Bill Blum has died....

[Richard Booth]

You're a young un', Mssr. Booth. I can encapsulate Blum's thoughts/writings in some lyrics from The Moody Blues.......... "One day I hope we'll be/in perfect harmony/a planet with one mind/then I can tell you/all the things inside my head/the change in these past years/has made me see our world/in many different ways/how can I tell you/love can change our destiny/love can change the world/love can change your life/do what makes you happy/do what you know is right/and love with all your might/before it's too late" ________ 'My Song', written by Michael Pinder+ EGBDF, Threshold Records

I'm glad to hear you say that, given as my back has taken to giving me pains that didn't exist before and I'm seeing gray begin to appear in patches in my hair.

I suppose I am young... When Oliver Stone's 'JFK' came out I was a kid. It made a big impression on me though and that's when I started reading books. Incidentally, Blum's book was cited by a band that was popular with my fellow high schoolers at the time--a band called Rage Against the Machine. That band also cited Chomsky, whom I do not hold in high regard, for a number of different reasons that I probably share with other members of this community.

Blum's politics aside, his documentation in 'Killing Hope' showed me that coup d'etats are a regular thing for intelligence agencies, leading me to later put the JFK assassination in the same category as the Mossadegh exile, the Allende coup in Chile, Sukharno, Lumumba, a host of others.

Most Americans simply can't accept the reality that we're an empire with cunning and criminal intelligence services, and a military that is used to extort other countries far more than it's used to 'defend our freedom' -- what a load that argument is.

--Richard