Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Excerpt from The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy:


So, who do you believe? The “particularly loopy bunch of conspiracy theorists” RationalWiki refers to, or the politicians who either deny existence of the FEMA camps or assure us their existence is solely to safeguard the interests of law abiding citizens?

Tough choice isn’t it? Not sure the word of any of the above can be fully trusted.

Where do we stand on this? we hear you ask. (Our hearing is highly attuned to such questions even if they’re only whispered in your thoughts)!

On the question of FEMA camps specifically, we’d have to say on the strength of our research there’s no doubt they exist, but their true purpose remains debatable. Certainly, for Americans at least, there are sufficient rumors and innuendo to warrant a degree of nervousness, caution and alertness.

On the question of secret prisons, or so-called black sites, since the veil of secrecy was lifted – in part anyway – off various CIA prisons in Europe, and their true purpose was officially acknowledged, there’s no doubting the existence of these sites. What’s still in doubt is the number of black sites, their locations and how many suspects are detained within their walls.

As for other secret prisons, clandestine containment centers, illegal holding pens – call them what you will – around the world, it would be naïve to deny their existence. We need only consider the fate of political dissidents in countries like North Korea to know there are probably hundreds if not thousands of secret prisons around the globe.

Just between us, we are quietly hoping we don’t end up in such an establishment as a result of the release of this book into the public domain! In case we do, please put in a good word for us. Assure our jailers we are only members of that particularly loopy bunch of conspiracy theorists we referred to earlier and are a threat to no-one but ourselves! We have a long list of friends – and an even longer list of former friends – who can vouch for that.

Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition