Rodney Stich
Diablo Western Press, USA, 1994
The first thing to be said is that this is a huge (650 pages), fascinating book; and I recommend it. It is really three stories interwoven. The first section describes the author’s experience of trying to alert the American civil aviation industry, then the politicians and then the media, to a series of safety and training scandals involving US airlines in the 1960s. (The author was a federal air safety inspector.) Stich blew the whistle and everyone did their three wise monkeys number. More planes fell out of the sky. Stich blew harder and the powers-that-be set about ruining his life, reputation and, ultimately, his business. If there is a lesson to be drawn from this book it is: whistleblow at your peril.
A stubborn man, Stich continued trying to be heard and began an extraordinary series of (ultimately futile) actions in the US legal system, extracts from which are reproduced here in great detail. En route he got screwed by everybody and uncovered mind-boggling corruption among judges, the Justice Department, and the entire US legal system from the ground upwards. If you thought you knew how corrupt US civic life was, or how disgusting lawyers can be, you ain’t seen nothing. This is the second theme of the book.
As the man screaming ‘fire’, Stich began to attract other whistle-blowers and informants – a process which was accelerated when the system, having ripped-off most of his money and destroyed his life, tossed him in prison. There he began to meet other victims, among whom are former US military and intelligence personnel who were involved in, or claim to have been involved in, the various intelligence scandals of the Reagan/Bush years: October Surprise, Inslaw, BCCI, the arming of Iran and Iraq. And so Stich begins to learn about Mossad operations; factions within the CIA; assassination squads; drug dealing on a massive scale; corrupt politicians, judges etc. etc. He lists dozens of alleged CIA operations, personnel and front companies.
This third section is the most interesting – and least satisfactory: (a) because Stich begins interweaving what he knows, what he’s read along the way, and what he’s been told; and (b) because most of the allegations are not adequately substantiated (not least because some of those who have tried to do so have been murdered; lots of dead bodies in this book).
How much of this catalogue of murderous venality is true, I am not competent to assess. Even if only a quarter is, and my half-educated guess would be much higher than that, this is an amazing – and appalling – tale.
There are serious things wrong with it. In places it lacks documentation which could easily be added (newspaper dates, book publication details and so forth); and if there is a further edition it could do with being edited and designed by someone other than the author. But these are just quibbles.
In Europe the book is $25 plus $4.50 (sea mail) or $16 (airmail) from PO Box 5, Alamo CA 94507, USA.
If you have any queries, Mr Stich is at (telephone) 510 944 1930; (FAX) 510 295 1203