Conspiracy against sensible liberals. posted by Richard Seymour

In a poll published in today's Observer, but not available online, most Britons say they believe the Bush administration probably knew in advance of the 9/11 attacks and allowed them to happen. There is ample suggestive evidence for this thought, but nothing that allows it to rise above suspicion. But there's no harm in being suspicious of powerful, ruthless men. And it wouldn't be the first time the US government had conspired against its own citizens (see Operation Northwoods).

Much as one tries to avoid a conspiratorial view of the world (and we have, after all, been programmed to collapse into fits of laughter whenever the phrase 'conspiracy theory' is uttered), it bears remembering that states do conspire from time to time. I'll have more to say on this later, but for now I thought you'd appreciate the chance to laugh yourself silly at this pompous, argument-free reaction from David Aaronovitch. Oddly, he seems to rely on what your common sense reaction will be, even though his article is reacting to the fact that the common sense is not on his side in this issue.

For now, I'm off to fight the twelve-foot lizard beasts that control the planet with their evil death rays.