Actual unretouched photograph taken in the Des Moines airport in January 1980. Why am I meeting with then-Senator, later White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker? And why am I in disguise? Who is the man in the background, watching us?
On a previous post, Doug mentioned Oliver Stone’s paranoid masterpiece “JFK.”
Which reminded me of when I lived in New Orleans — during Jim Garrison’s investigation.
Which got me to thinking further…
You know, Oliver Stone could probably weave a good paranoid conspiracy around my life. All of the following is true:
- I was in Washington during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- Shortly thereafter, I moved to Latin America, not to be seen in this country for two-and-a-half years.
- That means I was conveniently out of the country when Kennedy was killed.
- There was a military coup while I was in Ecuador. It was planned (in part at least) in the very same house in which I lived, while I was there.
- My guitar teacher in Ecuador was an agent of U.S. Naval Intelligence.
- The pastor of the nondenominational church we attended was an agent of the CIA.
- Within months of returning to this country, I moved to New Orleans, where Jim Garrison was about to get rolling with his allegations.
- In 1970, I had a run-in with Admiral John McCain, then Commander-In-Chief, Pacific Command — and the father of the John McCain who was at the time a prisoner of the North Vietnamese.
- In 1978, I met George H.W. Bush, former head of the CIA who at the time was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations.
- I was in Iowa two years later, just before Bush beat Ronald Reagan in the caucuses there.
- Several weeks later, I was present during the Arkansas caucuses when delegates of Reagan and Howard Baker conspired to squeeze Bush out, thereby bumping him out of contention. I had been traveling with Baker in Iowa. I had a brief face-to-face contact with Bush that day.
- During the 80s, I had numerous face-to-face meetings with Al Gore.
- In subsequent years, I would have closed-door meetings at my office with John McCain (on multiple occasions), George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Ralph Nader, Jesse Jackson, Dick Gephardt, John Kerry, John Edwards, Howard Dean, and, completing the circle to the Kennedy administration, Ted Sorensen.
Forget Oliver Stone. I’m starting to have suspicions about myself…
Think about it — how would your life look in the eyes of a conspiracy theorist who believes there’s no such thing as coincidence?
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The photo above was taken two months after Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Is it a coincidence that my hair and beard in the photo are just like those of Ben Affleck in the movie, “Argo?” Was Affleck trying to look like me? What is Baker saying to me? Could it be, “Argo f___ yourself?“
I thought that was Inspector Clouseau with a beard…
Unteel we meet again and ze case is sol-ved…
13. Frankly, Brad, it is difficult to guess whether or not you intended to omit a covert meeting with bin Laden. Such is the gravity of either yours and “Howard Baker’s” disguises, or the identifiers behind your photo collection.
I have always thought that Gerald Ford should have chosen Howard Baker instead of Bob Dole as his running mate in 1976. It was a no-brainer as the Democrats nominated a southerner for President. Ford needed a southerner on his ticket. Dole brought absolutely nothing to the ticket as far as I can tell.