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Politics. Nonfiction. HTML: The official spin on numerous government programs is flat-out bullsh t, according to Jesse Ventura. In this incredible collection of actual government documents, Ventura, the ultimate non�partisan truth�seeker, proves it beyond any doubt. He and Dick Russell walk readers through forty�seven of the most incriminating programs to reveal what really happens behind closed doors. In addition to providing original government data, Ventura discusses what it really means and how regular Americans can stop criminal behavior at the top levels of government and in the media. Among the cases discussed: The CIA's top-secret program to control human behavior Operation Northwoods�the military plan to hijack airplanes and blame it on Cuban terrorists The discovery of a secret Afghan archive�information that never left the boardroom Potentially deadly healthcare cover�ups, including a dengue fever out�break What the Department of Defense knows about our food supply�but is keeping mum Although these documents are now in the public domain, the powers that be would just as soon have them stay under wraps. Ventura's research and commentary sheds new light on what they're not telling you�and why it matters..… (more)
User reviews
Concept of the book is amazing, but lacking a little on the details.
Also, some of the documents that he seems to think are the most shocking and to which he devotes a lot of space are really pretty tame, unless you're incredibly naive I guess...for instance, he includes a lengthy transcript of a senate committee hearing with an army doctor about the U.S. military's use of biological and chemical agents (including defoliants) during the Vietnam war---and about the worst thing that actually comes out in the interview is that the army accidentally killed a few sheep in Utah (for which they compensated the owners).
He also includes some things that hardly qualify as "documents the government doesn't want you to read"...for instance, the schedule of a conference of free-market advocates, the only really scary thing about which is that Glenn Beck was one of the speakers.
Ventura is also rather inconsistent at times. For instance, in American Conspiracies he argued that we should have state-run healthcare---pointing to, as his shining example, the VA system. "If it's good enough for veterans, it should be good enough for the rest of us," he writes...and yet here, after Obamacare was rammed through the Senate, he provides actual documentation of how inefficient and ineffective the VA really is to show what a raw deal the veterans are getting (the document he provides concludes that "the VA is killing veterans slowly through bureaucratic processes," even driving some to suicide...this is what we have to look forward to under Obamacare, folks!). Nice work, Jesse! You can't have it both ways.
Despite these and other flaws and shortcomings, however, many of the documents presented here are interesting, and some outrageous, in their own right. For that reason, this book is much better than his previous one, and perhaps worth a read.