Subliminal Advertising

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2010007149002418636" imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="blank"><img advertising="" alt="Although" been="" border="0" effectiveness="" ever="" has="" no="" of="" proven="" research="" scientific="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdupPvNAaZouLVwAUo7NoZUYnNyx7ifBKnA9RO4ZWhSiHS0D9FRbUzZ3EhoSjmog5s89PVWbG9gJqAQoAFBK_ioGSbSDoFGxoeoF5wB_11-xCtsjqdERyOnbgxc-VlVNH0PcLWKYHzxHqw/s1600/Subliminal-Advertising.jpg" subliminal="" that="" the="" there="" title="Subliminal" width="470" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Subliminal Advertising</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Although there has been no scientific research that has ever proven the effectiveness of any form of subliminal influence on the human mind, subliminal advertising is a conspiracy theory that has entered popular culture as a generally accepted truth. <br /> <br /> In the main, this is a result of a general cultural paranoia over the rise of the media industry to a position where it dominates the production of cultural meaning and ideology in society. <br /> <br /> The fact that most media forms (television, radio, newspapers, and films) are dominated by large companies or corporations, in addition to their commercial and mass imperatives, creates an anxiety over their apparently systematic control of the beliefs and political opinions available in society.<br /> <br /> The fear of subliminal advertising unsurprisingly begins in the 1950s at the inception of the television age, although the first claims about its use actually involve the broadcast of subliminal messages at cinemas.<br /> <br /> Vance Packard was the person responsible for bringing subliminal advertising to the public’s attention in his 1957 book, The Hidden Persuaders, when he mentioned experiments undertaken by an advertising executive, James Vicary. Vicary had apparently tested subliminal advertising in cinemas by flashing the messages “Eat Popcorn” and “Drink Coke” on the screen for a fraction of a second. <br /> <br /> As a result of these trials, Vicary claimed an 18 percent increase in sales of Coke and a 58 percent rise for popcorn, which led not only to an acceptance of the reality of the effectiveness of subliminal advertising, but also to fears that the U.S. public was being insidiously brainwashed simply by going to the cinema or watching television. An investigation was launched by the Federal Communications Commission and a ban on the use of subliminal advertising was imposed in some U.S. states as well as in Britain and Australia.<br /> <br /> A few years later, Vicary admitted that he had exaggerated the impact of subliminal advertising and, indeed, that there had been no noticeable effect on the tested cinema-goers. However, subliminal advertising had already become accepted as a “fact” (62 percent of Americans currently believe in its existence) and has remained as a pervasive cultural paranoia that has reappeared at various times. <br /> <br /> For example, the liberalization of U.S. society as a result of the 1960s counterculture led to fears that media industries were using subliminal messages not to brainwash people into buying certain products, but to corrupt the minds of the public. <br /> <br /> In a series of books, published from the 1970s onward, Wilson Bryan Key claimed that both television and print advertising contain subliminal commands that bombard Americans with images of sex, drugs, and death. <br /> <br /> According to Key, groups of people he tested felt sexually aroused when shown certain adverts, including one for Gilbey gin in which the word “sex” is apparently embedded in an ice cube. When he was later called to give “expert” testimony at the Judas Priest trial in Reno, Nevada, in 1990, he even went as far as claiming that Ritz crackers had subliminal messages imprinted on them.<br /> <br /> In recent years, attention has moved away from advertising to a more pervasive fear of subliminal messages in commercial and cultural products. The Columbine killings led to a fear that contemporary music (notably Marilyn Manson) included messages that were having an effect on the unconscious minds of American youth. <br /> <br /> This, however, was a continuation of paranoias that had begun with the trial of the heavy metal band Judas Priest when they were accused of placing subliminal messages in one of the songs from their Stained Class album. These messages had allegedly induced suicidal impulses in two teenage listeners, James Vance and Ray Belknap, who had, as a result, attempted to kill themselves. <br /> <br /> Although the band were found not guilty of any wrongdoing (which may be fortunate for Nike, as the phrase at issue was “Do It”), the fact that a trial took place at all demonstrates how far subliminal messages have become accepted as a reality.<br /> <br /> The reason for this general belief in subliminal advertising and unconscious commands is primarily a result of fears that media industries have too much power in the creation of American values and have replaced traditional values (such as religion and the family) with a secular and materialist ideology. <br /> <br /> The implications of brainwashing that attach to subliminal advertising have also led to a belief that the mass media is in the service of a government propaganda machine or in the hands of a conspiracy group that is attempting to corrupt American minds in order to make its “perverted” values acceptable when it comes to power. <br /> <br /> Most frequently this is the New World Order (with its anti-American totalitarian vision), but other groups are also seen to be using the media, such as the Illuminati or Skull and Bones, both of whom wish to impose a satanic or occult religion on America.</div>

Subliminal Advertising

Subliminal Advertising Although there has been no scientific research that has ever proven the effectiveness of any form of subliminal...

Read more »

Spotlight

Originally known as the National Spotlight, for much of its existence the Spotlight was the most important conspiracist publication in the United States. Established by Willis Carto, whose involvement in the U.S Right goes back to the mid-1950s, the paper was launched in 1975 and appeared for just over a quarter of a century.<br /> <br /> Its contents ranged widely but a number of themes were particularly evident. One was an indictment of the banking system, in which the creation of the Federal Reserve immediately before World War I was seen as the work of America’s enemies, while one of its more unusual concerns focused on what might be termed “fringe” or alternative medicine.<br /> <br /> A cure for cancer, it declared, had been discovered but this breakthrough was being suppressed by the Rockefeller family. Amidst the different conspiracies that the paper sought to expose, the most important involved the activities of a series of international organizations.<br /> <br /> In late 1994, for instance, it published a supplement that suggested the United States was about to be occupied by troops under United Nations control. Other subjects of the paper’s attentions included the activities of the Trilateral Commission and its particular bête noire, the Bilderberg Group.<br /> <br /> None of these concerns was unique to the Spotlight, but by the beginning of the 1980s the paper had achieved a circulation of some 300,000. In the 1990s, however, this had fallen to some 90,000, a decline that was particularly connected with its denunciation of the Reagan government as a tool of the Trilateral Commission. If its base among conservatives was substantially lost during the Reagan years, it found support instead among the Patriot movement, and in the 1990s was a key publicist for the militias.<br /> <br /> This did not preclude an involvement in electoral politics, and while during the 1990s it supported the Populist Party (whose 1988 presidential candidate was the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke), it subsequently supported the presidential candidacies, first for the Republican Party, then the Reform Party, of the “America First” conservative, Pat Buchanan.<br /> <br /> While conspiracy theory is often seen as inherently antisemitic, Patriots vary greatly as to how they explain the plot against the United States. One of the secrets of the Spotlight’s success was not only the diversity of its conspiratorial interests but also its downplaying of the overt racism of some other farright publications.<br /> <br /> But the paper’s claim that Israeli intelligence had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy was only one indication of the underlying basis of its arguments. This was even more evident in Carto’s creation in the late 1970s of the Institute for Historical Review, an organization that rapidly became the central force in Holocaust revisionism. It was singularly appropriate, then, that the paper’s support for Holocaust denial should lead to its demise.<br /> <br /> In 1993, disputes over the whereabouts of a bequest led to a breach between Carto and key members of the staff of the Institute for Historical Review, and the ultimate result of the legal actions that followed was the closing down of the Spotlight in the summer of 2001. A successor publication, American Free Press, quickly emerged.

Spotlight

Originally known as the National Spotlight, for much of its existence the Spotlight was the most important conspiracist publication in the U...

Read more »

RICO

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization statute (18 U.S.C. Sections 161–168), part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, was designed to create an expansive legal definition of criminal conspiracy that would aid the authorities in their fight against organized crime.<br /> <br /> Usually referred to as RICO, this statute has become the most powerful tool federal law enforcement has ever had in its fight against organized crime. The statute includes a vague definition of racketeering that incorporates a list of crimes traditionally excluded from federal jurisdiction.<br /> <br /> The list includes such crimes as murder, gambling, arson, robbery, and extortion. With this new tool and expanded federal jurisdiction, federal law enforcement and prosecutors have used RICO to convict and incarcerate more than a thousand organized crime figures by the end of the 1990s.<br /> <br /> Traditionally, law enforcement tried to use the standard conspiracy laws and statutes to convict organized crime members. Thus, prosecutors had to prove an agreement within the group (two or more) and one overt act regarding a specific crime.<br /> <br /> Because of the often varied and isolated criminal activities of an organized crime group, this was difficult. Under RICO, instead of focusing on specific crimes and the related conspiracy, law enforcement can focus on patterns of racketeering by an organized crime group.<br /> <br /> That is, with RICO it is now illegal to belong to a group or “enterprise” that displays a pattern of racketeering even if another member of the enterprise is committing the illegal activities. To meet the “pattern of racketeering” requirements under RICO, only two crimes within a ten-year period need to be committed, with at least one of the crimes since 1970.<br /> <br /> RICO includes both a criminal and a civil penalty. The maximum criminal penalty includes a $25,000 fine and imprisonment for twenty years, with all properties and interest related to the racketeering violation forfeited to the government. Civil penalties include treble damages and the attorney’s fee awarded to the successful plaintiff.<br /> <br /> In an expansion of RICO, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1994 that there did not have to be an economic motive for the illegal activities to fall under RICO. Using the civil section of RICO in 1998, two abortion clinics sued and received treble damages from antiabortion leaders.<br /> <br /> This noneconomic expansion of RICO was also the basis for the April 2001 U.S. district judge’s decision allowing the Los Angeles Police Department to be sued as a racketeering enterprise.<br /> <br /> Common criticisms of the RICO statute include its overreaching scope. Individuals who may be involved in illegal activities, even when it is evident that they are not involved in organized crime, are still being prosecuted under RICO.<br /> <br /> Another criticism is that RICO allows an individual’s assets to be frozen before trial, which often forces defendants to plead guilty in an effort to save their business and savings. RICO also brings with it a negative characterization of the defendant as an organized crime figure.<br /> <br /> RICO has been and continues to be the most effective legal tool ever brought against organized crime. Through the expanded list of racketeering crimes and the enterprise conspiracy clause, federal law enforcement agencies and prosecutors are now succeeding where in the past they had failed in both convictions and sentencing of organized crime figures.

RICO

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization statute (18 U.S.C. Sections 161–168), part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, was...

Read more »

Pat Robertson

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="A" border="0" figure="" on="" pat="" prominent="" religious="" right="" robertson="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3vBvCOWiTFver3UV_A-7exny0SkkQBeMVFfuJW2C7c6FFD8Uylp6ub9zGD30MAI331OR97BpNSf4DiZe9KvGN20axKF2mFtSf575hejhfHOmowAVgadgOMAw5vAtzWZu36vZ2p1jwfNg/s1600/Pat-Robertson.jpg" the="" title="Pat" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pat Robertson</td></tr> </tbody></table> A prominent figure on the religious Right, Pat Robertson, with his brand of conspiracy-infused politics, reached a wide audience in his bid for the presidency in 1988 and with the success of his controversial book The <a href=" " target="_blank">New World Order</a>, which has been accused of antisemitism.<br /> <br /> The son of a senator, Robertson purchased a Virginia television station in 1960, marking the beginnings of the Christian Broadcasting Network, one of the most important elements of the burgeoning evangelical media that was to become so important in the latter part of the twentieth century.<br /> <br /> When evangelicals also established the Christian Right at the end of the 1970s, Robertson played a relatively minor role, but the subsequent decline of its leading organization, the Moral Majority, and the impending end of the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Reagan</a> years brought him to prominence following his decision to pursue the 1988 Republican presidential nomination. While he was unsuccessful, an important effect of his campaign was the creation the following year of the Christian Coalition.<br /> <br /> Concentrating much of its energies on opposition to abortion and homosexuality, the Coalition rapidly became a key component of the Republican Party and although it was to decline in the late 1990s (and Robertson to resign from its presidency in 2001), during the early years of the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Clinton</a> administration it was a central force in the resurgence of conservatism.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0849944147/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=c4bff3e3e87c4f8e3e99275c4b78c1d3" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0849944147&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="A" border="0" figure="" height="1" on="" pat="" prominent="" religious="" right="" robertson="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0849944147" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" width="1" /></span><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IJD1N4G/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=c16a5d57a2733600877d0e3ffa9f91d4" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01IJD1N4G&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="A" border="0" figure="" height="1" on="" pat="" prominent="" religious="" right="" robertson="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=B01IJD1N4G" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" width="1" /></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Shortly after the creation of the coalition, Robertson published a book in which he declared that in calling for a “New World Order,” President Bush was unknowingly carrying out the mission of a vast, global satanic conspiracy.<br /> <br /> In arguing this, Robinson claimed that a conspiratorial elite could be traced back to the eighteenth century, when a secret society, the <a href=" " target="_blank">Illuminati</a>, had plotted the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">French Revolution</a>.<br /> <br /> In the nineteenth century Illuminism had mutated into Marxism, while in the twentieth century the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia had been secretly funded by European financiers. In later years, he argued, much of the work of the conspiracy was carried out by such organizations as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.<br /> <br /> Initially little noticed outside the evangelical milieu, The New World Order began to attract attention following a front-page attack in a 1994 issue of the prestigious New York Review of Books. Authored by Michael Lind, a former conservative, it argued that Robertson’s work was not the usual brand of evangelical Protestant theology but originated instead in “the underground literature of far-right populism.”<br /> <br /> He was supported by another former conservative, Jacob Heilbrunn, who convincingly demonstrated that Robertson had relied on material by the early-twentieth-century antisemitic conspiracist, Nesta Webster.<br /> <br /> The New York Review’s attack drew angry replies from Robertson and other conservatives. Subsequently, Robertson blamed a research assistant for introducing Webster’s material into his work and he continued to deny any suggestion that he held antisemitic views.<br /> <br /> A closer examination of both Robertson’s book and the writings of his critics shines a critical light on both sides of the argument. Robertson, while rightly pointing out his long record of support for Israel, had nonetheless produced a book that linked the Illuminati to the Rothschild family.<br /> <br /> Conversely, Lind, who had suggested Robertson’s writings were “far more bizarre and sinister” than the conspiracist writings of the <a href=" " target="_blank">John Birch Society</a>, missed both the Society’s praise for Robertson’s book and the strong links between what Robertson argued and what the Society had long believed.<br /> <br /> Having itself drawn on Webster’s work, the Society had also been accused of antisemitism, and while both have denounced claims that conspiratorial forces are Jewish in origin, it is understandable that critics should take them to be antisemitic.<br /> <br /> The situation is, however, more complicated, because conspiratorial claims that the hidden rulers of history are bankers, or Masons, or extraterrestrials might often be motivated by a racist view, but is not always necessarily so.<br /> <br /> If Robertson has had the misfortune to have his conspiracy theory attacked more for what it did not say than what it did, he has also been accused of being a secret adherent of the New World Order, rather than an opponent.<br /> <br /> In the 1980s, one conspiracy text with a considerable impact upon evangelicals was Constance Cumbey’s <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="091031103X" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="2cf7acea78dcd416cb3b73e19f534f95" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow" href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Hidden-Dangers-Rainbow-Barbarism/dp/091031103X/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=theconthist-20&linkId=2cf7acea78dcd416cb3b73e19f534f95&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_3176082" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow</a><img alt="A" border="0" figure="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_3176082" on="" pat="" prominent="" religious="" right="" robertson="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=theconthist-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=2cf7acea78dcd416cb3b73e19f534f95&_cb=1457781126909" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" the="" width="0" />, which, like Robertson’s later volume, saw the New Age movement as part of Satan’s attack on Christianity.<br /> <br /> In a later book, A Planned Deception, Cumbey suggested that Robertson’s announcement that he intended to provide live coverage of the Second Coming fitted well with a supposed New Age plan to launch a false Christ figure upon the world.

Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson A prominent figure on the religious Right, Pat Robertson, with his brand of conspiracy-infused politics, reached a wide au...

Read more »

Rockefeller Family

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img almost="" alt="Associated" border="0" conspiracy="" every="" family="" from="" masa="" moder="" of="" populists="" rockefeller="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX2bJXb5JUEEIUyyN681xwNO5e9bjcWPf1a-p-SrwcJLyzwJEbDAQCnSInHwpOXQ6y9_ssVPc_Cw3MrcAU-xkjGblFIDNpma9ZHd1r1GStPtZzAOaZ2Y8AhqHjmLIa9JgojX3PtjC0PBc/s1600/Rockefeller.jpg" the="" theory="" title="Rockefeller" to="" with="" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John D. Rockefeller</td></tr> </tbody></table> Associated with almost every conspiracy theory from the masa of the Populists to the modern Trilateral Commission, Bilderbergers, and the Council on Foreign Relations, the Rockefeller family holds a unique place in U.S. conspiracy history. <br /> <br /> Even the powerful banker <a href=" " target="_blank">J. P. Morgan</a> and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie have not been the center of conspiracy theories as have focused on John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil Company, although one conspiracy website refers to Andrew Carnegie—at one time, the richest man in the world—as a “Rockefeller stooge.”<br /> <br /> Rockefeller (1839–1937) was born in Richford, New York, and began working as a bookkeeper at age sixteen. Seven years later, he joined entrepreneur Henry Flagler and inventor Samuel Andrews to begin refining crude petroleum. <br /> <br /> The three incorporated the firm as Standard Oil Company in 1870, bringing in John’s brother William to join the company. Rockefeller emphasized cost-cutting and demanded that the “common man” have cheap kerosene, employing chemists to develop better methods of refining and to search out new ways to use petroleum by-products. <br /> <br /> <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061237221/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=7379f66db7358d33ecce5f39e9730bf3" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0061237221&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img almost="" alt="Associated" border="0" conspiracy="" every="" family="" from="" height="1" masa="" moder="" of="" populists="" rockefeller="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0061237221" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" theory="" to="" width="1" with="" /></span><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142001775/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=d8d3df2f75a081f47ebf6e44602d4fb7" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0142001775&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img almost="" alt="Associated" border="0" conspiracy="" every="" family="" from="" height="1" masa="" moder="" of="" populists="" rockefeller="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0142001775" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" theory="" to="" width="1" with="" /></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Although Rockefeller bought out other refiners, creating for Standard Oil a near-monopoly position, consumer prices on kerosene plummeted—and continued to do so until the time of the Standard Oil breakup in 1911.<br /> <br /> The claims leveled against John D. Rockefeller and his descendants are so many and diverse as to defy easy categorization. Populist groups tended to ignore Rockefeller personally and attack his connections with the large (in their view, monopolistic) railroads. <br /> <br /> The critique of the railroads involved traditional concerns with price-fixing and monopolies, but also contained a criticism of “long-haul/shorthaul” price differentiation, in which large shippers, such as Rockefeller, received rebates not extended to those shipping over shorter distances. <br /> <br /> Other reform groups and “muckrakers” such as Ida Tarbell maintained that Rockefeller unduly pushed smaller competitors out of business and used ruthless pricing tactics in an attempt to “corner the market.” <br /> <br /> Rockefeller’s new mechanism for controlling multiple companies, called the trust, was viewed as fundamentally undemocratic and, with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, was outlawed. That act, ironically, had the effect of driving companies from the inefficient trust structure into much more efficient vertical combinations, which in turn increased—rather than decreased—their power.<br /> <br /> A tither to his church all his life, Rockefeller had a fortune of nearly $1 billion, and gave away charitable contributions totaling $550 million through the Rockefeller Foundation, the General Education Board, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial. These philanthropic organizations became the source of yet other conspiracy theories. <br /> <br /> The Institute for Medical Research, for example, has been accused of conducting a massive propaganda campaign to eliminate nondrug “holistic” treatments for diseases, in order to increase profits for the “Rockefeller-Farben combine.” In this theory, Rockefeller, through the Institute, hoodwinked the medical profession into adopting drug therapies by shaping the treatment of medical research in the universities.<br /> <br /> In 1952, Emanuel Josephson published Rockefeller, “Internationalist”: The Man Who Misrules the World, one of the first book-length conspiracy attacks on the Rockefellers. Josephson claimed that the Rockefeller family sought “to control all necessities from the time they are produced until they are consumed” (Josephson, 20). <br /> <br /> The foundations, in Josephson’s view, were only attempts to remain free of taxation, allowing the family to dominate U.S. Steel, Westinghouse, Republic Iron and Steel, and dozens of other U.S. companies. <br /> <br /> Not only did the family own stock in these companies, but they also, through marriage and appointments, dominated the boards of other important companies. Winthrop Aldrich, chairman of Chase National Bank, was John D. Rockefeller’s brother-in-law through Rockefeller’s marriage to the daughter of Senator Nelson Aldrich—one of the creators of the <a href=" " target="_blank">Federal Reserve System</a>.<br /> <br /> According to the theory, Rockefeller, Morgan, Paul Warburg, and other “internationalists” sought to use the Federal Reserve and the newly imposed income tax to control the U.S. economy and to then implement a socialist/Bolshevik agenda. <br /> <br /> The classic conspiracy book, None Dare Call It Conspiracy (1971) by Gary Allen and Larry Abraham, place Rockefeller, Warburg, and Morgan, as well as National City president Frank Vanderlip and financiers Bernard Baruch and Jacob Schiff, at the center of a world conspiracy through the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which is directed, in turn, by the Rothschilds. <br /> <br /> Through the CFR, the Rockefellers controlled not only Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, Eastman Kodak, Xerox, IBM, and Firestone, but also dominated the media by owning or influencing NBC, CBS, Timemagazine, Life magazine, and all the major newspapers and publishing houses. Like most theories, Allen and Abraham only imply or infer a Rockefeller presence in this and other conspiracy networks.<br /> <br /> Not only did the Rockefellers play prominent—some would say “shadow”—roles in business, but they were also active in politics. John, Jr.’s son, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, worked in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal administration, then held a number of appointed positions in the Eisenhower administration or on public commissions. <br /> <br /> He ran for the Republican nomination for president three times, and lost, before being named vice-president after Gerald Ford was sworn in to replace <a href=" " target="_blank">President Richard Nixon</a>, who resigned. Winthrop Rockefeller, the youngest of John, Jr.’s sons, was elected governor of Arkansas in 1966.<br /> <br /> Through the work of David Rockefeller (b. 1915), the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the head of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace in the 1950s, the family’s internationalist pursuits continued. David Rockefeller set up the Trilateral Commission in 1973 to promote cooperation in international matters. <br /> <br /> Through the influence of the CFR and the Trilateral Commission, the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">World Bank</a>, and the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">International Monetary Fund (IMF)</a>, the Rockefeller influence promoted “multilaterialism” and international lending as a means to destroy national sovereignty and produce a “<a href=" " target="_blank">one world government</a>.” <br /> <br /> The fact that David Rockefeller wrote a 1980 Wall Street Journal editorial attacking notions that he was the “mastermind of an international conspiracy” (Gilmour, 1) only served to convince conspiracy theorists even more of his guilt. <br /> <br /> Instead, theorists pointed to Rockefeller’s work with President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, on a white paper dealing with international technology issues as clear evidence of his agenda. Thus, to the present, the name “Rockefeller” infuses virtually every major conspiracy theory except those dealing with UFOs and the <a href=" " target="_blank">Kennedy assassination</a>.

Rockefeller Family

John D. Rockefeller Associated with almost every conspiracy theory from the masa of the Populists to the modern Trilateral Commission, B...

Read more »

Yalta Conference

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="and" at="" be="" black="" border="0" conference="" convened="" in="" joseph="" of="" proved="" resort="" sea="" secretly="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_X36FPJmp8uSw_54eZcqpwhrd8BTn_CBTmvBmewD2935-Zl2ji4o6BN12fAvEdyvfxHU5OHL96KapQW_0U6HYMf74tgVWB2cp2sy3K2otWFRtdMO3oO9714t-q94X-iwiCwLmCmYCrrY/s1600/Yalta-Conference.jpg" stalin="" the="" title="Yalta" to="" what="" yalta="" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yalta Conference</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> On 4–11 February 1945, <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Franklin Roosevelt</a>, <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Winston Churchill</a>, and Joseph Stalin convened secretly at the Black Sea resort of Yalta in what proved to be the last meeting of the “Big Three” of <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">World War II</a>. <br /> <br /> With Nazi Germany collapsing, the Yalta conference focused upon postwar reconstruction plans for Europe, the formation of a new international organization, and the military defeat of Japan. Shrouded in military secrecy and driven by the imperative of getting the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Soviet Union</a> to enter the war against Japan, the Yalta agreements generated only mild controversy in 1945. <br /> <br /> However, as the cold war intensified and the Truman administration embraced the policy of containment, conservative critics in the Republican Party began to brand Yalta as the appeasement of communism, suggesting that Roosevelt, under the influence of advisers such as <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0195182553" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="5d9d8538f645d397c5c4c2b8cb3880fb" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Alger Hiss" href="http://www.amazon.com/Alger-Hisss-Looking-Glass-Wars-Covert/dp/0195182553/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=5d9d8538f645d397c5c4c2b8cb3880fb&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_7253607" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Alger Hiss</a><img alt="and" at="" be="" black="" border="0" conference="" convened="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_7253607" in="" joseph="" of="" proved="" resort="" sea="" secretly="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=5d9d8538f645d397c5c4c2b8cb3880fb&_cb=1483258839791" stalin="" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" the="" to="" what="" width="0" yalta="" /> who were positively disposed toward communism and the Soviet Union, had conceded too much to Stalin.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143118927/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=31dd6916243c5b4ab57ac2a0ec2357dc" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0143118927&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="and" at="" be="" black="" border="0" conference="" convened="" height="1" in="" joseph="" of="" proved="" resort="" sea="" secretly="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0143118927" stalin="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" to="" what="" width="1" yalta="" /></span><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521856779/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=0e8edf3a0d5725fe750d7c2557a7d00f" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0521856779&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="and" at="" be="" black="" border="0" conference="" convened="" height="1" in="" joseph="" of="" proved="" resort="" sea="" secretly="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0521856779" stalin="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" to="" what="" width="1" yalta="" /></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <br /> The 1952 Republican platform called for the repudiation of “all commitments contained in secret understandings such as those of Yalta which aid Communist enslavements.” Rather than a diplomatic agreement, Yalta was in the eyes of anticommunists such as Senator <a href=" " target="_blank">Joseph McCarthy</a> evidence of the Communist conspiracy to infiltrate the U.S. government.<br /> <br /> The Yalta accords called for the Soviet Union to attack <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Japan</a> within three months after the defeat of Germany. Stalin also agreed to self-determination for the areas of Eastern Europe, such as Poland, which the Soviet army had already “liberated.” <br /> <br /> Chiang Kaishek was recognized as the leader of China in the struggle against Japan, but the Soviet Union was granted joint control of China’s Manchurian railroads, providing the Soviets a voice in the postwar governance of <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Korea</a> and Manchuria. <br /> <br /> In exchange for Stalin’s pledge to enter the war against Japan, the Soviets were promised the southern half of Sakhalin Island, lost in the <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="1841764469" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="dd6078055c78c234ea0f805f559a4389" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Russo-Japanese War" href=" " target="_blank">the United Nations</a>, reserving veto powers for themselves as permanent members of the Security Council.<br /> <br /> An ailing and tired Roosevelt returned to the United States and remained seated while addressing Congress, arguing that the agreements made with the Soviets deserved the support of the nation. <br /> <br /> Initially, Yalta appeared to enjoy bipartisan support, and influential publications such as Time announced that no U.S. citizen could claim that his nation’s interests had been “sold down the river.” <br /> <br /> Perhaps the adroit Roosevelt might have maintained the initial enthusiasm, but, following his death from a stroke on 12 April 1945, international relations between the United States and Soviet Union rapidly deteriorated.<br /> <br /> Stalin and President Harry Truman clashed at Potsdam in July 1945, while the successful testing of the atomic bomb in New Mexico rendered unnecessary any Soviet participation in an invasion of Japan. <br /> <br /> As the cold war intensified in the late 1940s, critics of the Yalta conference conveniently forgot military estimates of heavy casualties that would result from an invasion of the Japanese home islands. Republicans, seeking to attract votes from those of Eastern European ancestry, seized upon Yalta as a betrayal of Poland by the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. <br /> <br /> The emergence of China as a Communist state in 1949 led to assertions that Yalta had betrayed Chinese democracy. Yalta critics also concentrated upon the conviction of Alger Hiss for perjury following the 1948 appearance by <a href=" " target="_blank">Whittaker Chambers</a> before the <a href=" " target="_blank">House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)</a>. <br /> <br /> Chambers accused Hiss, who had been an adviser to Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Jr., at Yalta, of engaging in espionage for the Soviet Union. Alleging treason, Senator McCarthy and his supporters focused upon how Hiss influenced a “physically tired and mentally sick Roosevelt.”<br /> <br /> Allegations of Democratic “softness” on communism played a role in the election of a Republican Congress and president in 1952. Once in power, the Republican administration of <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0812982886" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="8536deb22cffa3b116acc1809c3cecd7" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Dwight Eisenhower" href="http://www.amazon.com/Eisenhower-Peace-Jean-Edward-Smith/dp/0812982886/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=8536deb22cffa3b116acc1809c3cecd7&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_8842467" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dwight Eisenhower</a><img alt="and" at="" be="" black="" border="0" conference="" convened="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_8842467" in="" joseph="" of="" proved="" resort="" sea="" secretly="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=8536deb22cffa3b116acc1809c3cecd7&_cb=1483258999590" stalin="" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" the="" to="" what="" width="0" yalta="" /> embraced containment rather than the “rollback” of communism. <br /> <br /> The more extreme voices of Republican dissent were marginalized in March 1955 with publication of the Yalta papers, demonstrating that no new secret agreements existed and documenting that Hiss played only a minor role at the Crimean conference. <br /> <br /> It was difficult to charge a Republican administration with a “whitewash” report, and the Senate censure of Senator McCarthy and negotiations between the Soviets and United States further undermined the conspiracy interpretations of the Yalta accords.<br /> <br /> While the fervor of Yalta as a partisan issue declined after 1955, allegations of Communist conspiracy, fueled by misconceptions of the Yalta agreement, continued to be a mainstay of U.S. politics into the 1980s.

Yalta Conference

Yalta Conference On 4–11 February 1945, Franklin Roosevelt , Winston Churchill , and Joseph Stalin convened secretly at the Black Sea r...

Read more »

Pearl Harbor

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img a="" alt="Imperial" attack="" border="0" fleet="" harbor="" in="" launched="" located="" navy="" on="" pacific="" pe="" pearl="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIQ8yW-bKqRbdsZUFEfgLXLtDE7pDqMXsgLcWVqr9cLD3N6LV7YXC8spWxCpjugqUYLtmQjW9DSbkaLiRgnb_e3UJ_Eg4NzhPdSQ0WK7LA69Jr8qb_HeA8mIilJf_HmABYR1dSH__LX3Y/s1600/pearl-harbor.jpg" states="" surprise="" the="" title="Pearl" united="" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pearl Harbor</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> On Sunday, 7 December 1941, at 7:55 A.M. the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Japanese</a> Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet located in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The theories and explanations of the events surrounding the Japanese attack on U.S. forces have become a cottage industry for historians of World War II.<br /> <br /> Questions about U.S. military involvement, and theories of how it happened and who knew what and when, reappear with each tenth anniversary. As early as 1942 opponents of President Roosevelt accused him of working to bring the United States into <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">World War II</a> and using the Japanese attack on the United States as an excuse to do just that.<br /> <br /> The events surrounding the attack have been subject to multiple interpretations. John Toland, Robert B. Stinnett, James Rusbridger, and Eric Nave have been among those who argued that a conspiracy existed to use an attack on Pearl Harbor to bring the United States into the war and was the real reason for the Japanese <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">success</a>.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00003CXTG/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=ceca7fee8079358bf8892272fad642fb" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00003CXTG&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img a="" alt="Imperial" attack="" border="0" fleet="" harbor="" height="1" in="" launched="" located="" navy="" on="" pacific="" pe="" pearl="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=B00003CXTG" states="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" surprise="" the="" united="" width="1" /></span><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805068031/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=94feb4b68e8c5758540e3ef5773fc8aa" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0805068031&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img a="" alt="Imperial" attack="" border="0" fleet="" harbor="" height="1" in="" launched="" located="" navy="" on="" pacific="" pe="" pearl="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0805068031" states="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" surprise="" the="" united="" width="1" /></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Others led by Gordon Prange, Roberta Wohlstetter, and Henry Clausen have argued that it was a series of errors on the part of the United States that gave Japan its <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">opportunity</a>. Since the end of the war, large amounts of information about who knew what have emerged, often providing more smoke than light.<br /> <br /> The attack caught a large number of U.S. warships in the harbor. The Japanese sank or damaged eight battleships, two beyond repair. They also damaged three light cruisers, three destroyers, and four other ships beyond repair.<br /> <br /> In the U.S. Navy and Marines, 2,086 were killed and 749 wounded, and in the army 194 were killed and 360 wounded. In addition, the United States lost 188 aircraft. Japanese losses were fewer than 100 personnel and 29 aircraft. The event shocked the United States, which had been used to the idea of security within the territories.<br /> <br /> The United States and Japan had become significant competitors in Asia prior to the war. U.S. policy in the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pacific</a> during the 1930s and early 1940s was perceived by the Japanese as hostile to their interests in the region. At the same time, Japanese expansion in the region was seen in Washington as hostile to U.S. interests in Asia.<br /> <br /> U.S.–Japanese relations were deteriorating throughout 1940–1941 and as the situation became more likely to move to a military solution, U.S. planners foresaw a potential Japanese attack on U.S. interests in the Pacific, especially in the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Philippines</a> where the United States had a significant military presence, led by General Douglas MacArthur. The movement of the U.S. Pacific Fleet from San Diego to Hawaii in 1940 was done with a purpose as well. Its placement there was a statement of U.S. interest and intent in the region.<br /> <br /> Hawaii was a less secure location than California. There had already been a number of studies showing the possibility of an air attack against Pearl Harbor. The possibility was considered significant enough that on 7 February 1941, General George Marshall (U.S. Army chief of staff) sent Lieutenant General Walter Short (commanding general of the Hawaiian Department) a message informing him that “the risk of sabotage and the risk involved in a surprise raid by air and by submarine constitute the real perils of the situation”.<br /> <br /> Then on 5 March 1941 another message from Marshall informed General Short: “I would appreciate your early review of the situation in Hawaiian Department with regard to defense from air attack. The establishment of a satisfactory system of coordinating all means available to this is a matter of first priority”. On 27 November 1941 the commanders in the Pacific were sent what has become known as the “war warning” message.<br /> <br /> Marshall’s message cautioned of potential Japanese action “at any moment” and also informed General Short, “Prior to hostile Japanese action, you are directed to undertake such reconnaissance and other measures as you deem necessary”. In the navy message it noted the movement of an “amphibious expedition against either the Philippines, or the Kra Peninsula or possibly Borneo”.<br /> <br /> The use of intelligence has been a significant dilema in clearing up the questions around the attack. The United States had broken a number of Japanese codes including the “Purple Code” (the highest Japanese diplomatic code) and realized that relations with <a href=" " target="_blank">Japan</a> were deteriorating toward war.<br /> <br /> The most famous message intercepted in the last twenty-four hours before the attack was the “Fourteen Part Message,” which was itself of little intelligence value except that it showed the state of U.S.–Japanese relations.<br /> <br /> More important was the order setting the time of delivery of the Fourteen Part Message as 1 P.M. in Washington, 7:30 A.M. in Hawaii. General Marshall ordered that the information be communicated to the Pacific commanders by the fastest possible method.<br /> <br /> There is a discrepancy in the number of times Marshall was alleged to have sent officers to check on the delivery time, but he is known to have done so at least once. Due to atmospheric conditions the message was sent to Pearl Harbor by telegraph and did not arrive until after the attack on the base.<br /> <br /> There were other significant messages, including one from Hawaii to Japan laying out the positions of U.S. ships in the harbor. In December before the attack, the United States had access to information that the Japanese diplomats had been ordered to prepare to destroy their codes.<br /> <br /> On 6 December 1941 Colonel Bicknell, the assistant chief of staff, announced to General Short’s staff that “he had received information to the effect that the Japanese counsels were burning their papers .... It would at least show that something was about to happen, somewhere”.<br /> <br /> In spite of these successes, it needs to be remembered that the number of codes broken by the United States was limited, as was the completeness of the information about Japanese intentions. Thus, preparations for war were conducted with only partial knowledge.<br /> <br /> Another source of concern is the location of aircraft carriers. The U.S. Navy’s Pacific aircraft carriers were not present on the day of the attack. The Saratoga was in San Diego, while the other two U.S. carriers were off to reenforce forward bases with aircraft.<br /> <br /> The USS Enterprise had gone to Wake Island and was scheduled back to Pearl Harbor around 7 A.M. on 7 December, but was held up by bad weather, and the USS Lexington was on its way to Midway Island.<br /> <br /> The Enterprise was close enough at the time of the attack that its aircraft were able to make contact with Japanese aircraft. Their missions saved them for use in the important sea battles to come, Coral Sea and Midway.<br /> <br /> <b>The Theories</b><br /> <br /> One theory argues that President Roosevelt knew about the coming attack, but was willing to sacrifice the aging battleships in order to give cause to the American people to fight the war. In order to do this, Roosevelt and the military command structure in Washington not only placed the U.S. battleships in harm’s way, they also sent U.S. aircraft carriers away from the site of the attack to protect them.<br /> <br /> Then Washington conspired to deny U.S. commanders in the Pacific important intelligence data that would have led them to assign a higher state of alert on 7 December. There is significant circumstantial evidence for this theory, based on the idea that Roosevelt needed a military disaster to enter the war. This theory does not account for the possible impact of an attack on other U.S. forces, or a successful defense against a strong attack on Pearl Harbor.<br /> <br /> It also does not account for Roosevelt’s love of the navy, which makes his willingness to sink ships less likely. This theory assumes that Roosevelt and the naval leadership understood that aircraft carriers would dominate the next naval war; the evidence for this idea is limited.<br /> <br /> It also assumes that the intelligence clearly pointed to an attack on Pearl Harbor. The challenge when investigating the subject is in separating the information that is meaningful and important from a flood of extraneous information.<br /> <br /> As one historian notes: “we failed to anticipate Pearl Harbor not for a want of relevant material, but because of a plethora of irrelevant one”. Without a message specifically stating an attack on a site, an analyst must interpret the message and weigh its value based on what they know about an adversary’s potential and preferences.<br /> <br /> It is often easier to see a clear meaning in a message with hindsight. Another variant of this conspiracy argues that the British government knew about the attacks and did not inform the United States in order to force it into the war.<br /> <br /> It is based on the existence of both British intercept operations, based on U.S. efforts, and British agents in the regions. The strength of this theory is that the British did have the <a href=" " target="_blank">technology</a> to break the “Purple Code,” which they gained from the United States and from the timely sale of British interests in Asia.<br /> <br /> This theory assumes superior British knowledge of Japanese intentions, for which the evidence is weak. And like Roosevelt, Churchill loved the navy. It was unlikely he would risk lives, or potentially the war, by allowing the U.S. Pacific Fleet to be destroyed.<br /> <br /> <b>The Conspiracy’s Place in History</b><br /> <br /> There were numerous official investigations of the events around Pearl Harbor from the very beginning. The army and navy each conducted board and individual inquiries, such as the Roberts Commission, the Hart Inquiry, the Army Pearl Harbor Board, the Navy Court of Inquiry, the Clarke Inquiry, the Clausen Investigation, and the Hewitt Inquiry.<br /> <br /> In 1946 Congress conducted its own investigation and pulled together all of the previous efforts. There has been renewed interest in events around Pearl Harbor since its fiftieth anniversary in 1991. This has spawned a renewal in many conspiracy theories, but also created a growing interest in understanding the actual events and causes of the events of 7 December 1941.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor On Sunday, 7 December 1941, at 7:55 A.M. the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the United States Pacif...

Read more »

One-World Government

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="often" associated="" border="0" extreme="" government="" one-world="" right="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0Mf3C5aQC1w0l4Ig4NdgFCEKxJixK2RB54kitpF6YtCGp5G7Nx_sBB5ZMrucz5ED6n2CsEuCeEr4W4PhBIDsxLggoqJsf4RukxPMKTTaYffY_MBy6X9G1GQzuMYSRrcbPHoJyIxiwiI/s1600/one-world-government.jpg" those="" title="One-World" with="" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One-World Government</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Many Americans, often those associated with extreme right-wing groups and fundamentalist Christian churches, believe that the animo of economic globalization is part of a secret plot by a small group of international bankers and powerful politicians to erode national sovereignty and institute a one-world government (sometimes also called the New World Order).<br /> <br /> While there have been attempts by ambitious rulers throughout history to gain worldwide domination—from the ancient empires of <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Greece</a> and Rome to the imperialistic ambitions of Napoleon and Hitler—the forces of the one-world government are said to use more deceptive means. The theory is that they have amassed power not through the use of military force, but by controlling international financial markets.<br /> <br /> Although there are many versions of the theory, all agree that the one-world government operates through powerful international institutions, such as the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">United Nations</a> (UN), the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Trilateral Commission (TC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the secretive Bilderberger group.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1934956406/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=b799c50a03526d9ed4036162e89d9fac" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1934956406&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="often" associated="" border="0" extreme="" government="" height="1" one-world="" right="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1934956406" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" those="" width="1" with="" /></span><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1463363427/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=599a8b4f682e0d9d782c50d6572eed8e" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1463363427&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="often" associated="" border="0" extreme="" government="" height="1" one-world="" right="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1463363427" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" those="" width="1" with="" /></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <br /> In the 1960s, the one-world government theory was promoted by the ultra-conservative <a href=" " target="_blank">John Birch Society</a>. According to the Birchers, the CFR and the TC were organs of <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0719055466" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="60abee80d2c47baf5d498d295d5f59a6" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="international communism" href="http://www.amazon.com/International-Communism-Communist-1919-1943/dp/0719055466/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=60abee80d2c47baf5d498d295d5f59a6&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_7458686" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">international communism</a><img alt="often" associated="" border="0" extreme="" government="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_7458686" one-world="" right="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=60abee80d2c47baf5d498d295d5f59a6&_cb=1483201130016" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" those="" width="0" with="" />, whose goal was to overturn democracy and replace it with a repressive global socialist regime.<br /> <br /> In post–cold war America, many right-wing extremist groups like the modern militias believe the push for one-world government is the work of “international Jews” with origins in secret societies of the eighteenth century, like Adam Weishaupt’s <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0977795381" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="fe38005091a6838d3b24e82fc9b48491" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Bavarian Illuminati" href="http://www.amazon.com/Perfectibilists-Century-Bavarian-Order-Illuminati/dp/0977795381/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=fe38005091a6838d3b24e82fc9b48491&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_1176317" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bavarian Illuminati</a><img alt="often" associated="" border="0" extreme="" government="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_1176317" one-world="" right="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=fe38005091a6838d3b24e82fc9b48491&_cb=1483201172130" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" those="" width="0" with="" /> and the Freemasons.<br /> <br /> Proof of the plot is found in <a href=" " target="_blank">Protocols of the Elders of Zion</a>, a forgery written in the early twentieth century and first popularized in the United States by Henry Ford’s “The International Jew,” which appeared in his Dearborn Independent in the 1920s.<br /> <br /> The Protocols purport to detail the plans of a super-secret cabal of Communist-Jews to seize world power by manipulating international finance and installing their own government pawns in positions of high political office. Although they were exposed as a forgery in 1920, the Protocols continue to be cited as evidence of a one-world government conspiracy.<br /> <br /> Militias and other survivalist groups further claim that foreign troops, under the orders of the UN, are gathering in several locations around the United States, preparing to disarm U.S. citizens and impose martial law. They report sightings of unmarked black helicopters and the creation of concentration camps where resistors will be detained once the siege begins.<br /> <br /> In more recent manifestations, the theory is promoted by Christian millennialists, who link the oneworld government theory to biblical prophecies of the Last Days. According to the visions reported in the Book of Daniel and in the <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0310421403" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="b48636b424a3a1195282a35289e1f752" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Book of Revelation" href="http://www.amazon.com/Book-Revelation-Paperback-Matt-Dorff/dp/0310421403/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=b48636b424a3a1195282a35289e1f752&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_9321896" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Book of Revelation</a><img alt="often" associated="" border="0" extreme="" government="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_9321896" one-world="" right="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=b48636b424a3a1195282a35289e1f752&_cb=1483201205510" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" those="" width="0" with="" />, sometime after the Rapture, when Christ returns to earth to remove the elect to heaven, a beast with ten horns, the Antichrist, will rise from the sea to unite “all kindreds and tongues and nations” and rule over the earth for a period of “forty and two months”.<br /> <br /> During this time of widespread peace, in which the Antichrist deceives mankind into worshiping him, everyone will receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead bearing the Antichrist’s name or number, 666.<br /> <br /> Those who follow him by accepting this mark will be granted unlimited prosperity, since “no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark”. Eventually, Christ will once again return to earth and defeat the Antichrist in the <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="B01M2XTNTO" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="dd5130b92ed67e8603a5bae27311d130" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="final battle of Armageddon" href="http://www.amazon.com/Armageddon-Final-Battle-Between-Good-ebook/dp/B01M2XTNTO/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=dd5130b92ed67e8603a5bae27311d130&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_1819357" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">final battle of Armageddon</a><img alt="often" associated="" border="0" extreme="" government="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_1819357" one-world="" right="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=dd5130b92ed67e8603a5bae27311d130&_cb=1483201234158" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" those="" width="0" with="" />.<br /> <br /> Interpreted according to these prophecies, the facts of economic globalization offer proof of this satanic plot, instituted by Jews and foretold in the Bible, to turn people away from Christianity, erode national sovereignty, and institute global governance. Rather than a single individual, the Antichrist is often believed to be a composite, such as the small group of elites who control the UN, the IMF, and other organizations.<br /> <br /> These organizations and the opening of worldwide financial markets in treaties like the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)</a> offer clear signs of the Antichrist’s attempt to unite all nations into a single federation.<br /> <br /> The ten horns of the beast, symbolizing a ten-nation alliance, refer to the European Union or to the members of the UN Security Council, working to establish global tyranny. And the mark of the beast is found in the increasing prevalence of credit cards rather than cash or the push to develop a national identification card.

One-World Government

One-World Government Many Americans, often those associated with extreme right-wing groups and fundamentalist Christian churches, belie...

Read more »

Aristotle Onassis

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alleged="" alt="As" aristotle="" border="0" head="" in="" international="" mafia="" of="" onassis="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_kqUeyWGz1_G8s-cVeIRqmKX9h0eTKZqGkD-xMyAw99rF_CUtpnYZqsoMhFox0QjjyyUXl28NWNAT_DX3CM7EzQhxaij9oFoy7FypN8c1R6HRIKh-eYN3QefucBN_ZrybH_vtUVSo9Tz/s1600/aristotle-onassis.jpg" the="" title="Aristotle" width="470" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aristotle Onassis</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> As the alleged head of the international Mafia in the 1960s and 1970s, the Greek oil and shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis plays a particularly important role in parapolitical accounts of the time.<br /> <br /> According to conspiracy lore, Onassis built his fortune at first by cornering the Argentinean opium market through deals with Joseph Kennedy (<a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">John F. Kennedy</a>’s father), Eugene Meyer, and the mobster Meyer Lansky.<br /> <br /> He then bought every oil tanker he could in the late 1940s and early 1950s, taking advantage of the U.S. attempt to increase oil exports from the Middle East. The oil flowed, along with, the story goes, drugs and weapons to make Onassis extremely wealthy, with far wealthier and more powerful political figures beholden to him.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060580542/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=e950241367ae3bd2bd81743ba036fe61" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0060580542&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alleged="" alt="As" aristotle="" border="0" head="" height="1" in="" international="" mafia="" of="" onassis="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0060580542" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" width="1" /></span><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0989913732/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=7151031a3322e5843f7a63259827e943" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0989913732&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alleged="" alt="As" aristotle="" border="0" head="" height="1" in="" international="" mafia="" of="" onassis="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0989913732" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" width="1" /></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Financiers then poured over a half-billion dollars into a new class of supertankers owned by Onassis and his brother, Stavros Spyros Niarchos. The fleet eventually moved over 5 billion gallons of crude oil to Western Europe by 1956, a fifth of all Middle Eastern imported crude.<br /> <br /> The “Gemstone File” conspiracy text, based on a series of letters written by a man named Bruce Roberts and summarized in a hand-circulated outline, maintains that Onassis kidnapped <a href=" " target="_blank">Howard Hughes</a> in 1957. According to this motherlode of contemporary conspiracy lore, an international Mafia run by Onassis then held Hughes captive for ten years in his own hotels.<br /> <br /> It put the billionaire adventurer Hughes’s assets, Hughes Aircraft, and related companies among them, under Onassis’s control. From there, the Gemstone File details the role played by Onassis and his associates in the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and his subsequent marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy, the president’s widow.<br /> <br /> It also traces these connections to the <a href=" " target="_blank">Watergate</a> break-in; Ted Kennedy’s disaster at Chappaquiddick and many other mob interactions with the Rockefellers; <a href=" " target="_blank">Henry Kissinger</a>, Richard Nixon, and many well-known figures from the 1970s; the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bay of Pigs</a>; and the Watergate Plumbers E. Howard Hunt, James McCord, Frank Sturgis, and G. Gordon Liddy.<br /> <br /> John F. Kennedy visited Onassis on his yacht, the Christina, after losing the vice-presidential nomination at the Democratic Convention of 1956. The Gemstone maintains that Onassis promised him the presidency at that point. Six years later Onassis invited Jackie Kennedy onto the yacht, ostensibly to help her recover from the death of her infant son Patrick.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alleged="" alt="As" aristotle="" border="0" head="" in="" international="" mafia="" of="" onassis="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT-ecPZSi6Q7YJ7PcuWOpV5i2nLlVNHnKmRO9lZK-MFEGndJ8Tk1bcZ45c3UrNwux3XJT5dbcpiGzshYYUw-DPrVsNhgR2hr6HZPZSoO1NdoJ1NXWfaJQBEXdOzg74z3aWd8DCq0sGy3-Z/s1600/with-jackie.jpg" the="" title="Aristotle" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With his wife, Jackie</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> She came back from that visit about a month before JFK’s murder, and Onassis was among the few to visit her directly after it. In 1968, they started dating. Their marriage arrangement included separate bedrooms and $750,000 allowances for Jackie and her children.<br /> <br /> Some commentators have noted that, in marrying President Kennedy’s widow, Onassis was following an old Mafia dictum about shooting one’s enemy and taking his girl, but others have seen in the Onassis/Jackie Kennedy marriage merely a widow’s search for protection and seclusion for her children after the deaths of her husband and his brother.<br /> <br /> Onassis never recovered from the loss of his son Alexander in a plane crash near Athens in January 1973. He descended into conspiracy paranoia about that crash, offering a $1 million reward for evidence of wrongdoing. He died the following year.

Aristotle Onassis

Aristotle Onassis As the alleged head of the international Mafia in the 1960s and 1970s, the Greek oil and shipping magnate Aristotle O...

Read more »

Oil Industry

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="blank"><img alt="Oil" an="" and="" border="0" commodity="" economic="" essential="" industry="" is="" oil="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ0gRhJzMaFGB3BoqQ26Wr9KZRjFy2P4oEpvizijO9ezsvsyOEHxuE4cAaLrvOfz-HZfDnsML2Xaor3bqzJhyphenhyphenHzzH_5SJW-zigmnh85zAaWRuLFhVd6ELn8tkXIG8lMXxDBuYesmWUn28/s1600/Oil-Industry.jpg" strategic="" title="Oil" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oil Industry</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Oil is an essential economic and strategic commodity. Oil power enabled the internal combustion engine to revolutionize industry, society, and the conduct of warfare in the twentieth century. Necessarily, the oil industry is one of the world’s largest industries, and plays a major political and economic role in many nations.<br /> <br /> Conspiracy theories, however, hold that the oil industry secretly controls U.S. politics and foreign policy from behind the scenes. These theories reject conventional explanations for wars, terrorist attacks, and assassinations, and assert instead that these events were “really about oil.”<br /> <br /> <b>Actual Conspiracies</b><br /> <br /> The oil industry has often behaved in a conspiratorial fashion. In the early 1870s, <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="1400077303" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="c7da8428227cc1566e38d39b8698e8ae" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="John D. Rockefeller" href="http://www.amazon.com/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-Sr/dp/1400077303/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=c7da8428227cc1566e38d39b8698e8ae&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_1293844" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">John D. Rockefeller</a><img alt="Oil" an="" and="" border="0" commodity="" economic="" essential="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_1293844" industry="" is="" oil="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=c7da8428227cc1566e38d39b8698e8ae&_cb=1483199784382" strategic="" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" /> resolved to monopolize the oil industry, and his <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="1507570104" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="5a533fb4c179c37c688ff0025f56b800" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Standard Oil Company" href="http://www.amazon.com/History-Standard-Oil-Company/dp/1507570104/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=5a533fb4c179c37c688ff0025f56b800&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_6329140" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Standard Oil Company</a><img alt="Oil" an="" and="" border="0" commodity="" economic="" essential="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_6329140" industry="" is="" oil="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=5a533fb4c179c37c688ff0025f56b800&_cb=1483199773465" strategic="" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" /> soon controlled 90–95 percent of U.S. production and refining.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439110123/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=408e3bc7539d761e35f3ce7ff9f9bd97" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1439110123&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="Oil" an="" and="" border="0" commodity="" economic="" essential="" height="1" industry="" is="" oil="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1439110123" strategic="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><span style="padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982039204/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=2c65daec12ed160bfa3590bca5c7c924" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0982039204&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="Oil" an="" and="" border="0" commodity="" economic="" essential="" height="1" industry="" is="" oil="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0982039204" strategic="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Standard derived considerable advantage from large size and superior <a href=" " target="_blank">organization</a>, but also ruthlessly used espionage, price-cutting, intimidation, and bribery to destroy or absorb rivals.<br /> <br /> Standard negotiated secret agreements with the railroads to charge Standard lower transportation rates than rival companies, and to pay Standard a percentage of every dollar the railroads charged Standard’s rivals.<br /> <br /> Antitrust legislation, and the emergence of new sources of supply, ultimately prevented Standard from eliminating all competitors. However, the <a href=" " target="_blank">Rockefeller family</a> amassed a vast fortune and political influence that persists even today.<br /> <br /> In 1928, British, Dutch, and U.S. oil companies divided the Middle Eastern market and agreed to prevent overproduction, allocate quotas, fix prices, and deal jointly with outside producers. After <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">World War II</a>, the United States abrogated these agreements and secured an increased presence for U.S. companies in <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Saudi Arabia</a>, Kuwait, and Iran. The U.S. Congress, Justice Department, and Federal Trade Commission investigated these agreements.<br /> <br /> Consequently, in 1952 the Justice Department convened a grand jury to pursue civil and criminal antitrust charges against the oil companies. Ironically, even as the antitrust case progressed, the State Department was negotiating with Britain to create the cartel that controlled Iranian production and refining.<br /> <br /> <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0671747584" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="dff6da19ef69ecacf6fe186e6c6fc520" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="President Eisenhower" href="http://www.amazon.com/Eisenhower-Soldier-President-Renowned-One-/dp/0671747584/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=dff6da19ef69ecacf6fe186e6c6fc520&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_4928902" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">President Eisenhower</a><img alt="Oil" an="" and="" border="0" commodity="" economic="" essential="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_4928902" industry="" is="" oil="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=dff6da19ef69ecacf6fe186e6c6fc520&_cb=1483199810449" strategic="" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" /> wanted to use the oil industry to exclude Soviet influence from Iran, and this national security consideration trumped antitrust concerns. At length, the antitrust case petered out without significant result.<br /> <br /> The <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="1591846609" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="5c1039993ee14c8404b971f08f50ddaf" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Enron case" href="http://www.amazon.com/Smartest-Guys-Room-Amazing-Scandalous/dp/1591846609/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=5c1039993ee14c8404b971f08f50ddaf&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_9587150" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Enron case</a><img alt="Oil" an="" and="" border="0" commodity="" economic="" essential="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_9587150" industry="" is="" oil="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=5c1039993ee14c8404b971f08f50ddaf&_cb=1483199834152" strategic="" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" /> is a recent example of a criminal conspiracy in the oil industry. After Enron went bankrupt in 2001, company officials were indicted on charges of fraud and money laundering. Other allegations included improper accounting, falsification of financial statements, and conspiracy to manipulate energy prices in California. The full extent of Enron’s political influence remains unknown, although several senior Bush administration officials have Enron connections.<br /> <br /> <b>Oil and U.S. Foreign Policy</b><br /> <br /> Most historians agree that the U.S. government uses the oil companies as instruments of foreign policy. Conspiracy theorists, however, cite the above examples from the sordid history of the oil industry to support the argument that the U.S. government is an instrument of the oil companies. Such theorists insist that government policy (especially foreign policy) usually benefits the oil industry.<br /> <br /> The theory that the oil industry exerts undue influence on U.S. politics and foreign policy emerges partly from the large number of government officials drawn from the so-called Eastern Establishment. The Eastern Establishment includes northeastern (especially New York) law firms, financial institutions, foundations, media corporations, Ivy League schools, and think tanks such as the <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0896081036" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="77b88218dc992c080e3f130891735dbe" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Trilateral Commission" href="http://www.amazon.com/Trilateralism-Trilateral-Commission-Planning-Management/dp/0896081036/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=77b88218dc992c080e3f130891735dbe&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_9870462" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Trilateral Commission</a><img alt="Oil" an="" and="" border="0" commodity="" economic="" essential="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_9870462" industry="" is="" oil="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=77b88218dc992c080e3f130891735dbe&_cb=1483199900881" strategic="" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" /> and Council on Foreign Relations.<br /> <br /> Conspiracy theorists contend that “the Rockefellers” (a term synonymous with the oil industry) control the Eastern Establishment, and thereby control the government. The secretary of state, in particular, has always been a member of the Rockefeller faction since <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">World War II</a>, as have many CIA directors.<br /> <br /> Conspiracy theories maintain that Middle Eastern coups and wars are manufactured in Washington to increase U.S. hegemony over the region’s oil. Daniel Pipes shows that such theories are strongly held in Middle Eastern countries themselves.<br /> <br /> Even responsible national leaders fear that the CIA will overthrow them at the behest of the oil industry, or that Israel and western countries will conspire to attack them for reasons related to oil. (Of course, such a coup actually occurred in Iran in 1953, and Britain, France, and Israel indeed conspired to attack Egypt in 1956.)<br /> <br /> Conspiracy theorists contend that the Yom Kippur War, the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Iran-Iraq War</a>, the Gulf War, and the current “War on Terrorism” all resulted from U.S. manipulation and were intended to benefit the U.S. oil industry.<br /> <br /> In 1967, Israel inflicted a crushing defeat on Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arabs rearmed, and attempted to recapture their lost territories on Yom Kippur in 1973. Arab armies made initial progress until Israel counterattacked. <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OPEC</a> oil producers embargoed the United States, Portugal, the Netherlands, and South Africa for their support of Israel, and oil prices skyrocketed.<br /> <br /> Conspiracy theorists argue that then-Secretary of State <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Henry Kissinger</a> (the Rockefellers’ principal pawn) engineered this war in order to raise oil prices as part of his strategy of détente. The price increase rewarded the Soviet Union (an oil producer) and punished America’s principal economic competitors (Europe and Japan), who were more dependent on Middle Eastern oil than the United States.<br /> <br /> Supposedly, Kissinger told the Arabs that the United States could not induce Israel to begin the “peace process” until the Arabs scored a victory on the battlefield. Moreover, Kissinger restrained Israel from launching a preemptive strike before the Arabs attacked.<br /> <br /> In 1979, growing unrest in Iran led to the overthrow of the shah and the rise of an Islamic fundamentalist regime, which seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The humiliating hostage crisis, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, triggered a spike in oil prices, and contributed to <a href=" " target="_blank">Ronald Reagan</a>’s electoral victory in 1980.<br /> <br /> Just before the election, <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Saddam Hussein</a>’s Iraq tried to seize Iran’s oilfields, leading to eight years of bloody, indecisive warfare. These events provoked many conspiracy theories. The shah himself believed that foreign conspirators overthrew him, at times naming the oil companies as his nemesis.<br /> <br /> Many Iranians still believe the CIA ousted the shah. Some contend that the Reagan campaign conspired with <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Khomeini</a> to ensure that the embassy hostages were not released before the 1980 election (known as “the <a href=" " target="_blank">October Surprise</a>”).<br /> <br /> Other theories insist that Washington wanted high oil prices in 1979 in order to slow European and Japanese economic growth vis-à-vis the United States. Part of this reprise of the 1973 strategy was President Carter’s “green light” for Saddam to attack Iran.<br /> <br /> Carter and the oil industry hoped that Saddam’s attack would bring Iranian oil under the control of a de facto ally, and would force Iran to cooperate with Washington, since the Iranian military depended on U.S. equipment.<br /> <br /> Carter also hoped this pressure would lead to the overthrow of Khomeini and the release of U.S. hostages before the 1980 elections. Proponents of this alternative “October Surprise” theory observe that the United States “tilted” toward Iraq from early 1980 until early 1990.<br /> <br /> Some authors argue that Washington manipulated oil prices downward in the 1980s in order to bankrupt the Soviet Union. To reward cooperative Soviet policies after 1989, however, Washington decided to use Iraq to raise the price of oil.<br /> <br /> In July 1990, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq told Saddam Hussein that the United States had “no opinion” on Iraq’s border dispute with Kuwait. Conspiracy theorists consider this a U.S. “green light” for Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. The “green light” was a deliberate trap—the U.S. never intended to permit Saddam to keep Kuwait.<br /> <br /> Instead, the U.S. intended to use the resulting crisis and war to increase the price of oil and to introduce major military forces into <a href=" " target="_blank">Saudi Arabia</a> and neighboring oil-rich states, where they remain to this day. The oil industry further profited from the rebuilding of Kuwait after the war.<br /> <br /> Conspiracy theorists cite the connections between President Bush, administration officials such as then Defense Secretary Cheney, and the oil industry to support the claim that the 1991 <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gulf War</a> was “really” about oil. Such theorists again cite the connections between President George W. Bush, Vice-President Cheney, other administration officials, and the oil industry to support their views of the September 11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath.<br /> <br /> The conspiracy view of September 11 is that the Bush administration knew the attacks were coming, but deliberately let them happen to provide a pretext for military aggression. The “War on Terrorism” is thus a fig leaf to cover the “real” U.S. agenda—to control Central Asian oil resources and the potential pipeline routes through Afghanistan and Pakistan.<br /> <br /> Allegedly, the United States initially backed the vicious Taliban regime in Afghanistan because the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Taliban</a> were receptive to pipeline construction. However, pipeline negotiations failed in 1998, and the United States then began to subvert the Taliban. After <a href=" " target="_blank">September 11</a>, the United States simply executed a long-prepared plan for an invasion of Afghanistan.<br /> <br /> The increased U.S. military presence in Central Asia and the Saudi peninsula allowed the U.S. to tighten its grip on the region’s oil, and to prepare for an invasion of Iraq. Conspiracy theorists believed that if the U.S. invaded Iraq, the “real” objective would have been to allow U.S. oil companies to exploit idle Iraqi oilfields.

Oil Industry

Oil Industry Oil is an essential economic and strategic commodity. Oil power enabled the internal combustion engine to revolutionize in...

Read more »

Nullification

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="blank"><img a="" alt="Nullification" assertion="" authority="" border="0" by="" constitutional="" is="" nullification="" of="" or="" power="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEingqKIvwaxslGCdYbH6m2ph0IDyNE3TdvFeiaEBQRfX9oxw6VnJepW9YrvtDZ8sqChzKUHUGIDQdLe9ENjQMRwHKH3fCTxsnd0KpJHDtyESxugr7qOljq6x0yzHEtXWrarS57YDs8T2O6e/s1600/Nullification.jpg" state="" subnati="" the="" title="Nullification" width="470" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nullification</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Nullification is the assertion of power or constitutional authority by a state or subnational government that negates or nullifies an act of the national or federal government. Because nullification inherently involves a high level of intergovernmental conflict, those instances where nullification becomes a dominant policy preference typically coincide with allegations of unconstitutionality and conspiratorial theories.<br /> <br /> Nullification is a concept that developed in U.S. constitutional thought associated with federalism and states rights. Under the compact theory, the U.S. Constitution was created by the thirteen sovereign states.<br /> <br /> The sovereignty of the U.S. states originated with their each having distinct and separate creation and governing structures as British colonies, and that, as equal states coordinately declaring independence from Britain, each state was an equal party to the Articles of Confederation.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" style="width: 450px;"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center" width="225"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596981490/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=f4bbe06dc9769533700bc1c9a81eb656" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1596981490&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img a="" alt="Nullification" assertion="" authority="" border="0" by="" constitutional="" height="1" is="" nullification="" of="" or="" power="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1596981490" state="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" subnati="" the="" width="1" /></td> <td align="center" width="225"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1939709008/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=e9a9006f34c244bd55f32d7923c312a5" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1939709008&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img a="" alt="Nullification" assertion="" authority="" border="0" by="" constitutional="" height="1" is="" nullification="" of="" or="" power="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1939709008" state="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" subnati="" the="" width="1" /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <br /> The original sovereignty of the states and the interpretation associated with the establishment of the U.S. constitutional system are important foundations from which the concept of nullification developed.<br /> <br /> The origin of the U.S. constitutional compact through thirteen sovereign states makes the nature of the new union a point of historical, political, and legal contention. As varied interpretations develop around the nature and meaning of federalism, the almost religious sanction attributed by the interpretive schools of thought contribute to the development of conspiratorial allegations when the federal system reaches periods of crisis.<br /> <br /> Federalism is defined as “a form of government in which a union of states recognizes the sovereignty of a central authority while retaining certain residual powers of government”. Federalism describes a system of governing authority apportioned between central and regional governments.<br /> <br /> This definition assumes limitations on both national and state “spheres of authority,” and that within these spheres they are supreme and sovereign, but that there are overlapping authorities that they cooperate in, and within these cooperative spheres the national government retains supremacy. The U.S. system of federalism was described by James Madison in The Federalist no. 39 as “neither a national nor a federal Constitution, but a composition of both”.<br /> <br /> Because the United States has a “mixed” constitution, there has always been debate over the extent, intent, and direction of national policy in the federal system, and one of the principal sources of political conflict in the United States is between state and national governments. In almost all cases, major conflict translates ultimately into major conspiracy theories.<br /> <br /> As public policy conflict increased, the frequency and severity of intergovernmental conflict increased as well. Nullification was a concept developed by those asserting “states rights” over national authority.<br /> <br /> Essentially, any act of the national government that a state determined to be beyond the constitutional authority of the national government was declared null and void. The earliest and most powerful assertions of nullification authority were written by Thomas Jefferson in the Kentucky Resolution and James Madison in the Virginia Resolution.<br /> <br /> The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were passed by the Federalist Congress under the support and direction of President John Adams, who vigorously enforced them. The national government was given broad police powers to arrest, hold, and dispense with foreign nationals and citizens who criticized the U.S. government. This affront to civil liberties was met with strong opposition, from individuals as well as subnational governments.<br /> <br /> The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were drafted by their respective state legislatures in 1798 as statements of nullification with regard to the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Kentucky Resolution, drafted by Jefferson, clearly states the nullification view of federal law enacted unconstitutionally as “not law,” being “altogether void, and of no force.”<br /> <br /> It further fuels the conspiratorial views of the time by attributing as “obnoxious,” “suspicious” and “tyrannical” the motives and designs of the president. The critics at the time saw Adams as being controlled by the British government, and alleged that the Alien and Sedition Acts were designed to usurp American rights to free speech as a prelude to monarchy.<br /> <br /> In 1832, President Andrew Jackson signed into law a new tariff bill that lowered the protective tariff that protected southern economic interests. South Carolina responded by calling a state convention on the matter, which resulted in its declaring the new tariff void within the state.<br /> <br /> The work of John C. Calhoun had further developed the Jeffersonian position on constitutional authority, and the political actions of Calhoun, then a senator from South Carolina, only further fueled the legitimacy and popular appeal of his theory.<br /> <br /> The only major point of common ground between Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs during the American Second Party System came in response to this nullification crisis. On this central question of states rights, both Democrats and Whigs agreed that national authority must prevail over the states.<br /> <br /> This unholy alliance of bitter enemies fueled speculation that a national conspiracy to destroy southern economic interests was at work among the tariff opponents because the maneuverings of Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun had frustrated a more popularly supported effort by Van Buren to lower the tariff further, and Jackson’s defenders paradoxically included his longtime enemies Daniel Webster, Joseph Story, and John Quincy Adams.<br /> <br /> Ultimately, the American Civil War was fought in large part to resolve the issues associated with the underlying constitutional theory that justifies nullification, as it also justifies secession. Nullification has been less utilized since the nineteenth century as the Civil War resolved the question of political authority. <br /> <br /> <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ronald Reagan</a> has been the most recent political leader to revive the legitimacy of the states rights position. In his 1981 inaugural address, Reagan stated that “All of us need to be reminded that the Federal government did not create the States; the States created the Federal government.”

Nullification

Nullification Nullification is the assertion of power or constitutional authority by a state or subnational government that negates or ...

Read more »