Buy This Book

Over the next few weeks I'm going to be writing a great deal about Secrecy and Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq by Robert Parry of Consortium News. I haven't quite finished it, but I've certainly read enough to recommend it to anyone who enjoys this website. You should buy it yourself, both because you need to know what's in it and because you should support Parry's work. After you buy it, you should then buy more copies, as I'm going to do, to give to relatives for the holidays. Then donate money to Consortium News and also buy Parry's previous books, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press and "Project Truth" and Trick or Treason: the October Surprise Mystery. Then drive to Parry's house and shake his hand to thank him for what he does. Then write a short song praising Parry's work and sing it on street corners. But don't do anything more than that, because it would seem weird.

I've previously mentioned Parry here. It's a sign of America's intellectual and moral malaise that he's not foreign editor for the Washington Post. On the other hand, in most countries the government would already have shot him in the head. So you take the good with the bad.

While you're waiting for your copy of Secrecy and Privilege to arrive, I recommend this article about the murky history of America's relations with Iraq. Note in particular that Parry dug up the top secret 1981 talking points of Alexander Haig (then Secretary of State) for a meeting with President Reagan after Haig returned from the middle east. One of the talking points was "IT WAS INTERESTING TO CONFIRM THAT PRESIDENT CARTER GAVE IRAQ A GREEN LIGHT TO LAUNCH THE WAR AGAINST IRAN THROUGH [SAUDI PRINCE] FAHD."

Strange, I don't remember seeing that on the evening news. You'd think that, since Disney and Viacom and General Electric all hate America so much, they'd want to mention it prominently.

UPDATE: I see Consortium News links to this site, which is flattering. I believe this is courtesy of Nat Parry, Robert Parry's son.