NOTE:  This excellent article explains how the NWO uses psychological warfare methods to manipulate populations and demonstrates not only the connections between but even the identity of "terrorist" organizations and the government itself.

 

 

Bush's Christmas Terror Alert, by Michel Chossudovsky (COMPLETE)
24 December 2003

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO312D.html

This calculated decision of the military-intelligence apparatus was taken
at a time when families and friends, with small children and the elderly
meet and rejoice.  Christmas, celebrated around the World by both
Christians and Non-Christians, is the coming of peace between fellow human
beings. It is the pursuit of peace and tolerance.

Bush's Christmas terror alert strikes with unreserved cynicism at the very
heart of the "Spirit of Christmas". As people around the World prepare to
celebrate Christmas, in a a spirit of peace and communion, the Bush
Administration has put
America on high risk terror alert.

On December 21st, four days before Christmas, the Homeland Security
Department, raised  "the national threat level from an elevated to high
risk of terrorist attack". ( http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/index.jsp )  In
his pre-Christmas Press Conference,
Homeland Security Department Secretary
Tom Ridge
confirmed that "the U.S. intelligence community has received a
substantial increase in the volume of threat-related intelligence reports".


According to
Tom Ridge, these "credible [intelligence] sources" raise "the
possibility of attacks against the homeland, around the holiday season..."
(For complete statement of
Secretary Tom Ridge, 21 December 2003,
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/ )

Needless to say an atmosphere of collective fear and confusion has been
created across
America, which goes against the very "Spirit of Christmas".
According to the media reports, the high-level terror alert is to "hang
over the holidays and usher in the new year".

"Terrorists still threaten our country and we remain engaged in a dangerous
- to be sure - difficult war and it will not be over soon," warned Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "They can attack at any time and at any
place."

"With
America on high terror alert for the Christmas holiday season,
intelligence officials fear al-Qaeda is eager to stage a spectacular attack
- possibly hijacking a foreign airliner or cargo jet and crashing it into a
high-profile target inside the
United States." ( Boston Globe, 24 December
2003
)

The official Christmas announcement by the Homeland Security Department
dispelled any lingering doubts regarding the threat level:  "the risk
[during the Christmas period] is perhaps greater now than at any point
since September 11, 2001;"

It also warned Americans, in no uncertain terms, but without supporting
evidence, that there are: "indications  that [the] near-term attacks ...
will either rival or exceed the [9/11] attacks".
"And it's pretty clear that the nation's capital and
New York city would be
on any list..."

Following Secretary Ridge's announcement, anti-aircraft missile batteries
were set up in
Washington: . "And the Pentagon said today, more combat air
patrols will now be flying over select cities and facilities, with some
airbases placed on higher alert." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: "You
ask, 'Is it serious?' Yes, you bet your life. People don't do that unless
it's a serious situation." (ABC News,
23 December 2003)

According to an official statement (quoted by ABC News, 23 December):
"intelligence indicates that Al Qaeda-trained pilots may be working for
overseas airlines and ready to carry out suicide attacks."
  On Christmas
eve
24th of December, several flights out of
Paris were cancelled in
response to "credible threats" that Al Qaeda operatives may be boarding the
planes.

Background

This is the fifth time the Bush Administration has put the country on
Orange Code terror alert since
September 11, 2001. Orange Code Alert was
ordered on
7 February 2003, one day after Colin Powell's flopped
presentation on
Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction to the UN
Security Council.

Powell's intelligence dossier had been politely dismissed. The rebuttal
came from UN Inspector Hans Blix, who showed that the intelligence used as
a pretext to wage war on
Iraq had been blatantly fabricated.

Colin Powell addressed the Security council on the 6th. On the 7th, the
Bush administration declared an ‘Orange Code’ Terror Alert. This "save
face operation" contributed to appeasing an impending scandal, while also
upholding the Pentagon's planned invasion of
Iraq.  Media attention was
immediately shifted from Colin Powell's blunders at the UN Security Council
to an (alleged) impending terrorist attack on
America.

The
United States raised its terrorist threat alert to the second-highest
level -- code orange -- based on significant intelligence reports warning
of a "high risk" of a terrorist attack from the international terrorist
group al-Qaeda, Attorney General John Ashcroft and
Homeland Security
Secretary
Tom Ridge
said on February 7.

"After conferring this morning with the Homeland Security Council, the
decision has been made to increase the threat condition designation,
currently classified at 'elevated' risk,... to the 'high' risk category,"
Ashcroft said. "This decision for an increased threat condition designation
is based on specific intelligence received and analyzed by the full
intelligence community. This information has been corroborated by multiple
intelligence sources."

(...)

"The call that we've made today, which Americans have certainly heard
before, is based on our knowledge and our conviction that heightened
awareness and readiness deters terrorism and saves lives," Ridge said.
(State Department Dispatch,
7 February 2003)

Following this February 7 Orange Code announcement, anti-aircraft missiles
were immediately deployed around
Washington. The media became inundated
with stories on Iraqi support to an impending Al Qaeda attack.

The objective was to present
Iraq as the aggressor. According to the New
York Post, (11 February 2003):  ‘The nation is now on Orange Alert
because intelligence intercepts and simple logic both suggest that our
Islamic enemies know the best way to strike at us is through terrorism on
U.S. soil.‘

Another story allegedly emanating from the CIA on so-called ‘radioactive
dirty bombs’ had been planted in the news chain (ABC News,
13 Feb 2003).
Secretary Powell warned that "it would be easy for terrorists to cook up
radioactive ‘dirty’ bombs to explode inside the
U.S. … ‘How likely
it is, I can't say... But I think it is wise for us to at least let the
American people know of this possibility.’"(ABC News,
9 Feb. 2003).
Meanwhile, network TV warned that "American hotels, shopping malls or
apartment buildings could be al Qaeda's targets as soon as next week…".

The hidden agenda in the weeks leading up to the war was not only to link
Baghdad to Al Qaeda, the intent was to create an atmosphere of fear and
intimidation, which would muster unbending support for President Bush and
weaken the anti-war protest movement. Following the announcement, tens of
thousands of Americans rushed to purchase duct tape, plastic sheets and
gas-masks.

It later transpired that the terrorist alert was fabricated by the CIA, in
all likelihood in consultation with the upper echelons of the State
Department (ABC News,
13 Feb. 2003,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CRG302A.html ).

The FBI, for the first time had pointed its finger at the CIA.

This piece of that puzzle turns out to be fabricated and therefore the
reason for a lot of the alarm, particularly in
Washington this week, has
been dissipated after they found out that this information was not true,"
said Vince Cannistraro, former CIA counter-terrorism chief and ABCNEWS
consultant.

(...)

According to officials, the FBI and the CIA are pointing fingers at each
other. An FBI spokesperson told ABCNEWS today he was "not familiar with the
scenario," but did not think it was accurate. (Ibid)

While tacitly acknowledging that the alert was a fake,
Homeland Security
Secretary
Tom Ridge
decided to maintain the ‘Orange Code’ alert:
"Despite the fabricated report, there are no plans to change the threat
level. Officials said other intelligence has been validated and that the
high level of precautions is fully warranted." ((Ibid)

A few days later, in another failed propaganda initiative, a mysterious
Osama bin Laden audio tape was presented by Sec. Colin Powell to the
US
Congress as ‘evidence’ that the Islamic terrorists "are making common
cause with a brutal dictator". (
US official quoted in The Toronto Star, 12
Feb. 2003
). Curiously, the audio tape was in Colin Powell's possession
prior to its broadcast by the Al Jazeera TV Network. (Ibid.) ,

"Copy and Paste": Déjà Vu

Is the Bush administration telling the truth regarding the risk of a terror
attack during the Christmas holiday?

While the circumstances and timing are different,
Secretary Tom Ridge's
December 21 statement has all the appearances of  a "copy and paste"
(Déjà Vu) version of his February 7 announcement, which according to
the FBI was a hoax.

Al Qaeda is once again identified in the December 21st statement as "the
Outside Enemy", without of course mentioning that Osama bin Laden's Al
Qaeda is a creation of the CIA and is an "intelligence asset" controlled by
the
US. (See Selected References at
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/11SEPT309A.html

In other words, what is "the credibility" of  an Administration which,
according to the FBI is on record for having (in February 2003),
deliberately fabricated a terror alert in violation of US laws?

What is disturbing in the December 21 statement is the fact that an
"actual" or "attempted" Al Qaeda terrorist attack seems already to be in
the official pipeline.

The Central  Role of "a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event"

In October, former CENTCOM Commander, General Tommy Franks, hinted that an
Al Qaeda sponsored terrorist attack could in fact lead to the suspension of
democracy in
America.

Franks was alluding to a so-called "Pearl Harbor type event" which would be
used as a justification for declaring a State of emergency, leading to the
establishment of a military government:

"a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event [will occur] somewhere in
the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that
causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to
militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass,
casualty-producing event."

The "terrorist massive casualty-producing event" is presented by General
Franks as a crucial political turning point. The resulting crisis and
social turmoil are intended to facilitate a major shift in US political,
social and institutional structures.

In the words of David Rockefeller:  "We are on the verge of global
transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will
accept the New World Order."

A similar statement was made by Zbigniew Brzezinski in the Grand
Chessboard:  "As
America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it
may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues,
except in the circumstances of a truly massive and widely perceived direct
external threat."

The NeoCons' Project for the New American Century (PNAC), published in
September 2000, barely two months before the presidential elections, called
for:  "some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new
Pearl Harbor."
(See http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/NAC304A.html )

Needless to say, the statement of the NeoCons in the PNAC is consistent
with that of
Secretary Tom Ridge.

The day following Secretary Ridge's announcement (December 21st), President
Bush was briefed by his "top anti-terror advisors" in closed door sessions
at the White House. Later in the day, the Homeland Security Council (HSC)
met, also at the White House.  The  executive body of the HSC, the
so-called Principals Committee (HSC/PC), headed by
Secretary Tom Ridge.
includes Donald Rumsfeld, CIA Director George Tenet, Attorney General John
Ashcroft , FBI Director Robert Mueller and Michael D. Brown, Under
Secretary, Emergency Preparedness and Response, who overseas the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

In the wake of the HSC meeting held on 22 December, Secretary Ridge
confirmed that:   "we reviewed the specific plans and the specific action
we have taken and will continue to take"

According to the official statement, which must be taken seriously, an
"actual terrorist attack" in the near future on American soil would lead to
a Red Code Alert. The latter in turn, would create conditions for the
(temporary) suspension of  the normal functions of civilian government, as
foreseen by General Tommy Franks. This scenario was envisaged by
Secretary
Tom Ridge
in a CBS News Interview on  December 22, 2003:

"If we simply go to red ... it basically shuts down the country," meaning
that civilian government bodies would be closed down and taken over by and
Emergency Administration. The scenario is presented in detail at the
Homeland department's Ready.Gov website at http://www.ready.gov/

Moreover, in recent months (May 2003) the Homeland department has conducted
an "anti-terrorist exercise" entitled TOPOFF 2. The latter is described as
"the largest and most comprehensive terrorism response and homeland
security exercise ever conducted in the
United States.

In a Strangelovian logic, this "national response capability" translated
into a military style exercise by federal, State and local level
governments, including Canadian participants, establishes various
"scenarios" under a Red Code Alert. In essence, it was conducted on the
same assumption as military exercises in anticipation of an actual theater
war, examining various WMD attack scenarios and the institutional response
of State and local governments:

"It assessed how responders, leaders, and other authorities would react to
the simulated release of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in two U. S.
cities, Seattle, WA and Chicago, IL. The exercise scenario depicted a
fictitious, foreign terrorist organization that detonated a simulated
radiological dispersal device (RDD or dirty bomb) in
Seattle and released
the pneumonic plague in several
Chicago metropolitan area locations. There
was also significant pre-exercise intelligence play, a cyber-attack, and
credible terrorism threats against other locations." (For full text see,
Department of Homeland Security, Summary Conclusions From National
Exercise, Office of the Press Secretary, December 19, 2003,
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=2693 )

What will happen under Code Orange terror alert during the Christmas
holiday, remains to be seen.

The Administration has already simulated the Orange Code and Red Code
scenarios, of an actual terror attack. The perspective, and assumptions,
however, have changed markedly since the February 7
Orange Alert.

We are no longer strictly dealing with a fear and disinformation campaign.
"Mass casualty producing events"  --or "
Pearl Harbor type events" to use
the PNAC's __expression-- constitute the basic premise and driving force
behind the Homeland Emergency response system, including its Ready.Gov
instructions to citizens, its "anti-terrorist" legal framework under the
Second Patriot Act, etc. According to Frank Morales:

"Homeland defense", as we experience it today, has been percolating in the
bowels of the Pentagon and corporate think tanks like the Center for
Strategic and International Studies, and the Council on Foreign Relations,
along with their Congressional counterparts, for nearly a decade. What it
required was an emergency situation. The "homeland security" apparatus
presently being constructed is modeled roughly after the military's
"combatant command structure" and is --in the wake of 9/11– set within
the context of the "laws and customs of war", hence the introduction of
military courts and the shifting of jurisdictions for so-called "crimes
associated with terrorism". The Northern Command, based at Peterson Air
Force Base,
Colorado, whose job as of October 1st is to patrol America,
will head up this homeland defense "command structure".

In short, what we are dealing with is "the Roadmap to a Police State".

This Administration has chosen the Christmas holiday to wage a campaign of
fear and intimidation. Its ultimate objective consists in manipulating
Americans into accepting a de facto military government, as a means to
"protect their civil liberties".

This calculated decision of the military-intelligence apparatus was taken
at a time when families and friends, with small children and the elderly
meet and rejoice.

Christmas, celebrated around the World by both Christians and
Non-Christians, is the coming of peace between fellow human beings. It is
the pursuit of peace and tolerance.

Bush's Christmas terror alert strikes with unreserved cynicism at the very
heart of the "Spirit of Christmas".

24 December, 2003