Conspiracy Encyclopedia

Suppression of technologies

• Avro Arrow—Cancellation of this system.
• Termination of rocket experiments at Cuxhaven.
• Vril Society Conspiracy which suggests that a secret form of energy, called “Vril”, is used and controlled by a secret subterranean society of matriarchal socialist utopian superior beings. The theory also claims than Nazi Germany used this technology to create advanced aircraft (flying saucers).
• A typical suppressed invention story is that of the incredibly efficient automobile carburetor, whose inventor was supposedly killed or hounded into obscurity by petroleum companies desirous to protect their business from an engine that would make their product obsolete. It has been claimed that the Elsbett diesel engine running on plant oil had to put up against unfair competition practices.
• The documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? alleged that electric car technology has been largely suppressed by big oil and gas firms. The first suppression of such occurred shortly after the turn of the 20th century (in 1899 the world’s land speed record was set by an electric car at 65 mph); the second time was in 1913-1914 when the same interests sabotaged Henry Ford’s and Thomas Edison’s attempt to produce an ‘inexpensive’ electric car. This activity, and further industry conspiracies to rid the U.S. of the electric trolley system and electric trains, are documented in the book Internal Combustion, by Edwin Black.
• Nikola Tesla has been the object of several conspiracy theories, with claims relating to revolutionary energy generation and distribution technologies which may or may not have been utilised by “HAARP”, an American military-funded research program. While the technology Tesla discovered was real and exists today, his discoveries have often been linked to such psuedoscience as Wilhelm Reich’s “orgone”generator which was supposedly suppressed by the establishment.
• The Phoebus cartel set up in 1924 certainly seems to have stopped competition in the light bulb industry for some years, and has been accused of preventing technological advances that would have produced longer-lasting light bulbs. However, the Phoebus cartel also features in Thomas Pynchon’s fictional Gravity’s Rainbow, which has led some to blur fact and fiction.
• Free energy suppression

Development of weapons technology

• Montauk Project -A continuation of the Philadelphia Experiment, The Montauk Project would put government trained psychics (Duncan Cameron) into a program with the intent of mind control, time travel, and even mental manifestation. Although denied by the government, a few (Preston Nichols, Al Bielek) have given lectures and written books on the subject.
• High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program theory claims that HAARP could be used as directed-energy weapon, weather control, earthquake induction device and/or for mind control
• Philadelphia Experiment – An attempt to turn a ship invisible that allegedly caused severe harm to onboard crewmembers.
• It has been speculated that the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami may have been caused intentionally by a “tsunami bomb” – a nuclear weapon detonated in a strategic position under the ocean. Some reason that the technology is at least feasible since research into such technology has been conducted by the military as far back as World War II. According to declassified files, top-secret “tsunami bomb” experiments utilising explosions to trigger “mini-tidal waves” were conducted off the coast of New Zealand in 1944 and 1945. The U.S. Defense Department had even expressed concern about earthquake-inducing technology in warfare well before the 2004 disaster. In 1997 Defense Secretary William S. Cohen stated, “Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves. So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It’s real, and that’s the reason why we have to intensify our efforts, and that’s why this is so important.”
• Chemtrail theory: Clouds behind aircraft, having the general appearance of contrails, but alleged to be chemical spraying performed for some secretive purpose.

Weapons testing

• Peter Vogel’s book The Last Wave from Port Chicago argues that the Port Chicago disaster was an accidental detonation or intentional test of a nuclear weapon on ships manned by (mostly African American) U.S. sailors.
• A ubiquitous and persistent rumour in Cameroon has it that the Lake Nyos carbon dioxide disaster of 1986 was caused by the U.S. or French (depending on the version) military testing a secret bomb in the lake.
• According to some theories the crash of Arrow DC8 and TWA800 was caused by a secret electromagnetic directed-energy weapon.
• Contention lingers over the continuing after-effects of secret British nuclear testing at Maralinga, South Australia during the 1950s.
• Shortly after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami took place, the Al-Osboa’ newsweekly in Egypt alleged that the tsunami could have been caused by an Indian nuclear experiment in which Israeli and American nuclear experts participated. Al-Osboa’ further alleged that India, in its heated nuclear race with Pakistan, has acquired lately sophisticated nuclear know-how from the United States and Israel, both of which “showed readiness to cooperate with India in experiments to exterminate humankind,” beginning with the heavily populated Muslim regions of southeast Asia, where the bulk of casualties took place. This claim was reported by other newspapers, some commenting on its possibility and others dismissing it.

Surveillance, espionage and intelligence agencies

Particular technologies of surveillance and control arouse concern that has bordered upon, or crossed over into, conspiracy theory. These are technologies being developed by governments which are intended to intrude into the privacy or harm the persons of citizens, particularly dissenters. Conspiracy theories of this sort cast government agencies as pursuing vast technical powers in order to spy on people, control their minds, or otherwise suppress an alienated populace. The plausibility of establishing such surveillance capabilities, by technical means or by a widespread network of informants, should perhaps be viewed in the context of events in former Eastern bloc countries, particularly the activities of the East German Stasi before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The various services provided by Google have also been considered to invade people’s privacy, thus enabling intelligence agencies to monitor their activities.

Many governments use intelligence agencies to promote national policies in secretive ways — in several cases including the use of sabotage, propaganda, and assassination. Intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), KGB, MI6, BND, Inter-Services Intelligence, Internal Security Act (ISA) and Mossad, are a common element of political conspiracy theories precisely because they are known to participate in some activities similar to those described in conspiracy theories.. Indeed, conspiracy theories about espionage agencies go back at least as far as the 1600s, with allegations the English spymaster Robert Cecil was responsible for the Gunpowder plot of 1605. Some examples include the Pine Gap satellite tracking system in Australia, which is believed by some to be a global database used to track individuals Big Brother style, and the Government Warehouse, which is a conspiracy that alleges that the government has secret warehouses which contain articles that they do not want people to know about.

Numerous theories have been put forward surrounding Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a Boeing 747 that was shot down by the Soviet military after it strayed into prohibited airspace in 1983. These theories started in a Cold War era of heightened tensions and mutual distrust, and have been fanned by subsequent misinformation, deception, suppression of evidence and political events.