emperors-clothes.com - 9-11 claims

[Hemlock]

These people - http://www.emperors-clothes.com/ - have conspiracy theories about the 9-11 attacks. In particular, they seem convinced that the US authorities deliberately refrained from despatching USAF units to monitor, let alone actively intercept, the hijacked jet that hit the Pentagon.

They have another agenda, namely the defense of Slobodan Milosovic and a Rwandan police chief, both accused of war crimes/genocide. Not only do their articles suppport Serbia at great length, but one of the people working on the site has provided legal assistance to Slobo. (Christopher Black, Editor - the others are Richard Hugus, Rick Rozoff, Nico Varkevisser, Jared Israel, all with Civil Rights, SDS, anti-Vietnam war, etc credentials. Google searches shows they are active in various “progressive” causes.)

Does anyone know anything about this site - any background on the integrity or otherwise of the material or the writers? Or about how far-left individuals came to be so supportive of Serbia (they are not Serbs)? I know someone who is highly impressed by their claims and would like to be able to straighten him out if he’s as deluded as I think he is.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Well, the website looks legit to me, just offhand. Rather paranoid, but legit.

Bios of the editorial staff. Serious activists, looks like. Aging 1960s protesters, SDS credentials, etc.
http://emperors-clothes.com/editors.html

I dunno why you think “far left” and “sympathetic towards Serbia” should be mutually exclusive.

Anyway, here’s the Serbian connecton, from Jared Israel’s bio.

I always knew about the Serbs. When I was little, maybe five, my father gave me these old-fashioned-type shoes that sort of rolled up in the front. He said they were Serbian shoes. I used to wear them with my Robin Hood hat plus I had a magic wand. My father asked what I was doing and I said magic to help people and my father said, “Maybe you’re right. Those are the shoes of the people who stopped Hitler.”

During the early 1990s the newspapers started reporting the breakup of Yugoslavia. The official line was the Serbs were the new Fascists. I thought, “Hold on just a minute.” How did the people who stopped Hitler become Hitler? Seemed like an awfully big transformation. So I started reading carefully.

I’m not good at the whole PoliSci thing, but I would be very reluctant to come right out and say, “These people are totally full of shit.” Many of the articles they choose to carry seem heavily slanted in favor of a “leftist” viewpoint, and more than a little paranoid, but if you take out some of the rhetoric, and 99% of the paranoia, I can see that they do have a point on some issues.

So it looks like you’ll have to take it one article at a time, and have a “PoliSci/conspiracy theory” kind of discussion with your friend, not a “hah, I hereby debunk you with Snopes and the Straight Dope!” discussion.

[Ringo]

I don’t really want to hijack this thread, but there’ve been a few “conspiracy theorist” threads of late (another subject that passed through here recently was whether or not a U.S. F-16 actually took down Flight 93 - apparently not, but somebody wants to believe it).

I’d just like to note that, for all the years the graspers-at-straws have been working over JFK and Area 51, etc., you now have a bona fide conspiracy (al-Qaeda) at hand to digest.

[Derleth]

Interestingly, Internic doesn’t seem to have a whois entry for emperors-clothes.com. I can access the website just fine, though.

I don’t think this has any bearing on the thread, just that it’s very strange. Not necessarily suspicious, just strange.

[Dave_Stewart]

http://www.checkdomain.com says the owner is one Jared Israel, of New York. There is a hypertext link to the site from his name. The editor in chief, according to the site. (Poor risk planning - a site like that should go through a company, so for defamation its the comapny sued, not the individual.)

[Hemlock]

Thanks for the answers.

*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose *
**I dunno why you think “far left” and “sympathetic towards Serbia” should be mutually exclusive.
**

I’ve never been able to get my head round leftist logic. I would have thought “progressive” people would not be supporters of a genocidal ultra nationalist (though they claim Slobodan M isn’t one, so presumably that’s the whole point)

[pesch]

For a long time, the Soviet Union and communism in general had the support of a large number of people with liberal leanings, so it’s not as far-fetched as you may think.

[pesch]

For a long time, the Soviet Union and communism in general had the support of a large number of people with liberal leanings, so it’s not as far-fetched as you may think.