defending tin hats everywhere

I was reminded again today that I should learn to beware of DLC type Dems.
Why is it I get defensive when sh*theads who don't even know me imply or even blather to me that I'm a conspiracy theorist?

Conspirators are defined as people who, as a group, privately plan something... and theories are suppositions based on observation.
When observers note a group of people have planned things that benefit them, then why are they immediately dismissed as paranoid? Because this is the meme that propagandist media has inculcated in our population...

Indeed there rarely is positive proof of a possible conspiracy, as Judge Bingham pointed out all the way back in 1865:

"A conspiracy is rarely, if ever, proved by positive testimony. When a crime of high magnitude is about to be perpetrated by a combination of individuals, they do not act openly, but covertly and secretly. The purpose formed is known only to those who enter into it. Unless one of the original conspirators betray his companions and give evidence against them, their guilt can be proved only by circumstantial evidence..."
~ Special Judge Advocate John A. Bingham, quoted in The Trial Of The Conspirators, Washington, 1865

Here is the Michael Parenti quote I referenced to the guy:
Michael Parenti, in his book Dirty Truths, has done a highly effective demolition job on those so-called structuralists who deny the political relevance of conspiracy theories:

"Those who suffer from conspiracy phobia are fond of saying: "Do you actually think there's a group of people sitting around in a room plotting things?" For some reason that image is assumed to be so patently absurd as to invite only disclaimers. But where else would people of power get together - on park benches or carousels? Indeed, they meet in rooms: corporate boardrooms, Pentagon command rooms, at the Bohemian Grove, in the choice dining rooms at the best restaurants, resorts, hotels, and estates, in the many conference rooms at the White House, the NSA, the CIA, or wherever. And, yes, they consciously plot - though they call it "planning" and "strategizing" - and they do so in great secrecy, often resisting all efforts at public disclosure. No one confabulates and plans more than political and corporate elites and their hired specialists."

-- Michael Parenti, Dirty Truths, City Lights Books, 1996

So just for you, Neil, I went home and in about ten minutes Googled and printed the "facts" you need in order to be polite to strangers.

You can start here: Your Question: The CIA was in Afganistan before the Soviets invaded? I Googled "chechnya, opium, russia, albania, KLA" and came up with the history for you in under ten minutes.

Carter signed the covert funding in July, 1979, and the Soviets invaded in December, 1979. In an 1998 interview Zbigniew Brzezinski revealed that he thought it was a stroke of genius to draw the Soviets into a trap, a quagmire, the soft pink tender underbelly of the Soviet Union, their very own "Viet Nam", which succeeded in breaking their budget and tearing apart their union of states.

According to this 1998 interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the CIA's intervention in Afghanistan preceded the 1979 Soviet invasion. This decision of the Carter Administration in 1979 to intervene and destabilise Afghanistan is the root cause of Afghanistan's destruction as a nation.

The CIA's Intervention in Afghanistan
Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski,
President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser
Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998
Posted at globalresearch.ca 15 October 2001

Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.

Translated from the French by Bill Blum
Copyright, Le Nouvel Observateur and Bill Blum. For fair use only.
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I wonder if Zbig believes in global Islam yet?
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Another interesting site you might peruse for "the facts" is:
The Center for Cooperative Research's Complete 911 Timeline.
It begins in 1977.
Online timelines are great fun, this one has 2,471 notations.

Here is the beginning of this particular one, where we are focusing our attention:

Complete 911 TimelineThe Soviet-Afghan War
Project: Complete 911 Timeline
Open-Content project managed by Paul Thompson

1977-1981: The Nationalities Working Group Advocates Using Militant Islam Against Soviet Union In 1977 Zbigniew Brzezinski, as President Carter’s National Security Adviser, forms the Nationalities Working Group (NWG) dedicated to the idea of weakening the Soviet Union by inflaming its ethnic tensions. The Islamic populations are regarded as prime targets. Richard Pipes, the father of Daniel Pipes, takes over the leadership of the NWG in 1981. Pipes predicts that with the right encouragement Soviet Muslims will “explode into genocidal fury” against Moscow. According to Richard Cottam, a former CIA official who advised the Carter administration at the time, after the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1978, Brzezinski favored a “de facto alliance with the forces of Islamic resurgence, and with the Republic of Iran.” [Dreyfuss, 2005, pp. 241, 251 - 256]
Entity Tags: Richard Pipes, Zbigniew Brzezinski

July 1979: President Carter Approves Covert Aid to Anti-Soviet Forces in Afghanistan President Carter authorizes covert aid for anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan. According to his National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, this was part of a deliberate policy to inflame militant Islamic fundamentalism in the region with the aim of forcing the Soviets to invade. The CIA, Pakistani ISI, and others had been supporting anti-Soviet forces already for years and such support had particularly increased in 1978 (see 1973-1979). [Le Nouvel Observateur (Paris), 1/15/1999] The Soviets do invade Afghanistan six months later (see December 26, 1979).
Entity Tags: Zbigniew Brzezinski

December 26, 1979: Soviet Forces, Lured in by the CIA, Invade Afghanistan Soviet tanks entering Afghanistan in late 1979. [Source: Banded Artists Productions]
The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. They will withdraw in 1989 after a brutal 10-year war. It has been commonly believed that the invasion was unprovoked. However, in a 1998 interview, Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser, will reveal that the CIA began destabilizing the pro-Soviet Afghan government six months earlier in a deliberate attempt to get the Soviets to invade and have their own Vietnam-type costly war (see July 1979). Brzezinski rhetorically asks, “What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?” [Le Nouvel Observateur (Paris), 1/1998; Mirror, 1/29/2002] The US and Saudi Arabia give a huge amount of money (estimates range up to $40 billion total for the war) to support the mujahedeen guerrilla fighters opposing the Russians. Most of the money is managed by the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency. [Nation, 2/15/1999]
Entity Tags: Saudi Arabia, United States, Zbigniew Brzezinski

Early 1980: Osama bin Laden, with Saudi Backing, Supports Afghan Rebels Osama bin Laden begins providing financial, organizational, and engineering aid for the mujahedeen in Afghanistan, with the advice and support of the Saudi royal family. [New Yorker, 11/5/2001] Some, including Richard Clarke, counterterrorism “tsar” during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, believe he was handpicked for the job by Prince Turki al-Faisal, head of Saudi Arabia’s Secret Service. [Sunday Times (London), 8/25/2002; New Yorker, 11/5/2001] The Pakistani ISI want a Saudi prince as a public demonstration of the commitment of the Saudi royal family and as a way to ensure royal funds for the anti-Soviet forces. The agency fails to get royalty, but bin Laden, with his family’s influential ties, is good enough for the ISI. [Miami Herald, 9/24/2001] (Clarke will argue later that the Saudis and other Muslim governments used the Afghan war in an attempt to get rid of their own misfits and troublemakers.) This multinational force later coalesces into al-Qaeda. [Clarke, 2004, pp. 52]

Entity Tags: Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Richard A. Clarke, Saudi Arabia, Turki bin Faisal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, al-Qaeda
1982-1991: Afghan Opium Production Skyrockets Afghan opium production rises from 250 tons in 1982 to 2,000 tons in 1991, coinciding with CIA support and funding of the mujahedeen. Alfred McCoy, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin, says US and Pakistani intelligence officials sanctioned the rebels’ drug trafficking because of their fierce opposition to the Soviets: “If their local allies were involved in narcotics trafficking, it didn’t trouble [the] CIA. They were willing to keep working with people who were heavily involved in narcotics.” For instance, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a rebel leader who received about half of all the CIA’s covert weapons, was known to be a major heroin trafficker. Charles Cogan, who directs the CIA’s operation in Afghanistan, later claims he was unaware of the drug trade: “We found out about it later on.” [Star-Tribune (Minneapolis), 9/30/2001; Atlantic Monthly, 5/1996]
Entity Tags: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
1982: Pakistani ISI Begins Recruiting Arab Fundamentalists to Fight in Afghanistan

Hey Neil, go, read, enjoy.