Introduction

 

This Senior Seminar is in development and will be designed as an undergraduate college-level class for high school students interested in public policy and geopolitics. The primary focus of the class will be historical events involving the United States, but other nations will also be discussed within the context of geopolitical events involving the United States.

 

The Seminar will explore the concept of state crimes against democracy (SCAD), and engage in an in-depth examination of historical events that scholars have asserted are SCAD. Students will examine relevant evidence to draw conclusions about specific historical case studies in order to hypothesize about whether or not these events should be classified as SCAD, and what effect these events have had on the political, economic, cultural, and social environment of the United States and the global geopolitical landscape.

 

Case Studies

 

1. Operation Gladio – 1956-1990 (?)

2. JFK Assassination – 1963

3. MLK Assassination – 1968

4. Iran-Contra Affair – 1985-7

5. Oklahoma City Bombing – 1995

6. US Presidential Elections – 2000, 2004

7. World Trade Center and Pentagon Bombings – 2001

 

Course Materials

 

Articles/White Papers

 

• When Political Crimes Are Inside Jobs: Detecting State Crimes Against Democracy  by Lance deHaven-Smith

• The Geographical Pivot of History by Halford John Makinder

• Narco Dollars for Beginners by Catherine Austin Fitts

• Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century by The Project for the New American Century

• Report of The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Warren Commission)

• Transcript of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination Trial

• Transcript of the King Family Press Conference on the MLK Assassination Trial Verdict

• FBI Suicide Letter to MLK (redacted)

• FBI Suicide Letter to MLK (unredacted)

• War Is A Racket by Smedley Butler

 

Books

 

• Clash of Civilizations? (Foreign Affairs-Summer 1993) by Samuel P. Huntington

• The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives by Zbigniew Brzezinski

• The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Authorized Edition)

• NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe by Daniele Ganser

• The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in Reagan Era by Peter Dale Scott et al.

• Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion by Gary Webb

• The Best Enemy Money Can Buy by Antony C. Sutton

 

Videos

 

• “9/11 Pentagon Attack – Behind the Smoke Curtain”

• “9/11 Trillions: Follow The Money”

• "9/11: Conspiracy Solved"

• “Confessions of an Economic Hitman”

• “Congressional Iran Contra Hearings – Oliver North Testimony”

• "Free For All!"

• “A Noble Lie : The Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995”

• "Norman Dodd Interview"

• “Operation Gladio: BBC”

• “The Secret Government: Bill Moyers”

• "Stephen Spoonamore Interview"

• “Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections”