International conspiracy, intergalactic criminality, or simple and sinister coincidence? The death or unexplained disappearance of at least 10 American scientists close to strategic research is capturing online attention and the highest echelons of the American state. The FBI and a congressional committee have launched investigations this week to shed light on this matter deemed “quite serious” by President Donald Trump himself.
In less than four years, at least ten scientists have vanished or met a fate as strange as it is grim — and all these individuals were believed to hold sensitive information on nuclear and aerospace technology of the United States, and even on extraterrestrial life, according to the most far-fetched extrapolations of the web.
The story first surfaced on March 22 on the cover of the Daily Mail, a sensationalist tabloid that headlined the “mystery of the disappearance of five scientists sending chills through America.” Quickly picked up on social media and by alternative, even propagandistic, news outlets such as RT, the mystery has only deepened over the past month.
Six other unexplained disappearances or deaths have since come to light. This was enough to mobilize internet users, the press, and even the White House to the extent that the FBI and a committee of the House of Representatives triggered their respective investigations this week to try to clarify the case.
“These events raise the existence of a sinister connection between this series of mysterious deaths and disappearances,” wrote the Government Oversight and Reform Committee last Monday in the press release announcing the launch of its investigation. They could represent “a serious threat to the national security of the United States and the security of personnel close to American scientific secrets.”
Context: The article discusses a series of suspicious deaths and disappearances of American scientists, raising concerns of a possible conspiracy or threat to national security.
Fact Check: The information presented does not validate any direct link between the deaths/disappearances and a deliberate conspiracy.
