NP? conspiracy theories

[Doug Millison]

"[...] Conspiracy theories may seem more nuisance than problem. But they do
compete with reality for attention. There is plenty to be outraged over
without becoming obsessed with X Files-like nonsense. Examples? There's the
intelligence services's failure to protect Americans and the lack of
criticism of the CIA from elected officials. Or, General Tommy Franks, the
commander of military operations in Afghanistan, declaring the commando
mis-assault at Hazar Qadam, which resulted in the deaths of fifteen to
twenty local Afghans loyal to the pro-U.S. government, was not an
intelligence failure. (How can U.S. Special Forces fire at targets they
wrongly believe to be Taliban or al Qaeda fighters, end up killing people
they did not intend to kill, and the operation not be considered an
intelligence failure?) More outrage material? A few months ago, forensic
researchers found the remains of people tortured and killed at a base the
CIA had established in the 1980s as a training center for the contras. The
U.S. ambassador to Honduras at the time is now the U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations, John Negroponte.


There is always national security misdeeds to be mad about. They may not be
as cinematic in nature as a plot in which shady, unidentified U.S.
officials scheme to blow up the World Trade Towers to gain control of an
oil pipeline in Central Asia. But dozens of dead Hondurans or twenty or so
Afghans wrongly killed ought to provoke anger and protest. In fact,
out-there conspiracy theorizing serves the interests of the powers-that-be
by making their real transgressions seem tame in comparison. (What's a few
dead in Central America, compared to thousands in New York City? Why worry
about Negroponte, when unidentified U.S. officials are slaughtering
American civilians to trigger war?)


Perhaps there's a Pentagon or CIA office that churns out this material. Its
mission: distract people from the real wrongdoing. Now there's a conspiracy
theory worth exploring. Doesn't it make sense? Doesn't it all fit together?
I challenge anyone to disprove it.

David Corn is the Washington editor of The Nation.  "

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12536