Abuse Your Illusions: The Disinformation Guide to Media Mirages and Establishment Lies

Abuse Your Illusions: The Disinformation Guide to Media Mirages and Establishment Lies, Russ Kick (ed.), The Disinformation Company Ltd, 2003

This is another in a series of books containing articles on subjects that will not be covered in the mainstream press. Spanning the political spectrum, the independent researchers, media critics and other experts behind these pieces (many written especially for this book) blow away the fog that keeps us confused.

Greg Palast catches the news media in several blatant lies; not just misinterpretation, but actual, black and white, lies. The most popular antidepressants can cause suicide. The Watergate break-in may have been all about a call girl ring after all. The producer of the CNN report about Operation Tailwind (asserting that America used sarin nerve gas in Vietnam) gives her side of the story. A former federal drug agent describes first-hand how the Drug War is designed to fail. The New York Times knows about, but refuses to publicize, America's illegal bioweapons program. Howard Zinn brings the US bombing of Afghanistan down to the individual level, looking at some of those who suffered and died. Operation Pipeline is a racial profiling program in California that pulls over minorities on the pretext of minor traffic violations. The editor digs up more neglected information on September 11, including: some of the highest US officials admitted that the attacks could have been prevented, a US Senator has said that at least one foreign country actively aided the terrorists, and one of the warnings received by the US was from the Taliban.

Also covered in this book are the diamond trade, child protective services, fluoridation, the Resurrection story, government sponsored anti-drug ads, the US military faces a huge rape crisis, the flexible definition of "terrorism," and corporations that have claimed the "right" to lie.

As with its two prequels, "Everything You Know Is Wrong" and "You Are Being Lied To", this is a must read of a book that has something to upset or offend everyone. I learned a lot from these eye-opening articles. This isn't a "liberal" or "conservative" book, but it is very highly recommended.