Paranoid (10 Miles Square) style: Sen. Wellstone's death was an accident? Yeah, right.

• Author: Peters, Justin
• Position: Evaluation of American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone

Conspiracy is as American as apple pie!" says Jim Fetzer. "When two guys knock over a 7-11, they're engaging in a conspiracy. It happens all the time? Fetzer, a professor of philosophy at University of Minnesota-Duluth and the author of several books on conspiracy and assassination, is a self-professed expert on the topic, a luminary in the world of cabal-and-cover-up publishing. Which is why, on a bright, windy afternoon in late October, Fetzer is standing before a podium in a small conference room at Washington's National Press Club. Two years ago to the day, a small charter plane carrying Paul Wellstone, his wife and daughter, and several campaign aides crashed in a remote part of Minnesota, killing all aboard. Today, Fetzer is marking the anniversary of Wellstone's death with the release of his latest book, co-authored with Northern Arizona University professor Don "Four Arrows" Jacobs, titled American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone.

There are about 15 people in attendance at the press conference, most of who seem to be the authors' friends and colleagues. They listen attentively to Fetzer's theories and nod along to his frequent digressions on the press ("Logic and evidence are not the strong suit for the American media") or John F. Kennedy's assassination ("The Zapruder film was recreated"). But they are most receptive to his main point, which is that Wellstone's death was no accident. As conspiracy theories go, the one limned in American Assassination is pretty simple: An electromagnetic pulse device, of "EMP," was used to kill the plane's instruments and cause it to crash, whereupon the FBI rushed to the scene and removed the cockpit voice recorder. Afterwards, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) covered everything up with a rushed, perfunctory investigation blaming the crash on pilot error--a finding at which Fetzer scoffs. Noting other elected officials who have died in small plane crashes in recent years, namely the late Missouri governor Mel Carnahan, Fetzer announces, "We do believe that the use of airplanes to take out political figures is a genuine phenomenon and an example of fascism." At this announcement, several audience members break into applause. The shadowy forces behind it all? None other than "the troika that controls the White House: Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld," according to Fetzer. Why? Because "Wellstone, the Senate's most liberal member, was an enemy of...