What book are we talking about?
Russ Baker's FAMILY OF SECRETS: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2009.
Packed with details, Family of Secrets exposes the truth behind the myths and lies that powerful forces have perpetuated on the American people for decades. Baker pokes holes in Bush family's deceptions with a relentless brilliance as he unravels "Bush family's role in a globally reaching, fundamentally amoral, financial-intelligence-resource apparatus". From Prescott Bush's ties to Nazi Germany to George H.W. Bush's long secret connection with the CIA and untold removal of three presidents (Kennedy, Nixon, and Carter) to George W. Bush's AWOL military record and deceit in launching the war in Iraq, Family of Secrets keeps you turning the pages in astonishment.
Who is Russ Baker?
Russ Baker is an award-winning American investigative journalist and the founder of the nonprofit reporting Web site: WhoWhatWhy.com. With an impressive reporting repertoire for the last two decades, he has been published in many of the world's finest publications. His extensive reporting experience includes international news stories in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. He has also produced stories for television and radio, and he is now working on directing and producing his first documentary film.
Known for breaking important new ground, Baker has won numerous journalism awards. He was a recipient for the Society of Professional Journalists Award for his investigative story on Republican Congressman Dan Burton whose womanizing contradicted his "moral crusade" at the height of Clinton impeachment proceedings. He also won an award from the Deadline Club for his in-depth reporting on George W. Bush's AWOL military record.
Why is 'Family of Secrets' considered fundamentally important to understand the ongoing crises in the U.S.?
Russ Baker prodigiously researched well-documented sources, including 500 hundred books in his private Bush library, and crisscrossed the country in search of answers that eluded so many of his colleagues. Leaving no stone unturned, he re-examined the Bush dynasty from all angles: "their history, family dynamics, business dealings, the social world they inhabit, and the networks of associates, employees, and funders who were instrumental in their rise."
Baker labored over five years of his life researching critical events of the last sixty years to produce his masterpiece, Family of Secrets. The fact-finding volume contains more than 500 interviews, thousands of documents, and more than 1000 footnotes. The entire book is filled with names, dates, and sources clearly spelled out. Bloomsbury Publisher's editor Peter Ginna who once worked for Oxford University Press said Baker's extensive footnotes and rigorous sourcing won him over: "I have not published any book that was more extensively documented and more impeccably footnoted than this one."
Although the book is laden with factual content and footnotes, it reads like a spy thriller with "shock and awe" revelations. Baker, perceptive and astute, does a superb job in connecting the dots of past events and drawing rational conclusions. Acting like a sleuth, he not only exposes the Bush family's dark secrets and the shadowy elites that have been running the country but also re-examines many national events in light of new evidence he unearthed, all of which warrant a call for historical revision.
What are the Bush Family's Secrets?
CIA
Tightly interwoven into the global banking, oil businesses, military defense, elite financial circle, and world political upheavals, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is ubiquitous throughout the book. The Bush family has enjoyed a long, cozy and secret association with the CIA, far predating the year in which George H.W. Bush became CIA director in 1976. Under the radar, the Bush family working with the network of spies and petroleum plutocrats has been steering the direction of the U.S. government to this day.
