Sometimes the craziest theories turn out to be true. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 50 Conspiracy theories from the realms of history, politics, science, and more, that turned out to be at least somewhat real.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.
00:03 Well, I'm not a crook.
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 50 conspiracy theories
00:09 from the realms of history, politics, science, and more that turned out to be at least somewhat
00:14 real.
00:15 During those hearings, the CIA finally admitted that this program existed.
00:19 They admitted that it was probably not the right thing to do.
00:24 Number 50.
00:25 Colombia's falsos positivos.
00:27 We paste this poster to represent the 6,402 false positives.
00:35 The wrongly named false positives.
00:37 Eastern Colombia and western Venezuela are dangerous regions, mostly controlled by gangs
00:42 and guerrillas.
00:43 Residents live in constant terror of assassination or torture.
00:46 The Colombian military has been waging war against FARC guerrillas in the region for
00:51 years.
00:52 Recently, they'd racked up major victories, having broken FARC's back in the region.
00:56 Those victories have been tainted by decades of rumors about government atrocities, dating
01:01 all the way back to the late 1980s.
01:03 In 2015, those rumors were proven to be true.
01:06 The Colombian military kidnapped and killed thousands of innocent men and boys.
01:11 The military would kidnap civilians, dress their bodies as FARC guerrillas, and claim
01:16 victories in the war on drugs.
01:18 Families who lost loved ones were pointing the finger of blame at the president at the
01:22 time, Alvaro Uribe.
01:24 Number 49.
01:25 The Levan Affair.
01:27 Israeli false flags.
01:28 Many conspiracists falsely see Israel as a hidden hand in world affairs.
01:33 Every once in a while, though, the conspiracies are true.
01:36 In 1954, Israel launched Operation Susanna, a false flag operation to blow up relations
01:42 between Egypt and the US and Britain.
01:45 Israeli intelligence recruited Egyptian Jews to plant bombs inside civilian targets like
01:50 movie theaters, libraries, and American educational centers.
01:54 They were meant to explode after closing to avoid casualties.
01:57 The plan was to blame local militant groups like communists or the Muslim Brotherhood.
02:02 If successful, the British would be forced to maintain occupation of the Suez Canal.
02:07 The plot, since known as the Levan Affair, failed before it began, and several conspirators
02:12 were arrested.
02:14 Number 48.
02:15 The Philadelphia Experiment.
02:16 The 1984 film, The Philadelphia Experiment, is based on an urban legend.
02:21 Supposedly, in October 1943, merchant marine Carl M. Allen saw the USS Eldridge turn invisible
02:28 and disappear from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
02:38 It allegedly "teleported to Virginia and back," with harrowing effects on the crew.
02:44 Most of the story has been debunked, but researcher Jacques Vallée claims that it may hide some
02:49 truth.
02:58 He argues that the Eldridge was confused with the Engstrom, which was docked nearby.
03:03 The Engstrom reportedly underwent a procedure to decrease its magnetic field, making it
03:08 quote-unquote "invisible" to torpedoes.
03:10 It may have also traveled to Virginia and back in a single day via the Chesapeake and
03:15 Delaware Canal.
03:16 Imaginative retellings then warped the facts into the improbable Philadelphia Experiment.
03:37 Number 47.
03:38 Money Laundering and Terrorism Finance at BCCI.
03:48 Bank of Credit and Commerce International, BCCI, was an international bank created by
03:53 Pakistani financiers in the early 1970s.
03:56 Its purported goal was to be an alternative to Western banks for so-called "third world
04:01 countries."
04:02 They had an anti-colonial mission to break Western barriers to finance for third world
04:07 nations.
04:08 In truth, BCCI was a Ponzi scheme for its executives.
04:22 Worse, BCCI engaged in widespread money laundering.
04:25 The bank was the premier laundering institution for dictators the world over.
04:34 The leaders of Iraq, Panama, and the Philippines all washed their money at BCCI, as did Latin
04:39 American drug lords.
04:41 BCCI drew the criminal roadmap used by international financiers to this day.
04:46 By the time BCCI closed down, they had stolen almost $10 billion.
04:57 Number 46.
04:58 Abuse in Hollywood.
04:59 There have been rumors and accusations of sexual abuse in Hollywood for decades.
05:04 Often they involved powerful men with the power to break or make careers.
05:10 While some, such as Roman Polanski, were exposed, the misconduct of others basically remained
05:15 an open secret.
05:17 In the 2010s, dozens of victims came forward with accusations against several prominent
05:22 public figures, in particular Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein.
05:26 The accusations against Weinstein launched the #MeToo movement, which revealed horrible
05:31 abuses inside Hollywood and beyond.
05:33 It confirmed the worst suspicions that many people had about how the entertainment industry
05:38 often functioned.
05:39 And once five women, ten women, twenty women tell their stories about what's happened to
05:45 them, it makes other women feel more courage to be able to say this happened to me, too.
05:50 Number 45.
05:51 Gas companies knew about climate change.
05:54 From sugary sodas to cancerous cigarettes, corporations have long seeked to suppress
05:58 harmful truths about their products.
06:01 But rather than impacting personal health, this one had global implications.
06:05 Beginning in the 1970s, oil and gas giant ExxonMobil put its money behind climate change
06:10 research, funding groups that dismissed human-caused global warming while knowing it existed.
06:15 And they've discovered that their climate scientists, their in-house climate scientists
06:19 at Exxon, were actually very good at predicting how the climate was likely to change in the
06:24 future.
06:25 They even had a hand in the Global Climate Coalition, which fought the Kyoto Protocol,
06:29 a treaty that pledged to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
06:32 ExxonMobil's climate denial continued through the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, first admitting that
06:38 global warming posed an environmental threat in 2007.
06:41 To this day, climate change's treatment as a debate instead of a consensus can be traced
06:46 back to the lobbying of fossil fuel companies.
06:49 It cast doubt on whether climate change was real, it discounted human impacts, and they
06:54 suggested there was nothing practical to do about it anyway.
06:58 Number 44.
06:59 Breakfast is not the most important meal of the day.
07:02 It's magically delicious, but how about nutritious?
07:05 Marshmallow-y Lucky Charms are a tasty part of this good breakfast.
07:08 That's me Lucky Charms!
07:09 They're magically delicious!
07:11 While there are plenty of legitimate health benefits to starting the day with a balanced
07:15 breakfast, that hasn't always been the reason it was pushed so hard.
07:19 The idea of breakfast being good for health, especially weight loss, has persisted for
07:25 over a century.
07:26 After meat-heavy breakfasts went on the decline due to their digestive difficulty during the
07:30 Industrial Revolution, James Caleb Jackson and John Harvey Kellogg changed the game with
07:35 flaked corn cereal.
07:37 As Seventh-Day Adventists, they believed that a bland diet could aid in abstinence and ward
07:43 off impure thoughts.
07:45 No sex, no meat, no alcohol, no sugar, no anything prurient or sensual.
07:54 Furthermore, emphasizing cereal potentially helped the US government in their meat rationing
07:59 efforts during World War II.
08:00 So, don't worry too badly the next time you miss out on a breakfast of champions.
08:04 It just might be a clever marketing tactic.
08:07 #43.
08:08 The CIA Drugged Citizens Without Their Knowledge
08:12 Johns in the sky with diamonds?
08:14 As part of a larger program on mind control in the 1950s and 60s, the CIA set their sights
08:20 on an unlikely population to test the effects of LSD - clients of sex workers.
08:26 The CIA wanted to understand more about brainwashing.
08:29 It had money and it was ready to fund experiments.
08:31 By paying ladies of the night to lure in unsuspecting men, the agency was able to study how the
08:36 substance could affect people who didn't know they'd taken it.
08:39 More specifically, whether they were likely to give up compromising information.
08:43 Hey sugar, you looking for a date?
08:45 As the sex workers drugged their patrons, CIA consultant George White would analyze
08:50 their behavior from behind a one-way mirror.
08:53 What is the extent of these brainwashing experiments?
08:58 How did the CIA become involved in such far-reaching and disturbing research?
09:03 Of all the shady CIA experiments, this one quite possibly has the wildest codename - and
09:08 that's saying a lot - Operation Midnight Climax.
09:13 #42.
09:14 The Oak Ridge Experiments One of the most difficult aspects for a psychiatric
09:18 patient is getting anyone to believe you when you speak about the atrocities happening in
09:22 a hospital.
09:23 This is a place that destroyed a lot of lives, including mine.
09:27 Oak Ridge in Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada, was a maximum security psychiatric facility.
09:33 By the 60s, the authorities drastically changed the way they treated patients.
09:37 Instead, they initiated various experiments.
09:40 Led by Dr. Elliot Barker, such treatments included giving patients LSD, putting them
09:45 in an artificial womb, and placing them in a small room.
09:48 But more concerning, some patients were given authority to treat other patients.
09:58 By 1983, the government forced Oak Ridge to close, and it was later demolished.
10:02 In 2023, 27 former patients were awarded $9 million in damages for the horror they experienced.
10:09 The point of the whole program was to break us down mentally, because they believed if
10:14 they could strip away all our bad defenses that got us into trouble, break us down mentally,
10:19 they could rebuild us as better human beings.
10:22 #41.
10:24 The Dalai Lama's Links to the CIA In the early 1950s, Chinese forces annexed
10:29 Tibet.
10:30 After a failed Tibetan revolt in 1959, the Dalai Lama escaped and set up a government
10:35 in exile.
10:36 Chinese officials have tried to cast him as a Western pawn.
10:39 Tibetan rebels were fighting for their homeland.
10:41 However, the CIA did fund their efforts throughout the 1960s.
10:45 These pictures show the Dalai Lama and his entourage, escorted by resistance fighters,
10:50 making their way south into guerrilla-held territory.
10:53 At the time, the CIA was doing their best to disrupt world communist governments.
10:58 Governmental documents showed the spy agency was handing Tibetan forces $1.7 million a
11:03 year.
11:04 "We are united in detesting communist slavery.
11:07 We know that the cost of freedom is high, but we are determined to preserve our freedom
11:13 no matter what the cost."
11:14 With inflation, that's $17.4 million in 2023.
11:19 From this figure, the Dalai Lama was personally getting an annual fee of $180,000 from the
11:24 CIA.
11:25 That's the equivalent of $1.8 million in 2023.
11:29 Reportedly, he contributed most of it to his government in exile.
11:33 Number 40.
11:34 The FBI watched Ernest Hemingway.
11:37 Near the latter half of his life, legendary author Ernest Hemingway was treated several
11:41 times in hospitals for his mental health.
11:43 He believed the FBI was watching him, cataloging his every move.
11:47 Most people wrote it off as paranoid delusions.
11:50 Many friends believe that this belief of constant surveillance led to Hemingway's untimely
11:54 passing in 1961.
11:56 "So the idea of Ernest Hemingway having done anything with the Soviets, especially
12:02 having been recruited by the Soviets, was really difficult for me to absorb."
12:07 However, in the 1980s, the Freedom of Information Act showed the Feds had done just that.
12:13 They reportedly had a file on him detailing the writer's trips to places such as Cuba,
12:17 where he had created an amateur spy network against fascism during World War II.
12:22 It also showed that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was distrustful of Hemingway and the
12:27 information he passed on in Cuba.
12:30 Number 39.
12:31 Beaming Messages If we told you that the US government had
12:34 looked at beaming messages directly into our brains, you'd probably be concerned about
12:39 us.
12:40 However, this is a real thing, weirdly.
12:42 Uncovered due to the Freedom of Information Act, the report known as the Bioeffects of
12:46 Selected Non-Lethal Weapons became public knowledge.
12:49 Within, the details of various technologies the government had been working on were disclosed,
12:54 including the concept of microwave hearing.
12:57 The information details a frequency that could be produced akin to a microwave firearm that
13:02 could direct discrete messages at a person, such as a hostage.
13:06 Frighteningly, the report hypothesized the tech could be used to make someone think they
13:10 have voices in their head.
13:12 "Join the Navy."
13:14 "They're recruiting people with subliminal messages!"
13:18 Number 38.
13:19 Soldiers Passed Off Civilians as Rebels As part of the Columbia conflict, where governmental
13:25 forces fought against guerrilla groups for power, the government rewarded their soldiers
13:29 whenever they showcased that they had slain a rebel.
13:31 They were given time off, promotions, or financial boosts for doing so.
13:36 However, folks became suspicious of the high casualties and the questionable identities
13:40 of certain guerrilla members.
13:42 Family members especially.
13:44 Known as the "false positive" scandal in Columbia, it's believed that between 2002 and 2008,
13:49 over 6,400 non-guerrilla participants were killed and dressed to look like rebels.
13:55 "Pretending they were rebels, tarnishing their name, leaving children without fathers,
14:00 mothers without children."
14:01 In reality, the victims were often poor farmers abducted by soldiers to boost their dark quotas.
14:08 Several soldiers and officers have been sentenced for their crimes, but there are calls to do
14:11 far more.
14:13 Number 37.
14:14 The U.S. military planned to kill civilians and blame Cuba
14:18 In the 1960s, some figures really wanted the United States to go to war with Cuba.
14:23 So much so that in 1962, among less lethal ideas, they planned to use the CIA to attack
14:29 military sites, boats, airplanes, and cities and make it look as though Cuba was responsible.
14:35 Known as Operation Northwoods, this false flag project theorized the possibility of
14:40 slaying citizens and its own soldiers just to escalate the situation.
14:44 All of the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave the go-ahead for this possible destruction and
14:49 handed it to the office of President John F. Kennedy.
14:52 However, thankfully, it was rejected.
14:54 Number 36.
14:55 The CIA tried to control major media outlets
14:58 As the Cold War began, so did the CIA's plan to manipulate the masses.
15:03 Known as Operation Mockingbird, the group allegedly bribed or blackmailed newspaper
15:07 journalists to create specific content or shut down stories.
15:11 On top of doing this in the States, the CIA did the same abroad.
15:15 They infiltrated foreign media to gain information that they found vital.
15:19 In 1975, files within the Church Committee showed that the CIA had been involved in this
15:24 conspiracy.
15:25 In 1977, investigative reporter Carl Bernstein claimed that the operation had resulted in
15:31 over 400 journalists and media figures working for the agency at one point.
15:36 Are there many actors in Hollywood who also moonlight as agents, do you think?
15:39 I think there are probably quite a few.
15:41 Yes, I think probably Hollywood is full of CIA agents and we just don't know it.
15:45 Number 35.
15:46 The phones are listening
15:48 When you talk about something and then see an ad for it online, it might just be because
15:52 algorithms already have so much data on you they can predict your interests and behaviors.
15:57 I'm talking about the design of the trainers and the name of the brand of the trainers
16:00 and I went up to my feed on my Instagram and within 5-10 minutes it was one of the adverts
16:04 that popped up on there.
16:06 However, there is at least one way in which your phone might be listening.
16:10 Some applications use device microphones to listen to ultrasonic audio beacons inaudible
16:14 to the human ear embedded in the ads.
16:17 They can also connect with the microphones of other devices.
16:20 This can give them data such as your location and how long you watched a certain ad for.
16:25 It's a good idea to review app permissions to minimize this.
16:28 Number 34.
16:29 The CIA was involved in cocaine trafficking
16:32 Victory over drugs is our cause, a just cause, and with your help we are going to win.
16:40 For decades there were rumors that the CIA was responsible for turning US areas and places
16:45 abroad rife with illegal substances.
16:48 In 1996, the press accused the agency of involvement with cocaine in Nicaragua during the Civil
16:53 War.
16:54 According to a report by former Inspector General of the CIA, Frederick Hitz, the agency
16:58 had known that the Contras, who the CIA backed, were involved in drug smuggling to fund their
17:03 campaign.
17:04 And some of the money they were making was going to support an army that the men who
17:08 ran the cocaine ring worked for called the FDM.
17:11 This was an army that the CIA started in 1981 and supported.
17:15 Better known to us, most of us who remember this, the Contras.
17:19 The group had reportedly brought in cocaine from Miami to use in the Central American
17:23 region.
17:24 However, the agency did nothing to stop it.
17:26 As a public elected officials, all of us must be concerned that our government could have
17:33 anyway been involved in drug trafficking.
17:36 When the Drug Enforcement Administration heard about the Contras smuggling drugs, the CIA
17:41 worked to put them off the scent.
17:43 Number 33.
17:44 UFO Investigations The US government may not be investigating
17:48 UFOs at Area 51, but that doesn't mean that official research isn't happening somewhere.
17:53 While most of the cases were explained as either satellites, weather balloons, high-flying
17:58 jets or even meteors, still hundreds of cases remain unidentified.
18:03 Project Blue Book, which ran from 1952 to 1969, was public knowledge.
18:08 The report includes more than 12,000 sightings made by military members and civilians.
18:14 But in 2017, it was revealed that from 2007 to 2012, the US government also funded an
18:20 unpublicized investigation called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program to
18:25 the tune of $22 million.
18:28 In 2020, we learned of another UFO program, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force.
18:34 Its findings included photos and videos of UFOs that experts have struggled to explain.
18:39 This was recorded while the US Navy ship observed a number of small unmanned aerial systems
18:44 in the area.
18:45 Importantly, the video was taken through night-vision goggles with a single-lens reflex camera.
18:52 These remained unresolved for several years.
18:55 Number 32.
18:56 The US Navy sprayed chemicals into the Bay Area
18:59 San Francisco is known for its fog, but it's also been host to sinister substances.
19:04 One day in 1950, 11 Bay Area residents checked into the same hospital with urinary tract
19:09 infections.
19:10 While ten recovered, one died due to a heart valve infection.
19:14 Finally, in 1977, the US Army revealed it was the result of a biological warfare test
19:20 called Operation Sea Spray.
19:23 Weeks before the mysterious infections were reported, the Navy released two types of bacteria
19:27 off a ship to test their impact on the city's population.
19:31 Additionally, the Army announced several other bioweapon experiments across the country from
19:35 the 1950s and 60s that had gone undetected.
19:39 While President Nixon put a stop to the program in 1969, this revelation isn't any less
19:44 terrifying.
19:45 Number 31.
19:46 Canada tried to create actual gaydar
19:49 In the mid-20th century, gay men and women had to keep their orientation secret or risk
19:54 losing their social standing, jobs, or even their lives.
19:57 I mean, there's a whole bunch of possible ways in which someone could have a character
20:00 weakness, right?
20:01 Or some sort of addiction, but the one that the Canadian state focuses on is homosexuality.
20:07 It was the key focus, not just a focus.
20:11 In an attempt to ferret out gay men in the military or other government institutions
20:15 from the 1950s on, the Canadian government hired Professor Frank Robert Wake.
20:20 Wake invented what they would ultimately call the "fruit machine."
20:24 This is the attempt by the government to determine and find a technology or a set of tests that
20:31 would scientifically and objectively be able to determine who was gay or lesbian.
20:37 Today we'd call it gaydar.
20:39 Wake would strap men into a chair, force them to look at sexual images, and measure their
20:44 physical reactions.
20:45 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigated thousands of government employees as a result.
20:51 The fact of policy was that if you were homosexual, you were out.
20:58 That's what it came down to.
20:59 You were out.
21:01 There was no discretion, and the Mounties got really carried away with this.
21:05 Many men lost their jobs due to the dubious test results until it was discontinued.
21:10 #30.
21:12 The CIA experimented on cats
21:14 Atomic Kitten isn't just a girl group.
21:26 During the height of the spy film craze in the 1960s, the CIA devised an interesting
21:30 use for our feline friends, turning them into bionic carrier pigeons.
21:35 In an initiative called Operation Acoustic Kitty, they inserted recording devices into
21:40 cats so that they could eavesdrop on government officials and bring back secret intel.
21:46 But in an extremely predictable turn of events, they had little interest in the pursuit of
21:50 espionage and continued acting like normal cats, causing the tactic to be abandoned.
21:55 On a Catwoman scale of Eartha Kitt to Zoe Kravitz, it's safe to say that this experiment
22:00 was a Halle Berry-level misfire.
22:03 You always thought you could come in here and steal all these beautiful things.
22:08 What a perfect idea.
22:12 #29.
22:13 Weather Control Programs
22:14 The history of the US government's attempts to control the weather began after the Civil
22:18 War.
22:19 In the late 1800s, an American engineer collected dozens of stories of rain following large
22:24 battles.
22:25 To recreate the effect, a general set off $9,000 worth of explosives in Texas.
22:31 The results were inconclusive.
22:32 Where people believe that all the natural disasters that have been occurring recently
22:36 are linked to a secret climate-controlling weapon used by the US Army.
22:40 The better part of a century later, the Pentagon incorporated weather control into their strategy
22:45 for the Vietnam War.
22:47 Operation Sober Popeye lasted for five years.
22:50 Using planes, the military tried to seed rain clouds over Vietnam.
22:54 The silver iodide particles mimic ice crystals and provide the scaffolding of sorts for ice
22:59 to form.
23:00 That ice then grows very efficiently by consuming the supercool liquid drops.
23:05 Usually, after about 20 minutes, they grow large enough and fall out of the cloud as
23:10 precipitation.
23:11 If they could extend the monsoon season, it could provide a strategic advantage.
23:15 A series of news stories revealed the program.
23:18 Six years later, in 1978, weather-based environmental warfare was banned around the world.
23:24 So maybe the lesson learned here is, we shouldn't meddle with forces that we don't really
23:29 understand because we may not like the result.
23:34 Number 28.
23:36 Planned obsolescence.
23:37 Out with the old, in with the new.
23:39 It's long been speculated that tech companies like Apple and Samsung have purposely slowed
23:44 down their existing gadgets after releasing new updates and models.
23:48 Most people think, you know, my phone is slow, I need to go buy a new phone.
23:52 But the problem doesn't lie necessarily with the phone, it's just with the battery in the
23:56 phone.
23:57 And while the evidence was purely anecdotal at first, the arrival of iOS 10 in 2016 opened
24:02 up the floodgates, or should we say, battery gate.
24:06 Months later, Apple admitted that the iPhone 6 and 6S struggled to adjust to the new update,
24:12 causing slow phones and drained batteries.
24:14 I think it's on them to do a much better job of helping people understand what goes on
24:19 with these very expensive products as they get older.
24:22 In the years since, the company has continued to face class action lawsuits and investigations
24:26 related to the incident.
24:28 The term planned obsolescence goes back to the 1930s, but confirmation of it in the digital
24:33 age showed people they weren't going crazy after all.
24:36 At this demonstration in Paris, Apple is portrayed as the evil empire, accused of tax evasion
24:42 and cheating customers.
24:44 France has moved to make planned obsolescence a crime and has placed Apple under formal
24:49 investigation.
24:50 Number 27.
24:52 The CIA administered fake vaccines.
24:55 Vaccines have long been a favorite subject for conspiracy theorists, and this might be
24:59 the closest they've come to vindication.
25:01 In 2011, the CIA conducted a hepatitis B vaccination program in Pakistan.
25:07 The catch?
25:08 The vaccines were fake, and people's DNA was being collected as an effort to retrieve Osama
25:13 bin Laden's whereabouts.
25:25 The scheme was unsuccessful in more ways than one.
25:28 Besides doing little to track down the al-Qaeda leader, it's still cited as a reason to
25:32 distrust the US government when it comes to other, more recent vaccines.
25:36 While bin Laden was eventually located by other means that same year, the mission has
25:40 done plenty to dissuade people from getting the jab.
25:49 This is linked to declining trust in scientific experts and political leaders.
25:53 Number 26.
25:55 The US government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition.
25:58 Ratified in 1919, the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution prohibited alcohol.
26:17 The period of Prohibition would last until 1933, ending with the ratification of the
26:21 21st Amendment.
26:23 Despite the law, illegal smuggling, manufacturing, and distribution of drinking alcohol was rampant.
26:38 In an attempt to curtail drinking, the US government tried something radical.
26:42 Even before 1920, they'd mandated that extra contaminants be added to industrial alcohol
26:48 to prevent its consumption.
26:50 What the government then looked at was, can we do something to this alcohol that makes
26:56 it much riskier to drink and use that essentially as a chemical enforcement of Prohibition.
27:02 In 1926, they added new regulations requiring the inclusion of more toxic poisons.
27:09 Manufacturers added benzene, mercury, and methanol.
27:12 Unsurprisingly, this stopped neither the bootleggers nor the drinkers.
27:16 An estimated 10,000 people died, and many others were blinded.
27:21 Number 25.
27:22 The sugar industry paid off scientists.
27:25 It's hard to imagine now with everything we know about diabetes and dental hygiene, but
27:29 sugar was once viewed by many as a healthy food.
27:32 The reason?
27:34 Sugar producers and sweet companies pushed fat as the enemy instead.
27:38 The Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that scientists were paid in the 1960s
27:42 to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and instead make saturated fat the
27:48 culprit.
27:49 In 2016, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco found that the Sugar
27:53 Research Foundation funded a 1967 Harvard study downplaying sugar's impact on heart
27:59 health, instead pointing to saturated fat as a cause of heart disease.
28:04 Meanwhile, Coca-Cola has been paying researchers millions to minimize the relationship between
28:08 sugary sodas and obesity as recently as 2015.
28:12 Coke has poured millions into funding research that says exercise, not diet, is the best
28:17 way to fight obesity, and that's just one example.
28:20 Unlike the taste of their products, these companies' ethics were anything but sweet.
28:25 Number 24.
28:27 The CIA created a heart attack gun.
28:30 Guns and arrests go hand in hand, but cardiac arrests, not so much.
28:35 So-called "heart attack guns" seemed like the stuff of James Bond movies, until a 1975
28:41 CIA testimony revealed their existence.
28:44 During the hearing, CIA Director William Colby and Idaho Senator Frank Church unveiled a handgun
28:50 that shot frozen darts containing shellfish toxin.
28:53 Does this pistol fire the dart?
28:56 Yes, it does, Mr. Chairman.
29:00 The round thing at the top is obviously the sight.
29:03 The rest of it is what is practically a normal .45, although it's special.
29:09 Upon entering the body, the poison would leave behind a red dot and give off the impression
29:14 of a heart attack, allowing the shooter to get away untraced, at least until the autopsy.
29:18 And a special one was developed which potentially would be able to enter the target without
29:25 perception.
29:26 However, while there's evidence of the gun's existence, there aren't any confirmed cases
29:30 of it being used in high-profile assassinations.
29:33 Number 23.
29:34 Bayer spread HIV.
29:36 Many conspiracies tend to focus on government cabals.
29:39 Oftentimes, though, some of the worst secrets come from the private sector.
29:43 They wanted to keep it secret.
29:46 They didn't want to publicize something which would be damaging for the company.
29:50 German pharmaceutical company Bayer has been selling aspirin since 1899.
29:55 Since that time, they've expanded to all kinds of drugs and medications.
29:59 In the 1980s, the Bayer-owned company Kutter Biological was selling blood clotting factors
30:04 for hemophiliacs, but recruiting high-risk donors to manufacture it.
30:18 That clotting factor became contaminated with HIV.
30:21 When the problem was discovered, Kutter declared the response irrational, but switched over
30:26 to safe, heat-treated products for the Western market.
30:29 Then they shipped the contaminated products to Latin America and Asia to make a buck.
30:34 This company knew absolutely that they had a problem with the product.
30:37 They knew that it was infected with AIDS.
30:39 They dumped it because they wanted to turn this disaster into a profit.
30:44 Roughly 20,000 patients were infected by Bayer's products.
30:48 Number 22.
30:49 The Iran-Contra Affair.
30:51 In 1985, U.S. President Ronald Reagan had a dilemma.
30:55 Iran had approached the states to buy weapons from them.
30:57 However, the country was backing Hezbollah, which had American hostages in Lebanon.
31:02 Plus, the U.S. had an arms embargo on Iran due to the hostage crisis that began in 1979.
31:08 But the lure of using the proceeds of the weapons sale to fund the rebel group Contras
31:12 against the socialist-led government of Nicaragua and get the hostages released was too much
31:17 for the Reagan administration to ignore.
31:20 Reagan initially denied the allegations when they leaked, only to reverse that soon after.
31:24 Oliver North, who helped move the money to the Contras, came forward to confirm the rumors.
31:29 Number 21.
31:30 Nazi officers tried to kill Hitler.
31:33 Several efforts were made to assassinate Adolf Hitler during the height of World War II.
31:37 Perhaps the most famous one is sometimes known as "Operation Valkyrie," otherwise referred
31:41 to as the "20th of July Plot."
31:43 "The Führer, Adolf Hitler, is dead.
31:44 A group of radicals in the SS are attempting to seize control of the government.
31:51 Initiate Operation Valkyrie."
31:53 Members of the German resistance planned to set off a bomb during Hitler's visit to
31:56 the Wolfsleier headquarters.
31:59 German Army officer Klaus von Stauffenberg managed to place the hidden explosive, but
32:03 the result failed to kill the Nazi leader.
32:09 The other part of the plot involved seizing control of the military in the dictator's
32:14 absence.
32:15 Despite painstaking attempts to account for every move, the operation was discovered and
32:19 the co-conspirators were largely executed.
32:24 The film "Valkyrie" brought a renewed interest to the complicated story of the failed plot.
32:31 The US Air Force was developing a gay bomb.
32:34 How do you slow down an impending army?
32:37 Instead of dropping lethal explosives, the US military once considered an unexpected
32:41 alternative.
32:50 Researchers considered the possibility of dropping a non-lethal bomb full of pheromone
32:54 mixture on troops.
32:56 Although this idea never reached the battlefield, the theory was that soldiers would be too
33:00 distracted by each other to keep fighting.
33:10 It's especially clear that authorities were really reaching with this particular idea.
33:20 This isn't to be confused with the theoretical and equally confusing concept of "gaydar,"
33:25 which the Canadian authorities hoped would reveal people's sexual preferences.
33:30 All the same, it's crazy to think that any amount of time was spent working on a gay
33:34 bomb.
33:48 The Vietnam War affected neighboring nations in Southeast Asia, such as Cambodia.
33:53 Northern Vietnamese troops used the eastern part of Cambodia for resupplying an encampment
33:59 during the conflict.
34:00 This prompted a bombing campaign from the US, which targeted Cambodian sites operating
34:05 along the Vietnamese border.
34:07 From 1969 to 1970, this bombardment leveled much of the area.
34:12 This action was hugely controversial given the force and destruction unleashed on the
34:17 Cambodians, along with the fact that the secret operation was conducted on a non-combatant
34:21 country.
34:22 It later inspired Operation Freedom Deal, which was an even harsher campaign that cut
34:27 deeper into the heart of Cambodia.
34:30 Details of this scheme were largely revealed in a declassification from the year 2000.
34:39 Number 18.
34:40 The US worked with former Nazi scientists
34:43 Even though the Allies won the war and put many Nazi war criminals on trial, that didn't
34:48 stop the US from hiring German scientists.
34:51 These experts were later integral in the development of the US space program and other military
34:55 improvements during the Cold War.
34:58 Many of them had close ties and allegiance to the Nazis, making this entire operation
35:02 all the more controversial.
35:04 There was on the one hand the truth about the program kept secret, and on the other
35:08 hand the idea that we'll tell the public that these are the good Germans.
35:12 The Soviet Union also conducted a similar operation in attempts to bolster their post-war
35:17 staying power.
35:18 One of the recruits for the American side, Werner von Braun, is considered among the
35:23 more important figures in modern rocketry and early space travel.
35:27 Sometimes celebrating their achievements, the authorities also largely disregarded many
35:32 of the subjects' connections to atrocities.
35:36 Number 17.
35:37 The business plot coup
35:38 Well, somebody's trying to do something dark and treacherous.
35:42 Known as the business plot, this little-known conspiracy wanted to bring down the presidency
35:47 of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
35:49 Although this was a nefarious coup plot, the case didn't come to light until the testimony
35:53 of retired General Smedley Butler.
35:56 Butler asserted that he was asked to usurp the 32nd President of the United States, partly
36:01 due to his support of veterans groups.
36:03 "The plan as outlined to me was to form an organization of veterans, to use as a bluff
36:08 or as a club at least, to intimidate the government and break down our democratic institution."
36:13 Even with the General's revelations, some people question the veracity of certain details
36:18 and the extent of the planning that took place.
36:21 George H.W. Bush's father, Prescott Bush, has been linked to the plot, but it's still
36:26 unconfirmed as to his ultimate involvement.
36:28 David O. Russell's film Amsterdam is just one project that fictionalizes the events surrounding
36:34 the scheme.
36:35 "They're paying you to be their mouthpiece."
36:36 "That's right, exactly."
36:37 "And they know the veterans will follow."
36:40 Number 16.
36:41 Faked Gulf War Testimony
36:43 "What I saw happen to the children of Kuwait and to my country has changed my life forever."
36:48 The Gulf War was a brief but notable conflict preempted by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
36:54 The U.S. intervened soon after, using a number of stories to support the decision, including
36:58 the testimony of a teenager.
37:00 "Withdraw from Kuwait or face a coalition ready and willing to employ all means necessary."
37:09 She was known as Nayyira, and her account of babies being removed from incubators in
37:13 Kuwait shocked and helped sell the war to American citizens.
37:17 "He took the incubators and left the children to die on the cold floor.
37:22 It was horrifying."
37:25 It became a much-quoted story for President George H.W. Bush and other proponents of military
37:30 action.
37:31 Later revealed to be falsified, Nayyira was actually the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador
37:36 to the United States.
37:37 She not only didn't see any crimes firsthand, but many details were generated by a PR firm.
37:44 The case has become infamous as a deeply flawed attempt to sell the war.
37:48 "I'm glad I'm 15, old enough to remember Kuwait before Saddam Hussein destroyed it,
37:52 and young enough to rebuild it."
37:54 Number 15.
37:55 Tuskegee Study
37:56 "They were never told that they had the disease."
37:59 One of the most horrifying chapters in American medical history came out of the Tuskegee Institute
38:04 in Alabama.
38:05 A research study offered black men free healthcare in exchange for a secretive and unethical
38:10 observation, withholding syphilis diagnoses from participating members.
38:16 Researchers from health organizations such as the U.S. Public Health Service attempted
38:20 to study the effects of untreated syphilis without treating the patients.
38:24 "Knowing that you were denied treatment and that you were lied to would affect anybody."
38:31 This also came at a time when penicillin was becoming a widely confirmed treatment for
38:35 the sufferers of the disease.
38:37 "And for the sake of science, they sacrificed some human beings.
38:41 And it raised the question, did they really believe these men were human beings?"
38:45 Not only was it a complete travesty perpetrated by the medical community, but it created a
38:50 genuine distrust of the healthcare system among many people in the African American
38:54 community.
38:55 "What the United States government did was shameful.
38:59 And I am sorry."
39:02 Number 14.
39:04 Operation Condor
39:05 At this point, it's well known that the CIA had a large-scale and destructive influence
39:09 on South American politics.
39:12 Operation Condor was one such plan that completely altered the landscape of countries such as
39:16 Argentina and Chile.
39:18 By propping up dictators like Augusto Pinochet, the U.S. helped finance coups of various leaders
39:24 across the continent.
39:25 The actions that were supported by American intelligence groups created irreversible damage
39:30 in these nations, and thousands were killed.
39:33 President Clinton eventually declassified more information about the operation and its
39:36 effects, bringing forth new details about the plans to delegitimize left-leaning political
39:41 movements in the region.
39:43 In the decades since Operation Condor, its lasting impact is still felt in the countries
39:48 affected.
39:49 "The issue of the figure of the survivor is not like that, it is a rather complicated
39:54 figure.
39:55 Because everyone asks the question, why didn't they kill you?"
40:00 Number 13.
40:01 Bohemian Grove
40:02 Rumors have always swirled about secret societies and country clubs where elites meet up to
40:07 discuss world affairs.
40:09 In the case of Bohemian Grove, this accusation is at least partly true.
40:13 Many of the most powerful and influential American figures of the 20th century met at
40:17 the California club.
40:19 The place was reserved for people like Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, along with a list
40:23 of businessmen and even Nobel laureates.
40:26 "Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan had a talk there about who was going to run for president
40:31 first."
40:32 "Obviously Richard Nixon won that."
40:34 While one of their precepts involves leaving world affairs at the door, there's no shortage
40:38 of evidence to the contrary.
40:40 It was also the site of a meeting regarding the Manhattan Project.
40:43 "The Manhattan Project was conceived at the Grove in 1942.
40:49 The Manhattan Project, of course, is what led to the atom bomb."
40:52 The presence of many US presidents provokes even more gossip about the other conversations
40:57 that took place there.
40:59 Number 12.
41:00 The FBI spied on John Lennon
41:02 "They're after us because we talk about peace, you know?"
41:07 When John Lennon moved to the US in the 70s, he became a target of FBI observation.
41:12 His outspoken political beliefs were already controversial, and some US leaders worried
41:17 that he would influence the next election.
41:20 With stories swirling about Lennon's possible tour, which was an apparent attempt to recruit
41:24 young liberal voters, J. Edgar Hoover put the musician under close watch.
41:29 Not only that, the artist was threatened with deportation during this period.
41:33 Republican Richard Nixon ended up winning the 1972 election, but the attempts to kick
41:38 the singer out of the country continued until a court ruling in 1975.
41:43 "When we approach people for help, somebody, somewhere, rings them up and says, 'These
41:49 people are criminals.'"
41:50 Unsurprisingly, this wasn't the first or last person hounded by the FBI, as their COINTEL
41:56 program spied on many citizens and political groups.
41:59 "Secret FBI memos made public today show that the late J. Edgar Hoover ordered a nationwide
42:05 campaign to disrupt the activities of the new left without telling any of his superiors
42:11 about it."
42:12 11.
42:13 Big Tobacco's Big Lie
42:14 "There's extensive use of this technology, which is called ammonia chemistry, that allows
42:19 for nicotine to be more rapidly absorbed in the lungs and therefore affect the brain and
42:24 central nervous system."
42:25 Smoking causes lung cancer and a lot of other adverse health effects.
42:30 Scientists demonstrated this definitively in the 1950s.
42:33 However, public opinion wavered for decades, with sources springing up to generate controversy
42:38 and debate.
42:40 Some suspected that the tobacco industry was suppressing and distorting the facts through
42:44 a coordinated campaign, and it eventually came out that they were.
42:48 Together, the world's largest tobacco companies initiated Operation Berkshire to generate
42:53 fake controversy and debate.
42:55 Big Tobacco knew that smoking caused cancer and that nicotine was addictive.
43:00 They decided not to make cigarettes less harmful because addiction made them a lot of money.
43:05 "Now the work we did here is confidential, not for public scrutiny any more than our
43:09 own family matters."
43:10 "You're threatening my family now too?"
43:13 Just goes to show, where there's smoke, there's often fire.
43:16 "See how camels agree with your throat.
43:19 See how mild and good tasting a cigarette can be."
43:23 10.
43:24 The FBI Spied on Political Activist Groups
43:26 "All power to all the people!"
43:29 Those involved in political protests and other activist causes are often paranoid that they're
43:34 being watched.
43:35 And they should be, because it's happened before and it can happen again.
43:38 "Tapes from the hotel rooms, FBI reports, those are pieces of information that we shouldn't
43:44 have."
43:45 From the late 50s to the early 70s, the FBI engaged in illegal surveillance, infiltration
43:50 and disruption of protest movements and other organizations deemed "subversive."
43:55 "He realized how sick this country was.
43:58 We were trying to reveal the truth about segregation."
44:01 These ranged from independence movements to civil rights movements to feminist organizations.
44:06 They even had John Lennon, the former Beatles frontman, under watch.
44:11 While this program, named COINTELPRO, was abolished in 1971, others may have taken its
44:16 place.
44:17 "This represents the darkest part of the Bureau's history."
44:20 9.
44:22 The First Female U.S. President
44:24 While the United States has yet to elect a woman to the office of president - by electoral
44:29 college, anyway - some theorize that a woman has assumed the duties of the office already.
44:34 In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke.
44:39 This left him bedridden and partially paralyzed with some impaired judgment.
44:43 "If I don't help him be president, what kind of wife am I?"
44:49 For over a year, Wilson's wife Edith aided him in governing the country, to the point
44:53 where she was basically performing his job in all but name.
44:57 The degree of her involvement was kept a close secret, and Wilson herself denied that she
45:02 made executive decisions until her death.
45:04 "So he's like sitting there, and they like move his arm, and then they just release that
45:10 to the press, and that's how dumb people were back then."
45:14 8.
45:15 The White Sox Threw the World Series
45:17 The Chicago White Sox are on record for having one of the longest droughts between winning
45:22 World Series, at 87 years.
45:24 However, they weren't always known for their bad luck.
45:28 Back in the late 1910s, the Sox won in 1917, and they even had a wonder-like Shoeless Joe
45:34 Jackson on the team.
45:36 Yet, rumours during the 1919 series held that the games were fixed.
45:41 The White Sox lost the series, but the rumours persisted into the next year.
45:45 Eventually, a grand jury found evidence that eight players - including Jackson, though
45:49 his role is disputed - were involved in a conspiracy to receive money in exchange for
45:54 throwing the series.
45:55 "I think the Black Sox players saw a high reward for what they were doing.
46:00 They could make as much as their yearly salary in one week for fixing the World Series."
46:05 While a trial found them not guilty, they were nevertheless banned from the league permanently.
46:11 7.
46:12 Roswell Cover-Up
46:13 In the summer of 1947, an object crashed down to earth in Roswell, New Mexico.
46:19 Theories that it was an alien spacecraft have pervaded pop culture for over a half a century
46:24 since.
46:31 The US Air Force claimed that the object was merely a weather balloon, only added fuel
46:35 to the fire.
46:37 And the conspiracy theorists were right; it was no weather balloon, and there was a cover-up.
46:42 But it wasn't an alien ship, either - probably.
46:46 The object was a high-altitude balloon, launched as part of Project Mogul.
46:50 These balloons were intended to detect sound waves from Soviet atomic bomb tests.
46:55 During the Cold War, the US military couldn't exactly be honest about that in the papers.
46:59 Now, whether you think that's another cover story… well…
47:02 "This better not be another damn Russian spy job."
47:05 6.
47:06 Scientologists Infiltrated the US Government
47:09 The Church of Scientology is infamously touchy about any criticism of their organisation.
47:21 Their influence over celebrities is well-known, but theories about their influence over the
47:25 government are also out there.
47:27 And here's the thing…
47:29 Scientologists really did infiltrate the government.
47:31 In the 1970s, at least 5,000 members of the organisation conducted espionage on government
47:38 agencies and private organisations.
47:40 And this wasn't a fringe element, either.
47:42 The founder's wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, pleaded guilty and went to prison.
47:47 It was one of the largest-scale infiltrations of the US government in history.
47:52 All of this was done with the aim of destroying evidence that painted Scientology in an unfavourable
47:57 light.
47:58 It arguably had quite the opposite effect.
48:00 5.
48:01 Project Sunshine
48:02 With a name like this, images of happiness or some form of green energy initiation spring
48:07 to mind.
48:13 But in reality, it's incredibly dark.
48:16 Headed by the United States Atomic Energy Commission in 1955, Project Sunshine was created
48:21 to see the effects of nuclear radiation on the human body.
48:25 However, the group went morbid with it.
48:27 In the 50s, around 1,500 bodies were taken across Europe and Australia, often without
48:33 the permission of the next of kin.
48:35 Most of those stolen were children or younger.
48:37 To hide the body-snatching, one British mother was refused access by authorities to dress
48:41 her daughter in a christening gown in 1957 in case she discovered what the doctors had
48:46 done.
48:47 4.
48:48 The Watergate Scandal
48:49 Perhaps the most well-known political conspiracy of all time, the Watergate Scandal was unthinkable
48:55 when it occurred.
48:59 The scandal began when Republican President Richard Nixon's administration illegally
49:04 wiretapped and broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
49:14 Their aim was to acquire information about Nixon's opposition in the forthcoming election.
49:18 The arrest of the perpetrators led to attempts by Nixon and his administration to cover up
49:23 their involvement.
49:24 However, mounting evidence and leaks soon exploded into a scandal that has become a
49:29 byword for political disgrace, leading to Nixon's resignation.
49:34 One of the things that's so hard to recreate and understand now, looking back, is there
49:39 was no sense that the president could lie to the American people.
49:43 Things have changed, Garrett.
49:44 Things have changed today.
49:46 3.
49:47 The Government is Spying on You
49:48 The common refrain for cranks and conspiracy nuts for decades has been that the government
49:54 is watching our every move.
49:56 And it's not completely wrong.
49:57 With the rise of smartphones and the internet, the government has unprecedented access to
50:02 information on its citizens.
50:07 In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration initiated far-reaching mass surveillance programs,
50:12 both foreign and domestic.
50:14 The NSA's activities in the years since have included sucking up and storing online history,
50:20 emails, metadata, text messages, you name it.
50:23 Edward Snowden revealed a lot of this info with his leaks, including how other governments
50:27 were also implicated.
50:29 Even if you send it to somebody within the United States, your wholly domestic communication
50:35 between you and your wife can go from New York to London and back and get caught up
50:40 in the database.
50:41 Few believe that in the time since, governments have just given up.
50:45 2.
50:46 False Justification for War
50:48 In August 1964, the USS Maddox fired a warning shot as three North Vietnamese torpedo boats
50:56 approached the Gulf of Tonkin.
50:58 After the torpedo boats opened fire, the Maddox sank all three.
51:02 Two days later, the report of a second attack, known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, prompted
51:07 President Lyndon B. Johnson to authorize further military action in Vietnam.
51:12 For years, people questioned this justification.
51:14 "At one point, the commander of the ship said, 'We're not certain of the attack.'
51:19 Another point, they said, 'Yes, we're absolutely positive.'
51:21 And then finally, late in the day, Admiral Sharp said, 'Yes, we're certain it happened.'"
51:26 It was eventually revealed that the second attack was imaginary, based on wrongly interpreted
51:31 communications intercepts.
51:33 It wasn't the last dubious rationale for war.
51:36 As we already mentioned, in 1990, George H.W. Bush leveraged false testimony crafted by
51:42 a public relations firm to initiate the Gulf War.
51:45 Over a decade later, his son would falsely claim that Iraq possessed WMDs to justify
51:51 an invasion.
51:52 "The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy
51:56 of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder."
52:00 Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
52:05 about our latest videos.
52:06 You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
52:10 If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and switch on your notifications.
52:15 1.
52:17 The CIA Conducted Mind Control Experiments The idea of a government agency trying to
52:23 control people's minds might sound like science fiction, but it really happened.
52:27 "Prostitutes would lure men to these apartments, and then once the men were in the apartments,
52:33 they were dosed with LSD, and then they were basically studied by CIA scientists."
52:39 In the 1970s, a commission on the CIA's activities within the U.S. exposed the existence of Project
52:46 MKUltra, a secret program that used drugs and torture to manipulate its victims' mental
52:53 states.
52:54 "This Kool-Aid was spiked with LSD.
52:59 It was horrible."
53:00 These experiments were conducted on prisoners in secret detention centers around the world,
53:05 as well as within American universities, hospitals, and prisons.
53:09 "The day that my father was brought to the hospital, they immediately put him on insulin,
53:14 to put him into like an insulin coma."
53:16 The CIA also funded brutal experiments involving electroconvulsive therapy in Montreal, Canada.
53:23 Victims of MKUltra included Ken Kesey and Alan Ginsberg.
53:27 It's one of the darkest conspiracies out there, and we still don't know the full extent of
53:31 it.
53:32 Which of these conspiracies do you find the most disturbing?
53:36 Let us know in the comments!
53:37 "Boy, those Scientologists, they can be pretty sensitive."
53:42 Did you enjoy this video?
53:43 Check out these other clips from WatchMojo, and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell
53:47 to be notified about our latest videos.
53:49 [Outro]