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Michael Ruppert

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Michael Ruppert is the founder and editor of From The Wilderness, a newsletter and website dedicated to investigating political cover-ups. He is regarded by his critics as a conspiracy theorist. On August 16, 2006 Ruppert announced that he was leaving the United States permanently.[1]

From The Wilderness

From The Wilderness is a newsletter published by the media company From The Wilderness Publications, which claims to be ahead of the mainstream media by as much as one year. The newsletter covers a range of political and governmental issues. It is published eleven times per year but features weekly updates online. It was started by Michael Ruppert in 1998. Critics such as David Corn[1] and Norman Solomon argue that Ruppert sometimes veers off into making unsubstantiated Conspiracy theory claims. Ruppert himself says he documents his sources.

Their website says that the newsletter is about "the publication of documented truth and the letting go of fear through education" and claims to have "16,000 subscribers in 40 countries including 35 members of the US Congress and professors at 30 universities around the world."

They also sell many books and videos on their range of subjects, which include:



History

Ruppert, whose father was a CIA agent and mother was in a British intelligence agency, graduated from UCLA in 1973 and became a narcotics investigator for the LAPD. In 1977 he claimed to have discovered an extensive drug trafficking operation run by the CIA and went on record about it. He was subsequently forced out of the LAPD in 1978 despite earning the highest rating reports possible, and having no pending disciplinary actions. (This account comes from Ruppert's book jacket.)

In 1996 Ruppert achieved notoriety through his comments at a televised visit of then-Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch to South Central Los Angeles. Deutch had made the trip to Los Angeles to dispel rumors in the black community that followed the publication of Gary Webb's series in the San Jose Mercury News revealing evidence of CIA connections to cocaine dealers in the city. At the meeting, Ruppert publicly confronted Deutch, saying that in his experience as an LAPD narcotics officer he has seen evidence of CIA complicity in drug dealing for a long time.[2]

Ruppert has assembled a large body of alleged evidence and an extensive timeline that, he claims, demonstrates the Bush Administration's advance knowledge of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In his book Crossing the Rubicon he names Vice President Dick Cheney as the prime suspect in 9/11 and alleges that not only was Cheney a planner in the attacks, but that on the day of the attacks he was actually running a completely separate command, control and communications system which was superceding any orders being issued by the FAA, The Pentagon, or the White House Situation Room.

The main thesis of Ruppert's book is an examination of the motives behind 9/11. An examination of policy documents and, most crucially, a 1997 book by former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski led Ruppert to the conclusion that the long predicted Hubbert Peak for petroleum was an imminent reality. The theory, commonly known as Peak Oil, predicts that future world oil production will soon reach a peak and then rapidly decline. The 9/11 conspiracy theorists have built on the Peak Oil idea, stating that 9/11 is seen as an enabling event, similar to other false flag operations, and one which would provide the justification for a sequential war to control the world's remaining oil reserves.

Crossing the Rubicon reached as high as number 30 spot on the Amazon Non-fiction Top Sellers as of 11/23/2004. Its back jacket cover reads, "The attacks of September 11, 2001 were accomplished through an amazing orchestration of logistics and personnel. Crossing the Rubicon discovers and identifies key suspects - finding some of them in the highest echelons of American government - by showing how they acted in concert to guarantee that the attacks produced the desired result."

Ruppert appears prominently in the Peak Oil documentary The End of Suburbia, and he participated in The Citizens' Commission on 9-11.

In the summer of 2006, Ruppert abruptly left the United States, citing reasons ranging from difficulties with employees, financial troubles, a burglarly, and political conditions in the U.S., and vowed never to return. [3]

Critics

Columnist Norman Solomon has argued that Ruppert has a flawed analytical model. "Some of the problem is in how he characterizes news reports. These citations can be narrowly factual yet presented in a misleading way. Yes, such--and--such newspaper reported that thus-and-so claim was made by so-and-so. The paper reported on the claim, but that doesn't mean the claim is true."[2]

Blogger Bill Herbert has written a detailed response to Ruppert's "9/11 Oh Lucy! - You Gotta Lotta 'Splainin' To Do" [3]

Columnist David Corn has also criticized the methodology of Ruppert, and dismissed the idea that conspiracy theorizing is useful: "In fact, out-there conspiracy theorizing serves the interests of the powers-that-be by making their real transgressions seem tame in comparison."[4]

Ruppert's site has also been criticized for using news articles from other sources verbatim, citing "fair use", while at the same time putting the majority of his own material behind a subscription wall.

Bibliography

  • Ruppert, Michael C., Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, New Society Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0-86571-540-8

See also

Supportive

Critical

References

  1. ^ Corn, David (2002). "The September 11 X-Files". Blog: Capital Games. The Nation. Retrieved 2006-05-28.
  2. ^ Steve Lowery, "A CIA Infomercial," New Times Los Angeles (21 Novembver 1996) p. 6.
  3. ^ Michael Ruppert (2006-08-19). "By the light of a burning bridge". From the Wilderness. Retrieved 2006-08-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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