Paranoia, Conspiracy and Yemen

He wounded leader of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, left the country over the weekend for Saudi Arabia. The opposition is thrilled. But the country might still descend into chaos, and the biggest beneficiary may be the local al-Qaeda chapter.

Or, at least, I believe that Saleh left and the opposition is thrilled. I'm not in Yemen at the moment. I didn't see Saleh get on the plane. I didn't see him arrive in Saudi Arabia. I haven't interviewed anyone in the opposition.

Like pretty much everyone outside of Yemen and many people inside the country as well, I'm relying on second-hand information provided in newspapers and on the Internet. I feel relatively confident that Saleh left the country — this account has been confirmed by multiple sources. However, some sources note that he might simply seek medical care in Saudi Arabia and then return to Yemen. Many reports suggest that the opposition is delighted with Saleh's departure, and since his ouster has been a primary demand, I don't see any reason to doubt this conclusion.

The part about al-Qaeda is much more difficult to verify. The U.S. government has certainly played up the threat of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and the group has claimed responsibility for several failed terrorist attacks, including the attempted Christmas bombing of an airliner by a young Nigerian, Farouk Abdulmutallab. On the other hand, according to The Washington Post, "some in the opposition to Saleh have expressed skepticism about even the existence of" AQAP. Somewhere in the middle is Max Rodenbeck, who writes in The New York Review of Books that al-Qaeda has become little more than a brand name and marginal offshoots like AQAP "have been relegated to merely proving their existence by killing now and then, or blowing something up." I'm inclined to side with Rodenbeck's interpretation, not because he lies in the middle but because it corresponds to my own understanding of the decline of al-Qaeda over the last decade.

Now let's wade into even murkier waters. Conspiracy theorists have argued that the Christmas bomber was actually a plot designed by the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service. No, wait, the plot was hatched by Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security chief, in order to sell his body scanners to a petrified nation. Whoops, I miswrote: it was actually a rogue team inside the U.S. government that was running the Nigerian as one of their own agents. Or maybe, like in a Dan Brown thriller, it was all three!

Myths And Hoaxes From 9 11 - News


Bunkum and Debunk 'Em

I could go on -- about the misrepresentations of the size of the hole in the Pentagon, other hoaxes involving advanced warnings of 9/11, and all the other fanciful theories about who was behind the attacks. The "9/11 truthers" are as resistant to



Paranoia, Conspiracy and Yemen

I could go on — about the misrepresentations of the size of the hole in the Pentagon, other hoaxes involving advanced warnings of 9/11, and all the other fanciful theories about who was behind the attacks. The "9/11 truthers" are as resistant to




Conspiracy Theories: Why People Believe In Hoaxes and Myths ...

Why do people want to believe in conspiracy theories, hoaxes and myths like the 9/11 conspiracy theory and the FEMA Concentration Camp myths? Is a theory a fact? Is a legend the truth? Is mythology reality? Is a myth real or make-believe? The truth is that truthers (those who choose to believe in hoaxes) are as far away from the truth as people can possibly get. American truthers think they have all of the answers. American truthers choose to believe in conspiracy theories against the American government, and against America, especially when conservative Republicans are in the majority of governmental leadership positions.  If you believe in a conspiracy theory, you may as well also believe in occult teachings. Maybe you already do believe in the supernatural realms of the occult. Legends are legends, and truth is truth. A theory is a theory and a fact is a fact. This is the truth about 9/11 conspiracy theories and the FEMA Concentration Camp Hoax: they are both lies, myths, hoaxes, or conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theorists want to steal your common sense away from you. If you value your own ability to think for yourself, do not believe in conspiracy theories, myths or hoaxes.


Myths And Hoaxes From 9 11 - Bookshelf

Debunking 9/11 myths, why conspiracy theories can't stand up to the facts

Debunking 9/11 myths, why conspiracy theories can't stand up to the facts

They will destabilize the public by inciting a series of wars and other mind- boggling hoaxes. . . . The government-inspired 9-11 atrocity proves Bush and ...

Email hoaxes, form, function, genre ecology

Email hoaxes, form, function, genre ecology

... by software security companies (eg http://www. sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes ... the 9/11 attacks are at the center of a whole maze of myths, allegations, ...

Hoaxes, myths, and manias, why we need critical thinking

Hoaxes, myths, and manias, why we need critical thinking

6 (June 1985): 62-68; W. Smith, "The Mattoon Gasser: A Modern Myth," International UFO Reporter 9, no. 6 (1984): 7, 9, 14; L. Coleman, Mysterious America ...

Lincoln legends, myths, hoaxes, and confabulations associated with our greatest president

Lincoln legends, myths, hoaxes, and confabulations associated with our greatest president

... on a weekday and would have taken the 9:44 PM train back to Indiana. ... one at 11:12 AM and one at 9:50 PM38 The 11:12 AM train out of Danville arrived ...

The importance of using 250-year-old data to debunk 1,449 regional myths published about the 1720s and 1730s

The importance of using 250-year-old data to debunk 1,449 regional myths published about the 1720s and 1730s

Purchase of the Valley by the Proprietaries, Oct. 11, 1736 6. ... destroy the more than 600 now cited myths and hoaxes which have been published since 1877.

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