Yesterday’s article on conspiracy theories and government brought me quite a few dozen e-mails in protest from some regular readers of the site and the feed. While I appreciate the input and am striving to reply to everyone, I figured I would put my most consistent replies in a post today just to relieve some tension and frustration I’m sensing from some of my favorite contributors. Don’t forget that we do have an anarcho-capitalism forum where you can create an anonymous account and open the discuss to others — I much prefer forum discussions over e-mails when possible as it gives me new things to consider when others enter the debate. I still welcome and appreciate the e-mails and am not asking them to stop if you don’t like forum discussions.

Quite a few e-mails had made a point that there is a lot of information that I don’t know of, based on the confidential and top secret status. I am aware that a few of this site’s regular readers come here with .MIL and .GOV addresses, so I understand that some people may know more about particular security issues than I ever will. I can appreciate that. I also appreciate that there ARE employees of the State that consider themselves pro-freedom; freedom being defined from my perspective of less State, not more. While I’m not a fan of his, I have always loved Peter Kropotkin’s famous quote: freedom cannot be given, it must be taken.

Others have said that they feel more secure knowing that the State has secrets about security threats and is using those secrets to increase the defense of the residents within the nation. While I concede there is a remote possibility of that fact, I also know that we’re a nation of 300 million individuals located in one of the largest land masses in the world. I’ve studied war theory and facts for 15 years, and the likelihood of a war being brought to the US is slim to none. Culturally everyone around us is morally opposed to war, so I’m confused as to who exactly would attack us, how they’d finance it, how they’d get it past national, state and local defense, and what they would expect to gain. I hate to think that 300 million individuals truly believe that a small group of untrustworthy individuals who have repeatedly proven their inability to do what is right would actually care about any of the individuals that they’re sworn to protect and defend. I have no proof that any politicians cares about anything but their own power and position — if someone can find a law or an action that shows otherwise, please let me know.

A few have said that there are secrets that will definitely be revealed at some point in the future, and that those in the know are aware of how to combat the threats without revealing the secrets today. My problem is that those “in the know” in the 60s and 70s were duped by the highest ranking officials. This continued even up to today (we now have OPR investigating the NSA’s massive network of lies and fraud against its own citizens). I’ve read, in great detail, almost every book on the subject (not conspiracy whack jobs but reliable sources such as James Bamford and Ellsberg) over the years, and I am always surprised at the history of even powerful politicians and agents of the State being lied to by the topmost ranking officials. When you are entrusted with certain secrets, how are you sure that they’re not concocted by others in the regime? That is the problem with conspiracies that deal with secrets and classified information — by the time the information is finally released, everyone involved is long dead, and no one recalls what the concern was at the time decades earlier.

There might be information that is top secret and classified that seems scary based on the way the information is written and presented. The few people who mentioned this “fact” also said that they are happy that my words have no power in opening the secret information to public display. I can appreciate that and many are thankful that nothing I say now has much power to make any changes, but you have to understand that I am just as scared of the extreme power that our own government has acquired in my lifetime. I’ve spent time in the DDR before the fall of the wall, and in the USSR before it collapsed, and I’ve personally witnessed how terrible a massive State can be. When someone has secrets, I usually don’t care. When someone has secrets and has the infinite ability to use force without accountability or proof, I have to call to judgement the reasoning behind the secrets that are referred to when that infinite force comes into use.

All I know is that the situations where war was provoked seems to always leave more dead, wounded and disabled than any war I’ve seen where we’ve run with our tail between our legs. My most recent research is on the drive to war in Bosnia and Somalia and the things our own government said to the public and to departments within the government — the lies and deceit were enough to scare anyone to act quick; in the end we just see more discord and poison brought to the populace.

What is better — to cry wolf over and over and over and repeatedly show that our machinations were unjustified and our motivations were false (at a cost of thousands or hundreds of thousands of lives); or actually witness an attack on our country and learn to close the holes that left us defenseless.

One last thing to say — I am fully aware of the inability of the US government to defend the country, my community, my family and my own person from a minor attack which would cause much more loss of life if a few were performed at the same time than would a major attack that would be incredibly costly and dangerous to perform for the attacker. I am shocked at how much defense has become an eyewash and offense has become the new defense. I’m _NOT_ demanding that we exit international conflicts or open each and every department to full public reporting tomorrow — I’m demanding that certain tasks that place the rights of NON-GOVERNMENT individuals (citizens, residents and aliens here and abroad) be available for review so that we know that we’re not being lied to again.

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I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories, but I do like reading them from time to time. My favorite conspiracy theory was the doomsday Y2K mumbo jumbo. I saved my customers hundreds of thousands of dollars by helping them ignore the Y2K concerns — most of my industry market needed little more than a Windows update to overcome concern. Sure, some markets required major code rewriting, but my customers did not. My competitors who made huge profits on lying to their customers soon found themselves without work when their customers realized they had a non-problem that they paid huge invoices for.

Daniel Ellsberg has released the most recent conspiracy theory that is grabbing attention: he said that the U.S. government was capable of carrying out the 9/11 attacks.¹

I’m a fan of Ellsberg since high school. 15 years ago I had to do a report for my European History class. Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers was the turning point for me — it convinced me to give up my Republican beliefs for an apolitical lifestyle. I was writing a paper advocating government’s requirement in pursuing war, and it was the Pentagon Papers that proved to me that government never cares about anything but more power and control. I failed that final assignment (and received a “D” in that class because of it) in a debate over discussing the Pentagon Papers with the class. My teacher refused to bring up the topic, so I refused to complete the assignment.

Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers were confidential and top secret documents on the Vietnam war that he copied and published. I believe that the government can never have the right to any information or technology that the people don’t have. Some say that government needs top secret priviledge in order to defend the citizens, but I think the best way to defend the citizens is to give them any information they need to protect their property and their lives. If the government knows of a plot to take down a building, let us know about it. Who can better protect their workplace or their home: bureaucratic defense groups or individuals who can take the time to secure their properties and watch out for those looking to commit a crime?

Government never has the right to secrets — and they never have the right to compel individuals to tell their secrets.

I’m not sure I put much faith into Ellsberg’s conspiracy theory, but we’ll never really know. I’ve always believed that the best government is one that is publicly accountable 100% of the time. I truly believe that if one wants to be a politician, they should submit to 100% public display of their lives all the time. Can you imagine how much money the cable channel would make that follows politicians around 100% of the time, recording each conversation, each party, each political crony asking for help? They may not air much, but I can see huge profits to be made in following them all around. If you want to restrict government power, don’t do it by voting, do it by spying on your politicians all the time. They can’t get bribes with that camera rolling, and they can’t give preferential treatment when all can see it being done. Nixon learned that lesson because he spied on himself, what would today’s politician do if they were always being watched? What kind of leaders would even run for election if they knew their entire lives as a politician would be watched 24/7, with the best excerpts shown on TV?

Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers are one of the most important study guides to read, especially if you are pro-government for any reason. The Vietnam war can be blamed on both parties — both sides had reason to support the war, no matter what they said on camera for or against it. Maybe Ellsber is right about 9/11, maybe he’s not. But I do like what he has to say: if the U.S. launches a war against Iran, question each and every “terrorist attack” that may occur before or after it. Even better, demand that the government release all top secret information immediately, so that individuals can take care to secure their lives and their properties in order to deter all the madmen of the world from considering an attack against anyone in the country.

Can you imagine how much information is out there that would prove of government’s collusions in so many conspiracies? Why can’t it be released? The law prevents whistleblowers from telling the public of government’s affairs. This is unacceptable in a so-called free society.

We can be an example of an unstoppable power not through huge weapons of mass destruction and the treat to use them against others — we can be an example of an unstoppable power by degrading the idea of a powerful nation into the idea of 300 million individuals all ready and willing to protect their properties. Taking down 1 nation is easy; taking down 300 million individuals is impossible. Look at Vietnam for proof of that — and Vietnam was a drop in the well compared to our population today. I’m not asking you to believe in conspiracies — I don’t. I’m asking you to believe in the facts, which we can only find if we’re allowed to.

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