Anthony Shaffer Is A Con Artist

The guy that built his career telling lies about Able Danger is trying to make a comeback by telling lies about the Administration. He says that the Obama Administration invented the Iranians suspected of plotting to assassinate the ambassadors of Israel and Saudi Arabia.



This same guy, who claims to be up to his eyeballs in "FBI informants," also claimed he was a key founding member on a secret project where his entire real contribution seemed to be carrying documents to meetings.

It goes without saying that he invented his claims whole cloth: The FBI was a key part of the the case. Robert Woloszyn, an FBI agent, filed the actual charges on behalf of the FBI team that lead the investigation. Shaffer's claims about what his "insiders" are saying reads like the unfounded speculation of a tabloid magazine. "Sources close to the victim say..." "The craziest thing happened to a friend of a friend..."

His claims would also imply some very interesting things about the U.S.-Iran relationship. Given that most conspiracy theorists believe the Administration is looking for an excuse to go to war, wouldn't the Presidents of Iran and the U.S. need to be pretty damn buddy-buddy for Ahmadinejad to come along and offer up a few of his elite special forces for a foiled terror plot that would result in retaliation against his own government? Come on, guys. Conspiracies have an end-stage, but they have a beginning, too, and this one doesn't quite pan out.

Shaffer is a career con who hits his conspiracy theorist mark every time. Everyone who has ever worked in the public sector is evil, but every two-bit half-wit with a rumor to peddle gets vaulted to the front stage. Impeccable logic, guys. Impeccable.

Early Reports of Gabby Giffords Shooting: A Study in Trusting Early Media Reports

A key part of 9/11 deniers' faith is that all media reports are either 100% accurate, or inaccurate in ways designed to deliberately obfuscate the truth. Here, for example, that belief is plainly stated as a "cover-up
of the truth."

Just to contextualize the obvious lunacy of that belief, here are some links to "initial media reports" about the shooting in Arizona:

Democracy Now!/Huffpo: Gabrielle Giffords Dead
G-E news: Giffords Dies
SkyNews: Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Dies After Being Shot In The Head
FOX News, NPR, and Reuters all had to retract false reporting that Giffords died
ABC News issues apology for false Gabrielle Giffords death report
New York Daily News issues apology for false Giffords death report
CNN erroneously reported on Giffords' death

I thought Huffingtonpost.com's follow-up about "mainstream media's" false reporting was particularly galling - it was one of the first to falsely report Giffords' death and issued some of the most vociferous finger-wagging afterward, yet posted literally dozens of stories including references to the "fact" of Giffords' death, quickly de-linking all of them:



This is because, of course, Huffington Post is a terrible blog masquerading as a news site that no one should take seriously. The shooting was almost certainly perpetrated by a by a 9/11 denier.