A massive investigative journalism achievement

To pretend to be able to summarize such an impressive undertaking is impossible. Russ Baker has dived into every connection, every detail, every name and person, every circumstance, every event in the life, history and career of both George H.W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush. Baker takes us through George H.W.’s, or Poppy as he calls him, milieu as he is beginning in the major leagues of intrigue, political and covert action. For several years prior to JFK’s assassination, George H.W. Bush has been apparently involved in covert action for some intelligence agency, probably the CIA. In this regard, one of Poppy Bush’s most important qualities appears to be his remarkable talent and efficiency to cover his tracks. Although he seems to be involved in every major event that happened in America starting as early as the late ’50, nobody has ever succeeded to acquire any solid proof or evidence to link him with certainty to any of these events and render him accountable. He was in Dallas the day before and possibly in the morning of november 22nd 1963 when JFK was killed. Using a subterfuge, he managed to have a cover story to give the impression that he only arrived in the area after the shooting. Somebody had driven him from Tyler, which is close by, to Dallas in the afternoon. That scenario repeated over and over again throughout his career as he climbed up the ladder of social hierarchy, taking him to the highest of positions one after the other.

After the shooting of JFK, Poppy Bush, while continuing his many business ventures that often didn’t make sense at all financially, began to prepare his son for his future role in life. Being a member of one of the most influential family in America, George W. would receive that special training that would make him ready for the bigger game. To protect the long-term agenda of that secret family, Poppy would often cover for the mistakes of W., even in his twenties, like he would for a disturbed adolescent that needed special care. Through the storm of the Watergate scandal that was staged by the same milieu involved in the shootings of the two Kennedys, and through other tractations and covert manipulations, Poppy Bush continued to rise as a morning star, to CIA director and finally to President of the United States. When finally his son, George W., became President of the United States of America, Poppy simply continued to pull the stings from behind the curtain, having all his friends and associates of always, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, etc, taking care and coach younger W. And then 9/11 happened and we know pretty much the rest.

Besides this new history of the Bush family that is unfolding in Family of Secrets, what is really interesting though is the book itself. The investigative journalism methodology that Baker has put in place for the researching, crafting, impressive footnoting and writing of Family of Secrets is simply extraordinary, of massive scale. In this era of mass media consumption, where everything is instantaneous and has to be covered at the speed of light in order to be considered « up to date », « in the game », this book remains in a category of itself in terms of what it accomplishes for the profession of journalism. From now on, I don’t see how this book cannot become mandatory for any degree in journalism anywhere in the world. « You wanna become journalists? Read that book, that’s how you do it », a professor could say. Family of Secrets resets the standards for a profession that has devaluated so much over the years due to the pressures of the market, to the speed of our lives, to the attitude of the power elite also who have become increasingly uneasy, aggressive and sometimes threatening with expressions of truth, criticism, skepticism and investigation initiatives. Even natural science can come under attack these days. We saw that recently with the Climategate and the East Anglia papers.

Family of Secrets is a milestone achievement in investigative journalism, equaled only by other exceptional journalistic endeavours, such as for example those of Daniel Hopsicker regarding the 9/11 hijackers and their milieu, John Loftus investigations regarding nazi immigration to and infiltration of America and elsewhere, and last but not the least, Paul Manning’s account of the post-war period of the life of Adolf Hitler’s successor Martin Bormann in Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile. In the last years, there have been so many few examples of good journalism that it makes books like Family of Secrets extremely important. It is only up to us, in the Resistance, to stimulate other journalists and/or researchers to take on the good battle and hold high the sword of truth and information. Fascism will only be defeated if good men and women rise up and fight with courage and strength and Family of Secrets is certainly a good example of that.