Mike Ruppert uses the operative word to describe the Cheney-Bush regime, that of Empire, an all-encompassing octopus-like power grab at world preeminence at the expense of international order. With “Crossing The Rubicon” Ruppert has clearly established himself alongside the venerable essayist and political critic Gore Vidal as articulate voices decrying the rush to Empire and the tragic consequences of such dictatorial actions.

Ruppert holds one other point in common with Gore Vidal as well as Noam Chomsky. The mainstream media has attempted to render all three incisive critics of the established order as “non-persons.” Thankfully Ruppert has survived the attempted destruction in the same manner as the other two authors, by speaking with such consistent and decisive logic and force that large segments of the public hungry for voices outside the realm of the corporate establishment media have read him and embraced his populist, anti-authoritarian viewpoint.

This well researched work contains many articles that first appeared on Ruppert’s successful website. It is called, appropriately, “From The Wilderness” in recognition of its independent message removed from the muddled mainstream of repetitious garble.

Many of the most informative articles appearing on the “From The Wilderness” site written by Ruppert and staff members have focused on “Peak Oil” and how control of that steadily depleting resource has influenced the American Empire headed ruthlessly by Dick Cheney.

Ruppert constructs a time line concerning 9-11 and supplies details on the perpetrators to make the case that the Central Intelligence Agency operating in close concert with Cheney and fellow neoconservatives such as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle used the tragedy as a means of invading Iraq while asserting previously unimagined domestic control under the guise of combating terrorism via the Patriot Act.

One fascinating point covered by Ruppert concerning his dissection of 9-11 and its consequences pertains to the unprecedented number of put options placed prior to the World Trade Center tragedy. Not only was the volume unprecedented; so was the directional flow, all in favor of price reductions for United and American airlines, which stood to be negatively impacted by the calamity. He connects the huge and rapid fire buying to the CIA in that Buzzy Krongard, who was an executive with one of the leading financial institutions investing in the put options, had been a major figure at the Langley, Virginia Agency.

Ruppert summarizes his information in his final chapter. The former policeman adopts the stance of a deputy district attorney as he makes his case linking Cheney as the Empire’s leading figure to orchestrating 9-11 and taking charge of the forward thrust to dominate the oil market during a period in which experts have issued dire warnings of a steadily depleting market.

Another area into which Ruppert fearlessly treads, as he has frequently on his popular website, is the influence of illegal drugs on the U.S. and global economies. He links this activity to the Central Intelligence Agency. Early in the book he explains how making the discovery of the CIA drug link led to his departure from the Los Angeles Police Department and nearly cost him his life.

One of the most refreshing as well as rewarding elements of Ruppert’s writing is that he strays away from the conventional and what is obtainable elsewhere while concentrating on providing the information that the powers that be, whether they be governmental or media, do not want you to read.

Ruppert’s “From The Wilderness” site has been in the forefront in exposing the global threat of oil depletion and the U.S. response to it along with the corresponding issue of 9-11. In “Crossing The Rubicon” he observes how the 9-11 Commission left more questions unanswered than it resolved. He sees this result as an inevitable conclusion given the linkages of Commission members to the political power elite and the oil industry.

The 9-11 tragedy stands at a similar historical juncture as the Kennedy assassination investigation in the wake of the Warren Commission Report. This was another typical example of insiders manipulating the process and holding the line against discovering facts that the public was not supposed to learn. It took a great deal of blood, sweat and tears on the part of independent investigators outside the power elite to ask important questions and reach important conclusions.

Thankfully the Internet is now available to enhance the investigative process and make it considerably easier for interested investigators to interlink. One investigator Ruppert mentions in connection with 9-11 that maintains a highly inquiring and invaluably informative site is Daniel Hopsicker, who operates the Mad Cow website. Hopsicker has zeroed in on the 9-11 suspects and made interesting discoveries that the 9-11 Commission left unexplored. He mentions the close involvement between Mohammed Atta and the head of the ISI, the Pakistani secret police.

Hopsicker has also fastened on some other interesting points. Rudy Dekkers, who operated the flight school where Atta trained in Florida, had made numerous trips to Germany and interacted with various intelligence types. Also, when it was time to haul records away from Dekkers’s flight school, who was on the scene to help supervise the venture but Jeb Bush. The group then flew away with the records. The records have not been discussed or referred to since, as if they had been buried, which perhaps they have.