Osama 'plug' boosts anti-US book

[Surya Gayatri]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4636742.stm

Osama Bin Laden has seemingly propelled a book by an obscure historian into the US bestseller list, by endorsing it in an audio message aired on Thursday.

"Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower" had reached number 21 on the Amazon list by Sunday, leaping from below the 200,000 mark.

Author William Blum, 72, said he had no regrets about the endorsement.

The 320-page book is highly critical of US foreign policy, and says the War on Terror is doomed to failure.

<snip>

Has anybody read this--does it have any literary merit? SG

[ck4829]

1. I'm going to pick it up later

[Surya Gayatri]

3. Why not post a brief review

once you've read it? Never heard of this author--is he some ivory-tower academic or a nut-job, or did his book simply slip below the radar? SG

[ck4829]

6. I'm reading it right now

Very good actually.

The author is someone I could call a Leftist.

I think it has slipped under the radar because even though it is a good book, very informative and all, it does make several jabs at the US and the politics and culture that runs it.

[DrDebug]

2. Blum is hardly an obscure author

He has been writing about military interventions for years and I don't know this book, but "Killing Hope" is a classic and available online: http://members.aol.com/bblum6/KH.html

Just read it and it is well researched with lots of information.

[Surya Gayatri]

4. Thanks for the heads up

Have never heard tell of him until now. SG

[iamjoy]

5. That's What This Is About!

all these bin Laden tapes surfacing aren't to boost Republicans elections chances or as some freeky freepers say to distract from Senator Clinton's supposed gaffe, it's to SELL BOOKS. Our media conglomerates are faking these releases to boost their own profits.

Maybe they (the meida) are even behind this bird flu thing too.


And if that's too :tinfoilhat: for you, all I can say is "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain"

[Surya Gayatri]

9. You have to wonder

if OBL has actually read it himself--how did he get hold of a copy up there in his mountain redoubt? Does Amazon deliver up there? SG

[bpilgrim]

7. Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower-excerpts from the book

from the Intro...

For 70 years, the United States convinced much of the world that 1 there was an international conspiracy out there. An International Communist Conspiracy, seeking no less than control over the entire planet, for purposes which had no socially redeeming values. And the world was made to believe that it somehow needed the United States to save it from communist darkness. "Just buy our weapons," said Washington, "let our military and our corporations roam freely across your land, and give us veto power over whom your leaders will be, and we'll protect you."

It was the cleverest protection racket since men convinced women that they needed men to protect them-if all the men vanished overnight, how many women would be afraid to walk the streets?

And if the people of any foreign land were benighted enough to not realize that they needed to be saved, if they failed to appreciate the underlying nobility of American motives, they were warned that they would burn in Communist Hell. Or a CIA facsimile thereof. And they would be saved nonetheless.

A decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, America is still saving countries and peoples from one danger or another. The scorecard reads as follows: From 1945 to the end of the century, the United States attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign govemments, and to crush more than 30 populist-nationalist movements struggling against intolerable regimes. In the process, the US caused the end of life for several million people, and condemned many millions more to a life ~f agony and despair.

As I write this in Washington, DC, in April 1999, the United States is busy saving Yugoslavia. Bombing a modem, sophisticated society back to a pre-industrial age. And The Great American Public, in its infinite wisdom, is convinced that its govemment is motivated by "humanitarian" impulses.

Introduction - Rogue State
Trojan Horse: The National Endowment for Democracy
Eavesdropping on the Planet
A Day in the Life of a Free Country
Our War Criminals
Supporting Pol Pot
Torture
The Unsavories
War Criminals: Theirs and Ours
Quotations

more...
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Rogue_State_Blum.html

peace

[Surya Gayatri]

11. This guy sounds like a serious

academic and researcher. A few eyes may be opened thanks to OBL's recommendation, and if Mr. Blum can clean up a little, well why not? SG

[shaniqua6392]

8. I just ordered it from amazon.

There is a third edition paperback available for under $13.00. Blum is a well respected author so I will give it a try.

[peanutbrittle]

10. Bogus tape alert!

Here is what Madsen says about the relation of the book and the tape:

Bogus tape alert! The Bin Laden tape plugging Bill Blum's book Rogue State is a ridiculous neo-con forgery intended to tarnish the progressive left.

Bin Laden might not be so eager to quote Blum if he was aware of his other work, Killing Hope, an expose of the CIA's covert wars. In it, Blum defends to Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as self-defense against the CIA-backed Islamist guerrillas, including Bin Laden's forces, that were backed by the CIA. Now, why would Bin Laden plug an author like Blum who backed Bin Laden's hated enemies, the Soviet Communists and their Afghan allies? Because the Bin Laden tape and his purported oratory are frauds. In Killing Hope, this is what Blum wrote about Bin Laden and his CIA masters' war in Afghanistan:

more... http://waynemadsenreport.com/

[Surya Gayatri]

12. Good questions!

Well, the tape certainly appeared at an incredibly convenient and timely moment--it's chased all scandal talk to the inside pages for now. But, as I up thread, supposing the tape is genuine, did OBL even read the book? SG

[ReverendDeuce]

13. I see Amazon is no longer selling the book...

It's only available from third parties now.

[xiamiam]

14. interesting than many here have never heard of the book..yet

obl is hidden away in a cave in the middle of nowhere and plugs the book...how many copies of the book were sold before the bogus tape...were they all distributed by amazon?...when was it released?...betcha karl or cheney or their underlings ordered a copy...