“Why tweet in English?” demanded a pro-government commentator of his opponent in a TV debate, insisting that Turkish people tweeting in English about the recent graft probe is part of an international conspiracy. Twitter has become the most recent fixation of Turkey’s ruling party who alleges the social media platform is a part of the international conspiracy against the Justice and Development Party, Ihsan Dagi discussed in a piece originally published by Turkey’s Today’s Zaman.

Everywhere he looks nowadays, Nicolás Maduro sees conspiracies. At least a dozen plots to assassinate him have allegedly been detected since he became Venezuela’s president in April. Mr Maduro recently expelled three American diplomats for supposedly conspiring with the opposition, business groups and unions to wage “economic war” and overthrow the government. Some plots may even be real: there are rumours of discontent in the armed forces, on which the president is lavishing time and money. But publicly, at least, the opposition media are Mr Maduro’s prime suspects.

In this sense, overcoming 9/11 revisionism is, perhaps, the greatest challenge facing American public diplomacy in the coming decade: So long as such conspiracy theories persist, Arabs will continue to view American policies aimed at preventing “another 9/11” as thoroughly illegitimate since, as they see it, 9/11 is just a big American lie.