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":

Other Blogs - Mack White comments on the JFK assasination

The JFK assassination has made the news once again as the result of a Rolling Stone article about the deathbed confessions of alleged co-conspirator of the assassination, E. Howard Hunt. Hunt is one of those intelligence players who shows up in many conspiracy theories and in stories about the dark arts plied by intelligence agencies. Mack White has commented on the article and his insights are worth noting. His posting on the subject can be found here:

http://mackwhite.blogspot.com/2007/04/e-howard-hunts-deathbed-disinformation.html

The Rolling Stone article can be found here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13893143/the_last_confessions_of_e_howard_hunt


Highlights of White's comments

A few statements of particular interest written by White:

"As a spy and a dirty trickster, his entire career was built on deception, therefore anything said by this professional liar, even on his deathbed, is automatically suspect. "

and,

"But there’s someone missing from the list: Hunt himself. "

In two sentences, White has summed up the most important nugget of the article and has gone to the heart of what any conspiracy theorist must do when studying the web of deceit in CT, never forget the true nature of the beast you are dealing with.

Further into the posting, White once again sums up what I believe is the most important aspect of identification of the cabal behind the conspiracy:

"The “Johnson plot” is a limited hangout that better explains certain things, such as the involvement of the CIA and Mafia, but doesn't mention the more important involvement of the military-industrial complex--and no wonder. The same companies are still doing their dirty business today. " (emphasis mine - The CT Blogger)

Big kudos to Mack White for a fantastic post.

Commentary - When conspiracy theory becomes conspiracy fact

Are you a true believer of conspiracy theories? Are you a skeptic? Or are you like me, a friend of Bob who loves a little spice in their life? The world of conspiracy theory personalities is broken down into those three groups. The true believers provide the theories, the skeptics debunk the theories, both of those side battle and the friends of Bob float between the two depending on the wind, claims of both sides and mood.

What makes a person become a conspiracy theorist or follower of conspiracy theories is hard to define. I have noticed from my own experiences that in many cases what seems to spark a person down this road is an event or series of events that causes the person to question what is really going on in this world. Take legendary CT activist Mae Brussell for example. Her interest in the Warren Commission report was the key to her involvement in this sub-culture. The inconsistencies in the Warren Commission findings are many and one of the subjects I will be blogging about in the future. As if we need another Kennedy conspiracy theorist?

Mae was the first of the serious JFK researchers and her work is invaluable to this day and just as vital in a time of war on terror, war on the citizenry and Big Brother as it was in the 60's and 70's. Her work on government conspiracies was groundbreaking and of all the CT subjects it is the one area I feel most strongly about. It's easy to dismiss this field as being full of kooks, but it's impossible to deny that groups of individuals within our government are active in conspiring against the very people they represent and serve. All one has to do is look at the formation of the Office of Special Plans (OSP), it's manufactured intelligence, the events that transpired based on that false intelligence and you have conspiracy fact rather than theory.

The X-Factor of the OSP's bogus intelligence is "why" this was done. What agenda is advanced by manufacturing intelligence that will cause war to be waged? Is the motivation financial? Is the motivation expansion of power? Is the motivation xenophobia? Are all three of those things interconnected? This is where the typical theorist trips themselves. They postulate a motivation that is clouded with their own bias and leads them to conclusion that can be shot down for lack of proof.

Slowly the information is being uncovered and while we may never be able to piece together the true motivation behind the invasion of Iraq we are slowly seeing the apparatus that is used in a conspiracy. This is a real world example of how these things are created and how they are operated. Knowing this information can help us in future events and when we look back at events of the past.