12/20/2003: 
Fraud & Conspiracy
Conspiracy Theories Back and Bigger Than Ever?
This US Today editorial suggests that conspiracy theories are on the rise and cites numerous instances where the paranoid could have reason for suspicion.
No, duh, really? I feel as if this nation has been idly standing by watching our moron president dodge questions while many of us have been screaming Wag The Dog at the war in Afghanistan...and Iraq. We have lots of reason to be paranoid and to believe that there's much more than meets the eye going on. Unfortunately, we've had our access to information cut off by this administration, which to me is a solid indicator that we're in for a surprise, like possibly Bin Laden's head on a platter on Christmas Eve. And if Dean doesn't shut up sometime soon, we'll be in for dubya for another few years.
6 Annotations Submitted
Saturday the 20th of December, Woody Allen noted:
there's a word for thinking everyone is out to get you...perceptive
Saturday the 20th of December, IBNR noted:
Shut your left wing pie hole.
Monday the 22nd of December, rafuzo noted:
What information sources that you previously used have been "cut off"?
Monday the 22nd of December, Steven Aftergood, FAS noted:
DOD INSPECTOR GENERAL TO CURTAIL WEB-BASED INFO
The Defense Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) has
adopted a new policy that would sharply limit the types of
information that may be posted on its web site, Defense Week
reported.
Not only will classified information be banned from the web, as
always, but so will all other information that has not been
"specifically approved for public release," as well as
"information that is of questionable value to the general public."
The draconian new policy was first described in "Pentagon IG Sets
New Policy on Web Information" by John M. Donnelly, Defense Week
Daily Update, December 18, reposted with permission here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2003/12/dw121803.html
Monday the 22nd of December, Steven Aftergood noted:
BUSH ADMINISTRATION SCRUBS THE WEB
The Bush Administration has repeatedly altered government web sites
to eliminate items that it considers politically or ideologically
distasteful.
In a gem of a news story, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post
reported that the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID)
had deleted the transcript of an ABC Nightline interview with AID
administrator Andrew S. Natsios last April in which he said the
reconstruction of Iraq would cost taxpayers no more than $1.7
billion, a gross underestimate.
See "White House Web Scrubbing," Washington Post, December 18:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9821-2003Dec17.html
AID officials told the Post that the page was removed because ABC
News was going to charge for it.
But the exemplary Milbank contacted ABC News, which said that
wasn't true.
A copy of the web page containing the Natsios interview that was
deleted from the US AID web site is here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/temp/natsios042303.html
Other instances of "political" modifications to official web sites
were cited recently in the House Government Reform Minority report
on "Politics and Science in the Bush Administration" available
here:
http://www.politicsandscience.org
Monday the 22nd of December, santo26 noted:
I've always thought the 1990s will be remembered as the decade of "The X- Files." Trust no one, I want to believe, healthy skepticism for the methods and motives of the government,/military industrial complex, etc. But wasn't the lovable huggable hillbilly Clinton in office then? We need to remember it is less about focusing our hate on the hood ornament on top of the United Statesmobile, and understanding what's underneath the hood, actually running the country.
