Regimes of (un)truth: Conspiracy theory and the tpansnationalization of the Algerian Civil War

Middle East Report

Volumn , Issue 214, 2000, Pages 6-10

  Silverstein, Paul A ^a  

^a Program on US Russia Relations at Columbia s Harriman Institute   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL WAR; MEDIA ROLE; MILITARY GOVERNMENT;

ALGERIA;

EID: 0034086238     PISSN: 08992851     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/1520185     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) in Conspiracy Theory (dir. Richard Donner, 1997).
2. Henri Zuiker, "The Conspiratorial Imperative: Medieval Jewry in Western Europe," in Changing Conceptions of Conspiracy. Carl F. Graumann and Serve Moscovici, eds. (New York: 7pringer-Verlag, 1987), pp. 87-103.
3. Peter Knight, "A'Plague of Paranoia': Theories of Conspiracy Theory since the 1960s," in Fear Itself: Enemies Real and Imagined in American Culture. Nancy Lusignan Schultz, ed. (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1999), pp. 23-50.
4. Jean-Noel Kapferer, Rumors: Uses, Interpretations and Images (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press, 1990).
5. Alan Dundes, Folklore Matters (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1989).
6. E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976); Jeanne Favret-Saada, Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980); and Jean and John Comaroff; "Introduction," in Modernity and its Malcontents (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
7. E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976); Jeanne Favret-Saada, Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980); and Jean and John Comaroff; "Introduction," in Modernity and its Malcontents (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
8. E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976); Jeanne Favret-Saada, Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980); and Jean and John Comaroff; "Introduction," in Modernity and its Malcontents (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
9. Gordon S, Wood, "Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style: Causality and Deceit in the Eighteenth Century," The William and Mary Quarterly 39 (1987).
10. Kathleen Stewart, "Conspiracy Theory's Worlds," in Paranoia Within Reason: Casebook on Conspiracy as Explanation, George E. Marcus, ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 12-19.
11. S. Paige Baty, American Monroe: The Making of a Body Politic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
12. Frederic Jameson, "Cognitive Mapping," in Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, Carey Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, eds. (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988), p. 355.
13. Zuiker, op. cit., p. 90.
14. Knight, op. cit., p. 36.
15. Hence the observed "feedback loop" and "self-fulfilling prophecy" characteristics of conspiracy theories, "whereby states, assuming popular mistrust, proceed to conduct in secret, "black budget" operations to achieve political ends (Knight, op.cit, p. 32). Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum brilliantly satirizes this process.
16. Richard O. Curry and Thomas M. Brown, eds., Conspiracy: The Fear of Subversion in American History (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972); Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays (New York: Knopf, 1965); George Johnson, The Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1983); and Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, The Politics of Unreason: Right-Wing Extremism in America, 1790-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978).
17. Richard O. Curry and Thomas M. Brown, eds., Conspiracy: The Fear of Subversion in American History (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972); Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays (New York: Knopf, 1965); George Johnson, The Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1983); and Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, The Politics of Unreason: Right-Wing Extremism in America, 1790-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978).
18. Richard O. Curry and Thomas M. Brown, eds., Conspiracy: The Fear of Subversion in American History (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972); Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays (New York: Knopf, 1965); George Johnson, The Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1983); and Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, The Politics of Unreason: Right-Wing Extremism in America, 1790-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978).
19. Richard O. Curry and Thomas M. Brown, eds., Conspiracy: The Fear of Subversion in American History (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972); Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays (New York: Knopf, 1965); George Johnson, The Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1983); and Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, The Politics of Unreason: Right-Wing Extremism in America, 1790-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978).
20. Johnson, op.cit., p. 12.
21. George E. Marcus, "Introduction: The Paranoid Style Now," in George E. Marcus, ed., Paranoia Within Reason: A Casebook on Conspiracy as Explanation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 1-11.
22. Carl F. Graumann and Serve Moscovi, "Preface," in Graumann and Moscovici, eds., Changing Conceptions of Conspiracy (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1937), pp. vii-ix.
23. Knight., op. cit., pp. 29-32.
24. Several scholars have noted this trend. See Ali El-Kenz, "The End of Populism," in Algerian Reflections on Arab Crises (Austin: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 1991), pp. 33-47; and Kamel Rarrbo, L'Algérie et sa jeunesse. Marginalisations sociales et désarroi culturel (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1995), pp. 80-82.
25. Several scholars have noted this trend. See Ali El-Kenz, "The End of Populism," in Algerian Reflections on Arab Crises (Austin: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 1991), pp. 33-47; and Kamel Rarrbo, L'Algérie et sa jeunesse. Marginalisations sociales et désarroi culturel (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1995), pp. 80-82.
26. The official press usually claims no survivors in raids on Islamist camps.
27. Benjamin Stora, L'Algerie en 1995: La guerre, l'histoire, la politique (Paris: Editions Michalon, 1995).
28. See Pierre Sané,"Algérie: Qui profite de cette situation?,"Libération, (May 7, 1997); and José Garçon, "Terreur et psychose aux portes d'Alger," Libération, (September 8, 1997).
29. See Pierre Sané,"Algérie: Qui profite de cette situation?,"Libération, (May 7, 1997); and José Garçon, "Terreur et psychose aux portes d'Alger," Libération, (September 8, 1997).
30. Larbi Ait-Hanlouda, "L'Opacite du Drame Algerien," in Le Monde Libertaire 1098 (October 30-November 5, 1997).
31. See Patrick Forestier, "Algérie: derrière les tueries, de sordides interêts immobiliers et financiers?," Paris Match,(October 9, 1997); and John Sweeny, "Denunciation of the Role of the Police in the Massacres of Algerians," The Observer (London), (January 11, 1998). This same theory has also been cited by Louisa Hanoune, president of the Trotskyist Algerian Workers' Party, in an interview with Frankfurter Rundschau (February 16, 1998), with the additional claim that the responsible Algerian generals were operating under orders from the International Monetary Fund. These theories have been highlighted on the overseas Internet sites of Algeria-Watch (www.algeria-watch.de), Hijra International (home.worldcom.ch.:80/~hijra), and the Free Algerian Officers Movement (www.anp.org - based in Madrid), and have been circulated through the US-based e-mail list-serves of Algeria-Net and Amazigh-Net.
32. See Patrick Forestier, "Algérie: derrière les tueries, de sordides interêts immobiliers et financiers?," Paris Match,(October 9, 1997); and John Sweeny, "Denunciation of the Role of the Police in the Massacres of Algerians," The Observer (London), (January 11, 1998). This same theory has also been cited by Louisa Hanoune, president of the Trotskyist Algerian Workers' Party, in an interview with Frankfurter Rundschau (February 16, 1998), with the additional claim that the responsible Algerian generals were operating under orders from the International Monetary Fund. These theories have been highlighted on the overseas Internet sites of Algeria-Watch (www.algeria-watch.de), Hijra International (home.worldcom.ch.:80/~hijra), and the Free Algerian Officers Movement (www.anp.org - based in Madrid), and have been circulated through the US-based e-mail list-serves of Algeria-Net and Amazigh-Net.
33. See Patrick Forestier, "Algérie: derrière les tueries, de sordides interêts immobiliers et financiers?," Paris Match,(October 9, 1997); and John Sweeny, "Denunciation of the Role of the Police in the Massacres of Algerians," The Observer (London), (January 11, 1998). This same theory has also been cited by Louisa Hanoune, president of the Trotskyist Algerian Workers' Party, in an interview with Frankfurter Rundschau (February 16, 1998), with the additional claim that the responsible Algerian generals were operating under orders from the International Monetary Fund. These theories have been highlighted on the overseas Internet sites of Algeria-Watch (www.algeria-watch.de), Hijra International (home.worldcom.ch.:80/~hijra), and the Free Algerian Officers Movement (www.anp.org - based in Madrid), and have been circulated through the US-based e-mail list-serves of Algeria-Net and Amazigh-Net.
34. Michel Foucault, "Truth and Power," in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings (New York: Pantheon, 1980), pp. 131-32.
35. Scholars have recently noted how the Internet has facilitated self-publishing, the accumulation of information, and the informal (and near anonymous) communication which mark conspiracy theory production and circulation (cf. Knight, op. cit.; "L'Algérie et l'Internet," Libre Algérie (January 17, 2000)).
36. Scholars have recently noted how the Internet has facilitated self-publishing, the accumulation of information, and the informal (and near anonymous) communication which mark conspiracy theory production and circulation (cf. Knight, op. cit.; "L'Algérie et l'Internet," Libre Algérie (January 17, 2000)).
37. Satellite television has fostered a particular transnational imagination, as parabolic dishes in Algeria point to France, and those owned by immigrants in France point to Algeria.
38. Radio-Beur, Octobre a Alger (Paris: Editions Sans-Frontieres, 1989).
39. Deborah Harrold, "Liberalization During Wartime: Situations and Strategies Center Around and Away from the State" (Paper presented at the University of Chicago/NYU Graduate Symposium on Citizenship in the Middle East and South Asia, New York, May 1993).