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When it comes to shady financial institutions, they don't come
any shadier than the Vatican Bank.
We're proud to present a groundbreaking
article on the Holy See's financial workings by Jonathan Levy,
an attorney involved in efforts to force the bank to return gold
stolen by the Nazis to its rightful owners. With his purely free-market
stance, economics professor Dominick Armentano may seem like the
odd man out, but in "The Antitrust and Monopoly Myth" he shows
that antitrust law actually hurts consumers and is used almost
exclusively by businesses who want to kneecap their competitors.
Investigative journalist Lucy Komisar specializes in following
the worldwide trail of laundered money; "Dirty Money and Global
Banking Secrecy" reveals some of what she's found. Finally, in
"Globalization for the Good of All," Noreena Hertz--author of
the British sensation The Silent Takeover--shows us that globalization
isn't inherently a bad thing, but it must be modified drastically
before it will benefit everyone.
"The High and Mighty" section is devoted
to knocking the powerful off of their undeserved pedestals. Douglas
Valentine ("The Senator's Ashes") examines former Senator Bob
Kerrey's active role in the CIA's ultrasecret Phoenix program,
which involved torturing and killing civilians in Vietnam. Sports
professor Helen Lenskyj reveals the harsh, hidden costs of the
Olympics, not to mention the arrogance and corruption of those
involved, in "Olympic Industry Mythology." Since the end of World
War II, a few elites have been attempting to destroy the nations
of Europe, including the UK, by turning them into one big (undemocratic)
country presided over by a secretive, unaccountable bunch of bureaucrats.
They're succeeding. Lindsay Jenkins spills the beans in "The European
Union Unmasked." To wrap up this section, "Watchdog Nation" by
Cletus Nelson exposes the problems with the groups that earn their
multi-millions by magnifying--and sometimes concocting--the threat
of political extremists in America.
A distressing amount of true crime writing
is sensationalistic, badly researched, misleading, and just plain
wrong. The section "True True Crime" starts with a devastating
look at the case of Henry Lee Lucas, alleged to be one of the
worst serial killers of all time. With access to tens of thousands
of primary documents and all the players in the case, investigator
Brad Shellady shows what went wrong in "Henry: Fabrication of
a Serial Killer." British reporter Rory Carroll examines new developments
in the case of "The Monster of Florence," which inspired Thomas
Harris to create his intellectual psychopath, Hannibal Lecter.
Turns out that the ritualistic killings lead straight to Italy's
high society. In "Charlie Manson's Image," counterculture legend
Paul Krassner adds new twists to the famous case. "Witnesses to
a Massacre" by Russ Kick assembles ignored reports by numerous
eyewitnesses who saw people other than Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
perpetrating the massacre at Columbine High School. Village Voice
reporter James Ridgeway and French journalist Sandra Bisin team
up for "Free Lauriane," which breaks the news of a strangely overlooked
event: For the first time ever, the US has granted political asylum
to a French citizen. He claims his young daughter had been repeatedly
molested by a pedophile ring comprised of government officials
in Nice. With the help of US authorities, French intelligence
kidnapped the girl from California and forcibly returned her to
Paris. The section ends with a bang: Retired police chief Joseph
D. McNamara reveals the existence of gangs of renegade cops in
every major US city, confirms the existence of the "blue wall
of silence," and indicts the War on Drugs in "When Cops Become
the Gangsters."
The first two articles in the "Body and Mind"
section offer a real inspection of beef. Gabe Kirchheimer uses
medical studies, expert opinions, statistics, and plain old scientific
facts to demonstrate that mad cow disease has indeed invaded the
US ("Bovine Bioterrorism and the Perfect Pathogen"). Mickey Z.
(aka Michael Zezima) widens the subject to look at the health,
humanitarian, and environmental problems associated with meat
and other animal-based food in "Fear of a Vegan Planet." The second
two articles switch gears. The legendary Thomas Szasz--prime architect
of the anti-psychiatry movement-- demonstrates that the concept
of "mental illness" is a ruse ("Mental Illness: Psychiatry's Phlogiston"),
while prominent psychiatric-drug whistleblower Peter Breggin,
M.D., explains what's wrong with Ritalin ("Psychiatric Drugging
of Children for Behavioral Control").
The "Social Distortion" section tackles the
lies we've been told about society or segments thereof. For example,
every generation loves to moan about the huge, unprecedented problems
with 'today's young people.' Mike Males shows us in "Myths About
Youth" that the facts tell a different story--kids nowadays are
less violent and use less drugs and alcohol than their parents'
generation. We've been led to believe that domestic violence automatically
equals men beating women, but the fact is that men comprise a
significant portion of domestic abuse victims (one third to one
half). Phillip Cook shows us the proof in "The Whole Truth About
Domestic Violence." Ready for another surprise? Not all disabled
people want to be "cured," many don't admire Christopher Reeve,
and they sure don't appreciate being kept prisoner in rehab homes.
Lucy Gwin, editor of the militant disability-rights magazine Mouth,
tells the shocking truth in "Postcards From the Planet of the
Freaks." Adbusters founder Kalle Lasn ("Toxic TV") presents the
scientific evidence that our media- saturated consumer culture
is extremely damaging to our psyches, and Preston Peet ("Treatment
or Jail?") has harsh words for the current trend toward forced
treatment for drug users (the man knows whereof he speaks). In
a pair of essays, Wendy McElroy presents old-school, individualist-feminist
takes on pornography and prostitution. Our own sexual adventurer,
Tristan Taormino--Village Voice columnist, editor of the Best
Lesbian Erotica series, anal-sex guru, etc., etc.--tells us in
"Two's Too Tough" that our relationship options extend far, far
beyond the limited choices we're normally given. Turning to the
big questions, Nick Mamatas uses "How to Rid the World of Good"
to examine the relatively recent origins of the supposedly universal
good/evil dichotomy, and Annie Laurie Gaylor eyes divine misogyny
in "Why Women Need Freedom From Religion."
If you depend on the tube or the Times for
all your news, you probably missed a few important stories. The
section "Not on the Nightly News" will fill in some of the gaps.
To begin with, there's the startling number of accidents, near-misses,
and other problems in nuclear power plants, a subject near and
dear to nuclear safety engineer David Lochbaum's heart (his "Fission
Stories" tells all). Using Freedom of Information Act requests,
attorney David Hardy ("Call It Off!") has uncovered even more
skullduggery surrounding the Waco incident, including the smoking-gun
document that proves the feds could've easily arrested David Koresh
in the days before the disastrous raid. The destruction of a plane
over Lockerbie, Scotland, has been officially pinned on a Libyan,
but William Blum completely savages the Official Version of Events
in his article on the subject, "The Bombing of PanAm Flight 103:
Case Not Closed." If you think everyone who wants to relax drug
laws is a pothead hippie, Russ Kick's collection of quotes in
"Leaders Against the Drug War" will show you that over 70 government
officials--including presidents, ambassadors, legislators, judges,
and police chiefs in the US and around the world--have voiced
their dissent, as well. Jonathan Vankin was writing about rigged
elections a decade before the public had heard of a hanging chad,
and in "Votescam 2000" he shows us that the ludicrous events of
the 2000 presidential election were nothing new. Our man in India,
Dr. K. Jamanadas, offers an unflinching look at the horrors being
endured by Untouchables (aka Dalits) in his country ("Untouchables
in the Twenty-first Century"). Robert Sterling gives an acid take
on the demonization of the leaders of developing countries; they
definitely have huge faults, he says in "Viva Kadaffi!," but their
biggest sins have been to defy the wishes of the West and its
corporations. In "Will This Be the Chinese Century?" the husband-wife
team of Howard Bloom and Diane Starr Petryk-Bloom reveals the
frighteningly underrated military and economic power of China.
Living in Peru, Peter Gorman has an ideal view of the war the
US is covertly waging in neighboring Colombia; in "Scenes From
a Secret War," he explains the situation.
The attacks of September 11 are still being
analyzed from multiple perspectives, and in "911 and Beyond,"
we bring you some early attempts to figure out that overwhelming
day. "The Accidental Operative" is Camelia Fard and James Ridgeway's
groundbreaking look at the Taliban's unofficial US ambassador,
who just happens to be the niece of a former CIA Director. Alex
Burns, editor of the Disinformation Website, looks at militant
Islam's literal worship of the atomic bomb, as well as the complexity
of the terrorist mindset, in "A Canticle for Osama Bin Laden."
In the wake of the anthrax attacks and the looming threat of widespread
biowarfare on the US, Naomi Klein (of No Logo fame) shows us in
"Battle Boring" why America was/is so woefully unprepared. Finally,
in "September 11, 2001: No Surprise," Russ Kick offers a huge
amount of evidence indicating that the upper levels of the US
government knew what was coming. Call it a conspiracy theory if
you wish, but when the Director of the CIA privately warns Congress
of "an imminent attack on the United States of this nature," it's
hard to reach any other conclusion.
We end by looking backward, to the "Hidden
History" that has been stripped from public consciousness. Howard
Zinn's "The Ludlow Massacre" resurrects a mostly forgotten 1914
slaughter of men, women, and children that has resonance with
Kent State, Waco, Rainbow Farm, and other relatively recent governmental
killings of citizens. In "Mushroom Clouds in Paradise," Jack Niedenthal--the
Trust Liaison for the People of Bikini--details the shameful treatment
of the people of the Bikini Atoll, who were deprived of their
homeland and their health so the US could detonate nuclear bombs
on their islands. John Taylor Gatto, the New York State Teacher
of the Year for 1991, has dug up the long out-of-print writings
of the men who created and implemented the United States' public
school system. Using their own words, he shows that they purposefully
designed the system to keep us dumb and docile in "Some Lessons
From the Underground History of American Education."
In Appendix A you'll find short takes on
35 more secrets and lies, including the multimillionaire officials
who run the US, corporate malfeasance, the West Nile virus, AIDS,
Gulf War Syndrome, vaccines, Hollywood's propaganda, exotic weapons,
civilian deaths in Afghanistan, and income tax. Appendix B looks
at 35 books you may want to peruse, since they deal with the auto
industry, Henry Kissinger, innocent people in jail, antidepressants,
guns, Islam, the Oklahoma City bombing, the swastika, non-voting,
scientific support for herbal therapies, and other juicy topics.
Finally, Appendix C tells you how to get these books from their
publishers.
The proceedings close with capsule biographies
of all contributors. An index of this massive book will be posted
to Disinformation's
Website shortly before its publication.
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