“Conspiracy theorists”. It’s usually a term reserved for people who the general public considers paranoid or wacko. Yeah, there are a lot of weirdos out there who blame the government for every bad thing that happens in society. The United States government has never done much to inspire confidence in its citizens that it is always telling the truth. This is not just the United States government either. Governments the world over lie to their citizens on an every day basis. It is usually put into the context of “to preserve national security” or “for the good of the public”. These reasons do not give the government the right to lie to the citizens. This is why conspiracy theorists tend to question every thing< the government says or does. There have been many instances of conspiracy theorists being right about some very big conspiracies and cover ups, and having a lot to do with their unraveling. Here are 27 instances of governments lying to the people of the world. This stuff should really make you think.
1. Operation Northwoods – This was a plan that was drawn up by the Joint Chiefs of Staff under president John F. Kennedy. The plans were revealed to show how the U.S. government was willing to use violent attacks on its own people in order to sway public opinion in support of an all out war with Cuba. Thankfully, President Kennedy did not sign off on the plan that included hijacking planes, shooting Americans dead in the street, and convicting people of bombings that they didn’t commit. Do these things remind you of anything that is happening now?
2. The CIA has a “Heart Attack Gun”- After Watergate, committees and meetings were held in mass to determine what the U.S. Intelligence Agencies were up too. In these meetings, held by U.S. Senator Frank Church, it was revealed that the CIA possessed a “heart attack gun”. The gun would fire a frozen poison dart that could penetrate clothing and skin. The dart would melt into a person’s blood stream, carrying the poison to the heart where it would cause an immediate heart attack.
3. The Business Plot – This plot sounds like something straight out of a movie, because well it kind of is. The Business Plot was a plot to overthrow the president of the United States and install a Fascist military leader. The coup was backed by many influential people on Wall Street. It even had the support of the incredibly powerful Dupont family, and Prescott Bush who is none other than the father of George H. W. Bush and the grandfather of George W. Bush. The reason the plan never succeeded is because when the group of conspirators approached Marine General Smedley Butler about gaining the necessary military assets to pull off the coup, he immediately reported the plot. None of the conspirators were ever charged however. Big surprise right?
4. Tuskegee Syphilis Study – This is downright horrible. In 1932, the Public Health Service (PHS) began a study of monitoring the health of 600 sharecroppers, most of whom were black. 400 of the participants in the study had Syphilis when the study began but were unaware of it. The participants thought they were receiving free health care, the government had other ideas though. The PHS actually actively withheld Penicillin (which is used to treat Syphilis) from the area of the country where these people were being monitored. Their goal was to study the effects that untreated Syphilis had on the human body. When the study was finally brought to light in 1972, most of the people who were infected had died along with many sexual partners who had contracted it from the sharecroppers. There were also multiple children who were born with life threatening congenital Syphilis.
5. Operation MK Ultra – Yet another example of the government trying to manipulate the citizens of its own nation. Operation MK Ultra was an illegal program run by the CIA that used citizens of the United States as its test subjects, often without their knowledge or consent. The experiments were designed to develop ways of mind control and different torture methods. Different chemical compounds were given to the test subjects such as LSD. The amount of institutions that were involved in the project is pretty staggering, with over 80 being used. These ranged from mental institutes, to hospitals and universities. The project was outed to the American public and the director of the CIA ordered almost all of the documentation about the project be destroyed. This makes gaining more knowledge of the project very difficult. It was so true though, that Hilary Clinton felt the need to publicly apologize for the incident in 1995.
6. The FBI Poisoned Alcohol During Prohibition Apparently the government was shocked that prohibiting alcohol didn’t stop people from drinking it. Who knew right? Out of this frustration they decided to dump chemical impurities into alcohol. These included chemicals like methane, formaldehyde, and ammonia. These contaminated barrels ended up in the hands of bootleggers and thousands of people died from them.
7. Operation Snow White- The Church of Scientology doesn’t seem to take kindly to people disrespecting their religion or its creator L. Ron Hubbard. The church began an operation called Snow White which was used to place Scientology agents into various governments across the world. They had 5,000 in the U.S. government alone! The agents engaged in many crimes like espionage, wiretapping, and theft of classified documents, among many more. The plot was uncovered though and 11 high-ranking church members were convicted of various forms of espionage.
8. The 1919 World Series conspiracy – This is possibly still the biggest scandal in U.S. sports history. The 1919 World Series saw the Chicago White Sox (nicknamed the black sox) square off against the Cincinnati Reds. The White Sox were heavily favored in the series, but the Reds ended up winning in a huge upset. It wasn’t until late in the 1920 season that a scandal was revealed. 8 players from the White Sox were found to have thrown games in the series, allowing the Reds to win. None of the players were charged criminally because it wasn’t a crime to throw baseball games. All 8 of the players were banned from baseball for life however.
9. Operation paperclip – Operation Paperclip was an Office of Strategic Services, Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency operation that consisted of the recruitment of German scientists to work for the U.S. government after VE day. President Truman signed off on the plan, with one caveat. He did not want any scientists brought over that had been found “to have been a member of the Nazi party and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazi militarism”. All the scientists were cleared to work in the United States by the government after the military “bleached” their backgrounds and erased all their affiliations with the Nazi party from the records.
10. Gulf Of Tonkin Incident- Most people today know about the Gulf Of Tonkin incident. The U.S.S. Maddox reported being fired upon by North Vietnamese patrol boats in two separate incidents. These were used as media propaganda to gain support for more military intervention in Vietnam. In 2005 it was revealed the second incident never even occurred.
11. COINTELPRO Against Activists In The 60’s – COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of operations that infiltrated domestic political organizations. 85% of the groups operations were used to keep tabs on groups with communist or left leaning political affiliations. These included the NAACP, Martin Luther King Jr and other civil rights leaders of the time. The other 15% of the groups operations focused on the Ku Klux Klan.
12. Operation Mockingbird – The CIA used its influence to control the information being presented to the American people. They recruited journalists that would push the agenda of the CIA to the American public through the media. They even funded student and cultural organizations. They also influenced foreign elections.
13. CIA Drug Trafficking – The war on drugs has been an absolute failure. It’s pretty hard not to be a failure though when the very government that is funding the drug itself. The government also facilitated the sale of crack and cocaine to the members of the Crips and Bloods in Los Angeles. This kind of money is called “black money”. It is literally untraceable funding the governments receives from illegal activities. The black money the government made was funneled into a Latin American guerrilla army.
14. CIA Assassinations – After Watergate, the CIA was thoroughly investigated to figure out what the agency had been up too. It was discovered that the agency had broken its charter to only gather intelligence. It was proven that the CIA had backed assassinations across the world such as the assassination of Allende in Chile and Mossadegh in Iran. Assassinations against Central and South American leaders and revolutionaries, as well as Africa, Middle East and East Asia were also revealed.
15. Operation Gladio – Operation Gladio is what is known as a “stay behind” operation. It was conducted throughout Europe to continue anti-communist resistance in case of a Warsaw Pact invasion of western Europe after WWII.
16. Operation Ajax – The United States intervened in a dispute between the UK and Iran. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) made tons of money for the Anglo half of the company, while Iran pretty much got screwed the whole time. This changed when the Iranian parliament nationalized the AIOC and they elected Mohammed Mossadegh as Prime Minister. While he was pro West, the West saw the nationalization of the oil fields as a move towards Communism. The United States then sent in someone to figure out the whole situation. Apparently the only solution that could be thought of was to just assassinate and overthrow the leader of Iran. Which would then lead to anti-Western feelings across Iran, which would lead to the Iranian revolution that installed anti-Western government led by Ayatollah Khomeini.
17. Operation Valkyrie- This conspiracy involved the cooperation of hundreds of people from Hitlers own inner circle. One of Hitlers close advisors planted a briefcase bomb in one of Hitler’s conference rooms. He detonated the bomb remotely but Hitler survived with just minor injuries unfortunately.
18. Iran-Contra Affair – Reagan and his administration illegally traded weapons with the Iranian government in exchange for the release of hostages being held in Iran. They were captured during the Iranian revolution that occurred because of Operation Ajax which is talked about above.
19. 1990 Testimony Of Nayirah- Nayirah was supposedly a refugee from Kuwait who testified before Congress that she had seen Iraqi soldiers pulling Kuwaiti babies from their incubators, causing them to die. This testimony went a long way towards gaining public support for an invasion of Iraq. Well it turns out this girl wasn’t at all who she said she was. She was actually the niece of a major Kuwaiti politician who had taken acting lessons at the request of the CIA.
20. Asbestos – Manufacturers did everything they could from 1930 to 1960 to prevent the public from knowing about the link between exposure to asbestos and the many respiratory illnesses it can lead to, including cancer. It wasn’t until 1962 that epidemiologists were able to definitively say with 100% certainty that exposure to asbestos can cause life threatening illnesses.
21. The Mafia- The “Mafia” was never even known about until the 1960’s when a member of it, Joe Valachi decided to reveal everything he knew about the organization to law enforcement officials. Organized crime was known to law enforcement. However the extent of their involvement in government, the CIA, and the biggest businesses in the world was unthinkable at the time.
22. The Dreyfus Affair – In France in the late 1800’s, a Jewish artillery officer by the name of Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to life in prison based on false documents forged by the French government. He was finally pardoned and released, however the French government did try to cover up the incident.
23. Bohemian Grove- So apparently the 1% of the world go to this grove every year and worship a stone owl statue in an occult fashion.
24. NSA Spies On Americans – This one was pretty recent. Edward Snowden revealed to the American public the spying and illegal wiretapping that the National Security Agency was doing to the American public. The NSA collects bulk phone and internet data to look for evidence of terrorist activities all in the “interest of national security”.
25. The Federal Reserve – The Federal Reserve is a group of 12 banks that control the monetary and credit conditions in the economy. They are supposedly operated by a board of governors, the theory is however that the federal reserve banks are in fact privately owned. They are not used to for the purpose they were intended. Instead they are manipulated by a few very powerful people in order to make the rich even richer.
26. “Gay Bombs” – The Air Force inquired about the using pheromone bombs that would make enemy soldiers irresistibly attractive to one another.
27. Contaminated Vaccines- Some 98 million Polio vaccinations were exposed to a cancer causing virus. It is documented that many of the people who received these infected vaccines did go on to develop cancer.
That’s a lot of government lying and cover ups on one page. If these examples don’t convince you that our world governments are capable of anything, then I don’t know what will. Our government was willing to kill its own citizens all for the selfish ambition of a few individuals. Until more people wake up and start realizing what our governments are willing to do to their own people, they will keep on doing these kinds of things. Some of these conspiracies don’t affect our day-to-day lives that much, most of them though have had a profound effect on history. What are your thoughts?