The Witch Hunt against Independent Research and Analysis
A new crusade appears to be underway to target independent
research and analysis available via alternative news media. This March
saw the release of “cognitive infiltration” advocate Cass Sunstein’s new
book, Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas. In April, the
confirmed federal intelligence-gathering arm, Southern Poverty Law
Center (SPLC), released a new report, “Agenda 21: The UN,
Sustainability, and Right Wing Conspiracy Theory.” Most recently,
Newsweek magazine carried a cover story, titled, “The Plots to Destroy
America: Conspiracy Theories Are a Clear and Present Danger.”
As its discourse suggests, this propaganda campaign is using the now
familiar “conspiracy theory” label, as outlined in Central Intelligence
Agency Document 1035-960, the 1967 memo laying out a strategy for CIA
“media assets” to counter criticism of the Warren Commission and attack
independent investigators of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
At that time the targets included attorney Mark Lane and New Orleans
District Attorney Jim Garrison, who were routinely defamed and lampooned
in major US news outlets.
Declassified government documents have proven Lane and Garrison’s
allegations of CIA-involvement in the assassination largely accurate.
Nevertheless, the prospect of being subject to the conspiracy theorist
smear remains a potent weapon for intimidating authors, journalists, and
scholars from interrogating complex events, policies, and other
potentially controversial subject matter.