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4 the Jedi can't realise the Senator Palpatine is Darth Sidious. In ANH when Darth Vader was chasing Luke in his fighter he realizes that "the force is strong with this one". You're going to tell me that the whole Jedi councel while standing next to Senator Palpatine can't realize that the dark side of the force is strong with him. come on!
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I've been thinking about this one, and I've come up with a bit of a theory,
What if in fact Palpatine was actually a clone of Darth Sidious (created without force powers, to be the 'public face') of Darth Sidious, that way Palpatine assisted by Sidious could rise in power in the senate without being detected by the jedi,
this could lead credence to the connection between the link between Sifo Diyas and Darth Sidious (the names being so similar as to also be an anagram of themselves .
In AOTC it is known that (according to the Caminoan's ) Jedi Master Sifo Dias ordered the creation of a clone army 10 years beforehand (probably based on the disastrous performance by the battle droids in the battle of Naboo) which coincidentally happened around the same time. so we've established a link between Sifo Dias having contact with the Caminoan's and their cloning technology.
secondly when Obi Wan is relaying this information to Yoda in AOTC, although the details are sketchy
Obi wan seems to vaguely remember that Master Sifo Dias was killed earlier than the Caminoans claim, obviously before Obi-wans time.
Now what if this Jedi Master Sifo Dias was once a high ranked member of the Jedi Council about ten or more years before The Phantom Menace, and in a similar way that Anakin Skywalker died and became Vader, Sifo Dias (believed dead) turned to the darkside , ( one of the 'Lost Twenty Jedi' referred to in some cut scenes involving the Jedi Librarian and Obi Wan from AOTC, this way Sifo Dias could have easily removed all record of Camino's Existance from the Jedi Archives.
so Sifo Dias/Darth Sidious gets a clone of himself (Palpatine) and after a bit of rapid growth acceleration Palpatine is somehow placed on the start of his political career, with Darth Sidious (and his apprentice Dath Maul) manipulating events in the background to accelerate Palpatines Rise to power. Palpatine becomes supreme chancellor at the end of TPM.
Happy with the work of his clone, Darth Sidious/ Sifo Dias orders the caminoans to create an army of clones knowing that the first 200,000 soldiers will take ten years to be ready, another million troops ready for battle five years later,
At the same time he manages to lure a disenchanted Count Dooku away from the Jedi order and over to the dark side as his new apprentice, he keeps Dooku in the dark about Palpatines true identity and the existense of the clone armies, and orders Dooku to take charge of the separatist's forces and raise an army to threaten the public, and the clone wars begin!!
now at some stage of the Clone wars the tide is gonna change against the Jedi and the clones will be forced to turn against their Jedi counterparts, so what if the second larger batch of 1 million clones are
programmed to fight against the jedi and the original wave of clones (thus giving us true Clone wars!)
In the confusion that follows the Seperatists reach a treaty with the republic forces (thanks to Palpatine) and the Jedi become the enemy and are hunted to extinction, and Darth Sidious does the old Switcheroo with Palpatine his clone, and becomes the Emperor.
it's just a theory and probably proves I have way too much spare time on my hands. but Hey, it made sense to me at the time!