You'll surely have heard about the French bestseller L'Effroyable imposture, the French conspiracy tale about 11 September, by now. Here is a précis of the Effroyable imposture story, from CSICOP's Hoaxwatch page:

President of the French leftist organization Reseau Voltaire, Thierry Meyssan, is rising to world-wide recognition as the auteur one of France’s best-selling books: L’Effroyable Imposture (The Frightening Deception). Meyssan claims that the destruction at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, was not caused by the impact of hijacked American Airlines Flight 77, but rather a truck bomb. He alleges that the U.S. government covered up this fact from the world as part of a larger scheme by the U.S military-industrial complex to covertly orchestrate the September 11th massacres in order to justify the campaign in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East.

According to an April 3, 2002, commentary in the Guardian (UK), the French daily Liberation cited weekly sales of L’Effroyable Imposture at 100,000 copies. Although sales have been brisk, it is uncertain how many French readers actually buy into Meyssan’s claims. He jump-started the book’s popularity in an appearance on the French TV infotainment program “Tout le Monde en Parle” (“Everybody’s Talking About It”). However, the more respectable French media have been unforgiving in their criticism. According to the weekly journal Le Nouvel Observateur, “The theory suits everyone - there are no Islamic extremists and everyone is happy. It eliminates reality.” Liberation renamed the book “A Frightening Confidence Trick” and called it “a tissue of wild and irresponsible allegations, entirely without foundation.”

I have completed the rough draft of an English translation of this book. As of this writing (18 June 2002), rumor has it that the publisher, Editions Carnot, will be releasing an official English translation any day now. My translation should be taken with a grain of salt, it being only a draft. My main concern has been simply to get a readable English-language version of this book out there so that the curious could take a look at it. It's a pretty entertaining book.

I would like to eventually post a finished version of this translation, with my own annotations. This may or may not happen. If the official English translation indeed comes out this summer, the chances are that I will not go to the effort, to be quite honest.

Watch this space for news if you're interested.

A companion volume to L'effroyable imposture has just been published in France. This book is entitled Le Pentagate. I have already posted a translation of the publisher's blurb here.

As with the previous book, I'll be posting my translation right here. There will be a rough draft first, perhaps followed by a more polished translation. As with the previous book, my main objective is just to get this thing out there for the English-speaking public to have a look at.