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List of conspiracy theories

This is a list of alleged conspiracy theories. For a discussion of conspiracy theories in general, see conspiracy theory.

Global conspiracy theories

• The Bilderberg Group. This is a well-known informal, international, annual meeting of influential people that some critcs allege have a sinister purpose. Its name is that of the hotel in the Netherlands where the group first met in 1954.
• Secret motives of the Trilateral Commission
• Secret motives of the United Nations and its various Secretaries General
• The Gemstone File, which details a wide ranging conspiracy involving Aristotle Onassis, the CIA, FBI, and the Mafia in addition to John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Ted Kennedy, Richard Nixon, the Washington Post, Mayor Joe Alioto, Howard Hughes, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Watergate conspirators.
• The Government Warehouse
• Free energy suppression
• Eurabia, the idea that Europe is becoming a satellite of the Islamic world at French "instigation" due to the activities of the Parliamentary Association for Euro-Arab Cooperation.
• SARS conspiracy theory suggests that the SARS virus could be developed artificially.

Conspiracy theories peculiar to the United States of America

• 9/11 domestic conspiracy theory
• Many African-Americans in the US believe that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was invented by either white American scientists, or by "The Jews", as a way to destroy the black race. This conspiracy theory is most common among lower-income blacks in poor neighborhoods, and among putative left-wing black college students. These racist and anti-Semitic attacks have been propagated for years first by Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, and by the New Black Panther Party, as well by a number of extremist professors in various smaller colleges. (see also Steve Cokely).
• There is also a theory that the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise is owned by the Ku Klux Klan, and the chicken is laced with a drug that makes only black men impotent. Ironically, the franchise is owned by an African-American.
• Apollo moon landing hoax accusations
• Area 51 containing alien spacecraft and/or bodies
• Assassination, particularly those of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy , Martin Luther King Jr.
• Black helicopters
• Bush family conspiracy theory
• Chemtrails - Clouds behind aircraft, having the general appearance of contrails, but alleged to be chemical spraying performed for some secretive purpose.
• Council on Foreign Relations
• Elvis sightings
• General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy
• Theories relating to the fluoridation of drinking water, generally in an attempt to poison the populace.
• Korean Air Flight KAL-007
• Men in Black, aka Majestic 12
• the New Coke fiasco
• the Philadelphia Experiment
• The President of the United States and his family (a running theory that all US presidents are evil or the antichrist)
• Project HAARP
• Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, that the United States Air Force shot it down with a laser
• TACMAR
• TWA Flight 800
• There is a theory that the US Government secretly paid off the 2002 Beltway sniper and framed innocent people in order to hide that fact
• "Vast right-wing conspiracy" theory

Conspiracy theories peculiar to Canada

• The Avro Arrow Cancellation
• Shag Harbor Cover-up - "Canada's Roswell"
• Conspiracy to remove George Radwanski, Privacy Commissioner of Canada, from office in order to silence him about attacks on civil liberties by the Canadian government

Zionist conspiracy theories regarding the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks

Conspiracy theories peculiar to the Arab and Muslim world

• For some time the Arab press was reporting that that there was a plot by Jews to make Egyptian and Palestinian schoolgirls sexually promiscuous by selling them bubble-gum laced with aphrodisiacs. An example of this conspiracy theory is that written by Mohammad Dalbah:

"Palestinian authorities uncovered Israeli efforts to spread a special kind of gum that contains sexual hormone between Palestinians. The authorities requested laboratory tests on the gum which were conducted in Cairo. Those tests showed that the gum contains progesterone which is responsible for sexual arousal and also prevents pregnancies. Palestinian authorities confiscated 200 tonnes of gum in the city of al-Khalil alone. The Washington Post claimed in report that it asked a chemistry professor in the hebrew university to examine the gum. His tests were negative, however the paper also reported that the majority of Palestinians believe the conspiracy. It quoted one Palestinian saying that it was possible to send a space ship to Mars then it is possible to manufacture a 'sexual gum' it is after all a war. "

This story is particularly interesting, as it closely resembles a story of LSD-laced papers or candies which continues to periodically surface in the US. In this case the story is considered to be an urban legend as opposed to a conspiracy theory, because no group is blamed for the "attacks". Like the Palestinian case, there is no evidence that anything like this has ever happened.

• On several occasions, Palestinians have claimed that the Israeli government has used nerve gas against them, and then suppressed the evidence of such. No independent investigation has ever substantiated such claims.
• Some Arabs, mostly Egyptians, believe that Israelis engineered the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 in 1999, despite strong evidence that the pilot committed suicide. Others insist that the US is covering up for Boeing, the airplane's manufacturer: ,
• Theory that US President Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky was part of a Zionist plot to get rid of Bill Clinton.
• Many in the Arab world believe that Jewish doctors deliberately give Palestinians AIDS. January 1995, Al-Ahram:
• Conspiracy theory that the Madrid railway bombings were not perpetrated by Muslims since they took place in the Hijri month of Muharram, one of the four sacred months during which attacks on "infidels" are forbidden by the Qu'ran - a rule which Islamic fundamentalists have never broken previously.
• Nick Berg conspiracy theories

Daniel Pipes has written and many essays on the prevalence of conspiracy theories throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Conspiracy theories extend far beyond those biased against Jews. They extend even to the creation of conspiracy theories about the results of sporting events.

Other Conspiracy Theories

Plot to murder Diana, Princess of Wales

Polls continue to suggest that around a quarter of the UK public, and a majority of people in some Arab countries, believe that there was a plot to murder Diana, Princess of Wales. Motivations which have been advanced for such a conspiracy include suggestions that Diana intended to divorce The Prince of Wales, that she intended to convert to Islam, and that she was pregnant. Organisations which conspiracy theorists suggest are responsible for her death have included French Intelligence, the British Establishment or British Royal Family, the British Intelligence services MI5 or MI6, the CIA, Mossad, the Freemasons, or the IRA. Alternatively, Diana and Dodi are believed to be alive and living incognito.