An incredible work of fact

Every voter should this book to fully understand the corruption which appears endemic in most governments!

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Should be required reading

for anyone who has ever wondered why organised crime has never been addressed, why war never ends, and why the rich and powerful get away with crimes that would see an ordinary person imprisoned for life.

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Utterly Superb - Must Listen

Whitney WEbb is one of the foremost researchers and exposers of criminal corruption at the core of our governmental system, which includes the supposedly elected lower middle management usually considered to be the government.

The background history of volume one inspired me to revisit many Hollywood and popular supposed fiction, through new eyes. This education has to be a bedrock of a more realistic perspective on the way our world is shaped and, while thankfully giving no over simplistic answers to the issues raised, this provides for a paradigm shift giving rise to a profound sense inner duty and responsibility which we shall certainly need in facing what is to come.

And a not on the narration, while this was very clear and easy to understand and listen to, there were quite a lot of funny pronunciations of various words. I missed listening to Whitney’s sardonic drawl - which I could hear in the writing, so translated quite a bit n my own mind.

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Very informative

Excellent book. Well written and well delivered. Quite a depressing book, but very important. Read it!

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like American tabloid..

... but non fiction. seriously, this book should be introduced to senior school curriculum .

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A monumental piece of research; needs an editor!

This review relates to Volumes 1 and 2.

This is a really brave and much-needed exposé of the corruption that lies at the heart of modern politics and finance. Normally with this type of book, I say that if half of it is true, we are in big trouble. With this one, if a quarter of it is true, God help us all! Unfortunately, I believe well over half of it.

Webb traces the increasingly close connections between banking, big business, politics, the intelligence services and organised crime that have formed over the last century, particularly those linking the US, UK and Israel. Volume 1 sets out the history those relationships; Vol 2 deals with Epstein's rise, his relationships with Leslie Wexner, Robert Maxwell and the CIA, and his involvement with sexual blackmail and prostitution. It's a stunning indictment which, over 1500 pages, demonstrates that the world is nothing like most of us think it is.

Part of the reason I take this book seriously is that I am old enough to actually remember some of the scandals she describes (Iran-Contra, BCCI, Watergate) and some of the appalling characters that drove them (Adnan Kashoggi, Oliver North, Tiny Rowland, James Goldsmith, Mark Rich, Bruce Rappaport, to name but a few). These people were mentioned extensively in mainstream news reports. I am also cynical enough and have done enough reading elsewhere to believe that most of what she describes and suggests is probably true. The problem is that she has thrown in so much raw data that it is hard to make out what is incontrovertible, what is convincing inference and what is just speculation.

Huge chunks of Volume 1 have almost no narrative direction. Webb simply lists the names of people, banks, organisations and possible connections between them, such as; "Senator X was known to visit the Algonquin Club, which at that time also boasted among its members millionaire playboy and real-estate tycoon, George Q. Waggenhut III, who was on the board of Danziger Holdings with Senator X's wife who, interestingly, once shared a cab with Sonny "Fingers" Milano of the Genovese crime family." I'm paraphrasing but not exaggerating...

While the connections are suggestive, there are far too many to keep track of, and the sheer volume makes one feel that the author is trying to weigh the reader down with detail because, actually, she doesn't have much real evidence of wrong doing. And that's too bad, because if you can force yourself to wade through all this poorly organised inference, what emerges is a picture of a world which is unimaginably corrupt and cynical, governed and gamed by psychopaths, narcissists, cheats and hypocrites, whose only interests are wealth, power, sadism and exploitation.

The book is at its best when dealing with specific events, such as the Pageboy Scandal or BCCI, or the dealings of particular individuals . Her chapters on Lewis Rosenstiel and Robert Maxwell, for instance, are brilliant journalism, and Webb uncovers some really interesting details. I don't know whether this is primary or secondary research (I suspect the latter), but much of it was new to me, and I'm pretty sure most of it has never been drawn together in the same place before. When Webb has a thread to follow, she does so with fearless tenacity. (It is no surprise she now lives in Chile). The problem comes with the endless lists of names and possible associations. These are almost impossible to follow or retain, and they weaken her argument immensely. That said, I believe I understand why she has done this.

There are three obstacles facing a book like this. The first is that there are almost no smoking guns here, and why would there be? One of the defining characteristics of organised crime, conspiracies and the intelligence services is that they are secret. They go out of their way to make sure there are no smoking guns. Secondly, in most cases, we are not dealing with minuted meetings or official records. The evidence has to be construed from multiple sources. If you can't look under the water, you have to look at the waves on the surface and the colour of the water and infer what is happening beneath. Unfortunately, such inference may or may not be accurate. The third problem is that the conspiracy is so vast, it is impossible to view as a whole. BBCI and Iran-Contra are cases in point. One their own, they are egregious examples of corruption and malfeasance on multiple levels, but they are CONNECTED, and in turn connect to other less well-known but equally sordid events. It is only through examining the intricate network of relationships between the people and events described here that the full extent of the unbelievable levels of corruption begins to emerge.

Webb is attempting to describe a web, and if you give her some time and attention, I believe she succeeds. How accurate some of the conclusions are is impossible to say, but the sheer volume of information all pointing in the same direction is compelling. The same names coming up again and again from multiple different sources; the same allegations from different sources; the evidence of state-sanctioned suppression of information; the individuals who conveniently just turn up dead or go missing or whose planes blow up for no apparent reason. If there's no smoke without fire, then smoke enough to choke and blind you over an area of 100 square miles suggests a pretty big blaze SOMEWHERE!

That said, I think the book could have been much better organised. Much of the detail contained in Volume 1 could have been consigned to appendices, while the narrative focussed on specific characters and events. This would have made Webb's argument easier to follow, more convincing and made the book much easier to read. Volume 2 is somewhat better organised, perhaps because it uses Epstein as the narrative thread binding everything else together, but it does suffer from some of the same problems as Volume 1. Whitney, you really need a good editor!

I also think that more primary research would have made for a more convincing argument. Some of the people involved in these stories are still alive and the documentation is still out there,. My impression (which could be incorrect) is that most of this is based on the work of other researchers which Webb has brought together. There are extensive notes and references, but a bit more personal sleuthing might have made it a bit stronger.

The book is fairly well read by a reader who seems to have a grasp of what she is reading. The only problem is numerous mispronunciations; James Jesus Angleton, head of CIA counter-intelligence, is pronounced "Hesus", with a slightly Spanish inflection, though a less-Latino man is hard to imagine! "Denizens" is pronounced, "deny-zens". And so on. It's too bad, because otherwise, Grace Noble reads very well. Just a little more homework and she'd have been perfect.

Arguably, that is a criticism that could be levelled at the whole book, but I think that would be glib and unfair. This is a monumental piece of work by an author, journalist and researcher only just in her 30s, tackling a subject that few others have even dared to approach, (Seymour Hersch, John Pilger and a few others excepted) and actually doing it more broadly than any of them. I wish her well and look forward to Volume 3. Hopefully, she will be able to afford to hire a better editor by then, but even if she doesn't, I'll still read it!

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Fantastic read. A wealth of information.

I'm convinced the author is one of the best journalists there has ever been. Whitney makes a tremendous effort linking a lot of people and events across decades of international politics.

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Depth of research & information

Improving my knowledge arming me with the ability to decrease my use of both the phone and computer to make me free and safe

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Data not Information

Whilst I applaud the ton of research, this book feels like a never ending stream of footnotes, references, factoids, statements and bibliography.

It needs a giant political mind to make sense of the data and present a clear framework.

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