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From: "Brian Davey" <•••@••.•••>
To: <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Conspiracies and Conspiracy theories
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 00:01:39 -0000
When Tony Blair wanted to discredit the idea that the
coming Iraq was was motivated by oil issues he accused
his questioner of promoting "conspiracy theories".So
when, yesterday, at the Stop the War meeting someone
said to me that he "didn't believe in conspiracy
theories" it set me thinking.
If you asked the person he said that he didn't believe
in conspiracy theories if he believed that US secret
services, the CIA and ONI (Office of Naval
Intelligence) organised "covert operations" he'd
probably say "of course". But covert operations by
people who run the secret services (as Bush Snr did, he
was CIA director) well, what are they, often, but
"conspiracies"?. For example the IranContra scandal in
the US in the 1980s was such a conspiracy which
involved lying to Congress and going against the US law
on a mega scale. Interestingly all the major players in
the IranContra are back in the US government, except
Oliver North. Admiral Poindexter is (in charge of
homeland security if I remember right). Otto Reich is,
Elliott Abrams is, John Negroponte is. These were
people who were found guilty of lying to Congress about
illegal operations organising death squads to
destabilise the Nicaraguan government, and who funded
this partly by billions of dollars of illegal drugs
sales. Then were later pardoned by Bush Snr (e.g.
Elliott Abrams let out of prison and now back in
government).....So what is meant here except
"conspiracy"?
But of course, "conspiracy" has become a "boo word" -
by denouncing someone as a "conspiracy theorist" you
effectively bracket them off and discourage people
looking into what they have to say - because you've
conveyed the idea that they are probably paranoid, and
have lost their critical capacities. In fact, paranoia
is only a mental health problem when you have lost that
critical capacity and openness to other interpretations
about things. Typically it is associated with a so
great a fear that one will be persecuted that this
becomes crippling to one's ability to cope with
everyday life and relationships. But for that to
happen you have to be important and a big threat to
bigger players. (That does happen of course - so I
guess there is such a thing as "healthy paranoia").
Actually "conspiracies" (con - spirare - from the Latin
to breath together) are a boo word to discourage people
looking behind the scenes. They are rather ordinary in
the world of business and even in everyday life. People
come together to act behind other people's back. People
cheat on their partners sexually, covertly. Businesses
make deals, or understandings to restrict competition
or get an advantage that they don't tell others about.
And governments, the business and banking elites, have
secret services that can play these kinds of game mega
scale too - and then hide what they are doing under the
cover of state secrets.
And this is not something that is happening on a small
scale. Since the CIA works with billions of dollars,
involving, for example, in Pakistan the heroinisation
of whole economies to pay, originally, for the Jihad
against the Soviets, the illegal operations actually
involve huge numbers of people acting outside official
government control, partly inside organised crime
networks, partly inside government. That doesn't mean
that everyone in these networks knows everything about
what everyone is doing. A pusher on the streets of
Nottingham, selling heroin or crack cocaine probably
has no idea about CIA involvement at the beginning of
the supply chain. Like underground cells in a
revolutionary movement the little players know only a
few immediate associates and have a tiny part to play.
Moreover the bigger players are regularly double
crossing each other, also covertly, and nothing in life
ever goes according to string pulling super worked out
mega plans. For one thing there is Murphy's law.
So, if you look at what really happens there's a lot of
variation. Many of the deeper processes in world
economics and politics take place as covert operations
and are illegal (as IranContra was) but the law proves
impossible to enforce and the crooks are later pardoned
(as Bush Snr did for the Iran Contra convicts like
Elliott Abrams when he left office in 1992); other
operations are not illegal but are hidden (as banking
and money laundering through offshore banks, where
places are created by multinational capital precisely
to evade laws and escape notice - the ubiquitous Swiss
bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts); other things
get revealed, but only partially and then are covered
up again as the bigger players can cover their backs
(like the BCCI scandal where the big cheeses in US
politics prevented the investigation going too deep -
or the Scott Inquiry in the UK where arms sales to Iraq
in the late 80s were skimmed over, a few scapegoats
identified and the big players escape). Then there are
international scams using insider knowledge of national
and global policy processes e.g. following up on World
Bank or IMF programmes - based on insider knowledge and
big scale bribery (e.g. privatisation programmes buying
local politicians first and then local assets on the
back of IMF policy).
There's a rich mixture - and sometimes allegiance,
alliances and trust break down among the rival
gangsters and then you see the results in world
politics - e.g. the fall out with Noriega, the fall out
with Saddam Hussein, the current breakdown in business
links between the Saudi royals and the Bush oil
dynasties
The bigger schemes are not even hidden (like the recent
'Great Game' plans in Central Asia in books by
Brzezinski etc about what "moves" the mega US interests
should make on the chessboard of world politics). These
things only get noticed by investigative reporting, by
spending enormous time trying to understand what is
going on. Many of these consciously planned strategies
global strategies, though open, are hard to find out
about and pass unnoticed by ordinary people - they fail
to make the newsworthy/simplicity test plus, of course,
they are just not being publicised as the same magnates
making them often own the media empires.
Thus one gets a whole dynamic going on behind what is
said on the front pages - which mega players are
perfectly well aware of. Their elite education trains
them to play these games in world politics and gives
them the start in life that gives them the connections.
They are, as the phrase goes, "well connected" -
something that in Britain starts in the public school
system. And so they know how to pull the strings. All
the public hears, as they return home from work is that
"Britain has decided to support this" "Washington is
pushing for that", "Berlin is opposed to intervention
in that"......From whence these decisions have come -
discussions in clubs, boardrooms, the corridors of
power, private meetings at Davos - about this ordinary
people have no idea. Thus there is nothing secret about
the fact that the Bushes and Bin Ladenes are long term
business associates.....
Here's some interesting links on the CIA's involvement
in organised crime networks and the Bush/Bin Laden
connection plus if you are interested in the unwritten
history I am attaching some stuff on Prescott Bush,
Dubya's grand daddy, and his business connections to
Nazi Germany (kindly supplied by Graham Pearson).
Here's some links to illustrate these ideas:
1. Mega plans following behind the world bank and IMF
partly based on Joe Stiglitz, chief economist of the
World Bank and Nobel Prise winner who got disgusted
with what was going on and spilled the beans to
journalists at the Guardian and people like Greg
Palast:
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=125&row=1
http://www.almartinraw.com/uri1.html
2. The Bush Bin Laden connections - and why they have
prevented serious investigation of Sept 11th
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/events/newsnight/newsid_1645000/1645527.stm
3. The CIA's involvement in drugs and organised crime rackets
http://www.drugwar.com/dwindex.shtm or
http://socrates.berkerley.edu/~pdscott/q.html or
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/CIAdrug_fallout.html
www.cia.gov/cia/publications/cocaine/index.html .
And make no mistake about it:
"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in
Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany.
That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders
of the country who determine the policy and it is
always a simple matter to drag the people along,
whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship,
or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or
no voice, the people can always be brought to the
bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to
do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce
the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the
country to danger. It works the same in any country."
- General Herman Goering, President of German Reichstag
and Nazi Party, Commander of Luftwaffe during World War
2, sentenced to death at the Nuremberg warcrimes trials
(committed suicide first).
--
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