A couple years ago the proprietors of NIN repeatedly caused major disruptions on the FR thread that is commonly known as the "Threat Matrix." IIRC, they and/or their shills trolled the Threat Matrix thread using various screen names where they planted stories and created a buzz about terrorism and security related issues in an obvious effort to direct people to the NIN website. If you took the bait and went to the NIN website, you would find a bunch of teaser articles, but you would have to become a paying member of the NIN to get the details.
A lot of the stuff that the NIN people were posting on the Threat Matrix was really out there, and made Debka and WND look like credible sources in comparison. For example, one of the stories they planted, IIRC, was that the NSA, CIA, FBI, or some super-secret spook agency whose name I can't remember, found some sort of nuke device in NYC (or it might have been Boston or Baltimore or some other big east coast city), which they were able to safely remove and explode in the Atlantic Ocean off the Continental Shelf. NIN even provided a seismic graph to prove the explosion, which several Freepers quickly debunked as not fitting the very distinct profile of a nuclear explosion (or an explosion of any kind). When anyone challenged NIN or its sources (which were often super secret sources deep within some super secret agency, which NIN refused to disclose), the NIN person would become extremely belligerent, engage in personal attacks, and threatened to sue someone, including Free Republic. Although I don't know for sure, I suspect that is why NIN links are banned.
With that said, I have not been to the NIN website and quite some time, and therefore, I have no opinion on their current business practices or the legitimacy of their claims.
Thanks. I appreciate it. I don’t follow all of this closely enough to have an idea on which sources are reliable and which aren’t. I once posted an article that I found on Debka and someone jumped on me for posting it, stating that Debka was completely unreliable.
This Flight 1824 story is a good example of the kind of thing that makes you wonder what to believe. If true, it is a very alarming story and should make everyone really think twice before getting on a plane (IMO).
I have a healthy distrust of the MSM but I also recognize that there is alot of money being made by hyping-up fear of terrorism. Most of these websites are peddling something...a book, insider-newsletters, or T-shirts.
I guess that’s what makes FR so unique.
Well, thanks again.