Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Examples of "wacko conspiracy theories" that ultimately panned out?

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Topic Forums » Election Reform Donate to DU
 
iconoclastNYC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 09:30 AM
Original message
Examples of "wacko conspiracy theories" that ultimately panned out?
Does anyone know of anything that was dismissed as a wacko conspiracy theory that ultimately turned out to be a REAL conspiracy.

The right-wing reaction was pretty much to dismiss this whole thing as a left wing fiction from the 'x-files wing of the democratic party'

I'd like a counter attack....can anyone help me?

Check my post at http://blog.christopherblair.net/form-doccomment.php?id=83

to see my best attempt at breaking the election story (to my 30 readers, LOL)
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
SheepyMcSheepster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 09:32 AM
Response to Original message
1. one conspiracy theory that didn't pan out.................WMD's
Edited on Mon Jan-31-05 09:32 AM by SheepyMcSheepster
i wonder who actually believed that whacky conspiracy theory? :eyes:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
electropop Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 09:35 AM
Response to Original message
2. Kerry uncovered a couple
BCCI (Bank of Credit & Commerce International)

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/

Iran-Contra & Ollie North's drug-running

http://www.webcom.com/pinknoiz/covert/irancontra.html
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
deutsey Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 09:42 AM
Response to Original message
3. Wasn't what was to become "Watergate" dismissed as a "3rd rate burglary?"
I think the Washington Post was the only paper that seriously pursued this story among major news media until it all broke wide open.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
deutsey Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 09:52 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Also, John Lennon was certain he was under surveillance and being
harrassed in the early '70s. He was largely dismissed as being paranoid at the time, even by friends of his.

As has been revealed in declassified FBI documents, Lennon was in fact targetted by the FBI and Nixon administration as a "radical" dissident and they were monitoring and harrassing him, and were even doing whatever they could to have him deported.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
iconoclastNYC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 10:07 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Was this part of COINTELPRO?
I learned about this in the movie (based on the book) STEAL THIS MOVIE.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
deutsey Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 10:20 AM
Response to Reply #5
7. COINTELPRO itself was something of a "wacky theory" until
it was exposed in 1971.

Although Hoover said that it was discontinued after this revelation, COINTELPRO-like efforts went on and I think Lennon's case definitely fits the profile.

http://www.lennonfbifiles.com/fbi.html

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0232237
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
hootinholler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 10:28 AM
Response to Reply #3
8. It was that work at the Post that broke it out...
It's not that they were following the story, they were investigating the story and breaking it. If it weren't for those pesky reporters, Tricky Dick would've been ok.

-Hoot
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
deutsey Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 10:40 AM
Response to Reply #8
10. Which explains why Bush is ok
No more pesky reporters, just servile ones.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
unpossibles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 10:11 AM
Response to Original message
6. we're staring at one which is unwinding right in front of our faces
Edited on Mon Jan-31-05 10:12 AM by unpossibles
The three bribed journalists are part of a larger plan, no question. I fully expect to see this unravel, especially as more journalists become pissed that they were not paid (or not paid enough or as much as...) and the rats start outing each other in the ensuing scramble. You never know - this could lead to certain propaganda issues related to the election coming to light also. Of course, the cynic in me is afraid that we may already be too late as this story is being dwarfed by the Iraq Elections. Wag the dog indeed.

Armstrong Williams, contracted by Ketchum Public Relations Firm (what a hoot of a name too! Yeah, we'll catch 'em all right...), the same firm who brought us last year's illegal fake news broadcasts pushing Bush's Health Care Plan using actress Karen Ryan as a fake news reporter (who also pushed NCLB).

My question has been, are any of the four of them involved with The Heritage Foundation, The Leadership Institute, or any other of the infamous tax-exempt "non-partisan" groups which have pushed NeoCon propaganda into the mainstream news for the past 30 years?



...on a side note and still about conspiracy nuts - I looked for the reactions of this at Freeperville and found this gem:
"Using Tax Payer Money to pay a pundit under the table to promote an Administration Policy is only something that could have been devised under the Clinton Regime.

For now I just will not believe that the current Administration would have stopped so low to do such a thing."


wow. Even when showed incontrovertible evidence of fraud and misuse (theft) of tax money by their own party, they still wear the blinders and blame Clinton.

Ironically, they are pointing out that Williams was hired by the PR firm, and thus the Education Department is not responsible, even though the PR firm was hired by them of course; the money did not just appear out of nowhere.

<joke> Hey, I hear Clinton is really responsible for the Holocaust and that's why Cheney did not dress up for the memorial service.... :eyes: </joke>
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
hootinholler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 10:33 AM
Response to Reply #6
9. Yes! Who else is paying for coverage?
My question has been, are any of the four of them involved with The Heritage Foundation, The Leadership Institute, or any other of the infamous tax-exempt "non-partisan" groups which have pushed NeoCon propaganda into the mainstream news for the past 30 years?


Excellent question that needs investigation. Who was paid by PACs? Or even private individuals?

-Hoot
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Darknyte7 Donating Member (687 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 12:06 PM
Response to Reply #6
14. Keen observation...
There just have to be more still that have yet been outed.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
NationalEnquirer Donating Member (571 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 11:07 AM
Response to Original message
11. I like the quote.
Just because I am paranoid, doesn't mean they're not all out to get me!

I say where there is smoke, there is, well, usually a flame.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
zbdent Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 11:45 AM
Response to Original message
12. Uh, Michael Moore bringing the attention to the bin Laden family flights
right after 9/11/2001 comes to mind.

The Right Wingers dismissed this as "a bunch of left-wing conspiracy nut kooks" . . .
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
anaxarchos Donating Member (963 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 11:54 AM
Response to Original message
13. There have been a million of them... almost.

Government involvement in the overthrow and assassination of Lumumba, Trujillo, Mossadegh, Allende, many others.
The Bay of Pigs.
Lying about the Gulf of Tonkin.
Incursion into Cambodia.
Bombing of Laos.
Cover up of the effects of Agent Orange.
Widespread torture and assassination in Vietnam (Operation Phoenix).
Surveillance and provocation of the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements.
Organized destruction of the Panthers.
Organized disinformation on Vietnam (Pentagon Papers).
CIA instigation of the "Civil War" in Angola.
CIA involvement in the Drug Trade (pick a year and a country).
Government experimentation with LSD, Radiation, Syphilis, etc. on unsuspecting subjects.

Many, many more... all revealed initially as conspiracy theories of the "loony left".


Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 12:26 PM
Response to Original message
15. I could spend years telling you about them...
Do a web search...

Start with Al Capone and the RICO stuff.

BTW... Conspiracy theories aren't all poof. When proven
they become crimes.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 12:28 PM
Response to Original message
16. Conspiracy == Organized Crime. n/t
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
McCamy Taylor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 01:01 PM
Response to Original message
17. Webb's Contra-Cocaine was dismissed, he was fired then later CIA admitted
that the whole thing was true, they really did protect cocaine importers because they were using them to fight commies, even though the cocaine smugglers were feeding the crack cocaine epidemic that was tearing up American inner cities and hurting babies.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
McCamy Taylor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 01:09 PM
Response to Original message
18. A few Bush ones that are still waiting to be proven
1. Bush and Co. arranged the Reagan assassination attempt. Nancy thinks they did it to get Poppy on the throne, and Nancy is smarter than the whole Bush family put together. At the time I thought that murder was too extreme for them. Now, I think nothing is too extreme for them. However, after that attempt failed, they couldnt dare try again, because Nancy probably made it clear that if a hair was ever hurt on her honey's head, every dirty secret the Bush family ever had would see the light of day, including....

2. Votes for Hostages which Poppy personally arranged. The guy who was president of Iran at the time later admitted that this happened but the American press wouldn't talk much about it and the documents that would prove it are probably still in the hands of the Iranian government. If US bombs are stupid enough to fall on Iran, these documents will be in the hands of French, Russian, Chinese, Indian and every other world journalist faster than you can say "There goes Poppy's legacy."
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 01:30 PM
Response to Original message
19. NINE Ph.D.'s, count 'em, NINE! Calling for full investigation of '04...
On Jan. 29, nine Ph.D.'s--experts from leading universities--issued a report that calls the 2004 election results into serious question. They find that Kerry won the exit polls (by a 3% margin). They find the odds against exit poll error--and thus, the odds against the Bush win in the official results--to be 1 in 10 million. They find a large, unexplained skew toward Bush at the precinct level in electronic voting vs. paper ballot (a skew that has been confirmed by several other reports--including one by U.C. Berkeley on Florida, below).

This Jan. 29 report also finds the explanation by Edison/Mitofsky (the exit pollster) for why Kerry won the exit polls--that Republicans were shy of the pollsters--to be without foundation. In fact, the data points to the opposite conclusion--that the exit polls actually favored Bush--which makes the unexplained discrepancy between the exit polls and the official results even larger. The report calls for a full investigation of the 2004 election--the latest in a growing list of expert reports that do so. See:

http://uscountvotes.org/ucvAnalysis/US/USCountVotes_Re_Mitofsky-Edison.pdf

-----

From the report:

----

"Summary

"As citizens in a democracy, we have an abiding interest in the integrity of the election process.

"The Edison/Mitofsky report confirms there were large differences between their exit polls and the official results of the 2004 presidential election – much more so than in previous elections. The national exit poll indicated a 3 point victory for Kerry; whereas the official election results indicated that he lost by 2.5%, a difference of 5.5%.

"The Edison/Mitofsky report fails to substantiate their hypothesis that the difference between their exit polls and official election results should be explained by problems with the exit polls. They assert without supporting evidence that (p. 4), 'Kerry voters were more likely to participate in the exit polls than Bush voters.' In fact, data included within the report suggest that the opposite might be true.

"Their analysis of the potential correlation of exit poll errors with voting machine type is incomplete and inadequate, and their report ignores the alternative hypothesis that the official election results could have been corrupted.

"The Edison/Mitofsky report states (p.12), 'We need to do more investigation into the causes of the statistical skew in the exit poll data for the general election.' USCountVotes agrees, and we suggest that that investigation extend to the official vote count tallies. In this context, USCountVotes affirms our mission to create and analyze a database containing precinct-level election results for the entire United States in order to do a thorough mathematical analysis of the 2004 election results.

"We invite all those who care about democratic processes in this country to join us in fully investigating and explaining what really happened in the 2004 Presidential election."

Contributors and Supporters include:

Josh Mitteldorf, Ph.D. - Temple University Statistics Department
Kathy Dopp, MS in mathematics - USCountVotes, President
Steven F. Freeman, PhD - Center for Organizational Dynamics, University of Pennsylvania
Brian Joiner, PhD - Prof. of Statistics and Director of Statistical Consulting (ret), University of Wisconsin
Frank Stenger, PhD in mathematics - School of Computing, University of Utah
Richard G. Sheehan, PhD - Department of Finance, University of Notre Dame
Elizabeth Liddle, MA - (UK) PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham Paul F. Velleman, Ph.D. - Department of Statistical Sciences, Cornell University
Victoria Lovegren, Ph.D. - Department of Mathematics, Case Western Reserve University
Campbell B. Read, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Statistical Science, Southern Methodist University

Also Peer Reviewed by USCountVotes’ core group of statisticians and independent reviewers.

Press Contact: Bruce O'Dell, USCountVotes, Vice President bruce@uscountvotes.org

-----

And here's a few more Ph.D.'s...

Exit poll analysis: astronomical odds against Bush win

Dr. Steven Freeman: http://www.appliedresearch.us/sf/epdiscrep.htm
Dr. Ron Baiman: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/997
Dr. Webb Mealy: http://www.selftest.net/redshift.htm

(Florida: 130,000 to 230,000 phantom votes for Bush--paper vs. electronic voting:)
Dr. Michael Haut & UC Berkeley stats team: http://ucdata.berkeley.edu

----

All of these people are tops in their fields. Would they risk their careers, not to mention life and limb, to support a "whacko conspiracy theory"?

----

And, really, all you have to do is LOOK at who owns the secret, proprietary source code that counts all our votes--Wally O'Dell (Bush "Pioneer," $100,000 donor--Diebold), and H. Ahmanson (rightwing whacko billionaire--ES&S)--to KNOW that this election was INVALID.

1. totally non-transparent election system
2. election machinery owned and controlled by the partisans of one candidate
3. highly suspicious results, according to numerous experts
4. massive violations of the Voting Rights Act in Ohio and Florida

If you are dealing with people who are living in delusion, or are in denial (shock of 11/2), forget it. Just work on the brainwashing, one step at a time. They CANNOT SEE reality. Facts will mean nothing to them. And if they are people who like benefiting from tax cuts for the rich, then forget them entirely. They have other motives for denying the truth.


Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Al-CIAda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 01:47 PM
Response to Original message
20. Operation Northwoods, 9-11 was an Inside Job....eom
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 01:53 PM
Response to Original message
21. FBI invented a whacko theory that Judi Bari and Daryl Cherney bombed...
...themselves in 1990. It took twelve years but eventually Bari's heirs and Cherney were given a multi-million dollar award by a jury, in a lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland police, for that dark chapter of the FBX-files.

The leftwing "wackos" turned out to be right (as usual).
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 01:56 PM
Response to Original message
22. And here's another one. I can't believe no one has mentioned it.
The "lone gunman" and "magic bullet" theory (Warren Commission Report) of the JFK assassination. Later totally debunked by a Congressional investigation.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Zan_of_Texas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 01:58 PM
Response to Original message
23. Delusional Wing of Planet Earth
Well, if someone had outed these conspiracies in advance, they would've been considered loony. (A conspiracy is people working together, generally in secret, to commit crimes.)

<> Ken Lay - At a company wide meeting, August 2001, Ken Lay told his employees, "I can honestly say the company is in the strongest shape it’s ever been in. Our performance has never been stronger. Our business model has never been more robust; our growth has never been more certain." He told his employees to buy more stock, and tell their friends and family too. Over the next few weeks, Lay sold $20 million worth of Enron stock. Three months later, the company went belly up. Employees were given 30 minutes to clear out. A month later, Lay had reaped $275 million from Enron in the past three years, and held over $50 million in real estate and stock. Lay sent his wife to do a teary appearance at the Today show, and claim they were all but destitute. Three years later, not one of the top dozen executives at Enron is in jail.

<> Catholic priests - hey, if anybody can be trusted with your kids, they can. Right? Hundreds of victims have sued and won, for abuse that was allowed to go on, and was hidden by higher-ups, for over 50 years. No one knows how many victims there were.

<> Tobacco -- the tobacco companies got together in a conspiracy 50 years ago to hide the health hazards and addictive aspects of smoking. They created fake research institutes to hide the evidence, and tell us everything was fine. They even got actors in white coats to tell you how good smoking was for you. Even now, smoking causes about 440,000 premature deaths a year -- or, roughly the equivalent of a 9-11 attack -- every two days.

Enron, the Catholic church, Big Tobacco -- conspiracy FACTS, not theories.

<> Then, there was the Bush administration and their weapons of mass destruction. The UN said, nope, we can't find any. But Bush said, "We know they have 'em. We are gonna protect Americans from a mushroom cloud. We can't tell you where they are, but we know they are there. Trust us. Give us your $500 billion a year and your kids, and we'll keep you real safe." With 100,000 Iraqis and 1200 American soldiers dead, I'm not feeling any safer.

Delusions, and illusions, and collusions.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 02:26 PM
Response to Original message
24. I agree with Al CIAda. 9/11 is the biggie.
Hard to choose the biggie, with all the deaths and untold destruction of entire societies caused by these various "whacko conspiracy theories" that turned out to be true.

But I think 9/11 is it.

Why was there no air cover over DC and the Pentagon on 9/11, when they had an hour to do something?

I think, in that question, lay the unraveling of this horrendous conspiracy.

It's pretty simple. Why was there no air cover, and no defense of any kind? Why?

-----

In a more complex vein--but since few know of it, I will mention it here--what does Nick Berg's beheading have to do with 9/11?

Well, nothing at all, your mind probably answers immediately. Think again.

In the various news reports about Nick Berg, the FBI (which, for some reason, was interrogating him in Baghdad, where he had ostensibly gone for electrical engineering work, at the height of the Falluja uprising) stated the following: That Nick Berg had been questioned by the FBI once before, just after 9/11, in connection with Nick Berg's email address and password being contained in Zacharias Moussoui's computer. Nick told them that he had met a stranger on a bus, on his way to a college class, and had permitted this stranger to use his email address and password. So the FBI said in these news articles. And they accepted his story, is what they said. No further investigation.

Zacharias Moussoui's computer was the computer that Colleen Rowley was trying to get into, in summer 2001--the item she was frantically signalling FBI headquarters in DC about. They denied her access to the computer (a routine request, almost always granted). She later said she felt it might have contained clues to the coming attack (9/11).

Would Nick Berg be one of those clues?

Is this the real reason why he was "beheaded" in Baghdad--that he had knowledge of 9/11, or had something to do with it?

What was he really doing in Baghdad? Whose idea was it to apprehend and interrogate him? And who really killed him (or arranged for him to be killed)?

We know what USE his death was put to? To smother over the revelation of the torture photos, and to stoke hatred against the Fallujans.

But that may have just been frosting on the cake. What use could a dead American be put to--if he had to be killed anyway?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
GettysbergII Donating Member (664 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 03:24 PM
Response to Original message
25. Aren't most crimes by necessity basically conspiracies?
Edited on Mon Jan-31-05 03:27 PM by GettysbergII
Unfortunately 'white collar' conspiracies get downgraded to 'scandals' at best where nobody important goes to jail or just flat out whitewashed.

Corporate: Tobacco companies suppressing knowledge that cigarettes are harmful to your health, then working to create more addictive cigarrettes. Incidently did anyone go to jail for mass murder on that one?

How bout Enron? The S&L scandal? Don't corporate conspiracies come to light all the time only to be called 'scandals'

Government:

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Coup.htm
THE BUSINESS PLOT TO OVERTHROW ROOSEVELT

In the summer of 1933, shortly after Roosevelt's "First 100 Days," America's richest businessmen were in a panic. It was clear that Roosevelt intended to conduct a massive redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. Roosevelt had to be stopped at all costs.

The answer was a military coup. It was to be secretly financed and organized by leading officers of the Morgan and Du Pont empires. This included some of America's richest and most famous names of the time:

* Irenee Du Pont - Right-wing chemical industrialist and founder of the American Liberty League, the organization assigned to execute the plot.
* Grayson Murphy - Director of Goodyear, Bethlehem Steel and a group of J.P. Morgan banks.
* William Doyle - Former state commander of the American Legion and a central plotter of the coup.
* John Davis - Former Democratic presidential candidate and a senior attorney for J.P. Morgan.
* Al Smith - Roosevelt's bitter political foe from New York. Smith was a former governor of New York and a codirector of the American Liberty League.
* John J. Raskob - A high-ranking Du Pont officer and a former chairman of the Democratic Party. In later decades, Raskob would become a "Knight of Malta," a Roman Catholic Religious Order with a high percentage of CIA spies, including CIA Directors William Casey, William Colby and John McCone.
* Robert Clark - One of Wall Street's richest bankers and stockbrokers.
* Gerald MacGuire - Bond salesman for Clark, and a former commander of the Connecticut American Legion. MacGuire was the key recruiter to General Butler.

The plotters attempted to recruit General Smedley Butler to lead the coup. They selected him because he was a war hero who was popular with the troops. The plotters felt his good reputation was important to make the troops feel confident that they were doing the right thing by overthrowing a democratically elected president. However, this was a mistake: Butler was popular with the troops because he identified with them. That is, he was a man of the people, not the elite. When the plotters approached General Butler with their proposal to lead the coup, he pretended to go along with the plan at first, secretly deciding to betray it to Congress at the right moment.

What the businessmen proposed was dramatic: they wanted General Butler to deliver an ultimatum to Roosevelt. Roosevelt would pretend to become sick and incapacitated from his polio, and allow a newly created cabinet officer, a "Secretary of General Affairs," to run things in his stead. The secretary, of course, would be carrying out the orders of Wall Street. If Roosevelt refused, then General Butler would force him out with an army of 500,000 war veterans from the American Legion. But MacGuire assured Butler the cover story would work:

"You know the American people will swallow that. We have got the newspapers. We will start a campaign that the President's health is failing. Everyone can tell that by looking at him, and the dumb American people will fall for it in a second…"

The businessmen also promised that money was no object: Clark told Butler that he would spend half his $60 million fortune to save the other half.

And what type of government would replace Roosevelt's New Deal? MacGuire was perfectly candid to Paul French, a reporter friend of General Butler's:

"We need a fascist government in this country… to save the nation from the communists who want to tear it down and wreck all that we have built in America. The only men who have the patriotism to do it are the soldiers, and Smedley Butler is the ideal leader. He could organize a million men overnight."

Indeed, it turns out that MacGuire travelled to Italy to study Mussolini's fascist state, and came away mightily impressed. He wrote glowing reports back to his boss, Robert Clark, suggesting that they implement the same thing.

If this sounds too fantastic to believe, we should remember that by 1933, the crimes of fascism were still mostly in the future, and its dangers were largely unknown, even to its supporters. But in the early days, many businessmen openly admired Mussolini because he had used a strong hand to deal with labor unions, put out social unrest, and get the economy working again, if only at the point of a gun. Americans today would be appalled to learn of the many famous millionaires back then who initially admired Hitler and Mussolini: Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, John and Allen Dulles (who, besides being millionaires, would later become Eisenhower's Secretary of State and CIA Director, respectively), and, of course, everyone on the above list. They disavowed Hitler and Mussolini only after their atrocities grew to indefensible levels.

The plot fell apart when Butler went public. The general revealed the details of the coup before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, which would later become the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee. (In the 50s, this committee would destroy the lives of hundreds of innocent Americans with its communist witch hunts.) The Committee heard the testimony of Butler and French, but failed to call in any of the coup plotters for questioning, other than MacGuire. In fact, the Committee whitewashed the public version of its final report, deleting the names of powerful businessmen whose reputations they sought to protect. The most likely reason for this response is that Wall Street had undue influence in Congress also. Even more alarming, the elite-controlled media failed to pick up on the story, and even today the incident remains little known. The elite managed to spin the story as nothing more than the rumors and hearsay of Butler and French, even though Butler was a Quaker of unimpeachable honesty and integrity. Butler, appalled by the cover-up, went on national radio to denounce it, but with little success.

Butler was not vindicated until 1967, when journalist John Spivak uncovered the Committee's internal, secret report. It clearly confirmed Butler's story:

In the last few weeks of the committee's life it received evidence showing that certain persons had attempted to establish a fascist organization in this country…

There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned and might have been placed in execution if the financial backers deemed it expedient…

MacGuire denied allegations under oath, but your committee was able to verify all the pertinent statements made to General Butler, with the exception of the direct statement suggesting the creation of the organization. This, however, was corroborated in the correspondence of MacGuire with his principle, Robert Sterling Clark, of New York City, while MacGuire was abroad studying the various form of veterans' organizations of Fascist character.

Needless to say, the survival of America's democracy is not an automatic or sure thing. Americans need to remain vigilant against all enemies... both foreign and domestic.



The Wall Street Fascists
http://www.wethepeople.la/tracey.htm

The following bit of information, omitted from our history books, illustrates the motivation and power of Committee 300 members. It involves a highly decorated Marine Major General named Smedley Butler, beloved by veterans for his courage and compassion, and described by Teddy Roosevelt as "the finest fighting man in America." The retired Butler was approached by a man named MacGuire who came as a representative of Morgan, Rockefeller, DuPont and other Wall Street moguls who wanted the Major-General to lead a coup d’etat against the FDR White House in the 1930s.

Why? During the Depression FDR took steps to get the economy moving again – steps benefiting the people and hurting corporate profits. The business press called FDR "a traitor to his class…an impulsive, uninformed opportunist…lacking stability…reckless…unreliable" (everything but a "loose cannon").

What happened? Major Butler played along with MacGuire’s request and, when he felt he had enough information, asked a reporter friend to investigate the story. His friend gained MacGuire’s confidence and was given the same facts, including information about a right-wing political group that would soon emerge. Once the group emerged as predicted and the reporter confirmed the details of the planned coup, Major Butler brought his evidence to the authorities.

The result? After refusing to subpoena witnesses who could take the testimony beyond hearsay, the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional Committee formally stated there was no evidence of conspiracy. However, a report "for Congressional members only" (leaked to a reporter named Spivak) stated: "There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient."

And our vigilant friends in the media? Time Magazine called the allegations a joke, thus ending mainstream media coverage. Only one small left-leaning publication printed reporter John Spivak’s story of this attempted coup of the US government.

[A Man in His Time by John Spivak; Witness to a Century by George Seldes.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
cindyw Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 03:59 PM
Response to Original message
26. There was crazy theory that entire race of people was conspiring to hold
down another race of people in the US. But how stupid was that. I mean people who thought that must hate America to think so poorly of Americans. Can you imagine the amount of amount of planning that would be needed to accomplish something like that?

:crazy:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
troubleinwinter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 05:38 PM
Response to Reply #26
28. BEST POST OF THE WEEK AWARD.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
cindyw Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 10:45 PM
Response to Reply #28
29. Why thank you!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
bush_is_wacko Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 04:59 PM
Response to Original message
27. Bush will serve two terms despite never actually winning an election!
This is the wackiest conspiracy theory that turned out to be 100% true and my life-long liberal father predicted it BEFORE the 2000 election! He is ALWAYS right and ALWAYS lucky. Kind of reminds me of Nostradamus!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Thu Apr 25th 2024, 06:19 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Topic Forums » Election Reform Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC