Talk:List of political conspiracies

definition

Is this definition accurate? "In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power." This appears to include all civil wars and many full-scale rebellions. If so, isn't that too broad? Also, it appears to exclude situations in which a group of people unite with some goal of secretly and illegally obtaining power or wealth but they do not try to usurp or overthrow the established power. Or are my examples applicable only to conspiracy in some sense other than the political sense? 67.188.32.106 (talk) 03:46, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

completely agreed --boarders paradise (talk) 01:53, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

The definition is inappropriately narrow and has no source.

In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of people united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination.

The community has added many things to this list that the definition above does not encompass. Thus:

• 1898 - The Dreyfus Affair, a coordinated attempt to falsely accuse Alfred Dreyfus of treason [14]
• 1903 - The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, presented as authentic text by the Tsar's secret police efforts to foment anti-Semitism [15]
• 1914 - The Black Hand, a secret society controlled by Serbian Military Intelligence, coordinates the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, thus causing World War I.
• 1932 to 1972 - Tuskegee syphilis experiment, to study natural progression of untreated syphilis in black men who thought they were receiving free health care [16]
• 1936 to 1950 - Presumed General Motors streetcar conspiracy [17]
• 1938 - Presumed Hitler Youth Conspiracy, NKVD case in Moscow involving some 70 arrests and 40 executions of teenagers and adults, later found to be baseless [18]
• 1939 - Operation Himmler and its Gleiwitz incident, "False Flag" terrorism by Nazi Germany as pretext for invasion of Poland
• 1941 - British wartime plan PR4 to invade and to occupy neutral Norway also code-named "Stratford"
• 1941 - Bombing of Pearl Harbour, Hawaii by the Japanese [21][22]
• 1948- to 1976 - Operation Mockingbird, until then CIA director George H. W. Bush prohibited paid media recruiting [25][26]
• 1942 - Wannsee Conference, related to Final Solution of 3rd Reich Nazis [27]
• 1948 to early 1980s Operation Gladio CIA-NATO 'stay-behind' preparations [30][31]
• 1953 to ? - MKULTRA mind control program [32]
• 1962 - Operation Northwoods - A rejected proposal for the CIA to commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities and elsewhere.[35]
• 1969 to 1972 Secret war in Laos, and Operation Menu in Cambodia, concealed from Congressional oversight [37]
• 1972 - Watergate scandal, burglary and cover-up scandals [38]
• 1983 - October surprise [41][42]
• 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack [43]
• 1987 - Iran-Contra Affair [44][45]
• 1991 - Nayirah testimony to rally U.S. public support to launch the Gulf War [46]
• 1967 to 1974 - Strategy of tension theory in re series of incidents in Italy [47]
• 2000s - Operation Merlini [48]
• 2002 - Downing Street Memo [49][50]
• 2002 September Dossier to justify Iraq invasion

— Yellowcake forgery [51]

• 2003 - Iraq and weapons of mass destruction pretext for War in Iraq[52]
• 2007 - 2015 PRISM (surveillance program)

Therefore, I propose we relax the definition to encompass the list of subjects the community would obviously prefer to have listed here. Here is a proposal for a new definition:

In a political sense, conspiracy refers to the plan by a group of people to commit some harmful or illegal act. By its nature (and by the origin of the word), secrecy is almost always a significant part of the picture. The conspirators may be among people employed by the government, by people not so employed, or any combination thereof. The conspiracy may be against the government, against the people, to violate the law, or some combination of those goals. The word "conspiracy" may be applied to a plan between the heads (or agents) of multiple nations to embarrass some other nation not present, but the word is not usually applied to plans within a country or between countries to make war on another country.

This page could encompass two divisions: Conspiracies that have proved or admitted, and conspiracies that are as yet unproved and only alleged. This page should not have descriptions of the conspiracies, but simply links to individual pages, as necessary, where full descriptions and controversies are described.

I also propose we make this a more formal table, something like this:

Date	Name	Nation(s)	Ringleaders	Action	Objective	Outcome
33 BC	Assassination of Julius Caesar	Republic of Rome	Various senators	Assassination of Caesar in the Roman Senate	(Allegedly) to prevent usurpation of the Republic	Death of Caesar, civil war, Rome shortly became an Empire
1898	The Dreyfus Affair	France	Other military officers	A false prosecution Alfred Dreyfus for treason	Concealment of the real traitor	Prison for Dreyfus, but eventual vindication
1903	The Protocols of the Elders of Zion	Russia	the Tsar's secret police	Presentation of fictional screed was factual record	Foment anti-Semitism	Established a locus of accusations
1914	Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand	Serbia	The Black Hand, a secret society controlled by Serbian Military Intelligence	Assassination	(political)	World War I

Slade Farney (talk) 00:26, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

jfk

"there is proof of a conspiracy?" uh...no there isnt...I'm removing that reference 70.231.162.96 (talk) 05:29, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Name

Would "List of political conspiracies" be better, avoiding the parenthetical? I think so. Verbal chat 15:03, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I like List of notable conspiracies. Otherwise we'll might encourage Original research as to whether a conspiracy is "political." --Ludvikus (talk) 19:06, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm afraid "notable" is strongly discouraged in titles, and, if "political" is not to be used, then it needs to be merged into List of conspiracies (even if it doesn't currently exist), rather than being renamed. — Arthur Rubin (talk) 20:39, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Arthur Rubin, I agree with you now. I support your last proposal. It appears sound to me. However, are you going to include in the list those Conspiracies which weren't? If most scholars say there was not conspiracy, but there's a belief that there was - are you ging to include in the list by that name, suggesting the conspiracy was real? --Ludvikus (talk) 21:03, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Arthur Rubin, how about this: List of conspiracies (real or imagined)? --Ludvikus (talk) 21:04, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

There are a lot of mistakes above. Arthur, what you are referring to is the difference between an (actual) conspiracy and an (unconfirmed) conspiracy theory. And there is no use for List of conspiracies (real or imagined), we already have http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories

Furthermore, conspiracies are inherently political (what conspiracy isn't!?), that's simply in their nature. Therefore I would suggest simply using "List of conspiracies" as the topic title, not "List of conspiracies (political)" --boarders paradise (talk) 02:03, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

"List of political conspiracies" is a clearer description of what's presented here. Most conspiracies are not political in the sense of relating directly to the government. (See: Conspiracy (crime)) Also, overthrowing an established power is not an inherent aspect of conspiracies (even only political conspiracies). The coherence of the category is a bit questionable, really. groupuscule (talk) 04:16, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Bio-bombs are WMDs too.

According to the Karl Rove, John Bolton and Atomic Agency; the Iran-Iraq War forces used a lot of dirty bombs and chemical warfare. Iraq had clouds that destroyed a quarter of a city's population and whatever it passes. [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_warfare] I don't know which politicians want you to believe that WMDs are exclusive to atomic bombs...

Terror conspiracies

Terror conspiracies are a hot new topic in the terrified states: 3 Charged With Terror Conspiracy Ahead of NATO --Pawyilee (talk) 15:31, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

Great-great-great-&c.

Surely The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details in 1865 is the great-great-great-great-granddaddy of North American conspiracy theories, but notable today only as footnote #2 in the origin of going "to hell in a handbasket." --Pawyilee (talk) 10:14, 10 June 2012 (UTC)

Former "List of proven conspiracies"

See http://conspiraciesthatweretrue.blogspot.se/2007/01/list-of-proven-conspiracies-from.html. I think some of these can be added to List of conspiracies (political), especially if source can be provided. Mange01 (talk) 22:15, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

conspiracyarchives.com

Readers come to this page seeking conspiracies. This is relevant sources. In answer to your question. GangofOne (talk) 08:33, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

Expanded List

I would like the community to consider and comment on this expanded list of political conspiracies for eventual inclusion in the article to replace the current list. I would also request help in confirming that I have not missed anything. Please comment.

Here is the definition I am using. Please edit this sandbox article in place to keep down the confusion. Grammar'sLittleHelper (talk) 07:57, 23 July 2015 (UTC)

Grammar'sLittleHelper: I'm not likely to help much with line-by-line fact checking, but this looks really good. I'm OK with moving it over to the article side and tweaking it there. - Location (talk) 04:05, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

I do like the format, but per Capitalismojo's comments below, it does appear that many of these items are not described as "political conspiracies" in reliable sources. It almost appears as though this is a list of anything not defined as criminal conspiracy. Are there any academic references specifically addressing "political conspiracies"? - Location (talk) 15:17, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Many of these are historical incidents, military or intelligence operations that were secret but aren't generally considered or described as "conspiracies". We need reliable sources describing them as actuall conspiracies to add such to this list. Capitalismojo (talk) 15:21, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Capitalismojo,Location, The source describing each incident as conspiracy is in the second column. That is the purpose of that column. The issue of "political conspiracy" has always been open. The current page defines the term, without source: "In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of people united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination." That is some Wikipedian's definition. But the Wannsee Conference is always described as a conspiracy -- Do we need a source to use the phrase "political conspiracy"? How can anyone say it was not political? This is a list page, not exactly an encyclopedia page. Wikipedia creates lists of convenient categories, not mere echoes of collections established by others. Grammar'sLittleHelper (talk) 16:53, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

A core principle of Wikipedia is Verify, so yes we need a ref for inclusion on a list of "conspiracies", which should be easy. Here, for example, is a ref for Wannsee [2], although since the Nurmberg Trials also used the term "conspiracy" for this there should be many others. Capitalismojo (talk) 18:40, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Is this a list of alleged conspiracies or ones that are generally considered "confirmed" by reliable sources? The Business Plot would be the one I'm looking at (and I do note that Capitalismojo removed it from the list when this expanded list was first copied over). Our article is extremely dismissive, and it does include the same source as mentioned in this list. Ravensfire (talk) 19:46, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

This is not a list of alleged conspiracies. It is a list of conspiracies. Re the Business Plot, we shouldn't be adding things described as a hoax or wild speculation to this list. Capitalismojo (talk) 19:50, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

I think we would have a much easier time finding sources if this were simply List of conspiracies. - Location (talk) 21:05, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Please consult the sources in the second column, "Auth." I have agreed previously the "business plot" should not be in the list. However, the main page has nothing in the lede to indicate business plot is a "hoax," and the general impression from that page is that the business plot is history, though it was smoothed over. I believe that should be fixed on the main page. So to return to the main theme, this is a list of political conspiracies, that is, conspiracies that were designed to change the destiny of nations and the course of politics. Not criminal conspiracies, else the list would be way too long. Grammar'sLittleHelper (talk) 08:06, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

"Political conspiracy" is still ill- or non-defined, but it appears as though we are making up definitions that include the term "political" rather than finding some that do. What about criminal acts that are committed for apparent political reasons, but are not cited as "political conspiracies"? Montana Freeman is one you have noted. What about the kidnapping and murder of Alex Rackley by the Black Panthers, or the hiking of Western Airlines Flight 701, or Marin County courthouse incident? You have that the "Vang Pao Clandestine Army / Operation Tarnished Eagle" or 2007 Laotian coup d'état conspiracy allegation was conducted to "Free the Laotian people of the abusive government". The definition of "conspiracy" in the context you are attempting to use typically suggests some malevolent outcome for the act. - Location (talk) 14:17, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Malevolent or illegal attempt to affect a political end -- such is the definition of conspiracy. It's a list, not an authoritative statement. The preamble is a definition of the list, not of the term. You might not find the Assassination of Philip II of Macedon to be expressly described by anyone as a "political conspiracy." Yet it was done for a political motive and purpose, and it was a conspiracy. I believe this search for authorities is not applied to any other Wikipedia list. WP:Lists: Stand-alone lists should begin with a lead section that summarizes its content, provides any necessary background information, gives encyclopedic context, links to other relevant articles, and makes direct statements about the criteria by which members of the list were selected, unless inclusion criteria are unambiguously clear from the article title. This introductory material is especially important for lists that feature little or no other non-list prose in their article body. Even when the selection criteria might seem obvious to some, an explicit standard is often helpful to both readers, to understand the scope, and other editors, to reduce the tendency to include trivial or off-topic entries. See Wikipedia:Featured_list_criteria. The construction of the list is defined by those who make the list, not by a requirement for an authority to have previously categorized the items under the term. For example, when including a bridge in List of bridges to the Island of Montreal, we do not have to cite an authority who used the term "island of Montreal" when describing that particular bridge. Please consult those references. Grammar'sLittleHelper (talk) 18:39, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Where did that definition come from? I don't understand the refusal to find and cite scholarly definitions, then create an article around them. The better idea is to create Conspiracy (political science) and use the various definitions used in political science or other academic books which often explicitly state that they are not referring to the legal definitions in Conspiracy (civil) and Conspiracy (criminal). In that manner, we can embed a list of conspiracies that are discussed in those sources or other sources in the same context without resorting to an original interpretation of what we perceive to be a "political conspiracy" based on our own definition. - Location (talk) 20:30, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Great. But I predict we will wind up with the same list that includes the Watergate break-in, the assassination of Phillip II, the Wannsee Conference, and everything in between. When will that page be constructed? Grammar'sLittleHelper (talk) 00:24, 6 August 2015 (UTC)

List

Expanded list

List of Political Conspiracies A contemporary engraving of eight of the thirteen conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, by Crispijn van de Passe. A political conspiracy is an agreement among two or more people to effect a political goal through some harmful or illegal act against a political leader, a sector of the populace, or a country's laws. The term is used variously within that general description. A conspiracy often involves secrecy, but there are major exceptions. In any case, secrecy is relative and not strictly necessary in the legal definition. The American Revolutionary War, for example, was considered a "conspiracy" by the British, who were certainly aware of its existence though not of all details. As a term, political conspiracy has been used to describe plots by employees of the government (as in the Watergate scandal or the Iran-Contra scandal), by people not so employed (as in the 1993 WTC bombing), or by a combination (as in Project MKULTRA). The word "conspiracy" has been applied to plots between the heads (or agents) of multiple nations to harm or embarrass some other nation not present (such as Operation Gladio), but not usually to plots to declare conventional war on another country (as with the Bombing of Pearl Harbor) or to conduct low level espionage (of which there have been uncountable instances). Provoking war by deception or trickery is often termed a conspiracy, as in the cases of the Yellowcake Forgery and the September Dossier. A conspiracy may be illegal but not harmful (as with Fighting Solidarity and the Slave Rebellions in North America), or harmful but not illegal (as with the Native American Holocaust and Slavery in North America). A conspiracy may be committed by the government against the people or a sector of the population (as with Project Mockingbird, Wannsee Conference, and the Armenian Genocide). As with the legal US definition, conspiracy does not require all conspirators to know all others in the same conspiracy -- in politics, numbers alone might make knowledge of all others impossible. Some conspiracies (such as the Underground Railroad and the French Resistance) deliberately limit the information available to any individual so that the damage is limited if the conspiracy is breached. For each event listed here, scholarly sources are provided on the individual page to which the event name is linked. As with many Wiki lists, the purpose of this page is to provide a general reference rather than to substantiate or explain each incident in detail. The events listed here are selected for the following criteria: Each is generally recognized to be true rather than speculative or controversial Each meets the definition of political conspiracy given above Each has been described in some detail elsewhere in the Wikipedia with scholarly references Political conspiracies through history This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources. Dates are according to standard Christian dating system. A negative number in the Date column indicates BC. An asterisk indicates the activity is still ongoing. The "Auth" column is for noting primary (not necessarily all) sources that define the incident as a conspiracy. The "Name" column gives the name by which the incident is commonly known, linked to the Wikipedia page that details the event. Date Auth Name Geography Leaders Action Alleged Objective Outcome -336 Assassination of Philip II of Macedon Macedon Pausanias of Orestis and friends, possibly encouraged by Philip's wife Olympias or son Alexander Stabbed King Philip at the wedding of his daughter, Cleopatra Personal vengeance for death of a friend and for making war against the Illyrians Success; King Philip died; assassin Pausanias was killed by the King's bodyguards -70, -62 Catiline conspiracies Republic of Rome Lucius Sergius Catilina with many friends and supporters Assassination, armed revolt against the Republic For some, to install Catiline as dictator of Rome Failure; Cataline's defeated and killed in 62 BC -33 Assassination of Julius Caesar Republic of Rome Brutus Albinus, Servilius Casca, Tillius Cimber, 60 other senators ("Liberatores") Assassination of Caesar in the Roman Senate Restore the Republic Failure; death of Caesar, civil war; Rome became an empire rather than a republic 33 Crucifixion of Jesus Palestine Pontius Pilate; Judas Iscariot, Chief Priest __, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees of the Sanhedrin Removal of Jesus from public scene in Jerusalem Avert Roman retaliation; preserve hegemony of the Jewish Temple Backfire; Christianity spread throughout Mediterranean area; Rome destroyed Jerusalem within a century 65 Pisonian conspiracy Republic of Rome Gaius Calpurnius Piso, Subrius Flavus, Sulpicius Asper Assassination of Emperor Nero In part, to install Piso as emperor Failure; Piso killed 1455, 1487 War of the Roses England Members of the Houses of York and Lancaster (two branches of Plantagenet family) and their supporters Every coordinated attack on the sitting king or his forces (see list) was by definition, seditious conspiracy Capture (or recapture) the throne of England Success; Henry VII crowned after Bosworth, married Elizabeth of York, uniting the Plantagenet family branches 1478 Pazzi conspiracy Republic of Florence (Italy) Members of the Pazzi family and supporters Attack on the Medici brothers during High Mass at the Duomo before a crowd of 10,000 Displace the de' Medici family Failure and death of the conspirators 1485 Bosworth Field Conspiracy England Buckingham, Thomas Lord Stanley, William Stanley, Henry Percy, and their followers, whom King Richard III was relying upon as allies against Henry Tudor In battle with Tudor forces, Northumberland withheld his troops from the charge while Thomas Lord Stanley and Sir William Stanley attacked and killed the King. Put the House of Lancaster on the throne of England (see War of Roses) Success; Henry Tudor became King Henry VII of England; the Stanleys were rewarded generously; Northumberland was briefly imprisoned, then released and reinstated 1500, 1910 Ethnic Cleansing of North America North America Predominantly Caucasian people Native American peoples were exterminated first in incidental massacres, then as collision of cultures/races contesting land, finally as a quasi-government policy Presumably, possess the land without contest Success; North America cleansed of natives with the exception of Southwest Hispanics and small reservations 1506 Conspiracy against Duke of Ferrara Ferrara (Italy) Half-brother Giulio d'Este and full brother Ferrante d'Este Death to Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Cardinal Ippolito d'Este (brothers) Vengeance, with one of the brothers taking the Duke's seat Failure, imprisonment of the conspiring brothers, death to the other conspirators 1526, 1865 Slavery in North America North America Caucasian people "Fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity" Labor without pay Success until the Civil War abolished slavery throughout the US 1526, 1840 Slave Rebellions in North America North America African American slaves Organized, unorganized, preplanned, and spontaneous illegal rebellions against owners Individual liberty Success in some, death and execution in others 1570 Ridolfi plot England Roberto di Ridolfi and others Revolt, assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots Restore Catholicism in England Discovery and failure 1583 Throckmorton Plot England Sir Francis Throckmorton and other Catholics Assassinate Queen Elizabeth, replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots Restore Catholicism in England Failure 1586 Babington Plot England Sir Anthony Babington, John Ballard, Robert Poley, Gilbert Gifford, and Thomas Phelippes Assassinate Queen Elizabeth, replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots Restore Catholicism in England Failure, trial and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots 1603 Main Plot England Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Spanish government Dethrone King James I and replace him with Arbella Stuart Enthrone Arbella Stuart, restore Catholicism Failure and imprisonment of conspirators 1603 Bye Plot England Roman Catholic priests and Puritans Kidnap King James I Restore Catholicism, religious tolerance Failure, execution of Sir George Brooke 1605 Gunpowder Plot England Robert Catesby, John Wright, Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Guy Fawkes, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, Robert Wintour, others Blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, assassinate King James I Crown Princess Elizabeth, restore Catholicism Failure, execution of conspirators 1610, * Cabinet Noir (see also Black Room) France Various French government bureaux Letters of targets were opened and read by public officials, then resealed and forwarded to recipients. Done in secret so the recipients were unaware Not articulated or not known Success, denounced occasionally but never actually outlawed 1690, 1860 Underground Railroad North America Abolitionists, many anonymous Illegally assist slaves to various refuges through a network of safe houses and secret routes Florida before 1776, Canada, free states, territories, Mexico Success, with allegedly more than 30,000 escapees 1765, 1783 American Revolutionary War 13 Colonies of America France; signatories to the 1776 Declaration of Independence; First and Second Contental Congress; thousands of others Pamphlets, speeches, demonstrations such as the Boston Tea Party; though much activity was public, much was also secret Independence from British Rule Success 1783 Newburgh Conspiracy 13 Colonies of America John Armstrong, Jr., officers of the Continental Army Not disband on peace with Britain, and possibly desert Washington's command if not paid Insist on back pay and pension as promised Conciliation with General Washington, faith in Congress restored 1788 Anjala conspiracy Sweden Group of Swedish military officers Secretly negotiate peace with Catherine the Great of Russia End Gustav III's War with Russia, secession of Finland Failure, execution of conspirators, division of Finland from Sweden 1859 John Brown's Raid Harpers Ferry, West Virginia John Brown, 21 others Raided Harper's Ferry Armory, captured weapons Inspire slave uprising throughout the South Short term failure, conspirators captured, Brown was hung; Long term Brown became icon of Abolition 1865 Abraham Lincoln Assassination Plot Washington, D.C. John Wilkes Booth, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt Assassinate President Lincoln, VP Johnson, and Secretary Seward Revive Confederate cause Death of Lincoln, otherwise failure 1865 Klu Klux Klan USA Many thousands Violence against African Americans and sympthizers; secret membership Prevention of racial and social mixing of races Failure, prosecution of many; disbanded in 1869, reborn 1920, presently reborn and decentralized 1898 The Dreyfus Affair France Charles Esterhazy Falsely prosecute Captain Alfred Dreyfus for treason with Germany Conceal Esterhazy's treason Prison for Dreyfus, but eventual vindication, Esterhazy eventually exposed 1900, * Asbestos Conspiracy All industrial nations incl. USA Multiple governments, industrial corporations, trade groups, and insurance companies Asbestos hazards were long known but hidden from workers; regulation was blocked, insurance claims denied Utility and profits of cheap asbestos materials Liability litigation continues, thousands of victim deaths per year, regulation blocked, asbestos still in use 1900, * Jewish-American organized crime USA, Israel Bugsy Siegel, Monk Eastman, Arnold Rothstein, Joseph "Doc" Stacher, and others The activities of Jewish American mobsters become political when the individuals contribute money to Israel and use Israel's Right of Return to escape US prosecution The profits of crime without prosecution Success 1903 The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Russia The Russian Secret Police (alleged) Publish book falsely purporting to be manual of Jewish conspiracy Foment antisemitism Established a perpetual rumor/legend of Jewish conspiracy against Gentiles 1913, 2005 Irish Republican Army Ireland Various, as many as 14,500 people, including agents working for British Army, Special Branch, and MI5 Assassinations, murders, bombs, maimings, other violence Unite the whole of Ireland in a single nation independent of England Failure, disbanded in 1921 after treaty; reformed 1922-1969; reformed as Provisional Irish Republican Army 1914 Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand Serbia The Black Hand, a secret society controlled by Serbian Military Intelligence Assassinate the Archduke Unite the territories with majority South Slavic people Death of the archduke and World War I 1915, 1919 Armenian Genocide Turkey Ottoman Empire Massacre, starve, rape, work victims to death, inject with disease Eradicate unwanted people including Greeks, Armenians, ethnic Christians Success; 1 to 1.5 million killed 1917 Murder of Emperor Nicholas II, his wife, and all their children Russia Yakov Yurovsky, Communist soldiers, local Bolsheviks Abduct, assassinate, and bury the bodies in an unmarked grave Solidify Bolshevik Revolution Success 1917, 1933 Decossackization Russia Soviet government Extermination of the Cossacks, either as an ethnic group or social class (Presumed) homogenization of Soviet society Success 1926, 1928 Assassination of Velimir Prelić Macedonia Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, Ivan Mihaylov, Mara Buneva, Assassination of a Serbian official Velimir Prelić Freedom for Macedonia Successful assassination, Macedonia not freed 1932, 1972 Tuskegee syphilis experiment Alabama, Washington, D.C. Many employees of the US Public Health Service and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention knew or participated Hundreds of black sharecroppers denied diagnosis and treatment for syphilis, left to suffer and die miserably Study of the progress of untreated syphilis Success for 40 years; upon general exposure, termination of the Experiment, multiple reforms of laws and agencies 1933 Business Plot US Heads of Chase Bank, General Motors, Goodyear, Standard Oil, DuPont family, Senator Prescott Bush Recruit Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler to overthrow government of President Roseveldt Install fascist dictatorship over the United States Failure; no action was taken and no one was prosecuted 1933, 1945 Anti-Nazi Conspiracy Germany Multiple small, isolated groups, generally leaderless Some actively plotted or attempted to assassinate Hitler, some to thwart the roundups for the camps, some to stop the war Overthrow the Nazi regime, end the atrocities, end the war Failure 1939 1939 Shelling of Mainila Russia Andrei Zhdanov and the Red Army Soviet Union (Russia) Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila pretending to be attacked by Finland False flag pretext for Winter War against Finland Success; public support for the Winter War 1939 Operation Himmler and the Gleiwitz incident Germany Heinrich Himmler, Alfred Naujocks, and Nazi military Simulate an attack by Polish military, with false flag and uniforms Provide pretext for Germany to invade Poland Success, though not hidden from history 1939, 1945 French Resistance / French Underground France Multiple isolated groups and small cells Guerrilla attacks on the Germans and Vichy collaborators, underground newspapers, spy for the Allies, help isolated Allied soldiers and airmen Liberate France from German occupation Success; considered to be of significant assistance to the Allies in winning the World War II against the Germans 1940 Operation Spark Germany Friedrich Olbricht, Major General Henning von Tresckow and an anti-Nazi conspiracy, the Schwarze Kapelle ("black band") Assassinate Adolph Hitler by means of a bomb on his aircraft Overthrow the Nazi regime, end the war Discovery and failure 1941, 1944 Greek Resistance Greece Communist Party of Greece, Aris Velouchiotis, Napoleon Zervas, and other strongly armed groups. Guerrilla attacks, sabotage Liberation of Greece from the Axis Power occupation forces. Failure; internecine civil war between the groups even while occupied by Germany; enmity with British troops; 1942 Wannsee Conference Berlin, Germany Senior officials of Nazi Germany Exterminate the "inferior" people of the Reich and occupied countries, including Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals Cleanse the body politic of unwanted elements and the race through eugenics Partial success 1942 Operation Anthropoid Prague British Special Operations Executive, local agents and Czechs Assassinate General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich Confer legitimacy on Beneš's government-in-exile in London Success 1944 July 20 Plot Germany Dissidents of the Kreisau Circle and others Assassinate Adolph Hitler with suitcase bomb inside the Wolf's Lair field headquarters Operation Valkyrie to grab power and negotiate peace with the Allies Failure, arrest of 7,000 conspirators, execution of 4,980 1945 Operation Paperclip / (parallel program in Far East) USA, Germany, Japan Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) Forge documents, expunge national records; evade President Truman's orders Hide desired Japanese, Nazi war criminals from Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials; deny recovery to native countries Success; 1500 Nazis and many Japanese hidden from prosecution, many immigrated 1945, * Project SHAMROCK USA Western Union, RCA, ITT, Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) (later named National Security Agency NSA), FBI, CIA, Secret Service, Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), Department of Defense (DoD) Intercept, copy incoming, outgoing, and transiting telegrams for thousands of targets without warrant or court order Not articulated or not known Success until investigated by the Church Committee and passage of FISA; reborn with PRISM 1946, * Hmong Genocide Laos Laos, Vietnamese army Attack, rape, massacre, bomb, destroy means of life Vengeance, ethnic cleansing Success, more than 100,000 killed 1948, 1982 Operation Gladio, Stay-behind preparations Europe CIA, NATO, Western Union Clandestine Committee (CCWU) Leave covert paramilitary agents and forces in neutral and Allied countries after the World War II Prepare for invasion from Warsaw Pact; see Strategy of Tension Success; undetected for decades 1948, * Operation Mockingbird USA, elsewhere Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employees Cord Meyer, Allen W. Dulles, Frank Wisner and many others Plant agents on news staff; shape news through blackmail, bribes, and "dirty tricks;" plant pre-written articles; fund groups and publications Manipulate national and foreign policy, hide CIA's illegal activities Success; exposed by Ramparts in 1966, some books, Church Committee, but not terminated; possibly still active 1950, 1977 Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts Puerto Rico, Continental USA Pedro Albizu Campos, Blanca Canales, Oscar Collazo, Griselio Torresola, and many others Seditious conspiracy against the United States, firing on Congress from the gallery, demonstrations Puerto Rico independence from US Failure, prison for the conspirators 1952, 1973 HTLINGUAL / SRPOINTER US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Intercept and open mail for targeted individuals such as Bella Abzug, Bobby Fischer, Linus Pauling, John Steinbeck, Martin Luther King, Edward Albee, Hubert Humphrey Originally, collect names from mail to/from Soviet Union, China; later record content Unknown 1953, * MKULTRA mind control program USA Central Intelligence Agency, Sidney Gottlieb, cooperating psychiatrists, and others Illegally and secretly perform mind control experiments on human subjects, usually without consent Develop mind control drugs and methods for indoctrination and interrogation Unknown 1953 Operation Ajax / Operation Boot / 28 Mordad coup / Iranian coup d'état / TPAJAX Project Iran US Central Intelligence Agency, United Kingdom Secret Intelligence Service Bribe Iranian politicians, security and army high-ranking officials; promote coup with propaganda; promote riots with bribes to gangsters; put CIA soldiers on the ground to control the city; arm and direct rebel forces Overthrow Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and install puppet Mohammad-Rezā Shāh Pahlavi (the "Shah") to provide BP with unrestricted access to Iran's oil reserves Success for 26 years 1954 Lavon Affair, Operation Susannah Egypt Colonel Binyamin Gibli, but he blamed Israel Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon, who was probably innocent but was forced to resign Bomb Egyptian, American, and British-owned civilian targets, cinemas, libraries and educational centers (not persons); other acts of sabotage under a False Flag Implicate Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian Communists, "malcontents," prevent British troop withdrawal from Suez Canal zone Failure; imprisonment, death for bombers, long term discredit to Israel, upset in Israeli government 1954, 1996 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état / Operation PBSUCCESS Guatemala Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Guatemala coup d'état Monopolize agriculture under United Fruit Company, military control of Central America Success; brutal dictatorship installed; genocide of Mayan people 1956, 1971? COINTELPRO USA Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) "Survey, expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, neutralize, or ... eliminate" domestic target groups and their leaders Steer US national policy, subvert or eliminate political opposition Success 1958, * Lebanese Anarchist Attacks Lebanon Perpetrators mostly unknown Almost ceaseless attacks by paramilitary non-governmental groups: List of massacres in Lebanon; 1958 Lebanon crisis; 1983 United States embassy bombing; 1983 Beirut barracks bombing; South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000); Lebanon bombings and assassinations (2004–present); Pro-Muslim, anti-Muslim, pro-Syria, anti-Israel, etc. (Violence by Israel not included here because legal under Israeli law) Failure; no one wins, everyone loses, and it never ends 1959 Operation 40 USA J.C. King, President Eisenhower, Allen W. Dulles, Richard Nixon, Arleigh Burke, Livingston Merchant, 80+ more CIA to organize, train, and equip Cuban refugees as a guerrilla force; sabotage, attacks bombs Overthrow Fidel Castro's Cuban Communist government Failure; reborn as Brigade 2506 1960, 1961 Assassination of Patrice Lumumba Belgian Congo Belgium, CIA (US), MI6 (United Kingdom), according to the Church Committee Assassinate Lumumba, first democratically elected prime minister of the Congo Obstruct pan-African unity Success 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion / Operation Zapata / Brigade 2506 Cuba Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Cuban exiles, Brigade 2506, Democratic Revolutionary Front Invade Cuba, overthrow Communist government of Prime Minister Fidel Castro Reverse the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and its effects Failure, embarrassment of CIA and USA 1961, 1983 Project CHERRY Southeast Asia Central Intelligence Agency, using US Military Special Forces soldiers for black operations, who were in turn using soldiers from the Cambodian Khmer Serei Movement. Assassinate Prince (later King) Norodom Sihanouk, and other terror operations Destabilize Cambodian society Failure 1962 Operation Northwoods / Mongoose / Bingo USA Department of Defense (DoD) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Acts of terrorism in US cities and elsewhere, including shooting down a US airliner, to be blamed on the new Communist (Fidel Castro) government of Cuba (False Flag operations) Described in memo Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba, includes sequence of "reprisals" of US Military Failure; President Kennedy disapproved the plot and nothing was done; Kennedy removed Lemnitzer as JCS Chairman 1962 Operation Dirty Trick / Operation Northwoods USA Brig. Gen. William H. Craig, Brig. Gen. Edward Lansdale If the 1962 space flight Mercury (carrying John Glenn) crashed, Cuba (Castro) would be blamed Invade Cuba with US popular support Failure; President Kennedy disapproved, and the plot was done; Glenn's mission did not crash 1963 Assassination of John F. Kennedy USA I.A. Lee Harvey Oswald, other or others unknown Assassination of the sitting president of the United States Not articulated or not known Success 1963, 1970 Front de libération du Québec / FLQ Quebec Mario Bachand, Robert Hudon, Jean Gagnon, Cyr Delisle, Gilles Brunet, Marcel Tardif, François Schirm, Edmond Guenette, and others unknown Kidnapped James Cross, assassinated Labour Minister Pierre Laporte, killed 8 others with bombs, injured many; bombed Montreal Stock Exchange Marxist; force Quebec to separate from Canada Failure, imprisonment for some 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident / USS Maddox Incident Vietnam, USA President Lyndon Johnson, US Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, others Turned a false report of torpedo attack on US ship in the Gulf of Tonkin into authorization for war against North Vietnam, did not issue public retraction or stand down when report was proved to be false War in Vietnam to prevent Communist expansion Success; Vietnam War waged until 1973 with 58,000 US deaths and $111 billion expended ($686 billion in 2008 dollars) 1966, 2015 ECHELON Global USA, Canada, Britain, New Zealand, Australia ("Five Eyes") "... a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications." Interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail Success; never terminated, ever expanding operation as revealed by. Snowden's documents 1967 USS Liberty Incident Egypt's Gaza Strip Israeli Navy, Israeli Air Force, USS Saratoga officers, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara Aerial bombing, then torpedo attack on USS Liberty in international waters near Egypt Prevent detection of Israel's military plans Success; 34 Americans killed and 171 wounded in the two-hour attack 1967, ? Project MERRIMAC USA National Security Agency (NSA) Domestic surveillance on anti-Vietnam War groups and other political groups, and the infrastructure of targeted communities Circumvent First Amendment, control US public information and opinions Apparent success; never officially admitted to exist, and never officially closed down 1967, 1973 Project Minaret USA National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) Disseminate info captured by the Project Shamrock to other government and intelligence organizations Circumvent First Amendment, control US public information and opinions Success; exposed by Church Committee (1975), limited and regulated by Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA, 1978) 1967, 1974 Operation CHAOS / Operation MHCHAOS USA Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon. Richard Helms, James Jesus Angleton, Richard Obe, and may others Domestic espionage of US residents without warrant, probable cause, or legal rights "Unmask possible foreign influences on the student antiwar movement." Success; exposed and officially closed in 1973 1965, 1980 Strategy of Tension / Years of Lead Italy, Greece, Turkey Gladio groups (backed by various Western governments) in False Flag operations Campaign of fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, terrorist acts, and assassinations Frighten the people into demanding strong anti-communist dictatorial governments Success in provoking revolutions in Turkey, Greece. No success in Italy 1965, 1983 Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña / FALN Puerto Rico Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Carmen Valentín Pérez, More than 120 bomb attacks in the US Puerto Rico independence and Communism Failure; 12 members arrested 1980, tried and convicted; 16 members pardoned by Bill Clinton in 1999 1967, 1973 Project RESISTANCE USA Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Office of Security Local police, college staff, other informants spy on "groups of the USA that might threaten CIA facilities and personnel," such as those opposed to Vietnam War Along with Project MERRIMAC, reported to Operation CHAOS Success until terminated 1968 Markovic Affair France Ex-head of police Luicien Aimé-Blanc, Aleksandar Markovic, brother of dead bodyguard, others Publish (apparently faked) embarrassing photos of Claude Pompidou, Georges Pompidou's wife Vengeance; embarrass Pompidou, possibly defeating his re-election Failure 1968 Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. US Kill Martin Luther King Not articulated or not known Success in the killing, failed to stop racial integration 1968, 1970 Project GAMMA Cambodia Central Intelligence Agency; U.S. Army Operate network of native spies, torturing and killing at least one for compromising a mission Covert intelligence collection operations in Cambodia. Failure; tens of thousands of Laotian deaths, Congressional investigation 1969 Weather Underground / Weatherman US Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Jeff Jones, students in Ann Arbor campus of University of Michigan Bombing banks and government buildings Overthrow the US government; U.S. imperialism and achieve a classless world: world communism Failure; bomb detonated during assembly killing three members; disbanded; convictions 1969, 1972 Laotian Civil (Secret) War Laos US Air Force Bomb targets and Communist troops in support of the Laotian Royal Military's civil war, concealed from Congressional oversight Prevent Communist takeover of Southeast Asia Failure; 500,000 Cambodian deaths, evaded US Congressional oversight until 1973 and public outrage 1969, 1973 Operation Menu Cambodia United States Strategic Air Command (SAC) Bombing campaign in Eastern Cambodia and Laos from 18 March 1969 until 26 May 1970 Prevent Communist takeover of Southeast Asia Success; 500,000 Cambodian deaths, evaded Congressional oversight until 1973 and public outrage 1970, 1973 Huston Plan USA Tom Huston, William C. Sullivan, Richard Nixon, FBI, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Security Agency Burgle, surveille targeted "radicals;" open mail, detain anti-war protesters in camps in Western states Remove opposition to agenda of Nixon Administration Some success; exposed during Watergate hearings, Church Committee Hearings 1972 Munich massacre Munich, Germany Black September Take hostage 9 Israeli Olympic team members and German policeman, Freedom for 234 Palestinian and other prisoners in Israel Failure; most hostages and kidnappers died during the rescue attempt 1972, 1974 Watergate USA Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP), G. Gordon Liddy, Jeb Stuart Magruder, John Mitchell, John Dean, Richard Nixon, Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James McCord, Eugenio Martínez, Frank Sturgis Liddy designed a program of extensive illegal activities against the Democratic Party, including burglary of a psychiatrist's office in the Watergate Hotel and wiretapping phone lines Reelect Richard Nixon as United States President Failure; burglary detected and the plot unraveled; Nixon reelected in 1972, but forced by the Watergate Scandal to resign in 1974 after stonewalling a Congressional investigation 1975, 1991 1991 BCCI Scandal Luxembourg, Karachi, London. Bank directors, with co-conspirators CIA, Medellin Cartel, Abu Nidal, Mujahideen, Contras, prominent Americans Laundering, hiding money to finance illegal, terrorist activities Wealth of shareholders, investors, directors Failure; investigated started 1985, bankruptcy, closure in 1991; 60 personal prosecutions and some prison sentences 1978 Assassination of Aldo Moro Italy Mario Moretti, the Second Red Brigades Release of political prisoners from the Red Brigades 1978, 1994 1994 Whitewater Conspiracy Arkansas Jim Guy Tucker, John Haley, Webster Hubbell, Jim McDougal, Susan McDougal, David Hale, Robert W. Palmer, John Latham, Eugene Fitzhugh, Charles Matthews, Variety of illegal activities including civil fraud stemming from a real estate development and misuse of state funds Local: Governor Tucker convicted of fraud; national: efforts to prosecute Bill Clinton and his wife Failure; nine were convicted, some of conspiracy, Clintons not prosecuted, 1983, 1984 Silent Brotherhood / The Order USA Robert Jay Mathews, Violent crime, robbery, murder, charged with seditious intent to overthrow the US government Paramilitary, fomenting revolution against the "Zionist Occupation Government" Failure; 75 members tried and convicted, though none for sedition 1984, 1986 Communist Combatant Cells / Cellules Communistes Combattantes (CCC) Belgium Pierre Carette, Bertrand Sassoye, Pascale Vandegeerde, Didier Chevolet Bombing attacks on properties of NATO, USA, international businesses, Federation of Belgian Enterprises Destroy enemies of Communist ideology and capitalist symbols Failure; two deaths, arrest and prison for conspirators 1982, 1990 Fighting Solidarity Poland Kornel Morawiecki and many supporters Publish many anti-Soviet books and newspapers throughout Poland, erode dominance of the Polish United Workers' Party Free Poland from dominance by Soviet Russia Success; triumphed in Poland's first democratic elections since WW II. 1990: Solidarity's Lech Wałęsa won presidency heralding collapse of communist regimes across Europe. 1984 Brighton hotel bombing Brighton, England. Provisional Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member Patrick Magee Assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet with a bomb in the hotel during a Conservative Party conference Free Northern Ireland from Great Britain and reunite it with Ireland Failure; Thatcher not injured, 5 people killed, 31 injured; Magee and four others tried and imprisoned 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack The Dalles, Oregon Followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Deliberately contaminate salad bars at ten local restaurants with salmonella Enable Rajneeshee candidates to win Wasco County elections Failure; plot was suspected by the electorate which responded by a full turnout at the polls. 1985, 1987 Iran-Contra Affair USA, Iran, Israel, Nicaragua Reagan Administration: Weinberger, Casey, McFarlane, Abrams, Fiers, George, Oliver North, Fawn Hall, Royster, Poindexter, Clarridge, Secord, Hakim Sell sophisticated US weapons to Iran (despite blockade), aid the Nicaraguan Contras (despite prohibition by the Boland Amendment) Win freedom for 7 hostages held in Lebanon; overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua Success; plot exposed and stopped; conspirators prosecuted, pardoned; Violeta Chamorro (favored by Contras) won Nicaraguan election; Lebanese hostages later released 1991 Nayirah testimony USA Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ, Hill & Knowlton, Citizens for a Free Kuwait Nayirah testified in tears to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus about invented Iraqi atrocities in occupied Kuwait Rally U.S. public support to launch the Gulf War Success: U.S. rallied allies throughout Europe and launched the hugely expensive, destructive Gulf War against Iraq 1992, 1993 1993 World Trade Center Bombing New York Ramzi Yousef (Abdul Basit Mahmoud Abdul Karim), Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Ali Fadden, Abdul Rahman Yasin, Omar Abdel-Rahman, FBI informer Emad Salem Detonate a truck bomb in under the World Trade Center, cause North Tower to fall, toppling South Tower End US aid to Israel, end US diplomatic ties with Israel, end US influence in Middle East Failure; bomb detonated under the North Tower, but tower did not fall. Conspirators captured, convicted of seditious conspiracy 1994, 1996 Montana Freemen Jordan, Montana. LeRoy M. Schweitzer, Emmett Clark, Richard Clark, James Hance, Lavon T. Hanson, Dana Dudley Landers Filed liens on officials, counterfeit checks, money orders Secede from US authority Failure; 6 were convicted of multiple offenses including conspiracy; secession was not a charge 1990, * Chechnyan Rebellion Russia Dzhokhar Dudayev, Akhmed Zakayev Armed rebellion, raids, insurgency, kidnapping Secession from Russia Failure; with assistance from USA, Russia killed Chechnyan rebel leaders in 1996; hostilities mostly stopped in 1999 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing Oklahoma City Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Michael and Lori Fortier, Aryan Republican Army, John Doe Detonated a truck full of explosive in front of Alfred P. Murray Building, killing 168 people including 19 children Response to Ruby Ridge incident and Waco massacre Success in the bombing; McVeigh executed, others imprisoned 1995, * PRISM (surveillance program) USA National Security Administration (NSA) Archive email and cell phone data on the general population without search warrant for later indexing and searching in future investigations Not articulated or not known Success; long rumored among computer professionals, came to public attention through the Edward Snowden documents 2000, 2001 September 11 Attacks New York Osama bin Laden and 19 co-conspirator suicide pilots, Taliban government of Afghanistan (implicitly, though not formally charged) Hijacked four domestic airliners, crashed two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one into a farmer's field 1. Vengeance for US policies, 2. provoke war against Islam to provoke Islam to counter-attack Success; US Congress immediately passed Patriot Act and other laws restricting freedom of American residents; US launched undeclared war on multiple nations in Central Asia 2000 Trailblazer Project USA Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Develop internet data analysis, cell phone and email tracking capabilities; prosecute whistleblowers,such as Roark, Binney, and Wiebe Not articulated or not known Success 2001, * NSA warrantless surveillance USA National Security Agency (NSA) George W. Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on telephone calls without warrant, bypassing FISA Not articulated or not known Success; bypass of Fourth Amendment without FISA warrant instituted in PRISM 2002 Downing Street Memo USA George W. Bush, National Security Council British military/Intel memo reveals that Bush (with advisers) was shaping the facts about Iraq to serve plans already developed to attack on Iraq Full scale attack and long term occupation of Iraq Success; U.S. public terrified by "weapons of mass destruction;" Congress war but did not declare war; Bush ordered attack on Iraq; ongoing war and occupation 2002 September Dossier / Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Great Britain Ruling parties of Great Britain and United States Publish Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government, an official memo to reinforce US credibility on Iraq To help US justify attack and long term military occupation of Iraq Success; Dossier was believed by the greater British and U.S. populace; subsequently the official Iraq Survey Group proved all allegations in the memo were false 2002 Yellowcake Forgery Italy Italy military intelligence Forge documents to show that Saddam Hussein (Iraq) tried to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger Provide basis for accusation that Iraq had WMD; justify full scale attack and war Success for the duration needed to authorize attack 2003, * Anonymous Global Jake Leslie Davis, Ryan Ackroyd, Ryan Cleary, Gregg Housh, Mustafa Al-Bassam, many others Pranks, masked demonstrations, computer attacks ("hactivism") Loosely defined program Mixed; dozens of arrests in US, Great Britain, Australia, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey 2006, 2011 City of Bell scandal Bell, California Mayor Oscar Hernandez, city council members, a number of city officials, and the accounting firm of Mayer Hoffman McCann Election fraud, high taxes, inflated paychecks, and other schemes to plunder the City coffers Personal enrichment of the conspirators Mixed; trials and some convictions (ongoing) 2007 Vang Pao Clandestine Army / Operation Tarnished Eagle California Vang Pao, Lo Cha Thao, Youa True Vang, Hue Vang, Chong Vang Thao, Seng Vue, Chu Lo, and Lo Thao two more With a collection of heavy military weapons, attack the Communist government of Laos Free the Laotian people of the abusive government Failure; conspiracy was discovered by the Operation Tarnished Eagle investigation, conspirators were charged, but charges were dropped without prosecution 2008, * Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei (SPF) Greece Unknown Bombings, arson, terrorist acts Anarcho-individualism Ongoing 2011 LulzSec Great Britain, Ireland, USA, Netherlands Jeremy Hammond, Sven Slootweg, Donncha O'Cearbhaill, Darren Martyn, others Computer sabotage, data theft, disruption, attacks on government computers to influence policy Not articulated or not known Failure; arrest and conviction of ten members 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings Boston, Massachusetts Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev Two bombs detonated near finish line at Boston Marathon footrace Defend Islam from the U.S. Success of bombs, 3 deaths, many injuries, one conspirator killed, one arrested This list includes by reference (only) the hundreds of entries in the University of Maryland's Terrorist Organization Database. Some of the items in the original list are not included in this table because they do not satisfy all of the above conditions. The events omitted are these: 1936 to 1950 – Presumed General Motors streetcar conspiracy - not shown by the source page to be a political conspiracy, nor were the sources in agreement that a conspiracy was involved 1938 – Presumed Hitler Youth Conspiracy, NKVD case in Moscow involving some 70 arrests and 40 executions of teenagers and adults, later found to be baseless - source page indicates the event did not happen 1941 – British wartime plan PR4 to invade and to occupy neutral Norway also code-named "Stratford" - wartime plans and strategies between warring parties are not commonly classified as conspiracies 1941 – Bombing of Pearl Harbour, Hawaii by the Japanese [21][22] - not uniformly recognized to be a conspiracy of US interests, and as a Japanese act of war, not commonly classed as a conspiracy 2000s – Operation Merlini - Wikipedia page of sources and details not found 2003 - Iraq and weapons of mass destruction pretext for War in Iraq '- sources disagree on whether WMDs were found, hence, whether this was a conspiracy to defraud the public; event is largely included in the September Dossier, which IS listed'

Original List on July 30, 2015

Original List on July 30, 2015

Notable political conspiracies This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources. 1st century BC - Catiline conspiracies 44 BC - Liberatores plot assassination of Julius Caesar to restore Roman Republic AD 65 - Pisonian conspiracy Late 15th century (1478) Pazzi conspiracy, which included the Pope 1506 - Conspiracy against the life of the brothers Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, coordinated by their half brother Giulio d'Este and full brother Ferrante d'Este 1570 - Ridolfi plot against Elizabeth I of England 1583 - Throckmorton Plot to murder Elizabeth and replace her with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots 1586 - Babington Plot, second major plot against Elizabeth, that led most directly to execution of Mary, Queen of Scots 1603 - Main Plot to remove James I of England and enthrone Arbella Stuart — Bye Plot, leads to the execution of Sir George Brooke 1605 - Gunpowder Plot to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament as prelude to a popular revolt in the Midlands, during which James's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was to be installed as the Catholic head of state; often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot; origin of Guy Fawkes Day 1788 - Anjala conspiracy 1865 - Abraham Lincoln assassination plot, to include assassination of cabinet members 1898 - The Dreyfus Affair, a coordinated attempt to falsely accuse Alfred Dreyfus of treason 1903 - The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, presented as authentic text by the Tsar's secret police efforts to foment anti-Semitism 1914 - The Black Hand, a secret society controlled by Serbian Military Intelligence, coordinates the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, thus causing World War I. 1932 to 1972 - Tuskegee syphilis experiment, to study natural progression of untreated syphilis in black men who thought they were receiving free health care 1936 to 1950 - Presumed General Motors streetcar conspiracy 1938 - Presumed Hitler Youth Conspiracy, NKVD case in Moscow involving some 70 arrests and 40 executions of teenagers and adults, later found to be baseless 1939 - Operation Himmler and its Gleiwitz incident, "False Flag" terrorism by Nazi Germany as pretext for invasion of Poland — Shelling of Mainila, "False Flag" terrorism by USSR as pretext for Winter War 1943 - Bomb on Hitler's aircraft, an attempt on Adolf Hitler 1941 - British wartime plan PR4 to invade and to occupy neutral Norway also code-named "Stratford" 1941 - Bombing of Pearl Harbour, Hawaii by the Japanese 1944 - July 20 Plot, attempt to assassinate Hitler with suitcase bomb, and then use Operation Valkyrie to grab power 1948- to 1976 - Operation Mockingbird, until then CIA director George H. W. Bush prohibited paid media recruiting 1942 - Wannsee Conference, related to Final Solution of 3rd Reich Nazis 1945 - Operation Paperclip, extraction of top Nazi scientists (incl. SS Nazi Party members) 1948 to early 1980s Operation Gladio CIA-NATO 'stay-behind' preparations 1953 to ? - MKULTRA mind control program 1953 - 1953 Iranian coup d'état Anglo-American conspiracy under the names of 'Operation Ajax' (CIA ) and 'Operation Boot' (MI6) 1954 - Lavon affair Operation Susannah, "False Flag" terrorism by Mossad 1960s - Project GAMMA allusion to attempts to assassinate Norodom Sihanouk, called Project CHERRY 1962 - Operation Northwoods - A rejected proposal for the CIA to commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities and elsewhere. 1968 - The Markovic affair, French Secret Service Gaullist plot destabilise future president Georges Pompidou 1969 to 1972 Secret war in Laos, and Operation Menu in Cambodia, concealed from Congressional oversight 1972 - Watergate scandal, burglary and cover-up scandals 1982 Brighton Bombings 1982 - Fighting Solidarity 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack 1987 - Iran-Contra Affair — Various CIA involvements in overseas coups d'état 1991 - Nayirah testimony to rally U.S. public support to launch the Gulf War 1967 to 1974 - Strategy of tension theory in re series of incidents in Italy 2000s - Operation Merlini 2002 - Downing Street Memo 2001 successful conspiracy by Al-Qaeda to destroy the World Trade Center 2002 September Dossier to justify Iraq invasion — Yellowcake forgery 2003 - Iraq and weapons of mass destruction pretext for War in Iraq References

MLK

I removed the entry on the assassination of MLK. The article cites the HSCA as proof of a conspiracy in the death of MLK. As they did with JFK, the HSCA recommended that the DoJ take a second look.[3] And as they did with JFK, the DoJ did and found no evidence of conspiracy.[4] - Location (talk) 06:21, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

BOLD edit reverted

The addition of an unref'd essay containing opinion and OR to the lead is the first of the problems with the BOLD edit. This is a list the previous intro could possibly been expanded, the proposed essay is inappropriate. This was not merely "expanding the list", and the proposed expansion includes many, many items that are not described in RS as "conspiracies". Capitalismojo (talk) 15:07, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

I'm partially to blame in that I gave my support to the new format for the list. In hindsight, you are correct. - Location (talk) 15:20, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

I too liked the look and format but... Capitalismojo (talk) 15:23, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Definition and lede

Conspiracy is a disambiguation page that notes three types of conspiracy: 1) Conspiracy (civil), 2) Conspiracy (criminal), and 3) Conspiracy (political), which redirects, or is rather now directly linked, to the page we are on now: List of political conspiracies. There are a few academic texts that offer definitions of "conspiracy" and note that they aren't referring to the legal definitions. I think we need to compile some definitions and consider a different disamb term if needed. - Location (talk) 15:44, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Nancy Maclean's Book

Book: Nancy Maclean's "Democracy in Chains: the deep history of the radical right’s stealth plan for America"

Placing this here for discussion and potentially, article expansion. http://www.monbiot.com/2017/07/21/missing-link/ --Danimations (talk) 09:01, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

@Danimations: It appears Maclean is tying the influence of James M. Buchanan and his libertarian views to the rise of the Trump administration. She might be pushing a form of the vast right-wing conspiracy, but I haven't read it and don't intend to read it to find out. I'm not sure that political parties and their supporters acting in a concerted way for some end - like what HC alluded to in VRWC - meets the nefarious aspects of "political conspiracy".-Location (talk) 15:36, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

Page for cite re ‘conspiracy theory’?

@Rjensen, Do you have a page ref for the Uscinski and Parent cite? Thx, Humanengr (talk) 11:16, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

yes -- https://www.amazon.com/American-Conspiracy-Theories-Joseph-Uscinski/dp/0199351813 Rjensen (talk) 12:16, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

That seems to just get me to the book. Page? Humanengr (talk) 13:17, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

@Rjensen, Thx for inserting the page cite. Where on pp. 32-34 did you get the reference to 'political'? Humanengr (talk) 17:44, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

it's on p 31. -- they use the term "political" on 130 pages of their book. Rjensen (talk) 21:15, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

Thx, I suspected p. 31 is what you might cite. You will note, however, that the sentence "We define conspiracy as a secret arrangement between two or more actors to usurp political or economic power, violate established rights, hoard vital secrets, or unlawfully alter government institutions.[cite]" 1) defines 'conspiracy' not 'conspiracy theory' and 2) covers more than 'political'.

But more pointedly, on p.32: "For conspiracy theory, we use a standard definition: an explanation of historical, ongoing, or future events that cites as a main causal factor a small group of powerful persons, the conspirators, acting in secret for their own benefit against the common good.[cite]"

and on p. 33: "While “conspiracy” refers to events that have occurred or are occurring, “conspiracy theory” refers to accusatory perceptions that may or may not be true."

The above is the standard definition.

Two sentences following, there is this: "But for the time being, let us employ a standard discussed by Neil Levy for distinguishing be tween conspiracies and conspiracy theories. His premise is …"

Everything after that is customized for purposes of this study. Humanengr (talk) 00:26, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

Examples and/or inclusion criteria seem rather arbitrary

This list includes several terrorist attacks. By the definition given in the lede, pretty much all terrorist acts involving more than one person would qualify, so I think there needs to be either a better definition, or a better reason why the specific listed ones are included. Iapetus (talk) 09:32, 6 May 2020 (UTC)

All terrorist attacks include some kind of conspiracy, but they are alredy included to other lists. Yes, something should be changed. My very best wishes (talk) 15:55, 14 July 2021 (UTC)