'Active measures' and the truthers

For anyone who cares to look, there is an enormous body of "evidence" supporting varied accusations that 9-11 was a "false flag" attack, perpetrated by the CIA and/or the Israeli Mossad.  The quantity, quality, and pervasiveness of this disinformation begs a question -  where exactly does it originate?  If it is deliberate in nature, what is it's purpose?

In March, AT contributor Bernie Reeves wrote a piece discussing what are known as "active measures":

The key question is: will [book author] Ferguson in his [upcoming] TV series lay the blame for the dismantling of Western civilization where it belongs? Squarely on the Soviets and KGB "active measures" -- and their co-conspirators, the Left in the US and other Western nations, who carried the attack into academia and continue their dirty work well past the collapse of the USSR? Check up on what Bill Ayers is up to and you will get the picture. The West has been infiltrated and defeated right under our noses.

It is well known that the highly visible "Nuclear Freeze Movement" of the early eighties was the product of the KGB and the same aforementioned "active measures":

The early 1980s saw a reprise of earlier fears of nuclear destruction (a workable definition of an "advanced civilization" could well read "one in which there is sufficient leisure time for large numbers of people to worry about doomsday"). The nuclear freeze campaign, largely engineered by the KGB, took up much of the public attention devoted to environmental crises.

In a recent piece interestingly titled "Right Wing Bolshevism", J.R. Nyquist writes of Alex Jones:

It is worth noting that Russia Today has produced segments with the notorious 9/11 Truther Alex Jones, who once said to Webster Tarpley (on air), "Our information is everywhere." And that is how Kremlin disinformation works. It is not a function of quality, but quantity; and Jones has been the perfect mouth-piece. Inciting his radio listeners against finance capital in the language of a revolutionary agitator, Jones says "9/11 was an inside job" and that the United States has become a "deep tyranny." A close observer of the Jones phenomenon, Cliff Kincaid (of USA Survival News), has said, "Jones has much more in common with the Left than the Right." Kincaid noted that Jones is a fan and friend of Lyndon LaRouche, and furthermore: "Why is he on Russian television defending their foreign policy? Why has MSNBC called this man a member of the 'New Right'?"

Considering that Russia carted WMD's out of Iraq, compromised (via NATO) the entire OIF order of battle to Saddam Hussein's regime, and (recently) bombed the American Embassy in Georgia, can it really be argued that Russia and it's KGB (now FSB) have honestly changed since the "demise" of the Soviet Union?  That Russia considers itself an enemy of the United States may be a profoundly unpleasant conclusion, but it is a necessary one.

One cannot help but wonder if Alex Jones unwittingly is helping the Russian FSB to incite the American right against their own country?  The same tactics have worked effectively on the American left for decades.

Jason McNew is a 37 year old IT professional.  He is working on a forthcoming book titled "Jude's Acre".  He can be reached at jasond@mcnew.org.