Recently by Ben Goldby

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

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.

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.

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?

December 2001, three months after terrorists have destroyed the Twin Towers and brought America to its knees.
The US is struggling to hold together a fragile coalition for its invasion of Afghanistan.
Questions are being raised about the strength of the evidence against their prime suspect for the 9/11 atrocities.
And the notoriously loudmouthed Al Qaeda chief still hasn't claimed responsibility.
Suddenly a video tape appears from a house in Jalalabad showing a barely recognisable Osama Bin Laden confessing all.
Could this be fortunate timing? Or is the video a fake recording of a man who is already dead?
Bin Laden has been the western world's most wanted man for the best part of a decade.
Well over 6ft tall, sporting a distinctive beard and with an instantly recognisable face the Saudi militant should stand out a mile.
But more than eight years after the 9/11 attacks he is said to have masterminded, Al Qaeda's commander in chief remains on the run.
He could still be sheltering in the mountains and caves of Afghanistan.
He may be hiding in the lawless tribal regions of North West Pakistan.
There is even a chance that he has sought refuge in a Middle Eastern state sympathetic to his fanatical cause.
Amid all of these possibilities there is one which is rarely covered in the mainstream media.
Osama Bin Laden, the Great Satan's staunchest foe, the devil incarnate himself, could well be dead.
With so much money, manpower and murder expended on attempts at capturing him, how can one man continue to elude the most powerful military in human history?
Surely with infinite resources, gadgets that would make James Bond's eyes pop out, and enough explosives to destroy the planet a thousand times over, the US would have found this elderly cleric with a serious kidney ailment by now?
Unless of course, he is no longer there to be found.
His death would certainly not have been announced by the Al Qaeda lieutenants who rely on his iconic status to recruit the deranged youths they need to wage their unholy war.
Nor would it have been trumpeted by the US had they caught wind of his demise.
With Bin Laden's life goes the human face of 9/11, the face that launched a hundred unmanned drones in Pakistan, a thousand F16s in Iraq, tens of thousands of soldiers in the Afghan badlands.
On the history pages Bin Laden's image is destined to sit next to those of Stalin, Pol Pot and Hitler as a case study in evil.
But with conflicting reports about his health, question marks over the authenticity of his videos and rumours about a burial, has he been consigned to those pages already?

The hero's welcome that has greeted the return of the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdulbaset Ali Al Megrahi to his native Libya has sparked outrage in the US.
With the Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill playing the villain-in-chief, America's less than diplomatic rhetoric has shown that the release of such a notorious figure threatens the stability of Britain's "special relationship" with our transatlantic cousins.
Megrahi has less than three months to live, but his release could have long term implications for the British government and our role in the American "war on terror" that so consumes the superpower's foreign policy.
While no-one in Edinburgh, London or Washington is openly questioning Megrahi's guilt, maybe they should be.
The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, and the incumbent loss of 270 lives, the vast majority of those being US citizens, still represents the single worst terrorist act in the UK.
That Libya and the despotic Colonel Gaddafi are behind the crime seems possible but by no means certain, with conspiracy theorists raising questions about links between the bombing and other state terror sponsors including Iran and Syria.
However, while Megrahi is the convicted, tried and imprisoned "face" of the atrocity, there are major questions about the evidence that convicted him and whether or not he is a patsy presented to appease the US by a remorseful yet unbowed Libya.
Other theories about the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 include suggestions that the aircraft was downed by Palestinian militants backed by Hizbollah, or even that the CIA was responsible for the attack to hide a drug smuggling route it had established from Europe into the US.
The diplomatic furore over Megrahi's release will surely settle down, but questions about what really happened at Lockerbie are set to continue for generations to come.

The coffin is buried, the celebs have cried on camera and a podgy lad from Britain's Got Talent has sung his heart out.
Finally the carnival surrounding Michael Jackson's death has stopped.
Now it's time for the conspiracy theories to start.
Wacko Jacko is the conspiracist's dream, with his bizarre personal life, reported battle with drugs and the constant accusations of child molestation turning him into a disturbing and controversial figure.
While his musical prowess and commercial pull dwarf any pop artist before or since, it is Jackson's antics away from the limelight that have led to fevered speculation over the "truth" about his death.
Any man who hangs around with a chimp, uses plastic surgery to deform his face into a grotesque mask and builds a creepy ranch in the countryside so that he can "sleep" with young boys is bound to attract the wrong sort of press attention.
But just how far did Jackson's eccentricities lead him, and what finally led to his downfall?
With the Los Angeles coroner still to confirm a cause of death, and pathologists keeping the king of pop's brain for extra analysis, wild explanations as to how he ultimately met his maker are springing up all over.
Meanwhile, as with Elvis before him, many ardent fans are convinced that Jackson is still alive, prompting further rumours that the singer may be in hiding to escape debts and avoid his gruelling gig commitments in London.
So did Jackson die from a combination of exhaustion, drug addiction and stress, or was he killed in some complicated conspiracy, or better yet, could he be lurking in the Californian countryside outrunning his debtors and cuddling children?
One thing is clear already, the Michael Jackson conspiracy theories are here to stay.

Who exactly are the Freemasons?
For many they are a perfectly harmless group.
Little more than a working men's club, they hold meetings, swap silly handshakes, have a few drinks and go back to their day jobs.
But for some conspiracy theorists, they are a bizarre cabal of dastardly occultists banded together to control the world.
Of all the conspiracy theories explored in this blog, none can match the Masonic theory for sheer scale.
With a hand in everything from global warming to Iraq, 9/11 to devil worship, the Freemasons have become the conspiracy community's bogeyman, responsible for all the ills that affect our world.
The most popular theory is that the Masons are the modern branch of an ancient sect who aim to shape global events and ensure that their interests are furthered in the New World Order they seek to create.
With their use of occult symbols, their highly secretive meetings and their notable members, the Masons are to conspiracy theorists what a candle is to a moth; irresistible.
But how much truth lies behind the myths?
How powerful are this group, and what happens behind the closed doors of their "grand lodge" get togethers?
Could these men really organise a global powerplay to control our lives, or are they just a bunch of drunken, aging frat boys?
With more than six million members worldwide, they are certainly a force to be reckoned with.
If they were to turn their hand to world domination, it could be tough to stop them.

It is widely accepted that the modern world's unquenchable thirst for oil has left mankind facing a dilemma.
We are told that global oil production is nearing its peak, and that soon this most precious of resources will have run out.
As governments scramble to find alternative fuel sources, oil rich nations are enjoying a "black gold" rush.
The future scarcity of oil has handed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a blank cheque and left the oil markets in turmoil.
With the cost of oil soaring past the $100-a-barrell mark, the producers are recording record profits, while the public is facing unprecedented price hikes at the petrol pumps.
We are told that all of this is necessary, a market adjustment, an inconvenience born of the natural clash between decades of excess and a slowdown in oil production.
But there is another theory.
What if this oil peak is a myth, a spook story created by the multi-trillion dollar petrol companies and the oil rich nations that control the supply lines?
What if instead of a scientific, evolutionary fact, the idea of a peak in production is a tool to control the markets and keep pump prices high?
Surely such a conspiracy is unthinkable, who could orchestrate such a complex and dastardly plot?
If it was going to be done, it would require a group with massive sway over global financial markets, influence over the leading governments of the world, a huge amount of cash and a ruthless desire to exploit human suffering and poverty in order to make a profit.
Conspiracy theorists are torn as to who this group may be. The famed "illuminati", a shadowy cabal of New World Order devotees and the oil companies themselves are among the main candidates.
Whoever the conspirators are, the idea that peak oil is nothing more than a money-making myth drives right to the heart of the global economic meltdown we are currently experiencing.
If this is a conspiracy, then everything from politics to finance, from industry to the military is being manipulated, and that is a very worrying thought indeed.

AT the height of the cold war the US government was pouring billions of dollars into highly classified biological weaponry projects.
The plan, as early as the 1950s, was to develop a disease so deadly, so potent, that it could wipe out whole communities, even paralyse an entire nation.
Most of this research remains buried in top secret files, and we may never know just how far these experiments went, and how close the US came to perfecting the deadly biotechnology they craved.
But what if we are already witnessing the devastating results of their tampering?
What if one of those experiments got out of the lab?
What if AIDS, a disease that has claimed almost 40 million lives since the early 1980s, was created by the American scientists who dedicated their lives to creating a weaponised virus?
The origins of the deadly disease are still shrouded in mystery.
The official story about monkeys in deepest Africa transmitting the infection to humans is scoffed at by conspiracy theorists, who are sure that AIDS began as part of a dastardly government plan to eradicate those groups hit hardest by the disease - homosexuals, drug users and black people.
Many leaders in the African American community, including the Black Panthers and the new Nation of Islam, have leant their support to the conspiracy theories, making them widely accepted.
Could it be that the worst epidemic of modern times is a man-made nightmare?
Or are theorists simply turning a tragedy into a conspiracy?

The tragic death of Jade Goody at just 27-years-old has left the nation in mourning.
But for conspiracy buffs is raises once more one of the most morbid, yet interesting, theories out there.
Club 27, as it has become known, is a group of notable stars who have all died at just 27.
The membership list reads like a who's who of celebrities, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, all lost their lives at the dreaded age.
In the case of some of these legendary figures, their deaths have been shrouded in mystery.
Cobain's final hours, depressed, drugged and alone, will remain a riddle, but conspiracy theories abound as to whether he would have been able to pull the trigger on the shotgun that claimed his young life.
Hendrix's end was also drug-linked, while Joplin lost her life to the same heroin addiction that had so consumed Cobain.
Guitarist Jones died in very suspicious circumstances. The former Rolling Stone was found at the bottom of his swimming pool by his Swedish girlfriend, who later wrote a book about how her lover had been murdered.
As for The Doors' frontman Morrison, his demise is particularly mysterious. He was found dead in a bathtub at his Paris apartment, but no autopsy was ever performed, allowing theorists to speculate on everything from murder to a faked death.
Jade's sad end may not have been a mystery, but the mere fact that she died at 27 will start tongues wagging again about the curse that stalks young celebrities at that tender age.