by AlicetheCurious » Thu Feb 09, 2006 6:52 pm
<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>However, I want the paper to be bold factual and infused with the most rational and well-documented arguments. I do intend to use the paper as a means of challenging not the professor personally, but debunking in general.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Instead of "challenging...debunking in general", why not be a bit more subtle? Do a study on a "conspiracy theory", examining the kind of environment that provides fertile ground, and factors that promote widespread belief in, conspiracy theories.<br><br>Just as an example, you could contrast between the global outpouring of love and sympathy for the US and the spontaneous coming together of Americans immediately after the 9-11 attacks, with the global hatred and suspicion directed at the US five years later, as Americans themselves are increasingly disillusioned and mistrustful of their government.<br><br>What happened in those five years to make so many people believe the unthinkable?<br><br>You could correlate the growth of "conspiracy theories" with the number of unanswered questions and doubts, starting perhaps, with the investigations and declarations that raised people's hopes and then evaporated like a mirage, creating real frustration and suspicion.<br><br>Examples of these, could be:<br><br>1) The "put options" that were touted as a smoking gun leading to people who not only knew about the attacks in advance, but who intended to profit handsomely from them; the investigation inexplicably stopped, with a total information black-out on the matter;<br><br>2) The computer hardware possibly containing suspicious financial transactions that was "destroyed" in the attacks, and the fact that the German company that claimed to be able to recover the information, was quietly purchased by a US firm with CIA ties, after which the hardware recovery was not mentioned again;<br><br>3) The anthrax attacks that were publicized as an attack by "Al Qaeda", and that just happened to be directed at opponents of the Bush administration, the investigation of which was suddenly abandoned when it traced the source of the anthrax to a US military facility.<br><br>4) The destruction of crime scene evidence before it could be examined by investigators, ie, the removal of the WTC steel under tight security and secrecy, and its immediate shipping abroad. Five years later, no one seems to know who gave the order for such an appalling violation of normal investigative procedures;<br><br>5) The refusal of the Bush administration to allow an independent investigation of 9-11, only reluctantly agreeing to a strictly limited investigation after a year and a half, and only because of organized pressure by families of the victims, but allowing it a budget of just $3 million (!) and appointing Henry Kissinger as chairman (!!)<br><br>6) Claiming that they had positive evidence that would soon be presented to all the world, that al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden were responsible for 9-11, within a month of the attacks, the US led a massive invasion of Afghanistan that involved the death and maiming of untold numbers of civilians, but which appears to have deliberately allowed Taliban forces (and possibly Osama bin Laden) to escape. Meanwhile, a former Unocal oil executive was appointed president, and a US-led consortium was finally able to start its long-held plans to build a pipeline from the oil-rich Central Caspian region to export markets in Asia. <br><br>7) In the face of widespread disbelief that Henry Kissinger, a man wanted in several countries for questioning for his role in war crimes, would be chosen to head the investigation of 9-11, he was the Bush administration's firm choice -- he only stepped down when he realized that he would be required to divulge his international client list.<br><br>9) Kissinger's replacement to head the investigation was Thomas Kean, a director of Amerada Hess, a company whose business partners were suspected of funding of "al-Qaeda" (Conflict of Interest 1). Moreover, Amerada Hess would directly benefit from the invasion of Afghanistan, since the pipeline to be built in Afghanistan as the result of the invasion, would allow Amerada Hess to export oil and gas from the Caspian region and thereby get a return on their investment (Conflict of Interest 2).<br><br>10) Despite the official explanation that the disaster of 9-11 resulted from widespread incompetence and failure, no one has been held accountable. On the contrary, a remarkable number of those who failed in their duty to protect the citizens of the US, were lavishly rewarded with promotions to even greater positions of responsibility. In contrast, whistle-blowers have been made to pay dearly for their courage and honesty.<br><br>12) Immediately after the attacks, the government was classifying and "disappearing" all kinds of evidence that could not possibly endanger national security, but that COULD, on the other hand, contradict the government's official story. <br><br>Documents and evidence that disappeared into the memory hole never to be seen again:<br> <br>i) the blueprints for the WTC buildings (not even investigators were permitted to see them); <br><br>ii) the passenger manifests for the doomed flights, which were briefly released before they were declared classified, and which listed NO Arab passengers at all, terrorist or not; <br><br>iii) the steel columns, beams and trusses from the WTC (see above) were quickly and quietly shipped to Asia and rapidly sold as scrap for well below their market price; <br><br>iv) FBI agents showed up "within minutes" of the attack on the Pentagon and confiscated the film from security cameras at a gas station across the street from the Pentagon, as well as film from another security camera, placed on the roof of a hotel, that likely filmed the crash. Also, after the Los Angeles Times reported that the police were examining "footage from dozens of cameras at the three airports where the terrorists boarded the aircraft", only a few frames of film are released to the public, none from Logan, from which the "lead hijacker" Mohamed Atta supposedly boarded the plane, because, according to the FBI, unlike any other airport in America, Logan had no security cameras.<br><br>ANYWAY, this is getting way too long, it no longer has to do with your paper, I've just been wandering down memory lane...<br><br>But, I do think it might be interesting for you to examine what kind of factors and environment promote the proliferation of "conspiracy theories". The lack of clear information and answers to important questions must surely be one. <br><br>The sense that those who are supposed to provide people with information and ask the questions for us, such as the press and our political representatives, are failing to do so, even covering up facts and deliberately lying in some demonstrable cases, is another. <br><br>The growing gulf between what people are told about the world and what they can see with their own eyes is definitely a third.<br><br>And one of the things they see, is a government consistently sacrificing their lives and safety, their future and those of their children, in order to serve someone other than the public that elected them. Whether that "someone" is a global corporate entity or entities, or the Illuminati, or an alliance of religious fanatics, or satan-worshipping pedophiles, or aliens, or a bunch of sociopathic good ol'boys, or whatever, well, that would depend on the quantity and quality of the evidence. <br><br>Generally, though, it doesn't help things when governments ask people to believe in magic bullets and collapsing buildings doing a free-fall into their own footprint even when nothing hit them, or in terrorist masterminds who command vast global armies of fanatical followers but whom nobody sees (and who grow amputated legs and even come back to life - repeatedly), or in miraculous passports found lying on sidewalks, or how happy the people of Iraq are, now that 100,000 of them have been killed, they've got no clean water system, no reliable electricity, their country has been ruined and contaminated with depleted uranium, their men have been stripped naked, humiliated and tortured to death, their government and their economy have been taken over by foreign rulers... But they've got this wonderful future, see, because they've been liberated by America.<br><br>You know what? I'll be happy to provide you with links documenting anything I wrote above -- sort of compensation to you for reading it. <br><br>I hope you'll keep us posted about the class. Good luck, again. <p></p><i></i>
