Thierry Meyssan
Thierry Meyssan at the Axis for Peace conference, 2005
Born1957
Talence, Gironde, France
OccupationJournalist

Thierry Meyssan (French: [tjɛʁi mɛsɑ̃]) is a French journalist, left-wing conspiracy theorist[1][2] and political activist.

He is the author of investigations into the extreme right-wing, particularly France's National Front militias, as well as into the Catholic church.

Meyssan's book 9/11: The Big Lie (L'Effroyable imposture) challenges the official account of events of the September 11 terrorist attacks.[2]

Career

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Meyssan is president of the Voltaire Network, which had been a respected independent think tank prior to the publication of 9/11: The Big Lie. His reputation helped raise his conspiracy theory to prominence.[2]

Meyssan has been noted as using cross-citations of other conspiracy theorists' works in order to lend the appearance of credibility to his ideas. Regarding the events of 9/11, Meyssan cited Webster Tarpley; Tarpley cited David Ray Griffin; and Griffin cited Meyssan.[3]

Publication of The Big Lie

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In 2002, he published a book on the September 11 terrorist attacks, with the English translation titled 9/11: The Big Lie. Meyssan argued that the attacks were organized by a faction of the US military–industrial complex in order to impose a non-democratic regime in the United States and to extend US imperialism.[4] It is one of "the first wave of book-length conspiracy speculations" in France and Germany about 9/11.[5]

A follow-up to his first book titled L’effroyable Imposture II (The Big Lie 2) accused Israel of carrying out the assassination of Rafic Hariri.

Response

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French media quickly dismissed the contents of the book, and a Pentagon spokesperson also deprecated the book.[2]

In 2005, the U.S. State Department declared Meyssan a persona non grata due to his active promotion of misinformation about the United States.[6]

Works

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References

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  1. ^ Riding, Alan (22 June 2002). "Sept. 11 as Right-Wing U.S. Plot: Conspiracy Theory Sells in France". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b c d Henley, Jon (1 April 2002). "US invented air attack on Pentagon, claims French book". The Guardian.
  3. ^ Aaronovitch, David (19 December 2009). "A Conspiracy-Theory Theory". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  4. ^ Meyssan, Thierry (2002). L'Effroyable imposture. Carnot Editions.
  5. ^ Peter Knight "Outrageous Conspiracy Theories: Popular and Official Responses to 9/11 in Germany and the United States" New German Critique, No. 103, Dark Powers: Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in History and Literature (Winter, 2008), pp. 165-193 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27669225 Retrieved 30 January 2018 16:25 UTC
  6. ^ Paul, Jonny (17 October 2010). "Iran-funded book accuses Israel of Hariri assassination". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 10 March 2022.

Further reading

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