In recent days, a series of planned anti-government rallies involving truckers protesting on the Capital Beltway has produced widespread press coverage and been given a publicity boost by Fox News and Glenn Beck. Though the organizers and participants have been presented by conservative media as salt-of-the-earth people with constitutional objections to President Obama and members of Congress, the event is actually being organized by a fringe conspiracy theorist.
Zeeda Andrews -- a co-organizer of the effort who made October 8 appearances on Fox News and Glenn Beck's The Blaze to promote the event -- apparently thinks that President Obama and Osama bin Laden are somehow the same person; that Obama is a secret Muslim; that the Boston bombings were a “false flag”; that the CIA murdered Buzzfeed journalist Michael Hastings; and that the Department of Homeland Security is stockpiling ammunition in order to slaughter Americans.
On her Facebook page, Andrews identifies as a fan of two 9-11 conspiracy theory movies, a documentary that postulates that the government may be secretly injecting aluminum into the atmosphere to block the sun's rays, and a film based on the lectures of British conspiracy theorist David Icke, who believes a secret race of lizard people run the world. (Radio host Peter Santilli, who has appeared in press reports as a spokesperson for the event, is also a 9-11 conspiracy theorist. Santilli made news earlier this year when he suggested Hillary Clinton should be “shot in the vagina” for treason.)
The “Truckers Ride for the Constitution” series of planned rallies received widespread attention earlier this week when Earl Conlon, a man purporting to speak for the event, told US News & World Report that the truckers planned to circle the Beltway and arrest members of Congress for their supposed “treason.” (After the organizers of the event distanced themselves from Conlon, he later walked back his suggestion that the truckers were going to “arrest” anyone.) According to the group, 3,000 truckers will participate in the Washington, D.C. rally between October 11 and 13.
Andrews was hosted on Fox News' On the Record with Greta Van Susteren last night and provided with a platform to plug the event, which she explained is “peaceful” and will not seek to engage in any unlawful behavior. According to Andrews, the goal of the event is to remove Obama from office, because he “is a threat to our national security. He is a threat to our way of life. He is a threat to our future generations.” (The event has also been publicized on Fox Nation, Drudge Report, and websites like WND.)
Glenn Beck also hosted Andrews last night. In an article on Beck's website about her appearance, Andrews is identified as one of “two hardworking Americans who are standing up for what they believe is right.” During the interview, on-screen text repeatedly featured the website for the event.
But rather than merely having reasonable objections to the government supposedly grounded in the Constitution, a review of Andrews' Facebook and Youtube pages reveals a penchant for believing extraordinary conspiracy theories about President Obama and the government.
Some lowlights:
In a comment posted to YouTube in mid-2013, Andrews encourages people to “do your research” and lays out her theory that “Osama Bin Laden is our President Obama,” explaining that they “have same height, bone structure, hands and ears both are left handed”:
The fact that these soldiers were set up to die in a no return operation is obvious they had knowledge that Obama didn't want leaked. This is the Seals that killed Osama Bin Laden. I don't believe this story. He is alive call me crazy but, Osama Bin Laden is our President Obama do your research. The CIA has been preparing for this since he was a boy. They have same height, bone structure, hands and ears both are left handed the Osama face was created by Hollywood. The fox is in the hen house.
In an April 18 post to Facebook, Andrews wrote that “False Flag describes the Boston bombing to a tee.” In a comment on her photo, Andrews added, “A OP to destroy the American people gone bad”:
On July 17, Andrews posted a picture of a sign declaring that the death of Buzzfeed journalist Michael Hastings “was not an accident.” She captioned the photo “CIA murder”:
Andrews' Facebook page includes numerous photos suggesting President Obama is a secret Muslim, including:
Among the movies Andrews “likes” on Facebook are 9-11 truther movies Loose Change and 9/11: Press for Truth, a movie about chemtrail conspiracies (the notion that long-lasting airplane contrails are actually chemicals sprayed into the atmosphere by the government) called What in the World Are They Spraying, and The Lion Sleeps No More, featuring lectures by David Icke, a British conspiracy theorist famous for his theory that a clan of lizard people secretly controls the world.
Other pages that Andrews “likes” on Facebook include the interests “Chemtrails,” “9-11 Truth movement,” and “Food storage,” as well as a variety of pages related to the Founding Fathers.
In a July 30 post on Facebook, Andrews reprinted a fabricated news report (that apparently made the rounds on conspiracy message boards) alleging that Edward Snowden had revealed that the government is using a research station in Alaska to project “ultra-high-powered radio waves” that “operate at the same electronic frequency as the truncus encephali, or brain stem, selectively inducing deaths seemingly by natural causes.”
Her Facebook page also features numerous Islamophobic images:
And things like this:
In a blog linked to from her Youtube account, Andrews also promotes several conspiracy theories, including that the Department of Homeland Security is stockpiling ammunition with the intention to slaughter “anyone they think is standing in their way to impose a new Marxist government.”