CONSPIRACY THEORIES have mesmerised us since time immemorial. They appeal because they offer an interpretation in which events and people are connected by plan rather than by the apparently random arrangement that strikes the layman.

We all search for meaning in our lives, some of us in the powers above. A new documentary by Alex Jones, The Obama Deception: The Mask Comes Off, takes the idea of conspiracy to new heights — or new depths, depending on whether you believe it or not.

It all centres around the existence of something called the Bilderberg Group, started by the Nazi Prince Bernard of Holland, and to this day made up of 125 of the richest and most powerful individuals in the world.

Since its inception, it has supported hard men like Hitler, Lenin and Stalin, and is slowly and surely making its way towards world government by international banking and finance interests.

Webster Tarpley, American author and historian, proclaims: “There is no right or left — there is only Wall Street.” Wall Street has replaced Main Street.

Not that this is new: Andrew Jackson was lambasted for refusing to allow a private bank, and the revered Abraham Lincoln spoke prophetically (before he was assassinated) of the evil power of money, of “corporations enthroned.”

This is how the story goes: Eight years of Bush had brought the American people to the point of revolution — Democrats and Republicans were equally despised. So a way had to be found to defuse this popular anger without diluting the power of Wall Street…

The film’s makers have enlisted popular black spokespersons and human-rights activists like hip-hop artist KRS One and Professor Griff to add balance to the argument just in case it was in danger of appearing racist.

KRS One graphically makes a parallel with a burger you’re dissatisfied with in Burger King: “You might be able to complain to the manager but you can’t see the franchise.”

The point being that like all good conspiracies, this one is secret. The real power remains invisible at all times.

The theory goes that Obama was carefully groomed by the elite — which also comprises the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations —  to carry on their work; the fury created by the Bush years had left the people ready for change.

The world military-financial axis was in danger: it had to find a “puppet” to see that its work continued, and who better than a charming, handsome, black man like Barack Obama? 

KRS One says this is how people were fooled: “We thought that now there’s a black man in the White House, we can just sit back,” he says. “But that just ain’t true.”

To tell you the truth, to this writer, Obama so far appears to be more of a puppet than his immediate predecessor, not only continuing Bush’s policies but expanding them.

LAST WEEK’S ISSUE OF THE EastAfrican featured a major report on how Obama would pursue al-Qaeda in East Africa, making an ally of Kenya, thus placing the country in great danger. Troops in Iraq were to be withdrawn in 16 weeks, then 23 and now the date is 2011.

“Military action never solved any problems,” said the candidate during his campaign. Yet rendition continues, and a missile ring is being placed around former Russian states, playing games in a paranoid part of the planet full of mad dictators that could easily erupt into violence.

We waited with bated breath while the Israeli war took its toll on innocent civilians in Gaza for Obama to say something, but there was only a deafening silence, as there is about the demolition of Palestinian houses.

There is nothing to show that Obama will take on the American Jewish lobby and break the deadlock that has existed since the creation of Israel in 1948.
The bankers who manufactured the crisis the world is reeling from have been rewarded for their efforts: Wall Street has been given a blank cheque and those who looked as if they might utter a squeak against the Bill were threatened with martial law.

Although there is a statutory period laid down for 1,000-page Bills to be put before Congress so that they can be read, this one was passed in a tearing hurry, the final version being kept secret until the last minute.

Take a look at the Obama team: National Security Advisor Rahm Emanuel, who is talking of setting up a national service; special envoy Henry Kissinger (yes, he’s still alive – only just) who has described the current economic collapse as a “great opportunity”; Larry Summers, Bush’s very own Robert Gates as Defence Secretary; as Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, who had headed the Federal Reserve and underwritten the break-up of regulation that gave way to derivatives and subprime mortgages — things some of us poor folk had never even heard of.

And, last but not least, the immortal Alan Greenspan completes the team that will oversee the creation of what Tapley calls the “Anglo-American Empire.” You can’t call it that, he adds, so you have to invent other names to cover up the truth.

Certainly, the insane duo of Bush and Blair excusing the invasion of Iraq despite the UN Security Council no-vote on the grounds of yet-to-be-discovered weapons of mass destruction adds ammunition (if you’ll excuse the term) to the film’s argument.   

Jones and his team make brave efforts to follow the Bildenberg Group — tracking them down to the Marriott Hotel outside Washington DC, they book in the night before only to find themselves thrown out by what looks like a fake fire alarm.

The ragged mob is there with placards: “We know you’re here, Barack,” while Jones shouts, “Give us back our beautiful country.” It is a sign of naivete that they imagine these oligarchs will hear them, let alone act on what they say.

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