March Of The Conspiracy Theorists

WS: America's Nuts Make The Long Journey To Washington

(Weekly Standard) 

Undoubtedly, Rove was also behind the campaign to "get" Georgia Representative Cynthia McKinney who was the first nationally-known politician to question what Bush may have known beforehand about 9-11. She was defeated by a former Republican state judge who had supported the wacky Alan Keyes for President in 2000. Never mind, McKinney was "less with Bush" than Keyes, so it was more important to get McKinney who was "more against" Bush.

Michael Ruppert, the grand-daddy of all conspiracy theorists was also a questioner. Ruppert has long made waves in conspiracy theory circles, claiming, for instance, that the CIA was responsible for flooding America's inner cities with drugs in the 1970s and beyond. According to the biography supplied at the conference, he has spent the last several years as "the point man in breaking major stories involving government foreknowledge [of 9/11], corruption and violations of the Constitution."

The panelists were of a similar bent. One of the featured speakers was David Ray Griffin. He spent his allotted time informing the audience that the Twin Towers collapsed not because two planes loaded down with jet fuel smashed into them at hundreds of miles per hour. Rather, a series of timed detonations brought down the buildings. Detonations placed by the government. "Hmm," the crowd murmured knowingly.

McKinney had also hoped that Senator Mark Dayton would appear at the panels. Dayton, a fellow Democrat, lambasted NORAD for its failures on 9/11 before a congressional hearing on the 9/11 Commission's report. Because he could not make it, McKinney played an audiotape of Dayton's impassioned testimony. After the tape stopped, McKinney ominously intoned that "shortly after his testimony, Dayton announced he wasn't running for the Senate again." Knowing murmurs again ensued.

When questions were allowed from the audience, one of the first was about Dayton's decision not to seek another term. Ruppert claimed that two words could explain why the Minnesotan wouldn't run again: Paul Wellstone.

Ruppert, it turns out, believes that Wellstone was killed for his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq. And this is not the first time Republicans have murdered political opponents shortly before an election. The 2000 plane crash that took the life of Missouri Senate candidate Mel Carnahan was also a murder, according to Ruppert.

Barbara Rosenberg, a microbiologist and expert in biological weapons, suggested that the postal anthrax attacks were part of a government effort to test America's preparedness for a biological attack.

To complete the scene, even Ward Churchill made an appearance, and he was happy with what he heard. "I liked the overall tenor," the University of Colorado chairman said. "The straightforward delivery was refreshing."

And, in its own way, informative.


Sonny Bunch is an assistant editor at The Weekly Standard.