Talk:Ian Stuart Spiro

Drastically undersourced article

The article is of very low significance, and grossly undersourced, with no references given for most of the claims. Deletion seems the best option, removing all the unsourced content would leave almost no content. Rgr09 (talk) 00:05, 26 May 2017 (UTC)

@Rgr09: Imagine running into you here! The San Diego County Sheriff's Department's summary on pages 56 to 59 in the FBI records states that less than 24 hours after the Spiro family was found dead there were abundant rumors that "Ian Spiro and his family had fallen victim to an international conspiracy" and that there was "no evidence to support those allegations". It also states that 48 hours later they had probably cause that Ian Spiro had murdered his family. This AP report on November 8 states that papers were tying Spiro to Terry Waite and Iran-Contra through Oliver North, and it looks like many of these allegations began with former hostage David Jacobsen (who "wouldn’t elaborate" on his sources) and author Con Coughlin (who just happened to also have the exclusive on the Habbush letter in 2003). Given that Coughlin wrote about Spiro prior to his death, I suspect there is a modicum of truth to him having had some connection to the British government; however, the death conspiracy stuff is certainly bunk. I have no idea of how to build this into a proper article, so redirect to an appropriate article may be an option. - Location (talk) 15:45, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

@Location: We've got to stop meeting like this! I found my way to this article through claims made about Spiro by Michael Riconosciuto, which were then excreted into the well-spread PROMIS-Inslaw-Danny Casolaro conspiracist fertilizer. The external link to Lycaeum at the bottom is to one of the multiple books about this. There are more random bits of Riconosciuto's BS spread around other articles. It's not related to anything except random insanity, don't know where to put it. Rgr09 (talk) 00:36, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

The UPI article now referenced in the article was a great find! It's damn hard to track down the resolution of the BIG stories that end with a tiny poof. You, comprade, are one steely eyed wikipedia editor. Rgr09 (talk) 06:24, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

Your compliment is over the top. Although there is more to add by those who are interested in the subject, it is certainly nice to have one article that can tie things up quickly. The San Diego Magazine article cited is another type of source I really like in that it gives some background for the originations of this particular conspiracy theory:

The media blitz was spiced by British journalists, who were widely quoted and used as sources by other reporters. London journalist Con Coughlin, who had written a book on Middle East intrigue, flew to San Diego and made the rounds of TV news shows. Coughlin portrayed Spiro as a con artist but also linked him to all sorts of events in the spy world.

In a fairly typical example of British tabloid journalism, Coughlin authored a front-page story stating without equivocation—and without any attribution—that the Avenida Maravillas address was a “CIA safe house.” The international wires dutifully picked up the story, and the San Diego Union ran a prominent story with quotes from the owners of the house, denying their rental was a CIA front.

Journalists know that everybody loves a conspiracy theory, so here we are in 2020 trying to clean up their mess. - Location (talk) 15:15, 1 August 2020 (UTC)