Secrecy & Privilege
by Robert Parry
390 pages (paperback)
$22.95
Order online or
Mail in order
Reader Reviews from
Amazon.com:
The Best Book on the Bushes, February 6, 2005
Why is it the best? Because no author has taken the Bush
"dynasty" rise the way Bob Parry has - - and no other author could.
Parry has been looking under rocks and sneaking behind closed doors
to find the truth for almost three decades. Only Parry has had the
sources, found the documents, and cogently compiled the despicable
history of how the Bush politicians have deliberately buried, under
multiple layers of secrecy, the truth of some of the most
significant events in recent history. He is the only author who
followed the Bush footprints when they were still fresh, often
before the impact of the truth was known and could be hidden. In a
phrase - - Bob Parry was there.
For at least the past 25-30 years, Bob Parry has been the only
journalist with the integrity to follow a story no matter where it
went, and to report the truth no matter who it implicated. Of,
course, as the saying goes, "No good deed goes unpunished." For his
dedicated efforts - - with AP, Newsweek, Frontline and other news
outlets - to tell the American people about the crimes, actual
violations of federal criminal statutes, by members of the Reagan,
Bush 1, and the current Bush administration, he became a pariah. But
following a moral compass that knows only one direction, he never
lost a beat. And to this day, with his sons, they issue of the some
of the most insightful political views of this day on his blog,
Consortium News.
Consider this: Parry covers the year, 1976, when George H.W. Bush
was Director of Central Intgelligence, the head of the CIA. While
few paid attention at the time, certain anti-Castro Cuban exiles,
many with past and current ties to the CIA, were the only terrorists
ever to export terrorism from the United States. In 1977, the CIA
reported that these terrorists killed more people in 1976 than all
of the Middle East terrorist groups combined. Yet when the FBI asked
DCI Bush for help in quelling the Cuban exile attacks, he slammed
down a brick wall on anything that might have come out of Miami. And
those secrets are still sealed. That alone may give an unbiased
observer a reason to understand the overwhelming support the Bush
family receives from the Cuban-Americans in Miami.
If you want to know the real story about how and why the Bush family
has achieved their astounding political success, given that none of
them have ever succeeded in any profession, vocation or position
outside of politics, you must read this book. When Bob Parry takes
you behind the curtain from Watergate until Bush II, the images of
deceit and deception are ugly -- but true.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Lowdown on the Bush Junta, December 13, 2004
Robert Parry is more than a chronicler of events in "Secrecy &
Privilege"; he is a player as well, and in one of the most
significant dramas of the post-World War Two era. It was Parry who
uncovered significant evidence pertaining to the October Surprise
incident. His efforts ultimately reached the nation's viewers with a
heralded Public Broadcasting System documentary produced by his
organization, Consortium News, which has emerged as one of the
Internet's leading sources of information not generally available
from mainstream media sources.
Parry covers the emergence of the Bush dynasty from a different
perspective than those previously traversed. Parry stresses the
necessity of George H. W. Bush, the first of two Bushes to sit in
the White House, in clearing away potential mine fields of disaster
to his son and the Republican Party in general. Parry reveals how
Bush the Elder's concerted efforts resulted in the dodging of a
political bullet in the form of the October Surprise allegations
that could have seriously undercut Republican influence in the
future and cost them dearly at the polls.
In addition to Bush the Elder's efforts, Republicans were bolstered
by the fact that influential Democrats such as Congressman Lee
Hamilton of Indiana agreed to scuttle the October Surprise
investigation after earlier hearings had been held. Parry cites this
result as comparable to the termination of efforts to learn more
about the Watergate tragedy after Robert Strauss, the closest friend
of Democrat-turned-Republican and Nixon Cabinet member John Connally.
When Strauss became Chairman of the Democratic National Committee
following Senator George McGovern's loss to Richard Nixon in the
1972 presidential election, he used his influence to ultimately tamp
down the flames of Watergate, as did George H. W. Bush, who had been
appointed Chairman of the Republican National Committee by Nixon.
Crack researcher Parry covers the pivotal Iran-Contra period with
insightful diligence. Once more Congressman Lee Hamilton was there
to coalesce with Republicans to blunt the efforts to learn the
basics of the Iran-Contra scandal. Bush insisted that he was "out of
the loop" and uninvolved in the grimy details of the arms for
hostages swap culminating in arms for the rebel Nicaraguan Contras.
It was eventually learned that Bush was lying, but the truth did not
come out until after he defeated Massachusetts Governor Michael
Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election.
Much of this informative work provides vital information on how the
CIA has become a major political tool in providing cover-ups for
Republicans while destroying those who seek to uncover corruption.
By the time the Republicans resorted to dirty tricks to secure
victory for George W. Bush in 2000 after he had lost the
presidential popular vote to Al Gore, cronies of the elder Bush,
spearheaded by his former Secretary of State James Baker, were in
place to perform duties.
It was also interesting to observe how son emulated father in
keeping a lid on information that could prove damaging to the
administrations of Bush the Elder and Ronald Reagan. George W. Bush
issued an executive order denying the National Archives from
continuing its traditional function of placing information from past
presidential administrations in the public domain.
A central thesis of Parry's book is that these cover-up efforts by
the CIA, which the elder Bush once headed, could not have been
successful without the tacit cooperation of a national media that
has become submissive to Republican authority. He demonstrates how
tremendously one-sided the mainstream media was in the 2000 election
in leveling repeated charges at Al Gore for failing to tell the
truth, using statements taken out of context to achieve this
purpose, while essentially looking the other way in the face of
evidence of corruption and deception by George W. Bush and his
running mate, Dick Cheney.
