Patrick Henningsen and Shawn Helton 21st Century WireOnce again, we ve arrived at our New Years Eve wrap-up of some of the most compelling and conspiratorial stories of the year. Like in years past, 2017 presented a polarizing political landscape, further exposing the current establishment paradigm. Unlike the establishment gatekeepers, when we use the word  conspiracy  here, we are talking about a real crime scene. Whether it was the ousting of thousands of western-backed terrorists in Iraq and Syria or a string of  known wolf  attacks amplified by made-to-order media agitprop, or the heavily manufactured Russia-gate narrative relentlessly pushed by mainstream outlets and Deep State actors    it seemed there was no shortage of topsy-turvy stagecraft designed to mislead and confuse the masses at a time when the real world is undergoing some significant geopolitical realignments.As was the case in 2016, there were many high-profile incidents and individual stories which didn t make our annual compendium (but they are worth mentioning)   like the  red herring  laced New Year s Eve mass shooting at Turkey s Reina nightclub that kicked off 2017 in classic Daily Shooter fashion, along with other dubious events like Fort Lauderdale s FBI-known shooter and subsequent CNN media circus. On the political front, it was a banner year for astroturfing starting with  The Resistance  which spent most of the first 3 months of the year demanding Trump s impeachment before he had served 100 days in office. As part of these efforts, we saw Hollywood and the Democratic Party s choreographed women s march backed by political agitator and perennial globalist George Soros, as well as MoveOn.org and other Soros-backed protests which followed Trump s highly controversial immigration ban, as contentious resignations by key members of the Trump White House loomed large. The stage was then set for Antifa s US  riot tour  which culminated the Charlottesville riots in Virginia followed by a series of  social justice  protests over Confederate statues, followed by more extremist left-wing  antifascists  foot-soldiers like  black bloc  throwing molotov cocktails and smashing buildings for kicks. And that only scratches the surface of what transpired in 2017.Other notable stories throughout the year included the Trump administration s decision to announce the creation of an  Arab NATO headquartered in Saudi Arabia, the world s second-largest state sponsored of terror (US being the largest).  That geopolitical gambit then teed up the Trump White House to announce that the US Embassy in Tel Aviv would begin proceedings to move to Jerusalem, a shift which some critics believe is further evidence of an ultra-Zionist agenda encroaching on Israeli-occupied Palestine and the West Bank. On the Asia front, questions emerged over what North Korea actually has in terms of ICBM missiles and a nuclear deterrent, while in the Middle East speculation raged about Saudi Arabia s historic palace purge and sabre rattling in the region. The year then saw the exposure of a giant US-NATO-Saudi weapons trafficking operation using diplomatic flight in order to arm terrorists in Syria and Iraq. 2017 also saw the mainstream media continue to market the media construct known as Bana of Aleppo, expecting the public to believe that an 8 year old girl who could not speak English was running a Twitter account from war-torn (and terrorist-occupied) East Aleppo from the autumn of 2016   all the while waxing poetic about the evil Assad, and the evil Russians and calling for US military intervention in Syria  pure propaganda and a clear case of child exploitation. Interestingly, this outlandish Bana propaganda myth campaign has been shamelessly promoted by the multimillionaire Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. 2017 also saw a wave of intelligence releases, set in motion by the CIA, who released more than 12 million documents pertaining to covert war programs, psychic research and the Cold War era, further outlining the symbiotic relationship between the agency and American media. This was followed by Wikileaks exposing much of the CIA s cyber hacking capabilities in their  Vault 7  and later in their  Vault 8  publications. Towards the end of the year, a new twist in the downing of MH17 revealed an apparent Netherlands cover-up, as another bizarre Daily Shooter event, the Texas Church shooting, would later disappear from headlines. Around the same time frame, new questions also emerged in the Sandy Hook saga concerning prior knowledge of the FBI, as New York was then stricken by a known wolf truck attacker. In December it was finally announced that after being held in prison for two years without trial, the Fed s Bundy Ranch Standoff case was declared a mistrial. However, most of the year s controversial stories were quickly pushed to the back page, buried underneath an avalanche of ready-to-go Weinstein-inspired sex abuse scandals involving Hollywood s elite punctuated by obligatory hashtag campaigns like #MeToo, before snagging a number of high-profile news media personalities and some of Washington s most coveted swamp dwellers. As an onslaught of new accusations flooded the media, the sordid revelation of a Congressional slush fund used to payoff sexual harassment accusers made headlines. The whole situation conjured DC s Conspiracy of Silence regarding tales of sexual misconduct in days past.All in all, it was another year of  hyper-real  media propaganda, as some stories published by mainstream media led to a cascade of retractions and corrections, and in certain cases, provided an all to convenient mask for other politically charged news throughout much of 2017. Unlike the mainstream media  official  conspiracies (like Russiagate), these ones are actually real  10.  The JFK Files  Over the course of 2017, one of America s most compelling conspiracies was reignited following the release of thousands of intelligence files long-held by the CIA and FBI. In late October, the Trump administration called for the release of the remaining JFK files, citing the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act deadline placed into law in 1992. While the material released was reportedly a mix of new and old, some critics declared that the recently declassified files revealed even more startling evidence related to the assassination of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. This prompted larger legacy media establishments to provide a murky retelling of the JFK saga.  Predictably, a week after the releases, one newer CIA memo stated that any links between the CIA and Lee Harvey Oswald, were  unfounded.  In essence, the JFK file releases appear to have been a way for the political powers that be to shut the door on a conspiracy that has an overwhelming amount of information suggesting CIA links not only to Oswald, but many of the characters surrounding the case. In reality though, as newfound interest in the JFK files was reawakened, it cast light on the over five decade old case, reopening the door to coup d tat claims concerning JFK and Cold War era  false flag  terror. In particular, terror created by Operation GLADIO, a CIA-NATO construct, which utilized covert armies to subvert the political interests of various nations through the implementation of a Cold-War era strategy of tension. The further one digs into America s seedy underworld of organized crime, intelligence operations, unlikely coincidences and secretive relationships concerning the mysterious plot to kill Kennedy, a highly intricate web of activity emerges that points to a compelling case beyond almost any other modern-day conspiracy.9. Grenfell Tower Fire & Cover-Up   It was Britain s biggest domestic disaster post WWII, and from the minute this story broke, reports of government and corporate corruption began to surface. This real-life Towering Inferno featured some of the most surreal revelations, including a corrupt government Qango known as TMO (Tenant Management Organisation) who had paid a contractor to install highly flammable petroleum-based  cladding  on the building, supposedly to meet  green sustainability goals  but also to cover-up what wealthy property developers deemed as an eye sore (social housing high rise building), part of London s continuous and rampant  gentrification  property bubble agenda. The controversy did not stop with the fire itself though, as residents and concerned members of the public began to question the abnormally low death count which was being trumpeted by the media and the government agencies. Meanwhile, thousands of residents from Grenfell Tower and the surrounding buildings continued to suffer and mourn the loss of loved ones and friends   leaving in indellible scar on the community   while the government s elite Common Purpose management class continued on with business as usual. Six months on,  the public is still wondering whether anyone will be arrested, or held to account for this unprecedented story of criminal negligence. In one of its most seminal episodes, the SUNDAY WIRE radio show, along with its affiliate the UK Column, drove the investigative agenda early on in this story, with the mainstream media later picking talking points covered by this independent media outlet.8. The Crisis in Yemen   Back in January 2015   while the world was focused on the war in Syria, 21WIRE first raised the alarm over Yemen after it noticed the insatiable war-time president Barack Obama, along with Deep State and Pentagon media outlet CNN began drifting out talking points about Yemen. It wasn t long after that, in March 2015, that Saudi Arabia   with the full military and political backing of the US and UK, began an undeclared war of aggression against Saudi s neighbor Yemen. Nearly three years on, with tens of thousands slaughtered by Saudi airstrikes dropping their newly purchased US and UK munitions (and even enjoying air refueling by the US military) and with the Saudi and US military blockade which is keeping much-needed humanitarian aid from entering the war-ravaged country leading to mass starvation and disease outbreaks like cholera on the peninsula   why isn t the international community calling out the illegal war against Yemen for what it is   genocide? In order to prop-up their fake narrative on Yemen, the US and UK mainstream media conglomerates and their state propaganda directors from intelligence agency information warfare units have concocted a new batch of official disinformation lies and myths used to muddy the waters of this important discussion and ultimately justify their slaughter and arms sales bonanza in Yemen. On balance, what the US, UK and Saudi Arabia have done to Yemen is by orders of magnitude worse than what Nazi Germany did to its neighbors in the initial phase of WWII. Nothing less than a new Nuremberg Trial will be suitable to help correct this act of international barbarism.7. London s GLADIO-style Attacks  On March 22nd, an apparent two-pronged terror attack stretched from London s Westminster Bridge to Parliament Square. In the days leading up to the London attacks, it was revealed that Met Police rehearsed a  terrifyingly realistic drill on the River Thames prior to yet another known wolf act of terror taking place. Adding to the drama, the London attacks occurred exactly one year after the Brussels airport bombings. In addition, the bizarre and unexpected event took place during a massive uptick of Western allied involvement in the Syrian conflict and in less than 24 hours, London authorities revealed that the British-born attacker named Khalid Masood, (after media outlets erroneously reported the wrong suspect) was already well-known to MI5 and had worked in Saudi Arabia sometime between 2005-2008. Shortly after the attack, it was revealed that eye-witnesses reported seeing multiple assailants at the crime scene, this was something that directly contradicted the official story. In fact, in those reports, it was suggested that at least two individuals participated in the large-scale attack in one of the most heavily surveilled parts of London. This aspect of the case was quickly buried by major media outlets, echoing other high-profile cases involving  known wolf  terrorists. In recent years, there s been a pattern of multiple suspects often witnessed or said to be involved in other terror-related events. This proved to be the case in the aftermath of the Nice, France truck attack, as well as the Brussels airport bombing in 2016. Rather incredibly or unbelievably, London s acting Police Commissioner Craig Mackey, just so happened to be at the scene to  witness  the Parliament Square attack on Pc Keith Palmer. All in all, the latest symbolically charged  ISIS-approved  attack on the verge of spring, appeared to be an effort to polarize the perception of Western viewers with yet another round of wartime propaganda, while also providing a media smoke screen for recent US military action in Syria. By early summer, just after the Manchester arena bombing, London once again became a target of a purported multi-pronged terror event right on the heels of the UK s hotly contested 2017 general election. Afterwards, a number of questions were raised following the London Bridge attacks, just as there were following the Parliament Square, Westminster Bridge attacks and the Manchester Arena attack. It s important to note the common thread between each suspicious event, and the recent UK attacks are no exception   there s now indisputable evidence linking MI5 and MI6 British security services to various  known wolves  prior to carrying out the terror crimes mentioned above. The precarious relationship between security and terror is an ongoing pattern seen after almost every major terror attack on Western soil. Throughout 2017, the London attacks seemed to increase racial and ethnic tensions in the West, while also pushing the public into accepting a more direct military intervention in Syria, and new police state measures and surveillance powers in the UK   prompting us to ask, who benefited the most from the London Attacks? We d say the answer to that question is pretty obvious now 6. Manchester s  Known Wolf  Arena Attack  Another day, another conspiratorial crime. In this case, the public was witness to yet another known wolf  terror attack allegedly carried out by an  ISIS-inspired  individual who, as with numerous other cases, was under the gaze of MI5. The man named in the Manchester bombing attack, Salman Abedi, was also tied to a terror group supported by NATO in Libya during the operation to oust Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011. The Manchester arena attack proved to be more than just blowback from security operations gone awry, it provided further evidence of complicity on behalf of the West in the  War On Terror  era. While some researchers and analysts were a buzz with the numerological synchronicities associated with the Manchester attack, others noted some very real political circumstances and significant timelines surrounding this apparent mass-tragedy in Manchester. The event just happened to arrive on the heels of a monolithic arms deals with Saudi Arabia worth $110 billion dollars that will total $350 billion over the next 10 years, and only shortly after the Manchester attack, there were US-led coalition airstrikes supposedly targeting ISIS in both Syria and Iraq   that killed 121 civilians in the process. The strikes led to increased tension, placing external pressure on the Russian-led Astana Peace Agreement in Syria, while continuing to benefit the strategic movements of ISIS in Syria. The really damning link however, was exposed by one major UK Government eyesore after the Manchester attacks: the revelation that a community of  outlawed  Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) terrorists were in fact living in close proximity to the Manchester attacker Abedi, and directly connected to Abedi himself. This was a deeply troubling development for a public unaware of the nearby danger, as British security services and officials allowed this  thriving  group of fighters to reside in the UK seemingly without consequence or disclosure of their previous activities   until the Manchester attack. So naturally, when it was revealed that Ramadan Abedi (the father of the purported Manchester suicide bomber) was also a member of the UK government-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and was believed to have been a part of LIFG during the NATO-backed regime change operation in Libya in 2011   it only raised more questions concerning the attack. It s worth noting, Libya s militant governor of Tripoli, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, was also a part of the Mujahideen fighters closely linked to Bin Laden who became known as al-Qaeda. In fact, Belhadj returned to his home country [in 1995] as head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an underground paramilitary organisation dedicated to Gaddafi s downfall. Over the years, Belhadj was incarcerated and turned loose back into the field after being rendered by the CIA and British security services. As of 2015, despite the Manchester attack links to LIFG, the group is still on the US State Department s Delisted Foreign Terrorist Organizations. In the days after the attack, authorities released CCTV imagery apparently depicting the Manchester attacker Abedi, in what appeared to be a way to dramatize the bombing through emotionally charged imagery, as the media obscured other facts and connections observed in the aftermath of the attack itself. The Manchester attack was similar to other high-profile incidents used to distort public opinion in the wake of media styled mass-tragedies.5.  The Las Vegas Mass Shooting   October 1st marked the return of the Great American Mass Shooting   a real record-breaker, complete with a shocking mile-long crime scene that stretched from the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino to the nearby Route 91 Festival, where thousands of concertgoers suddenly became a target. Although America had seen a host of smaller, less sensationalized mass shootings throughout the course of 2017, including the bizarre Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting and the strange Programmed to Kill Texas Church shooting, the high-profile Las Vegas calamity resuscitated the trauma inducing imagery so prevalent in the post-9/11 War On Terror era. This made-for-TV event was designed for media shock and awe, like  the 9/11 of Mass Shootings.  Over the past several years, 21WIRE has chronicled many bizarre shootings and mass casualty incidents that have rippled across America and Europe. These events have become a new kind of ritualized  crimescape  moving well beyond  security  concerns, but now accompanied by a complete range of  socio-political mainstream media talking points including race, religion,  gun reform ,  social media concerns  and domestic extremism   while concurrently obscuring and obfuscating the forensic reality of the crimes themselves. We re told that this tragic shooting attack was carried out by a classic  lone gunman    one individual without a criminal past (or nay past, as far as we could tell)  but there proved to be much more to the story. Adding to this  hyper-real  incident, the main suspect in the Las Vegas tragedy was also revealed to be a multi-millionaire  players club  member, 64 year-old Stephen Paddock. With no motive and no criminal history, Las Vegas police were tasked with uncovering details of a crime overseen by billionaire bosses at MGM Resorts International and the FBI. As authorities failed to uncover a clear motive for the crime, police scanner audio, along with eye-witness testimony suggested that multiple shooters may have been at the scene, although this aspect was downplayed by mainstream media. This was quickly followed by several official  revisions  in the timeline of the shooting and even the crime scene itself, as evidenced by this disastrous press conference which failed to yield any new information in the case. The star-witness of the shooting, Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos, also vanished and was declared  missing  right before a major media interview, only to resurface much later on the oddest of media venues,  The Ellen DeGeneres Show,  giving media gatekeepers the chance to run interference for DeGeneres s slot machine business partners at MGM. Along the way, bizarre media performances by Paddock s brother, Eric Paddock, only prompted more questions and deepened the mystery surrounding this surreal case. While the public waited for MGM to release CCTV footage of the alleged shooter Paddock, not one tape materialized, except for an older tape from 2011. Staged photos of the Mandalay Bay crime scene led to other forensic questions concerning the weaponry used, compounding other acoustic anomalies already noted. Other confusing elements of the case included the missing hard drive from Paddock s laptop, another brother s arrest, the wiring of $100,000 to his live-in girlfriend s (Marilou Danley) home country, the Philippines, Paddock s previous employment at the predecessor company of Lockheed Martin, a reported break-in at one of his homes after the shooting, the absurd insertion of an  ISIS-inspired  motive (which a number of dubious click-bait media outlets ran with), and later seeing a back drop of active shooter related drills and government activity, along with details suggesting Paddock may not have been alone and much more. In the search for answers in America s largest-ever mass shooting, months later, we still have yet to see any CCTV footage of the alleged killer or his whereabouts leading up to the tragedy, as he moved in and around Las Vegas. Imagine that: no CCTV footage. While some have attempted to make sense of the Las Vegas shooting tragedy, there are reports of a major push to revamp security in the hospitality industry through the use of gunfire detection systems, X-ray, body scanners and facial recognition in the wake of this confusing, if not partly manufactured event. The popular media concept of a lone wolf killer in today s world has reprogrammed the public mind in the very same way that the serial killer phenomenon did decades ago. This new fear-based saga has ushered in a string of improbable Hollywood-style scenarios, inducing a frozen apathy across the masses. Rather than looking deeply at crime scene forensics or pouring over piles of collected data, these Daily Shooter crimes hold the public psyche hostage  until the next unexplained mass tragedy. Until the next episode 4. Syria s Sarin Gas False Flag  In less than 24 hours after the highly dubious alleged chemical attack on April 4th (reported to be Sarin gas by Western media) in Khan Shaykhun in the Idlib province of Syria, wide-scale unsubstantiated condemnation laid blame at the doorstep of the Syrian government and Russia following the release of video footage that had yet to be forensically scrutinized. In fact, the mainstream media flooded the airwaves with a bevy of circumstantial and speculative evidence   a far cry from actual hard evidence. Leaders in Washington and Western media outlets once again set the stage for wider military intervention in Syria. Days after the release of a forensically unproven chemical attack out of Khan Shaykhun, US President Donald Trump ordered a military strike on the Syrian government s Shayrat Air Base in response to the alleged chemical attack in Idlib. Trump s missile strike won him instant praise from the Pentagon media oracle CNN, as well as giddy celebrations by war-mongering neocons in the US. Perhaps the most telling aspect of  Syria s most recent mass casualty terror tragedy, was the suspicious involvement of the US-UK-NATO-Gulf state backed NGO known as the White Helmets  a group who once again was witnessed in wartime imagery that was not only full of anomalies but a production designed to evoke an emotional response rather than one based in rationality. Since their inception in late 2013, the White Helmets have largely conducted their so-called rescue operations in rebel-terrorist held areas in Syria, while producing an unprecedented amount of western-oriented war propaganda for nations deeply invested in arming and backing rebel-terrorists vying for regime change in Syria. Nearly two weeks after the alleged sarin gas attack, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Professor Theodore Postol directly disputed claims concerning the official US report regarding the alleged chemical weapons attack out of Khan Shaykhun in the  rebel-held  terrorist-occupied Idlib province of Syria. Postol s initial analysis, along with its addendum, appeared to echo what MIT research affiliate and former US Congressional staffer Subrata Ghoshroy observed in the aftermath of the Syrian chemical incident in East Ghouta, Damascus in 2013. In addition, other award-winning American journalists like Seymour Hersh and Gareth Porter also exposed the  sarin attack  narrative as a fabrication promulgated by a corrupt OPCW   but their reports were muted by mainstream gatekeepers. Both apparent attacks in Damascus and Idlib, were claimed through the presentation of dubious video imagery and suspicious photographs as a main source of evidence. Despite the absence of any real forensic investigation, the western media proclaimed  certainty  over images and videos largely supplied by the dubious  NGO  known as the  White Helmets.  It would later be revealed that on April 4th, the Syrian Air Force had also struck a warehouse in Idlib where chemical weapons were said to have been produced and stockpiled by US-backed militants. What was most disturbing, was that many in US-UK leadership seemed desperate for the public to buy into any WMD claims without concrete proof and in the process, they deliberately pushed heavily propagandized imagery presented on social media as proof of the as yet forensically unproven sarin gas attack. In essence, the whole event became a wag the dog moment ensnaring not only the White House, but many leaders in the UK as well.3. White Helmets Fraud   The White Helmets. Who are they, who created them, who funds them, and which master do they serve in Syria? In the US and in Europe, these fundamental questions routinely go unanswered by the western mainstream media organizations and government officials. Since first appearing on the western media scene in late 2013, the UK and US government-funded pseudo  NGO  known as the White Helmets has achieved cult-like status as their pictures adorn the front pages of newspapers and CNN breaking news segments about Syria. For the last 4 years, their principle function has been to produce a steady stream of  anti-Assad regime  and anti-Russian propaganda tailored for western audiences. Since 2015, 21WIRE led the way in asking these important questions, and in 2017 the overwhelming pressure of mounting evidence of the White Helmet fraud eventually led to various shoddy academics in the US and in the UK mainstream media outlets attacking 21WIRE and its writers for challenging the official White Helmets narrative   and for exposign how the UK government has been channeling hundreds of millions of pounds into terrorist-occupied areas of Syria under the thin guise building  civil society  (US and UK trojan horse) organizations in Syria. Establishment attacks included one mainstream media outlet promoting the White Helmets, The Guardian newspaper in the UK. According to The Guardian anyone who dared to question their official government-sanctioned narrative were  conspiracy theorists  and somehow part of a secret  Russian-backed propaganda campaign.  Despite mountains of evidence including various fake rescue videos, colluding in acts of murder and extreme violence and evidence which clearly depicts the dodgy  search and rescue  groups  members as dual members in armed al Qaeda terrorist affiliates operating in  rebel-held  opposition areas of Syria   western mainstream media are still determined to play dumb on this issue, which only goes to prove just how ignorant mainstream gatekeepers are as to the realities on the ground in Syria, or worse   how controlled are mainstream editors  desks by the western intelligence apparatus. Either way, Toto has already drawn the Wizard s curtain all the way back   and it s only a question of time before western media apologists and clueless politicians retreat into full  no comment  mode on this issue.2. The Russia-Gate PsyOp   It s been 18 months since the Democratic Party and the US mainstream media launched its  Russia-gate  narrative, claiming that Moscow had hacked the DNC, John Podesta and somehow influenced the result of the US 2016 Presidential Election. 18 months later, there s still no evidence to substantiate this mainstream conspiracy theory   making Russiagate easily the biggest fake news story of the year. What s most telling about this  official  conspiracy theory (as it turns out, it s the mainstream that peddles the grandest conspiracy theories) is that its proponents have to resort to publishing repeated lies and wild exaggerations in order to maintain the pillars supporting their narrative. So desperate were the New York Times to tie Trump to Russia that it even claimed that  the Russians  where creating Facebook pages about puppies in order to  confuse and mislead  vulnerable American voters. New York Times also had to retract their central lie which claimed that 17 US Intelligence agencies had all agreed that the Russians meddled in the 2016 presidential election   but still we hear legions of mindless  journalists  and shaky politicians like Adam Schiff (who, not surprisingly is also promoting the White Helmets) repeating that same old canard. As part of Washington s new McCarthyite red scare reboot, the US government labeled Russian international media network RT, and RT America as  foreign agents    forcing the channel and its journalists to register with the US government under old outdated pre-WWII espionage legislation. Other fake claims by US media include  Kremlin bots  deployed on Facebook to mess with the fragile minds of potential voters on social media, and CNN s all-time classic: an  Exclusive!  no less   claiming that the Russians somehow infiltrated the computer game Pokemon Go in order to  sow confusion among Americans.  Honestly, we couldn t make it up if we tried. What s beyond ironic is that the same media who has been constantly crying  fake news!  as their prime talking point to explain how Trump beat Clinton   has been dutifully recycling their own fake news narrative for over a year now. This one will surely go down in history as the biggest political hoax of all-time   and all of the mainstream media outlets who helped promulgate this myth should also go down with it. Sadly, too many mentally-challenged lawmakers in the US, UK and Europe are actually basing their foreign policies of this mainstream fake news myth   which is all too convenient for an ever-inflating the US defense budget, NATO s breakneck expansion eastward, and also for Brussels  new roll-out of its EU Army  1.  Fake News 2.0    2017 was the year of fake news. Last year, we crowned Fake News 1.0 as our top conspiracy, but this past year has seen it ascend to an entirely new level. From the beginning, this faux crisis had a clear set of political objectives. The first was to provide a scapegoat for Hillary Clinton s catastrophic imploding presidential run, and secondly, to try and prop-up the establishment s official conspiracy theory that somehow the Russians were spreading  fake news  across social media and alternative media websites   in order to help Donald Trump win the election. On this front, many of us are indebted to Trump for branding CNN with the meme that keeps sticking, as the President hit CNN s bumbling White House correspondent Jim Acosta, with Trump pointing to Acosta and saying,  You are fake news!  live on national TV. If was a glorious moment for sure. Newspapers like the Washington Post performed a key role for the US Deep State by pushing-out fictional news features like the one claiming 200 of the leading alternative media websites were part of some Kremlin-orchestrated network of websites carrying out  active measures  (a defunct Cold War term) propaganda against the American people. The Post even presented a bogus anonymous construct, a website called  PropOrNot  in order to try and make their conspiracy theory look official. Around the same time, a radical progressive academic from Merrimack College in Massachusetts published a  fake news list    a database and virtual  blacklist  designed to defame and slander any independent media outlets who happened to veer from the party line and challenge the policies of Hillary Clinton and Obama. Dr. Zimdars heavily politicized  list  was promoted by  the LA Times which, like the fraudulent story published in The Post, claimed that hundreds of alternative media websites were producing  fake news  and  conspiracy  stories and therefore were unreliable as information sources. It wasn t long before the establishment began referencing these politicized lists, holding them up as  proof  of some crisis in what the liberal intelligensia proudly dubbed a  post-truth  world. Despite the establishment s insistence on pushing this faux crisis, an increasing number of smart news consumers came to realize that for at least the last century and half, the establishment s tightly-controlled information syndicate has been able to manufacture its own consensus reality through the use of their own  official  fake news. By channeling public opinion in this way, the mainstream press has helped facilitate a number of engineered outcomes   including war. Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of the fake news  circus, is that Silicon Valley monopolies like Google and Facebook have taken it upon themselves to manipulate their online platforms in such a way that they are choosing which websites and news sources will be  de-ranked  and effectively hidden from the view of most users, and, in the case of Facebook   censoring real information presented by independent, non mainstream journalists, but allowing political operatives to abuse their problematic  communitarian  information policing system to strike off  offensive  content. As a result a number of leading alternative commentators have been banned from Facebook for completely illegitimate reasons. Finally, we can reveal the  2.0  aspect of the establishment s  fake news  faux crisis   a false pretext to unleash a wide-ranging program of internet censorship   and it s already begun. Reasonable people should be under no illusions: Google Inc, Facebook and global monopolies like them it are the closest thing to a classic fascist-corporatist behemoth you will find in the world today. Both Google and Facebook are both actively colluding with big government and other mainstream media partners, and are guilty of  stealth censoring  through either their A.I. filtering algorithms, or through flagged websites on a database used to de-rank leading independent and anti-war sites like 21st Century Wire, Anti-War.com, Consortium News, Global Research and countless others. Furthermore, Facebook is now on record as admitting to colluding with both the US and Israeli governments to delete  undesirable  accounts. This is a corporation which is now actively and opening violating US laws, which is engaging in criminal activity by any other definition. These are not the only threats posed by these corporate fascists. The very same corporate digital barons have also been busy colluding with politicians in order to repeal Net Neutrality   as part of the elites  final end-run to marginalize and ultimately crush all independent and dissenting voices online who threaten the primacy of mainstream groupthink, and who could get broader traction among the population if the playing field was truly a level one. Not only is this illegal under antitrust laws, but it represents a brutal form of fascism. It s now clearer than ever that Silicon Valley executives and government bureaucrats cannot be trusted to manage the most important public utility of the new century   the information super highway.So if the mainstream press can no longer be trusted, then who can you trust for objectivity and accuracy? Again, we have to ask the question: who s watching the watchers? Answer: We are.HAPPY NEW YEAR.SEE PREVIOUS TOP TEN CONSPIRACIES: 2016 Top Ten Conspiracies2015 Top Ten Conspiracies2014 Top Ten ConspiraciesSUPPORT 21WIRE  SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV