Conspiracy theories

A man, or a woman, or a cooperative of former convent girls, as he she or they claim, purporting to come from Monaco, but I doubt it, who claim/s his her or their interests are "Alfred Russel Wallace, Jung, Bonobo chimps, John Buchan, J M Barrie, Teilhard de Chardin, 911, CIA, Operation Mockingbird, Operation Northwoods, Indonesia, Haiti, Taoism, politics, travel, cycling, art, spiritualism, reading" posted this interesting article from The Guardian about the conspiracy theories which are so popular in France on [their] blog.

And here's another Guardian article, with a former British minister's conspiratorial take on the London bombings.

Www.rotten.com has a comprehensive wrap of the state of conspiratorial play in relation to 911, well worth the read.

But what is really quite weird is that Abdurrahman Wahid, the former President of Indonesia nicknamed "Gus Dur" went on Australia's public television station SBS's flagship investigative journalism programme, and said the Indonesian police or military planted the second, Sari Club, bomb in Bali bombings Round 1:

"ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Yeah, I know but you don’t have any kind of proof. The proof is that the bomb is similar to that belong to the police. It’s a problem for us then. Every bomb there until now it belongs to the government.

Today is the third anniversary of the first Bali attack that saw 202 people killed, including 88 Australians. Abdurrahman Wahid now has questions about that attack as well. While some regard him as an eccentric, he is the former president and is often described as the conscience of the nation, revered by tens of millions of moderate Muslims. As such, he’s one of only a few people publicly prepared to canvass the unthinkable - that Indonesian authorities may have had a hand in the Bali atrocity. He believes that the plan for the second, massive at the Sari Club, which caused the majority of casualties, was hatched way above the head of uneducated villagers like Amrozi.

ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Amrozi was involved in the lighter bomb. That’s a problem always. Even though I agree that he should be given a stiff punishment, but it doesn’t mean that he is involved. No, no, no.

REPORTER: So you believe that the Bali bombers had no idea that there was a second bomb?

ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Yeah, precisely.

REPORTER: And who would you suggest planted the second bomb?

ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Well, it looks like the police.

REPORTER: The police?

ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Or the armed forces, I don’t know.

Wahid’s speculation is chilling and again there’s no evidence to support it. But there’s no doubt that he’s a barometer of how many Indonesians view the whole terror campaign."

The full transcript is here, and is worth the read, but has apparently been removed from Dateline's archives. As Indcoup has pondered, why hasn't this extraordinary claim by a former head of state been given any coverage? It's enough to make you think conspiracy.

Bali