BY DAVID MACILWAIN
There’s a lot of talk of conspiracy theories at the moment, and of course, it’s the time of year to be reminded of the mother of all conspiracies - in the pyrolytic demolition of the Twin Towers eighteen years ago. Contributing to these discussions recently was Dr. Quassim Cassam of Warwick University, who has just published a book of his philosophical reflections in “Conspiracy”.
While falling foul of the same “intellectual character vices” he has written and spoken on previously – of “closed-mindedness, gullibility, prejudice and dogmatism” - he had an interesting observation on the “inside job” conspiracy theory of 9/11. He posited that the Official story was itself a conspiracy theory, in its claim the attack on the towers was an “outside job”. This provides a novel departure point for argument, but a dangerous one; the claim that a man living in a cave in Afghanistan had devised the whole fiendish plan, and arranged for the training of Saudi pilots two years in advance in the US to carry it out, without raising any suspicions amongst the 17 US intelligence agencies, seems almost as wild a theory as claims the moon landing was “faked”.
And of course that’s not all of it; Osama Bin Laden and his Wahhabi brothers had to somehow set the demolition charges and monitor them to make sure it all went according to plan – but we might overlook this flaw in the official conspiracy theory given we don’t actually know who did organize the operation or how they carried it out, yet.
What was strikingly lacking from the discussion above, with loyal establishment servant and senior ABC presenter Geraldine Doogue, was any mention of the most politically significant conspiracies of recent times. Theories on the death of Diana, or the assassination of JFK – whatever the truth – are beginning to look a little passé in the face of the Skripal hoax, MH17 or Chemical Weapons use in Syria.
But there is one overarching “conspiracy” that encompasses all the others of the last decade, which we can call the bastard child of that mother of all conspiracies that led to George W Bush’s War on Terror. What began as Al Qaeda and was rebadged as ISIS, developed and manipulated as a covert weapon to facilitate US hegemonic goals, must be seen now as the true object of that fiendishly evil deception. What makes this conspiracy different from those mentioned above also makes it harder to expose as a hoax; revealing the truth must be a matter of judgment and intelligence rather than of straightforward science.
Despite continuing efforts to expose those lethal hoaxes and breakdown the framework of malicious disinformation that supports the Western establishment’s war on Russia and the “Resistance”, that brick wall still stands – and the Twin Towers do not! Science simply doesn’t cut it, either in the emotion-driven minds of the victims of Western mainstream propaganda, or in the convoluted official judgments of UN bodies like the UNHRC and the OPCW. Exposing a hoax, of course, is only half the battle, with no better illustration than the apparent poisoning and disappearance of the Skripals. Despite an almost complete absence of evidence supporting the British government’s claim that Russia tried and failed to poison a former double agent and his daughter using a super-toxic nerve agent smeared on a door-handle, and abundant evidence showing it couldn’t actually have happened, the Official conspiracy theory remains unchallenged and accepted. And even though many people may be skeptical of parts of the story, the alternative is to believe the conspiracy theory of “Kremlin trolls and Putin apologists”.
Recognizing the inability of scientific reasoning to change the emotionally hijacked minds of victims of NATO propaganda on issues like chemical weapons in Syria, or nuclear science in Iran, one wonders whether the latest exposé on Turkey’s support for ISIS could prove more persuasive. As reported by Robert Inlakesh, a Syrian Kurdish NGO has just issued a report detailing evidence for Turkish direct support for IS fighters as well as close business involvement with the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The NGO obtained documents and testimonies from IS prisoners held by the SDF and concluded that:
“Turkish authorities allowed foreign fighters and their families to travel back and forth across the border with Syria, and also turned a blind eye to IS activities in Turkey…”. It also claims that Turkey “provided military and security support to IS indirectly, and made security, financial and business agreement with ISIS.”
Such claims have been around for years, with Turkish support for Al Nusra indisputable; the formation of the “Army of Conquest” as a joint project by Turkey and Saudi Arabia in March 2015 brought thousands of new fighters and weaponry into Idlib over the Turkish border. It was a shamelessly extremist combination of Ahrar al-Sham with Jabhat al Nusra, and its ruthless advance towards Damascus cost many Syrian lives.
Turkish support and collaboration with IS was less evident however until Russia entered the fray and bombed the IS Oil tanker convoys. Erdogan’s irritation at the disruption to his nice little earner – acting as a conduit for that stolen Syrian oil – soon led to a deterioration in relations with Russia that has only recently been rectified, to a degree. As Inlakesh observes, the cooperation between Turkey and Islamic State has become well known and accepted by the Syrian and Russian camp, and presumably also by the Kurds, so it’s clear that the Rojava Centre is seeking to further its interests by publishing its report at this time.
We might overlook the fact that these claims are actually a conspiracy theory, and considered such not just by Turkey but generally in the West. In fact, they are an accusation that Erdogan and his partners have engaged in covert criminal activity in pursuit of political and economic benefits, while lying repeatedly to the public and to other governments about their intentions and allegiances. But in the current atmosphere of extreme suspicion and confused allegiances between Turkey and the US, Russia, Syria and Brussels, the Kurdish viewpoint could be influential, and particularly on those in the West who need to wake up to the truth.
Those people – currently suffering under the impression that foreign forces are in Syria to fight the Islamic State – include Western media reporters. On several occasions recently, the ABC’s Beirut correspondent has visited Qamishli in NE Syria and reported on interviews with IS fighters held prisoner by the self-proclaimed “Kurdish Authorities”. His interest is only in Australians who went to join the Caliphate, who now mostly claim to have done nothing bad and want to return home. The Australian government has just passed a “law” to prevent them from doing so for two years, without consulting the Syrian government of course – or even the Kurdish “regional government”. “Preventing deportation” would seem a fairer starting point, and might lead to more interesting discussions.
But no doubt we will wait in vain for the IS fighter in a Kurdish prison who admits to collaboration with US special-forces. Like the truth of the 9/11 conspiracy, US “support” for the terrorist armies it cultivated and now controls is “thought-crime”, even for the US’ closest allies or for the fighters themselves. In identifying Turkey as the facilitator of their activities, the IS prisoners are saying what their Kurdish captors want to hear, as they try to maintain the support of their rogue ally.
What the Kurds don’t want to hear, and mightn’t even believe, is that their heroic fighters, lionized in the West for beating the Islamic State, have been fighting a mirage; neither their lives nor those of their supposed enemies in ISIS are of the slightest consequence to their US patrons, whose primary interest seems to be in maintaining their occupation and exploitation of Eastern Syria and Northern Iraq by whatever means works.
And the latest development in the conflict of allegiances in Northern Syria illustrates this perfectly. In a move condemned by the Syrian government, Turkey and the US have begun joint military patrols in Syria along the Turkish border. This looks like a bargain, drawing the US away from the Kurds and Turkey away from Russia. But it also confirms the ongoing partnership of the US and Turkey in keeping their Syrian caliphate alive.
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