No Longer Just Theories

Conspiracy Theories, Power and Accountability: Part 2

PART 2:

Conspiracy versus Conspiracy Theory

While it might feel like the responsible or moral position to reject conspiracy theories outright, it’s important to acknowledge that if we scour history for evidence of government and corporate conspiracies, we will find it. 

It’s simply misguided to assert that neither government institutions, nor corporations attempt to cover up actual misdeeds. And when they do, the perpetrators go on to establish and disseminate so-called “official” narratives in order to detract from and suppress evidence of real wrongdoing. And these explanations, finding their way into reputable newspapers and being spoken by established experts, will be falsities masquerading as truth. And the people pulling at the threads of these mistruths will be conspiracy theorists and their efforts will have merit. 

The Truth is Stranger than Fiction

If we look at 20th Century American history alone, evidence of real life conspiracies is abundant, the revelations bizarre and outrageous. If you want to blow your mind, look into MKUltra, the CIA’s mind control operation that experimented on human subjects between 1953-73 using hypnosis, psychological torture and the administration of LSD, illegally and without their consent or knowledge. By working through hospitals, prisons and other respected institutions, the CIA was able to recruit the participation of doctors and gain access to patients, students and inmates to serve as human subjects for brutal experiments.

Note that MKUltra represented the continuation of another previous CIA operation focused on brainwashing. Project Artichoke (1951-53) set out to establish if and how an ordinary person could be compelled to involuntarily perform a violent act such as the assassination of a politician through hypnosis, persuasion, interrogation techniques, psychological torture and the administration of psychoactive drugs. 

In light of such revelations, is it outrageous to question the official findings of government agencies tasked to investigate the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and RFK, powerful figures who actively challenged the political status quo and whose murders all occurred within a 5 year period between 1963 and 1968?

Here’s a brief overview of some conspiracies that have been proven true:

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932-1972): The U.S. Public Health Service conducted unethical experiments on black men by withholding treatment for syphilis over decades.

CIA 1953 Iranian Coup (1953): The CIA in conjunction with British Intelligence (MI6) orchestrated the overthrow of Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.

Operation Popeye (1967-72): The U.S. military weather modification program used cloud seeding to increase rainfall over enemy supply routes and base areas during the Vietnam War.

The Pentagon Papers (1971): Leaked classified documents revealed the government misled the public about the Vietnam War's progress and policies.

Tobacco Industry Conspiracy (1950s-2000s): Major tobacco companies concealed evidence and denied the links between smoking and adverse health effects.

Opioid Epidemic Conspiracy (1990s-present): Pharma companies downplayed opioid addiction risks through illicit marketing and kickbacks to doctors, enabled by corruption and pharma lobbying that undermined government oversight, sparking a nationwide epidemic of overdoses and addiction in the U.S.

Downing Street Memo (2002): A leaked memo revealed intelligence about Iraq was "fixed" by officials to support the case for the 2003 invasion.

WikiLeaks (2006-present): The publication of classified U.S. government documents and diplomatic cables exposed controversial policies, human rights abuses and efforts to cover up civilian deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

NSA Global Surveillance/PRISM Program (2007-present): The NSA conducted widespread surveillance of communications data globally, including on U.S. citizens. We’ll explore this conspiracy in greater detail below.

Reflection Questions:

• As you read through the confirmed conspiracy theories, is there anything specific that shocked or surprised you?

• Now that you've been exposed to information about proven conspiracies, how do you feel about the term "conspiracy theorist" being used as a label? How has your perspective on this label shifted?

• When it comes to mainstream media coverage of current events, where would you place yourself on a scale from completely faithful believer to total sceptic? 

• After learning about real-life proven conspiracies, do you anticipate your level of scepticism or trust towards media coverage possibly changing in the future?

Clean as a Whistle

What happens when governments get caught doing dirty deeds? It’s an important question. Here’s another one. What happens to the people who blow the whistle on the criminal activities of people in power? 

Edward Snowden is a former government contractor and computer intelligence consultant who worked for the US National Security Agency between 2009 and 2013. Disillusioned with what he felt was unethical activity within the programs in which he worked, Snowden expressed his concerns through internal channels. When these were met with silence, he used his high-level security clearance and access to NSA databases to copy classified files onto portable digital devices, which he smuggled out of the facility with the intent to leak them to the international press. 

Contained within the files were revelations of government mass surveillance programs, enacted and expanded following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which violated civil liberties and privacy rights on an unprecedented scale. One leaked document showed that the NSA collected metadata for almost all telephone calls made through major U.S. telecommunications companies like Verizon, AT&T and Sprint under the PRISM program. Significantly, this mass collection and storage of vast amounts of personal data from millions of Americans and foreign nationals, often took place without warrant and in the absence of individualized suspicion, which is required by law. As such, these actions were in violation of the 4th Amendment of the constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures against U.S. citizens by the government. 

Ultimately, Snowden exposed how, unbeknownst to the public, democratic countries like the U.S. had been carrying out sweeping and indiscriminate digital monitoring on a massive scale comparable to the kind of intrusive surveillance perpetrated by the most oppressive police states in human history.

Eleven years after the leaks were made public, Edward Snowden remains living in exile in Russia in order to avoid extradition to the U.S., where he faces criminal charges for violations of the Espionage Act and theft of government property. If convicted on those charges, he faces up to 30 years in prison.

The consequences for the U.S. government and intelligence agencies were less dire. Following Snowden’s 2013 leak, NSA director Keith Alexander, NSA Deputy Director John Inglis and Director of the Signals Intelligence Directorate Teresa Shea retired the following year. The General Counsel of the NSA Raj De retired in 2015. Although the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper handed in his letter of resignation in 2016, he remained in his position for the duration of Obama’s presidency. While core surveillance programs like PRISM continued to operate in the wake of Snowden’s revelations, the implementation of the Freedom Act in 2015 introduced increased oversight and transparency, effectively bringing an end to the unchecked bulk collection of Americans' phone metadata under the Patriot Act. 

Reflection Questions:

• How much transparency into classified government activities do you think the public deserves or requires to ensure that those in power aren’t abusing their authority or engaging in unethical behaviour?

• Compare and contrast the treatment of Edward Snowden with the officials implicated in the NSA programs he exposed. Does the disparity in consequences seem fair or justified? Why or why not?

• What effect does the criminalization of whistleblowers like Snowden have on ordinary people's willingness to expose criminal or unethical government activity? Is this concerning?

• If officials within powerful institutions face little personal accountability for criminal actions, how might that shape the internal culture of such institutions and the incentives for officials to behave ethically?