Dear vue-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.
As I warned ahead of time, there is only sparse information available
on political body doubles. It is extremely difficult then to amass a
great deal of information on the subject. Much of it, I would imagine,
isn’t public knowledge for obvious reasons and that which is available
is very difficult to confirm. Given the recent media revelations
regarding the use of “doubles” by Osama bin Laden, and the old news
stories about the many imposters of Saddam Hussein, the Internet is
rife with subjects pertaining to these two political figures. Both,
however, were present in their current capacities in the later years
of the cold war era (1945-1991) but finding out whether or not they
used these look-alikes prior to 1991 is an impossible task. They have,
most likely, feared for their lives for quite some time before the
United States began hunting them, due to inner political turmoil and
potential coup, so it is doubtful that recent events alone were
entirely responsible for the decoy methods that they practice today.
Because of this uncertainty, I have included a number of references to
them as well, in spite of the fact that they are more readily
associated with modern day politics than the cold war era.
It is only logical to assume that our own government may have used
decoys at one time or another especially during periods when world
tension was very high, (post JFK shooting, post Reagan shooting, etc)
either to evade potential threats while in a convoy situation or even
perhaps to provide the press with a distant photo-op where the
President might otherwise have been unnecessarily exposed. It is
doubtful though (if not absurd) to assume that anyone has ever
actually “stood in” for a President or physically replaced him at any
function. Such an occurrences would, of course, would be highly
classified, if in fact they ever took place at all, and as such could
never be positively confirmed nor disputed.
Both famous and infamous have used decoys, imposters, look-alikes and
body doubles for years; perhaps, even centuries. According to Joe R.
Reeder, a former undersecretary for the US Army (1993-1997) and an
expert on the subject of political body doubles, it has been known for
decades that the practice of implementing doubles as a means of
avoiding assassination or capture has been used by a number of
prominent figures. Reeder says that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin
employed one or more doubles, as did Cuban leader Fidel Castro,
Haitian strongman General Raoul Cedras (whom Reeder, a former Army
Airborne Ranger, helped hunt for himself), and Panamanian boss Manuel
Noriega. About imposters of the latter Reeder said, "They were good.
They practiced his gait, his manner of speech and his modus operandi –
what he did during the day and night."
How does one go about finding which one is the “real” person? "You
just have to track them all down," Reeder said. "There can only be so
many of them.". Of course, if you search newsgroups you will find a
multitude of postings from fanatics all over the world who have their
own theories as to “who’s who”. Your question is a very intelligent
one so I doubt seriously that you would be the kind of person who
might be interested in pursuing your information from that angle.
I hope you find my research helpful. Again, I wish there were many
more articles on the subject but as I pointed out in our earlier
correspondence there just aren’t that many declassified sources for
this kind of information. If I run across any more in my Internet
travels I will gladly post them here for you in the future. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for using Google Answers.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
“Stalin's Double; or, Socialist Realism”
(The newspaper “Rabochaya Tribuna” identified the Stalin double only
as “Rashid” and said without explaining further that he died "several
days ago at the age of 93.)
http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/array/Gnarl3/stalin.html
“Iraq - President Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti”
(This link actually mentions one of his known body doubles by “name”!)
http://www.comebackalive.com/df/dplaces/iraq/player5.htm
“Castro is dead – CIA runs Cuba”
(Old story about Castro being long since dead. Mentions double by
name.)
http://www.uncoveror.com/castro.htm
“Disturbing”
(Article names Adolph Hitler’s body double as being one Gustav Weler)
http://damoo.csun.edu:8888/9193
“Fox News Channel – ‘It's Bin Laden ... or Is It?’”
By Catherine Donaldson-Evans
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41210,00.html
“MSNBC News – ‘Saddam’s Sons’”
By Evan Thomas and Christopher Dickey
(Latif Yahia, an Iraqi exile who claims that he was for several years
pressed into service as a body double for Saddam’s eldest son and heir
apparent, Uday Hussein, claimed he witnessed Uday rape a woman in
1981)
http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/820190.asp?cp1=1
“JFK Assassination: Misinformation
(Not a world leader but has very interesting subject matter. Mentions
alleged “Oswald lookalike” and contains links to video confessions)
http://www.interviewwiththeassassin.com/misinformation.html
“CNN Cold War Interviews – Ambassador Winston Lord”
(Mentions Kissinger use of a double)
http://asia.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/15/interviews/lord/
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
“Body double” “cold war”
“Body double” “world leader”
“Body double” KGB
“Body double” president
“Body double” minister
“Body double” queen
“Body double” king
“Body double” dictator
“Body double” security
“Body double” prince
“Body double” princess
“Body double” Stalin
“Body double” Castro
“Body double” Kruschev
“Body double” Kennedy
“Body double” Nixon
“Body double” Noriega
“Body double” “secret service”
This same search strategy was applied to all of the words and phrases
and all variations of the words and phrases listed below:
“Lookalike”
“Imposter”
“Impersonator”
“Decoy”
“Double”
“Dopplegaenger”
“Doppleganger”
“Dubbleganger” |
