The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories

458 Pages·2013·115.22 MB·English

by  James McConnachie

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Credits
The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories Rough Guides Reference
Editing, layout & picture research: Tracy Hopkins, Joe Staines Reference Director: Andrew Lockett
Design & cover: Diana Jarvis Editors: Kate Berens, Tom Cabot, Tracy Hopkins,
Proofreading: Karen Parker Matthew Milton, Joe Staines
Production: Charlotte Cade, Gemma Sharpe
Publishing information
This third edition published February 2013 by The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the
Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL accuracy and currency of all information in The Rough Guide to
Email: [email protected] Conspiracy Theories; however, they can accept no responsibility
for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result
Distributed by the Penguin Group:
of its information or advice.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
Penguin Group (USA), 375 Hudson Street, NY 10014, USA No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief
Victoria 3124, Australia passages in reviews.
Penguin Group (New Zealand), 67 Apollo Road, Mairangi Bay,
© James McConnachie and Robin Tudge, 2013
Auckland 1310, New Zealand
g/vKhfVp81CmKKl5gJCYAKo= 456 pages; includes index
Rough Guides is represented in Canada by Tourmaline Editions
Inc., 662 West King Street, Suite 304, Toronto A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
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ISBN: 978-1-40936-245-6
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THE ROUGH GUIDE TO
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by
James McConnachie & Robin Tudge
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www.roughguides.com
There are conspiracies everywhere. There
are also crazed conspiracy theories. It’s
important not to confuse these two.
Generally, when there’s enough facts about
a conspiracy we simply call this news.
Julian Assange
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Introduction ix
Assassinations and downfalls 1
Tutankhamun and the curse of the pharaoh 4
Jesus of Nazareth and the case of the missing penis 6
The archduke and the Black Hand 8
Marilyn Monroe: something had to give 10
Exploding cigars: the CIA and Castro 14
JFK: who wasn’t involved? 17
Malcolm X: black powers 26
Martin Luther King: dreams and nightmares 29
Robert Kennedy: another brother lost 31
John Paul I: the smiling pope 35
John Lennon: dangerous pacifist 38
Paul McCartney is dead 39
God’s banker: Roberto Calvi 41
The princess and the tunnel 44
Inquests and investigations 48
David Kelly and the weapons of mass destruction 51
Alexander Litvinenko: radioactive spy 56
Decaying evidence: the death of Yasser Arafat 61
Death in a sunroof: Benazir Bhutto 63
Osama bin Laden: dead or alive? 68
Unlawful killing? Muammar Gaddafi 73
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Gaddafi, Lumumba, Hammarskjöld 75
Mega-conspiracies and master plans 77
Knights of the shadows: the Templars 81
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Freemasonry: centuries of conspiracy? 84
Sinister cities 92
Roosevelt’s trailer parks 93
The Illuminati 95
The Rosicrucians 97
Blood Libel: the longest-running conspiracy theory of all 99
Holocaust denial 102
Other genocides, other denials 106
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion 109
The British royal family 113
The Central Interference Agency 117
Venezuela: the two-day coup 118
The military-industrial complex 122
The military-entertainment complex 125
Men in Black 126
Currency codes: from Masonic dollars to ten-agora coins 128
Italy: land of conspiracy 132
Opus Dei: the Holy Mafia 136
The EU 140
Behind the scenes: the CFR, the Bilderbergers and the Trilateral Commission 142
The World Economic Forum 147
The New World Order 148
The banking crisis 149
The Chinese dimension 153
Nazi gold 156
Organized crime 158
Secret services 161
Echelon and the World Wide Web 164
Facebook and Google: someone to watch over us 166
Bar codes and RFIDs 168
The war against WikiLeaks: the strange case of Julian Assange 172
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The land of the free 179
The John Birch Society 182
Watergate: a third-rate burglary 185
Jonestown 190
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Ronald Reagan and the “October Surprise” 195
Iran–Contra: no theory 196
October surprises 201
Satanic owls at Bohemian Grove 202
MK-ULTRA 206
Frank Olson 208
The White Alliance: the CIA, the Contras and cocaine 211
Did not snort: coca-Clinton and the “Mena” affair 212
The Clintongates: a vast right-wing conspiracy? 217
The Clinton body count 218
Waco 222
OKC: the Oklahoma City bombing 226
The elections of George W. Bush 230
The great election robbery of 1876 231
Barack Obama: conspiracy-orama 235
Real weapons of mass destruction 239
Chemical cover-ups 242
AIDS 245
SARS 248
A cure for cancer 249
Secret bases 255
HAARP 259
The origins of HAARP 260
Microwaves 265
Peak oil 266
Perpetual war on perpetual energy 271
Climate change: convenient untruths 276
Hurricane Katrina devastates the “Big Easy” 281
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Conspiracies of sea, sky and space 287
Titanic hubris 290
The Lusitania 292
Roswell and Majestic-12 295
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Alien abductions 298
The Apollo moon landing 300
Commie cosmonauts 302
Pan Am 103 to Lockerbie 304
TWA Flight 800 311
A massacre and two plane crashes 316
Warplay 317
The USS Maine and the Spanish–American War 321
Operation Northwoods 322
Pearl Harbor 323
The invasion of Poland 326
ODESSA and the Org 329
The Cold War conspiracy 332
The Gulf of Tonkin incident and the Vietnam War 336
The Rwandan genocide: who started it? 340
The Tutsi–Hima world-domination mega-plot 343
The Kremlin and the Chechen rebels 347
9/11: picking over the rubble 355
9/11 numerology 362
Iraq: the case for war 368
The First Gulf War 371
Iraq: the real reasons for war? 376
The Project for the New American Century 382
The Madrid train bombings 386
7/7: the London bombings 392
Extraordinary rendition 400
Arab Spring: Facebook friends and hidden hands 405
Archive 411
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Books 413
Films 419
Websites 424
Index 429
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