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Sorcha Faal is the pseudonym of a self-described conspiracy theory author. Faal combines current news events with storytelling techniques, focusing on an anti-United States government, anti-war movement viewpoint opposing censorship in the U.S. and mass surveillance in the U.S.. Many of Faal's articles, called reports, have gained global notoriety, including in the U.S. where the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used 10 of them in a 2009 report on right-wing terrorism, and in China when the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party named one of them in its top 10 rumor/conspiracy stories for 2010.

Focus and prominence of reports
Since the establishment of its website in 2003, Faal reports focus on an "enemy within" and "enemy above" viewpoint described by Jesse Walker as conspirators lurking inside the nation, indistinguishable from ordinary citizens. Large numbers of people are susceptible to conspiracy theories with sixty-three percent of registered voters in the United States buying into at least one political-conspiracy theory, with many believing in several, and has long been a staple of American political culture where numerous high-level prominent conspiracies have been undertaken and uncovered since the 1960s.

Identity
Though there is no substantial or reliable confirmation as to the identity of Faal, some American mainstream sources claim that this anonymous author works in concert with Russia, while some Russian mainstream media sources claim Faal works within the American elite.

In 2008, Christopher Story, best known for his collaboration with KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn on the 1995 book The Perestroika Deception, published in his International Currency Review (Volume 34) alleged that Faal was a U.S. military intelligence operative working with an Irish source, but provided no credible evidence to support this claim.

In 2011, the leading provider of polling technology for media companies (ESPN, FoxNews, ABC News, Good Morning America, Los Angeles Times, Warner Brothers Television, etc.) SodaHead.com reported that Faal was a disinformation agent for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but provided no reliable evidence to substantiate this claim.

In 2013, the American multiplatform news network The Blaze alleged an identity for Faal in an expansive article that provided no credible proof, or evidence, to support their claim.

Between 2014–2016, the American urban legend website Snopes.com in debunking some Faal reports, while calling Whatdoesitmean.com a "political conspiracy site", provides non-reliable links to an alleged identity, but which cannot be verified.

In 2015, the American magazine The Atlantic alleged in an article, without offering substantial and/or credible proof, that a Faal report was part of a "state propaganda effort" with Russian press agencies regarding the Metrojet Flight 9268 crash over Egypt on October 31, 2015 that killed 224. This article says that Sputnik news agency "got the ball rolling" with their article on this crash, which was followed on the same day by a Faal article claiming that "British officials have made an unseemly leap to speculate on a terrorist plot in the Russian airliner crash over Sinai last weekend", which was then followed two days later by pro-Vladimir Putin pundit Dmitry Konstantinovich Kiselyov saying on his flagship news show Vesti Nedeli on Russian state television that the United States and its allies cut a deal with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant "not to touch the civilian aircraft of the Western Coalition". This same allegation against Faal was echoed by the Washington D.C. based politically conservative news and opinion website The Daily Caller.

In 2016, Russian newspaper Trud claimed that Faal was affiliated with foreign intelligence services:

In 2016, Russian channel REN TV alleged, without offering proof, that Sorcha Faal was a portal for unnamed intelligence services.

Reports used by U.S. DHS
Concerns that Faal was in some way affiliated with the U.S. government were first raised in 2009 by the conservative political advocacy organization Americans for Limited Government when they posted on their website a Freedom of Information Act reply from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that stated 10Faal articles had been used by the DHS in compiling their controversial report titled Right-wing Extremism Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.

Report named by China as a top 10 rumor/conspiracy story for 2010
In 2011, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party People's Daily named a Faal report about a "stargate" opening in the Gulf of Aden as one of their top 10 rumor/conspiracy stories for the year 2010.

Highlighted reports

 * In 2010, Thierry Meyssan, the editor-in-chief and founder of the international non-profit organization Voltaire Network wrote an indepth article revealing how a Faal article about the 2010 Haiti earthquake claiming that it was caused by a U.S. earthquake weapon made its way to being the official position of then Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and which was then reported by Iran's official news agency Press TV and the American Fox News Channel.
 * In 2014, Iran's "semi-official" Fars News Agency published in its entirety a Faal report claiming that secret U.S. government documents obtained by Edward Snowden proved a "U.S.-Alien-Hitler" link. This story was then picked up and reported on by The Washington Post and The Huffington Post in the United States.
 * In 2014, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported that a Faal report about a missing nuclear weapon at the United States Army installation Fort Carson (located in Colorado) had been translated into several languages, including Russian, and had spread rapidly on the Internet, but wasn't true. The American politically conservative news and opinion website The Daily Caller, also, reported that this Faal report was not true.
 * In 2015, Jason Colavito, the American author of The Cult of Alien Gods, wrote an extensive, and highly critical, article about Faal's depiction of Aryan race and stated: It is interesting that Faal reverses fringe history’s usual glorification of the Aryans by making them the product of evil rather than the exemplars of all that is good.
 * In 2015, the Russian socio-political newssite in their commenting on a Faal report alleging that the U.S. bombed Russian troops in Syria stated that many Russian experts believed that very informed people and some of the intelligence services were behind Faal and did not say that Faal's report was either false or incorrect.
 * In 2016, a Faal report alleging that two U.S. military helicopters were shot down by Turkey over Syria was widely reported by mainstream Russia media sources including Свободная пресса—‌Википедия and Trud with the Sputnik news agency (in their German language edition) reporting that the United States Department of Defense denied this happened with Pentagon spokeswoman Michelle Baldanza stating "This is an absolute lie" and Trud still commenting on it a subsequent article about Turkey.
 * In 2016, a Faal report that U.S. President Barack Obama was purchasing a home in Dubai made news in this most populous city in the UAE, located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf, and was countered by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania debunking nonprofit website FactCheck.org who stated This rumor started with an article posted on Jan 10 by a disreputable news site, WhatDoesItMean.com, under the headline, "Top U.S. Admiral Fired For Questioning Obama Purchase Of Mansion in Dubai.
 * In 2016, the weekly newspapers Doncaster Free Press and The Yorkshire Post (in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England) substantially commented on a Faal report that alleged British fighter jets had been in a battle with a UFO. These newspapers denied (in virtually identical articles ) that the British government had issued a Defense Advisory Notice prohibiting their publishing the facts of this event that Faal had alleged. They did, however, admit that people across this region reported hearing massive explosions, and in a second Doncaster Free Press article about this event posted a video stating that these two massive explosions were caused by sonic booms. The Daily Telegraph, also, reported that these sonic booms were caused when two RAF Typhoon jets were scrambled to identify an unresponsive civilian aircraft and escort it to landing. Faal's allegations about this event were, also, reported on by the British national tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror == References ==