Above Top Secret
Encyclopedia
Above Top Secret is a news
discussion forum created by Simon Gray in 1999 as a discussion board for conspiracy, and a site for general information about conspiracy topics. Today Above top Secret is more commonly used to discuss current news articles as the Breaking News forum makes up the largest percentage of content., and a site for general information about conspiracy topics. Currently under the ownership of The Above Network, LLC (Incorporated in Delaware, United States). ATS has been used by some popular conspiracy writers such as Jim Marrs
, John Lear (now banned from ATS ) and Scott Creighton. As of January 2010, ATS claims it has almost 10 million posts with over 4 million visits to the site a month. As of August 2010 it is ranked 2,546 in the U.S. by Alexa
.
It is now mostly run by Mark Springer and William "Skeptic Overlord" Irvine. Administrators maintain that Simon Gray is very much still involved with Above Top Secret but no longer publicly posts in the forum. Mark Springer does promotional activities such as going on the radio show Coast to Coast AM
to promote the site while William Irvine tailors ATS to appeal to the public. William Irvine was brought on to Above top Secret for his background in developing web technologies for larger business.
, political scandal
s, New World Order, the 2012 phenomenon
, cryptozoology
, and secret societies
. Though members contribute a lot of original content, ATS relies heavily on external content which members find, post, and discuss.
The site also retains a video portal for its own generated content, in particular Conspiracy Chicks (a video news show) and Street View (Public opinions on ATS Topics).
The website continues to grow as a hub of discussions on a variety of topics, occasionally forming new forum sections for large news stories, such as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill
and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
.
welcomed Above Top Secret's Mark Allin as a guest on Friday May 28, 2010 to discuss alternative news and conspiracies from the Above Top Secret website. Dr. Michael Shermer
, founder of Skeptic Magazine refers to Above Top Secret in an article for Scientific American
entitled "Fahrenheit 2777", listing it as an example of a source of "easily refuted" 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Jim Marrs
recently published book, titled Above Top Secret, was written with the inclusion of research done by members of ATS.
The Above Network, LLC, which owns Above Top Secret, is currently fighting copyright infringement allegations from Righthaven LLC over content copied by a user from a Las Vegas Review-Journal
article on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill
, on the basis that because of the user-generated nature of ATS's content, a DMCA notice should have been filed.
Jeff Weise
was also a poster at Above Top Secret and talked about being "pegged as a possible school shooter" one year before murdering 9 in a Killing Spree
/Suicide.
In January 2011, the Washington Post reported that alleged Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner
apparently sought community online at Abovetopsecret.com.
can be perceived as being ironic for a site that is user generated. Also, the notion of censorship is a prominent feature in conspiracy literature and this adds to the problems of ATS censorship. Real life activities can also lead to removal from Above Top Secret. When it was discovered that Jared Loughner was posting on ATS as "erad3" he was banned.
Other users have pointed out that a tradition of always siding with the conspiracy theory
can lead to misinformation being posted on the site. The practice of deleting any post that is inadvertently advertising any of ATS’s rival and smaller conspiracy sites is treated with suspicion. Critics would point out that this is ATS taking advantage of its internet monopoly
on internet conspiracy literature for corporate gain and reduces the ability to cooperate with other sites to build on knowledge. One claim made by ATS is that news is reported before it is reported in the mainstream media
. This occurs rarely, however, as nearly all "alternative news" on ATS comes from mainstream media sources.
Some have even gone so far as to accuse ATS of being controlled opposition, reminiscent of the former COINTELPRO
operation of the United States. This is a recurrent theme in many ATS posts and one which the owners of the site deny, such as author and commentator Laura Knight Jadczyk who has openly criticized Above Top Secret after she published an article on her alternative news website Signs of the Times. This led to a dispute between her and the owners of ATS who claimed that the article had breached ATS’s “creative commons deed”.
Within the discussion boards, topics are still moderated. Members individual posts are often altered, edited out, and/or removed by moderators if the member breaks the sites terms and conditions. Banning members who persisently do not adhere to the site terms and conditions is a commonly used option. Topics that discuss the Galactic confederation of light are removed from the UFO section and put in an off topic form. 9/11 Conspiracy theories about Holographic planes being used are prohibited.
Ownership of user generated content calls the motive of the media portal into question. Above Top Secret provides a media portal for users to upload self made pictures and videos but in doing so the user surrenders his or her rights to said video. While members still have the option to upload videos to sites like YouTube and then post them on ATS they can no longer post any images to ATS unless they are uploaded to the media portal.
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
discussion forum created by Simon Gray in 1999 as a discussion board for conspiracy, and a site for general information about conspiracy topics. Today Above top Secret is more commonly used to discuss current news articles as the Breaking News forum makes up the largest percentage of content., and a site for general information about conspiracy topics. Currently under the ownership of The Above Network, LLC (Incorporated in Delaware, United States). ATS has been used by some popular conspiracy writers such as Jim Marrs
Jim Marrs
Jim Marrs is an American former newspaper journalist and New York Times best-selling author of books and articles on a wide range of alleged cover ups and conspiracies. Marrs is a prominent figure in the JFK conspiracy press and his book Crossfire was a source for Oliver Stone's film JFK...
, John Lear (now banned from ATS ) and Scott Creighton. As of January 2010, ATS claims it has almost 10 million posts with over 4 million visits to the site a month. As of August 2010 it is ranked 2,546 in the U.S. by Alexa
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...
.
It is now mostly run by Mark Springer and William "Skeptic Overlord" Irvine. Administrators maintain that Simon Gray is very much still involved with Above Top Secret but no longer publicly posts in the forum. Mark Springer does promotional activities such as going on the radio show Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM is a North American late-night syndicated radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was created by Art Bell and is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks. The program currently...
to promote the site while William Irvine tailors ATS to appeal to the public. William Irvine was brought on to Above top Secret for his background in developing web technologies for larger business.
Discussion
ATS members exchange and debate their Above top Secret approved ideas and theories on a variety of "alternative topics", including UFOs and extraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
, political scandal
Political scandal
A political scandal is a kind of political corruption that is exposed and becomes a scandal, in which politicians or government officials are accused of engaging in various illegal, corrupt, or unethical practices...
s, New World Order, the 2012 phenomenon
2012 phenomenon
The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21, 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar...
, cryptozoology
Cryptozoology
Cryptozoology refers to the search for animals whose existence has not been proven...
, and secret societies
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
. Though members contribute a lot of original content, ATS relies heavily on external content which members find, post, and discuss.
Creation
Above Top Secret started as a small graphic image page by Simon Gray in early 1999. Receiving a boom of members following the attacks on September 11th, 2001 the site quickly grew to accommodate the influx. Since its inception it has rapidly expanded, featuring a media portal for user-created podcasts and flash-based videos.Content
Besides the discussion board, ATS has grown to accommodate a larger range of new multimedia, in particular ATS LIVE - a radio show broadcast on AM stations KCKN (Roswell, New Mexico) and WLVJ (Miami Florida) and via internet streaming every week. The site also hosts a number of online only radio shows - ATS UK& Euro (covering topics from the European arena), Above Politics (discussing global and regional political issues), After Midnight (Podsafe music and off-topic chat) and ATS Unleashed : Music to Conspire To (Podsafe music and off topic chat).The site also retains a video portal for its own generated content, in particular Conspiracy Chicks (a video news show) and Street View (Public opinions on ATS Topics).
The website continues to grow as a hub of discussions on a variety of topics, occasionally forming new forum sections for large news stories, such as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill
Gulf of Mexico oil spill
There have been two major oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico:*The Ixtoc I oil spill, from June 1979 to March 1980*The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, from April 2010 to August 2010...
and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...
.
Off Topic Discussion
This is the relaxed/non-conspiracy side of the website with accounts registered to either domain working on the other. Forums on the Off Topic Discussion section vary and can range from topics on music to travel and General chit-chat to literature for example. As of early 2010, the Off topic discussions forums can be reached through the Above Top Secret home page.In the news
George Knapp of Coast To Coast AMCoast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM is a North American late-night syndicated radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was created by Art Bell and is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks. The program currently...
welcomed Above Top Secret's Mark Allin as a guest on Friday May 28, 2010 to discuss alternative news and conspiracies from the Above Top Secret website. Dr. Michael Shermer
Michael Shermer
Michael Brant Shermer is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members...
, founder of Skeptic Magazine refers to Above Top Secret in an article for Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
entitled "Fahrenheit 2777", listing it as an example of a source of "easily refuted" 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Jim Marrs
Jim Marrs
Jim Marrs is an American former newspaper journalist and New York Times best-selling author of books and articles on a wide range of alleged cover ups and conspiracies. Marrs is a prominent figure in the JFK conspiracy press and his book Crossfire was a source for Oliver Stone's film JFK...
recently published book, titled Above Top Secret, was written with the inclusion of research done by members of ATS.
The Above Network, LLC, which owns Above Top Secret, is currently fighting copyright infringement allegations from Righthaven LLC over content copied by a user from a Las Vegas Review-Journal
Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is published in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada, and one of two daily newspapers in Las Vegas . It is the flagship publication of Stephens Media LLC...
article on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill
Gulf of Mexico oil spill
There have been two major oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico:*The Ixtoc I oil spill, from June 1979 to March 1980*The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, from April 2010 to August 2010...
, on the basis that because of the user-generated nature of ATS's content, a DMCA notice should have been filed.
Jeff Weise
Jeff Weise
Jeffrey James "Jeff" Weise was an Ojibwe Native American adolescent, and a student at Red Lake Senior High School in Red Lake, Minnesota. He murdered nine people and wounded five others in a shooting spree on March 21, 2005, in the Red Lake Indian Reservation located in northwest Minnesota...
was also a poster at Above Top Secret and talked about being "pegged as a possible school shooter" one year before murdering 9 in a Killing Spree
Spree killer
A spree killer is someone who embarks on a murderous assault on two or more victims in a short time in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders."-Definition:According to the...
/Suicide.
In January 2011, the Washington Post reported that alleged Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner
Jared Lee Loughner
Jared Lee Loughner is an American man who is charged with the January 8, 2011 Tucson, Arizona shooting that killed six people, including Chief U.S. District Court Judge John Roll. The shooting also left 14 others injured, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords...
apparently sought community online at Abovetopsecret.com.
Criticism
Some members of ATS have strongly criticized the site for their personal perception of overtly censoring content though a large number of moderation staff who actively police to uphold its terms and conditions. Users point out that although this may be necessary for the smooth running of the site, censorshipCensorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
can be perceived as being ironic for a site that is user generated. Also, the notion of censorship is a prominent feature in conspiracy literature and this adds to the problems of ATS censorship. Real life activities can also lead to removal from Above Top Secret. When it was discovered that Jared Loughner was posting on ATS as "erad3" he was banned.
Other users have pointed out that a tradition of always siding with the conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
can lead to misinformation being posted on the site. The practice of deleting any post that is inadvertently advertising any of ATS’s rival and smaller conspiracy sites is treated with suspicion. Critics would point out that this is ATS taking advantage of its internet monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
on internet conspiracy literature for corporate gain and reduces the ability to cooperate with other sites to build on knowledge. One claim made by ATS is that news is reported before it is reported in the mainstream media
Mainstream media
Mainstream media are those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter...
. This occurs rarely, however, as nearly all "alternative news" on ATS comes from mainstream media sources.
Some have even gone so far as to accuse ATS of being controlled opposition, reminiscent of the former COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.COINTELPRO tactics included discrediting targets through psychological...
operation of the United States. This is a recurrent theme in many ATS posts and one which the owners of the site deny, such as author and commentator Laura Knight Jadczyk who has openly criticized Above Top Secret after she published an article on her alternative news website Signs of the Times. This led to a dispute between her and the owners of ATS who claimed that the article had breached ATS’s “creative commons deed”.
Within the discussion boards, topics are still moderated. Members individual posts are often altered, edited out, and/or removed by moderators if the member breaks the sites terms and conditions. Banning members who persisently do not adhere to the site terms and conditions is a commonly used option. Topics that discuss the Galactic confederation of light are removed from the UFO section and put in an off topic form. 9/11 Conspiracy theories about Holographic planes being used are prohibited.
Ownership of user generated content calls the motive of the media portal into question. Above Top Secret provides a media portal for users to upload self made pictures and videos but in doing so the user surrenders his or her rights to said video. While members still have the option to upload videos to sites like YouTube and then post them on ATS they can no longer post any images to ATS unless they are uploaded to the media portal.
External links
- abovetopsecret.com Above Top Secret
- YouTube: Jim Marrs on Coast2Coast Radio
- Below Top Secret