Why bin Laden transfixes conspiracy theorists

It’s not hard to imagine why the announcement sounds suspicious: A decade-long search for an international terrorist ends with his body dumped at sea, with no photos, film or other documentation provided.

President Barack Obama's announcement on Sunday night that United States forces had killed Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden leaves a lot for conspiracy theorists to chew on. (Top 10 Conspiracy Theories)

"The potential is tremendous," said Barna Donovan, a professor of communications at St. Peter's College in New Jersey and author of the forthcoming book "Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious" (McFarland & Company, 2011).

In fact, the conspiracy theorists are already out. Politico reporting that radio host Alex Jones, who thinks the U.S. government was behind the Sept. 11 attacks, said that he believes that the government had bin Laden frozen for years. Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has also called the announcement a fake as did an arm of a Pakistani Taliban group, according to the website. A facebook group Osama bin Laden NOT DEAD has begun collecting attracting like minded people, and apparently fake photos of bin Laden's battered face have added fuel to the fire.

Ingredients for a conspiracy

"We have a couple of factors already that are coming out that naturally fuel the conspiratorial impulse," Donovan said. “Apparently there is no body, he was buried at sea. The conspiratorial mindset will glom onto that."

American officials have said they identified bin Laden's body with 99.9 percent confidence using DNA evidence, and that his body was photographed before being buried at sea, according to the Associated Press. (Officials said bin Laden was buried at sea because it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept his remains and because Islamic custom requires a swift burial, the AP reported.) [Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal With the Dead]

The lack of documentation leaves room for conspiracy theorists to question whether or not bin Laden is actually dead, or whether he died long ago -- as some, including the author David Ray Griffin, have suggested.

Another potential angle for conspiracy theorists is the timing of the announcement, according to Patricia Turner, a professor of folklore at the University of California, Davis. The most amusing theory she has seen so far speculates that Obama timed the announcement to knock Trump’s show reality TV show "Celebrity Apprentice", which runs Sunday nights, off the air to punish Trump.

Trump, who is considering running as a Republican candidate for president in 2012, has been questioning Obama's citizenship and, hence, his eligibility for office, echoing demands long made by conspiracy theorists dubbed "birthers." 

"That is a reminder as well that some of these things are amusing," Turner said.

Timing will likely feed many other theories, according to Turner.

"There are going to be people who say, 'Why couldn't we have done this earlier? Why did this take so long?" she said.

With the approach of the next presidential campaign, for example, some could speculate that Obama timed the action to boost his popularity. Others could speculate that bin Laden's death was staged or timed to get Americans energized about committing more resources to the war on terror, said Donovan.

"Usually conspiracy theories have political angle," he said.

Who are conspiracy theorists?

Conspiracy theories have flourished since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and in its aftermath, including the idea that the attack was an "inside job" perpetrated by the U.S. government, that bin Laden died long ago but the U.S. government never acknowledged his death as a way to keep support for the war on terror strong, and that Obama is a Muslim and in cahoots with terrorists. (Obama is a Christian.)

Conspiracy theorists tend to be "people who feel like they don't have power in the world, they feel like they have been victimized, they often come up with these explanations how somebody must be behind it," Donovan said.  

Mindset is important, according to Turner, who has followed the birther trend. Conspiracy theories regarding an event often arise when "an official explanation of it seems incongruous to some people who have a worldview that doesn't accommodate that legitimate explanation," she said. "Or that the information that one is getting is confused, chaotic and contradictory."

Dispelling myths

To keep theories from running wild, the Obama administration should release as much information as possible, and speak directly, without any euphemisms or language that seems to be hedging a bet, Turner recommended. However, full disclosure and the clearest of talk won't convince everyone, as evidenced by the hoopla surrounding Obama's birth certificate.

"There is going to be another element of the population that is so inclined to distrust his citizenship that they are going to find flaws with his birth certificate or alternative ways of believing he is not a citizen because they have a fundamental, abiding belief that he should not be president," Turner said.

If the administration were to release documentation -- say, film -- showing bin Laden's burial, people with this sort of mindset would find flaws, she said. And by denying the theories, there is the risk that the administration could plant the theories in the minds of those who have yet to hear them, she said.

Dispelling conspiracy theories could be an uphill battle for the administration. [Is This Article on Conspiracies Part of a Conspiracy]

"We love conspiracies," said Guido Stempel, who conducted national surveys on them as director of the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. These routinely found that a large portion of the population gave at least some credibility to theories, such as the U.S. government withholding information about the existence of extraterrestrial life.

In a survey in 2006, one of two that asked about the Sept. 11 attacks, Stempel and colleagues asked Americans if they believed federal officials either participated in the attacks or took no action to stop them "because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East."

Twenty percent said this scenario was very likely, while 16 percent said it was somewhat likely.

"That is 60 million people who think it's very likely the government got involved on 9/11. That's an awful thing for people to believe," Stempel said.

[stopbeingsheep]

Be smug all you want, but this economy is going to get all of us, including you. STOP BEING BRAINWASHED BY THE LABEL-PINNING MEDIA AND USE YOUR HEAD AND DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!
There is no HARD evidence that Osama was recently killed. They can SAY all they want about DNA, put up as many video game reenactments up as they want but....THINK! PEOPLE! THINK! 24-hour burial at sea, no footage of the burial, fake photos, anonymous Navy Seals, changing the armed/unarmed story, fake video of the back of the head of an Osama impersonator in Citizen Kane mode, locals never seeing him, tourists never seeing him, millions sent to Pakistan, anonymous pre-2001 videos sent over the years, December 2001 news reports of Bin Laden's death, videos of Bush in 2002 not considering Bin Laden a threat......GOD, HOW MUCH MORE DO YOU NEED? Photos of victims, video of the compound, of bloody mattresses? Seriously? That's evidence? Why are you people being such sheep? I understand why you Obama-celebrity-worshiping babies in your teens and twenties are brainwashed so I will let you off the hook, but are there any of you in your thirties and older who can step up to the plate and voice your doubts about this? Or are you going to let this political distraction take your minds off the economy that is going to kill you? You don't care about rising gas prices? Rising food prices? Unemployment? Are you going to let these young-uns who don't know what's ahead of them outshout you?

[Bojax39]

"Why bin Laden transfixes conspiracy theorists"

Because conspiracy theorists are easily transfixed... sort of like a parakeet with a mirror. Simply nothing better to do.

[oreo-master901]

Ahh, the naivety and ignorance of Americans. Unlike everyone else, at least Conspiracy theorist are smart enough to question the authority and honesty of the government. Americans don't even realize that the U.S. is practically socialist now.

[ajk_cbsnews]

Well, conspiracy theorists, aside, the Twin Towers did NOT collapse because of a kerosene fire! The entire event was far more advanced than anything a group of goofballs armed with box cutters could have ever pulled off! Anyone with a lick of common sense could figure that out!

WHY would anyone doubt the official government story about anything? Has our government ever lied to us before?

The Koolaid gulpers who believe any sort of drivel coming from FOX and the other corporate shills, are only kidding themselves AND when they finally realize what is going on, it will be TOO LATE!

Yep, ignorance is truly bliss! Time for Dancing With The Stars? Limbaugh? Hannity? Beck?

[oreo-master901]

Agreed. I have a friend who is an architect. He said that it is physically IMPOSSIBLE for the twin towers to collapse like that. If anything, the top of it would just have been knocked off. In order to totally destroy large structures like those, you would need to attack it at its foundation.

[nic1234567-2009]

oreo-master901 Your friend is not much of an architect if he told you that. The physics involved in the World Trade Center collapse is pretty well understood now. Rather than go into the detail here's an article you can read.

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0112/Eagar/Eagar-0112.html

[omnibus66]

Is the birth certificate real? Where are his report cards? Why doesn't he show his navel? Why was bin Laden buried at sea? Why no photographs?

All these dumb questions and many more will be continually asked until there is a white president in the White House.

[bumpyattacks]

rf35 that is disgusting

[guyfrompa46]

all you conspracy freaks need attention is that what it is.. Didn't get enough from mommy as kids? You're pathetic. He's dead and 9/11 was not an insude job. Grow up and act like Americans for once in your sorry lives.

[oreo-master901]

So in order to be an American, you cannot question the motives of your government? Then clearly Americans don't have freedom if that's the case. Americans are too trusting of their government. As soon as someone questions them, they immediately use 'national security' as an excuse. So much for promoting liberty.

[rktsci3127]

Alex Jones, Cindy Sheehan ??? Well at least we know what the flakes are doing now days.

[raster44]

For the life of me, I can't understand why they didn't bring his body back. US spent over a trillion dollars to catch this guy and countless lives were lost in the collateral aftermath, yet they bury Osama at sea? He's dead, what could he do? His followers are crazies and will do something to avenge his death whether he's buried or not. Hell, put him on display in a glass case for all to see. That ought to prove he's dead! Honor his Muslim faith? D'OH, he was cast out by any sane Muslims.

[oreo-master901]

Thank God there are still a few sane Americans in the world.

[crescentrose]

Or, you could just point out that Usama Bin Laden was a CIA asset during the cold war; that Bush the senior was meeting with two of the Bin Laden family *in the WhiteHouse* at the time of 9/11; that one of the Pakistani financiers of 9/11 also happened to be in the White House that day; that many of the hijackers had US visas; that one ex-government official alleges that US visas were routinely given to foreigners conduct terrorist activities in other countries behalf the CIA; that the Bin Laden family was escorted out of the country while the airspace was closed to everyone else...in a jet that the FBI says was possibly charted by Osama Bin Laden (they didn't know?); that demolition experts say that there is *no way in hell* that building 7 WTC, which, by the way, happened to house the New York Counterintelligence unit of the CIA, fell into its own footprint without explosives being set that any other time takes weeks to set up; that many firemen and civilians inside the WTC, and news reports from the day of 9/11, report hearing explosions in the basement of the Twin Towers AND in building 7; police and news teams reporting white vans with explosives in them around WTC and elsewhere near WTC; one of them seen and later captured in New Jersey with Israelis celebrating and filming the planes crashing into the towers; another was caught under the Washington Bridge; that at least one fo the white vans containing huge amounts of explosives was caught in the possession of Israeli "art students" who were subsequently cleared and sent back to Israel; that Larry Silverstein, owner of WTC, increased his insurance policy only weeks before 9/11 and that he is seen on camera saying that Building 7 was "going to be pulled down".

No, none of these questions are worth asking...they could only be thought up by crazies (i.e.; New York fireman; workers in WTC; rogue FBI agents, and just plain crazy citizens. It would be ludicrous after seeing the above to think that perhaps 9/11 report left out some crucial details and one has to wonder why.

[CBSCOMMENT222]

Why no mention of forensics on the house in Pakistan to come up with sufficient DNA prints to "give proof through the night"?

[prizm1]

"Usually conspiracy theories have political angle"

Usually main-stream media reports have political angle.