- Part 1: Blood In The Water
For every precipitous action there is an equal, opposing reaction. Whether
Taliban fanatics blowing up the world s oldest Buddhas and executing women
for the crime of being feminine - or a quick-draw Texan ripping up his
country s Constitution and threatening to blast everything in sight - the
Koran and the Bible sternly warn, You will reap whatever whirlwind you
sew. These are laws of physics and karma. There are no exceptions.
Just five months after a series of rapid-fire horrors traveled at the speed
of televised light to stun the entire planet, the most popular presidents
in American history has managed to turn international solidarity over Sept.
11 into global condemnation of policies that went virtually unchallenged
during his father s slaughter of hundreds of thousands of families in the
Persian Gulf.
Like father, like son. With G. W. Bush, there are no subtleties of state
craft. Suddenly this shoot-first, think-later president is in everyone
s face.
But Bush s bellicose contention that countries who do not sign off on his
agenda and accusations are with the terrorists and liable to be carpet-bombed
by B-52s is not playing well in places like Pyongyang, Paris, Moscow and
Berlin. A global backlash is building against the bullying bluster of a
president increasingly seen as leader of the world s most dangerous rogue
nation.
The days of Ronald Reagan s joking reference to launching an atomic attack
on an evil empire and getting away with it appear to be over. In the wake
of another president s targeting three more evil nations, global leaders
and a computer-connected citizenry are standing to denounce what they are
calling a reckless warmonger.
Sprung like a trap from implausibly coordinated events that provided perfect
pretext for foreign invasion and score-settling, a well-oiled administration
s swiftly gathered momentum toward militarism and martial law many considered
unstoppable is faltering in the face of widespread condemnation.
As a major hitter on the world stage, this Bush-leaguer is proving a poor
pretender. En route to being safely sequestered in his dad s presidential
library, a former Texas governor s private correspondence with Enron Corp
was picked off by a Freedom of Information request and published widely.
One letter from the former oil giant s CEO asks Gov. Bush to persuade the
President of Uzbekistan to sign off on a $2 billion venture to develop
Uzbekistan s natural gas and transport it to markets in Europe and Kazakhstan
and Turkey. As Ken Lay reminded G. W., This project can bring significant
economic opportunities to Texas.
It can also bring a whole passel of trouble. There is blood in the water,
and for once it does not belong to the innocent. Enron is not the only
wound afflicting the Bush administration. As the world media circles like
sharks sensing struggle, the sound of floundering grows around a president
plunged over his head by IOU s to his corporate cronies, and an unraveling
cover-up of the biggest betrayal of the American people since his father
okayed the sale of chemical and biological weapons to Saddam Hussein.
Even more worrying for those who facilitated and profited from the Sept.11
attacks, the mainstream media is beginning to question the official version
of the events surrounding this new millennium s Pearl Harbor.
This analogy is more apt than most Hollywood-indoctrinated filmgoers suspect.
Anyone wondering how American military and intelligence officers could
have looked the other way in the months leading up to the massacre of some
3,200 people in three states can ponder the words of Lt. Cmdr. Joseph J.
Rochefort. Referring to the deaths of more than 3,000 American military
personnel whom he helped betray one sunny Sunday morning after using code-broken
communications intercepts to track Japanese carriers to the island of Oahu,
Rochefort remarked to a naval historian: It was a pretty cheap price to
pay for unifying the country. [Robert Stinnett, Day of Deceit: The Truth
About FDR and Pearl Harbor]
-
- The conspiracy theories condemned by George Bush are
coming from mainstream media reporting. A sampling of world press exclusives:
SUPER SICK SUPER-TERRORIST
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- An ailing bit-player named Osama bin Laden was most likely
relegated to terrorism s back bench before the takedown of Twin Towers
built by eugenicists David and Nelson Rockefeller. The French and Arab
press have long reported on bin Laden s bouts with renal failure. [ Bin
Laden Seriously Ill, Orders House Call World Tribune Feb. 7, 2000]
With his life depending on constant use of a dialysis machine, living in
cave is ludicrous. Egyptian journalist Essam Deraz says this less-than-Super
Terrorist suffers so severely from low blood pressure, he has to lie down
for hours at a time. The London-based Al Hayat daily newspaper quotes sources
suggesting that his illness had led to a cessation of activities by bin
Laden.
Chief terror lieutenant Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri have taken over al Qaeda.
Speaking of al Zawahiri, The Guardian recently reported that in view of
bin Laden s debilitating illness, Even to say he is bin Laden s right-hand
man may understate his importance. Some analysts believe that in his current
role in Afghanistan, al Zawahiri has taken over control of much of bin
Laden s terrorist finances, operations, plans, and resources. [Executive
Intelligence Review www.larouchpub.com]
- US INVASION PLANS PUBLISHED IN JUNE, 2001
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- In late June 2001, the US and Russia reached a decision
to invade Afghanistan. [ US Planned Attack on the Taleban BBC Sept. 18,
2001]
India and Iran publicly announced that they would facilitate the coming
US-Russian invasion of Afghanistan. [www.indiareacts.com/Story33.htm]
-
- The following month, during a UN-sponsored Afghan-networking
session in Berlin, former Pakistan Foreign Secretary Niaz Naik was told
by senior American officials that military action would commence in Afghanistan
before the snows began in mid-Oct. The choice Washington offered its Taliban
allies was stark. As former French spook Jean-Charles Brisard recalled,
At one moment during the negotiations, the US representatives told the
Taliban, either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you
under a carpet of bombs .
Two months before the events of Sept. 11 provided a pretext for seizing
access to the world s last major oil, natural gas and heroin supplies,
Naik learned that Washington would launch its operation from bases in Tajikistan,
where American advisers were already in place. At least 17,000 Red Army
troops were placed on standby in Uzbekistan. [Bin Laden, The Forbidden
Truth by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie; US troops training
in the stans The Guardian Sept. 26, 2001]
American officials told Naik that the plan was to kill or capture Osama
bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and install a transitional government.
Vowing not to take yes for an answer, Washington said it would not drop
its invasion plan, even if bin Laden were to be surrendered immediately
by the Taliban. [ US and U.K. vowed to take joint military action The Financial
Times Sept. 21 2001; Threat of US strikes passed to Taliban weeks before
US attack The Guardian Sept. 22, 2001]
- WASHINGTON REFUSES HAND-OVER OF OSAMA BIN LADEN
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-
- Was the war necessary? asked the Toronto Star. The Taliban
s unprecedented offer to extradite bin Laden to a third country, well before
the Sept. 11 attacks, was reported by The Times of London in February,
2001. The official reason for US reluctance was that it wasn t sure a case
against him could stand up in court.
As early as March 1996, the government of Sudan offered to extradite bin
Laden to the United States. US officials turned down the offer, preferring
perhaps said the Post, to use him as a combatant in an underground war.
In other words, as a US government agent. [ Sudan offered to turn over
Osama bin Laden Washington Post Oct. 3, 2001]
- THE GREAT GAME - HIGH STAKES IN CENTRAL ASIA
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- As former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler told
CNN s viewers, French insiders are charging that the present administration,
just shortly after assuming office slowed down FBI investigations of al
Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a deal with the Taliban
on oil - an oil pipeline across Afghanistan. Butler added, Now, if there
is to be a pipeline through Afghanistan, obviating the need to deal with
Russia, it would also cost less than half of what a pipeline through Russia
would cost. So financially and politically, there s a big prize to be had.
A pipeline through Afghanistan down to the Pakistan coast would bring out
that Central Asian oil easier and more cheaply. [CNN Reports Jan. 8, 2002
07:34 ET]
-
- As former German intelligence overseer Andreas von Buelow
told the daily newspaper Tagesspiegal, the events of Sept. 11 fit perfectly
in the concept of the armaments industry, the intelligence agencies, the
whole military-industrial-academic complex. This is in fact conspicuous.
The huge raw materials reserves of the former Soviet Union are now at their
disposal, also the pipeline routes and [heroin routes]. [German daily Tagesspiegel
Jan. 13, 2002]
- BIN LADEN SAVED BY AMERICAN SURGEON, MET WITH CIA - JULY,
2001
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-
-
- On or about July 4, 2001 Osama bin Laden was flown by
a private Saudi jet to the American Hospital in Abu Dubai. According to
Le Figaro, during his stay, the local representative of the CIA was seen
by many people taking the elevator and going to bin Laden room. Various
Arab diplomats and French intelligence sources said that precise information
was communicated to the CIA concerning terrorist attacks aimed at American
interests in the world, including its own territory. [ Bin Laden Met With
CIA In July In Overseas American Hospital Agence France Presse Oct. 21,
2001]
After receiving 10 days of life-saving treatment for renal failure from
an American surgeon specialist, America s Most Wanted man with a $5 million
bounty on his head left an American hospital unmolested. [ Bin Laden underwent
treatment in July at Dubai American Hospital Washington Times Oct. 31,
2001]
BUSH LEARNED OF WTC BEFORE LEAVING FOR FLORIDA CLASSROOM
-
- It turns out that President Bush knew of the World Trade
Center air strike before departing for the Booker School on that fateful
morning. As the president was leaving his hotel suite, ABC reporter John
Cochran saw Bush s adviser whisper something in his ear. Cochran asked
the President, Do you know what s going on in New York? As Cochran reported
on-air, He said he did, and he said he will have something about it later.
[ABC News Special Report Sept. 11, 2001]
The head of a country under violent attack then proceeded to an unnecessary
appointment that could have exposed him to the next stage of a terrorist
assault. When we walked into the classroom, Bush later explained to a young
boy at a public forum, I had seen this plane fly into the first building.
There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error and I
was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake. And something
was wrong with the plane, or - anyway, I m sitting there, listening to
the briefing, and Andy Card came and said, America is under attack &Anyway,
it was an interesting day. [White House Press Release Jan. 5, 2002]
Where was President briefed? What was a television doing on in a grade
school classroom during a presidential visit? How could George Bush possibly
have watched the first plane hit the WTC when that footage was not broadcast
until after the second Trade Tower collapsed?
The press declined to ask these and other obvious questions for nearly
four months. Then, during the first of a five part TV series probing 9.11,
Insight media analyst Barrie Zwicker pointed to the president s odd behavior:
He continues to listen to a student talk about her pet goat. Why? It s
another 25 minutes until he makes a statement, even as flight 77 is making
a bee-line for Washington, DC &Why? [Vision TV Jan. 21, 2002]
Who was watching the skies, the Miami Herald wanted to know. Forty-five
minutes. That s how long American Airlines Flight 77 meandered through
the air headed for the White House, its flight plan abandoned, its radar
beacon silent &Even with the transponder silent, the plane should have
been visible on radar, both to controllers who handle cross-continent air
traffic and to a Federal Aviation Administration command center outside
of Washington, according to air traffic controllers. [ Who watched as flight
plan was aborted? Miami Herald Sept. 14, 2001]
On Sept. 11th, the Andrews Air Force Base website boasted of two combat-ready
squadrons of jet interceptors protecting the US capital. Located just 12
miles from the White House, two armed fighters sat cocked and locked on
round-the-clock ready alert .
Tight FAA-USAF coordination routinely scrambles these fighters whenever
an aircraft strays from its assigned flight path, But on Sept. 11 they
weren t launched until a Boeing 757 was diving on the Pentagon. On Sept.
12th, all mention of F-16 and F-18 fighters was removed from the Andrews
AFB website. Overnight, the base became home only to a transport squadron
.
Whatever the explanation for the huge failure, Zwicker continued, there
have been no reports, to my knowledge, of reprimands. This further weakens
the Incompetence Theory. Incompetence usually earns reprimands. This causes
me to ask and other media need to ask if there were stand down orders?
[Vision TV Jan,. 28, 2001]
The navy and army commanders betrayed by their superiors at Pearl Harbor
were court-martialed. On Oct. 1, 2001, while the toxic ruins of the WTC
still smoldered, Gen. Richard B. Myers, commander of the east coast s air
defenses during 9-11, was promoted to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
(William Thomas, All Fall Down]
- SHOOTDOWN OVER PENNSLYVANIA
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- The FAA reported that all four indestructible titanium
Cockpit Voice Recorders from the doomed flights were destroyed in explosions
that left alleged terrorist ringleader Atta s paper passport unscathed.
But at least one CVR survived intact. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request
by Accuracy in Media for a transcript of the recorded cockpit conversations
of the hijacked Boeing 757 that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11 was
refused by the FBI because it could reasonably be expected to interfere
with enforcement proceedings.
What enforcement proceedings? AIM wants to know. If the passengers succeeded
in getting into the cockpit, there should be evidence of the struggle on
the CVR. If that is what happened, why doesn t the FBI release the transcript
that would prove it? AIM adds, When American Flight 587 crashed in New
York shortly after takeoff, the government released detailed information
from the CVR within 36 hours.
-
- Locally televised interviews with eyewitnesses, and the
Philadelphia Daily News reported people in the area seeing the plane shot
down by a pursuing F-16 flying under weapons free orders issued by the
president. Ignoring the tricky question of how a plane allegedly flown
straight into the ground by mutinying passengers came apart in mid-air.
the FBI claimed that major debris - including a half-ton section of one
of the plane s wing-mounted engines - were blown by the wind nearly eight
miles from the main crash site. [ Shoot-Down Order Issued On Morning Of
Chaos USA Today Sept. 17, 2001; Shoot down over Pennsylvania New York Times
Sept. 15, 2001; Philadelphia Daily News Nov. 15]
Taking dead AIM, the media watchdog suggested that Flight 93 may have been
hit by a heat-seeking missile from an F-16. [ What Are They Hiding About
Flight 93? Accuracy in Media Dec. 28, 2001]
-
- INTELLIGENCE EXPERTS DISPUTE OFFICIAL STORY
-
- A German intelligence expert was one of the first officials
to take issue with Washington s version of 9.11. Andreas von Buelow served
for 25 years on a parliamentary commission overseeing all three branches
of German intelligence. His book, In the Name of the State details the
criminal activities of secret services, including the CIA.
- Von Buelow observed: The planning of the attacks was
technically and organizationally a master achievement. To hijack four huge
airplanes within a few minutes and within one hour, to drive them into
their targets, with complicated flight maneuvers! This is unthinkable,
without years-long support from secret apparatuses of the state and industry.
in the analysis of political processes..
I wonder why many questions are not asked, von Buelow mused. For 60 decisive
minutes, the military and intelligence agencies let the fighter planes
stay on the ground; 48 hours later, however, the FBI presented a list of
suicide attackers. Within 10 days, it emerged that seven of them were still
alive.
Another problem with the official story was that Atta nearly missed the
flight he allegedly hijacked when his shuttle was delayed. If this Atta
was the decisive man in the operation, it s really strange that he took
such a risk of taking a plane that would reach Boston such a short time
before the connecting flight, says von Buelow. Had his flight been a few
minutes late, he would not have been in the plane that was hijacked. Why
should a sophisticated terrorist do this? [Tagesspiegel Jan. 13, 2002]
Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, architect of the Afghan holy war that created the Taliban,
agrees. I can t believe that it s just those 19 people and they all got
killed and that s that. There must be a very elaborate command-and-communications
system, a logistics system, people who provided the safe haven as well
as the training. And it is simply not possible that someone got six months
training flying the aircraft. You can fly a jumbo jet like that. It s all
bunkum. There had to be somebody manipulating the air traffic control,
somebody who switched off the warning system for the Pentagon. Someone
who asked the Air Force not to scramble for 24 minutes those people are
still inside America. [ The Pashtun Code by Isabel Hilton The New Yorker
Dec. 3, 2001]
ROCK N ROLL
-
- A New Yorker correspondent interviewed more than a hundred
living martyrs looking for the shortest path to heaven . All were deeply
religious, reporter Hassan wrote. Daily prayers, abstinence and the bolstering
presence of a personal minder leave no time, inclination or permission
for partying. But the FBI reports that these un-Islamic suicide bombers
of Sept. 11 got drunk in bars, frequented strip joints, used credit cards
in their own names - and did everything they could to attract attention
to themselves. They also flunked out of every flight school they entered.
[William Thomas, All Fall Down]
EARLY WARNINGS
-
-
- The surprise attacks of Sept.11 came as no surprise to
intelligence agencies, the World Trade Center s biggest tenants, and even
Bronx high school students. In June 2001, German intelligence warned the
CIA that Middle Eastern terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft
to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture.
[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Sept. 14, 2001]
On Aug. 18, a CIA cable flagged IMMEDIATE Urgency warned the White House
that two Bin Laden related individuals had entered the US and that two
other suspected terrorists should be barred from entering. [ CIA notified
White House in early Aug. of an impending terrorist attack Los Angeles
Times Oct. 18, 2001]
Also in Aug., President Valdimir Putin ordered Russian intelligence to
warn Washington in the strongest possible terms of imminent attacks on
airports and government buildings. The warnings continued for weeks . Russian
intelligence informed the White House that 25 pilots had been specifically
trained for suicide missions. Boxcutters subsequently found on two diverted
airliners forced to land in Canada, raises the estimated number of hijackers
to 25 and attack aircraft to six. [ Russia warns US of imminent attacks
on airports and government buildings. Interview with President Putin MS-NBC
Sept. 15, 2001]
-
-
-
- On Aug. 28, the FAA sent a warning to airlines and airports
that passengers with links to terror networks intended to fly on US airlines.
[Cambio Magazinen (Mexico); Reuters Aug. 28, 2001]
The week before Sept. 11, a Pakistani student at Brooklyn s New Utrecht
High School pointed at the Twin Towers during a heated political argument
and declared, Look at those two buildings. They won t be here next week.
Several days before the attack, a Jersey City student of Middle Eastern
origins also warned classmates not to travel into lower Manhattan on the
morning of Sept. 11. Many members of a Bronx mosque were also warned to
stay out of lower Manhattan on Sept. 11. [ Some Got Warning: Don t Go Downtown
on Sept. 11 New York Daily News Oct. 12, 2001]
US corporations had already been tipped by a State Department warning issued
worldwide. A copy of State s Sept. 7 memo received by former Secretary
of State George Schultz at his San Francisco office warned that Americans
may be the target of a terrorist threat [from] extremist groups with links
to Osama bin Laden s al Qaeda organization . [All Fall Down]
This timely bulletin also reached airports, where at least one prestigious
passenger was warned. When San Francisco s mayor called on Sept.10 to check
the status of a flight he was planning to take into New York the following
day, a return call from a person Willie Brown described as an airport security
man , told him to be extra cautious about air travel on Sept. 11. [San
Francisco Chronicle Sept. 14, 2001]
Just as in Oklahoma City, the FBI offices on the 22nd floor of the WTC
were also deserted when they were destroyed by evidence-destroying explosions
before the building came down.
- FEMA URBAN RESCUERS DEPLOY IN NYC SEPT. 10, 2001
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-
- On Sept. 11, Federal Emergency Management Agency official
Tom Kennedy told Dan Rather on-air that an elite FEMA Urban Search and
Rescue Team arrived in NYC the night before the surprise attacks. We re
currently one of the first teams that was deployed to support the City
of New York in this disaster. We arrived on late Monday night and went
right into action on Tuesday morning.
A flustered FEMA rep later told WorldNetDaily that In the heat of the moment
, Kennedy had misspoken. Two FEMA teams, he corrected, were sent into Ground
Zero the next day. It s unlikely a paramilitary team leader would mistake
a mission start two days before. If the fast-reaction teams actually arrived
24 later, sending them in Wednesday morning to the scene of one of the
biggest disasters in US history would have been almost useless. And there
is no way Kennedy could have claimed they were the first team deployed.
The FEMA manual, Emergency Response To Terrorism features the World Trade
Center on its cover?
- A TRAGEDY S STRANGE GOOD FORTUNE
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- In the weeks leading up to Sept.11, the Bush ship of
state was listing heavily. World leaders were bashing Bush s for reneging
on Kyoto s carbon cutbacks. At home, his Big Oil cabinet faced certain
congressional defeat over their bid to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. Intended as $300 billion dollar fix for corporations addicted to
weapons contracts, Bush s treaty-busting Missile Defense Shield also faced
a congressional thumbs down. Plus the economy was a major minus. During
the previous three weeks, the Dow had dropped a dizzying 900 points, taking
$1 trillion into the digital void.
-
- By late Oct., the really excellent news for President
Bush was that he remained President Bush. Completed in late Aug., a $2
million media scrutiny of 170,000 uncounted Florida votes was about to
be announced by the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times
and CNN. According the London Telegraph, the results spelled bye-bye Bush
. A New York Times journalist involved in the recount project revealed
that the Gore victory margin was big enough to create major trouble for
the Bush presidency if this ever gets out.
Steven Goldstein, speaking for the owners of The Wall Street Journal, told
reporters that the recount results would be kept from the public. Our belief
is that the priorities of the country have changed, and our priorities
have changed, Goldstein said. [ Media suppress the news that Bush lost
election to Gore The Telegraph Oct. 22, 2001]
- MISADVENTURES IN VIRTUAL REALITY: THE BIN LADEN VIDEO
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- A confessional videotape reportedly recovered from a
hastily vacated al Qaeda villa in Jalalabad shows a fuzzy figure resembling
Osama bin Laden explaining that he never expected the Trade Towers would
fall down after being hit by two martyr-planes.
The audio quality of bin Laden s voice was so poor, translators could not
be certain whether they were hearing we did or they did a crucial distinction
in establishing culpability. [ The Bin Laden Tape Vancouver Sun Dec. 14,
2001; Bin Laden Translation Omitted Sections ABC NEWS Dec. 21 2001]
I believe the evidence against him is not solid. I think the video they
produced is doctored, said bin Laden s mother, Alia Ghanem. The voice is
unclear and uneven. There are too many gaps and the statements are very
unlike him. [ Mom says it s not bin Laden London Daily News Dec. 22, 2001]
Describing the tape as fabricated, Islamic affairs specialist Hani al Sibaei
observed that it boggled the mind that an organization like Al Qaeda would
create such a simple-minded video and it behind in a private home. [ Hani
al Sibaei says not bin Laden Al Jazeera Satellite News]
It s a real scandal, laughed another analyst at the Al Ahram Center for
Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo over the jape. When a visitor
from Saudi Arabia arrives, his voice is clear and there are frequent close-ups.
But Bin Laden s voice is always muffled and the camera never zooms in on
him. [ Bin Laden videotape was result of a sting The Observer Dec. 16,
2001; The Camera That Couldn t Shoot Straight - Osama Gump? www.counterpunch]
Presidential profiteering from the wars they engineer has a long and dishonorable
history in the USA. As a director of USArms, President Bush senior cashed
in on arms and uniform sales during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. That
costly conflict was triggered when Bush s Harken drilling firm slant-drilled
from Kuwait into Iraq. Invoking executive privilege , the elder Bush evaded
lawsuits launched against him by returning American veterans charging their
commander-in-chief with treason . [William Thomas, Bringing The War Home]
Between September 1998 and last winter, Halliburton head Dick Cheney oversaw
$24 million in sales of oil-industry equipment and services to Iraq. The
man Bush Jr. picked as his vice-president also dealt extensively with Burma
s brutal regime. [ Cheney Made Millions Off Oil Deals with Hussein San
Francisco Bay Guardian Nov. 13, 2000]
- THE CARLYLE CONNECTION
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- Every time Bush boosts defense spending in response to
Sept. 11, the Wall Street Journal reports, the big beneficiaries are the
Bush and bin Laden s families.
-
- The Carlyle Group is a small but extraordinarily well-connected
investment bank that grew overnight into a multi-billion dollar arms player
by paying fire-sale prices for bankrupt military-suppliers - just before
they were handed massive government contracts.
-
- The Carlyle investment club counts among its sales staff
and directors former CIA director Frank Carlucci, James Baker III, George
Bush senior, and the billionaire bin Laden family. [William Thomas, All
Fall Down]
An outraged Judicial Watch chair and general counsel Larry Klayman told
the press, The idea of the President s father, an ex-president himself,
doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror
attacks of Sept. 11 is horrible. President Bush should not ask, but demand,
that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group. [ Carlyle Group - The World
s Largest Private War Contractor Wall Street Journal Sept. 27, 2001]
MADE IN AMERICA ANTHRAX
-
-
- On Oct. 5, America s anthrax scare was sparked by the
death of Bob Stevens at the National Enquirer. DNA tests traced the Ames
strain of anthrax taken from contaminated envelopes mailed to Congressmen
and famous media personalities to the US Army s biowar center at Fort Detrick,
Maryland. [ Capitol Hill Anthrax Matches Army s Stocks 5 Labs Can Trace
Spores to Ft. Detrick Washington Post Dec. 16, 2001; Terror anthrax lined
to type made by US New York Times Dec. 3, 2001]
Meeting illegally behind closed White House doors, top CEOs of the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America secured contracts for supplying untested
and potentially hazardous biowarfare antidotes. Soon after the anthrax
scare began, Michigan s Bioport Corp. landed an exclusive $29 million contract
with the Department of Defense to manufacture, test, bottle and store the
anthrax vaccine. [ The Pharma Cartel Newswatch Dec. 21, 2001]
Founded by Fuad El-Hibri, a Saudi financier and close personal friend of
the bin Laden family - and run by a former US Navy Admiral who had supplied
anthrax to Saddam Hussein - Bioport was on Fort Detrick s distribution
chain for Ames Iowa anthrax.
Spreading anthrax to panic Americans into stockpiling an unsafe vaccine
benefits Bioport. But only the Battelle Memorial Institute could supply
electrostatically-charged Ames anthrax under the Defense Department s Project
Jefferson . Battelle worked closely with Bioport in requesting urgent funding
for anthrax vaccines under a billion-dollar DOD Joint Vaccine Acquisition
Program. [ The Pharma Cartel Newswatch Dec. 21, 2001]
It turns out that Battelle commissioned top anthrax expert, William Patrick
III to deliver a report on the powdered anthrax s prospects for being spread
through the mail. [Wall Street Journal editorial, Dec. 24, 2001]
-
- Killing five of 18 infected persons, envelopes filled
with electrostatically-charged Ames anthrax sent to US senators and media
personalities could contaminate an entire room. In Nov., the White House
ordered to the FBI to drop its investigations of US firms known to be working
with anthrax. [ FBI Told To Lay Off Anthrax Firms New York Times Nov. 9,
2001; FBI accused of dragging its heels after former government worker
is questioned twice over attacks The Guardian Feb. 20, 2002]
-
- FBI BLOCKS TERRORIST PROBE LEADING TO SEPT. 11
-
-
- On Aug. 17, three weeks before Black Tuesday , US intelligence
officials intervened to block an investigation of a terrorist suspect who
might have alerted authorities to the Sept. 11 plot. The New York Times
confirmed that the FBI held back its own agents last Aug. from opening
a criminal investigations of a man who investigators now suspect was meant
to be the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Zaccarias Moussaoui was arrested on immigration charges after an instructor
at a flying school in Eagan, Minnesota called the FBI s Minneapolis office
to report that a new Middle Eastern student wanted to practice turning
a heavy aircraft - without learning how to land or take off. When he was
picked up in Boston, the feds found several passports, technical information
on Boeing aircraft and flight manuals in Moussaoui s possession.
The bust was flagged by French intelligence agents, who sent a dossier
to the FBI linking the Islamic militant to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
A joint FBI-CIA anti-terrorist panel reviewed Moussaoui s file. Records
showed the mysterious Moussaoui had already received 57 hours of flight
training from a school in Oklahoma. But senior FBI officials denied repeated
requests from Minneapolis FBI agents for a wider investigation into Moussaoui
s intentions. [ FBI held back its own agents last Aug. from opening a criminal
investigation New York Times Oct. 6, 2001]
In the years leading up to Sept. 11, the FBI was actively tracking four
to six separate bin Laden cells in the USA. According to ex-CIA chief Stansfield
Turner, the cells were completely bugged . Every phone line, cell phone
and email was intercepted. Yet FBI director Robert Mueller subsequently
stated, There were no warning signs that I m aware of that would indicate
this type of operation in the country. [ Ex CIA chief Turner says FBI was
tracking four to six bin Laden cells Los Angeles Times Oct. 28, 1993]
According to CNN, Two weeks before the terrorist attacks in New York City
and Washington, D.C., FBI agents descended on an Oklahoma flight school
asking questions about a man now suspected of having a link to those attacks.
[ FBI at Airman Flight School CNN Sept. 18, 2001]
Ordered to drop their investigation into Moussaoui, angry agents in Minneapolis
passed their information to David Schippers. The Chicago attorney who spearheaded
the Clinton impeachment effort personally took the Moussaoui matter to
the Attorney General. Ashcroft refused Schippers request for an investigation.
[ Government Had Prior Knowledge The Alex Jones Show Oct. 1, 2001]
- SEPT. 11 PLOTTER FREED
-
-
- The only person with proven involvement in the 9.11 attacks
has been freed. One month after the Manhattan massacre, former ISI director-general
Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad sought immediate retirement at the insistence of US
authorities, who confirmed that the former Pakistan intelligence head ordered
Sheikh Umar Sayeed to wire $100,000 to Sept. 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta.
The government of India had supplied the Sheikh s mobile phone number,
which the FBI used to trace and establish the links between Ahmad, Atta
and Sayeed. [ India helped FBI Trace ISI-terrorist links Times Of India
Oct. 12, 2001]
Ahmad s abrupt resignation signaled that senior Pakistani Army commanders
were aware of the World Trade Center plot in advance, and helped move funds
to make it happen. The ISI remains directly linked with its CIA creators.
So the feds at Foggy Bottom must have known, too.
TAKING IT TO THE BANK
-
-
- It wasn t the first time senior FBI officials had moved
to block investigations into bin Laden and his family. Nearly one year
before the attacks, the FBI s Director of Anti-Terrorism John O Neill quit
his post after complaining to French authors Brisard and Dasquie that the
main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were US oil corporate interests
and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it. O Neill became head of security
in New York s World Trade Center. He died on Sept. 11.
The FBI learned that the Binladen Group, the Carlyle Group and the Bushes
bank at Citigroup, where two retired CIA directors serve as directors.
America s second largest bank has long been involved in the documented
laundering of drug money, including the recent purchase of a Banamex, a
Mexican bank known to launder drug profits. [ FBI and US spy agents say
Bush spiked bin Laden probes before 11 Sept. The Guardian Nov. 7, 2001]
-
- Osama bin Laden s family also banks at the London branch
of Deutsche Bank AG. This bank was involved in processing insider trades
on United Airlines stocks just before Sept. 11. On Sept. 15, as German
investigators probed Deutsche Bank s short-selling of sensitive stocks,
Mayo Shattuck suddenly resigned - effective immediately - as head of the
Alex Brown unit of Deutsche Bank.
The investment bank used to place massive put options on United Airlines
stock in the days before Sept. 11 was managed until 1998 by Buzzy Krongard
- current executive director of the CIA. Krongard helmed the A.B. Brown
bank when it was acquired by Banker s Trust in 1997. This mega-bank is
one of 20 big US banks accused by Senator Carl Levin of laundering dirty
drug money by passing it through legitimate accounts.
-
- The year before Krongard became the third highest-ranking
executive in the CIA, Bankers Trust was absorbed into Deutsche Bank, forming
Europe s biggest blockbuster bank. Deutsche Bank was next named the hub
of insider trading activity connected to insurance company Munich Re. European
regulators are currently examining unusually heavy and extremely profitable
short-selling in Munich Re shortly before to 9.11. [ CIA Executive Director
Buzzy Krongard Managed Firm That Handled Put Options On UAL Michael C.
Ruppert s From The Wilderness Oct. 9, 2001; BushLaden Jared Israel s Emperors
Clothes Oct. 8, 2001]
Did Deutsche Bank s CIA-connections tip that financial giant to the impending
terror attacks? Does al Qaeda do its banking there? According to the Washington
Post, three men believed to be at the controls of planes that slammed into
the World Trade Centre and the Pennsylvania countryside - Mohamed Atta,
Marwan al Shehhi and Ziad Jarrahi -
-
-
-
- shared the same Hamburg apartment with three men alleged
to be part of the al Qaeda network. All three men repeatedly flunked out
of American flight schools. [ SEC Investigating Trading in Shares of 38
Companies; Asks Brokerages to Review Records The Associated Press Oct 2,
2001; Computer Experts Probe Sept. 11 Deals Reuters Dec. 18, 2001]
- WASHINGTON SUPPORTS TALIBAN, REFUSES TO HIT BIN LADEN
-
-
- On July 12, 2000 packed Congressional hearings on Global
Terrorism and South Asia erupted after Representative Dana Rohrabacher
accused the State Department of treachery and hypocrisy in Afghanistan.
-
-
-
- A veteran Afghan-hand, Rohrabacher named two high-ranking
American officials who had visited the region and discouraged opposition
leaders from attacking the Taliban when they were vulnerable to defeat.
Instead, Washington officials tricked the Taliban s opponents into disarming.
This duplicity allowed the Taliban to wipe out all opposition forces except
Mahout s Northern Alliance, which was driven back to the northern border.
Let me just say that some of my sources of information informed me of where
bin Laden was, they told me they knew and could tell people where bin Laden
could be located. And it took me three times before this administration
responded, Rohrabacher riposted. When my contact was actually contacted,
they said that the people who contacted them were half-hearted, did not
follow through, did not appear to be all that interested. [William Thomas,
All Fall Down]
On more than one occasion in Afghanistan, the Pentagon admits they had
Osama bin Laden in the cross-hairs of a drone armed with Hellfire missiles
- and did not take the shot because permission from higher authority to
fire was not granted in time. On at least 40 other occasions, remotely-piloted
robot planes drones have fired on unidentified individuals on the ground.
None of the victims were bin Laden. Some were later found to be tall villagers
scrounging for scrap metal. Five others were members of the new government
en route to the inauguration. [ US spurned chances to kill Bin Laden: Drones
often had al-Qaida leader in sights The Guardian Nov. 24, 2001]
- US WAR CRIMES
-
-
- Several men captured at Hazar Qadam and held for two
weeks say US troops hit them with fists and gunstocks; they bound them
and then walked on their backs. One detainee noted, They said, You are
terrorist! You are Al Qaeda! You are Taliban! Villagers claimed that after
the commando attack at Hazar Qadam they found the bodies of men who had
been handcuffed. One local says the white plastic handcuffs bore the words
Made in USA. The US criminal code defines a war crime as conduct prohibited
by Articles 23, 25, 27 and 28 of the Hague Convention of 1907.
The Hague Convention s Article 25 prohibits the attack or bombardment,
by whatever mean, of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings which are
undefended.
-
- On October 21, Washington Post reporter Molly Moore described
that night in the hamlet of Thoral a US missile cut through a trailer containing
27 frightened villagers - mostly children - fleeing a bombing raid on a
nearby town. Many of the children were ripped apart by the bomb. A half
-hour later, after the injured and dead had been taken to a house, two
missiles struck that home. Local witnesses told Moore that 21 members of
two farming families - all but four were infants or children - were killed
in the attacks.
Blasting civilians, mistreating captives, executing prisoners who are bound--whether
-
- these actions (if proven) qualify as war crimes or not,
they are out of sync with the President s lofty rhetoric and they undermine
the United States claim to moral leadership in the war on terror. [ US
Mis-strikes in Afghanistan: Accidents or Possible War Crimes? The Nation
Feb.13, 2002]
-
- At Mazar-i-Sharif, journalists and Red Cross workers
encountered a horrific scene of carnage . Up to 800 Taliban prisoners lay
slaughtered after a three-day massacre directed by U.S. Special Forces
and CIA operatives. Stunned witnesses stumbled across the dismembered corpses
of hundreds of Taliban prisoners strewn amidst the rubble and still burning
buildings, the blasted parts of dozens of dead horses and bullet-raked
vehicles.
-
- An Associated Press photographer found the corpses of
50 prisoners, executed with their hands tied behind their backs with black
scarves. The dead were mostly Pakistanis, Chechens, Arabs and other non-Afghans
who surrendered Nov. 24, after the Taliban s northern stronghold fell to
alliance militias.
-
- The prisoners had been brought to the fortress under
an agreement between the Taliban commander and Northern Alliance leader
General Rashid Dostum to surrender the city. Dostum s troops had just finished
massacring Taliban prisoners in Kunduz stomping on faces of captured Taliban
and shooting others as they lay wounded, according to AP. [ Taliban Who
Escaped The Fort of Death The Observer Dec. 2, 2001; After US massacre
of Taliban POWs: the stench of death and more media lies Centre for Research
on Globalisation Dec. 1, 2001]
- BUSH BLOCKS 9.11 PROBES
-
-
- As a congressional investigation threatened to expose
inconsistencies, illegalities and possible treason in a far-ranging White
House cover-up, President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader
Tom Daschle to limit congressional investigations into Sept. 11. The president
s personal intervention in a probe leading to the Oval Office followed
a rare call to Daschle from Vice President Dick Cheney making the same
request. [ Don t go there: Bush Asks Daschle to Limit Sept. 11 Probes -
CNN Jan.30, 2002]
On Nov. 22, 2001 Congressional leaders agreed to delay their queries into
government failure to prevent the terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon for another year, when the trail will be cold.
[ Inquiries Into Failures of Intelligence Community Are Put Off Until Next
Year New York Times Nov. 23, 2001]
- CRACKS IN THE COVER-UP
-
-
- Bush s intervention did not stop world experts from publishing
their views. Reports by Nafeez Ahmed, executive director of the Institute
for Policy Research & Development in Brighton, England are carried
by Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian and The Independent. In his
series on the Great Deception , Barrie Zwicker told Canadian viewers: In
The War on Freedom, Causes and Consequences of 9-11, Ahmed writes that
Osama bin Laden is merely a piece in a chess game. The stakes of the game
are the last of the world s oil reserves.
-
-
- According to Ahmed, the Bush administration s grip on
power is intended to pursue a drastic unlimited militarization of foreign
policy on a massive and unprecedented scale required by long-standing elite
planning, while crushing domestic dissent and criminalizing legitimate
protest.
Ahmed s own conclusion is that documentation strongly suggests the United
States, or more precisely significant elements of the US government, military
and intelligence, had extensive foreknowledge of the 11th Sept. attacks,
and were in various ways complicit in those attacks. [ The Great Deception
Vision TV Feb 4, 2002]
- NEW YORK TIMES SLAMS DICTATOR
-
-
- When a President-select remarked that his job would be
a heck of a lot easier if I was the dictator , few pundits predicted George
Bush would re-invent himself as chairman of the Soviet-sounding Supreme
National Security Council. But when Bush curtailed cherished American rights
and freedoms, even the New York Times took exception. In an editorial accusing
the president of Seizing Dictatorial Power , William Safire warned: A president
of the United States has just assumed what amounts to dictatorial power
to jail or execute aliens, Safire warned.
Safire reminded readers that the president, in his own words, dismisses
the principles of law and the rules of evidence that undergird America
s system of justice. He seizes the power to circumvent the courts and set
up his own drumhead tribunals - panels of officers who will sit in judgment
of non-citizens who the president need only claim reason to believe are
members of terrorist organizations.
-
- "His kangaroo court can conceal evidence by citing
national security, make up its own rules, find a defendant guilty even
if a third of the officers disagree, and execute the alien with no review
by any civilian court. [Congressional photo-op Dec. 18, 2000; Seizing Dictatorial
Power New York Times Nov. 15, 2001]
- BRITAIN DEMANDS EXPLANATION OF GUANTANAMO BAY PHOTOS
-
-
- Soon after the Pentagon released the first photos of
disorienting prisoners kneeling blindfolded, shackled and ear-muffed in
sensory deprivation inside 6 by 8-foot cages in a US military detention
center in Cuba, Whitehall s cheerleading of Washington s attacks on Afghanistan
turned into angry demands for an explanation of such treatment of unconvicted
Afghan detainees.
-
- Manacled hand and foot, they kneel in submission. Is
this how Bush and Blair defend our civilization? the normally right-wing
Mail Sunday asked on its front page. A worried Foreign Affairs spokesman
wanted to know, What sort of effect will these pictures have in capitals
like Cairo or Amman? [ABC News Reuters Jan. 20, 2002]
BUSH BACKS DOWN ON TRIBUNALS
-
-
- In early Jan., following a worldwide outcry, the NY Daily
News reported, President Bush s controversial guidelines for trying terrorists
by military tribunals are being significantly softened.
An official involved in the tribunals review said the administration was
surprised by the depth and scope of the reaction and has scaled back some
of Bush s harsher provisions to make the plan more palatable to critics.
The final regulations, reported the Daily News, will require unanimous
death-penalty verdicts and mandatory appeals.
-
- The revised regs "are more in keeping with federal
court sandards. Terrorist defendents would be presumed innocent until proven
guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, a unanimous verdict would be needed to
impose the death penalty, and a three-judge panel, possibly including civilian
jidges, would hear appeals of all convictions." ["Retreat On
Military Tribunals After Uproar" NY ly News Jan. 6, 2002]
- PENTAGON BACKPEDALS FROM OFFICIAL POLICY OF LIES
-
-
- Efforts to manage international reactions backfired big
time when it was reported that the Pentagon had hired the Rendon Group.
Well known for running propaganda campaigns in Arab countries, reported
the New York Times, the Washington-based PR firm has done extensive work
for the Central Intelligence Agency. [ Pentagon Readies Efforts To Sway
Sentiment Abroad New York Times Feb. 19, 2002]
Pouring gasoline on the PR conflagration, the Pentagon proudly announced
that its Orwellian Office of Strategic Influence, calls for the planting
of false stories in the foreign press, phony Emails from disguised addresses
and other covert activities to manipulate public opinion. In the uproar
that followed, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promised the press
that the Pentagon will not tell any whoppers to the American people. [Pentagon
Press Release Feb. 20, 2002; Rumsfeld: Office won t use media to spread
lies Chicago Tribune Feb. 21, 2002]
- AXIS OF EVIL SPEECH IGNITES WORLDWIDE POLITICAL MELTDOWN
-
-
- These gaffs fanned a worldwide firestorm ignited by the
president s ill-advised
-
- State of the Union address. Referring to Iran, Iraq and
North Korea, the president of country with a penchant for bombing anyone,
anywhere, anytime thundered: States like these, and their terrorist allies,
constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.
[GW Bush, State of the Union address Jan. 29, 2002]
Pointing out the only commodity held in common by these three regimes,
columnists like New York s Robert Lederman quickly dubbed Dubya s blunder,
his Axis of Oil speech.
-
- IRAN HONORED TO BE US TARGET
-
-
- Iran s Foreign Minister retorted, The Islamic Republic
of Iran is honored to be the target of wrath and anger of the most hated
Satan in the world. The president of the United States is talking like
a person who is thirsty for blood, he threatens the countries and nations
of the world.
With these arrogant statements, the American government has further unveiled
its true image as a hegemonic power that wants to dominate the whole world
through force, Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi told the Islamic Republic
News Agency. We, besides rejecting American accusations, believe that the
world will not tolerate US hegemonic ambitions. Underlining that Arab ire
was directed not at Americans but at their government, Iran invited Americans
to ask their politicians to stop looking for war and help cultivate a peace
based on justice. [ Iran honoured to be US target AU News Feb. 1, 2002]
- SAUDIS SEETHE
-
-
- The kingdom that produced and provided passports to nearly
all of the alleged Sept. 11 suicide bombers escaped the erratic swing of
Bush s cross-hairs. But speculation grew that Washington could lose its
most vital Arab support base, over a Fundamentalist Texan s targeting of
Islamic nations. A former Saudi senior diplomat undiplomatically suggested,
If the United States had wanted to arrest bin Laden, they could have done
so easily without taking the trouble to launch this fanciful war &they
could have caught him long ago. [ Saudi denounces US agenda behind bombing
campaign AU News Jan. 21, 2002]
- MOSCOW MAD
-
-
- Pravda weighed into the fray, denouncing the Bush administration
for Demonizing US Enemies . [Pravda, Feb. 4, 2002]
-
- EUROPE FREAKS OUT
-
-
- Five days later, Chris Patten, head of the European Union
s international relations, blasted American foreign policy - accusing the
Bushwhackers of a dangerously absolutist and simplistic stance towards
the rest of the planet. As EU officials teetered on the widest rift to
open between Europe and the US in half a century, Patten said it was time
European governments spoke up and stopped Washington before it goes into
unilateralist overdrive.
Patten s blast came as French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin warned Washington
to avoid the strong temptation of unilateralism. Calling the axis of evil
phrase, deeply unhelpful, Patten said, I find it hard to believe that s
a thought-through policy.
-
- Bush s simplistic You re either with us, or you re on
the side of the terrorists is not playing well in a Europe determined to
sign cooperative trade agreements with the same Iranian state Washington
calls an evil sponsor of terror. Taking a page from White House connivance
with the country responsible for the Tiennenman Square massacre, the rape
of Tibet, and cheap consumer goods made with forced labor, Patten insisted
that Europe s policy of constructive engagement with Iranian moderates
and North Korea is much more likely to bring results than a US policy consisting
of more rhetoric than substance .
-
- The Guardian reported that Bush s pivotal Axis of Evil
speech appears to have been the last straw for EU policymakers. Referring
to Patten s protestations, the British daily explained, The commissioner
s remarks represent the most public statement yet of what has become a
growing sense of alarm in Europe s capitals at the increasingly belligerent
tone adopted by Washington.
-
- A senior EU official stated, It is humiliating and demeaning
if we feel we have to go and get our homework marked by Dick Cheney and
Condi Rice. We ve got to stop thinking that the only policy we can have
is one that doesn t get vetoed by the United States.
Patten chided Washington for showing much more interest on blowing things
up than in tackling terror s root causes. Frankly, smart bombs have their
place but smart development assistance seems to me even more significant,
he said. The EU s international spokesman called on Europe s 15 member
states to put aside their traditional wariness of angering the US and to
speak up, forging an international stance of their own on issues ranging
from the Middle East to global warming. [ Fury at president s axis of evil
speech The Guardian Feb. 9, 2002]
- KOREA CALLS BUSH, KINGPIN OF TERRORISM
-
-
- Condemned for stockpiling and selling missiles by a country
threatening the globe with nuclear overkill, North Korea nearly went ballistic.
Calling the American president a politically backward child , Pyongyang
s Foreign Ministry branded Bush as a typical rogue and a kingpin of terrorism
for visiting South Korea after his speech to review plans for war.
North Korea stopped short of criticizing South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung.
After meeting with Bush, Kim said his government would not give up its
Sunshine Policy of engaging the North. Obviously upset to see years of
rapprochement with the North jeopardized by Bush s inflammatory remarks,
the South Korean leader added, Bush and his group are well advised to stop
acting recklessly. [North Korea Calls Bush Kingpin of Terrorism ABC News
Feb. 23, 2002]
- AMERICANS REACH OUT: LOVE IS THE ANSWER
-
-
- Oddly enough, none of the alleged Sept. 11 hijackers
came from Afghanistan, where at least 5,000 city dwellers and villagers
have died in retaliation for attacks in New York City. For 10 long days
and nights US prowling above the winter clouds pulverized the rocks of
Zhawar. When the jet s low whirr rises to a roar, villagers take cover.
All the mountains are shaking, says Khali Gul from the small hamlet of
Kaskai. We are very afraid of these planes. We just want this to stop.
-
- Fifteen people were killed in Shudiaki village, says
Noorz Ali, rattling down the dry river bed in a pickup truck piled with
his belongings: a wheelbarrow, a brass basin, and four baby goats as he
joins the exodus of bombed-out villagers for the plains.
-
- The village is completely flattened. My house was destroyed,
and my neighbours were killed, he says. There were so many bombs I lost
count. The dead remain there in the village. Everybody else has left. Everyday,
the Americans are dropping bombs. Last night there were six and this morning
there were five. We are very afraid of the bombs, and we are very angry
at the Americans. There is no reason for this. The camps are empty, but
still the Americans are dropping their bombs. [ US jittery at symbolic
meetings of grieving families The Independent Jan. 15, 2002; The Taliban
may have vanished but the conflict is far from over for many in Afghanistan
The Guardian Jan. 15, 2002]
I ve come to this country to meet with other innocent victims, said Rita
Lasar, 70., The New Yorker s brother Abe Zelmanowitz died in the World
Trade Center on Sept. 11.
On Oct. 17, 2001 Najiba Shakar was buried by a Made In The USA bomb in
the rubble of her own home. Her once pretty face criss-crossed with scars,
she is in pain and has difficulty standing up or talking. Lasar leant forward
and gently touched her arm. I am sorry, I am so very sorry, she said, wiping
her eyes.
-
- Her life, all her dreams and ambition, have been destroyed,
said Najiba s husband. We do not blame you for what had happened, you too
have suffered greatly. But no one has ever explained to me why my home,
in the middle of a residential area, nowhere near the military, was bombed.
-
- Their son, 15 year old Mohammed Biyuqra said, The Americans
are angry because they had one day of war. We have had 23 years of it.
-
- There is no heroism is bombing innocent civilians. So
many people, especially politicians, seemed so keen to get angry on our
behalf, said Ms Lasar. It seemed the only people not in a rage were the
families of the victims.
-
-
-
- Kelly Campbell lost her brother-in-law Craig Amundson
in the Pentagon attack. My anguish is compounded exponentially by fear
that Craig s death will be used to justify new violence against other innocent
victims, said Ms Campbell.
-
- Amundson s widow told reporters, I have heard angry rhetoric
by some Americans, including many of our nation s leaders who advise a
heavy dose of revenge and punishment. To those leaders, I would like to
make clear that my family and I take no comfort in your words of rage.
If you choose to respond to this incomprehensible brutality by perpetuating
violence against other innocent human beings, you may not do so in the
name of justice for my husband.
-
- Abdul and Shakila Amiri lost their five-year-old daughter,
Nazila, in an American air strike on the morning of Oct. 17. She was playing
with her younger brother and sister close to their home when it was hit
by a type of bomb glorified on the pages of glossy Pentagon propaganda
magazines available on newsstands across America.
Basir and Shakila s savings were spent on the funeral; they now live hand
to mouth, facing eviction because of unpaid rent. An innocent life lost
is a terrible thing, wherever it is. The life of my daughter was precious,
but so were the lives of all those who died in America &We can only
grieve for each other, Nazila s father said.
- LOST IN SPACE? Does it make sense for six billion people
to allow a few politicians and CEOs to rip off the last resources needed
to navigate Spaceship Earth? On an increasingly crowded space colony hurtling
through the cold, irradiated vacuum of deep space, scarcity and failing
life-support systems seem incentive enough to pitch in together to save
our ship.
Every Trekkie knows we ought to be working together patching the solar
radiation shielding, repairing the fresh water recyclers, and protecting
the last forest-and-plankton oxygen exchangers. Thanks to made-for-each
other maniacs like George Bush and Osama bin Laden, some day soon a rising
world outcry will restrain all bombers everywhere from indulging in destruction
that invariably makes a circle leading back to their own homes and families.
As I learned in a terrorist camp, just before the guns began firing: Most
people just want to be heard. When we embrace our enemies, we will no longer
have enemies. And the circle of violence will be broken.
--A veteran investigative journalist with 32 years experience reporting
under-reported events, William Thomas is the author of Bringing The War
Home, Chemtrails Confirmed and All Fall Down: The Politics of Terror and
Mass Persuasion. www.lifeboatnew.com willthomas@telus.net
-
-
- Comment
-
- From Robert L. Phillips
3-9-2
-
- Hi Jeff,
-
- What an outstanding article by William Thomas about
9-11 ("His Own Worst Enemy: World Backlash Builds Against Bush")!
Although much of what I read in the piece I'd previously read (on your
site, much to your credit), he pulled together many different threads quite
well. I posted the site address on the political 'chat channel' of
the Internet Chess Club, and a pretty wild debate ensued, during which
I was called 'a conspiracy theorist' and far worse. Many people also stated
their agreement with some of the premises, or at least that something
very suspicious was going on. Of course, some will never be convinced of
anything but the official government line, but the debate is vitally important
now. In spite of the ridicule I received, I left the site smiling. Some
eyes were clearly opened, and that is good enough. THIS is what the
fight for freedom is all about - an open exchange of ideas, questioning
the powers that be, and daring to openly expose oneself to the scrutiny
of those who would try to snuff out both that free debate and the people
who dare to encourage it. Yeah, I got called 'paranoid,' too. But isn't
it funny that those who don't dare allow themselves to question the official
government line can't deal with the issues or the questions involved?
They simply start calling names, and heaping on the ridicule. Thanks
again for providing such important and timely stories. It shows guts on
your part, and we all could use a lot more guts right now to face up to
one of the most serious threats to human freedom - and truth itself -
that any of us has ever witnessed in our lifetimes.
-
- Sincerely,
-
- Robert Phillips
Ronan, Montana
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