Skepticism, Science & Pseudoscience

I lived in Egypt from 2005-2009 and learned...

1. In the 1967 Six Day War, all the Israeli aircraft were flown by American pilots.

2. Ditto for the 1973 Yom Kippur War. And Egypt/Syria HAD THAT ONE WON!!1! (I visited the Cairo Museum of the 1973 War. It only covers the first few days of the war, and I've been told that's all schools cover in teaching it, as well. That's the part where the Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal, which really was quite a stunning military maneuver. But they don't teach the later events, where Israel crossed the Canal in the south and nearly went all the way to Cairo.)

3. No one died in any plane crashes on 9/11. All 4 aircraft were empty and remotely piloted, in a joint anti-Muslim operation planned for years by the CIA and Mossad.

I heard that one, and many variations, from a LOT of Egyptians.

5. I also lived in Saudi Arabia for 2 years. Where I heard that the Holocaust never happened. Frequently.

Just for the record, I very rarely heard flat-out anti-Semitism from Egyptians. Many of them certainly hate Israel as a state and wish it would disappear. But they would also talk about the Holocaust as a horrible event that should not happen to anyone. Or ever again. In Saudi Arabia, OTOH, more than once I heard "Hitler was right."

In both countries, the newsstands sell all sorts of conspiracy-theory pamphlets and books. Including that old favorite, "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion." In Egypt that one was available in a cheap but expensive-looking hardback, with many helpful illustrations. The price/quality ratio led me to believe someone was subsidizing the printing and distribution. I probably don't need to invent my own conspiracy theory to figure out who...

ON EDIT: I saw the date on the OP and...uh...misread the year. Sorry. Sometime around November I will figure out the year is 2014 now...