Webster Griffin Tarpley (born 1946) is an American author, historian, journalist, lecturer and critic of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Some of his publications revolve around conspiracy theories. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Languages from Princeton University in 1966, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, he became a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Turin, Italy. He later earned a Master of Arts in humanities from Skidmore College and a Ph.D. in early modern history from the Catholic University of America. Tarpley maintains that the September 11 attacks were engineered by a rogue network of the Military–industrial complex and intelligence agencies as a false flag operation.