Steven Aftergood at Secrecy News has an intriguing post about a new book that allegedly uncovers some of the more unpleasant truths about the Bush family. Russ Baker, says Aftergood, writes a "full-fledged counterhistory of the last half-century as it pertains to the Bush family. He writes in his new book 'Family of Secrets' that he discovered a 'dimension of power' that conditions and distorts the American political process. It lies at the intersection of corporate oil interests, finance and intelligence, and the Bushes have been at the heart of it."
The book is bound (and probably intended) to cause a stir. It will inevitably stir up bitterness on the right even as it reveals some indisputable truths about our political system and that very real military-industrial complex through which the Bush family made its fortunes.
"'Family of Secrets' postulates a network of politically and financially powerful individuals working behind the scenes to advance their interests at the expense of the nation. Because the book consciously challenges the generally accepted record of several decades of public events, it assumes a burden of proof that it cannot fully discharge. It relies heavily on insinuation based on isolated facts, it emphasizes 'relationships' as a primary manifestation of political allegiance and influence, and in the end it does not clearly state a significant hypothesis that could be corroborated or refuted by further investigation. But Baker is an energetic reporter and a good storyteller. He has conducted prodigious research and interviewed both familiar and unfamiliar sources to produce riveting (if occasionally appalling) revisions of the JFK assassination and Watergate stories. Even readers who find his methodology unsound may profit from the fruits of his research."
"At its best," Aftergood writes, "it provides a reader with an arsenal of new questions with which to interrogate and rethink the historical record."
The sooner the better.
