'What drives you to have a concern about conspiracy theory in American culture and anti-war movements?'

Lembcke: Well, I think conspiracy theory is a great diversion from what we need to be thinking about and the way we need to be thinking about problems in the country. Two things: it points people to conclusions that are way too simple and it contributes to our avoiding real problems. If we take 911 for example, Americans went very quickly to the conclusion that there was one man responsible (namely Osama Bin Laden), that he had a network of people, and that he masterminded all of it. So, it followed, he has to be the culprit to be hunted down and made answerable. The media, far from exempt from vulnerability to conspiracy theories, was very ready to pick this up. It'll take a long time for people to consider the media's role in this. But, if you go back to soon after 911, Al Qaeda is put forth as this organization with a Bin Laden at the head. You would think, to read press accounts, which were, of course, parroting the Bush administration, that Al Qaeda was a full blown military organization with a hierarchy of credentialed leaders, officers ("Bin Laden's lieutenants" is a favorite phrase), and the like. In reality, it really was no such thing.

There was a British journalist named Jason Burke who wrote an article in Foreign Policy, with the headline "Al-Qaeda - a meaningless label". At about that time (2004), he had a book coming out, titled Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror, in which he described it as a network of networks, which is a vague amorphous identity. Of course, the bad news is that it made a very elusive, mercurial target for the Bush administration as it mounted a propaganda campaign to mobilize public opinion for a war. Better for it to have us believe there is something more material, more organizationally identifiable, an Al Qaeda as an organization. Despite the fact that a prominent establishment foreign policy journal like Foreign Policy ran Burke's piece, day-to-day mainstream coverage continued to legitimate the idea of Al Qaeda as a military organization.

I began by saying that conspiracy theory acts as a diversion, which I think was Burke's point too. The real point is the widespread animosity toward US foreign and economic policies around the world. But the American people can't see that, don't see that, because we're so focused on this mythical problem of Al Qaeda.

~ From Conspiracy Theory, Fears of Betrayal and Today's Anti-War Movement ~