Political decoys, body doubles – nothing new

Many would rather believe a lie because truth demands a response.

This last week information came out that Americans suspected a body double concerning the likes of criminal Hillary Clinton.

Of course, there were those who came out in an attempt to defend Hillary Clinton’s attempt to reaffirm that anybody that questions the likes of her must be a “conspiracy theorist.” It never ceases to amaze me, when it comes to the masses, that they are so easily deceived (2 Thessalonians 2:11).

A while back, I had opened up the topic of conspiracies theories that turned out to be conspiracy facts. The masses are conditioned that when conspiracy is used, they should expect theory behind the word and avoid that topic at all costs (Jeremiah 11:9).

When the masses wake to the fact that conspiracies are called theories by those who are covering for the ones who are responsible for them, then they can then bring about resolve (Isaiah 26:9).

Decoying

DECOY, n. 1. Any thing intended to lead into a snare; any lure or allurement that deceives and misleads into evil, danger or the power of an enemy. 2. A place for catching wild fowls.

The practice of decoying is essentially no different than the professional entertainer look alike, who mimics famous entertainers whom they resemble. The only difference is that the “lookalike” presents an acknowledged artifice. The decoy must conceal his or her imposture from the “audience.”

Comedian Jim Carrey wanted to take a trip to Israel and experience the country’s famous holy sites, so he hired a body double, installed him in the King David hotel in a room booked under Carrey’s name and just had the guy stay in the room ordering hamburgers all day while the real actor enjoyed his vacation incognito. The press camped out around the hotel for four days, getting nothing and complaining that “Jim Carrey came all the way to Israel and just ate hamburgers the whole time.”

Andy Warhol, Miley Cyrus, Jose Canseco, Reba McEntire, Andy Kaufman and others have done it, so why should it come as a surprise when politicians do this?

Joe R. Reeder, an undersecretary for the U.S. Army from 1993 to 1997, has gone on record with claims that a number of figures around the world have or have had decoys, including Manuel Noriega, Raoul Cédras, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, George W. Bush, etc.

Of Noriega’s alleged four decoys, Reeder said: “They were good. They practiced his gait, his manner of speech and his modus operandi – what he did during the day and night.”

Perhaps the most famous political decoy, soldier M. E. Clifton James successfully impersonated General Bernard Montgomery (“Monty”) for intelligence purposes during World War II.

As a result, he was approached by actor David Niven in May 1944. Niven, then a Colonel in the Army Kinematograph Section, told James he was wanted to impersonate “Monty,” as this would allow Montgomery to be somewhere else, thus confusing the Germans.

James had to learn Montgomery’s gestures, mannerisms, gait and voice and had to give up smoking.

Because James had lost his right-hand middle finger in the First World War, a realistic replacement was made.

Even his wife had to be deceived and was both kept in the dark and sent back to Leicester. Once he was trained, his presence succeeded in confusing the Germans regarding the invasion plans.

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler is known to have employed at least one double, and it has been alleged that he employed as many as six. One of these men, Gustav Weler, was later knowingly executed by guards as part of a disinformation strategy and his corpse was found by Allied forces who initially believed it to be Hitler.

However, the British surgeon and historical writer W. Hugh Thomas reported in his 1996 book “Doppelgangers” that Gustav Weler was found alive after the war and that Allied troops interviewed Weler following Hitler’s death.

Heinrich Himmler

The body of Heinrich Himmler, after committing suicide, 1945. Alleged by some to be his double.

Hugh Thomas claims that the man who committed suicide after his capture in Lüneburg in May 1945, was not in fact Heinrich Himmler.

This claim is based on some physical discrepancies, including the apparent lack of a dueling scar on the corpse. Himmler was known to have a ‘Y’-shaped scar on his left cheek, left by an epee; the corpse had none. Thomas claims that the substitution was deliberate, to throw the Allies off Himmler’s scent. It is known that British intelligence agents, including Kim Philby, did not believe the Lüneburg prisoner was Himmler.

Joseph Stalin/”Rashid”/Felix Dadaev

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin is alleged to have had a double, identified only as “Rashid.” Officials at the KGB allegedly learned that Rashid was a “double” for Stalin and employed him to replace Stalin for some public functions after World War II. Rashid spent two years studying with Alexei Dikiy, an actor who played the role of Stalin in propaganda films. Rashid claimed there were other Stalin lookalikes employed by the KGB, although he never met any. He claimed to have heard of another Stalin double who was hired to live in the dictator’s dacha outside of Moscow in the late 1940s and 1950s when Stalin was dying.

This double filled in for Stalin for media events and at times when Stalin had to meet government functionaries and others. Rashid died in 1991, aged 93.

In 2008, another one of Stalin’s doubles, Felix Dadaev, came forward, having written a book about his adventures as a political decoy. The Putin government gave him permission to tell his story at age 88. He appeared in a 2014 documentary about Stalin’s last days on German television.

Henry Kissinger, Boris Yeltsin, Saddam Hussein, and others did the same.
At some point, the American people are going to have to turn off the television (Psalm 101:3; 2 Corinthians 6:17; 1 John 2:15; James 4:4) and do their own due diligence. Until they do, the deceptive games being played on them by the corrupt media, politicians, and organizations, are going to continue.