A Summary for Busy People
THE "WAR AGAINST TERRORISM"
September 11th
The official line is that the attacks of September 11th were the work of Osama bin Laden, Saudi Arabian millionaire and terrorist chief. However, the plot is more complex than that, with a number of occurrences suggesting prior knowledge in some circles of 9-11, and possible U.S. complicity.
There was highly unusual activity on the stock exchange in the days preceding 9-11, especially regarding the selling of shares in American Airlines. An investigation was promised, but nothing has actually transpired to my knowledge.
It was known by the authorities for an hour that 4 hijacked planes were simultaneously in the air before jets were sent to intercept them, by which time it was too late. Reaction time is said to be very much quicker than that, which opens the possibility that the delay was deliberate.
Quite detailed warnings from the intelligence services of other countries were ignored.
Bush has stated, on public record, that he was idly watching a TV before addressing some school children in Florida when he saw the first plane crash into the WTC tower minutes after it happened. He states he was informed of the second plane crashing into the second tower later, when he was reading to the children. However, there was no TV broadcast of the first plane on that day. The event was not expected, and footage from a security camera in some building was only discovered and run on TV days later. Bush’s account of how it happened is obviously impossible and he is lying. Amazingly enough, no mainstream reporter has investigated this (or maybe has but has been censored.)
Obviously much could be learned from a study of the wreckage of the twin towers, as regards the safe construction of very high buildings. However, the engineers assigned to this job say they are being impeded in their work by lack of cooperation from the authorities. For example, they haven’t been allowed access to the blue prints of the buildings. The iron structures in the towers were whisked away days after the event, thus removing vital evidence. Many engineers say they don’t think the plane crashes alone could have caused the collapse of the towers in the way they happened, and other explosives must have been involved.
Some aviation experts find it incredible that rookie pilots could score three bulls eyes - the two towers and the Pentagon. They say it is no easy job to maneuver a large passenger plane and hit such a relatively small target. (I remember seeing footage of WW2 Japanese kamikaze pilots missing the ships they were trying to crash into, and they were presumably more experienced pilots than those blamed for 9-11.) The alternative theory is that the planes were guided by remote control, which apparently is now feasible.
It is obviously a horrendous thought that the U.S. government was aware of, or even involved in, the 9-11 attacks, but the idea is not without precedence. The Nazis destroyed one of their own historic buildings to blame it on terrorists and panic people into accepting more restrictive laws. The apartheid South African government blew up a church and blamed it on the African National Council to enhance white anger against blacks. The CIA had plans to attack the U.S. and blame it on Cuba or other foreign aggressors (Operation Northwood, Gulf of Tonkin incident, Maine incident.)
The U.S. retaliation
There are indications that the military invasion of Afghanistan was already in preparation before 9-11. The largest British fleet since the Gulf War was already in the waters off Pakistan. American military were training in the countries to the north. A Pakistani politician says a group of U.S. politicians informed him months earlier that an attack on Afghanistan was planned for October. Military experts say that the time between 9/11 and 10/7 (25 days) is far too short to mount an attack of this kind without prior preparation.
Hidden Agenda
1. Oil
The Caspian area north of Afghanistan is known to contain huge reserves of oil, that is why the Russians were there in the 80s. The best route for a pipeline is through Afghanistan. The prerequisite was a stable, pro-Western government in Afghanistan so oil companies would feel safe to invest there. The Taliban government was unsuitable, both because it did not control the whole country, and perhaps was demanding too much money to allow the oil pipeline development. The Bush family, some White House aids, and senior advisers from previous administrations, are all heavily involved in the oil business. A book recently published in France quotes an FBI agent as saying the present Bush administration had talks with the Taliban about the pipeline, threatening to attack if things didn’t go satisfactorily.
2. Heroin
The Taliban stopped the growing of poppies, halting the immense heroin trade based in Afghanistan worth billions of dollars. It has been suggested that the CIA was involved in this drug trade, and did not like being cut off from so much money. Under the new regime, the poppies are growing again.
3. Global domination
The Gulf War enabled the U.S. to set up military bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and control the flow of oil from Kuwait and Iraq. Military bases are being set up in countries around Afghanistan. The "War on Terrorism" is the perfect excuse to attack any country, with the precedent of Afghanistan showing that no evidence need be presented, the U.N. can be ignored, and basically, Might is Right. No country can stand against the U.S. in its current self-righteous, extremely aggressive mode. The threat of devastating military attack and/ or economic reprisals, counter posed against bribes for subservience, ensures compliance to Bush’s demands from most countries.
The "War against Terrorism"
The "War on Terrorism" was launched ostensibly in response to the 9-11 attacks, and within days Osama bin Laden, head of the al Qaida group, was named by Bush (at a time when the FBI said they had no idea) as the man behind the attacks. The Taliban regime, controlling most of Afghanistan at the time, was charged with providing refuge for bin Laden and al Qaida and, by the "Bush Doctrine," held equally guilty. When the Taliban offered to hand bin Laden over if given proof of his involvement in 9-11, Bush replied there would be no negotiations. The objective became not simply to punish Taliban leaders, but to destroy the Taliban and replace it with a U.S.-friendly puppet regime. This has now been done. Such an action was by no means necessary to fight terrorism, but was necessary to make the area safe for oil corporations, or get the poppies growing again. It was further stated that another 40 or 50 countries were suspected of harboring terrorists, and could expect some form of attention from the U.S. The War against Terrorism is expected to last a very long time.
Bombing and strafing
We were told that "as far as humanely possible" civilian casualties would be avoided in the attack on Afghanistan. Recent estimates run at around 4000 civilian deaths, with no evidence of any effort to avoid this so-called "collateral damage." The aerial bombing campaign includes carpet bombing, and the use of cluster and "daisy cutter" bombs. Cluster bombs release hundreds of bomblets over a wide area. Their use is intrinsically indiscriminate and, as many don’t explode on impact, many act as land mines which, due to their bright coloring (same as the food parcels dropped) are often picked up and detonated by children. "Daisy cutter" bombs are the most powerful non-nuclear bombs produced, weighing in at 7 ½ tons of fuel-air explosive, which incinerate anything within an area of 1 km diameter. In addition to such bombing, which cannot possibly be precise, there are many instances of non-military targets being hit, with loss of life. The possibility that al Qaida or Taliban members may be at a village, or in a convoy of vehicles, is sufficient excuse to kill every one present. It is usual to follow a bombing run with a second run a few minutes later to get people trying to help the injured. The U.N. is investigating the massacre of women and children running from a village under attack and mowed down by helicopter gun ships.
The politicians, the media and the war against truth
The U.S. mainstream media has betrayed its role of conveying all the facts to the public, and unashamedly acted as a government mouthpiece. Media chiefs have proudly announced they wouldn’t give civilian casualties in Afghanistan coverage since it was the dead of 9-11 who really counted. The media’s role has been to accustom the public, by bland repetition, to the ethic that any one branded a terrorist, albeit without evidence, is scum who is better off dead, has no right to the due process of law, and doesn’t fall under the protection of the Geneva Convention. The problem with such a lynch mob mentality is, of course, that the whole process has no safeguards against error or deliberate misuse. Hardly what we would hope for as the best plan of action the "good guys fighting for civilized values" can come up with. In Canada the degree to which dissent would not be tolerated was exposed by Prof. Sumera Thobani of UBC, who stated that the U.S.’s foreign policy was "soaked in blood," and as the world’s biggest perpetrator of terrorism, the U.S. was a greater threat to world peace than bin Laden could ever be. The truth of her statements did not receive due consideration, but instead politicians and column writers tripped over each other trying to ridicule or condemn her. At one stage the RCMP said they were considering a charge of "incitement" against her (incitement to think, I wonder?) but later dropped it in a somewhat embarrassed fashion.
The propaganda slant -- Good vs. Evil
It is certainly more than justified to call those who killed thousands of innocent people in the World Trade Center buildings "evil." However, it is quite another thing to then counterpoise the U.S. as "good," and to use the "evil" tag to justify any and all actions taken by the Good against the Evil as intrinsically okay. This is what has happened, with the "terrorists are evil" excuse being used to avoid negotiating with them, or even presenting evidence of their guilt, or following international rules of warfare. That the U.S. fighters for "freedom and democracy" think they can carry out their mission without the quality of mercy or any sincere regard for the lives of innocent civilians, is to me the ultimate in contradiction and hypocrisy, and itself deserving of the tag "evil."
The second effect of the Good vs. Evil spin is to take 911 out of its historical context. We are supposed to ignore 100+ years of U.S. international terrorism, the millions killed all over the world in pursuit of America’s economic greed, as irrelevant to 9-11. We even have our MP, Jim Gouk, writing in his newsletter that he strongly disagrees with people who say American foreign policy brought this attack on. The party line is that Islamic terrorists are crazy fanatics who are attacking America just because they hate it for being so democratic and free, period. I am amazed that any one can believe this intellectually vacant load of nonsense for one second, but apparently they do.
The Hollywood connection
Two types of movie have formed a large percentage of the video fodder offered to us, the revenge movie, and cop movies with the one or two cops who are "good" but highly individualistic. The former type of movie has accustomed us to the idea that if you are wronged, then you have the moral right to go completely over the top when taking your revenge. Ignore the law, kill people horribly; it’s all okay if you’ve been wronged. The theme of the second type of movie typically shows one or two "unconventional" cops destroying half a city to get at the bad guy. The "rough diamond" cops usually get shit for it from their superior officer, but it is tacitly accepted that they did the right thing, and they end up heroes in the end. So when the U.S. goes after bin Laden with no demonstrable proof of guilt, and bombs a whole country killing thousands of innocent people in the process, we’ve been at least half way conditioned to accept it.
The Bush administration has also been deliberately cultivating Hollywood stars to say all the right things. I heard John Travolta come out with the most absurd drivel along the lines that we must trust our politicians because they volunteered to do their jobs. (Shit for brains?)
The movie "Black Hawk Down" is being rushed out, giving the U.S. interference in Somalia an integrity it never had. It has been suggested that the CIA have had input into film scripts.
The bin Laden "confession" tapes
Amid much publicity, it was announced in November that a tape of bin Laden confessing to 9-11 had been found. Tony Blair, British Prime Minister, said it would form the centerpiece of their evidence against bin Laden. Problem was, it transpired that no one had actually seen the tape, yet alone had a copy of it, and the "transcript" could obviously have been written by anybody. So that was allowed to fade. But no worries, a second "confession" tape was "found" in December, albeit with an appalling sound track that no one can agree on and Bush aids can’t resist embellishing. Added to which the "bin Laden" character has far chubbier cheeks and (it appears to me) a shorter nose than Osama, and looks little like the haggard individual appearing in bin Laden’s own tapes made around the same time.
All War All The Time
Orwell’s classic "1984" had the police state of Oceana perpetually at war with one of the two other super powers. Governments have long known the benefits of an external enemy in inducing compliance at home. Bush has made use of fear and patriotism to pass laws enhancing the powers of the police that would never have been possible before 9-11. Documents previously routinely released after a period of time now have to have the approval of the sitting and previous president. Bush invoked executive privilege to stop an investigation into FBI corruption. Enormous tax rebates were made to huge corporations to "stimulate the economy." Foreign nationals under suspicion are now held in prison without charges laid. Foreigners can be tried by military tribunal in secret, and executed on a majority decision.
Conclusion
As the saying goes, if you’re not confused you don’t understand what’s going on. We can only wait and hope for definitive evidence about 9-11, and hope that the amazingly vicious plans of the Bush administration are thwarted, best of all by exposure of their true nature.
This information is a very short summary of articles I read on the alternative media websites indymedia.org and zmag.org on the internet.
“War on Terrorism” 101
A Summary for Busy People
By Ozymandias
Posted on the Independent Newswire on 26 January 2002
Ref: www.indymedia.org/front.php 3?article_id=124667&group=webcast
To next article for Declaring Independence and A State of Global Rebellion
Phase 1 “Know” Menu
Looking for Justice in All the Wrong Places Menu
Insights-Reflections-Analysis Menu
Covering Up the Cover Up Menu
The Reality of Israeli Zionist Infiltration Menu
Are We On the Path of Expanding Liberty or Tyranny?
Declaring Independence and A State of Global Rebellion Menu
A Picture of the Stars and A Voice from the Ethers Menu
Interim Addendums During Phase 1
