The Grand Deception
A Second Look at the War on Terrorism
Part One
Ladies and Gentlemen, the title of my presentation today is The Grand Deception—A Second Look at the War on Terrorism.
I was flattered to hear in my introduction that I have a reputation for taking complex subjects and making them easy to understand. I hope I can live up to that expectation, but I couldn’t help wondering if I can really do that with this topic: The War on Terrorism. How can you make that easy to understand? It’s such a huge and confusing topic. I feel like the proverbial mosquito in a nudist camp. I know what I have to do. I just don’t know where to begin.
There is a formula I often follow when I don’t know where to begin, and that is to start with history. If you discover the history, you should be able to figure it out as you go along. It was Will Durant who said, “Those who know nothing about history are doomed forever to repeat it.”
Are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of history in the war on terrorism? If we continue to follow the path we are now taking, I’m afraid that we are. But to find out whether we are repeating the mistakes of history, we need to go back in time. So, I invite you to join me in my time machine. We are going to splash around in history for a while and look at some great events and huge mistakes to see if there are parallels, any lessons to be learned for today. I must warn you that it will seem we are lost in time. We are going to go here and there, and then jump back further, and then forward in time, and we will be examining issues that may make you wonder “What on earth has this to do with today.” But I can assure you, when we reach the end of our journey, you will see that everything we cover has a direct relevance to today and in particular, to the war on terrorism.
The Hidden Agenda of Tax-exempt Foundations
Let’s start our time machine. We turn the dial to the year 1954 and, suddenly, we find ourselves in the plush offices of the Ford Foundation in New York. We see two men seated at a large, Mahogany desk, and they are talking. They cannot see or hear us. These men are Roland Gaither, who was the President of the Ford Foundation at that time, and Mr. Norman Dodd. Mr. Dodd was the newly appointed chief investigator of what was called the Congressional Committee to Investigate Tax Exempt Foundations. The Ford Foundation was one of them, so he was there as part of his Congressional responsibilities.
It was about 1972 that I happened to meet Mr. Dodd in Virginia. I had a television crew with me, because we were producing a documentary film and had some open time. I called Mr. Dodd and asked if he would be willing to make a statement before our cameras, and he said, “Of course.” I’m glad we obtained the interview, because he was advanced in years, and it wasn’t long afterward that he passed away. We were very fortunate to capture his story in his own words. (For those who are interested in viewing his complete testimony on video, it is available from The Reality Zone, http://www.realityzone.com It’s called “The Hidden Agenda” and is available in both video and audio formats. The printed transcript can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.realityzone.com/hiddenagenda2.html