Departments Books

I found out about the nuclear link to cancer (radiation.org is one source) after I got non genetic breast cancer 11 months after my mother died of it. I realized our government was not telling the public about the nuclear dangers and the impact on our health. Then I read this book. This book begins with an FBI agent describing a criminal investigation that explored the involvement of the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI superiors. Learn about these nuclear crimes, the government's role and the people who stood up for the truth. Stunning information! Fabulous book!

Grant Smith continues his scholarly exegesis into the history of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). His previous works included- "Foreign Agents: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal" and "Deadly Dogma: How Neoconservatives Broke the Law to Deceive America." His latest study- "American's Defense Line: A Declassified History of the Justice Department's Battle to Regulate the Israel Lobby as Agents of a Foreign Power"- is based on heretofore unavailable classified government documents. Smith tells the depressing tale of how U.S. law was systematically undermined by base political motives and questionable loyalties. The Smith trilogy is timely and required reading by all Americans concerned about the integrity and future of the United States. Smith dispassionately reveals how United States foreign policy in the Middle East was high jacked by a cadre of agents representing a foreign country- Israel. While his current study documents how AIPAC and its predecessors successfully evaded U.S. law to register as a "foreign agent," is it also a study in the usurpation of national sovereignty. This challenge to American sovereignty can no longer be ignored, as the consequences to the United States have been disastrous. The intrusion of the Israeli lobby goes well beyond ensuring that Israel receives its customary tribute from hard working American taxpayers. The Iraq War demonstrates this danger where Israel lobby cadres and fellow travelers were able to manipulate a weak, poorly informed president after the 9-11 crises to effect a launch a long-planned invasion of Iraq. While Iraq presented no discernable threat to the United States, it was a long-term adversary of Israel, as outlined in another Smith book- "Neocon Middle East Policy: the Clean Break Plan Damage Assessment". Thus, Israeli regional interests were advanced at the expense of American lives and treasure. This story within the Israel lobby narrative still needs to be told. Once again we are witnessing a repeat of Iraq with Iran- the House of Representatives recently passed a non-binding resolution urging a United States blockade of Iran's gasoline imports- a clear act of war. This resolution was authored at AIPAC and transmitted to a spineless Congress for passage. I suspect it was largely conceived in Jerusalem. The prostration of all major U.S. candidates before AIPAC should shame Americans watching each candidate outbid the other in the annual "pandering" exercise¬- Obama pledges Jerusalem will never leave Israeli control; McCain would move our embassy there immediately regardless of the consequences to vital U.S. interests while Clinton promised to "obliterate" the nation of Iran if it attacked Israel!

"American's Defense Line" can be described as the "Pentagon Papers" of AIPAC. Smith has combed through hundreds of recently declassified documents- internal letters, legal briefs, analyses, reports- to produce the first objective, detailed analysis of the struggle of the Department of Justice (DoJ) to regulate the American Zionist Committee (AZC)- the precursor of today's AIPAC. The DoJ was determined that the AZC be classified as an agent of Israel. Its investigations along with those of Senator Fulbright's and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, documented that the AZC was funded and directed by the State of Israel. As such, AZC was required to publicly disclose it's funding and all lobbying and public relations activity with the U.S. government. The AZC opposed this classification, as it would give lie to its claims to represent legitimate domestic political interests. "American Defense Line" is thoroughly documented having more than 437 footnotes and previously unpublished declassified papers, which allow readers to verify Smith's claims and undertake further research at their own leisure.

"America's Defense Line" is an admirably readable book. While the book deals with complex legal and historical issues spanning sixty years, the layman need not be dissuaded. No prior knowledge of law or Middle East affairs is required. Smith uses clear, concise prose and takes time to explain the historical context as each event in this sorry saga of American history unfolds. There are heroes in this book- Senator Fulbright, a rare political figure that courageously stood against the ruinous power of the Israel lobby and DoJ employees, such as Irene A. Bowman, who refused to subvert U.S. law to foreign interests to gain political favor. There are also cowards and cynics who compromised U.S. strategic interests to gain temporary political advantages. Smith neither plays partisan favors nor spares any of the players. The usual suspects will surface to discredit this book. Given the extraordinary documentation and research invested by Smith in "America's Defense Line," this reader looks forward to seeing Smith and his opponents do something the lobby avoids at all costs: an honest public debate.

This book is great for anyone wanting, or considering to join the military. It provides descriptions on basically all the career paths and occupations you can choose from with the picture to go along with it. This book will help me narrow down on what I want to do in the military when I join the USMC. If you are not sure on exactly what you want to do for the military, but want to join, then this is the book for you. I love this book! (This can be especially good for young people like myself)

I was researching the heroic story of the loss of the USS Aaron Ward (sunk off the Solomon Islands towards the end of WW2) when I came across the printed version (i.e. the 8 volume set) of this item on one of the Amazon websites and promptly purchased it. In many ways this is a more practical version because it allows you to browse, copy and transfer data but I still prefer the book.

Set out in alphabetical order and written without fear or favour, the United States Department of Defence have provided one of the most important research tools of modern years and I congratulate them for an excellent job of work. The entry for each ship commences with a note about the origin of the name. For example, the USS Missouri is named after an American state - enough said. The Aaron Ward, however, was named after Admiral Aaron Ward and that particular section commences with a most reasonable biography of the man.

Each ship to bear a particular name is covered in varying degrees of detail - largely dependant on what historical information was available to the compilers. Famous ships and, naturally, more recent vessels, get excellent coverage although it must be said that if the information was available on those much older vessels, then their full story is told here.

Watch out for single volumes being sold separately - when you are either looking for a complete set or perhaps a different volume.

Altogether, an excellent addition to my own library of information.

NM

I had a chance to look through this book when my son brought it home from his school library. It seems pretty thorough, and offers a glimpse at the wide varity of vocations and opportunities available in today's military. If you are unfamiliar with the military, this guide can help you get educated on your choices prior to seeing a recruiter.

If you are interested in becoming a military officer, you may want to look at "How to Become a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Military," by Ron Taylor.

Critics of the federal government--especially conservative critics--are fond of saying that government agencies are almost never abolished. "No matter how ineffective they are, they just go on forever," is the oft-heard complaint.

In 1974, Herbert Kaufman tried to find out whether government agencies do go on forever. The result, ARE GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS IMMORTAL?, has to be the most interesting volume ever to come out of the Brookings Institution and the best 79-page book ever published.

Briefly, Kaufman compared the number of federal "organizations" (a larger group than bonafide "agencies") in existence in 1923 with the federal organizations of 1973. This was more difficult than it sounds, as Kaufman had to account for agency-mergers, name-changes, and changes in mission, but eventually he came up with some reasonable rules for what constituted the "same" agency over the span of half a century. He also supplemented his two agency censuses with data from various government reports to determine agency founding dates. All in all, the only real flaws in the study were that Kaufman eliminated the "independent commissions" as well as everything in the Department of Defense. He also failed to incorporate the agencies that were both created and abolished in the years _between_ 1923 and 1973, which may have skewed the results somewhat.

What Kaufman found was that federal agencies are indeed "immortal" for the most part, and that the number of agencies keeps on increasing like so many layers of sedimentary rock. The agency head-count went from 11 in 1789 to 123 in 1923 to 394 in 1973. Between 1923 and 1973, only 27 agencies were abolished. This gives government agencies an 85 percent survival rate over 50 years. Equally important, Kaufman found that the longer an agency was in existence, the better chance it had to survive. In other words, the federal offices created under Washington, Adams, and Jefferson had a better chance of still being around than the ones created under Eisenhower and Kennedy.

If there is any surprise here, it is in what Kaufman calls the "death-rate." F.D.R. and Truman presided over an expanding federal government, but during their administrations 12 agencies were abolished--a very high figure for a 20-year period. And no agencies disappeared between 1957 and 1973, making these years quite unusual.

At the end of the book, Kaufman discusses how the agency death-rate might be increased. Among other proposals, he deals with "sunset legislation," at that time a fad idea for getting rid of institutions that had outlived their usefulness or never been any good to begin with. Under the simplest version of sunsetting, first proposed by William O. Douglas, every government agency would have an expiration date; at that time, if Congress didn't specifically vote to keep the agency alive, it would be abolished. But Kaufman was if anything more skeptical of the sunset idea than he ought to have been. Since this book was published, some form of sunset review has become routine--though perhaps more at the state level than at the federal and local levels. What the long-run effects will be are uncertain, of course.

We need more books like this--at the very least a follow-up study to cover the last 25 years of administrative history. In a footnote on page 77, Kaufman laments that we have so little information, and he says we need more. "The journey," he writes, "has barely begun." Alas, 25 years later, it has still barely begun, even after Kaufman's brilliant start.

Wickenburg, Yesterday and Today, by Ida Smith. Excerpts from A Path to Enchantment, An Artist in the Sonora Desert, by Wiliam J. Schaldach. Jeeping in Arizona, by Don Dedera. Central Arizona Project, by Tim Kelly.

The Dolores Zohrab Liebman Foundation, the Clark Fund of Harvard University and the Armenian General Benevolent Union are to be congratulated on their endeavour to honour a rare and erudite scholar, James Robert Russell (Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA)by funding a venture to publish a book titled "Armenian and Iranian Studies" which is a collection of 91 articles published by Professor James R. Russell in disparate journals and volumes since 1980. Few scholars in the prime of their career are honoured with a compilation of their past publications, and this voluminous tome (xxix, 1462 pages) brings together publications from rare and not easily accessible/available journals and festschrifts and conference proceedings. Also the field of Armenian and Iranian studies and especially Armeno-Iranica studies have attracted few scholars and so this collection of articles has an even greater academic value, making it almost one of a kind tome.
Professor Russells' areas of academic interests have, and continue to be Armenica, concentrating on the sources and religious materials of heroic epics and folk-lore-material ancillary to the "official" Christian clerical culture, and in the Iranian area his work encompasses studies in Irano-Judaica and the religious culture of the 'Parsi Zoroastrians' of India. The majority of articles in this compilation deal with Armeno-Iranica. They continue and serve to supplement studies, he had previously published in his magnum opus "Zoroastrians in Armenia" (Harvard Iranian Series, Cambridge, MA, 1987) where he emphasizes that the pre-Christian religion of the majority of the Armenians, was (despite special local features), the Zarathushtrian faith of the Parthian Arsacids.
Zarathushtrians and Parsis the world over, may find at a minimum of 52 articles of religious and cultural values of importance to them in this compilation. I urge them to read them with undivided attention. They are unique and thought provoking, even if one does not agree with Prof. Russell all the time.
I wish Prof. Russell a long and productive career in Armeno-Iraniaca at Harvard University as I read year after year his scholarly publications in various Armenian jounals, notably Revue des Etudes Armeniennes.
A book every Zarathushtrian oragnization, society, library and academics must have on their shelves.

The U.S. Army knows something about leadership. And this manual captures all the fundamental philosophy they teach Army officers. It's surprisingly well written too - with anecdotes and stories inserted throughout.

It's obvious that a leader such as George (Shack) Robinson was a benefit to the U.S. Army, as evidenced by his approach to his duties as a company commander in the 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, in Aschaffenburg, Germany, beginning in l974. His use of humor, discipline, and dedication in his job made serving with him both an honor and a pleasure. Hope he's doing well.

Bullet Bob Strain
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