Best Conspiracies
Some great conspiracy theories.
1) Drug Smuggling by individuals in the United States Government
This is fertile ground that begins decades ago and runs right up to the present day. Most people are familiar with Iran Contra, some are aware of indications that part of the funding apparently came from drugs transported through Central America by people acting in the name of the U.S. government.
More recently, Afghanistan was the worlds main supplier of heroin in the 1990s. In 2001 the Taliban regime eliminated all growing of opium poppies and the supply of heroin from Afghanistan dwindled to near zero. After 9/11 the United States invaded Afghanistan. The U.S. quickly got full control of all Afghan infrastructure. Not a plane could fly without full approval and coordination with the NATO armies. Heroin production quickly increased with no seeming hindrance from anywhere. Afghan heroin production has increased from 185 tons to 5,800 tons a year.
There are strange stories that strain credibility about the Afghan air force somehow moving vast quantities of heroin without the knowledge of NATO, which obviously controls every aspect of the Afghan air force.
Smuggling of relatively small to medium quantities of drugs from Vietnam by soldiers was not a huge secret. Many people who have never been in the military, myself included, have heard stories about drugs transported by soldiers.
Investigating drug smuggling by any government is notoriously dangerous. One of the best known of such investigators in the U.S. was Gary Webb, an investigative reporter with decades of experience who ultimately committed suicide with two bullets to his head.
Also of note, in 2007 a plane that had been used for several "renditions" by the CIA crashed in Mexico. Aboard were several tons of cocaine.
2) KAL 007
Anyone who followed politics at the time will remember Larry McDonald. He was the parody of a less educated person trying to use conservatism to compensate for ignorance. A cross between J. Edgar Hoover and Rep. Peter King. He was also on board flight 007 and disappeared in Soviet space with no part of his remains recovered. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007_alternate_theories
3) Begich / Boggs flight
In 1972 the U.S. House majority leader was on an airplane that disappeared in Alaska. He was declared dead the next year. The pilot was a mysterious character named Don Jonz, whose Wikipedia page was deleted in 2008. Following the politics of the day, there is certainly reason to take a second look at the disappearance. http://www.check-six.com/lib/Famous_Missing/Boggs.htm
4) Paul Wellstone's flight.
Paul Wellstone was one of 11 Senators to vote against both the Persian Gulf war in 1991 and the Iraq war in 2002. His death in an airplane crash in October 2002 (11 days before the election) led to a number of conspiracy theories. It should be noted that had he lived he might have been one of the most formidable challenges to the Neocon agenda, for a number of reasons. http://www.alternet.org/story/14399/
Five months before Mr. Wellstone's death, Common Dreams published the following. "[G]etting rid of Wellstone is a passion for Rove, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the special-interest lobbies that fund the most sophisticated political operation ever assembled by a presidential administration. "There are people in the White House who wake up in the morning thinking about how they will defeat Paul Wellstone," a senior Republican aide confides. "This one is political and personal for them." "
If you Google a bit you will find references to other assassination attempts against Wellstone. There are thousands of links to the page http://nuance.dhs.org/lbo-talk/0012/0044.html which does not exist anymore. If you go to the Internet Archive you will find the original page archived once, then updated (with the same page name, strangely) to advertising pages. Many of the original articles on Wellstone (pre death) have been removed, including from the New York Times, though copies of some are still at pages such as http://nucnews.net/nucnews/2000nn/0012nn/001201nn.htm (That page can be downloaded in a zipped folder here if it disappears).
5) Ted Stevens flight.
Ted Stevens was one of the most powerful people in the U.S. Congress. When he was charged with corruption, then convicted, people were shocked. Then a judge announced that the case was not about corruption but rather prosecutorial misconduct. A power broker named Henry Schuelke was appointed to investigate, and he cleared Stevens. Soon after, Stevens died in a plane crash and the lead prosecutor committed suicide. A person looking for some kind of holy grail of political corruption conspiracies would do good to research Henry Schuelke.
It's interesting to note that although aircraft accidents are quite rare in all countries, particularly the United States, they are a fairly common cause of death among controversial characters. Recently, a number of individuals who gave testimony casting doubt on the official version of September 11 have died in aircraft accidents.
6) 9/11.
Supposed master terrorist Osama bin Laden, after years of close cooperation with Saudi, Pakistani and U.S. intelligence suddenly goes rogue. It would be plausible except for a sizable number of glaring deceptions that point to something else. http://patriotsquestion911.com/Counterterrorism_Veterans.html
7) The Alaska Corruption web.
There is a fascinating history of corruption in Alaska. It can be divided into components, including a) territorial and early statehood systemic corruption, b) Federal interference in lawful processes with the intent to pacify the indigenous population, c) the recent (2008, 2009 etc) corruption cases, etc. The last revolves around a character named Bill Allen, CEO of Veco, an oil services company. There is evidence Allen worked for, or cooperated with, the federal government in some way in the 1970s. That evidence though is removed from the internet as soon as any public reference to it is posted. Very intriguing and strange. A zipped folder (117 mb) containing a collection of newspaper articles and other material can be downloaded here. The material is not well organized or sorted, just raw material up to 2008 that a curious person can start with.
8) Manipulation of federal U.S. agencies by corporate and foreign interests.
A few minutes of searching on the internet will uncover numerous connections between weapons lobbyists and agencies like the U.S. Secret Service. It is common for Secret Service agents and directors to go to work for weapons companies after they retire. But a more tangled, and ethically questionable web is uncovered with little effort.
Tareq Salahi is an Israeli who worked as an agent for the Israeli government. His work in that capacity was not especially hidden, meaning any person with a computer could connect him easily to the Israeli government. In 2009 Mr Salahi somehow managed to sneak past all of the layers of Secret Service protection around president Obama and walk up to the president at a private function. Considering politics, it appears that the purpose of the act was to put psychological pressure on (i.e., intimidate) Obama. The fact that the Secret Service was complicit in this, and that no repercussions resulted, is testimony to the influence of the lobby that connects many Secret Service employees, weapons dealers etc. A person with some knowledge of the issues will see extensive, and hilariously clumsy, evidence of monkey business if they research a bit on google.
There have been several cases, in the last few years. of investigations of bribery by high level weapons merchants. Strangely, each case somehow gets derailed and dropped as it nears conclusion. Equally strangely, if you research the individuals and companies involved you will find many former Secret Service agents. Is it "okay" for them to use bribes to sell expensive weapons to poor countries with dictators, since they are prestigious former government agents? Somehow, the cases against them are always dropped or bungled, and a person is supposed to not question anything. These corruption fiascos have been going on for years and they get minimal publicity despite sometimes catching very high ranking officials.
Clearly, the involved would like to project some aura of official sanction for their corruption, but that justification is not plausible. The people they are taking money from know who they are. They know that any useful information that was shared would be passed along. It is a simple matter of powerful people with poor ethics whoring their way to wealth and power.
9) Ashcroft / Carnahan, et al.
John Ashcroft, of course, was the United States Attorney General from Feb 2001 to Feb 2005.
Shortly before becoming Attorney General, he had been in a heated race for a U.S. Senate seat against Mel Carnahan. Three weeks before the election Mr Carnahan perished in a plane crash.
The "conspiracy" elements around the rise of John Ashcroft is not well defined. Rather it is a steady stream of small indicators that pop up in interviews he has conducted, statements he has made, etc. He seems to be a man hiding political secrets bigger than he is comfortable with. He relies heavily on religious anecdotes and imagery and folksy charm, using them to obscure and distract attention. [This item will be updated later]
More Assorted Conspiracies.
David Kelly was a weapons inspector whose death, supposedly by suicide, is considered suspicious by many. http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/111971/Kelly-s-book-of-secrets One interesting aspect is that the post mortem examination of Mr Kelly has been sealed for 70 years. A coworker of Mr. Kelly also disappeared and died in what turned out to be an apparent suicide. There was one brief notice in the press, followed by a more detailed article ten days later. The death is not overtly suspicious, but honestly the photo (same used in both publications) does look deliberately poor. If you download it and increase its size it looks altered to make the subject less appealing (e.g. notice his left nostril).
Gareth Williams likewise a British civil servant whose circumstances of death were odd. Notably, he did not mesh well socially with others in his work group, and apparently had odd fetishes. Media coverage bounces between suggestive professional references like "Mr Williams's knowledge of US intelligence agencies would have also been valuable. He spent several months at Menwith Hill, the secret listening station in Yorkshire used by the United States to intercept coded messages, and Fort Meade in Maryland, the home of the US's National Security Agency." (Telegraph, Sept 11, 2010) and his unusual habits.
The Chilcot inquiry was a brilliant example of either government manipulation of the public, or of non investigation. When information came out, again and again, suggesting mysterious backroom pressures toward war in Iraq, numerous public outlets in the U.K. demanded an investigation. The government set up the Chilcot inquiry whose only real accomplishment was defusing public outrage. The inquiry tried to focus responsibility on Tony Blair (which is where it already was, in the public eye), then gradually fade away. It has done that.
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