Saturday, April 03, 2010

THEM: Adventures With Extremists


I’ve just finished reading Jon Ronson’s THEM: Adventures with Extremists which provides an interesting and often humourous survey of how the New World Order looked to conspiracy theorists pre-9/11 - the book was published in October 2001 but was the culmination of five years of research which sometimes included living with those he terms extremists. For Ronson, extremists are merely those who have been called extremists by others. It’s a vague definition of the term and it applies to disparite groups from Islamic fundamentalists to Ku Klux Klan members to ex-sports commentators, but the one thing that they have in common is that they believe a shadowy, secret elite group rule the world. Ronson’s book is his journey to find out the nature of that group and, if possible the secret room they rule from.

Some conspiracy theorists may be a bit skeptical and wonder if he really is doing that or if he isn’t actually trying to convince himself and his readers that no such elite group and no such room exists, but if that is his aim he certainly appears to have a few doubts a long the way.

In a very similar fashion to Louis Theroux he seems to get on well with his subjects and usually portrays them sympathetically even if they portray themselves as parodies of nutters. In the first chapter he meets the Islamic fundamentalist Omar Bakri Mohammed, who cheerfully tells Ronson that he’ll burn in Hell and keeps threatening him with sixty lashes only to burst out laughing and say that it’s just a joke. When Ronson manages to arrange a visit to Omar Bakri’s secret Jihadi training camp (in Crawley!) Omar suddenly announces to those present, “Here I am with an infidel. Jon is a Jew!” This is met with an audible gasp. Ronson attempts to break the resulting stunned silence with a plea, “Surely it is better to be a Jew than an atheist?” – “No, it isn’t.” is the reply.

Omar Bakri’s organization, Al Muhajiroun, was a breakaway group from Hizb-ut-Tahrir and is portrayed mostly as inept and clownish. They attempt to release a thousand black balloons in Trafalgar Square with postcards urging Jihad but the messages are too heavy for the balloons, anchoring them to the ground. Interestingly there is a cameo appearance by a young disciple of Omar going only by the name of Anjem. This, of course, is Anjem Choudary, who was one of the founders of Al Muhajiroun and later the very vocal spokesman of Islam4UK.

Omar Bakri on the mic with the ever-photogenic Abu Hamza on the right


Another before-they-were-famous appearance is by larger-than-life Texan conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, whose radio show InfoWars was already being listened to by millions of people in the States but who hadn’t made it big internationally...

Ronson is visiting a family called the Weavers who had been the victims of a massive Federal police operation at their remote cabin in a place called Ruby Ridge in Idaho in which two members of the family (14 year old Sammy and his mother Vicki) as well as the pet dog were shot dead in a military-style assault involving hundreds of officers. The incident was so shocking in its brutality and size, especially when a similar siege followed at Waco, Texas that the Weavers’ home became something of a shrine to anti-government groups of various stripes. The Weavers themselves had been tarred as white supremacists as Randy Weaver had been friends with a member of a group called Aryan Nations and had been the victim of a police sting (or entrapment) which precipitated the siege. The Weavers had always denied they were white supremacists but they had believed in the New World Order and lived in isolation to escape their totalitarian clutches. The raid on their cabin convinced them and many others that the New World Order had come after them (one of those people who later visited was Timothy McVeigh who went on to destroy the bomb the Murrah Building in Oklahoma killing 168 people).

Alex Jones agrees with the Weaver family that the New World Order is conducting events such as these but says that they’re not only responsible for attacks targeting isolationists and religious cults such as at Ruby Ridge and at Waco but also the Oklahoma bombing itself and Ramzi Yusef’s bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. Ronson queries Jones on this who then shows his formula for just about any event was employed back then too:

“That’s not even debatable!” He roared, “Well, I guess you could debate Oklahoma City. But the World Trade Center is not even debatable. Clinton’s Reichstag. Horror!”

So the first World Trade Center bombing was “Clinton’s Reichstag”, 9/11 was “Bush’s Reichstag” and Joe Stack flying his plane into an IRS building in Texas may have been “Obama’s Reichstag”. It’s not even clear that the Reichstag fire was “Hitler’s Reichstag” but never mind that.

Jones sketches out for Ronson some of the structure of the New World Order which often seems like a very nebulous term if not a pat political slogan used by politicians to simply mean a vision for a better tomorrow!

“The Bilderbergers,” said Alex, “Are the Roman Senate. It’s a pyramid. They’re way up there. Below them you’ve got the IMF, the World Bank, the United Nations, then you’ve got us down here, the cattle, the human resources.”

“The Bilderbergers”, refers to the Bilderberg Group, which is a real group of politicians and business people who meet periodically in a five-star hotel somewhere in secret. This looks like a promising lead for Ronson who ends up in Portugal assisting a journalist called Jim Tucker infiltrate the latest Bilderberg meeting. While reading Ronson’s description of Tucker I was reminded of a set of articles written in a tongue-in-cheek style by Charlie Skelton about Bilderberg. Tucker is a big man who suffers from emphysema from having smoked too many cigarettes. Bilderberg is an obsession for Tucker who is so worried that he’s messing with the wrong people that he phones in a coded message every morning to a friend of his to let them know he’s still alive. Ronson seems to enjoy his company and some of the interesting stories he has to tell. As they watch some of the famous names pulling up to the Caesar Park Hotel, Tucker confides that Henry Kissinger – a perennial guest of Bilderberg, naturally – actually speaks with an American accent but puts on his European accent for show. He also points out that Margaret Thatcher is in fact one of the good guys that Bilderberg contrived to have removed because of her opposition to the European Union. Bilderberg are rampant globalists, you see, and they are steering the world toward a one-world government New World Order.


Jim Tucker



There are a few things, however, which somewhat perturb Ronson about Tucker and that is his penchant for off-colour jokes: “The amount of pills they make me take for my plumbing, anyone would think I was F.A.G Positive.” And lets on that the only problem he had with Abraham Lincoln was that he was an abolitionist!

Well, it soon turns out that the newspaper Jim Tucker writes for, the Spotlight, is a famously anti-semitic publication and indeed, it was published by the Liberty Lobby, a political body founded by a rabid anti-semite Willis Carto. The Spotlight was one of the most successful media for conspiracy theories, especially in the pre-Internet era and was once sued by E. Howard Hunt from the CIA for an article that accused him of being involved in the JFK assassination. Lawyer and JFK conspiracy theorist Mark Lane successfully defended the Spotlight however. Ronson is at first skeptical of the claims that Tucker is an anti-semite but in a visit to the offices of the Anti-Defamation League he is given a file on the Spotlight containing numerous Holocaust denial articles, tributes to neo-Nazi organizations and lists of books written in praise of Adolf Hitler by Spotlight editors. The Spotlight had toned itself down somewhat since its early days but really all it had done was to adopt code words such as “international bankers” and “international financiers” (in Michael Shermer’s book on Holocaust denial, Denying History, Holocaust deniers tend to use the term “traditional enemy” these days rather than saying Jews). The Spotlight has since folded and now given rise to a new “news” source called the American Free Press, which is as anti-semitic as its forerunner, and also features Jim Tucker’s writings as well as those of James Edwards, a broadcaster for the appropriately titled Political Cesspool, and Christopher Bollyn, a 9/11 Truther who believes that Israel was behind the attacks.

As many of these conspiracy theorists adopt code words for their anti-semitism the ADL has been very keen to search out even the most obscurely coded language. Ronson finds himself wondering if the ADL don’t end up going too far and becoming extremists themselves in their characterizations of some people. This really comes to a head when ex-goalkeeper, ex-sports commentator and ex-son-of-God, David Icke flies into Canada on a book tour to explain that the New World Order is in fact made up of 12-foot shape-shifting lizards. The ADL aren’t fooled and are sure that when David Icke says “shape-shifting lizards” he really means “Jews”.

Ronson follows David Icke on his travails around Vancouver in which radio station after radio station cancel his interviews at the last moment and book stores that had arranged for him to be there to sign his books suddenly retract the invitation. Icke comes across as the most sympathetic person in the whole saga as everyone else overreacts to his very presence and, no doubt, only confirm for him that the New World Order are thwarting him. It reaches its peak with a lemon meringue pie assault which backfires on the assailants.

Ronson's research also formed the basis for a TV series. This is the episode in which David Icke appears. Notice also that a car sticker outside of Alex Jones radio station reads: "It's time for another Tea Party"

But the ADL aren’t the only people who have a problem with David Icke. “DAVID ICKE IS A TURD IN A PUNCHBOWL!” According to Alex Jones. What does he mean by this?

“He talks about the global elite, the Bilderberg Group, these power structures which are all real, all true. Meat and potatoes! Something you can bite into! And then at the end of this he says, “By the way, they’re all blood-drinking lizards… Al Gore needs blood to drink. So does Prince Philip." He’s discrediting the whole thing. You’ve got a nice fruit punch. Icke takes a great big dump right in the middle of it, and now nobody’s going to drink out of that punchbowl. That’s his job, and he’s doing his job well.”

Towards the end of the book, Ronson finally manages to speak to a member of Bilderberg’s steering committee and founder member, Dennis Healey (an unlikely candidate for ruler of the world in my humble opinion, but who am I to say). Healey explains that really there isn’t that much to tell about the Bilderberg Group. But that it’s a club for influential people to meet other influential people. Well, of course he would say that and it doesn’t mean that important things aren’t being discussed away from prying eyes and ears. It certainly could be argued that a lot more transparency would be nice. But maybe the lack of secrecy would reveal the affairs of the Bilderberg Group to be terminally boring. But you can make up your own mind by reading Ronson's Guardian article about it here.

But while Ronson certainly makes some of the conspiracy theorists entertaining, he is keen to point out that there are dark sides to these ideas too. Some people such as the neo-Nazi nail-bomber David Copeland who set off a series of bombs in London targeting ethnic minorities and gay people and believe the world is in thrall to the Bilderberg Group and ZOG (Zionist Occupied Government). Since then there have been other attacks such as the deadly shooting of a guard at the Holocaust museum in Washington DC and at the Pentagon by similarly inclined conspiracy theorists.

The book concludes with a fantastic chapter on one of the most mysterious conspiracy theories at another of the suspected loci of the New World Order: Bohemian Grove in a redwood forest clearing in California. All kinds of occult rituals are supposed to occur there in a place where plans for world domination are hatched. David Icke warns Ronson that Bohemian Grove is a place where the reptilian bloodlines transform themselves back into giant lizards and that such people as Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, Walter Cronkite and male members of the British Royal family abuse sex slaves who have been brainwashed through the CIA's MK-ULTRA programme. One of these victims who escaped - Cathy O'Brien - wrote a book called Trance Formation of America about her experiences. In order to infiltrate the Bohemian Grove, Ronson teams up again with Alex Jones and Jones’ producer Mike, because of Jones' apparent fearlessness. So, I was expecting some kind of death-defying adventure through the woods in which they would be flitting from redwood to redwood, avoiding bear traps and scaling electric fences. Instead, they get in by simply walking up the drive dressed in preppy khaki pants and sweaters draped across their shoulders. Apparently the key is to look Republican. But this is only after Alex Jones refuses to go in with Ronson, as he's unable to trust him.

Ronson discovers that instead of the rumoured Satanic rituals and plots to maintain world dominance there isn’t much more to the affair than a bunch of geriatric men guzzling champagne and watching a bizarre pyrotechnic display around a large stone owl shrine and then peeing against the trees. But that is not what Jones saw!

“These people point their fingers everyday. If you’re against the government you’re an extremist. You’re crazy. But this was a pagan ceremony worshipping the earth and engaging in human sacrifice.”

But another conclusion comes from one of Ronson’s sources within Bilderberg who says that neither Bilderberg nor Bohemian Grove attract the calibre that they used to with the older members simply getting older and the prospective newcomers uninterested:

“Let’s face it. Nobody rules the world any more. The markets rule the world. Maybe that’s why your conspiracy theorists make up all those crazy things. Because the truth is so much more frightening. Nobody rules the world.”

10 comments:

Roderick Russell said...

Angrysoba

MISREPRESENTATIONS IN YOUR ARTICLE – CONSPIRACY GENERATOR

Thank you for the post card you sent me. It is a pity you did not mention the comment in your blog of March 3 since if I had known about it then, I would have responded at that time. As you have used information in your article that refers to the facts of my case, and indeed quotes from my research paper on the topic, I though it only appropriate that I should have a right to respond.

Firstly, let me correct your implication that my case may have origins in one of the conspiracy theories that surrounds the Diana – or Moon Landing – or 9/11 incidents that your article links to. I have never mentioned any of these theories, and personally don’t believe in the latter two conspiracy theories, nor do I believe in the New World Order concept. May I suggest that you refer your readers to my paper so that they can see for themselves what it is that I am reporting. Its URL is:

http://zerzetzen.wikispaces.com

Slander, intimidation, harassment, threats from our intelligence services, being covered up by government. It is all there, and there is plenty of proof.

If you readers care to go to the 2nd chapter of the zerzetzen wiki, under the caption “Zerzetsen torture – Is a human rights abuse” they will see a list of other cases where zerzetsen (or zersetzung) has been carried out by MI5/6 in UK and CSIS in Canada. Some were even written about in The Sunday Times; your readers can go to the Internet and check out the validity of these other cases for themselves. They may not call it zerzetsen, but there are many reported cases where Stasi-like methods have been used in the UK and Canada. Yes, there is a conspiracy and the conspiracy is coming from our own intelligence services.

Even intimidated for criticizing the human rights industry on Craig Murray Blog !

On March 3rd (date of your article) I posted some entries on Craig’s blog under the heading “Rare TV Appearance” that were very critical of the human rights industry. Your entry, defending the industry, appeared on the same date. Is it possible that there is a linkage?

On the same Blog on the following day, at March 4, 2010 12:54 AM, I posted an entry that was very critical of The Canadian Human Rights Commission and provided evidence showing that they had been frightened off by CSIS. This was early morning in Calgary. Later that afternoon my wife and I were both intimidated in Calgary, and have little doubt that it was because of my linking (with evidence) a human rights agency in Canada to CSIS.

Now MI6 knows what this is all about. They know I have never done anything wrong, but instead made a choice years ago to offer their services to some nasties in the high establishment. They would have done better to control these over-powerful idiots rather than pander to them in this disgraceful manner. But then one can hardly expect truth telling from the organization that gave us Philby, Burgess and Blunt.

So “angrysoba blog”, do you believe in truth telling, or is it all just propaganda for MI6?

Roderick Russell
#207, 1733 -27 Ave. SW
Calgary AB T2T 1G9 Canada
403.229.0864

angrysoba said...

Hi Roderick,

Thanks for dropping by. Yes, I did post the conspiracy generator on my blog which was actually taken from a Wired magazine article. The point was to fill in a few blank spaces which would then create a conspiracy theory. I saw that you had said there was a "human rights industry" that serves as a front for intelligence agencies. I wouldn't have used it as the model until I saw you quoted someone called Pierre Sane from Amnesty International apparently affirming what you believe, so yes, it was the inspiration for the sample theory in the generator.

I had a look through your writings but I was a bit puzzled how you came to your conclusions. I had some questions:

How is it that you know that MI5/MI6 and Canada's intelligence agency are harassing you?

How do you know what their aims are?

What utility is there for them in spending 20 years doing this?

Also, there seems to be some very vague information that you put forward as evidence of a plot against you. For example, what is the "street theatre" that you are talking about?

I'm sorry to hear that you were intimidated in Calgary, but how do you know it was the result of what you wrote on Craig Murray's blog?

What kind of intimidation was it?

I would usually say I'm glad you got my postcard but it means you are actually posting all of your real contact details including your telephone number and address all over the Internet which I don't think is a good idea. I don't do that myself because I think there are too many crazy people on the Internet.

And you have my word, for whatever that's worth, that I am not a member of MI6.

angrysoba

P.S You say that you don't believe that the Moon landings were faked or that 9/11 was an inside job but you left open the Diana one.

You're not serious are you?

angrysoba said...

Okay, so this is the Craig Murray thread that your comments about the "human rights industry" appeared in.


I'm sorry if you didn't appreciate your story being mentioned alongside the other conspiracy theories but I found a summary of the articles that were published in the edition of the Lobster your story appeared in. They seem to be very similar to those. 9/11, Bilderberg, JFK etc...

But while looking around I did manage to find the story from the Times. Lies, Threats and Whistleblowers.

Have you ever contacted the author of that article?

Roderick Russell said...

Angrysoba

Thanks for your response. I didn’t think that you were an employee of MI6. More likely MI6 would sit behind the scenes and subcontract anyway. But just as a point of interest – how do you earn your living?

To answer your questions, may I just refer you to my WIKI..

http://zerzetzen.wikispaces.com

I think you will find that the wiki answers most of the questions you asked. Do also glance at the very significant correspondence files (letters from Cabinet Ministers, etc) that are linked with the wiki as pdf attachments. A lot of the detailed explanation is in the letters. The Wiki itself is divided into 8 Chapters - to see each chapter, just click on the appropriate heading under table of contents in the left hand margin.

Firstly, please review Chapter 1 as it gives an overview of the whole thing. It tells you what this is all about.

Then read Chapter 5. This simply outlines some of the many threats – Recorded death threats, property smashed into, etc. There are many more threats not included. You will note that a number of the threats have independent witnesses to corroborate for verification purposes. I don’t know why you dwelt on Street Theatre as in 5 pages of nasty threats in Chapter 5, only 3 lines relate to Street Theatre. Perhaps, a little bit of bias?

Then go to Chapter 4 – Government Cover-Up Conspiracy in UK & Canada – and read it; then look at some of the letters that the wiki links to. You will see wholesale evidence of a cover-up conspiracy designed to pervert the course of justice by ensuring that this matter is never honestly investigated. The reason for the cover-up is that the authorities are scared as to where an investigation would lead.

So Angrysoba, there is enough evidence to prove ongoing threats and a government cover-up conspiracy to the full “beyond a reasonable doubt standard” several times over.

You ask - How do I know that MI5/MI6 and CSIS are involved? Take a look at Chapter 7 of the wiki entitled “Role of MI5, MI6, CSIS in zerzetsen” and you will see that there are multiple items of evidence that point to them and I should mention that each item has at least one independent source of corroboration to back it up (not necessarily described in the Wiki). Besides if you look at Chapter 4, you will see wholesale evidence of a cover up conspiracy by government which would suggest the involvement of intelligence services.

Why was I defamed and character assassinated after I left Grosvenor International where I had worked as a senior executive? I don’t know; there is no logical reason except that I was defamed and that other executive leavers were also slandered. Indeed I was told that the Chairman had used his intelligence contacts to slander an executive who left the year before me, and I first brought this to police attention back in 2004.

Yes Zerzetsen is an unusual type of torture, but there is plenty of precedent for it – as outlined in my first comment; just go to Chapter 2 of the Wiki. Of course MI5/6’s objective is to hide the torture, rather like a rendition program – except that since the torture is not of the old fashioned medieval kind, their victims never have to leave the country. One of their techniques is to shut off sources of help, and that includes our human rights industry. I recently published a brief article on this subject in Media Lens headlined: Is this torture too unfashionable for the Human Rights Industry?

http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1268764798.html

Now you raised the Diana issue. Presumably you have noticed in the Wiki that the Chairman of Grosvenor is Prince Charles’s best friend. You chose to raise the issue; I don’t choose to comment at this time.

Roderick Russell said...

The link to the Media Lens article previously given may not work – This one should. Many others have reported on the lack of help from the human rights industry where the establishment is involved. The article is headlined - Is this torture too unfashionable for the Human Rights Industry?

http://tiny.cc/lxaxw

I believe that in so persistently raising these issues I am serving the public interest. There is clearly a pressing need for significant reforms within our intelligence services, and it has to be said that a human rights industry that is scared (or too politically correct) to tackle contentious issues at home (where the high establishment is involved) is not worth a damn to anyone.

angrysoba said...

how do you earn your living?


I'm a teacher. The blog's just a kind of hobby.

Anonymous said...

We did have Ronson come along to a Class War public meeting in the mid-90s, and he then wrote a piss taking piece in I think Time Out.

Perhaps we were not considered nutty enough for his book, as I believe CW does not feature? Having been similarly rejected by Louis Theroux, a pattern perhaps emerges.....

angrysoba said...

What a bugger! I'll have a look for the piece, although you are right that Class War doesn't feature. Ian Paisley's in it, and some guy who likes to buy Nicolae Ceausescu memorabilia but most of it is about conspiracy theorists and white supremacists.

You probably would have increased your chances of a mention if you'd burned a few crosses at the meeting. Or better yet, a few Catholics nailed to crosses. I bet even old Paisley would have found it hard to top that and probably wouldn't have made the cut.

Interestingly, Ronson's last book features General Stubblebine who is, I believe, a 9/11 Truther and has some very odd ideas about the uses of parapsychology in warfare.

Anonymous said...

google sammymcloughlin csis ,csis mi6 stops my mail calls emails to 8 abbotsburyway lowerham plymiouth devon pl22hs ,cvsis attacks me 24-7 sound device sleep deprivation ,lice ,lu,s ,rcmp ,joabn crcokatt mp lied to me fo csis here in Calgary Canada helpme ne505944b,kim ross is my lawyer for another frame up Curtis Richards lie to rcmp sying I attacked him,kim ross knows about csis he doe,s not think this is csis.contact my family ,david eby mla ,don wright of amnesty all know did nothing to help me .torture sound sleep deprivation ,ears,eyes,spine,lungs,penis,skin, teeth,csishad ri9chard kovac try to sell me hand guns to frame em up he lives in bude cornwall uk.

Deep Cleaning Bloomington said...

Thank you foor this