The Most Widely Believed Conspiracy Theories in US History

After 9/11 mastermind and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was shot and killed by U.S. Navy Seal members on May 2, 2011, some argued that the way his body was buried, lack of evidence of the death and the failure to keep the public in the loop suggested a conspiracy. Shortly after his death was announced by President Barack Obama, conspiracists stated that because bin Laden's body was nearly immediately buried at sea and because Obama declined to release photos of a dead bin Laden or the video of the raid, that bin Laden was in fact alive and well.

Despite al Qaeda acknowledging the death of bin Laden, some argued that the story was fabricated by Obama to secure re-election or take the heat off his birth certificate controversy. Bill Warren, a diver from California, took the conpspiracy theory so far that he announced a plan to search the waters for bin Laden's body.

Also called climate change, global warming refers to the rising temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans as a result of greenhouse gases. To reduce the effects of global warming, activists and lawmakers have proposed a number of changes, including regulating burning fossil fuels and stopping deforestation.

Some however believe that global warming is a hoax and the data used to suggest a climate change is bogus. Others suggest that these climate changes are not a result of humankind, or that steps other than those suggested need to be taken to prevent further damage.

Just as some claim the U.S. Government was aware of the 9/11 terrorist attacks before they happened, some allege that the Attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, was known of by the government before it happened. Many have alleged that despite having advance knowledge of the potential fatalities, the Pearl Harbor attack was allowed to happen as a means to get the United States into war.

Ten separate inquiries into the attack were made between 1941 and 1995 to determine if any high-ranking officials, including former Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, were aware of the intent before the attacks occurred.