9 conspiracy theories, but actually they were
In many circles of conversation and, especially, internet forums, conspiracy theories are some of the most talked about subjects, who skew their opinions on the most diverse mysteries and events.
Many of them are false and proven as such. However, there were some that eventually turned out to be real and not just imagination or even lies that came from a person or group. Check out some of them below:
1 - Gulf of Tonkin incident
The conspiracy theory: The Gulf of Tonkin incident, the motive that led to US involvement in the Vietnam War, never really occurred.
That's right. The incident involved the US destroyer (a type of defense and espionage vessel) USS Maddox, allegedly attacked by three North Vietnamese navy torpedoes, responding to the fire with the help of airplanes from the task force to which he belonged. .
United States President Lyndon B. Johnson promptly drafted the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which became his government's legal justification (and perfect excuse) for the definitive entry into the Vietnam War. The problem is that the event never actually happened.
The Vietnamese government assured that there was no attack. So much so that in 2005 secret documents from the US National Security Agency (NSA) were revealed, disclosing the fact that the presence of North Vietnamese torpedo bombers was never really confirmed.
But then the USS Maddox shot what? Interestingly, in 1965, President Johnson commented: "As far as I know, our Navy was shooting whales there."
It is noteworthy that NSA historian Robert J. Hanyok himself wrote a report stating that the agency had deliberately distorted intelligence reports in 1964. He also stated: “The parallels between defective intelligence in the Gulf of Tonkin and manipulated intelligence used to justify the Iraq War make it even more interesting to re-examine the events of August 1964. "
2 - The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
The Conspiracy Theory: Between 1932 and 1972, the United States Public Health Service conducted a clinical study on rural African-American men who had contracted syphilis. The service never informed these men who had a sexually transmitted disease, or even offered treatment, even after penicillin became available as a cure in the 1940s.
Unfortunately it's true. Rather than receiving treatment, subjects in these studies were told they had "bad blood." When World War II began, 250 of the men registered for the project (and only those) were first informed that they had syphilis. Even so, the service denied them treatment.
By the early 1970s, 128 of the original 399 men had died from the disease-related complications, while 40 of their wives also had the condition and 19 of their children were born with congenital syphilis.
A similar experiment, conducted on prisoners, soldiers, and patients at a Guatemalan psychiatric hospital, infected the subjects and treated them with antibiotics.
3 - MK Ultra Project
The Conspiracy Theory: The CIA (The Central Intelligence Agency) performed secret mind control experiments on US citizens from the 1950s until 1973.
Yes, that happened, and it was so true that in 1995 President Clinton actually issued a formal apology on behalf of the United States government.
Essentially, the CIA used drugs, electronics, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, verbal and sexual abuse, and torture to conduct experimental behavioral engineering experiments. The program has divided hundreds of these projects into more than 80 different institutions, including universities, hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies.
Most were discovered in 1977, when the Freedom of Information Act exposed 20, 000 previously classified documents and triggered a series of hearings in the Senate. Because CIA Director Richard Helms destroyed most of MK Ultra's most poignant files in 1973, much of what actually happened during these experiments is still unknown, and obviously not a single person has been brought to justice.
As a matter of curiosity, there is growing evidence that Theodore Kaczynski, known as Unabomber, was an individual who participated in the MK Ultra project while at Harvard University in the 1950s and 1960s.
Moreover, any reference by MK Ultra to the “Ultraviolence” cited in the movie Clockwork Orange, directed by Stanley Kubrick (adapted from Anthony Burgess's book), in addition to Alex's torture schemes, may not be coincidental.
Anthony Burgess worked for British intelligence and, according to a biographer, he witnessed MK Ultra's experiments, filling his book with a few brushstrokes about the project.
4 - Operation Northwoods
Conspiracy Theory: The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States military drafted and approved plans for terrorist acts on US soil to influence national public opinion in supporting a war against Cuba.
It is true and the documents supporting the theory exist. Fortunately, President Kennedy rejected the evil plan, which included: innocent Americans being shot dead in the streets, boats with refugees from Cuba being sunk offshore, a wave of violent terrorism that would be launched in Washington, Miami, and elsewhere., people being accused of attacks they did not commit and planes being hijacked.
In addition, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, led by President Lyman Lemnitzer, planned to fabricate evidence that would implicate Fidel Castro and Cuban refugees to be behind the attacks.
Perhaps one of the scariest “goals” was that Lemnitzer planned a “thoroughly staged” incident in which a Cuban plane would attack and shoot down a plane full of American college students.
5 - CIA Drug Trafficking in Los Angeles
The conspiracy theory: During the 1980s, the CIA facilitated the sale of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and channeled millions in trafficking profits to a Latin American guerrilla army.
It's complicated and complex, but it's true. Gary Webb Dark Alliance's book: The CIA, the Cons, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion describes how the “Cons” - opposition groups to the government of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in Nicaragua, which began in 1979 -, backed by the CIA, smuggled cocaine into the United States and then distributed crack to Los Angeles gangs, pocketing the profits.
The CIA directly helped drug traffickers raise money for the Cons in exchange for information. According to what Gary Weeb wrote in a 1996 article, "this drug network has also made room for the Colombian cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles."
It is noteworthy that on December 10, 2004, Webb committed suicide under suspicious circumstances as two bullets were used to shoot himself in the head. Keyed up!
6 - Operation Mockingbird
The Conspiracy Theory: In the late 1940s, when the Cold War was beginning to unfold, the CIA launched a secret project called Operation Mockingbird. Their goal was to buy influence and control among the mainstream media.
In fact, they also planned to place journalists and reporters directly on the CIA payroll, which some say is ongoing today. The architects of this plan were Frank Wisner, Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, and Philip Graham (editor of The Washington Post), who planned to enlist American news organizations to become primarily spies and propagandists.
His list of agents eventually included journalists on major networks ABC, NBC, CBS, Time, Newsweek, Associated Press, United Press International (UPI), Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Copley News Service, among others. By the 1950s, the CIA had infiltrated media companies and universities, with tens of thousands of agents on duty.
7 - COINTELPRO
The Conspiracy Theory: An FBI program was designed to destabilize protest groups, leftists, activists and political dissidents within the United States.
Truth. COINTELPRO was a series of illegal, illegal FBI projects that infiltrated national political organizations to discredit and defame them. This included the Vietnam War critics, civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, and a wide range of activists and journalists.
The acts committed against them included psychological warfare, slander using false documents and false media reports, harassment, illegal imprisonment and, by some, intimidation and possibly violence and murder. Similar and possibly more sophisticated tactics are still used today, including NSA monitoring.
8 - Operation Snow White
The Conspiracy Theory: During the 1970s, the Church of Scientology stole government confidential files about them and their founder (L. Ron Hubbard) to clean up unfavorable records at dozens of government agencies. This criminal action was called Operation Snow White.
In fact, it happened. This project included a series of infiltrations and thefts from 136 foreign government agencies, embassies and consulates, as well as private Scientology organizations, which were carried out in over 30 countries.
It was the largest US government infiltration in history, involving up to 5, 000 undercover agents, who were church members, corrupt or blackmailed civil servants, and private investigators.
Eleven highly placed church executives, including Mary Sue Hubbard (the founder's wife), pleaded guilty or were convicted in federal court for obstructing justice, theft of government offices, documents and property.
9 - US government spying on its own citizens
The conspiracy theory: The US government spies on its entire population.
Such information used to be ridiculed as a fantasy derived from fertile imagination and a youthful distrust of government. But even after it has been revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been bugging most Americans, while still collecting cell phone data for over a decade, people try to fool themselves that it doesn't.
Yes, they analyze all of this (in addition to data transmitted over the internet), but it is under the "aegis of national security". Using the events of September 11, 2001 as excuses, they claim that certain freedoms must be sacrificed for the sake of security. Right?
Not only is there no evidence that the NSA has protected the population from terrorism, but there is increasing evidence that it makes them more vulnerable.
Thanks to the revelations about the NSA and its Prism project (global surveillance, which was revealed by Edward Snowden's documents), we know that the scope of NSA espionage goes beyond what many conspiracy theorists originally believed.
In early June 2014, The Washington Post reported that nearly 90% of the data being collected by NSA surveillance programs is from Internet users who have no connection to terrorist activity. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, this is a clear violation of the Constitution. In this whole thing, even Brazil got into the dance, having thousands of spied on users, including President Dilma.
