Bin Laden brings out the best in conspiracy theorists

By Wynne Parry

It’s not hard to imagine why the announcement sounds suspicious: A decade-long search for an international terrorist ends with his body dumped at sea, with no photos, film or other documentation provided.

President Barack Obama's announcement on Sunday night that United States forces had killed Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden leaves a lot for conspiracy theorists to chew on.

"The potential is tremendous," said Barna Donovan, a professor of communications at St. Peter's College in New Jersey and author of the forthcoming book "Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious" (McFarland & Company, 2011).

In fact, the conspiracy theorists are already out. Politico reporting that radio host Alex Jones, who thinks the U.S. government was behind the Sept. 11 attacks, said that he believes that the government had bin Laden frozen for years. Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has also called the announcement a fake as did an arm of a Pakistani Taliban group, according to the website. A Facebook group Osama bin Laden NOT DEAD has begun collecting attracting like minded people, and apparently fake photos of bin Laden's battered face have added fuel to the fire.

Ingredients for a conspiracy
"We have a couple of factors already that are coming out that naturally fuel the conspiratorial impulse," Donovan said. “Apparently there is no body, he was buried at sea. The conspiratorial mindset will glom onto that."

American officials have said they identified bin Laden's body with 99.9 percent confidence using DNA evidence, and that his body was photographed before being buried at sea, according to The Associated Press. (Officials said bin Laden was buried at sea because it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept his remains and because Islamic custom requires a swift burial, the AP reported.)

The lack of documentation leaves room for conspiracy theorists to question whether or not bin Laden is actually dead, or whether he died long ago — as some, including the author David Ray Griffin, have suggested.

Another potential angle for conspiracy theorists is the timing of the announcement, according to Patricia Turner, a professor of folklore at the University of California, Davis. The most amusing theory she has seen so far speculates that Obama timed the announcement to knock Trump’s show reality TV show "Celebrity Apprentice", which runs Sunday nights, off the air to punish Trump, who is considering running as a Republican candidate for president in 2012, has been questioning Obama's citizenship and, hence, his eligibility for office, echoing demands long made by conspiracy theorists dubbed "birthers."

"That is a reminder as well that some of these things are amusing," Turner said.

Timing will likely feed many other theories, according to Turner.

"There are going to be people who say, 'Why couldn't we have done this earlier? Why did this take so long?'" she said.

With the approach of the next presidential campaign, for example, some could speculate that Obama timed the action to boost his popularity. Others could speculate that bin Laden's death was staged or timed to get Americans energized about committing more resources to the war on terror, said Donovan.

"Usually conspiracy theories have political angle," he said.

Who are conspiracy theorists?
Conspiracy theories have flourished since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and in its aftermath, including the idea that the attack was an "inside job" perpetrated by the U.S. government, that bin Laden died long ago but the U.S. government never acknowledged his death as a way to keep support for the war on terror strong, and that Obama is a Muslim and in cahoots with terrorists. ( Obama is a Christian.)

Conspiracy theorists tend to be "people who feel like they don't have power in the world, they feel like they have been victimized, they often come up with these explanations how somebody must be behind it," Donovan said.

Mindset is important, according to Turner, who has followed the birther trend. Conspiracy theories regarding an event often arise when "an official explanation of it seems incongruous to some people who have a worldview that doesn't accommodate that legitimate explanation," she said. "Or that the information that one is getting is confused, chaotic and contradictory."

confused, chaotic and contradictory."

Dispelling myths
To keep theories from running wild, the Obama administration should release as much information as possible, and speak directly, without any euphemisms or language that seems to be hedging a bet, Turner recommended. However, full disclosure and the clearest of talk won't convince everyone, as evidenced by the hoopla surrounding Obama's birth certificate.

"There is going to be another element of the population that is so inclined to distrust his citizenship that they are going to find flaws with his birth certificate or alternative ways of believing he is not a citizen because they have a fundamental, abiding belief that he should not be president," Turner said.

If the administration were to release documentation — say, film — showing bin Laden's burial, people with this sort of mindset would find flaws, she said. And by denying the theories, there is the risk that the administration could plant the theories in the minds of those who have yet to hear them, she said.

Dispelling conspiracy theories could be an uphill battle for the administration.

"We love conspiracies," said Guido Stempel, who conducted national surveys on them as director of the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. These routinely found that a large portion of the population gave at least some credibility to theories, such as the U.S. government withholding information about the existence of extraterrestrial life.

In a survey in 2006, one of two that asked about the Sept. 11 attacks, Stempel and colleagues asked Americans if they believed federal officials either participated in the attacks or took no action to stop them "because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East."

Twenty percent said this scenario was very likely, while 16 percent said it was somewhat likely.

"That is 60 million people who think it's very likely the government got involved on 9/11. That's an awful thing for people to believe," Stempel said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42864812/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Tsunami at Israel's Edge

BY Steve Clemons
Behind the scenes, Fatah and Hamas have been working and talking for years about terms of reconciliation. But their efforts were stymied by both their own suspicions and demands of each other -- but also by Omar Suleiman who was the anointed Egyptian peacemaker but who worked behind the scenes with the US to make sure that both sides never got to "yes" at the same time.

Now, Egypt is out of the game of working on one hand to appear supportive of a Palestinian unity government while on the other hand sabotaging it on behalf of the United States, and indirectly Israel.

I've argued for some years that Israel's security arrangements in the region were a lot like a New Orleans levee -- they were working for the time being, but some day a tsunami would come and wash out parts of Israel's protection. Israel needed to see that its security and long term interests lay in working hard to revision and restructure its relationships in the region -- and the best vehicle for that was something along the lines of the Arab Peace deal offered by Saudi King Abdullah.

Now, Fatah and Hamas are reconciling. America and some other nations will no doubt threaten to withhold aid and support -- making themselves less relevant to the decisions made by Palestinian leaders but also creating some pressure for them.

But this is not an age where Europe and the US are calling all the shots any longer. In this case, the boutique rich nations of the GCC, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, and China, even India -- may emerge as the new lifeline of financial and political support for a reorganized and somewhat repurposed Palestine.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the one person in Israel who could have really sold a real deal on a two state solution to his people. But he seems to have decided against this route -- and now we are seeing the political marketplace reaction to his and his government's intransigence and their lack of vision about new long term political and security relationships in Israel's neighborhood.

The tsunami that Israel will need to deal with may be here -- and it's vital that Netanyahu and others recalculate their game plan while this wave of change is sweeping through the region.

-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note. Clemons can be followed on Twitter @SCClemons

An apple a day

Heart
An apple a day keeps bad cholesterol away
Apr 16, 2011 9:00 AM

Here’s a heart-healthy reason to prescribe yourself an apple a day: Women who ate dried apples every day for a year lowered their LDL (bad) cholesterol by 23 percent, according to a study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and presented this week at the Experimental Biology 2011 conference in Washington, D.C.

Researchers split 160 women between 45 and 65 into two groups: one consumed roughly 2.5 ounces of dried apples daily and the other group ate dried prunes. Women who ate the apples not only saw a 14 percent to 23 percent decrease in LDL cholesterol, they lowered cell-damaging lipid hydroperoxide by 33 percent and C-reactive protein by 32 percent, increased good cholesterol by 4 percent, and lost on average 3.3 pounds.

Bottom line: While more research is warranted, you really don’t need a reason to eat more apples—they’re good for you and they’re delicious—plain and simple. But if you’re trying to lower your cholesterol and prevent heart disease, an apple a day might help. And don’t stop at apples—eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, with a variety of colors, can protect your heart by lowering LDL cholesterol and blood pressure levels, limiting inflammation of the arteries, warding off diabetes, and, of course, helping you lose weight.

Be sure to wash apples and other produce, and choose organic varieties if you can.

Sources
Daily apple consumption promotes cardiovascular health in postmenopausal women [The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology]

Experimental Biology 2011

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Dancing dictators: Web videos mock Gadhafi, Mubarak,Bin Ali

(CNN) -- Political upheaval across North Africa and the Middle East has provided rich pickings for animators, whose satirical videos have gone viral on the web, attracting millions of viewers.

Here are five of the best online animations mocking some of the region's entrenched, and recently departed, leaders:

Moammar Gadhafi's Zenga Zenga Song
"It's full of music so I canceled the video"

This video of a speech by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi set to the tune of ''Hey Baby,'' by American rapper Pitbull, was posted on the internet by Noy Alooshe, an Israeli music producer and journalist. It has been viewed more than 3.6 million times on YouTube, and there are numerous spin-off versions.

Zine El Abedine Ben Ali on plane


This video by a team of young artists and storytellers at Kharabeesh.com shows ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abedine Ben Ali calling world leaders from his plane, asking them to help him find a new home.

Hosni Mubarak failing to hear the crowd



Another offering from Kharabeesh, meaning "scribbles" in Arabic, making fun of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and his reluctance to give up power.

Moammar Gadhafi on Arabs Got Talent


This video is also by Kharabeesh, whose animators are based in Jordan, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. This spoof features Gadhafi as a stand-up comedian on the hit television show ''Arabs Got Talent.''

Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gadhafi as break dancers
"I canceld the video link coz of the music"

This contribution by MrBou3ali to the website JibJab, which allows subscribers to create their own e-cards and animations, shows Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gadhafi as break dancers.

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