Babushka Lady, Umbrella Man and now we have Hatman

Two of the more curious visuals of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy have long since entered the realm of conspiracy theory folklore: The Babushka Lady and the Umbrella Man. The Bhutto assassination it seems has it’s own version of this visual. While no one has yet discussed it, if you look at the photos from her last minutes a man can be seen wearing a very strange, colorful hat.

I assume, and assuming is dangerous, that this man was a member of her security detail as he is seen in many of the photos taken immediately prior to the attack. Was the hat a "GO" sign in the operation to take her life? Was the hat a type of landmark to help guide the assassin to his target?

Of course I can't help but think of the late Robert Anton Wilson when I look at the above photograph. The open palm of Bhutto, that could be seen not as a hand wave, but instead as the Indian symbol of the departed. Wilson gave us Discordia and theories about the number 23 and how all things are connected if you simply look hard enough and are clever enough to find them. The license plate on the car in which Bhutto died was 7772. Seven plus seven plus seven plus two equals twenty three. I'm not saying that I am clever or looking very hard, only that Wilson was telling us to open our eyes and look around a bit at our world, question our perspective and consider what we see when we do this.

And so it goes...

More pics of "Hatman":

...and so the year ends.

We close out a year of terrible violence with an assassination. While I wish this could be a trend that is about to reverse I have suspicions that the opposite is about to happen. Another age of assassins is upon us. Another age of the CIA running wild on the planet is upon us. 2008 will be bloodier and more bold than 2007.

The lead up to the Bhutto assassination and the actual act, stink of CIA involvement from beginning to end. Many are deflecting the attention by pointing the finger of blame at “Islamic extremists” and by doing so are brushing aside centuries of Pakistani involvement with foreign intelligence, allegiances that are never set in stone and opportunistic grabs for money. It was never in the best interest of the powers that be, the current administrations of both Pakistan and America, the Military-Industrial Complex, the drug smuggling trade or the intelligence agencies to allow Bhutto a shot at becoming the leading politician of her nation.

It is a thinly veiled secret that the White House pushed the Bhutto situation down the throat of Musharraf and the Pakistan power base. They had great fear of her because of her populist agenda and her stated plans once she was re-elected as Prime minister. Had she been elected her plans were to attack every institution and operation that men like Musharraf and the US Intelligence Community make their living with. She was made cannon fodder by the White House and now the muckraker is gone. The script can continue as written.

Bhutto made no secret that she would declare open warfare on the Taliban and allow the US to enter Pakistan and begin rooting out Islamic extremists that have been given a safe haven in northern Pakistan. The safe haven that Musharraf created is the training and breeding ground for the pawns in the game of terrorism. Agencies like the CIA, MI6 and the ISI may fund, train and have a hand in terrorist groups but the rank and file soldiers are comprised of confused, angry young men who are turned into the suicide bombers and gunmen, looking for paradise promised to them by handlers trained by CIA men. Bhutto planned to shut off the fuel supply for a part of the IC machine.

The agency had much to gain from her death; Musharraf and his Persian cronies had much to gain. There is also the vague warning to Musharraf to not become a pain in the ass that wanders away from the script supplied by the US Intelligence Community. Noriega went off the script and is in a US prison. Saddam decided to become a free agent and he is dead. Bhutto is dead and if you don’t learn your lines and stick with them you’ll either wind up dead too or we will fund and woo the Generals who currently answer to you. Guatemala, Vietnam, Chile; all provide Musharraf with many examples of how the US Intelligence Community operate when the leash has been put away and after more than 6 years of the leash being removed, the agency is a well oiled machine now. Someone has hidden the lever that slows the machine, and the switch that kills the power to the machine was removed long ago.

Fifty years ago this sort of thing was happening in South America and on the fringes of Eastern Europe. The cold war was the driver for the coups and terror campaigns in the 50’s. Forty years ago this sort of thing was happening in Southeast Asia. The cold war was the pretext for the mayhem but big money and insatiable thirst for power was the driver. Thirty years ago the hangover began and the leash was applied to the Agency.

In 1978 and 79 the focus began to shift, a sea change was about to get underway. President Carter initiated an energy plan that was to have removed our dependence on Middle Eastern oil and a covert operation to combat the old Soviet Union was underway in Afghanistan. When Reagan was elected President and the former CIA chief with money, connections and power became Vice president, the gears were set into motion that has brought us to this day and age. Reagan gutted Carter’s energy plans, the CIA was sent out in the field with money to smuggle dope and guns and the death squads of Central America whetted the thirst for blood and torture. The Agency and the Reagan administration funded Saddam, Usama and the Mujahadeen with weapons and money bought and paid for with drug money earned from heroin and cocaine.

Today, the CIA, the powers that be, the Military-Industrial Complex, the real money makers of this world; are hip deep in Persia and Arabia, rampaging and playing games and having the time of their lives. Bhutto’s assassination is another power grab and chapter in the long history of the worlds most notorious and accomplished terror organization: the CIA.

Happy New Year.