William Blum
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William Blum (born 1933) is an American author, and critic of United States foreign policy. A former State Department employee, he left the organization in 1967 due to his opposition to the Vietnam War.
From 1972 to 1973 Blum was stationed in Chile, where he reported on the Allende government's "socialist experiment". In the mid-1970s, he worked in London with ex-CIA agent Philip Agee and his associates. Agee wrote a critique of CIA operations in his book Inside the Company: CIA Diary.
Blum was the founder and editor of the Washington Free Press, one of the many newspapers in the loosely organized U.S. underground press in the 1960s and 1970s that opposed the Vietnam War.
In the late 1980s, Blum moved to Los Angeles to work on a documentary on U.S. foreign policy based on his own book Killing Hope. He worked on this together with the filmmaker Oliver Stone but the project ultimately floundered.
In his writing, Blum devotes substantial attention to CIA interventions and assassination plots. Blum describes himself as a socialist and has supported Ralph Nader's presidential campaigns. He currently circulates a monthly newsletter by email called "The Anti-Empire Report". Blum's work was publicly recommended by famous people including Noam Chomsky, Helen Caldicott, and Oliver Stone.
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[edit] Osama bin Laden statement
In early 2006, Blum briefly became the subject of widespread media attention when Osama bin Laden issued a public statement in which he quoted Blum and recommended that all Americans read Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower.[1] In a May 22, 2006 article entitlted, Come Out of the White House With Your Hands Up, Blum wrote, "Since the bin Laden recommendation, January 19, I have not been offered a single speaking engagement on any campus . . .This despite January-May normally being the most active period for me and other campus speakers."
[edit] Quotations
| “ | “Between 1945 and 2005 the United States has attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments, and to crush more than 30 populist-nationalist movements struggling against intolerable regimes... In the process, the U.S. caused the end of life for several million people, and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair.” (Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower). | ” |
| “ | "No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine" (Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower). | ” |
[edit] Books
- 1986: The CIA: A Forgotten History (Zed Books) ISBN 0-86232-480-7
- 2000: Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (Common Courage Press) ISBN 1-56751-194-5
- 2002: West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir (Soft Skull Press) ISBN 1-56751-306-9
- 2003: Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, revised edition (Common Courage Press) ISBN 1-56751-252-6
- 2004: Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire (Common Courage Press)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Montgomery, David (2006 January 21). "The Author Who Got A Big Boost From bin Laden". Washington Post: C01.
[edit] External links
- Killing Hope. Retrieved on 2006-07-30. William Blum's Homepage, Anti-empire reports
- Common Courage Press. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.
- Bio Files: William Blum. www.historyguy.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.
- America's most feared man. Nerve. Retrieved on 2006-11-17. An interview with Blum from Liverpool's 'Nerve' magazine
- William Blum in the Media Whirlwind. C-span. Retrieved on 2006-07-30. Transcript of William Blum’s Jan. 28, 2006 appearance on C-Span's call-in show Washington Journal
- (January 21 2006) "Bin Laden plug boosts book sales". Sydney Morning Herald.
- Montgomery, David (January 21 2006). "The Author Who Got A Big Boost From bin Laden Historian 'Glad' of Mention As Sales of Book Skyrocket". Washington Post: C01.
