Conspiracy theories and politicians go hand in hand. New US president-elect Barack Obama is no different...

From suggestions that he is a Muslim (while at the same time belonging to an extremist Christian church) and accusations that his birth certificate is a fake, to claims that a ghost-writer wrote his memoirs and that he is the lovechild of human rights activist Malcolm X — a wide variety of conspiracy theories can be found regarding Mr Obama.

iafrica.com's Barend Prins decided to investigate a few other well-known conspiracy theories.

The Titanic conspiracy

This theory alleges that the Titanic had a sister ship called the Olympic, which crashed into a naval vessel. The Olympic suffered extensive damage and would potentially have bankrupt the White Star Line — the company that owned both the Titanic and the Olympic — as the Navy had judged that their ship was not to blame for the accident.

In an attempt to avoid bankruptcy, the company switched the identities of the ships. The nearly-complete Titanic became the Olympic and served a successful 25-year career. The crippled Olympic became the Titanic and was taken out to sea on its maiden voyage.

The plan was to scuttle the Titanic and then reclaim the cost from the insurers. Unfortunately the Titanic crashed prematurely — before the rescue ships could arrive — resulting in the deaths of 1500 people.

In essence, an insurance scam gone horribly wrong.

The Phantom time hypothesis

The Phantom time hypothesis is a theory developed by German systems analyst Heribert Illig. The theory suggests that the Early Middle Ages — the period between 614 and 911 AD — never occurred. This implies that all artefacts attributed to and all historical figures from this period are outright fabrications.

The basic premise of Illig's claims is based on the lack of archaeological evidence that can be reliably dated to this period, as there are perceived inadequacies in the dating methods used and the reliance of medieval historians as written sources.

The smoking gun of Pearl Harbour

Allegedly, US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was looking for a way to enter World War II (as it would have been financially beneficial), but was unable to due to strong opposition from Congress and the public. Roosevelt provoked Japan into attacking Pearl Harbour through of a series of sanctions effectively cutting off 95 percent of Japan's oil supply.

Theorists believe the US intercepted a message from Japan about an attack, but did nothing to warn the commanding officer at Pearl Harbour. More than 2400 military personnel were killed during the ensuing attack and antiwar sentiment in the US evaporated overnight, with the country united behind Roosevelt.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident

Similar to the alleged nefarious activities surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbour, the US under Lyndon Johnson was purportedly looking for a way to enter the Vietnam War without perpetuating the image of the US as warmongers.

On 4 August 1964 the USS Maddox was reportedly engaged in combat with Vietnamese vessels, which effectively granted president Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardised by 'communist aggression', without an actual declaration of war!

In 2005, the National Security Agency (NSA) declassified their report on the Gulf of Tonkin incident stating 'no attack happened that night'...

9/11 was planned by the US government

There are, without a doubt, various moot points in the official 9/11 Commission report, which means there are about as many different theories about the attacks on the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001 as there are people with an opinion on the matter. One such theory is that the George W Bush's government not only knew of the attacks, but in actually helped plan them.

According to this theory, the attacks would generate public support for militarisation and other intrusive policies by which they would benefit, such as the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Proponents of this theory point to a report from the 'Project for the New American Century' — a neo-conservative organisation that wants 'to promote American global leadership', whose members include former secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld, vice president Dick Cheney and several other key Bush administration figures.

This specific report apparently states that 'some catastrophic and catalysing event — like a new Pearl Harbour — would be needed to budge public opinion in their favour'.

The JFK assassination

Without a doubt, this single event has more conspiracy theories attached to it than any other. There are so many irregularities in the official report by the Warren Commission that it resembles a work of fiction.

For a start, its conclusion that the assassination was executed by a single attacker (Lee Harvey Oswald) is laughable — unless Oswald had a gun able to shoot around corners. At the very least, there was another shooter, but some conspiracy theorists believe in varying degrees of involvement from the US military, Fidel Castro, the FBI, the CIA, the KGB, the Mafia, J Edgar Hoover and vice president Johnson. Either way, there was definitely some foul play involved.

The aspartame controversy

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener marketed under several different names including Equal, NutraSweet, and Canderel, as well as being an ingredient in more than 6000 different foods and beverages. Despite very negative tests in lab conditions (approximately half the animals used in original testing died), its use was eventually condoned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Incidentally, the CEO of the development company Searle, one Donald Rumsfeld, also happened to be the head of chemical weapons research for the US government at the time.

David Icke and his reptiles

First things first — when David Icke talks about reptiles, it is not a euphemism for something else, he actually means reptiles.

Icke, a former sports journalist, is actually the creator of a whole genre of conspiracy theories — all involving shape-shifting reptiles that have secretly taken over the world and are feeding off humans to keep their apparent human form centre stage. The reptiles include 37 former US presidents, the British Royal family and Mohammad Al-Fayed amongst others.

Princess Diana was murdered

The scandal surrounding the relationship between Princess Diana (the mother of the future head of the Church of England) and Dodi al-Fayed (a Muslim) has lead many to believe that the car accident in which the were both killed was not much of an accident after all.

Proponents of the theory suggest that she was pregnant with his child; that they intended to marry; and that she would convert to Islam. Organisations, which conspiracy theorists suggest were responsible for their deaths, include the British Royal Family, MI5 and MI6, the CIA, Mossad, the Freemasons, and the IRA.

The Planet X theory

The Planet X theory states that our solar system has a ninth planet — Pluto has been declassified as a planet — that is supposed to be enormous and on an orbital path that will bring it close to Earth at some point in the near future.

Called the 'Dark Star' by some, proponents of this theory cite earthquake and weather data as evidence of this planet's growing influence on Earth. They also claim that the government is forcing observatories to close to keep the planet's approach secret and prevent panic.

There are suggestions that the Norwegian government is building underground bases and bunkers to be finished before 2011 — enough to hold approximately 2 million people. It is not exactly clear however, why Planet X is thought to be such a threat or the reasoning behind finding shelter underground. Or if the planet even exists at all.

Have you come across any interesting conspiracy theories? Has Barend missed any? Add your comment below!