Linda Thompson (attorney)

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Linda Thompson is an American attorney, filmmaker, and the founder of the American Justice Federation. In 1993, she quit her job as a lawyer in Indianapolis, Indiana to start the American Justice Federation, according to Snopes.com. The AJF is "a for-profit group that promotes pro-gun causes and various conspiracy theories through a shortwave radio program, a computer bulletin board and sales of its newsletter and videos."^[1] She first founded her computer BBS network, called AEN, in 1987.

Contents 1 Clinton conspiracy 2 Waco conspiracy 3 Black helicopters 4 Proposed march on Washington 5 References

[edit] Clinton conspiracy

Thompson was opposed to the Bill Clinton presidency, and supported conspiracy theories surrounding Vince Foster and other theories in the Clinton Chronicles. In 1994, in a letter to congressional leaders, former Rep. William Dannemeyer listed 24 people with some connection to Clinton who had died "under other than natural circumstances" and called for hearings on the matter. This list was mostly compiled by Linda Thompson.^[1]

[edit] Waco conspiracy

In 1993, she made a film titled Waco: The Big Lie, which contained footage of the siege of the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas. The film was distributed widely on videotape and for a short period after its release she was a regular guest on talk radio shows, especially those of Art Bell and Chuck Harder. The film challenged the mainstream news reports of the Branch Davidian siege and created a small sensation, alleging a government coverup of the events surrounding the siege.

Some of her movie's allegations have since been vindicated by professionally produced films such as Waco: The Rules of Engagement and Waco: A New Revelation. Specifically, Linda Thompson showed a split second of footage of a tank with what appeared to be fire emitting from it into Mt. Carmel and she claimed it was a flamethrower used to start the fire that consumed the church. When the full footage was acquired by Michael McNulty, the "fire" was shown to be sunlight reflecting off sheetrock insulation on a wall panel that had fallen on the tank. Adding a sense of surety to her flamethrower claim, Thompson claimed that the tank backed out twice and each time the flame was clearly visible, but in fact she just ran the same split-second clip twice.

Thompson also claimed that three BATF agents killed by friendly fire during the siege were all former bodyguards of then-President Bill Clinton and the friendly fire was actually an assassination ordered by Clinton. Her film was also heavily criticized for allegedly showing footage of the siege out of chronological order while Thompson's narration declared that the order shown in her video was the actual order of the events that took place.

She followed up her first film with another, Waco II: The Big Lie Continues, in which she offered rebuttals to those who were critical of her first film, declared everyone critical of the film to be part of a cover-up, and continued to stand by the most controversial allegations in Waco: The Big Lie.

[edit] Black helicopters

She made a third film, America Under Siege. This film showed footage of helicopters at U.S. military bases such as Fort Campbell, Kentucky which she asserted were the black helicopters alleged by some New World Order conspiracy believers. She also claimed in this film that color coded stickers and barcodes that had begun appearing on the back of highway traffic signs were intended to guide military vehicles in the event of a military occupation of the United States.

[edit] Proposed march on Washington

In 1994 she filed suit against Liberty Lobby for producing bootleg copies of her videos. Also in 1994, Thompson declared herself "Acting Adjutant General" of the "Unorganized Militia of the United States" and announced plans for an armed march on Washington, D.C. which was to be held on September 19 of that year, in which an ultimatum demanding the repeal of such laws as NAFTA and the Brady Bill would be delivered to members of the United States Congress, and those members refusing to comply with the ultimatum would be arrested and tried for treason. The proposed march was almost universally denounced by groups on the right wing, from the John Birch Society to the militia organizations. Thompson canceled the march, claiming publicly that the announcement was never anything more than a publicity stunt and the march was never intended to actually happen, while claiming to her supporters that operatives in the Federal government had plans to detonate a small nuclear device in D.C. and blame her organization for the act. Publicity stunt or not it effectively spelled the end of her time in the limelight. She continued to be active on her AEN computer BBS network into the late 1990s.

[edit] References

• Vest, Jason. "The Spooky World of Linda Thompson", The Washington Post, The Washington Post, 1995-05-11, p. D01. Retrieved on 2007-03-17. 
• Stern, Kenneth S. (1997). A Force Upon the Plain, Reprint edition, University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806129263.