Breathing theories - Democratic Underground

H2O Man

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Thu Oct-25-07 10:16 AM
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Breathing theories

I would like to share a few brief thoughts on "conspiracy theories." I will attempt to do this in a manner that I hope offend no one on DU.

As some of you know, I like words and I like history. Malcolm X always recommended that we study the history of words. Abbie Hoffman pointed out that "conspiracy" comes from the Middle English term "conspiracie," which in turn comes from the Latin word "conspiratus" .... which simply means two or more human beings "breathing" together. In our culture, it obviously means two or more people planning and perhaps engaging in secretive activity. (Abbie was on trial for some heavy breathing at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.)

On a couple of DU threads,"Reclaiming History," a wonderful book by Vincent Bugliosi is mentioned, along with the suggestion that it debunks conspiracy theories about the JFK assassination. Mr. Bugliosi is famous for prosecuting the Manson family, and for writing a best-selling book ("Helter Skelter") about the case. He is a brilliant prosecutor, and a powerful author.

Mr. Bugliosi's record as an attorney provides plenty of documentation that he believes in conspiracies. Some of his theories on a conspiracy are found in the court documents he filed in a case after he had ended his career as a DA. It was a case involving KCOP TV and a plaintiff named Jerry Owen. Mr. Bugliosi's work on this case, including several trial documents, can be found in William Turner and John Christian's book, "The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy." Mr. Bugliosi believed that there was a conspiracy to assassinate RFK.

Though Mr. Bugliosi is convinced that there was no conspiracy to assassinate JFK, other reasonable people believe otherwise. Christopher Dodd added this comment to the House Select Committee on Assassinations: "I remain convinced that the preponderance of evidence supports the finding of the (HSCA) committee that a gunman fired from the grassy knoll."(HSCA Final Report; page 643)

Others agree with Dodd. After the assassination of RFK, which Mr. Bugliosi argued was the result of a conspiracy, some of the friends of JFK and RFK were having lunch with Tip O'Neill. Two of them, Dave Powers and Kenny O'Donnell, told Tip that they were 100% convinced that some shots in Dallas had come from the Grassy Knoll. They told of investigators pressuring them to knowingly lie to the Warren Commission. If this is true, the investigators were engaged in a criminal conspiracy to conceal honest testimony from the Warren Commission.

Today I am reading a book by a new author named Valerie Plame Wilson. In it, she discusses the lead-up to the war in Iraq. Call me a crazy conspiracy theorist, but I am convinced that some of the Bush administration were involved in a conspiracy to lie to the congress and the public about Iraq's WMD programs, its ties to al Qaeda, and to pretend Iraq was involved in 9/11.

There was also a conspiracy to punish Joseph Wilson, the husband of author Valerie Wilson, for calling the administration on their lies. In the pretrial motions, special council Patrick Fitzgerald (also a prosecutor, like Mr. Bugliosi) noted that there had been a conspiracy to expose Valerie Plame's covert CIA status as part of the effort to punish her husband.

The word "theory" comes from the Greek word "theoria," and simply means "the analysis of a set of facts in relationship to one another." So long as we are human, our ability to fully understand the facts of many of the great mysteries of our times will probably be limited. But I certainly admire those who try. Thus, I shall return to reading Ms. Plame's book.