Six People (or Entities) You May Never Have Heard Of Who Secretly Rule the World

So much of the world's business and governmental inner workings are not what they seem. Largely powerless figureheads abound, and they front others in power, both individuals and groups. The linked article highlights six cases in which important rulers and decision makers are not widely known to exist. One example is the following:

"#5. The NSA Is Run By A Special Court Full Of Secretly Appointed Judges Who Don't Answer To Anyone

The NSA is one of the most controversial government organizations in existence. This is because, among other things, their surveillance tactics have been ruled unconstitutional, but they get to continue doing whatever they want, because terrorism. You see, despite what some knee-knocking appeals court says, every bit of electronic surveillance the NSA conducts on private citizens is totally legal in the name of protecting this great nation from secret threats. Just ask their bosses at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, if you can find them. And trust us: You can't.

The FISC was founded in 1978 to combat the rash of illegal Russian spies who were making it hard for illegal American spies to do their job properly. But after 9/11 made suspected terrorists of us all, the FISC quickly became the most powerful organization you've never heard of. It operates from a small office -- there are 11 judges, and their terms of service in the FISC last for seven years. And each one of them is appointed to their position by no less than the chief justice of the Supreme Court. He hires these judges all on his own, without any supervision or fellow justices getting in the way to ensure he doesn't accidentally appoint a violent sadist.The main job of the FISC is to hear requests from the government for permission to wiretap, monitor, bug, or otherwise snoop on whatever target they deem sufficiently shady. So if anyone's going to stop the NSA from pilfering through your DMs, it's them. Except they probably won't -- out of the 33,900 requests to spy that the FISC received from 1979 (the year of its inception) to 2012, they rejected 11 of them... It is equally important to note that there have not been 33,889 cases of espionage and organized terrorism in the past 30 years, so either the net they are casting is far too wide or they've successfully prevented 33,889 9/11s.

Read more about the FISC and about other individuals or entities who secretly control things from the world's pornography supply to the country of Mexico at Cracked. (Their usual, sporadic use of profanity in their pieces is present.)