From server@prairienet.org Mon Jun  5 09:48:40 1995
	id JAA04390; Mon, 5 Jun 1995 09:48:32 +0200
	id AA17277; Mon, 5 Jun 95 02:41:36 CDT
Subject: Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 5 Num. 08
X-Comment:  Conspiracy Nation



              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 5  Num. 08
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")


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*REPORT FROM IRON MOUNTAIN* -- A FRAUD?

The June 12, 1995 issue of *The Nation* magazine carries an 
editorial ("Anatomy of a Hoax") which claims the controversial 
*Report From Iron Mountain* is, in fact, nothing more than a hoax 
carried out by freelance writer Leonard Lewin. "In fact it was 
more than a hoax; it was a satire, a parody, a provocation." The 
author of the *Nation* editorial, Victor Navasky, claims to have 
been present when Lewin is supposed to have written *Iron 
Mountain*.

Navasky also implicates E.L. Doctorow, then with Dial Press, as 
being part of the plot. Doctorow, allegedly, agreed to list *Iron 
Mountain* in their catalog as non-fiction, although he knew 
otherwise.

When a reporter from *The New York Times* called the LBJ White 
House in order to authenticate *Iron Mountain*, he received a 
standard "no comment" response. When the reporter then called 
Dial Press for authentication, he was told to wade through the 
mass of esoteric footnotes that accompanied *Iron Mountain*. 
According to *The Nation*, in the end, the *New York Times* ran a 
story saying "that the possible hoax was a possibly suppressed 
report."

Next, John Kenneth Galbraith, using the pen name "Professor 
Herschel McLandress", wrote a review of *Iron Mountain* in *Book 
World*. Galbraith (writing as McLandress) wrote that he would 
"put my personal repute behind the authenticity of this 
document."

*The Nation* subtly hints that (reading between the lines), "Ah- 
hah. You see don't you -- these conspiratologists. So credulous 
about this and therefore credulous about all conspiracy theories 
and therefore don't bother with conspiracy theories. Oh no, just 
put the conspiracy theories to one side, won't you? Then we can 
just do 'institutional analyses' like always."

"Come on, guys," (hints *The Nation*, between the lines). "Let's 
just cut out this conspiracy stuff, okay? Okay??"

*The Nation* points out that, every time someone in on the hoax 
confesses, "the conspiracy theorists regard it as further proof 
of a cover-up." *Comme ce, comme ca*. Every time *The Nation* 
covers up a conspiracy, the conspiracy theorists regard it as 
further proof that *The Nation*, itself, is a hoax.

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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 

 Brian Francis Redman    bigxc@prairienet.org    "The Big C"
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    Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"        
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