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We all love conspiracy theories, particularly when it's clear there actually was a conspiracy. The odd thing though is that when presented with lots of competing theories, we often plump for the dullest "“ it's all the bankers, or the CIA, or the Zionists, or whatever.

Here's a more practical example: I will, below, provide far more interesting possibilities to explain the fantastic case of Israel's "Prisoner X" than the obviously untrue one that is becoming the established, convenient story. Many outlets will now tell you that Prisoner X was seized, interrogated, threatened with life imprisonment and being ostracised from his family and the worldwide Jewish community to which he belonged, and maybe even killed, all because he was about to reveal a passport scam which the...