Nexus - 1406 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

The Truths and Lies of WikiWorld Continued from page 15 genuinely to investigate the bombing of _ for researchers scanning the Internet for Pan Am 103. but also to infiltrate and information and blindly convine from genuinely to investigate the bombing of Pan Am 103, but also to infiltrate and monitor us..." Soon after John Cooley contacted Brandt, Linda Mack contacted Cooley and asked him not to help Brandt in his efforts to expose her. Though all doubts about SlimVirgin's true identity then vanished, as for her motives... for researchers scanning the Internet for information and blindly copying from Wikipedia entries, wrongfully assuming that they are neutral and correct. It has become the "Ministry of Information", the "one-stop information shop" of the Internet, but no one should fall for the "Newspeak" of a title. Wikipedia has made the task for those seeding disinformation and removing dissenting views easier, more direct and even more anonymous. Lies and Wikipedia, indeed... 0° Daniel Brandt patiently assembled tiny clues about SlimVirgin and posted them on his website. Eventually, two readers identified her as none other than Linda Mack, the young graduate whom Salinger had hired. To see her name appear in such a context was of course of great interest. But that was not all. Cooley, Salinger's collaborator in the Lockerbie investigation, sent a letter to Brandt which was posted on The Wikipedia Review on 4 October 2006. He wrote how Mack "...claimed to have lost a friend/lover on Pan103 and so was anxious to clear up the mystery. ABC News paid for her travel and expenses as well as a salary... Once the two Libyan suspects were indicted, she seemed to try to point the investigation in the direction of [Libyan President Colonel Muammar al-] Qaddafi, although there was plenty of evidence, both before and after the trials of Megrahi and Fhimah in the Netherlands, that others were involved, probably with Iran the commissioning power... Salinger came to believe that Linda was working for MI5 and had been from the beginning; assigned Inconvenient truths So, welcome to WikiWorld, a realm where inconvenient truths can easily be removed, while erroneous information— convenient lies and diinformation—can be entered in the encyclopaedia with emotionally upsetting and even worse consequences for the people involved. This is the modern Ministry of Truth which, together with the liars and no doubt some mentally unstable people, has been put in charge of rewriting history. It labels itself as the "Free Encyclopaedia", but perhaps the world should be freed from this encyclopaedia before the old proverb is converted thus: "There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and then there's Wikipedia." The problem with Wikipedia is not that it exists, but that it has become the cornerstone About the Author: Philip Coppens is editor-in-chief of the online website Conspiracy Times (http://www. conspiracy-times.com). He has previously contributed nine articles to NEXUS, the mos recent being "Archaeological Trench Warfare a Glozel" (see 14/05). His new book, The New Pyramid Age, is reviewed in this edition. He is scheduled to speak at the 2007 NEXUS Conference in Queensland, Australia, on 20-22 October. Philip Coppens's website is ai http:/www.philipcoppens.com, and he can be emailed at info@philipcoppens.com. His own Wikipedia entry, at http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Philip_Coppens, was accurate at the time of our going to press...but perhaps won' be for much longer. NEXUS +77 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2007 www.nexusmagazine.com