The rumor mill: conspiracies are real. But for every real conspiracy there are many unsubstantiated rumors and conspiracy theories. Here are a few from recent years

New American, The, May 2, 2005 by Dennis Behreandt

On October 30, 1938, listeners to CBS Radio who tuned in shortly after 8:00 p.m., heard the announcer proclaim: "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. From the Meridian Room in the Park Plaza Hotel in New York City, we bring you the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra. With a touch of the Spanish, Ramon Raquello leads off with 'La Cumparsita.'" For a time the soothing tunes of the orchestra wafted over the airwaves and listeners settled in for a quiet and relaxing evening. Suddenly, the broadcast was interrupted for a news bulletin.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News," the news announcer began. "At twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars. The spectroscope indicates the gas to be hydrogen and moving towards the Earth with enormous velocity. Professor Pierson of the Observatory at Princeton confirms Farrell's observation and describes the phenomenon as, quote, 'like a jet of blue flame shot from a gun,' unquote. We now return you to the music of Ramon Raquello, playing for you in the Meridian Room of the Park Plaza Hotel, situated in downtown New York."

The bulletin was the first in what would soon be a cascade of similar reports documenting what was, at the time, an unthinkable and terrifying catastrophe. Soon, the announcer broke in again: "It is reported that at 8:50 p.m. a huge, flaming object, believed to be a meteorite, fell on a farm in the neighborhood of Grovers Mill, New Jersey, twenty-two miles from Trenton." Then, from reporter Carl Phillips at the scene: "Just a minute! Something's happening! Ladies and gentlemen, this is terrific[??]! This end of the thing is beginning to flake off! The top is beginning to rotate like a screw and the thing must be hollow! ... Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed.... Wait a minute! Someone's crawling out of the hollow top. Someone or ... something. I can see peering out of that black hole two luminous disks ... are they, eyes? It might be a face. It might be...."

Those Americans who were tuned in to the broadcast listened with rapt attention in terror. Hysteria spread across the land as announcers described what was quickly becoming an apparent alien invasion. Many people panicked. Stories circulated about a college student racing his car at breakneck speed for some 45 miles in an attempt to save his girlfriend from the alien invaders. Others took to their basements, going to ground in an attempt to save themselves. The tense and panicked audience only relaxed when it was announced that the invading alien attackers seemed to be dying of Earth diseases to which they had no natural immunity.

The broadcast, as it turned out, was only a radio dramatization of the H.G. Wells science fiction classic, The War of the Worlds. Though it had been announced as such at the beginning of the broadcast, most listeners tuned in late and did not hear the vital introduction. The next day, the New York Times reported that its switchboard "was overwhelmed by the calls" from worried listeners. According to the Times, "A total of 875 were received. One man who called from Dayton, Ohio, asked, 'What time will it be the end of the world?'"

The now-infamous Orson Welles broadcast of The War of the Worlds was not intended to be a hoax. But in the end, it became one of the most memorable hoaxes ever played on an unsuspecting public. It has not been the last. Time and again misinformation, disinformation, outright lies, and ridiculous rumors have misled well-intentioned but unsuspecting citizens. Now, with the Internet flooded with "urban legends," it is easier than ever to be led astray by false and misleading information. However, it is possible to avoid falling into this trap. And one way of doing so is to remember, as a cautionary exercise, those rumors and lies that led good, but unsuspecting, people astray in the past.

Black Helicopters, Foreign Troops, Concentration Camps

The use of rumors to foment agitation and generate unrest has a long and checkered history. It is, in fact, quite common for politicians of any age to play off people's fears in order to achieve some political end. The technique was used, infamously, during the French Revolution, when unsubstantiated rumors of brigands and other dangers roused the peasant population of the countryside to a feverish pitch during the "Great Fear" of the summer of 1789.

Similar unsubstantiated rumors began to circulate in the heartland of America during the 1990s. Well-intentioned, patriotic citizens began to fear the appearance of black helicopters over U.S. communities as a sign of an imminent UN invasion. These rumors became so widespread that even then-UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Gali made a snide remark about them. Returning from vacation in 1996 he quipped: "It's great to get back. Frankly, I get bored on vacation. It's much more fun to be at work here, blocking reform, flying my black helicopters, imposing global taxes."