The Fitrakis Files: Spooks, Nukes, & Nazis – Bob Fitrakis
The Fitrakis Files: Spooks, Nukes, & Nazis – Bob Fitrakis, Columbus Alive Publishing (2003) 246pp. (OBT) ****
In Fitrakis’ opening pages, there is this: “The happy-face fascism of our New England preppie turned faux Texan is routinely accepted by a compliant populace.”(p.2) Thusly, Fitrakis aptly describes the current administration that is reigning over the twilight of American democracy. No wonder that we find a defiant Fitrakis, poised against the grain of a soft-spined corporate news media, in championing the indignation and rights of millions who were disenfranchised during the 2004 presidential election. But that is another book.
In Spooks, Nukes, & Nazis, Fitrakis has assembled a collection of his work that roughly spans the last ten years. Though some might jump to the charge that the news subjects are fairly parochial, it is to Fitrakis’ credit that he ties what is happening locally in central Ohio, into wider considerations and contexts. Hence, we learn of a school that is built over an old military weapons facility, that had a role dating back to the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. Fitrakis also takes us into a closer examination of the neo-fascist, extreme right of groups like the Aryan Nation and World Church of the Creator and its threat to civil society and the broader implications for the country as a whole. And by uncovering the rich history of a CIA backed (and at one time, an outright CIA owned) air cargo company – Southern Air Transport, we are given a look into many of the tentacles of such an operation, from Air America to Iran-Contra.
Fitrakis’ populist approach is at its best, though, when he takes on the Bush administration directly. In Bush’s address to the U.N., he quotes Bush as having said: “‘Our principles and our security are challenged today by outlaw groups and regimes that accept no law of morality and have no limit to their violent ambitions.’”(p.132) To which Fitrakis’ astute analysis comes this: “The U.N. needs to realize that Bush’s statement is a Freudian slip – a self-confession about the real terrorist network that surrounds him in Washington, D.C.”(p.132) How many times can the reader think of, that when hearing an administration official so eloquently wax over our nefarious and ubiquitous enemies, has the idea come to the fore, that, yes there they go again, speaking of themselves? Hats off to Fitrakis for his no holds barred investigative journalism, a style that isn’t afraid to call a spade a spade. It’s an assurance to the democracy to have his voice pounding at the door of power.
In Fitrakis’ opening pages, there is this: “The happy-face fascism of our New England preppie turned faux Texan is routinely accepted by a compliant populace.”(p.2) Thusly, Fitrakis aptly describes the current administration that is reigning over the twilight of American democracy. No wonder that we find a defiant Fitrakis, poised against the grain of a soft-spined corporate news media, in championing the indignation and rights of millions who were disenfranchised during the 2004 presidential election. But that is another book.
In Spooks, Nukes, & Nazis, Fitrakis has assembled a collection of his work that roughly spans the last ten years. Though some might jump to the charge that the news subjects are fairly parochial, it is to Fitrakis’ credit that he ties what is happening locally in central Ohio, into wider considerations and contexts. Hence, we learn of a school that is built over an old military weapons facility, that had a role dating back to the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. Fitrakis also takes us into a closer examination of the neo-fascist, extreme right of groups like the Aryan Nation and World Church of the Creator and its threat to civil society and the broader implications for the country as a whole. And by uncovering the rich history of a CIA backed (and at one time, an outright CIA owned) air cargo company – Southern Air Transport, we are given a look into many of the tentacles of such an operation, from Air America to Iran-Contra.
Fitrakis’ populist approach is at its best, though, when he takes on the Bush administration directly. In Bush’s address to the U.N., he quotes Bush as having said: “‘Our principles and our security are challenged today by outlaw groups and regimes that accept no law of morality and have no limit to their violent ambitions.’”(p.132) To which Fitrakis’ astute analysis comes this: “The U.N. needs to realize that Bush’s statement is a Freudian slip – a self-confession about the real terrorist network that surrounds him in Washington, D.C.”(p.132) How many times can the reader think of, that when hearing an administration official so eloquently wax over our nefarious and ubiquitous enemies, has the idea come to the fore, that, yes there they go again, speaking of themselves? Hats off to Fitrakis for his no holds barred investigative journalism, a style that isn’t afraid to call a spade a spade. It’s an assurance to the democracy to have his voice pounding at the door of power.
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