• Joel Best has been investigating Halloween Sadism reports since 1985, and while he can't prove a negative (ie. that no kids have ever been sadistically poisoned by Halloween candy), the evidence for any widespread Halloween threat to children is pretty thin. The last update for this study was done in 2010, and 1982 was a particularly bad year for poisoned candy scares. But since the mid-80s, there haven't been more than 2 reported incidents per Halloween -- and so far, follow-up investigations have only found evidence of hoaxes. [url]
• Timothy O'Bryan was actually killed by a cyanide-laced pixie stick in 1974. However, the murderer was the boy's own father who had taken out a $60,000 life insurance policy for his son and was later convicted and executed for killing him. [url]
• Last year, there was at least one report of a razor found in a Reese's peanut butter cup by a father in New Mexico. Chocolate and peanut butter are two great tastes that taste great together, but razors are not part of that recipe. [url]

In December 2003, Mr. Montgomery reported alarming news: hidden in the crawl bars broadcast by Al Jazeera, someone had planted information about specific American-bound flights from Britain, France and Mexico that were hijacking targets.

C.I.A. officials rushed the information to Mr. Bush, who ordered those flights to be turned around or grounded before they could enter American airspace.

"The intelligence people were telling us this was real and credible, and we had to do something to act on it," recalled Asa Hutchinson, who oversaw federal aviation safety at the time. Senior administration officials even talked about shooting down planes identified as targets because they feared that supposed hijackers would use the planes to attack the United States, according to a former senior intelligence official who was at a meeting where the idea was discussed. The official later called the idea of firing on the planes "crazy."

The Justice Department, which in the last few months has gotten protective orders from two federal judges keeping details of the technology out of court, says it is guarding state secrets that would threaten national security if disclosed. But others involved in the case say that what the government is trying to avoid is public embarrassment over evidence that Mr. Montgomery bamboozled federal officials.

... the claim of credit for the Africa anecdote is just the latest ruse by Eisenstadt, who turns out to be a very elaborate hoax that has been going on for months.