"...trained tigers being dropped from American planes..."

Conspiracy theories abound in every aspect of our lives. Courtesy of The Thunder Run, I came across this column that makes for interesting reading:

Crazy Conspiracy Theories

November 13, 2009

There are so many in Afghanistan. My personal favorite is the one that involves trained tigers being dropped from American planes into villages to eat the people:

“We heard that foreigners are releasing them at night from planes to eat people. We heard that usually the tiger cats attack the throat and drink all the blood,” said Mohammed Saber, also from Saidkhail.

Air delivery? But wouldn’t the fall kill the cats?

“They fly really low,” said Koko Gul, 20, of nearby Monara village, holding his hands a foot from the ground, “and they just drop the cats onto the ground.”

Fazul Rahim, 28, of Said- khail, said he knew a man who caught a pisho palang in a net. It had some kind of foreign stamp on its rump, he claimed.

“And some American came and he wanted to buy it for $5,000, but my friend wouldn’t sell it,” Rahim said.

He refused $5,000 for a cat?

“Yes. He said, ‘Right now, they’re paying $5,000, but maybe later they’ll pay more,’ ” Rahim recounted.

Right. OK. These people are about as nutty as some of the people in my hometown. Every country has village idiots...

This writer then addresses more serious conspiracy theories, and is well worth the read. Here.