American Conspiracies: What did I Learn?

After reading Jesse Ventura's book American Conspiracies I am truly sickened by the actions of our government. While i do understand that i am supposed to take the words in this book "with a grain of salt" the facts are astounding.

The topic that was the most believable to me was 9/11, all these people and facts that contradict what we all heard ten years ago. It is sad that all those people had to die just so the government had more power.

Lets pretend for a minute that all of these conspiracies were all in fact true. That means, in our history, a group of people killed Abraham Lincoln in the name of the south, big business tried to ruin one of arguably the greatest presidents in our history, the government killed JFK, Malcom X was assassinated by our government in fear that he and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr would team up, the government assassinated Robert Kennedy, Ronald Reagan stole the election from Jimmy Carter with an illegal arms deal, the government has been a key player in drug trafficking, George Bush rigged the elections, and the Patriot Act and others were put in place to ruin democracy. Imagine what a world we would live in if that were true.

American Conspiracies: The First Stolen Election

The Incident: On the same day that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president, January 20, 1981, Iran released the American hostages it had been holding in our embassy there for 444 days.

The Official Word: The timing was coincidental.

Ventura's Take: Reagan's people had cut a deal with Iran to keep the hostages beyond the presidential election, to ensure that President Carter's negotiation with Iran failed and that he lost to Reagan.

My Take: An hour after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president, the Iranian government released all but one of the fifty-two hostages they'd been holding for 444 days. Everyone was happy! The first think i thought of was, wow 444 days is kind of an even number, but that turned out to be me just being paranoid. Ventura says, "What is the Reagan-Bush team cut a secret deal with Iran to hold the hostages past the November elections to make sure Carter had not been reelected to a second term. Would you call that treason?" Again i am shocked by the greediness of people. A group of people want power so badly that they will let people be held hostage in order to sway public opinion?

The secret deal was between George Bush Sr. and Iran's new leader, Cyrus Hashemi. Among massive arms deals, Hashemi received a 3 million dollar check from a Houston based lawyer who was associated to Bush. Bush was to be in Paris for a meeting. The secret service as well as the media say that it never happened. Although there is a 21 hour period missing from the itinerary. CIA contact agent Tichard Brenneke testified under oath that he had heed Bush in Paris that weekend.

What does this mean? To me, this shows how power hungry some people can be. To use 52 peoples lives to win a presidential election is cruel and unusual.

American Conspiracies: What Really Happened on September 11th, 2001

The Incident: On September, 2001, four airplanes were hijacked on American soil and crashed into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.

The Official Word: The 19 hijackers were all fanastic Muslim terrorists linked to al_Qaeda and its ringleader, Osama bin Laden.

Ventura's Take: Our government engaged in a massive cover-up of what really happened, including its own ties to the hijackers. UNanswered questions remain about how the towers were brought down, and whether a plane really struck the Pentagon. The Bush Administration either knew about the plan and allowed it to proceed, or they had a hand in it themselves.

My Take: I recall being in 3rd or 4th grade when it happened. We were told we could not go outside for recess that day. I was so mad because we always played tackle football when the supervisors weren't looking and it was my turn to be captain. After the school day ended, i remember being very happy because hebrew school was canceled (oh how i dreaded hebrew school.) Looking back i kind of wish i was old enough to comprehend what was happening. I sat in the basement, playing a video game on one TV, while watching the planes hit the second tower over, and over, and over, thinking it was kind of cool.

This is what John Farmer, a Senior Council for the 9/11 Commission who drafted the original report, has to say in a new book: "At some level of the government, at some point in time...there was an agreement not tell the truth about what happened." This is the guy who drafted the first "official" report of what happened!!! If he says it is false then what other evidence do you need?! I do think that people knew of the attack and either let it go or had the attack carried out themselves. My only proof, other than Mr. Farmer, is all of the things passed by the government right after the attack. As Mrs. Kaplan used to say, "Take away my freedom to keep me safe." The scariest piece of evidence was that of Barry Jennings, the city's emergency coordinator. He was at the scene before and after the building collapsed. He went on record and said, "I know what i heard. I heard explosions." The plural part of that sentence makes me scared to go to sleep tonight. I think that 9/11 was truly an act by the government, but i really do not want to keep thinking about it.

American Conspiracies: The Kennedy Assassination

The Incident: The assassination of President JOhn F. Kennedy, riding in his limosine in Dallas, on November 22, 1963.

The Official Word: Lee Harvey Oswals, an ex-Mrine and Communist sympathizer, shot the president twice from behind, firing a ridle from the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. He was captured later that day in a theater, and killed two days later by Jack Rudy.

Ventura's Take: THe cover-up of what really happened to JFK starts with the Warren Commission's "lone assassin" conclusion, and continues to this day with the help of the big media. A second gunman assassinated the president from the grassy knoll, while OSwald was set up as the fall guy. The perpetrators behind Oswald are tied into the CIA, the Pentagon, and the Mob, along with the right-wing extremists who tried to make it look like Cuba was behind it. Oswald himself was part of an intelligence operation that involved a look-alike "double."

My Take: This was by far the most shocking section of the book for me. The facts are all there. Could it be possible that the government was repsonsible for the murder of a president? "There are two official government reports on the assassination of PResident Kennedy, and they directly contradict each other." After reading this i thought, "Okay, maybe there is a sentence that could be precieved as a contradiction, but he was dead on. (No pun intended, lol) The first report is the Warren Commission Report, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, a MArine-turned-Communist took out JFK on his own, using a rifle. He is said to have taken three shots, landing on two of them; The three shots lasted 6.3 seconds. The second report came out fifteen years later by the HOuse Select Committee on Assassinations (pretty ridiculous committee if you ask me.) This report concluded that JFK was "probably" killed by a conpiracy. It is amazing to me how this report could just slip through the cracks of the national media. Ventura then shows us the physical evidece supporting the conspiracy. He began with a "magic bullet" that moved all around and caused seperate wounds in President Kennedy. According to the book, the bullet appered on a stretcher at Dallas' Parkland HOspital, bloodstain free. According to Dr. Cyril Wecht, former President of the American Academy or Forensic Scientists, when eliminating the "magic bullet" the idea that Oswald killed JFK is thrown out the window.

The next piece of evidence was the witness', i mean there had to be some of them right? According to the book there were eighteen witness', most of them doctors. All of them described a bullet wound that blew away where the back of JFK's head should have been. Shouldn't there be photos of this wound? No. Dr. James Humes, the navy physician who led the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital, admitted later that he burned both his autopsy notes as well as the first draft of his report. Also it was noted that the president's brain disappeared as well.

How does all of this happen? A large group of powerful people with a common goal carrying out a carefully thought-out plan.

American Conspiracies: The Big-Money Plot to Overthrow FDR

The Incident: A coup attempt by some of the titans of Wall Street, to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934 and put a military man in charge of the country.

The Official Word: The plotters were foiled when the man they selected, Major General Smedley Butler, blew the whistle to Congress.

Ventura's Take: This was an attempt to turn America into a fascist country run by corporate powers, but it's been ignored in most official histories of the Great Depression.

My Take: Some of the things you can learn about our history from reading books and watching movies like National Treasure are baffling. Before reading this i had zero knowledge about this ever occurring. Yet i do feel that this should be more known about. Thinking about from a big business standpoint, the New Deal was a stab in the wallet from the federal government. Aside from these Gordon Gecko-like people, most of the US population was very very poor. FDR's new deal was written to aid the masses, rather than the few. The plan seemed full proof, but the plotters did not think that their man, Smedley Butler, would have a change of heart. Butler gave a speech to Legion veterans and explained the process. Butler privately speculated that there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on FDR a few weeks before his inauguration. Butler believed that it was orchestrated by a man of big business. Whats shocking to me is how these people could try to murder the man who essentially brought the US back from being on the brink of chaos. Major Smedley Butler should be regarded as an American hero.

American Conspiracies: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The Incident: The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, on April 14, 1865.

The Official Word: The president was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range, by a prominent actor named John Wilkes Booth, who escaped on horseback and was later killed by a soldier while hiding in a barn. Eight coconspirators were also caught and found guilty by a military court.

Ventuara's take: The plot is likely to have gone well beyond those who were rounded up, but except for Booth we don't hear much about any others in our history books. Besides leaders of the Confederacy, the conspiracy to kill Lincoln probably included people within his own cabinet.

My Take: When i went on my 8th grade trip to Washington DC, we stopped at Ford's Theatre (or what they told me was Ford's Theatre) they showed us the special box that president Lincoln sat in and was killed in. I recall the place being very small and thinking, "How could someone sneak around here?" I guess this theory makes sense. There seems to be a lot of proof in Ventuara's statements. Such as one Colonel Dahlgren, who was killed on a raid while trying to free some Union prisoners. The paper said that, once the Union made it into the Confederate capital, RIchmond, "it must be destroyed and Jeff Davis and cabinet killed." This was eye opening to me because often in our history books it was written as if it was a "gentleman's war." This seems preposterous to me. How could a group fight a war and not be willing to do anything that will give them an advantage, especially something as critical as the Civil War.

Another point raised was on the physical murder of John Wilkes Booth. We are told to believe that Booth was in a barn that was lit on fire. Ventura found out that what is rumored to have happen is Booth and a coconspirator, David Herold, fled to a barn that was lit on fire by Seregant Boston Corbett. Herold fled the barn and was tied to tree while Booth refused to leave the barn. That is when Corbett went in and shot Booth in the throat. The weird part is that one of the Union soldiers who was on the farm that night said that the body that was buried was in fact not John Wilkes Booth.