Read Conspiracies: The Facts * the Theories * the Evidence Online
Authors: Andy Thomas
Tags: #Conspiracy Theories, #Social Science
from Rostov-on-Don, an apartment building in the city of
Volgodonsk was blown up last night.
This statement was miraculously prescient; the Volgodonsk
apartments were not bombed until three days after this statement
was made.
When Volgodonsk was indeed then hit, explanations were
demanded, but Seleznyov refused to answer, to the point of turning 196
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off his microphone in the Duma chamber – a strange response
to pertinent requests. Two years on, Seleznyov eventual y stated
that he had been referring to another attack in Volgodonsk and
that the dates had simply been mixed up. Given that this other
incident had been a small and unsuccessful grenade incident, it
is hard to see how it could have been described in the terms he
used. Unsurprisingly, many were left unconvinced by this less-
than-satisfactory clarification. The resonance of this with the BBC
announcing the fall of WTC 7 in advance of its actual col apse
has not gone unnoticed, suggesting that a pre-scripted statement
may once again have been issued somewhat earlier than intended,
implicating Russian intelligence services in knowing full well what was due to happen.
More charges of conspiracy were aimed at Russia when, on 10
April 2010, a plane carrying the Polish president Lech Kaczyński, together with many senior members of his government and
the president of the National Bank of Poland, crashed in fog
near Russia’s Smolensk airport. There were no survivors. The
contingent had been on its way to Warsaw to commemorate the
70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, where Soviet secret police executed thousands of Polish citizens in 1940, and feelings were
still running high on both sides. Perhaps this is why, despite the poor flying conditions and the verdicts of pilot error, accusations were rampant that Russia had somehow staged the crash in some
kind of attempt to weaken the political resolve of its neighbour.
Rumours (based on unproven audio recordings) of survivors
being shot at the site of the accident were rife, and weaknesses
in the subsequent Russian investigation, including discrepancies
in the claimed autopsies, have led to allegations of a cover-up by Russia and cal s for an independent international inquiry.9
In this case, such theorizing could be born of grief, historical
resentments and the need to find someone to blame for a terrible
occurrence, although it might also be observed that placing so
many important officials on one vehicle is probably not a very
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wise thing to do. It does seem to be a mistake made just a little too often, as was seen in the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash (first blamed on the pilots, then ‘faulty software’) at Scotland’s Mull
of Kintyre, which managed to eradicate 25 important counter-
terrorist officers from Northern Ireland, or at the later shooting down of the aforementioned helicopter (also a Chinook), which
took the lives of several of bin Laden’s claimed assassins.10
7/7
For the majority of conspiracy theorists, Britain itself was the target of a significant false-flag terror attack on 7 July 2005 (‘7/7’). The official account has it that four home-grown Muslim extremists
blew themselves up in London on a bus and three underground
trains that morning, taking 52 passengers with them and injuring
many more. These devastating attacks so shocked the nation, for all its memories of IRA action in previous decades, that questioning
it is still a taboo in many forums, generating disgust and anger.
But, like 9/11 before it, doubts have crept in over the years, leading many truthseekers to ponder a number of anomalies.
Among the concerns, the following items are the most
conspicuous:
• The lack of any clearly identifiable CCTV images of the
bombers.
• Timecode and timeline discrepancies in the released
security footage.
• Notable contradictions and inconsistencies in the official
account’s version of which trains the bombers took and
precisely where the explosions took place. The train they
were initial y claimed to be on was actual y cancelled that
morning, for example, forcing a later revision of the official
narrative to account for this.
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• The supposed terrorists had long been under surveil ance
by intelligence forces, and may even have been recruited by
them to take part in mysterious ‘exercises’.
• Similar ‘exercises’ were taking place the very day of 7/7,
which postulated a scenario of bombs going off at the
very stations
where three of them were then apparently
detonated (as related that morning by security adviser
Peter Power on BBC Radio 5 Live).
• Images from the trains appear to show damage coming
from
beneath
the carriages.
• Peculiarly specific damage to the bus which blew up at Tav-
istock Square (which one witness claims was deliberately
diverted from its normal route by obstructive cars).
Other problematic areas have also been cited, but it can be seen
from these points alone that even this seemingly straightforward
terrorist case is rife with unexplained incongruities that were
guaranteed to set conspiracy theories running.
Certainly, the claim about exercises ‘coincidental y’ occurring
at the vital 7/7 flashpoints stretches credulity, especial y when compared to the almost identical situation with the dril s on 9/11
(
see
p. 178). Claimed links between the bombers and the British security services, who, it is now confirmed, knew of their extremist leanings and had been monitoring them for some time, have led
to speculation that they were encouraged and allowed to carry out the attacks, set up as patsies (as may have occurred with the 1993
bombing of the World Trade Center –
see
p. 53). Others believe they may have been duped into participating in an exercise that
had them carrying live explosives without their knowledge, which
were then set off by remote control. Yet the reports (and images) of damage apparently having come up from below the carriages, rather than in them, have led some to wonder whether the explosions were entirely, or partly, the result of bombs planted on the tracks rather than backpack blasts. One survivor from the Aldgate train said:
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The policeman said ‘mind that hole, that’s where the bomb
was’. The metal was pushed upwards as if the bomb was
underneath the train. They seem to think the bomb was left
in a bag, but I don’t remember anybody being where the
bomb was, or any bag.11
The memories of several other survivors concerning the
bombers or what they were wearing seem very hazy, with many
contradictory descriptions having been given. A number of other
accounts suggest a complete absence of the men that the official
versions insist were there, but most of these reports have been
ignored by the authorities.
All these ‘disgraceful’ conspiracy theories might be cleared
up easily with definitive proof and unequivocal security footage, but what has been presented to support the orthodox account
of 7/7 thus far is inconclusive, with only one bomber actual y
being identifiable by his face in the available images. This has not stopped official inquiries from drawing firm conclusions based
on evidence that would not normal y be considered admissible
in court, with an absolute presumption of the accused men’s guilt seemingly having been established before investigations even
began – just as with 9/11.
The 7/7 situation is admittedly far less clear-cut than 9/11, and different in as much as there is so little visual material available for analysis. This has enabled the concerns to be more easily sidelined in the public eye, but the ongoing truth campaigns speak of a
determination in some quarters not to let the issue go.
Drawing Threads Together
What nearly all of these modern false-flag allegations have in
common is that they are considered by truthseekers to be part
of a pattern which lays down a solid path for the machinations
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of the New World Order. Other possibilities are usual y added
to this list, including the 2004 Madrid train bombings in Spain,
the Bali bombings of 2002 and various failed attacks from shoe
or underwear bombers on planes, together with all manner of
exposed ‘al-Qaeda-linked’ plots around the world, which seem
designed to heighten fear and hatred towards the Muslim world
and increase oppressive social controls in the name of safety.
Indeed, there is substantial evidence that the threat from the
catch-all al-Qaeda quarter may well have been exaggerated for
effect, as we shall see in chapter 8.
Before we explore the New World Order threads in more detail,
there is one more strand of conspiracy theory that also needs to be taken into account, one which has taken a back seat so far in this text: the wide belief that, in addition to geopolitical manoeuvring and social engineering, more paranormal elements may drive the
motivations of those pulling the strings.
In Summary . . .
9/11 and Related Conspiracies: Arguments Against
9/11 is too big to have been attempted as a false-flag event, involving
too many people and risking exposure for the perpetrators – Who
would do such a thing ‘to their own people’? – The anomalies in
the official timelines, records and forensics of the attacks are nothing
more than inevitable confusion in the ‘fog of war’ – The col apses of
the towers were natural and ful y consistent with the laws of physics,
albeit constituting unusual occurrences or a ‘new phenomenon’ –
Government-sponsored scientists are more qualified to comment
on what occurred than so-cal ed physicists from the ‘fringe’ – It is
disrespectful to the victims of 9/11 to chal enge the details of what
occurred – Questioning 9/11 is unpatriotic, even treasonous – The
media firmly support the official version of events and thus the
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‘truth movement’ cannot be right, or it would have gathered more
mainstream support – Evidence for other claimed false-flag events is
equal y tenuous and should never be taken seriously.
9/11 and Related Conspiracies: Arguments For
It would not take that many inside operatives to grease the path to
successful attacks, sowing enough confusion to cover their tracks
– Some argue the perpetrators ARE being exposed and the power-hungry rarely have scruples about kil ing their own people – The
anomalies of 9/11 are simply too many and too extraordinary to be
written off as coincidences – The ‘new phenomenon’ explanations
for the fal s of the towers rely either on guesswork or demonstrably
distorted hypothetical models which do not take into account the
real conditions on the day, or misrepresent the physical attributes
of the buildings – The scientists chal enging the official story are as
qualified, sometimes more, than those paid to put the government
view – More disrespect is shown towards the victims of 9/11 by
not investigating precisely what happened, ignorance risking other
such events being staged – The attacks are more likely to have been
treasonous than those seeking the truth about them – The media
is complicit with the cover-ups around 9/11, whether through
institutional scepticism or intimidation – The discrepancies around
other false-flag possibilities display similar patterns to 9/11 and are
unlikely to all be imagination.
ConClusion
Of all the many conspiracy claims, 9/11 has the most layers of
evidence, suggesting that whatever the ultimate truth of the
attacks, the official version fails to address legitimate concerns which hint at other agendas being played out. The increasing
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public doubt over 9/11, backed up by the unusual but telling
support of a significant number of high-calibre professionals and academics, speaks of a meaningful disquiet that deserves some
proper attention.
With the establishment showing every sign of wanting to sweep
the whole thing under the carpet of history – as with JFK, the USS
Liberty
, the Tonkin ruse and various other incriminating events which have fallen into a hazy mythological past – the 9/11 truth
movement feels an urgency to preserve the issues in the public
eye. As the tapestry of contemporary global conflicts and liberty issues is still firmly rooted in the attacks of 2001, and with related incidents showing signs of similar manipulation, there is at least the opportunity to keep the flame of enquiry burning. For if 9/11