Sunday Mercury - The Grassy Knoll

Dr David Kelly Death: Mystery surrounding helicopter

2011-05-15T14:55:53Z

COPS last night refused to comment on reports that a helicopter mysteriously landed at the scene of weapons expert Dr David Kelly's death shortly after his body was found.

Details released under the Freedom of Information Act show the aircraft stayed on the ground for five minutes before leaving.

Dr Andrew Watt, who has raised doubts about the circumstances around Dr Kelly's death, said: "If the purpose of the helicopter flight was innocent, one has to ask why it was kept secret."

Kelly's death came soon after he was named as the source of reports questioning the Government's "dodgy" dossier arguing the case for war in Iraq.

The Hutton Inquiry found the Government weapons inspector committed suicide, but paramedics, doctors and MPs have questioned the official account of his death.

Roswell - UFO cover-up?

2010-11-12T12:25:00Z

The Case

On 7 July 1947 a rancher in New Mexico reported the discovery of a strange flying saucer that had crash landed in the desert 40 miles north of the small Air Force town of Roswell.
With its strange markings and unusual design, the find soon sparked a furious debate about where the bizarre craft could have come from.
The summer of 1947 had seen dozens of UFO sightings over Roswell.
Locals reported blinking lights, hovering discs and oddly-shaped aircraft in the clear night skies.
So when the Air Force issued a press release saying that a flying disc had been found, the rumour mill went into overdrive.
To those convinced that we are not alone in the universe, Roswell was the defining moment that saw years of UFO sightings and alien encounters backed up with cold, hard evidence.
But the UFO theory was quickly dispelled by military officials, who claimed the object they had recovered was a humble weather balloon, and for more than 30 years the eyes of the world turned away from the New Mexico desert.
Then, in 1980, retired Major Jesse Marcel, who had been involved in the recovery of the craft, told the National Enquirer that the military had covered-up the discovery of an alien spaceship at Roswell.
Since that interview the incident has gained legendary status in the conspiracy community,
For millions across the globe, it is the strongest proof yet that the US government has concealed the existence of aliens for more than 60 years. The American military continues to refute the claims of UFO enthusiasts, and intelligence chiefs have stuck to their "weather balloon" story since 1947.
So have we all been duped by a government cover-up to convince the public that little green men and flying saucers are make believe, or is Roswell just another UFO hoax?

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The Official Story

The US government's official version of the Roswell find is simple and unequivocal. A weather balloon crashed in the desert and was recovered by military personal after a local rancher reported a wreckage on his land.
Press officer Walter Haut's statement on July 8 that a flying disc had been recovered on the Foster ranch north of Roswell was quickly dismissed by General Roger Ramey, who held a press conference the next day to put forward the weather balloon explanation. Parts of the balloon were even paraded in front of an expectant collection of reporters.
Major Jesse Marcel, who was in charge of security for the military's nuclear test sites across the US and the Pacific, backed up this theory at the time due to the sensitive nature of his position within the armed forces.
Both Marcel and Haut would later claim that the recovered object was an alien spaceship, and that the weather balloon had been substituted for the craft after it was taken to Fort Worth for further testing.
In the early 1990s, when interest in the Roswell incident was at its peak, the air force revealed that it had been carrying out tests in 1947 on a high-altitude balloon as part of Project Mogul, in an attempt to detect Russian nuclear tests.

The Conspiracy Theory

UFO watchers believe that the US military discovered an alien craft and extraterrestrial bodies, and concealed the find from the American public.
Conspiracy theorists say the spaceship gave priceless intelligence to the US on alien technology, which could have proved vital in the burgeoning Cold War against Russia.
The cover-up also allowed the government to carry out an autopsy on the dead space travellers, and gain an insight into the physiology of these extraterrestrial beings.
The conspiracy theory started when Major Marcel broke his silence after retiring from the armed forces in the late 1970s.
In 1978 he described the bizarre markings, the strange metals and the unusual make-up of the materials he found at the Roswell crash site to UFO investigator Stanton T Friedman. When he repeated his evidence about the strange hieroglyphics and super-strong metallic shell of the craft to the National Enquirer in 1980, the conspiracy theory began to grow.
Dozens of others came forward, including William Haut, the press officer who sparked the initial interest in the story. He revealed that he was asked to take part in a plan to divert attention away from the crash site.
In a sworn affidavit in 2002 he claimed that he was shown the craft recovered from the ranch in a hangar at Roswell Air Base. Haut described the spaceship as a 15-foot-long egg-shaped construction made of a paper-thin, incredibly strong metal with no windows or landing gear. He also claims to have seen two bodies in the hanger with abnormally large heads.
Theorists also point to the evidence of "Mac" Brazel, foreman of the Foster Ranch where the craft was discovered, who gave interviews to the Roswell Daily Record and Associated Press on 8 July 1947, in which he dismissed the military's official story.
Citing several other weather balloons he had recovered on the ranch, he said: "I am sure what I found was not any weather balloon."
A string of ex-army staff from both Fort Worth and Roswell came forward in the 1990s to reveal their own encounters with UFOs and aliens.
Almost to a man, they described small, lightweight metallic crafts, and thin, human-like aliens with enlarged heads and eyes.

Pros

- All of those present at the original recovery of the craft, most notably Major Marcel and ranchman Brazel, described a metallic material "not of this earth". Both men were familiar with the design, properties and construction of a weather balloon. Marcel suggested that the metal could not be crumpled up and instantly returned to its original shape. While it was wafer-thin it was also strong and indestructable. This evidence cast serious doubt on the "weather balloon" explanation.

- The hieroglyphics found on the material recovered at Roswell are not consistent with a weather balloon and were not recognised as belonging to any earthly language by any of the men who looked at them.

- It would have been simple for the armed forces to "switch out" the flying saucer for the remnants of a weather balloon before the press conference. If an alien craft really had landed, then a cover-up would clearly have been in the best interests of the US government. The ability to harness alien technology for future wars would be of vital strategic interest, and provided motive for concealing the find from the public.

- The present governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, has said that the results of archeological digs near various "crash sites" around Roswell have proved "intriguing". In 2004, the former democratic Presidential contender wrote: "The mystery surrounding this crash has never been adequately explained--not by independent investigators, and not by the U.S government."

- Stanton T Friedman, who carried out the initial interview with Marcel, claims that leaked documents, known as Majestic 12, reveal the existence of an agency within the government that is actively engaged in suppressing the truth about Roswell and other alien landings.

- Barbara Dugger, granddaughter of Sheriff George Wilcox, said her grandmother told her the Sheriff had gone to the ranch and seen four alien bodies. He was apparently told by military police not to talk to anyone about the corpses.

- An alien account by Barney Barnett, retold to a pair of UFO researchers in 1980, described a flying saucer crash site, and the recovery of alien corpses, 150 miles from the Foster ranch. He and a group of archaeologists claim to have stumbled upon an alien craft, only to be led away by military personnel.

Cons

- The description of the materials found by Marcel and the ranch foreman could tally with those from a weather balloon. Though their later statements about the properties of the metal cast doubt on the balloon theory, the government's description of events is plausible, particularly given Roswell's use as a testing site for various new aircraft.

- A large number of UFO sightings around Roswell is perfectly normal, considering the amount of military aircraft being tested at the base near the town.

- Given the remote nature of the ranch and the swift response of the military, no material from the crash survived for testing by independent labs. Therefore the theorists lack scientific evidence to back up the claims of those who believe this was an alien spacecraft.

- Doubt has been cast on the reliability of many of the "witnesses" who came forward after Marcel, as many of them were paid for the information they provided. Haut's 2002 affidavit was actually written by someone else and signed at a later date by the aging ex-military man.

- Sheridan Cavitt, the Counter Intelligence Services officer who visited the site of the crash, claims the material found there was little more than "bamboo sticks, aluminium foil and scotch tape".

- Warrant Officer Irving Newton, weather forecaster at Fort Worth, was shown the material from Roswell as General Ramey sought to identify the craft which had crashed. He swore under oath that the material he was handed was definitely part of a weather balloon. But was this material really from Roswell, or just a dummy weather balloon being used to fool the public?

- Hoax footage from the so-called "alien autopsy" has damaged the reputation of the Roswell truth movement. Though serious and well-respected men have given compelling witness statements, the false accounts of hundreds of others have damaged their credibility by association.

Conclusion

A government cover-up of the discovery of a UFO at Roswell has become one of the most widely believed conspiracy theories in history. However, evidence to support the theory seems shaky. While Marcel seems to be a reasonably reliable witness, he says nothing of alien bodies and his description of the bizarre materials he found at the Foster ranch could be consistent with the remnants of a weather balloon. There are some intriguing questions that remain about Roswell, not least the disparity between the first person accounts of those who recovered the strange metals from the ranch, and the description of the material shown to reporters a day later. A government cover-up would certainly be in the best interests of the US authorities, and who is to say that isn't exactly what happened? If I had to place a bet, I'd say the object discovered on the Foster ranch was probably an experimental military aircraft of some kind. Roswell may not provide the concrete proof UFO watchers are desperate for, but that doesn't mean to say that the truth isn't out there somewhere.....

Martin Bormann - Nazi ideologue or Russian spy?

2010-11-02T16:34:05Z

The Case

Martin Bormann was among the most sinister and feared members of the Nazi high command.
A trusted member of Hitler's inner circle, and head of the chancellery, Bormann was the FÃÅhrer's right hand man.
He was regarded by the Nazis as a true believer, a zealot to the fascist cause, so completely committed to the Third Reich's odious aims of racial purification that he was above suspicion.
But as the Nazi regime crumbled, and the Soviet troops stormed Berlin, things rapidly changed for this pragmatic bureaucrat. It is suggested that Bormann may not be the dedicated, boot-licking Hitler devotee that he made himself out to be.
Conspiracy theorists believe Bormann was in fact a Russian spy, a murky contact known to Stalin's intelligence chiefs as "Werther".
There is little doubt that a high-ranking German had been turned by their communist foes, but Bormann was not just any member of the high command, he was the personification of the Nazi stooge, Hitler's personal secretary, and a fearsome ideologue.
If the Russians did turn Bormann, it must be regarded as the espionage coup of the century.
But could a rabid, FÃÅhrer-worshipping Nazi like Bormann really have fed information to Hitler's most hated foe, and if he did, how on earth did he manage to get away with it?

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The Official Story

Bormann joined the Nazi party in 1925 and quickly rose through the ranks.
By the time Hitler seized power in 1933, Bormann was a trusted lieutenant and was handed the plum role of party chancellor.
Initially he lagged behind Rudolf Hess in the FÃÅhrer's pecking order, but as the war in Europe intensified, the ruthless and bloodthirsty Bormann soon emerged as the perfect Nazi to become Hitler's deputy.
When Hess left for Britain, Bormann stepped up to become the FÃÅhrer's right hand man, earning a reputation as a brutal, fanatical Nazi.
All of Hitler's papers, his diary, his day-to-day movements, were governed by Bormann, he alone controlled access to the leader, and therefore wielded huge power over the direction of the war effort.
A devious, manipulative power-broker, he jousted with SS chief Heinrich Himmler for dominance in Berlin.
Bormann was instrumental in devising and implementing the final solution, and his role in the holocaust was well-documented during the Nuremberg war crimes trials that followed the war.
Much of the administrative work that went into the mass transportation and extermination of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and other groups went through Bormann to Hitler, and some were even authorised by the deputy leader.
Such was his obsession with exterminating Jews, Bormann reportedly made furniture from the remains of those killed in the concentration camps.
As the war drew to a close and Berlin was surrounded Bormann was present in the Fuhrerbunker where Hitler would take his own life, even acting as a witness to the leader's last will and testament.
He fled the bunker with two other senior Nazis, and was reported dead by Artur Axmann, a fellow escapee and leader of the Hitler youth who had spotted Bormann's dead body near a rail line after they had separated in their bid to escape Berlin.
This account remained in serious doubt for five decades, despite the discovery of remains on the site Axmann identified as the scene of Bormann's demise in 1972.
As the only identification that could be carried out was based on a doctor's memory of Bormann's dental records from 1945, this account still remained in serious doubt, until a DNA test on the suspected Bormann body in 1998 confirmed the corpse to be his.
His remains were burned and scattered into the sea.

The Conspiracy Theory

The theory begins with Bormann's escape from Berlin.
Conspiracists claim that Axmann, a committed fanatic who wanted to continue Nazism from his hiding place in Austria, was not a credible witness, and could not even say how Bormann had died.
It is suggested that Bormann made good his escape, fleeing through Austria and on to one of a dozen different locations pointed to by theorists.
The two most popular conspiracies are:
1. That Bormann, who had unprecedented access to the funds of the Nazi party, had created a slush fund for fleeing party members, and was able to use this to escape to South America, where he lived into old age in either Chile or Argentina, and was easily able to bribe his way through any questions about his past.
2. The former deputy FÃÅhrer, a trusted subordinate with the ear of Hitler, spent the war passing detailed intelligence on German troop movements to the Soviets under the code name Werther. As the Red Army surrounded Berlin, he split from Axmann and his fellow Nazis and handed himself over to the Russians, securing a life of luxury paid for by the communist state for his role in winning the war for Stalin.
Nazi hunters, including the celebrated Simon Wiesenthal, argued fervently that Axmann's account was a lie, and that Bormann had been allowed to escape to South America.
But the sensational theory that he was a Russian spy has received even more attention from the conspiracy community.
Former Wehrmacht General Reinhard Gehlen made the allegations in the 1970s after becoming convinced that the only way Stalin could have been so well informed was if he had a spy inside the Nazi elite.
Fingers were pointed at Bormann based on information received from Soviet intelligence officers, and on the fact that as private secretary to the FÃÅhrer, Bormann would have had access to everything he needed to pass sensitive information to the Russians.

Pros

- Axmann was a notorious Nazi zealot, who was caught within months of his escape while trying to restart Nazism in Austria. If he felt he could aid a fellow ideologue's escape from Allied clutches, he would certainly have lied about seeing Bormann's body. As he is the only witness, the account of Bormann never escaping Berlin is shaky.

- British Nazi hunter Ian Bell says Bormann hid in the Austrian Alps, and that he spotted the top-ranking Nazi trying to escape through Italy. He claims to have tracked him to Bari and watched him board a ship after being told not to engage him by the top brass.

- When Bormann's body was exhumed for DNA testing in the 90s it was covered in red clay rather than the yellow sand common beneath the soil of Germany. This suggests his body was transported from somewhere else before being tested.

- In 1972 the Nuremberg file on Bormann was reopened after compelling evidence was presented that he had not died in Berlin, and could still have been alive in South America.

- The Red Army sometimes knew movement orders for German units in the field within hours of their release to German commanders. The only way they could gain such information was to have a mole at command level, with Bormann the prime candidate due to his unfettered access to documents.

- In his book Hitler's Traitor, author Louis Kilzer, makes a powerful case for Bormann being "Werther" the high-ranking Russian spy. He details how information was passed through Switzerland back to Stalin, and how only Bormann could have provided it.

Cons

- While lax about the security of some information, Hitler was a paranoid megalomanic who constantly assessed the threat coming from those beneath him. It is hard to imagine Bormann operating with impunity for more than five years to pass intelligence to Russia at the height of the war.

- Bormann was hated by fellow Nazi leaders for his closeness to Hitler and his repeated efforts to enhance his own standing at the expense of others. Had he been passing information to the Soviets, Himmler, Goring, or any of the other lieutenants who sought to undermine Bormann's position would have been able to discover it, and would not have hesitated to expose Bormann.

- The DNA testing seems to back up Axmann's account of Bormann's death as he attempted to flee Berlin. However, this counts for little as the body tested in the 90s could easily have been dumped at any stage by the German government. It is not conclusive proof that Bormann failed to escape.

Conclusion

Martin Bormann was a fearsome Nazi, a cruel, devious man who manipulated his way right to the top of Hitler's high command. That he was also working for the hated Soviet's was entirely possible, for however committed to the horrors of the holocaust and the twisted Nazi world view he was, he remained an arch pragmatist, willing to play all sides against the middle. Axmann's account of Bormann's death is unconvincing, and the numerous sightings of him all over the world suggest he did escape Berlin. The Russians would surely have protected such a valuable asset, a man who had helped them win the war, and had signed the death warrant for the Third Reich through his treachery. As more and more documents are declassified, the case against Bormann strengthens, and it seems this conspiracy theory could well become historical fact in the future. For now it remains an enthralling theory, with some gaps in the evidence that have yet to be filled...

Aliens targetting our Nukes?

2010-09-27T14:15:42Z

This theory has it all, little green men, a Cold War backdrop, nuclear missiles, and retired army men going public with their 'proof' that humans are not alone in the universe.
In a nutshell, a group of former US troops will present their case later today that extraterrestrial beings frequently visit the earth and tamper with our nuclear weapons in both the UK and US.
Captain Robert Salas and his five ex-military cohorts say they have cast iron evidence that aliens have been tampering with minutemen missiles, and that UFOs have caused major blackouts that threatened to spark a nuclear holocaust at the height of the Cold War.
You can read more about Salas' claims here.
This could be the long-awaited proof of alien existence that X Files enthusiasts have been holding their breath for.
Or it could be a tall tale born out of a small grain of truth - harking back to a time when experimental Russian crafts were being developed to interrupt signals and communications at allied nuclear sites.
The question is - do you want to believe?

Dr David Kelly - Pressure for an inquest mounts

2010-08-20T16:06:01Z

After a week of speculation the Attorney General has refused to release secret documents about the death of Iraqi weapons inspector Dr David Kelly.
This decision comes after leading medical experts, Dr Kelly's family and even members of the ruling coalition government, called for a full inquest into his alleged "suicide".
The weight of medical evidence against the official version of his death is staggering, and conspiracy theories abound over the possible involvement of the government, rogue MI6 agents or even Iraqi death squads.
Here is our original detailed look at the conspiracy theory surrounding Dr Kelly's death, make up your own mind as to where the truth lies.....

Russian Apartment Bombings: Coronation of the new Tsar?

2010-08-11T12:47:11Z

The Case

In 1999 Russia stood at a crossroads.
The newly capitalist nation was beset by internal unrest, torn apart by rivalries between billionaire oligarchs redrawing the map for their own commercial interests and constantly under threat of terrorism from Chechen rebels seeking an independent homeland.
Into this chaotic scene stepped Vladimir Putin, now familiar as the shirtless, hunting, fishing, Russian ironman who would rule his country like a modern day Tsar.
Back then he was a determined, ambitious, former commander in the FSB, the new secret service fast gaining a reputation as the KGB of the 21st century.
Putin's bid for power was based on his tough stance on Chechnya, his no-nonsense approach to terrorism, and his promise to rebuild a strong Russia from the ashes of its post-USSR breakdown.
As President Boris Yeltsin was facing the boot over corruption allegations, a string of apartment bombings rocked the cities of Moscow, Buynaksk, and Volgodonsk - killing 300 people and injuring over a thousand.
The attacks would be the catalyst for a second war against the Chechen rebels, but more than that they precipitated a massive shift in the base of power, and coincided the emergence of the previously unheralded Putin as Russia's pre-eminent political force. Within a year Putin had amassed a huge base of voters, and was popularly elected President for his handling of the war.
But the story did not end there.
With the Putin regime firmly in place, dissident former spies, including Alexander Litvinenko, who died in agony from polonium poisoning in London in 2006, came forward to warn that the bombings were a covert FSB operation.
Litvinenko and others suggested that the secret service had carried out the attacks as part of a false flag conspiracy to paint the Chechen rebels as the culprits and launch the war which would bring Putin to power.
As the whistle blowers began to be silenced, the conspiracy theory only grew stronger.
The question is, could the FSB pull this off, and just how far up the chain of power does this theory go?

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The Official Story

The war between Russia and Chechnya has raged ever since the break-up of the old Soviet Union.
A small region in the North Caucasus with a population of just a million people, the Chechen's have sought independence for decades.
Between 1994 and 1996 Chechen guerilla forces successfully repelled the might of the million-man Russian army as they secured control of their homeland.
For many in Moscow, particularly those with a military or espionage background, this was a humiliation, a sign that Russia's formidable strength and status as a world superpower had eroded to an embarrassing degree.
There was hunger in Russia for revenge, and still the state faced the spectre of terror attacks by Chechen freedom fighters determined to secede from the motherland.
Islamist militancy also infected the fledgling republic, and by 1998 a state of emergency had been declared, with kidnappings, terror attacks and violence widespread.
By 1999 Russia was already at war in nearby Dagestan, and the same military commanders who had failed to conquer Chechnya three years earlier were hungry for a second chance.
On 4 September 1999 a huge explosion ripped through an apartment block in the city of Buynaksk in Dagestan killing 64 people, mainly Russian soldiers and their families stationed in town for the war against the Dagestan militants.
Just five days later, the terror spread to Moscow as a large bomb destroyed a city centre apartment block late at night, timed to cause maximum civilian casualties and costing 94 lives.
On September 13, another bomb was planted in flats on the outskirts of Moscow, this time killing 118.
By now Russia was gripped by fear and all fingers were pointed squarely at Chechen extremists.
Another bomb was defused outside a Moscow apartment block on September 14 and two days later 17 people lost their lives when a truck packed with explosives demolished flats in the southern city of Volgodonsk.
Less than a week after the Volgodonsk attack Prime Minister Putin, looking every inch the dominant Russian war leader, appeared on state TV to announce an aerial bombardment of Grozny, the Chechen capital, in response to the bombings.
The ground war was launched a month later, and Putin's assent to the Presidency became an inevitability.
According to the Russian authorities Achemez Gochiyayev, a Chechen rebel leader, remains the prime suspect for the bombings.

The Conspiracy Theory

Though Chechnya was a republic torn apart by refugee crises, internal violence, organised crime, kidnappings and Islamist fanaticism, it could not be regarded as an organised terrorist state in 1999.
The level of chaos was just too great for the embattled population, still recovering from the ravages of the First Chechen War, to be able to launch such a co-ordinated attack on Russia.
Besides, they stood to gain very little from the attacks, save for taking lives from their oppressors and exacting revenge for the civilian casualties they suffered in the first war.
So conspiracy theorists have laid the blame for the devastating apartment bombings campaign on the FSB, the newly formed secret service modelled on the KGB and staffed by former Soviet spies bent on returning Russia to its former glory.
The theory runs that the bombings were a classic False Flag operation, in the same mould as the Reichstag Fire or the Pearl Harbour Conspiracy, which were planned and executed by the FSB to frame the Chechen rebels and provide an excuse for Russia to complete the job it couldn't finish in the mid-90s.
Evidence for the theory comes from the books of former FSB men like Alexander Litvinenko, the dissident spy poisoned at a London hotel in 2006 after speaking out against his ex-employers, and the essays of crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya, shot dead the same year in her elevator in an assassination which has still not been solved.
The whistle blowers have been quickly silenced, pouring fuel on the fire of the conspiracy theory.
That the apartment bombings achieved the aims of both the FSB and Vladimir Putin has convinced many conspiracists that where there is smoke, there must be fire.

Pros

- At the height of the 1999 bombings, on the night of September 22, an incident in the city of Ryazan hit the local news. A resident in a local apartment block spotted three men acting suspiciously and contacted the police. The men fled before cops arrived, but bomb disposal experts found sacks filled with military explosive RDX at the scene. Images of three suspects were circulated and the trio were promptly arrested. A phone call had been intercepted to one of the three from the FSB office in Moscow urging them to "split up and make your own way out". The three "bombers" produced FSB identification and were released without charge.

- False flag operations were used by KGB officers in the past to justify military action and detention in the old Soviet Union. The KGB and its former officers was the guiding force behind the FSB.

- The military compound RDX was found to be the main explosive used in the terror attacks, although the FSB would later insist it was a different substance made in Chechnya. RDX would have been very easy for the Russian secret services to get their hands on, and is only produced at one facility, a closely guarded complex in the city of Perm, over a thousand miles from Chechnya.

- The criminal justice system in Russia has come in for criticism for being controlled by the political elite, therefore question marks remain over the convictions of two Chechen fighters over the bombings.

- Litvinenko was clearly the victim of a very public, very painful assassination, and his outspoken criticism of the Russian leadership is widely believed to have led to his untimely death.His murder certainly suggests that he knew further details, and could have been even more damaging to the FSB as one of its most high profile whistle blowers.

- The murder of Politkovskaya bears all the hallmarks of a classic KGB hit, as does that of Litvinenko. The fact that they were both being silenced, along with others, suggests there could be more to the conspiracy theory than just idle speculation.

- Leading lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin, an independent investigator brought in to examine the case, discovered evidence of FSB agents renting apartments in the blocks that were hit in the terror attack. He was arrested just days before he was due to publish his findings, and sentenced by a military court to four years inside for disclosing state secrets.

Cons

- Respected counter terrorism experts from the US and other states outside of Russia believe the apartment bombings to be the work of Wahhabist Islamic extremists from Dagestan led by Ibn Al Khattab.

- No FSB officer or politician has ever been successfully tried or convicted over the bombings.

- The death of Litvinenko, while showing clear signs of links back to Russian secret services, could have been orchestrated for myriad reasons, and does not, of itself, prove the complicity of the Russian authorities in the 1999 bombings.

- Two Chechen rebels belonging to the group the Russian authorities say committed the attacks, have been tried and convicted of involvement, and even confessed to some involvement in the bombings.

- The FSB dismissed the Ryazan attempted bombing as a training exercise, although Trepashkin later testified that there was no training exercise in Ryazan.

Conclusion

With so many questions unanswered about the apartment bombings the truth is hard to establish. What is clear is that the Russian government does not want to be asked those questions, and will go to extraordinary lengths to make sure the answers remain a state secret. There is not enough evidence to definitively say that Putin or the FSB were involved in the attacks. But there is enough circumstantial proof that some elements within the secret services had a hand in the process, and the end result was certainly beneficial for both Putin and his old comrades at the FSB. As the world moved on and Russia became a partner in the War on Terror sparked by the 9/11 terror attacks, these apartment bombings became forgotten, and Putin gained a seat at the top table of world politics. It seems we may never know just how far he and his secret service pals were prepared to go in order to get him there......

The Spear of Destiny - Relic or Rubbish?

2010-07-22T16:44:28Z

The Case

From Napoleon to Hitler, some of the most powerful dictators in history have sought and obtained the Lance of Longinus - also known as the Spear of Destiny.
Said to be the holy sword which was used to slice open Jesus Christ at his Crucifixion, the blade is one of the most precious archeological pieces in the world.
Currently believed to be in the possession of an Austrian museum, myths and rumours have circulated for generations about the spear's supposed mystical powers.
Legend has it that the tip of the spear could allow its owner to rule the world, and the Fuhrer certainly believed in its power, enough to make it his number one priority when invading Austria.
Hitler is understood to have carried the artefact with him in the belief that it could make his Nazi army the rulers of the planet for all eternity.
Where the spear came from, whether it is the blade that pierced the skin of Christ, and what powers it truly possesses are all subject to endless conspiracy theories and folk stories.
Questions still surround the relic.
Could the Spear of Destiny really be the reason Hitler invaded Austria?
Will it be safe in its new location should another maniac come searching for it?
But the most important question remains - How much of this tale is myth, and how much is fact?

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The Official Story

According to the Gospel of St John a Roman soldier called Longinus used his spear to stab Jesus as he lay dying on the cross.
"One of the soldiers with a spear opened his side and there came out blood and water" the apostle wrote.
Discovered in the late sixth century at Mount Sion, and later venerated as a religious artefact, the lance used by Longinus survived as one of the most treasured relics of the crucifixion.
From their the history of the lance becomes murky, and the most convincing modern claim is that it belonged to the Holy Roman Empire from the eighth century - becoming known as the "Vienna lance".
It is this spear, which is said to have been used at the crucifixion and has also been combined with a nail from the cross, that Hitler sought, and that is known among conspiracy theorists as the "Spear of Destiny".
During Hitler's "Anschluss" with the country of his birth, it was removed from Vienna and taken to Nuremberg, where it was placed into a hidden chamber.
It was discovered by a US soldier after the end of World War II and identified by US General George Patton as being the fabled "spear of destiny".
It was tested by scientists in 2003, who determined that the spear itself dated from the seventh century. However, they found that the nail that had been set into the weapon was consistent with the length, age and metallic make-up of those used to nail Jesus to the cross.
After the war the spear was returned to Austria as the Nazi's haul of treasures were handed back to their rightful owners.

The Conspiracy Theory

The lance has enormous significance in terms of both its religious value, and its mythical links with the occult.
A devout believer in the power of the occult, Hitler desired the Spear of Destiny to make his army unbeatable on the battlefield.
Legend has it that the owner of the lance cannot be defeated, and can summon dark mystical powers to ravage the forces of his enemies.
Hitler immediately ordered that upon Germany's assumption of power in Austria, the lance be brought to him, and kept in a secret cache hidden under a bank in Nuremberg.
Dating from the days of the Holy Roman Empire, the lance has been acclaimed throughout the history of warfare as the most powerful weapon known to man.
According to religious folklore, as Longinus pierced Christ's side, blood and water spilt onto his hand. When the Roman soldier wiped his eyes, his poor eyesight was cured, leading to his conversion. He then journeyed across the holy land to Armenia to spread the word.
Ever since then, tremendous power has been attributed to the sword.
A group of Egyptian Christians led by St Maurice carried the spear before them, before hundreds were slaughtered for refusing to pay homage to the Roman Emperor Maximian. The surviving troops marched forward with the spear, but were eventually annihilated by the emperor.
The spear passed to Constantine, who conquered Rome and kept the lance in the city of Constantinople, where it stayed before the Turks conquered their capital.
It then came into the possession of Emperor Charlemagne, who beat the Saxons and conquered Jerusalem carrying the Spear of Destiny by his side, before losing it, and losing his life just days later, causing his empire to fall apart.
In around 1000AD Otto III became the first German leader to hold the lance, and dreamed of rebuilding a Holy Roman Empire in the mould of Constantine. The Spear of Destiny was used to defeat opponents, and is even said to have had the power to raise fallen soldiers from the dead to fight on.
It is this lance that is said to have survived and been taken to Austria by later German emperors, before a nail from the crucifixion was imbedded into it.
In 1912 Hitler is undestood to have visited the Vienna museum where the holy lance is held, and his obsession with the artefact was born.
His objective was to restore the lance to Germany to evoke memories of his fatherland's previous empire and draw on the spirit of the great leaders of the middle ages.
But, like those before him, Hitler lost his empire when he lost the Spear of Destiny.
On April 30 1945, Hitler killed himself less than two hours after the lance was claimed by US soldiers conquering Nuremberg.

Pros

- The nail in the centre of the spear is consistent with those used to nail Jesus to the cross, and has been carbon dated to around the time of the crucifixion.

- Hitler clearly knew of the powers attributed to the spear, and had it taken from the Vienna museum and transported to Germany to channel the powers of the occult.

- The death of Hitler at around the same time as the spear was captured by US troops certainly links his myth to those which surround Holy Roman Emperors Barbarosa and Charlemagne.

Cons

- Scientific testing has shown that the lance that lies in a museum in Austria is from the seventh century and could not have been present at the death of Christ.

- There are four different relics claiming to be the spear of destiny - one in the Vatican, one in Poland, one in Armenia and the Vienna lance. None have been shown to be verifiable relics, and even the one at the Vatican is not officially recognised as the lance which speared Christ.

- The timing of Hitler's death is approximate. It cannot be conclusively shown that he died after the spear was discovered by US troops. Even if Hitler had retained possession of the lance, his country had still fallen to the Americans, and his death, either by suicide or execution, had been ensured long before the US troops discovered the underground cache in Nuremberg.

Conclusion

The legend of the Spear of Destiny is one of the most enduring myths of all time - but as far as the conspiracy theory goes, there is little or no evidence. It is clear that Hitler knew of the history of the artefact, and desired it, but it is not proven that he believed it could lead his army to victory. The Spear of Destiny's chequered past, and links to some of history's greatest military leaders, as well as some of the darkest tyrants ever to walk the earth, is fascinating. However, any suggestion that a Christian relic which has been scientifically proven to be from another era has mystical occult powers which helped the Nazis rule Europe is a flight a fancy too far.

The World Cup - A hotbed of Conspiracy Theories

2010-06-14T14:09:43Z

From allegedly crooked referees to absolutely crocked players, the FIFA World Cup has had more than its fair share of controversy both on and off the pitch.
Over the years we have watched as the Hand of God robbed England of glory, the diving antics of the Germans went unpunished and penalty heartbreak hit the Three Lions over and over again.
In honour of the start of this year's tournament in South Africa, The Grassy Knoll is taking a look at 5 of the World Cup conspiracy theories that have consumed fans over the years.

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1. The draw is rigged

The most important part of any World Cup build up is the draw. Cue a giant stage filled with football luminaries, glamorous international movie stars , models, and "independent" adjudicators. Never have 32 small balls been so closely scrutinised by so many. But could it all be a fake out, are the hosts able to weasel their way to an easy group, and just how impartial are FIFA. The first allegations came in 1990 when Maradona accused Sophia Loren of all people. The ultimate World Cup legend/villain felt hosts Italy had been handed a cushy draw with his Argentina side getting the rough end of the bargain. As it turned out, his boys reached the finals, at the expense of, you guessed it, Italy. But surely the most bizarre accusation came in 2006, when the over-excited Italian press came up with a unique explanation for their nation's tough group. German hero Lothar Mathaus was forced to come out and deny the outrageous accusation that the balls he drew out to decide the groups had been heated and cooled to warn which countries he should avoid, and which ones he should place in his fatherland's group. Another hilariously misguided conspiracy, but one which footy fans are always keen to jump on should their team land in the ubiquitous Group of Death.

2. Kit sponsors decide the winner

With upwards of $3 billion generated by the tournament, money is the number one motivation for those looking to cause mischief behind the scenes. Evidence is thin on the ground for this theory, but some ultra-suspicious fans claim that Adidas, Nike and their ilk have conspired to share the World Cup between their teams over the past two decades. In France 1998, the hosts triumphed with the German sports label emblazoned on their shirts, while the famous swoosh adorned the shirts of the 2002 Brazil team that took home the trophy in Japan. In 2006 Italy held the Jules Rimet trophy aloft with the Puma brand proudly displayed beneath their national colours. See a pattern emerging? If this crackpot theory is to be believed our 2010 champs could well be England, as Umbro take their turn at claiming glory.

3. Ronaldo and the 1998 final

It's difficult to imagine now, as he wheezes around the pitch flashing his toothy grin and clutching his pot belly, but Brazilian striker Ronaldo was once the jet-heeled superstar of World football. Having scored more goals than any other player in World Cup finals history, his legacy is assured, but just what did happen to the then fresh-faced rising star in the hours before his nation's 1998 Final against hosts France. Having notched their first win in 24 years at USA 1994, Brazil were favourites to defend their title in 1998, and the samba stars were heavily reliant on their superstar striker to lead them to glory. But with just minutes to go before kick-off, the Parisian tunnel became filled with the unmistakable whiff of scandal, as it emerged Ronaldo was not on Brazil's teamsheet. There was outcry in the press box, what could have befallen the star. Word reached the media that he had suffered a seizure and been rushed to hospital, but less than two hours later, as the suspended French skipper Laurent Blanc ritualistically kissed goalkeeper Fabien Barthez's bald head, there in the centre circle ready to kick-off was Ronaldo. As it turned out, he may as well have stayed in the dressing room. The anonymous frontman was a shadow of his semi-final self, and barely touched the ball as France trounced Brazil 3-0 to claim their first World Cup win. What exactly caused the Brazilians to bottle it remains a mystery. Was it the team's collective trauma at watching their star player fit and convulse and foam at the mouth? Was Ronaldo being forced to play by sponsors Nike and the Brazilian football federation? Did the whole Brazil squad take a bribe to throw the final and guarantee themselves the hosting role in 2014? Or, most dastardly of all, did a French spy spike the striker's drink and cause the fit that cost Ronaldo and his side the 1998 title?

4. England's 1970 Disasters

With the Jules Rimet trophy tucked in their suitcase, the England squad headed to Mexico 1970 with high hopes of retaining their crown. Four years on they were older, wiser, battle-hardened and ready for what was billed as the ultimate World Cup Final, against the finest team ever to play the game, Pele's Brazil. But right from the off, things started to unravel. England's talisman Bobby Moore was arrested while in Colombia for a warm-up game, when local cops fitted him up as part of a jewellery theft case. He was later acquitted of all charges, but the disruption destabilised the whole squad and led to questions in the media about an anti-England bias in South America. When the tournament began England looked good, controlled and in command against their rivals, including quarter-final opponents West Germany, who had been vanquished four years earlier at Wembley. England, however, were without star goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who had been laid low by a mysterious bout of food poisoning, which conspiracists put down to sabotage rather than stomach infection. As England cruised towards the semis with a commanding 2-0 lead, Alf Ramsey withdrew Bobby Charlton from the action, the Germans scored, Banks' deputy Peter Bonetti dropped a Rob Green-esque clanger, and England were out. Ever since that fateful match England have been cursed on the world's biggest stage. Could that jinx be lifted in South Africa, or are the conspiracy theorists going to have a whole new raft of World Cup theories to spout?

5. The referees are crooked

Unlike the other theories, this one has an official backer (sort of), step forward Lord Triesman, the former FA chief booted out of the old boy's club for allegedly suggesting that maybe, on some level, someone, somewhere might have tried to influence a ref in order to sway the result of the World Cup. While Triesman insists his comments were taken out of context, the allegation of attempted match fixing by foreign officials is hardly the most outrageous suggestion, particularly when you think that the next European country to host the tournament in 2018, either England, Russia or Spain, will stand to make upwards of ÃÂ£5 billion. While Triesman's loose tongue cost him his job and earnt him the scorn of the British press, football men elsewhere in Europe were far less surprised and much more willing to believe the conspiracy theory. The high point of dodgy World Cup refereeing was surely reached in 2002, when hosts South Korea were on the right end of a lot of wrong decisions. We aren't suggesting for a moment that there was any dodgy dealing or foul play, and being fair to the refs involved, this could easily be explained by utter, schoolboy-like ineptitude. But when senior officials voice fears that World Cup results are being rigged to curry favour for the next hosts, there could just be more to this conspiracy theory than meets the eye.

The Amityville Horror - Scare or scam?

2010-05-26T14:59:18Z

The Case

For just ÃÂ£800,000 you can now buy yourself a piece of American folklore history.
Because despite what the real estate reports might say, 108 Ocean Avenue in the Long Island, New York, suburb of Amityville, is no ordinary seafront property.
It is in fact the original 112 Ocean Avenue, scene of the most infamous haunting in history, and subject of more books, films and general hysteria than any ghost story ever told.
The tale starts on a chilly November night in 1974 when Ronald DeFeo Jr wakes in the middle of the night and calmly shoots each member of his sleeping family between the eyes.
Confessing to cops after originally concocting a tale involving a mafia hit, he tells officers that he "just couldn't stop" killing and later mounts a defence of insanity based on hearing voices in his head instructing him to slaughter Ronald DeFeo Sr. his mother Louise DeFeo and his four siblings Dawn, 18, Allison, 13, Marc, 12, and John Matthew, 9.
This tragic and brutal murder spree ended in the caging of Ronald DeFeo Jr for six consecutive life terms, and to this day the killer remains in a maximum security lock-up in upstate New York.
But what took place in the year after the slaying of the DeFeos would go on to shock the nation and create a global paranormal phenomena as Kathy and George Lutz, who brought the dream Ocean Avenue property after the killings, claimed they were forced from their home after just 28 days by a demonic spirit which threatened their lives.
In the years that have followed their story has become a movie sensation, a best selling novel and a focus for the paranormal experts who believe this middle class New York couple were truly plagued by spirits from another dimension.
But a more sinister conspiracy has been identified by sceptics.
With millions of dollars in their back pockets, the Lutzes have done well from their terrifying four weeks on Ocean Avenue, and the conspiracy theory runs that this was a very well thought out hoax, aimed at paying off their dream home and ensuring their financial future.
The Lutz family have strenuously denied these claims, but the question still remains, was the Amityville horror story a haunting or a hoax?

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The Official Story

Just over a year after Ronald DeFeo had slaughtered six members of his family, newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz moved into 112 Ocean Avenue with her three young children.
They had been warned about the house's horrific history before they sunk their life savings into it, but decided that a $80,000 seafront suburban sanctuary was too good to pass up. They even kept a lot of the DeFeo's furniture.
Within days their dream home became a nightmare as the "possessed" seafront property became a battleground between the Lutz family and their unwanted house guests.
Speaking after the event the Lutzes claim that they were subjected to eerie sightings, screams in the middle of the night and even physical encounters with spirits.
The chain of events began when Father Pecararo, a family friend, went to bless the house as they unpacked their belongings.
While in the former bedroom of the two youngest DeFeo victim's the Catholic priest heard a croaking, disembodied voice tell him to "Get Out" and hurried from the room.
The next morning he telephoned Kathy to warn her to stay out of her sewing room, but the phonecall was cut dead and the priest suffered burning on his hands similar to stigmata.
Soon the haunting became more disturbing.
The house became infested with flies in the middle of winter, locks and doors began to swing from their hinges, green slime ran down the walls of the hallway, and a crucifix in one of the bedrooms began to rotate and give off a strong smell.
Each member of the family began to experience strange sensations.
Kathy had vivid nightmares about the DeFeo murders, and could feel herself being embraced in the middle of the night by a spirit.
George began to wake at 3.15am, the exact time of the shootings, and walk down to the boathouse.
The children would sleep on their bellies, the way each of the DeFeo victims had been discovered.
Missy, the couple's youngest daughter, befriended an imaginary demonic pig like creature called Jodie, which was seen at one of the bedroom windows by George on one of his nightly trips to the boathouse.
Even the dog became spooked, as Kathy discovered a mysterious "red room" behind a wall in the basement which did not feature in the building's design plans and frightened their dog, convincing the family to call in help.
Finally George became convinced that he resembled Ronald DeFeo Jr and saw his wife age to a 90-year-old toothless crone before his eyes.
The family, fearing for their lives, fled the house just 28 days after moving in.
They met with William Weber, Ronald Defeo Jr's defence attorney and recounted their experience, before turning to paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren to verify their story.
When the Warren's secret footage of the house showed a ghostly child in the entrance to an upstairs bedroom the world stood aghast, and the Lutzes were persuaded by a publisher to sell their story.
Jay Anson's The Amityville Horror became one of the biggest selling non-fiction books of 1977, and two years later became a huge movie hit for James Brolin and Rod Steiger.
But should that book have been sitting on the fiction shelves all along.

The Conspiracy Theory

George and Kathy Lutz were initially shy about talking to the media following their horrifying experience.
After their initial meeting with Weber they chose not to pursue a working relationship with him or with "vampirologist" and parapsychologist Dr Stephen Kaplan.
Instead they called in Ed and Lorraine Warren, a couple with a track record of investigating haunted houses, who confirmed through a series of seances, psychic encounters and video recording that the house was "the most haunted" they had ever encountered.
Ed experienced a strange presence in the cellar, Lorraine felt evil all around her, and both had to be convinced to go back to the house by George and Kathy Lutz.
A local news crew were on hand to cover the investigation, and the story quickly spread about George and Kathy's terrifying ordeal.
After signing their book deal and telling the story to documentary film-maker Jay Anson, the couple received almost $4 million in exchange for the rights to the tale.
Their story began to be challenged by first Weber, who claimed he had discussed the idea of making money out of the tale over a couple of bottles of wine with the Lutzes when they first approached him, and later by Kaplan, who claimed the entire hoax was based on lies and false accounts of life inside 112 Ocean Avenue.
Weber says he was the one who came up with many of the scenarios in the movie and the book, and has settled a claim out of court with George Lutz over his role in the story.
Kaplan spent 20 years investigating the case, but his book The Amityville Horror Conspiracy, was not released until after he suffered a fatal heart attack.
The Lutzes are now dead too, but they went to their graves maintaining that their story was the truth, and that, allowing for a little artistic licence, they really did suffer a horror haunting in Amityville.

Pros

- The Lutz family never once called the police during their 28 day ordeal.

- The Cromarty family who purchased 112 Ocean Avenue after the Lutzes lived there for a decade with no paranormal experiences whatsoever.

- It is alleged by neighbours that George Lutz returned to the house for a garage sale the day after fleeing in terror.

- George Lutz had taken out a hefty mortgage, which was fully paid off by the profits from the horror story. They made at least $4 million from the ensuing book deal and movie franchise.

- Weber has "confessed" to concocting the story with the Lutzes over a couple of bottles of wine.

- Claims that the possession was caused by a nearby ancient Indian burial ground have been dismissed by native American historians.

Cons

- The house had been totally abandoned when the Warrens went to investigate, the Lutz family had literally fled in the night.

- The priest who blessed the house has given evidence under oath that a disembodies voice did tell him to "get out" as he spread holy water and that he felt a slap in the face when he stood in the sewing room.

- A photograph showing a boy in a room doorway wearing pyjamas similar to Marc DeFeo has never been fully explained.

- Both George and Kathy Lutz have passed a lie detector test about their experiences at the Amityville horror house.

- Kaplan and Weber were both embittered by not getting a share of the profits from the story, so were left with little option but to decry it as a hoax.

- There was no guarantee that the story would become the global phenomenon that it has. Risking his life savings on abandoning the house was not a standard business strategy, George Lutz could not have known he would make millions.

Conclusion

We will probably never know how much of the Amityville story is true and how much was sexed up for the book and movie which followed. It seems clear that something unusual happened in that house, and that its tragic past had a deep effect on the Lutz family. The fact that others have lived there since with no worries suggests whatever this "possession" was, it is long gone now. An ocean view property for $800,000 may just be a steal in today's market - but then again, that's what George and Kathy Lutz thought.

The Bilderberg Group - The hidden global elite?

2010-04-30T16:06:52Z

The Case

Every year the world's most powerful men and women join together to drink cocktails, smoke cigars, and - possibly - control the fate of the entire planet.
Founded in 1954 the Bilderberg group is one of the most infamous and shadowy organisations on earth.
Notable attendees include Presidents and Prime Ministers, captains of industry, media magnates and banking plutocrats.
To most, this group is just another talking shop, a collection of the great and good gathering together to discuss boosting profits.
But many conspiracy theorists fear that these men represent a powerful cabal of dastardly puppet masters, making war, deciding the fate of the public and controlling our lives through their all encompassing influence over the world economy.
Of all the secret society theories, this is the most well developed, not least because Bilderberg members have admitted to attending meetings and have been photographed coming in and out of the swanky hotels where these annual get-togethers are held.
However, the meeting locations are always a closely guarded secret, and there is a strict no press policy.
Maybe they are just publicity shy, or maybe they have something to hide.
Whatever their justifications for the meeting the Bilderbergers are facing some pretty tough questions.
Exactly what are they discussing, how far does their influence reach and is the fate of the world being sealed behind closed doors by a powerful elite answerable to no-one?

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The Official Story

Taking its name from the Dutch hotel where the organisation was first formed in 1954, the Bilderberg Group includes over 100 notables from across the world.
Started by the Polish founder of the European Union, it has welcomed everyone from President Bill Clinton to Prime Minister Tony Blair and US statesman Henry Kissinger.
The organisation is built around a "steering committee", with members from the leading nations of the world and a chairman elected by the attendees.
No resolutions are passed and no notes published. The issues discussed are not made public and no names or quotes are given in the official logs of proceedings, which remain under lock and key.
Members of the organisation have spoken out to clarify the role of the group as a discussion forum, and refute claims that they are a secret organisation running the world from behind a veil.
In 2004 the Bilderbergers began printing a list of attendees, which included former Presidential candidate John Edwards and the wife of Bill Gates.
Dismissing the conspiracy theorists in an interview with the BBC, Bilderberg grandee Etienne Davignon said: "When people say this is a secret government of the world I say that if we were a secret government of the world we should be bloody ashamed of ourselves."

The Conspiracy Theory

Like moths to a flame, New World Order theorists have been drawn to this elite group of powerful world leaders.
Accusations of links to the Nazis, domination by the military industrial complex, and even some of David Icke's own brand of Reptilian Humanoid paranoia have dogged the Bilderbergers.
The central conspiracy theory, however, is that this is a secret one world government, aimed at preserving privilege and perpetuating the global strife and conflict that keeps lining the pockets of the rich and influential.
Journalists, investigators and conspiracy theorists who have tried to gain access to the plush hotels where the annual meeting takes place have been met with tough security treatment from a huge protection detail.
This has led theorists to the conclusion that the world's political agenda, everything from war in the Middle East to the banking crisis and the hike in global oil prices, is controlled by Bilderbergers.
Many believe that The Bilderberg Group is THE secret society of secret societies, the controlling force behind Skull and Bones, The Illuminati, The Freemasons and any other shadowy organisation you care to mention.
Tracing its roots back to the end of World War II, and with links to the equally notorious Council on Foreign Relations, the role of The Bilderberg Group is said to be that of a global one party state, a nightmarishly powerful cabal able to wage war and oppress people in the blink of an eye.
Its members say it is a force for good, helping to provide an informal atmosphere for the great and the good to share ideas for reducing nuclear arsenals, fighting terrorism and averting a global warming disaster, all away from the gaze of the world's media.
Whatever is happening behind those closed doors, one thing is for sure, the conspiracy theorists are going to keep on pressing until they find the truth.

Pros

- There is no doubt that the Bilderberg Group exists, and that its membership list reads like a who's who of the world's most powerful people.

- With no press access, and very little information about what is actually discussed, no-one has yet been able to penetrate the motives of its members or the consequences of their decisions.

- Conspiracists claim that everything from the opening up of US diplomatic relations with China to the spike in world oil prices were discussed at Bilderberg just months before they came to pass.

Cons

- No evidence has ever been provided that the Bilderberg Group is anything more than a talking shop, where billionaires compare the size of their yachts and discuss ways of making even more money.

- The notable attendees are not entirely uncommon in their aversion to the press. A closely guarded luxury hotel is not out of the ordinary for these people, and it is only natural they wouldn't want to announce their deals and agreements to the world.

- The organisation was set up to help avert conflict, not create it. The idea was to foster a dialogue between world leaders and influential business bosses to avoid a repeat of the backstairs intrigues which have incubated previous wars.

Conclusion

That the Bilderberg Group exists is a proven fact - that it operates as a secret world government is almost certainly fiction. There is nothing to suggest these men have evil intent, on the contrary, one could make a strong argument to say that these leaders talking to each other is no bad thing. If they can work together outside of the glare of the media spotlight and resolve some of their differences in private, then the world will surely become a safer place. While this conspiracy theory has a large grain of truth to sustain it, its believers are looking for evil where none exists.

2012 - The end of the world as we know it?

2010-03-22T12:38:06Z

The Case

Predicting the end of the world is a tough job.
From the crown prince of prophecies Nostradamus, down to deluded dimwits like David Icke, many have tried, and all have failed to name the date of Armageddon.
Forecast since biblical times, the idea that one day, maybe in our lifetimes, the world will shudder to a halt has become one of the most powerful fears in human history.
We all seem to believe that somehow, someday, whether through supernova or nuclear holocaust, something will change and the world as we know it will cease to exist.
Tracing its roots back to the ice age and the extinction of the dinosaurs, this ancient terror has grown in recent years as hundreds of thousands of doomsayers worldwide point to one date - 21/12/2012.
Taken from the finishing date of the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar which was used in South America before the European conquerors took control of the continent, the theory states that a world-altering change is just two years away.
But what evidence is there to back up the theory, why have so many people turned their attention to this date, and what is the cataclysmic event that could bring the world to its knees?
Mixing together a little ancient wisdom and a lot of imagination, and this is a conspiracy theory that looks set to grow and grow as the fateful date draws near.

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The Official Story

As far as conventional science is concerned things are pretty simple when it comes to the end of the world - don't expect it any time soon.
Short of an unpredicted all out nuclear war between the US and China or an asteroid firing into the planet from some far off galaxy, experts are in general agreement that we shouldn't rush out to buy canned goods and bottled water just yet.
Nasa says there are no meteor strikes predicted, and has compared the 2012 theory to the unfounded fears peddled by theorists over the Y2K bug.
Science may have little time for the 2012 doomsayers, but for conspiracy theorists, the end of the world is a matter of faith, not fact.

The Conspiracy Theory

There can be little doubt that the world is getting more dangerous.
Wars across the Middle East, terror attacks, global warming, earthquakes, tsunamis and a nuclear arms between rogue states have combined to make apocalyptic conspiracy theories increasingly popular.
From the prophecies of the Egyptians, through the ancient Romans, to the bible and Nostradamus, the Mayans are by no means alone in predicting a doomsday in 2012.
Recent instability from within the planet itself, including the devastating earthquakes and tsunamis that have struck the Caribbean and South East Asia, has helped fan the flames of fears that something catastrophic is brewing.
The Mayan calendar was incredibly accurate, forecasting events thousands of years into the future, and it resets in 2012.
The ancient South American tribe's ability to use lunar and solar observations to predict the invasion of their lands by Western European conquerors to the exact date has leant huge credibility to their prophetic skills.
A giant black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, which has been independently verified by modern scientists, is pointed to as the possible cause of the End of Days by the ancient tribe, who believed that the mantle of the earth would shift as a result of magnetic pole realignment and planetary movements, causing huge earthquakes and tsunamis to tear the modern world apart.
The Mayan's strong track record has led conspiracy theorists to dig deeper, and look for clues in other cultures to discover whether the world is really going to end in 2012.
Among these are the ancient Chinese document I Ching, known as the book of changes, a text generally used for personal fortune telling that has been used by maverick mathematicians to predict everything from the fall of the Roman Empire to World War I&II and finally the end of days in 2012.
Even the bible has been used by theorists to back up the belief that 2012 will be the year of Armageddon.
The book of revelations, written by St John, foretells a final battle between good and evil, with global warfare centred in the Middle East and ravaging pandemics preparing the earth for the final apocalypse.
And there is science to back up the theory too, with solar storms predicted, and a potential reversal of the earth's magnetic poles not ruled out by conventional scientists.
Though these events may not destroy the earth on its own, the modern world's communications technology, banking systems and satellites could all falter as a giant solar burp disrupts the magnetic fields surrounding the globe.
As the conspiracy theory has grown, believers have pointed to everything from crop circles to alien abductions as evidence of the coming apocalypse.
Quite what will cause the end of days remains up for debate.
Will it be a rising sea caused by global warming, an alteration in the alignment of the planets shaking our core, a solar flare destroying the world, a reversal of the magnetic poles shifting the crust of the earth or a mysterious planet called Nibiru crashing into us from outer space?
Whatever the final cause, the various doomsday prophecies have formed into one movement, and the ranks of the 2012 doomsayers are swelling every day.

Pros

- The date 2012 has been pointed to by the bible, Nostradamus, the Mayans and various other religious groups. There seems to be a lot of support for it, even the ancient Egyptians identified the sunspot cycle as ending in 2012, bringing with it the apocalypse. Ancient Roman prophets including the Sybil, who predicted the coming of Christ, and Ancient Greek holy figures such as Delphi, who foretold the rise of Alexander the Great, all forecast the end of the world in 2012.

- The Web-Bot online system, a stock-picking software which was able to predict everything from Hurricane Katrina to the Indian Ocean Tsunami, has foretold a series of catastrophic events in 2012.

- The Mayan long count calendar was incredibly accurate, predicting solar eclipses thousands of years into the future, and comes to an abrupt halt in 2012.

- Dr Michio Kaku, a theoretical physician, has predicted a peak in the sunspot cycle, leading to a shift in the magnetic poles of the earth in 2012. Einstein also spoke of magnetic pole shifts, but this may only cause a minor disturbance on earth.

Cons

- All half decent prophets know the basic rule of foretelling the future, keep it as vague as possible, and allow for many interpretations of your works. Only the Mayans give an exact date, Roman, Greek and biblical prophets all couch their predictions in vague terms. All doomsday predictions so far have one thing in common - failure.

- Could the fact that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 simply be a product of the untimely demise of their empire? Had they been around today, they may well have worked out a calendar for the next 2000 years.

- Astronomers say the theory of an unidentified planet hitting the earth is unrealistic, any such object would already be visible through telescopes and if it is as near to earth as it is said to be, you'd already be able to see it with the naked eye.

- Some fringe elements have cited Merlin the magician as part of their argument, damaging the consensus on 2012 and making believers look a little loopy.

- Biblical scholars believe the book of revelations applied only to St John's own time, and should not be read as a prediction for the future.

Conclusion

Like all good conspiracy theories, the 2012 doomsday scenario is a heady blend of hocus pocus, myth and a touch of science. Though meteor strikes and even a reversal of the earth's magnetic poles are possible, there is no evidence to suggest they will bring about the end of the world. A huge meteor would be showing up on the NASA advance warning systems or in the telescopes of millions of stargazers worldwide. A shift in poles could be completely benign, and the threat of seas rising due to global warming and earthquakes caused by movements in the tectonic plates are more of a constant problem than a one-off cataclysmic event. It is intriguing that so many cultures have identified the time around 2012 as one of major change, but these vague predictions, even if they prove correct, could refer to anything from financial collapse to famine, disease or warfare. The 2012 apocalypse theory is intriguing, and it made for a great disaster movie, but I won't be losing any sleep over it.

Bigfoot - There's something in the woods

2010-02-10T16:58:21Z

The Case

Deep in the forests of North America the locals are spooked.
Something big is out there, something that destroys trees, something that howls like no other animal ever recorded, something between man and beast.
Sasquatch, Bigfoot, the missing link, whatever you want to call it, the hunt for this creature has become an international obsession and a conspiracy theory that has captivated the imagination of millions.
Sound recordings of eerie cries in the night, and a video which appears to show the legendary creature walking through the forests of California, have leant weight to claims that Sasquatch is very real.
The vast expanse of wild forests between Washington state and California has become a hotbed of hunters searching for this mysterious being, but so far no body has been produced, no DNA sample found, no authentic footage verified.
Mainstream science has dismissed the Bigfoot followers as crackpot conspiracists, hearing things that aren't there and chasing a myth through the misty trees.
Until someone provides a legitimate Sasquatch sample, these theories will remain outside the boundaries of regular science, but that doesn't mean there isn't some truth in them.
What if this prehistoric primate has survived, what if the thousands of documented encounters with the beast are legitimate, what if the sceptical scientific community is just plain wrong?
Could we really be on the verge of finding the missing link, or are these hunters simply a deluded, drunken rabble with more guns than common sense?

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The Official Story

The modern day mystery began in 1924 with the story of Fred Beck, a woodsman, and his team of hunters as they chased the Sasquatch through an area of Washington State known to locals as Ape Canyon.
His story was widely reported, and though it has since been written off as an over-exaggerated account of an attack by hikers, it planted the seed of Bigfoot in the imaginations of a generation of Americans.
In 1958 speculation about the beast reached fever pitch as the international media descended on the small town of Bluff Creek, California, after the discovery of a series of large footprints.
Casts of the giant prints were shown to TV cameras and newspapers, and soon the whole Pacific Northwest of the US became consumed with the hunt for Bigfoot.
Though the footprint find would later be widely discredited as a scam devised between a logger and the editor of a local newspaper, Sasquatch became a phenomenon.
However, it wasn't until 1967 that serious video footage of the creature came to public attention.
The notorious Patterson film shows a large, hair-covered animal which seems to walk and stand in a way uncommon to any human.
Debate has raged over the authenticity of the footage, and scientists have been quick to debunk the Sasquatch conspiracy theory.
They claim that it is a Cryptozoological fantasy, a myth given the oxygen of publicity by overzealous hunters and devious conmen looking to make a quick buck.
While many scientists accept that early man may have lived in the same habitat as a giant ape with similar dimensions to Bigfoot, a 8-10 ft tall hairy creature with simian and humanoid characteristics, they utterly reject the suggestion that such a mammal could survive today, particularly as the numbers required to maintain the survival of the species would mean hundreds of Sasquatch are breeding in the woods of Washington and Oregon.
The case of the bigfoot hunters has not been helped by a string of bogus videos and even fake body finds, which have made it easy for mainstream science to paint them as fringe elements with no concrete evidence for their beliefs.
But can we be sure that Bigfoot doesn't exist?

The Conspiracy Theory

For the past century the woodsmen of the Pacific Northwest USA have searched for the elusive Bigfoot.
Most are convinced that whatever the giant ape/bear/monster may be, it IS out there. There are more than 400 sightings of the Sasquatch each year, yet still no proof of Bigfoot's existence has come to light.
The reason, say theorists, for the lack of credible sightings and video evidence is that the creature is nocturnal, unlike most other primates known to science.
Many theories have been put forward about where the Sasquatch comes from.
Some indigenous tribes see it as a deity, others fear it as a manifestation of the wrath of satan, while the more extreme conspiracists believe it is an alien sent to earth from another planet.
The only truly convincing theory, and the one most widely accepted among hunters, is that Bigfoot is the last surviving link in a chain of prehistoric primates.
The theory runs that the Gigantopithecus, an ape which lived in Asia around 9 million years ago, crossed the land bridge that existed between Russia and Canada and settled in the Northwest region of the US.
As the species died off, it evolved into the Bigfoot creature that theorists say still stalks the woods today.
In support of their theory, endless sound recordings, sightings and the occasional blurred tapes have been put forward as evidence.
However, the Bigfoot hunters still await their holy grail, a genuine Sasquatch carcass to prove to the sceptical scientific community that the creature is real.

Pros

- The 1967 Roger Patterson film has never been conclusively debunked. Indeed eminent anthropologist Grover Krantz has argued that it depicts a genuine unknown creature, and Idaho university expert Jeff Meldrum has ruled out the "man-in-a-suit" criticism of the film.

- In more than 40 years no-one has provided any evidence that the Patterson film involved a suit and despite huge advances in the fields of prosthetics and computer enhancement, no film has ever been able to replicate the alleged costume.

- While fake sightings abound, the number of genuinely mysterious sound recordings and images suggests at least some truth in the Sasquatch theory. Even if it isn't a prehistoric primate, there must be something in those woods.

Cons

- There is no fossil data to support the existence of giant apes in North America. No-one has produced a Sasquatch corpse or DNA sample that can support the existence of Bigfoot.

- The climate and habitat of North America is inhospitable to a giant ape similar to the one described in Sasquatch encounters. There is no consistent food source or appropriate climate in the USA for any of the modern species of ape, all of which survive in Asia or Africa.

- The 1958 Bluff Creek footprints were later revealed to be a hoax carried out by researcher Ray Wallace who used a giant wooden carving to make the tracks.

- The Patterson film has never been conclusively proven to show a Sasquatch. Hollywood director John Landis has claimed it was used to test outfits for Planet of the Apes, while stocky Washington native Bob Heironimus claims he wore a suit and posed for the film in exchange for $1,000 which he never received from Patterson. When interviewed by the BBC in 1998, Robert Gimlin, the business partner of Roger Patterson, admitted that his former friend, who died in 1972, could have hoaxed him.

- The sheer number of fakes has made it difficult for genuine theorists to make their views heard. The case of Matt Whitton, the Georgia cop whose fake Sasquatch corpse hoax drew international media attention in 2008 precipitated more ridicule for the already much-maligned bigfoot hunters.

Conclusion

The sceptics have a very strong case on this one. With little or no verifiable proof and nothing but a series of myths and rumours there is no way any serious scientist can honestly claim to be 100 per cent sure that Bigfoot is real. However, in classic conspiracy theory style there is just enough circumstantial evidence, just enough disputed material to make you think that maybe, just maybe this one could be true. Nothing is certain until a body is produced or unequivocal video footage is provided, but whatever the truth, one thing is clear, something strange is happening in the woods......

Top 10 Conspiracy Theories Of The Noughties

2010-01-05T15:13:18Z

As a new decade dawns, we look back on the conspiracy theories that shocked, amazed and appalled us over the past 10 years.

1. The 9/11 terror attacks

The defining moment of the past decade has spawned the most controversial and hotly debated conspiracy theory of all time. Did the US government allow the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon to happen despite it's prior knowledge, or did the Bush administration plan and execute the attacks as a "false flag" operation to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the repressive anti-terror legislation that offers the US government unprecedented control over the public. A bitter argument between theorists and scientific journals still rages over whether the two planes that struck the twin towers were the cause of the World Trade Centre's collapse, or whether controlled explosions and thermite plasma were used to destroy the skyscrapers. The destruction of Tower 7, which was not hit by a plane, and questions over whether the Pentagon was struck by a cruise missile rather than a jumbo jet, have all lent weight to the conspiracists claims. Throw in the fact that the Air Force were on training missions on 11 September 2001, and that threat warnings about an Al Qaeda plot to use planes to attack the US were ignored, and theorists claim they have a damning case against their government. If the theory is true, it represents the most heinous act in modern history, a government either deliberately sacrificing or cold-bloodly murdering 3,000 people to further its own ends. However, the conspiracy theory, for all its millions of online devotees, remains unlikely, unproven, and unbelievably complex. Questions surrounding whether or not the government shot down the fourth plane, United 93, as it headed for Washington DC, are much more valid, and do point to a possible cover-up. That Al Qaeda planned and executed a daring, calculated act of malevolent violence remains the most likely explanation for the terror attack that changed the world as we know it. Despite the facts the 9/11 conspiracy theory, for all its failings and inaccuracies, remains the most powerful and widely debated theory of the past decade.

]]> 2. Global Warming

It's the end of the world as we know it, or maybe not. As the world's most powerful men ended the decade with a load of hot air in Copenhagen, the rest of us were left wondering just how hot our air is going to get. Having spent most of the noughties being told that the debate is over, conspiracy theorists are becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition to the global warming lobby. With scientists, politicians, and a House of Lords inquiry providing detailed rebuttals of the science behind man-made climate change, the cracks in the case for creating a "green planet" to save ourselves from melting ice caps and burning summers are beginning to appear. A multi-billion dollar industry built on fear and government misinformation provides the ideal backdrop for one of the biggest alleged conspiracies of the noughties.

3. Iraq

A tactical nightmare, a military bungle, thousands of allied troops dead and no exit strategy considered, Iraq will go down as the biggest foreign policy blunder of the noughties, and leaves a Vietnam-sized psychological wound for a new generation. It will also go down as the most conspiracy theory laden conflict ever. From the dodgy dossier used by Tony Blair to sell the war to the British parliament, to the US determination to plunder the oil and natural resources of the gulf state with scant regard to nation building, the conspiracies that surround the invasion will go down in the history books as the cause of George W Bush's plummeting popularity and the precursor to the premature end of Blair's term as Prime Minister. The torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the extraordinary rendition of "terror suspects" and their subsequent "waterboarding" in Guantanamo Bay and reports of the slaughter of innocent people in Fallujah lent an altogether more sinister element to a war that destroyed America's credibility on the world stage. The conspiracy theorists who believe the invasion was launched solely for oil, rather than regime change and human rights, are becoming the vocal majority rather than a silent minority.

4. Michael Jackson

Pop's flawed king met a sad end in June 2009 as his drug-riddled body was removed from the secluded LA mansion where his final days were played out. Quite what happened in his last hours remains a mystery, with conspiracy theories about his death, murder, suicide, or alien abduction as bizarre as they are numerous. The LAPD still have an investigation to complete, manslaughter charges against his medical team have been mooted, and those adoring members of MJ's public who still haven't lost faith in their fallen idol don't have closure. Perhaps the strangest conspiracy theory of all is that this was all an elaborate hoax to avoid his crushing debts and tough touring schedule, and that somewhere out in the wild west of America, Jacko is sharing stories with Elvis as they ride around the plains on Shergar.

5. Facebook

What began as a group of Ivy League geeks sharing pictures on a university web link has become a multi-media revolution worth billions of dollars. Boasting the personal details of hundreds of millions of members across the globe, the website is not just a convenient way for friends to keep in touch with loved ones, it is a powerful tool for anyone able to access the private data it contains. The conspiracy theory goes that government hackers in the US have cracked Facebook and can use it at their will to spy on the public and control the fate of the population. Facebook has been the spark for everything from murders to marriages, and has become an obsession for millions who live their lives behind the ultimately fragile security of the internet. Could the government really be using what began as a grass roots public movement for its own ends? It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

6. Dr David Kelly

The face of Tony Blair's downfall, and one of the most remarkable deaths of the noughties for the impact it had on the British public's perception of what the government was capable of. Conspiracy theorists in the US have long feared the ruthless nature of their country's shadowy spy network, the death of Dr Kelly showed British conspiracists that they too had legitimate cause for concern. The official line, that the weapons expert committed suicide after being outed by the government in 2004 for leaking information to journalists on the "dodgy dossier" that helped justify the Iraq war to parliament on the basis that Saddam Hussein had the capability to launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, was so palpably untrue that toxicologists, paramedics and respected scientists have all offered detailed accounts that show it simply could not have happened. All the signs point to Dr Kelly having been killed off in a secret service "wet disposal", most likely orchestrated by the British government to prevent him revealing further embarrassing secrets. Moments before his death on the isolated Harrowdown Hill in rural Oxfordshire he emailed a friend to warn of "many dark actors playing games". How tragically prophetic his email proved to be.

7. The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

A theory which has gained considerable traction in the Muslim world following one of the worst natural disasters in South Asian history is that the tsunami could have been caused by an Indian nuclear experiment aided by Israeli and American experts. Theorists suggest that the heated nuclear race between India and unstable neighbour Pakistan, led to the former spending billions on sophisticated nuclear technology from the US. Theorists are then split as to whether the test went awry, or whether backed by the US and Israel, India was taking the first step in "geological warfare" as part of a bid to wipe out Muslims in the heavily Islamic areas of Indonesia and Sri Lanka which suffered most of the 230,000 deaths caused by the Tsunami.

8. Bin Laden is Dead

He is the most recognisable terrorist on the planet, an aging, slight cleric with a serious kidney disorder. Yet we are led to believe that the Al Qaeda chief has successfully managed to avoid the most sophisticated army and intelligence service in the history of the world for more than eight years. With the notorious Saudi serial killer still at large, and the US maintaining that it has no new information on his whereabouts, he remains a convenient focal point for the "war on terror" and the occupation of Afghanistan. Tapes taken after the December 2001 siege of his compound in the caves of Tora Bora show a very different Osama Bin Laden to the man who appeared before the September 11 attacks he is supposed to have masterminded. Surely the US haven't created a bogeyman character to keep their public in a constant state of fear and justify war across the globe, have they?

9.The Da Vinci Code and the Holy Grail

In many ways Dan Brown's 2003 archeological code-cracking romp was the defining novel of the noughties. For the conspiracy community it was a dream come true. The Priory of Sion, a secret sect established to protect the secret identity of Jesus Christ's descendants in the French Merovingian royal family, became the focus of every theorist who ever dreamed of tracking down the elusive Holy Grail. The book single-handedly restored into popular culture the ancient myth that Jesus fathered an heir with Mary Magdalene. It also created a theory of its own about the powerful, and very real, ultra-strict Opus Dei chapter of the Roman Catholic Church, a group who are distinctly unhappy about the international spotlight that has been thrown on their activities.

10. George W Bush's Elections

History is unlikely to be kind to America's 43rd President. Two bloody and unpopular foreign wars, a bungled response to a huge natural disaster that left thousands of Black American's homeless, an economic meltdown that threatened the economic dominance of the world's only superpower and a collection of embarrassing speeches that left respect for the US at an all-time low are just some of his shortcomings. But for conspiracy theorists, the greatest scandal of the Bush presidency was his election to office in 2000 and 2004. As the new millennium dawned we were treated to an unseemly scramble in Florida as hanging chads, spoilt papers and the intervention of a certain Presidential candidates brother, Governor Jeb Bush, created an election mired in uncertainty and allegations of corruption. In 2004 John Kerry's massive lead in the opinion polls was overturned in such astonishing fashion that Bush again found himself accused of nefarious tactics, including the use of controversial "caging lists" and the false registration of hundreds of thousands of voters in the key swing state of Ohio. If the theory is true, how different the noughties could have been.

Man Made Global Warming - A worldwide conspiracy?

2009-12-03T12:52:30Z

The Case

It's the disaster to end all disasters.
More dangerous than terrorism, scarier than a nuclear holocaust, and all your own fault, global warming is a man made apocalypse that threatens the future of humankind.
As the most powerful men on the planet prepare to meet in Copenhagen to discuss the climate change crisis and come up with a set of rules to save us all from the end of the world as we know it, we are told that when it comes to global warming the debate is over.
But there are still many respected climatologists, politicians and geologists who believe that the greatest threat facing our civilisation is not what it appears to be.
The conspiracy theorists fear that global warming, as with the war on terror and the fight against communism before it, represents a bid by the political and economic elites to curtail our freedoms, restrict the financial markets, and maintain their own authority.
Even those who accept that climate change is happening are split on whether or not man is the cause.
While the official line of most governments around the world is that man made climate change is a scientific fact, there is a vocal minority who argue that the shift in the earth's temperature would be happening regardless of our carbon output.
Bombarded with science and scared to death by predictions of an Armageddon that would make Roland Emmerich blush, the public are struggling to come to terms with the fact that carbon emissions and climate change will now become a guiding force in their daily lives.
Conspiracy theorists say these people are being duped in order to create a multibillion dollar "green economy" and impose controls on every aspect of our existence.
With academics on both sides of the debate approaching their research with an almost religious zealotry, the debate is getting nasty with accusations, smear campaigns and a scurrilous set of leaked emails creating a war the likes of which the scientific community hasn't seen since Galileo.
The forces that stand opposed to one another are strong.
An ex-Vice President of the USA, a legion of green economists looking to make a quick buck and a swarm of liberal activists are facing the entrenched values of a world that doesn't want to forego its creature comforts, a cabal of powerful oil producers eager to protect their profits and an up and coming superpower that needs carbon to fuel its development.
But who is right, who is conning who and what is the truth behind the "greatest challenge ever to face humanity"?
One thing is for sure the debate is not over yet.

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The Official Story

The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will be presented with a very bleak view of our future.
Global warming, primarily caused by the greenhouse effect of the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by man's burning of fossil fuels to drive our industrialised economy, is rapidly killing our planet.
From the melting glaciers of Antarctica to the arid scrublands of Africa the globe's all time high temperatures are being recorded as the carbon crisis creates a microwave which is destroying our environment.
Whole species are being wiped off the face of the earth, sea levels are rising and coastlines that have stayed stable for generations are eroding.
For the doomsayers though, these are mere harbingers, an early warning that Armageddon is at hand.
Former Vice President Al Gore has been ridiculed by many in the US for his outspoken support for the climate change lobby.
But his Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, has had a major impact on the collective conscience, and spurred millions to go green by recycling, reducing their energy usage and devoting their time to the campaign against climate change.
Gore's vision is the one often invoked by those who demand immediate action on global warming.
If we do not change our ways, man will be responsible for killer tsunamis, flash flooding on a biblical scale, whole nations and cities being submerged by rising seas.
A string of natural disasters around the world have fuelled the fear that climate change is set to cause apocalyptic weather conditions.
Almost a quarter of a million people lost their lives in the devastating Indian Tsunami, as waters ripped through Indonesia and Thailand on Boxing Day 2004.
In 2005 the US was rocked by the impact of Hurricane Katrina, a category five storm that claimed 1,800 victims and tore apart the presidency of George W Bush as the residents of New Orleans were left floundering in the wake of the tragedy.
Two years later Britain was struck by some of the most devastating floods on record with Hull, Gloucester and Worcester suffering two months of rainfall on just one day, resulting in billions of pounds of damage and 13 deaths.
It's events like these that lead climatologists who believe in man made global warming to claim that the debate is over.
But could this all be coincidence, could the planet just be going through a normal, historically consistent, period of change.

The Conspiracy Theory

To deny that man is responsible for global warming is seen as something akin to a war crime.
In the UK it amounts to political suicide to question the science that underpins the theory that man's CO2 emissions are driving the increase in worldwide temperatures over the past decade.
But the scientific community is not as united as you may believe.
Some point to global temperatures stabilising over the past decade, and even falling in 2008.
Others say that CO2 and global warming are not linked, certainly not to the point where levels of CO2 drive climate.
Still more believe that even if the temperature is rising, and it is linked to CO2, man has such a small impact on levels of the gas that we can do nothing about the phenomenon.
Historically the earth has had much greater levels of CO2 in its atmosphere than it does in 2009, more than three times as much, without any impact by man and without any affect on climate.
Professor Ian Clark, from the University of Ottawa, argues that changes in the earth's temperature have always been linked to solar activity rather than levels of carbon dioxide, and that CO2 is only a minor greenhouse gas.
His claims caused a furore in the UK as part of the Channel 4 documentary, The Great Global Warming Swindle, which led to huge criticism of the broadcaster and bitter anger among climate change advocates.
The programme cast doubts on the independence of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), pointing to divisions, resignations and political allegiances.
This level of passion and zealotry, which became almost a witchhunt against climate change sceptics, alerted conspiracists eager to sniff out a scam.
When you examine the environmental movement from an economic perspective, the financial motives for a potential scam become obvious.
A multi-billion pound industry based on a scientific belief as powerful as any religion has taken root, and many of the world's biggest polluters are preparing to plunder the spoils of the green economy.
The real losers in this scandal are the very people whose best interests the liberal supporters of the climate change movement claim to be looking to protect.
The climate change economy directly disadvantages the developing countries of Africa and Asia whose prosperity depends on the freedom to use fossil fuels and carbon to create wealth and industrialise their economies.
With motive established, the conspiracy theorists are also searching for evidence of a cover up, something which appears to be slowly emerging.
Just last week the University of East Anglia (UEA) revealed that hackers had stolen data from a decade's worth of records from its Climatic Research Unit.
Kevin Trenberth, a well respected atmospheric scientist who contributed to the IPCC report, was quoted in one of the emails as saying: "we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't."
The University's leading authority, Phil Jones, wrote that he had used a "trick" to "hide the decline" in a chart detailing recent global temperatures.
This has been evidence enough for many conspiracy theorists, and has done huge damage to the respectability of the scientific evidence behind climate change.
All the ingredients are there for a classic conspiracy; an over arching control mechanism that allows government and big business to run our lives using cover ups and scare tactics to oppress the poor developing nations and curtail our liberty.
So is climate change the end of the world as we know it, or a huge and complex scam?

Pros

- Climate change may not be linked to CO2, and even if it is CO2 levels may not be heavily affected by human carbon emissions.

- Historical evidence about changes in the earth's climate presents an inconsistent and incomplete body of evidence for the theory of man made global warming. The argument that the earth is undergoing a natural period of warming which would have occurred irrespective of human activity can be supported just as strongly as the theory that we are responsible.

- The leaked emails scandal offers strong proof that scientists, at least at the University of East Anglia, are working to prove the theory of man made global warming, rather than examining the facts and seeing where they lead.

- Scientific evidence, including whether or not climate is driven by CO2, is hotly disputed by several senior academics, politicians and researchers. Whatever the truth, climate change activists have exaggerated the scientific backing for their theory.

- Responding to the UEA leaked email scandal, Kevin Trenberth, of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Colorado responded by attacking those who hacked the emails, rather than defending his theory and refuting the alleged cover-up.

- In a 2005 House of Lords inquiry into the science behind global warming the report's chief Lord Lawson of Blaby found that the evidence to support man made climate change was "surprisingly weak".

Cons

- Hurricane Katrina, flooding across Europe, an increase in forest fires everywhere from Australia to Greece and scientific evidence that the hottest years on record have all been recorded in the last decade offer powerful proof that global warming is a real danger, and is linked to extreme weather conditions.

- Very few scientific theories are supported 100 per cent by every scientist on the planet, there will always be dissent and debate. The majority opinion, though not as overwhelming as some claim it to be, is in favour of the idea that man is responsible for the CO2 increase that has led to global warming.

- The leaked email scandal does not prove a global conspiracy, just the frustration of scientists who are unable to prove a theory. Kevin Trenberth said his quotes came from a paper he wrote about the need for better monitoring of global warming to explain the anomalies. Phil Jones also denies manipulating evidence and insists his comment were misunderstood. Relying on hacked emails released on a website is not the stuff of thorough research.

- Graphs showing the rise in CO2 levels since the industrial revolution next to the rise in worldwide temperatures are compelling evidence that man may well be responsible for both carbon dioxide increases and climate change.

Conclusion

Climate change has become THE political issue of the 00s. But the assertions from both sides of the debate that they are backed by scientific fact has created a major rift in the academic community and confusion among the public. What is for sure is that the apocalyptic version of global warming presented by those who claim climate change is a product of man's carbon emissions is not the air tight scientifically proven dead cert that many in the media present it as. The truth is that scare tactics have been used to convince the majority that climate change can be tackled if we all act together. It may be true, but it is a long way from being a scientific fact. The conspiracy theory suggests that it is in the vested interests of government and big business to use the green economy to bleed us dry and control our lives. When you look at the obsession with climate change and the ire poured on those who raise legitimate academic criticisms of the global warming lobby's evidence, you begin to see that the conspiracists may be on to something. The debate is by no means over...

OPERATION NORTHWOODS - Faking it?

2009-11-04T16:56:44Z

The Case

At the height of the Cold War the US military was running out of ways to tackle the threat of communist Cuba.
Following the humiliating failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and just months before the Cuban Missile Crisis the desperate army elite came up with a dastardly new proposal.
Operation Northwoods ignored all rules of warfare, common humanity and moral decency.
It marked the first example of a False Flag plot, the concept that has informed conspiracy theories on everything from the 9/11 attacks to Pearl Harbour.
Under the controversial plan the CIA and the joint chiefs of staff recommended that civilians be targetted with real terror attacks, involving American casualties in order to justify an all out land invasion of Cuba.
Never before had a government countenanced the slaughter of its own citizens to warrant waging war against an enemy.
The plan was thrown out by President Kennedy, with many theorists speculating that this act of defiance against the military elite may have led to JFK's own untimely demise.
Shortly afterwards the US became embroiled in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Operation Northwoods was put back in the box it came in.
But when the most diabolical and devastating plot ever considered at the upper echelons of government was revealed in 2001, the distrustful US public had to accept that their leaders were now capable of anything.
Almost 50 years on the question remains, has a false flag terror act been committed by the US government and if not, how long will it be before Northwoods is put into operation?

]]>

The Official Story

For almost 40 years, Operation Northwoods was nothing more than a highly classified sheet of paper held in US military records.
It was not until April 2001 that the corrupt scheme became public knowledge, with the release of classified National Security Archive documents online and the publication of investigative journalist James Bamford's book Body of Secrets.
Shockwaves were sent around the world as the top secret document, signed by the joint chiefs of staff, recommended causing US casualties to further the possibility of a US invasion of Cuba.
"We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," the joint chiefs wrote. "Casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."
Northwoods was sparked by the work of Brigadier General Edward Lansdale, a CIA and air force officer who was in command of Operation Mongoose, the codename for US plans to topple Castro and take control of Cuba.
The joint chiefs at the time were headed by General Lyman Lemnitzer the man behind the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and Lansdale's boss.
After months of planning Lansdale's team presented a document entitled "Justification for US military intervention in Cuba" which included Operation Northwoods in an appendix marked for the attention of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
The suggestions were aimed at provoking a publicly acceptable war on Cuba and included blowing up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay, hijacking civilian aircraft and creating a Cuban communist terror group in Florida.
McNamara's reaction to the submission of the controversial plans is not known. What we do know is that a strained meeting took place three days later between President Kennedy and General Lemnitzer.
The General was told that his plans had been categorically rejected, and just months later he was denied a third term as chairman of the joint chiefs.
Quashed by the President, Operation Northwoods was consigned to the secret filing cabinets at Army HQ, and forgotten about for four decades.
Or was it?

The Conspiracy Theory

Operation Northwoods is a conspiracy theorist's dream.
Clearly the content of the scheme itself is not at issue, the US did not implement the plan to undertake terror attacks to provoke a war against Cuba.
But the psychological impact of Northwoods is enormous.
Suddenly the American people, not just the traditionally sceptical conspiracy community, were handed verifiable, cast iron evidence that their government was capable of plotting murder and terror against its own citizens.
Combine this with the timing of the revelation, just six months before the 9/11 terror attacks, and Operation Northwoods suddenly assumes a great deal of significance.
For those sceptical about whether 19 jihadists armed with box cutters and very basic flying skills could really strike at the military and economic heart of the most powerful nation on earth, Operation Northwoods began to look like the blueprint for their theories.
The 1962 Operation had even talked about hijacking planes and targeting civilian air defence systems. The 9/11 "truthers" were convinced.
George W Bush's foreign policy goals to create a foothold in Central Asia and install a friendly government in Oil rich Iraq were set long before the Twin Towers were destroyed.
To those in the Republican party and beyond who dreamed of a new American empire, or "new world order" as many conspiracy theorists would have it, success in these ventures was crucial.
As pretexts for war go, they don't come much more convincing than 3,000 innocent men, women and children being slaughtered in the most audacious and deadly terror attack in history.
Within hours of 9/11 the US had in place a rock solid alliance of international states, who would back them in just about any attempt to capture those responsible for the atrocity.
The conspiracy theory runs that the US government, using Operation Northwoods as its inspiration, deliberately assisted the terror hijackers by relaxing security at airports, sending the air force on exercises and refusing to shoot down suspect planes.
Many theorists even go as far as suggesting that the US government either trained, recruited and funded the terrorists themselves, or used explosives to demolish the Twin Towers and a cruise missile to attack the Pentagon.
They claim that the 9/11 Commission Report was a cover-up aimed at blaming Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden for the US government's inside job.
To conspiracy theorists, 9/11 was Operation Northwoods in action, a carefully orchestrated plot to prepare the ground for the necessary US expansion into Afghanistan and the Middle East.

Pros

- Unlike many conspiracy theories we have documented evidence that Operation Northwoods was not only concocted, but openly debated and recommended by the highest ranking men in the US military.

- Just because Northwoods was rejected by President Kennedy does not mean it was rejected by subsequent administrations. Once the idea had been proposed it was clear the CIA and military were willing to kill their own citizens in order to further American interests.

- The 9/11 attacks are similar to the sort of plots considered by the military under the Northwoods plot. Using hijacked planes to attack civilian targets is explicitly mentioned by the joint chiefs in the memo handed to Secretary of Defense McNamara in 1962.

- Several inconsistencies in the evidence produced to support the official version of the events of 911 have yet to be satisfactorily explained. Most importantly questions over whether United 93 was shot down over Pennsylvania and suggestions that Tower 7 of the World Trade Centre was brought down by controlled explosion.

- Without the 9/11 attacks there is very little chance the US would have gained the international support it required to launch an all-out invasion of both Afghanistan, and the subsequent incursion into Iraq.

Cons

- Not only was Operation Northwoods not implemented, it was rejected out of hand by the US Government at a time when the powerful military elite were out of control in their obsession with deposing Castro.

- There is no evidence that the files containing the Northwoods advice were accessed by any administration following their rejection by President Kennedy.

- Not only was Northwoods immoral and inhumane, there is also no evidence that it could have worked. Conspiracy theorists who claim it could have acted as a blueprint for 9/11 do not acknowledge that the operation may well have failed, even in the febrile atmosphere at the height of the Cold War.

- Evidence presented to the 9/11 commission, and investigations into the financial and military operations of Al Qaeda show that the terror organisation actively planned, carried out and later accepted responsibility for the attacks.

- No-one, from any branch of the US armed forces or civilian government has ever revealed any measure of cover-up or conspiracy regarding supposed US involvement in carrying out the atrocity.

Conclusion

Operation Northwoods marks a watershed moment for conspiracy theories. The fact that the US armed forces actively plotted terror attacks against its own citizens points to a dark, frightening undercurrent present in the upper echelons of the military industrial complex. That Northwoods was a brutal, dastardly conspiracy ignoring all conventional rules of human rights and decency is beyond debate. This is clearly one of the most outrageous conspiracies of all time. However, there seems to be very little evidence that Northwoods was ever put into effect by any US administration, and certainly not on 9/11, where conspiracy theorists still struggle to produce any evidence that the government actively took part in the attacks.