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John
Podesta
Tony
Podesta cannibalism?
Wikileaks
Hillary emails
Clinton cooking satanism?
parties
handkerchief weird
art taste
Barack pedophilia?
pizza
Obama secret code
language?
Comet
Dem. Ping Pong human
operative secret
signage? trafficking?
neighboring
businesses
James
Alefantis underground
Instagram tunnels?
posts
Dissecting the #PizzaGate
Conspiracy Theories
By GREGOR AISCH, JON HUANG and CECILIA KANG DEC. 10, 2016
In the span of a few weeks, a false rumor
that Hillary Clinton and her top aides were
involved in various crimes snowballed into a
wild conspiracy theory that they were running
a child-trafficking ring out of a Washington
pizza parlor. The fast evolution of the false theory
revealed how a powerful mix of fake news and
social media led an armed North Carolina man
to investigate the rumors about the pizza place,
Comet Ping Pong, last Sunday. RELATED ARTICLE
How the #PizzaGate
conspiracy theory evolved
1 WikiLeaks began releasing emails hacked from
the account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s
campaign chairman, a month before the election.
2 Social media users on a popular Reddit forum
dedicated to Donald J. Trump and 4chan’s far-
right fringe message board searched the releases
for evidence of wrongdoing.
3 Within the emails were discussions that include
the word pizza, including dinner plans between
Mr. Podesta and his lobbyist brother, Tony
Podesta.
4 A participant on 4chan connected the phrase
“cheese pizza” to pedophiles, who on chat boards
use the initials “c.p.” to denote child pornography.
5 Following the use of “pizza,” theorists focused on
the Washington pizza restaurant Comet Ping
Pong. The WikiLeaks emails revealed that John
Podesta corresponded with Comet’s owner, James
Alefantis, who had connections to Democratic
operatives.
6 The theory started snowballing, taking on the
meme #PizzaGate. Fake news articles emerged
and were spread on Twitter and Facebook.
7 The false stories swept up neighboring businesses
and bands that had played at Comet. Theories
about kill rooms, underground tunnels, satanism
and even cannibalism emerged in fabricated
stories and on social media.
8 On Dec. 4, Edgar M. Welch, a 28-year-old from
North Carolina, arrived at Comet with a military-
style rifle and a handgun. The police said he fired
the rifle inside the pizzeria, hurting no one, and
surrendered after finding no evidence to support
claims of child slaves being held there.
9 The shooting did not put the theory to rest.
Purveyors of the theory and fake news pointed to
the mainstream media as conspirators of a
coverup to protect what they said was a crime
ring.
The conspiracy theory took the internet by storm.
YouTube clips pushed the false story, racking up
hundreds of thousands of views. Tens of thousands
of individuals subscribed to message boards,
feeding into theories with fake news reports and
crowd-driven detective work. The police refuted
the claims of an online pedophile ring running out
of Comet Ping Pong, but the theories continued.
Here are eight that gave #PizzaGate momentum.
Claim: Podesta’s leaked emails
contained secret code language.
Combing through John Podesta’s leaked emails,
members of a far-right fringe community on the
social media site 4chan and Trump supporters on
Reddit pulled out a number of emails unconnected
to politics. Several of them mentioned pizza or
other Italian food.
Did you leave a handkerchief
FROM: Susan Sandler 09-02-2014
TO: John Podesta
The realtor found a
handkerchief (I think it has a
map that seems pizza-related.
Is it yorus? They can send it
if you want. I know you’re
busy, so feel free not to
respond if it’s not yours or
you don’t want it.
Source: Wikileaks
FROM: John Podesta 09-04-2014
TO: Susan Sandler
It's mine, but not worth
worrying about.
Source: Wikileaks
The most cited email revolved around a
handkerchief left at a house Mr. Podesta visited
with a real estate agent. It led to speculation that
the handkerchief and map on it were clues to some
sort of wrongdoing.
Claim: The emails contained
coded messages about pedophilia.
The term “cheese pizza” had previously been used
on 4chan as code for “child pornography.” An
anonymous user speculated that other food-related
terms could also have double meanings.
An anonymous post on 4chan’s “so-called alt-right”
discussion board in November.
This interpretation spread, and other emails
containing supposed code words were
reinterpreted as evidence of pedophile activity. For
example, this 2015 email was taken as an inquiry
about providing sexual services.
Walnut sauce?
FROM: Jim Steyer 04-11-2015
TO: John Podesta and Mary Podesta
Hey John,
We know you're a true master of
cuisine and we have appreciated
that for years …
But walnut sauce for the pasta?
Mary, plz tell us the straight
story, was the sauce actually
very tasty?
Source: Wikileaks
FROM: John Podesta 04-11-2015
TO: Jim Steyer and Mary Podesta
It's an amazing Ligurian dish
made with crushed walnuts made
into a paste. So stop being so
California.
Source: Wikileaks
The Podesta brothers were famous in Washington
circles for their Italian cooking and big salon and
fund-raising dinners, often cooked by their
mother.
Claim: Comet Ping Pong is at the center of it.
Some pizza-related emails mentioned a
Washington pizzeria, Comet Ping Pong, whose
owner is connected to prominent Democratic
figures. An email about a pizza fund-raiser there
fed speculation about sex parties.
Comet Ping Pong and
OBAMA...and Podesta?.
FROM: James Alefantis 09-27-2008
TO: John Podesta
Hello. Some young lawyer type
friends of mine are hosting an
Obama Fundraiser at Comet Ping
Pong on Thursday Night and then
watching the debate. Should be
about 150 people and they are
raising between 25 and 35
thousand dollars. Would you be
willing to stop by around 8
o'clock or so and make a little
speech. They (and I) would be
thrilled to have you of course.
I understand if you are not
available.
Also, I saw that you are
reading at Politics & Prose
soon. What can we do afterward?
Would you like to have a dinner
at my places?!?
Big or small. What do you
think?
Source: Wikileaks
The pizza parlor owner was swept into the
rumormongering on message boards. Amateur
online sleuths linked the pizzeria’s signage to
satanic symbols. Fake stories emerged putting the
restaurant in the center of a child-trafficking ring.
A conspiracy theorist analyzes Comet Ping Pong’s signage.
DC PizzaGate
Claim: An Instagram photo is proof of a
link between Obama and Comet Ping Pong.
A photo of President Obama playing table tennis
was used by conspiracy theorists to connect him to
the pizza restaurant. In a video, this photo is
introduced with “here is Obama at Comet Ping
Pong.”
Scene from the “#PizzaGate - What We Know So Far” video
YouTube
However, this photo is of a framed picture within
the White House, and the original photograph was
taken inside the White House, not the Comet Ping
Pong restaurant. Mr. Alefantis took the picture of
the photograph at the White House and posted it
on his Instagram account, according to a
spokesperson for the restaurant.
From “Celebrities Playing Table Tennis,” original submission by Timmy La
Inside the White House, where the picture was
taken.
Google Streetview
Claim: Comet Ping Pong and other nearby
businesses use pedophile symbols in logos.
According to an F.B.I. document released by
WikiLeaks, the following symbols are used by
pedophiles to identify sexual preferences.
“Boy lover” “Girl lover”
“Little boy lover” “Child lover”
Conspiracy theorists claimed that other design
elements used by businesses near the Comet Ping
Pong restaurant also resembled pedophile
symbols.
Besta Pizza logo Icon found on
Terasol website
Comet Ping Symbol found in Comet Ping
Pong logo Pong menu
However, countless other major American brand
logos contain similar shapes. Hearts, triangles and
spirals are widely used symbols in business logos.
AOL Wall’s ice-cream
Time Warner MSN
Cable
Claim: Comet Ping Pong had a secret kill
room and posted a picture of it on Instagram.
Fake stories claimed underground tunnels
and child trafficking in the basement.
Instagram
The photo shows a walk-in refrigerator supposedly
in the restaurant, described as part of a network of
underground facilities. However, a reporter can
confirm that there is no basement in Comet Ping
Pong.
Comet’s spokesperson said the photo was taken
during a visit to a restaurant Mr. Alefantis was
considering leasing. Comet uses a low-slung
refrigerator at Buck’s Fishing & Camping, Mr.
Alefantis’s other restaurant two doors down on the
same block, to store produce, cheese and proofing
dough.
The walk-in refrigerator filled with Comet’s ingredients.
Photo by Cecilia Kang
Claim: The owner of Comet Ping Pong
admitted he was a pedophile – on a T-shirt.
Instagram
This photo was found on James Alefantis’s
Instagram account, and #PizzaGate believers
claimed it as proof that he is a pedophile.
However, the man with the black T-shirt was not
James Alefantis. It was a co-owner of a different
restaurant in Washington, named L’Enfant Cafe-
Bar.
(And in case you’re wondering, that restaurant was
named after Pierre Charles L’Enfant, an American
colonist from France who served under George
Washington during the Revolutionary War.)
LivingSocial Presents: L'Enfant…
Claim: John and Tony Podesta personally
kidnapped Madeleine McCann from
her bed at a Portugal resort in 2007.
Another part of the conspiracy theory was a
supposed link between the Podesta brothers and
the child abduction case of Madeleine McCann on
May 3, 2007. Two e-fit (electronic facial
identification technique) photos released by
British detectives were repeatedly used as
evidence.
A conspiracy theory poster comparing the Podesta brothers
and police sketches. This version has been edited to remove
Madeleine McCann’s image.
However, the two e-fits were based on descriptions
of a single suspect by two witnesses, not two
different suspects, a crucial detail that was left out.
According to The Guardian, the witnesses
described the man as “white, aged between 20 and
40, with short brown hair, of medium build,
medium height and clean shaven.” In 2007, Tony
Podesta was 64 and John Podesta was 58.
The information that the Podestas were in Portugal
is solely sourced to “FBI Anon,” quoted in Victurus
Libertas, a conspiracy-minded news site that
suggests, among other things, that the Titanic was
deliberately sunk and that the queen of England is
a reptilian alien.
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