Episode 13: Report from Iron Mountain explores the bizarre journey of a 1967 satirical hoax that became a foundational text for American conspiracy theorists. Created by left-wing satirists led by Viktor Navasky (later editor of The Nation) and writer Leonard Lewin, Report from Iron Mountain purported to be a leaked government study concluding that peace would be catastrophic for American society and that war was essential for social stability. The dry, academic prose perfectly mimicked Cold War-era think tank reports, suggesting disturbing alternatives to war including reintroducing slavery, implementing eugenics, and creating fake UFO scares to maintain social control. Published as nonfiction by Dial Press, the report became a bestseller and front-page news, prompting White House investigations before Lewin revealed his authorship in 1972.

The episode traces how this left-wing satire of the military-industrial complex was later embraced by the far-right as authentic evidence of government conspiracy. After falling out of print in the 1980s, the report was republished in 1990 by Holocaust-denying fascist Willis Carto's network of front organizations, who believed it was real government documentation. The report found new life in 1990s militia movements, circulating through underground channels and featured in the influential video Iron Mountain: Blueprint for Tyranny." Its ideas became embedded in extremist ideology that influenced figures like Timothy McVeigh and radio host Bill Cooper, demonstrating how satirical critique can dangerously transform into paranoid conspiracy theory—a cautionary tale about the thin line between justified skepticism of power and destructive paranoia.

Featuring Phil Tinline, author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax of the Century, Its Enduring Impact, and What It Reveals About America Today. Tinline discovered the report while researching the military-industrial complex and became fascinated by its transformation from leftist satire to right-wing conspiracy evidence. His investigation traces the document's complete lifecycle, from its Vietnam War-era origins through its adoption by militia movements, offering insights into how both left and right share deep suspicions of centralized authority while maintaining their mutual antipathy. Tinline's analysis reveals the "horseshoe phenomenon" where political extremes converge around distrust of government power, particularly the post-1945 national security apparatus that emerged after World War II.

FOLLOW PHIL TINLINE ON TWITTER: https://x.com/phil_tinline

MORE INFORMATION ON THE BOOK: https://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Ghosts-of-Iron-Mountain/Phil-Tinline/9781668050491