Lone Gunmen

Today, a lone gunmen killed 33 people at Virginia Tech University, including himself. It's a sign of how much I mistrust the monkey king that I seriously considered, for at least a few minutes, that maybe the CIA or some other mysterious government agents brainwashed the guy and set him up to kill people to distract us from the war in Iraq and Gonzo-gate.

If you think I'm totally insane, consider Operation Northwoods. In the early 1960s, top military leaders in the U.S. made plans to commit terrorist acts, including murders, to manipulate Americans to support a war against Cuba. In the book Body of Secrets, James Bamford details the plot, backed up by government documents released through the Freedom of Information act.

Plans included the assassination of Cuban immigrants, sinking boats full of Cuban refugees, hijacking planes, blowing up an American ship, and terrorist acts in U.S. cities. There was even a contingency plan to blame the Communists if John Glenn's rocket blew up when he was sent into space.

Kennedy defense secretary Robert McNamara and Kennedy himself informed the generals that they would not be executing the plot. Who knows what would have happened if Nixon had been president then? We know what would have happened if Dubya were president. We're living through it now.

Now, all the conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassinations don't seem so far-fetched, do they?

Bamford is also the author of A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies.