[my-cowardly-alt]

Not Amazon, but Bezos' startup Blue Origin is a defense contractor, currently bidding to supply the rocket engines for US national security launches (Air Force, NRO). He's one of two finalists (with Aerojet Rocketdyne), with a decision expected in 2016 or 2017.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-lockheed-venture-developi...

I think it's reasonable to say it's a conflict of interest, trying to be both a newspaper reporting on the intelligence industry, and a major contractor for that industry at the same time.

(I apologize for creating a throwaway to post this; I'd prefer not to annoy AWS).

[wallace_f]

Years ago I reserved this kind of level of paranoia for the tin foil hat types, but to me now, it seems not only reasonable, but prudent.

[jacquesm]

It's a sobering thought that we are still thinking about some as 'tin foil hat types', which makes you wonder what we'll think of them years from now.

[nitrogen]

I realize this is an old thread, but it occurs to me that one of the problems is that implausible conspiracies are lumped together with plausible, likely operations and dismissed as a group with a single label.

[wallace_f]

I agree wholeheartedly.

Apparently the CIA popularized the term 'conspiracy theory,' in the 60s, though I don't have knowledge on the veracity of that claim. It's clear that at least a non-pejorative term would be useful.