Crazy Conspiracy Theories that were True Link

Here’s a great little collection of crazy sounding conspiracy theories that turned out to actually be true:

The plot developed into a semi-big deal, with financing channels and a new economic initiative all ready to go, but was undone by the plotters’ choice for the American Benito Mussolini: the even-more hilariously named Smedley Butler. The idea was to assemble a force of disgruntled veterans (brown shirts optional, one imagines), march them to Washington, and force President Roosevelt to appoint Butler to some kind of cabinet position, from which he could pass the cabal’s orders to the basically powerless president. All that the plot’s architects seemed to know about Butler when they picked him was that he was a solid-gold, heavily decorated war veteran. Unfortunately for them, Butler had a change of heart (and politics) during the Hoover Administration and actively campaigned for Roosevelt in 1932.

Or how about this little gem:

The notion that the CIA has kidnapped people, drugged them against their will, and experimented with brainwashing and torture is the kind of thing you usually hear from unmedicated schizophrenics raving on the bus. Except that totally happened. The CIA admitted it after the project had run for over twenty years, and two of the leading lights of the program—Richard Helms and William Casey—went on to be appointed as directors of the agency. It was was called MKUltra.

I believe I’m officially an old kook.