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The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone · Conspiracy! The Show

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  Speaker 1: I check the adult. Hey everybody, welcome to Conspiracy The Show.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Adam Todd Brown joining me as co
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  Speaker 1: host today my favorite co host of all It's just
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  Speaker 1: me this week. If you're curious why this podcast has
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  Speaker 1: been so inactive lately in terms of releasing brand new episodes,
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  Speaker 1: that's because you're not a Patreon or Supercast subscriber. Since
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  Speaker 1: way back in October, I've been releasing solo episodes about
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  Speaker 1: the strange two thousand and two death of Minnesota Senator
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  Speaker 1: Paul Wellstone. What you're about to listen to is the
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  Speaker 1: single episode version of that deep Deep dive. Don't worry,
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  Speaker 1: it's not going to be a thing where we get
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  Speaker 1: halfway through and then you have to subscribe to hear
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  Speaker 1: the conclusion. No, I'm going to tell you the story
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  Speaker 1: from beginning to end. That said, if you want to
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  Speaker 1: hear a way longer version of this podcast, a four
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  Speaker 1: episode version that features more than an hour of extra
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  Speaker 1: details and information, just subscribe at Patreon dot com, slash
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  Speaker 1: on pops or un popsnetwork dot Supercast dot tech. If
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  Speaker 1: you don't want to do that, hey, I love you
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  Speaker 1: all the same and appreciate you listening to this right now,
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  Speaker 1: let's get to it. This all started when a listener
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  Speaker 1: suggested I check out a book called American Assassination The
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  Speaker 1: Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone. It sounded intriguing, so
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  Speaker 1: I looked it up, and it turns out the book
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  Speaker 1: is now out of print and sort of hard to find,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, that's exactly my kind of thing, so
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  Speaker 1: I ponied up and bought a copy, and oh man,
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  Speaker 1: it is a wild ride. So a lot of what
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  Speaker 1: you're going to hear today is based on that book.
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  Speaker 1: That said, as I discuss at length on the full
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  Speaker 1: version of this podcast, the authors of that book, at
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  Speaker 1: least one of them, is kind of a sketchy source,
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  Speaker 1: so I also did my very best to look into
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  Speaker 1: their claims myself whenever possible. If you want to see
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  Speaker 1: a complete list of all the references and resources that
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  Speaker 1: went into this, just check out the show notes on
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  Speaker 1: on pops dot com, which will be up shortly after
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  Speaker 1: this episode goes up. And now, with all that out
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  Speaker 1: of the way, let's talk about the strange death of
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  Speaker 1: Senator Paul Wellstone. The first and most obvious question, who
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  Speaker 1: was Paul Wellstone? If you're unfamiliar. He was a US
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  Speaker 1: Senator from Minnesota who served from nineteen ninety one until
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  Speaker 1: his untimely death in two thousand and two. He was
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  Speaker 1: often called the conscience of the Senate. After death, Republicans
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  Speaker 1: spent years trying to undo the legitimately good and beneficial
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  Speaker 1: things he did during his career. Case in point, if
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  Speaker 1: you're at all familiar with the Supreme Court's twenty ten
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  Speaker 1: Citizens United decision, you know it was an objectively bad
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  Speaker 1: thing that cleared the way for corporations and labor unions
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  Speaker 1: to run attack ads against political candidates right up until
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  Speaker 1: the day of the election, with no limits on how
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  Speaker 1: much money they can spend doing it. And what that
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  Speaker 1: argument centered around in the Supreme Court was the two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and two Bipartisan Campaign Reform Bill, and more specifically,
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  Speaker 1: the Wellstone Amendment, which, as the name implies, was written
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  Speaker 1: by Paul Wellstone. Under that amendment, groups like the NRA
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  Speaker 1: or the Sierra Club couldn't run issue ads that attack
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  Speaker 1: or endorse a candidate within thirty days of a primary
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  Speaker 1: or within sixty days of an election. And that sounds nice, right, Well, Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court decided it violated the First Amendment, because
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  Speaker 1: corporations are people too, but still it's a good indicator
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  Speaker 1: that Wellstone's heart was in the right place. If you
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  Speaker 1: actually support the idea of corporate money influencing our elections
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  Speaker 1: with no limits or regulations, you are exactly the government
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  Speaker 1: boot liquor you think you aren't. But one of the
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  Speaker 1: things Paul Wellstone was known for throughout his career was
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  Speaker 1: being one of the most vocal and effective opponents of
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  Speaker 1: United States foreign policy in the Middle East, starting from
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  Speaker 1: way back in nineteen ninety one, when nine days after
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  Speaker 1: being sworn in for his first term as Senator, he
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  Speaker 1: voted against a resolution authorizing US military force against Iraq,
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  Speaker 1: something that led to him receiving death threats just two
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  Speaker 1: weeks into his first term. Those threats were so intense
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  Speaker 1: they were eventually investigated by the FBI, but he was
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  Speaker 1: already familiar to the fa well before that. Files that
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  Speaker 1: were made public in twenty ten revealed that the FBI
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  Speaker 1: had been tracking Paul Wellstone since nineteen seventy one, when
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  Speaker 1: he was a twenty five year old college professor who
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  Speaker 1: opposed the Vietnam War. The FBI is going to be
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  Speaker 1: a very important player. We'll get back to them later.
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  Speaker 1: For now, let's fast forward to two thousand and two.
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  Speaker 1: Paul Wellstone had repeatedly promised that he'd only served two
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  Speaker 1: terms in the Senate. Minnesota, at least at the time
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  Speaker 1: very notoriously disliked career politicians. I mean that shouldn't come
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  Speaker 1: as a surprise. They elected Jesse Ventura to be their
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  Speaker 1: governor after all, and Wellstone came into office giving off
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  Speaker 1: lots of not a career politician energy. But by two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and two it became apparent that he was going
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  Speaker 1: to seek that third term in office. There was a
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  Speaker 1: Republican administration that he disagreed with vehemently in the White House,
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  Speaker 1: and Democrats held a very slim margin in the Senate.
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  Speaker 1: Now is not the time for me to walk away,
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  Speaker 1: he was quoted as saying at the time. And Republicans
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  Speaker 1: saw this change of course by Wellstone as an opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: He had one of the most liberal voting records in
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  Speaker 1: the Senate, fighting the Bush administration over everything from the
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  Speaker 1: environment to foreign policy to bankruptcy legislation everything in between.
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  Speaker 1: But now Paul Wellstone had a credibility problem and that
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  Speaker 1: made his campaign vulnerable. Here's a quote from Lawrence Jacobs,
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  Speaker 1: a political scientist at the University of Minnesota, speaking to
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  Speaker 1: The New York Times back when the campaign was happening,
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  Speaker 1: Wellstone has always portrayed himself as the commitment candidate. Even
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  Speaker 1: though you don't agree with me, you can trust me.
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  Speaker 1: I think his decision to go back on the two
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  Speaker 1: term pledge really eats away at that end. Quote. And
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  Speaker 1: the Bush Cheney machine, they were so ex about this.
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  Speaker 1: They even handpicked the Republican who would challenge Paul Wellstone,
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  Speaker 1: and that was Saint Paul Mayer and former Democrat Norm Coleman.
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  Speaker 1: Dick Cheney actually talked another candidate out of running so
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  Speaker 1: Coleman could run in his place. That's how much the
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  Speaker 1: Republicans valued the Senate seat, and things seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: breaking their way. Coleman held a slight lead in both
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  Speaker 1: polling and fundraising Throughout most of the campaign. It seemed
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  Speaker 1: like Wellstone's broken promise about running for a third term
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  Speaker 1: really was going to cost him his Senate seat. But
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  Speaker 1: then something remarkable happened. On October tenth, two thousand and two,
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  Speaker 1: a vote was held on the Bush administration's authorization of
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  Speaker 1: the use of force against Iraq, and Wellstone voted against it.
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  Speaker 1: That made him one of only eleven Senators all Democrats,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, who voted against both the nineteen ninety
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  Speaker 1: one one and two thousand and two wars in Iraq.
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  Speaker 1: It also gave him an unexpected surge in the polls,
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  Speaker 1: despite reportedly going home the night after the vote and
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  Speaker 1: telling his wife Sheila that he'd just cost himself the election.
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  Speaker 1: Polls conducted the next day showed Wellstone now held a
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  Speaker 1: forty seven percent to forty one percent lead over Norm Coleman.
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  Speaker 1: Turns out his concerns were incorrect. Voting against the second
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  Speaker 1: War in Iraq gave his campaign new life. Sadly, Paul
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  Speaker 1: Wellstone would not live to see the outcome of that election.
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  Speaker 1: At ten twenty two am on October twenty fifth, two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and two, near Eveleth, Minnesota, Senator Wellstone, his wife,
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  Speaker 1: his daughter, three staff members, and two pilots were killed
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  Speaker 1: when the Beachcraft King Air, a one hundred twin engine
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  Speaker 1: airplane they were flying in, crashed. The Senator and his
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  Speaker 1: family and staff were traveling to Evelyth for the funeral
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  Speaker 1: of Martin Rukenna, a steel worker whose son Tom served
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  Speaker 1: in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Thoughts and prayers from
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  Speaker 1: all sides of the aisle started pouring in immediately. Republican
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  Speaker 1: Senator Phil Graham of Texas called Wellstone a man of
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  Speaker 1: conviction who never swayed from his beliefs, even when he
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  Speaker 1: was fighting a lonely battle. Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of
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  Speaker 1: Massachusetts said all of us who knew Paul Wellstone are
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  Speaker 1: devastated today. We will miss you, Paul, and we will
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  Speaker 1: never forget you. And Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura added, today
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  Speaker 1: the state of Minnesota has suffered a deep and penetrating loss.
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  Speaker 1: Vince McMahon. Something else started circulating immediately, news reports in
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  Speaker 1: all the major outlets claiming that Wellstone's plane was flying
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  Speaker 1: in severely inclement weather. CNN, Fox News, CBS, NBC, ABC,
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  Speaker 1: Local Minnesota News, all the outlets reporting the same thing,
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  Speaker 1: terrible weather. I want to bring up one of those
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  Speaker 1: articles in particular. It's called NTSB studies Weather in Wellstone Crash.
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  Speaker 1: It was posted on CNN dot com on October twenty eighth,
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and two, just a few days after the crash.
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  Speaker 1: First off, let's read the second paragraph of the article.
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  Speaker 1: Investigators have discovered the aircraft was off course, heading south
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  Speaker 1: and away from the runway when it crashed Friday morning.
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  Speaker 1: Pilots were reporting light icing conditions in the area, and
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  Speaker 1: investigators are examining whether de icing equipment on the plane
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  Speaker 1: was working properly, said Carol Karmody, the NTSB's acting chairwoman,
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  Speaker 1: the NTSB, of course, being the National Transportation Safety Board,
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  Speaker 1: and for starters, remember that name, Carol Karmody. She's going
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  Speaker 1: to come up a lot over the course of this. Also,
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  Speaker 1: that statement in and of itself, seemingly normal as it
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  Speaker 1: may be, is actually immediately odd on account of this
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  Speaker 1: statement from the NTSB website. Here goes at least once
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  Speaker 1: daily during the onseene phase of an investigation, one of
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  Speaker 1: the five members of the safety Board itself, who accompanies
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  Speaker 1: the team, briefs the media on the latest factual information
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  Speaker 1: developed by the team, while a career investigator runs the
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  Speaker 1: inquiry as investigator in charge. The board member is the
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  Speaker 1: primary spokesperson for the investigation. A public affairs officer also
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  Speaker 1: maintains contact with the media. Confirmed factual information is released.
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  Speaker 1: There is no speculation over cause did you catch that
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  Speaker 1: last sentence? No speculation over cause. But right here, in
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  Speaker 1: the second paragraph of an article you can still read online,
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  Speaker 1: is NTSB Acting Chairwoman Carol Krmody speculating a way that
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  Speaker 1: maybe the de icing equipment was the problem in this crash.
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  Speaker 1: And there are a couple more really important quotes in
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  Speaker 1: that CNN article. Here's one of them. In addition, the
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  Speaker 1: Federal Aviation Administration found a high frequency radio beacon used
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  Speaker 1: to guide aircraft toward the airport was slightly out of tolerance,
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  Speaker 1: Carmody said, but additional tests were being conducted, and we
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  Speaker 1: don't know how significant that is. Not only is that
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  Speaker 1: more speculation, but it's an extremely important piece of speculation.
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  Speaker 1: Write it down. Here comes another. This is also a
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  Speaker 1: quote from the article. NTSB investigator Robert Benson said, pilots
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  Speaker 1: can tell if the system known as VR has a
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  Speaker 1: significant malfunction, if it becomes grossly out of tolerance dangerous,
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  Speaker 1: then it shuts itself down. The pilots can tell that
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  Speaker 1: and they go someplace else. It wasn't to that state yet. So,
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  Speaker 1: for one thing, it's weird that we have two members
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  Speaker 1: of the NTSB both saying the VR system might have
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  Speaker 1: had something to do with it, and then also saying
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  Speaker 1: in the span of the same article that the pilots
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  Speaker 1: would know if there was something wrong with the VR system,
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  Speaker 1: and they would do something about it. But that VR
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  Speaker 1: system is integral to both the official NTSB report about
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  Speaker 1: the crash, which would arrive months later, and also the
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  Speaker 1: conspiracy theories that surround the crash. So go ahead and
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: toss it in your memory palace now. It will come
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  Speaker 1: up again soon. And now here's another interesting quote from
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  Speaker 1: another article that you can still read right now online.
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  Speaker 1: On October twenty fifth, two thousand and two, the Associated
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  Speaker 1: Press posted an article aptly titled Senator Wellstone dies in
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  Speaker 1: plane crash, which included this quote. At the site, FBI
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  Speaker 1: spokesman Paul McCabe said there was no indication the crash
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  Speaker 1: was related to terrorism. Now, please note this article went
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  Speaker 1: up on October twenty fifth, that is the day of
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  Speaker 1: the crash. And here's the thing. How do you know,
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  Speaker 1: I get that the FBI is good at their job,
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  Speaker 1: But that is a shockingly short turnaround time to come
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  Speaker 1: to a conclusion of that magnitude, Like, just even on
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  Speaker 1: the surface, that's weird. One would think in a case
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  Speaker 1: as high profile as this, authorities would not want to
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  Speaker 1: jump to conclusions in the media right away, but it's
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  Speaker 1: also suspect for reasons beyond that, and we'll get to them.
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  Speaker 1: But before we do, it's worth noting that shortly after
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  Speaker 1: the crash, also acting NTSB chairwoman Carol Carmody announced the
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  Speaker 1: plane Whilestone was flying in was equipped with a cockpit
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  Speaker 1: voice recorder and that finding it would be priority number one.
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  Speaker 1: All of this is suspicious. Everything I've said to this point,
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  Speaker 1: as normal as some of it may be, is all weird.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about why. Up first, those weather reports regarding
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  Speaker 1: the inclement weather, What none of those stories bothered to
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: report is that planes taking off and landing in that
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: exact same weather at that same airport before and after
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  Speaker 1: the crash. Automated instruments at Eveleth Airport at ten fourteen am,
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  Speaker 1: which is right before the crash, reported the following conditions
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  Speaker 1: light snow, calm, wind, visibility of three miles, which you
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: might recognize as not being particularly inclement weather. But the
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  Speaker 1: most telling example of why the weather reports were suspicious
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: involved the actions of a guy named Gary Ulman, who
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: owned an aviation company based out of Eveleth Airport. After
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: hearing that Wellstone's plane failed to arrive, he immediately took
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: off in a plane of his own to look for
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the wreckage so as to alert rescue teams and medical
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  Speaker 1: personnel to its location. He, along with other local pilots
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  Speaker 1: who flew into Evelyth around the same time, all confirmed
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  Speaker 1: that the weather wasn't that bad, visibility was well above
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  Speaker 1: the one mile minimum required to safely land, and that
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  Speaker 1: icing wasn't any more extreme than normal. Nevertheless, a couple
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  Speaker 1: days later, an NTSB spokesperson took to the news again
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  Speaker 1: to report that bad weather probably caused the crash. I've
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  Speaker 1: already touched on why that's problematic. The NTSB isn't supposed
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: to speculate in situations like this. Essentially, before the wreckage
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: had even stopped burning, news outlets all around the country
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  Speaker 1: were flooded with stories about how this crash was probably
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  Speaker 1: caused by freezing rain and snow limited visibility icing on
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  Speaker 1: the wings, even though actual pilots in the area reported
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  Speaker 1: weather conditions that wildly conflicted with those claims, and there
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: are lots of other details that put the weather explanation
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  Speaker 1: in doubt. For one thing, the type of plane Whelstone
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: was traveling in is equipped with a de icing system,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: just like most other planes. If that system failed, a
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  Speaker 1: warning system should have alerted the pilots, at which point
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: you'd expect they'd report some sort of issue that was
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: impacting the flight. But no. Prior to the plane going down,
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  Speaker 1: there was no distress call, no indication from the pilots
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  Speaker 1: that things were going wrong. The last transmission from the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: cockpit was at ten eighteen am, and by all accounts,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: there was no evidence from the pilot's voice that there
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: was any difficulty, no reported problems, no expressed concerns, and
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: then two minutes later the plane went down. So obviously
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: something changed drastically in the seconds after that final seemingly
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: stress free communication from the pilots at ten eighteen am,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Because radar showed that at ten nineteen am the plane
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: began drifting slightly to the south. The last appearance on
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: radar was about two minutes later, when the plane was
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: just north of the crash site's east side. Here's a
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: quote from a local news report. At the time, they
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: were no longer in control of the aircraft. That will
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  Speaker 1: be the sixty four dollars question. What occurred in the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: last few minutes that distracted them or caused them to
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: wrestle control of the aircraft, something caused them at low
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: altitude to veer off course. An article in the Duluth
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: News Tribune shortly after the crash includes this quote. Veteran
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: pilots remained puzzled by the plane's bizarre path during the
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: final moments of its flight Friday, and theorized that a
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: propeller failed or that the plane hit a flock of
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: geese as it approached the airport. Something dramatic happened, and
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: whatever it was, it happened very quickly. That's a quote
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: from Bob Peasley, a long time Northwest Airlines pilot. Except
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: here's the thing. If that was the case, why no
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: communication from the pilots. Why would they not report that
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to air traffic control? Why no distress signal? Ceasing all
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: communications because your plane hit a flock of gar and
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: lost to propeller is not how things would go. These
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  Speaker 1: were experienced pilots. If something happened that caused them to
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: lose control of the flight, they would have communicated that
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: whatever happened caused them to not only lose control, but
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: also communication and National Center for Atmospheric Research meteorologist Ben Bernstein,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: who studied radar and satellite imagery from the time of
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: the crash, said this to NPR. Without actually going in
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: there with an aircraft and putting probes and instruments in there,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: there's no way for us to know for certain how
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: severe the conditions may have been. But looking at the
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: data we did look at, it didn't appear to be
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  Speaker 1: a particularly severe situation. This case looked like something that
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: wasn't really far out of the norm. And then there's
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the details about one of the pilots, Richard Conry, who
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: we will get way, way way more into, but for now,
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  Speaker 1: just know that he was known to be very averse
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  Speaker 1: to flying in inclement weather. He called the FAA twice
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  Speaker 1: before this flight happened. The first call, he was told
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  Speaker 1: he might encounter moderate icing, and at that point, according
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: to the La Times and other sources, he considered canceling
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the flight. But on that second call, he was told
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  Speaker 1: the wind was calm, there was light snow, and visibility
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  Speaker 1: was three miles, just like those automated instruments at Eveleth
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  Speaker 1: Airport reported at ten fourteen am. And his response to
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: hearing that, Okay, that's what I need at least it's
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: above my minimum here end quote. So he had a
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: set of standards in terms of weather, and he wouldn't
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: fly if those weren't met. In this case, they weren't
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: just met, they were exceeded. In other words, the weather
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  Speaker 1: wasn't even sort of as bad as those initial reports
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: made it out to be, which begs the question where
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: was the NTSB getting this information which it then shared
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: with the media in direct violation of their own policies
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  Speaker 1: as stated on their own website both then and now,
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  Speaker 1: And why did their only share the facts policy not
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  Speaker 1: apply to this particular airline disaster in the first place.
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  Speaker 1: Along those same lines, one question that has never been
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: answered is why was the FBI even there, or at
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: the very least, why were they there before the NTSB.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: That's a thing we have since confirmed. The FBI got
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: there first, And to put it simply, that is not
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: how it's supposed to work. The NTSB investigates first, and
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: if they find evidence of malfeasance, they alert the FBI.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: The FBI has no reason to be on the scene
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: of a plane crash unless a crime has occurred. The
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: authors of American Assassination reached out to the NTSB about
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: protocol for plane crash investigations. And here's what a spokesperson
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: told them. For aviation incidents, no one is allowed to
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: begin investigation of the scene without an NTSB member present.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And they weren't just misspeaking. What that representative told the
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: authors was perfectly in line with NTSB policy listed right
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: on their website. In this case, the FBI arrived several
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: hours prior to the NTSB anywhere from five to eight
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: hours prior, depending on who you believe. And that is
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: an important detail that we'll talk about. Not only did
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: they get there early, way before the NTSB, but they
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: also immediately decided no sabotage was involved. Again, that is
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: just not how these things work, even if the person
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: who died is an elected official. And what the FBI
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: essentially did by showing up before the NTSB and issuing
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: this public statement that no sabotage was involved, that pretty
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: much guarantee that the ensuing NTSB investigation would be conducted
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: under the thinking that there was no sabotage involved, meaning
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: they never investigated if there was any sabotage involved. The
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: FBI just broke protocol, showed up on the scene early
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: said nothing was a miss, and the investigation continued accordingly.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And I don't know. I think it's something we could
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: have looked into a little more. We'll get to a
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: lot of reasons why, but it is worth asking why
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: was it different this time? Why was the FBI allowed
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: to show up and start investigating, and what were they
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: looking for? Could it be that cockpit voice recorder that
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Carol Carmody mentioned almost immediately upon addressing the media. I
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: don't know. But another concern that's brought up in the
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: book American Assassination is how did the FBI even get
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: to the scene as quickly as they did. According to
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Saint Louis County Sheriff that Saint Louis County in Minnesota,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Rick Wahlberg, a team of FBI agents arrived on the
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: scene around noon. The crash happened at ten twenty am.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: An alert went out around ten to fifty am. Gary Olman,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: the guy who took his own plane out to look
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: for the crash scene, founded around eleven am. He directed
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: emergency personnel to the scene. Around eleven fifteen am, the
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: first formal announcement from the FAA that a crash had
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: occurred went out at twelve ten PM. If Sheriff Rick
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Wahlberg is to be believed, the FBI showed up before
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: the FAA even announced an accident had occurred. And here's
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: the thing. The crash scene in Evelyth, Minnesota is approximately
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy five miles from the FBI field
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: office in Minneapolis, and the plane crashed in a swamp
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: area that could only be accessed via ATV, which would
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: add even more time to the trip. The crash happened
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: at ten twenty am, Sheriff Wallberg says the FBI showed
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: up around noon. Even if the FBI left Minneapolis literally
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: the second the plane went down at ten twenty am,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: arriving by noon would not be possible unless they had
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: some reason to leave earlier. And even then, even if
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: they did leave immediately at ten twenty am, who told
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: them about the crash? Gary Olman was the first person
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: to find the wreckage, and he didn't find it until
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: eleven am, And he later confirmed that he definitely did
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: not contact the FBI, because why would you. That's not
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: how plane crash investigations work. Again, the NTSB has jurisdiction
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: over that scene until it's determined a crime may have occurred.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: So who called the FBI? And how did they get
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: there so quickly? Why were they there at all? There's
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: another witness who says the FBI showed up about two
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: hours after the crash, which would have been closer to
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: twelve thirty. But that's still a remarkably quick response time
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: that would still require them to have heard about this
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: way before anyone else. Gary Olman also said the FBI
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: was there by no later than one pm. Someone filed
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the FAA
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: logs that would indicate who arrived on the scene and when,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and guess what the FAA response was that the records
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: had been destroyed. Cool Cool Cool. In the book American Assassination,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: the authors trace what would have been the FBI's route
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: to the crash scene. And here goes the FBI office
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: in Minneapolis is a seventeen minute drive from the airport.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Which airport, doesn't matter whether they were going to Hubert H.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Humphrey in Minneapolis or one of the smaller regional airports
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: in Crystal or Eden Prairie. Still a seventeen minute drive,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and that's assuming there's light traffic from there, they have
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: to actually get on the plane, and let's assume that
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: being the FBI in all, the plane was ready to
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: go as soon as they got there, and they weren't
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: required to pass through any security checks. That makes for
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: a very conservative estimate of ten minutes passing between the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: time they arrived at the airport and when they got
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: on the plane. Once again, giving the benefit of the
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: doubt in assuming things like this happened much faster for
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the FBI, Let's say the plane took ten minutes to
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: take off from there. If you've ever flown, you know
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: that's a very conservative estimate also, but still this is
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: the FBI. So now we're at thirty seven minutes total
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: for the trip so far, and we still have to fly.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: The flight from Minneapolis to Duluth takes about forty minutes.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Another conservative estimate, let's say it took them five minutes
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: to exit the plane. Now we're at eighty two minutes
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and we're just in Duluth. The Feds still have to
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: get from there to the crash scene in Evelyth. To
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: do that, they rented cars. Again, let's very conservatively say
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: they spent another ten minutes renting and finding their cars.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Even if everything was set up for him when they arrived,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: you still have to walk. You have to get off
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the plane and get in your car. They aren't teleporting
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: to their cars, so ten minutes to rent the cars
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: and drive away. The drive from Duluth to Evelyth is
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: a little over an hour according to Google Maps, but
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the book once again gives the benefit of the doubt
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: and says the drive would take fifty minutes from there,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: seeing as how the crash was in a remote area
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: that could only be reached by ATV. Add another conservative
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: ten minutes from arrival in Evelyth to make it to
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: the scene. That puts the total trip time at two
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: hours and thirty two minutes. So how did they get
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: to the scene by noon? This crash happened at ten
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: twenty am. Gary Olman didn't visually confirm it until eleven am.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: To get to the scene by noon, the FBI would
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: have had to leave by nine to twenty eight am,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: which'll note is before the crash even happened. Even if
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: the noon arrival time is wrong and they actually got
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: there at one and witnesses have confirmed they were there
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: no later than one, that means they still had to
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: leave at ten twenty eight AMS, which is still minutes
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: after the crash and well before anyone had even identified
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: the crash scene or issued any official notifications that a
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: crash had happened. FBI agent Paul McCabe eventually made a
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: statement claiming that the FBI didn't arrive until three PM,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: but that not only conflicts with eyewitness accounts, including a
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: local sheriff who were called seeing FBI agents from Minneapolis
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: who he knew personally on the scene by one thirty PM.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Not only does Paul McCabe's statement conflict with that, but
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: his statement also conflicts with what the FBI now says
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: happened in terms of them arriving on the scene in Minneapolis,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: which we'll talk about way more when we dig into
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: the FBI files that have since been declassified about this.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: But the short version is they argue that they sent
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: FBI agents from Duluth directly to the scene, and two
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: problems with that. One the authors of this book asked
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: about that at the time and were very clearly told
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: no agents were sent from Duluth. Also, if the FBI
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: didn't get there until three, why would it take agents
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: so long to get there from Duluth. That's like an
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: hour hour and a half drive from Duluth to Evelyth.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: We've just talked about that. So did they get there
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: at three or did they get there around noon or one?
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: But those agents were from Duluth because even then, one
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: of the witnesses on the ground, a local sheriff, identified
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: FBI agents from Minneapolis on the scene as early as
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: one thirty PM. When asked for log records to show
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: exactly who arrived and when, McCabe claimed those records didn't
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: exist because they weren't important. They seemed pretty important personally,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: But I don't crash airplanes or investigate airplane crashes, so
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: what do I know? And remember, Carol Carmody said the
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: first order of business would be finding that cockpit voice recorder.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: While this plane wasn't required to carry one, because of
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the type of clientele this particular plane tended to service,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: they were often equipped with one anyway. At one point
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Carmody clearly had reason to believe this flight had one,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: but it was never found. Is that why the FBI
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: was there? What exactly was their role in this investigation?
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Even crazier in the NTSB's final report on the crash.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: They list the following agencies as having assisted in the investigation.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: The FAA, Aviation Charter raytheon Aircraft Company, Heart Cell Propeller Company,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Pratt, and Whitney Canada. Do
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: you notice anything weird about that list? If not, I
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: won't keep you in suspense. The FBI is not on it.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: This despite FBI agent Paul McCabe sing almost immediately after
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: the crash that a team of FBI agents would be
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: assisting the NTSB with the investigation, and also, we've investigated
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: enough already to know it wasn't terrorism. So the authors
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: of American assassination found that weird. So they reached out
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: to a guy named Frank Hildrop who worked at the
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: NTSB at the time. And here's how that conversation went. Authors.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Why was the FBI not listed as a party to
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: the investigation in the final NTSB report on the Wellstone case,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Frank Hildrop, They were not a party to the investigation? Authors?
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Then what were they doing on the scene for eight
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: hours prior to the arrival of the NTSB, Frank Hildrop.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: I can't say for sure, since I only took over
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: on Monday, but maybe they were responding to the conspiracy theories. Authors,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: How could there have been conspiracy theories before the plane
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: crashed sidebar? That's a very good question. Also, here's another
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: interesting exchange from that conversation. Authors, One more question, why
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: no public hearing for this incident? Frank Hildrip. We only
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: have hearings for high profile cases. What cases do not
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: get more high profile than this? This is the official
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: NTSB policy regarding that public hearings generally are held with
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: regard to a major accident in which there is wide
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: and sustained public interest. In what world is the crash
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: of a sitting US senator who dies days before his
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: election not high profile enough to justify a public hearing.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: That detail, when taken into account, along with the FBI
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: being allowed to investigate first, and the NTSB willingly engaging
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: in the exact kind of speculation their own policy seems
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: to forbid, meant a lot of people understandably had a
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: lot of questions about what really happened and in the
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: crash of Senator Paul Wellstone's plane, and I am one
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: of those people. So in that last section we talked
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: about all the weirdness surrounding the early reporting about the
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Wellstone crash. Things didn't get any more normal when the
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: NTSB finally issued their official report on the crash, or
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: in the thirteen months that it took for that to
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: finally happen. The report was released on November eighteenth, two
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: thousand and three, and one thing to know right off
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: the bat, all that weather stuff, ignore it all. Turns
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: out none of that mattered. Despite intense speculation for days
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: and weeks after the crash that the pilots were flying
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: in terrible weather, the NTSB decided whether wasn't a factor
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: in the crash. And sure, sometimes people get things wrong.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Human error is a thing, but the ramifications of this
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: go beyond just getting the details wrong. Remember this was
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: two thousand and two, well before social media feeds, if
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: any existed at all, were littered with news stories. Unless
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: you were in the Minnesota area or otherwise had a
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: reason to be invested in Minnesota politics, those early news
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: reports were likely to be the only news reports that
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: you would have paid attention to at the time. I'm
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: certainly not going to do it, but I suspect that
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: if you were to survey people who do remember Wellstone's death.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: A lot of them would still tell you his plane
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: went down in bad weather. But Nope, after thirteen months,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: the NTSB came back with a whole new explanation. This
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: time around, they very definitively concluded that they weren't quite
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: sure what happened, but maybe it was pilot error. Now, again,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: if you were closely following this story at the time,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: you probably would have seen that pilot error thing coming
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: from a mile away, because months before the NCSB report
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: was released, the NCSB released a bunch of information about
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: the pilots, and most of it was not good. Now,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: before we get into that information, let's talk about the
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: fact that this information was released at all. Remember, there
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: was no public hearing held for this crash. That's literally
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: the final line of the NTSB report quote no public
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: hearing was held for this accident end quote. They only
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: hold public hearings for high profile cases with significant public interest.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: So this crash wasn't high profile or interesting enough for
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: a public hearing. But it was interesting and high profile
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: enough that they'd released dirt on two dead pilots to
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: the public before the investigation is even finished. Does that
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: sound right? Why would you leak information in advance of
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the final report to the press. For a case you've
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: deemed too unimportant to warrant a public hearing, It makes
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: no sense, but that's exactly what happened. In February two
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: thousand and three, the NTSB released files from their still
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: in progress in investigation that raised a lot of questions
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: about the pilots of Wellstone's ill fated flight. For example,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: February twenty six, two thousand and three New York Times
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: article that carried the headline inquiry on Wellstone crash finds
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: oddities about pilot, It featured all sorts of salacious details
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: about one of the pilots. Keep in mind there were two,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: but in this case they were mostly talking about Richard
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Conrie and the things he got up to people. He
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: claimed to have logged five hundred and fourteen hours of
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: flight time while working at American Eagle, but a separate
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: log book he maintained claimed it was only fourteen point
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: four hours or how In the weeks before the crash,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: he and this is a quote from the article, committed
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: such errors as misidentifying his aircraft type to air traffic
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: controllers and mistaking a switch that turned on the autopilot
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: for a switch that activated a system to keep the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: plane pointed straight. There was also an LA Times article
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: the same day about how Conrie almost canceled the flight
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: because of bad weather, which which is presented as if
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: it's something scandalous as opposed to proof that the weather
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: actually cleared up enough for Conrie to be comfortable flying
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: shortly thereafter. But there was another revelation, one so shocking
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: I haven't even mentioned it up to this point for
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: dramatic reasons. Get this. In nineteen ninety Richard Conrie was
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: convicted of mail fraud. What these articles and the eventual
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: NTSB report both failed to mention is what any of
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: this has to do with the crash that killed Paul Wellstone.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: The report spends a lot of time implying or suggesting
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: that these pilots were incompetent, but at no point does
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: it ever say exactly what mistakes they made that led
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: to the crash. It does mention that at ten eighteen
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: am all seemed to be normal, and then like sixty
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: seconds later, it was not. Go watch any documentary about
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: airline disasters. Crash is caused by pilot error typically involve
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: a series of mistakes, and in this case, did they
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: even have time to make a series of mistakes between
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: ten eighteen am when things were normal and ten nineteen
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: am when everything seemed to go awry. The speed at
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: which things go from normal to deadly implies something a
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: little more dramatic than a simple switch flip oopsie occurred.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: The book American Assassination goes into a lot of detail,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: shooting holes in the NTSB conclusion presented in this report,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: and guess what it's filled with, all sorts of technical
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: jargon and things of the like, and what honestly make
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: for a boring stretch of podcast. If you're able to
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: find a copy of the book, I encourage you to
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: read what they have to say about it in its entirety.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: But I want to focus on the most important finding
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: the probable cause, finding the money shot. Here's what it says.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: of this accident was the flight cruise failure to maintain
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: adequate air speed, which led to an aerodynamic stall from
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: which they did not recover. Now a couple things about
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: that conclusion. One, they never actually prove it in that report,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: nor do they even pretend to. They never say how
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: the pilots missed the various warning signs of their impending doom,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: or why they didn't make any adjustments to fix it, or,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: to quote NTSB board member Richard Healing's comments on the conclusion,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: we don't know why. It's quite speculative. But there's something
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: else that makes their conclusion even more suspect. In an
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: effort to prove how right they were, the NTSB used
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: flight simulators to recreate the crash based on their conclusion
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: that insufficient air speed led to a stall. Except here's
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: the problem. They couldn't do it. In those simulations. The
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: planes never stalled, even when they slowed to the air
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: speed the NTSB claimed Wellstone's flight was traveling at when
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: the crowd happened. I mean, I'm not a scientist, but
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: I think being able to prove your hypothesis is a
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: pretty important part of the scientific process, and that never
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: happens here, which makes them leaking that info about the
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: pilots ahead of time all the more suspect. To me.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: It feels like that thing cops do where they decide
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: someone is guilty and conduct their investigation accordingly, just looking
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: for only the evidence that supports their hunch. This feels
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: like the NTSB planned to call this pilot error from
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: the beginning and immediately set about finding evidence in air
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: quotes to back that up, even though none really exists. So,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: if you're keeping score at home, here's what's happened so far.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Paul Wellstone's plane crash just days before an election he
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: was probably gonna win. The FBI showed up immediately and
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: said terrorism wasn't involved on day one from the scene
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: of the crash, even though they weren't supposed to be there.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: The NTSB immediately speculated on the cause of the crash,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: even though they don't speculate on cause, and then a
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: few months later they released character damaging information about both pilots,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: but especially Richard Conry, despite the crash having been determined
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: to not be of public interest. Then later that year,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: the NTSB issued a final report with an unproven hypothesis
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: for a conclusion, and that doesn't even list the FBI
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: as having participated in the investigation. So yeah, of course
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: people think something nefarious was afoot here. Character flaws don't
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: speak to a person's ability to fly an airplane, and
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: since we're fresh off of talking about one strange set
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: of documents pertaining to the Wellstone crash, those being the
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: NTSB report. Let's talk about another. As I mentioned on
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: the first episode, the FBI finally released their files on
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Paul Wellstone in twenty ten in response to a Freedom
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: of Information Act request, And honestly, they just make everything
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: seem more suspicious because, first of all, remember the NTSB
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: report doesn't even mention the FBI being involved in the investigation. Meanwhile,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: you know what I found in the FBI files a
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: letter from Robert Mueller to Carol Carmody thanking her for
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: thanking the FBI for assisting in the investigation. Also, as
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: mentioned on the first episode, the FBI files show Wellstone
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: was being followed by the FBI since way back in
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, when he was just a twenty soethter
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: college professor who hated the Vietnam War. It also shows
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: that they investigated the death threats made against Wellstone after
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: he voted against the nineteen ninety one Iraq War Resolution, or,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: as Minnesota Public Radio put it, the FBI became his protector,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: which that seems like a bit of a stretch to me.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Stuff like that is their actual job after all. That
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: same MPR piece about the FBI files also makes a
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: big deal out of the fact that, and this is
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: a quote, the FBI pursued several criminal leads in the
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: first two days of the investigation. That's important for a
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: couple of reasons. One, if they were still investigating leads
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: on day two, how are they so sure on day
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: one at the scene that terrorism or sabotage wasn't involved,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: Because that's when Paul McCabe made that statement on the
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: scene on the day of the crash, most likely before
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: the NTSB even arrived. Speaking of Paul McCabe and who
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: arrived when, Remember that thing he said about the FBI
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: not showing up until three pm, which contradicted the accounts
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: of witnesses at the scene. Well, now, the FBI files
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: claimed two agents from the satellite office in Duluth responded immediately,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: but still no specifics on what time they arrived. When
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: the authors of American Assassination asked, they were told no
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: agents from Duluth were sent. But here we are eight
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: years later, twenty ten, and the claim is agents were
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: sent from Duluth, but we aren't sure when they arrived,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: which is very convenient, because it sure as shit wouldn't
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: have been three if they were coming from Duluth, which
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: is when the FBI first claimed they got there. One
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: especially weird thing that I found in the files, which
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: apparently didn't raise any alarm at Minnesota Public Radio, are
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: two different reports that both kind of make it seem
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: like the FBI didn't even have access to the actual
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: crash scene until the next day, which reminder, would be
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: a full day after they assured the world that no
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: foul play was involved. The two reports, one dated November fifth,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: two thousand and two, from the Minneapolis Evidence Response Team
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: and another dated October thirtieth, two thousand and two from
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: the Minneapolis Squad four Slash Duluth Resident Agents. Both of
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: those reports mentioned an initial briefing with the NTSB that
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: happened at ten pm the night of the crash, and
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: then they both go on to mention a body recovery
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: process that started the next morning. This quote from the
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Evidence Response Team report is especially interesting. Here go by
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Saturday morning, a custom built vehicle called the Brute, specifically
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: designed for use in this type of terrain, and a
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: tracked piece of firefighting equipment had been brought to the
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: scene to shuttle personnel from the paved road to the
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: crash site. Minneapolis Evidence Response Team initially assisted the NTSB
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: in searching the wooded area around the crash site to
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: locate and flag the flight data recorder, aircraft parts, and
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: signs of prop shear in the trees. First of all,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: I'm going to file a Freedom of Information Act request
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: to get some pictures of the brute. That thing sounds neat,
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: But also, am I crazy? Am I reading that wrong?
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: That statement makes it seem like the investigation didn't even
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: really start until well after the FBI said it wasn't terrorism.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: And how was their involvement overlooked in the final NTSB report.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: The woman who was ultimately responsible for that report sent
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Robert Muller a letter thanking him for his agency's involvement.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: Also want to know why they're not being A public
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: hearing is so important because it means eyewitness testimony didn't
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: have to be added to the official record, like the
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: witness report in the FBI file about a guy who
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: heard gunshots in the area around the time of the crash,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: or the reports of residents in the area whose descriptions
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: of the plane flying overhead aren't really consistent with the
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: slowdown install theory, or the Army photographer who emailed the
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: FBI to tell them that, based on his history of
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: photograph and crash scenes, the Wellstone site wasn't consistent with
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: an accident. All of that gets to be ignored in
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: the final report because no public hearing. How convenient. But
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: to me, the absolute weirdest thing in those FBI files
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: is something that seems pretty normal at first. A lot
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: of these files I've mentioned so far are buried in
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: between pages and pages of newspaper and magazine articles about
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: this crash, mainstream news outlets, conspiracy websites, articles from the
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: authors of American assassination, just so many articles about the
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Paul Wellstone crash. And here's a question, why why did
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: they need to collect so many articles about a plane
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: crash they quickly decided wasn't a crime. We know serial
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: killers do that kind of thing to remember and celebrate
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: their victims. It's not likely that's what the FBI was
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: up to. But hear me out on this. I know
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: it's the thing I can't prove and no one can prove,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: so feel free to take this idea with a grain
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: of salt. But what if they were trying to figure
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: out what bases they'd need to cover when they were
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: eventually forced to release these files, Because it does seem
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: like the FBI files answer a lot of questions conspiracy
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: types had about their arrival and whatnot, but they do
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: nothing to explain why those answers are so inconsistent with
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: what they said about their arrival at the time. Also,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: the Minnesota public radio piece on the FBI files makes
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: a big deal of them investigating those criminal leads, but
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: there are a couple of leads that were sent their
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: way that it appears they for sure did not investigate.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: In a few different emails contained in the FBI files,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: concerned citizens whose names have since been redacted from history
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: bring up an important point, which is, Hey, you know who,
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: more than anyone else, would have wanted Paul Wellstone dead
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: the Bush administration. I know that a team of war
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: criminals who invaded an entire country on false pretenses, costing
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: countless innocent Iraqis their lives, would also kill one dude.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: Is an insane suggestion, but it's a suggestion a lot
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: of people were concerned about at the time. And you
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: know what, It's not as crazy of an idea as
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: it seems. I mean, it's crazy, the details are batshit insane,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: but the idea that they do it people make a
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: perfectly reasonable case. If you ask me, you didn't have
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: to be the FBI to hear speculation like that at
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: the time. On October twenty eighth, two thousand and two,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: Michael Nieman, writing for the Independent Media Institute, published an
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: article that was very provocatively titled was US Senator Paul
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: Wellstone Murdered? Here's a quote from the article. Anyone familiar
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: with my work knows that I'm certainly not a conspiracy theorist,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: But to be honest, I know I wasn't alone in
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: my initial reaction at this week's horrible and tragic news,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: that being my surprise that Wellstone had lived this long.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: He also talks about feeling shame over not sharing his
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: suspicions that Wellstone's life was in danger back when Wellstone
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: was still alive. He didn't want to get called a
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: conspiracy theorist. You see, he says he knew of a
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: few journalists who felt the same way that they suspected
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Wellstone might literally die for the stances he was taking
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: against the Bush administration, but that they also didn't want
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: to risk their careers by speculating on it publicly. Here's
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: another quote. There is no indication today that Wellstone's death
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: was the result of foul play. What we do know, however,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: is that Wellstone emerged as the most visible obstacle standing
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: in the way of a draconian political agenda by an
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: unelected government, and now he is conveniently gone. End quote.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about the draconian political agenda in question there,
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: because I think it's important to understanding why people might
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: have secretly worried that Wellstone would eventually be killed. I
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: think it all starts with something I've mentioned on this
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: show before, which is the Project for the New American
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: Century that was established in nineteen ninety seven as a
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: nonprofit educational organization. Its stated goal was quote to promote
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: American global leadership, which right off the bat, oh no.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: The group publicly stated its belief that American leadership is
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: good both for America and the world, which is highly debatable,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: especially when you take it in context with another stated
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: goal of the PNAC, which was to promote and this
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: is another quote, a Reaganite policy of military strength and
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: moral clarity. Woof, and a chill goes down the spines
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: of our Central American listeners. Of the twenty five people
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: who signed the pnac's founding Statement of Principles, ten went
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: on to serve in the George W. Bush administration, including
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz. And if you've
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: ever seen the film Vice, you know what those motherfuckers
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: got up to in the two thousands. And if you
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: haven't seen the movie Wece, I highly recommend it, if
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: for no other reason than to see Dick Cheney have
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: a heart attack six different times. Comedy Gold. Anyway, the
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: Project for the New American Century was meant to be
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: a think tank to give Republicans a quote compelling vision
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: for American foreign policy end quote. They believed that American
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: conservatives were adrift in the area of foreign policy, and
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: they advocated a more elevated vision of America's international role
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: another quote, and suggested that the United States should adopt
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: a stance of benevolent global hegemony. In other words, we
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: should police the world to make sure everyone is adhering
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: to our interests. A year before forming the PNAC, American
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: neo conservative warhawk Robert Kagan published an article called Toward
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: a Neo Reaganite Foreign Policy. That article posited that conservatives
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: and liberals alike had been conducting foreign policy in a
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: peace oriented manner and more inwardly focused way, presuming the
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: public to be in that mindset. They argued that nineties
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: America was in a similar situation to seventies America, where
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: we were oriented toward peace with the Soviet Union, and
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: that Reagan turned America's foreign policy orientation around instituting a
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: more aggressive anti communist approach. And to the people who
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: founded the Project for the New American Century, that's a
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: good thing, and that's what they wanted to return to.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: Fuck peace, we should be in a constant state of
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: fear and war. When the PNAC was founded a year
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: after that article, it launched with the goal of making
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: a very specific dream come true, and that dream is
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: benevolent hegemony, a scenario in which the United States has
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: defeated all sources of evil in the world and as
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: a result, enjoys strategic and ideological predominance throughout the globe.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: Had three imperatives. Increased defense budget, obviously, citizen involvement, aka
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: strengthening the ties between citizens and military life. Thank you
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: very much, NFL, you did it. And moral clarity. Here's
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: a quote about that one. The United States achieved its
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: present position of strength not by practicing a foreign policy
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: of live and let live, nor by passively waiting for
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: threats to arise, but by actively promoting American principles of
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: governance abroad, democracy, free markets, respect for liberty. In case
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: it's unclear, they're talking about preemptive military action there, invading
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: a country before it can even pose a threat minority
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: report shit. They also added this, sometimes that means not
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: just supporting US friends and gently pressuring other nations, but
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: actively pursuing policies in Iran, Cuba, or China, for instance,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: ultimately intended to bring about a change of regime. One
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: regime change the PNAC was especially interested in was Iraq.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: They advocated for it in a nineteen ninety eight letter
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: signed by eighteen people again, ten of whom went on
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: to serve in the Bush administration. But the project's most
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: alarming moment happened in two thousand, when a PNAC report
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: called Rebuilding America's Defenses predicted that the shift to get
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Saddam Hussein out of power would come about slowly unless
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: there were and here's a quote, some catastrophic and catalyzing
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: event like a new Pearl harbor end quote. So in
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: case you're wondering where all of that Bush did nine
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: to eleven stuff started, there you go. A year before
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: nine to eleven happened, the people who benefited from it
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: the most, both politically and financially, were writing papers about
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: how beneficial something like nine to eleven would be. Weird.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: By the time nine to eleven happened, Dick Cheney was
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: Vice President, Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense, and Paul
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: Wilfowitz was his deputy at the Pentagon. Here's a quote
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: about nine to eleven from Bob Woodward's book Bush at War.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: The next morning, before it was even clear who was
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: behind the attacks, Rumsfeld insisted at a cabinet meeting that
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: Saddam's Iraq should be a principal target of the first
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: round of the war on terrorism. But they weren't just
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: interested in Iraq. General Wesley Clark mentioned the post nine
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: to eleven atmosphere among the PNAC laden Bush administration in
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: an interview around that time. He claimed he was told
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: as early as September twentieth, two thousand and one, that
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: we'd be going to war with Iraq. A few weeks later,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: the same source, a military general who worked at the Pentagon,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: told Clark it was actually way bigger than Iraq. Here's
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: a quote from Wesley Clark. So I came back to
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: see him a few weeks later, and by that time
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: we were bombing Afghanistan. I said, are we still going
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: to war with Iraq? And he said, oh, it's worse
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: than that. He reached over on his desk, he picked
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: up a piece of paper and he said, I just
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: got this down from upstairs, meaning the Secretary of Defense's
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: office today, and he said, this is a memo that
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: describes how we're going to take out seven countries in
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: and finishing off Iran. I said, is it classified? He
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: said yes, Sir. I said, well, don't show it to me.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: End quote. So the Bush administration didn't just come into
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: office hoping to take down Iraq. They had a plan
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: to completely rework American foreign policy and kind of the
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: entire world, no matter where you stand on the Bush
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: did nine to eleven theory. One thing we can all
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: agree on is that Dick Cheney and his corporate cohorts
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: made a ton of money as a result of our
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: invasion of Iraq. The most obvious example of that is Halliburton,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: the company Dick Cheney was the CEO of right up
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: until the point he became vice president. Halliburton's business dealings
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: with the military skyrocketed under the Bush Cheney administration. The
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: company rose to seventh largest military contractor in two thousand
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: and three, up from the twenty second largest in just
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: two thousand three short years. In two thousand and four,
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: The New York Times reported that Cheney received nearly two
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: million dollars from Halliburton while he was in office. In
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: two thousand and one, Halliburton was awarded a contract to
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: provide food, housing, fuel, and other logistical support for troops
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: in the Middle East. That contract generated five billion dollars
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: for Halliburton just through two thousand and four. In March
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: two thousand and three, Kellogg, Brown and Root, which was
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: Halliburton's construction and engineering subsidiary, was awarded a no bid
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: contract to restore and operate Iraqi oil Wells. That contract
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: was classified just before the invasion of Iraq. Go figure,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: but it's estimated to have been worth approximately seven billion dollars.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: So the Bush Cheney regime had a vested financial interest
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: in making sure their revival of the American war machine
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: moved forward, as did countless other corporate cronies who stood
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: to profit from an eventual war in Iraq and beyond.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: And Paul Wellstone opposed that war, but his opposition was
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: deeper than that. Keep in mind, this is all happening
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: in a world that was fresh off of nine to eleven.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: The Bush administration didn't have a lot of opposition when
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: it came to the war in Iraq. At first, the
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: Senate was mostly falling in line, but Wellstone was not,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: and the fact that he got a boost in the
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: polls from opposing the war made it very likely that
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: some of his fellow Democrats might take the same approach.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: Wellstone had the most consistent record of opposing Bush administration
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: initiatives of any member in the Senate. He was the
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: chairman of the Securities Reform Committee. He was attempting to
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: block the nomination of William Webster, who was a former
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: CIA and FBI head and good good friend of big
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: business types from becoming the chairman of the SEC's Accounting
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: Oversight Commission. He was also one of the lead voices
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: pushing for an investigation into three hundred and fifty million
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: dollars that went missing from the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: a matter Bush's Secretary of Interior, Gail Norton twice pleaded
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: the fifth over when asked about it. Another thing, Wellstone
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: was vocally opposed to the Bush administration practice of allowing
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: homeland security contracts to be signed with American companies that
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: had moved offshore to avoid paying taxes. Those contracts, along
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: with the Halliburton contracts, were a huge point of contention
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: when this war finally started. Wellstone proposed legislation to prevent
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: these contracts, and the measure passed by a voice vote
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: on the Senate floor. And then guess what the measures
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: were withdrawn after Paul Wellstone died. How convenient. Another thing
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: Wellstone was actively involved in was trying to pass legislation
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: to protect workers and consumers against asbestos poisoning. And that
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: might not strike you immediately as a stance that would
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: put a person's life in danger. But consider this. The
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: aforementioned Halliburton was deeply involved in the asbestos issue due
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: to a previous merger with a company called Dresser Industries.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: That merger brought lots of asbestos liabilities with it, estimated
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: to be two point two billion dollars over a fifteen
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: year period. If things went the way Wellstone wanted. Do
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: people ever get murdered for financial reasons? Is money ever
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: voted for murder? I don't know. I should look that
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: up anyway. On account of all that, the Bush administration
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: was laser focused on getting well Stone out of office.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: By October two thousand and two, Bush had visited Minnesota
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: four times to drum up support for Wellstone's opponent, Norm Coleman.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on attack ads.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: At a meeting with war veterans in Wilmar, Minnesota, two
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: days before his death, well Stone said that Dick Cheney
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: told him, quote, if you vote against the war in Iraq,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: the Bush administration will do whatever is necessary to get you.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: There will be severe ramifications for you and the state
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: of Minnesota. But reminder, he did vote against the war
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: in Iraq, and it actually improved his standing in the polls.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: Apopless Star Tribune survey from the week of October eleventh,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: two thousand and two, showed that forty seven percent of
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: voters supported Wellstone compared to forty one percent for Norm Coleman.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: Around this time, publications were running all sorts of stories
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: about how the Bush Cheney machine wanted nothing more than
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: to defeat Paul Wellstone, and it was becoming more and
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: more clear that they were probably going to fail. That's
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: obviously not proof that Paul Wellstone was murdered by the Republicans,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: but it is motive, which is a key aspect of
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: any murder case. Paul Wellstone presented a legitimate obstacle to
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: the goals of the Bush administration. He was maybe going
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: to filibuster the Homeland Security Act. He opposed them on
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: tax cuts, the SEC and the war in Iraq. He
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: wanted to open further investigations into nine to eleven. If
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: there was anyone the Republicans might have considered assassinating into
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: the thousand and two it was Paul Wellstone. And then
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: there's the Senate split. Before the two thousand and two
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: midterm elections, the Senate was at a massively uncomfortable forty
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: nine to forty nine split between Republicans and Democrats. There
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: were a couple independents in there. By the time those
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: elections were over, the Republicans had a fifty one forty
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: eight majority, meaning they'd have a much easier time getting
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: their various war requests fulfilled without much opposition. Wellstone's death,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: coupled with Walter Mondale's subsequent loss, made for one of
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: those seats the Democrats lost. The other was Max Cleland's
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: Senate seat in Georgia, which I think is another fine
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: example of how far Republicans were willing to go to
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: win that Senate majority. After Wellstone's death, according to the
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: authors of American Assassination, seven hundred thousand dollars that was
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: meant to be used to keep him from winning was
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: re allocated to be used to keep Cleveland from winning.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: I can't confirm, but it's possible that some of that
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: money went toward one of the most insane and disgusting
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: attack ads of all time. Because here's the thing about
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: Max Cleland. He's a decorated Vietnam War veteran who lost
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: both legs and his right arm during a mission in
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: Quisan which makes it all the more crazier that his opponent,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: a guy named Saxby Chambliss, with the full support of
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: the Bush administration, ran attack ads claiming Max Cleland was
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: unpatriotic because he opposed George W. Bush. In the commercials,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: Cleveland was photoshopped into pictures with Osama bin Laden and
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: Saddam Hussein. So basically, a guy who lost three limbs
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: serving in his country on the battlefield was less of
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: a patriot than the lawyer turned conservative politician he was facing,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: who never served in the military at all. Why because
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: that Vietnam veteran voted against Republicans on an amendment to
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: the Chemical Weapons Treaty that would have allowed quote terrorist
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: nations that's a Bush Administration quote, to be on United
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: Nations Weapons Inspections teams in Iraq. And somehow that shit worked.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: In the weeks leading up to the election, groups that
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: had previously supported Cleveland started withdrawing that support. Even the
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: veterans of Foreign Wars endorsed Chambliss, who again never even
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: served in the military. Meanwhile, Cleveland was awarded a silver
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: Star for his service and once served as the head
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: of the Veterans Administration. Despite holding a twenty two point
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: lead over Chambliss in the polls. At one point, Cleveland
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: lost in a massive upset. But what I'm getting at
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: here is that the death of Paul Wellstone happened at
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: a point in history when Republicuplicans were doing everything possible
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: to make sure no one stood in the way of
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: their plans to set the United States on course for
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: a perpetual state of war in the Middle East. Does
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: that mean they'd go so far as to commit murder
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: by airplane? I don't know. Even if it does. I'm
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: certainly not going to be the one to prove it's true.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: But I will tell you this, Republicans, especially Republicans with
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: ties to the Bush Cheney machine, have more than one
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: fortuitously timed plane crash on their record. And I'm not
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: just talking about nine to eleven. Hey, just a reminder
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: that if you were a Patreon or Supercast subscriber, you
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: would have already heard this podcast by now, except with
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: way more information. In the extended series, we get into
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: things like the sketchy Sandy Hook Truther, history of one
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: of the authors of American assassination, potential voting machine malfeasans,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: carried out by Republicans in two thousand and two Carol
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: Carmody's connections to the CIA. There's even a bonus plane crash,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: Alaska Airlines Flight two sixty one, a disaster that partially
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: inspired the Denzel Washington film flight and also took the
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: life of another potential Bush administration opponent. To hear all
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: of that and lots of other bonus episodes from this
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: show and the entire un pops network, head to Patreon
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: dot com, slash on pops or unpopsnetwork dot supercast dot tech. Thanks,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: we love you. Let's get back to the show. So
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: now let's talk about some of those strange plane crashes.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: Case in point. In two thousand and eight, an Ohio
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: attorney and former Republican named Cliff Arnabeck started gathering evidence
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: to file a racketeering claim against Carl Rove, which included
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: the claim that Rove had masterminded the theft of the
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: two thousand and four election. His key witness was a
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: guy named Michael Connell, who was the Bush campaign's chief
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: IT strategist. This is a quote from Cliff Arnebeck. We
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: detected a pattern of criminal activity. We identified Connell as
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: a key witness as the implementer for Rove. Arnebeck actually
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: managed to get a deposition out of Connell and hoped
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: to have him testify against Carl Rove in open court,
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: but that never happened because on December nineteenth, two thousand
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: and eight, at the age of forty seven, Michael Connell
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: died when the single engine Piper Saratoga plane he was
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: piloting alone crashed en route from Washington, DC to Ohio.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: How weirdly convenient is that? And oh man, we are
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: just getting started on the suspiciously well timed plane crash front.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: Before we move on, let's just run through some of
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: the detail of the Wellstone crash. A Democratic candidate for
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: Senate in the midst of a close race with huge
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: implications for control of the Senate dies in a plane
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: crash less than a month before their impending election. As
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: politically convenient as it all may seem, Carol Krmody and
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: the NTSB rush in to assure everyone that nothing weird happened,
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: despite eyewitness accounts to the contrary. The eventual NTSB report
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: blames the crash on pilot error. So we know all
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: of that happened in the Wellstone crash. Now, what if
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: I told you all of that happened twice in the
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: span of two years, Because it did. On October sixteenth,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: two thousand, a plane carrying Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan, then
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: a Democratic candidate for the Senate, crash just weeks before
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: the election he was running in. Shortly after the crash happened,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: acting NTSB head Carol Krmody assured the public that nothing
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: odd was afoot, just regular plane crash shenanigans. The eventual
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: NTSB report blamed pilot error. He just got disoriented as all,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: just like Wellstone's pilots. That despite eyewitness accounts of the
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: Carnahan crash reporting an explosion, the sky turning red, and
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: the plane going down in a fireball, none of which
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: is indicative of sloppy piloting unless he hit an iceberg
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: up there. That all implies sabotage of some sort. Planes
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: don't just explode in the air on their own. But
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: none of that came up in the final report. Just
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: pilot error and nothing more. Sounds familiar right now. If
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: you're old enough to remember the early two thousands, you
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: might vaguely recall this funny thing that happened where a
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: guy running for office died in a plane crash but
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: still won the ensuing election because voters just hated his
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: opponent that much. Well, that guy was Mel Carnahan, and
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: the person he beat was John Ashcroft, who went on
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: to be named Attorney General when George W. Bush took office.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: You might also remember John Ashcroft as the guy who
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: did this in public while serving in one of the
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: highest offices in all the land.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: You can see it in her eye. She's not yet
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: begun to fly. It's time to let the mighty eagle
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: soar once more. Flathy e egle sor like she's never
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 2: sore before, from a rocky coast to golden shore. Let
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: the mighty eagle sor.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: You know what else he did in his role as
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: Attorney General. It was up to him to decide if
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: the Paul Wellstone crash was worthy of a criminal investigation.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: As mentioned earlier, He decided that it was not, so
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: those possibilities were literally never explored at all in any capacity.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: So add that to the odd coincidences between the Mel
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: Carnahan and Paul Wellstone crashes. John Ashcroft was an integral
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: figure in both of them. There is a key difference
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: between the two crashes, though, and that Republicans still didn't
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: win that Senate seat. After mel Carnahan died, Missouri law
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: demanded that Carnahan still be on the ballot, at which
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: point it was up to voters to decide if they
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: wanted Ashcroft or a dead guy in office. They chose
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: the dead guy, and his wife was appointed as his replacement.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: If the Republicans had won that seat, they'd have taken
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: a fifty one to forty nine advantage in the Senate. Instead,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: it was split fifty to fifty. But on the bright side,
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: once Bush took office, Dick Cheney was the tie breaking vote.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: But the circumstances tightened up a little more nicely for
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: Republicans with the Wellstone crash. Laws in that state mandated
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: that someone run in Paul Wellstone's place, and since his
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: wife was on that plane with him, it wasn't going
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: to be her. The Democrats ended up running Walter Mondale,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: who lost by a lot. Now, what are the odds
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: of that? Not Walter Mondale losing. The odds of that
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: were significantly high all the time. But what are the
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: odds of a senator dying in a plane crash just
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: days before the election. Even once I get that they
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: fly a lot, but that is a very specific window
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: of time in which that plane crash needs to happen.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: The odds of that ever happening again in aviation history
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: have to be incredibly slim, right, But it happened twice
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: in two years, both times to the benefit of the
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: Republican Party, with John Ashcroft and Carol Carmody playing integral
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: roles in both crashes, and in both cases the cause
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: was experienced pilots making unexplained, nonspecific last minute errors, even
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: though people on the ground reported seeing and hearing things
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: that weren't in line with the official report. All of
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: that happened twice in two years. So if you're keeping count,
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: we're up to three sketchy plane crashes that all at
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: the very least had the potential to be beneficial to
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: the Bush Cheney war machine. And we're not done because,
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: for one thing, remember who we're talking about here, George Bush?
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: Which George Bush? Does it matter? Do you think father
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: and son somehow had differing goals when it came to
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: America's potential world domination As foretold in the Project for
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: the New American Century, a document that was also signed
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: by Jeb Bush. Yeah, the Wellstone crash and eventually the
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: Carnahan crash were to the benefit of George W. Bush,
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: but his dad has a few well timed plane crashes
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: on his record as well. And before we get into him,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: just a reminder, George H. W. Bush was the eleventh
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: ever director of the CIA, a job he got despite
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: being the head of the Republican National Committee during the
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: Watergate scandal and a staunch Nixon supporter through all of it. Sure,
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: he only served as CIA director for one year, but
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: he did serve in that role nonetheless, and a few
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: short years after his tenure he was Vice President of
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: the United States, a role he served in for eight
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: years before becoming the first ever head of the CIA
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: to become president. So with a background like that, he's
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: gonna know a thing or two about covert operations and
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: suspicious deaths. I mean, there are rumors that George HW.
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: Bush was involved in the Kennedy assassination for fuck's sake,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: and hey, sometimes those suspicious deaths are gonna happen by airplane,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: like the death of Omar Torehos for example. He was
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: the de facto leader of Panama from nineteen sixty eight
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: to nineteen eighty one. Nineteen eighty one, Bush's second year
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: as second in chief is the year Omar Torehos threatened
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: to blow up the Panama Canal in the event of
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: a United States invasion. Conveniently, it never came to that,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: because on July thirty first, nineteen eighty one, Omar Torehos
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: was killed when the plane he was flying in crashed,
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: and in this case, it didn't just crash, it disappeared
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: from radar and the wreckage wasn't found for another week.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: Torehos was replaced as leader of Panama by CIA operative
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: Manuel Noriega Go figure. There was immediate speculation that this
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: was a US backed assassination, as you'd expect, but good
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: luck proven it Panama. That said. In his two thousand
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: and four book Confessions of an Economic hit Man, author
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: John Perkins claims Trehosts was assassinated for refusing to align
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: with US corporate interests. He also claims in the book
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: that he was party to a process of economic colonization
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: of third world countries on behalf of a cabal of corporations, banks,
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: and the US government. Sounds like some wild conspiracy shit,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: I know, but that book spent seventy weeks on the
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: New York Times Bestsellers list and has since been published
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: in at least thirty two languages, for whatever that's worth. Oh, also,
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: all documents relating to the cause of the Torriho's crash
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: quote went missing during the nineteen eighty nine US invasion
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: of Panama. Convenient again, And the Torrehos crash happened just
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: a couple months after Ecuadorian President I May rolled Aguilera
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: died in a similarly suspicious crash that was similarly beneficial
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: to US interests, and of course it was blamed on
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: unexplained pilot error. So if you're still keeping track, we
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: have Wellstone Carnahan, Michael O'Connell, Omar Torijost, Jamie Rodos, Aguilera.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: That's five deaths by plane crash that all share very
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: similar details. And one of those details is that all
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: of those people, in one way or another, stood in
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: the way of Republican dreams of a Reaganite future for America.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: And now let's talk about John Tower. He was a
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: Republican who was appointed by Republicans to investigate Republicans, specifically.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty six, Reagan appointed John Tower as head
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: of what came to be aptly named the Tower Commission,
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: which was tasked with investigating the Iran Contra scandal. Tower
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: was a Republican, but he also tended to break with
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: his party from time to time, but also supported George
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: hw Bush during his confirmation as CIA director, so he
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: probably seemed like a safe choice. Turns out he was
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: not a safe choice. The Tower report sharply criticized the
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: Reagan administration for their role in the scandal and even
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: demanded that the president take accountability for what happened. He
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: also left something out that everyone involved knew he knew,
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: which was that George hw Bush was a central figure
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: in the scandal, which makes what happens next very interesting
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: for starters. Reagan offered Tower the CIA director job shortly
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: after the report came out, but Tower declined the job. Question.
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: Do you think that move was intended to keep Tower
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: from talking more because they knew he left some key
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: details out? Maybe not? Because George hw Bush actually nominated
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: Tower to be his Secretary of Defense, but the Senate
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: rejected his nomination the first time that happened since nineteen
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: fifty nine because the stories about Towers womanizing and problems
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: with alcohol that were mysteriously leaked to the press. Now,
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: can you guess who people suspect of leaking those stories?
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: That's right, George H. W. Bush. The Senate rejection effectively
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: derailed John Tower's career and paved the way for Dick
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: Cheney to become Secretary of State instead. Shady right. Now,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: Guess how John Tower eventually died. You guessed it in
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: a mysterious plane crash that happened in nineteen ninety one.
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: By that point, he'd already written one tell all book
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: about his time in government, including some stuff about his
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: investigation of the Iran Contra scandal. Rumor was he and
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: his daughter were working on a follow up, which was
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: to be a tell all specifically about that scale and
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: the names involved in it. But before that could happen,
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: the Atlantic Southeast Airlines commuter flight that John Tower and
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: his daughter Marian were flying on crashed shortly before it
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: was due to land, in a crash that, much like
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: well Stone's, involved two pilots making final contact with air
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: traffic control that indicated no problems at all and then
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: crashing immediately afterwards for reasons that still aren't entirely clear.
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: So now, just to update the tally, that's Paul Wellstone, Melcarnahan,
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: Michael O'Connell, Omar Torijosts, Hi may roaldos Aguilera, and James Tower.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: That's six weird deaths by plane crash, all of which
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: happened at a time that made them beneficial or at
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: least potentially beneficial to this country's Reagan Bush Cheney fueled
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: version of the future. So that's a lot of weird plashes.
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: But there's an obvious question that needs to be asked here,
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: how did they do it? Some of those earlier examples,
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: especially Omar Terrehos, likely just involves smuggling and explosive of
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: some sort on board the plane. Maybe they were shot down.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: Who knows how we were doing stuff like this in
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: the eighties. But the Wellstone crash, that one happened at
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: a point in history that opens up a whole new
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: exciting possibility. Here's where it's gonna get weird. I'm just
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: gonna say it. What if it was an EMP weapon
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: of some sort. Wait, you have to hear me out.
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: It's not as crazy as it sounds, even though I
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: accept that it sounds kind of crazy, and I'm definitely
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: not the only person to suggest this possibility, but we'll
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: get to that in a bit. And if you're unfamiliar,
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: EMP means electromagnetic pulse. Electromagnetic disturbances are why you have
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: to turn off your electronics at the start of a flight.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: Flight paths are designed to fly around electromagnetic waves trans
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: submitted by radio stations and things of the like. Electromagnetic
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: waves are very bad times for communication systems, much like
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: the kind that are on airplanes. And here's the thing,
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: their power has definitely been harnessed for weapons purposes. Just
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: because you can't go buy one at Gunworld doesn't mean
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: EMP weapons don't exist, and it doesn't mean they didn't
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: exist by this point in history, which just a reminder,
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: two thousand and two October two thousand and two is
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: the date Wellstone's plane crashed. And I get it. It
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: sounds like some science fiction shit, but it is not.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think when you take the loss of
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: communication into account, an electromagnetic pulse of some sort kind
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: of makes the most sense. Circling back to the Wellstone crash,
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: keep in mind. The NTSB blamed that crash on pilot error,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: but does that explain why they stopped talking to air
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: traffic control. It's never really explained why they're Their last
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: contact with air traffic control indicated everything was fine, and
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: then after two minutes of total silence, they crashed into
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: the ground. What if they couldn't talk to air traffic
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: control anymore? What if they couldn't describe what was happening
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: because the thing that caused them to crash also fried
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: their ability to communicate. The wreckage from Paul Wellstone's crash
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: produced billows of bluish gray smoke, which is important because
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: the fuel the plane was carrying produces black smoke when
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: it burns, and that fuel was in the wings, which
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: did not burn. Only the fuselage burned, and the smoke
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: was bluish gray. That's not a fuel fire, that's an
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: electrical fire. Electrical fires produced bluish gray smoke. So what
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: caused that electrical fire? Was it impact? Is that how
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: electrical fires start? I mean, I guess that is possible.
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: I'm not a plane mechanic. I wouldn't know for sure,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: but I do know that loss of communication coupled with
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: a plane inexplicably falling out of the sky, and an
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: electrical fire doesn't seem like typical plane crashes into the
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: ground and explodes behavior. So now let's circle back to
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: Paul Wellstone in that war he was opposing. It should
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: be noted here this is all theater of the mind stuff.
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: I'm obviously not accusing anyone of anything, and even if
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: I was, it's nothing that the people who looked into
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: the Wellstone crash back when it happened and subsequently wrote
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: books and articles about it haven't already suggested themselves. So
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: with all that on the record, let's talk about a
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: company called Raytheon. Raytheon and the Republican War Machine go
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: way way way back. When Reagan was in office. One
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: of his signature projects was the Strategic Defense Initiative, which
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: proponents and critics alike eventually took to calling star wars.
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: The idea was basically that we'd put satellites equipped with
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: lasers in space, and if Russia fired a nuclear weapon
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: at us, we'd laser that bitch right out of the sky.
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: Sounds crazy, and it sure was, but we pumped a
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: whole lot of money into it, and one of the
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: companies that got a good chunk of that money. According
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: to a nineteen eighty six New York Times article, was
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: raytheon seventeen million dollars that year alone. Interestingly enough, that
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: article is mostly about how Star Wars wasn't working, but
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: that as a result of the research, a company called
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: Maxwell Laboratories produced a functional rail gun. What's that It's
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: a weapon that uses electromagnetic force to launch high velocity projectiles.
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: Neat speaking of high velocity projectiles. Not only was Raytheon
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: on board for Reagan's Star Wars project, they also teamed
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: up with the first Bush administration during the nineteen ninety
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: one Golf War to produce a weapon that made the
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: company a household name. That was the Patre Triot missile.
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: The Patriot was credited with neutralizing Iraqi scud missiles and
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: ultimately winning the war, although that last part has been
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: the subject of a lot of debate since then. But
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: as someone who lived through it and is old enough
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: to remember, I can vouch for the fact that the
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: Patriot missile was big, big news during the First Golf War.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: If it could have appeared on The Tonight Show, they
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: would have booked the Patriot missile. I'd be shocked if
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: there isn't a Patriot missile card in that famous Golf
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: War trading card series Tops put out. Go watch Garden
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: State if you don't know what I'm talking about, or
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: just google it, much like I could have googled whether
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: a Patriot missile card existed and thereby avoided this entire exchange.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: And also I just googled it, and yes, there is
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: a Patriot missile card in that Golf War trading card series.
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: You can buy it on Amazon, So there you go.
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: That's how important the Patriot missile was to the First
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: Golf War. And seeing as how they manufactured and old it,
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: the Patriot missile was huge for Raytheon. According to a
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one LA Times article, they had orders for
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: twenty two hundred missiles in the early days of the
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: First Golf War. And hey, that doesn't sound like a lot.
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: You can't go on Shark Tank and say you have
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: twenty two hundred orders and expect to get funded by
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: the likes of Mark Cuban. Ah. But here's the thing.
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: Those missiles cost five hundred thousand dollars each. That's one
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: point one billion dollars and that price doesn't even include
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: the radar, command center, computers, and launch equipment required to
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: fire them, and Raytheon produced all of that also, So
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: the First Golf War was very lucrative for Raitheon. The
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: team up was so successful George H. W. Bush, when
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: he was still president, visited Raytheon headquarters and delivered a
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: speech thanking them for their help winning the war. Now
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: here's a really interesting quote from a nineteen ninety one
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: CORP Watch article about Raytheon and the Patriot missile. Despite
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: the war with Iraq, the immense size of the Reagan
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: military build up and the end of the Cold War
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: are likely to result in the flattening of defense spending
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: in coming years, with perhaps an eventual decline. Raytheon has
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: steadily reduced its reliance on military spending, but it still
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: derives over half of its sales from the Pentagon. And
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: sure enough, that's what happened, right. Remember the Project for
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: the New American Century. The chief complaint expressed in that
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: document was that the country had become too peace oriented
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: and that we needed to change that and get back
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: to war. And you know who probably agreed with that
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: a whole lot. Raytheon by nineteen ninety one, they were
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: the biggest surface to air missile producer in all the land.
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: And that's a business model that requires war to succeed
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: for an extended amount of time. And that's what the
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: Project for the New American said Century and the people
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: behind it were promising. In other words, Raytheon's interests and
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: the Reagan Bush Cheney Machines interests were likely pretty well
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: aligned on most matters, especially war matters, but probably also
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know the desire for Paul Wellstone to no
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: longer be a member of the Senate. Again, not proof
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: that anyone murdered anyone, not implying that I know what
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: happened to Paul Wellstone, other than that he definitely did
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: die in a plane crash. We'll never know. I'm just
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: saying there were people who probably wouldn't have minded if
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: he died, and I'm not the first person to say that.
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: So with all that in mind, let's talk about the
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: history of Raytheon for starters. The company was founded in
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty two in Massachusetts by Lawrence K. Marshall, Charles G. Smith,
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: and Vanovar Bush. Any relation, Hey, no idea. I looked
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: it up. And the definitive answer to that question seems
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: to be no one is really sure, could just be coincidence,
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: even though the police will tell you those don't exist
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: when you're talking about murder anyway. While they're most known
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: for their missiles, one of Raytheon's earliest inventions was the
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: microwave oven that happened mostly by accident back in nineteen
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: forty five, but it's indicative of how invested Raytheon has
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: been in electromagnetic wave technology since the World War Two
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: days after inventing the microwave, they moved on to stuff
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: like guidance systems, radio and television transmitters, all sorts of
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: things that involve electromagnetic waves and weapons. They also make weapons,
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: But does that mean those two sides of the business
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: are necessarily intertwined. Of course it does. They totally make
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: weapons that harness the power of electromagnetic waves. That's half
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: the reason people are so scared of five G technology.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: Starting around two thousand and two, Raytheon work with the
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: Defense Department to something called the active Denial System, which
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: is basically a crowd control system that allows law enforcement
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: to hit unruly protesters with electromagnetic waves that render a
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: person just kind of too uncomfortable to stay in the area.
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: It's sort of like being microwaved. And the waves that
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: weapon uses are in the same relative spectrum as the
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: waves required for five G to work. So people made
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: that connection and decided five G is a weapon. That's
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: a whole other topic We've already covered on a previous episode.
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: Go listen to that if you're curious. But what I'm
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: getting at is that Raytheon knows a thing or two
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: about electromagnetic weapons. That said, the active denial system and
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: an EMP weapon capable of taking down an airplane are
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: two vastly different things. I mean, probably how would I know?
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: But is there any evidence that Raytheon ever produced anything
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: that could just e a plane out of the sky? Yes?
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: There is actually. Starting around mid two thousand and two,
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: articles started surfacing about how a mysterious weapon called the
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: E bomb might see some use in Iraq. For example,
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: there was a two thousand and two article published by
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: New Scientists that includes this quote. High power microwave devices
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: are designed to destroy electronic equipment in command control, communications,
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: and computer targets, and are available to the US military.
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: They produce an electromagnetic field of such intensity that their
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: effect can be far more devastating than a lightning strike.
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: That same article mentioned that weapons targeting electronic equipment had
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: already been used in the nineteen nineties during the Balkan conflicts.
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: They were called blackout bombs. And if you think EMP
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: weapons sound like some sci fi shit, listen to how
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: these things work. Another quote from the article, blackout release
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: a spider's web of fine carbon filaments into the air
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: above electrical distribution infrastructures. This causes short circuits when the
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: filaments touched the ground end quote. Also, the Tomahawk missiles
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: we use during the First Gulf War were outfitted with
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: warheads that worked along those same lines, and we use
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: them to attack the Iraqi power grid. So as science
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: fiction he as it all sounds, EMP weapons have been
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: around in various forms for a good damn while now,
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: and in two thousand and three, articles started popping up
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: with headlines like this one from CBS News that was
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: published on March twenty fifth, two thousand and three. US
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: drops e bomb on Iraqi TV. Here's a quote. The
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: highly classified bomb creates a brief pulse of microwaves powerful
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: enough to fry computers, blind radar, silence radios, trigger crippling
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: power outages, and disabled the electronic ignitions in vehicles and aircraft. Huh,
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: but what about Raytheon specifically, because so far I'm just
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: saying that these weapons did exist by that point, and
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked. There's a book out there called
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: Weapons Grade, Revealing the Links between Modern Warfare and our
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: high tech world. It's written by a guy named David Hambling,
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: and it's about exactly what it sounds like. It would
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: be about how technological innovation and war are intrinsically linked.
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: So as you'd expect, Raytheon and EMP weapons both come
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: up a whole bunch in that book. And at one point,
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: while he's questioning how much progress the big players in
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: EMP weapons technology, meaning the US and the UK at
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: the time, have made in the field, there's this quote
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: about a two thousand and two statement from the Australian
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: Defense Science and Technology Organization about their work on EMP weapons.
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: Here goes the Australian work was carried out in conjunction
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: with US defense electronics company Raytheon, and involved fitting a
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: radio frequency beam weapon to a Hercules transport aircraft. Unlike
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: an E bomb, which affects everything in the area. The
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: output is channeled by a two point five meter antenna
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: into a narrow beam at a range of two kilometers.
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: The impact zone was thirty meters in diameter. The exact
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: power was not disclosed, but it was considered enough to
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: knock out military electronics end quote. And he adds in
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: that book that what Australia was doing, and this is
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: another quote, is likely to be a small scale reflection
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: of what other nations are doing. Do you think he's
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: wrong about that? You think Australia was just lapping us
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: in the field of EMP weaponry by two thousand and two.
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: Even if they were, they were still doing it in
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: conjunction with raytheon And either way, that's proof that an
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: EMP weapon that seems like it might be made for
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: the express purpose of shooting planes out of the sky
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: was already a thing that existed by two thousand and two.
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: That statement from Australia came out a month after the
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: Wellstone crash. And let's unpack some of the details of
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: that statement. Here's a really important section. Unlike an E bomb,
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: which affects everything in the area, the output is channeled
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: by a two point five meter antenna into a narrow
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: beam at a range of two kilometers. The impact zone
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: was thirty meters in diameter. A range of two kilometers,
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: you know how many feet that is, of course you do.
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: It's six five hundred and sixty one point six eight feet.
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: And unless I'm completely misunderstanding what range means, that sounds
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: like from that distance this device was capable of knocking
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: out military electronics. So what could it do if a
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: plane was a say, three thousand feet or twenty five
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: hundred feet on its final approach to the airport it
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: was supposed to land at. I bet it's even more
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: reliable from that distance. But again, I'm not an electromagnetic
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: wave expert, but it sure sounds like Raytheon had by
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: two thousand and two developed a directed energy weapon that
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: could conceivably shoot a plane out of the sky, And
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: after eight years of boring warlessness from the Clinton administration,
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: they'd have probably been as keen as anyone else to
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: get back to selling surface to air missiles and things
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: of the like as part of a huge Middle East war,
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: which is a thing they'd already done a whole lot
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: in the past. In conjunction with this same relative bunch
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: of Republican warhawks. Oh and I'm sure it's just another coincidence,
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: but Raytheon also makes the plane Whele Stone was flying
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: in that day again all circumstantial bullshit. You Just because
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: Raytheon and the Bush Cheney regime had all the motive
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: in the world to take out the person most likely
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: to oppose their Iraq war efforts and had access to
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: a weapon that was capable of doing it, doesn't mean
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: they actually did it. In the eyes of history, they
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: did not, and so as the law dictates, we must
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: accept that they are innocent, just like OJ Simpson, but
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: also like OJ Simpson, let's talk about how they might
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: have done it if they did do it. This actually
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: brings us full circle to the book that started all
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: of this American assassination, the Strange death of Senator Paul Wellstone.
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: They actually lay out a scenario for how this could
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: have happened, and it works like this For starters. Remember
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: the voer. It's basically the system that airports use to
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: guide a plane to where it's supposed to land. It's
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: obviously more complex than that, but still in the NTSB
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: report about the Wellstone crash. They mentioned that the VR
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: was a little bit off, which seems like it wasn't
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: really true, or at least not true enough to matter,
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: but they included it anyway. The authors of American Assassination
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: imply that, assuming the NTSB was indeed involved in a
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: cover up, that they included that detail in case anyone
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: did eventually figure out that the VR played a huge
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: part in this crash. Basically, the scenario they put forward
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: in the book involves a more powerful VR placed near
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: the airport where Wellstone was set to land, and that
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: more powerful VR would have at the last minute guided
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: his plane toward where it eventually crashed. And go ahead,
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: google VR and look at a picture of one and
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: tell me that they appear to be housed in a
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: whole separate building of their own, thus making a portable
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: version unlikely. Like what, did Dick Cheney just build a
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: VR in the middle of Minnesota to make out Paul
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: Wellstone and then dismantle it immediately after? No, obviously not,
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: but they might have used a take HAN. I don't
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: even know if I'm pronouncing that right, but it's short
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: for tactical air navigation system. Here's a description right from
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: the always reliable Wikipedia. A tactical air navigation system, commonly
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: referred to by the acronym TAKEHAN is a navigation system
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: used by military aircraft. It provides the user with bearing
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: and distance to a ground or ship borne station. It
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: is a more accurate version of the VR system that
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: provides bearing and range information for civil aviation. How about that? Now,
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: there's this from the benefits section on that same Wikipedia page.
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: Because the asimuth and range units are combined in one system,
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: it provides for simpler installation. Less space is required than
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: a VR because a VR requires a large counterpoise and
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: a fairly complex phase antenna system. A TAKEN system theoretically
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: might be placed on a building, a large truck, an airplane,
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: or a ship and be operational in a short period
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: of time. Now, guess who manufactures TAKEN systems? Say it
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: with me? Colin's Aerospace. Oh you thought I was gonna
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: say Raytheon right, Well, if it makes you feel any better,
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: Raytheon owns Colin's Aerospace. They are a Raytheon company. So
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: we are back on track. So now you don't need
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: a whole separate building to set up an alternate VOR
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: to draw this plane off course. You can just put
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: that taken in a van that says American City Pest
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: Control on the side or something and park it near
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: where you want your target plane to crash. Then after
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: the plane makes final contact with air traffic control, you
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: just flip on that takean system. The plane is gonna
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: follow whichever of those two signals is stronger, and a
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: smaller airport is obviously gonna have a lesser VOR. So
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: your American City Pest Control van just needs one that's
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: stronger than the one at Eveleth Airport to win that battle.
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: And so once you flip on that alternate VR system,
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: the take hand system, the plane is naturally gonna start
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: heading in a direction that is not where it's supposed
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: to go. And even worse, you're not really gonna notice,
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: because it's not like it's gonna be a jolt. This
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: is a natural program that all airplanes follow. This is
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: the beacon they use to know where they're going. So
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: if a different one takes over, you're just gonna like
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: turn a little bit, which is what the Wellstone plane did.
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: It started heading toward the crash site, which was a
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: couple miles south of where the actual runway was, and
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: the change in course would especially not be that noticeable
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: if you're flying into an airport you don't use that often,
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: and who the hell's flying into Eveleth Airport on a
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: regular basis. So now that you flipped on this alternate
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: take hand system, the plane has turned toward the eventual
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: crash site and everyone on board is chill about it
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: because it seems like nothing is wrong. So then when
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: the plane is within range of your emp airplane death
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: ray that you developed with the Australian military that can
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: shoot a plane down from a range of six thousand
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: feet or more, you fire that bitch right at the cockpit,
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: disabling any electronic systems, including communication systems inside the plane
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: and rendering it uncontrollable. With that, you make a quick
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: check to confirm that everything you need to be on
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: fire is on fire. You gather up the cockpit voice recorder,
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: and American City Pest Control speeds off into the night,
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: leaving the scene for suspiciously early FBI agents to inspect
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: and reassure the public that no foul play was involved.
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: That's the theory as presented in the book American Assassination.
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: The Strange death of Paul Wellstone and I don't know,
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: I think and combuying it. It does seem far fetched,
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: but the available evidence about how and when EMP weapons
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: were developed and who developed them makes it not that
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: far fetched. I mean, you have to admit it is
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: an aggressively clean way to murder someone. If you can
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: cause their plane to crash in an empty field, that's perfect.
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: And the weapons used in this scenario existed by then,
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: so it's no crazier than suggesting that it might have
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: been shot out of the sky by a missile. We
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: know that's possible, but this would be so much easier.
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: Witnesses might see that projectile traveling toward the plane in
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: its final moments, They're not going to see an EMP.
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: They'll just see a plane wandering aimlessly in the sky
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: until it crashes. If you were the American government, would
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: you tell the world you had that kind of capability?
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: Of course not. You just use it for evil. That's
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: what we do always we are America. But hey, like
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: I've said this entire time, according to history, Paul well
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: Elstone died in an accidental plane crash. Everyone mentioned here
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: from the Reagan Bush Cheney regime to Raytheon and everyone
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: in between is obviously innocent until proven otherwise. But all
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: that said, they also had the means, motive, and opportunity
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: to kill Paul Wellstone. Anyway, with that, we have reached
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: the end of this journey. If you want to look
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: into this more yourself, we'll link to all the articles
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: and resources that I used. And hey, thank you for
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: joining me. We'll be back to having guests on this
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: podcast next week. Until then, I don't have anything to plug.
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: Let's get out of here. Goodbye, everybody. We love you.
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: At cottingt