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ANALYSIS: Conspiracy Theories Arise From Sept. 11 Attacks
Friday, January 11, 2002
By James Rosen
McClatchy Washington Bureau

"Conspiracy thinking is an American tradition," said Robert Goldberg, a University of Utah historian.

WASHINGTON
Even in the wake of unspeakable evil, some people can't leave bad enough alone. Four months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a fresh crop of conspiracy theories is growing in American pop culture.

While the vast majority of Americans accept their government's claim that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network launched the attacks, a number of boisterous malcontents are peddling alternative explanations.

Fueled by factual nuggets gleaned from mainstream news reports and spread on the Internet and radio talk shows, the conspiracy theories point electronic fingers of blame in every direction.

Jump on the Internet or open some unsolicited e-mail, and you can quickly find knowing claims to the REAL VILLAINS behind the attacks.

* President Bush did it, the better to forward his ultimate aim of quashing individual liberties and creating a police state.

* The first President Bush did it in order to complete the New World Order he started with his international coalition during the Gulf War.

* President Clinton allowed it to happen by letting bin Laden roam free despite numerous opportunities for his capture.

* The Israeli Mossad secret service did it -- and warned thousands of Jews who worked at the World Trade Center to stay home that day -- as a pretext for suppressing the Palestinian revolt.

* The KGB -- which still exists, by the way, despite the demise of the Soviet Union -- did it to draw the United States into war against the ruling Taliban militants across the Russian border in Afghanistan.

"It is the latest and most dramatic attempt to move the world towards a state of fear, so that the people who control the globe -- called by many 'the Illuminati' -- can speed up their agenda for a One World Government, a One World Currency, One World Bank and total control of the masses," Richard Higgins, identified as a "popular television journalist," wrote in an essay carried on www.conspiracyplanet.com.

President Bush castigated those who spread such claims in a speech at the United Nations in November.
(More: The Nando Times News Source)
2002 © Nando Media.

Dan