9/11 CultWatch

The Monday Summary - Agent Annie and the Academics Go Into Battle

Welcome to our irregular Monday morning summary of recent events in the world of 'truth' movement activists, activism and anything else which tickles our fancy.

Firstly we must start with congratulations. Annie Machon, the former Secretary of the UK and Ireland 9/11 Truth Campaign, continued her rehabilitation from truth activism by speaking at a debate at the London School of Economics on 5 February. Amusingly entitled ‘What Have You Got To Hide’ the former MI5 officer debated Hazel Blears MP, the former head of GCHQ Sir David Omand and Matthew Ryder QC. By our simple maths, that was two people on the side of the intelligence services, one MP and one legal eagle. Who spoke up for the individual and who spoke, if such a thing is possible, for the masses?

Catching up with Robin Ramsay’s articles in Fortean Times over the past few months, 9/11 Cultwatch is reminded of the consideration given by academia to conspiracy theory. Ramsay sticks it to two academic adventures into this world – the 1998 Conspiracy Culture Conference at the University of Winchester, and the recent formation of the Conspiracy and Democracy Project at the University of Cambridge. Ramsay is dismissive of these projects, writing in his January column:

“But the conspiracy theories and democracy project precludes even considering that maybe some of the theories are true. Heaven forfend, that might even lead us into the growth of a national security state”.

The weakness of this analysis is that there are all manner of writers, researchers and critics of the national security state – Ramsay, at his best, has served as an important one himself. Glenn Greenwald, no matter his many faults, has articulated a whole series of concerns based on the whistle blowing of Edward Snowden. In part, the reason the likes of Sir David Omand are now to be found on stage at the LSE and appearing on television is to attempt to limit the damage that exposure of the national security state has caused the powers that be?

But that is only one part of the story. We surely need some form of approach towards the Alex Jones or David Icke material which clogs up the Internet? When we have a situation where no Muslim majority nation has over 30% of respondents who believe Al Qaeda carried out 9/11, we have a reality where conspiracy theory makes substantive analysis of terrorism, Al Qaeda and the war on terror, in those countries, impossible. In the long term, that is arguably as unhealthy as allowing a ‘national security state’ untrammelled power?

If academics can take the categorisation and analysis of such phenomenon forward – all well and good. If they don’t ………….someone else surely needs to?

The Monday Summary – Spiked, Aymeric Chauprade and Dieudonne

This occasional feature looks to bring together some of the articles and issues which have either caught the eye of 9/11 Cultwatch, or have been passed to us as important, by our contributors. If you see something that you feel may interest us, do contact either Paul Stott or Larry O’Hara.

In historical terms it has arguably been very difficult to discuss conspiracy theory without reference to anti-Semitism. As part of a wider examination of ‘The Jewish Question’ the Spiked on-line magazine ran an editorial on 3 February considering how contemporary conspiracy culture has made anti-Semitism respectable. We might add that it is such conspiracy thinking, along with the rise of Islamism, that gives contemporary anti-Semitism its impetus in Britain.

Over on the political right, the Gatestone Institute reported on 6 February that French Front National leader Marine Le Pen is guided by her Foreign Policy Advisor, Aymeric Chauprade. Little known in the UK, Chauprade was dismissed from his lecturing position at the French Military Academy in 2009, after adopting what could be seen as a conspiracist position on 9/11. There appears very little in English on or by Chauprade – for example all 22 links on his Wikipedia page are in French, as are all of the weighty articles comprising his collected works. This American far-right blog appears about the best English language source available, and quotes Chauprade thus:

“It’s true that I present the theory (of an Israeli-American conspiracy) in a favourable light, but I don’t say it’s my position. I wanted to show the opposition between two ways of seeing the world, aware that half of humanity thinks the 9/11 attacks were the result of a conspiracy, and not the work of al-Qaida Islamists.”

With advice like that, Ms Le Pen is going to get worse, not better.

Staying across the channel, the comedian  Dieudonne has featured on this site on a few occasions, due to his past association with 9/11 truther Thierry Meyssan and his anti-Zionist party. There is clearly money in jew-baiting – a police raid has uncovered 650,000 Euros under the bed in Dieudonne’s home. All those comparing him to Bernard Manning were clearly in error. If Dieudonne has a British inspiration, it is surely the Inland Revenue’s greatest opponent, Knotty Ash comedian Ken Dodd?  

The Monday Summary - An Ex-Truther, The New Age Debunked, and A First Woolwich Truther?

Welcome to the first of what will hopefully become a regular series, where each Monday I, or Heidi Svenson, will give readers a round up of issues surrounding 9/11 and 7/7 conspiracy theories, plus of course any related issues that tickle the fancy of those of us running this blog.

Charlie Veitch (Again) 

On 26 May, the Daily Telegraph's cultural magazine, Seven, had a two page feature on Charlie Veitch, a former pin-up of the 9/11 truth movement, who changed his mind about 'truth' theories and very publicly rejected them. Given the rather silly title 'The Conspiracy Against Charlie Veitch' the article sketches a man in a state of flux, although someone who clearly regrets the time he lost to the truth movement. Some other issues emerge - the movement's anti-Semitism, the nastiness and personal attacks towards Veitch when he 'came out' and finally Veitch's own honesty. When asked if there were psychological explanation for conspiracy theorists, Veitch puts forward the novel idea that they have an obsession with victimhood - a hatred of high achievers. This (interesting) suggestion is not one that is developed in any detail, although the interview ends starkly. When asked why such theories appealed to him, Veitch replies - 'ego'. 

If you want to read a more detailed breakdown of the politics, and experiences of two former 9/11 truthers from Lancashire, I recommend the interview with Louise Evans and Mick Meaney in issue 9 of Notes From the Borderland. Some of their experiences are similar to that of Veitch, others very different. 

The New Age Dissected

Although it is not without its flaws, each month Fortean Times always has something that interests. Earlier this year it published a special issue, number 300, with the front cover Apocalypse Not, following the various predictions that the world would end on 21 December 2012. The best of the article therein is Peter Brookesmith's 'Don't Get Fooled Again' which takes a hefty sword to the new age movement, who by any definition were central to all the Mayan guff. 
One thing Brookesmith does very well is devise a typology of the New age milieu. Consider these quotes:

"..the New Age embraces a pick'n'mix 'spirituality' looted from various religious traditions, the more obscure ethnically and the more readily romanticised the better".

"They also tend loudly to champion environmentalism, organic food, alternative medicine, 'lost ancient wisdom', a vague pacifism and take seriously a profusion of pseudoscientific fields"

"It is however, against almost everything that constiututes and underpins contemporary life in the post-Renaissance West"

and perhaps best of all "Far from being liberating, the outlook begets a deadly, humourless conformity of its own, one that's inevitably steeped in disapproval. It is a kind of New Puritanism" .

Go go to your local New Age shop, spend thirty minutes there, and you will see just how accurate Brookesmith is.  

The First Woolwich Truth Tweet?

The ideals of the 9/11 and 7/7 truth movements are now so widely dispersed, that as new terrorist attacks occur, they can be readily fitted into existing frameworks. There will be more to say on the responses to the Woolwich attack in due course, but I was taken by this great example of a Londoner hedging his bets:

 

#IAmAMuslim and I don't condone the woolwich attacks...

— wahid (@WahidAtTalib) May 22, 2013

Tbh I think its a set up. But still don't condone the attack #previoustweet

— wahid (@WahidAtTalib) May 22, 2013