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The 7/7 Conspiracy Theories Debunked

Wednesday, 1st July 2009

Last night's edition of BBC2's The Conspiracy Files was a fine piece of television. It examined the conspiracy theories surrounding the bombings of July 7 2005 and if you haven't seen it, watch it again right now.

At first I thought it was going to be another piece of gratuitous "what if?" television. But it was so much better than that. By taking the conspiracy theories surrounding the atrocities at face value, the programme makers gave the loons enough rope with which to hang themeslves. The theory that Israelis were somehow warned of the attacks in advance was forensically dismantled and the idea that the bombs were planted under the carriages of the trains shown to be nonsens. One of the most prominent conspiracy theorists was than unmasked as a Holocaust denier and another as a dangerous fantasist with a messiah complex.

The film showed showed that the naive and the politically extreme can sometimes form a terrifyingly toxic aliance. There was a pitiful scene, for example, where the well-meaning but ultimately pathetic Bristol-based journailst Tony Gosling and the chairman of Birmingham mosque Mohammed Naseem met to organise a public meeting. I have no doubt that poor Gosling thinks he is a seeker after truth, but Dr Naseem is an Islamist with an ideological mission, who appears to believe that the bombings could not have been carried out by British Muslims.

Rachel North, the 7/7 survivor and campaigner who appeared on the programme to denounce the conspiracies is now my hero. Her demands for a public inquiry into the events of that terrible day grow all the more powerful as the conspiracy theories proliferate.

Filed under: Conspiracy theories (4 more articles) , Islam (12 more articles) , Islamism (4 more articles)

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The Oncoming Storm

July 1st, 2009 8:00pm Report this comment

This is one of the downsides of the internet, crackpot conspiracy theorists have a platform to spread their outlandish stories. They are helped by governments appearing not to be straight with people, in this case Blair's refusal to hold a public inquiry into 7/7 because he's afraid that it will claim the attacks were a direct result of Iraq which he tries to deny. The most outrageous conspiracy nutjob had to be the guy who claimed that WTC 7 was demolished by explosives that could have planted when the building was built in the 1980's!!!!

Stewart

July 1st, 2009 8:35pm Report this comment

If the conspiracy theorists are such loons and yahoos then why do we need to bother spending licence payers' money to debunk their crackpot stories? I'm happy that they are debunked but I'm just asking that if we agree that they are beyond the pale then why indulge them? We'd be better off debunking some of the fantasies of the global warming brigade who seem to be given so much credence because they have a degree or are part of a protest business or were the Vice President of the USA.

keir beales

July 1st, 2009 9:54pm Report this comment

Yes they debunked 7/7 the ripple effect, but completely ignored any other videos does that mean that some of this do have unanswered claims that cant be debunked, or are they even more crackpot?

James Hdoosn

July 2nd, 2009 12:06am Report this comment

They don't like it up 'em, do they? All Conspiracy Theorists love to enlarge a pinprick in an argument but cannot stand it when the same is done against them.

Occam's Razor is almost always a pretty good starting defence.

rod liddle

July 2nd, 2009 1:04am Report this comment

Agree. But incidentally, what a fabulously appalling man is that goateed Stalinist from Press TV. Good performance mate............

James Hodson

July 2nd, 2009 1:27am Report this comment

Ahem. That would be James Hodson, of course!

andy c

July 2nd, 2009 10:12am Report this comment

Its fairly simple.

The video left behind by the 7/7 bomber was quite specific.
They did it for their Muslim brothers being annihilated by Britain and America in;

Palestine
Iraq
Afghanistan

In that order.

Its a funny thing, but when you sell arms to a country like Israel, as the UK does, that then uses them against civilians, people get angry.

TrevorsDen

July 2nd, 2009 10:16am Report this comment

Again congratulations on the Newsnight performance - even though it was an open goal.

You look and sound sensible, objective and reasonable on TV, why aren't you a conservative?

A de Guchteneire

July 2nd, 2009 11:53am Report this comment

Can you not spell?!

logdon

July 2nd, 2009 2:12pm Report this comment

rod liddle
July 2nd, 2009 1:04am

Agree. But incidentally, what a fabulously appalling man is that goateed Stalinist from Press TV. Good performance mate............

James Hodson
July 2nd, 2009 1:27am

Ahem. That would be James Hodson, of course!

Love it! An absolute classic.

Jaysonrex

July 2nd, 2009 3:59pm Report this comment

A sense of humor is vital if one wants to survive in this mad world. On the other hand, good sense is just as vital, and for the very same reason.

The so-called conspiracy theory is nothing more than the old and tired "victimhood game" so dear to many Islamists, backed by the hopeful Left. Hopeful? Yes! On a lookout for another maneuvering mass to replace the retired proletariat (currently interested in joining the ranks of the bourgeoisie), the Left hit on the Islamists.

And who better to promote the 'conspiracy theory' that could deflect the blame for 7/7 from Muslims, born and bred in U.K., to, say, the Israelis. Why not? Since the Israelis are being blamed for practically everything, from 9/11 to Darfur to Sri Lanka and, of course, Mumbai, not to mention the swine flu, why not 7/7? After all, in matters of terrorism … Everything Goes, as Cole Porter used to claim in his wonderful hit song.

Danny

July 2nd, 2009 11:56pm Report this comment

“You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.” - George W Bush, at a Washington Dinner, March 2001.

The BBC Conspiracy Files program was made for people such as the above.

A more free minded person, who has at least studied the subject somewhat, might ask themself why the BBC did not press Peter Power to explain his comments on 7/7/2005 :-

“We had to suddenly switch the exercise from fictional to real” - Peter Power.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKvkhe3rqtc

“We had to jump from slow-time thinking to quick-time doing” - Peter Power.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEbUQiYOGjU

That does not sound like just an office-exercise with no bearing on what happened that day.

Maybe I should ignore the many things like this which the BBC program never addressed, lied about and/or twisted, and live in denial with you fellows.

After all, you are obviously so much cleverer and well-informed, and it seems like great fun to take great pleasure in mocking others and not the other way around.

I have to wonder though… at who it is that the makers of the BBC program are really laughing at, in private?

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