Chapter 109: How Plausible Is That?

Previous: How Many Lies?

Tony Blair led Britain into a war
against Iraq that was 'justified' by lies.
"Now it's my turn to ask a difficult question," said Mycroft.

"Go ahead," replied Sherlock.

"I find it difficult," said his brother, "to understand how you can be so brilliant and so thick, all at the same time. So I must ask you: Are you serious?"

"Yes, of course," replied the detective. "About bin Laden, you mean?"

"No," answered Mycroft. "About me. What in the world makes you think I could sleep at a time like this?"

"Possibly," said his brother, "because you haven't slept since the middle of last week."

"Bah!" snorted Mycroft. "You've just drawn me face-to-face with the most difficult questions of my life. Tired or not, I surely need to deal with them before I can relax enough to sleep at all."

Sherlock showed a hint of a smile and said, "Ask me anything."

Mycroft paused for a few seconds before speaking. "If what you've just told me is true, the implications are staggering."

"I assure you it is, and they most certainly are," replied Sherlock.

"You're absolutely certain?"

"Completely."

"Well then," continued Mycroft, "how could it be that I have never heard of any of this before now?"

"Until now," replied Sherlock, "you have been tracing an exalted, but very tight, orbit. You live alone, and you spend your leisure time at the Diogenes Club, whose members are forbidden to speak to one another, or to anyone else, save in the Stranger's Room."

"It is a very peaceful place to sit and read," retorted Mycroft, somewhat defensively. "I am proud to be a founding member."

"And rightly so," continued his brother, "but in all these years, you have learned nothing at all from the other members. And aside from your club and your flat, you spend all your other waking hours at work. They're not going to tell you the truth at the Foreign Office."

"And why not?" asked Mycroft.

"Because," replied Sherlock, "you are one of the most gifted intelligence analysts in the world. If you knew what was happening, you would inevitably draw the most logical conclusions. And they can't have that. So they feed you fabricated stories, knowing you will follow the trail they have laid out for you, and reach the conclusions they require.

The Downing Street Memos reveal the
purpose of the pre-war 'intelligence.'
"You may have heard of the so-called 'Downing Street Memos,' one of which states quite clearly that in the lead-up to the war against Iraq, 'the intelligence' was being 'fixed around the policy.'

"This admission, implicating then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and some of his closest associates, came as a shock to more than a few people. But others knew that such is almost always the case.

"The men who pull the strings, in and behind the government, implement predetermined policies, regardless of incoming 'intelligence.' They care less about reality than about 'managing' your 'perceptions.'

"The only value of 'intelligence,' from their point of view, is that it allows them to claim they know more than the public, and gives them opportunities to find, or invent, pretexts to 'justify' the actions they have already decided to take.

"They give men such as you bogus 'intelligence' to 'analyze,' and then you provide the justification for whatever they wanted to do in the first place. That is how the system works, and why I have wanted you out of there for so long. You are too powerful a force to be used by evil men for evil purposes."

"This may very well be true," replied Mycroft, "but my knowledge of current affairs doesn't all come through the Foreign Office. I don't just sit at the Club and stare out the window.

"I read all the papers, almost every day. And if what you say is true, if the reality of the September 11 attacks is not what we've been told, then this is the story of the century! Surely fame and fortune lie in store for the journalist who exposes the truth of the matter. And yet, no one seems to be chasing the story.

"Where is the Daily Mail on all this? Where is the Guardian? What of the New York Times, the Washington Post, der Spiegel, le Monde?

"If you are right, and the truth about September 11 is being hidden from the public, it's being hidden by all the governments and all the news-gathering organizations in the world. Are the world's governments and news media all colluding on this? They must be, if what you say is true. But how plausible is that?"

"You are asking good questions," responded Sherlock, "but your entire line of questioning is predicated on the assumption that the job of the press is to dig up the truth and serve it to its readers. This view is naive at best. All the major news organizations are owned by powerful financial interests, and no editor is about to bite the hand that pays him.

"As fewer and fewer owners have gained control of more and more of the news media, opportunities and motives for collusion have come more frequently, so that a coordinated blocking of selected stories has become not only plausible, but perhaps even inevitable.

"And yet, even if you believe collusion on this scale to be exceedingly implausible, you must admit that it is possible. And the same cannot be said for the official explanation of the events of September 11."