Michael Ruppert
Michael Craig Ruppert (February 3, 1951 – April 13, 2014) was an American writer and musician, Los Angeles Police Department officer, investigative journalist, political activist, and peak oil awareness advocate known for his 2004 book Crossing The Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil.[2]
Not to be confused with Michael Rupert.
Michael C. Ruppert
April 13, 2014 (aged 63)
Tracker of Truth[1]
B.A., UCLA, 1973
Investigative journalist
Publisher
Talk show host
LAPD Police officer
Los Angeles Police Department (1973–1978)
Whistleblower and author of Crossing The Rubicon
From 1999 until 2006, Ruppert edited and published From The Wilderness, a newsletter and website covering a range of topics including international politics, the CIA, peak oil, civil liberties, drugs, economics, corruption and the nature of the 9/11 conspiracy. It attracted 22,000 subscribers.[1]
Ruppert was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Collapse,[3] which is based on his book A Presidential Energy Policy[4] and received The New York Times' "critics pick". He served as president of Collapse Network, Inc. from early 2010 until he resigned in May 2012. He also hosted The Lifeboat Hour on Progressive Radio Network until his death in 2014.[1]
In 2014, Vice featured Ruppert in a 6-part series titled Apocalypse, Man,[5] and a tribute album, Beyond the Rubicon was released by the band New White Trash,[6] of which he had been a member.[7]
Early life and education[edit]
Michael Ruppert was born on February 3, 1951, in Washington, D.C. According to Ruppert, his father, Ernest Charles Edward Ruppert III, had been a pilot in the US Air Force during World War II and later worked for Martin Marietta, functioning as a liaison between the company, the CIA, and the Air Force.[1] He said that his mother, Madelyn, was a cryptanalyst at the National Security Agency, working in a unit that cracked Soviet codes in order to track their nuclear physicists.[8]
The family moved fourteen times, living in seven different states, eventually settling in Los Angeles where Ruppert attended Venice High School, graduating in 1969.[8] He then attended UCLA,[1] earning a B.A. in Political Science in 1973.[8] Ruppert said that during his senior year, he applied and interviewed for a position with the CIA but ended up turning down the subsequent offer, instead accepting a position with the Los Angeles Police Department.[1]
Media coverage and criticism[edit]
Numerous documentary films have featured Ruppert, including The End of Suburbia (2004),[25] Liberty Bound (2004),[26] American Drug War: The Last White Hope (2007),[27] The 911 Report You Never Saw - The Great Conspiracy (2008),[28] Collapse (2009),[29] Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011),[30] and Apocalypse, Man (2014).[5]
Ruppert was termed a "conspiracy theorist",[19][31][32][33][34] to which he has said he "deals with 'conspiracy fact' rather than theory."[35] According to The Wall Street Journal, his book Crossing the Rubicon was a "favorite among conspiracy theorists."[36] After writing it, and subsequently moving on to peak oil, he said "I walked away from 9/11 five years ago," he says. "I have nothing to do with the 9/11 truth movement."[36]
Critic David Corn argued that Ruppert on occasion veered off into making unsubstantiated conspiracy theory claims[37] and has criticized Ruppert's methodology, dismissing the idea that conspiracy theorizing is useful: "In fact, out-there conspiracy theorizing serves the interests of the powers-that-be by making their real transgressions seem tame in comparison."[38] Ruppert responded with an open public letter to Corn stating that Corn is not able to disprove any of Ruppert's claims.[39]
The New York Times, in its review of Collapse, wrote "the majority of his premises are verifiable, any weakness in his argument lies in inferences so terrifying that reasonable listeners may find themselves taking his advice" and that in it, Ruppert "emerges finally as an authentic human being, sympathetic even when the film that embraces him is not."[11]
In 2014, Vice featured Ruppert in a 6-part series titled Apocalypse, Man.[5]