Hattip to Christopher Johnson at Midwest Conservative Journal. Seymour Hersch, part time left wing loon and full time writer at the New Yorker, critiques US policy in the Middle East and blames us papists:
In a speech billed as a discussion of the Bush and Obama eras, New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh delivered a rambling, conspiracy-laden diatribe here Monday expressing his disappointment with President Barack Obama and his dissatisfaction with the direction of U.S. foreign policy.
“Just when we needed an angry black man,” he began, his arm perched jauntily on the podium, “we didn’t get one.”
It quickly went downhill from there.
Hersh, whose exposés of gross abuses by members of the U.S. military in Vietnam and Iraq have earned him worldwide fame and high journalistic honors, said he was writing a book on what he called the “Cheney-Bush years” and saw little difference between that period and the Obama administration.
He said that he was keeping a “checklist” of aggressive U.S. policies that remained in place, including torture and “rendition” of terrorist suspects to allied countries, which he alleged was ongoing.
He also charged that U.S. foreign policy had been hijacked by a cabal of neoconservative “crusaders” in the former vice president’s office and now in the special operations community.
“What I’m really talking about is how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government. Took it over,” he said of his forthcoming book. “It’s not only that the neocons took it over but how easily they did it — how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced.”
Hersh then brought up the widespread looting that took place in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. “In the Cheney shop, the attitude was, ‘What’s this? What are they all worried about, the politicians and the press, they’re all worried about some looting? … Don’t they get it? We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody’s gonna give a damn.'”
“That’s the attitude,” he continued. “We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That’s an attitude that pervades, I’m here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command.”
He then alleged that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC before briefly becoming the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and his successor, Vice Adm. William McRaven, as well as many within JSOC, “are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.”
Hersh may have been referring to the Sovereign Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic organization commited to “defence of the Faith and assistance to the poor and the suffering,” according to its website.
“Many of them are members of Opus Dei,” Hersh continued. “They do see what they’re doing — and this is not an atypical attitude among some military — it’s a crusade, literally. They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They’re protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function.”
“They have little insignias, these coins they pass among each other, which are crusader coins,” he continued. “They have insignia that reflect the whole notion that this is a culture war. … Right now, there’s a tremendous, tremendous amount of anti-Muslim feeling in the military community.””
Go here to read the bizarre rest at Foreign Policy. At least he didn’t claim the Illuminati or the cattle mutilators are in on this vast conspiracy. (I don’t know, I think Mr. Hersch is probably a pawn in a giant Jesuit conspiracy! After all, his rant was delivered at Georgetown (hint!, hint!). If in his next speech he talks about Ignatian aspects of the Jihadists, we will know what is truly going on! Flee for your life Seymour. Soon they will have you singing Kumbaya at a fundraiser to establish a half-way house for differently gendered street cats in San Francisco!)
It is getting increasingly difficult to distinguish some members of the elite media from a bag lady on the street muttering how dogs are in league with the Pope, except for the fact that one is being paid huge sums of money for relaying sheer lunacy. Their flight into the irrational is breathtaking, and, thank you internet!, we get to point out their madness in loving detail to all and sundry!
Any proof given?
When intelligent (READ: conservative or tea party) people are involved the morons lose: they do not have ANY evidence. As in names, dates, places, numbers, inventories of loot, . . .
OTOH, You got to give the devil his due. Obama has ended “enhanced interrogation” and replaced with assassinations by unmanned aerial drones. A stopped clock is correct twice a day.
Anyway, this is extremely dangerous. There are thousands of drug-deranged, totally vicious liberal losers that are (truth) so moronic as to believe this stuff.
Worse: they’ll blame Sarah (Palin 2012!!!) the next time her Church burns down. And, Rush Limbaugh for the next assassination (by a drug-crazed liberal loser) of a GOP-appointed Justice about to rule on the (genuflect!) Obama agenda.
Suppose you were an idiot. And, suppose you were a liberal. But, I repeat myself.
First, I am serving in Afghanistan and Stash did not give me crusader coin, “whats up with that”.
Second, Mr Hersch was once the press secretary to presedential candidate Eugene McCarthy, ’nuff said”. Extreme Liberal.
What is it with these old reporters/columnists (Helen Thomas) who just keep their opinions to themselves.
God keep you and protect you stan and thank you for your service to our country. If you do get some of those crusader coins, save one for me!
Afghani”stan”
God Bless you.
Our son was there in 2009. He is set to go again in March.
Keep alert. Stay safe.
We love you. You wonderful guys are in our prayers morning and night.
Hersch clearly got carried away by pointing fingers at just about everyone, but he wasn’t far wrong about the crooked Cheney bunch who made hundreds of millions of dollars in blood money off the Iraq slaughter through Halliburton, et al. One wonders why Cheney would consider a heart transplant when it doesn’t appear he has one.
Read “The New American Century,” hatched by the neocons about 10 years ago that said “absent a Pearl Harbor,” it would be difficult to revive defense spending. They got their wish with 9/11 and, no, I am not a conspiracy theorist, just stating a fact that gave the shot in the arm the sagging military-industrial complex needed.
Careful Joe.
“Blood money” is awful close to “blood libel.” As we know from Palin’s use of that term, it is anti-semitic. Your use of the term can equally be considered anti-semitic especially in conjunction with your use of the word “slaughter.” Add to this that Cheney is from Wyoming which is next to Idaho which has a large number of extreme rightists, then you are clearly invoking violence.
Phil, I’ll take your comments as tongue-in-cheek, but if not then I’ll be careful and watch my back.
Joe,
I’m controlling your dream reality as I write. You will not be able to watch your back. 😉
Second, Mr Hersch was once the press secretary to presedential candidate Eugene McCarthy, ’nuff said”. Extreme Liberal.
Hersch was let go by the McCarthy campaign. Hersch contended that McCarthy took no interest in race relations and so he (Hersch) had to leave in conscience. Martin Peretz, then employed by the campaign, said that Hersch was lying and that he departed the campaign because McCarthy did not think that Hersch as his press secretary was charged with policy-making duties.
Sen. McCarthy might be criticized for ineffectuality (with regard to the slide of the Democratic Party into the status of cat’s paw of the Planned Parenthood Federation) but was a detatched and ironic mainline Democrat, not an extremist. Hersch’s sensibility bears no resemblance to McCarthy’s and the two manifested little in common in the years after 1968.
but he wasn’t far wrong about the crooked Cheney bunch who made hundreds of millions of dollars in blood money off the Iraq slaughter through Halliburton, et al.
1. Richard Cheney worked for Halliburton for all of four years.
2. Who is ‘the Cheney bunch’?
3. Why is their compensation as a government contractor ‘blood money’?
1. “For all of four years”…resigned to avoid “conflict of interest” when he became VP. Meanwhile, racked up $30 million (known) net worth.
2. ‘Cheney Bunch’ includes the following: Elliott Abrams Gary Bauer William J. Bennett Jeb Bush Dick Cheney Eliot A. Cohen Midge Decter Paula Dobriansky Steve Forbes Aaron Friedberg Francis Fukuyama Frank Gaffney Fred C. Ikle Donald Kagan Zalmay Khalilzad I. Lewis Libby Norman Podhoretz Dan Quayle Peter W. Rodman Stephen P. Rosen Henry S. Rowen Donald Rumsfeld Vin Weber George Weigel Paul Wolfowitz.
3. Because they make it by killing innocents and then get no-bid awards to rebuild what they destroyed.
Never new Halliburton killed people. I thought they were into oil rigging.
As someone wise once said, “You think you die for your country, but you actually die for some industrialist.”
Just because some wackjobs buy into every conspiracy doesn’t mean there aren’t any conspiracies. Human history is full of them, chiefly one of the close followers of a certain Jewish Rabi we are all familiar with who conspired with the Sanhedrin to have Him killed. It is illogical to be Catholic and not believe in the existence of human conspirators – the Church, as promised by her Founder, is the object of many evil conspiracies and will always be. Somehow, I don’t think that space aliens have anything to do with that though 🙂
When we give up our analysis due to the false left-right paradigm, we miss much.
Sometimes conspiracies are made of convenient enemies who happen to have aligned interests at the time, sometimes it is because some people are just opportunists and sometimes it is an actual conspiracy in order to achieve an evil end.
I was not against the Iraq war, at the time, partly because there was evidence, at the time, of the presence and willingness to use WMD, after all, Rumsfeld and Cheney sold them to Saddam to use against Iran in the 80s. What I think is a conspiracy is the fact that we are still there – it does not take this long for the finest military the world has ever seen to effect regime change and destroy an opposition army. It is silly to engage in guerrilla warfare in a foreign country. So why are we still there? Could it be part of a Persian flanking maneuver? Could it be very profitable for some people? Could it be that a state of war will always allow the welfare-warfare corporatist state to expand and work its way toward absolutism?
It seems to be yes, on all fronts – that is a conspiracy.
Notwithstanding the inane anti-Catholicism, do any of you really disbelieve that the enemies of the Church have entered the Church? Have you seen the damage done to Her? Sure, Holy Mother Church will be here until the end of time, but we have no guarantee that it will be anything more than a small remnant of saints. Of course, these saints can change the world.
The problem is labels – it is not a right-wing, or a left-wing conspiracy, it is the result of Libido Dominandi, the Lust for Power driven by pride, sin and disobedience and in many cases humans who are in full cooperation with the demonic. Neocons are corporatist statists, modern liberals are corporatist statists and they exist in both parties (if there are in fact two parties) and they have been running this country into the ground. A great Republic like ours does not get brought down except from the inside, and that is a conspiracy.
The days of this conspiracy are coming to an end – either the fulfillment of the conspiracy will occur soon and we will all be slaves, or, as I think will occur, we will thwart and destroy the conspiracy – for now anyway. Remember, the chief conspirator never sleeps and is always on the prowl to devour souls.
I am willing to bet that less than one percent of the people who ascribe dark motives to Haliburton have no clue what it does or what its operations in the Middle East are comprised of.
As for conspiracy mongering in general, it’s a counter-productive activity. Instead of focusing on the content of the policy disagreement, conspiracy mongers prefer to see evil intent behind said policy. This of course only perpetuates the status quo. After all, if all the bad things the government does are due to the fact that most are slaves to some ill-defined corporate entity, then really there’s not much we can do to change things. In other words, its an excuse for dropping out of politics altogether. In other, other words, it sanctions laziness.
Joe and Ak, loosen up the tinfoil hats. The idea that the Iraq war was fought to further corporate interests is as risible as the lunacy Hersch is peddling.
Paul, My point re Halliburton can best be summed up by this definition by Ambrose Bierce:
‘Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.’
Donald, I find your rejoinder close to ad hominem, which is out of character for one who purports to conduct a fair and open forum. Beneath the “tinfoil hat” you assert I wear, there lies a brain that attempts to do some critical thinking. There is ample evidence to suggest that Halliburton and other war contractors benefited enormously by the Iraq war. But in the spirit of civility sought by our President, I hereby will refrain from casting any aspersions on a corporation or those associated with it.
Of course that idea has a long pedigree. Isolationists in the thirties were peddling the idea that sinister arms merchants were behind World War I, the so-called merchants of death. It was all rot, without a shred of evidence to support it, but a lot of people bought into it, with Congressional hearings held in regard to it. It gave a strong impetus to the isolationist movement in this country, and helped ensure that the US entered World War II badly unprepared.
And Joe is no closer to providing an actual description of what Haliburton does, how it influenced policy, or how it has blood on its hands. More vague insinuations about a shadowy corporation. Nothing of substance.
I have a strong antipathy to conspiracy theories Joe. Throughout history belief in such theories, almost always unfounded, has wreaked much havoc.
Paul,
Acknowledging a conspiracy does not make one politically lazy. In some cases it can inspire political action. If the conspiracy does exist, and we know that conspiracies do exist and you ignore it, then your political action will probably be rendered inert.
I think one can take conspiracy too far, in the sense that everything is so secret that anything is possible – this of course, can only occur from a materialist perspective. With eyes of faith we know, not only do conspiracies exist, but that we can’t and don’t need to know everything about them because we trust in Divine Providence. Materialists are fools, and sadly, some are Christian, as if God did not know that the Enemy was tempting Adam and Eve in the garden.
If we look at the evidence and employ some critical thinking and understand a little about power and human nature – then the conspiracies are fairly obvious. There is a money-power conspiracy in nearly every government and almost always and everywhere. The power of government is too tempting for sinners. If not for conspiracies and government abuse, why would the Founding Fathers have conspired to commit treason by rebelling against the Crown and then drafting Articles of Confederation to ensure that the same conspiracy did not befall them again?
Don, I only wear the tinfoil hat to keep my hair out of my eyes, everyone knows that aluminum does nothing against Death Rays and H.A.A.R.P bombardments from Alaska.
Don, where did I say that the second Iraq war was fought ONLY for corporate interests? I suppose you think the hack Eisenhower was wrong about the military-industrial complex too. I think Iraq was a legitimate war, given the circumstances at the time. I think we should have gone in with more force and wrapped it up much sooner and been far more concerned about liberating Muslims to allow them to kill Christians, intentionally or unintentionally (and no for this I don’t blame Bush – but those left-wing neocons). Nevertheless, a perpetual state of war is in no way in the best interest of a Republic – this is the action of Empire and an Empire abroad is always despotic at home.
Don, There is no question that J.P Morgan and the mercantilist-Anglophile elite pushed us into WWI, what was the American interest in that mess, other than to bring about Wilson’s League of Nations to rule and order the world according to the scientific-technocrats superior ideas of social engineering and eradicate the true enemy, the Popish Church. Versailles guaranteed that we’d have to go back and fight Hitler, so long as we don’t damage any of the I.G. Farben/Rockefeller buildings of course.
Don, throwing around a word like isolationist detracts from the validity that most of the wars we have been driven into and the perpetual state of undeclared war since WWII and Korea are NOT within the interests of the USA. Surely, we can agree on that.
Don,
Did the Jacobins hatch a conspiracy? Was the havoc that ensued because of the Jacobins, or those who tried to fight the conspiracy?
Paul, Donald, et al…To document the vast array of facts regarding Halliburton and other war profiteers going back decades would not only take up too much bandwidth but also challenge the ‘conventional’ wisdom found hereabouts and subject me to further verbal assault. Though I have donned my flame-retardant suit, I nonetheless find the heat uncomfortable and wish to retain good relations with all those on TAC, which otherwise brooks dissent on a variety of topics.
Coincidence?
Company Name Profits BEFORE WWI Profits by the end of WWI
DuPont (Gunpowder) $ 6,000,000 $ 58.000,000
Bethlehem Steel $ 6,000,000 $ 49,000,000
United States Steel $ 105,000,000 $ 240,000,000
Anaconda $ 10,000,000 $ 34,000,000
Utah Copper $ 5,000,000 $ 21,000,000
Central Leather Company $ 3,500,000 $ 15,000,000
International Nickel Company $ 4,000,000 $ 73,000,000
American Sugar Refining Company $ 2,000,000 $ 6,000,000
Source: “War is a Racket”
Joe,
I am not challenging your premise, because I suspect, to a large part we agree; however, correlation does not prove causation. Furthermore, not all war is a racket. Just wars are a necessary part of human life and history. Profits earned during a just war are not necessarily unjust and not necessarily part of a racket or conspiracy.
Of course, humans without informed moral consciences, will prefer to have business guaranteed than compete in a market and war tends to move a populace to rally for support because the fear becomes existential.
For example, we are at war with Muslim terrorists; however, this war is ill defined as the War on Terror, as if we can eradicate terror. In fact, this is a war OF terror and it is being fought against us. Does that mean that Muslim terrorists are not dangerous and that we should not deal with them, even if that means invading a host or supporting country – of course not. We have every right and in many cases duty to prosecute military action against them; however, that isn’t what we are doing most of the time. It seems the answer to being attacked by Al Qua’ida is to pass the Patriot Act. I thought it would have been better to just kill Osama, like when Clinton and Berger had the opportunity – I wonder why they didn’t squeeze the trigger.
Oceana needs be at war with EastAsia or EuraAsia at all times to keep the citizens of Oceana under control.
AK, as defined by Augustine and Aquinas, perhaps the last “just war” was World War II. That profits inevitably flow from war is indisputable, but I’d agree that correlation is at times nebulous. Ike’s famous 1961 speech (delivered 50 years ago almost to the day) on the military industrial complex is worth re-reading.
As for perpetual war for perpetual peace, Orwell sums up Oceania thusly:
The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance with the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of the Inner Party) is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living. Ever since the end of the nineteenth century, the problem of what to do with the surplus of consumption goods has been latent in industrial society. At present, when few human beings even have enough to eat, this problem is obviously not urgent, and it might not have become so, even if no artificial processes of destruction had been at work.
Smedley Butler Joe is hardly a reliable source.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
Donald, 2 Medals of Honor, a long and distinguished military career, I’d say he has some cred. Or don’t you believe that contemporary witness is best in recording history. Were this not so, Matthew, Mark, Luke & John could be readily dismissed and yet we Christians rely on them (and Paul) for much of what we believe.
Actually Joe, contemporary accounts indicate a wide spread belief that Butler fabricated the whole thing. Butler was passed over as Commandant of the Marine Corp in 1931 because he publicly accused Mussolini in a speech of having run over a child. He never got over it and he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1932 as a Republican. He then turned hard left, attacking capitalism and the military as being gangsters for the capitalists. That is what makes his entire idea of a fascist plot against FDR so laughable. By 1934 he was known as an ardent supporter of FDR and yet shadowy plutocrats wanted him to command a coup against Roosevelt? FDR obviously thought it was rubbish as there were no criminal prosecutions by the Feds of anyone named by Butler. Butler was a very brave man as attested by his two medals of honor. He was also a fabulist, to put it politely, of the first order.
Re: Halliburton… I think people are just peeved at them because the French company Schlumberger didn’t get the contract. BooHoo. 😉
To document the vast array of facts regarding Halliburton and other war profiteers going back decades would not only take up too much bandwidth but also challenge the ‘conventional’ wisdom found hereabouts and subject me to further verbal assault.
This is a very long way of saying you don’t have anything substantial to back up your allegations. Color me surprised.
Donald, no doubt he had his critics. Who doesn’t? Still, I would take his views with more than a grain.
Tex: Your francophobia is showing. : )
Paul, the evidence is substantial, compelling fact-checkable and easily accessible to any objective investigator. That’s the short of it.
Finally (I promise), I hate to resort to a cliche, but connect the dots.
Joe, in part that is a kitchen sink list of professors, politicians, and wonks who have had, at one time or another since 1969, some sort of employment in the foreign policy apparat. However, you have also leavened it with a miscellany of others you appear not to care for, including a history professor at Yale, a theologian at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a publisher of business and travel magazines, and a retired editor at Basic Books. Several of these people held appointive positions contemporary with Cheney’s in the Ford Administration (in which Cheney was Rumsfeld’s subordinate, not the other way around), the 1st Bush Administration, and the 2d Bush Administration. Few other than Lewis Libby might be called Cheney proteges. His association with most, however, is limited to being a registered Republican with some entree into certain circles.
Because they make it by killing innocents
Who? where?
Art, They are ALL signatories to the 1997 New American Century think thank document (since disbanded), which posits:
* we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future;
* we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values;
* we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad; [and]
* we need to accept responsibility for America’s unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.
Interpreted by some, this is but another blank check for militarism and imperialism.
Right Joe. The truth is out there.
I’m reminded of an old Jewish joke: a Jewish immigrant visits a deli and horrifies his friends by pulling out a notorious anti-Semitic rag to read while he’s eating his lox and bagel. “Abie, how can you read such a disgusting paper!,” they exclaim. ” It’s full of lies!”
Abie replies, “When I read the Yiddish papers, all the stories are sad ones about pogroms and persecutions of Jews. When I read this one, it goes on about how our bankers run the whole world and how all Jews are smart and rich. This one makes me feel much better!”
Similiarly, it’s a bit more fun to fantasize about the fabulous Knights of Malta, the ever-mysterious Opus Dei and crusader coins than it is for me to read the letter I just got from Archbishop Listecki regarding our Chapter 11 reorganization. Hey, Opus Dei, send a few crusader coins our way!
But then I remember that there are people in the world who both take Hersh’s ridiculous theories to heart and are in a position to hurt Catholics and other Christians living in Muslim countries. Then Hersh’s absurdities aren’t so amusing.
Francophobia… lol
Although it was founded by the Alsatian brothers, Schlumberger, since the 1940s the company has had its headquarters in Houston Texas USA.
Conspiracies a absolutely do exist. FDR once said: “If something happens in Washington, you can bet it was planned. Does that mean all conspiracy theories are true? Of course, not, but a few things that were once “conspiracy theories” but later turned out to be conspiracy fact: 1) banker’s plotted to seized the White House and overthrow Roosevelt (true: check out Semedley Butler and find the Congresssional Hearings classified until the mid 1980s, 2) the Contra-Cocaine affaire, 3) MKultra (yes, the CIA contracted prolific research on mind control), 4) FDR knew about the Pearl Harbor attack (last evidence to prove that came in in the last two years), 5) American bankers did business with the Nazis AFTER World War II had started (recent declassification of Justice Department documents have proved this true), 6) filibusters were an organized effort to create a “greater South” directed by a Secret Society called the Golden Circle (true, despite the fact National Treasure II tried to “fictionalize” much of this story. That’s only a half dozen of “loon” conspiracy theories that have been proved to be real plots or events.
Now, is Hersch right on his charges? I have no idea, but try checking out the unit patches and symbols used by various departments of the military (you can start with the School of the Americas) and you do see over and over that the symbol includes symbols of Knights of Pythagoras, Knights of Columbus, the ubiquitous “all seeing eye” (NASA has a bunch of these on recent military missions, etc.. It is intriguing that these are chosen so often. Does each one have a link to a secret society or conspiracy thereof. No doubt the answer would be no, but are some quite possibly linked to a conspiracy or cabal within the military? Dismissing the idea out of hand is just intellectually lazy and possibly dangerous. Of all the real secret societies and plots that have ever existed, well over half have been associated the military, mercenaries, or some other paramilitary organization. What kind of hubris does it take to believe that we’re beyond all that in an era where “secrecy” is increasingly cloaking every thing the military and Homeland Security is involved in?
Doubt Hersch? Sure. Dismiss him? I don’t think we should.
Blake Hounshell has a follow up today. We can diss Hersh as a loon but this is truly sad:
“More than a few readers, including Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, complained that I hadn’t rebutted Hersh’s arguments… I imagine that when most reasonable people read the transcript — I don’t have a video, unfortunately — they will see what I’m talking about… I thought it was self-evident that several points Hersh made were off-base and conspiratorial, but perhaps it’s worth spelling things out for everyone.”
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/21/me_and_seymour_hersh
“There’s a lot more, but you get the idea. So I’m going to go out on a limb here and just say it: Odds are good that JSOC is not being overrun by Catholic fanatics.”
That is sad RR. Apparently for some people no mad rantings are too bizarre to believe if Catholics can be painted as villains.
“1) banker’s plotted to seized the White House and overthrow Roosevelt (true: check out Semedley Butler and find the Congresssional Hearings classified until the mid 1980s”
No, actually the evidence was that Smedley Butler was a fabulist in regard to his statements about this conspiracy, as demonstated by FDR’s Justice Department making no attempt to indict anyone name by Butler.
“2) the Contra-Cocaine affaire-”
The Reagan administration admitted at the time that some of the Contras had engaged in cocaine dealing to support their operations.
“3. MKultra (yes, the CIA contracted prolific research on mind control),”
The CIA wasted a fair amount of money in the fifties and sixties on mind control, telekinesis, mind reading, ESP and other nutty dead ends. MK Ultra has become a source of endless loony conspiracy theories as a google search will reveal.
“4) FDR knew about the Pearl Harbor attack (last evidence to prove that came in in the last two years)”
That is complete and total bunk.
5) American bankers did business with the Nazis AFTER World War II had started (recent declassification of Justice Department documents have proved this true).
Almost complete bunk. American banks and companies had ties with German companies and banks. The idea that this constituted doing business with the Nazis is a staple of conspiracy theories on the far left and far right, usually involving Prescott Bush. Go to the link below to separate fact from fancy:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2434/was-president-bushs-great-grandfather-a-nazi
“6) filibusters were an organized effort to create a “greater South” directed by a Secret Society called the Golden Circle”
The Knights of the Golden Circle was a remarkably ineffective Southern “secret” organization that was well known throughout the North during the Civil War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle
“Dismissing the idea out of hand is just intellectually lazy and possibly dangerous.”
No, believing in conspiracy theories without solid evidence is intellectually lazy and almost always dangerous for societies if enough people begin to believe in them.
Re FDR, Donald, a lot of smoke if no fire:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/pearl_harbor.htm
No smoke and no fire Joe. Gordon Prange, a historian who clearly despised FDR, in his definitive Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History demolished the argument that FDR knew in advance of Pearl Harbor.
http://www.amazon.com/Pearl-Harbor-Gordon-W-Prange/dp/0140159096