Connie Domino: Conspiracies, truths

I would like to comment on how the term “conspiracy theory” is being thrown around these days. There were two July 19 columns that used this term.

“Turkey’s coup that wasn’t” described hapless soldiers standing on a bridge over the Bosporus in Istanbul, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to the population on Facebook eTime app calling his supporters into the streets and blaming an Islamic cleric living in Pennsylvania. We can’t make this stuff up.

Erdogan has now used the event to reform his country’s constitution, pushing through a referendum giving sweeping executive powers to the presidency.

The columnist said that all this doesn’t mean Erdogan staged the coup. He went on to exclaim, “No wonder conspiracy theories abound.”

“Saudi role in 9/11<XA> still a question” talked about how the 28 formally classified pages of the official 9/11 commission report have been released implicating ties between the Saudi royal family and government and some hijackers.

Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, responded that we need to put an end to conspiracy theories and idle speculation.

Now, even parts of official reports from U.S. investigative committees are conspiracy theories?

Maybe sometimes the term “conspiracy theory” really means “inconvenient truth.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Connie Domino: Conspiracies, truths."