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
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?
Source : Sunday Mercury