"I was stunned in New Orleans at how many black New Orleanians would tell me with real conviction that somehow the levee breaks had been engineered in order to save the French Quarter and the Garden District at the expense of the Lower Ninth Ward, which is almost all black," Robinson told NBC's "Meet the Press."

"These are not wild-eyed people," Robinson insisted. "These are reasonable, sober people who really believe that."

The levee break conspiracy theory parallels the plot outlined early last week by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

"I heard from a very reliable source who saw a 25-foot-deep crater under the levee breach. It may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry," Farrakhan told a North Carolina audience.

The Washington Post columnist's report suggests that Farrakhan's poisonous theory appears to have gained currency.

Robinson said that while he doesn't believe the levee breaks were deliberately engineered, the fact that so many blacks do "tells you something about our racial divide in New Orleans."