Format: Kindle Edition
Upon reading Valentine’s new introduction for this edition of The Phoenix Program, it struck me that my admiration for his work was now more personal than academic, for I have been targeted by the reborn Phoenix. Having worked on a documentary critical of an official cover-up, a website I was affiliated with was put on a list of “Domestic Terrorism” sites distributed to Fusion Centers by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. After release of the documentary I learned that “volunteers” from my local Fusion Center were making inquiries of some of my current and former associates as to my activities. I told my spooked “associates” to tell the curious everything they knew about me, which wasn’t much nor worthy of reticence. As Valentine notes, the newly-sprouted Fusion Centers are a direct reincarnation of the Phoenix regional command centers where information was compiled, filed and utilized. In Vietnam, this led to the torture and murder of countless thousands who were guilty of absolutely nothing. Shall we wait around for that incarnation to slouch its way into a Fusion Center near you?
But even before being personally invested in the issue, I was a morbid fan of Valentine’s work on Phoenix and his subsequent accountings of the true face of the National Security State, The Strength of the Wolf and The Strength of the Pack. Why? Because his writing is not sensationalistic, nor particularly muckraking. It is simply the unvarnished truth of its subject, warts and all, told by the actors themselves.Read more ›
But even before being personally invested in the issue, I was a morbid fan of Valentine’s work on Phoenix and his subsequent accountings of the true face of the National Security State, The Strength of the Wolf and The Strength of the Pack. Why? Because his writing is not sensationalistic, nor particularly muckraking. It is simply the unvarnished truth of its subject, warts and all, told by the actors themselves.Read more ›
