{"id":197438,"date":"2019-11-06T06:45:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T06:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=197438"},"modified":"2019-11-09T06:41:32","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T06:41:32","slug":"american-conspiracies-cover-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=197438","title":{"rendered":"American Conspiracies & Cover-ups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Douglas Cirignano \u2013 Off-Guardian Nov 3, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n

In today\u2019s world, the phrase \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d is pejorative and has a negative connotation. To many people, a conspiracy theory is an irrational, over-imaginative idea endorsed by people looking for attention and not supported by the mainstream media or government.<\/span><\/p>\n

History shows, though, that there have been many times when governments or individuals have participated in conspiracies. It would be na\u00efve to think that intelligence agencies, militaries, government officials, and politicians don\u2019t sometimes cooperate in covert, secretive ways. Following are five instances when it\u2019s been proven that the government engaged in a conspiracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

THE GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION<\/h2>\n

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On August 4, 1964, Captain John J. Herrick, the commander of the USS Maddox, a US Navy vessel that was on an intelligence-gathering mission in the Gulf of Tonkin, reported to the White House and Pentagon that North Vietnamese patrol boats had fired torpedoes at his ship, and, so, the Maddox had fired back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days later, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara testified to the Congress that he was certain that the Maddox had been attacked. On August 7, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed, the Congressional act that allowed President Johnson free reign to commence war; Johnson immediately ordered air strikes on North Vietnam and the Vietnam War\u2014which would eventually kill fifty-eight thousand Americans and two million Asians\u2014was underway.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, it has been shown and proven that no North Vietnamese boats ever fired on the Maddox, and that McNamara had been untruthful when he testified before Congress. According to the official publication of the Naval Institute,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026once-classified documents and tapes released in the past several years, combined with previously uncovered facts, make clear that high government officials distorted facts and deceived the American public about events that led to full US involvement in the Vietnam War.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the weeks prior to the Gulf of Tonkin incident, South Vietnamese ships had been attacking posts in North Vietnam in conjunction with the CIA\u2019s Operation 34A. According to many inside sources, the Johnson administration wanted a full-scale war in Vietnam and through Operation 34A was trying to provoke North Vietnam into an attack that would give Johnson an excuse to go to war. But when McNamara was asked by the Congress on August 7 if these South Vietnam attacks had anything to do with the US military and CIA, McNamara lied and said no.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within hours after reporting that the Maddox had been attacked, Captain Herrick was retracting his statements and reporting to the White House and Pentagon that \u201cin all likelihood\u201d an over-eager sonar man had been mistaken and that the sonar sounds and images that he originally thought were enemy torpedoes were actually just the beat of the Maddox\u2019s own propellers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Herrick reported that there was a good probability that there had been no attack on the Maddox, and suggested \u201ccomplete reevaluation before any action is taken.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

McNamara saw these new, updated reports and discussed them with President Johnson early in the afternoon of August 4. Even though this was so, on the evening of August 4, President Johnson went on national television and announced to the American public that North Vietnam had engaged in \u201cunprovoked aggression\u201d and, so, the US military was retaliating.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few days after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Johnson remarked, \u201cHell, those damn stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, new documents related to the Gulf of Tonkin incident have been declassified and according to Robert Hanyok, a historian for the National Security Agency, these documents show that the NSA deliberately \u201cdistorted intelligence\u201d andand \u201caltered documents\u201d to make it appear that an attack had occurred on August 4.<\/span><\/p>\n

When President Lyndon Johnson misrepresented to the American public and said he knew that North Vietnam had attacked a US ship, and when Defense Secretary Robert McNamara lied to the Congress and said he was sure that the Maddox had been attacked and that the CIA had nothing to do with South Vietnam aggression, and when NSA officials falsified information to make it appear that there had been an attack on the Maddox, that was a government conspiracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

OPERATION NORTHWOODS<\/h2>\n

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In 1962, the most powerful and highest ranking military officials of the US government, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, felt strongly that the communist leader Fidel Castro had to be removed from power and, so, came up with a plan to justify an American invasion of Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

The plan, entitled Operations Northwoods, was presented to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962, and was signed by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lyman L. Lemnitzer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Operations Northwoods was a proposal for a false flag operation, a plan in which a military organizes an attack against its own country and then frames and blames the attack on another country for the purpose of the purpose of initiating hostilities and declaring war on that country.<\/span><\/p>\n

The proposal was originally labeled Top Secret but was made public on November 18, 1997, by the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board. The complete Operation Northwoods paper was published online by the National Security Archive on April 30, 2001, and this once-secret government document can now be read by anyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

The actions that General Lemnitzer and the other chiefs wanted to d to take under Operations Northwoods are shocking. According to the plan, CIA and military personnel and hired provocateurs would commit various violent acts and these acts would be blamed on Castro to \u201ccreate the necessary impression of Cuban rashness and irresponsibility\u201d and \u201cput the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most ambitious plans of Operation Northwoods was to blow up a plane in midflight. The strategy was to fill a civilian airplane with CIA and military personnel who were registered under fake ID\u2019s; an exact duplicate plane\u2014an empty military drone aircraft\u2014would take off at the same exact time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The plane of fake passengers would land at a military base but the empty drone plane would fly over Cuba and crash in the ocean, supposedly a victim of Cuban missiles. \u201cCasualty lists in US newspapers\u201d<\/em> and conducting \u201cfake funerals for mock-victims\u201d<\/em> would cause \u201ca helpful wave of national indignation\u201d in America.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Operation Northwoods proposal also states: \u201cWe could blow up a US ship and blame Cuba.\u201d Whether the ship was to be empty or full of US soldiers is unclear. The document also says: \u201cHijacking attempts against US civil air and surface craft should be encouraged.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the recommendations of Operation Northwoods would have surely led to serious injuries and even deaths of Cuban and American civilians. The plan suggests:<\/span><\/p>\n

We could sink a boatload of Cubans on route to Florida (real or simulated).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And:<\/span><\/p>\n

We could foster attempts on lives of anti-Castro Cubans in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized\u2026We could explode a few bombs in carefully chosen spots.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lemnitzer and the chiefs wanted many of these staged terrorist attacks to be directed at the Guantanamo Bay United States Naval Base in Cuba. The plans were:<\/span><\/p>\n