The bonkers story of how a prank created America's conspiracy culture
Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax that Duped America and its Sinister Legacy
Phil Tinline
Bloomsbury, $34.99
The famed 20th-century British foreign correspondent Claud Cockburn was known to use the pithy phrase, 'Believe nothing until it has been officially denied.' It had a ring of truth, especially when he dealt with duplicitous government officials during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and World War II.
It's equally relevant today when lying administrations manipulate intelligence in the service of illegal aggression. Think the criminal Iraq invasion in 2003 and Israel's exaggerated claims that Iran was weeks away from building a nuclear bomb.
Cockburn warned that far too many journalists were willing dupes of this system and preferred to be close to power rather than an active check on it.
But what happens when the truth is revealed and too few people believe it?
This is the story behind the remarkable 1967 book, Report from Iron Mountain, written by New York intellectuals who claimed to be revealing a top-secret government report into how the US would react if permanent and irreversible world peace broke out. The authors posited that the US military was the glue that held American society together and without it, chaos was inevitable.
Washington's focus on endless war, the authors wrote, allows a nation to maintain the class system, back scientific discoveries, keep unwanted populations under control and maintain societal allegiance to the flag and a common cause.
If war suddenly ended, the report feared, there would be a need to find alternative career options for the hundreds of thousands of men no longer in the armed forces (then fighting an immoral war in Vietnam). 'Blood games' was one suggestion.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
3 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Douglas Murray defends Kemi Badenoch's controversial expulsion story
Author Douglas Murray defends Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch after she told a story about fairness. 'I didn't think that was the wisest story to tell,' Mr Murray told Sky News host Rita Panahi. 'She's right to talk to this issue of fairness. 'What the British people seek … they seek fairness in the system … the people who have paid into the system are given priority over people who have never paid in.'
Sky News AU
3 hours ago
- Sky News AU
‘Several passages have been removed': Bombshell Prince Andrew book ‘edited' to remove Jeffrey Epstein allegation
Andrew Lownie's bombshell biography on Prince Andrew has been edited to remove a claim that Jeffrey Epstein introduced US President Donald Trump to his wife Melania. Mr Lownie is the author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, which explores Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson's controversial four decade partnership. The bombshell book includes embarrassing revelations about the Duke of York's sex life, as well as unprecedented new information about his business dealings while working as a British trade envoy. Meanwhile, the Duke of York's ex-wife and current housemate Fergie is painted as not only financially reckless, but so dangerous to the monarchy that the royal family keep her in the fold to protect themselves. Ironically, the only allegation that will be removed from future printings of the book has nothing to do with either of the Yorks and pertains to a small passage about US First Lady Melania Trump. The First Lady recently threatened to sue Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden after he claimed that Epstein – a former close friend of Prince Andrew - introduced Melania to her future husband. About 60,000 copies of Mr Lownie's book include a similar allegation about the Trumps and cites an unknown source who spoke to the author in 2007. The passage will be deleted from future print editions, while the ebook and audiobooks have been updated to reflect the changes. 'We can confirm that several passages from Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York by Andrew Lownie have been removed in consultation with the author,' a spokesperson for Mr Lownie's publisher to The Telegraph newspaper. The update comes after Mr Lownie told that Prince Harry was trying to 'intimate' the author into removing a passage about Harry's alleged fight with Prince Andrew. The Sussexes also wanted Mr Lownie to delete an allegation that Prince Andrew called Markle an 'opportunist'. 'Harry is trying to intimidate me, to put me on the defensive and shape the narrative but it will not work,' he told Ultimately, the author has not buckled under the Sussexes' legal threats and the passages remain in the book. However, Mr Lownie has included a line reflecting Harry's denial in the book, but the details remain both in text and in the audiobook version of Entitled.
Perth Now
3 hours ago
- Perth Now
Former N.Korean soldier, 95, campaigns to be sent home
A 95-year-old former North Korean soldier who spent decades imprisoned in the South will continue his campaign to return to the North, an activist says, after South Korean troops stopped his symbolic border march. Flanked by activists and holding a North Korean flag, Ahn Hak-sop walked towards an inter-Korean bridge in the border town of Paju on Wednesday, demanding that South Korean authorities arrange his repatriation to the North, when soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint. Ahn, who complained of knee pain during the incident, was taken to a hospital and was recovering at his home in Gimpo, near the capital city of Seoul, activist Cha Eun-jeong said. Cha said she expected Ahn to join a weekend protest in Seoul calling for his return to North Korea. "He said it felt good to have an opportunity to speak his mind in front of journalists", even though he was turned back by the soldiers, Cha said. Ahn was born in what is now South Korea's border island of Ganghwa in 1930, when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule. Japan's defeat in World War II liberated Korea, but the peninsula was then divided into a US-backed, capitalist South and a Soviet-supported, socialist North - a separation cemented by the devastating 1950-53 Korean War. Ahn volunteered to fight for the North Korean army in 1952 but was captured by South Korean soldiers in April 1953, months before the fighting stopped with the armistice. He was imprisoned for 42 years before receiving a special presidential pardon in 1995. He had a chance to go to North Korea in 2000, when former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung repatriated 63 long-term unconverted prisoners following a historic summit with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Ahn then chose to stay, vowing to campaign until US troops were withdrawn from the South. Ahn expressed a desire to go to North Korea in July, a decision that was influenced by his fragile health and concern that his time was running out, Cha said. South Korea's government said earlier in August it had no immediate plans to push for the repatriation of the few remaining prisoners who desire to be sent to North Korea, and it's unclear whether the North would accept them.
