Jim Marrs - Rule by Secrecy - The Hidden History that Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freema

the absence of libel suits against such writers as lending some credence to their views. Yet the mainstream news media rarely sees fit to discuss—much less investigate—such accusations.

Yet with the arrival of a new millennium, the theme of conspiracy has found its way into every aspect of American Life—from books, TV, and film treatment to politics. Even the president of the United States is not immune to the lure of conspiracies.

In 1991, newly installed President Bill Clinton appointed his close friend and golfing buddy Webster Hubbell associate attorney general of the Department of Justice. In a recent memoir, Friends in High Places, Hubbell wrote that Clinton told him, "Webb . . .if I put you over at Justice, I want you to find the answers to two questions for me. One, who killed JFK? And two, are there UFOs?" "He was dead serious," added Hubbel. "I had looked into both but wasn't satisfied with the answers I was getting."

The ptesident and his top appointee in the Justice Department can't get a straight answer? Who's in charge?

Following Hubbell's disclosure, Dr. Steven Greer, director of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI), revealed that in 1993 he gave a three-hour briefing on the reality of UFOs to then-CIA director Admiral James Woolsey. Greer said Woolsey was stymied in his attempts to verify Greer's information and was unable to obtain the relevant documents in CIA files.

When it comes to this nation's deepest, darkest secrets, it appears there are powers even higher than the president of the United States and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Conspiracy writers and government officials are not alone in suspecting conspiracies.

A 1997 Scripps-Howard News Service poll in conjunction with Ohio University resulted in these remarkable statistics: —51 percent of those polled believe it is likely that some federal officials were directly responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

—More than a third suspect that the U.S. Navy shot down TWA Flight 800, either intentionally or unintentionally.

—A majority believe that it is possible that CIA officials intentionally allowed Central American drug dealers to sell cocaine to inner-city black children.