America's
Lost History
Losing the War for Reality
To understand America's sharp decline in the early 21st Century, one must look at its lost ability to deal with reality. In a new book, former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman traces this problem back to the work of Robert Gates and others in the 1980s to "politicize" intelligence. April 8, 2008
(The Late) M.L. King Still Silenced
In his last years of life, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out forcefully against the Vietnam War and American militarism, drawing cold contempt from major U.S. media outlets. Now, 40 years after his death, the news media still ignores one of King's last great battles. April 4, 2008
Dr. Hamilton and Mr. Hyde
Former Rep. Lee Hamilton is the Democrat that the Republicans always want to handle one of their touchy national-security investigations because he never pushes too hard. That, however, has left some important questions for Hamilton to answer. March 27, 2008
Honoring Two Activist Parents
In 1946, the U.S. government put 42,000 of its own sailors in close proximity to two nuclear explosions to test the effect on humans. For the next half century, one of those sailors, Anthony Guarisco, worked with his wife, Mary, to alert the world to the nuclear threat. In this guest essay, their son Vincent pays tribute to their lives. March 6, 2008
When the Terrorists Were 'Our Guys'
Newly obtained U.S. government records reveal that in 1976 -- when George H.W. Bush was CIA director -- the U.S. government looked the other way as U.S.-based Cuban terrorists teamed up with South American dictators to wreak havoc around the Western Hemisphere, including a double homicide in Washington, D.C. A special report. February 22, 2008
Charlie Wilson's Warlords
The dominant U.S. narrative on the end of the Cold War is that it was won by Ronald Reagan with his hard-line foreign policy, including the Afghanistan War. In this guest essay, Ivan Eland examines whether this conventional wisdom is real or a myth, within the context of the recent movie, "Charlie Wilson's War." February 20, 2008
Bush Family Chronicles: The Patriarchs
Many Americans wonder how a family as arrogant and corrupt as the Bushes seized power in the United States. As Morgan Strong notes in this guest essay, part of the answer can be found in the excessive secrecy that let the rich and powerful hide their dirt. February 10, 2008
Tet Plus 40: US-Vietnam Turning Point
Four decades ago, an audacious Vietcong assault on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon highlighted a countrywide Tet offensive that changed the course of the Vietnam War -- and American politics. In this special report, former ABC News correspondent Don North, who covered the Embassy battle in 1968, tells the inside story of those dramatic events. January 30, 2008
CIA, Iran & the Gulf of Tonkin
George W. Bush's warning to Iran after a confusing incident involving U.S. ships and Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz is reviving memories of a fateful 1964 confrontation in North Vietnam's Gulf of Tonkin. Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern writes that U.S. intelligence should have spoken truth to power then -- as it must now. January 12, 2008
Reagan's Bargain/Charlie Wilson's War
To tell a more heroic story, the producers of "Charlie Wilson's War" left out many of the dangerous trade-offs that shaped U.S. policy in the Afghan War. As former CIA analyst Peter W. Dickson notes, one of the riskiest parts of Ronald Reagan's Afghan bargain was his decision to look the other way on Pakistan's nuclear program. January 6, 2008
Review of 'Charlie Wilson's War'
Historian Lisa Pease reviews the new Aaron Sorkin-written movie about Rep. Charlie Wilson and the CIA's war in Afghanistan. December 20, 2007
Review of 'The Great Debaters'
Historian Lisa Pease reviews Denzel Washington's new movie about a Depression-era all-black debating team. December 14, 2007
Henry Hyde: Mr. Cover-up
The death of ex-Congressman Henry Hyde is drawing fond eulogies from both sides of the political aisle and across Official Washington. But no attention is being paid to Hyde's crucial role in covering up the worst political crimes of the Reagan-Bush era. November 30, 2007
The Man Who Bombed Hiroshima
One of history's most controversial decisions was President Harry Truman's order to drop the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. With the recent death of the American aviator who carried out the mission, the Independent Institute's Anthony Gregory looks at the difficult moral dilemmas that arise from warfare. November 15, 2007
Why Is CIA Suppressing JFK Files?
The CIA continues to resist the release of documents pertaining to a CIA officer who oversaw anti-Castro Cubans who had curious dealings with Lee Harvey Oswald in the run-up to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In this guest essay, historian Lisa Pease comments on how the CIA is subverting the intent of the JFK Records Act. October 23, 2007
Next Generation of 'Family Jewels'?
In hailing release of the CIA's "family jewels" confessions, the Washington news media has offered the reassuring message that major intelligence abuses stopped in the mid-1970s because congressional oversight was put in place. But the reality is different and much more alarming. The evidence actually points to worse intelligence crimes committed after the period covered by the "family jewels." What really changed was that the cover-ups got more effective. June 27, 2007
Reagan-Bush Drug Legacy in CentAm
Two grisly massacres in Guatemala -- the murders of three Salvadoran legislators and then the killing of four policemen who had confessed to the first killings -- reflect a legacy dating back to the 1980s when Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush put Central America's ideological struggles ahead of enforcing drug laws. March 6, 2007
Why US Shields Japan's WWII Denials
In this guest article, Jerry Meldon examines the mysterious roots of the money that has funded right-wing Asian politics since World War II and that has spilled over into the United States. February 24, 2007
'Amazing Grace': Roots of Freedom
The struggle for human freedom has had many champions, some well known and some obscure. In this guest essay, Jonathan J. Bean highlights the tale of British abolitionist William Wilberforce, the real-life hero in the new movie, "Amazing Grace." February 24, 2007
Reagan & the Salvadoran Baby Skulls
Ronald Reagan is an icon to many Americans who view him as one of the great Presidents. But a new revelation in the Washington Post is a reminder of the depravity behind Reagan's policies in Central America, including massacres of entire villages like the Salvadoran town of El Mozote in 1981. January 30, 2007
How Ollie North Helped Ortega Win
Two decades ago, White House aide Oliver North was the point man for Ronald Reagan's drive to oust Daniel Ortega and his leftist Sandinista government from power in Nicaragua. In a twist of history, however, some angry U.S. diplomats are now blaming North for an ill-timed intervention in Nicaragua's politics that may have helped Ortega regain the presidency. January 11, 2007
Where Gerald Ford Went Wrong
The eulogies for Gerald Ford have been filled with glowing tributes to a self-effacing Midwesterner who helped the nation bind its wounds after Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal and the U.S. defeat in Vietnam. But Ford's two-plus years in the White House can be divided into two parts, an early reform period that tried to rein in the imperial presidency and a second half in which political pressures forced Ford to reverse course -- and begin the comeback for the all-powerful executive. January 1, 2007
Gerald Ford's Mixed Legacy
To many Americans, Gerald Ford represented the antithesis of the imperial presidency that Richard Nixon had brought to historic heights. After succeeding Nixon in 1974, Ford downplayed the trappings of power and treated Congress with greater respect. But, in retrospect, Ford's two-plus years in office could be viewed as the start of the imperial presidency's comeback, which under George W. Bush has exceeded anything Nixon dreamed of. And, ironically, by silencing his own doubts about Bush's Iraq War, Ford may have had a hand in that, too. December 29, 2006
Ronald Reagan's Bloody Apocalypto
For many
Americans who have watched Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, the pain of
the fictional ancient Mayas in the movie is more real than the actual
suffering of real Mayas who were tortured and slaughtered in the 1980s
with the help of then-President Ronald Reagan. When a right-wing
military dictator was waging this modern genocide against Mayas,
Reagan was busy covering the killers' tracks and giving them more
efficient weapons to carry out the task. But that history now is less
known to Americans than Gibson's faux history of 500 years ago. December
17, 2006
Apocalypto, Then and Now
Mel Gibson's new
blockbuster, Apocalypto, offers what supposedly is a look back
500 years at a decadent Mayan society in which a rich city state preys
upon weak jungle villages by enslaving their people and subjecting some
unfortunate captives to gruesome deaths at the hands of religious
zealots. In this guest commentary, journalist and author Don Ediger
wonders how future civilizations might depict our own modern culture of
violence and fanaticism. December 16, 2006
Saddam & Secret Witnesses
Saddam Hussein remains a political figure that the U.S. news media loves
to hate. How else to explain the lack of concern over the use of secret
witnesses in a trial that is expected to lead to the execution of Hussein
and other officials of the Iraqi government overthrown by the U.S.-led
invasion? The secrecy effectively denies the defendants the right to
confront their accusers -- and threatens to turn the Hussein tribunal into a
kangaroo court. December
8, 2005
Dissing Fitzgerald &
Prosecutorial Politics
One of the harshest critics of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's
investigation into the White House leak of a CIA officer's identity has been
former independent counsel Joseph diGenova, who examined earlier allegations
of George H.W. Bush's political abuses. But unlike Fitzgerald, diGenova
bent over backward to avoid finding wrongdoing. [See excerpts
from George H.W. Bush's diary, FBI notes on Bush's interrogation and other
investigative documents.] November 24, 2005
The Enduring JFK Mystery
Forty-two years after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, the
truncated investigations into his murder have left their own troubling
legacy -- of a nation denied its history. A recent conference outside
Washington tried to put more of the mystery's clues together and looked at
why so many of the prior investigations had been botched. November 22. 2005
Rehnquist's Legacy: A
Partisan Court
Washington's pundits are falling over themselves to praise the late U.S.
Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, but they are ignoring his
dark legacy of politicizing the American courts. If that legacy is not
recognized -- and not reversed -- the traditional democratic concept of the
"rule of the law" may have effectively come to an end. September 7,
2005
The Last Watergate
Mystery
The identification of Deep Throat has left only one major unsolved
Watergate mystery: what were the Republican burglars seeking when they broke
into Democratic headquarters and what might they have done with that
information? For the first time, the Democratic official whose phone was
bugged in Watergate speaks out on his analysis of how Richard Nixon's spying
may have changed the course of Election 1972. June 25, 2005
Bush's SEC Choice Hyped
'Chinagate'
George W. Bush's nominee to oversee Wall Street played fast and loose
with the evidence of Chinese nuclear spying in a 1999 congressional report.
Rep. Christopher Cox protected the Reagan-Bush administration from evidence
that it had opened the floodgates of sensitive secrets to China, and Cox
shifted the blame to Bill Clinton. Now, Cox is in line to become the new
chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. June 9, 2005
The Real Lessons of
Watergate
The disclosure that former FBI official Mark Felt was the secretive
"Deep Throat" in the Watergate scandal has revived public interest in the
33-year-old scandal. But few Americans grasp the real lessons of Watergate
or how the bitter experience shocked conservatives into building the
right-wing media infrastructure that is now arguably the most potent force
in American politics. June 3, 2005
Bush, Posada & Terrorism
Hypocrisy
George W. Bush has insisted on "moral clarity" in the War on Terror, but
he and his brother Jeb have ignored the principle against harboring
terrorists -- at least when the fugitive is Luis Posada Carriles, a violent
Cuban exile with strong political support in the powerful Cuban-American
community of South Florida. The American news media also is helping out by
mostly treating Posada as a non-story, even though the New York Times did
finally put the Posada question on Page One. May 10, 2005
The Bush Family's
Favorite Terrorist
Showing that old Cold War habits die hard, the Bush administration is
tolerating the presence of right-wing Cuban terrorist Luis Posada in the
United States. Though Posada crossed the Mexican border illegally and is now
hiding in the Miami area, neither President George W. Bush nor Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush has ordered a manhunt. That may seem to contradict the "moral
clarity" of the War on Terror, but actually makes sense because Posada has
long been the Bush family's favorite terrorist. April 25, 2005
John Bolton & the Battle
for Reality
Undersecretary of State John Bolton has been called a "kiss up, kick
down kind of guy" for pressuring mid-level U.S. intelligence analysts to
embrace administration conclusions. But Bolton's abrasive style is not
simply a personality flaw; it's a strategy that's been prevalent since the
Reagan years for ensuring that the American people get a slanted perception
of reality. April 19, 2005
Negroponte's 'Friendly
Eye'
John Negroponte assures the Senate that he will tell "truth to power" as
director of national intelligence, but his record is better summed up by his
use of Shakespearean dialogue in 1983 to suggest that "a friendly eye" be
cast toward abuses by the Honduran government. April 13, 2005
Iraq: Quicksand & Blood
In the vice presidential debate, Dick
Cheney cited El Salvador as a precedent for the U.S. policies in Iraq and
Afghanistan. In an article almost a year ago, we noted the dangers of the
Bush-Cheney administration transferring to the Middle East lessons
supposedly learned from the Reagan-Bush intervention in Central America two
decades ago. It is reprinted
here.
CIA's DI Disgrace
The Iraqi-intelligence failure of the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence --
or DI -- traces back nearly a quarter century to the days after Ronald
Reagan's election when ideological conservatives took aim at the DI's
historic traditions of objective analysis. The extraordinary stories of how
the Reagan-Bush administration broke the will of the analysts -- and why
President Clinton refused to address the crisis -- were the prequels to
today's DI disgrace. July 13, 2004
A CIA Officer's
Calamitous Choices
Secret intelligence operatives sometimes make decisions that resonate through time.
One such CIA officer was James Critchfield, whose choices influenced U.S. attitudes in the
Cold War and shaped the Saddam era in Iraq. By Jerry Meldon. May 15, 2003.
Toward the Brink
The terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have suddenly made relevant the shadowy
history of the past two decades. September 17, 2001
CIA's Worst-Kept
Secret
Newly released documents confirm that U.S. intelligence recruited and protected
hundreds of Nazi war criminals after World War II. By Martin A. Lee. May 16, 2001
Three
Reasons -- What Went Wrong
Three recent news
events shed light on what went wrong with American democracy over the past half century,
as the nation compromised its principles -- and implicated young men like Bob Kerrey in
atrocities -- all for the Cold War. May 1, 2001
CIA's Anti-Drug Message for Kids
The CIA wants American families to
know that it's fighting the war on drugs, but the real story isn't quite so simple or so
pretty. By Martin A. Lee. March 4, 2001
Reagan-Bush Security Breaches
Ronald Reagan's tough rhetoric of the
1980s obscured a very different reality. As the arrest of an alleged FBI "double
agent" underscores, the Reagan-Bush era was a time when American national security
was compromised, possibly worse than at any time in U.S. history. February 23, 2001
Iran-Contra
& the Case of Wen Ho Lee
Little-noticed Iran-contra files
shed light on how the Reagan-Bush administration built the clandestine ties to communist
China that were the backdrop of the Wen Ho Lee nuclear secrets case. By Robert Parry.
September 18, 2000
Ronald
Reagan's Last Secret
A search for an inner self ends on the surface. By Robert Parry. November 25, 1999
Reagan
& Guatemala's Death Files.
New records prove genocide and the U.S. hand. By Robert Parry. May 26, 1999
The
US-Guatemala File.
Training state terrorists. By Robert Parry. May 26, 1999
'Like I Wasn't President at All.'
Reagan and Iran. By Robert Parry. May 26, 1999
Secret Service Privilege: The
Bush File
Kenneth Starr has obliterated
the Secret Service's claim of a special 'protective privilege.' But Starr's old boss,
George Bush, benefitted from that privilege when his bodyguards concealed records from
October Surprise investigators in 1992. July 23, 1998
Uncle Sam's Favorite Terrorists
New evidence suggests that in
the past year, U.S. soil again has served as a base for anti-Castro terrorism. The attacks
confront President Clinton with a choice between law and politics. June 24, 1998
Two Indonesias, Two Americas
The turmoil in Indonesia has
brought to the fore secret military relations between Washington and Jakarta that date
back to the 1960s. Then, President Sukarno was ousted by Gen. Suharto amid a bloody
rampage that killed up to one million people. The U.S. hand always hid behind a cloak of
national security, one dark chapter in a troubling history of counterinsurgency. June 9,
1998
India, the CIA & the Bomb
CIA's botched Indian analysis
is drawing criticism, but the root of the failure is found in President Reagan's
'politicization' and President Clinton's failure to correct the problem. June 9, 1998
Lost History: GOP & KAL-007:
'Key Is to Lie First'
Republican leaders say they want the "whole truth" about the Clinton
scandals. But the GOP's history is strewn with 50 years of Cold War situational lying,
like the doctored intercepts used as propaganda after the Korean Air Lines disaster in
1983. (5/18/98)
Lost History: Project X, Drugs
& Death Squads
New disclosures about secret 'Project X' training manuals and the CIA's purge of
criminals from its payrolls have corroborated many of the decades-old criticism of U.S.
national security. But the news is slipping back into a media black hole. (3/31/97)
Lost History: Contras, Dirty $
& CIA (Part 2)
A mysterious Cuban-American banker lined up millions of dollars in guns for the
Nicaraguan contras. But the money came from shadowy Panamanian banks and brought suspicion
that the CIA was arranging laundered drug profits. (3/3/97)
Lost History: Contras, Dirty
Money & CIA
When Ronald Reagan wanted to get guns and money to the Nicaraguan contras, his men
often turned to the shadowy world of money-laundering. Newly discovered documents show a
well-worn trail that leads from Panama's law offices to Swiss banks, from dirty money on
the streets of American cities to the brutal murder of a principal contra financier.
(2/17/97)
Lost History: Ollie's 'Enemies'
& the FBI
When Oliver North was at the height of his power, he tried to muscle his 'enemies'
by enlisting the FBI and other federal agencies to investigate them. Newly released
Iran-contra documents show that North saw the FBI as a possible weapon even to use against
troublesome journalists. (2/3/97)
Lost History: The CIA Protects
the Iran-Contra Cover-up (1/20/97)
Lost History: CIA-Contra
Plan-Kill Cubans
Duane Clarridge acknowledges in a new book that an original goal of the contra
operation was to "start killing Cubans." (1/20/97)
Lost History: The CIA's Fugitive
Terrorist
Luis Posada, a CIA-trained Cuban exile, hooked up with Oliver North's secret
Nicaraguan contra supply operation in 1986. Before that Posada was a known international
terrorist accused of bombing a civilian airliner that was headed for Havana. (1/6/97)
Lost History: CIA's Perception
Management
How the CIA practiced "Perception Management" on the American people
during the '80s. (12/9/96)
Lost History: Dole Nearly Cited
in Iran-Contra Report
While in the Senate, Dole fought to hinder Lawrence Walsh's Iran-contra
investigation and then urged President Bush to pardon Casper Weinberger in the last month
of the Bush Presidency. (11/11/96)
Lost History: Arafat Reveals
'October Surprise' Bid
Arafat informed President Carter that the Republicans approached him in 1980 over
October Surprise. (10-28-96)
Lost History: 'Project X' &
Assassins School
The Pentagon now admits that the School of the Americas used manuals that advocated
torture, murder and coercion for political ends. (10-14-96)
Lost History: Wall Street
Journal's 'Big Lies'
The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, edited by Robert Bartley, stoops to some
of the worst media abuses. Evidence is fabricated. Good people are smeared. Case in point:
WSJ vs. Gary Sick. (9-30-96)
Lost History: Reagan-Bush Crime
Syndicate
A decade ago, press reports disclosed that the Nicaraguan contra rebels were
trafficking in cocaine to buy guns. But instead of going after the contras, the White
House went after the story and the government investigators who tried to follow it up.
(9-16-96)
Lost History: Marcos, Money &
Treason
In a stunning disclosure, Ed Rollins, Ronald Reagan's former campaign manager,
writes that Philippine despot Ferdinand Marcos sent $10 Million in cash to Reagan's 1984
campaign. (9-2-96)
Lost History: Newsweek's
Convenient Lies
When Newsweek columnist Joe Klein lied about his authorship of a novel and editor
Maynard Parker published falsehoods in Newsweek to protect Klein's money-making secret,
the magazine's 'standards of truth' responsible for hounding Adm. Jeremy Boorda over his
right to wear a pin were suddenly less inviolable. (8-19-96)
Lost History: Pierre Salinger
& 1980 Taboo
The censorship of fomer ABC News' Paris bureau chief Pierre Salinger's memoirs, P.S.,
which expunged his October Surprise conclusion, is another case of the history of the 1980
American Presidential election is Lost History. (7-8-96)
Lost History: October Surprise
Arises
The October Surprise has been brought before the Supreme Court in a libel suit.
Former national security adviser Robert McFarlane has brought suit against Esquire
magazine for a 1991 story linking McFarlane to both the alleged 1980 hostage dirty trick
and to the Jonathan Pollard spy case. (6-24-96)
Lost History: The Devil & Bob
Gates
Ex-CIA Director Bob Gates's memoirs, "From the Shadows," reveals an eerie
mix of startling admissions blended with dubious history and self-serving explanations to
provide proof of our lost history. (6-10-96)
Lost History: Death, Lies and
Bodywashing
A small granite marker in Arlington National Cemetery honors the 21 American
soldiers who fought and died in El Salvador's civil war, but their story remains a secret
to the American people. (5-27-96) |