Conspiracy Buffs Warn of Kissinger Cabal, Red Mailbox Dots: TV
Radio host Alex Jones says 9/11 was “an inside job” orchestrated to create panic and more reliance on an increasingly repressive government. One of his sympathizers is convinced that Halliburton Co. is building “concentration camps” capable of holding 50 million Americans.
Jones and his fellow conspiracy theorists are the subject of “New World Order,” an engrossing, scary documentary airing tonight on IFC at 6:45 p.m. New York time.
Better watch it or someone may start following you.
According to Jones and company, a group of elitists is wreaking havoc to further their goal of world domination. At the controls, they say, are members of the secretive Bilderberg Group such as Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller and other bigwigs from the worlds of politics, finance and media.
As far as Jones is concerned, the Bilderbergers’ wingtips conceal cloven hooves. He and his followers spend much time and effort stalking and filming the supposed puppet masters, who are also said to control both major U.S. political parties and the “mainstream media.”
Jack McLamb, identified as a former Phoenix police officer who hosts a short-wave radio show, says Halliburton is building concentration camps and the government is marking mailboxes with colored dots to single out people for imprisonment or death. The Houston-based company once run by former Vice President Dick Cheney has been criticized for many things, but this charge might as well come from outer space.
No Facts
Jones and his cohorts offer no evidence to back up their fantastic tales. I don’t know whether this is because evidence isn’t their thing, or because filmmakers Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel preferred to concentrate on wacky personalities rather than hard facts.
Some of the most interesting segments in “New World Order” feature the faithful taking their gospel to the streets.
Jones, whose nationally syndicated show is broadcast from Austin, Texas, plays his bullhorn like a Stradivarius. And he and his mates attract plenty of attention when they tell New Yorkers that the World Trade Center towers were brought down by planted explosives.
Gothamites are a hard sell, however. One barks at the conspiracy buffs to “get the (expletive) out of my country.” TV provocateur Geraldo Rivera is a bit more subtle: When Jones and his cadre heckle him as he broadcasts live from an outdoor set, Geraldo slyly flips them off. A group of sidewalk strollers in New Orleans listens more tolerantly, perhaps because most are nursing beers.
Mailbox Dots
One young conspiracy believer -- an Iraq War opponent who says the media hasn’t given the conflict enough coverage -- gets sympathetic treatment. His segment includes horrifying night- vision footage of soldiers machine-gunning three possible terrorists; the bursts reduce the bodies to small piles of rubble.
On a far lighter note, we see Jones crooning along with a Jerry Reed song and delivering an amusing analysis of the Washington Monument, which he calls a “giant power talisman” for those ever-plotting elitists out to take over the world.
McLamb, by the way, explains that the red and blue dots on some mailboxes (generally believed to have been put there by mail or newspaper carriers) are actually government markings to indicate status on a hit list.
He says red dots mean “they take you out immediately and shoot you in head,” while blue dots mean you are sent off to a Halliburton camp. God only knows what green dots signify.(bloomberg, 5.26.2009, Dave Shiflett) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aIXPky36s.lI&refer=muse
(Dave Shiflett is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.) To contact the writer of this story: Dave Shiflett at dshifl@aol.com.