Alexander Cockburn was an opponent of conspiracism, particularly in regard to the &lt;a href="9/11%20conspiracy%20theories"&gt;9/11 conspiracy theories&lt;/a&gt;, interpreted its rise as a sign of the decline of the American Left. At "CounterPunch" Cockburn and St. Clair ran articles by Manual Garcia, a physicist, on the events of September 11, 2001, challenging the conspiracy theories that have been circling since the attacks. In 1993, Cockburn criticized Janet Reno's prosecution of ritual abuse in the Country Walk case.