Government secrecy fosters conspiracy theories

By Jay Brodell

Governments, international agencies and even private organizations are working hard to eliminate conspiracy theories even as some theories become recognized as fact.

The rush by those in power to quash such theories, along with so-called fake news, seems to be reinforcing belief in what used to be fringe ideas, even as some are revealed as being fact.

Leading the list of new facts has to be the stunning revelations by the U.S. Navy and government that little lights in the sky are real and that scientists have no idea what they are. That recent revelation certainly put a crimp in the tinfoil hat market. The U.S. government spent decades downplaying UFO sightings.

Official responses to the wave of covid 19 illnesses generated a number of conspiracies that now appear to be fact. These include the source of the virus, the way it should be treated and the low value of face masks, distancing and lockdowns.

Many conspiracy theories seem to result from stonewalling by governments and institutions. More openness by government agencies would result in closer citizen oversight and the likelihood that employees would think first of the public good and not of themselves.

An example of government disrespect of the public came last month with the release of the affidavit that generated the warrant so U.S. agents could search the home of former U.S. president Donald Trump. Although released to the public, the affidavit was so extensively censored that little or no information could be gleaned from it. Even the name of the federal agent who signed the legal document was blacked out in bold, black strokes. So now the internet is ablaze with theories.

Certainly such a response by official Washington does not engender trust. Such actions seem to confirm government officials have their own agendas unrelated to those of the public. The U.S. Privacy Act and Freedom of Information Act frequently are seen as useful censorship tools or jokes to those in control. A standard response is that no information is forthcoming on a certain event because it is under investigation. There is no rule like that. Officials can provide information on developing situations without jeopardizing legal actions. For example, one sheriff in the U.S. State of Florida is famous for his detailed, timely and frequent responses in press conferences, posted to YouTube, about crimes, arrests and other local developments.

Any reporter who has sought information from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation or the regional U.S. prosecuting attorneys knows that information travels a one-way street. Formal Freedom of Information Act responses sometimes take years, if at all. Even members of Congress have trouble obtaining information on agencies they are obligated to oversee.

Consider the major events that have generated conspiracy theories due, in part, to government stonewallings. In that category would be the assassination of president John Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, Nov. 22, 1963. A small library would be needed to accommodate all the books containing theories about this event. The usual suspects are the Mafia, the Central Intelligence Agency, Lyndon Johnson, the Pentagon, Fidel Castro, or a single former Marine. Many relevant documents are under seal.

There also are suggestions that the U.S. federal government has orchestrated some events and then lied about them. Most recently the F.B.I. has been accused of setting up a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan in order to arrest vocal right-wingers. The U.S. government is accused in several theories of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, airplane attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia..

That the F.B.I. would engage in entrapment is well documented. In 2012 the agency took over a porn site and ran it in order to ensnare users. In 2007 and 2008 the F.B.I. set up and ran a travel agency and a website, Costa Rica Taboo Vacations, to offer underage prostitutes to U.S. citizens who sought to travel to meet the women. The men were detained as they boarded planes in the U.S. In some cases, the men thought that the offer of underage companions would be legal overseas, even though a U.S. law forbids such activities.

There also is evidence of one or more recent entrapment attempts similar to the one targeting Gov. Whitmer.

Timothy McVeigh received a death sentence because he detonated a truck bomb that killed 168 people and injured more than 500 on April 19, 1995. Conspiracy theorists who think the government was involved point out that a man seen in the company of McVeigh minutes before the explosion has never been identified. The government has never revealed what it knows about this unidentified man, still called John Doe #2.

A year later on July 17 TWA Flight 800 blew up off the coast of Long Island, New York, in view of hundreds of residents. The official explanation is that aviation fuel and air ignited inside a tank. But some witnesses said they saw what looked like a missile track, and one ship in the vicinity made a hasty exit. A whistleblower recently claimed he was part of a Navy air defense drill that day where someone made a mistake.

One website operator has compiled what is called 64 F.B.I. scandals, controversies, & acts of corruption with supporting links. One entry links to a curious case in which treasure hunters say federal agents cheated them out of a finders fee when government workers extracted nine tons of gold that was hidden during the U.S. Civil War in a Pennsylvania cave. That tale also made it to the well-known The Atlantic magazine.

The F.B.I., particularly in its director J. Edgar Hoover, routinely made searches without proper warrants for years. Many of them were in homes and offices used by black nationalists. Today similar secret searches and telephone monitoring can be legal under anti-terrorism legislation.

Other conspiracy theorists promote the idea that officials in the pay of foreign governments deliberately mislead the public.

Efforts to enlist social media operators and traditional media to squash claims called conspiracy theories seem to only encourage them because anyone can make a posting or set up a website. The latest effort is by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, which just announced that it is training and recruiting teachers as a key part of its global effort to combat with student help what it considers problematic information and ideas.

A good case could be made that more openness by government officials would reduce the number of conspiracy claims. Major newspapers, which are supposed to keep an eye on government, are not inclined to rock the boat because they are in financial distress. Plus some work with government officials to suppress certain information, including about overseas assassinations and other dicey deals, not to mention the famous Hunter Biden laptop.

Brodell, a retired professor of journalism and a former New York Metro area newspaper editor, has studied open records and open meeting laws extensively. Find his work on Medium.

Copyright 2022 James J. Brodell