(originally posted by Norm on The Door Magazine Chat Closet)

Well, as a former news reporter, I can tell you that in order for a TRUE conspiracy to work, two things must happen: 1)ALL parties must be in agreement. 2) A completely duped and/or willing media is necessary to fool the masses.

There isn't a government agency within the US that could have an entire administrative staff agree that the sun rises in the east. Really. Ask Rob, who works for the government, how often admin. types agree on anything.

Secondly, the press corps (particularly the WHPC) would eventually sniff these things out - like Iran / Contra. It is true that the majority of "seasoned" veterans can keep secrets with the big boys in return for special favors like THE BIG INTERVIEW, or some juicy sex scandal. But you can always count on some rat bastard with integrity to spoil all the fun. These are usually the new reporters fresh out of J-school with the really silly notion that they should report the truth. They will pay for their blunder, and eventually will fall in line with the rest of the "pros". Muckrackers never last long within the news media machine. They wind up being columnists (like me ), or totally insane (uh...). That's why BIG conspiracies don't work in the US.

In totalitarian governments, these reporters are simply shot, or worse. While in Haiti, I saw one such idealistic, young journalist who earned a flaming necklace for his troubles.

You are correct in asserting that the US is not immune from evil. In fact, evil intent seeps from every pore of our institutions. Even when we seek to do what we think is right, we often get it wrong. That's just the nature of the beast. The best (and only) counter to that is a free press and an open mind.

It is certainly true that the US supported both Hussein and bin Laden in the past, but only because they were the enemies of our enemies. Bin Laden was very familiar with how the diplomacy game is played. After all, his family had money (THAT always gets the attention of members of congress) and access to media. He knew that we were obsessed with the "threat" of communism. He knew that we were suckers for a sob story about the poor, repressed people of Afghanistan being overrun by a godless, brutal Soviet dictatorship. Who knows if bin Laden had in mind the goal of taking down America at that time? Who could have forseen his TRUE intentions?

Ditto Saddam. Ironically, we supported Saddam because he was the enemy of the Wahhabist sect of Islam that bin Laden professes. I don't believe our support was to secure cheap oil, but to encourage "secular" governments in the Middle East - even if that meant we had to look the other way while brutal dictators built power, much to our shame. We seem to have this aversion to theocratic institutions, no matter what the alternative suggests. Besides, we get most of our oil from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. I think prior to the embargo in 1991, we got maybe one tenth of one percent from Iraq. Only France, Germany, Korea, China and Russia get oil from Iraq. Hmmmm. If you want a conspiracy, try there!

Conspiracy theories depend too much on people being predictable, and NO ONE (however accidentally) doing the right thing. That kind of order can only be attained at the end of a rifle and total control of the news media. Even then, the spirit of freedom lurks in the shadows waiting for an opportune moment. Just one rat bastard with the truth...