Everything You Know is Wrong

Tweet

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Reference
Author:	Russ Kick

The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies

Do you get the feeling that everything you know is wrong?

In this follow-up to the hugely successful You Are Being Lied To, an amazing group of investigative journalists, researchers, commentators, dissidents and academics peels back consensus reality and shows us what's really happening. You'll find hard, documented evidence—including revelations never before published—on the most powerful institutions and controversial topics in the world.

• Investigative reporter Greg Palast exposes the dark side of globalization with exclusive leaked documents from the World Bank and World Trade Organization.

• Nuclear safety engineer David Lochbaum blows the whistle on unpublicized accidents and near-misses at nuclear power plants.

• Reporter Rory Carroll uncovers new information on the serial killing case that inspired the creation of Hannibal Lecter.

• Attorney Jonathan Levy unveils the sordid history of the Vatican Bank.

• Sports professor Helen Lenskyj examines the sleaze behind the Olympic Games.

• Private investigator Brad Shellady reveals previously unknown facts about Henry Lee Lucas, who claimed to be the most prolific serial killer in history.

• John Taylor Gatto, New York Teacher of the Year for 1991, unearths the disturbing roots of the educational system.

• Former police chief Joseph D. McNamara discloses the existence of gangs of renegade cops in every major city.

• Attorney David T. Hardy presents newly uncovered evidence about Waco, including the smoking-gun document that proves the raid never had to happen.

• Editor Russ Kick reveals eyewitness testimony of more than two attackers at the Columbine massacre, including a sketch of a third suspect (published here for the first time).

You'll also read what you're not supposed to know about vote scams, the pharmaceutical industry, domestic violence, toxic TV, drug treatment programs, India's untouchables, the European Union, mental illness, women and religion, eating meat, PanAm 103, the Ludlow massacre, pornography and prostitution, anti-racist "watchdog" groups, and more.

Once you read the substantiated facts in this book, you’ll wonder if anything you know is right

It appears that the friendly faces on the nightly news "forgot" to tell us a few things:

• The US had foreknowledge about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

• Mad Cow disease is killing people in America.

• China has super-missiles that can destroy the entire US Navy.

• The US is helping wage a secret war in South America.

• Young people are less violent now than they have been in over 30 years.

• Some of the biggest banks in the world turn a blind eye to money laundering.

• Many disabled people don't want to be "cured" and don't admire Christopher Reeve.

• French authorities kidnapped a little girl in California, forcibly taking her to France.




Since money makes the world go 'round, we start the proceedings with the section "Lucre." Complaints about the International Monetary Fund and globalization in general are legion, but details about exactly how they destroy countries are harder to find.

In "Burn the Olive Tree, Sell the Lexus," Greg Palast, investigative reporter for the BBC and the London Observer, and Oliver Shykles show precisely what globalization hath wrought, using exclusive leaked documents from the World Bank and the World Trade Organization.

Political commentator Arianna Huffington then offers stinging criticism of the pharmaceutical industry in "Drug Companies: Sell Hard, Sell Fast . . . and Count the Bodies Later." 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 "Mind and Body" 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 presents the scientific evidence that our media-saturated consumer culture is extremely damaging to our psyches ("Toxic TV"), and Preston Peet has harsh words for the current trend toward forced treatment for drug users (the man knows whereof he speaks in "Treatment or Jail?"). 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. Due to international financial pressure, Libya has recently agreed to compensate the families of those who died when PanAm 103 blew up over Scotland, 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 Web site, 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.



HIGHLIGHTS

Everything You Know Is Wrong contains newsworthy information that has never before been published or that has appeared only in obscure sources (such as small-circulation newsletters or self-published books). Below you will find pointers to some of the most startling and important revelations.

World Bank and WTO. Investigative journalist Greg Palast (of the BBC and the Observer of London) has received restricted internal documents from the powerful institutions that operate the machinery of globalism. In "Burn the Olive Tree, Sell the Lexus," he and Oliver Shykles reveal the contents of two of these files for the first time. "The Ecuador Interim Country Assistance Strategy" forced Ecuador to implement 167 economically suicidal measures in order to receive loans from the World Bank's International Monetary Fund.

One of those conditions involved raising the price of cooking gas by 60 percent overnight, a move that touched off rioting in the streets. This, in turn, caused the government to send in tanks.

The other document is "General Agreement on Trade and Services" from the World Trade Organization. It declares that all member-nations of the WTO will have their national laws and regulations judged by a panel of bureaucrats. If these laws are found to restrict the business practices of another country, they will be nullified. And you thought we lived in a sovereign nation! [Pages 11-15]

Columbine. The received wisdom tells us that the mass shooting at Columbine high school was perpetrated entirely by two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Yet witness statements and police interviews released in late 2000 reveal that dozens of people inside the school saw other gunmen taking part.
Russ Kick's "Witnesses to a Massacre" publishes these documents for the first time. Scrupulously ignored by the media, these 45 eyewitness accounts speak of a gunman with severe acne, a bomb-thrower dressed in jeans, a shooter wearing camouflage pants, a gunman on the rooftop, a blonde participant in his late 20s, a gunman called "Joe," and others, none of whom could be Harris or Klebold. This article also contains the first publication of a witness' sketch of a third gunman. [Pages 74-84]

Mad Cow Disease. Gabe Kirchheimer was the first person to report in a national publication the existence of mad cow disease in the US, yet his findings have been ignored. In "Bovine Bioterrorism and the Perfect Pathogen," he repeats his discoveries and adds to them. The proof is overwhelming. The most crucial pieces of evidence are undoubtedly the medical studies from Yale and the University of Pittsburgh in which researchers examined the brains of people in the US who supposedly died of Alzheimer's. 

They found that 13 percent and 5.5 percent (respectively) of these people had actually died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease. Furthermore, it's a scientific fact that one in a million cows will spontaneously develop mad cow disease. With approximately 100 million head of cattle in the US, that means that 100 cows have the disease at any given time. On top of that, regulations in the US allow bovine plasma to be fed to calves, an open invitation to the spread of the disease. There can be no doubt—mad cow disease is in America. [Pages 89-96]

Nuclear Power. Problems with nuclear reactors typically make the news only when they're severe, and even then they're quickly forgotten (with the notable exceptions of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl). David Lochbaum has worked as a nuclear engineer at reactors in eight states, and he's currently nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists. His "Fission Stories" reveals 30 accidents, problems, lapses, and near-misses, most of which have never before been reported. They range from the scary (50,000 gallons of radioactive water dumped into Lake Ontario, four workers scalded to death, and the technician who almost caused a meltdown) to the darkly humorous but still scary (the girly mag that got sucked into a crucial cooling system, the marijuana found at an Arizona plant, and the operator who drained the coolant from the wrong reactor). 

Did you know that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission predicted a nearly 50/50 chance of a complete core meltdown by 2004? Probably not, since it was mentioned almost casually in their "Information Notice No. 86-55." [Pages 172-180]

Waco. Attorney David T. Hardy represented surviving Branch Davidians at their trials after the Waco debacle. After years of Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits, he pried loose damning evidence against the government, much of which he presents in "Call It Off!" 

For example, there's the tape recording of the entire initial raid which clearly shows that—despite the sworn testimony of government agents who said they were raked by batteries of machine-guns—there was less than one second of automatic weapon fire—a single burst that quickly ended when the shooter was apparently killed. Most important, though, is the official ATF document in which undercover agents report that nine days prior to the raid, they went shooting with David Koresh himself. He could've easily been arrested at that time. The entire 51-day standoff and 80+ deaths (including 24 children) did not have to happen. [Pages 181-188]

Prior Knowledge of the September 11 Attacks. We admit it—the idea that high levels of the US government knew the 9/11 attacks were coming sounds like one of the conspiracy theories the media just love to ridicule. But when you take a look at the massive amount of evidence assembled in Russ Kick's "September 11, 2001: No Surprise," you might stop laughing.

How to explain the fact that Russia, Israel, Germany, and the Philippines all say they warned the US of the plan months in advance? Or the stepped-up security at the World Trade Center starting in mid-August? It's likewise hard to explain away the former State Department terrorism expert who told the Boston Globe: "We all predicted this." Most damning of all is NPR's on-the-scene report from the Capitol building as it was being evacuated on 9/11. Correspondent David Welna said: "I spoke with Congressman Ike Skelton—a Democrat from Missouri and a member of the Armed Services Committee—who said that just recently the Director of the CIA warned that there could be an attack—an imminent attack—on the United States of this nature. So this is not entirely unexpected." Suddenly, it doesn't seem so ridiculous. [Pages 241-257]

The Inspiration for Hannibal Lecter. From 1968 to 1985, eight couples were similarly murdered and mutilated in Florence, Italy, in the case that inspired Thomas Harris to create his fictional serial killer, Hannibal Lecter. Reporter Rory Carroll breaks incredible recent developments in the "Monster of Florence" case.

Although three peasants were convicted of the killings, haunting questions remain unanswered. Based on new evidence, the authorities now are certain that the ritualistic killings were directed by a shadowy group of wealthy Italians, including a doctor. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

The Educational System. John Taylor Gatto was selected as New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991 after having already been named New York City Teacher of the Year three times. Gatto dug up the long out-of-print writings of the men who designed and implemented America's educational system, and their words are chilling. They admit in no uncertain terms that the purpose of schools is to mold children into unthinking drones who will be good, unquestioning workers.

One of these educators said that schools must be factories "in which raw products, children, are to be shaped and formed into finished products...manufactured like nails, and the specifications for manufacturing will come from government and industry." In 1906, the US Commissioner of Education wrote that education "scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual." Rockefeller's Educational Board, which provided huge amounts of funding for the new schooling system in the early 1900s, declared: "We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science." These frightening words from the architects of the educational system might've been lost to history had Gatto not rescued them. [Pages 274-287]

Henry Lee Lucas. The late Henry Lee Lucas is generally considered one of the most reprehensible serial killers of all time, alongside the likes of John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and the Zodiac Killer. Brad Shellady investigated the case for years, eventually joining Lucas' defense team when he saw the overwhelming evidence that corrupt law-enforcement officials were using Lucas—who would "confess" to any and every murder, including nonexistent ones—to clear unsolved homicides off the books.

For thirteen years Shellady worked the case, repeatedly interviewing everyone involved (including Lucas himself) and amassing tens of thousands of documents, most of which—such as internal memos and unedited videotapes of confessions—has never been seen by the public. In "Henry: Fabrication of a Serial Killer," Shellady shows that not only didn't Lucas commit the 3,000 murders he confessed to, he probably only committed one (as a teenager, he killed his abusive mother in a fit of drunken rage). [Pages 64-71]

Police Gangsters. As far as we know, retired police chief Joseph D. McNamara is the first law enforcement official to acknowledge the "blue wall of silence," the infamous code of silence among cops (who, to this day, still deny its existence). His article, "When Cops Become the Gangsters," also reports the existence of gangs of renegade criminal cops in every major US city. Never before has an insider blown the whistle like this. (Recently, a second retired police chief has admitted the same things in the little-noticed book Police Unbound. It's reviewed in Appendix B of Everything You Know Is Wrong.) [Page 88]

Domestic Violence. As hard as it is to believe, dozens of studies have found that men comprise one-third to one-half of domestic violence victims. Philip W. Cook presents the evidence in his groundbreaking article, "The Whole Truth About Domestic Violence." Besides looking at the sociological studies, Cook discusses his conversations with male victims and those who are trying to help them. He also presents, for the first time, an open letter from Erin Pizzey, the woman who founded the domestic violence movement by writing the first book on the topic and, against huge odds, opening the first shelter and hotline for battered women. 

In recent years, she has turned her attention to helping abused men. The result? Her home has been fired upon, she needs a police escort at speaking engagements, and she has been written out of the history of the very movement she founded. There are a lot of people out there who don't want you to know that men are abused, too. [Pages 125-133]

Politicians Who Want Drug Laws Relaxed. Greatly expanding his popular Village Voice cover story, Russ Kick presents verbatim statements from over 70 officials in ten countries who want to see a relaxation of drugs laws. Some of them—including the Governor of New Mexico, the former head of Scotland Yard's anti-drug unit, and the Presidents of Mexico and Uruguay—believe complete legalization is the answer. 

Others who are quoted include presidents of the US, Cabinet-level officials, ambassadors, legislators, judges, and law enforcement officials. Never before have all of these controversial statements been gathered in one place. [Pages 195-201]

The Vatican Bank. Attorney Jonathan Levy is suing the Vatican on behalf of Holocaust survivors who seek restitution of gold plundered by the Nazis and hidden at the Vatican Bank. From his unique position, he tells of the Holy See's stonewalling and efforts to have the suit thrown out, while going into detail about the Vatican Bank's shady dealings, which involve the Mafia, Nazis, bribes, counterfeit bonds, and disappearing money. (Recently, the Inside Fraud Bulletin named Vatican City as the tenth-biggest money-laundering location in the world, ahead of Bermuda and Luxembourg.) [Pages 18-23]

Senator Bob Kerrey. For a week in April 2001, the media were trumpeting the fact that former Senator Bob Kerrey admitted killing civilians while in Vietnam during the war. But what they left out was that Kerrey and his company weren't lone wolves but were instead part of a CIA program, Operation Phoenix, the purpose of which was to terrorize through the assassinations of civilian men, women, and children. Douglas Valentine, the author of the definitive book on this secret program, examines Kerrey's role in "The Senator's Ashes." He also names a current US Congressman—Representative Rob Simmons—who was deeply involved in Phoenix. [Pages 38-43]