Microsoft

Microsoft has repeatedly surfaced inward conspiracy lore, particularly amongst the increment of the Internet. Since its 1975 founding yesteryear Harvard dropout Bill Gates as well as his high-school friend Paul Allen, Microsoft has steadily occupied a larger as well as larger spell of the software market.

The company’s initial coup came amongst winning a contract for what eventually became MS-DOS, as well as hence arranging amongst IBM to operate out on the rights to the operating arrangement software. The introduction of Microsoft Office as well as Windows inward the early on 1990s cemented the company’s dominant manufacture position.

Soon subsequently September 11, an e-mail circulated alleging that Microsoft had built a undercover code into its Microsoft Word Wingdings font, predicting the attacks on the World Trade Center.


When the characters Q33NY—incorrectly alleged to live on the flying number of i of the planes—are converted to Wingdings inward Microsoft Word, the effect is a plane, 2 symbols supposed to resemble buildings, a skull-and-crossbones, as well as a Star of David.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 similar rumor had surfaced before nearly the characters NYC, which allegedly had an antisemitic important when converted to Wingdings: a skull-and-crossbones, Star of David, as well as raised thumb.

In both cases, Microsoft had to number official statements denying the coincidence.

Microsoft has likewise been the discipline of government-spying fears (akin to those surrounding Inslaw’s alleged spy software, PROMIS) inward connectedness amongst a safety substitution built into its software. In September 1999, Andrew Fernandez, the primary scientist at a Canadian software work solid called Cryptonym, announced the beingness of an unaccounted-for safety substitution inward Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 5, mysteriously labeled “NSAKey.”

Rumors abounded on the Internet every bit to whether this was something Microsoft had built into Windows safety inward social club to let the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Windows users. The same rumor resurfaced inward 2002, amongst the unloose of the company’s Palladium safety initiative.

Microsoft has likewise been the discipline of much conspiracy parody, including articles claiming to link it to the Illuminati as well as numerogical analyses of Gates’s name. In 2002, Los Angeles filmmaker Brian Flemming released Nothing So Strange, a “mockumentary” that investigates a JFK-style conspiracy closed to the assassination of Bill Gates.

The celluloid alludes to names familiar from the Kennedy assassination, including Alex Hidell (one of Oswald’s aliases) as well as Debra Meagher (a reference to Sylvia Meagher, an early on researcher).

So what makes Microsoft a target for conspiracy theories? First, Gates’s monolithic presence, legendary competitiveness, as well as paranoia bring made him a nationally known figure on the scale of Nelson Rockefeller.

As the Justice Department investigation of Microsoft indicates, it is a large, successful enterprise that has non hesitated to utilization its success to expand its dominance. Within the technology industry, Microsoft has a reputation every bit a companionship that steals other companies’ ideas as well as turns them into mediocre simply wildly selling products.

Software companies similar Netscape, Norell, WordPerfect, as well as Lotus bring all felt the fiscal sting of competing amongst the behemoth based inward Redmond, Washington, as well as novel companies know that they bring alone a modest window inward which to succeed before Microsoft releases a competing product.

On the flip side, Microsoft itself has made accusations that its Justice Department prosecution results from collaboration betwixt Microsoft’s competitors, including Netscape (now purpose of AOL/Time Warner), Lord's Day Microsystems, as well as Oracle Corporation.

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda (Arabic for "the base") is a worldwide Sunni Islamist militant insurgent group. Founded by Osama bin Laden in 1988 in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda is now dedicated to driving the United States out of the Middle East specifically and out of Muslim countries generally, to destroying Israel, and to toppling pro-Western governments in Islamic countries and replacing them with Islamic fundamentalist governments.

These three goals lead to the organization’s ultimate goal, which is the reestablishment of the caliphate, a nation uniting Muslims and spanning the Islamic world.

The organization is believed to be highly redundant, both financially and operationally. While the various cells that make up the organization are accountable to higher-level leadership, operations appear to be left to the individual cells, while higher levels provide material and logistical support.


Ideas and targets coming from the upper echelons filter down to the individual cells responsible for coordinating and executing the attacks. This redundancy increases the organization’s resiliency; when cells are destroyed or captured, the losses can be contained more effectively than if al-Qaeda were a more linear organization.

Al-Qaeda’s training camps are likewise well organized. The extent of the training and organization is best seen in the group’s multivolume Encyclopedia of Jihad. Several thousand pages in length, the encyclopedia details the bureaucratic workings of the group.

Covered topics include guerrilla warfare, assembling booby traps, tactics for fighting against armored or aerial combat units, urban warfare, intelligence security, data gathering, and chemical weapons tactics.

The group has been linked to or accused of taking part in terrorist acts across the globe beginning in the early 1990s. A list of the attacks against U.S. interests attributed to al-Qaeda includes the 1992 hotel bombings in Aden, Yemen; the February 6, 1993, bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City; attacks carried out on U.S. military forces in Somalia in 1993 and 1994; the June 25, 1996, truck bombing of the Khobar Towers residential compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; the near-simultaneous bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on August 7, 1998; the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen on October 12, 2000; and the September 11, 2001, airline hijackings and attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

The United States is not the group’s only target, however. Al-Qaeda also is linked to the April 2002 bombing of the El Ghriba synagogue in Tunisia; the October 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia; the November 2003 bombings of synagogues and a British bank in Istanbul, Turkey; the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid, Spain; and the July 7, 2005, London transit bombings.

Al-Qaeda is most often represented and understood in regard to its founder, Osama bin Laden (aka Abu Abdallah). Bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 10, 1957. When he was six months old, his father, Muhammad bin Laden, the Yemeni immigrant who established the Saudi Binladin Group, relocated to Jeddah, where Osama grew up.

The Soviet Union’s December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan galvanized the Muslim world in defense of Afghanistan and provided the West with a proxy war through which to combat the Soviet Union. Bin Laden, who had studied economics at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, was one of many spurred to action in defense of Afghanistan.

He made his first trip to neighboring Pakistan in 1980, where he sought ways to contribute to the jihad. Bin Laden made several monetary contributions to the mujahideen, but quickly began looking for other ways to contribute.

Bin Laden joined with Palestinian cleric Abdullah Azzam to found the Services Bureau (Makhtab al-Khidimat, or MAK) in Pakistan in 1984. Azzam, who had taught at King Abdul Aziz University while bin Laden studied there, was indispensable in recruiting.

In addition to providing relief to war victims in Afghanistan, the MAK organized and coordinated the volunteers, donations, and weapons coming into Pakistan and Afghanistan in support of the jihad.

Azzam believed that the young Arab men streaming to Pakistan to participate in the jihad should be scattered among the Afghan functions. Azzam felt that such a mixing of Arabs among the local forces would reap benefits both in Afghanistan and abroad.

Bin Laden saw the situation differently and sought to create his own separate Arab fighting force. He believed that such a force would be a superior fighting unit compared to local Afghan forces. Bin Laden broke with Azzam and established training camps for his Arab force near Jaji, in eastern Afghanistan.

From this base, which they dubbed al-Masadah (the Lion’s Den), bin Laden’s "Arab Afghans" engaged the Soviets in the battle of Jaji in the spring of 1987. It was at this time that bin Laden grew closer to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) and one of its most prominent members, Ayman al Zawahiri, who would become bin Laden’s deputy in al-Qaeda.

When the Soviets announced their planned withdrawal in April 1988, bin Laden began preparations to perpetuate and expand his forces. He began by moving his unit to the area around Jalalabad, Afghanistan, which became known as al-Qaeda; bin Laden would later say that the name remained with the group by accident. Following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, bin Laden, who had consistently expressed his contempt for the "atheist" Hussein and his Ba’athist government, approached the Saudi king with a plan to use his Arab Afghans to drive Hussein’s forces from Kuwait.

The Saudi government sought to restrict his movements within the kingdom. Bin Laden obtained permission in early 1991 to travel to Pakistan on the pretext of checking in on some business interests and never returned to Saudi Arabia.

In early 1992 bin Laden and al-Qaeda moved to Sudan, where they remained until 1996. Al-Qaeda and the National Islamic Front (NIF), the ruling party in Sudan, enjoyed a symbiotic relationship.

The NIF granted al-Qaeda a safe haven and freedom of movement, while bin Laden made substantial investments in Sudanese industry and agriculture and undertook several large-scale construction projects to develop the infrastructure and agricultural and industrial production capacity of Sudan.

While in the Sudan, bin Laden directed his forces in actions against the communist government of South Yemen. The Arab Afghans also were sent to Bosnia, where they had a substantial impact on that conflict. Bin Laden dispatched al-Qaeda forces into Somalia in response to the buildup of U.S. forces.

In December 1992 President George H. W. Bush sent 28,000 U.S. troops into Somalia on a humanitarian mission in support of United Nations (UN) relief efforts. Bin Laden and al-Qaeda dismissed all humanitarian claims and interpreted the U.S. presence as a way of putting pressure on Islamic regimes and as an effort to establish another base from which to attack Muslim nations.

Al-Qaeda regarded Yemen as a major victory. First, even though the hotels bombed in Yemen did not house U.S. personnel, the transfer of U.S. troops out of Yemen shortly after the hotel bombings indicated to al-Qaeda that they had been successful in driving the Americans from Yemen.

Bin Laden also claimed that the militarily superior U.S. forces were driven from Somalia by a poor, ill-armed people whose only strength was their faith. In his 1996 aliran declaring war against the United States, bin Laden claimed that the most important lesson to be learned from Somalia was that the United States would flee at the first sign of resistance.

The year 1994 was a watershed for bin Laden. He survived two assassination attempts and in April was stripped of his Saudi citizenship in response to the growing threat he represented to the regime.

A jawaban step in his radicalization came in August, when the Saudi government imprisoned clerics Salman al Awdah and Safar al Hawali, who were among the first and most prominent of the clerics circulating cassettes of their sermons against the continued U.S. presence in the Arabian Peninsula, and whose imprisonment bin Laden would later mention in his 1996 fatwa.

Bin Laden and al-Qaeda left Sudan in 1996 and returned to Afghanistan, a move prompted by several factors. In addition to the assassination attempts, bin Laden faced international pressure on the NIF and its de facto leader, Hassan al-Turabi.

The United States and Saudi Arabia sought to have bin Laden silenced and his activities curtailed, and al-Turabi found it increasingly difficult to maneuver and protect bin Laden.

When Sudan started pressuring bin Laden, he returned to Jalalabad. There bin Laden and al-Qaeda entered into a symbiotic relationship with the Taliban ("the students"), who were in the process of consolidating their control over much of the country.

This relationship was similar to that with the NIF in Sudan; bin Laden and his organization gained considerable freedom of movement and protection, while his benefactors benefited from agricultural, infrastructural, and industrial investment and development.

It was during the period between bin Laden’s return to Afghanistan and the 1998 aliran that civilians became targets. Both the 1996 aliran and bin Laden’s 1997 CNN interview spoke of civilians as collateral damage, not as legitimate targets in and of themselves.

By 1998 this had changed, and the aliran issued February 22, 1998, explicitly stated that Americans and their allies, civilians and military alike, were now al-Qaeda targets anywhere they could be found.

Communications from al-Qaeda repeatedly stress their belief that Western governments oppress Muslims and Muslim nations and are engaged in a war against Islam. Bin Laden describes the presence of U.S. forces in "the Land of the Two Holy Places" (Saudi Arabia) as the greatest insult and threat faced by the Islamic world since Muhammad’s lifetime.

In addition to decrying U.S. support for Israel, the group condemns U.S. support for what it considers "apostate regimes", particularly Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden also points to the sanctions imposed on Iraq following the Gulf War as one reason to reject any human rights arguments coming from the West.

Al-Qaeda’s idea of the ummah (community of believers; the Islamic world) in opposition to the world derives from the teachings of two prominent Islamic scholars.

Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328) was a 14th-century Islamic scholar who taught that jihad is the duty of each individual Muslim when Islam is attacked, that the Qu’ran should be interpreted literally, and that all Muslims should read the Qu’ran and Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet) for themselves and not rely on a learned clergy. A second influence on al-Qaeda was Sayyid Qutb (1906–66), an Islamist associated with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

Describing the world as existing between states of belief (Islam) and unbelief (jahiliyya), Qutb condemned Western and Christian civilization. Urging jihad against all enemies of Islam, Qutb believed that there is no middle ground and that all Muslims must take to jihad when Islam is threatened.

These influences are apparent in al-Qaeda’s activities and rhetoric. Bin Laden believes that since the Christians, Jews, and Hindus have nuclear weapons, it is only fitting that Muslims obtain them as well.

Bin Laden also echoes Ibn Taymiyyah in his assertions that the Saudi government is aiding the "crusaders" in plundering the wealth of the ummah, the vast Middle Eastern oil reserves, and by acting to keep oil prices below fair-market value.

Al-Qaeda’s leadership cadre is well educated. Bin Laden has a university degree in economics, and his inner circle contains doctors; agricultural, civil, and electrical engineers; and computer scientists, but no religious scholars.

Rahman’s aliran echoed the call to attack the United States and its allies—civilian and military, anywhere in the world—and contained exhortations to sink ships, shoot down airplanes, and burn corporations and businesses.

Two separate attacks on U.S. warships were made in subsequent years, with the USS Cole attack following an unsuccessful attack on the USS The Sullivans one year earlier. On September 11, 2001, the plot masterminded by Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who were arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003, respectively, proceeded along the lines of Rahman’s fatwa.

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born in Leningrad on October 7, 1952, and was very much a product of the Soviet system. His family background was ordinary and reflected the hardships of postwar Soviet life.

Putin applied himself to improving his position in the Soviet order and looked, once he graduated in law from Leningrad State University, to a career in the security services (KGB) as the best method of doing so.

Following initial duties dealing with Leningrad dissidents, Putin took up from 1985 to 1989 a KGB posting in East Germany. After the collapse of the East German regime, Putin moved to the international affairs section of his old university and within a short time joined the Leningrad politician Anatoly Sobchak as an aide; following Sobchak’s election in 1991 as mayor, Putin became deputy mayor.

His abilities were noticed in Moscow, and he joined the Kremlin staff in 1996 as an assistant to Pavel Borodin overseeing Russian economic assets. This post soon brought him to the attention of President Boris Yeltsin, who, in 1998, appointed Putin head of the Federal Security Service (the replacement for the KGB), from which post Putin quickly rose to be head of the Security Council in 1999.


These times were unstable ones for Yeltsin and the Russian Federation. Within a period of 18 months several prime ministers came and went. When Yeltsin fired Sergei Stepashin in August 1999, he appointed Putin prime minister. He was now in position for succession to the presidency, which unexpectedly came his way when Yeltsin resigned on December 31, 1999, and Putin became acting president.

A presidential election followed in March 2000, and Putin won convincingly. The backing of the security services and many economic reformers gave him a political base to overcome any threats from the nationalist Fatherland Front.

In his first years in office, Putin faced a number of crises stemming from the unrest and malaise of the Yeltsin years. Chechnya, controlled by Islamic militants, was clearly the most significant. He attempted to resolve the war, but terrorist bombings in Moscow brought a swift and punishing military retaliation.

In addition, he wanted to reverse some of the decentralizing traits of the Yeltsin years, and this meant imposing more Moscow control over the outlying regions through a system of appointed governors.

He moved against the oligarchs who had profited during the Yeltsin years. The crisis following the sinking of the submarine Kursk in August 2000 hurt Putin’s reputation when the government appeared incapable of reacting to the disaster.

In terms of policy, Putin wanted to restore something of the order and pride that had existed during the Soviet era. This meant that some old symbols of state were preserved along with the belief in centralizing control over both the economy and the media. Following Putin’s Unity Party landslide victory in the 2003 parliamentary election, it was suggested that control of the state media produced the favorable results.

On March 14, 2004, Putin won decisively his second term in office. He continued his campaign to strengthen state powers. There were also improvements in the justice system and reform of the difficult tax laws that inhibited investment and development.

Some see recent actions as a reflection of the antidemocratic instincts that lurk behind the scenes in Putin’s administration. Putin’s 2004 support of Viktor Yanukovych in the Ukrainian election was viewed by critics as an exercise in undue influence on the affairs of a neighboring independent state.

In foreign affairs, Putin built positive relationships with much of the West, including the president of the United States, although he opposed the Second Gulf War. However, after the events of September 11, 2001, he was generally supportive of U.S. action in the War on Terror, including the use of bases in former Soviet Central Asian territories.

His country’s own campaign against Islamic terror made him a willing ally. His provision of nuclear technology and advanced weapons to Iran raised doubts as to his sincerity. He also reluctantly accepted the U.S. abrogation of the ABM treaty as part of America’s missile defense program.

Putin cooperated with the enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which now includes former Baltic Soviet Republics bordering Russia. Relations with Europe were strengthened by an agreement in 2005 with Germany to construct a major oil pipeline that should bring economic benefits to both Russia and Germany. Putin also attempted to build favorable relationships—economic and political—with his Asian neighbors, China and Japan.

It is too early to determine Putin’s legacy but he maintained his popularity with campaigns against corruption and the oligarchs. Economic improvements and stability were welcomed by a public often left in turmoil following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Although not an open democracy on Western terms, and with features that suggest the possibility of returning to old ways, Russia remains a world force and one that has the unrealized potential for full democratic development.

Move

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 radical African American activist organization, MOVE was influenced past times many of the Left’s plough to paranoia in addition to conspiratorial thinking inwards the counter-cultural years of the slowly 1960s in addition to early on 1970s.

Like those that made upward the Weathermen in addition to the Black Panther Party, MOVE members saw mainstream the U.S. of A. civilization every bit beyond repair, in addition to sought to cast a counterconspiracy to practise an alternative social club inwards which its members could live.

MOVE—it is unclear if the cite of the organization has always acted every bit a specific acronym—was founded inwards 1972 inwards the Powelton Village neighborhood of Philadelphia past times African American handyman Vincent Leaphart. With the assistance of white graduate-student activist Donald Glassey, Leaphart (now calling himself John Africa; all MOVE members took the in conclusion cite of Africa) wrote the Guidelines, a manifesto detailing the beliefs of MOVE.

This document, clearly influenced past times the counter-cultural New Left, Black Power, in addition to environmental movements of the slowly 1960s/early 1970s, attempted to flora MOVE every bit a feasible political organization, touching upon such themes every bit racism, constabulary brutality, vegetarianism, technology, in addition to political representation. In fact, much of MOVE’s early on writings in addition to rhetoric attempted to revive in addition to educate upon these before movements and, inwards the process, cure them of their excesses.

Africa stressed the importance of cleansing one’s body, insisting that his followers abstain from all drugs in addition to medicines, alcohol, meat, in addition to ostentatious clothing. Science was “a trick” that only served to inculcate people into the “addictions” of the “System lifestyle” (Anderson in addition to Hevenor, 9). What was needed, Africa stressed, was a back-to-nature agency of living.

There would hence hold upward no nascency command skillful within the MOVE organization, in addition to members’ diets would consist close solely of raw fruits in addition to vegetables. Trash, human waste, in addition to fifty-fifty dead animals were left to “cycle” dorsum to the globe on MOVE property, leading to run-ins amongst both neighbors in addition to the Philadelphia police.

At the same time, MOVE children were to hold upward naked inwards the summertime in addition to only lightly clothed inwards the winter, piece adult males in addition to females were commanded to grow their pilus into unwashed dreadlocks in addition to apparel alike inwards bluish jeans, bluish denim jackets, in addition to heavy-soled men’s boots.

MOVE saw schools, political parties in addition to leaders, in addition to all branches of the law every bit corrupt in addition to enslaving. Moreover, the forces that controlled such institutions were viewed every bit actively conspiring against MOVE members in addition to their allies.

For example, every bit MOVE fellow member Jeanne Africa explained, “drugs were inwards the dark community for a long time, but they didn’t convey [drug rehabilitation] programs until it got into the white community .... The hierarchy would give you lot drugs to command you”.

To MOVE, the most concrete representatives of this hierarchy were the police, in addition to MOVE held many demonstrations aimed at focusing attending on issues of constabulary abuse in addition to brutality (Philadelphia, nether law-and-order Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, had a national reputation for constabulary misconduct during much of the 1970s).

In a seven-month menses inwards 1975, MOVE members were arrested on misdemeanor charges to a greater extent than than 150 times, fined $15,000, in addition to sentenced to several lengthy prison theatre sentences. Seeing the courtroom scheme every bit mayhap the most oppressive tool of the “System” conspiracy, MOVE members made it a dot to interrupt these sentencing hearings, oftentimes turning MOVE trials into veritable sideshows.

As the 1970s drew to a close, MOVE’s rhetoric became to a greater extent than fiery in addition to condemnatory, piece their political activities became to a greater extent than confrontational— amongst members oftentimes seen brandishing firearms. Such trends were intensified afterwards an viii August 1978 confrontation amongst the police, which resulted inwards i officeholder dead in addition to nine MOVE members sentenced to 30–100 years for their roles inwards the melee.

Seeing themselves i time once again every bit victims of unwarranted oppression, MOVE made it their mission—from their novel headquarters on Osage Avenue inwards due west Philadelphia—to continuously telephone telephone for the unloosen of the “MOVE 9,” whom they saw every bit political prisoners inwards their combat against the tyrannical Philadelphia government.

This campaign, oftentimes carried out through megaphones in addition to speakers from within the increasingly fortified MOVE compound, reached its fierce decision on xiii May 1985, when a showdown betwixt the arrangement in addition to the Philadelphia urban pith authorities left 11 members dead (six adults in addition to v children) in addition to sixty-one homes destroyed. MOVE fellow member Ramona Africa was convicted on riot in addition to conspiracy charges inwards connectedness amongst the conflict, in addition to served 7 years inwards prison.

MOVE continued to rest inwards the intelligence throughout the remaining years of the 1980s, in addition to fifty-fifty into the twenty-first century. In the aftermath of the tremendous devastation on Osage Avenue, then-Mayor Wilson W. Goode appointed the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission to seek out the events leading upward to, in addition to including, the assault on MOVE.

In March 1986, the committee issued a written report condemning the actions of the urban pith government, in conclusion that “dropping a bomb on an occupied row household was unconscionable”. In June 1996, a jury ordered the urban pith of Philadelphia in addition to 2 sometime urban pith officials—then-Police Commissioner Gregor Sambor in addition to then-Fire Commissioner William Richard—to pay $1.5 1000000 to a survivor in addition to relatives of 2 members who died inwards the May 1985 confrontation.

To many MOVE members in addition to supporters, such findings vindicated their belief that the urban pith had actively conspired against them throughout the previous 2 decades, in addition to was forthwith beingness made to pay for such actions.

During the 1990s, many supporters of convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal—who had written extensively on the 1978 MOVE confrontation in addition to resulting trials—argued that Abu-Jamal had received an unjust judgement based inwards share on his association amongst MOVE.

Finally, inwards September 2002 a human involved inwards a bitter custody dispute amongst a fellow member of MOVE was found shot to expiry inwards a automobile inwards New Jersey, the same 24-hour interval he was to alternative upward the man child for an unsupervised visit.

While at that topographic point was no prove tying the arrangement to the murder, MOVE representatives chop-chop denied whatsoever interest inwards the crime, in addition to inwards fact argued that the authorities was setting upward MOVE for the killing. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 steadfast belief inwards a vast conspiracy against them has clearly followed MOVE into the novel millennium.

Prague Spring

Prague Spring

COMECON, the Soviet counterpart to the Marshall Plan). As such, it had very close ties to the Soviet Union, politically as well as economically.

During the 1960s, following the ascension of Nikita Khrushchev to the position of premier, the Soviet Union’s relations with its satellite nations in eastern Europe softened, leading to greater flexibility in their political and economic policies. One of the greatest tests of how far this new flexibility would stretch was initiated by Alexander Dubcek, the political head of Czechoslovakia.

Another factor influencing these events was the spread of student movements across the continent of Europe, particularly in West Germany, Italy, and France. In 1967 these student movements spilled over into Czechoslovakia and dovetailed with increasing intellectual dissent among some of the Communist Party membership.


Internally there were deep-rooted fissures in the unity of the state. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was fragmented, stemming from the political trials of the 1950s, which revolved around questioning party comrades’ commitment to Stalinism.

As the party discussed economic changes, two unforeseen developments occurred. Some among the party began to call for relaxed censorship, and Slovak nationalists began to demand a greater share of political power.

These events led to the resignation of president and first secretary of the Party Antoni´n Novotný. Later in March Ludwig Svoboda assumed the post of president, due to legislation that mandated that these two positions be separated, as Novotný’s criticism of early reforms foundered.

Dubcek then implemented a series of radical reforms collectively known as the Action Program. These reforms allowed freedom of expression rather than strict censorship; promoted open, public discussion of important national issues; democratized the KSC; provided amnesty for all political prisoners for the first time in 20 years; encouraged greater economic freedom; allowed noncommunists to assume high-ranking government positions; and opened investigations into the political trials of the 1950s.

These reforms became known as the Prague Spring, harkening back to the 1956 attempts of Hungarian Imre Nagy to redefine the role of the Communist Party within the state. The reforms were officially approved by the government on April 5, 1968; however, a rift between liberal communists, who supported Dubcek, and hard-line communists, who supported Moscow’s policy, became more clearly defined.

Czechoslovak intellectuals responded by calling for long-term commitment, through the publication of a manifesto, which became known as the "Two Thousand Words". The Soviet reaction to this manifesto was swift and critical, which pushed Dubcek’s government to officially condemn its ideas in order to preserve its delicate relations with the Soviet Union.

Czechoslovakia’s Warsaw Pact neighbors saw this blossoming of freedoms, particularly the "Two Thousand Words", as a potential danger that threatened to spill over the border and raise public protest within their own nations.

However, initially through a series of meetings, it seemed as if the Warsaw Pact nations would allow these experiments to continue. In late July and early August of 1968, at the border village of Cierna nad Tisou, the political leadership of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union met to discuss these developments.

This meeting was followed by an additional conference, adding delegates from Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, and Poland, which convened at Bratislava on August 3. These meetings ended with promises of renewed friendship and commitment to socialism; yet Warsaw Pact troops began to mass along the border with Czechoslovakia.

Suddenly, during the night of August 20–21, 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations sent 500,000 troops across the border, while Soviet aircraft landed special forces directly in the capital city of Prague, seizing control of key transportation junctures and communication networks.

The native population responded with defiance, seen in public protests and demonstrations, and more than 80,000 political refugees streamed into the West, seeking asylum. The Soviets suffered minor military losses of 96 killed and 87 wounded; only 11 of those killed died due to direct confrontation with Czechoslovak citizens.

By mid-September, Warsaw Pact troops had killed more than 80 Czechoslovakian citizens, seriously wounded another 266, and lightly wounded an additional 436. The Soviet Union was unable to establish an alternative government, and initially kept Alexander Dubcek in his post.

Dubcek gave in to Soviet demands and repealed his progressive policies. In April 1969 the Soviets installed Gustav Husák as Dubcek’s replacement, and Husák then carried out "normalization" efforts and presided over a purge of the KSC.

Prague Spring marked the end to the flexibility of Khrushchev, but it also stood as a harbinger of Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika of the 1980s. Under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev this autonomy would cease to exist, a musim that lasted until the time of Gorbachev and the early rumblings of the revolutions of 1989.

Brezhnev made this policy shift clear; essentially the "Brezhnev Doctrine" meant that although the Soviet Union would not normally interfere in the affairs of its satellite states, if the system of socialism itself was under direct threat the Soviet Union would help any communist regime maintain power against the threat of overthrow.

Portugal

Portugal flag

Portugal has been a land of paradoxes. For much of the 20th century, it was simultaneously a weak, agrarian, poverty-stricken, isolated state on the periphery of Europe and the seat of a vast colonial empire. It had used an alliance with Britain to sustain this paradox for a long time.

Portugal relied on Britain to keep Spain at bay and to secure its claim to its colonial holdings. In return, the Royal Navy enjoyed access to a far-flung network of colonial ports to be used as coaling stations.

Modern nationalism in Portugal dates from the popular reaction to the British ultimatum of 1890, which foiled a Portuguese scheme to connect Angola and Mozambique by seizing the intervening territory.


For half of the 20th century, the country was governed by Western Europe’s most enduring authoritarian regime. Then, in 1974–76, it became the only North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) country to experience a full-fledged social revolution. After approaching the precipice of civil war, Portuguese society backed down and built a working democracy.

Portugal overthrew its monarchy in 1910. The country established a new constitution the following year and became Europe’s third republic, after Switzerland and France. There were several coups over a 16-year period. In reaction to labor unrest in the early 1920s, extra-parliamentary right-wing organizations arose. These groups lent their support to a bloodless military coup in 1926.

Two years later, in the wake of financial crisis, the military regime brought an economics professor out of the obscurity of the University of Coimbra and named him minister of finance.

António de Oliveira Salazar

António de Oliveira Salazar had a limited set of priorities in that office: to generate a budget surplus and to stockpile gold. He proved to be quite effective at what he set out to do. He quickly overshadowed a succession of military prime ministers and won supporters among officers, clergy, businessmen, bankers, and landowners.

The New State

The military regime was a little more stable than its predecessor. Salazar, whose star was already rising within the regime, founded a new party in 1930, the National Union (União Nacional), to unify the regime’s supporters. In 1932, as the Great Depression advanced, he was appointed prime minister, a position he would hold for the next 36 years.

Salazar promulgated a new constitution in 1933, establishing the New State (Estado Novo). The National Assembly, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Corporatist Chamber, had severely limited powers. Salazar selected nearly all candidates personally.

Rights and liberties proclaimed by the constitution were nullified by government regulation. Various sectors of society were organized from above in corporatist fashion. The political police maintained surveillance over potential opponents, many of whom fled into exile. Censors erased any hint of dissent.

From 1936 to 1944 Salazar was also minister of war. In that position he found he could shrink the size of the army and control officers’ salaries, transfers, retirements, and even marriages.

Officers were encouraged to marry wealthy women so that their salaries could be kept low. A politicized government-run militia, the Portuguese Legion (Legião Portuguesa), partially offset the army’s influence.

Thus it was Salazar, not the military, who consolidated the authoritarian regime. His was a conservative, corporatist police state, but it was not a true fascist state. It did not seek to overthrow traditional elites or mobilize society around its goals.

Rather, Salazar sought to demobilize—or even freeze—society and to reject modernity. Rather than exalting war, Salazar strove for a kind of neutrality. In any event, his austere policies left the armed forces with a very low level of effectiveness.

Spain and World War II

Salazar viewed Spain’s leftist Popular Front government as a threat. When General Francisco Franco rebelled against it in 1936, launching the Spanish civil war, Portugal officially followed the lead of Britain and France by promising nonintervention, but surreptitiously funneled aid to Franco.

Franco’s agents were allowed to operate on Portuguese territory. Thousands of volunteers went to Spain to fight against the Republican cause. At the end of the war, in March 1939, Salazar and Franco signed a treaty of friendship and nonaggression, known informally as the Iberian Pact.

Salazar declared Portugal’s neutrality in World War II on September 1, 1939, the very day Poland was invaded. He also sought to keep the war as far away as possible by bolstering Spain’s neutrality. In the wake of its civil war, Spain was in no condition to take an active role in World War II, but Portugal’s position highlighted the potential costs of even a passive role, as in allowing the Germans to pass through to take the British stronghold of Gibraltar.

The strategic situation changed for the Iberian Peninsula as the Germans became tied down in the Soviet Union and the Allies moved into North Africa and Italy. It was now highly unlikely that Spain would intervene on Germany’s side. Salazar allowed himself to be persuaded to join the Allied cause, albeit passively. From the Allied perspective, the Azores were the key objective.

Situated in the mid-Atlantic, these Portuguese islands would be useful bases both for antisubmarine warfare and for refueling transatlantic flights in the buildup prior to the great invasion of France. First Britain, and then the United States, acquired access to facilities there, and Portugal ceased selling tungsten to Germany while still claiming to be neutral.

Postwar Portugal

Portugal’s shift put it on the winning side, improving its bargaining position in postwar Europe and increasing its chances of getting back East Timor and Macao, which had been occupied by the Japanese.

Still, the semifascist state was in an ambiguous position after the war. It began to describe itself as an "organic democracy" rather than a "civilian police dictatorship", an expression that had been used in the 1930s.

Portugal was not invited to the San Francisco conference, which established the United Nations, and was denied UN membership until 1955. Portugal was, however, a founding member of NATO chiefly because the United States still wanted access to bases in the Azores.

Portugal’s relations with the United States and NATO replaced its traditional alliance with Britain. Unlike Britain’s earlier guarantee of Portugal’s overseas territories, however, NATO’s area of responsibility was expressly restricted to Europe to avoid its being drawn into colonial wars.

A certain "softening" marked the Salazar regime in the postwar era. There was no real institutional change, but some of the more fascistlike institutions were allowed to erode. On the other hand, after a dissident general managed to win 25 percent of the vote in presidential elections in 1958, the direct election of the president was discontinued.

A degree of economic liberalization led to the growth of the service sector and a larger middle class in the 1960s. Industry, previously limited to textile production, added electrical, metallurgical, chemical, and petroleum sectors.

A stroke immobilized the dictator in 1968, although he lingered for two more years. His successor was Marcello José das Neves Caetano, who, not coincidentally, had also succeeded him in his chair at the University of Coimbra.

Caetano brought technocrats into the regime, retired some of Salazar’s old-school hangers-on, and favored economic development over cultivated stagnation, but again the basic system remained.

Africa

War was spreading in the African colonies of Portuguese Guinea (Guinea-Bissau), Angola, and Mozambique. The policy of the New State had been to instill pride among the Portuguese in their empire, a legacy of Portugal’s glory in the age of discovery. The state also reasserted national control over the colonies, where foreign corporations had conducted much of the economic activity.

African farmers were compelled to shift from subsistence crops to cotton for the Portuguese market in the 1930s, and more so as World War II disrupted other trade sources. Portuguese investment in Africa began to take off in the years after the war. Portuguese emigration tripled the white population of Mozambique and quadrupled that of Angola between 1940 and 1960.

Initially, even the outbreak of the wars of national liberation spurred economic growth, as the state responded by boosting civil and military investments. All of these changes disrupted the lives of the Africans, and many of them also undermined the few existing bases of support for Portuguese rule.

In 1961 a revolt against forced cotton cultivation broke out in Angola. Fighting escalated with retributions and counter-retributions; it spread to Guinea in 1963 and Mozambique in 1964. The government quickly repealed forced cultivation and forced labor. It also mobilized troops and dispatched them to Africa.

Large numbers of Africans were concentrated in strategic villages (aldeamentos) where their actions could be controlled. In 1961 the United States called on Portugal to decolonize. The insurgents sought and received military aid from the Soviet bloc and China.

In order to fight the leftist insurgency most effectively, the military high command assigned anabawang officers to read the political tracts of African revolutionary leaders, such as Amílcar Cabral of Guinea-Bissau.

To their ultimate surprise, a sizable number of anabawang officers were convinced that the insurgents were right. Some of them also concluded that Portugal itself was an underdeveloped Third World country in need of "national liberation".

Revolution of The Carnation

A diverse group of disgruntled anabawang officers in 1973 formed a clandestine political organization, the Armed Forces Movement (Movimento das Forças Armadas, MFA). On April 25, 1974, the MFA deposed Caetano. The New State collapsed without resistance. Holding red carnations, demonstrators had persuaded other military units not to resist.

The MFA then stepped back, but this proved only temporary. The young officers would soon be in the midst of a political free-for-all to determine the direction of the revolution. They too coalesced into a number of factions built around competing political orientations and personalities.

Captain Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho became the focal point of one radical faction, once styling himself as the Fidel Castro of Europe. Colonel Vasco Gonçalves began as a moderate, but moved to a position close to the Portuguese Communist Party. A moderate faction, later dubbed the Group of Nine, formed around Lieutenant Colonel Melo Antunes.

Finally, further behind the scenes until the last stages of the revolution were the "operationals", a group of officers largely concerned with professional military matters and associated with Lieutenant Colonel António Ramalho Eanes.

The Junta of National Salvation (Junta de Salvação Nacional) was formed from moderate senior officers. General António de Spínola, a former military governor of Guinea-Bissau, was invited to lead the junta as provisional president of the republic.

Palma Carlos, a liberal law professor, was named provisional prime minister. Political parties of all stripes were legalized, and political prisoners were released. Political exiles streamed back into the country.

Cease-fires were arranged in Africa. In one of the most fateful decisions of the new regime, the leaders promised elections for a constituent assembly within a year, the first real elections in over half a century, and with universal suffrage and proportional representation.

The revolution had released popular tensions that had been building up for decades. Turmoil spread quickly in the newfound freedom, and rival power centers competed to control the situation. Spurred on by the newly legalized Portuguese Communist Party, Maoists and other leftist groups and workers staged strikes and seized factories, shops, and offices.

Students took over schools and denounced teachers for "fascist sympathies". Services broke down, and shortages became common. Right-wing groups, especially in the conservative rural north, began to mobilize and arm themselves.

In July the Palma Carlos government collapsed amid the turmoil, and prominent members of the MFA moved into key positions. Carvalho was promoted to brigadier general and put in charge of the army’s new Continental Operational Command (Comando Operacional do Continente, COPCON), which became the principal arbiter of order as the police disintegrated.

Colonel Vasco Gonçalves was appointed to the position of prime minister. The MFA radicals regularly overruled Spínola’s decisions and also forced him to accept the independence of the colonies.

In September a major demonstration planned by Spínola to bolster his position forced a confrontation with COPCON, which resulted in Spínola’s resignation. General Francisco da Costa Gomes, who was more sympathetic to the left, assumed the presidency.

The most radical phase of the revolution began in March 1975. Spínola launched an unsuccessful coup attempt on March 11. In response, the radical wing of the MFA abolished the Junta of National Salvation and formed the Revolutionary Council (Conselho da Revolução), some 20 officers responsible only to the MFA Delegates’ Assembly.

The council nationalized the banking system, press, utilities, and insurance companies. With elections for the Constituent Assembly scheduled for April 25, the anniversary of the revolution, the MFA pressed a "constitutional pact" on the six largest parties, which recognized the permanent supervisory role of the MFA in a "guided" democracy.

Turnout was high for the elections, in which 12 parties competed, but the outcome shocked the radicals. The moderate Socialist Party came in first with 37.9 percent, followed by the right-of-center Social Democrats (originally called the Popular Democrats) with 26.4 percent. The Communists, the electoral ally of the MFA radicals, garnered only 12.5 percent.

Talk of Civil War

The MFA responded during the "hot summer" (verão quente) of 1975 by styling itself as a national-liberation movement. In the south, landless agricultural laborers seized large estates and declared them collective farms. Moderate Socialists and Social Democrats resigned from the government. Small freehold farmers formed armed groups, held counterrevolutionary demonstrations, and bombed the offices of leftist parties.

Plans were drawn up for a possible alternative government in the north. COPCON was beginning to disintegrate, and individual army units were under pressure to declare their political orientation. Both society and the MFA itself were becoming increasingly polarized, and there was talk of civil war.

As a consequence of the growing tension, Gonçalves and his government were pressed to resign at the end of August, and they did so. A new, more moderate provisional government was installed.

Dissatisfied with this outcome and determined not to "lose" the revolution, radical paratroopers attempted to organize a coup in November 1975. Like Spínola’s coup attempt, however, this backfired. Lieutenant Colonel António Ramalho Eanes, of the MFA’s professional military faction, led a purge of the MFA radicals. COPCON was disbanded and Otelo, its commander, placed under house arrest.

Eanes was named army chief of staff and made a member of the Revolutionary Council. The "constitutional pact" was renegotiated in February 1976. Elections were held for the new Assembly of the Republic in April, and Eanes was elected president in June with 61.5 percent of the vote in the first round.

The Constituent Assembly sought to avoid both the weak, unstable governments of the 1911 constitution and also the authoritarianism of the 1933 constitution. Based on the French model, the new system called for both an elected president with real powers and an executive prime minister chosen by a majority party or coalition in a freely elected parliament.

The renegotiated constitutional pact still called for socialism as the goal of government and society and institutionalized the legacy of the revolution. Moreover, it retained the Revolutionary Council, still a self-appointed and purely military institution, and gave it the power to safeguard the legacy of the revolution and judge the constitutionality of legislation passed by the civilian government.

The first elected government was led by Mário Soares of the moderately leftist Socialist Party. In 1979 however, a center-right government of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats was elected. The inherent tension between the elected government and the essentially undemocratic council became evident as the cabinet sought to privatize portions of the economy.

After a standoff that lasted roughly from 1979 to 1982, a process of normalization set in and the undemocratic vestiges of the revolution were gradually excised. In particular, a constitutional reform in 1982 abolished the Revolutionary Council and sent the army back to the barracks.

In the elections of 1986 Soares became Portugal’s first civilian president in 60 years, replacing Eanes. Another constitutional reform, in 1989, eliminated the requirement to keep the nationalized sector of the economy.

The moderate Socialist and Social Democratic parties had increasingly come to dominate the political system, reducing the need for multiparty coalitions and increasing the stability of government. Portugal had become a far less hierarchical and far more pluralistic, democratic, and dynamic society than it had been before 1974.

In 1986 the European Economic Community (now the European Union) accepted Portugal and Spain simultaneously as members. The opening to trade, the inflow of European investments for infrastructure and other purposes, and the constitutional changes of 1989 spurred growth and helped transform the economy.

Economic growth surpassed the European average in the 1990s and until 2002. While, like any country, Portugal was not without its scandals, controversies, and disagreements, by the end of the century it had become integrated as a solidly democratic, stable, and respected member of the European community.

Augusto Pinochet Ugarte

Augusto Pinochet Ugarte

President and dictator of Chile from the bloody overthrow of democratically elected Marxist president Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973, until his resignation from the presidency in March 1990, General Augusto Pinochet ranks among the most controversial figures in modern Chilean history.

The years of his rule as president and dictator (1973–90) saw large-scale human rights abuses by the Chilean military, with an estimated 3,200 dissidents killed and disappeared, and thousands more imprisoned, tortured, and exiled.

The 17 years of his dictatorship also saw major neoliberal reforms of the country’s economy, as promoted by the "Chicago Boys", that resulted in the privatization of many state industries and entitlement programs—most notably the social security system—and that severely circumscribed the role of the state in the national economy. A polarizing figure, revered by some and decried by others, Pinochet left a complex legacy of state repression and radical economic reform with which Chileans continue to grapple.


Born in the Pacific port city of Valparaiso on November 25, 1915, the son of a custom’s inspector, Pinochet graduated from Santiago’s military academy in 1937. In 1971 he was appointed to the key post of commander of the Santiago army garrison.

In the midst of rising social and political tensions sparked by Allende’s socialist policies, Pinochet garnered the trust of the president, who in August 1973 named him commander in chief of the army.

Three weeks later Pinochet led the coup that resulted in Allende’s overthrow and imposition of military dictatorship. The months following the coup were the most violent of the regime, with tens of thousands of Allende supporters rounded up, interrogated, and imprisoned, and hundreds executed.

Among the most enduring images of the Pinochet dictatorship was the scene in the Santiago’s main sports stadium in late 1973, used as a clearinghouse for recently arrested prisoners, with a sunglasses-clad Pinochet overseeing the detention and interrogation process.

In 1980 a new constitution made the nation’s military the "guarantors of institutionality" and imposed a range of limitations on citizens’ political activities. In 1988 a plebiscite showed a solid majority opposed to continuing dictatorship, and in 1990 he stepped aside to permit national elections and a return to democratic government.

The human rights violations of the Pinochet regime were documented in the selesai report of the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation (the Truth Commission, or Rettig Report), presented in February 1991 to then-President Patricio Aylwin.

On stepping down as army chief, Pinochet was granted a permanent seat in the country’s Senate, immunizing him from prosecution. Human rights activists pursued a novel legal strategy by charging him for genocide, torture, and kidnapping in a Spanish court. In October 1998 he was arrested in Britain on the charges. There ensued a 16-month legal battle over the Spanish court’s extradition order.

In 2000 he returned to Chile and was declared unfit to stand trial due to mental and physical ailments. Living the rest of his life in seclusion with his family, dogged by lawsuits and legal charges, he died on December 10, 2006. Public opinion polls after his death showed that slightly more than half of Chileans believed that he should have been prosecuted for his regime’s human rights violations.

Jewish Defense Forcefulness League

Jewish Defense League

Although it was initially organized to protect Jews inward crime-ridden neighborhoods inward New York City, the Jewish Defense League (JDL) became best known for its occasionally fierce protestation activities directed against Russian anti-Jewish policies in addition to Arab terrorism.

This militant arrangement presently became involved inward an unlikely, fifty-fifty bizarre, political alliance in addition to was also subjected to both U.S. in addition to local authorities surveillance. The 1990 assassination of the founder, Meir Kahane, subsequently raised serious questions almost an Arab conspiracy, fueled past times much novel testify discovered inward the wake of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

Paradoxically, about members of the Jewish Defense League—who professed profound occupation organisation for the physical security in addition to welfare of their coreligionists—were implicated inward the 26 Jan 1972 murder of a Jewish secretary, Iris Kones. This tragic killing took house during the firebombing of the New York percentage of Sol Hurok, who promoted cultural exchanges alongside the Soviet Union.

Later, however, about charges were dropped against the JDL members because of illegal constabulary procedures in addition to other problems for the prosecution. Almost all mainstream Jewish organizations considered the JDL a violent, extremist grouping in addition to regularly denounced its leader.


Founded inward the boundary of 1968 past times the charismatic rabbi Meir Kahane in addition to a grouping of politically conservative New York City Jews, the JDL in addition to its activities were regularly featured inward the New York media and, occasionally, the national press.

Indeed, 1 fellow member boasted that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, George H.W. Bush, complained to Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that JDL activities were endangering détente alongside the Soviet Union.

Although the JDL was a right-wing organization, both its methods in addition to oft fierce rhetoric seemed to mirror radical leftist groups of the 1960s. Leon Wieseltier, the New Republic literary editor in addition to a JDL fellow member for a brief time, 1 time boasted to his parents that Eldridge Cleaver was making him a meliorate Jew.

Although many journalists in addition to academics bring written numerous articles describing in addition to analyzing the political activities in addition to philosophy of the JDL, relatively fiddling attending has been paid to an odd political alliance that developed during the early on years of the organization.

After Meir Kahane was freed on bail inward Brooklyn Federal Court on 3 May 1971 from an indictment of conspiracy to carry weapons across set down lines, Joseph A. Colombo, Sr., a major Mafia figure, appeared inward a articulation intelligence conference alongside the JDL leader in addition to announced an alliance alongside him. Colombo declared that the rabbi was “fighting for his people inward Russian Federation in addition to we’re fighting for our [Italian] people hither ... if they [the JDL] require our support, nosotros volition hand it”.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 twelvemonth earlier, Colombo in addition to about of his mob associates had formed the New York–based Italian American Civil Rights League—grist for comedians in addition to editorial cartoonists—whose mission was to struggle anti-Italian prejudice, specially the depiction of all Italians every bit gangsters. Barry Slotnick, counsel to the newly established organization, was also the attorney for Kahane, in addition to reportedly helped intro- duce these ii controversial figures to each other.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 New York Times editorial (15 May 1971) expressed puzzlement almost this bizarre organizational alliance: the Italian American Civil Rights League seemed an unlikely grouping to house every bit 1 of its overstep priorities occupation organisation over the mistreatment of Soviet Jews; similarly, JDL members would non probable highlight every bit a major resultant inward its political agenda the removal of the names “Mafia” in addition to “Cosa Nostra” from the idiot box plan The FBI.

Nevertheless, about analysts suggested that Kahane in addition to Colombo forged this alliance to mobilize jointly their respective supporters against their alleged systematic harassment past times the U.S. Department of Justice.

The existent argue for the alliance powerfulness never move known. On 29 June 1971, Joseph Colombo, Sr., was shot 3 times inward the caput in addition to cervix at an Italian American Unity Day Rally held at Columbus Circle in addition to attended past times an estimated 100,000 supporters.

Colombo was inward a coma for vii years in addition to died on 22 May 1978. His assailant—who was directly shot in addition to killed past times Colombo’s bodyguards—was Jerome A. Johnson, an African American who allegedly had mob ties inward Harlem.

Almost ii decades later, Rabbi Meir Kahane also suffered a fierce death. On five Nov 1990, an Egyptian janitor named El Sayyid Nosair assassinated the JDL leader before a grouping of JDL supporters at the Marriott Hotel inward midtown Manhattan.

Subsequent investigations found intriguing connections betwixt Nosair in addition to many terrorists involved inward either the get-go or bit attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) in addition to also other worldwide terrorist activities perpetrated past times Al-Qaeda.

Immediately captured after the Kahane shooting, Nosair was subsequently found to move a follower of the exiled Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, in addition to therefore based inward Bailiwick of Jersey City, New Jersey. He was reportedly the spiritual leader who inspired the get-go World Trade Center bombing on 26 Feb 1993.

Furthermore, constabulary discovered that Mohammed Salameh in addition to Mahmoud Abouhalima—who were primal players inward the WTC bombing—were staying inward Nosair’s menage also inward Bailiwick of Jersey City, located close Abdel-Rahman’s mosque. Nosair’s cousin, Ibrahim el-Gabrowny obtained a $20,000 contribution from Osama bin Laden for Nosair’s legal defense.

Wadi El-Hage, the primal Al-Qaeda operative involved inward the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies inward Republic of Kenya in addition to Tanzania, visited Nosair inward his U.S. prison, several years before he went to East Africa. El Sayyid Nosair, who was acquitted of the Kahane murder inward a set down case inward 1991, was convicted inward 1995 on a federal accuse of murder inward aid of racketeering, in addition to was sentenced to life inward prison.

Hal Lindsey

Hal Lindsey

The principal argue to catch Hal Lindsey inwards the context of conspiracy theory is that Lindsey is perchance the unmarried almost pop author of biblical prophecy inwards the US as well as biblical prophecy is itself a trend of conspiratorial thought.

All events are linked yesteryear an overarching logic as well as are leading toward simply about known end—the Second Coming of Christ. Lindsay is i of the really few writers to always convey 3 books on the New York Times best-seller listing simultaneously.

His best-known book, The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), has been translated into fifty dissimilar languages as well as has sold over 35 meg copies. He has since written simply about other 20 books, regularly conducts pro-Israeli Holy Land tours, runs an online newsletter, Hal Lindsey Oracle, as well as appears on the weekly Trinity Broadcasting Network intelligence show, International Intelligence Briefing.

The Late Great Planet Earth is a key document inwards the early on popularization of the trend of religious belief almost mutual amid evangelical Christianity inside the United States—premillennial dispensationalism. To empathize Lindsey’s significance, both inside biblical prophesying as well as inside the so-called Christian Zionist Right, it is necessary to come upward to a basic agreement of the theology espoused yesteryear his writing.


Premillennialism is the agreement that nosotros are approaching the millennium: the thousand-year reign of Christ that follows the Second Coming. Dispensationalism asserts that God progressively reveals himself over a serial of ages or dispensations. During each dispensation, the onus placed upon humankind inwards price of their responsibleness to God changes.

At present, according to Lindsey as well as almost other evangelicals, nosotros are inwards the historic menses of the Grace or the Church historic menses (the 6th of 7 dispensations) during which our exclusively responsibleness to God is faith. The lastly dispensation, next the rapture—during which the faithful volition live called to God’s side—is the millennial kingdom.

The feel that the millennium is at mitt depends upon biblically based interpretations of electrical flow events. More specifically, it depends upon specific interpretations of the Book of Revelation. In this interpretation, the creation of the State of State of Israel inwards 1948 is the effect that begins the countdown to the millennium.

State of Israel plays a crucial business office inwards the premillennial dispensationalist version of the Last Days—hence the rigid back upward of State of Israel yesteryear Lindsey, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, as well as Jimmy Swaggart, who along amongst Tim LaHaye (coauthor amongst Jerry Jenkins of the immensely pop as well as profitable Left Behind series) are marrow members of the so-called Christian Zionist Right. (Incidentally, all of the aforementioned individuals convey rigid affiliations amongst groups funded yesteryear Rev. Dominicus Myung Moon’s Unification Church.) Without the continuing beingness of the State of Israel, the events that Pb upward to the lastly dispensation cannot come upward to pass.

The centrality of premillennial dispensationalism as well as its attendant Zionism to the U.S. Christian Right points to the significance of Lindsey as well as his writing to the contemporary political scene. The centrality of Christian Zionism to both political as well as religious life inwards the US has redoubled next the terrorist attacks of September 11.

Another key historical chemical cistron identified yesteryear Lindsey is the receive toward the unification of Europe. Lindsey reads the EU every bit the revived Roman Empire—the reemergence of which is key to the End Times scenario. One matter that has complicated Lindsey’s vision of the apocalypse is the autumn of the Soviet Union, which has served every bit his candidate for Gog-Magog. Gog-Magog are identified inwards the Bible every bit the nations that Satan volition Pb upon his escape from prison theatre at the cease of the millennium.

The autumn of the Soviet Union has non dissuaded Lindsey from his view: inwards an article from August 2002 Lindsey notes, “Just when yous laid out to wonder where is Gog as well as Magog inwards all this ... Russian Federation has continued to strengthen ties amongst all 3 of the countries branded the ‘axis of evil’ yesteryear President Bush: Iran, Republic of Iraq as well as North Korea. Hmmm” (Lindsey 2002).

Identification Cards

Identification Cards

Many people receive got seen the thought of identification (ID) cards every bit a conspiracy against the freedom of individuals; those on the Right receive got unremarkably drawn on biblical prohesies to warn against ID cards, piece those on the Left receive got feared the introduction of increasing regime surveillance in addition to command of workers.

Opponents of mandatory or quasi-mandatory identification cards on the religious Right receive got pointed to the Bible’s alarm against the “sin of David,” whom Satan incited to bear a census in addition to whom God punished for thence “numbering” the people (1 Chronicles 21). Caesar’s all-empire registration that took Joseph in addition to Mary to Bethlehem (Luke 2) has similarly colored the sentiment of many Americans that whatever regime information collection for revenue enhancement purposes is business office of a wider conspiracy.

Likewise, the introduction of a government-assigned number inwards monastic tell to receive got upwardly a task was viewed every bit fulfillment of the biblical prophecy of the “mark of the beast” inwards Revelation 13: “no homo mightiness purchase or sell, salve he that had the mark, or the shout out of the beast, or the number of his name.” The widening job of ID numbers is said to live on mandated yesteryear international organizations such every bit the United Nations (UN) in addition to the European Community, every bit business office of the New World Order predicted inwards Daniel 7:23 in addition to Revelation 13:4–8.

The Social Security Administration’s “Enumeration at Birth” program, inwards which newborns are assigned Social Security Numbers (SSNs), is business office of a “global conception for enumeration,” mandated yesteryear the UN. New identification applied scientific discipline is seen every bit especially worrisome, amongst fears, for example, that bar codes comprise the number 666, the grade of the beast.


On the Left, the assignment of SSNs to workers inwards the 1930s produced concerns, for illustration yesteryear the United Mineworkers, of a potential employers’ “blacklist” of troublemaking laborers. However, much of the opposition to the SSN was fueled yesteryear opposition to President Roosevelt’s New Deal itself, in addition to made job of conspiratorial accusations largely every bit a rhetorical flourish.

Just earlier the 1936 election, Republican presidential candidate Alf Landon asked rhetorically if millions of Americans would at 1 time live on fingerprinted in addition to photographed in addition to “opened for federal snooping.” The Hearst newspapers asked, “Do y'all desire a tag in addition to a number inwards the shout out of simulated security?” in addition to spread the rumor that all workers would live on required to article of apparel Canis familiaris tags displaying the SSN.

Although the fears in addition to conspiracy theories that met the introduction of the SSN tin at 1 time appear farfetched, it is nevertheless the illustration that the numbers receive got give-up the ghost all-purpose identifiers, despite assurances at the time, in addition to fears well-nigh the erosion of freedom in addition to privacy are non unfounded.

However, the U.S.A. does non receive got a national ID carte du jour every bit other countries do. The most-commonly checked regime IDs are the driver’s licenses issued yesteryear the 50 states, but less than xx per centum of the population has a U.S. passport. More than 7,000 dissimilar jurisdictions number all fashion of nascence certificates, which are the “breeder documents” upon which other IDs are based.

Proponents of universal ID cards outset from the observation that the U.S.A. already has a de facto national ID card, inwards the shape of driver’s licenses, in addition to a national ID number, inwards the shape of the SSN. In the wake of the terrorist assail on September 11, for example, advocates for a national ID carte du jour argued that the existing scheme had to live on made to a greater extent than robust yesteryear combining the existing cards into one.

In a similar vein, opponents of national ID cards propose that the electrical current scattered scheme is but the slippery gradient to the introduction of a national ID. These skeptics assert that, because totalitarian systems rely on ID cards (Nazi Germany’s IBMsupplied ID system, the Soviet internal passport, in addition to apartheid South Africa’s locomote yesteryear scheme beingness primal examples), ID cards themselves stand upwardly for the sparse border of the wedge of a Big Brother terra firma apparatus, which could live on introduced yesteryear stealth in addition to inwards a piecemeal fashion, via modest technological improvements in addition to policy changes.

Mainstream civil liberties in addition to privacy advocates such every bit the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, in addition to the Privacy Foundation hit non run into whatever conspiracy inwards this, although slippery-slope arguments tin sometimes play the same role every bit conspiracy theory inwards viewing together what would otherwise live on unrelated, disparate events. Sometimes privacy advocates volition employ the hint of conspiracy to simplify the presentation of what is actually an declaration well-nigh incremental, technological determinism.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 rather dissimilar grouping of ID opponents does run into a literal conspiracy. In U.S. history at that spot is a longstanding populist, right-wing fearfulness of the encroachment of “big government” into the life of the average American, in addition to ID cards are often seen every bit business office of a larger conspiracy of the federal regime (and the so-called New World Order) to command the private life of citizens. Members of the Patriot movement, inwards groups such every bit the Militia of Montana in addition to the Posse Comitatus, receive got attempted to rescind or revoke their ain driver’s licenses or SSNs, inwards a procedure called “asseveration.”

For example, Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols had at 1 indicate attempted to dorsum out of a $20,000 debt yesteryear attempting to repudiate his U.S. citzenship; he destroyed his driver’s license, passport, in addition to voter registration card. Similar ID-revocation techniques receive got been used inwards attempts to avoid child-support payments, dorsum taxes, gun registration, seatbelt laws, speed limits, in addition to similar infringements on “sovereign” citizens.

These groups depict ID cards every bit business office of a conspiracy to claw citizens into rejecting their “sovereign” status. Even the ZIP code is feared every bit a shape of “adhesion contract” to nullify sovereignty. The thought of ID cards every bit an antisovereign conspiracy is by in addition to large employed every bit business office of a strategy for avoiding taxes or other fiscal burdens, although this sort of revenue enhancement avoidance has been universally unsuccessful.

There is, however, a thriving line of piece of work organisation inwards running seminars on the subject, at which attendees mightiness pay several hundred dollars to instruct the appropriate paperwork, addition the powerfulness to themselves concur similar seminars, forming a sort of multilevel-marketing receive for the anti-ID carte du jour conspiracy theory.

In the U.S.A. “liberty” is often a code give-and-take for guns, in addition to fifty-fifty fairly mainstream opponents of gun registration sometimes run into ID cards every bit business office of a much larger pattern, inwards which “fascist” regime agencies such every bit the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, in addition to Firearms (BATF) is targeting gun owners in addition to the “politically incorrect.” The Brady Bill requires that ID such every bit a driver’s license live on shown in addition to checked against a federal database every bit business office of a handgun sale, which has led the gun foyer to equate registration in addition to ID cards amongst gun control.

New forms of applied scientific discipline provoke similar responses from opponents of identification cards. “Smart” cards, which tin ship several megabytes of data, are ofttimes described every bit the adjacent pace inwards bringing well-nigh one-world regime tracking of all persons; the job of such smart cards on armed forces bases has been described every bit a airplane pilot projection to displace the entire civilian population to a trackable, cashless society.

Biometrics such every bit facial recognition, in addition to location tracking via GPS (Global Positioning Satellite), are seen every bit business office of the same plan. The adjacent pace is implantable ID, such every bit the Digital Angel in addition to Verichip products from Applied Digital Solutions. The religious Right banking concern notation that these products inwards business office fulfill the pattern specification of Revelation 13:16 that speaks of “a grade inwards their right hand, or inwards their foreheads.”

Timothy McVeigh, the Oklohoma bomber, spoke of the the world forces implanting a reckoner fighting inwards his buttocks during the Gulf War, but to a greater extent than mainstream commentators at 1 time banking concern notation that such technology is becoming to a greater extent than likely. For the conspiracyminded, high-tech ID systems are seen every bit systems non only for identification, but for heed control.