if you want a new car, a new home, or a new factory that will manufacture things you think people will buy. That's why we have banks.”

Another guest said, “The point that Knight and Regan made, though, is that our money supply depends upon debt, or credit–depending on your point of view–for its very existence! I have to admit, I never thought of it that way. And their claim about all money disappearing if all debts were paid off–that really surprised me.”

The first man answered, “Don't take that stuff seriously. That's just theory. In reality, the money supply won't go away.”

The other guest followed up, “But does it really make sense to pay interest just to have a money supply? I thought Knight and Regan had a good point there.”

“Actually, they missed the point,” the first man said. “The great value to having an elastic money supply is that it creates prosperity we couldn't otherwise have. I thought David Knight did a great job on that point. All of the great economic and technological advances of the 20^th and 21^st centuries happened because we have a fiat money supply.”

AJ shouted at the TV, “Bullshit! What about all the financial panics, stock market crashes, and recessions? And all those advances happened because of people, not money! The human mind made all those advances happen, turkey!”

Janice shushed him saying, “Language, AJ! Let's keep it clean, okay?”

AJ growled and said, “Those friggin' two-faced–well, you-know-whats–can twist anything around to justify their crap.”

“Nevertheless,” Janice admonished him, and AJ nodded with disgust, waving it all away as he flipped the channel to yet another news station.

“...breaking news that within the past hour an unnamed government spokesman claims that a U.S. District Court judge issued arrest warrants for Justin Knight and Paul Regan, whose appearance on rival network WNN last night rocked Wall Street today. Richard Calley has more. Richard?”

Everyone sat forward, waiting to hear the story of this new development.

“Thanks, Linda. Multiple Justice Department sources now tell me that they obtained warrants for the arrest of Justin Knight and Paul Regan on charges of suspicion of conspiracy to commit terrorism. While my sources refused to allow me to name them, I do have multiple sources on this, so we're very confident about the story. Significantly, no one has seen either Justin Knight or Paul Regan since the broadcast, and officials believe they went underground in anticipation of their impending arrests.”

The reporter went on and on, repeating his theme over and over again.

“Well,” Janice said, “the fat is now in the fire. We need to move you guys to another location, just to be safe. We already doubled-down on security at our various safe houses, but we will have to clear those out too, for safety's sake. We'll have to start moving people to other cities. Excuse me while I go make some calls.”

After she left the room, Lizzie asked AJ, “Where will they move us?”

“I don't know,” AJ replied. “If I had to guess, I'd say somewhere in the Midwest. With all that land out there, it's a lot harder to find someone in hiding. Anyone fancy living in a remote section of Montana?”

“We're going to move to Montana?” Michaela asked. “Can we have horses too?”

“We don't know what will happen yet,” Lizzie reminded her. “And besides, we may not be able to spend much time outside for quite awhile. The FBI knows all our faces, and we wouldn't want your father found by someone spotting one of us, would we?”

“No, I suppose not,” Michaela said with a frown as she pondered the likelihood that her life would change dramatically now. It didn't make her happy to think about it.

The news over the next few days didn't improve much, although Janice and AJ reported no attempted raids on any TST safe houses.

The one really good piece of news they received, however, came not from the TV networks or the major newspapers and magazines. Rather, it came from the Internet. Chatter all over the place strongly suggested that the program powerfully impacted a large segment of the population both in the United States and abroad. People debated in chat rooms and forums all around the world about debt-based money and legalized fraud. Blogs and websites sprang up all over the place talking about these concepts. Woohoo! reported that searches for “Agorist underground”, “federal reserve”, and “legalized fraud” occurred 1500 to 2000 times more than normal.

The only place that the concept of legalized fraud received any serious consideration or attention was in the realm of public opinion. The news media and the politicians continued to ignore the concept, even after seeing it so brilliantly exposed to the public. No public figures discussed the coming crisis in 2011. No public figures discussed the possibility that the nation's credit card might one day soon overdraw.

Ordinary people, however, talked about it among themselves, in their every day conversations. It often takes time for a new idea to grab hold. When it happens, it does so most effectively when it happens at the grassroots level.

They still watched TV for more news in the days and weeks that followed. Interest in the story died out in most media outlets, but they did see an interesting “man in the street” type interview with Alisha and Otis Blackwood in Virginia one evening. Justin shushed everyone and asked AJ to turn the TV volume up.

The reporter introduced the subject. “Amid all the turmoil regarding the financial crisis, we often forget that real people get harmed in the process. It's a problem that affects millions of families. With recent revelations that top officials at Hanover-Rush Bank and the Federal Reserve might have conspired to engineer the crisis, many of the bank's customers expressed concern, some might even say fear, about what will happen with their own accounts, not to mention their homes.

“One such family is that of Otis and Alisha Blackwood of Manassas, Virginia. The Blackwoods, like so many other millions of people in America, face foreclosure on the home they purchased in 2004. At the time of their home's purchase, Otis Blackwood had a high paying job in the booming construction industry. Today, he can't even get full-time work at a local home improvement center, settling for a part-time job instead.

“The Blackwoods acquired their home with a mortgage from Hanover-Rush Bank. I spoke with them today to find out what they think about the allegations made by former Hanover-Rush executive Justin Knight last week.”

The scene shifted to the Blackwood living room with Otis and Alisha sitting on their couch, their children on either side of the couple trying not to squirm too much. The reporter continued her story.

“What did you think when you saw Justin Knight, the former Vice-President of Operations at the bank that holds your mortgage, claiming that his former bank and the Federal Reserve caused the current crisis?”

“Well,” Alisha began, “what can we say? It shocked us to say the least. On the one hand, we're very angry because Hanover-Rush told us none of this when they sold us that mortgage in the first place. On the other hand,” she said looking at her husband, “we're impressed with the fact that Justin Knight and Paul Regan finally told us the truth.”

Otis nodded his agreement.

The reporter followed up, “Now your home faces foreclosure. When do you expect to lose it?”

“January,” Otis said..

“This coming January 2009?” the reporter clarified.

“Yes,” Alisha confirmed. “We fell behind on our mortgage payments a few months ago, and we received notice from the bank that they intend to foreclose in January.”

A picture of the foreclosure letter appeared on the screen, and the reporter said, “The notice from the bank says nothing about the bank's role in creating the financial crisis, and that makes the Blackwoods very angry.”

“We thought the government regulated the banks to prevent this kind of thing,” Alisha said, and Otis nodded. “Never in our wildest dreams did we think that the bank loaning us the money to buy our home might also conspire with the government to harm us this way.”

The reporter continued, “Bank officials refused to comment for our story, although the office of Hanover-Rush CEO David Knight, who was featured prominently on the now-famous WNN news program last month, did issue the following statement.”

A copy of the statement appeared on screen, with a portion of the letter highlighted in yellow.

“It says, 'While we are sympathetic to the plight of people like the Blackwood family, we categorically reject any suggestion that the bank behaved in any manner that might be termed intentionally harmful to or against the interests of this great nation or of our customers. The statements of our former employee do not reflect the true policy of Hanover-Rush, and our attorneys have been consulted about whether we can sue Justin Knight for defamation.'”

The reporter continued, this time facing the camera directly: “However, the bank didn't answer any questions about the particular case of the Blackwoods, saying only that it would receive appropriate attention. The Blackwoods, on the other hand, expressed their doubts about that.”

The camera switched back to Alisha Blackwood. “I've been trying to get someone in their New York office by phone and by mail since this past May to try to work out some way to refinance. So far, no one has gotten back to us, and I don't think they intend to get back to us.”

The reporter asked her, “Did you try going into your local branch of Hanover-Rush to see if they could help you?”

“Yes. And while they behaved very nice about it, they told us they had no other programs for which we could qualify. Ever since Otis lost his job due to the housing market collapse, we found that we simply cannot qualify for anything.”

“What kind of mortgage do you have?”

“It's an Option ARM.”

“One of the at-risk categories of mortgages today, just above the sub-primes.”

“Uh-huh,” Otis agreed, “but we didn't know that at the time.”

“But don't you think,” the reporter challenged them, “that you deserve some of the blame yourselves? That you foolishly bought when you did?”

Otis looked down and said nothing.

Alisha replied, “Yes, we do accept that responsibility, and clearly we'll end up paying the price for it. When we bought our new home, everyone told us it was a good idea. Our real estate agent told us that the market kept going up, up, up and that real estate was always in high demand. The mortgage lender who arranged the loan with Hanover-Rush told us that if we needed to, we could adjust the terms of the mortgage when things got tough. Everyone led us to believe that if we didn't buy right then, we could never afford to buy our home. Our rent had doubled already, and we didn't know how we could afford not to buy. Further, everyone repeatedly reminded us that since real estate prices almost never declined, we could always sell at a profit if the mortgage payments got to be more than we could afford at some point.”

The reporter said sympathetically, “But they were wrong, as it turned out.”

“Yes. We tried selling the house, but area prices declined to less than what we owe on it.”

The camera focused on the For Sale sign in their front yard while she said this.

“So you're under water, as the saying goes?” the reporter asked off camera as it focused again on the Blackwoods.

“Yes, that's right,” Alisha confirmed, and Otis said simultaneously, “Yeah.” The kids looked at their parents with worried faces.

The reporter turned to Sherise and asked her what she thought.

Sherise, now age nine, replied sadly, “I don't want to move. This is our home. All my friends live here in the neighborhood.”

Tyreese nodded his vigorous agreement with her statement.

The reporter finished her story, facing the camera and saying, “The Blackwoods, of course, like so many others, now face a personal crisis, one that will likely cost millions of families their homes. The pressures all these defaults place on the banking industry led to the recent TARP bank bailout bill, but with the allegations raised by Justin Knight and Paul Regan about the nature of our monetary and banking system, some people now wonder about the government's real motivations. Marla Goldman, World Network News, in Manassas, Virginia.”

The day after their interview appeared on national TV, Alisha answered another knock at her door. She found a very well-dressed man and woman standing there.

“Yes?” she asked them hesitantly.

“Are you Alisha Blackwood? Did you and your husband appear on national TV last night?” the woman asked her.

Otis appeared at his wife's side and asked, “Who wants to know?”

“Forgive us for acting mysteriously,” the man said. “We just have to be careful. Are you Otis Blackwood?”

Otis nodded.

The man stuck out his hand and said, “My name is Nick. This is Marie. We're from the Agorist Underground, and we're here to ask for your help. We have a great need for people with construction backgrounds these days, and we wondered if perhaps Mr. Blackwood here might be interested in a new job?”

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