American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us

By Jesse Ventura and Dick Russell

The former governor, pro wrestler, and Navy SEAL explores conspiracies our government wishes you didn’t know about in this New York Times–bestselling book.

In this explosive account of wrongful acts and ensuing cover-ups, Jesse Ventura offers a different side to the stories we’ve all heard and read about in the history books. He examines the wide gap between what the government knows and what is revealed to the American people. The media is complicit in these acts of deception, often refusing to consider alternate possibilities and dismissing voices that diverge from public opinion. He will look closely at the theories that have been presented over the years and examine the truth as well as the lies. Ventura does not shy away from the tough questions. As he states, “When I get denied something, I do the opposite of getting intimidated—I get angry.”

Now with new conspiracies added including information on the CIA torture scandal and the financial meltdown of 2008, you will see how the United States government continues to abuse our civil liberties and why we need to continue to stand up for what we know is right.

You may not believe everything in American Conspiracies, but it is guaranteed to make you think harder about everything you do believe.

“Believable? Some of it. An action-packed read? You bet.” —Booklist

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 8, 2010
• ISBN: 9781626367340

Jesse Ventura

Jesse Ventura is a politician, military veteran, actor, television presenter, political commentator, author, and retired professional wrestler.

Reviews for American Conspiracies

[brianm80027 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is so provoking it makes me sick to my stomach. Jesse Ventura as always tells like it is, even these shocking revelations.

[malrubius · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Audiobook. Perhaps the most important book I have read since 9/11 (along with Naomi Klein's Disaster Capitalism." Passionate and well-researched. Something is rotten in the United $tates of America.

[ashryan_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Jesse Ventura unwittingly demonstrates the problem with so many conspiracy theories---they're good at finding holes in the accepted version of events, but then they proceed to string together an even more fallacious and utterly arbitrary version of their own! For instance, how's this for mistaken attribution of causation, exacerbated by temporal correlation: the Feds were keeping tabs on MLK and Malcolm X and had people following them before they were killed, so therefore, they must have been involved in the assassinations! Sorry, but it just doesn't follow. And that's typical of the kind of evidence Ventura musters for his conclusions, which, to be kind, we'll say is circumstantial at best. Even the parts that seem to be better documented and more logically argued are mired in so much obvious nonsense that it's difficult to sort out the grains of truth and get much of value out of this book. Even worse, a lot of it isn't just nonsense...it's dangerous nonsense.The best chapter was the final one on "big brother"---specifically, the Patriot Act. His analysis that the Bill of Rights has been thrown out the window is, unfortunately, fairly accurate. However, he fails to distinguish between political power---i.e., physical coercion, the power of a gun---and economic "power"---i.e., persuasion, the "power" of the dollar---and therefore reaches the ridiculous conclusion that the government gathering information on us (for unknown, but pretty obvious, reasons) and businesses gathering information on us (in order to better serve us and hopefully sell us more of their product) are equally frightening. Yeah...right.Possibly the worst chapter is the penultimate one, on the financial crisis of 2008. In it, after arguing for the entire book up to that point that the government is too powerful, bloated, and corrupt, he argues that the solution to the financial crisis is to...give the government MORE power over our economy? It's so crazy, it just might work! Similarly, he argues that we should have state-run healthcare---pointing to, as his shining example, the VA system. "If it's good enough for veterans, it should be good enough for the rest of us," he writes...and yet, in his subsequent book (63 Documents the Government Doesn't Want You to Read), he provides actual documentation of how inefficient and ineffective the VA really is to show what a raw deal the veterans are getting (the document he provides concludes that "the VA is killing veterans slowly through bureaucratic processes," even driving some to suicide...this is what we have to look forward to under Obamacare, folks!). Nice work, Jesse! You can't have it both ways. And, despite his reputation for "telling it like it is," Ventura's political lambasting is pretty one-sided. Also, does anyone else think it's creepy that he's apparently on a first-name basis with Fidel Castro? He apparently never met a dictator he didn't like!...at least not a Communist one. Jesse Ventura gives Independents a bad name...at least he doesn't let either of the major parties think for him, but he doesn't think for himself, either!Anyway, since his political views seem pretty similar to Ron Paul's, this book at least provides the valuable service of showing what a disaster it would be to have someone like Paul in the White House. And, as promised, it did make me think...so I guess it was better than I expected!Also, he really needs to bring back the 'stache!