The 7/22 Truth Movement

Will probably turn out much like the 9/11 Truth Movement, riddled with Jew-bashers, Israel haters, and Holocaust Deniers. The 9/11 Oz forums get things going:

Conspicuously absent from the mainstream coverage of these twin attacks is this Israeli connection with the bomber clearly being a pro-Israel supporter.

One must also take note of the fact that Norway has officially backed a Palestinian bid for statehood in the United Nations, something which made Israel quite unhappy.

Norway has also said they will pull out of the bombing campaign in Libya, all of which will undoubtedly irk the banking and industrial defense contracting interests that fund and profit from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Libyan bombing campaign, and the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.

This is just the beginning; the coincidences here, if they are coincidences and nothing more, are uncanny.

Webster Tarpley sees another false-flag attack, only he sees NATO as the culprit:

The tragic terror attacks in Norway display a number of the telltale signs of a false flag provocation. It is reported that, although the world media are attempting to focus on Anders Behring Breivik as a lone assassin in the tradition of Lee Harvey Oswald, many eyewitnesses agree that a second shooter was active in the massacre at the Utøya summer youth camp outside of Oslo. It has also come to light that a special police unit had conducted drills or exercises near the opera house in downtown Oslo which involved the detonation of bombs during 2010– exactly what caused the bloodshed a few hundred meters away this Friday. Further research reveals that United States intelligence agencies had been conducting a large-scale program of recruiting retired Norwegian police officers with the alleged purpose of conducting surveillance inside the country. This program, known as SIMAS Surveillance Detection Units, provided a perfect vehicle for the penetration and subversion of the Norwegian police by NATO.

This is typical conspiracy theory thinking; initial, rushed reports were correct, and the subsequent corrections when all the facts are in are evidence of the coverup.

Note as well that the "false-flag" aspect is bogus; as far as I know, Breivik wasn't flying any flag at all during his rampage.

Hat Tip: Paul W, in the comments.

Update: Should have guessed that Kevin Barrett would be quick to hop aboard the Blame Israel First bandwagon:

Israelis have a long history of dressing up as Arabs, or fabricating Arab patsies, to take the blame for their mayhem. Just about all of the most notorious "Arab terrorist attacks" in history have been revealed as Mossad operations, often by former Mossad officers themselves.

Err, except that the Norway attacks weren't pulled off by someone dressed up as an Arab. Not to worry that doesn't change Barrett's conclusion:

So if Israel was responsible for the terrorist attacks in Norway, as many credible observers suspect, why didn't they set up the usual Muslim patsy to take the fall? Why use a guy whose background pointed straight to the Zionists themselves?

Maybe they wanted to send a message.

Funny Conspiracy Theories

David Wong may not understand my politics ;), but he knows the conspiracy theory idiots as well as anybody:

1. The average conspiracy theorist will argue with NASA, Nobel-prize winners and every expert in the world despite having fewer qualifications than the average fry cook.
2. Conspiracy theorists view logical argument as cheating.
3. Like pissing fetishes and tentacle rape comics, conspiracy theories are a problem made much worse by the Internet.
4. Never assume malice when incompetence will do.

His hook for the post is that apparently Whoopi Goldberg expressed some support for the "Moon Truth" theory on the 40th anniversary the other day, although all those bullet points can apply to 9-11 Troof as well). Incidentally, we are getting tons of traffic from this older post of David's on the Loose Change phenomenon. It's an excellent and very funny piece.

Update: Hat Tip to Billman for pointing these two articles out in the comments.

The Yarn Company Conspiracy Unravels

Now this is pretty funny.

BG: No listen. I think it may be a conspiracy, because I'm sure that if anyone really tries to piece this sweater together? You know, get some experts in who actually know something about construction of a garment? I swear, if you get some experts to actually look at the evidence, you'll see, this sweater cannot actually be worn. It's full of holes!

Who's A No-Planer?

One of the more amusing debates within the Troofer community involves the "No Planes" theories. The "No-Planers" are commonly considered by the "Plane-Huggers" to be disinfo operatives planted inside the movement by the government to discredit the "legitimate Truthers".

That's wrong, and the reason why it's wrong reveals a lot about the nature of conspiracy theories and how they're constructed. Suppose you're "Truther No.1", the very first 9-11 conspiracy theorist, on the morning of 9-11. You say to your friend, "The US government did it!" And he promptly punches you in the snoot.

But suppose he's a conspiracy theorist himself, so he doesn't smack you. He says, "That's interesting, but I don't see how they pulled it off. Who, other than radical Muslim fanatics would commit suicide by flying a plane into a building?"

So you start brainstorming with him. Maybe commandos hijacked the planes, gassed all the passengers, and set the autopilots to crash the airliners into the buildings before parachuting to safety. Or maybe they already had remote control on the planes and so the cooperation (or elimination) of the pilots was not necessary. Maybe they were other planes, drones without passengers.

When you get right down to it, the planes are terribly inconvenient for the conspiracy theories. And as a result, almost all the MIHOP people attempt to wish them away either implicitly, or explicitly.

Examples? We get told all the time that Flights 11 and 77 were not even scheduled for that day. That's a "No-Planer". We get told that the tail numbers for some of the planes were not retired. That's a "No-Planer". Dylan Avery says in Loose Change II that Flight 93 actually landed in Cleveland. That's a "No-Planer". We get told constantly that the actual planes that crashed into the World Trade Center were 767-200 refueling planes. That's a "No-Planer". We get told that a cruise missile hit the Pentagon. That's a "No-Planer". Dylan Avery said in an interview that he'd like to believe the planes are still out there, flying around. That's a "No-Planer". We see references to "alleged" Flight 11. That's a "No-Planer". We see mentions that Todd Beamer isn't on the Social Security Death Index. That's a "No-Planer". We hear that 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 of the hijackers are still alive. That's a "No-Planer".

Almost all the 9-11 conspiracy theorists are "No-Planers", when you get right down to it. So the notion that the "TV Fakery" people are the "No-Planers" is absurd, and the notion that the supposedly mainstream Troofers are "Plane-Huggers" is equally a lie. The only Troofers who actually accept the planes are LIHOPers and that somewhat rare category of "LIHOP plus Controlled Demolition".

Grading the Conspiracy Theories

Here's an article which attempts to do just that. He's a little bit generous to some of them (LIHOP gets a "B", as does the shootdown of United 93), but on the other hand, he does give Controlled Demolition a "D" which stands for "Possible, but highly unlikely."

Overall a pretty good discussion of the arguments pro and con for each of the major CTs.

One to Savor

Here's a terrific article on the conspiracy theories and more. Lewis Black doesn't get caught up in the minutiae of the melting point of steel; rather he destroys the bigger picture of NWO and freedom to fascism that Alex Jones and the rest of the 9-11 Deniers have come up with.

Other than in Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, never has a group been so expertly in control. Unerringly, history and all of humanity has been skillfully manipulated toward its long-term, malevolent global vision. The cabalists demonstrate a genius evidenced by no other leaders or governments, ever. Even the greatest leaders suffered circumstances that distorted careful planning, with messy, ugly reality trumping their specific strategies. In contrast, without major mistake or misstep, this shadow group has not only exercised power and effortlessly manipulated governments, companies, and people internationally but has known the exact consequences of every event. Most remarkable is that this vision and perfection has been passed from generation to generation, without aberration or major failure.

Highly, highly recommended!

Our longtime commenter ConsDemo deserves a round of applause for pointing this one out!

Prager on the CTs

Why do they believe in conspiracy theories despite all the evidence?

One should never underestimate the power of boredom -- and the subsequent yearning for excitement -- to affect people's thinking and behavior. Belief in a hidden conspiracy is far more exciting than accepting prosaic truths. Figuring out the "mystery" of who killed JFK is a much bigger thrill than accepting that one jerk was responsible. Deciphering who was "really" responsible for 9/11 is a lot more interesting than accepting that 19 Arabs with box cutters did it.

There is, apparently, a great yearning among many people to believe that there is hidden knowledge and that they have access to it. It makes them feel special, perhaps even superior to the rest of us who do not have access to this hidden knowledge.

And:

Whichever reason or reasons apply, the bottom line about those who believe in hidden conspiracies is this: They choose to believe in them. Their psyche, their emotions, and/or their political agenda bring them to their belief in a hidden conspiracy. Never the facts.

Great article!

The Unified Conspiracy Theory

True, he doesn't bring the Meringovians into it, but just about every other wacky conspiracy theory under the sun comes in for its moment in this timeline:

2001: After 70 years of existence, Enron is revealed as a giant corporate shell game. Billions of dollars go missing and the retirements of countless millions of Americans are wiped out, thus ensuring longer working careers and reduced public confidence in the federal government. Sarbanes-Oxley is drafted to reduce the power of the business sector, viewed as a threat by the Cabal.

2001: Using funds from the Enron collapse, the Cabal plants explosive devices in the World Trade Center using the well-known techniques of destroying 100-storey buildings. These are detonated so as to minimize loss of life, and advanced holographic projectors fool the populace of NY into believing that two planes struck the towers. A second controlled explosion in Washington convinces people that this is part of an attack by a previously-unknown group of ragtag terrorists. In fact, three planeloads of people were taken to an orbital base to provide genetic material for advanced bio-manipulation experiments. A fourth plane, which crashed in Pennsylvania, is a fortuitous coincidence that the evil Cabal capitalizes on.

Hat Tip: Carnival of Satire.

A Reasonably Good Article

On the Deniers:

If a new investigation took place, would government agencies co-operate? Would the White House stifle co-operation? Would pro-conspiracy investigators be prepared to accept evidence they do not like from structural engineers? Are pro-conspiracy investigators then going to cherry-pick the evidence they want? One wonders if the 9/11 Truth Movement isn’t working backwards. Have they first decided the verdict, and then, second, gone about seeking the evidence to substantiate it?

Precisely, as do all conspiracy theorists. The article isn't perfect; for example, he buys into the ridiculous CounterPunch article on 9-11 foreknowledge by the Israelis:

In his superlative article of investigative journalism, What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks? (Counterpunch,Vol. 14. No.3/4, February 2007), Christopher Ketcham asks several questions:What did the U.S. government know in advance of 9/11? Why did our government do nothing with information handed to it by Israeli agents working (illegally) in the U.S? A close study of Ketcham’s article might make one wonder if the CIA (illegally) subcontracts work to the government of Israel.

A closer study would reveal that the supposed foreknowledge is a bunch of BS. Still, overall, the article is a good one.