Paraquat: “Facts about Paraquat,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control, http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/paraquat/basics/facts.asp
In Chapter 36 we use some dramatic license to show how the other half flies when they’re forced to travel commercially. And who knows, Natalie Portman might even be able to actually fly without an ID if she found the right TSA agent:
Airline VIP liaisons: Gabe Weisert, “How the celebrities fly,” Forbes Traveler, October 11, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15133601
In Chapter 37:
“I have sworn upon the altar of God …”: Thomas Jefferson, John P. Foley, The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia: A Comprehensive Collection of the Views Of (Funk & Wagnalls, 1900), http://books.google.com/books?id=ZTIoAAAAYAAJ
“I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens …”: Thomas Jefferson, John P. Foley, The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia: a comprehensive collection of the views of (Funk & Wagnalls, 1900), http://books.google.com/books?id=ZTIoAAAAYAAJ
In Chapter 38, we again see Danny Bailey’s conspiratorial side come out. He mentions, for example, that there was a training exercise going on in London on the morning of the 7/7 bombings. That is completely true, but this is a good example of the difference between something being a fact and an assumption that is based on fact.
The facts of this incident in London on 7/7 are hardly in doubt: A crisis management company, run by a man with Scotland Yard ties, held a terror-drill exercise on the morning of July 7 involving multiple subway bombings. Later that day, the drill played out in real life in almost exactly the same way and in almost exactly the same locations.
No one disagrees on those events, yet those facts are interpreted in widely varying ways. For example, Danny Bailey recounts those events to FBI Agent Kearns as though the corporate drill might’ve been some kind of “cover story” for the British government’s own role in the real bombings. But slightly more research into the exercises held that morning reveals why the mainstream media didn’t find that to be such a plausible scenario.
In a Channel 4 News article titled “Coincidence of bomb exercises?” (see: http://www.channel4.com/news/article.jsp?id=109010), Nicholas Glass points out that the bombing scenario that morning was one of three that the company was working on. More important, there were no physical resources deployed anywhere in the city, and the drill involved a few people sitting around a conference table talking about how they would respond. In other words, if this drill was supposed to be the government’s alibi, the perpetrators would probably be serving life in prison right now.
In response to the 7/7 conspiracies, Peter Power, the crisis management executive who ran the drills, issued a fairly clear-cut statement in which he responded to what he called the “inaccurate/naïve/ignorant/ hostile” accusations being made. Of course, no matter how persuasive his statement was, conspiracy theories always have the same convenient response to fall back on: Of course he said that, he’s probably a government agent.
My point is that there is great danger in the way facts can be spun or strung together to give credibility to what is otherwise a wild-eyed conspiracy theory. It is our responsibility to look at everything with a skeptical eye, and also to be aware that many will try to twist reality to serve their own agenda or reinforce their worldview.
Terrorism drills run in London on morning of 7/7 bombings: Judi McLeod, “Business Exec Confirms Same-Time-as-Attack Underground Bombing Exercise,” Canada Free Press, July 14, 2005, http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover071405.htm
See also: Peter Power interview on ITV News July 7, 2005: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKvkhe3rqtc
Haroon Rashid Aswat tried to set up terrorist training camp in Oregon: Alan Cowell, “Briton Sought on U.S. Terror Charges Appears in London Court,” New York Times, August 9, 2005, http:// www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/international/europe/09london.html
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta: Terry McDermott, “Seeing What We Want to See; How Could It Be That, Despite the Facts, People—and Computers—Place One of the Sept. 11 Hijackers in Places He Probably Wasn’t?” Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2005.
In Chapter 39:
“We have no choice” on the financial bailouts: There are many great examples of panicked reaction from our leaders as the financial crisis unfolded and wore on. For example, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said: “If we don’t do this, we may not have an economy on Monday.”
See also: Joe Nocera, “36 Hours of Alarm and Action as Crisis Spiraled,” New York Times, October 2, 2008, http://www.newsweek.com/id/197810/page/1
Bailout recipients: “Tracking the $700 Billion Bailout,” The New York Times, http://projects.nytimes.com/creditcrisis/recipients/table
“Let justice be done, though the heavens fall”: “The States: Though the Heavens Fall,” October 12, 1962, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,829233,00.html
“In America, the law is king”: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, http://books.google.com/books?id=e0oqAAAAYAAJ
“The desire of dominion …” Thomas Jefferson, “A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law,” Boston Gazette, 1765.
“If you love wealth greater than liberty …”: William Vincent Wells, The life and public services of Samuel Adams, (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1865).
In Chapter 46:
Freedom is the exception: Thomas Sowell, Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One, (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2004): 31, http://books.google.com/books?id=0AShGTKZzWgC
As I said before, this list is far from complete, so I hope you’ll continue exploring on your own. We’ve also started a website, the address of which is listed somewhere in this book, that will link to many of the sources we used and will also serve as a repository for new information as it develops. Happy hunting!
Table of Contents
PART ONE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
PART TWO
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
PART THREE
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47