Today is the second anniversary of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London. Kevin Shay, guest-blogging for Daniel Radosh, notes that Britain has its own “it was an inside job” movement, as does Spain.

The funny thing is that there really is an international conspiracy to execute terrorist attacks. If one merely has the kind of mind that is drawn to rumors of skullduggery and hidden connections between bad guys, the loosely-connected worldwide network of radical Islamist groups provides plenty of grist for the mill. There’s something more going on here, and I think I know what it is: fear. Conspiracies to consolidate power and money are a whole lot less scary than conspiracies to kill a lot of infidels for religious reasons. Conspiracy theorizing, after all, is an exercise in putting the world in order. It stands to reason that people who just can’t wrap their heads around the crazy motives of our enemies would look for alternate explanations. This is why when 9/11 conspiracy theorists email me, my standard retort is to ask who’s really “afraid of the truth.”