textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/a-z-cons.xml

<xml><p>The A-Z of Conspiracy
As everyone knows, we are never allowed to know who is really
controlling our lives/the country/the world. But is this knowledge a
dangerous thing? To clear up this question beyond reasonable doubt
Life provides a comprehensive guide to the theoretical corridors and
sinister back offices in which true power (and general paranoia) may
(or may not) lie
02/12/95
THE GUARDIAN </p>

<p> Conspiracy theories are the will-o'-the-wisps of the modern
world. They provide an alternative history to the authorised
version of events, a coherent demonology in a godless, devil-less
age.
Conspiracy theories fill a human need. They make some sense of
the cruel narrative that is the 20th century. They turn the random
violence of a lone madman into an act of orchestrated malice. In
this way the loss of a figure like <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> becomes somehow more
comprehensible. To be angry is more bearable than to be uncertain.
This soothing function can be at odds with truth, however.
Alternative conspiracist history is as flawed as the 'authorised'
version. Worse, a conspiracist view can suppress awkward pieces of
information by toying with the notion that events have been covered
up by the authorities to suit their own ends: encounters with alien
space ships, the real makers of the <ent type='GPE'>Lockerbie</ent> bomb and the truth
about <ent type='PERSON'>Rudolf Hess</ent> have all been hidden from the public but the
higher officers of the state are in the know.
Some of the conspiracy theories which date from earlier this
century have more ignoble, murkier origins. Anti-semites were
behind the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> Conspiracy
and countless others. Their modern equivalents are put about by
neo-<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> cliques. Again, these conspiracy theories have a human
function. Failure in life is more bearable if 'the truth' is that
the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent>/the blacks/the <ent type='ORG'>Illuminati</ent> have conspired against you, it
allows you to ignore the fact that you are a spotty social
inadequate with bad breath and too-tight <ent type='ORG'>lederhosen</ent>.
The conspiracy theorist is the bane of the working journalist.
The need for some sliver of evidence to support assertions is
secondary to the spell of the theory: that, for the conspiracy
theorist, is its charm. This difficulty is compounded by the fact
that not all conspiracy theories are untrue. Those in power across
the world do prefer to keep embarrassing truths secret; they do
cover up; they do, from time to time, kill people who get in the
way.
True or not, a rattling good conspiracy theory requires the
following qualities:</p>

<p> 1 it must be difficult, better still, impossible, to understand
at first glance.
2 it must contain a spaghetti-heap of leads, all of which cannot
be followed up. There must always be one more lead left to chase.
3 The story should speak to a 'wider' truth about our society,
through a series of disconnected or unconnected or unfalsifiable
propositions.
4 There should be no easy way of verifying it.</p>

<p> The theories below demonstrate all of these qualities to a
greater or lesser degree. To savour our A-Z properly, we suggest
readers mull over it with deadpan credulousness in the small hours
of the morning listening to the theme music from The X-Files and
drinking black coffee.
A IS FOR ALIEN ENCOUNTERS that are being covered up by the
authorities. Perhaps the best-documented close encounter of the
third kind took place on 27 December 1980, when airmen at two <ent type='ORG'>RAF</ent>
stations in <ent type='GPE'>East Anglia</ent> witnessed something extraordinary. First
radar operators at <ent type='ORG'>RAF</ent> Watton in <ent type='GPE'>Norfolk</ent> picked up an oddity on
their screens. Then <ent type='ORG'>RAF</ent> Phantom pilots reported seeing intense
bright lights in the sky. Former radar operator <ent type='PERSON'>Mal Scurrah</ent> said:
'As the <ent type='ORG'>Phantoms</ent> got close the hovering object shot upwards at
phenomenal speed " monitored at more than 1000 mph.' Later, airmen
stationed at <ent type='ORG'>RAF</ent> Woodbridge in <ent type='GPE'>Suffolk</ent> investigated a mystery fire
in <ent type='ORG'>Rendlesham Forest</ent>. Sergeant <ent type='PERSON'>Jim Penniston</ent> witnessed the
encounter with airman <ent type='PERSON'>John Burroughs</ent>. <ent type='ORG'>Penniston</ent> said: 'The air was
filled with electricity and we saw an object about the size of a
tank. It was triangular, moulded of black glass and had symbols on
it. Suddenly it shot off faster than any aircraft I have ever
observed.' The next day the object returned. Base commander Lt Col
<ent type='PERSON'>Charles Halt</ent> saw the flying saucer himself: 'I couldn't believe
what I was seeing. It looked like the rising sun with a black
pulsating centre. It appeared to be dripping molten metal.' Hall
acted coolly, taping and photographing the object engineered by 'an
intelligence which didn't originate on <ent type='LOC'>Earth</ent>'. His tape and film
were confiscated by visiting US defence officials. Former <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>
Chief of Defence Staff Lord Hill-Norton has claimed: 'Someone is
sitting on information that should be in the public domain.'
Believability: 9/10 (Possible explanation: what the airmen saw may
not have been a <ent type='EVENT'>UFO</ent>, but a prototype of the Stealth bomber, which
has a black triangular shape, a strange radar print and was, in
1980, ultra-secret. Project Aurora, a new ultra-ultra-secret
<ent type='ORG'>Pentagon Black Budget</ent> reconnaissance aircraft, is probably
responsible for all subsequent <ent type='EVENT'>UFO</ent> sightings.)</p>

<p> B IS FOR <ent type='ORG'>THE BILDERBERG GROUP</ent>, which organises semi-secret
annual three-day meetings of the European-<ent type='LOC'>Atlantic</ent> great and good
from the worlds of business, diplomacy and politics. The first
meetings were organised in 1954 by eminence grise <ent type='PERSON'>Joseph Retinger</ent>,
the then secretary general of the newly fledged, <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>-funded
European Movement. <ent type='PERSON'>Karl Otto Pohl</ent>, then president of Deutsche
<ent type='ORG'>Bundesbank</ent>, David <ent type='PERSON'>Rockefeller</ent>, Lord <ent type='PERSON'>Carrington</ent> and Governor Bill
<ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent> of <ent type='ORG'>Arkansaswere</ent> among recent delegates. <ent type='PERSON'>Denis Healey</ent> was at
that first meeting and, having retired, discusses <ent type='PERSON'>Bilderberg</ent> in his
autobiography, The Time Of My Life. <ent type='PERSON'>Bilderberg</ent> is one of the
transnational groups suspected by the European-<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> far Right
of being part of the secret elite power structure. Even the
Financial Times column 'Lombard' has noted: 'If the <ent type='PERSON'>Bilderberg</ent>
group is not a conspiracy of some sort, it is conducted in such a
way as to give a remarkably good imitation of one.' Believability:
8/10 </p>

<p> C IS FOR <ent type='ORG'>CEAUSESCU</ent>, who was tried and executed on Christmas Day
to hush up the complicity of Romania's new leaders in his crimes.
The videotape of the Christmas Day show trial of <ent type='PERSON'>Nicolae</ent> and Elena
<ent type='ORG'>Ceausescu</ent> is an absorbing spectacle. Time and again, <ent type='ORG'>Ceausescu</ent> and
his wife turn on their interrogators and accuse them of knowing the
answers to the questions they have posed. Prosecutor: 'What do you
know about the <ent type='ORG'>Securitate</ent>?' Elena: 'They are sitting across from us
here.' The old witch was right, of course, because sitting in the
courtroom were secret police chiefs like Colonel <ent type='PERSON'>Magureanu</ent>, who had
been party to the attack on civilians in <ent type='GPE'>Timisoara</ent> which had
triggered the revolution. He was later promoted by the leader of
the conspirators, <ent type='PERSON'>Ion Iliescu</ent> " a former <ent type='ORG'>Ceausescu</ent> crony " to head
the renamed secret police, the '<ent type='GPE'>Romania</ent>n Information Service'.
<ent type='ORG'>Iliescu</ent> became and remains president, the tainted hero of a tainted
revolution.
Believability: 10/10</p>

<p> D IS FOR 'DEEP THROAT', the mole in the <ent type='PERSON'>Nixon</ent> administration
guiding the <ent type='ORG'>Washington Post</ent> journalists, <ent type='PERSON'>Woodward</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Bernstein</ent>, to
the <ent type='EVENT'>Watergate</ent> story. 'Throat' remains unidentified. In his book
Hidden Agenda (1984) <ent type='PERSON'>Jim Hougan</ent> nominated both Nixon's chief of
staff, <ent type='PERSON'>Alexander Haig</ent>, and <ent type='ORG'>National Security Agency</ent> boss, Admiral
<ent type='PERSON'>Bobby Ray Inman</ent>, as candidates; Colodny and <ent type='PERSON'>Gettlin</ent> also fingered
<ent type='PERSON'>Haig</ent> in their book Silent Coup (1991). <ent type='PERSON'>Barbara Newman</ent>, for Channel
4's Dispatches, came up with the head of the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> field office in
<ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent>, the late <ent type='PERSON'>Bob Kunkle</ent>. He was allegedly leaking for the
<ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent>, which was disgruntled by the <ent type='PERSON'>Nixon</ent> cover-up.
Believability: 10/10 (Cynics suspect '<ent type='PERSON'>Deep Throat</ent>' was merely a
dramatic device or a ploy to keep newspaper lawyers quiet.)</p>

<p> E IS FOR ELECTRICITY PYLONS, which fry our brains. A number of
protesters have complained that electro-magnetic waves in overhead
electricity pylons have led to depression, headaches, mental and
physical ill-health. No government ministry has placed much
credence on these complaints. The epidemiology of environmental
effect is notoriously hard to prove, but all good conspiracists
believe there is no smoke without a secret ray.
Believability: 7/10</p>

<p> F IS FOR FREEMASONS, who club together to better themselves in
the world. The majority of active freemasons have sworn not to
divulge the secrets of the craft, on pain of having their tongues
'cut out by the root and buried in the sand below low-water mark'.
Other masons who have tried to break ranks have come to sticky
ends, like 'God's Banker' <ent type='PERSON'>Roberto Calvi</ent>, found hanging from
Blackfriars Bridge in 1982. So it is hard to determine just how
much influence is wielded by the grown men who like to dress in
black suits, wear aprons, bare their breasts and roll up their
trouser legs. Not very much, say some sceptics, who suspect that
the masons have more control over, say, haberdashery in
<ent type='GPE'>Herefordshire</ent> than the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> state. But freemasons still hold
some sway in the corridors of power. The Rt Hon the Lord <ent type='PERSON'>Templeman</ent>
and Rt Hon Lord Justice <ent type='PERSON'>Balcombe</ent>, both freemasons, are two of the
most senior judges in the land; junior <ent type='ORG'>Foreign Office</ent> minister Tony
Baldry, former <ent type='NORP'>Tory</ent> MP <ent type='PERSON'>David Trippier</ent> and back bench MPs Sir Peter
Emery and Sir <ent type='PERSON'>Gerard Vaughan</ent> are all on the square.
Many police officers, too, remain true to their masonic oaths of
secrecy. In 1993 at a <ent type='ORG'>Police Federation</ent> conference a motion urging
police officers to reveal membership of the masonic brotherhood was
debated. An officer from <ent type='ORG'>Merseyside</ent> said it did not matter if
officers 'wore a goatskin or rolled up their trouser leg'. Another
said that freemasonry was 'not all mumbo-jumbo'.
A third police officer, mocking the calls for more openness
about freemasonry in the ranks, put a paper bag over his head.
Finally a member of the <ent type='GPE'>Metropolitan</ent> branch came to the rostrum to
announce the vote. 'I'm not telling,' he said to laughter. 'It's a
secret.' The opponents of freemasonry lost the vote.
Believability: 8/10</p>

<p> G IS FOR THE GEMSTONE FILE, the conspiracy theory which first
surfaced in 1975. Originally a precis by <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> journalist
<ent type='PERSON'>Stephania Caruana</ent> of allegations made in letters by <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>
chemist <ent type='PERSON'>Bruce Roberts</ent>, now deceased, <ent type='ORG'>Gemstone</ent> attributes much of
post-war America's ills to the power of <ent type='PERSON'>Aristotle Onassis</ent>, who had
the <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent>s and Dr <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent> assassinated, seized the <ent type='PERSON'>Howard Hughes</ent>
empire, did a deal with the <ent type='ORG'>Mafia</ent>, etc. The subject of a couple of
book-length studies to date, <ent type='ORG'>Gemstone</ent> has appeared in five or six
different versions, each one containing new material. Most striking
is the 'Kiwi <ent type='ORG'>Gemstone</ent>' in which specifically <ent type='GPE'>New Zealand</ent> incidents
have been embedded in the original <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> narrative. <ent type='ORG'>Authorless</ent>,
floating round the world in samizdat form, <ent type='ORG'>Gemstone</ent> is a perfect,
small-scale disinformation vehicle for anyone who cares to use it.
Believability: 0/10</p>

<p> H IS FOR HESS, locked up in <ent type='GPE'>Spandau</ent> prison because he knew all
about the secret 1941 negotiations between <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Rudolf Hess</ent>'s flight in May 1941 remains one of the most
bizarre episodes of <ent type='EVENT'>the Second World War</ent>. Lord <ent type='PERSON'>James</ent>
Douglas-<ent type='PERSON'>Hamilton</ent>, son of the Duke of <ent type='PERSON'>Hamilton</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>Scottish</ent>
landowner to whom <ent type='PERSON'>Hess</ent> presented his plans, said: 'Hess's proposals
consisted of a limited peace deal under which <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> would have
allowed <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> a free hand in her empire in return for <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>
allowing <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> a free hand in Europe and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. His so-called
peace plans would have meant the enslavement of Europe.' <ent type='PERSON'>Hess</ent> was
arrested, tried to commit suicide, went mad, was sentenced to life
imprisonment and, at the age of 93, hanged himself in <ent type='GPE'>Spandau</ent>
prison. Or not, as the case may be.
One theory has it that the <ent type='PERSON'>Churchill</ent> government, in a hideously
clever propaganda campaign against the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s, ran a double, '<ent type='PERSON'>Hess</ent>
Two'. Evidence supporting the double theory emerged when a <ent type='NORP'>Dutch</ent> TV
journalist, <ent type='PERSON'>Karel Hille</ent>, disclosed that he had got the Most Secret
file on <ent type='PERSON'>Hess</ent> via an unnamed <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> historian who had been given it
by the late MI6 spymaster Sir <ent type='PERSON'>Maurice Oldfield</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Oldfield</ent> had,
allegedly, stolen the file from the MI6 archive. That the man,
'<ent type='PERSON'>Hess</ent> Two', who killed himself in prison was not the real <ent type='PERSON'>Hess</ent> is
backed by <ent type='PERSON'>Hugh Thomas</ent>, a <ent type='NORP'>Welsh</ent> surgeon, who, in the early 1970s,
was consultant to the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> Military Hospital in <ent type='GPE'>West Berlin</ent>.
<ent type='PERSON'>Thomas</ent> examined '<ent type='PERSON'>Hess</ent> Two' and found him to lack the scars the real
<ent type='PERSON'>Hess</ent> should have had after a wound he received in 1917. MI6 had
'<ent type='PERSON'>Hess</ent> Two' hanged because they didn't want the truth to come out.
Then the killers burnt the evidence, including an electrical flex,
with which he was murdered.
Believability: 5/10 (<ent type='PERSON'>Hess</ent> was mad. His 1917 wound was
pea-sized.)</p>

<p> I IS FOR THE <ent type='ORG'>ILLUMINATI</ent>, the secret society controlling all the
other secret societies. An 18th-century masonic splinter group
begun by <ent type='PERSON'>Adam Weishaupt</ent>, the <ent type='ORG'>Illimunati</ent> were said to be the hidden
force behind <ent type='EVENT'>the French Revolution</ent>. After <ent type='EVENT'>the First World War</ent> they
were re-launched into the English-speaking world by one Nesta
Webster who credited them with organising the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n October
Revolution too. In 1921 the Spectator described <ent type='PERSON'>Weishaupt</ent> as a
'<ent type='NORP'>Prussian</ent> with criminal instincts and lunatic perversions . . .
{who} shunted continental freemasonry on to <ent type='GPE'>Antinomian</ent> and
revolutionary lines.' In the demonology of the Anglo-<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> far
Right, the <ent type='ORG'>Illuminati</ent> largely replaced the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> as the spider at
the centre of the web. These theories were brilliantly parodied in
the <ent type='ORG'>Illuminatus</ent>! trilogy (1976) by <ent type='PERSON'>Robert Anton Wilson</ent> and Robert
Shea.
Believability: 0/10</p>

<p> J IS FOR <ent type='PERSON'>JAMES JESUS</ent> ANGLETON, the orchid-growing,
poetry-writing, paranoid head of <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> counter intelligence
throughout much of <ent type='EVENT'>the Cold War</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Angleton</ent> believed the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> and all
other spy networks to be so much gorgonzola, riddled with <ent type='ORG'>KGB</ent>
moles. In his search for these moles <ent type='PERSON'>Angleton</ent> paralysed large
chunks of the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> for years at a stretch and blighted the careers
of many senior officers.
It was <ent type='PERSON'>Angleton</ent> who insisted in the 1960s that MI5 investigate
<ent type='PERSON'>Harold Wilson</ent>, a task taken up enthusiastically by <ent type='PERSON'>Peter Wright</ent> and
his circle in MI5. Angleton's overarching idiocy was to believe the
<ent type='ORG'>KGB</ent> defector <ent type='PERSON'>Golitsyn</ent>, who claimed that the friction between the
<ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> Union and Mao's <ent type='GPE'>China</ent> in the late 1960s was a fake to
deceive the West. Despite the collapse of <ent type='GPE'>the Soviet Union</ent>,
<ent type='PERSON'>Golitsyn</ent> remains convinced that it is all a black propaganda ploy.
However, the confession of top <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> man <ent type='PERSON'>Aldrich Ames</ent> that he was a
<ent type='ORG'>KGB</ent> mole have proved some of Angleton's fears correct.
Believability: 6/10</p>

<p> K IS FOR KENNEDY, killed by almost anyone you care to mention.
According to Captain <ent type='PERSON'>James</ent> T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, the
'first rule of assassination is kill the assassins'. The killing of
<ent type='PERSON'>Lee Harvey Oswald</ent> by <ent type='PERSON'>Jack Ruby</ent> set a hare running that has never
stopped. Instead of Oswald's courtroom confession or denial of
guilt providing some explanation of the killing of the president,
the assassination of the assassin let conjecture reign.
So many had a hand in his murder it is too tedious to name them
all. <ent type='PERSON'>Oliver Stone</ent> argued in his film <ent type='PERSON'>JFK</ent> that <ent type='PERSON'>Lyndon Baines Johnson</ent>
was the man behind the conspiracy. The <ent type='ORG'>KGB</ent>, the <ent type='ORG'>Mafia</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>Cubans</ent>,
the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> and the masons are all contenders. Perhaps the best <ent type='PERSON'>JFK</ent>
conspiracy theory is that he is, after all, still alive, but kept a
permanent prisoner by <ent type='ORG'>the National Security Council</ent>.
Believability: 1/10</p>

<p> L IS FOR <ent type='GPE'>LOCKERBIE</ent>. On 21 December 1988, 270 people were
murdered when Pan Am 103 exploded over <ent type='GPE'>Scotland</ent>.
Six years later no one has been convicted of the crime, although
investigators on both sides of the <ent type='LOC'>Atlantic</ent> have consistently
pointed the finger at two <ent type='NORP'>Libyan</ent> intelligence officers who they
believe planted the bomb on a plane from <ent type='GPE'>Malta</ent> before it was
transferred at <ent type='GPE'>Frankfurt</ent> on to the fatal flight. UN sanctions are
enforced against <ent type='GPE'>Tripoli</ent> until Colonel <ent type='PERSON'>Gadaffi</ent> agrees to hand over
the two for trial.
Others are not convinced by the official line. Tales of
suitcases of heroin recovered at the crash site by mysterious
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> intelligence officers point to a joint <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>/Drug
Enforcement Administration operation that was fatally compromised
by <ent type='NORP'>Syrian</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Iranian</ent>-backed <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> terrorists. <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>
spooks were running 'controlled' deliveries of <ent type='NORP'>Lebanese</ent> heroin
through <ent type='GPE'>Frankfurt</ent> airport in return for information about the
whereabouts of the hostages in <ent type='GPE'>Beirut</ent>. The terrorists were aware of
this and switched the dope-filled Samsonite case with one
containing the bomb. Among those killed were <ent type='PERSON'>Matthew Gannon</ent>, the
CIA's deputy head of station in <ent type='GPE'>Beirut</ent>, and Major <ent type='PERSON'>Charles</ent> McKee, a
<ent type='ORG'>Defence Intelligence Agency</ent> officer allegedly in charge of a
hostage rescue team. Some students of the tragedy have gone so far
as to suggest that McKee was flying home to blow the whistle,
disgusted that deals were being struck with dope dealers in order
to gain intelligence on the kidnap victims.
Believability: 8/10</p>

<p> M IS FOR DAVID MELLOR, got at by <ent type='ORG'>Mossad</ent> after his
pro-<ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> outburst in 1988 on the <ent type='GPE'>West Bank</ent>. The <ent type='NORP'>Israelis</ent>
were out to topple <ent type='PERSON'>Mellor</ent> after he became the most prominent critic
in the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> Government of their conduct in the Occupied
Territories.
First, they managed to secure his removal as junior Foreign
Office minister, threatening to stop passing on intelligence
information about the hostages in <ent type='GPE'>Beirut</ent> unless <ent type='PERSON'>Mellor</ent> was moved.
Second, they arranged for the clandestine phone-tapping
operation which led to the highly embarrassing 'toe-sucking'
allegations.
The result: <ent type='PERSON'>Mellor</ent> was forced to quit the <ent type='ORG'>Cabinet</ent>.
Believability: 5/10 </p>
<p> N IS FOR NOSTRADAMUS, the 16th-century psychic seer who
predicted <ent type='NORP'>Napoleon</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and the killing of John <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent>. The
seer's muddily-written quatrains have spawned more than 200 books,
a propaganda war between the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s and the Allies during the Second
World War, a movie, an <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> TV spin-off show, Monopoly-style
board games, a virtual reality game and even a watch, which ticks
down the seconds from 1 January 1995 to the millennium.
Whitstable housewife <ent type='PERSON'>Valerie Hewitt</ent>, author of Nostradamus: His
Key To The Centuries (Heinemann, 1994), predicts that Prince
<ent type='PERSON'>Charles</ent> will be crowned this year. 'It will be something sudden
that will affect the <ent type='PERSON'>Queen</ent>, an illness " whether it is political or
genuine it doesn't matter. And <ent type='PERSON'>Diana</ent> will be offered the chance to
become <ent type='PERSON'>Queen</ent>. But Charles's reign will be short and <ent type='PERSON'>William</ent> could
be king before he's 18.' In 1993 she predicted that <ent type='PERSON'>George Bush</ent>
would stay as president.
Rival Nostradamus buff <ent type='PERSON'>John Hogue</ent> is more apocalyptic. He plumps
for nuclear disaster or terrorism in 1996, <ent type='EVENT'>World War III</ent> before the
millennium and Aids " 'a very great plague . . . with a great scab'
" and the ozone hole killing off two-thirds of the world population.
He quotes the prophet's vision of the future: 'So many {die}
that no one will know the true owners of fields and houses. The
weeds in the city streets will rise higher than the knees, and
there shall be a total desolation of the clergy.' Believability:
0/10 (The verses of Nostradamus clearly refer to events and places
in the 16th century. For example, nowhere does he mention '<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>',
only 'Hister', the contemporary name for <ent type='ORG'>the Lower Danube</ent>.)</p>

<p> P IS FOR PROMIS SOFTWARE, stolen from a <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent> law firm. In
1982 a <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent> DC computer firm, <ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent>, developed a programme
called Promis (Prosecutors' Management Information System) which it
supplied to the US Justice Department for $10 million. A year
later, Justice stopped all payments and <ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent> went bankrupt. A
ruling in 1987 at a bankruptcy court concluded that the Justice
Department 'took, converted and stole Promis software through
trickery, fraud and deceit', which is a little embarrassing for the
department charged with upholding the rule of law.
So far, so what? It is only when people started to probe into
why Justice had acted in such a way that it gets interesting,
prompting one investigator to claim that the case 'was a lot
dirtier for the department than <ent type='EVENT'>Watergate</ent> had been, both in its
breadth and depth'.
It turns out that (allegedly) the men behind the theft of the
software were all Reagan appointees who helped engineer the 1980
'October Surprise', whereby the <ent type='NORP'>Republicans</ent> struck a deal with the
<ent type='NORP'>Iranian</ent>s not to release <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> Embassy hostages from <ent type='GPE'>Tehran</ent> until
after Reagan was safely in the <ent type='ORG'>White House</ent>. The software was then
sold on to foreign intelligence agencies across the globe, (a) to
generate revenue for covert operations not authorised by <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent>;
and (b) to make it easier for US operatives to hack into the
software.
The story was chased by US freelance <ent type='PERSON'>Danny Casolaro</ent>. A year
after making himself known to the <ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent> people he was found dead
in a motel room in <ent type='GPE'>West Virginia</ent>. The official verdict was suicide,
but <ent type='PERSON'>Elliott Richardson</ent>, the Attorney General under <ent type='PERSON'>Nixon</ent>, hired by
<ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent> to investigate the case, concluded: 'It's hard to come up
with any reason for Casolaro's death other than he was deliberately
murdered because he was so close to uncovering sinister elements in
what he called 'the Octopus'.' Believability: 7/10</p>

<p> Q IS FOR CARROLL QUIGLEY, the granddaddy of all modern <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>
conspiracists. Quigley's 1340-page volume Tragedy And Hope "
History Of The World In Our Time (1966) included a dozen pages on
the existence of a hitherto unknown secret society, run by Alfred,
Lord <ent type='PERSON'>Milner</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Lloyd George</ent>'s Chef de <ent type='ORG'>Cabinet</ent>, funded by Cecil
Rhodes's estate. The group, said Quigley, who claimed to have
access to its papers, organised the Round Table groups in the
<ent type='ORG'>Commonwealth</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>the Royal Institute For International Affairs</ent> in
<ent type='GPE'>London</ent> and its counterpart in the US betwen the wars.
For far-Right groups such as <ent type='ORG'>the John Birch Society</ent> these pages
were proof, from an 'insider', of the great conspiracy they had
always suspected. Not the <ent type='NORP'>communists</ent>, not the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent>, not even the
<ent type='ORG'>Illuminati</ent>, but the Perpetual Hidden Government " the <ent type='ORG'>PHG</ent>!
Quigley's revelations are behind much of the recent talk of One
Worlders and <ent type='EVENT'>New World</ent> Orders and are part of <ent type='NORP'>Republican</ent>
presidential hopeful <ent type='PERSON'>Pat Robertson</ent>'s world view. Among Quigley's
students at <ent type='ORG'>Georgetown University</ent> was <ent type='PERSON'>Bill Clinton</ent>, and the
conspiracists got quite excited when President <ent type='PERSON'>Clinton</ent> referred to
the impact Quigley made on him in his inauguration speech.
Believability: 4/10</p>

<p> R IS FOR <ent type='PERSON'>JAMES RUSBRIDGER</ent>, killed and framed as a sex pervert by
MI5. <ent type='PERSON'>Rusbridger</ent> was a tremendous irritant to the security services.
His letters to newspapers poured scorn on the Official Secrets Act;
his books, such as The Intelligence Game, cast doubt on the
official version of events. But where <ent type='PERSON'>Rusbridger</ent>, aged 65 at the
time of his death, really annoyed the spooks was when he unearthed
Britain's code-cracking secrets, in particular the story that the
<ent type='NORP'>British</ent> had cracked <ent type='NORP'>Japanese</ent> naval codes in advance of the attack
on Pearl Harbour.
He was bright, hale and hearty for his age when he was
discovered in February 1994 at his home, dressed in a green
protective suit for use in nuclear, biological or chemical warfare,
green overalls, a black plastic mackintosh and thick rubber gloves.
His face was covered by a gas mask and he was also wearing a
sou'wester. His body was suspended from two ropes, attached to
shackles fastened to a piece of wood across the open loft hatch,
and was surrounded by pictures of men and mainly black women in
bondage. Consultant pathologist Dr <ent type='PERSON'>Yasai Sivathondan</ent> said he died
from asphyxia due to hanging 'in keeping with a form of sexual
strangulation'.
His death occasioned a piece by <ent type='LOC'>Sunday</ent> Times reporter <ent type='PERSON'>James</ent>
<ent type='PERSON'>Adams</ent>, whose own books boast of contacts with <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> intelligence.
<ent type='PERSON'>Adams</ent> quoted senior intelligence officials as saying <ent type='PERSON'>Rusbridger</ent>
never had any connection with any branch of <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> intelligence:
"His death was as much a fantasy as his life,' said one source . .
. Rusbridger's interest in intelligence seems to have coincided
with his conviction for theft in 1977.' Such an extensive
posthumous demolition job by intelligence officials would perhaps
only be merited by someone who had been a serious thorn in their
side.
Believability: 7/10</p>

<p> S IS FOR THE SUICIDES OF THE SCIENTISTS WHO WORKED FOR <ent type='PERSON'>MARCONI</ent>.
In 1988 a host of brilliant researchers working for the defence
giant killed themselves in a variety of ways: one drove his
petrolladen car into a disused Little Chef, another jumped off the
<ent type='GPE'>Clifton</ent> suspension bridge, a third electrocuted himself.
The deaths appeared to be a case of life imitating art " in this
case, an episode of the 1960s Avengers series which features a
number of brilliant scientists killing themselves. The first
problem is that there was no linkage between the deaths. Second,
suicide is 10 times more common than murder in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>. Third, men
kill themselves more violently than women. Fourth, scientists are
more ingenious than the rest of the population, so one would expect
them to kill themselves violently and bizarrely. Fifth, the defence
business employs huge numbers of scientists, and <ent type='PERSON'>Marconi</ent> is a big
employer.
When the numbers are crunched, there is no statistical
aberration in the number of suicides by <ent type='PERSON'>Marconi</ent> scientists. It is
too good a story for a newspaper to kill, however.
Believability: 0/10</p>

<p> U IS FOR THE UNIFIED CONSPIRACY THEORY, or the Grand Unified
Conspiracy Theory, which knits all the other conspiracy theories
into a coherent tapestry.
Believability: 1/10</p>

<p> V IS FOR VATICAN, which knocks off the popes it doesn't like.
The markedly short reign of <ent type='PERSON'>John Paul</ent> I has given rise to this
particular crock of conjecture.
Old men can die quite quickly, even if they are popes. However,
rumours persist in the Vatican than <ent type='PERSON'>John Paul</ent> I was going to clean
out the Augean stables of the pontiff's finances and expose the
scandalous links between the <ent type='ORG'>Mafia</ent>, the freemasons and senior
cardinals in <ent type='ORG'>the Roman Catholic Church</ent>.
Believability: 2/10</p>

<p> W IS FOR COLIN WALLACE, who was forced to resign from the
<ent type='ORG'>Ministry</ent> of Defence in 1975 when he leaked information about a
covert MI5 operation, '<ent type='ORG'>Clockwork Orange</ent>'. <ent type='PERSON'>Wallace</ent>, an <ent type='ORG'>Ulsterman</ent>,
claimed he had been involved in the operation, which had been
designed to destabilise paramilitary organisations in the Province
through disinformation. <ent type='PERSON'>Wallace</ent> alleged that the scope of the
operation had been extended to include mainland politicians viewed
as 'politically soft or leftist', a list which included Harold
Wilson, <ent type='PERSON'>Edward Heath</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Jeremy Thorpe</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Wallace</ent> claims it was in
his remit to discredit these 'targets' using unfounded smear
stories about sexual impropriety.
He also alleged, in a memo to army chiefs, that a <ent type='GPE'>Belfast</ent> boys'
home named <ent type='GPE'>Kincora</ent> was being used as a homosexual trap for
intelligence gathering against prominent <ent type='NORP'>Unionist</ent> politicians. In
1990 an inquiry conducted by <ent type='PERSON'>James</ent> Calcutt QC found Wallace's
dismissal to be unsafe and ordered <ent type='ORG'>the Ministry</ent> to award him
pounds 30000 in compensation. The inquiry was not, however,
empowered to make any judgment on Wallace's allegations.
Believability: 7/10</p>

<p> X IS FOR MR X, the third man who allegedly went to bed with two
senior <ent type='NORP'>Conservative</ent> politicians, now in the <ent type='ORG'>Cabinet</ent>, all at the
same time. This is a conspiracy theory never to be told.
Believability: 10/10</p>

<p> Y IS FOR <ent type='ORG'>YAKUZA</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>Japanese</ent> mafia who run the world. The
<ent type='ORG'>Yakuza</ent> are the world's richest and most powerful gangsters. They
control many of the big-name <ent type='NORP'>Japanese</ent> corporations that now have
huge leverage in the major western economies. Nothing can be done
to loosen the grip of the <ent type='ORG'>Yakuza</ent> on the world economy.
Believability: 8/10 </p>

<p> Z IS FOR THE <ent type='GPE'>ZAGREB</ent> OPERATION, when the <ent type='ORG'>NKVD</ent> inducted Robert
<ent type='PERSON'>Maxwell</ent> as a <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> double agent. <ent type='PERSON'>Maxwell</ent> was never clear about how
he escaped from <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>-occupied <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>. In fact, he was given secret
passage through <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>-allied <ent type='GPE'>Croatia</ent> by <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent> partisans, then
loyal to <ent type='GPE'>the Soviet Union</ent>, in return for a lifetime as a spy.
While passing through <ent type='GPE'>Zagreb</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Maxwell</ent> was recruited by an officer
of the <ent type='ORG'>NKVD</ent> " the forerunner to the <ent type='ORG'>KGB</ent> " and was told to travel to
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and ingratiate himself with the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> Establishment.
<ent type='PERSON'>Maxwell</ent> did brilliantly, becoming first a war hero then a respected
publisher. The <ent type='ORG'>NKVD</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>KGB</ent> helped <ent type='PERSON'>Maxwell</ent> out from time to time,
smoothing his path in arranging deals with <ent type='LOC'>Eastern Bloc</ent> scientific
publishers and the like. <ent type='PERSON'>Maxwell</ent> prospered.
It was only in 1991 that the <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> secret service, <ent type='ORG'>Mossad</ent>,
came across the truth when they bought up a senior <ent type='ORG'>KGB</ent> archivist
who sold them the Operation <ent type='GPE'>Zagreb</ent> file. <ent type='PERSON'>Maxwell</ent> " who <ent type='ORG'>Mossad</ent>
thought had been working for them " was terminated by a crack unit
of <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> frogmen.
Believability: 6/10
</p></xml>