Conspiracy theories

Freemason secrets: How insider lifted lid on Nazi persecution during World War 2

The Freemasons trace their origins back to the local fraternities of stonemasons in the 14th century. At local level, Freemasonry is organised at the Lodge – usually supervised by a Grand Lodge – but the secretive nature of the group has also attracted unwanted attention over the years. Masons have been the subject of numerous international conspiracy theories and, unfortunately, these outrageous claims were believed by the Nazis – who rejected and banned the practice in January 1934.

The fate of Freemasons in Nazi labour and extermination camps is an often overlooked chapter of World War 2.

However, Amazon Prime’s 2016 documentary ‘Inside The Freemasons: The Grand Lodge Uncovered’ reveals the horror of being a member of the secret society during the conflict.

Freemason insider John Hamill said: “It became a very dangerous thing to be a Freemason towards the end of the Thirties.”

Mr Hamill describes the devastating consequences of what happened to Freemasons when the Nazis moved into occupying most of Europe.

Conspiracy theories

Weaponizing the Term “Conspiracy Theory”: Disinformation Agents and the CIA

But the fact (not just the theory) of widespread official conspiracies (along with the obligatory disinformation and cover-up operations) isn’t really new. As one prime example, the CIA (which by law is forbidden to have anything to do with domestic affairs [the FBI’s job]) has been a huge disinformation agency for as long as it has been in existence.

The CIA institutionalized the term “conspiracy theory” in its very successful attempt to derail the honest attempts to investigate the roles of various governmental agencies and individuals that were involved in the execution of President Kennedy in 1963. (See the documentation of that assertion at the end of this column.)

Of course, all clandestine state-sponsored secret service agencies (like the CIA, MI6 and the Mossad) routinely and shamelessly make use of lies, secrecy, deception and false flag operations in their daily affairs. It is a fact of life for such secret agencies and it is all accomplished in the name of “national security”.

The CIA has admitted that it routinely “plants” stories in the mainstream media. Those “press releases” contain disinformation that influences the perceptions of the electorate and thus national policy. See the evidence for that in the following video (and the narrative that follows)...

Conspiracy theories

8 government conspiracy theories (and how they could be right)

Who doesn't want a telepathic ray gun? The U.S. Army sure does. It's already researched a device that could beam words into your skull, according to the 1998 report "Bioeffects of Selected Nonlethal Weapons."The report says that, with the help of special microwaves, "this technology could be developed to the point where words could be transmitted to be heard like the spoken word, except that it could only be heard within a person's head." The device could "communicate with hostages" and could "facilitate a private message transmission."

In 2002, the Air Force Research laboratory patented a similar microwave device. Rep. Dennis Kucinich seemed concerned, because one year earlier, he proposed the Space Preservation Act, which called for a ban of all "Psychotronic weapons." It didn't pass.

Conspiracy theories

Donald Trump, Conspiracy Theorist

Since Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's death this weekend, conspiracy theorists have muttered amongst themselves that some sort of foul play may have been involved. Yesterday, Donald Trump added fuel to the conspiracy theorists' fire. 

Radio host Michael Savage asked Trump about the notion that Scalia may have been murdered, and Trump responded: “It’s a horrible topic, they say they found the pillow on his face, which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow. I can’t give you an answer." It's not an outright endorsement of the conspiracy theory, but he's not dismissing it either. Which means he's letting it live and grow. 

Conspiracy theories

Was Titanic inquiry scuppered by the Freemasons?

A secret archive containing the names of two million Freemasons has been made public for the first time on the genealogy site Ancestrywhich reveals extensive Masonic involvement in the controversial British investigation into the catastrophe.

It confirms that not only the judge who oversaw the British Wreck Commissioner’s inquiry into the disaster and leading investigators, but also even some of those who escaped censure were all Freemasons.

While a US Senate inquiry into the sinking savaged the White Star Line and singled out the British Board of Trade for blame for lax regulations which allowed the scandalously small number of lifeboats fitted on the ship, the UK investigation overseen by Lord Mersey avoided blaming the Board of Trade.

Lord Mersey himself - John Charles Bigham - was, the records show, a Freemason, initiated in 1881 at the Northern Bar Lodge in London.

Conspiracy theories

The ‘Obama is a Muslim’ conspiracy theory is still reverberating in the Middle East

When Barack Obama stepped onto the national political stage almost a decade ago, rumors swirled that he was secretly a Muslim. These rumors have frequently been debunked — the U.S. president is a practicing Christian — but they persist nonetheless: In a poll conducted in 2014, 54 percent of Republicans were found to believe that Obama was a Muslim "deep down."

The endurance of these conspiracy theories can probably be attributed to Obama's position as the first African American president of the United States — his two terms as president have been wrapped up in issues of race and identity. But it's also worth noting how these theories have mutated as they traveled abroad, adapting in unexpected ways to fit regional arguments.

Conspiracy theories

THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND WHY WE BELIEVE IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES

According to a 2013 poll, as many as 12 million Americans believe in the possibility that reptilian overlords rule our country—that’s intergalactic, shape-shifting lizards in Congress and on TV. Granted, the lizards-in-people-suits theory is one of the less popular in the nation; according to the same poll, 21 million believe the moon landing was faked. 116 million think climate change is a hoax.

Conspiracy theories

When Turmoil Strikes, Turks See Conspiracy at Work

In the aftermath of modernTurkey’s deadliest terrorist attack, an old specter has reappeared on the political scene: the widespread assumption that events are being manipulated behind the scenes and outside the law by a web of shadowy forces called the “deep state.”

Though officials were quick to point a finger at Islamic State terrorists when a pair of suicide bombings killed more than 100 people in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, Internet users swiftly lit up Turkey’s social media with more cynical explanations. They theorized that government agents and outside accomplices were once again conspiring to stir up trouble and provoke violence for political purposes.

Conspiracy theories

Darkness Over All: John Robison and the Birth of the Illuminati Conspiracy

Conspiracy theories of a secretive power elite seeking global domination have long held a place in the modern imagination. Mike Jay explores the idea’s beginnings in the writings of John Robison, a Scottish scientist who maintained that the French revolution was the work of a covert Masonic cell known as the Illuminati.

At the beginning of 1797, John Robison was a man with a solid and long-established reputation in the British scientific establishment. He had been Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University for over twenty years, an authority on mathematics and optics; he had recently been appointed senior scientific contributor on the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, to which he would contribute over a thousand pages of articles... 

Conspiracy theories

The problem with conspiracy theories

Earlier this year, Italian scientists and data researchers set out to chart how conspiracy theories – the idea that a secret society, politician or, increasingly, large corporation, is responsible for an unexplained event and cover-up – spread in the information age. And, if someone thinks, despite the lack of any evidence, that Princess Diana was murdered by the British royal family, the moon landings were faked and that secret, shadowy groups such as the Illuminati or lizard people rule the world, what else might they believe?

Conspiracy theories

The long read: why people believe conspiracy theories

On the night of January 7 this year, hours after the terrorist attack on the Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a senior French police officer shut himself in his office and shot himself in the head.

The French media reported that Helric Fredou, the 45-year-old deputy director of police in Limoges, a town 350 kilometres to the south of Paris, was single, childless and depressed. His death was a melancholic but irrelevant footnote to a black day on which 11 people were murdered.

Conspiracy theories

“Two million dead on the side of the patriots”: How Alex Jones’s “Jade Helm” conspiracy theory got very dangerous very fast

But the overall threat remains. And let’s not mince words here: It’s a domestic terror threat based partly on an atmosphere of raging paranoia, fear and militarism marketed by Alex Jones and his InfoWars goon squad. So powerful is Jones’ twisted reach that the governor of Texas, several months ago, ordered the state guard to monitor the Jade Helm exercises, as an obvious reaction to the public outrage fomented by Jones. Combined with Jones’ daily nonsense about Jade Helm, Governor Greg Abbott’s actions offered a patina of legitimacy to the theory, further entrenching the anti-military paranoia of the InfoWars universe.