'Weak evidence,' Mr. Sunstein? ~ By Jack Cashill

Commentary from WorldNetDaily

By Jack Cashill Posted: January 21, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2010 In 2008, then Chicago law professor and current Obama regulatory czar Cass Sunstein co-authored with Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule a paper simply titled "Conspiracy Theories." The good professors describe a conspiracy theory as "an effort to explain some event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role." As a response to such theories, the authors argue that "the best government response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups." This infiltration could include a range of actions from penetrating online discussion groups to paying influential commentators to pose as "independent experts." The goal of such infiltration, in all cases, would be to "break up the crippled epistemology of conspiracy-minded groups." These arguments caught my attention as I have been chronicling one of Sunstein's cited conspiracy theories, namely "that the 1996 crash of TWA flight 800 was caused by a U.S. military missile." Along with my co-author/producer James Sanders, I have argued in the documentary "Silenced" and the book "First Strike" that missiles did indeed bring down TWA Flight 800, though I have shied from indicting the U.S. Navy. For the record, "epistemology" is the study of how one comes to know something. What I would like to share with Mr. Sunstein is how I came to know what I know. If he can show that "my evidence is weak or even nonexistent " and that my epistemology is crippled, I will apologize and retract what I have written. If, however, I can prove otherwise, I would invite Sunstein to use his new-found regulatory power to stage an open and honest investigation of TWA Flight 800's demise, the first. READ FULL STORY >