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David Talbot's New Book Brothers


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Just so I'm clear, is this the same David Talbot , whose war-supporting views were discussed in antiwar.com in early 2002: David Talbot and the rise of Warrior Liberalism?

I'd just like to get a sense of the author's credibility and track record for good judgment.

The David Talbot I've heard about wrote:

"From the Gulf War on, the hawks have been on the right side in all the major debates about U.S. intervention in the world's troubles. The application of American military power – to drive back Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, stop Slobodan Milosevic's genocidal campaigns in the Balkans, and destroy the terrorist occupation of Afghanistan – has not just protected US interests, it has demonstrably made the world safer and more civilized."

Is that the same guy?

David Talbot is founder, chairman and editor-in-chief of Salon.com, which I consider about the best progressive news site on the web. Based on that background, and things he's written (e.g., his review of Ultimate Sacrifice which I thought was spot on), I expect his book to be something very worthwhile for truth buffs.

Me too, in terms of a US-based large news service providing a range of well-written pieces catering for a progressive audience that makes much of its material freely available on the web. Same with The Nation.

In the British media, I also enjoy The Guardian and the New Statesman - for similar reasons.

All the more disappointing, therefore, that these 'progressive' media all pull punches when it comes to what I'll summarise in one word as the cryptocracy.

Had any of these organisations investigated the topic of 9/11 like serious journalists - and reported to their readers on controversial emerging facts - by March 2003 Bush would not have been about to invade Iraq. He - and his criminal coterie - would have been in deep doodoo. 9/11 is just one example. Where have any of these media been - over the years - on the JFK assassination story? Next to hopeless, from what I've seen.

I am not particularly out to attack Mr Talbot, who I'm sure is charming company and whose views seem greatly preferable to those of a right wing Zionist fruit-loop like Bill Kristol.

It's just that I'm on the side of the military wife who calls up Mr Kristol in this remarkable live to air 'reality TV'. I'm on the side of the Iraqis, slaughtered by the tens of thousands in a criminal war that was unecessary, unjust and entirely preventable had the 'liberal' wing of the elite not gone along for the war-ride. I'm on the side of the millions who marched against war but were scornfully ignored.

The Iraq War - like so many others - was based on lies. It was not only 'right' wing establishment commentators who told us lies that rationalized an illegal invasion.

It's time our gatekeeper 'liberals' are held to account as well.

Edited by Sid Walker
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Memo to David Talbot.

Dear David,

I understand that Salon.com may have an office in or near New York City?

If so, you may be interested to know that a 47-storey steel-framed towerblock collapsed not far from your mailbox more than five years ago - and to this day, no-one can explain how it happened!

Would Salon.com like to look into this?

You may have a scoop on your hands!

Incidentally, it would be worth calling your pals at the BBC. It's reportage on this mysterious event has been in decline since 9/11, but on the day itself, the Beeb actually announced the collapse 20 minutes early. Rumour has it they may have an explanation for this miracle - but they won't share it with licence-paying plebs.

Edited by Sid Walker
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"From the Gulf War on, the hawks have been on the right side in all the major debates about U.S. intervention in the world's troubles. The application of American military power – to drive back Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, stop Slobodan Milosevic's genocidal campaigns in the Balkans, and destroy the terrorist occupation of Afghanistan – has not just protected US interests, it has demonstrably made the world safer and more civilized." - This is a sanitized (and probably therefore more palatable) version with important components left out.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

The fall of the Shah of Iran (installed by US agencies) and his brutal regime and Savak was a revolution partly led by very progressve elements. Saddam was at this time supported by the USofA. What followed was a decade long war with Iraq where naturally the progressive elements volunteered for the front line where some 1 million Iranians died. This served to cement the rule of the Ayatollahs, and all the progressive steps taken in the first period of the overthrow of the Shah were reversed.

Meanwhile the legitimate governement of Afghanistan appealed to the USSR for military assistance to deal with (probably US inspired) insurgents. At this time it appears Usama Bin Laden was courted by US interests.

One should also mention the struggle of the Kurdish people in Turkey, Iraq and Iran, where the US did little to interfere with an all round suppression and partial genocide.

After the USSR withdrew from Afghanistan, the country was in parts in ruin with the opium poppy replacing food as a staple crop with various warlords in control of various areas.

Usama Bin Laden then was part of the developments whereby the US going from having practically no permanent Military presence in the Arab world, apart from Israel, to now having bases in a number of Nations in the area and an accepted Naval Gulf presence.

"drive back Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait"(Talbot), while a worthwhile containment, amounted in the end to a needless massacre of retreating Iraqi forces. The foothold of the US Military was now firmly planted in the Middle East.

Meanwhile the UN was continually side stepped again and again.

The slaughter in the Balkans was a result of the fracturing of Titos cohesive Yugoslavia. Then a belated intervention of Western forces in the massacres of Muslims.

The Muslim/Christian interface of this part of the world has a history dating back to the Crusades with the importation of mercenaries who then settled and became a permanent fixture.

Mesopotamia, and later Iraq is a birth place of modern civilisation. Once highly cultured and scientifically advanced compared to a relatively barbaric west.

______

Diplomacy, and staying the hand of certain economic interests ("protected US interests"-Talbot) could very well have lead to a 'safer and more civilized'(Talbot) world.

Edited by John Dolva
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Memo to David Talbot.

Dear David,

I understand that Salon.com may have an office in or near New York City?

If so, you may be interested to know that a 47-storey steel-framed towerblock collapsed not far from your mailbox more than five years ago - and to this day, no-one can explain how it happened!

Would Salon.com like to look into this?

You may have a scoop on your hands!

Incidentally, it would be worth calling your pals at the BBC. It's reportage on this mysterious event has been in decline since 9/11, but on the day itself, the Beeb actually announced the collapse 20 minutes early. Rumour has it they may have an explanation for this miracle - but they won't share it with licence-paying plebs.

Since we're in agreement that Salon is an uncommonly good news site, and since Talbot is clearly doing his part to shed light on the Kennedy assassinations, will you also be directing your justifiable indignation at some members of the media that haven't served us as well as Talbot Sid?

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Sid, I don't know if you'll get a chance to see it, but PBS ran a very interesting program the other day--about the supposedly left-wing media's complicity in the build up to the war. Eric Boehlert from Salon.com said that in the months leading up to the war, the NY Times and Washington Post ran over a hundred articles on the front page making the government's case for war--all based exclusively on White House and Pentagon sources. Meanwhile there were only a handful of articles against the war, all of which ran on the inside. The post also ran something like 30 editorials supporting the war.

The irony is that one national news syndicate, Knight-Ridder, did their jobs and talked to CIA and State Department sources in addition to their White House sources. They questioned the government's case for war, but their articles were never picked up in the big cities and never mentioned on national news programs.

The biggest irony of all, however, is that the program was hosted and led by Bill Moyers, who knows ALL ABOUT Government spin. He was, after all, the Johnson adviser tasked with convincing the media that Oswald acted alone on 11-25-63.

P.S. I just looked for the transcript and saw that the whole program is online here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html

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Sid, I don't know if you'll get a chance to see it, but PBS ran a very interesting program the other day--about the supposedly left-wing media's complicity in the build up to the war. Eric Boehlert from Salon.com said that in the months leading up to the war, the NY Times and Washington Post ran over a hundred articles on the front page making the government's case for war--all based exclusively on White House and Pentagon sources. Meanwhile there were only a handful of articles against the war, all of which ran on the inside. The post also ran something like 30 editorials supporting the war.

The irony is that one national news syndicate, Knight-Ridder, did their jobs and talked to CIA and State Department sources in addition to their White House sources. They questioned the government's case for war, but their articles were never picked up in the big cities and never mentioned on national news programs.

The biggest irony of all, however, is that the program was hosted and led by Bill Moyers, who knows ALL ABOUT Government spin. He was, after all, the Johnson adviser tasked with convincing the media that Oswald acted alone on 11-25-63.

P.S. I just looked for the transcript and saw that the whole program is online here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html

Yes, Knight-Ridder had the only good coverage in the lead up to the invasion.

They've since been purchased...

So much for them.

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New York Daily Post

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2007/05/...plotboiler.html

President John F. Kennedy was almost certainly the victim of a CIA-Mafia plot, according to a new book that reveals Robert Kennedy's secret efforts to expose such a scheme.

RFK's contacts in Florida's Cuban exile community actually may have told him of Lee Harvey Oswald's existence months before Dallas, David Talbot writes in "Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years." Thus, on the afternoon of his brother's assassination, RFK stunned one anti-Castro leader by telling him,"One of your guys did it."

"Bobby was our first conspiracy theorist," Talbot tells us. "The CIA and FBI were trying to portray Oswald as a Communist. Bobby rejected that immediately."

Besides confiscating autopsy evidence (including JFK's brain), RFK visited Mexico City in 1964 to find out more about Oswald, who'd traveled south of the border before the assassination. While there, RFK was put under surveillance by Mexican intelligence and the CIA.

Within hours of Jack Ruby's murder of Oswald, RFK learned that Ruby was a Mafia "errand boy" paid by associates of Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa, according to the riveting book. RFK later met with longtime nemesis Hoffa to try to learn more.

Talbot believes Bobby was on the right trail. Among the evidence of CIA involvement was a deathbed confession by Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt to attending a 1963 meeting at a "CIA safe house" in Miami where other operatives tried to recruit him for "the big event," namely killing Kennedy.

"The Kennedy administration was a government at war with itself," the Salon.com founder tells us. JFK was so concerned about assassination or a military coup that he convinced Hollywood pals like Frank Sinatra and director John Frankenheimer to make "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Seven Days in May" as a warning to the American people.

Among the more amusing revelations from Talbot:

William Walton, a closeted gay friend of Jack and Jackie, "shared sexual confidences" with the couple. "Jack was comfortable enough to ask Walton to squire his mistresses to White House events," writes Talbot. Jackie adored Walton's "bohemian style, with his fondness for wearing tight blue jeans and work shirts … and his love of gossip." Walton recalled before his death that Jackie once "caught [JFK and I] on his bedroom floor. He was supposed to be taking a nap, meaning he just had on his underpants … I'd been let in [to show him an architectural model] … [Jackie] took pictures."

J. Edgar Hoover "snooped on the Kennedys with more relish than he did on organized crime bosses." Retaliating, Bobby and wife Ethel "sometimes set loose their high-spirited brood on the prim director's office, where the kids would go toppling into his giant flower pots." RFK daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend recalls bringing their Newfie, Brumus, who would come "romping in and slobbering all over his office."

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New York Daily Post

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2007/05/...plotboiler.html

President John F. Kennedy was almost certainly the victim of a CIA-Mafia plot, according to a new book that reveals Robert Kennedy's secret efforts to expose such a scheme.

RFK's contacts in Florida's Cuban exile community actually may have told him of Lee Harvey Oswald's existence months before Dallas, David Talbot writes in "Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years." Thus, on the afternoon of his brother's assassination, RFK stunned one anti-Castro leader by telling him,"One of your guys did it."

"Bobby was our first conspiracy theorist," Talbot tells us. "The CIA and FBI were trying to portray Oswald as a Communist. Bobby rejected that immediately."

Besides confiscating autopsy evidence (including JFK's brain), RFK visited Mexico City in 1964 to find out more about Oswald, who'd traveled south of the border before the assassination. While there, RFK was put under surveillance by Mexican intelligence and the CIA.

Within hours of Jack Ruby's murder of Oswald, RFK learned that Ruby was a Mafia "errand boy" paid by associates of Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa, according to the riveting book. RFK later met with longtime nemesis Hoffa to try to learn more.

Talbot believes Bobby was on the right trail. Among the evidence of CIA involvement was a deathbed confession by Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt to attending a 1963 meeting at a "CIA safe house" in Miami where other operatives tried to recruit him for "the big event," namely killing Kennedy.

"The Kennedy administration was a government at war with itself," the Salon.com founder tells us. JFK was so concerned about assassination or a military coup that he convinced Hollywood pals like Frank Sinatra and director John Frankenheimer to make "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Seven Days in May" as a warning to the American people.

Among the more amusing revelations from Talbot:

William Walton, a closeted gay friend of Jack and Jackie, "shared sexual confidences" with the couple. "Jack was comfortable enough to ask Walton to squire his mistresses to White House events," writes Talbot. Jackie adored Walton's "bohemian style, with his fondness for wearing tight blue jeans and work shirts … and his love of gossip." Walton recalled before his death that Jackie once "caught [JFK and I] on his bedroom floor. He was supposed to be taking a nap, meaning he just had on his underpants … I'd been let in [to show him an architectural model] … [Jackie] took pictures."

J. Edgar Hoover "snooped on the Kennedys with more relish than he did on organized crime bosses." Retaliating, Bobby and wife Ethel "sometimes set loose their high-spirited brood on the prim director's office, where the kids would go toppling into his giant flower pots." RFK daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend recalls bringing their Newfie, Brumus, who would come "romping in and slobbering all over his office."

I knew Talbot wouldn't let us down.

And between this, a major book by a high profile author, and Howard Hunt's "confessions" (in spite of the fact that he was a professional xxxx) there is quite a bit of material for Establishment boy Bugliosi to refute. Of course he'll get the red carpet media tour and all the sound bites on the "news."

On edit:

Ya all may want to stroll over to Salon to see Talbot's companion article and blog...

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/05...ource=whitelist

http://www.salon.com/books/authors/talbot/index.html

Salon is a damn good site to have on board.

They have a lot of credibility.

Edited by Myra Bronstein
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"In 1967, Sheridan went to New Orleans to check into the Jim Garrison investigation, to see whether the flamboyant prosecutor really had cracked the JFK case. (Sheridan was working as an NBC news producer at the time, but he reported back to RFK, telling him that Garrison was a fraud.)"

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/05...ers/index1.html

Well that explains why Bobby and Sheridan wouldn't cooperate with Garrison.

But why on earth would they think he was a fraud?

I hope Talbot explains that in his book.

They were flat out wrong.

I wonder what Talbot thinks of Garrison and his investigation...

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Oh yeah, definitely check out Salon.

Media/Author events here:

http://www.salon.com/books/authors/talbot/about/events.html

Monday May 7

CBS Early Show

Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC AM/FM in New York

Charlie Rose Show, PBS/TV -- check listings for local airtimes.

Tuesday May 8

Fresh Air With Terry Gross, NPR -- check listings for local airtimes.

Howie Carr Show, WRKO/AM in Boston, 4 to 5 p.m.

Author appearance: Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline, Mass., 7 p.m.

Wednesday May 9

Author appearance: Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables, Fla., 6:30 p.m.

Thursday May 10

South Florida Today, NBC 6, WTVJ-TV in Miami, 10 to 10:30 a.m.

Author appearance: Olsson's Books, 2111 Wilson Blvd., Arlington Va., 7 p.m.

Monday May 14

Author appearance: Borders Books & Music, 10720 Preston Rd., Dallas, Texas, 7 p.m.

Tuesday May 15

Extension 720 With Milt Rosenberg, WGN Radio 720 in Chicago, 9 to 11 p.m.

Monday May 21

Tavis Smiley Show, PBS/TV -- check listings for local airtimes.

Tuesday May 22

The Pete Wilson Show, KGO/AM 810, 3 to 4 p.m.

Author appearance: Book Passage, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco, Calif., 7 p.m.

Wednesday, May 23

Author appearance: Cody's Books, 1730 Fourth Street, Berkeley, Calif., 7 p.m.

Wednesday, May 30

Author appearance: Powell's Books, Cedar Hills Crossing, Beaverton, Ore., 7 p.m.

Thursday, May 31

Author appearance: Elliott Bay Book Co., 101 S. Main St., Seattle, Wash., 7:30 p.m.

Excerpt here:

http://www.salon.com/books/authors/talbot/about/excerpt.html

From Chapter 1.

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Well, as the resident killjoy, I'd call his the limited hangout's last hurrah.

A CIA-Mafia plot fails to explain many things... notably the mass media-assisted cover-up.

I shall keep an open mind pending more information, but what I've read so far on this thread does not impress.

Solved the mystery? I don't think so.

It was essentially solved more than ten years ago, IMO...

Does Talbot refer to Piper's hypothesis, I wonder - or just ignore it like most best-selling JFK authors?

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Oh yeah, definitely check out Salon.

Media/Author events here:

http://www.salon.com/books/authors/talbot/about/events.html

Monday May 7

CBS Early Show

Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC AM/FM in New York

Charlie Rose Show, PBS/TV -- check listings for local airtimes.

Tuesday May 8

Fresh Air With Terry Gross, NPR -- check listings for local airtimes.

Howie Carr Show, WRKO/AM in Boston, 4 to 5 p.m.

Author appearance: Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline, Mass., 7 p.m.

Wednesday May 9

Author appearance: Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables, Fla., 6:30 p.m.

Thursday May 10

South Florida Today, NBC 6, WTVJ-TV in Miami, 10 to 10:30 a.m.

Author appearance: Olsson's Books, 2111 Wilson Blvd., Arlington Va., 7 p.m.

Monday May 14

Author appearance: Borders Books & Music, 10720 Preston Rd., Dallas, Texas, 7 p.m.

Tuesday May 15

Extension 720 With Milt Rosenberg, WGN Radio 720 in Chicago, 9 to 11 p.m.

Monday May 21

Tavis Smiley Show, PBS/TV -- check listings for local airtimes.

Tuesday May 22

The Pete Wilson Show, KGO/AM 810, 3 to 4 p.m.

Author appearance: Book Passage, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco, Calif., 7 p.m.

Wednesday, May 23

Author appearance: Cody's Books, 1730 Fourth Street, Berkeley, Calif., 7 p.m.

Wednesday, May 30

Author appearance: Powell's Books, Cedar Hills Crossing, Beaverton, Ore., 7 p.m.

Thursday, May 31

Author appearance: Elliott Bay Book Co., 101 S. Main St., Seattle, Wash., 7:30 p.m.

Excerpt here:

http://www.salon.com/books/authors/talbot/about/excerpt.html

From Chapter 1.

David is hoping to get to England in June to promote his book.

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Well, as the resident killjoy, I'd call his the limited hangout's last hurrah.

A CIA-Mafia plot fails to explain many things... notably the mass media-assisted cover-up.

I shall keep an open mind pending more information, but what I've read so far on this thread does not impress.

Solved the mystery? I don't think so.

It was essentially solved more than ten years ago, IMO...

Does Talbot refer to Piper's hypothesis, I wonder - or just ignore it like most best-selling JFK authors?

I am curious about how much attention LBJ's role gets.

It just can't, credibly, be denied.

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"In 1967, Sheridan went to New Orleans to check into the Jim Garrison investigation, to see whether the flamboyant prosecutor really had cracked the JFK case. (Sheridan was working as an NBC news producer at the time, but he reported back to RFK, telling him that Garrison was a fraud.)"

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/05...ers/index1.html

Well that explains why Bobby and Sheridan wouldn't cooperate with Garrison.

But why on earth would they think he was a fraud?

I hope Talbot explains that in his book.

They were flat out wrong.

I wonder what Talbot thinks of Garrison and his investigation...

Myra:

I totally agree. I have the book on order but it now won't arrive til next week. Seems to me Bobby and Garrison were both on the same trail. Of course I also think the LBJ stuff is true, that he was in on it.

Dawn

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