Truthsmack #13:
When Does a Conspiracy Theory Become a Conspiracy?
We define a “conspiracy theory” as a narrative that departs from conventional notions of what happened. When does a conspiracy theory become an actual conspiracy? It takes evidence! Multiple credible, firsthand sources must converge and corroborate the alternative narrative.
Here are some recent examples of emerging evidence in conspiracies we’re studying. Please share this post on social media or email a friend who might benefit. Subscribe yourself or another inquiring mind (if you haven’t already) or sign up for a “Conspiracy Studies” class!
FBI report links Saudi ambassador to 9/11 plotters
Newly – and very quietly – declassified FBI documents provide more evidence that Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud had direct involvement with 9/11 plotters. According to the heavily redacted, 510-page FBI report released this month, San Diego-based Saudi spy Omar al Bayoumi was on Bandar’s payroll before the 9/11 attacks.
Bayoumi was helping a pair of 9/11 hijackers get settled in San Diego while Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., was hobnobbing with President George W. Bush so frequently he was nicknamed “Bandar Bush,” according to Mike Kelly of NorthJersey.com.
Last September, President Biden promised the 9/11 Families and Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism – some 1,800 plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia in 2017 – to release previously classified documents regarding possible Saudi complicity. Documents declassified last fall about an FBI investigation called Operation Encore revealed significant new information about a trio of Saudi officials operating inside the U.S. to support al Qaeda and advance the 9/11 plot. More documents will be released in the next few weeks.
MORE: 9/11’s Unanswered Questions
After a year, Capitol Riot roots still under probe
In the 14 months since the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, there have been four formal investigations and one trial. At least four narratives have emerged and the jury is (literally) still out.
1. Former President Donald Trump orchestrated an attempted coup.
2. Trump supporters attended a peaceful protest of the Electoral College vote and things got out of hand.
3. Antifa provocateurs breached the Capitol in a false flag operation to smear the Trump cause.
4. The FBI orchestrated a false flag operation to maintain Deep State control of the election process.
The ongoing House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Jan. 6 Committee) is a political probe into the events for the purposes of government oversight. It is examining Trump’s role (see Theory #1 and #2), but has no law enforcement powers. The Department of Justice Capitol Breach Investigation has actually charged some 725 rioters with federal crimes – Guy Reffitt of Texas was convicted on six counts this month.
The most significant trials will likely be those of the 11 Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy and other crimes related to the Capitol breach. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes III of Texas – a man suspected by some conservative pundits (i.e. Revolver) as colluding with the FBI (see Theory #4) – was indicted in January.
Latest COVID origin studies inconclusive
One year ago, the virologist who headed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Trump told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta that the novel coronavirus might have escaped by accident from a virology lab in Wuhan where scientists were studying it.
This “Lab Leak” theory was immediately dismissed by other experts but gained traction in August, when President Biden’s Intelligence Community assessment indicated some investigators were leaning towards a laboratory-accident scenario.
What most investigators do agree on is that more research needs to be done at the Wuhan Institute for Virology, a probe the Chinese government has opposed since the World Health Organization completed its initial assessment last March.
China insists that investigators need to do similar snooping around the U.S. Army biological research facility at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian says the existence of a coronavirus research lab near the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market is not the only coincidence to be found in Wuhan. The city also hosted some 300 American athletes at the 2019 Military World Games a month prior to the coronavirus outbreak.
A new study headed by George Gao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (still to be peer-reviewed) asserts that humans introduced the virus to the market, not infected animals.
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Steven Saint Thomas leads discussion groups and classes in journalistic inquiry for Cal-Poly Humboldt’s OLLI extension. Here are some upcoming classes (click “Learn More” to learn more).
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