Posted Sept 12, 2010
My Friends,
Since some are bringing up the 911 conspiracy theory I thought this may be a good time to post a chapter from my upcoming book on the subject. Some have been wondering when we will publish it. We just about had it ready when i received the impression that the time isn’t quite right yet, but I feel it will be soon. In the meantime I am reading a lot of material in preparation for a new section for the book that will be on the principles of sound currency. I will be writing this soon and will probability publish shortly thereafter.
JJ
– Chapter Five –
The Conspiracy that Divides
On November 10, 2005 a CNN viewer’s poll asked this question: “Do you believe there is a U.S. government cover-up surrounding 9/11?”
The results were alarming. A whopping 89% answered yes. This poll obviously reflects the mindset of CNN viewers and does not reflect the nation as a whole, but other more scientific polls, such as that done by Zogby in May 2006 indicate that 45% are at least suspicious of government cover-up.
I first started paying attention to conspiracy theory about 40 years ago. Back then, there were a lot of flower children and rebels who did not trust the government; but only a small handful believed, or were even aware of the possibility, that all the strings were pulled by traitorous conspirators within government, media and industry. At that time, so few were in on the details of the supposed inner circles that those of us who did follow the pointing fingers felt somewhat special for being among the few informed ones.
Then, in 1971, Gary Allen came out with the blockbuster book None Dare Call it Conspiracy. This book never received a major review, nor was it available through regular bookstores, but millions of copies were sold. Suddenly, the idea of international conspiracy to take over the world became mainstream, but mainstream among whom?
The believers were mainly conservative Republicans and a handful of fringe Democrats.
Decades passed, and many predictions were made by inside observers. Time and time again, timelines were set for a takeover of the conspirators. They were going to take over our government and divide the United States into 12 regions. They were going to cause an economic collapse and replace our old money with new. The new would only be worth about ten percent of the old and everyone would lose 90% of their assets to the greedy conspirators.
Jimmy Carter and other government leaders were to be replaced by doubles.
Everything was in place for the big takeover, and what happened?
Ronald Reagan got elected, none of the predictions came true, and the wind was taken out of their sails.
Why?
Because, for all but the hardened conspiracy people, it seemed that Reagan was not the man to head up a new world order of tyranny (though some managed to find 666 in his name.) He seemed more like a protector of freedom rather than an insider who would yield to some fabled illuminati or greedy international bankers.
During the 80s, the conspiracy watchers dropped from mainstream to lurk under the radar. The committed inside “watchers” or observers never go away; they just wait for their day of opportunity.
That day of opportunity came at the end of the Gulf War when President George Herbert Walker Bush declared that a “new world order” was taking shape.
To casual observers, this merely emphasized the fact that many nations joined together in cooperation to put down a tyrant. This seemed to be a “new” and ordered way for the world to handle a threat.
But, to the below-the-radar conspiracy theorists, this statement was an alarming wake-up call. They had been predicting a New World order for decades – not one of cooperation, but one of tyranny. As soon as they heard this phrase, a call to arms was registered in their heads. Father Bush was unabashedly giving the slogan of the coming New World order of tyranny of Biblical beast-like 666 proportions.
Since that day, the conspiracy-minded have come out of the woodwork and have spoken out. But then along came 9/11, and the conspiracy consciousness began to permeate much deeper than ever before. Then, instead of a handful seeing the secret hand of the government working against its own people, it seemed to be close to half the population.
The financial meltdown of 2008-2009 also fueled more conspiracy fears. The strong financial moves with take- overs of industry seemed to fulfill many of the conspiracy movement predictions. For the first time, I heard even some mainstream media people say that it almost seemed like conspiracy theories were coming true.
But get this: in the 60s and 70s period of the conspiracy heyday, we had mostly Republicans and a handful of Democrats involved, but after the “New World order” statement, it was the opposite. This time, the conspiracy people were mostly Democrats, along with a handful of fringe Conservatives. Now, after the financial meltdown, we seem to have a fairly even mix.
Conspiracy theory after 9/11 is much more mainstream and far reaching. Why? Because there are many more Democrats in the media than there are Republicans, and the “liberal” media was much more accepting of conspiracy theory after the catastrophe than it was in the 60s and 70s. Now that Obama is president, there is not so much overt speaking of it in the media, but there is a lot of thought about it going on below the radar.
None Dare Call it a Conspiracy sold over 5 million copies, and the major media never said a peep about it, nor was it reviewed in the New York Times or any other orthodox publication, nor was it even sold in mainstream bookstores.
Believe me, any conspiracy book that sells over a million copies today will get some attention from the media.
In fact, the first major book concerning the 9/11 conspiracy, Horrifying Fraud, was written by French author Thierry Meyssan, and it was not long before the media all over the world were talking about it.
This has been followed by all sorts of publications; web sites, videos and even Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 strongly hint at conspiracy. These all expand and amplify his ideas until the permeation of conspiracy theory is deep indeed, and this creates a major problem for the world, and in particular the United States, that did not exist in the last conspiracy cycle.
The Problem
The problem created should be obvious: the ones leaning toward conspiracy, or at least some cover-up, has approached half the population. It’s true the percentage of hard-core believers is much lower than this, but the number is high enough that another major division is created among the American people.
Part of the divisive problem is created by the intensity of the feeling which as been stimulated among the conspiracy believers. This is a different ingredient than happened in the last cycle. The conspiracy believers a generation ago were distressed and very concerned because of their belief, but they did not generally have the anger bordering on hate that the believers today often manifest toward the non-believers.
In the old days, a true believer just felt somewhat sorry for the ignorant masses, but if a friend or associate doubted them or even laughed at them, they accepted their position and moved on.
Today, hard-core conspiracy people embrace their beliefs like a dogmatic religion, and if you question them or directly disagree, they don’t feel sorry for you but often get quite angry. Now there are a handful of exceptions, but this anger is pervasive enough to create major problems for our country.
Here are a few:
(1) Conspiracy thinking is one more point of division. We already have red states and blue states, pro-life and pro- choice, conservatives and liberals… We do not need another major point of contention.
(2) The defense of our country is weakened. If this division continues, then, when the government has to justifiably act in its defense or self-interest, a large portion of the population will believe that evil conspirators manipulated the situation and seek to sabotage the effort.
(3) The nation’s cash flow is threatened. Some seeing the government as evil will not pay their taxes and others in power will redirect funds away from national security.
(4) The enemies of the United States and Europe often read the conspiracy theories, become enraged, and feel the title of the “great Satan” is justified. Future attacks like 9/11 will gain wider support.
(5) Problems bordering on strife are created among family, friends, the workplace, churches and virtually anyplace where people interact. We are finally learning to cope with racial differences. We do not need a new form of intolerance to replace it.
Solution
What’s the solution to the problem?
The answer lies in the story of the eighth labor of Hercules. Here he had to defeat the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra.
This hydra lived in a dark noisome swamp and was a plague upon the countryside. Hercules was warned that defeating it would be difficult because, if he attacked it directly and cut one head off, two would grow in its place. “One head is immortal,” he was warned.
Hercules sought out the hydra, and when he found it, he at first fought it the conventional way. Soon he found out the warning was correct. When he directly attacked and cut off a head, two grew in its place. What was he to do?
He withdrew, contemplated, and formulated a new line of approach. Instead of attacking the hydra with brute force, he cast his weapons aside, threw himself under the beast, and lifted it into the air above the stench into the light of the sun.
The clean air and sunlight weakened and killed all heads but the one that was immortal. Hercules then cut off the immortal head and buried it under a rock.
What’s the lesson here? The nine heads represent illusion. There are nine different influences applied to knowledge that is acquired to distort it so an erroneous interpretation and belief will follow.
These are:
(1) Wrong perception – We do not always register information correctly.
(2) Corrupt recollection – once it is registered, we often remember incorrectly.
(3) Bad source – if the source is corrupt, then assimilating it correctly does us little good.
(4) Attachment to desire – if one desires his belief to be true more than the truth being true, the error of his belief will seem to be true to him.
(5) Ego and pride – once a person accepts error as reality, his pride will prevent him from backtracking and finding the truth.
(6) Separateness – many people have the need for an us-versus-them outlook. They need an enemy out there, and if they cannot find a worthy opponent, conspiracy theory can create a terrible one.
(7) Hatred and fear – the tendency is to hate those who are seen as enemies.
(8) Lack of empathy – often the ones seen as evil conspirators are people like ourselves just doing the best job they can. With a little empathy we can put ourselves in their shoes, see their humanity and neutralize hatred or wrong perception.
(9) Misuse of power – this would be the eternal head that always has to be contained or trouble will arise.
Evil conspirators are usually seen as very powerful people who are willing to misuse their power to destroy our way of life. On the other hand, that which is judged as being without often manifests within. The conspiracy people today have gained such strength that they have great power in their own right, even to the point of manipulating politicians and presidential candidates.
Only those who can direct the right use of power are able to perceive reality the way it truly is.
If we directly attack in-kind a person who is under the influence of these nine heads of the hydra, then additional heads will grow. If we attack hate with more hate, the head of revenge will grow.
If we attack pride with the sword of our own pride of being right, then the head of self-righteousness may appear and on it goes.
Instead of attacking with conventional weapons, the modern day Hercules must lift the hydra of illusion into the light of truth. His eyes must be taken away from focusing on the shadows and look outward into the real world where hope is shining bright.
In the 60s and 70s, there were many conservative conspiracy people who were seeing hidden Hitlers in the making in every corner. Economic collapse, the end of the Republic, and the appearance of an antichrist were expected at any moment. None of this happened, but they were undeterred and unaffected until Ronald Reagan was elected.
This situation did not fit the paradigm, for here was one of their own elected as the most powerful leader in the world. Instead of sternly correcting his conservative companions, Reagan lifted them into the sunshine of optimism and redirected their focus toward making the best of the situation and advancing ahead in the real world.
When the conservative hydras were thus lifted into the light of better vision, eight heads withered, and no longer was there much talk of the evil conspiracy and the end of the Republic.
Unfortunately, one head is immortal and that is the ninth one – the wrong use of power.
Hercules hid this under a rock in an attempt to keep it away from the wrong hands who would resurrect the entire hydra. But because this head is eternal, there will never be a time that power does not appeal to those trapped in illusion.
Sure enough, after Reagan ended his presidency, and father Bush resumed with a more orthodox leadership and then mentioned a “new-world order”, the eternal head of power crawled back from under its rock.
The conspiracy people feared a misuse of power and, in reacting to fear, many reacted strongly and fought the head with fear. In doing so, the head multiplied and the new heads were the conspiracy people themselves.
Elevate – Not Attack
The problem the person of reason faces is how to approach the conspiracy people and lift them out of their conspiracy-under-every-rock type of thinking. The end result has to be to elevate their thinking rather than making the blunt attack. If a person makes fun of their thinking or attacks directly, the heads of resistance will multiply.
How does one go about lifting them into the light of day?
The first thing to do is to meet them half way using the Principle of the Middle Way: acknowledge to them that extremes on both sides are usually in error. On one side, we have the extreme that sees conspiracy behind every major event governing in the political, financial and other fields of endeavor.
Equally as fallacious is to assume that there are no conspiracies anywhere. Historical research proves to us that there have been successful conspiracies in the past, but nothing has been proven to be as pervasive as seen through the eyes of modern-day conspiracy theory. There has never been a proven conspiracy even close to the scale as that seen around 911.
The question to ask is this: based on reason and a sense of history, which conspiracy theories today have the possibility of being true?
Now, we must admit that historians have not found all the conspiracies that have existed in our history, but those that have been revealed fall into two major categories:
(1) Conspiracies to kill a particular individual who is a troublemaker or in the way of the conspirators obtaining power.
(2) Conspiracies to overthrow a government either by assassination or revolution.
Then, of course, there are lesser conspiracies such as found in many businesses to increase or maintain power. There’s little doubt that many strings are pulled behind the scenes.
As far as evil conspiracies go, the most popular true conspiracy lies in eliminating some troublesome individual. The reason this type of conspiracy is believable is that it only takes a handful of people to pull off such a thing.
Popular figures in history who had conspirators out to kill them were Jesus, Caesar, Abraham Lincoln, Castro, JFK and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. On the positive side, there was a definite conspiracy to kill Hitler and probably Stalin. Recent hair analysis of Napoleon gives evidence that he died of arsenic poisoning rather than stomach cancer, as had been previously assumed.1 If he was poisoned, there definitely was a conspiracy at play, and the conspirators were never caught.
In our day, a number of leaders have been killed that could have been related to conspiracy, but that has not been proven. The most famous was President Kennedy. Included in modern conspiracy theory are his brother, Robert, who some believe was killed by a mind control system affecting Sirhan Sirhan. Then we have Martin Luther King, who many believe was killed by an assassin hired by conspirators – James Earl Ray.
Now, even the skeptic who doesn’t fall for universal conspiracy theory has to admit it is at least possible that the Kennedys and King were the victims of some unseen conspiracy. All we can say for sure is no one can prove it one way or another.
In modern days, there were definitely conspiratorial forces at work influencing governments. A significant one was the stimulating of the Bolshevik Revolution to overthrow the Russian Czar and establish a communist empire. Then, communism had its own conspiracy to spread its tentacles around the world. How pervasive the conspiracy was is in dispute, but what is not in dispute is there was certainly a degree of conspiracy at work.
President Kennedy, a great object of modern conspiracy theory, had a conspiracy of his own to overthrow Castro and the government of Cuba. This culminated in the Bay of Pigs, and turned out to be a major failure in his administration.
The point being made here is that there have been definite conspiracies in times past and other happenings, around which credible conspiracy theory has been developed. A CBS poll taken in 1998 revealed that a mere 10% of the population believed that Oswald acted alone. Obviously, the JFK and other conspiracies have some merit, and are not just accepted by the fringe right or left.
To the many conspiracy-oriented people of today, then, we concede that there have been both true conspiracies in the past, and there are theories that are credible to many in the mainstream that have a possibility of being true.
BUT…
There have always been illogical conspiracy theories with little basis in fact or reality. The strange thing about our current age is the proliferation of such theories. They have multiplied to the extent that no major event occurs that is not accompanied by a wildly speculative theory that seems to be automatically accepted by the fringe crowd.
It seems that the turning point that brought out all the fringe theorists was the 9/11 disaster. Before this, we had a standard flow of interesting theories such as Paul McCartney’s death and being replaced by a double (as hinted at in the Beatle album “Abbey Road”), Jimmy Carter being replaced by a double (who supposedly parted his hair on the opposite side); Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance; and the missing 15 minutes on the Nixon tapes. There’s always been a standard flow of conspiracy theory that shows a general distrust of the government, but nothing like the problem we have had since 9/11. Now the theories are much more than curiosities; they are dividing us to the extent that they threaten our ability to be unified as a people in any crisis. This threat is greater than any conspiracy lurking about. And if there were conspiracies at play, what greater objective could there be than to divide the people of this nation with such a sharp division?
The Problem with Modern Conspiracy Theory
It is interesting to note the difference in effect between a conspiracy theory that has a reasonable possibility of being true and one that does not.
Most will admit that there could have been a conspiracy behind the JFK and other murders, but these possibilities have never caused a division bordering on hatred that has occurred with 9/11 conspiracy theory. Why is this?
The answer is this: when a conspiracy theory becomes unreasonable, it then draws unreasonable people; and unreasonable people react very strongly when others do not see their point of view.
Let us briefly review two modern conspiracy theories that are seen as unreasonable by the logical mind. Volumes have been written on these and I have no intention of giving all the details pro and con, but just enough to make an appeal to the truth and common sense.
First theory: the moon landing was a hoax.
In 1999, a Gallup poll revealed that 6% of U.S. citizens believed we didn’t go to the moon, but this rose to 20% in another poll after the Fox network did a special on it in 2001.
True believers cite dozens of circumstantial pieces of evidence. A few of them are:
(1) When the astronauts assembled the American flag, the flag waves. This must have been from an errant breeze on a studio set. A flag wouldn’t wave in a vacuum – so they say.
(2) There is a lack of stars in the pictures taken by the Apollo astronauts from the surface of the Moon. Without air, the sky is black, so where are the stars?
(3) The radiation between the earth and the moon would have killed the astronauts.
(4) They cite evidence that some of the 1100 photos were produced in a studio.
(5) We didn’t have the technology to go to the moon.
(6) Neil Armstrong doesn’t make public appearances because he is embarrassed by the fact that it was all a big lie.
I won’t take up the reader’s time taking pages to refute these claims, other than saying that there are logical answers to these and other claims easily found on the internet.
It is interesting that the most powerful argument that the conspiracy people are wrong on this is not a technical argument, but a logical one. The evidence that we did go to the moon is overwhelming.
First, if there was a conspiracy to fake a moon landing, conspirators would have only staged it one time and let it go at that. We went there not once, but six times with a dramatic seventh attempt that failed with Apollo 13. This awesome spectacle, from which a major movie was made, would have also had to have been staged for the main conspiracy theory to be true.
Second, thousands of people would have had to cooperate to make the conspiracy work. Not only is it impossible to have that number of people going along with such a deception, but, if it were true, someone would be talking about it. Why do we not even see one individual in disguise with an altered voice talking to a reporter?
Because we went to the moon.
Third, who are the main allies supporting this theory? The highest percentage are the uneducated people in third world countries. They are folks who hate America. For instance, around 90% of the Islamic people in the Middle East believe the moon landing was faked.
The technical evidence that we went to the moon is beyond belief. For the sake of time, I will cite just two examples.
(1) Perhaps the most powerful evidence is that three Apollo missions placed seismometers on the moon in three different locations. Several times, the Lunar Module was sent back to crash on the moon after the astronauts were headed home. The crash created an explosion equal to 2,000 pounds of TNT and produced a moon quake. Moon quakes were recorded by all three seismometers and the data was received by scientists here on the earth.
I’ve never seen the conspiracy people explain how three different landings placed three different seismometers on the moon in three locations, which have been verified… and all this was supposedly done in a studio. Also, how did they make the moon quake from a studio?
(2) Before the manned mission, NASA sent several unmanned missions, one of them being Surveyor 3 in 1967. Apollo 12 landed within 600 feet of this craft, and pulled out the camera and several other items and returned them to earth for study. The scientists who studied this definitely saw that it was the real thing because of bombardment with cosmic rays and micrometeorites over the years. Not only would this be virtually impossible to fake, but why go to such risk of being exposed if you are a conspirator?
The granddaddy of all unreasonable conspiracy theories centers around 9/11. We could easily write several books on this subject, as the accusations by the conspiracy people are many. Let us just make several points.
First, to pull off such a deception covering three events (Twin Towers, Pentagon and Flight 93) would require the cooperation and knowing participation of a large number of people, perhaps thousands.
Even if there were a major conspiracy, the people involved would have been insane to attempt one so complicated involving so many people. It would have been so much safer and easier to just drop an untraceable nuke somewhere.
Again, the question arises: why has none of the thousands who were supposedly involved, or on the inside, talked?
One may answer that it is the same reason that no one is talking about the JFK conspiracy; but this answer carries no water, for if it was a conspiracy, a simple pulling of a trigger could have been planned by a small handful… and several people have talked about it. Most notable is E. Howard Hunt. On his deathbed, he made a taped confession and gave it to his son Saint John Hunt. Saint John has been on a mission playing the tape and telling his story. He has appeared on many national shows, including two appearances on the popular radio show Coast to Coast, which has about ten million listeners.
His website can be found at: http://www.saintjohnhunt.com/
The second whistle blower is LBJ’s former mistress, Madeleine Duncan Brown. She is referenced as a conspiracy whistle blower at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Duncan_Brown
A video and more information can be found at:
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=15167
If there are two or more supposed whistle blowers on the Kennedy assassination, there should be hundreds of them around 9/11, for if this was a conspiracy, many more people would have been involved.
Let’s look at an overview of what conspiracy theorists believe about 9/11:
First, they believe that George W. Bush was either behind the planning or a major player.
On the other hand, most of these same individuals believe he is the dumbest president in our history.
You can’t have it both ways. If Bush had anything to do with pulling this off, he was an evil genius beyond anything that Hitler did. Yet, even his most adamant supporters do not see him as a genius and his enemies would never admit to this, even if he were the grand master of 9/11.
If Bush was a player, then so was Dick Cheney and other higher-ups in the administration, yet no one is talking and there’s no smoking gun leading back to them.
So, here’s the situation they present: Bush, the supposed dumbest president in history, was a major player in a conspiracy that involved the cooperation of thousands of participants, pulled off the most infamous disaster in history, and never got caught. Thousands of people are pointing fingers at him, trying to nail him, but he is outsmarting them all, great genius that he is.
Here’s the conspiracy story in a nutshell: Bush and Cheney, in cooperation with invisible power brokers and the military, arranged the hijacking of four planes, flights 93, 77, 175 and 11. Somehow, after they took off, they were mysteriously snatched out of the skies and taken to an undisclosed location. At this location, the passengers were killed and disposed. The planes were also destroyed, obviously completely pulverized that very day to prevent any recognizable piece from being later used as evidence to the crime.
This was an ingenious accomplishment on the part of Bush and other conspirators when you take into account the whistle blowers at minor atrocities such as Abu Ghraib. 9/11 was much bigger than making men perform tricks while naked.
Just imagine being in the military and designated as one of those disposing of the passengers. Four planes land and all the hundreds of passengers are unloaded and lined up to be shot. You and dozens of others are to kill them and dispose of the bodies. Isn’t it amazing that not one of them has anonymously spoken to the press?
After the planes were snatched out of the air, an amazing thing occurred. They were replaced by missiles or special pods created by the government. These missiles were painted and fixed up to look like planes, but were not planes. These missiles had no passengers on board, but were specially designed to accomplish the evil deed.
They had to make it appear that the passengers were still on board to the end so they faked phone calls made from passengers to loved ones on the ground. All the dozens of loved ones involved were fooled into thinking they were talking to the real person because the government somehow knew in advance who was going to be on each plane and duplicated the correct voices in advance using voice technology. Conspiracy people do not even ask how a bungling bureaucracy can even manage to successfully retrieve the phone numbers of the correct loved ones to call, let alone make them think a computer voice is a family member.
I don’t know about you, but if a computer called me pretending to be my wife, I think I could tell if I was talking to the real person.
The missiles then went about to accomplish their evil mission. The first was substituted for Flight 93 and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
What was that about? I know if I were a conspirator, the last thing I would do is to go through all that trouble just to crash a missile in a field. Strange.
The second, the substitute for Flight 77, crashed into the Pentagon. What was that about? The military attacking itself? Oh, yeah… that was just to remove suspicion. That really worked, didn’t it? Even though dozens of people saw a plane, some even close enough to see the passengers, they were fooled. It was really a missile.
The other two missiles, which replaced Flights 175 and 11, plowed into the two Twin Towers buildings. Even though millions of people saw the video of this, what they saw were not planes, but missiles or specially-built pods that landed in just the right places to not interfere with the planned explosive demolition.
Explosive demolition?
Yes, and this is the amazing part. The conspiracy people believe that the Twin Towers and WTC 7 were brought down by a controlled demolition by the use of planted explosives. Even though the largest demolition by explosives has been just over 20 stories, the conspirators decided to go for the Guinness Book of World Records. They increased that record not twice, or four times, but over five times and did it simultaneously with not one building, but two, along with a smaller record-breaking building on the side.
They didn’t care that the technology for such an unknown feat had not been perfected or tested. Instead, they recklessly went ahead blowing up the buildings, just hoping everything would work as planned. This would have indeed been a dumb thing to do, but it turned out that Bush was extremely lucky things worked out.
Planting the explosives was the difficult part and really illustrates the hidden genius of Bush to have pulled this off.
Hundreds of workers with blow torches and construction tools would have had to enter the buildings and, without being seen, tear out the walls in thousands of locations in each of the Twin Towers. Then they would have had to pull out blow torches and cut out V’s in the thousands of steel beams that supported the towers.
Next, they would have had to wire one explosive charge to another in thousands of locations, destroying and disrupting offices as they moved along. After this, they would have had to repair their destructive work before each worker entered his office again. The repair would have had to be so seamless that none of the thousands of people in the Twin Towers would notice that any changes were made.
Even more amazing is that none of the hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of demolition workers have spilled their guts. Not one of them have gone to the press to become the hero of the ages. Maybe the conspirators had the military kill them all.
Again, the question arises. When the military lined up and gunned down all the demolition workers, was there not one of the assassins that had a prick in his conscience and was willing to tell his story?
I guess not.
It must have been the genius of Bush that pulled this all off so seamlessly.
If you believe this is the way 9/11 really happened, then I have a bridge to sell you, cheap.
Osama bin Laden apparently wouldn’t buy the bridge, for he thinks he masterminded 9/11.
In a tape recording, Mr. bin Laden spoke more directly about the Sept. 11 attacks than he has in previous messages, saying that he had told Mohamed Atta, the plot’s ringleader, that the attacks should be carried out “within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration noticed.” Mr. bin Laden said the idea of attacking buildings in United States occurred to him when he said he watched Israeli aircraft bombing tower blocks in Lebanon in 1982.
“As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me to punish the unjust the same way – to destroy towers in America so that it can taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women.” He claimed direct responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks.
“We decided to destroy towers in America,” he said, apparently referring to the World Trade Center. “God knows that it had not occurred to our mind to attack the towers, but after our patience ran out and we saw the injustice and the inflexibility of the American-Israeli alliance toward our people in Palestine and Lebanon, this came to my mind,” Mr. bin Laden said.
(New York Times, Oct 30, 2004.)
In this same tape, Osama bin Laden mentions the 19 hijackers that are not supposed to exist according to conspiracy theory:
“If Bush says we hate freedom, let him tell us why we didn’t attack Sweden, for example. It is known that those who hate freedom do not have dignified souls, like those of the 19 blessed ones,” he said, referring to the 19 hijackers.
Finally, conspiracy theorists claim that Bush participated in this for political gain.
In the end, that’s certainly not what happened. His ratings have sometimes been in the 20s, some of the lowest in history. When considering the overall financial effect as being a loss of what some believe to be over a trillion dollars, then a lot of big money people associated with many conspiracies also suffered.
Outside of the Islamic extremists who actually perpetrated the deed, not much of the rest of the world had any benefit from the tragedy or had a motive to create it.
When the whole picture of the conspiracy is presented here, it is like Hercules raising the hydra into the light of the sun. The truth becomes obvious. The conspiracy theory, as presented, could not be true. It is about as probable as the moon being made of green cheese.
For a good logical overview of the 9/11 conspiracy, I recommend the book by Popular Mechanics called Debunking 9/11 Myths. The History Channel also presented an excellent special called 9/11 Conspiracies, Fact or Fiction.
The Mormons and Conspiracy Theory
A small, but important part of the modern conspiracy movement is in the LDS church. This may seem odd to some because the church is seen as a far right organization, whereas many present day 9/11 conspiracy buffs are far left. Because the LDS conspiracy believers are the epicenter of supporters on the right, it seems appropriate to say a few words about them. In covering this, let me note that the official church headquarters distances itself from such things.
It makes sense, though, that some Mormons would take an interest in conspiracy for two main reasons:
(1) First, a generation ago, it was the conservatives, not the liberals who pushed the movement forward. Many Mormons gained an interest in conspiracy because Ezra Taft Benson, who later became the church president, endorsed the John Birch Society, and this society, in turn, was the main element attempting to expose the Communist conspiracy. Even though the type of people drawn to conspiracy theory have changed, there are certain elements within the church who remain on board.
The funny thing, in my opinion, is that the John Birch Society warned of a socialist conspiracy, and today many of the conspiracy people advocate socialism. It appears that if the John Birch Society was correct, the modern conspiracy has swallowed up the conspiracy theorists and made them an arm of their program for socialist world domination.
(2) The Mormons have always been wary of conspiracy because of warnings given in their own Book of Mormon. The main scripture which concerns them is found in Ether 8:18-26. Here, we have the account of their ancient prophet, Moroni, who is expressing great sorrow over the destruction of his people and nation. He tells us that the destruction of his people was caused by a secret combination of people who took secret oaths and will stop at nothing, including murder, to gain power.
Then he gives a warning to the future inhabitants of America, which is us today. He says:
“Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you;…For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; … Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away…” Ether 8:24-26
Because of this dire warning, faithful Mormons are much more on the lookout for conspiracies than are other religions in general. But the question rarely asked by them is this: are they looking in the right direction?
To answer this, let us use their belief system for a moment and examine the Book of Mormon teachings of the conspiracy. Since it says that the conspiracy in this age will be like it was at the time Book of Mormon was written, then it follows that if we examine how the conspiracy worked back then, we can get an idea of how it should manifest today.
First, let us summarize how the conspiracy people see it operating today. Here it is in a nutshell:
The conspiracy is composed of a small group of powerful people pulling strings behind the scenes. We never see them and no one knows for sure who they are. Those who appear to be the power brokers are not the ones with real power, but are merely puppets for the true invisible conspirators. The two main guesses as to who the real invisible conspirators are would be:
(1) A group of bankers and capitalists that want to rule the world and make slaves of the rest of us.
(2) Insider Jews who want to rule the world and make slaves of the rest of us.
(3) Both of the above.
Do these invisible power brokers correspond with the conspirators as taught in the Book of Mormon?
Actually, the answer is a definite no.
The most famous group of conspirators in the Book of Mormon were called the Gadianton Robbers. This group of conspirators inflicted the heaviest damage on that people, for it is written:
“…ye shall see that this Gadianton did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi.” Helaman 2::13
Here are a few comparisons about his group of conspirators contrasted with modern conspiracy theorists:
(1) While it is true the group did have a conspiracy to overthrow the government and create havoc, assassination and destruction, the identity of the leader and the group was known to the people. What was hidden through the conspiracy were their subtle methods of infiltration and influence on corrupting the system.
Comparison to modern conspiracy theory:
Modern conspiracy theorists cannot find a Gadianton or his group. The conspirators are so shadowy they are not known to the general population, and even conspiracy theorists cannot agree on their identity.
(2) The leader of the Gadiantons wrote letters to the political leaders, giving their demands and thoughts.
Comparison to modern conspiracy theory:
No such open communication is known.
(3) Their dwelling place was approximately known and war was made against them. It is written:
“And they did commit murder and plunder; and then they would retreat back into the mountains, and into the wilderness and secret places, hiding themselves that they could not be discovered, receiving daily an addition to their numbers, inasmuch as there were dissenters that went forth unto them.
“And thus in time, yea, even in the space of not many years, they became an exceedingly great band of robbers; and they did search out all the secret plans of Gadianton; and thus they became robbers of Gadianton.
“Now behold, these robbers did make great havoc, yea, even great destruction among the people of Nephi, and also among the people of the Lamanites.
“And it came to pass that it was expedient that there should be a stop put to this work of destruction; therefore they sent an army of strong men into the wilderness and upon the mountains to search out this band of robbers, and to destroy them.” Helaman 11:25-28
Comparison to modern conspiracy theory:
Modern conspiracy theorists believe the conspirators are living in the lap of luxury and comfort, not hiding in the mountains like a band of thieves.
(4) The Gadiantons demanded the people convert “and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us” or they would be attacked and destroyed. III Nephi 3:7-8
Comparison to modern conspiracy theory:
Modern conspiracy theorists see the conspirators as elitists who do not want us to be like them, but just want to rule the world with us as their slaves.
(5) “And it came to pass that they did have their signs, yea, their secret signs, and their secret words;” Helaman 6:22
Comparison to modern conspiracy theory:
This is suspected, but not proven.
These five items do not seem to fit much in with the template of the ideas of modern conspiracy theorists, but the reader may have added two and two and reached the obvious parallel.
And what is that?
Think 9/11, Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
Could it be true that the modern conspirators are the obvious ones right in front of our faces? Let us compare them with the five descriptions of Gadianton Robbers.
(1) The leader and group were known entities.
The group (Al Qaeda), its leader (Osama bin Laden) and other Moslem extremists are known to the people. We know they have a conspiracy to overthrow us by creating havoc, assassination and destruction.
(2) The leader of the Gadiantons wrote letters to the political leaders giving their demands and thoughts.
Osama bin Laden and other Moslem extremists send us letters, tapes and videos giving us their demands.
(3) Their dwelling place was approximately known and war was made against them.
Just as the Gadianton Robbers dwelt in the mountains, the wilderness and secret places, so does Al Qaeda and other Moslem extremists.
Just as the Nephites “sent an army of strong men into the wilderness and upon the mountains to search out this band of robbers, and to destroy them,” even so has the United States done the same. Ironically, the U.S. President has been more often identified with the Gadianton Robbers by modern conspiracy people than is Al Qaeda.
(4) The Gadianton Robbers demanded the people convert and become like them or be destroyed. This is right out of the Moslem extremist handbook.
(5) They had secret signs and words.
There’s no evidence that U.S. leaders, insiders, bankers or Jews currently use these things but we are aware that secret signs and words are given out to activate various Al Qaeda cells. We are always looking for secret signals given out in any new Osama bin Laden tape or video.
Conclusion: The Mormons who embrace modern conspiracy theory because of admonitions from their Book of Mormon seem to be barking up the wrong tree. The true correspondence to the conspirators in their own scriptures are the modern Moslem extremists, not the shadow governments, bankers and Jews that cannot be found, identified or communicated with.
Comments:
If you look at any conspiracy theory, you can find elements that seem to not make sense and pieces that do not seem to fit together. But what is interesting is that such incongruent pieces not only appear in conspiracy theory but in real life. In real life, however, we have a difference. If we have an actual experience and evidence tells us we did not have the experience, what do we believe?
The answer is we believe the experience.
The astronauts and thousands of knowing participants at NASA having the experience of going to the moon overrides any anomalies that testify otherwise.
The experience and record of the cell phone calls made to loved ones on 9/11 outweigh the argument that it couldn’t have happened.
Let me give you an example in my own life of a subtle deception. About ten years ago my wife and I, along with my friend Wayne, were having dinner in a Chinese Restaurant. At the end of the meal we all opened our fortune cookies and, to our surprise, all three of us had the exact same wording – it was to the effect that we were going to become rich.
Now, I’ve been to a lot of Chinese restaurants and do not recall getting two fortunes exactly the same, let alone three. “Maybe it’s a sign,” I said jokingly.
“Can’t be”, said Wayne, an eternal skeptic. He motioned for the waitress, told her about problem with the fortune cookies, and asked for three more.
The waitress acted like three reading the same was an impossibility, but she brought three more anyway and we opened them. To our surprise, my wife and I again received exactly the same fortune again. Wayne then opened his and it also said he was going to strike it rich, but the wording was slightly different.
We didn’t want to bother the waitress again, but we concluded that it was either a sign we were going to have an increase of wealth or it was just a fluke of some kind. We talked about the irony a few moments and then forgot about it.
A short time later, something even more perplexing happened. The next morning, I got out of bed, put on my bathrobe and started walking down the stairs. As I was about halfway down, about 4-5 quarters seemed to fall from nowhere, landing on the stairs. Where the devil did they come, from I thought to myself. I looked up, I looked down and I looked all over my bathrobe; there was no sign of where the quarters could have come from. For one thing, I never put money in my bathrobe pockets, and they are almost always empty, as they were on this occasion.
I found this perplexing, but shrugged it off, and took a couple more steps.
Two more quarters fell to the floor.
Again, I searched every crevice and pocket of my bathrobe and nothing was there. This was pretty odd, I thought.
Later, at breakfast, I told my wife about it and she thought it might be a sign that the fortune cookies were correct. Maybe we will strike it rich! Then, my analytical mind went into play. “There’s got to be a logical explanation. We just haven’t found it yet”.
The next morning, I got up, put on my bathrobe and walked down the stairs.
Again, quarters fell to the floor from nowhere. Now, I was wearing the same bathrobe that was thoroughly inspected the day before, and nothing was in any pocket or clinging to it in any way. I was dumbfounded and told my wife again. She figured it must be a miraculous sign, but I still held out that there must be a logical explanation.
A day or so later, the same thing happened again. Why quarters? Why not hundred dollar bills? I was really beside myself, but still wasn’t quite ready to accept the miracle sign idea. Maybe I missed some hidden place in my robe where the quarters were hid.
This happened about four times over the period of a week or so. My wife was totally convinced a miraculous sign was being given to us and was probably making plans to spend the windfall that was going to come in. I was leaning toward the idea of a miracle, but was not convinced. Now, don’t get me wrong. I believe miracles are possible, but this just didn’t fit in with my belief system about the way God works.
Then, a couple days passed and nothing else happened until one morning, I got out of bed and stepped in the shower. A couple minutes into the shower something unbelievable happened. A quarter fell out of nowhere and landed at my feet! I actually saw it fall, but did not see from whence it came. I bent over, picked up the quarter and looked at it for a moment. This time, I was not wearing a robe. I had nothing on and was completely alone. Where could the quarter have possibly come from? I thought a moment and reached a conclusion. “By George! A real bona fide miracle has been occurring right under my nose. There is no other explanation.”
I told my wife and her belief was reinforced. It looked like we had been given a real sign from God that we were indeed going to come into some money soon.
The funny thing is that, after I accepted that a miracle had occurred, no more quarters mysteriously fell from nowhere. We figured that the sign had stopped because we now both got the message.
Did I keep this to myself?
No.
For the next year, at every social occasion possible, I told the story that we named “the miracle of the quarters”. Everyone seemed pretty believing of it, for what other explanation was there except that a miracle occurred? The only problem was that over a year had passed, and our financial situation was unchanged. This didn’t stop me from believing, but I did begin wondering how far off the day of abundance was.
Then, one day I got out of bed and headed to the shower and noticed something very strange. I looked down at my body and saw them. Quarters! Several quarters were stuck on my skin! I reached down, pulled them off, and suddenly it dawned on me that the miracle of the quarters was not a miracle after all. Instantly, I knew exactly how the supposed miracle had occurred.
Here is what happened.
Now and then, in the middle of the day, I took a nap in our bed with my clothes on. When I have done this, change sometimes falls out of my pocket into the bed. If I do not notice this, I will wind up sleeping at night on the change, and after sleeping for several hours on the money, some of it will stick to my skin. Why only quarters stuck to me for only a few days I do not know, but this is what happened.
When I went down the stairs and the quarters fell off my skin I had not a clue where they came from, and figured the only source was my robe or a sign from God.
Both of my conclusions were dead wrong.
I was kind of disappointed that it wasn’t a miracle, but glad to find the real truth, and for the next year I retold the story of the quarters to all my friends, setting the record straight.
The point of the story is that even in our every-day lives, we have some very odd things happen that mislead us into seeing a cause that is not a cause.
Even so, in every conspiracy theory there are many “signs” that tell us that something other than the real event happened.
For instance, there are many different and contradictory conspiracy theories around the death of JFK. Even though there could have been a conspiracy to kill him, all the versions cannot be correct. Yet each version has some pretty strong evidence that it is correct.
The moon landing conspiracy, which I totally reject, has some pretty powerful points. In my opinion, there is much more evidence for a moon landing hoax than there is for a 9/11 conspiracy. But when you step back and look at the big picture, you just know that a government that can’t get water to Katrina victims could never have pulled off a moon landing hoax six times without getting caught.
Even so, the bungling government we have could have never pulled all the strings that are claimed by conspiracy theory around 9/11. Sometimes what we see on TV and what is printed in the papers is pretty close to what really happened.
Each point of contention I have studied on the moon landing conspiracy and 9/11 has had a logical answer available. Some of them, like the miracle of the quarters, took a little thought and investigation, but in the end the truth became obvious.
Copyright 2010 by J J Dewey