A political decoy is a person employed to impersonate a politician, to draw attention away from the real person or to take risks on that person's behalf. This can also apply to military figures, or civilians impersonated for political or espionage purposes. The political decoy is an individual who has been selected because of strong physical resemblance to the person being impersonated. This resemblance can be strengthened by plastic surgery. Often, such decoys are trained to speak and behave like the "target". Political decoys in history Since deception is the whole purpose of employing a political decoy, many instances of alleged decoying remain uncertain. Joe R. Reeder, an undersecretary for the U.S. Army from 1993 to 1997, has gone on record with claims that a number of figures around the world have or have had decoys, including Manuel Noriega, Raoul Cédras, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden. Of Noriega's alleged four decoys, Reeder said, "They were good. They practiced his gait, his manner of speech and his modus operandi – what he did during the day and night." Information on these instances of decoying is hard to come by. And falsely accusing an enemy of using a decoy can be an effective psychological operations tactic (making an enemy seem like a coward who dare not appear in person, for example). This means that the confusion generated by the existence of real decoys is deepened by counterclaims of decoys where there may be none. The case of Osama bin Laden is instructive. In the absence of confirmed sightings of the terrorist figurehead, many sources openly speculated that videotaped messages from bin Laden were in fact recordings of a double - either as part of a "frame-up" operation, or as part of a strategy of deception on bin Laden's part. Speculation in such situations is naturally liable to run high. For the purposes of this entry, only well-documented allegations or confirmed cases of political decoying are discussed. Instances which are still under debate will have section headings below in quotes. Bernard Montgomery/Clifton James and "Tex" Banwell (1944) Soldier M. E. Clifton James successfully impersonated General Bernard Montgomery ("Monty") for intelligence purposes during World War II. In 1940, James acted in an Army production called When Knights Were Bold and his photograph appeared in an Army newspaper with a remark about how much he resembled General Montgomery. As