Res earc her Published by CQ Press, a Division of SAGE CQ www.cqresearcher.com Theories Do they threaten democracy?

resident Barack Obama is a foreign-born radical plotting to establish a dictatorship. His predecessor, George W. Bush, allowed the Sept. 11 attacks to P occur in order to justify sending U.S. troops to Iraq. The federal government has plans to imprison political dissenters in detention camps in the . Welcome to the world of conspiracy theories. Since colonial times, conspiracies both far- fetched and plausible have been used to explain trends and events ranging from slavery to why U.S. forces were surprised at Pearl

Harbor. In today’s world, the communications revolution allows A demonstrator questions President Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship — a popular conspiracists’ issue — at conspiracy theories to be spread more widely and quickly than the recent “9-12 March on Washington” sponsored by the and other conservatives ever before. But facts that undermine conspiracy theories move opposed to tax hikes. less rapidly through the Web, some experts worry. As a result, I there may be growing acceptance of the notion that hidden forces N THIS REPORT S control events, leading to eroding confidence in democracy, with THE ISSUES ...... 887 I repercussions that could lead Americans to large-scale withdrawal BACKGROUND ...... 893 D from civic life, or even to violence. CHRONOLOGY ...... 895 E CURRENT SITUATION ...... 900 CQ Researcher • Oct. 23, 2009 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ...... 901 Volume 19, Number 37 • Pages 885-908 OUTLOOK ...... 902 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 906 THE NEXT STEP ...... 907 CONSPIRACY THEORIES CQ Re search er

Oct. 23, 2009 THE ISSUES OUTLOOK Volume 19, Number 37

• Are conspiracy theories Looking for Answers MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Colin 887 becoming part of main - 902 The nation’s loss of prestige [email protected] will keep Americans seeking stream ? ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch • Do conspiracy theories reasons why. [email protected] appeal more to the right ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost than the left? SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS • Do conspiracy theories STAFF WRITERS: Thomas J. Billitteri, Marcia Clemmitt, Peter Katel threaten democracy? Most Regard Obama as 888 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Rachel Cox, BACKGROUND American-Born Sarah Glazer, Alan Greenblatt, Reed Karaim But more than 60 percent of Barbara Mantel, Patrick Marshall, Republicans are skeptical. 893 Witch Hysteria Tom Price, Jennifer Weeks The colonists’ fear of 889 From UFOs to Secret DESIGN /P RODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis witches has been called Societies ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa the first U.S. conspiracy Conspiracy Web sites attract theory. FACT-CHECKING: Eugene J. Gabler, thousands. Michelle Harris Conspiracy American- Chronology 893 Style 895 Key events since 1776. Plots in the 19th century tended to focus on pow - 896 Critics Skewer Conspiracy erful, evil men. Theories “They have no clue what A Division of SAGE Cold War Conspiracies they’re talking about.” 894 Communist plots dominat - PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER: ed the postwar conspiracy Secret Files Shed Light on John A. Jenkins 898 Real Conspiracies landscape. “Operation Northwoods” fed suspicions about Copyright © 2009 CQ Press, a Division of SAGE. JFK and Beyond government plots. SAGE reserves all copyright and other rights herein, 896 President Kennedy’s unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. No part of this launched the At Issue publication may be reproduced electronically or oth - modern conspiracy era. 901 Are conspiracy theories now erwise, without prior written permission. Un au tho - a threat to democracy? rized re pro duc tion or trans mis sion of SAGE copy right- ed material is a violation of federal law car ry ing civil CURRENT SITUATION fines of up to $100,000. FOR FURTHER RESEARCH CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional Swine Flu Plot? Quarterly Inc. 900 Many Americans fear For More Information 905 Organizations to contact. CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- getting flu shots because free paper. Pub lished weekly, except; (Jan. wk. 1) they distrust the federal Bibliography (May wk. 4) (July wks. 1, 2) (Aug. wks. 3, 4) (Nov. government. 906 Selected sources used. wk. 4) and (Dec. wk. 4), by CQ Press, a division of SAGE Publications. Annual full-service subscriptions “Birthers” Challenged The Next Step start at $803. For pricing, call 1-800-834-9020, ext. 1906. 900 A lawsuit challenging 907 Additional articles . To purchase a CQ Researcher report in print or elec - President Barack Obama’s tronic format (PDF), visit www. cqpress.com or call citizenship faces dismissal Citing CQ Researcher 866-427-7737. Single reports start at $15. Bulk pur - in federal court. 907 Sample bibliography formats. chase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are also available. Pe ri od i cals post age paid at Wash ing ton, D.C., and ad di tion al mailing of fic es. POST MAST ER: Send ad- dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Wash ing ton, DC 20037.

Cover: Jeff Malet

886 CQ Researcher Conspiracy Theories BY PETER KATEL

and, conspiracists believed, THE ISSUES plotted the takeover of the United States. adio-show host Alex The 2007 documentary-style Jones says Americans movie “,” for example, R should be scared — links 9/11 to an alleged plot really scared. Pretty soon, he that drew the United States m

warned listeners earlier this o into both world wars as well c . s

year, trucks will be pulling up s as the Vietnam War. An ear - e r

in front of their houses to take p lier, Web-distributed movie, d r

them to Federal Emergency o “,” played a key w Management Agency (FEMA) . role in fostering the conspir - n e

detention camps. m acist view of the Sept. 11 at - m

Televised government pro - a tacks. More recently, best- k i paganda will assure people s selling author Dan Brown e m the camps are for their safe - / draws on conspiracy notions / : p

ty, says Jones, and to out - t about the Freemasons in his t ward appearances everything h new novel, The Lost Symbol , will be fine —“except for Radio-show host warns listeners that much as his phenomenally Americans could be taken to detention camps by the those being . . . put in an government and tortured and murdered. Actor Charlie popular DaVinci Code involved acid bath or killed or flown Sheen, a so-called “truther,” recently declared on Jones’ an ancient conspiracy within to a black site. You’ve got to show, “The official 9/11 story is an absolute fairy tale, a the Roman Catholic Church. ask [yourself] when the truck work of fiction.” Jones’ popularity reflects the enduring Oliver Stone’s 1991 film pulls up, ‘Are you going to appeal of conspiracy theories throughout U.S. history. “JFK” presented one of the go to the camp? . . . That’s most persistent conspiracy the point where it’s lock-and-load time. Jones maintains a Web site that subjects — President John F. Kennedy’s I’m not going to a camp where some gets roughly as much traffic as those assassination — including the purport - piece of filth guard is going to break of either conservative talk-show host ed involvement of U.S. intelligence and my family up and take me off for in - or the liberal news military agencies. “The X-Files,” a hit terrogation where they can torture me site Talking Points Memo. 3 TV series in the ’90s, merged Kennedy for two years.” 1 The popularity of Jones’ Web site assassination and space-alien theories. Until recently, Jones was largely un - points to the widespread appeal today The view of events as stage-managed known outside the circle of conspiracy - of conspiracy theories and the corre - affairs designed to fool the public runs theory fans of his Austin, -based sponding emergence of hundreds of deep enough that an estimated 6 per - show. Over the past several months, conspiracy-oriented Web sites, videos cent of the American people believe however, his over-the-top claims have and books. Among their recent claims: that the 1969 moon landing was a landed him on and brought President Barack Obama isn’t a U.S. . “A model of the moon is used celebrity guests to his own program, citizen, and the “truth” about 9/11 re - for the descent footage,” such as actor Charlie Sheen, a supporter mains hidden from most Americans. wrote Bart Sibrel, a Nashville filmmaker of the so-called “truther” movement, Such theories represent only the lat - who made a movie to argue his theory. which claims that airborne terrorists est variations on a conspiracy theme “Anyone with basic knowledge of mo - couldn’t have inflicted the damage done that traces its origin to the nation’s tion pictures can see it’s a fake moon.” by the Sept. 11 attacks and that, con - earliest days. The early conspiracists The National Aeronautics and Space sequently, there must have been some believed that American presidents head - Administration is concerned enough degree of government involvement. ed criminal or treasonous conspiracies, about the doubters to post detailed “The official 9/11 story is an absolute some of them linked to longtime “vil - rebuttals on its Web site. 4 fairy tale, a work of fiction,” he said. 2 lains,” such as international bankers Underlying many conspiracy theories Jones’ own views about the Sept. 11, and Jews. Indeed, presidential con - is distrust of government, says John E. 2001, terror attacks run along the same spiracy theories run in an unbroken Moser, a history professor at Ohio’s Ash - lines. “I see this whole cover-up col - chain since President George H. W. land University. “We don’t trust leaders lapsing,” he told Sheen. Bush proposed a New World Order anymore,” says Moser, a specialist in

www.cqresearcher.com Oct. 23, 2009 887 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

20th-century conspiracism. “Maybe that’s From UFOs to Secret Societies a good thing, but it certainly leaves the door open to kookery. At various points The popular Web sites below are among hundreds in history, conspiracy theories captured of sites that present alternative theories on everything from 9/11 to a great part of the population, but they environmental policies. They use the Internet to question main - fizzled out as the sense of crisis passed. stream ideas and have acquired a large following in recent years. Now, conspiracy theories tend to stick around. I’m wondering if we’re not in 1 Above Top Secret www.abovetopsecret.com/ a permanent crisis mode.” With nearly 176,000 members, the site is the Internet’s largest and most Some experts even worry that the popular community dedicated to a wide range of conspiracy topics, cynicism reflected in conspiracy theories including UFOs, activity, secret societies, political scandals, today endangers U.S. democracy, not to “new world order” and terrorism. mention Americans’ health: Conspiracy Prison Planet www.prisonplanet.com/ theorists even have stoked the wide - 2 Affiliated with radio host Alex Jones, the site features forums where spread opposition to swine flu vaccine. members can discuss alternative theories on everything from 9/11 to (See “Current Situation,” p. 900. ) swine flu vaccinations. One thing is certain: Thanks to the ever-expanding Internet, disclosures of Infowars www.infowars.com 3 genuine government misdeeds have in - Radio broadcaster Alex Jones examines numerous topics and presents tensified the public’s suspicions. ( See side - interviews with fellow “9/11 Truthers,” such as country singer Willie bar, p. 898. ) Moreover, today’s unsettled Nelson. climate — dominated by scandal, eco - 911Truth www.911truth.org nomic turmoil, war and intense partisan 4 Calls into question the U.S. government’s account of the events of conflict — stimulates a search for ex - 9/11/2001 and discusses alternative theories. The site wtc7.net features planations that often reach extremes. similar content. A Public Policy Polling survey in Sep - tember showed that 41 percent of Amer - Centre for Research on http://globalresearch.ca/ icans — and 64 percent of Republicans 5 Based in , the site promotes the “unspoken truth” on issues — didn’t believe or weren’t sure Pres - ranging from the U.S. invasion of Iraq to environmental policies. ident Obama was born in the United What Really Happened www.whatreallyhappened.com 6 States. Indeed, many “birthers” believe Presents alternative theories focusing on the War on Terror and Obama has engaged in a decades-long accuses the U.S. government of hiding information. about his place of birth. And www.thezeitgeistmovement.com 22 percent of all voters — and 37 per - 7 Promotes the idea that nations, governments, races, religions, creeds cent of Democrats — either believed or and social classes are false distinctions. Seeks to achieve unity among questioned whether former President people through a common conception of . George W. Bush purposely allowed the 9/11 attacks to occur to provide a pre - The Program www.rense.com 5 8 text for war in the Middle East. Radio broadcaster Rense positions himself as an opponent to main - Although the sample size was a stream news coverage. His Web site and radio broadcasts cover the relatively small 621 respondents, the daily news from an alternative perspective. results were consistent with a broader YouTube www..com 2007 poll showing 22 percent of re - 9 Most conspiracy theorists are putting their content here now in order spondents thought Bush knew of the to gain a wide audience. 9/11 attacks in advance. 6 The “birther” movement is raising www.davidicke.com/index.php/ 10 enough jitters in the political main - Icke is popular with people who want to ridicule conspiracy theorists stream that the Senate and House because he presents radical conspiracy theories, but he does not have passed resolutions last July stating that a significant following among conspiracy theorists themselves. Obama was born in Hawaii. 7 The resolutions followed the intro - Source: Edward L. Winston, conspiracyscience.com, Oct. 15, 2009 duction of “birther”-influenced legislation

888 CQ Researcher proposed by Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., that would require presidential candidates to Most Regard Obama as American-Born provide birth certificates; 11 House Re - More than half of Americans believe that President Obama was born publicans signed the bill. Limbaugh and in the United States, not Kenya, including more than three-fourths of , another conservative commentator, last year joined the Democrats. But more than 60 percent of Republicans are skeptical. chorus of those deriding Obama’s citi - Nearly a quarter of Americans believe President George W. Bush zenship credentials. 8 knew about the Sept. 11 attacks before they occurred. Administration officials, however, touch conspiracy matters at their peril. Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States? In September, , an Obama environmental adviser, resigned after Not sure Answered “Yes” disclosure that he had signed a 2004 petition, popular with some on the left, calling for “immediate inquiry into evidence that suggests high-level 18% Independents government officials may have de - Yes No 61% Democrats liberately allowed the Sept. 11 at - 59% tacks to occur.” 9 23% 77% Those who’ve tried arguing with “truthers” often find themselves accused 37% of being in on the plot — a classic feature of conspiracy theories. For ex - ample, after an exhaustive investigation Republicans Do you think President Bush by Popular Mechanics debunked 9/11 intentionally allowed the 9/11 conspiracy theories, the magazine was attacks to take place because he Do you think President Bush accused of being a CIA front and a wanted the United States to go knew about the 9/11 attacks friend of Israeli intelligence. 10 to war in the Middle East? in advance? “A common refrain in conspiracy circles is the claim that, ‘We’re just ask - ing questions,’ ” wrote editor-in-chief Not James B. Meigs. “One would think that Yes Yes at least some quarters of the con - sure 14% 22% spiracy movement might welcome a mainstream publication’s serious, non- 8% ideological attempt to answer those No No/not sure questions. One would be wrong.” 78% Conspiracists such as the late W. 78% Cleon Skousen insist that major pub - lic figures can generate smoke screens that obscure conspiracies in action. A former Brigham Young University pro - Sources: Public Policy Polling; Rasmussen Reports fessor and FBI agent, Skousen heavily influenced Fox TV talk-show host Skousen once said. “He wants to re - interpretations of the artwork at Rocke - , whose introduction to store ruler’s law and force the stupid feller Center by early-20th-century fascist- one of Skousen’s books describes his masses — those are Lenin’s words — and communist-inspired artists. “It makes writing as “divinely inspired.” 11 to do what’s good for them.” 12 sense that you feel a little uneasy, and Skousen envisioned a plot by Beck hasn’t explicitly endorsed that everything seems to be a little hidden,” banker David Rockefeller and others view. But in September he hinted at a Beck said. “Progressives, fascists, com - in the financial elite to establish “ruler’s connection between the Rockefeller fam - munists — now what do they all have law” — as opposed to ’s law — ily, radical politics and Obama appointee in common today? That’s something in the U.S. “Rockefeller . . . has a plan,” Van Jones. The takeoff point was Beck’s you’re going to have to figure out.” But

www.cqresearcher.com Oct. 23, 2009 889 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

he added, “The Rockefeller Foundation, “powerful industrialists operating a spiracists who argued that the Masons they gave a big award and an awful lot ring [who] are behind the pan - were out to destroy . of credibility to — oh, Van Jones, our demic’s creation, media persuasions, Past generations of conspiracists, new green jobs czar.” 13 vaccination preparations and health however, didn’t enjoy the global elec - Beck had flirted with the idea that official promotions.” 18 tronic megaphone — the Internet — FEMA was setting up detention camps, The “globalists” who run the con - that their political descendants now but he eventually said evidence was spiracy have to be fought, Jones preach - command. Radio and cable TV talk lacking, telling CBS News anchor Katie es. “I just want to get my hands around shows also have helped conspiracists Couric that the camps theory was their throats. . . . And you know they reach wider audiences. “easy to debunk.” He also told her he feel the same about us.” 19 One of the day’s hottest issues con - is not a conspiracy theorist. 14 As conspiracy theories proliferate, cerns Obama’s birthplace. “Where’s the Jerome R. Corsi, a frequent guest on here are some of the questions being birth certificate?” asked a placard-carrying Alex Jones’ program, also rejects the debated: demonstrator at the “09.12.09 March on conspiracist label. 15 “I don’t think the Washington.” 20 Other signs at the rally term has any meaning,” he says. “It’s Are conspiracy theories becoming depicted the president as, variously, a an intentionally politically charged term part of mainstream politics? Nazi, a socialist and a communist. that’s used to demonize work some - Conspiracy theories are woven into While the embrace of the “birthers” body doesn’t agree with politically.” He the fabric of U.S. history. Some have by some radio and cable-TV talk-show describes himself as hosts demonstrates the an investigative re - reach of conspiracy the - porter and is active ories, experts disagree in the network of whether their appeal im - n

Obama-citizenship o bues them with political i t a challengers. r relevance. (Some conser - t s i

But conspiracist or n vative Obama foes vig - i not, Corsi readily m orously reject the birthers.) d A evokes the specter of Political analyst Chip e c

Nazi in de - a Berlet, a longtime chron - p S scribing a House bill icler of conspiracy move - d n introduced in Janu - a ments, argues that con -

s c ary by Rep. Alcee i spiracy theories are on t u

Hastings, D-Fla. The a the upswing both in vol - n

o 21 bill would create six r ume and influence. e A

National Emergency l “The government lacks a

Centers on military n transparency, which en - o i t bases for use by a courages a sense of N communities hit by Apollo 11 astronaut walks on the Moon on July 20, 1969. delegitimization,” says 16 natural disasters. Six percent of Americans think the historic landing was a government Berlet, of Political Re - Corsi wrote that hoax, prompting NASA to post detailed rebuttals on its Web site. search Associates, a lib - the legislation “ap - eral consultancy in pears designed to create the type of become national issues, such as those Cambridge, Mass. “And for a lot of detention center that those concerned involving a real — but conservative people, to have a black about use of the military in domestic one that never left Europe — known boss whom they see as a bully is quite affairs fear could be used as concen - as the , whose supposed goal unsettling. Proxies for that attitude are tration camps for political dissidents, was subverting the nation. seen in claims Obama is a Muslim, or as in Nazi Germany.” 17 The Illuminati theory was trans - was not born in the United States or Jones also depicts those he sees planted to the newly founded United plans to socialize the economy through as the country’s enemies in the most States by defenders of the old - health-care reform.” sinister terms, along with the main - pean order that was overthrown by Berlet argues that conspiracy theo - stream media that he accuses of serv - the French Revolution. Anti-Masonic ries can help knit together groups that ing the conspiracy. Jones’ Web site theories, also transplanted from Eu - fundamentally have little use for each said the H1N1 flu originated with rope, typically were adopted by con - other — the Christian right, economic

890 CQ Researcher libertarians and white nationalists, to can reach millions more people, says right have been attracting followers from name a few. “All these sectors are push - Ashland University’s Moser. “Back in the left. Anti-Semitism is the classic case, ing the idea that Obama is conspiring the 1930s, what we call today the in the form of left-wing attacks on Israel against the well-being of America.” mainstream media was pretty much that challenge its right to exist. Not all conspiracy experts see an im - the source of information,” says Moser, Shortly before the war in Iraq began mediate danger. The fact that conspira - author of a biography of Pearl Harbor in 2003, a conflict erupted in the anti- cy theories are widely disseminated conspiracy theorist John T. Flynn. 23 war left after Rabbi Michael Lerner of doesn’t in itself constitute a threat, says “In the archives, you find conspiracy Berkeley, Calif., was blocked from Daniel Pipes, director of the Philadelphia- theories back then were expressed in speaking at a peace rally in San Fran - based Middle East Forum, which advo - very amateurish-looking newsletters, cisco. Lerner had criticized one of the cates for U.S. interests in the Middle East. created on typewriter and circulated organizations sponsoring the event for “Ultimately, it’s the impact that’s more im - by mimeograph. Today they’re in very planning to use it for anti-Israel propa - portant than volume,” says Pipes, who slick online formats.” ganda purposes. “Fellow progressive has written about conspiracy theories in Still, presentation and audience don’t Jews, some anxious to speak at these U.S., Middle Eastern and European set - automatically confer influence, Moser rallies, have urged me to keep quiet tings. “I see them more than I did 15 adds. In fact, the easy accessibility of about anti-Semitism on the left,” Lerner years ago, but their impact is still limit - platforms may encourage some media wrote in . 25 ed. You don’t see them really having an figures to latch on to conspiracy theo - Since then, however, the furor over impact on the policies of government and ries — the more attention-grabbing the anti-Jewish prejudice on the left has the actions of Americans.” better — simply to get or keep audi - quieted along with the anti-war move - Pipes cites the long-lived constella - ences. For instance, “If you have a radio ment. And some conspiracy theory op - tion of conspiracy theories about JFK’s show, and you’re going to be on for ponents view the major conspiracist cur - death that has spread throughout pop - three or four hours a day,” he says, “you rent of the moment as a right-wing trend. ular culture to little political effect. have to say things that are going to get “Of all the conspiracy theorists, 90 per - “Kennedy assassination theories are vo - peoples’ attention. There’s no place for cent are on the far right,” says Edward luminous, but irrelevant,” he says. wonkishness in the talk-radio format.” L. Winston, a St. Louis software engineer Other scholars argue that conspiracy who runs a conspiracy-debunking Web theories challenging Obama’s legitima - Do conspiracy theories appeal site (conspiracyscience.com). cy as president have the potential to be more to the right than the left? But Winston adds that the widespread influential. “It seems that the election of A long tradition among historians and and growing skepticism about govern - an African-American president has trig - political scientists links conspiracy theo - ment favors the expansion of conspir - gered the anxieties of a big segment of ries with the far right. Historian Richard acism beyond what he considers its nat - the white population,” says Kathryn S. Hofstadter’s classic 1963 essay, “The Para - ural right-wing constituency. Media Olmsted, a professor of history at the noid Style in American Politics,” focused productions such as the first “Zeitgeist” University of California, Davis, and au - exclusively on right-wing conspiracism. movie — which mixes classical con - thor of the new book Real Enemies: “The modern right wing . . . feels dis - spiracy theories about “international Conspiracy Theories and American possessed: America has been largely taken bankers” and new ones about Sept. 11 Democracy, World War I to 9/11. 22 away from them and their kind,” he — may be broadening the ranks of con - The racial factor, she says, adds a wrote. “The old national security and in - spiracy believers, he says. “I was sur - dimension that was absent in the con - dependence have been destroyed by prised how popular ‘Zeitgeist’ was and spiracy theories centering on President treasonous plots, having as their most how many people believed it,” he says. Bill Clinton. They reflected the fear powerful agents not merely outsiders and Conspiracy scholar Pipes argues that and suspicion of growing federal power foreigners but major statesmen seated at linking conspiracy theories exclusively to — as seen in violent confrontations the very centers of American power.” 24 the right is a long-standing and erroneous between federal agents and armed gov - Increasingly, however, conspiracy response. “It’s as much a left phenome - ernment opponents. Whether the anti- theory-watchers are concluding that non as it is right,” he says. “I would argue Obama theories reach that level of in - conspiracism’s appeal goes beyond ide - that the whole premise of communist tensity remains to be seen, Olmsted ology. For instance, the “truther” theo - ideology is a conspiracy theory — that acknowledges. But, she says, “I think ries about the 9/11 attacks have attracted the bosses are stealing your .” we’re in new territory.” both left- and right-wingers. Indeed, some Vladimir I. Lenin — founder of The communications revolution scholars have argued in recent years that the Soviet state — in effect confirmed alone ensures that conspiracy theorists theories once closely associated with the the vision of those who denounced

www.cqresearcher.com Oct. 23, 2009 891 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

communist conspiracies, Pipes has ar - and emotions, not from ideology, believers have tried to exert influ - gued. Lenin had concluded the coun - Barkun says. “Conspiracy theories have ence. Timothy McVeigh, who deto - tries that embraced capitalism took that the psychological benefit of taking a nated the powerful fertilizer bomb path because the big-business class had complex reality and simplifying it. that destroyed the federal building in covertly seized government power. Com - Whatever these things that bother Oklahoma City in 1995, apparently munists should follow that example, you, they all are the result of some believed he would spark a revolution Lenin argued, and greet charges of con - single cause.” against the Jewish-dominated system spiratorial methods as “flattering.” 26 he perceived. 29 The University of California’s Olm - Do conspiracy theories threaten McVeigh killed 168 people, includ - sted argues that right-wing conspiracy democracy? ing 19 children, but no revolution oc - theories tend to gain more traction, The American system of govern - curred. Other conspiracists also were though she acknowledges that con - ment has survived more than 250 involved in conflicts that ended in spiracy theories appeal to the ex - years of conspiracy theories, but the multiple deaths, notably the 1993 show - tremes on both right and left. “They global picture is far grimmer. down near Waco, Texas, at the Branch feel they know the truth, yet the ma - In the 20th century alone, Nazi leader Davidian compound, in which about jority of the country votes against them,” Adolf Hitler convinced millions of Ger - 80 sect members and four federal agents she says. “Most people don’t share mans that Jews were an evil force that died. Church leader David Koresh had their beliefs — or they think evil peo - had to be exterminated. Josef Stalin expounded “new world order” con - ple in power are manipulating things.” persuaded communists and sympa - spiracy theories in the 1990s. And ear - Still, conspiracy theories that appeal thizers around the world that the mil - lier this year, a man in Pittsburgh, to those on the right usually become lions of revolutionaries — and ordi - Richard Poplawski, was charged with more prominent, Olmsted says, “be - nary citizens — executed in the “Great killing three police officers in a con - cause they’re backed generally by peo - Terror” of 1937-1938 had been plotting frontation apparently sparked by his ple with more power.” Contrasting the the destruction of the Soviet state. beliefs in a coming social collapse en - attention that Limbaugh and other radio But conspiracy theories cooked up gineered by “elite Jewish powers.” 30 and TV talk-show hosts have given abroad also have proved dangerous to Those deaths, and others, bolster the the “birther” theories, Olmsted notes Americans. The 19 men who carried argument by some conspiracy scholars that comparably popular supporters out the Sept. 11 attacks on the Unit - that conspiracism represents a danger can’t be found for the “truther” con - ed States had been deeply influenced not to be taken lightly. “They can be spiracists. “Is there anyone really sig - by a conspiratorial ideology that saw a threat to democracy in the sense that nificant out there” among the 9/11 Muslims in general and Arabs in par - conspiracy theories are premised on the conspiracists “who has a real plat - ticular as the objects of manipulation idea that nothing is as it seems, that form?” The “truther” movement gener - by Western powers and Jews. 27 appearances can never be trusted,” ated no congressional legislation along Mohammed Atta, the terrorists’ on- says Barkun of Syracuse University.” If the lines of the recent bill on birth scene commander, believed the Jews you take that seriously, as many con - certificates for presidential candidates. were behind wars against Muslims in spiracy believers do, then the work Even so, the economic crisis may the former Yugoslavia and Chechnya of democratic institutions is deemed favor a resurgence of conspiracy the - (now a Russian province). Even the fraudulent or a charade.” ories that appeal to the left, says Michael White House sex scandal involving If large numbers of people believe Barkun, a professor of political science President Clinton fit into Atta’s conspir - the real work of government is carried at Syracuse University who has stud - atorial worldview, writes Lawrence Wright out by people pulling strings behind ied conspiracies throughout his career. in his Pulitzer Prize-winning chronicle the scenes, Barkun says, “that delegitimizes But that holds true for right-oriented of the roots of the 2001 attacks. “He the political process.” theories as well, he adds. “Going well believed that Monica Lewinsky was a The Middle East Forum’s Pipes back into the 19th century, American Jewish agent sent to undermine Clin - agrees, in principle, that conspiracy conspiracists had almost a stylistic ton, who had become too sympathetic theories could threaten democracy. preference for conspiracy theories that to the Palestinian cause.” 28 In practice, though, he thinks their emphasize financial power or financial Made-in-the-U.S.A. conspiracy the - appeal to Americans is limited. “I manipulation,” he says. That preference ories generally have generated pas - don’t see a surge” in conspiracy be - applies on the left and right. sion and activism — and violence — lievers, he says. For example, Pipes In general, conspiracy theories draw without producing major alterations notes, the fringe views of Obama’s their strength from deep-seated needs in the course of events, even when former minister in Chicago, the Rev.

892 CQ Researcher Jeremiah Wright — who believed became president in 1801, Illuminist HIV was a government-invented tool conspiracy fears faded. of genocide — proved unacceptable BACKGROUND But a wave of accusations against the in mainstream politics. 31 Freemasons followed. Masonry, a con - “He was marginalized and repudi - spiracy theorist claimed, was “an engine ated,” Pipes says. Witch Hysteria of Satan . . . blasphemous, murderous, Conspiracy-watchers who have di - anti-republican and anti-Christian.” 34 rect contact with conspiracy theory n 1692, nearly a century before Denunciations of Masonry were fol - believers tend to be more likely to I American independence, 20 men lowed by a more influential conspiracy sense danger. “They don’t care about and women were executed in Salem, theory centered on the Catholic Church. the republic,” debunker Winston says Mass. Their crime: They were thought “A conspiracy exists . . . its plans are al - of people who post comments on his to be witches plotting evil in the ser - ready in operation,” wrote Samuel Morse, page. “Anyone who disagrees vice of the devil. Historian Jeffrey L. inventor of the telegraph, in the 1830s. is an enemy. Conspiracy theorists Pasley of the University of Missouri Its agents, he said, included “Jesuit mis - claim that I really work for the gov - calls the witch hysteria that briefly sionaries traveling through the land.” 35 ernment, that I’m getting paid to do swept New England “the very first As in other countries, U.S. conspir - this. Since I mounted a Web site, the American conspiracy theories.” 32 acy theories flourished during conflicts consensus is that if I’m smart enough As Americans were fighting for in - leading to war. Before the Civil War, to do that, I must be getting paid.” dependence in 1776, a law professor abolitionists feared that Southern con - Winston has heard worse. “When I in Bavaria (now a German state) found - spiracists were plotting to take over had my e-mail address posted, prob - ed Illuminism, a political philosophy the federal government to ensure slav - ably 50 percent of the e-mails I got that sought to create a world ruled by ery’s survival. 36 were death threats or threats in gen - reason, not clerics — a blasphemous Southerners and others indeed want - eral,” he says. “So I didn’t have it up notion in a Roman Catholic state. 33 ed to ensure slavery’s future, and its ex - for long.” In 1784, the Society of the Illumi - tension to newly created states, such as Even John Hawkins, who edits the nati, which had joined forces with the Kansas and California. While no proof “Right Wing News” Web site — slo - anti-clerical Freemasons, was outlawed of a federal takeover conspiracy sur - gan: “kneecapping Barack Obama at in Bavaria amid a series of lurid con - faced, the so-called “slave power” plot every opportunity” — has attracted fessions and supposed instructions on set the stage for 20th-century conspira - hate mail for his scornful treatment of poisoning and counterfeiting. Defend - cy theories that built on established fact. Obama-birthplace challenges, which he ers of the old order that was being calls groundless. But that response shaken by the winds of change said hasn’t persuaded him that conspiracism the evidence proved the Illuminati had Conspiracy American-Style represents a threat. “It would have to survived repression and were behind cross into the mainstream, and so many the French Revolution and ensuing mericans in the 19th century began people who knew better would have Jacobin Reign of Terror and ultimately A shaping their own conspiracy to say nothing.” sought world domination. theories. But unlike their Old World Conspiracy theories do exert a strong Two books, one by a University of models, which reflected threats to an appeal, given the natural urge to find Glasgow scientist and the other by a ethnic homogeneity unknown in the explanations for events and trends, French Jesuit priest, soon brought the Il - U.S. melting pot, American conspiracy Hawkins says. But the theories, he ar - luminati conspiracy theory to the Unit - theories tended to focus on powerful gues, tend to be so intricate and de - ed States. They claimed to have proved and evil men acting in secret. pendent on leaps of faith that they’re that the Illuminists aimed at world dom - “A small, unelected minority repre - easily punctured. “Everybody wants to ination and the destruction of religion senting un-American interests . . . takes believe that everything is not random and morality. The Federalists, headed by over the federal government and uses and that somebody has control,” he President , feared that Amer - it against the people,” writes conspir - says. “But I’m a conservative, I believe ican acolytes of the radical Jacobin wing acy scholar Pipes at the Middle East that government is too dumb to carry of the French revolutionaries were plan - Forum. 37 Even U.S. conspiracism fo - out these conspiracies. If you had ning a wave of anti-religious destruction. cusing on Jews and Catholics typically enough people addressing a lot of However, after — a centered on alleged manipulation rather these conspiracy theories, they would French Revolution supporter whom some than on threats to racial purity. Europe’s die down.” Federalists considered an Illuminist — Rothschild banking family typically was

www.cqresearcher.com Oct. 23, 2009 893 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

cited to signify alleged Jewish control of While the injustice of the McCarthy world finances. As for Catholics in the Cold War Conspiracies “witch hunts” is widely acknowledged, late 19th century, they were “suspect as some on the communist-influenced left the pawns of a foreign power.” 38 hreats of communist subversion hyped the McCarthy era into the equiv - By the mid-20th century, fear of for - T dominated the conspiracy land - alent of early Nazi Germany. “It seemed eign powers had morphed into fear that scape following the war. The era’s to us that America was veering toward U.S. leaders were selling out the coun - rabid anti-communism — known as fascism, a fascism that would be much try’s interests to foreigners. Following McCarthyism — was spawned by Sen. the same as that of Nazi Germany,” Mor - the devastating Japanese surprise attack Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., who depict - ton Sobell, an associate of the Rosen - on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, some ed himself as a crusader against com - bergs who served 19 years for espi - U.S. isolationists claimed President munist infiltration of the government. onage, wrote in a 2001 memoir, recounting Franklin D. Roosevelt had known about In 1951, McCarthy accused Secretary what he and his comrades had forecast — and allowed — the attack because of State Dean Acheson and Defense as imminent in the early 1950s. “We saw it would plunge the United States into Secretary George C. Marshall of being mass roundups, concentration camps and the war in Europe. Soviet agents. The false accusations were death ovens.” Sobell confessed in 2008 In a 1944 article —“The Truth About followed by news that Americans spy - that he had been a Soviet spy. 43 Pearl Harbor” — The ar - ing for the — Julius and McCarthy himself ended in political gued that Roosevelt had deliberately in - Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953 — disgrace. After Republican President cited Japanese hostility, learned of the im - had been charged with stealing U.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected in pending attack, failed to warn commanders atomic bomb secrets. At the same time, 1952, McCarthy stayed on the attack, and at Pearl Harbor — and then blamed them American troops were fighting Soviet- his Republican allies abandoned him. for the absence of preparation. 39 and Chinese communist-backed forces Despite his political collapse, McCarthy In fact, Roosevelt and his aides did in Korea. In this atmosphere, McCarthy’s helped spur an important develop - believe that U.S. entry into the war was sensational allegations of a “vast con - ment in conspiracism. His targeting of inevitable and did conclude — days spiracy . . . on a scale so immense as Acheson, an esteemed member of the before Pearl Harbor — that American to dwarf any previous venture in the East Coast foreign policy establishment, attempts to mitigate hostilities with Japan history of man” polarized the country. led other conspiracists to scrutinize the had failed. No one, however, expected Notwithstanding McCarthy’s dema - liberal Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Pearl Harbor to be a target. goguery and disregard for fact, Soviet an influential think tank in New York A postwar disclosure during congres - spies had, in fact, penetrated the U.S. whose members are high-profile schol - sional hearings (1945-1946) added fuel to government and defense contractors — ars and former and future diplomats. 44 the conspiracists’ fire: Before the war but in the 1930s and ’40s. By the time For the new generation of right-wing began, the United States had broken the McCarthy launched his campaign, the conspiracists, the CFR figured promi - Japanese diplomatic code, which provid - spies who had transmitted nuclear, high- nently — along with the Rockefeller ed major evidence of U.S. awareness of tech and diplomatic information had family — in alleged takeover plots. David pre-war Japanese intentions. The majori - been arrested, fled the country or gone Rockefeller, the senior member of the ty report said no evidence supported the to ground. 41 oil-and-banking dynasty, is now the claim that the FDR administration had Even before McCarthy surged to council’s honorary chairman. schemed to get America into the war. prominence, investigators and loyalty “The ultimate aim of the Council But two Republicans signed a minority boards in federal and state govern - on Foreign Relations (however well- report claiming the administration with - ments had begun probing thousands intentioned its prominent and power - held warnings from Pearl Harbor com - of public employees who might have ful members may be) is the same as manders in furtherance of “some long- participated in communist political ac - the ultimate aim of international com - range plan which was never disclosed to tivities in the 1930s and ’40s; some lost munism: to create a one-world socialist Congress or the American people.” 40 their jobs. When McCarthy’s Permanent system and make the United States an However, the conspiracists didn’t Investigations Subcommittee took up official part of it,” Dan Smoot, a for - produce what would later be called a the cause, alleged — and in a few mer FBI agent and far-right activist and “smoking gun.” The decrypted Japan - cases actual — communists or ex- author, wrote in his influential 1962 ese cables — code named “Magic” — communists in government, entertain - book, The Invisible Government. 45 did reveal the Japanese saw war as ment and higher education were in - But scholars scoff at such efforts to imminent — but no cables mentioned terrogated, sometimes in highly link the CFR to conspiracy. “Finding a 42 an attack on Pearl Harbor. theatrical, televised public hearings. Continued on p. 896

894 CQ Researcher Chronology

1993 1700s-1850s 1960s-1970s Suicide of White House aide Vincent European-inspired conspiracy Kennedy assassination opens Foster prompts theories that Presi - theories evolve into American- era of disbelief in government dent Bill Clinton and/or his wife, style conspiracism. explanations. Hillary, had Foster killed. . . . Branch Davidian confrontation near 1776 1962 Waco, Texas, spurs growth of con - Bavarian law professor founds Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman secret - spiracist-influenced militia movement. “Illuminism” movement, a secret ly proposes faked Cuban attacks to society devoted to creating a create pretext for U.S. military inter - 1997 world ruled by reason instead vention in . Militia movement leader Linda of clerics. Thompson calls “black helicopters” 1963 — a frequent element of conspiracy 1798 Assassination of President John F. theories — part of a CIA-sponsored Anti-“Illuminati” reaches Kennedy provokes conspiracy government takeover plot. U.S., sparking fear that Thomas Jef - theories still in circulation today. ferson seeks to destroy religion. • 1972 1830s Revelations that government doctors Anti-Catholic conspiracy theory injected black farmers with syphilis 2000s Sept. 11 attacks flourishes. — the “Tuskegee Experiment” — involve President George W. fuel later suspicion that government Bush in conspiracy theories; 1840s-1850s invented AIDS. later theories target President “Slave Power” conspiracists see a Barack Obama. federal takeover by slaveholding 1975 interests. Church Committee produces evidence 2004 of secret drug tests on U.S. citizens. “Truther” conspiracy theorists demand • investigation of government’s “deliber - • ate” failure to prevent 9/11 attacks.

1940s-1950s 2005 World War II and Cold War 1980s-1990s Popular Mechanics debunks con - prompt fear of takeover of U.S. Conspiracy theories based on ac - spiracy theories of the attacks. tual and imagined government 1944 misdeeds build a following. 2007 Chicago Tribune alleges President Poll shows 22 percent of respondents Franklin D. Roosevelt provoked 1982 believe Bush knew about attack. 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. CIA ignores reports that Nicaraguan guerrillas are trafficking drugs — 2008 1945-46 sparking conspiracy theory on the Presidential campaign spurs theories Congressional hearings conclude origin of crack cocaine epidemic. that Obama is Muslim. . . . Rev. Roosevelt didn’t purposely prompt Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former Pearl Harbor attack. 1986 minister, endorses conspiracy theory “Iran-Contra” scandal reveals secret on AIDS origin. 1951 U.S. plan to sell arms to Iran. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., falsely 2009 accuses secretaries of state and de - 1987 “Birther” activists take their argu - fense of being Soviet agents. Soviet-bloc scientists spread rumor ments to federal court. . . . that U.S. military created AIDS. Obama appointee Van Jones re - 1958 signs after disclosure he signed founded to pro - 1991 “truther” petition. . . . Conspiracists mote theory that Illuminati conspira - Televangelist Pat Robertson warns help spur resistance to flu shots. tors have penetrated government. of global takeover plot. www.cqresearcher.com Oct. 23, 2009 895 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Critics Skewer Conspiracy Theories “They have no clue what they’re talking about.”

oam Chomsky, intellectual superstar of the international States — an eligibility standard for the presidency — must left, has been harshly analyzing U.S policies since the be the child of two U.S. citizens. (Obama’s Kenya-born father N Vietnam War. As ’s Larissa MacFarquahar was a British subject.) 3 wrote, his works are a “catalogue of committed by Amer - “They have no clue what they’re talking about,” Winston ica, terrible crimes, and many of them . . . but it is not they writes. “Anyone born within the borders of the United States that produce the sensation of blows: it is Chomsky’s rage as or within the territories of the United States is a natural born he describes them.” 1 citizen. That even includes individuals born to two illegal im - No wonder, then, that people certain the George W. Bush migrants on U.S. soil.” 4 administration connived in the Sept. 11 attacks have been Winston’s site also includes some of the messages he receives trying to recruit Chomsky, an emeritus professor of linguis - on his Facebook page from conspiracy believers. “With a last tics at the Massachusetts Institute of (MIT). “I am name like Winston, I’m sorry but you’ve got Jew in your blood,” bombarded with letters about this subject,” he said in a 2007 one e-mailer wrote him. “So don’t say you’re not Jewish just be - interview. cause you don’t practice it. Jew is blood. Jew is usury.” 5 Many commentators shy away from tackling conspiracy “Little Green Footballs,” an influential by Web design - theories, given the passion or fanaticism they inspire. But Chom - er Charles Johnson — once known for attacking radical Is - sky subjected the 9/11 conspiracy theories to the same un - lamists and defending Israel — has in recent years been ridi - sparing scrutiny that he focuses on government. “With regard culing far-right conspiracists. “Unbelievable,” Johnson wrote in to the physical evidence, can you become a highly qualified September. “Now the Christian far right is promoting the mind- civil and mechanical engineer and expert in the structure of bogglingly dim ‘birther’ conspiracy theory, with an IQ-destroying buildings by spending a couple of hours on the Internet?” he infomercial. . . . (The site pictures President Obama with the asked in 2007. “If you can, we can get rid of the civil and caption ‘God’s Enemy.’)” 6 mechanical engineering departments at MIT.” 2 Conservative blogger John Hawkins combined mockery Another critic is Edward L. Winston, a 31-year-old software with textual analysis in a 2006 debate with the author of a engineer in St. Louis who runs a Web site, “ConspiracyScience.com,” theory that President George W. Bush was planning to erode devoted to his merciless analyses of popular conspiracy themes. U.S. sovereignty. Jerome R. Corsi had written: “President Bush In one of his responses to the most common Obama- is pursuing a globalist agenda to create a North American birthplace theories, Winston took on the notion advanced by Union, effectively erasing our borders with both and some “birthers” that a “natural born citizen” of the United Canada. This was the hidden agenda behind the Bush ad -

Continued from p. 894 chusetts, it is now based in Appleton, sination — shot by Abraham Zapruder, hierarchy where none exists, reading Wis., McCarthy’s hometown. a bystander along Kennedy’s limousine discipline into a voluntary organization, route — became a staple piece of evi - the Right fingers the CFR as the ‘in - dence for assassination buffs, historians visible government’ that really runs the JFK and Beyond and conspiracists. 48 United States,” writes conspiracism schol - The conclusion of the government ar Pipes. 46 The Trilateral Commission, he assassination of President commission headed by Chief Justice of a similar group founded in 1973, also T Kennedy in 1963 launched the the United States Earl Warren — that prompts conspiracist suspicions. modern era of conspiracism. Ordinary Oswald conceived and carried out the Members of the far right have gone citizens by the thousands embraced assassination by himself — was greeted even farther back in time in tracing the conspiracy theories about “what really skeptically by many. The most widely roots of plotting against the United States. happened,” and terms such as “grassy circulated theories said that U.S. military “The John Birch Society has long held knoll” and “lone gunman” became and business interests had had Kennedy that the conspiracy of the Illuminati . . . staples of popular culture.” 47 killed because he opposed their plans is the predecessor of a modern-day Citizen interest in the assassination to escalate the Vietnam War; or that the conspiracy warring against our country got a major boost when the murder of Cuban government and/or its Soviet and civilization,” John F. McManus, Kennedy’s assassin, , patron were responsible, in retaliation president of the right-wing organization, was broadcast live to millions of homes. for U.S. plans to have Cuban leader wrote in 2007. Long centered in Massa - Similarly, an 8 mm movie of the assas - Fidel Castro killed.

896 CQ Researcher ministration’s true open-borders policy. . . . President Bush “The American taxpayers have lost a public servant who intends to abrogate U.S. sovereignty to the North American was uniquely qualified to help move the country in the right Union, a new economic and political entity which the Pres - direction,” Corn wrote in September. “Jones is responsible for ident is quietly forming.” 7 his own actions, but the 9/11 truthers are also responsible for Debating Corsi, Hawkins, editor of the “Right Wing News” Web concocting and spreading the poison that he drank.” 10 site, wrote, “There’s no real evidence . . . anywhere except in Jerome’s fevered imagination. . . . The misleading trash you’re — Peter Katel cranking out on a weekly basis is duping people who would normally know better.” 8 1 Larissa MacFarquahar, “The Devil’s Accountant,” The New Yorker , March 31, 2003. Of course, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada borders remained intact 2 Noam Chomsky, What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World , interviews with David Barsamian (2007), pp. 35-37; ex - after Bush’s term ended. But Corsi, who rejects the conspira - cerpted in: “Noam Chomsky on the 9/11 Conspiracy Kooks,” harmonicminor cy theorist label, maintains that North American integration (blog), Sept. 21, 2009, http://harmonicminor.com/2009/09/21/noam-chomsky- plans remain in place. “Certainly the writing that I and oth - on-the-911-conspiracy-kooks/. 3 “Does Barack Obama have Kenyan citizenship?” Factcheck.org, Aug. 29, 2008, ers did brought the agenda to light,” he says. “Largely, that www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/does_barack_obama_have_kenyan_citizenship. was my goal.” html. Whatever the precise goals of those who embrace theories 4 “Barack Obama — Obama was not born in the United States,” Conspir - acy Science , undated, http://conspiracyscience.com/articles/obama/obama- about Sept. 11 and other events, anti-conspiracists from the left was-not-born-in-the-united-states/#obama_cannot_be_president_because_both_ argue that the theories do serious damage to the left-liberal parents_must_be_citizens_for_one_to_be_eligible. side even when presented under its banner. Chomsky, in fact, 5 “Anti-Semite Comedy Goldmine,” Conspiracy Science blog, Sept. 27, 2009, argued that the “power centers” preferred to see activists obsess - http://conspiracyscience.com/blog/2009/09/27/anti-semite-comedy-goldmine. 6 “Nirthers on Television,” Little Green Footballs, Sept. 26, 2009, http://littlegreen ing about conspiracy theories. “It’s a terrible drain of energy away footballs.com/article/34760_Nirthers_on_Television. 9 from much more serious problems,” he said. 7 Jerome R. Corsi, “ to Replace USA?” Human Events.com, David Corn, Washington bureau chief for the leftist maga - May 19, 2006, www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=14965. zine Mother Jones and a harsh critic both of the Bush admin - 8 “John Hawkins vs. Jery Corsi: Round 4,” July 6, 2009, www.humanevents.com/right istration and the “truthers,” pointed to the latter as largely re - angle/index.php?1=1&title=john_hawkins_vs_jerry_corsi_round_1. 9 Chomsky, op. cit. sponsible for the resignation under pressure of Obama 10 David Corn, “How 9/11 Conspiracy Poison Did In Van Jones,” Inside Politics administration environmental appointee Van Jones, who had Daily , Sept. 7, 2009, www.politicsdaily.com/2009/09/07/how-9-11-conspiracy- signed a 2004 “truther” petition. poison-did-in-van-jones/.

Mistrust of government in general a larger investigation headed by Sen. The chain of scandals contributed grew even more in the late 1960s and Frank Church, D-Idaho, that revealed to a sense that the real actions of gov - early 1970s, as the Vietnam War the attempted FBI blackmail of the ernment were so secretive they were ended in U.S. defeat in 1975, after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the CIA’s only rarely revealed. years of optimistic official reports that attempt to use Mafia members to as - Against that backdrop, President the war was being won. Two years sassinate Castro, assassination plots George H. W. Bush described the geopo - earlier, the Watergate scandal began against other foreign leaders and a litical scene as the Soviet Union neared coming to light, with its revelations host of other actions that might once collapse — and as a U.S.-assembled of systematic official deceit and law - have been dubbed the ravings of con - alliance was preparing to oust Iraqi dic - breaking and, ultimately, President spiracy theorists. tator Saddam Hussein’s army from Richard M. Nixon’s resignation. During President Ronald Reagan’s Kuwait in 1990 — as the hoped-for Reports of questionable govern - two-terms (1981-1989), White House of - beginning of a “new world order.” Con - ment activities continued during the ficials were revealed to have been in - spiracists seized on the term as a kind Gerald R. Ford administration. In 1975, volved in a scheme to sell arms to the of admission that the global elite — a commission headed by Vice Presi - Islamic revolutionary government of Iran an updated version of the Illuminati — dent Nelson Rockefeller reported on — a hostile power — in an effort to were bent on submitting the United a massive pattern of illegal CIA activ - secretly raise money for weapons for States to internationalist rule. ities within the United States during U.S.-supported guerrillas fighting the In 1991, TV evangelist and one- the 1960s. And the Senate conducted Soviet-backed Nicaraguan government. time Republican presidential primary

www.cqresearcher.com Oct. 23, 2009 897 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Secret Files Shed Light on Real Conspiracies “Operation Northwoods” fed suspicions about government plots.

ome conspiracy theories sound unbelievable, and they In the years that followed, the “Northwoods” documents took are. Others sound just as wild, but the paper trails they on new life as support material for 9/11 “truther” theories. S have left erase any doubts. “Some of the ideas, such as the proposal to ‘blow up a U.S. In 1962, soon after the , Gen. Lyman L. ship in Guantánamo Bay and blame Cuba,’ would have re - Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, proposed a se - quired killing Americans,” wrote James Ray Griffin, a retired ries of fake Cuban attacks on the United States or its allies de - professor of philosophy and religion at Claremont School of signed to provide a pretext for U.S. military intervention in Cuba. and a “truther” activist, suggesting that the govern - “Operation Northwoods,” which was never approved, is one ment wasn’t beyond manufacturing the 9/11 attack. 4 of a series of secret plans that, once revealed, provided sup - Ten years after the “Northwoods” proposal, The Associated porting evidence for conspiracists who believe in secret plots Press reported that the U.S. Public Health Service had for by government agents. decades been injecting syphilis germs into illiterate black share - The government’s penchant for keeping secrets confers some croppers in Alabama without telling them what they were re - value on conspiracy theories, says historian Kathryn Olmsted ceiving. The justification was that the disease’s effects could be of the University of California, Davis. “They get people skep - studied. The so-called “Tuskegee Experiment” was named after tical and demanding answers,” she says. “And you get big in - Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) Hospital, where vestigations that, at times, produce a lot of information.” the project was carried out. 5 For example, Olmsted writes, a controversial San Jose Mercury- The experiment helped sustain a strong belief today among News investigation of an alleged CIA partnership with Central Amer - black Americans — hit hard by HIV — that AIDS was pro - ican drug dealers prompted a CIA internal investigation. That probe duced in a government laboratory. About 50 percent of African- effectively confirmed that agency officials had worked closely with Americans share that view, according to a 2002-2003 survey by traffickers because they were part of a campaign to destabilize the the RAND Corp. think tank and State University. 6 communist-supported Nicaraguan government. 1 However, the news - “The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a paper’s probe veered into conspiracism when it blamed the CIA, means of genocide against people of color,” the Rev. Jeremiah through its trafficker allies, of playing a key role in sparking the Wright of Chicago said during one of the sermons that caused crack cocaine boom of the 1980s and ’90s then-presidential candidate Barack Obama to back away from “Operation Northwoods” took far longer to come to light. his ex-pastor. 7 The scheme included a shootdown — elaborately engineered Wright later cited the Tuskegee experiment in defending his to look like Cuban action — of a pilotless drone aircraft de - statement. “I believe our government is capable of doing any - signed as an exact replica of a plane carrying passengers; shoot - thing,” Wright said at the National Press Club. 8 ings of Cuban exiles in Miami and the blowing up of a ship No credible scientific evidence exists to support the notion off the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo. 2 that the government developed AIDS. But an AIDS-origin con - Kennedy administration Defense Secretary Robert McNamara spiracy did exist in the Soviet intelligence establishment. In the threw out the entire proposal, wrote author James L. Bamford, mid-1980s, when the AIDS epidemic was generating global who discovered the “Northwoods” memo in 2001, months be - alarm, the Soviet Union heavily promoted the notion that the fore the Sept. 11 attacks. 3 U.S. military invented AIDS. “The AIDS virus is the unfortunate candidate Pat Robertson promoted this nated Freemasonry all seem to move Hardcore anti-Clinton activists de - conspiratorial vision in a best-selling along parallel tracks with world com - veloped a wealth of evidence that book, New World Order. He wrote of munism and world finance.” 49 showed, they said, that Foster had “a single thread (that) runs from the The flames of conspiracism that been murdered, possibly on the White House to the State Department Robertson helped fan reached new Clintons’ orders — contrary to what to the Council on Foreign Relations heights during Bill Clinton’s two terms police and an independent counsel to the Trilateral Commission to secret (1993-2001). Clinton and his wife, reported. 50 societies to extreme New Agers.” Hillary, were targeted by a series of al - In addition to Foster’s death, Clin - Robertson also invoked the specter of legations about their real estate dealings ton conspiracists also zeroed in on the Illuminati, the purported villains and commodities trades that grew pro - Clinton’s supposed involvement in in the oldest conspiracy theory in U.S. gressively more conspiratorial, especial - drug-smuggling and the training of history: “The New Age religions, the ly after the 1993 suicide of lawyer Vin - Nicaraguan guerrillas while he had beliefs of the Illuminati, and Illumi - cent Foster, a senior White House aide. been Arkansas governor. 51

898 CQ Researcher product of work in preparation for waging bacteriological war,” nation can come up with all kinds of ideas.” a Soviet-bloc scientist, Jakob Segal of , wrote in Indeed, some Kennedy assassination experts say that the the English-language Moscow News in 1987. 9 CIA — to this day — is giving conspiracists plenty of grounds Distributed by a Soviet press agency, versions of the con - for suspicion. The spy agency is still fighting against releasing spiracy theory appeared in newspapers in 50 countries, a Rea - documents concerning a CIA officer’s ties to an anti-Castro gan administration official wrote in 1987. “Obviously the Unit - group that clashed with Lee Harvey Oswald, who later killed ed States is technically capable of almost anything,” a Kennedy, reported on Oct. 16. 12 government official in Africa told Deputy Assistant Secretary of Gerald Posner, author of a book rebutting conspiracy theories State Kathleen Bailey. “Also, why would such a story be in so of the assassination, says of the CIA’s conduct: “It feeds the con - many newspapers if it’s not true?” 10 spiracy theorists who say, ‘You’re hiding something.’ ” 13 Further instigating suspicion about U.S. government activities, an American spy agency waited until 1995 to release docu - — Peter Katel mentary evidence of spying by hundreds of Americans for the Soviet Union before and during World War II. 1 Kathryn Olmsted, Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American The “Venona Papers” were a series of decryptions by Amer - Democracy, World I to 9/11 (2009), pp. 188-192. 2 “Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962,” National Security ican and British decoding experts of messages between spy- Archive, April 30, 2001, www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430. handlers in the United States and their bosses in Moscow. 3 James L. Bamford, “Bush wrong to use pretext as excuse to invade Iraq,” Venona was so secret that even President Harry S Truman USA Today , Aug. 29, 2002, p. A13. was kept in the dark — though Moscow knew about the pro - 4 , “The American Empire and 9/11,” 2007, www.journalof ject by 1949. “The president thus saw little proof of a real espi - 911studies.com/volume/200704/DavidRayGriffin911Empire.pdf. 5 Borgna Brunner, “The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment,” undated, Tuskegee onage conspiracy but heard many tales told by self-interested University, www.tuskegee.edu/global/story.asp?s=1207586 and alarmist conspiracists,” historian Olmsted writes. As a result, 6 Jeffrey Weiss, “Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright’s incendiary quotes illumi - Truman remained highly skeptical of reports of Soviet spying. 11 nate chasm between races,” Dallasnews.com, April 8, 2008, www.dallasnews. A few years later, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., made his com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/040808dnmetwrightchasm.442a11fb.html. 7 “Best of Jeremiah Wright’s Sermons Pt. 1,” YouTube, March 15, 2008 (posting wild accusations of a government completely penetrated by So - date), www.youtube.com/watch?v=617eK2XIaLk. viet spies. The charge flourished because only a handful of 8 “The Full Wright Transcript,” Marc Ambinder blog, April 28, 2008, http://marc people were aware about how much the government actually ambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/04/the_full_wright_transcript.php. knew. “Had we learned about the Venona Project in the late 9 “AIDS Virus Product of Genetic Manipulation,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, April 29, 1987. 1940s, had the FBI revealed it was following Soviet spies, that 10 Kathleen Bailey, “Soviets Sponsor Spread of AIDS ,” Los would have shut up McCarthy,” argues historian John E. Moser Angeles Times (op-ed), April 19, 1987, Part 5, p. 2. of Ohio’s Ashland University, 11 Olmsted, ibid ., pp. 91-92; Steven T. Usdin, Engineering Communism: How In the end, Moser says, excessive government can Two Americans Spied for Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley (2005), pp. 122-125. provide fertile soil for conspiracy theories. “So many theories 12 Scott Shane, “C.I.A. Is Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery,” The New York Times , from the 18th and 19th centuries focused on monasteries and Oct. 16, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/us/17inquire.html?hpw. convents, because they were closed institutions. A fevered imagi - 13 Quoted in ibid.

Meanwhile, two deadly events sparked Canadian border area in preparation takeover of the United States through a wave of far-right conspiratorial think - for military occupation by U.N. troops a combination of drug running, gun ing. In 1992, a mother and son were that would rule the United States as running, lobbying, blackmailing con - killed by federal agents during the siege part of the “New World Order.” 53 gressmen and terrorism.” 54 of a right-wing survivalist family at Ruby However, another leading conspir - Thompson’s was a prominent voice Ridge, in northern Idaho. A year later acist, Linda Thompson, who headed of the militia movement, a loosely or - came the botched confrontation and the Indianapolis-based America Justice ganized group that included far-right ex - lethal fire at the Branch Davidian com - Federation, took a more limited view tremists and apolitical survivalists, many pound near Waco, Texas. 52 of the black helicopters. Holding that given to conspiracism. The movement In far-right circles, the deaths were the government murdered the Waco virtually disappeared after the 1995 bomb - interpreted in light of a conspiracist be - cult members, she claimed the chop - ing of the federal building in Oklahoma lief that black helicopters were con - pers were part of a CIA-sponsored City by Army veteran McVeigh, who had stantly sweeping through the U.S.- “private mafia” aiming at “a military traveled in militia circles.

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caused by of the plan - dressed in black robes, look on. et, have assembled a super-secret task Outside that wing of the conspiracist CURRENT force to engineer and distribute a super- community, the focus is on pharma - virulent strain of influenza designed to ceutical companies. , SITUATION ‘correct’ the human population (and in - a writer on Alex Jones’ “Prison Planet” stitute global Martial Law)?” 58 site blames a “mammoth level of fear- A writer for the respected British mongering” on drug firms’ appetite for magazine New Scientist dismissed such profits during a recession. The high level Swine Flu Plot? speculation. “Deliberately engineering a of public resistance to the vaccine is virus of this kind would be a huge chal - anti-corporate victory in the face “of such edical professionals are battling lenge,” wrote Michael Le Page, though a huge effort on behalf of the pharma - M a host of conspiracy theories he conceded a laboratory mistake could ceutical industry and their soapbox, the and other scares about the swine flu conceivably have a played a role. 59 .” 62 pandemic and the vaccine against it. Extreme conspiracism that sees the “We have the right vaccine for this H1N1 flu and/or the vaccine as deliber - virus,” Health and Human Services ately fatal coexists with generalized sus - “Birthers” Challenged Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told ABC picion. Right-wing radio and TV hosts News in early October. “We also have Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have .S. District Judge David O. Carter years of clinical data on seasonal flu been skeptical and belligerently suspi - Uof Orange County, Calif., is weigh - vaccine and a great safety record.” 55 cious, respectively. “Screw you, Mrs. ing dismissal of a lawsuit challenging Yet 41 percent of adults told poll - Sebelius! I’m not going to take it pre - President Obama’s citizenship and, con - sters for the Harvard School of Public cisely because you’re telling me I must,” sequently, his eligibility for office. If Health they won’t get vaccinated. And Limbaugh shouted on his show. 60 the recent actions of other federal only 51 percent said they definitely would But Limbaugh’s response was mild judges in similar suits are any guide, vaccinate their children. 56 compared with some of the flu con - the suit’s chances are slender. Forty-eight percent of those not get - spiracies taking shape on the Web. “In All of the legal action has centered ting vaccinated said lack of trust in the next few months, we are about to on what the “birther” movement in - public officials’ information on the vac - face our own American soldiers who sists is lack of definitive official proof cine played a role in their decision. 57 have killed and maimed indiscrimi - that Obama was born in the United The survey didn’t ask about the sources nately in Iraq and Afghanistan,” wrote States — evidence to the contrary of that mistrust, but flu-related con - Ilya Sandra Perlingieri, who writes fre - notwithstanding. Orly Taitz, the South - spiracy theories have been flying around quently on health matters from an anti- ern California lawyer who has filed the the Web since news of the new flu medical establishment viewpoint. “These most recent of these cases, takes that strain broke last spring. soldiers will now probably be deployed claim of a non-U.S. birthplace several Dr. Paul A. Offitt, chief of infectious to accompany FEMA to come door-to- steps further. diseases at the Children’s Hospital of door into our homes to force us to take Taitz told she Philadelphia, sees two major schools these poisonous injections. . . . We are thought Obama had been born in Kenya of conspiracism — the belief the U.S. at the brink of even the loss of our very — his father’s native country — then Centers for Disease Control and Pre - own lives all under the guise of pro - brought to Hawaii by his mother, who vention is misrepresenting or falsify - tecting us from a non-existent ‘pandemic.’ persuaded state workers to falsify his birth ing data, and that profit-obsessed [They will] genetically engineer the flu record. She also entertained the idea — pharmaceutical companies are indif - in some bioweapons lab, and then cre - a common one among “birthers” — that ferent to vaccine quality. ate debilitating and deathly vaccines that Obama was also a citizen of Indonesia, “As far as the most extreme theories will do further harm to everyone.” 61 where he lived for several years as a child — that they’re making products to kill Perlingieri’s denunciation was post - while his mother was married to her sec - us — that is so outlandish that I have ed on rense.com, a site with a heavy ond husband, who was Indonesian. “He trouble commenting on it,” Offitt says. interest in and so- is lying about his identity, he is hiding Yet such over-the-top theories are called anti-Zionism. One graphic on his whole identity, this is dangerous!” plentiful. Mike Adams, editor of a “nat - the site shows a baby about to be Taitz told the newspaper. 63 ural health” Web site, asked readers in stabbed to death on an altar bearing Weeks earlier, U.S. District Judge April: “Could world governments, spooked a Star of David overlaid with a “Z” as Clay D. Land of Columbus, Ga., had by the prospect of radical Obama and other world leaders, Continued on p. 902

900 CQ Researcher At Issue:

Areyes conspiracy theories now a threat to democracy?

CHIP BERLET JOHN E. MOSER SENIOR ANALYST PROFESSOR OF HISTORY POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES ASHLAND UNIVERSITY

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , OCT. 15, 2009 WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , OCT. 15, 2009

onspiracy theories are not harmless. They are exaggerat - ngry right-wing talk radio hosts suggest that ed stories falsely portraying a scapegoated group as plot - financier/philanthropist is secretly pulling c ting against the common good. Throughout the history a the strings of the Obama White House, while equally of our country, mass movements have been built around con - angry “birthers” deny that the president was born in the United spiracy theories targeting witches, Freemasons, Catholics, Jews, States. A few years ago, we heard from the left that the election immigrants and “Reds.” of 2000 had been “stolen,” that 9/11 was an “inside job” and In the 1800s, an angry mob near Boston was so enraged that Halliburton, the global oil field services company once by conspiracy stories about Catholic priests and nuns that it headed by Dick Cheney, was secretly behind the war in Iraq. burned a convent school to the ground. Between 1919 and Conspiracy theories do seem to be everywhere in today’s 1921, thousands of Italian and Russian immigrants were round - society, although, like body odor, they are generally things ed up and deported by our government based on conspiracy that other people have. Are they a threat to our democracy? fearmongering falsely targeting them as subversives and terror - One might be tempted to say so, until one recognizes that ists. The McCarthy period illustrated the damage conspiracy conspiracy theories have an old and distinguished place in theories can do to a society. American political history. It is hard to imagine that the War The admiynistration of Peresident Bill sClinton was sidetracked of Independencne would have beeo n fought had Britain’s Ameri - by waves of conspiracy theories claiming he had ordered the can colonists in 1775 not been convinced that George III was assassination of a key aide or was plotting a U.N. takeover of actively plotting to enslave them. New Englanders were con - America with jackbooted troops arriving in black helicopters. vinced in the late 1790s that the country had been infiltrated Now the “birthers” and other conspiracy theorists circulate by members of a secret organization known as the Bavarian false allegations that President Obama is not really a U.S. citi - Illuminati, and Thomas Jefferson, it was claimed, was one of zen; is planning to merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a their agents. North American Union or that he is a secret Muslim plotting Nor is it likely that there would have been a Civil War — more terror attacks. The xenophobic and racist subtext here is or the subsequent destruction of slavery — had it not been clear. Some people have acted on these base and baseless for Northern claims of a “slave power conspiracy,” matched claims. Since Obama’s inauguration there have been nine mur - only by the Southern notion that their neighbors to the North ders where the alleged killers have been entangled in white were intent on destroying their way of life. Fears of commu - supremacist or anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. nist subversion shaped the 1950s as surely as theories over James W. von Brunn, accused of killing a guard at the U.S. who shot President Kennedy influenced the 1960s. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., feared a con - Some may claim, however, that conspiracy theories pose a spiracy of Jews and Freemasons to control the world and keep greater danger today because they seem to circulate so quickly. white Christians subjugated while at the same time elevating This is certainly the case, thanks largely to so-called “new blacks to undeserved positions of power. Other conspiracists media” such as talk radio, the Internet and 24-hour news net - blame Muslims, immigrants, Mexicans, feminists and gay people. works. Moreover, thanks to the Watergate scandal, Americans The recent “Tea Party” protests and town hall disruptions today understand that major conspiracies can, and do, exist. are awash in conspiracy claims and false and misleading infor - Yet what is striking about so many of the conspiracy theo - mation. Democracy is based on informed consent — not ries that have found adherents throughout American history is myths and lies woven into conspiracy theories. that they all purport to identify threats to our form of govern - It is unlikely that conspiracy theorists will overthrow the ment. In addition, they represent a deep distrust of traditional government. They can, however, poison the body politic; distort authority, whether it be the government, corporations, the and derail public policy debates; spread bigotry and mainstream media or “the experts.” In other words, far from and wind up some people so tightly that they commit acts of being a danger, the presence of such theories — as silly as violence against targeted scapegoats. Conspiracy theories are most of them are — might actually be seen as a sign of a toxic tono democracy. healthy democracy.

www.cqresearcher.com Oct. 23, 2009 901 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Continued from p. 900 Farah went on to question the that releasing his original birth certifi - dismissed a similar case, ruling that it “Certification of Live Birth” that Politifact cate would never quiet the attackers. was based on “sheer conjecture and posted. “Anyone could march into a “As long as he doesn’t, the ‘birthers’ are speculation.” The judge also remarked Hawaii Public Health Department office going to keep going, and as long as that Taitz “is a self-proclaimed leader and say he or she had a baby, fill out they do, they’re going to look ridicu - in what has become known as ‘the a form with the pertinent details, sign lous,” suggests Ashland University his - birther movement.’ ” 64 it and there would be no questions torian Moser. “The people who believe Taitz fired back with a motion to re - asked,” he wrote. 71 in the theory, they’re never going to go move Land from the case. In it, she But even before the election, Chiy - for him. So why not keep it alive?” called “birther” a “pejorative appellation ome Fukino, Hawaii Health Department (often coupled with even more colorful director, said that she and the registrar epithets such as ‘batshit crazy’).” 65 of vital statistics “have personally seen The preferred designation among and verified that the Hawaii State De - OUTLOOK Obama birth-certificate challengers is partment of Health has Sen. Obama’s “eligibility movement.” 66 original birth certificate on record.” 72 Even before Obama was elected, Robert Farley of Politifact acknowl - some of them questioned why his orig - edged that Obama hasn’t posted his Looking for Answers inal birth certificate wasn’t on file in original birth certificate. “Maybe the orig - the Hawaii public records system. Hawaii inal would identify the hospital where onspiracy theories will be part of had stored all original birth certificates, Obama was born, but that’s irrelevant,” C the national conversation over the making them available only to people he wrote. “The issue is in what city, and next decade, Moser says. “This is a side with “a tangible interest” in the docu - therefore country, was he born. The effect of America losing its unques - ments. The state does make available document posted by the campaign proves tioned position of dominance in the a “certification of live birth” — as op - Obama was born in Honolulu, accord - world that it has enjoyed since World posed to a “certificate” — which states ing to Health Department officials. And War II,” he explains. “We’re not going that Obama was born in Hawaii. 67 that’s really the central issue here.” 73 to become a Third World country, but Then, in early August, WorldNet Even outside the WorldNet Daily we’re not going to be on top, as many Daily , a Web site that has made the orbit, not everyone agrees Obama has Americans are used to seeing the Unit - theme a specialty, posted a story re - resolved the issue satisfactorily. “There ed States. People are going to look for porting that Taitz’s discovery of an are legitimate questions about the doc - conspiracy theories to explain that.” alleged Kenyan birth certificate for umentation of Obama’s birth certificate,” At the same time, he’s skeptical that Obama could be “the smoking gun” Camille Paglia, a political iconoclast who conspiracism will come to dominate of the entire subject. 68 largely supports Obama, said on Na - the political landscape. “You can be a But Politifact , a fact-checking arm of tional Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” in Sep - listener to talk radio and enjoy it, but the St. Petersburg Times , reported per - tember. “I’m sorry, I’ve been following that doesn’t mean you’re going to buy suasive evidence that the “Kenyan” cer - this closely from the start.” 74 into the whole master theory,” he says, tificate was a digitally altered Australian Others argue that those challenging likening talk radio to pro wrestling. birth certificate that its owner had post - Obama’s eligibility are operating outside But the political system may be vul - ed on a genealogy Web site. “Same for - the world of fact and evidence. “If the nerable in ways that an entertainment mat,” Politifact said. “Same book and long-form birth certificate were released, spectacle is not, argues Berlet of Politi - page number in the birth registry. Some with its unequivocal identification of Hawaii cal Research Associates. “Conspiracism is of the officials’ last names were even as Obama’s place of birth, the cycle would a threat because democracy is not a sta - the same.” Factcheck.org, owned by the almost certainly continue,” Alex Kopple - ble system,” he says. “It’s constantly being University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg man, a staff writer for the online maga - buffeted by people who want to sub - Public Policy Center, has also conclud - zine Salon , wrote before Obama was due subversives or an external threat. ed that challenges to Obama’s citizen - sworn in. He noted that talk-show hosts Constant waves of scapegoating and ship are groundless. 69 Limbaugh and Savage, as well as author bigotry have to be pushed back.” By the time Politifact posted its re - Corsi, had questioned Obama’s mid- Moreover, Berlet says, the so-called port, WorldNet Daily ’s editor and CEO, campaign trip to Hawaii to see his dying mainstream media have effectively re - Joseph Farah, had backed away from grandmother. “It’s got to do with his birth linquished their monitoring role — the story. “No one here has made a certificate,” Savage said of the trip. 75 “watchdogs on Valium,” he calls them. judgment that it is real,” he wrote. 70 Obama may well have concluded “There are no stories about maybe some -

902 CQ Researcher thing is wrong in society if people are But radio host Jones this unhappy. There is almost no ana - is looking to the future. lytical presence in the media that most And it’s a grim one. people consume — no coverage of ideas.” “You’re in locked-down However, conservative blogger John prison cities,” he said, in Hawkins says fact-based Web media can a message that he says is react more quickly when conspiracy the - aimed at people living 20 ories appear. “In the old world, media or 30 years from now. didn’t have to address these,” he says. “Your mother, your father, “In the new world, people will address your children are dying them and kill them in their cradle.” from the bioweapons, Speed is important, Hawkins says, be - you’re dying from the en - cause of the Web’s oft-noted role in prop - gineered cancers.” 76 agating conspiracy theories. “I think it’s The only positive fea - very important to turn these things around ture of this horrific uni - before people get them in their heads,” verse, Jones said, is that he says. “If you do a Google search on people would know who a conspiracy theory, you’ll find 50 arti - their enemies are. “If you’re cles all borrowing from each other, each listening to me 20-30 years saying there’s a conspiracy. Joe Average in the future,” he said, “just will say, ‘Maybe it’s true; I don’t see any - please fight against the thing going in the other direction.’ ” new world order.” As for Historian Olmsted at the University of present-day listeners who California is uncertain if conspiracism will laugh at Jones’ forecast, he gather strength over the next decade, called them “buffoons.” 77 noting that the “truther” theories lost mo - Clearly, Jones has a per - mentum once Bush left office. For now, spective on the future. But “There is always a surge in conspiracy even conspiracy theories that theories when there’s an economic cri - don’t focus on what’s ahead sis,” she says. “Also, it seems that the may build constituencies election of an African-American president for forward-looking theories. has triggered the anxieties of a signifi - “My guess is that people cant segment of the white population.” who believe in the ‘birther’ Along the same lines, anti-conspiracist theory have probably fold - Web writer Winston of St. Louis also ed it into other conspiracy notes an Obama effect. “If he’s reelect - theories,” says Syracuse ed, I would say that conspiracy theories University’s Barkun. definitely will not die down.” Whether conspiracy Winston adds, “A minority of them are theories maintain their dangerous enough to warrant people present momentum or being a little worried about them.” not, Barkun says one facet Still, conspiracy expert Pipes hasn’t of conspiracist thinking seen present-day theories rise to the seems unlikely to change: level they sometimes reached in the adherents’ resistance to early and middle 19th century. argument. “Some months Further, some well-known conspiracy ago I got an e-mail from someone theories center on the facts of past teaching at a university in Montana,” he Notes events, Pipes notes. So, by definition, says. “All her neighbors were listening 1 “FEMA Concentration Camps, Rant (Part 1),” these theories look backward instead to Alex Jones. What could she do about “Alex Jones Show,” Feb. 9, 2009, www.youtube. of forward. As a result, “Something like it? How could she convince them they com/watch?v=qecd5d-fySc&feature=related . the ‘truther’ phenomenon looks pretty were mistaken? I told her, I don’t think 2 “Alex Jones Interviews Charlie Sheen,” In - impactless,” he says. you can do anything.” fowars.com, Sept. 8, 2009, www.infowars.com/

www.cqresearcher.com Oct. 23, 2009 903 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

twenty-minutes-with-the-president /; , 11 Quoted in Sharon Haddock, “Beck’s back - nazi-dogs-and-crucified-liberty-scenes-from-the- “Gohmert Trades Ideas With Conspiracy The - ing bumps Skousen book to top,” Deseret News , 912-march.php?img=24 . orist,” ThinkProgress, July 27, 2009 (audio clip), March 20, 2009, www.deseretnews.com/article/ 21 Chip Berlet, “Toxic to Democracy: Conspir - http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/27/gohmert.con 1,5143,705292222,00.html?pg=1 . acy Theories, Demonization & Scapegoating,” spiracies.alexjones . 12 “The History of Secret Combinations, Part 3,” Political Research Associates, 2009, www.public 3 Alexa, the Web Information Company, Oct. 7, W. Cleon Skousen, 1976, YouTube, www.youtube. eye.org/conspire/toxic2democracy/Toxic-2D-all- 2009, www.alexa.com/siteinfo/infowars.com . com/watch?v=I8fo6bdudVI&feature=related . rev-04.pdf . 4 “Top 10 Reasons Why No Man Has Ever 13 “Glenn Beck analyzes fascist and communist 22 Kathryn S. Olmsted, Real Enemies: Con - Set Foot on the Moon,” Moonmovie.com, un - symbolism in artwork at Rockefeller Center,” spiracy Theories and American Democracy, dated, www.moonmovie.com/moonmovie/ YouTube, Sept. 2, 2009, / www.youtube.com/ World War I to 9/11 (2009). default.asp ; Christina Caron, “Refuting the Most watch?v=xWL-pfCao-U . 23 John E. Moser, Right Turn: John T. Flynn and Popular Apollo Moon Landing Hoax Theories,” 14 Glenn Beck interview, @katiecouric, CBS the Transformation of American Liberalism (2005). ABC News, July 19, 2009, http://abcnews.go. News, Sept. 22, 2009, www.cbsnews.com/ 24 Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in com/Technology/Apollo11MoonLanding/story? video/watch/?id=5330485n&tag=cbsnewsSec American Politics (2008 edition), pp. 23-24. For id=8104410&page=1&page=1 ; “The Great Moon tionsArea.0 . a view of Hofstadter as ahead of his time, see Hoax,” NASA, Feb. 23, 2001, http://science.nasa. 15 “Alex Jones — Corsi Pt2,” “Alex Jones Show,” Thomas Frank, “From John Birchers to Birthers,” gov/headlines/y2001/ast23Feb_2.htm . May 4, 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2q The Wall Street Journal , Oct. 21, 2009, p. A21. 5“Obama’s approval steady,” Public Policy Polling, KUhdjHj8&feature=related . 25 Michael Lerner, “The Antiwar Anti-Semites,” Sept. 23, 2009, www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/ 16 ”Hastings Reintroduces National Emergency The Wall Street Journal , Feb. 12, 2003, www. PPP_Release_National_819513.pdf . Centers Establishment Act,” Hastings Web site, opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=11 6 “22% Believe Bush Knew About 9/11 Attacks Jan. 22, 2009, http://alceehastings.house.gov/ 0003061 . in Advance,” Rasmussen Reports, May 4, 2007, index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id= 26 Quoted in Daniel Pipes, Conspiracy: How www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/pol 243&Itemid=98 ; H.R. 645, http://thomas.loc.gov/ the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It itics/current_events/bush_administration/22_ cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.645 . Comes From (1997), p. 175. believe_bush_knew_about_9_11_attacks_in_ 17 Jerome R. Corsi, “Bill creates detention 27 Among numerous books on the subject, see advance . camps in U.S. for ‘emergencies,’ ” WorldNet Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda 7 Kathleen Hunter and Jonathan Allen, “Senate Daily , Feb. 1, 2009, www.wnd.com/index.php? and the Road to 9/11 (2006). Affirms Obama’s U.S. Citizenship,” CQ Today , pageId=87757 . 28 Ibid. , p. 346. July 28, 2009. 18 “The Drug Cartel and Pandemic H1N1 29 For background, see Peter Katel, “Hate Groups,” 8 Ibid. , and “Conservative media figures al - Swine Flu Viruses and Vaccines,” Infowars , CQ Researcher , May 8, 2009, pp. 421-448. leged Obama’s Hawaii trip is about discred - Sept. 21, 2009, www.infowars.com/the-drug- 30 Ibid. ited birth-certificate rumors, not his ailing cartel-and-pandemic-h1n1-swine-flu-viruses- 31 Juliet Lapidos, “The AIDS Conspiracy grandmother,” Media Matters for America, and-vaccines /; Leonard G. Horowitz, “In - Handbook,” Slate , March 19, 2008, www.slate. Oct. 23, 2008, http://mediamatters.org/research/ trogenocide: The Biotechnology, Politics, and com/id/2186860 / 200810230020 . of Emerging Pandemics,” Tetra - 32 Jeffrey L. Pasley, “Conspiracy Theory and 9 “Respected Leaders and Families Launch hedron Publishing Group, undated, www.tetra American Exceptionalism from the Revolution 9/11 Truth Statement Demanding Deeper In - hedron.org . to Roswell,” paper for symposium, May 13, 2000, vestigation Into Events of 9/11,” 911Truth.org, 19 “Alex Jones TV,” July 21, 2009, www.youtube. http://pasleybrothers.com/conspiracy/CT_and_ Oct. 26, 2004, www.911truth.org/article.php? com/watch?v=KkoHZ4DylH4 . American_Exceptionalism_web_version.htm . story=20041026093059633 . 20 “09.12.09 March on Washington: The Tea 33 Unless otherwise indicated, this subsection is 10 David Dunbar and Brad Reagan, eds., De - Party Movement Goes to Capitol Hill,” drawn from Jeffrey L. Pasley, “Illuminati,” chap - bunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories http://912dc.org; Talking Points Memo, www. ter in Peter Knight, ed. Conspiracy Theories in Can’t Stand Up to the Facts (2006). talkingpointsmemo.com/gallery/2009/09/hearses- American History: An Encyclopedia (2003); chap - ter published separately online at http://pasley brothers.com/conspiracy/readings/Pasley_CTAHE About the Author _articles.pdf ; and Hofstadter, op. cit. 34 Quoted in ibid. , p. 17. Peter Katel is a CQ Researcher staff writer who previ - 35 Ibid. , pp. 19-20. ously reported on Haiti and Latin America for Time and 36 James C. Foley, “Slave Power,” in Knight, and covered the Southwest for newspapers in op. cit. , pp. 658-662. New Mexico. He has received several journalism awards, 37 Pipes, op. cit. , p. 91. including the Bartolomé Mitre Award for coverage of drug 38 Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: trafficking, from the Inter-American Press Association. He Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America holds an A.B. in university studies from the University of (2003), pp. 51, 128. New Mexico. His recent reports include “Mexico’s Drug 39 Except where otherwise noted, material on War,” “Hate Groups” and “Vanishing Jobs.” Pearl Harbor and subsequent events are drawn from Kathryn S. Olmsted, Real Enemies: Con -

904 CQ Researcher spiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 (2009). 40 Quoted in ibid. , p. 79. FOR MORE INFORMATION 41 Quoted in Steven T. Usdin, Engineering , 29839 Santa Margarita Pkwy., Rancho Santa Communism: How Two Americans Spied for Defend Our Freedoms Foundation Margarita, CA 92688 ; (949) 683-5411 ; www.orlytaitzesq.com . The Web site of Orly Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley Taitz, a leader among those claiming that President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. (2005); Sam Tanenhaus, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (1998). Conspiracy Science ; http://conspiracyscience.com . Rebuts the leading conspiracy 42 Pipes, op. cit. , p. 116; the subcommittee’s theories, in extensive detail. closed sessions are now online, “Historic Sen - 911truth.org ; (785) 597-5729 ; www.911truth.org . Assembles key “truther” documents ate Hearings Published,” United States Senate, to raise questions about the origin of the Sept. 11 attacks. www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/ generic/McCarthy_Transcripts.htm . Alex Jones’ Infowars.com . Offers access to conspiracy theorists’ daily broadcasts, 43 Quoted in Usdin, op. cit. , p. 151. See also as well as interpretations of current events from the conspiracist perspective. Sam Roberts, “57 Years Later, Figure in Rosen - Political Research Associates , 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, Somerville, MA 02144 ; berg Case Says He Spied for Soviets,” The (617) 666-5300 ; www.publiceye.org . A liberal think tank that monitors conspiracism New York Times , Sept. 12, 2008, p. A1. on the right but also reports critically on theories that attract left-wing followers. 44 Peter Grose, “Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations From 1921 to .com ; www.snopes.com . A nonpartisan Web site that investigates the veracity 1996,” Council on Foreign Relations, undated, of rumors, “urban legends” and conspiracy theories. www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr /. 45 Dan Smoot, The Invisible Government (1962), 2009, www.newscientist.com/blogs/short tifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/jul/01/oba available online, www.gutenberg.org/files/ sharpscience/2009/04/is-swine-flu-a-bioterrorist - mas-birth-certificate-final-chapter-time-we-mea /. 20224/20224-h/20224-h.htm . vi.html . 68 “Is this really smoking gun of Obama’s 46 Pipes, op. cit. , p. 116. 60 “PMSNBC Doctor Rips Rush for Refusing to Kenyan birth?” WorldNet Daily , Aug. 2, 2009, 47 Except where otherwise indicated, material for Take Sebelius Flu Shot,” “Rush Limbaugh Show,” www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&page this subsection is drawn from Olmsted, op. cit. Oct. 8, 2009, www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/ Id=105764 . 48 The film is now viewable on the Web; daily/site_100809/content/01125108.guest.html . 69 “Alleged Obama birth certificate is a hoax,” “The Zapruder Film,” www.youtube.com/watch? Also, Christopher Beam, “Pig Pile: the bizarre Politifact.com , Aug. 21, 2009, www.politifact.com/ v=E66__vymfPA . alliance of the far left and far right against truth-o-meter/statements/2009/aug/21/orly-taitz/ 49 Quoted in Paul Feldman, “Conspiracy Talk swine flu vaccinations,” Slate , Oct. 12, 2009, alleged-obama-birth-certificate-kenya-hoax /; a U.S. Tradition,” , May 29, www.slate.com/id/2232187 /. Jess Henig, “Born in the U.S.A.,” Jess Henig, 1995, p. A3. 61 Ilya Sandra Perlingieri, “Dangers In The Shots,” Factcheck.org, Aug. 21, 2008, http://factcheck. 50 Philip Weiss, “The Clinton Haters,” The New rense.com , Aug. 4, 2009, www.rense.com/gene org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html . The York Times Magazine , Feb. 23, 1997, p. 35. ral86/dngers.htm . St. Petersburg Times is the former owner of 51 Ibid. , Micah Morrison, “Mysterious Mena,” 62 Paul Joseph Watson, “Swine Flu Shot Pro - CQ Press. News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.), July 31, paganda Goes Into Overdrive,” PrisonPlanet , 70 Joseph Farah, “Why I doubt Kenyan birth 1994, p. F1. Oct. 14, 2009, www.prisonplanet.com/swine- document,” WorldNet Daily , Aug. 4, 2009, www. 52 Katel, op. cit. flu-shot-propaganda-goes-into-overdrive.html . wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=1 53 Barkun, op. cit. , pp. 69-71. 63 Quoted in Liza Mundy, “Burden of Proof on 05902 . 54 Quoted in ibid. Obama’s Origins,” The Washington Post , Oct. 6, 71 Ibid. 55 “Fear of Swine Flu Vaccine? Why Are Par - 2009, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con 72 Quoted in Farley, op. cit. ents Saying No?” “Good Morning America,” tent/article/2009/10/05/AR2009100503819_pf.html . 73 Ibid. ABC News, Oct. 7, 2009. 64 Rhodes v. MacDonald , Case No. 4:09-CV- 74 Quoted in David Weigel, “Paglia: ‘Birthers’ 56 “Survey Finds Just 40% of Adults ‘Absolutely 106 (CDL), U.S. District Court for the Middle Aren’t Racist, and They Have a Point,” Wash - Certain’ They Will Get H1N1 Vaccine,” Har - District of Georgia, Columbus Division, 9/16/09, ington Independent , Sept. 17, 2009, http://wash vard School of Public Health, Oct. 2, 2009, pp. 1, 12, http://ftpcontent.worldnow. com/ ingtonindependent.com/59655/paglia-birthers- www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/ wtvm/ConnieRhodesvsArmy.pdf . arent-racist-and-they-have-a-point . 2009-releases/survey-40-adults-absolutely-certain- 65 Motion to Recuse the Honorable Clay D. 75 Quoted in “Conservative media figures . . .,” h1n1-vaccine.html . Land,” Civil Action No: 09-106, Document 24, op. cit. ; Alex Koppleman, “Why the stories 57 Ibid. Oct. 2, 2009, p. 10, www.the-peoples-forum. about Obama’s birth certificate will never 58 Mike Adams, “As Swine Flu Spreads, Con - com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=14733 . die,” Salon , Oct. 13, 2009, / www.salon.com/ spiracy Theories of Laboratory Origins 66 Spencer Kornhaber, “Meet Orly Taitz, Queen news/feature/2008/12/05/birth_certificate /. Abound,” .com, April 27, 2009, Bee of People Obsessed With Barack Obama’s 76 “Alex Jones — A Message to the Future,” www.naturalnews.com/026141.html . Birth Certificate,” OC Weekly , June 18, 2009. YouTube, Jan. 12, 2008, www.youtube.com/ 59 Michael Le Page, “Is swine flue a bioterror - 67 Robert Farley, “Obama’s birth certificate: Final watch?v=I_6nz1Dhxn4 . ist virus?” Short Sharp Science (blog), April 27, chapter,” Politifact.com , July 1, 2009, www.poli 77 Ibid.

www.cqresearcher.com Oct. 23, 2009 905 Bibliography Selected Sources

Books McManus , John F. , “Speaker Pelosi Pushes ‘New Order of the Centuries,’ ” John Birch Society , Jan. 8, 2007 , Barkun , Michael , A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Vi - www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/795-speaker-pelosi-pushes-qnew- sions in Contemporary America , University of California order-of-the-centuriesq . Press , 2003 . The president of the far-right John Birch Society links a A leading conspiracy scholar at Syracuse University explores Democratic Party leader and a globalist conspiracy. the links between conspiracism and “new age” beliefs. Mosk , Matthew , “An Attack That Came Out of the Ether,” Hofstadter , Richard , The Paranoid Style in American The Washington Post , June 28, 2008 , p. C1. Politics , Vintage Books Edition , 2008 . A Washington Post report chronicles an academic’s explo - The late Columbia University historian authored a key work ration of the origins of a conspiracist notion of candidate in the study of American conspiracism. Obama as a radical Muslim.

Olmsted , Kathryn S. , Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories Shane , Scott , “C.I.A. Is Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery,” and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 , Oxford The New York Times , Oct. 16, 2009 , www.nytimes.com/2009/ University Press , 2009 . 10/17/us/17inquire.html?hp=&pagewanted=all . A University of California, Davis, historian explores how Even today, the intelligence agency is resisting disclosing conspiracism grows out of real events and trends. some Kennedy assassination-related files.

Marrs , Jim , Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Thomma , Steven , “Secret camps and guillotines? Groups Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, make birthers look sane,” McClatchy Newspapers , Aug. and the Great Pyramids , Perennial-HarperCollins , 2001 . 28, 2009 , www.mcclatchydc.com/336/story/74549.html . A former newspaper reporter lays out world history as one A news organization with a track record of skepticism toward big conspiracy theory. government takes an equally skeptical look at conspiracy theories.

Pipes , Daniel , Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flour - Zaitchick , Alexander , “Meet the man who changed Glenn ishes and Where It Comes From , Free Press , 1997 . Beck’s life,” Salon , Sept. 16, 2009 , www.salon.com/news/ The director of a Middle East-related think tank analyzes the feature/2009/09/16/beck_skousen/print.html . roots and consequences of U.S. and Western conspiracy theories. Zaitchick reports on the intellectual influence of the late W. Cleon Skousen on radio host Glenn Beck. Articles Reports and Studies Farley , Robert , “Obama’s birth certificate: Final chapter. This time we mean it!” Politifact.com , July 1, 2009 , Berlet , Chip , “Toxic to Democracy: Conspiracy Theories, De - www..com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/jul/01/ monization & Scapegoating,” Political Research Associates , obamas-birth-certificate-final-chapter-time-we-mea /. 2009 , www.publiceye.org/conspire/toxic2democracy/Toxic- A respected fact-checking organization says President 2D-all-rev-04.pdf . Barack Obama’s birthplace and nationality are definitively es - A conspiracy expert concludes that the trend is on the rise tablished. and dangerous.

Goldberg , Michelle , “Truther Consequences,” The New Re - “Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Build - public , Oct. 7, 2009 , www.tnr.com/article/politics/truther- ing 7,” National Institute of Standards and Technology, consequences . November 2008 , http://wtc.nist.gov/NCSTAR1/PDF/NC - An influential liberal profiles radio host Alex Jones, judg - STAR%201A.pdf ; and “Answers to Frequently Asked Ques - ing his influence to be growing. tions — National Institute of Standards and Technology Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Kornhaber , Spencer , “Anti-Obama ‘Eligibility’ Movement Trade Center Disaster,” National Institute of Standards and Members Are Breaking Ties With Laguna Niguel Attorney/ Technology , Aug. 30, 2006 , http://wtc.nist.gov/pubs/fact Birther Orly Taitz,” OC Weekly , Sept. 24, 2009 . sheets/faqs_8_2006.htm . Fights within the Obama-birthplace movement are becom - Two lengthy and technically detailed analyses of the ing more intense, a Southern California weekly newspaper Sept. 11 attacks attempt to answer questions raised by the reports. “truther” movement.

906 CQ Researcher The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Alex Jones An entire American subculture has emerged that suggests the government was behind the 9/11 attacks. Bauknecht , Sara , “Film’s Goal: Candid Look at Conspiracy Theorists,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , Oct. 19, 2009 , p. B5 . Doll , Julie , “It’s Not the Truth that Conspiracy Theorists A new film documents the conspiracy theories of Alex Jones Seek,” Journal and Courier (Indiana), Feb. 17, 2008 , and challenges viewers to question the politics around them. p. 8A . The conspiracy claims about 9/11 are so outrageous and Lloyd , Robert , “Perceived Threats to World Order,” Los the evidence so flawed that supporters must ignore logic in Angeles Times , May 26, 2009 , p. D3 . order to believe. Alex Jones and his followers believe that many of the gov - ernment’s actions are designed to bring about a “new world Soltis , Andy , “ ‘Blame U.S. for 9/11’ Idiots in Majority,” order” that puts a select few in control. The New York Post , Nov. 24, 2007 , p. 8 . About two-thirds of Americans believe the federal govern - Starr , Michael , “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” The New York Post , ment had warnings about 9/11 but chose to ignore them, May 25, 2009 , p. 57 . according to a national survey. Alex Jones believes Wall Street is trying to create a “one- ” in which it has the upper hand. Validity

“Birthers” Campos , Paul , “The Never-Ending Nonstory,” Rocky Moun - tain News (Colorado), Feb. 25, 2009 , p. 31 . Farley , Robert , “Alleged Obama Birth Certificate From The rise of independent media has spawned conspiracy Kenya Is a Hoax,” St. Petersburg Times , Aug. 21, 2009 . theories that many regard as legitimate subjects of journal - An Obama birth certificate supposedly certifying the pres - istic inquiry. ident’s birth in Kenya was manufactured using the template of a real birth certificate in Australia. Rodriguez , Gregory , “Truth Is in the Ear of the Beholder,” Los Angeles Times , Sept. 28, 2009 , p. A19 . Louis , Errol , “The Birth of a Nutty Nation,” Daily News Political rumors and conspiracy theories thrive only in the (New York), July 23, 2009 , p. 25 . of people who are predisposed to believe them. At least a dozen lawsuits were filed trying to block Barack Obama from being sworn in as president on the grounds Rubin , Trudy , “Internet Fueling Rise in False Theories,” that he was not a naturally born citizen of the United States. Deseret Morning News (Utah), Sept. 13, 2009 . The Internet has popularized many conspiracy theories in which Shea , Jim , “Birthers Make Wacky Conspiracy Theories facts are largely absent or buried under mounds of fiction. Trendy Again,” Hartford (Connecticut) Courant , July 25, 2009 , p. C1 . “Birthers” believe Barack Obama is not eligible to be pres - CITING CQ RESEARCHER ident of the United States because he was born overseas, Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography and no amount of evidence can convince them otherwise. include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats Smith , Sylvia A. , “Conspiracy Birthing a Rift in the GOP,” vary, so please check with your instructor or professor. Fort Wayne (Indiana) Journal Gazette , Aug. 2, 2009 , p. 11A . Many constituents are demanding that Republican legisla - MLA STYLE tors resolve the argument over whether Barack Obama was Jost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher born in the United States. 16 Nov. 2001: 945-68.

Sept. 11, 2001, Attacks APA S TYLE Jost, K. (2001, November 16). Rethinking the death penalty. Brown , Marian Gail , “9/11 Fiction Often Confused With Reality,” Connecticut Post , Sept. 6, 2008 . CQ Researcher, 11 , 945-968. Conspiracies began almost immediately after the attacks in HICAGO TYLE order to make sense of the disaster. C S Jost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher , Christianson , J. Scott , “9/11 Conspiracy Theories Twist November 16, 2001, 945-968. Logic,” Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune , Oct. 30, 2007 .

www.cqresearcher.com Oct. 23, 2009 907 In-depth Reports on Issues in the News

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