American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us

This newly revised edition of Jesse Ventura's AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES adds a handful of chapters to his already detailed overview of America's complicated, covert history. As I mentioned in my review of the first edition, the book originally arrived at a time when conspiracies, specifically American conspiracies, were in the news more than they had been in years. Oliver Stone appeared on the Bill Maher show with a copy of JFK AND THE UNSPEAKABLE by James W. Douglass, and the book became a national bestseller. Elsewhere, ABC news reporter Chris Bury, at a conference in Philadelphia, would label noted FBI whistleblower Colleen Rowley a conspiracy theorist on camera after she critiqued the Bush administration's curious activities prior to 9/11. Then, as now, the phrase `conspiracy theorist' continues to be wielded as an all-purpose put-down by some, and is unwillingly adopted by others who have begun questioning the `official story' surrounding any number of events.As Rowley noted to her aggressive interviewer, a conspiracy is quite often simply "people deciding to do something bad". People who make such a decision aren't likely to announce it in a press release, hence the logical requirement of secrecy. Likewise, some misdeeds would require more than one person to be successfully carried out, hence the accompanying notion of collusion in private. Yet the idea of two, three or more people in key positions of power privately deciding to do something nefarious is viewed by the mainstream media as an invention of the mentally insane. Criminals might do it, the Mafia might do it, doctors or dentists or lawyers might occasionally do it (as folks from all walks of life are prosecuted for criminal acts every year), but the idea of certain politicians or elements within a government colluding to commit a criminal act is somehow viewed as beyond the pale.With the vast amounts of power and profit available to those in government, you don't have to buy the premise of every conspiracy theory going to realize that - no matter how big or small - private collusion for personal gain, and a subsequent cover-up by those involved, is going to occur at some point or another. Likewise, there would be few incentives for later politicians to shed light on the events, and many more incentives, both professionally and privately, to keep their big mouths shut. It may all simply depend on the personalities involved. To suggest a hypothetical, can anyone think of any recent, powerful leaders of mainstream American political parties who largely avoided intensive scrutiny by the press, encouraged governmental secrecy, and displayed a notable interest in enhancing their private wealth while in office? Even better - and to extend the argument into areas covered at one point in Ventura's book - can you think of two such upstanding folk, perhaps with a shared background going back some years? This is not to point the finger (if you browse the later book and DVD recommendations in this review, you'll find material that clearly does), but simply to note that the extremes of long-held ideology, paired with the potential for wealth and the accumulation of power, would provide fertile grounds for conspiratorial behavior to be encouraged, rather than reduced.Ventura's interest in the topic seems both sincere and substantial. Photos of a launch event for the long out-of-print deluxe hardcover of John Armstrong's HARVEY AND LEE (a massive volume discussing curious events in the background history of Lee Harvey Oswald) depict a smiling Ventura holding his own personal copy. A more recent filmed interview with Ventura on the Alex Jones show a few years back concluded with Jones passing Ventura a copy of his documentary TERRORSTORM, and requesting him to watch it. Ventura agreed that he would, and parted with a handshake. Concluding footage of Ventura's car pulling out and driving away revealed, with a zoomed-in shot, the former Governor solemnly reading the back cover of the DVD. (Ultimately, Ventura not only watched the film, but later appeared on camera in an expanded second edition of the movie). Since then, Ventura has appeared in the Alex Jones film TRUTH RISING, debated potential conspiracies with numerous TV and radio personalities, and hosted his own TruTV show on the topic, bluntly titled CONSPIRACY THEORY. The quality of the episodes of the latter that I saw struck me as varying from mixed, to quite good, but not for a moment have I doubted Ventura's own curiosity about the subject.As author, Ventura could have chosen any number of conspiracy theories to discuss in this volume, but the selected few are compelling and backed up with detailed research. The Wall Street plot against Roosevelt - a very public conspiracy neutered by General Smedley Butler, and now almost forgotten - is covered in detail. The assassinations of Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King are also examined. (As noted in other reviews, the King family ultimately won a court case that suggested the official story explaining MLK's shooting was contrived to cover up government involvement in same). Watergate (a topic thoughtfully covered in earlier books like Jim Hougan's SECRET AGENDA) is dipped into, as are the chances of vote-rigging in the two elections won by George W. Bush, and how the recent Wall Street bailout has benefited a chosen few. 9/11 - the subject of a recent article by Ventura, written on the request of the Huffington Post, then censored by the same site within hours of being posted - is covered in particular detail. Ventura's co-author is Dick Russell, a fine writer of past works on the JFK assassination (such as THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH) who lends a tremendous depth of research to Ventura's gruff, singular writing voice.Some readers might wish to dig further into the topics explored in AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES. On the assassination of JFK, I highly recommend James W. Douglass's JFK AND THE UNSPEAKABLE, Philip H. Melanson's SPY SAGA (covering the background of Lee Harvey Oswald), Hinckle and Turner's DEADLY SECRETS (documenting the CIA's use of anti-Castro mercenaries for covert activities), Gaeton Fonzi's THE LAST INVESTIGATION (recounting the abortive House Select Committee on Assassinations inquiry from the mid 70's), and Gerald D. McKnight's BREACH OF TRUST, (studying the machinations of the Warren Commission after the event). James DiEugenio has published two fine books that offer a good overview of the case - DESTINY BETRAYED, and RECLAIMING PARKLAND (the latter a part rebuttal to Bugliosi's anti-conspiracy screed RECLAIMING HISTORY). On the death of MLK, Melanson's THE MURKIN CONSPIRACY (`Murkin' being the code chosen by the FBI for their investigation into King's death), and William Pepper's AN ACT OF STATE are both exemplary. On the shooting of RFK, THE ROBERT F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION: NEW REVELATIONS ON THE CONSPIRACY AND COVER-UP by Philip Melanson (currently only available from Amazon marketplace), THE ASSASSINATION OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY by William Turner, and Shane O'Sullivan's recent, extremely thorough WHO KILLED BOBBY? are the best works available, and each generally supports the conclusions and evidence presented by the others. (It should be noted that James Douglass is at work on books of his own about the murders of King and Robert Kennedy).On the subject of 9/11, (and in recommended order), I'd suggest the key books by the indefatigable David Ray Griffin, those being THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT: OMISSIONS AND DISTORTIONS, THE NEW PEARL HARBOR REVISITED and THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF WORLD TRADE CENTRE 7. These can be supplemented with the most thoughtful and comprehensive overviews of the entire event, Jim Marrs's THE TERROR CONSPIRACY, Webster Tarpley's superlative 9/11 SYNTHETIC TERROR, and the overlooked but extremely incisive 9/11: THE NEW EVIDENCE, by British journalist Ian Henshall. Peter Dale Scott's THE ROAD TO 9/11 is a lengthy, heavily annotated University of California Press volume that suggestively fingers two ex-Bush administration members as being busier that morning, with clearly deleterious results, than you may have realized. The major documentaries on the topic are the aforementioned TERRORSTORM: SECOND EDITION, the recent LOOSE CHANGE FINAL CUT and LOOSE CHANGE 9/11: AN AMERICAN COUP, and the disquieting CORE OF CORRUPTION: IN THE SHADOWS. Readers (or viewers) pondering the subject of 9/11 anew might like to contemplate the subject of the various military drills that took place on 9/11 - notably, `Vigilant Guardian' and the other suggestively titled drills re-enacting mock hijacking scenarios on the day of the attacks - and how beneficial they were to the success of the actual hijackings on the day. (General Richard Myers, in a Commission interview, enthused at one point that the drills had actually helped, not hindered, their response on 9/11, presumably suggesting that if the drills had not been present, the US military response - which failed to intercept any of the planes, or prevent any of them from reaching their targets - would have been even worse. The clear embarrassment of General Myers and NORAD commander Ralph Eberhart towards those `coincidental' hijacking drills that mirrored the hijackings they failed to prevent, magically predicted the who and the how and where and when, and fortuitously helped to confuse the immediate response of others, is outlined in detail in Chapter 21 of Michael C. Ruppert's CROSSING THE RUBICON). 9/11 researchers should also dig up an overlooked work from nearly 30 years ago – the 1987 book THE IRAN-CONTRA CONNECTION: SECRET TEAMS AND COVERT OPERATIVES IN THE REAGAN ERA, by Jonathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott and Jane Hunter, which charts numerous connections and features participants that would reappear both in the foreground and background of the 9/11 story years later. Strikingly, IRAN CONTRA CONNECTION also features a chapter on covert activities from the era that were done in conjunction with Israeli collaborators, and notes a private government think tank – the ‘U.S.-Israel Political Military Committee’ – was set up by Alexander Haig and Robert McFarlane to ‘look at the big picture’ the same year that Israeli government strategists began championing the Oded Yinon plan to target and break up Israel’s rivals in the Middle East. The Yinon plan would influence Cheney and Wolfowitz’s 1992 Defense Planning Guidance paper, and the later PNAC document ‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses’For a perceptive and sympathetic overview of the entire topic of conspiracy, I'd recommend THE ROUGH GUIDE TO CONSPIRACY THEORIES, a lengthy volume now available in an expanded second edition. David Talbot has just released THE DEVIL'S CHESSBOARD, a damning biography of former CIA head Allen Dulles. Finally, two volumes that exemplify the interconnected nature of much of the above material are Russ Baker's FAMILY OF SECRETS, a Bush family biography (following the exploits of Dubya's Presidential father George H.W. through CIA-linked involvement in Watergate and - possibly - the killing of JFK), and H.P. Albarelli Jr's A TERRIBLE MISTAKE: THE MURDER OF FRANK OLSON AND THE CIA'S SECRET COLD WAR EXPERIMENTS, a recent, mammoth volume that sheds light on much that was once unclear about the CIA's involvement in MK-Ultra, the covert program that dumped much of its documentation following shred orders from nervous, odious CIA head Richard Helms.

Jesse Ventura is a real American who has a lot of questions. Packed into this book are some of the most disturbingly unsolved governmental mysteries of our country. He dives into dozens of stories that we all have known about and in many cases did not know about. One of the most intriguing is the assassination of President Lincoln. What we were taught in school is just a scratch of the surface. Mr. Ventura goes into detail about the conspiracy that surrounded Lincoln's entire Presidency. Robert Redford's recent movie "The Conspirator" is a perfect example of how intricate the story is. There is plenty more, including the J. F. Kennedy and R. F. Kennedy assassinations as well as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and more. Other heady stories include the Jonestown massacre; something we thought we all knew about. However, Mr. Ventura brings new light to the matter and the more he explains, the more you start to question what you thought you knew. The media is not 'all-telling'. Stolen elections of the last decade 'plus' are given a solid review here as well, showing that our government is no more trustworthy than any other. Of particular fascination to me was his expansive questions about 9/11, with almost too many questions about Building Seven, how the towers really might have fallen, who knew what, why was the Pentagon left with that circular hole, not befitting the crash of a jetliner, why NORAD was in Greenland that day, etc. Even Jesse Ventura was "investigated" by a mysterious group from Washington after he was elected governor - an almost humorous confrontation when he turns the tables on them.Each subject is organized into three parts: The Incident, The Official Word and My Take (or Jesse Ventura's analysis). All topics are well researched and the questions he brings up are nearly mind boggling in their obviousness. Why didn't Americans ask questions? Why would the government cover up anything? What is to be gained from such cover-ups? This is the kind of book that should be required reading in high school, if only for the facts and truth about each incident. Some might think Jesse Ventura to be paranoid, but if he is, he has good reason. This book is a fast and amazing read. There really are very few books quite like it. Even if you are not a 'conspiracy theory' fan, you'll at least learn a lot more about America's history. The only thing I found frustrating about the book, is that it raises so many seemingly unanswerable questions. But as Jesse Ventura explains, these are the kinds of things Americans need to know about. Our government is not what it always wants us to see it as. 'Vigilance' and 'questioning' is as American as apple pie.

If your into your conspiracies then this book is for you!!

I had watched Jesse Ventura on T.V. and found his book just as interesting as his programmes. I think he is a very brave man. I have passed his book on so that it can educate more people about the secrets the media rarely touches on regarding American politics, etc.

Enjoyed the read some very different points of view to consider if you like out of the box thinking this is your book trust me. Ower history and heritage is not what most people think this book has a lot of great examples. I would advise reading ( war is a racket ) by smedley Darlington butler highest rank authorised marine at the time short book but great view point to have before reading this American conspiracy book

Pages 29 to 76 inclusive are missing from the paperback copy. Not good!

A well written Book which answerd a lot of my questions , excellent value for money