The Rand Paul Conspiracy Theories Everyone's Talking About

Sen. Rand Paul (R.-KY) has announced his bid for presidency. Paul released a YouTube video prior to his declaration, stating that on April 7, 2015, "one leader will stand up to defeat the Washington machine and unleash the American Dream."

This assertion was also his soon-to-be campaign slogan - one that is just as unconventional as Paul himself. In fact, as a Midwestern Tea-Partier, Paul is notorious for bashing the government by openly criticizing its current policies and programs. Sen. Rand Paul's conspiracy theories have been the talk of the Internet for years.

For example, on April 7, 2014, Paul accused Dick Cheney of advocating for the Iraq War for financial benefit. The media reaction was swift and surprised. But Mother Jones pointed out that Sen. Paul has been a longtime critic of the millennial Bush era for years, arguing that the war in Iraq was based on greed, not patriotism.

Also in 2014, Paul described how former CIA Chief George Tenet admitted that 9/11 was an inside job.

This theory of Paul's regarding 9/11 was not new. In fact, part of what Paul is well-known for is his conspiracy-theorist approach to politics. From his obsession with the mysterious Bilderberger Group to his close relationship with conspiracy-theory radio host Alex Jones to his recent push to audit the Fed, one thing is certain: the Kentucky Senator questions everything in Washington...

Here are four of his most controversial conspiracy theories...

4 of Sen. Rand Paul's Most Notorious Conspiracy Theories

Rand Paul Conspiracy Theories No. 1 - Dick Cheney pushed for the Iraq War to benefit from Halliburton. This has been one of Sen. Paul's longest-running hypotheses, dating back to speeches he gave in 2008 and 2009 during his bid for the Senate. He claimed that then-Vice President Dick Cheney opposed the advancement of American troops into Baghdad when he was defense secretary during the first Gulf War. But, because of his association with Halliburton and how much it stood to gain in the second post-9/11 Gulf War, he changed his mind and became an advocate.

This theory is actually common. But Sen. Paul took it a step further than most...

Rand Paul Conspiracy Theories No. 2 - The Bilderberg Group is trying to turn America into a communist nation. What does this even mean? In order to understand it, you must know a little about the Bilderberg Group. The Bilderberg Group consists of approximately 150 political leaders who meet annually at a private location to discuss political affairs - finance, academia, industry, etc. - without the presence of the media. What happens and what is debated in these meetings are top secret. The group has been criticized by the media for its lack of transparency. It's also the focus of a major conspiracy theory that believes the Republican Party is secretly controlled by elitist intellectuals belonging to the Bilderberg collective. According to the conspiracy, these intellectuals are working to turn America into a communist society.

One major proponent of this theory is radio personality and "9/11 truther" Alex Jones, who happens to be close friends with Sen. Rand Paul. In fact, in a taped interview from 2010, Paul responds to the question "Do you know anything about the Bilderberg Group?" by stating "Only what I've learned from Alex Jones."

A "9/11 truther," by the way, is someone who disputes the majority account of what happened on 9/11 and believes the American government actually played a significant role in the attacks, either through complicity or complete responsibility.

In the 2010 taped interview, Paul goes on to describe how the Bilderberg Group "is made up of wealthy people, I think, who manipulate and use government to their own personal advantage. They want to make it out like world government will be good for humanity. But guess what? World government is good for their pocketbook."

Rand Paul Conspiracy Theories No. 3 - Beware of the NAFTA superhighway. In 2008, while campaigning for his father Ron Paul, Rand Paul spoke out against the NAFTA superhighway. The NAFTA superhighway would connect Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Critics of the project claimed it would "deal a fatal blow to American sovereignty." Rand pleaded with Congress to stop the project in its tracks.

The trouble was, the project didn't exist. The rumored superhighway was a culmination of various rumors originating with Rick Perry's idea to create a Trans-Texas Corridor in the early 2000s. Though it would only exist in Texas, political conspiracy theorists surmised this Trans-Texas Corridor was the beginning of a mass North American superhighway. The Perry administration eventually dropped the idea altogether. It remains unknown as to why the Pauls made it an issue again in 2008.

Both Ron and Rand have also expressed concerns over the potential for the "Amero," (the currency belonging to their imagined massive North America). In his Montana appearance, Rand told the crowd: "I guarantee you it's one of their long-term goals to have one sort of borderless, mass continent."

Rand Paul Conspiracy Theories No. 4 - The "audit-the-Fed" bill. According to The Washington Post, Sen. Paul was not happy with the "Dodd-Frank financial reform that already audited the Fed's past emergency lending, and requires it to disclose any such future lending, too." He wants Congress to watch the Fed's every move and offer their second opinion on whether it should have raised rates or purchased bonds. In the same video where Paul expressed his skepticism of the Bilderberg Group, he quotes his father Ron as having once said he knew more about the CIA than he did about the Federal Reserve.

Paul likes to focus on the Fed because he believes that "the Fed, with its unlimited power to print money, now prints that money to lobby against Congressional oversight."

If that were true, it would mean that Janet Yellen, the Fed's employees, members of Congress, and their Congressional staff were committing major acts of political corruption.

A Controversy That Will Cost Americans Billions of Dollars: Auditing the Federal Reserve will be a huge issue in the 2016 presidential election. What could the Fed be hiding? A CIA insider sat down with us for an exclusive look at what the Fed is really doing to the U.S. economy... continue now to this full story, here.