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Books to Educate Yourself
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Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America Chris Hedges, journalist and author. He was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times and is currently a senior fellow at the Nation Institute. He is author of "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" and "Losing Moses on the Freeway." He has a Masters degree in theology from Harvard University. He is currently writing a book on the Christian Right Chris Hedges' book is a highly readable reminder of what this Judeo Christian society that is in the press so much these days is really supposed to be. Without preaching. Mr Hedges manages to make the commandments a stinging commentary on life's real priorities in America while pointing out how far we have strayed from the true meaning of the decalogue handed down to us. Hedges points out that we have have traded faith for jingoism and wisdom for righteousness to suit our cultures fascination with power, wealth and individuality. It should be required reading for all of us. |
| Fraud: The Strategy Behind the
Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn't Tell You by Paul Waldman · Hardcover: 308 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.14 x 9.32 x 6.32 · Publisher: Sourcebooks; (January 1, 2004) · ISBN: 1402202520 "Waldman gets right to the heart of the con." -Greg Palast, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy How to Build a Fraud --Portray the son of one of America's most influential families as down-home Texan --Berate the media as "liberal" until they stop asking tough questions --Take advantage of reporters' tendency to not check the facts --Mask reactionary policies in compassionate words and pictures --Push false stories from right-wing media into mainstream media --Extol the virtues of workers while systematically pushing an anti-labor agenda --Propose a series of tax cuts aimed at the wealthy, but sell them as a boon to ordinary Americans --Disguise destructive initiatives with friendly sounding names --Befriend media with "genuine guy" routine --Keep the public from accessing information --Maintain message discipline at all times --Question patriotism of anyone who disagrees --Repeat above until it all seems true. |
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The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty Drawing on hours of interviews with Bush family members and friends, many of whom spoke on the record for the first time, the authors bring to light the inner workings of a family notorious for jealously guarding its privacy. They present never-before-published details about such sensitive matters as George W's drinking problem, the family's business dealings, the sibling rivalry between George and Jeb, and the special assignments George, Sr., and other family members carry out for the President. Their in-depth examination of the family's approach to public service confirms George W's and Jeb's insistence that they were never pushed into politics. While the Kennedys and other politically ambitious families are raised to meet specifically articulated expectations (and are punished for failure), the Bushes emphasize the family legacy, inculcating each generation with talk about how important politics is, making political involvement an integral part of the family's identity. The decision to remain outside the political arena carries with it an unmentioned, but very real, sense of shame. |
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Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President "I don't spend a lot of time trying to figure me out... I'm just
not into psychobabble." For all his simplicity and affability, George W. Bush has remained, to paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill, "a mystery wrapped in an enigma." In Bush on the Couch, Dr. Justin A. Frank, a well-respected Washington, D.C.-based psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry, unwraps that mystery, assembling a comprehensive psychological profile of President Bush. Using the principles of applied psychoanalysis -- the discipline of psychoanalyzing public and historical figures pioneered by Freud -- Frank fearlessly builds his case ... and reaches conclusions that are at once highly persuasive and deeply disturbing. |
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Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order Read a newspaper or catch the news on television, and you might get the impression that America's current leadership is "mainstream": perhaps a bit more conservative and in its foreign policy more belligerent than its predecessors, but still a federal authority that functions within America's political traditions. But as Mark Crispin Miller argues here with great clarity and effect, we are in fact living in a state that would appall the Founding Fathers: a state that is neither democratic nor republican, and no more "conservative" than it is liberal. He exposes the Bush Republicans' contempt for democratic practice, their bullying religiosity, their reckless militarism, their apocalyptic views of the economy and the planet, and-above all-their emotional dependence on sheer hatefulness. Abraham Lincoln once observed that, if the United States should ever be subverted, "it will be conquered from within." And that is exactly what has happened. |
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Cover Up : What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror Ever since 9/11, investigative reporter Peter Lance has been leading the fight to expose the intelligence gaps that led to 9/11. Now, in the follow-up to his bestselling 1000 Years for Revenge, he returns with devastating new evidence that the government has been covering up its own counter-terror failures since the mid-1990s -- and continues today. At a time when America feels no safer than ever, Cover Up will lend new eyes to readers who want the full story behind the 9/11 attacks -- and inspire us all to keep demanding the truth. |
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Intelligence Matters In his new book, "Intelligence Matters," Florida Sen. Bob Graham,
former co-chair of the joint House-Senate panel investigating 9/11, charges
that the Bush administration was engaged in a "cover-up" to
protect a key ally, Saudi Arabia. Graham claims the president coddled
the Saudis and pursued a war against Saddam Hussein that only diverted
resources from the more important fight against Al Qaeda. |
| When the Bush administration picked Paul O'Neill to become the Treasury secretary, they praised him as a "straight shooter." However, the White House is now calling O'Neill a big liar because his book The Price of Loyalty presents Bush as a bullying, passive and superficial president surrounded by right-wing ideologues. Ironic isn't it? Anyway, less than 24 hours after O'Neill criticized Bush on the CBS program "60 Minutes," the Treasury Department asked its Inspector General to investigate O'Neill for the documents used in the book, even though they were provided to O'Neill by the present Treasury Chief. This quick leap to investigative action led Democratic Presidential hopeful Wesley Clark to note the administration's striking contrast with the prompt probe into O'Neill when comparing the length of time taken to begin investigating the leak that identified CIA agent Valerie Plame. Obviously, O'Neill's book has struck a nerve at the White House. |
War
on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know
by William Rivers Pitt, Scott Ritter (Contributor)
Price: $8.95 - Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours
· Paperback: 96 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.25 x 6.86 x 4.24
· Publisher: Context Books; ISBN: 1893956385; (September 25, 2002)
Review
War on Iraq offers a balanced, non-partisan examination of the current debate
in Washington and beyond. In this shocking expose on the impending offensive
against Iraq, activist, author, and teacher William Rivers Pitt sits down with
former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter to expose the truth behind the hawkish
rhetoric of the Bush administration. Ritter--ex-Marine, intelligence specialist,
expert on Iraqi military strategy, and Gulf War veteran--dismantles the myths
surrounding Saddam Hussein's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons capabilities
while revealing the neo-conservative forces pushing the White House toward war.
During the seven years the inspections took place, Ritter and other inspectors
were able to confirm that Iraq's chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs
were effectively destroyed, counter to current White House claims. Pitt and
Ritter also explain the lack of any plausible link between Saddam Hussein and
Al Qaeda, and highlight the absurdity of forcing democracy on a nation that
has been divided for centuries. The book closes with a stark forecast for American
troops if a ground war ensues and urges the White House to seek a diplomatic
solution. A complete listing of contact information for U.S. senators as well
as outreach and activist resources is included.
Forbidden
Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy,
Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden
by Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquie, Wayne Madsen, Lucy Rounds (Translator)
Price: $10.36 - Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours
· Paperback: 208 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.80 x 7.62 x 5.02
· Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press / Nation Books; ISBN: 1560254149;
(July 10, 2002)
Publishers Weekly Review
There's a lot that's intriguing in this examination of the economic links between
the United States and Middle East oil and the diplomatic side of the war on
terrorism-but this expos‚ occasionally suffers from insinuations that outstrip
the evidence presented. The authors, both French intelligence experts, attempt
to detail how "political channels, financial networks, oil stakes and secret
diplomatic deals" helped support Osama bin Laden and his band of fundamentalist
terrorists. They do spell out how worldwide Islamic charities helped fund terrorism
and the fact that al-Qaeda received substantial funds from Saudi sources. Relying
on both primary and secondary sources, the authors also add nuance to our understanding
of the situation, noting, for example, that Libya, after an assassination attempt
against Khadafy, was the first country to issue a warrant for bin Laden's arrest,
in 1998. Among their more surprising charges (though they admit there is no
direct evidence of the links) is that scandal-ridden BCCI-of which one of bin
Laden's brothers-in-law is a former top executive-"is now at the center
of [bin Laden's] financial network," supporting him with an intricate chain
of business, banking and family ties. Other points-such as the implication that
Bush administration officials have some guilt in the September 11 attacks because
they worked for oil companies that had dealings with Saudi oil companies and
had an interest in oil pipelines running through Afghanistan-rely also on heavily
circumstantial evidence. This was a bestseller in France, but here it may be
buried in the flood of September 11 books. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information,
Inc.
The
War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked, September 11, 2001
by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Price: 13.56 - Availability: Usually ships within 5 to 6 days
· Paperback: 400 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.75 x 8.75 x 6.00
· Publisher: Tree of Life Publications; ISBN: 0930852400; (July 2002)
Review
"Afghanistan had planned for several years prior to the terrible tragedy
that occurred on 11th September on US soil...[It] then considers the development
of Afghanistan as well as within the United States, as a consequence of the
US-led military intervention that began October 2001....Neither the facts, nor
the inferences I draw from them, are palatable. However, they are worthy of
urgent consideration, not only from members of the public, but by our purported
political leaders and representatives..."
"...Huey Long once said, 'Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism'.
I'm afraid, based on my own long experience, that fascism will come to America
in the name of national security."
Nafeez Moseaddeq Ahmed, Preface
and quote from Jim Garrison, New Orleans
District Attorney, 1967, from the Conclusion
THE WAR ON FREEDOM
Dreaming
War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta
by Gore Vidal
Price: $9.56 - Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours
· Paperback: 176 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.57 x 8.74 x 6.34
· Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press; ISBN: 1560255021; (December 2002)
Review
We've all heard 9/11 compared to Pearl Harbor, but in one of the essays in
this provocative and thoughtful collection, America's great literary dissenter
finds deeper links. Both were seemingly inexplicable surprise attacks, but,
Vidal argues, the "Cheney/Bush" (in that order, he assures us) "junta"
knew 9/11 was coming as surely as FDR knew the Japanese would attack American
interests in the Pacific. And just as Pearl Harbor got America into World War
II, Cheney and Bush gleefully used 9/11 to begin a long war against enemies
who just so happen to live amidst the oil reserves coveted by our executive
branch (themselves former oil barons). Vidal backs his argument up with a stunning
array of evidence culled from books, scholarly articles, and even the popular
media he so despises. The essays on the so-called junta are, in and of themselves,
worth the price of admission, but also included here are 10 Vidal articles published
over the last decade, which discuss how, in the wake of World War II, America
completely abandoned its republic for an imperial police state engaged in perpetual
war. Vidal's talent for invigorating his polemics with lively prose and fierce
wit (he describes Spiro Agnew as "Vice President to Richard Nixon and bribe-taker
to many") shines throughout, and though some of the essays are dated, Vidalian
vitriol never seems to go out of style. John Green
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons,
Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters
by Greg Palast
Price: $11.20 - Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours
· Paperback: 368 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.81 x 8.02 x 5.30
· Publisher: Plume; ISBN: 0452283914; (February 25, 2003)
Description
Award-winning investigative journalist Greg Palast digs deep to unearth the
ugly facts that few reporters working anywhere in the world today have the courage
or ability to cover. From East Timor to Waco, he has exposed some of the most
egregious cases of political corruption, corporate fraud, and financial manipulation
in the US and abroad. His uncanny investigative skills as well as his no-holds-barred
style have made him an anathema among magnates on four continents and a living
legend among his colleagues and his devoted readership.
This exciting new collection brings together some of Palast's most powerful
writing of the past decade. Included here are his celebrated "Washington
Post" exposé on Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris's stealing of the
presidential election in Florida, and recent stories on George W. Bush's payoffs
to corporate cronies, the payola behind Hillary Clinton, and the faux energy
crisis. Also included in this volume are new and previously unpublished material,
television transcripts, photographs, and letters. --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
by Gore Vidal
Price: $8.00 - Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours
· Paperback: 160 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.52 x 7.64 x 5.02
· Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press / Nation Books ; ISBN: 156025405X;
(March 10, 2002)
Review
Vidal couldn't find an English-language publisher for the first essay in this
collection, his response to September 11, until it became a best-seller in Italy.
He argues that Osama bin Laden's attack on America pales in comparison to the
government's attack on American civil liberties since September 11. Vidal views
the unwinnable wars on terrorism and drugs as the government's excuse to implement
a police state, which he repeatedly compares to Nazi Germany. With his trademark
wit and imposing intellect, he attacks everything about the Bush administration's
response to 9/11, from the president's characterization of terrorists as "evil"
to the war in Afghanistan. The clever, thoughtful diatribe is sometimes overwhelmed
by tangents (at one point, Vidal ridicules Barbara Bush as a George Washington
look-alike, which hardly seems relevant), but the essay is compulsively readable.
The remaining essays in this slim volume have been published before and address
Timothy McVeigh and the bombing in Oklahoma City. In a surprisingly convincing
argument that McVeigh might not have been behind the bombing, Vidal weaves conspiracies
from the Opus Dei order of the Catholic Church to Waco. These essays are held
together by Vidal's belief that we must take the McVeighs and the bin Ladens
of the world seriously and not dismiss their actions as simply "evil."
Vidal fans will find everything they love here: these essays are witty, often
convincing, and pull no punches. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
The Big White Lie: The CIA and the Cocaine/Crack Epidemic
By Michael Levine, Laura Kavanau-Levine (Contributor)
Price: $10.00 - Availability: Out of Print--Limited Availability
· Hardcover: 472 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 9.32 x 1.68 x 6.38
· Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press; ASIN: 156025064X; (October 1993)
Editorial Reviews
Reading more like a novel than serious nonfiction, The Big White Lie tells a
former Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent's story of dealing with
cocaine traffickers in both the U.S. and South America. Levine, who has written
two previous books on similar subjects, admits to considerable disenchantment
with the "suits" running the DEA and to family involvement with drugs
(a couple of fatal addictions), a combination that could hamper his objectivity.
He was, nevertheless, involved with some major drug operations in which one
U.S. government agency (the DEA) was trying to ensnare drug dealers while another
(the CIA) was using the same people as sources: a delicate game that Levine
found not only offensive, but also unplayable. Connie Goddard
By Way of Deception
By Victor Ostrovsky
Price: $24.95
· Paperback: 372 pages
· Publisher: Wilshire Press Inc.; ISBN: 0971759502; (January 1, 2002)
Book Description
The # 1 "New York Times" best seller the Israeli foreign intelligence
agency The Mossad tried to ban. The making of a Mossad officer is the true story
of an officer in Israel's most secret agency.
About the Author
Victor Ostrovsky was raised in Israel, but was born in Canada. At eighteen he
became the youngest officer in the Israeli military, eventually rising to the
rank of lieutenant commander in charge of naval weapons testing.
He was a Mossad case officer from 1984-1986
Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America
By Peter Dale Scott, Jonathan Marshall
Price: $13.27
· Paperback: 279 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.72 x 8.94 x 5.96
· Publisher: University of California Press; ISBN: 0520214498; Reprint
edition (April 1998)
Editorial Reviews
When the San Jose Mercury News ran a controversial series of stories in 1996
on the relationship between the CIA, the Contras, and crack, they reignited
the issue of the intelligence agency's connections to drug trafficking, initially
brought to light during the Vietnam War and then again by the Iran-Contra affair.
Broad in scope and extensively documented, Cocaine Politics shows that under
the cover of national security and covert operations, the U.S. government has
repeatedly collaborated with and protected major international drug traffickers.
A new preface discusses developments of the last six years, including the Mercury
News stories and the public reaction they provoked.
Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion
By Gary Webb
Price: $17.47
Availability: Usually ships in 5 to 8 days
· Hardcover: 320 pages; Dimensions (in inches): 1.80 x 9.28 x 6.32
· Publisher: Seven Stories Press; ISBN: 1888363681; (June 15, 1998)
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In July 1995, San Jose Mercury-News reporter Gary Webb found the Big One--the
blockbuster story every journalist secretly dreams about--without even looking
for it. A simple phone call concerning an unexceptional pending drug trial turned
into a massive conspiracy involving the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, L.A. and Bay
Area crack cocaine dealers, and the Central Intelligence Agency. For several
years during the 1980s, Webb discovered, Contra elements shuttled thousands
of tons of cocaine into the United States, with the profits going toward the
funding of Contra rebels attempting a counterrevolution in their Nicaraguan
homeland. Even more chilling, Webb quickly realized, was that the massive drug-dealing
operation had the implicit approval--and occasional outright support--of the
CIA, the very organization entrusted to prevent illegal drugs from being brought
into the United States. Tjames Madison
Deep Politics And The Death of JFK
By Peter Dale Scott
Price: $13.97
· Paperback: Dimensions (in inches): 1.02 x 9.00 x 5.98
· Publisher: University of California Press; ISBN: 0520205197; Reprint
edition (April 1996)
Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews
Staggeringly well-researched and intelligent overview not only of the JFK assassination
but also of the rise of forces undermining American democracy--of which the
assassination, Scott says, is symptomatic. Scott (English/UC at Berkeley; coauthor,
Cocaine Politics, 1991, etc.) advances the idea that each decade has produced
its own adjustment to prolonging and deepening the cold war but that this adjustment
can't be seen merely as an effort of nefarious power grabbers but rather as
a synergism emerging from many interrelated political layers reacting to each
other. The author is less interested in actual facts than in working toward
public control of political life. To do this, he uses a huge magnifying glass
he calls ``deep politics''--the study of ``political practices and arrangements
that are usually repressed rather than acknowledged.'' Copyright ©1993,
Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of
print or unavailable edition of this title.
Deliberate Deceptions: Facing the Facts About the U.S.-Israeli
Relationship *No Image Available
By Paul Findley
List Price: $14.95
· Paperback: 326 pages
· Publisher: Amer Educational Trust; ISBN: 0937165093; (March 1, 1995)
Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews
The many supposed sins of Israel, as compiled by former Illinois congressman
Findley (They Dare To Speak Out, 1989). The author groups his points of contention
with Israel into 28 categories, including ``The Likud Government''; ``The Intifada'';
``Loan Guarantees for Israel''; ``Israel's Spying On America''; ``Israel and
the UN''; and ``Israel's Claims to Palestine.''
Drug War
By Dan Russell
Price: $34.95
· Paperback: 675 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.54 x 9.04 x 6.04
· Publisher: Kalyx.com; ISBN: 0965025349; (September 25, 2000)
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
The definitive, and most entertaining, general history of the Drug War. 420
photos illustrate 675 annotated & indexed pages. "Drug War epitomizes
such books as Alexander Cockburn's Whiteout, Alfred McCoy's The Politics of
Heroin, and Gary Webb's Dark Alliance all together, with riveting photography
throughout. Written in an easy to read, flowing style that is entertaining while
at the same time amazingly detailed, concise, and to the point, Drug War covers
one hell of a lot of ground." Preston Peet, High Times Magazine
From the Author
I have a very strong aesthetic feeling for the way history ought to be taught.
The teachers I remember from high school were the ones who turned the classroom
into a movie theatre, the ones who made it all come alive. With over 400 apt
photos, Drug War reads like a movie, and the narrator, me, talks to you in colloquial
American, not at you in academese. My illustrated chapter summaries are up at
drugwar.com.
Drug Warriors and Their Prey: From Police Power to Police State
by Richard Lawrence Miller
Price: $25.95
· Hardcover: Dimensions (in inches): 1.01 x 9.47 x 6.43
· Publisher: Praeger Pub Text; ISBN: 0275950425; (April 1996)
Editorial Reviews
Midwest Book Review
The war on drugs is a war against ordinary people: starting from this premise
Miller analyzes America's drug war in all its social implications, from examples
of enforcement strategies which don't work to court systems which threaten victims.
The idea is that civil liberties are being eroded in the process of conducting
a war against drugs: many examples demonstrate this loss.
Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad
by Gordon Thomas
Price: $11.17
· Paperback: 384 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.13 x 9.43 x 6.11
· Publisher: Griffin Trade Paperback; ISBN: 0312252846; (March 2000)
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The Mossad was formed in 1951 to coordinate the intelligence-gathering efforts
of the still-young nation of Israel. In the nearly half century since, it has
become a force to be reckoned with, boasting an impressive track record of counterterrorist
actions and assassinations. Gideon's Spies is loaded with anecdotes of their
greatest exploits (and a few colossal blunders). Among the most interesting
sections are the suggestions that Mossad agents killed media tycoon Robert Maxwell
in 1991, that the agency's attempted recruitment of Henri Paul, the driver of
Princess Diana's car that fateful night, may have caused sufficient emotional
distress to be a contributing factor in the accident, and that Mossad operatives
in America had tapes of the phone-sex conversations between President Bill Clinton
and his lover Monica Lewinsky. There's also some extensive material on the links
between the Israelis and the Vatican, including the Mossad's role in the investigation
into the attempted 1981 assassination of Pope John Paul II and the agency's
constant battles against the PLO. An interesting nonfiction read for fans of
international spy thrillers. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable
edition of this title.
The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed
By Russell S. Bowen
Price: $12.95
· Paperback: 210 pages
· Publisher: America West Pub; ISBN: 0922356807; (May 2001)
Book Description
This is perhaps the most shocking book written this century about treason committed
by the highest leaders within the U.S. Government. This disturbing and thought
provoking expose, which few Americans know about, shows the truth about the
drug running activities in behalf of the "secret" government".
You will learn about the unsavory past of George Bush and his family, and well
as the unscrupulous activities in which he has been involved.
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Drug Trade
By Alfred W. McCoy
Price: $23.07
· Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.65 x 8.97 x 5.98
· Publisher: Lawrence Hill & Co; ISBN: 1556521251; Revised edition
(July 1991)
From Kirkus Reviews
A greatly revised and expanded edition of McCoy's Politics of Heroin in Southeast
Asia (1972--not reviewed). Though he devotes much of his narrative to a history
of modern commerce in narcotics, rather than, as the subtitle indicates, CIA
complicity in the drug trade, McCoy tells a fascinating story. He shows that
in the ``Golden Triangle'' of Laos, Thailand, and Burma, opium was big business
and, often, the only viable form of currency. McCoy argues that, in their efforts
to expand their own power in Southeast Asia, American intelligence agents permitted
allies of the US (the Hmong tribe in Southeast Asia, for instance, which was
vital to the CIA's secret war in Laos and which sold heroin to American GIs)
to expand their lucrative drug trade. In the wake of the Vietnam War, McCoy
contends, a similar relationship developed between American authorities and
the contras of Central America. Drug-enforcement agencies sought the arrest
of drug merchants often associated with the contras, while the CIA, viewing
the contras as indispensable ideological allies in the war against Communism,
did their best to thwart the vaunted ``war on drugs.'' The author produces considerable
disturbing evidence that US authorities are guilty at least of complicity in
the global drug trade, and argues convincingly that the drug problem at home
will not end until a fundamental change is made in American policy. McCoy exposes
basic hypocrisy in American policymaking, and demonstrates that, as long as
powerful government bureaucracies work at cross-purposes, America's drug problem
will not be easily solved. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All
rights reserved.
They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby
By Paul Findley
Price: $16.95
· Paperback: Dimensions (in inches): 1.03 x 8.95 x 5.95
· Publisher: A Cappella Books; ISBN: 1556520735; 2nd revise edition (August
1989)
Book Description
Exposes the degree to which pro-Israeli groups are able to supress free debate,
compromise national secrets, and shape American foreign policy. Findley focuses
on individuals who have stood up to the pro-Israeli forces and brings out their
statements and observations on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy toward
Israel.
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Lucifer : The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture In his latest work "Lucifer Ascending" and his 2000 book "Raising
the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media," Bill Ellis builds
a sober and persuasive argument that the recent hysteria over the influence
of Satan in America, much of it emanating from the Christian right, reflects
a misunderstanding of a cyclical or dialectical process that has repeated
itself for centuries. As a scholar and historian, Ellis is inclined to believe that religious
manias, both of the Christian and occult varieties, inevitably burn themselves
out. Organized religion and the folk-witchcraft traditions, he suggests,
balance each other out in the long term in what he calls a "Luciferian
dialectic." But as the witch trials of medieval Europe and colonial
Massachusetts, the Red Scare of the 1950s and the Satan panic of the 1980s
also indicate, these moments of ecstatic belief can also produce fervent
persecutions of dissidents, heretics and perceived enemies of all kinds.
Ellis explains this in neutral, anthropological language, but its relevance
to George W. Bush and John Ashcroft's America -- where the Constitution
seems increasingly endangered and prominent Christian ministers accuse
Muslims of worshipping the Moon God -- should be obvious. "One group
can become so convinced of its religious rectitude, and so convinced of
the danger that the Other puts them into," he says, "that they
end up taking political and legal action against the Other. And of course,
the fact that they're doing this for God makes them even less critical
than they otherwise might be about the evidence and about their own motives.
This is why I'm writing these books -- I'm trying to get people to see
these dangers." |
Whiteout: The Cia, Drugs and the Press
By Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair
Price: $10.50
· Paperback: 408 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.20 x 7.76 x 5.10
· Publisher: Verso Books; ISBN: 1859842585; (October 1999)
Editorial Reviews
Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair take the revelations of the links between
the Central Intelligence Agency, the Nicaraguan Contras, and the Los Angeles
crack market that journalist Gary Webb exposed in 1996--revelations that are
the basis of Webb's book Dark Alliance--and use them as a springboard for a
tale of the U.S. government's involvement with the illegal drug trade that extends
much further back than Webb's tale.