Rule by Secrecy:The Hidden History that Connects the Trilateral Commission,The Freemasons,and the Great Pyramid

Disturbing, provocative, and utterly compelling, Rule by Secrecy offers a singular worldview that may explain who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.

In this unconvincing potboiler, Marrs, who charged that conspiracies were behind the JFK assassination (Crossfire) and government cover-ups of the UFO phenomenon (Alien Agenda), now offers a sweeping view of world history through the warped prism of conspiracy theory. The world’s richest and most powerful individuals, he opines, wield excessive influence over governments and news media through their control of multinational corporations and organizations he refers to as “secret societies,” such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the international Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group (which holds annual closed-door conferences around the globe).

 The aim of these “secret societies,” suggests Marrs, is one-world government and centralized social control, and in this respect, he adds, all these groups and their offshoots carry the imprint of older secret brotherhoods, including Freemasonry and the Illuminati. Conspiracy buffs will have a field day wading through this morass, but other readers will remain unpersuaded by a tract that proceeds by way of innuendo, quotation of other conspiracy researchers’ extremist opinions and unsubstantiated statement.

 Marrs squeezes into his procrustean framework the origins of WWI and WWII, Nazis’ occult dabblings, the Russian Revolution, the Morgan and Rothschild banking dynasties and the Knights Templar, and he uncritically entertains a host of maverick theories. His conspiracy trail winds up back in Mesopotamia, as he plies territory mined by Zecharia Sitchin, who believes that extraterrestrials founded the earth’s earliest civilizations. Ultimately, this mishmash lacks the semblance of plausibility that helped make Alien Agenda a bestseller.

Drawing on historical evidence and his own impeccable research, Mars carefully traces the mysteries that connect these modern-day conspiracies to humankind’s prehistory. The eye-opening result is an extraordinary synthesis of historical information -; much of it long hidden from the public -; that sheds light on the people and organizations that rule our lives.

Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids

Ghost Wars:The Secret History of the CIA,Afghanistan,and Bin Laden,from the Soviet Invasion to September 10,2001

Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 offers revealing details of the CIA’s involvement in the evolution of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the years before the September 11 attacks. From the beginning, Coll shows how the CIA’s on-again, off-again engagement with Afghanistan after the end of the Soviet war left officials at Langley with inadequate resources and intelligence to appreciate the emerging power of the Taliban. He also demonstrates how Afghanistan became a deadly playing field for international politics where Soviet, Pakistani, and U.S. agents armed and trained a succession of warring factions. At the same time, the book, though opinionated, is not solely a critique of the agency. Coll balances accounts of CIA failures with the success stories, like the capture of Mir Amal Kasi. Coll, managing editor for the Washington Post, covered Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992. He demonstrates unprecedented access to records of White House meetings and to formerly classified material, and his command of Saudi, Pakistani, and Afghani politics is impressive. He also provides a seeming insider’s perspective on personalities like George Tenet, William Casey, and anti-terrorism czar, Richard Clarke (”who seemed to wield enormous power precisely because hardly anyone knew who he was or what exactly he did for a living”). Coll manages to weave his research into a narrative that sometimes has the feel of a Tom Clancy novel yet never crosses into excess. While comprehensive, Coll’s book may be hard going for those looking for a direct account of the events leading to the 9-11 attacks. The CIA’s 1998 engagement with bin Laden as a target for capture begins a full two-thirds of the way into Ghost Wars, only after a lengthy march through developments during the Carter, Reagan, and early Clinton Presidencies. But this is not a critique of Coll’s efforts; just a warning that some stamina is required to keep up. Ghost Wars is a complex study of intelligence operations and an invaluable resource for those seeking a nuanced understanding of how a small band of extremists rose to inflict incalculable damage on American soil. –Patrick O’Kelley –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001