The archive
Theories
Theories about what really happened — forgotten events, odd coincidences and stories that never quite added up. They are shared here to be read, questioned and argued about.
How to read a theory
Treat every theory as a starting point, not a fact. The best ones point to something you can check: a date, a place, a document. The comments are where readers push back and add what they know.
What we publish
Theories are reviewed by a person before they go live. Posts that target real private individuals or share personal details are not published.
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Explain what you noticed, why it bothers you and where it came from. Clear, honest theories get the best discussions.
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British Cold War biological-weapons trials
One of the stranger details from Britain's Cold War history involves a 60 page official account of biological weapons trials carried out between 1940 and 1979. More than 100 covert
Ireland’s illegal-adoption registrations
There was a point in Ireland's history when adoption records could mean the difference between someone knowing where they came from and spending their entire life with the wrong st
U.S. alcohol poisoning during Prohibition
During Prohibition, stopping people from drinking illegally apparently went far beyond simply banning alcohol. Industrial alcohol was deliberately denatured, making it dangerous to
The 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom
Was looking through some old historical records when the story of Hawaii's monarchy started getting a lot more interesting than expected. Buried among the usual accounts was a refe
The 1954 Guatemalan coup
It took looking into Guatemala's Cold War history to realize how closely a country's political future could become tied to foreign and corporate interests. In 1954, Guatemala's dem
The 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, 1985. A standoff involving the MOVE organization had already been going on for some time when police made the decision to drop a bomb on the group's house. What follo
Political abuse of psychiatry
For someone to be labeled mentally ill simply because they opposed a government sounds almost impossible until the historical record starts showing otherwise. Political abuse of ps
U.S. intelligence assistance to Iraq during chemical warfare
What happened during the Iran Iraq War becomes considerably darker when the declassified records are put next to the reports about Iraq's chemical attacks. The United States provid
The American Egg Board campaign against a food competitor
A strange food industry dispute started making more sense after the American Egg Board's internal emails became public. The target was Hampton Creek, a company selling an egg free
NFL influence over concussion research
A congressional investigation into football's long term health risks raised an uncomfortable question about the relationship between the NFL and scientific research. The inquiry re
Operation Varsity Blues college-admissions scheme
At some point, the college admissions process starts looking very different when millions of dollars are allegedly being used to get around it. The Varsity Blues investigation expo
EPA public statements on Ground Zero air quality
After the September 11 attacks, the danger at Ground Zero wasn't limited to the immediate destruction. Dust and debris filled lower Manhattan, and questions about the safety of the
Paid demonstrators in the Huawei CFO release protests
Something about the demonstrations calling for Meng Wanzhou's release seemed unusual enough to attract closer attention. The protests were taking place around her Canadian extradit
The Rajneeshee salmonella attack in Oregon
It sounds almost impossible that a local election could become the motive for a bioterror attack, but that's what happened in The Dalles, Oregon, in 1984. Members of the Rajneeshee
Volkswagen’s Dieselgate emissions-cheating scheme
At first glance, Volkswagen's "Clean Diesel" campaign looked like a major step toward making diesel cars cleaner, but the technology behind the vehicles turned out to work very dif
Corporate competitive-hacking allegations in the United Kingdom
This entry concerns allegations reported in 2013 that the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) had withheld information about illegal activity involving large British firms. T
Dateline NBC’s staged GM-truck fire report
A 1992 Dateline NBC report showed what appeared to be a General Motors pickup bursting into flames after a side impact crash. The footage looked convincing enough to make the truck
Sugar-industry funding that shaped nutrition research
A detail from the history of nutrition research makes the old debate over sugar and fat look considerably more complicated. In the 1960s, a sugar industry executive paid Harvard re
Walmart’s monitoring of union organizing through Lockheed Martin
A claim about Walmart's approach to union organizing caught attention because of the company reportedly turning to an unexpected outside contractor. According to a Bloomberg featur
Wachovia’s cartel-money-laundering case
The topic concerns a reported enforcement action involving Wachovia bank and allegations that the institution processed funds tied to drug cartels. The matter as cited in the sourc
Global foreign-exchange market manipulation settlements
It started with something as ordinary as internal chat messages, except these conversations were allegedly taking place between traders at some of the world's largest banks while d
Deutsche Bank’s mirror-trading money-laundering case
One of the more unusual money laundering cases involved transactions that allegedly moved through three major financial centers: Moscow, London and New York. Deutsche Bank agreed t
HSBC’s money-laundering enforcement case
What happens when prosecuting a major bank is considered dangerous enough to threaten the wider financial system? That question came up in the HSBC money laundering case, where U.S
The LIBOR rate-manipulation scandal
LIBOR was supposed to provide a benchmark for interest rates around the world, but a major scandal eventually raised questions about whether the numbers were being manipulated. Rep
CIA assistance to the production of Zero Dark Thirty
Watching *Zero Dark Thirty* without knowing the controversy behind it makes the story seem fairly straightforward: intelligence is gathered, information is extracted, and eventuall
Military recruitment marketing tied to film releases
A movie theater ad can look like nothing more than another trailer until the footage starts switching between Hollywood heroes and real soldiers. That was the approach used in a ci
Pentagon support and influence in Hollywood productions
The number of movies and television shows that have reportedly received Pentagon assistance is much larger than most people would probably expect. Research into the records identif
The Campania toxic-waste crisis and organized-crime cover-up
It was supposed to be paradise. Then came the stories about what was happening beneath it. For years, allegations surrounding Mafia activity and toxic-waste disposal had been tied
The Crestwood, Illinois water-contamination cover-up
The Chicago Tribune reported that 11,000 residents of Crestwood, Illinois were knowingly given tap water that the newspaper described as contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals
Flint water lead-test misrepresentation
The water was already raising concerns in Flint. Then came reports suggesting that the numbers people were being shown might not have told the whole story. A Guardian report allege
Falsified New York City child-care lead-testing records
The paperwork made it look like thousands of children were being protected by routine lead testing, but a reported investigation raised a much more troubling possibility. Records a
Operation Himmler
One of the darker details surrounding the beginning of World War II is how the Nazi regime manufactured incidents that could be presented as Polish aggression. In 1939, Operation H
The Paris, Cannes, and Nice false-flag bombings
The Anti-Muslim bombings in Paris, Cannes and Nice refer to a series of three terrorist attacks that occurred in French cities during the 1970s and 1980s. According to the cited so
The Mukden Incident
The Mukden Incident is presented in the source excerpt as a contested episode in which a bombing of a railway was carried out and then used to justify military action. The short ac
The 1957 CIA–MI6 Syria regime-change plan
A set of Cold War documents describes a plan that sounds like something from a spy thriller, except the people involved were reportedly sitting at the highest levels of Britain and
The Great Purge and the Soviet terror campaign
There was a period in the Soviet Union when simply being considered a threat to the state could be enough to destroy someone's life. Between roughly 1936 and 1938, Joseph Stalin's
The Rainbow Warrior bombing
The Rainbow Warrior bombing is reported to have occurred in 1985, when the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sank. The supplied source reports that agents of the Frenc
Operation Embarrass
After World War II, Britain was dealing with a growing crisis over Jewish refugees trying to reach Palestine, and a little known intelligence operation emerged from that situation.
The Nayirah testimony public-relations campaign
One of the most influential stories told to American lawmakers before the Gulf War came from a teenage girl known publicly only as "Nayirah." Her testimony described horrific event
The Bush–Blair Iraq-war planning memorandum
A classified looking memo from the period before the Iraq War described discussions at the highest levels of the British and American governments about how a confrontation with Sad