I was in deep, deep, hot, hot water with my editors at The Guardian in London. The paper was facing a ruinous suit by George Bush Sr.'s business buddies because of one of my stories. Then a tall Aussie of dramatic demeanor walked uninvited in my boss' offices and said, "Yes, Palast is trouble. But he's good trouble."
John Pilger's intervention helped save my sorry behind.
Now he's saved my stories, and the stories of Seymour Hersh, Eduardo Galeano, Edward R. Murrow, Robert Fisk, the assassinated investigator of the Chechen War, Anna Politkovskaya, and many others in a big, fat—626 pages!—book of what he says is, "Journalism that changed the world." It's called Tell Me No Lies.
This article appears in the December 21 edition of The Nation
Geneva
You could call him the Generalissimo of Globalization. The World Trade Organization's director general, Pascal Lamy, was a bit defensive, wanting to assure us that the WTO "wasn't created as a dark club of multinationals secretly cooking plots against the people. We do things in the open. Look at our website."
It's been a year since globalized finance brought the planet to its knees, yet here in Geneva, where in late November the WTO opened its grand "seventh ministerial," the diplomats are in denial. One confidential document from the files of WTO members--definitely not on the WTO website--tells us that despite financial and environmental crises, the globalizers still want to party like it's 1999. (Show me more...)
on 10th Anniversary of the Battle in Seattle
Bankers' scheme to re-open finance casino worldwide
by Greg Palast
GENEVA — Apparently, one meltdown isn't enough for the World Trade Organization. They meet today in Geneva on the tenth anniversary of the "Battle in Seattle," when tens of thousands of people from around the world protested the organization's practices.
A special investigation for Air America's Ring of Fire. Listen to the report here or watch the 9-minute film here. (Show me more...)
Starting today—by making a small donation to our not-for-profit Investigative Journalism Fund—you can download Greg Palast's classic BBC Television documentary, Bush Family Fortunes.
The BBC broadcast that first exposed how Boy Bush got into the Texas Air Guard and out of Vietnam through a fix from Daddy Bush. We busted the story and got it right—including the $23 million pay-out that Dan Rather missed.
On September 11, 2001, my office building, the World Trade Center, was attacked by al Qaeda, a murder cult of Saudi Arabians, funded by Saudi Arabians. And so, in response to the Saudis' attack, America invaded ... Afghanistan. Like, HUH?
Google it and you'll find the Times report repeated and amplified 5,785 times more.
Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11.
Your eyelids are getting heavy. Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11.
It's the latest hit from the same crew that brought you Saddam = 9/11 and its twin chant, Saddam = WMD, Dick Cheney's chimerical tropes which the New York Times' Judith Miller happily channeled to the paper's front page.
And they're at it again.
Every war begins with a lie. In addition to Saddam = WMD, I'm old enough to remember the Gulf of Tonkin resolution authorizing the war in Vietnam, based on a fictional Vietnamese gunboat attack on our Navy. (White House recordings have Lyndon Johnson gloating privately, "Hell, those damn stupid [US] sailors were just shooting at flying fish.") (Show me more...)
Former insurance executive Wendell Potter tells Greg Palast, in an exclusive interview for Truthout.org, that "the system's rigged" to kill off so-called "health cooperatives." (Show me more...)
News flash: Wendell Potter tells Greg Palast why the insurance industry is secretly licking its chops over the Health Care bill. [15:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
News flash: Wendell Potter tells Greg Palast why the insurance industry is secretly licking its chops over the Health Care bill.
Tell me where it hurts, Mr. President.
What's killing you, Barack, is what's killing us all: an evil germ called "Medical Loss Ratio."
"Medical Loss Ratio" [MLR] is the fancy term used by health insurance companies for their slice, their take-out, their pound of flesh, their gross - very gross - profit.
The "MLR" is the difference between what you pay an insurance company and what that insurer pays out to doctors, hospitals and pharmacists for your medical care.
I've totted it up from the raw stats: The "MLR," insurance companies' margins, is about to top - holy mama! - a quarter trillion dollars a year. That's $2.7 trillion over the next decade.
Until the 1990's, insurers skimmed only about a nickel on the dollar for their "service," Wendell Potter told me. Potter is the CIGNA insurance company PR man who came in from the cold to tell us about what goes down inside the health insurance gold mine. Today, Potter notes (and I've checked his accuracy), porky operators like AIG have kicked up their Loss Ratio by nearly 500 percent. (Show me more...)
Palast's now classic documentary for BBC Television, 'Bush Family Fortunes,' features the original stories behind films such as Fahrenheit 9-11. Stories which Michael Moore praised as "courageous reporting."
From Boy Bush and the Texas Air Guard, to the purge of black voters in Florida, to Bush spiking the FBI investigation into the Bin Laden family, to the never-before-seen secret plans for the oil fields of Iraq—this film takes you to the inner workings of one of America's most powerful dynasties.
Purchase the film on DVD here or the download version here.
Palast Gift Card
Let your special ones choose their own gifts!
Give them a GIFT CARD - $100, $50 or any amount you choose. I will sign and send this thoughtful card, from you and me, which your gifted one can redeem for items at the Palast Investigative Fund "store" - signed books, DVDs, audio books and more.
Now he's saved my stories, and the stories of Seymour Hersh, Eduardo Galeano, Edward R. Murrow, Robert Fisk, the assassinated investigator of the Chechen War, Anna Politkovskaya, and many others in a big, fat—626 pages!—book of what he says is, "Journalism that changed the world." It's called
On September 11, 2001, my office building, the World Trade Center, was attacked by al Qaeda, a murder cult of Saudi Arabians, funded by Saudi Arabians. And so, in response to the Saudis' attack, America invaded ... Afghanistan. Like, HUH?
