Vultures Picnic - Chapter One

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11/03/2011

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Books - Non-fiction>Politics

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Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Predators. A tale of oil, sex, shoes, radiation and investigative re... (More) Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Predators. A tale of oil, sex, shoes, radiation and investigative reporting.

From the Arctic Circle to the Islamic Republic of BP, from a burnt nuclear reactor in Japan to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Palast uncovers a story you won't get on CNN.

Greg Palast's crew of journalist-detectives chase down British Petroleum bag men, CIA operatives, nuclear power con men—and "The Vultures," billionaire financial speculators who, through bribery, flim-flam and political muscle, take entire nations hostage for mega-profits.

The action begins when the Deepwater Horizon explodes in the Gulf of Mexico and a confidential cable arrives on Miss Badpenny's desk from a terrified insider. He has the real, hushed-up facts of the disaster—which can only be found hidden in the files of a Central Asian dictatorship.

Palast sets off for Baku to investigate the sexiest Muslim woman on Earth and the whereabouts of millions of dollars in a brown valise. Then he jumps the globe to an Alaska Eskimo village after receiving an extraordinary note from the Chief of Intelligence of the Free Republic of the Arctic.

Along the way, Palast gets drunk, gets sober, gets laid, gets arrested—and ultimately defeats one Vulture—only to watch twenty more hatch in his place.

It's a tale of oil company hit men, nuclear con-men and financial jackals.

But more, it's the story of an investigator on the hunt, not quite sure why he's doing it—and failing as often as he succeeds.

It's pulp non-fiction. Columbo with marital issues and a dying father.

"Reads like a spy thriller. The last of the great investigative reporters." - Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"Jack Kerouac meets Seymour Hersh." - Buzzflash

"Up there with Woodward and Bernstein." - The Guardian

"America's best investigative reporter—and the funniest." - Randi Rhodes (Less)