Conspiracy Monday: Did Jews Have Advance Warning of Paris Attacks?

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ISIS and Benjamin Netanyahu collaborate in the mass-murder of Parisians 

Whenever anyone identifies a bad thing that might pertain to some Muslims, it is always qualified with "but the majority of Muslims are not x." Often, "vast" is added, as in "but the vast majority of Muslims are not x." Even Islamophobes like me do this. For example, I think it's true that the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists.

But I'm now going to buck that trend now. Here goes.

The majority of Muslims are anti-semitic.

I almost added the word "vast", but I think I'll play it safe.

Now, I know that even the term "anti-semitic" is dodgy. On its precise meaning it could mean being against, say, middle-eastern Arabs as well as Jews. But everyone understands how it is usually used. If you like, I can rephrase it:

The majority of Muslims do not like Jews.

How do I know this?

Well, among other things there are numerous surveys that show it. Indeed, every survey does. Ask any group of Muslims in any country (Muslim or non-Muslim) some question pertaining to Jewish things, and a large majority will come down on the anti-Jewish side. And this often means believing in kooky conspiracy theories such as that the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, is responsible for anything bad that ever happens.

But to support the claim that the majority of Muslims do not like Jews, I could also give you primary sources, secondary sources, personal anecdotes about literally every Muslim I have ever known or met, historical evidence or citations from the Koran and the Hadith.

I could write a book, giving testimony on Muslim anti-semitism for any set of Muslims you want to name--fundamentalist Muslims, liberal Muslims, secular Muslims who are Muslims mostly by birth only, etc. etc.

The majority of Muslims do not like Jews. Don't blame me, man. I didn't do it.

Now, if you are determined to disagree, you can reject all of it by simply responding:

Well of course that's just because of the Israeli occupation.

I won't even dignify that with a response other than to say that if that comes so easily tripping off of your tongue, you probably do not like Jews yourself. Don't worry, you have a billion Muslims to keep you company.

In any case, on to the news story of the day. In this instance, it's three stories from the official news agency of Iran, the official news agency of the PLO and Mahathir Mohamad, the former long-time leader of "moderate" Muslim Malaysia. Mahathir is a sort of perennial post-presidential anti-semite. You know, like Jimmy Carter.

Iranian Government:

Iranian news claims Jews had advanced notice of Paris attacks, just like 9/11 

Iran's official FARS News Agency says that Jews had advanced warning of the Paris attacks so they could stay away from the bombings and shootings, just like they supposedly had advanced warning of 9/11. 

The article is entitled "Paris bombings - fingerprints of the Zionists are found again." 

"In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris it has been confirmed once again that the French Jews were on the lookout for the occurrence of the tragedy, as happened in the September 11 incident 14 years ago as Jews working in the Twin Towers did not go to work that day," the Arabic language version of the news site said. 

Read the rest at Elder of Ziyon.

Palestinian Authority:

'Appalling and outrageous': Palestinian press blames Paris attacks on Israel 

While the world mourns for Paris, the Palestinian official media makes the ridiculous claim that Israel was behind Friday's attacks. 

While the civilized world mourns for Paris and prepares to take the fight to ISIS, the official Palestinian Authority media is making the preposterous claim that Israel was behind Friday’s attacks that killed 129 people in the French capital. 

In opinion columns and editorial cartoons, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official news organ of the West Bank government’s latest cockamamie conspiracy is that Israel’s secret service plotted the horrific attacks. Never mind that ISIS has claimed credit for the six coordinated bombings and mass shootings that also injured hundreds. 

“It is clear that it's ‘Mossad’ will burn Beirut and Paris in order to achieve [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s goals,” wrote the editors, who answer to President Mahmoud Abbas. 

See cartoon, above and read the rest at Fox News.

 Mahathir Mohamad:

Former (Malaysian) prime minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad blames Israel for the Paris attacks, saying that the creation of the Jewish state was behind the incident. 

The state of Israel was established in 1948 in the aftermath of a war with the Arabs. 

"Before that, there were no such terrorist attacks anywhere, not even in the Middle East,” said Mahathir. 

(Okay, so that's not a conspiracy theory, per se, just a loony historical claim. But give the guy a break. He's as old as Jimmy Carter.) Read the rest at this courageous Malaysian source.

The same thing--large numbers of Muslims believing kooky anti-semitic conspiracy theories--happened after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and of course after 9/11. Just google it.

Finally, for historical context, here's one of the most whimsical reports of the Hadith (sayings of Muhammad--second only to the Koran as authoritative Muslim teaching):

The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.

I love it. Only the Gharkad tree will not inform on the hiding Jew because...wait for it...the Gharkad tree is Jewish.

Oh right, that's just some obscure text. No, actually it's so well known and studied that it's part of the founding charter (1988) of Hamas.

What's that you say? I'm a paid Mossad agent?

If only.

Conspiracy Monday: What Caused the Peshtigo Fire?

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Near Tobinsville, Mary protected them

Question: What was the worst fire--in terms of fatalities--in American history?

Answer: The Peshtigo Fire of 1871. Anywhere from 1,000 to 2,500 human beings perished.

Ask your otherwise well-educated friends that question. I guarantee that most will not know the answer, and many of them will not even have heard of the answer.

Why is that? Well, among other things it occurred on October 8th, 1871, the same day as the most famous fire in American history, the Great Chicago Fire (estimated fatalities: 250). And it happened only a few hundred miles away.

Isn't that weird?

It gets weirder.

The Peshtigo Fire raged on both sides of Green Bay in North-East Wisconsin. So, the folk-wisdom is that it jumped the bay. But fires jump rivers. They don't jump bays. So now we have three of the worst fires in American history happening in close proximity but starting "independently".

And it gets even weirder.

On that same day occurred the Great Michigan Fire, burning in at least two independent sites. Almost as many died in that one as the Great Chicago Fire.

So, we now have at least five "independent" fires--many of the worst fires in American history--in the same general area in the same day.

This is why we call it "Conspiracy Monday".

Before proceeding, here's a little bit more about the Peshtigo Fire:

It ended up affecting a heavily forested area twice the size of Rhode Island. The worst hit location was the town of Peshtigo, but other communities were also impacted. It completely annihilated many of them. The reason for the range in fatality estimates is that entire villages were wiped out. All records were destroyed. And there weren't enough survivors in some areas to report on who may have died.

The firestorm overtook forest settlements without warning. Houses and other structures were hurled up, as in a cyclone. Many sought refuge in the Peshtigo river and drowned, or froze in the frigid (it's Northern Wisconsin) waters, or were nevertheless vanquished by burning debris.

Many survivors reported that they thought it was the end of the world.

Here's a fascinating Catholic side note:

The southern part of the Peshtigo Fire burned, among other things, around a chapel that was the site of the only officially confirmed Marian apparition in the United States. It had occurred twelve years earlier in 1859. Terrified residents sought refuge on the chapel grounds. Many brought their animals. When the disaster was over, all had survived. The chapel and its property had been untouched--though the fire had come up to and singed the fence--while outside it, the surrounding country had been reduced to smoking ash. Today, it's called the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. People make pilgrimages to it.

What caused these fires?

Well, other than in Chicago, the sites were logging areas. Small fires had been simmering throughout the summer. On that October day the temperature and wind conditions along the Great Lakes were extremely conducive to fires.

But still. Five of the worst fires ever on the same day?

Some think aliens did it. I'll ignore that one.

At the time, there were theories that the Great Chicago Fire was set by the Ku Klux Klan, or by disgruntled traveling salesmen. Cute. But I didn't know members of either group could move that fast.

Here's the best revisionist theory (at least on the surface):

All the fires were ignited by fragments of a meteor or a comet.

Not only does this have (on the surface) plausibility. It also accounts for numerous reports of the Great Chicago Fire "spreading" in ways that defy the typical trajectory of fires. Perhaps the city was hit by multiple fragments.

Sorry, Mrs. O'Leary's cow.

But there are two problems with this theory:

First, no one anywhere reported seeing a meteor or comet streaking across the sky. Nor were there any impact reports. None.

Second, meteors or comet fragments don't cause fires--or at least there is no evidence that they ever have. Among other things, comet fragments--if they make it through the atmosphere--would be made of ice, or at least freezing. Now, a large impact, say, of a rock a few hundred yards wide, might conceivably start the odd fire. But for an impact that huge, an odd fire would be the least of anyone's worries.

Based on the evidence, or lack of it, I reject the meteor or comet theory.

My money is on a confluence of extreme weather conditions, precisely conducive to the spread of fires.

But still. All on the same day?

What do you think?

Conspiracy Monday: Capricorn One

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The poster says it all

This Conspiracy Monday post isn't about an alleged actual conspiracy but rather a fictional one--a faked Mars landing as portrayed in the wonderful 1978 movie Capricorn One.

Some think of this film as a guilty pleasure, but I think that undersells it. It's a fabulously entertaining roller-coaster ride of a movie that manages to make its outrageous premise believable, or at least believable enough, for its two hours and four minutes.

I claimed that the the conspiracy was one of fiction, but that's not quite true. The "Mars landing" of the story is really a half-heartedly veiled version of one of the Moon landings, perhaps the first Moon landing. And one assumes the filmmakers pulled back from that explicit premise out of fear of being politically incorrect. There are three astronauts in a small capsule--which, given the fact that they are going on a months long mission to Mars makes no sense--and the "landing" seems to consist of little more than stepping onto the surface, planting a flag and making a short speech. The 1970's technology is almost identical to that of the Apollo missions. And the "look" of the players--astronauts, Mission Control, the media, the families--is precisely that of the era. This isn't the near future but the present.

So, minutes before launch, the astronauts are secretly spirited out of the capsule to a secret warehouse in the desert and informed that due to an unanticipated defect in the life-support systems, "you guys would all be dead in three weeks." Since the Mars program is teetering on the edge of being canceled, an incredible scheme has been concocted to fake the landing on a soundstage and thus preserve the momentum for future missions. 

"I have to start by saying that if there was any other way, if there was even a slight chance of another alternative, I would give anything not to be here with you now. Anything"

The astronauts only agree to participate after being told that the lives of their families are now at stake:

You think it's all a couple of looney scientists, it's not! It's bigger. There are people out there, "forces" out there, who have a lot to lose. They're grown ups. It's gotten too big, it's in the hands of grown ups!

Amazingly, the plan goes along without a hitch, with the astronauts acting their roles from their desert location--though one tries to send a coded message home--until the "returning" capsule burns up in re-entry. (Was this planned? The film doesn't make it clear.) Obviously, the astronauts must now be eliminated...

What really makes the movie is the incredible ensemble cast of not-quite first-tier actors--or at least actors that were not quite first-tier at the time (1978), either because they were still on the way up--Sam Waterson, James B. Sikking and Barbara Bosson (the latter two would go on to star in Hill Street Blues a few years later)--on their way down--Elliott Gould, Telly Savalas and Hal Holbrook--or sort of permanent B-stars--Karen Black, Brenda Vaccaro, James Brolin and (of all people) O.J. Simpson.

There's a funny unrequited back and forth between the hack investigative reporter Gould and the TV anchorwoman Black, a black helicopters versus crop duster chase with Savalas, desert survival with Brolin eating a snake, an insane uncontrolled drive through city streets with breaks cut by the bad guys, faked space-capsul interviews, an endearingly off-color senator, people suddenly disappearing after they "ask too many questions", a thoroughly oily Holbrook, the new widow (or so she thinks) Vaccaro tearing up to her son who is so proud that "my daddy went to Mars", crooked FBI agents planting drugs and much more.

Without giving too much away the final scene is a triumphant stick-it-to-the-secret-government moment that is almost perfect.

Would that all conspiracies were this much fun.

Conspiracy Monday: ISIS Camp Near Texas Border

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Howdy

This comes from Judicial Watch, so take with grain of salt.

They've been wrong before.

But they've also been right before.

ISIS Camp a Few Miles from Texas, Mexican Authorities Confirm 

ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, according to Judicial Watch sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector. 

The exact location where the terrorist group has established its base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as “Anapra” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same knowledgeable sources confirm. 

During the course of a joint operation last week, Mexican Army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as “plans” of Fort Bliss – the sprawling military installation that houses the US Army’s 1st Armored Division. Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation. 

Law enforcement and intelligence sources report the area around Anapra is dominated by the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Cartel (“Juárez Cartel”), La Línea (the enforcement arm of the cartel) and the Barrio Azteca (a gang originally formed in the jails of El Paso). Cartel control of the Anapra area make it an extremely dangerous and hostile operating environment for Mexican Army and Federal Police operations. 

According to these same sources, “coyotes” engaged in human smuggling – and working for Juárez Cartel – help move ISIS terrorists through the desert and across the border between Santa Teresa and Sunland Park, New Mexico. To the east of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, cartel-backed “coyotes” are also smuggling ISIS terrorists through the porous border between Acala and Fort Hancock, Texas. These specific areas were targeted for exploitation by ISIS because of their understaffed municipal and county police forces, and the relative safe-havens the areas provide for the unchecked large-scale drug smuggling that was already ongoing. 

Mexican intelligence sources report that ISIS intends to exploit the railways and airport facilities in the vicinity of Santa Teresa, NM (a US port-of-entry). The sources also say that ISIS has “spotters” located in the East Potrillo Mountains of New Mexico (largely managed by the Bureau of Land Management) to assist with terrorist border crossing operations. ISIS is conducting reconnaissance of regional universities; the White Sands Missile Range; government facilities in Alamogordo, NM; Ft. Bliss; and the electrical power facilities near Anapra and Chaparral, NM.

Send in the drones.

Conspiracy Monday: Sinister Rings in the Sky

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What are those sinister rings?

One was filmed almost a year ago by a sixteen year old school girl above Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. The other was recently observed above a village in Northern Kazakhstan.

See the videos at the bottom of the post.

Both rings appeared in a clear sky with no reported fires nearby. To many, they look like they could be made of smoke. They hover or move slowly before disappearing. The second one seems to sort of gradually peel away. It is estimated that the second ring was one-hundred yards wide and almost a mile up.

Suggested explanations:

1. Meteorological anomaly (although, oddly, this seems to be rejected by most meteorologists).
2. Smoke ring caused by emissions from nearby factory. Apparently there was one near the village in Kazakhstan, but no such suggestion was made for the ring above Leamington spa.
3. Ring-shaped formation of insects.
4. Unidentified and/or previously unknown "organic" entity.
5. UFO.
6. Portal to Hell.
7. Hoax (the second ring is actually cigarette smoke close to the camera).

Interestingly, both sightings occurred on a Friday. That the second was on Good Friday gave me a momentary frisson. But it seems the one last year occurred on the Friday before Holy Week.

I'm partial to 2, above. At least in the second video the darn thing looks like a giant smoke ring, or at least what I assume a giant smoke ring would look like. I was about to say I've never seen a giant smoke ring, but I have seen sky writing. And to me, aside from the color, it looks similar, even the "peeling off" part, though it's a bit grungier--perhaps what you would expect if it came from a factory.

If you put in "huge smoking ring" into YouTube, you'll get a number of videos for artificially created giant smoke rings that to me look very much like the second ring. One of them features a group of redneck wannabes gunning a car in circles around a campfire.

I suppose hard-core believers might point out that the "artificially created" rings were created intentionally with a fair amount of planning, etc. How do you randomly get the same effect from a smoke stack in Kazakhstan? I suppose they might also ask, if these rings are caused by factory emissions or whatever, why are we only seeing them now, on two Friday afternoons, two Aprils in a row?

What do you think?

Leamington Spa, 9 April, 2014

Kazakhstan, 3 April, 2015