William Blum is one of the United States' leading non-mainstream experts on American foreign policy. He left the State Department in 1967, abandoning his aspiration of becoming a Foreign Service Officer because of his opposition to what the US was doing in Vietnam. He then became a founder and editor of the Washington Free Press, the first 'alternative' newspaper in the capital. Blum has been a freelance journalist in the US, Europe and South America, and is the author of 'Killing Hope' and 'America's Deadliest Export'; both published by Zed Books.

Preface to the new edition Author's foreword: Concerning September 11, 2001 Introduction OURS AND THEIRS: WASHINGTON'S LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH TERRORISTS AND HUMAN-RIGHTS VIOLATORS 1. Why do terrorists keep picking on the United States? 2. America's gift to the world - the Afghan terrorist alumni 3. Assassinations 4. Excerpts from US Army and CIA Training Manuals 5. Torture 6. The unsavories 7. Training new unsavories 8. War criminals: theirs and ours 9. Haven for terrorists 10. Supporting Pol Pot UNITED STATES USE OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION 11. Bombings 12. Depleted uranium 13. Cluster bombs 14. Chemical and biological weapons abroad 15. Chemical and biological weapons at home 16. Encouraging the use of CBW by other nations A ROGUE STATE VERSUS THE WORLD 17. A concise history of US global interventions 18. Perverting elections 19. Trojan horse: the national endowment for democracy 20. The US versus the world at the United Nations 21. Eavesdropping on the planet 22. Kidnapping and looting 23. How the CIA sent Nelson Mandela to prison for 28 years 24. The CIA and drugs: just say 'Why not?' 25. Being the world's only superpower means never having to say you're sorry 26. The US invades, bombs and kills for it...but do Americans really believe in free enterprise? 27. A day in the life of a free country, or how do the United States get away with it?