Book Description
Olson turns her razor sharp vision on the Clintons' shocking excesses in their final days of office: the outrageous pardons to political cronies and friends, the looting of the White House, the executive orders that were sheer abuses of presidential power, the presidential library that is becoming a massive boondoogle of vanity more appropriate for a Third World dictator, and much more.
Customer Reviews:
What politicians will do to cling onto power.......2006-12-10
Conservative commentator Barbara Olson, who perished when the hijacked Flight 77 dove into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, reminds us with "The Final Days" precisely what sort of leeching parasites politicians can be. This is not a strict "Republican" or "Democrat" kind of thing, nor is it an issue pertaining to just "conservatives" or just "liberals." The book is not biased just because it reports only the Clinton wrongdoings, even though the author is a self-proclaimed conservative. In fact, the flip side to Olson's coin is the recently released "State of Denial" by Bob Woodward, who similarly documents the slime coursing through the current Bush administration and the ongoing war in Iraq. No, "The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House" merely reiterates a well-worn fact of life dominant in today's world: Power corrupts.
Olson's final account about the closing of doors in the Clinton administration should send alarm bells screeching through the minds of the American electorate, especially in a time when a Hillary Clinton run for the presidency seems almost inevitable. Olson reveals with painstaking accuracy the core tenets of Clintonism: Deny the accusations, play the helpless victim, and attack the enemy with relentless savagery. And, of course, it is permissible to lie whenever the chance arrives. When many liberal Democrats pressured him truthfully to explain everything behind the pardon of Marc Rich and his associates, President Clinton acknowledged that those he pardoned, who evaded millions in taxes and maintained connections with the Castro and Gaddafi regimes, simply had been wrongfully persecuted by the Justice Department. It is a classic example of the `victim hood' phenomenon so popularly paraded by the Clintons. Everyone seems to be a poor, pitiable victim, especially if their names end with "Clinton" and the persecutor is that dang "right-wing conspiracy." I'm afraid the term you're looking for, Mr. and Mrs. President, is "vast critical-thinking conspiracy." Or perhaps the "concerned American citizen conspiracy."
Like "State of Denial," "The Final Days" wields sharp facts to counter the myths surrounding popular politicians. Clinton may have presided over the largest economic expansion in U.S. history, but the shameless "For Sale" sign dangling around his neck during the closing days of his administration calls into question his serious character and moral flaws. Similarly, Bush may have stated "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, but the fact that we are still there waging a failing campaign at the expense of American and Iraqi blood does not make his acts justifiable. I highly recommend both books to spark in your head the idea that maybe we need to rethink seriously the decision of putting these kinds of people in power.
A book about two topics: pardon and donation........2006-05-26
I listened to the audio version of this book. While most of the things said in this book may be true, it appears a bit biased. In addition to facts, the author uses some adjectives which show her personal dislike of the famous couple.
In the end, I had an impression that this book grew out of author's frustration upon Mark Rich pardon. Many chapters are dedicated to that case.
A disproportionately large portion of the book is devoted to two topics: pardon and donations. At one point the audio book spends a large amount of time only listing names of who donated what item. It goes on and on and on with names that make no sense and contribute nothing much to the story. That could have been moved to the appendix to keep the flow going.
I was hoping to find details about mischievious behavior by Clinton staff during the last days. There was no mention of that.
FAILING TO CROSSOVER.......2006-04-15
"The much talked about Marc Rich pardon has become an appropriate symbol of the entire eight years, but Mrs. Olson does a commendable service by clearly detailing the effrontery of his (Rich's) misdeeds, and an even more skillful demonstration of the President's specious and insulting attempt to justify this shocking act. To add fuel to her raging fire, she quotes former President Jimmy Carter who openly stated "I don't think there is any doubt that some of the factors in his pardon were attributable to his large gifts. In my opinion that was disgraceful."
Naturally, given her neo-con bent, Ms. Olsen failed to mention the extremely salient point that the attorney representing Marc Rich's pardon application was none other than Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's aide.
Excellent and bloody right!.......2006-03-18
All of you Clinton lovers should actually learn to not turn the blind eye on many of these things Clinton did during his presidency. The last few minutes before he was impeached.
I can admit George Bush is a bad president himself but I can also admit what Bill clinton stood for. Corruption!
See the pardons such as the nationalistic terrorist group from Puerto Rico plus the tax cheat and a whole list of other losers that Clinton pardoned.
A Catalogue of Iniquities. .......2004-07-28
The last days of the Clintons were an occasion for the country to witness just how corrupt this two for the price of one team actually was. They took furniture and gifts that were not their's for the taking, and appeared to be granting pardons on the basis of what law breakers held the most influence within their circle of friends and family. From arsenic to Mark Rich, the whole squalid tale is recounted by the superlative Barbara Olso, who sadly is no longer with us.
Book Description
Taking to heart the classic idea that those who benefit from a crime ought to be investigated, here the eminent theologian David Ray Griffin sifts through the evidence about the attacks of 9/11--stories from the mainstream press, reports from abroad, the work of other researchers, and the contradictory words of members of the Bush administration themselves--and finds that, taken together, they cast serious doubt on the official story of that tragic day. He begins with simple questions: Once radio contact was lost with the flights, why weren't jets immediately sent up ("scrambled") from the nearest military airport, something that according to the FAA's own manual is routine procedure? Why did the administration's story about scrambling jets change in the days following the attacks? The disturbing questions don't stop there: they emerge from every part of the story, from every angle, until it is impossible not to suspect the architects of the official story of enormous deception. A teacher of ethics and theology, Griffin writes with compelling logic, urging readers to draw their own conclusions from the evidence. The New Pearl Harbor is a stirring call for a thorough investigation into what happened on 9/11. It rings with the conviction that it is still possible to search for the truth in American political life.
Customer Reviews:
Bush Admin too inept to have pulled this off.......2007-08-29
Beyond referring to the easily readable Popular Mechanics article of about two years ago, which demonstrates just how the jet fuel could have brought the towers down so quickly, etc., beyond Griffin not being a structural engineer or any other kind of engineer, beyond his relying heavily on Thierry Meyssan's thoroughly debunked "The Big Lie," I can tell you the No. 1 reason not to believe the conspiracy theory that the U.S. government is in any way behind 9/11:
Look at four years of the Iraq War; look at the post-Katrina response. The George W. Bush White House is too inept to have pulled this off.
Unfortunately, neither empirical evidence nor logical reasoning have ever stood in the way of a good, er, bad, conspiracy theory.
Blew my mind - we are living a nightmare.......2007-08-17
How do I get my mind around the inevitable conclusion: that 9/11 was an inside job? All the rhetoric from Bush and Cheney about the evil-doers, the sub-humans who care nothing for human life and want to kill us: they are speaking of themselves. We have entered that phase of world history where global power is slowly, silently being seized by very evil men who stop at nothing to unfold their demonic visions. The people who died in the WTC and the Pentagon were murdered by their own govt.
A few facts from the book: The towers were full of asbestos and it was almost impossible to demolish them any other way. By pretending the collapse was caused by terrorism, citizens cannot sue Silverstein for lung damage. There seemed to be a lot of incentive on the part of the leaseholder, Silverstein, to bring them down.
There was an unprecedented fullpower shutdown the weekend prior to 9-11. All security cameras were turned off. This according to an IT guy for Fidelity named Forbes, Google him. He reported a lot of workmen with spools of wire cables that weekend, he was told that internet cables were being upgraded. Because he worked all weekend, he took Tuesday off and watched the towers collapse from home in NJ. He instantly thought it was related to the work down over the weekend.
Also, all bomb-sniffing dogs were removed from the premises 5 days prior to 9/11 -- that would be Friday. What would the dogs have sniffed if they had been there that weekend?
Read the book.
Unbelievable !!.......2007-07-16
It is astounding and almost unbelievable that the President of the United States would plan or approve such a calamitous event as the 9/11 attack. Yet, this is the conclusion to which we are led by David Griffin in his book, THE NEW PEARL HARBOR. It would have to be characterized as the most terrible immmorality; deception, lying, killing, all for ignoble motives. If this was a conspiracy perpetrated by our own government, as Griffin seems to think, it was gigantic in its scope, involving hundreds and perhaps even thousands of people. You would have to include not only the President and Vice President, but also the top echelon of the military, together with a number of their subordinates, airline executives and technicians, engineers and detonators, New York City officials such as the Mayor and the Police Commissioner, the FBI, the CIA, and the media. To expect that all of these people would remain quiet about what happened if they knew that it differed from the official account, is asking an awful lot. Surely there would be outrage, and at least a few brave souls would speak out. Even in the face of intimidation there would be some that would be defiant. This particular point is difficult for me to accept - that the conspiracy could be so well contained.
Nevertheless, though I have until now accepted the official explanation of those events on 9/11, I am now not so sure. Griffin raises a lot of questions, not just a few, about what happened, as contrasted with the reports that we all know about. He calls for a complete and unbiased investigation by someone whose integrity cannot be questioned, who is beholden to no party or view, and cannot be compromised. I am in complete agreement with that view.
If this is what our government has done to its own people, we are in the gravest peril. It is immoral and treasonous and is not a tactic or strategy we can accept. If the allegations in this book are true, we citizens have a duty to clean house and vote out every single incumbent from office and elect fresh new people, those without political pedigrees. Even for the presidency, we should elect some relatively unknown figure, rather than any politician who has been feeding us a line these past years.
Chapter 7 is entitled DID US OFFICIALS HAVE REASONS FOR ALLOWING 9/11 ?
The author says that 9/11 was the "official" excuse for invading Afghanistan, the beginning of the War on Terrorism. Griffin asserts that the real reason was to establish bases to guard a proposed oil and gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to the Indian Ocean, running through Afghanistan and Pakistan. He further asserts that the written records of some top government officials indicate strongly that we invaded Iraq to "guard" their oil reserves (for ourselves ?). It is likely the oil supply will remain important to us for the foreseeable future. Instead of looking to the mideast for this supply, why don't we begin to mine our own HUGE oil reserves in Utah and Colorado, said to be greater even than those in the Gulf region? It is much more difficult to get this oil, and the process is much more expensive, but it would be an alternative to dependence on foreign oil and we wouldn't have go to war. Scientists and geologists are working now to develop and improve this process. Whatever the cost, the government could and should fund it.
For me the jury is still out. It is unthinkable that our government could plan and instigate the 9/11 attack and do this dastardly deed to its own citizens. But more than enough questions have been raised by Griffin to demand a complete investigation. I'm willing to endure the unpleasantness if we get to the truth.
This is a must-read !
Questioning your government is patriotic.......2007-06-27
Every American should read this book -- questioning the actions of our government is the duty of every American.
cashing in on 911.......2007-06-08
This book's conspiracy theories are so bad, you have to think the author is simply cashing in on 911. dispicable. example- why were'nt jets scrambled to intercept the hijacked aircraft from a closer USAF base? answer: We did scramble from the nearest base that had fighters on alert. True, Mcguire AFB is closer, but only if you were we going to launch a tanker or cargo aircraft. Book is complete fiction.
Amazon.com
Ever since the night that deputy White House counselor Vincent Foster was found dead in a Washington, D.C., park, conspiracy theories about his death have abounded. Everyone from evangelist Jerry Falwell to talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has weighed in with his or her own version of events: Foster was murdered; his body was moved; the investigation into his death became a giant cover-up. Christopher Ruddy, a reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a paper owned by conservative Richard Scaife, has entered the fray with The Strange Death of Vincent Foster.
As Ruddy goes over the evidence, it becomes increasingly clear that the initial investigative work by the park police and the FBI was mishandled--evidence was poorly collected and documented, the autopsy was hardly comprehensive, and eyewitness accounts differed drastically. In addition, the role of White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum in obstructing the police search of Foster's office and belongings was undoubtedly out of line. Do shoddy police work and overzealous political posturing add up to a vast governmental conspiracy? Ruddy suggests they do; readers of The Strange Death of Vincent Foster may or may not reach the same conclusion.
Book Description
On a humid July day in 1993, White House deputy counsel Vincent W. Foster was found dead in Fort Marcy Park in suburban Virginia. One of the nation's highest-ranking federal officers, Foster was a boyhood friend of President Bill Clinton and a close confidant of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. His death sent shock waves through the White House and the nation's capital.
The death was quickly pronounced a suicide. According to the official story that soon emerged, Foster was depressed, angry, and isolated. With nowhere else to turn, he went to a secluded park near the Potomac River, put a gun in his mouth, and killed himself.
But is that what really happened?
In this compelling and fully documented report, investigative journalist Christopher Ruddy answers that critical question. Ruddy, who has covered the case almost from the start, details the disturbing inconsistencies surrounding Foster's alleged suicide, chronicles the botched investigations, documents the frenzied illegal activity in the White House in the hours after Foster's death, and notes the persistent failure of mainstream media to ask the right questions.
Throughout his thorough investigation of the available forensic and circumstantial evidence, Ruddy weaves a disturbing tale of cover-ups, abuse of power, police and prosecutorial incompetence, and press indifference. His startling conclusion -- that despite the official line, Foster could not have killed himself in Fort Marcy Park -- will persuade even the most skeptical reader to demand a full public investigation into the mysterious circumstances of the death of Vincent Foster and the troubling events in its aftermath.
Customer Reviews:
Looking at Washington corruption through a keyhole.......2007-09-16
On July 20, 1993, Deputy White House Counsel Vincent W. Foster, Jr. was found dead in Fort Marcy Park, Virginia. On January 27, 1994, Christopher Ruddy became the first American journalist to write anything about the death that was both based upon actual interviews of witnesses at the park and called into question the official suicide ruling. With this book he reached another milestone. More than four years after the death he became the first person to have a serious, critical book on the Foster death published by a "mainstream" publisher.
The book, like his reporting on the case, first for the New York Post and later for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, is thick with facts that contradict the official version, a version which we have, up to now, only been given by the initial Special Prosecutor, Robert Fiske, in a sparse, double-spaced, 58-page report (We are not counting the numerous journalists, most notably James Stewart in the Simon and Schuster book, Blood Sport, who have also peddled the official suicide-from-depression story.).
Here's an outline of some of the most important evidence that Ruddy reveals to us:
The Body
Foster was laid out as though ready for a coffin with his legs straight and his arms down by his side.
He was neat and tidy. None of the gore that one would expect when a person has blown his brains out with a .38 caliber revolver was present. Only a trickle of blood was seen oozing from the nose and the corner of the mouth. No samples of skull, brain tissue, or hair were collected, or even reported seen, on the ground or vegetation. There was no large pool of blood. There was no blow-back on the barrel of the gun, his hand, or the sleeve of his shirt. His teeth were not chipped nor his mouth damaged from, as we were told, having held the pistol's barrel deep in his mouth when he fired it.
None of the witnesses in the park reported seeing the large exit wound at the crown of the head that is in the autopsy report of Dr. James Beyer, a man with a record of serious mistakes on autopsies resulting in suicide rulings when murder was more likely. On his report, Dr. Beyer checked that he took X-rays and an attending policeman wrote on his report that Dr. Beyer had told him that the X-rays showed no bullet fragments in the head, yet Dr. Beyer later said, and Fiske reported, that no X-rays were taken because the machine was not working. Service records on the X-ray machine, however, belie the claim that it was not working.
An emergency worker at the park has testified to having seen a small wound on the right side of the neck . Ruddy claims to have seen a photograph leaked to him from Kenneth Starr's office that shows a similar neck wound. Recently, a document was uncovered in the National Archives that indicates that medical examiner Dr. James Haut also reported seeing a neck wound. A good part of the Polaroid photographs taken of the scene have disappeared, and it has been claimed that the 35-mm photos taken by the principal police photographer were spoiled by under-exposure.
The Gun
Neither police nor FBI apparently ever showed the gun found in Foster's hand to immediate family members for identification. The gun was an old 1913-vintage Colt made up from parts of two or more guns. The preponderance of evidence suggests that it was not Foster's gun.
The earliest witness said there was no gun in the hand when he saw the body. The next witness, a Park Policeman, also saw no gun, though he claims not to have looked very closely. One of the earliest emergency workers to arrive has given sworn expert testimony that the gun he saw was an automatic, not a revolver.
No fingerprints from Foster were on the gun or the bullet shell casings.
Powder markings on the webbing between thumb and forefinger of both hands indicate either that Foster held the gun in an impossibly awkward position, someone caused the markings to be there after the death, or Foster was trying to ward off a shot by grabbing the gun by the front cylinder gap.
No matching bullets to the two shells (one spent) in the gun were found anywhere.
The supposed fatal bullet was never found.
The police ruled suicide before ever testing the gun to see if it was functional and had been fired. Originally, the Park Police gave erroneous information about the testing of the gun.
The Note
The note that has been liberally interpreted as a suicide note was reportedly found in a briefcase that had been emptied, searched, and inventoried in front of several investigating officials.
Though torn into 28 pieces, none of Foster's fingerprints were on it.
The Capitol Hill policeman to whom it was unaccountably sent for authentication is not a certified handwriting examiner, and he used only one document putatively written by Foster for comparison.
A serious effort was made to keep a photocopy of the note out of the hands of the public.
A trio of respected handwriting examiners, including the world's leading authenticator of literary manuscripts from Oxford University in England, has declared that the note is a forgery.
Senator D'Amato's Whitewater Committee, seemingly forgetting about their subpoena power, refused to look into the authenticity question because "the family would not turn over the note."
One could continue in this vein with equally strong sketches under "The Spurious `Depression'," "The Car and the Keys," "Doctored Statements and Intimidated Witnesses," "The Time of White House Notification," and several other categories, but space is limited and we would not want the reader to think that he now has no need to read the book. The book is well worth its price if only for the truly splendidly-rendered morality play described in Chapter 9 (The chapters, unfortunately, are not named; they are only numbered.). Ruddy seems to be the proverbial fly on the wall as "the hero of the story," federal attorney Miquel Rodriguez makes what looks like a serious attempt to get at the truth, grilling witnesses before the grand jury, only to be undercut at every turn by his superiors, Mark Tuohey and Kenneth Starr. Rodriguez eventually gives up and unceremoniously resigns. Properly executed, this chapter by itself would make a very powerful movie.
The first thing that has to come to anyone's mind as he reads these shocking revelations is "Why haven't I heard any of this before? There is information here that would have sold newspapers by the ton and kept people glued to the TV screens. Whatever happened to the aggressive free press motivated, if not by a love of truth, at least by profit, and where are the sleuths of Watergate?" Ruddy has no answer. He doesn't even bother to ask the question. What terrible secret, incriminating to so many, must lie behind the Foster death? He also has no explanation as to why the supposed "opposition" Republicans have rolled over like trained seals. Again, he fails even to ask the question.
Instead, with as powerful a case as he has, Ruddy gives up the moral high ground by choosing to have his book touted on the dust cover by William Sessions, the man who directed the FBI at the time of the Ruby Ridge and Waco outrages. The tone of the endorsement, the first thing that most readers will see, is so timid and defensive that it almost amounts to damning with faint praise: "Mr. Ruddy has carefully avoided drawing undue inferences about the death. It is legitimate to question the process employed by authorities to make their conclusions."
Ruddy, seeming not to recognize the strength of his hand, echoes Sessions' tone near the book's end with a long, inadequate response to the patently spurious and insincere arguments that he has heard against his pursuing the case "not only from media colleagues, but from leading political and law-enforcement figures as well." Does he not realize that it is they, not he, who have the answering to do?
Finally, I am troubled by Ruddy's omission of a number of crucial facts about the case. To cite the worst example, he does not tell us that well before his book went to the printers the witness, Patrick Knowlton, had filed suit for witness intimidation against a number of individuals working for the FBI. Rather, there is only mention in a chronology in an appendix that Knowlton "file(d) suit in federal court alleging the government violated his civil rights." From what we are told it sounds like no more than a trivial nuisance suit, but it is far more than that. After Starr had closed the case the Knowlton suit was the public's best chance of learning the truth, but Ruddy would seem to prefer that we know virtually nothing about it.
The other major pressure point is with the Congress, and the Republicans there, particularly Chairman Dan Burton of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, once a lonesome Congressional champion of truth in the Foster case, completely escape censure by Ruddy. These omissions and others, sad to say, are more than enough to make one question Ruddy's motives. Does he, the outsider who started out at the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York tabloid and then fell to the tiny suburban Pittsburgh newspaper owned by that notable funder of conservative causes, Richard Mellon Scaife, want too badly to be accepted by the cozy, thoroughly discredited club of "media colleagues" and "leading political and law-enforcement figures?" Some things, he should recognize, are more important than that.
Packed with facts and information!.......2007-06-19
I picked up this book not knowing much about Vincent Foster, or the scandals that surrounded the Clinton's. I was younger then, and now that Hillary is running for President I thought I should know.
Firstly, Ruddy should be commended for his exhaustive efforts in putting together an informative book. No doubt he has sifted through countless documents and interviews, and probably spent countless nights digesting all of it.
Pretty much after the first ten pages I knew Foster did not kill himself, which left me to wonder what the remaining 300 pages would consist of. This book has a LOT of information and at times it can feel overwhelming. I thought it might have felt less so had Ruddy separated his book into chapters by points of concern or contradiction, followed by facts backing up each point. I realize this approach is difficult, for Foster's death is murky and had it been easy to discern the truth the case would be solved by now. Instead Ruddy's book goes back and forth with events discussed previously resurfacing later.
One thing's for sure, you get more from Ruddy's book if you come in with some pre-knowledge of other key players: McDougals, Webster Hubbel, Craig Livingstone, Whitewater, Travelgate, even Bill and Hillary, to name a few! This book is like a piece of a puzzle that fits better when you have all the pieces. These people and cases are important and Ruddy doesn't necessarily fill you in with details, (it's a bit annoying at times, but it certainly cuts down on the length of his book). Ruddy does include a couple pages in the Appendix covering a bit about these people, as well as a few timelines that are helpful.
Overall, this is no novel, it's an investigate study packed with facts and information and you'll certainly have your fill of it.
Loved it, read it........2006-06-29
There are certain occurrences which come into play during the Clinton administration like so many deaths during his reign, Chinagate etc. Read this and look deeper than what is written.
Great book!.......2001-08-20
A fascinating account of yet another bungled White House cover-up. The author is to be commended not only for writing a compelling book but also for his excellent research skills. It is obvious from reading some of the negative reader reviews that many people write reviews without reading anything but the flyleaf. Books like these only make me more grateful to be a Canadian!
The Strange Death of the Truth.......2001-07-20
This book is nothing more than a compilation of hypothetical "what ifs." The author posits no evidence and does nothing more than simply spew forth his opinion that the Clintons are evil and therefore must be up to foul play. Treat this book like the hogwash that it is.
Average customer rating:
- Extremely Well Done
- Excellent
- God Bless America
- Well put together
- Lacking Standards and Accountability
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Tainting Evidence : Behind the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab
John Kelly , and
Phillip Wearne
Manufacturer: Free Press
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Amazon.com
Two crusading journalists investigate the FBI's forensic crime lab and deliver a strong indictment against what goes on there. Federal agents regularly dupe the public into accepting "scientific" findings that aren't based upon science at all, they charge, and the lab is infected with a troubling culture where truth plays second fiddle to prosecutorial interests, with information potentially useful to defendants withheld. The book's hero is FBI-scientist-turned-whistle-blower Frederic Whitehurst, and most of the chapters focus on the crime lab's controversial role in high-profile cases involving O.J. Simpson, the World Trade Center bombing, the Unabomber, and others. The authors at times appear to have a pro-prosecution bias of their own, but their conclusions shouldn't be ignored. They probably won't be; as one attorney tells the authors, "No defense lawyer in the country is going to take what the FBI lab says at face value anymore." --John J. Miller
Customer Reviews:
Extremely Well Done.......2006-04-22
"Tainting Evidence" is a book about the FBI crime lab. Stop wondering why the FBI always gets their man. They perjure themselves in court.
The book characterizes the FBI is a rogue government agency more interested in looking good than being good. Top priority is image building and public relations. An actual quote from an agent: "Before you embarrass the Bureau, you should be willing to perjure yourself."
The book surveys several high-profile cases. This careful scrutiny reveals an ongoing pattern of criminal misconduct-distortions, omissions, and downright lies. FBI examiners habitually give scientifically flawed, inaccurate, and overstated testimony under oath. They alter lab reports and give their testimony a prosecutorial slant.
The book's conclusion is that the FBI crime lab needs to be removed from control by the FBI. We are told that many other western nations have come to realize that an agency controlled by law enforcement and dedicated to securing convictions cannot run a laboratory designed to report objective analytical results.
Excellent.......2002-12-31
John contributed a chapter to "Into The Buzzsaw". Exposes serious malpractice within the forensic dept of the FBI, how it's been compromised in some of the biggest cases, requiring them to be reopened. From the Oklahoma City bombing to the OJ Simpson trial. Even the FBI explosive expert on the WTC. John's a brave guy, find out why.
God Bless America.......2002-02-28
How many people remember when this report hit the news? How many people have thought about it since? (show of hands) Since then, how many times have we continued to seek justice utilizing this overblown, corrupt, self-serving organ of the Federal Government? Would you want their evidence at *your* trial, should you for some inauspicious reason find yourself at the wrong end of the military-industrial-prison-pharmaceutical-industry? Read this book and I'm sure you will say, out loud, in unison, with me -- I think not! Nothing has changed since that report hit the airwaves, the FBI continues to fly by the seat of its pants, making things up as it goes along, following orders in order to make sure the prisons are full of the candidates properly chosen by those it *is* accountable to...and it hasn't been accountable to the American people for a very long time. And to think we are basing a *war* on their "evidence" -- and it's a wonder I don't believe a word of it. Frankly, this book is only the tip of the iceberg in FBI complicity and complacence in a world that has gone crazy -- but it's a very important tip. This book is very thorough, documented, professionally written and very readable. A must for the library of any professed patriot.
You might want to particularly consider this book in light of the Jeffrey MacDonald case, and know that there is far, far more there than meets the eye.
God bless America.
Well put together.......2001-06-21
Great book for anyone wanting to know the truth behind all the bungles the F.B.I has been having over the last 20+ years. A great incite on how the F.B.I is really ran.
Lacking Standards and Accountability.......2001-05-25
The Inspector General's Report on the FBI Laboratory found a number of problems: examiners had given scientifically flawed, inaccurate, and overstated testimony under oath in court; altered the lab reports of examiners to give them a pro-prosecutorial slant; failed to document tests and examinations so their conclusions could not be properly checked. FBI lab management failed to check examinations and lab reports, allowed and inadequate record system, and had covered up incompetence instead of investigating them. This book goes beyond the IG's report thru reporting documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. The FBI lab has never agreed to real external scrutiny, never published the research data used for its forensic tests, never revealed the results of its own internal proficiency tests. This book is both educational and entertaining.
Most forensic scientists are not independent experts; most are affiliated with police or prosecutions agencies. Their job is to build a case for the prosecution. The authors mention the TV show "Quincy"; "CSI" is a better and current example, though a drama.
One example given is "voiceprints" - a unique pattern for any single individual's speech. But research by the National Academy of Sciences concluded there is no validity to this claim. Another fault is to use overstated conclusions using undefined terms such as "match" or "identical to". Its purpose is to hide information that is "discoverable". The FBI interpretation of the adversarial approach of the justice system serves neither science nor truth.
The FBI system is to let a civilian scientist do the tests, but have an FBI agent testify about them in court. This prevents a defendant from confronting the witness! And their lab does not meet ASCLD/LAB accreditation criteria.
Chapter 7 says that DNA typing is NOT a genetic fingerprint; to portray is as such is scientific fraud. Fingerprints are unique, DNA profiles are not. DNA typing produces a random probability match, not a definitive match. There are 3 problems in its use. It came out of regulated, pristine medical labs, but was adapted to unregulated crime labs; making a match is far from scientifically certain, it can be highly subjective; and, the means of computing statistical probability of a match was disputed. And evidence could have been both contaminated and planted. The odds of a match are created subjectively.
Chapter 4 on Ruby Ridge explains it all.
Book Description
A range of alternative mechanisms can usually be postulated for most organic chemical reactions, and identification of the most likely requires detailed investigation. Investigation of Organic Reactions and their Mechanisms will serve as a guide for the trained chemist who needs to characterise an organic chemical reaction and investigate its mechanism, but who is not an expert in physical organic chemistry.Such an investigation will lead to an understanding of which bonds are broken, which are made, and the order in which these processes happen. This information and knowledge of the associated kinetic and thermodynamic parameters are central to the development of safe, efficient, and profitable industrial chemical processes, and to extending the synthetic utility of new chemical reactions in chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, and academic environments.Written as a coherent account of the principal methods currently used in mechanistic investigations, at a level accessible to academic researchers and graduate chemists in industry, the book is highly practical in approach. The contributing authors, an international group of expert practitioners of the techniques covered, illustrate their contributions by examples from their own research and from the relevant wider chemical literature. The book covers basic aspects such as product analysis, kinetics, catalysis, and investigation of reactive intermediates. It also includes material on significant recent developments, e.g. computational chemistry, calorimetry, and electrochemistry, in addition to topics of high current industrial relevance, e.g. reactions in multiphase systems, and synthetically useful reactions involving free radicals and catalysis by organometallic compounds.
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State of Ohio Vs. Isaac Milton Smith, Murder
Ottie W. Reno
Manufacturer: Cornwall Books
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ASIN: 0845348329 |
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Incident Investigation and Accident Prevention in the Process and Allied Industries
Nigel Hyatt
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Book Description
To prevent future accidents, a complete examination of the causes and contributory factors of an accident is necessary. Stressing the need to correct these issues, Incident Investigation and Accident Prevention in the Process and Allied Industries strikes a balance between the theoretical and applied aspects of accident investigation while also addressing accident prevention. Based on the authors forty years of experience, this detailed work covers an extensive range of topics often encountered during an incident investigation. Since the scope and needs of investigations can widely vary, the author begins with an introduction that provides guidance on how to use the book. He supplies a "roadmap" of incident investigation, making the material accessible to novices yet also valuable to more seasoned investigators. Topics include: · Responding to occurrence of incidents and emergency response · Securing the site and handling eyewitness testimonies · Notification of appropriate authorities, compliance requirements, and legal and insurance issues · Internal/external incident investigation options and investigation team requirements · Disassembly, gathering, screening, tagging, storing of evidence, and post-incident testing · Establishing preliminary causal mechanisms and root cause determinations · Multiple cause determination, incident modeling, and human error evaluation and reporting · Remedial and preventative measures, lessons learned, and reconstruction and retraining · Accident prevention through predictive methodologies, including pro-active measures · Pre- and post-incident management · Corporate structuring, attitudinal problems, and planning an accident prevention program
Book Description
The Process of Investigations is co-authored by professionals with broad experience in both private and public sector investigations spanning five decades. Drawing on their extensive experience, the authors have updated and revised all chapters, targeting corporate executives, shoplifters, organized burglary rings, warehouse thieves, cashiers, workplace drug dealers, and corrupt public officials.
Written for both the student and professional alike, this book compares and contrasts public and private sector enforcers, pinpoints the unique problems facing the investigator in a private agency, and provides updated case studies that illustrate the theories and techniques discussed.
* Practical, timely, and incisive information that can be put to use in real situations
* Two new added chapters on Imagery and Computers
* Easily understood style clearly defines the private sector as an individual investigative arm
Customer Reviews:
Excellent introduction and reference text.......2004-03-10
I purchased this book as a study guide for my private investigator's licensing test. The text was very complete in the topics covered and contained excellent examples with real world applications. I easily passed my licensing exam with the knowledge gained from this book. Thank you!
Book Description
After decades of writing and research about American intelligence, Joseph Trento has written the most authoritative indictment of CIA splinter groups, two generations of Bush family involvement in illegal financial networks, and the funding of the agents of terror. Prelude to Terror reveals the history of a corrupt group of spymasters—led by Ted Shackley—who were fired when Jimmy Carter became president, but who maintained their intelligence portfolio and used it to create a private intelligence network. After this rogue group helped engineer Carter’s defeat in 1980 and allied with George H.W. Bush, these former CIA men planned and conducted what became the Iran–Contra scandal and, through the Saudis, allied the U.S. with extreme elements in Islam. The CIA’s number-one front man, Edwin P. Wilson, was framed by Shackley and his cohorts so that Wilson’s operations could be taken over. For the first time the story of how CIA director George H. W. Bush was recruited into this network, and brought it into the bosom of the Saudi royal family, is told in detail, as well as how this group’s manipulation of the CIA bureaucracy allowed Osama bin Laden’s fundraising to thrive as al Qaeda flourished under Saudi and CIA protection.
Customer Reviews:
Appalling.......2007-02-01
After reading Mr. Trento's "The Secret History of the CIA" (see my amazon review of this book) several years ago I thought Mr. Trento could sink no lower. I was wrong. This book is so full of rumor, innuendo, slander, and just plain innaccuracies that I don't know where to start, so I will just provide a couple of examples. On page 271, discussing one of his primary sources for this book, the late Colonel William R. Corson, the author writes, "Corson...returned to Vietnam as the only American on the ground at Dien Bien Phu and was marched out with the French prisoner after their surrender. General Vo Nguyen Giap sent him back to President Eisenhower to tell the American that they faced the same fate as the French..." As anyone who studied the Indochina War knows, there were no Americans at Dien Bien Phu when it fell in 1954, and Corson certainly wasn't anywhere close to the place. On the same page the author also says Corson "had been sent on an unsuccessful mission in 1950 to try to bribe Ho Chi Minh to launch a diversionary attack against China to limit China's help in North Korea." Not only is this claim ridiculous on its face, at the time of the supposed mission (1950) William R. Corson was a raw, newly-commissioned Marine Corps second lieutenant, hardly the type of person to be selected for such a mission.
This book is not worth the paper on which it is printed. I had thought that Avalon was a reputable publishing house. I guess I was wrong.
Some Inconsistencies, But Best Synthesis of Bush-Mafia-Dictator-Privatized Intelligence Network.......2006-04-30
This is not a perfect book. It has inconsistencies and errors but this book has helped connect many dots from the other 690+ books I have reviewed.
I had no idea while I was at CIA as a clandestine officer that there are really multiple CIA's and that there are three *external* CIAS: the "Safari Club" led by Saudi Arabia, with France, Egypt, Morocco and Iran (during the Shah's time, not since); the murder network (South Africa, Israel, South Korea, and probably also Chile and Argentina during their worst years); and a privatized CIA running drugs and arms, laundering money, and generally doing things that were "off the books and out of control" as the author titles one of his chapters.
According to the author, Allen Dulles has the first private intelligence service at 44 Wall Street, relying heavily on the recruitment of former Nazis. There is a direct path from the CIA's fascination with former Nazis to the presence of Karl Rove in the White House.
The author draws on good sources to document the long-time relationship between Wall Street and certain companies such as the house of Morgan and Brown that leads us right up to when Buzzy Kronguard, formerly of Alex Brown, was executive director of the CIA at no salary. Prescott Bush, farther of the first President Bush, features heavily in the corrupt relations between CIA and the Wall Street mafia. These people financed the Nazis and weapons that killed Americans.
Interestingly, the Dutch are known to have all the details on the Bush family ties to the Nazis, and I have personally heard from the Dutch that they also have full details from the Chinese on drunken teen-ager George W. Bush, of whom photos are said to exist while he is incoherent and perhaps posed in naked compromising positions with his male Chinese tennis teacher). All of this is inevitably going to be in the public consciousness--right now it falls into what one author calls "Fog Facts"--known openly but not "computed" by the public.
This entire book is a tale of the corruption of intelligence, caused in part by the abysmal failure of US intelligence in the early years, ranging from failing to predict the Korean invasion to trying to assassinate Chinese premier Chou En Lai.
The Viet-Nam era empowered people like Ted Shackley (who died in 2002 and whose memoirs are coming out shortly). CIA learned to run drugs and arms, launder money, start its own banks, and generally avoid Congressional funding limitations and Congressional oversight. Unfortunately, creating a rogue CIA further incapacitated "CIA proper" of which I was a part, and the author reasonably points out that the fall of the Shah of Iran, the failure to understand the 1975 concerns about Shiite terrorism training camps, the assassination of Sadat, the CIA coup plans that were pre-empted by Qadafi, the growth of Al Qaeda, the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban (which deprived Wall Street of its drug crops, now restored courtesy of the U.S. Army)--the list goes on.
According to the author's sources, the CIA opened the Far East to the US mafia, and helped develop pipelines for the drugs that included piggy-backing on US servicemen corpses coming back into Dover AFP. Fast forward to CIA using Special Operations Forces to protect transmitters that allowed hundreds of drug airplanes to land in Panama where drugs could be traded for money and arms.
The author centers the book on Ted Shackley as a bridge figure among many "external" intelligence activities, but Clark Clifford is also key in the founding of the BCCI bank and in asking the Saudis directly to fund an alternative CIA to be known as the Safari Club. BCCI had overtly good intentions--to attract terrorist and criminal funds, but at root it represented the complete "sale" of US intelligence to the Saudis.
The politicization of intelligence is the other major theme in this book, and the Bush family features very prominently.
Side notes:
Ted Shackley recruited Zbigniew Brzezinski as a young Polish-American student, and had full access to him later when he was National Security Advisor.
Don Rumsfeld, today Secretary of Defense, was instrumental in persuading President Ford not to appoint Eliot Richardson, a reformer of known integrity, to the DCI position, and instead got Kissinger to invite Bush from Beijing, all to ensure that Kissinger's role in subverting Chile would be concealed.
As DCI, Turner shut the Israeli's out, essentially forcing them to adopt Shackley as their "black CIA" partner, and then Bush as DCI turned CIA over to the Saudi government.
Shackley fought Inman for the soul of CIA, and the evidence suggests that Shackley won, in part by blackmailing Inman in collaboration with the Israel lobby.
CIA placed officers under cover on the Hill, notably in Senator Dan Quayle's office.
The book left me with three thoughts for reflection:
1) 9-11 was the culmination of decades of CIA corruption and politicization. Of course there are other factors, but from 1975 forward CIA "sold out" and it can be safely said that Viet-Nam killed CIA and opened the doors to the privatization of dirty tricks, murders, and generally very bad out of control covert foreign policy and a consequent subversion of national security.
2) Cheap oil resulting from our support of ruthless dictators set the stage for the radicalization of the Muslim world against America. People are not stupid--they see the link between the US situation, US support for dictators, and their own suffering and exclusion from the wealth.
3) One day, someday, I am going to fund an ABLE DANGER analysis of the history of secret intelligence, starting with Richard Secord, who is in charge of GRAY FOX (the successor to YELLOW FRUIT) and who is not killing terrorists, which is what he is supposed to be doing, but instead continuing the for-profit external CIA, and Ted Shackley.
This is an important book.
Not a perfect book.......2006-02-11
Unlike the previous reviewer I wasn't that impressed with this book. The author puts Felix Rodriguez at the Watergate break-in, when in reality he had no involvement in it whatsoever since he was in Vietnam at the time. That was one one the mistakes I noticed. I'm sure there were more.
Some of his theories are viable, yet others seem far-fetched. In fact a lot of these theories have already been refuted by reputable journalists in the past. Overall, something you should read with an open mind. By the way, to make a correction to the previous reviewer it's Chi Chi Quintero.
Indispensable.......2006-01-06
First and foremost, I think the POV is the CIA's "intelligence" wing(s) vs. the "Ops" goons, a longstanding civil war in the CIA and the other clandestine services where Trento, who has covered intelligence for 35 years, clearly sources to the inteligence side of the battle.
Those of us following scandals from Nixon's treason in 1968 as a private citizen who sabotaged Vietnam War peace negotiations, through Watergate, through Bush I's treason in Iran as a private citizen negotiating the continued retention of American Hostages, through Iran/Contra, through Bush II's treason as a private citizen interfering in Mideast peace negotiations, noticed the same small cabal involved in everything - Ted Shackley, Thomas Clines, John Poindexter, Richard Secord, John Singlaub, George Herbert Walker Bush, James Angleton, Chi Chi Quinterez, Ed Wilson - and at various times, people like Oliver North and even Zbiegniew Brzezhinski operating on their behalf on a regular basis. Two of these, Angleton and Clines, were interviewed by Trento.
This book goes back to the days of Dulles and ahead to the present and shows how the CIA's old boy network can always bite back harder than it's bitten. It deals peripherally with things like BCCI and Nugan/Hand. It's much more critical of Stansfield Turner, whom I have met on a couple of occasions, than I would be, but it nicely fills in the back story on his period as director of the CIA.
This book has nothing about Adnan Kashoggi but does talk about Sarkis Soghnalian, a Turkish/Armenian power broker. I think one of the weak links for the rogue operative network is in fact the information held by their non-American allies. It's possible the US or Israel will attack Iran, and if so, people should be educated enough to understand any revelations the Iranians might have for us in retaliation.
Amazon.com
Fearless investigative journalists Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber (Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! and Mad Cow U.S.A.) are back with a gripping exposé of the public relations industry and the scientists who back their business-funded, anti-consumer-safety agendas. There are two kinds of "experts" in question--the PR spin doctors behind the scenes and the "independent" experts paraded before the public, scientists who have been hand-selected, cultivated, and paid handsomely to promote the views of corporations involved in controversial actions. Lively writing on controversial topics such as dioxin, bovine growth hormone, and genetically modified food makes this a real page-turner, shocking in its portrayal of the real and potential dangers in each of these technological innovations and of the "media pseudo-environment" created to obfuscate the risks. By financing and publicizing views that support the goals of corporate sponsors, PR campaigns have, over the course of the century, managed to suppress the dangers of lead poisoning for decades, silence the scientist who discovered that rats fed on genetically modified corn had significant organ abnormalities, squelch television and newspaper stories about the risks of bovine growth hormone, and place enough confusion and doubt in the public's mind about global warming to suppress any mobilization for action.
Rampton and Stauber introduce the movers and shakers of the PR industry, from the "risk communicators" (whose job is to downplay all risks) and "outrage managers" (with their four strategies--deflect, defer, dismiss, or defeat) to those who specialize in "public policy intelligence" (spying on opponents). Evidently, these elaborate PR campaigns are created for our own good. According to public relations philosophers, the public reacts emotionally to topics related to health and safety and is incapable of holding rational discourse. Needless to say, Rampton and Stauber find these views rather antidemocratic and intend to pull back the curtain to reveal the real wizard in Oz. This is one wake-up call that's hard to resist. --Lesley Reed
Book Description
The book that unmasks the sneaky and widespread methods industry uses to influence opinion through bogus experts, doctored data, and manufactured facts.
"Finally a long-overdue exposé of the shenanigans and subterfuge that lie behind the making of experts in America." (Jeremy Rifkin)
"If you want to know how the world wags, and who's wagging it, here's your answer." (Bill Moyers)
"Meticulously researched . . . Rampton and Stauber's documentation of PR campaigns proves that they are the real 'experts.' " (Brill's Content) AUTHOBIO: John Stauber is the founder and director of the Center for Media & Democracy. He and Sheldon Rampton write and edit the quarterly PR Watch: Public Interest Reporting on the PR/Public Affairs Industry.
Customer Reviews:
The Death of Capitalism.......2007-09-04
Capitalism - market economy - free enterprise - these are the jewels in the crown of civilization which, since the renaissance, have brought unprecedented wealth, prosperity and freedom to large parts of the world. Capitalism has struggled and eventually triumphed over its historical adversaries; in earlier times, popes and kings and in our time socialism and communism. In the 21st century, since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, international corporate capitalism is bursting, like fireworks, in triumph; merging, globalizing and buying governments. What puny opposition remains is easily dispatched with a broad range of powerful weapons which have been developed over the years. Today the only real threat to capitalism is capitalism!
Socialists may practice socialism and Christians may practice Christianity but if by capitalism we mean a competitive market driven economic system, then capitalists do not practice capitalism. Theorists notwithstanding, capitalism is not an ideology, it is merely a description. Capitalists are not trying to implement some philosophy, they are only trying to make a buck any way they can. To a capitalist the biggest enemy is not socialism or labor unions or liberals or environmentalists, or even big government, the biggest enemy is risk. Risk of not making money. Risk of losing money.
Making money and avoiding risk in doing so is what capitalism is all about. But it is precisely in the risk taking that society draws its benefits from capitalism. That is the dilemma. Risk promotes wise investment resulting in efficiency, innovation and the creation of wealth, not just for the capitalist but for society as a whole. But a lot of capitalists fall by the wayside in the process. It is in the capitalist's interest to eliminate risk and society's interest to prevent them from doing so. The way to avoid risk is to control the market and to do that they must also control the government. This struggle has been going on for hundreds of years: capitalists forming monopolies, oligarchies and trusts and society breaking them up.
So long as society can keep pace with all the tricks and turns that capitalists take to avoid risk, the world would continue to reap the blessings of capitalism. But for the capitalists to succeed in eliminating risk, they would have to eliminate competition resulting in a monopoly of corporations with as much efficiency and innovation as any government bureaucracy. The ultimate risk-free climax would be monopoly and oligarchy and the corporate-run government necessary to keep it that way -- functionally indistinguishable from a Mafia run state or a Stalinist one. Capitalism, instead of an engine which pumps wealth to society and makes some capitalist wealthy in the process, would become an engine which sucks the wealth out of society, making a handful wealthy by impoverishing the rest.
We see this process going on in third world countries today and we are seeing the beginnings of it at home, in America. All three branches of government are increasingly under the control of corporations. Both political parties are addicted to corporate financing. Mergers, acquisitions and globalization, all techniques for eliminating risk, are rampant. The media is being merged and taken over by corporations and increasingly being used as public relations outlets for the corporations.
Right now society is not keeping pace. The tricks and turns that corporate capitalists use to avoid risk have gotten trickier and twistier. Just as a mosquito injects an anesthetic so that you will not feel it is sucking your blood, corporations are coopting the very processes by which people recognize what is going on so that more and more we are living in a virtual reality without realizing it. Sort of like a Potemkin village or like the movie The Truman Story where a boy is born and raised on a television set without knowing it. And as corporations merge and grow larger, they have even bigger budgets to build even more elaborate and convincing "sets". But this is not science fiction. The "sets" are being built around us as you read this.
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber of the Center for Media & Democracy have been documenting this process for years. Their publications include a quarterly newsletter, PR Watch, and several books including: Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry, Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?, and now Trust Us, We're Experts. While flippant and amusing, these books and articles tell a very chilling story of corporate public relations manipulation and spin control growing exponentially in size, audacity and sophistication.
The "father of public relations", Rampton and Stauber point out in Trust Us, is Edward L. Bernays, son in law and disciple of Sigmund Freud. By following Bernays' philosophy one can see the road map to the future. Here are some of his ideas [pp 42 - 44]:
** scientific manipulation of public opinion is necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in society
** In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.
** while most people respond to their world instinctively, without thought, there exist an intelligent few who have been charged with the responsibility of contemplating and influencing the tide of history
** public relations is an applied science, like engineering, through which society's leaders could bring order out of chaos
** being herd like also made people remarkably susceptible to leadership.
Of course that "leadership" can only be exercised by those who can afford the price of the Hill & Knowltons and APCOs of this world.
Here are some cases of virtual reality cited in their latest book. Big contributions, free junkets and the promise of future jobs are the more obvious ways of corrupting legislators but less obvious and more subtle is the use of public relations to actually manipulate the "facts". A typical example of how this works is illustrated on page 14.
"In the Fall of 1997, Georgetown University's Credit Research Center issued a study which concluded that many debtors are using bankruptcy as an excuse to wriggle out of their obligations to creditors. Lobbyists for bank and credit card companies seized on the study as they lobbied Congress for changes in federal law that would make it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy relief. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen cited the study in a Washington Times opinion column, offering Georgetown's academic imprimatur as evidence of the need for `bankruptcy reform'. What Bentsen failed to mention was that the Credit Research Center is funded in its entirety by credit card companies, banks, retailers, and others in the credit industry. The study itself was produced with a $100,000 grant from Visa USA and MasterCard International Inc. Bentsen also failed to mention that he himself had been hired to work as a credit-industry lobbyist."
Coopting and distorting the very sources of knowledge and information which informed people, legislators, scientists, government officials, the press, etc. rely on as being objective and scientific is one of the most clever and the most egregious techniques for creating virtual reality. As an EPA employee I have seen many examples of self-serving corporate sponsored "scientific" studies being foisted off on EPA and used to justify weak ineffective regulations or no regulations at all. The fraud, if discovered at all, is rarely discovered by EPA. In the absence of high level support there is very little incentive for science bureaucrats to look closely at studies with powerful backers.
From p. 199: If you want to know just how craven some scientists can be, the archives of the tobacco industry offer a treasure trove of examples. Thanks to whistle-blowers and lawsuits, millions of pages of once-secret industry documents have become public and are freely available over the Internet. In 1998, for example, documents came to light regarding an industry- sponsored campaign in the early 1990s to plant sympathetic letters and articles in influential medical journals. Tobacco companies had secretly paid 13 scientists a total of $156,000 simply to write a few letters to influential medical journals. One biostatistician, Nathan Mantel of American University in Washington, received $10,000 for writing a single, eight-paragraph letter that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Cancer researcher Gio Batta Cori received $20,137 for writing four letters and an opinion piece to the Lancet, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and the Wall Street Journal - nice work if you can get it, especially since the scientists didn't even have to write the letters themselves. Two tobacco-industry law firms were available to do the actual drafting and editing. All the scientists really had to do was sign their names at the bottom."
If the virtual reality created by public relation firms were only limited to selling toothpaste and deodorant we might not get too concerned about it. Falsifying medical research to defend harmful and dangerous products is a troublesome escalation. But there appears to be no limits to the uses of PR and no concern by the users of its ultimate impact. The issue of global warming, which could possibly plunge humanity into a new dark age, is being surrounded by the fog of virtual reality by the practitioners of PR as if the stakes were no more important than the selling of mouthwash.
Rampton and Stauber point out in pp 267-288 of Trust Us that PR firms hired by the major industrial emitters of greenhouse gasses have created dozens of influential sounding front organization such as "The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition", "The Global Climate Information Project", "The Information Council for the Environment" and "The Greening Earth Society" which have saturated the media, Congress and the public with industry spin so as to make their case by sheer volume and noise. Since the facts and the scientific community are so overwhelming against them, the object of the public relations onslaught has been to slow down, confuse and defuse public clamor for resolute action. Friends of the Earth International calls this "lobbying for lethargy".
There is legitimate scientific debate about the source and rate of global warming and a lot of the spin addresses that, but a lot doesn't. Some of the dirtier tricks played are:
** An attempt to stimulate anti Kyoto Treaty email to President Clinton by promising to enter writers' names in a $1000 sweepstakes drawing.
** Appealing to anti-abortion activists with the claim that "Al Gore has said abortion should be used to reduce global warming."
** Touting phoney petitions of scientists discrediting the theory of global warming.
** Circulating phoney "scientific" papers made up to look like they had appeared in reputable peer reviewed scientific journals.
** Some industry flacks claim the Earth is actually cooling while other claim that global warming is a good thing.
The scary thing is that lobbying for lethargy is working.
The book is very idealistic/ unrealistic.......2007-04-13
One thing that the authors don't think about is that: Most people are not only not educated enough to understand the specialist jargon that goes with many industrial products, but that if they did try to interpret it *based on their limited information/ understanding* disaster would result.
The authors also don't get into what happens when a well meaning government agency overregulates an industry SO MUCH that it ends up being of benefit to no one. Examples abound-- that were not dealt with in the book.
1. The FDA has such tight regulations on drugs that they end up costing 2-3 times more to produce/ sell to the American public than what they should. And much of this cost is legal fees, excessive testing, and clinical trials.
2. The trucking industry is also something that is heavily regulated. There is a chronic shortage of truck drivers in the industry because there are so many regulations that many people who would be perfectly competent truck drivers can't get a chance at working. (For reference, automobiles kill 40,000+ Americans per year, and trucks kill about 900. An average truck driver might drive 55 hours per week compared to the single digit hours that are driven by a passenger car.)
3. Everyone is whining about the price of gas, but no one knows whether the high cost is because of refineries operating at peak capacity or because of insufficient existing oil supplies. No one will ever be able to test this, since a single refinery has not been built in the last 30 years in the United States.
If people were able to regulate industries by the political process (say, by referenda or voting for candidates that would pass strict legislation), whatever came along after what currently exists would be FAR WORSE.
These authors need to pick up some books on Economics-- specifically ones that deal with information asymmetry (as in, how corporations have a better idea of what they are doing than third party observers).
Other than that, the book is very well written with lots of good examples. It's worth picking up-- in spite of my low rating thereof.
If Everybody Believes Something, It's Probably Wrong.......2006-12-29
If everybody believes something, it's probably wrong! We call that Conventional Wisdom. "Trust Us We're Experts" is one of the few books that I recommend to all of my patients that enter my office. The information in this book has the power to potentially save your life, since it provides the reader with the tools to spot propaganda that's regularly disseminated to the masses.
Americans are the most conditioned, programmed beings on the planet. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased! It is an exhausting and endless task to keep explaining to people how most issues of conventional wisdom are scientifically implanted in the public consciousness by a thousand media clips per day. I feel that Stauber and Rampton do an excellent job at guiding the reader through the PR industry and expert deception that is propagated daily. My recommendation is to buy this book today then kill your TV!
Dr. Matthew J. Loop
- Author of "Cracking the Cancer Code"
Take critical thinking one step further..........2005-11-19
...and use the techniques in this book on the book itself. Sadly, a book with so much promise falls victim to its own PR machine all too often. Face it, if you're going to use critical thinking, use it consistently. If you use it against what you don't like, but cast a blind eye on things you are passionate about, how critical is that, really?
Beware of "Experts" -- Follow the Money! .......2005-07-02
John Stauber tells it like it is, and I wish this book were a bestseller. Readers who can accept these truths may also want to read a highly detailed yet fascinating expose of a huge and profitable industry that has been manipulating science and gambling with your health -- "The Whole Soy Story:The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food" by Kaayla Daniel, The fact that you are probably thinking, "No, we all know that soy is healthy for us" is proof of how thoroughly you've been conned. I was too, but no longer. "Fluoride Deception" by Christopher Bryson is another good one. Thanks to John Stauber, I'm wary of experts and now know enough to follow the money.
Books:
- The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen
- The Laboratory Quality Assurance System: A Manual of Quality Procedures and Forms
- The Lean Manufacturing Pocket Handbook
- The Lean Manufacturing Pocket Handbook
- The Lean Manufacturing Pocket Handbook
- The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed
- The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed
- The Little SAS Book: A Primer, Third Edition
- The Memory Jogger II
- The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development, Second Edition
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Employment Law for Business
- The Color Scheme Bible: Inspirational Palettes for Designing Home Interiors
- Little Comic Shop of Horrors
- Michael Young: Social Entrepreneur
- The Art of Project Management
- The Secret Life of Bryan
- The Dark Descent
- How to Prepare for the Certified Public Accountant Exam
- Modelling Trends and Cycles in Economic Time Series
- Play It Again, Spam
Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton
Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America's National Security
Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House
The Case Against Hillary Clinton
Reckless Disregard: How Liberal Democrats Undercut Our Military, Endanger Our Soldiers, and Jeopardize Our Security
