The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting: Dark Deeds & Derring-Do from 1950 to Today

The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting #1-5

by Abner Smith

A stirring work that offers a chilling glimpse into the negligence, greed, murder, and, at times, comical disorganization behind some of the CIA’s most controversial secret operations, this book collects the first five issues of the zine. Summarizing the influence the CIA had in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.; the AIDS virus; the killing of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, a Puerto Rican independence movement leader; the Patriot Act; and the Iran-Contra affair, this forthright representation provides an behind the scenes look at the United States’ foreign and domestic policies. The radical claims presented are built on fact and posit an accessible alternative to mainstream histories that help to contextualize current events and the worldwide anti-American backlash.

Genres: Nonfiction

161 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Grace]

Super interesting! Evil Evil CIA. Where are the in-text citations though?!

[Smiley McGrouchpants Jr.]

So easy to read — and hard to resist — you should have already picked it up. "Even after recent revelations about the CIA it is still difficult for people to understand what a huge and sinister organization the CIA is. It is the biggest and most powerful secret service that has ever existed. I don't know how big the KGB is inside the Soviet Union, but it's international operation is small compared to the CIA's. The CIA has 16,500 employees and an annual budget of $750,000,000. That does not include its mercenary armies or its commerical subsidiaries."

Presidents come and go ... Ike felt that Allen Dulles had left him a "legacy of ashes," because he had done do much without his approval, or things that by their very nature, were beyond his reach ... with the nature of the Cold War, so much of it was to be akin to Spycraft, chess-game manueverings of Who Knows What's Happening, Anyway and Why Would We Tell Them? crossed with the zero-sum nature of Death at Any Moment, after all, the fate of the planet hung in the balance at every juncture ... It's hard to get out of the habit. As we see here.

Highly recommended.

[Elliott]

I really enjoyed this book in that it packs a whole lot of information into few pages, and has a great bibliography for every segment, plus it's witty to boot. I docked it a star because while I liked the other four installments, the middle one dealing with the birth of HIV/AIDS has been largely discredited.

[Rachel]

Inline citations would have helped so much here, particularly with the more extraordinary claims. Some chapters, especially Iran Contra, were strong while others felt more thinly sourced and speculative.

[Owen Reed]

I understand that this is supposed to be “zine” style information, but I have a major problem with the way that this information, while good and important, is handled here. This information enters into a space filled (intentionally I would say) with disinformation, false leads, and contradicting claims: this is the nature of the beast. People writing about covert activities of the US have a duty to adhere to militant objectivism, to make the custody of information abundantly clear, and unabashedly state when they are engaging in speculation or dealing with a claim that it is unverified. This book does not do this! If it was a true zine, meant to state the basics of each event and point readers to further sources, this would be entirely forgivable, but the authors are very verbose, and string together hundreds of claims per chapter only supported with a short bibliography at the end of each, with no indication of what information came from where.

The sources cited seem reputable, and I will certainly be pursuing some of these topics further using the provided bibliographies, but I feel that authors approaching these subjects bear a greater responsibility than what is shown here. Write a short introductory zine, or hunker down and write a substantiated book or article— I’m not a fan of this middle ground for these topics.

Beautifully illustrated!

[Kevin]

Thought this was a more mature take on the CIA's involvement in various situations. However the author lacked in place citation and rather used a high school style bibliography approach that made verifying claims impossible at times.

The narratives felt blogy in that the train of thought ran on and then abruptly arrived at conclusions without stating the data points that led there.

In the end I felt like I got someone's personal treatise against the CIA and lots of speculation rather than a properly edited book.

Also because this book shows up multiple times in Good Reads with different authors it feels like there is intentional review seeking going on. The other comments and reviews feel auto-generated or spammed with lots of confirmation bias showing in whom responded.

[Kevin]

Thought this was a more mature take on the CIA's involvement in various situations. However the author lacked in place citation and rather used a high school style bibliography approach that made verifying claims impossible at times.

The narratives felt blogy in that the train of thought ran on and then abruptly arrived at conclusions without stating the data points that led there.

In the end I felt like I got someone's personal treatise against the CIA and lots of speculation rather than a properly edited book.

Also because this book shows up multiple times in Good Reads with different authors it feels like there is intentional review seeking going on. The other comments and reviews feel auto-generated or spammed with lots of confirmation bias showing in whom responded.

[L██D███Y███S███]

Good book, great second half. A few points that I wasn't totally convinced on, particularly in the chapter on HIV/AIDS. The chapter on Dr King's assassination was also a little confusing for me, having little prior knowledge of such precise details of that day. Piqued my interest in several issues though, would be cool to see a part two and there's plenty more to write about!

[Terry Graap]

This small book has three areas mentioned. It discussed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Aids epidemic and the Intra Contra affair. It showed me a different side of what had come about regarding these three events.

[Joshua Williams]

This is an amazing foray into dark dealings of the government. They explore topics like CONTRA, AIDS, and the MLK assassination. This is a must read for political activists.