And the heavy put buying on United and American Airlines just days before 9/11. I’m offering up the rebuttal to the “conspiracy theorists” but they simply say that these traders didn’t have any links to al Qaeda, which wasn’t what the “conspiracy theorists” were suggesting in the first place.
And, of course, there’s the EPA telling NY residents that it was safe to breathe the air after 911 (and President Bush telling everyone in the U.S. to “go shopping”!).
“Three days after 9/11, following questionable air sampling techniques, a spokesperson for the EPA said that levels of asbestos were either at low levels, negligible, or undetectable.
“I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C., that the air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink,” Whitman said one week after 9/11.”
Before I run down the rest of the “conspiracy theories,” I want to talk about what I see as a conspiracy. As I said before in this thread, “I know [the government lies], and sometimes even for malevolent reasons. “ The government lying to us isn’t necessarily a conspiracy. When I say conspiracy theorists are basically always wrong, I’m talking about government plots. Faking the moon landing. Perpetrating the 9/11 attacks. That sort of thing. I’m going to go out of order:
#8 Fasicst Plot to take over America: This got nowhere. No one in government would go along.
#9 Gulf of Tonkin: This was a lie to cover up a mistake. Not a conspiracy.
America perpetrated 9/11: Just lunacy. No evidence that stands up to scrutiny.
Infiltrate Occupy Wall Street: This was a lot of government bungling. They got a bit overzealous.
#7 False witness on Iraq: A lie, to be sure. Not really a conspiracy.
#5 Asbestos: This was a corporate cover up to keep a company alive. Quite nasty, and you could call it a corporate conspiracy.
Safe to breathe 9/11: I’m not sure about this one. Having read about it, it looks like a lot of government incompetence and some lying. I work for the federal government. It’s a terribly-run operation in the best of times. At a time like the aftermath of 9/11, I would expect nothing better than confusion, chaos, and utter incompetence. (Except, of course, from the air traffic controllers, who are relatively free of red tape and who did a masterful job.)
These next three could, from a certain point of view, be considered government conspiracies. They were all extended misinformation campaigns designed to sway public opinion. There was no direct action, though. So really, it’s just a lot of lying.
WMD in Iraq: They strategically and purposely lied to us for the purpose of rushing to a war they wanted.
#4 Cointelpro: This was a concerted effort to target the entire left wing: anyone liberal was seen as a danger and slandered in print.
#6 Mockingbird: The purpose was to influence media toward hatred and fear of Soviet Communism. Led to rise of McCarthy.
Here’s one that does rise to the level of conspiracy:
#10 Poison Alcohol: The FBI purposely poisoned thousands of Americans. Horrible.
So, I’m going to come off my position of basically always wrong. The U.S. government did, at least once, conspire against some of its people. I do maintain that the notion that conspiracy theorists are right more often than not is preposterous.
