Conspiracy theory du jour

Bizarre little story in today’s Le Monde: last Friday 12 swimmers drowned on a beach in northern Algeria after a giant wave suddenly appeared on a beach near Mostaganem, in Western Algeria. No one knows what caused the wave, which only appeared at that particular beach and was not part of a larger tsunami or other natural event. One theory advanced by a astronomer/planetologist is that the wave was the result of a scientific experiment conducted by a northern Mediterranean country (Spain, France or Italy), probably involving conventional weapons of some sort. The story in full:

La protection civile algérienne a annoncé, mercredi 8 août, la mort de douze baigneurs emportés par une vague géante sur une plage de Mostaganem, dans l’ouest algérien, vendredi. L’origine de la vague est inconnue et nourrit les débats des scientifiques et de la population locale.

L’hypothèse d’un essai scientifique en Méditerranée effectué par des pays de l’autre rive, comme l’Espagne, l’Italie ou la France est avancée. “On peut supposer qu’il s’agit d’une expérience scientifique d’armes conventionnelles”, explique le professeur Loth Bonatiro, spécialiste d’astronomie et de planétologie au Centre algérien de recherche en astronomie, astrophysique et géophysique (Craag), cité dans les colonnes du quotidien algérien L’Expression.

L’hypothèse d’un mini-tsunami avancée par les habitants semblait peu plausible, dans la mesure où la vague n’a touché qu’une seule plage, celle dite du Petit-Port.

Une secousse sismique d’une magnitude de 4,6 sur l’échelle ouverte de Richter avait été enregistrée vendredi à 21 h 08 en plein milieu du bassin méditerranéen par le centre de Strasbourg, mais pas par le Craag, qui évoque un possible problème technique.

Weird. Will feed the conspiracy theories of already paranoid Algerians for weeks, I’m sure.

0 thoughts on “Conspiracy theory du jour”

  1. Your post was automatically marked as spam by the software, I had nothing to do with it. As for calling me a hypocritical bigot, this is rather rich from someone who relentless attacks Shias simply for being shias.

  2. I am a very secular Muslim who considers himself both a Sunni and a Shiite at the same time! I never attack Shiites, I only crack down on IRAN who has been the sponcer of sectarian discourse in the middle east ever since the days of the Retha Pahlavi. The Iranian fanatic rejection of Arab nationalism which is sole identity and ideology that is capable of transcending class and sectarian polarisations in the Arab-world. I t really doesn’t require much reasoning to realize that Highllighting Sectarian differences is th one and only way Iran could nourish some influence in the midle east.

    I just don’t understnd how all those leftists and liberals are not appalled by th horrible bloody crimes commited by the Irnain islamic republic of terror in Iraq. How come you are an Arabist ?while you can’t view the very obvious contradiction between Arab and Iranian interests

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