World View: Iran Nuclear Talks Collapse after France Complains of 'Con Game'

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Iran nuclear talks collapse after France complains of ‘con game’
• The Top Ten Most Popular Conspiracy Theories

Iran nuclear talks collapse after France complains of ‘con game’

Iran’s foreign minister Jawad Zarif and France’s foreign minister Laurent Fabius (VOA)

Using phrases like “con game” and “fool’s deal,” France’s foreignminister Laurent Fabius demanded additional concessions from Iran inreturn for an agreement to reduce Western sanctions. Fabius citeddifferences over Iran’s Arak nuclear reactor southeast of Tehran,which could produce enough plutonium for several nuclear weapons ayear once it goes online. Iran says it expects Arak to be completedand go online sometime next year, though the plutonium would not beweapons grade. Fabius is demanding that work on Arak be suspended forthe time being, which Iran refuses to do. He also called for areduction in the purity of Iran’s stockpile of highly enricheduranium. The talks collapsed, but will reconvene on November 20.France 24 and VOA

The Top Ten Most Popular Conspiracy Theories

Some people believe that Martians landed at Roswell, or that 9/11 wasthe work of the government. Here’s a list of not just ten, but thetop 13 conspiracy theories:

• Fifty years after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the belief that more than one person was involved in his assassination remains the most widely held conspiracy theory in America. In an April 2013 poll, 59 percent said others were involved.
• In the few polls we have, a sizable minority of the population believes President Roosevelt knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor in advance and used the attack as an excuse to go to war.
• Around 20 percent embrace the view that UFOs have landed in the United States at Roswell, New Mexico, and that the government is engaged in a systematic cover-up of this event.
• In a 1976 Harris poll, 60 percent believed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was the work of a conspiracy. In a 2008 CNN poll, 55 percent endorsed the notion of a conspiracy.
• In an August 2007 Fox News poll, 31 percent agreed that foul play was involved in Princess Diana’s death.
• In a July 2006 Scripps Howard and Ohio University poll, 16 percent said it was likely that the “people in the federal government either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop the attacks because they wanted to United States to go to war in the Middle East.”
• Around 6 percent believe the moon landing was a hoax.
• In 1994, 37% said that it was possible that the Nazi extermination of the Jews in Nazi death camps during World War II never happened?
• On July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed minutes from takeoff from JFK. The NTSB determined that the likely cause was the accidental ignition of fuel vapors in the fuel tank. But 39% of those surveyed said that it very likely or somewhat likely that the Navy shot down TWA 800 with a missile.
• Fifteen percent told Fox News that there was a chance that Osama bin Laden is still alive, while 24 percent told CBS News that they had doubts about whether he was killed.
• In June, 1997, 52% believed that it was very likely or somewhat likely that the CIA has allowed Central American drug dealers to sell cocaine to black kids in inner-city neighborhoods?
• In March, 2013, people were asked: “Do you believe that shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies, or not?” 4% believe, and 7% are not sure.
• “Do you believe media or the government adds secret mind-controlling technology to television broadcast signals, or not?” 15% believe, 15% are not sure.

AEI

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