Puppet: But Master, must you control my every move?
Master: Not to worry, Master knows best!

This books sheds a lot of light on what happens out there & who runs the show:

William Blum - Killing hope:
US military and CIA interventions since WW2
http://members.aol.com/bblum6/American_holocaust.htm

Introduction

1. China - 1945 to 1960s: Was Mao Tse-tung just paranoid?
2. Italy - 1947-1948: Free elections, Hollywood style
3. Greece - 1947 to early 1950s: From cradle of democracy to client state
4. The Philippines - 1940s and 1950s: America's oldest colony
5. Korea - 1945-1953: Was it all that it appeared to be?
6. Albania - 1949-1953: The proper English spy
7. Eastern Europe - 1948-1956: Operation Splinter Factor
8. Germany - 1950s: Everything from juvenile delinquency to terrorism
9. Iran - 1953: Making it safe for the King of Kings
10. Guatemala - 1953-1954: While the world watched
11. Costa Rica - Mid-1950s: Trying to topple an ally - Part 1
12. Syria - 1956-1957: Purchasing a new government
13. Middle East - 1957-1958: The Eisenhower Doctrine claims another backyard for America
14. Indonesia - 1957-1958: War and pornography
15. Western Europe - 1950s and 1960s: Fronts within fronts within fronts
16. British Guiana - 1953-1964: The CIA's international labor mafia
17. Soviet Union - Late 1940s to 1960s: From spy planes to book publishing
18. Italy - 1950s to 1970s: Supporting the Cardinal's orphans and techno-fascism
19. Vietnam - 1950-1973: The Hearts and Minds Circus
20. Cambodia - 1955-1973: Prince Sihanouk walks the high-wire of neutralism
21. Laos - 1957-1973: L'Arm?Clandestine
22. Haiti - 1959-1963: The Marines land, again
23. Guatemala - 1960: One good coup deserves another
24. France/Algeria - 1960s: L'?t, c'est la CIA
25. Ecuador - 1960-1963: A text book of dirty tricks
26. The Congo - 1960-1964: The assassination of Patrice Lumumba
27. Brazil - 1961-1964: Introducing the marvelous new world of death squads
28. Peru - 1960-1965: Fort Bragg moves to the jungle
29. Dominican Republic - 1960-1966: Saving democracy from communism by getting rid of democracy
30. Cuba - 1959 to 1980s: The unforgivable revolution
31. Indonesia - 1965: Liquidating President Sukarno ... and 500,000 others ...... East Timor - 1975: And 200,000 more
32. Ghana - 1966: Kwame Nkrumah steps out of line
33. Uruguay - 1964-1970: Torture -- as American as apple pie
34. Chile - 1964-1973: A hammer and sickle stamped on your child's forehead
35. Greece - 1964-1974: "Fuck your Parliament and your Constitution," said the President of the United States
36. Bolivia - 1964-1975: Tracking down Che Guevara in the land of coup d'etat
37. Guatemala - 1962 to 1980s: A less publicized "final solution"
38. Costa Rica - 1970-1971: Trying to topple an ally -- Part 2
39. Iraq - 1972-1975: Covert action should not be confused with missionary work
40. Australia - 1973-1975: Another free election bites the dust
41. Angola - 1975 to 1980s: The Great Powers Poker Game
42. Zaire - 1975-1978: Mobutu and the CIA, a marriage made in heaven
43. Jamaica - 1976-1980: Kissinger's ultimatum
44. Seychelles - 1979-1981: Yet another area of great strategic importance
45. Grenada - 1979-1984: Lying -- one of the few growth industries in Washington
46. Morocco - 1983: A video nasty
47. Suriname - 1982-1984: Once again, the Cuban bogeyman
48. Libya - 1981-1989: Ronald Reagan meets his match
49. Nicaragua - 1981-1990: Destabilization in slow motion
50. Panama - 1969-1991: Double-crossing our drug supplier
51. Bulgaria 1990/Albania 1991: Teaching communists what democracy is all about
52. Iraq - 1990-1991: Desert holocaust
53. Afghanistan - 1979-1992: America's Jihad
54. El Salvador - 1980-1994: Human rights, Washington style
55. Haiti - 1986-1994: Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?

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Pee-poles who don't learn from their mistakes & don't accept FACTs r doomed & will not have much of a future.

Tof be gureh jaddo aabaadeh all opposition feeders of 78!

Millions of uneducated gaav & olaaq, who can b bought for $10 to do anything, who follow SHIT religion, who keep their own people as slaves/nokar/kolfat, can NOT & will NOT have the-mock-RAT-see.

* * *

This is one of the best proofs that:

- There was NO F*ing revolution in Miran in 78.

The old regime was 'approved' by the MASTERs & they wouldn't have let a bunch GOH in-tell-egg-chew-alls or kun-nashur Mollahs to remove it.

Unfortunately for Miranians, the old regime 'cared' for Miran & tried to educate it; but look what happened & how many of the 'educated' ones fought in it's support in 78!

Well look who's sorry now!

- KIR can not & will NOT be removed withoutt MASTERs permission

But unlike Miranians, MASTERs r X-teremly smart & open to better deals & LOGIC.

- How stupid & AHMAQ Mosaddeq was.

- How stupid Mosaddeq's supporters have beeen allllllllll these years.

- How stupid & corrupt opposition feeders oof 78 were & have been for 25 F*ing years.

* * *

I saw a DOC on Afgan, where a woman in the new Afg Gov was giving a speech to some visting US congressmen.

B4 u know it she started complaining about the Americans & the 'system' & talking in a demanding sar-baalaa mode ... Guess what?

The C-men became very COLD towards her & eventually she was removed form her post, but she was still talking to camera in a demanding enqelaabi tone.

U won't be allowed in the 'game', if u don't know the 'rules' & FACTs.

I've known some Miranian idiots who supported Shah-massud very emotionally & got devastated when he was 'removed'.

Afgans have stupidly destroyed their own country & millions of them live in extremely bad conditions in middle east alone. Their kids beg on streets & r raised like savages without any education. Yet many of their original leaders now live in khaarej in cushy homes sending their spoiled kids to
uni. Afgans can not have democracy for at least the next 200 years. Their culture has been totally F*ed.

Y?!

They were used, but it was the STUPIDITY of their leaders that destroyed them. Too many traitors & vatanfurush & criminals amongst them.

They didn't THINK about their actions or inactions & didn't know the FACTs & didn't care about their country.

Now they have no right to complain!

How can u complain about abuse by foreigners when u'r own people did such criminal acts to their own people?

Just like Iraqis, they sat on their asses & bent over to Saddam & saw their own people being butchered & many even did the killings.

Then they expected another country to spend billions & send their own army to Iraq to 'liberate' the Iraqies?! So what?

So that then a bunch Iraqi EGO bullies start fighting amongst each other & then order the forefingers out & demand that our OIL is ours (meaning the ruling group) & start increasing the price of OIL & other things ...
Then all sort of civil war starting?!

Then start fighting with the neighbors & minorities ...?!
FAT chance!

Idiots will not be allowed to run "OUR REGIONS".

Saddam spent so much money building NUC, what was he thinking of?
Didn't he know he wouldn't be allowed to use it?!

The idiot got sucked in to attack Miran & Kuwait, but never learned his lessons. The MASTERs know who to PICK!

I won't even mention the MORDAAB of Miran.

I urge all Miranians to read this book very carefully & THINK.

===============================================================

KIR was erected by the Masters to F* Miran as a form of punishment & control. Some EGO Miranians demanded too much & were going to cause problems in the region, specially when Shah had cancer, so they had to be stopped.

KIR knew the mass gaav/olaaq Mirananians: that if u give them an inch they'll demand killometers. So they went to work to show them who was in control & eliminated all oppositions.

We can't expect more from filthy Mullahs, after all they have proved who they really were/are.

The question is:
- Y the KK opposition leaders of 78 didn'tt see it coming?
- Y KKOL78 haven't seen the light after 255 years?
- Y KKOL78 haven't admitted that they did GOH khori?
- Y KKOL78 still blame the old regime?

OK, they r all EGO maniacs & can't admit their GOH Khori, but could it b that they r all still on the Masters pay-roll ?! How about KIR pay-roll?

Think about it.

Masters must've thought of this: What if they find out about our plan & then unite & work together to remove KIR. Well, easy, all we have to do is to prevent them working together ...

Just like many KIR-dust on Miranians site who only muddy the waters.

The other question is the future of Miran.

Eventually the shit will hit the fan.

Many non-Miranians r asking Y Miranians did revolution to replace the old regime with criminal a*holes. Many Miranians now live in the west & it's getting harder & harder to sell the idea that there was a 'revolution' in Miran. Also, now Islam is a dirty word & it doesn't look good for it to be in-charge of Masters own region.

Not to mention that eventually Miran will have too much money & the KIR will become too arrogant, which will be perfect for another regime change: frozen assets, broken economy, devaluation, ...

Miran's loss will be the Masters gain again.

Now is the time for Miranian leaders to see it coming so that they could F* their EGO, so that they can work together to prevent another disaster.

Last time $US went form 8 to 800, next time it will become 80000.
This will make the khareji Miranians extremely rich, but will
kill many in Miran.

Not to mention the blood bath that will happen.

It's not enough to remove KIR, it has to be replaced by a more caring system, with full blessing of the Masters. All details of the system has to be worked out in advance b4 the KIR falls.

Including what to do with oppositions ...

1way or another this will eventually happen, but now Miranian leaders can at least work together to select the new system/regime to minimize the pain & the loss.

=============================================================

Miranians should learn NOT to wait 4 Godo ImamZaman saviour.
They should not put all their eggs in 1 basket.
Even if by some miracle they find a he-row or she-row, he/she could b easily terminated by Miranian hands, if the Masters wish it.

Is there any idiot who thinks that Ronald Reagan single handedly ran USA & made alllllllllllllll decisions & alllllllllll Americans worshiped him? He couldn't even somethimes remember his lines. It was the system behind him that ran the show.

In fact, after Reagan was shot, he lost half of his blood & experts say that this could've started his memory-loss. But the 'system' ran well as usual.

This is y USA would've remained in Iraq no matter who became president in 2004. coz they THINK & PLAN things logically & do not run on shur & hayajaan & salavaat & mordebaad/zendebaad.

U can't play chess by getting angry with salavaat/mordebaad/zendebaad

U must THINK & predict all the moves & be ready ...
But to do that u need the right people with the right skills & attitude ...

the KKOL78 have proved beyond any doubt that they don't give a damn about Miran. If they were too stupid to know what was happening, they didn't belong in politics. They didn't know the 1st year, they didn't know the 2nd year, surely by the 3rd year they should've known. Hell some of their supporters now teach political science in USA now !!!

So today, after 25 F*ing years, they must all know who runs the show, yet most of KKOL78 r shouting cho Miran lavaashak .... in Khaarej.

Getting Miranian youth to rebel against KIR, while these KK sit in their cushy mansions in Khaarej, is criminal.

Leaders who 'care' will work together to come up with a 'system' to replace KIR with, with Master's blessing, to prevent another disaster in Miran.

Tof be gureh jaddo aabaadeh all the KKOL78 who F*ed Miran & were NOT man enough to admit it & at least try to fix it.

===============================================================

2 X-tremely interesting books:

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zbigniew brzezinski; out of control : global turmoil on the eve of the 21st century ;1993

The question arises whether a global power that is not guided by a globally relevant set of values can for long exercise that predominance.

Although a single & increasingly interdependent global political process is emerging, America's difficulty in exercising effective global authority within it - because of inner weaknesses derived more from cultural than from economic causes- could produce a situation of intensifying global instability. On the geopolitical level, that is likely to be expressed through the intensification of Eurasia regional conflicts which are ensuing in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction makes this prospect more ominous. The crisis in the postcommunist world in the meantime could deepen, undermining the wider global appeal of democracy and stimulating the reappearance of millennial demagogy. The conflicts between the North & South could also then sharpen. A new coalition of the poorer nations against the rich- perhaps led by China- might then emerge.

Yet that preponderance is likely to remain quite superficial & even brittle, largely because there are no underlying bonds of shared values or political culture or religion between America & its Arab client states. American power rests largely on an alliance with local governments which, in several cases based on corrupt & obscenely rich classes, increasingly run the risk of losing touch with their own populations. Moreover, Iran is clearly an aspirant to regional hegemony & it is prepared to outwait the United States. It has an imperial tradition & possesses both the religious & the nationalist motivation to contest both the American & the Russian presence in the area. In doing so, it can count on the sympathy of its neighbors. With both religion & nationalism conspiring against an alien regional hegemony, the current American supremacy in the Middle East is built, quite literally, on sand.

The political awakening of Islam is generating not only a collision with residual Russian imperialism in the north but in time is also likely to contest American domination in the south. The former will not be able to disengage, because of its settlers & because it will feel bound to contest the intrusion into Central Asia of southern Moslem states; & the latter- while also risking intensifying hostility- will not be able to disengage because of its interest in oil & its sense of moral obligation to Israel.

Conflict & instability are likely to remain as central ... in the Islamic crescent ... several of the states in this general area lack any genuine internal cohesion. .. tribal loyalties are still stronger than a wider sense of national identity. Ethnic violence will , therefore, continue to percolate & periodically explode. Traditional Arab disunity deliberately abetted by the Western powers interested in retaining control over the Arab supply of oil, will also contribute to persistent regional instability.

Though the notions of 'democracy' are fashionable, in much of the world the practice of democracy is still quite superficial & democratic institutions remain vulnerable. There is no shared global understanding of the real meaning of democracy, & specially to what degree democracy should go beyond the political realm & also entail at least minimum guarantees for individual material well-being.

Moreover, unless democratic practice, & especially the economic performance of the free market system, leads to a demonstrable improvement in social conditions, it is only a question of time before a negative reaction to these concepts sets in.

The absence in the West of any binding moral imperatives perpetuates passivity, if not lack of compassion, regarding the delimmas of inequality. It is no longer possible for anyone in the West to pretend a lack of awareness of the massive hunger that decimates hundreds of thousands of people each year, ... & much the same could be said about the attitude of many in America to the plight of the America's urban blacks. Knowledge combined with passivity raises a troubling moral issue, ..., which the west at some point may find painful to have to answer.

The American society cannot be the model for the world-both morally & as a matter of practical economics-if a predominantly cornucopian ethic defines its essence, while a sizable but impoverished minority is simultaneously excluded from meaningful social participation. Preoccupation with the satisfaction of material desires that are growing more & more out of control can only perpetuate & deepen the objective & subjective gulf that is dividing mankind.

The global crisis of the spirit has to be overcome if humanity is to assert command over its destiny.

In general, people have not wanted democracy for its own sake or out of commitment to political idea. For the most part those who have actively sought democracy-in the literal sense of the rule by the populace- have wanted it as a device to increase their share in political rule & weaken the power & authority of those who actually rule. Democracy has been a weapon of the poor & many against the few & the well-to-do ever since it surfaced in ancient Athens -Barrington Moore.

The notion of a "permissive cornucopia" involves essentially a society in which the progressive decline in the centrality of moral criteria is matched by heightened preoccupation with material & sensual self-gratification. The combination of the erosion of moral criteria in defining personal conduct with the emphasis on material goods results both in permissiveness on the level of action & in material greed on the level of motivation. "Greed is good"-the battle cry of the American yuppies of the late 1980s- is a fitting motto for permissive cornucopia.

Thus, moral judgments become dispensable. There is no need to differentiate between "right" & "wrong." Instead, for pragmatic reasons of social order, the critical distinction is between what is "legal" & "illegal"; thus legal procedure, especially the court system, substitutes for morality & for the church as the principal definer of that morality. Religion as the internalized guide to individual conduct is thus replaced by the legal system, which defines the external limits of the impermissible but not of the immoral. One can call the foregoing "procedural morality", based on external rules guiding conduct & social interaction. It differs fundamentally from a morality that is internalized, personal, & inclined to make distinctions between "right" & "wrong." Moreover, procedural morality-if it stands by itself-tends to create a condition in which more than just a few are tempted to test pragmatically the limits of the permissible-"try to get away with it"- because no absolute inner moral restraint is operational.

Television gives the young viewer a first glimpse of the outside world. It first defines -& does so compellingly, by combining the visual & the audio impact-the meaning of the good life. It sets the standards of what is to be considered achievement, fulfillment, good taste, & proper conduct. It conditions desires, defines aspirations & expectations, & draws the line between acceptable & unacceptable behavior.

Without some criteria of judgment that are derived from internalized standards, the political danger is that self-gratification is becoming an end in itself in the West at a time when much of the rest of the world is still struggling with existential needs. At a time when the two worlds are no longer separated by time & distance, it is disturbing to note how much of Western consumption is in fact unattainable by the poorer majorities of mankind. ... Intensified envy rather than successful imitation is the more likely prospect.

The main problems or dilemmas currently besetting America:
- indebtedness,
- trade deficit,
- low saving & investment,
- industrial noncompetitiveness,
- low productivity growth rates,
- inadequate heath care,
- poor-quality secondary education,
- deteriorating social infrastructure & widdespread urban decay,
- a greedy wealthy class,
- a truly parasitic obsession with litigatiion,
- a deepening race & poverty problem (1992 stats show: living below poverty line are:
32.7% blacks , 11.3% of whites- combine to 35.7 million),
- widespread crime & violence,
- the spread of massive drug culture,
- the inbreeding of social hopelessness,
- the profusion of sexual license,
- the massive propagation of moral corruptiion by visual media
(the de facto advocacy of sex & violence as the means for attracting viewship),
- a decline in civic consciousness,
- the emergence of potentially divisive mullticulturalism,
- the emerging gridlock in the political syystem,
- an increasingly pervasive sense of spirittual emptiness.

James Twitchell observed, in his Carnival Culture- the trashing of taste in America (1992), American TV has become "a medium whose input is so profound & so resolutely banal that it has almost single-handedly removed vulgarity from modern culture by making it the norm."

The result is a mass culture, driven by profiteers who exploit the hunger for vulgarity, pornography, & even barbarism. Such supremacy of decadence & hedonism is a culture cannot help but have a demoralizing effect on the values of society, undermining & eroding once more deeply felt beliefs.

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Woodward, Bob; plan of attack -

Rumsfeld said "I am concerned about all of our war plans". He was reviewing all 68 of the department's secret war & other contingency plans worldwide & had been for months.

Another element was the standing policy inherited from the Clinton administration. Though not widely understood, the baseline policy was clearly "regime change." A 1998 law passed by congress & signed by president Bill Clinton authorized up to $97 million in military assistance to Iraqi opposition forces "to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein" and "promote the emergence of a democratic government."

The Op Plan 1003 on the shelf had last been fully approved in 1996 & an update done in 1998 had gone through all the approval wickets in the Pentagon except it had not been signed by then secretary of Defense Willian Cohen.

The reason the plan was important, Frank noted, was because it was all they had. As they knew, it normally took 2 years or maybe 3 years to write a war plan.

Calling the connection an "axis" was clever & calling it an "axis of evil" was most clever, she (rice) thought. ... Rice & Hadley proposed that Iran be dropped. Hadley said it would be inflammatory. "No," the president said, "I want it in." Iran would stay. In an interview later, the president recalled he had specific reason. "It is very important for the American president at this point in history to speak very clearly about the evils the world face," he said. "No question about it, North Korea, Iraq & Iran are the biggest threats to peace at the time." Iran was unique, he said, because "there is freedom movement in Iran & because Iran is relatively open compared to other countries that are run by, you know, theocratic people, because of the Internet, the Diaspora here from the United States & Iran. "And the fact that the president of the United States would stand up & say Iran is just like Iraq & North Korea-in other words you've got a problem, the Iranians, we know you've got a problem, we hear you got a problem-and the president is willing to call it, is part of how you deal with Iran. And that is to inspire those who love freedom inside the country."

This man introduced Tim (CIA guy) to 2 brothers whose father was the group's leader, and had almost the equivalent status of the Catholic Pope. ... Tim agreed initially to pay the brothers & their father $135,000 a month. Though they kept pushing on money & upping the stakes, Tim asked them, what do you really want? What is your bottom line? A seat at the table when the new, post-Saddam government is formed in Iraq, they made clear.

As instructed, Bandar (Saudi ambassador, price Bandar bin Sultan) then said formally, "since 1994, we have been in constant contact & touch with u on the highest level regarding what needs to be done with Iraq & the Iraqi regime. .... In 1994, King Fahd had proposed to President Clinton a joint US-Saudi covert action to overthrow Saddam, & Crown Prince Abdullah in April 2002 had suggested to Bush that they spend up to $1 billion in such joint operations with CIA. ... :As u know, we are confident in our international situation. However, the situation in the Arab & Islamic [world] is quite fluid in a way that it could hurt or threaten our interests & your interests. "therefore, to protect those joint interests, we want you in this difficult situation to confirm to us that you will be seriously engaging in solving the Middle East problem. We also expect Saudi Arabia to play a major role in shaping the regime that will emerge not only in Iraq but in th region after the fall of Saddam Hussein." .... The president added, "changes in Iraq will result in a change of way of doing things, not only in Iraq but even in Iran."

Bander expressed annoyance that some in the US government, particularly the Department of Defense, had tried to contact members of Saudi opposition groups. The president promised to look into the matter.

Special Forces & intelligence operatives would distribute $300 million to local Iraqi tribal leaders, religious leaders & the Iraqi armed forces.

Tim (CIA guy) was now paying the 2 brothers $1 million a month for ROCKSTAR intelligence.

The brothers seemed to spend the money in about 6 days, so Tim would offer several hundred thousands more if they provided really good intelligence.

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Another very interesting book:

Sora, Steven ; secret societies of America's elite

Bonesmen believe in the notion of a 'constructive chaos', which justifies covert action.

The foreign policy of the Bonesmen is almost always carried out through a secret agenda.

The conflict in Vietnam was a source of profits for the corporations that received the greatest amount of business from the war ...

When the House Select Committee on Assassinations concludes that the assassinations of Kennedy & Martin Luther King were conspiracies but nothing further is done, this is more evidence. .... gives evidence that a higher power that goes unchecked is in control.

http://www.innertraditions.com/isbn/0-89281-959-6

ELITE AND SECRET SOCIETIES have shaped history since the beginning of civilization. From the time of the Crusades to the twenty-first century a handful of families have controlled the course of world events and have built their own status and wealth through collective efforts and intermarriage. The greatest elite society was that of the Knights Templars. Admission to the organization often required breeding and wealth that were the privilege of a select few. Outside the core a larger force was needed to fight wars and to maintain the organization's far-flung assets. These forces would grow to include an army, a navy; various real estate, and a banking empire. In 1307, when the massive Templar organization was suddenly outlawed by the avarice of the French king, it did not die; it simply moved underground.

The Templars survived militarily. By pledging themselves to various powers, the military orders survived their open attack by both state and church and the mass executions and imprisonments of the fourteenth century. The Knights of Christ, the Teutonic Knights, the Swiss Guard, and the Scots Guard outlived those who prosecuted them. Several are alive and well in the new millennium.

The Masonic brotherhood created in post-Templar Scotland was largely responsible for influencing the American concepts of liberty, freedom, due process, and democracy. The concept of the "military lodge"-in which a nonpermanent lodge traveled with soldiers-brought to America by the
fighting units of Europe would further the ideals and fight the war for independence. The climax was when French forces, enlisted through Masonic channels, arrived under the command of high-ranking Masons and Knights of Saint John and defeated the British at Yorktown. The result was an elected
American president who was a Mason, sworn in on the Bible of a Masonic lodge by the grand master of New York's Masons, and a new form of government. But there was a downside. The higher ideals of liberty and equality were compromised by the elite, who remained in control.

The breakup of the Templars in the early 1300s was directly responsible for the dramatic rise in piracy that plagued Europe, America, and even the Indian Ocean. The ports in Scotland, Ireland, and America where pirates could openly dock and sell their booty were protected by Masonic cells that extended to the courthouses and capitol buildings. Smuggling, too, grew as a worldwide enterprise despite its illegality.

The slave-trading industry was furthered by Masonic groups. In the first fourscore years of American history the slave-trading ports from Charleston to Newport were controlled by a handful of families bound by Masonic and family ties. These merchants would not relinquish the lucrative trade and seemed to stop at nothing in fighting abolition. The presidency was something members of the mercantile elite felt they could buy, and when money couldn't decide an election they used other means to seize control.

In an effort to derail abolition, Presidents Harrison and Taylor suffered sudden and suspicious deaths that put pro-slave vice presidents in power. When even death failed to halt abolition the country wound up in the most destructive war it ever fought. The Civil War ended at Appomattox, where the armies of Jefferson Davis surrendered-but not for the elite. A conspiracy organized by members of the quasi-Masonic Knights of the Golden Circle to kill President Lincoln sought to nullify the Emancipation Proclamation and its effects on the trade with England. The postwar efforts at reconstruction would also be stained by another Masonic group of "knights," the Ku Klux Klan.

Profits from drug running, smuggling, slave trading, and even piracy are directly responsible for the founding of several of the country's most important banks, which are still in operation today. New England's staunch insurance business was born and prospered through profits earned from insuring opium and slave ships. The large railroad system that was built throughout the continental United States in the nineteenth century was funded with profits from illegal drug smuggling. And one of the greatest opium fortunes would provide seed money for the telephone and communications industry.

Masonic membership did not merely present opportunity in the underworld. Benjamin Franklin acknowledged that success in the printing business hinged on just which Masonic lodge one belonged to in the city of Philadelphia. John Jacob Astor, who once held one-fifteenth of all American personal wealth,joined the prestigious Holland No. 8 Lodge in New York to advance his businesses. Success in the legal profession, almost a prerequisite for government office, was ensured to the sons of the wealthy who could study at the Temple in London. Passing the bar is a term that originated in the Templar stronghold in London, and it is a rite of passage that must be achieved today in order to join the legal profession. Promotion in the military was denied to many who would not be part of the military lodge, a portable home to brothers that included George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and John Paul Jones.

The secret and elite structures that have built Americas business empires and family fortunes have concealed their history well. We have inherited colleges and universities named for slave traders and opium dealers. We honor presidents and other politicians whose families built their fortunes through
crime. We patronize businesses founded by men whose fortunes are rooted in illegal activity.

Many of the families regarded as America's blue bloods, our equivalent of aristocracy, have hidden in their ancestral closets men who would make today's organized criminals look cherubic. They were not mere horse thieves and snake oil salesmen, nor were they con men who were ridden out of town on the rail. These Founding Fathers rose to great wealth. Their legacy was passed on to heirs who still enjoy that wealth-and their power too, which is protected by the institutions they put in place and ensures their participation in the future. The system, thanks to ill-gotten gains and power, perpetuates itself.

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