If you just want to deal with empirical evidence and get a solid outside perspective on perhaps why the US made the specific moves it did in the Middle East in the 2000s, read the first 2-3 chapters of this book, then the last chapter, and then never look at this book again. The rest is hard to confirm, perhaps well-researched according to some set of late-20th-C. investigative journalism criteria, but not nearly as empirical or as large-scale as the first. Because the scale of the forces at play is so vast, Ruppert struggles to keep the thread at points, especially in the middle section of the book, which discusses the PROMIS software and goes on an extended tangent about a specific witness.

The end of the book concerns the massive expansion in unchecked executive and so-called deep-state powers following the USA PATRIOT and Homeland acts, as well as the interesting circumstances in which several senators with key roles in opposing the Homeland Act's passage in Congress were, uh, compelled to change their minds. Very important if you want to understand the context behind recent Supreme Court rulings, plus important for anyone curious about the formation and reproduction of the "deep state".

The middle part will make you feel crazy, because it was written by a crazy guy. But the evidence laid out in the first few chapters is enough to make any critical thinker reconsider the official line about Middle East diplomacy. Highly recommend pairing this with America's Kingdom by Robert Vitalis as a chaser, as it's much more well-researched, if a bit drier.