Michael Ruppert

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.

History

Ruppert 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.)

Since that time he has continued to dedicate himself to exposing alleged illicit activity by the US government and intelligence community. In 1996, in the wake of similar CIA drug-running allegations by investigative journalist Gary Webb, Ruppert publicly confronted then-CIA Director John Deutch on national television. Ruppert subsequently claimed that unnamed Washington sources told him that Deutch's mishandling of the encounter cost him his guaranteed appointment as Secretary of Defense.

Ruppert has assembled a large body of claims and an extensive timeline that, he claims, demonstrates the Bush Administration's advance knowledge of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In his controversial book Crossing the Rubicon he names Vice President Dick Cheney as the prime suspect in 9/11 and, with copious footnotes, 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, with potentially catastrophic consequences on a global scale. From this perspective, 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.

Although Ruppert's position is controversial, it appears to be one shared by a section of American public opinion. The polling agency Zogby International found that 49.3% of New York City residents believed elements within the US government had foreknowledge of the attacks and that "they consciously failed to act" to prevent them.

Crossing the Rubicon has recently been hovering around the 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.

He participated in The Citizens' Commission on 9-11.

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."^*

Blogger Bill Herbert has written a detailed response to Ruppert's "9/11 Oh Lucy! - You Gotta Lotta 'Splain' To Do" ^*

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."^*

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

Bibliography

Ruppert, Michael C., The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, New Society Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0865715408

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