"Millions
of people have been misled regarding the causes and consequences of September
11.
When
people across the US and around the World find out that Al Qaeda
is not an outside enemy but a creation of US foreign policy and the CIA, the
legitimacy of the bipartisan war agenda will tumble like a deck of cards."
(Michel Chossudovsky, War and
Globalization, The Truth behind September 11,
2002)
Global
Research E-Monograph and Reports Series, No. 1, 2004
Copyright Michel Chossudovsky
and the Centre for Research on Globalization 2004. All Rights Reserved.
See complete copyright note at the end of the page
Preface
As
the election campaign unfolds, the "war on terrorism" has become the
main if not the sole election issue. Ironically, Osama
bin Laden has become a central figure of the election debate.
Whatever
it takes"… said President Bush:
"[We
will] fight the terrorists across the Earth, not for pride, not for power, but
because the lives of our citizens are at stake."
Senator
Kerry has promised to do even better:
"As
President, I will fight a smarter, more effective war on terror. We will deploy
every tool in our arsenal: our economic as well as our military might; our
principles as well as our firepower."
In
other words, the tragic events of 9/11 are being used by both
political parties to galvanize public opinion in support of America's war agenda.
9/11 is being used as a justification to wage
a pre-emptive war against "rogue states" and Islamic terrorists,
which are "threatening the security of Homeland".
Meanwhile,
the "war on terrorism" has diverted attention from all other issues,
including the militarization of America and
a looming social and economic crisis, marked by rising levels of poverty and
unemployment.
Across
the land, the image of an "outside enemy" is
instilled in the consciousness of Americans. Al Qaeda
is threatening America and
the world. The repeal of democracy under the Patriot legislation is portrayed as a means to providing "domestic
security" and upholding civil liberties.
The
Big Lie
This
evolving bipartisan consensus is based on a lie.
Confirmed by congressional transcripts, intelligence and news reports, this
illusive outside enemy is a creation of the US
intelligence apparatus.
The
enemy of America is
"Made in America".
This is an inescapable fact.
The
"Islamic Militant Network" (the forerunner of Osama
bin Laden’s Al Qaeda), was
created and sustained by the CIA. CIA-sponsored guerrilla training in Afghanistan and
Pakistanwere integrated with the teachings of Islam. The madrasas were set up by Wahabi fundamentalists financed out of Saudi Arabia, with the support of Washington.
The
Reagan, Bush senior and Clinton
administrations actively supported the Islamic brigades during the
Soviet-Afghan war and its aftermath. The Taliban were the "graduates"
of the CIA sponsored madrasas. They would not have
been able to form a government, had it not been for US
military aid, channeled through Pakistan.
Confirmed
by official congressional documents, US
support to Al Qaeda continued after the Cold war.
Ironically,
during the Clinton
administration, it was the Republicans who were
accusing Bill Clinton of having links to the Islamic Militant Network in Bosnia and
Kosovo. A 1997 document emanating from the House Republican Party Committee
entitled "Clinton-Approved Iranian Arms Transfers Help Turn Bosnia into
Militant Islamic Base", accused Clinton of
working hand in glove with Al Qaeda in Bosnia:
"The
Clinton
administration’s hands-on involvement with the Islamic network's arms pipeline
included inspections of missiles from Iran by U.S.
government officials... [T]he Third World Relief Agency (TWRA),
a Sudan-based, phoney humanitarian organization ... has been a major link in
the arms pipeline to Bosnia... TWRA is believed to be connected with such fixtures of the
Islamic terror network as Sheik Omar AbdelRahman (the convicted mastermind behind the 1993 World
Trade Centre bombing) and Osama bin Laden, a wealthy
Saudi émigré believed to bankroll numerous militant groups."
(Congressional Press Release, Republican Party Committee (RPC),
U.S. Congress, Clinton-Approved Iranian Arms Transfers Help Turn Bosnia into
Militant Islamic Base, Washington DC, 16 January 1997, available on the website
of the Centre of Research on Globalisation (CRG) at http://globalresearch.ca/articles/DCH109A.html.
Needless to say these Congressional documents, while
revealing the outright lies behind US
foreign policy, were not meant to be read by the broader public.
US
Support to Al Qaeda (1999-2001)
US and NATO support to Al Qaeda
continued during the wars in Kosovo (1999) and Macedonia
(2001). Three weeks before 9/11, the US
government and the "Islamic Militant Network" were working hand in
glove in supporting and financing the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army
(NLA), involved in the terrorist attacks in Macedonia. US
military advisers mingle with Mujahideen within the
same paramilitary force, Western mercenaries from NATO countries fight
alongside Mujahideen recruited in the Middle
East and Central Asia. And the US
media calls this a "blowback" where so-called "intelligence
assets" have gone against their sponsors!
Needless to say, the Republicans and the Democrats are
complicit. They accuse one another of having links to Al Qaeda.
Yet successive Democratic and Republican administrations have been involved
from the outset of the Soviet Afghan war in 1979 in developing and sustaining
Al Qaeda as a US
sponsored "intelligence asset".
In
other words, if the Democrats were to win the 2004 presidential elections,
continuity in US
foreign policy would be maintained. More importantly,
the "war on terrorism" and the lies concerning Al Qaeda
and 9/11 would also be maintained.
The
9/11 Commission Report
The
9/11 Commission Report is devoid of a historical perspective. While it provides
all the appearances of a constructive critique of the US
government, it serves to uphold the myth of an outside enemy.
Following
the publication of the 9/11 Commission Report, the unfolding consensus is there
were "intelligence failures. "They
knew but failed to act".
This
line of reasoning is appealing to many 9/11 critics and Democrats, because it
tends to place the blame on the Bush administration. Yet in a bitter irony, the
very process of expressing public outrage on the failures of senior Bush
officials in waging an effective "war on terrorism", the Report has
contributed to reinforcing the myth of the "outside enemy", which is
being used to justify the largest military build-up since the Vietnam war.
The
foreknowledge issue is an obvious red herring. It serves to present Al Qaeda as a threat, as an "outside enemy", when in
fact Al Qaeda is a creation of the US
intelligence apparatus.
Both
the 9/11 Commission Report and the earlier Joint Senate-House Inquiry
constitute a cover-up. The function of these reports is to destroy the
historical record of US
covert support to internationalism terrorism, while creating the illusion that America and
"Western Civilization" are threatened. In turn, the various terrorist
warnings and code orange alerts have created, across America, an
atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
Refuting
the Myth of the Outside Enemy
In
response to the 9/11 Commission Report, we bring to the attention of our
readers a compilation of articles on 9/11 and the "war on terrorism".
This
collection includes most of my recent writings on 9/11, together with a few of
earlier texts written the immediate wake of September 11 2001.
However,
in view of the urgency and the need to inform public opinion, at this critical
juncture in our history, we decided to bring this collection out in the context
of The CRG's E-Reports
and Monograph Series.
The
Table of Contents provided below provides a link to key articles on different
aspects of 9/11 and the war on terrorism.
It
does not, however, purport to provide an exhaustive review of 9/11 issues. Its
main objective is to refute the myth of "the outside enemy", which
has served as a justification for war and the repeal of civil liberties.
Michel
Chossudovsky, Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), 8
September 2004
The presumption is that these forewarnings and intelligence briefs
emanating from the intelligence establishment constitute a true and unbiased
representation of the terrorist threat.
Meanwhile, the history of Al Qaeda and the CIA
has been shoved to the background. The fact that successive
US governments since the Soviet-Afghan war have supported and abetted the
Islamic terror network is no longer mentioned, for
obvious reasons. It would break the consensus regarding Al Qaeda
as the outside enemy of America,
which is a crucial building block of the entire National Security doctrine.
We are the juncture of the most serious crisis
in modern history.
The Bush Administration has embarked upon a military adventure
which threatens the future of humanity.
The wars on Afghanistan
and Iraq are part of a broader military agenda, which was
launched at the end of the Cold War. The ongoing war agenda is a
continuation of the 1991 Gulf War and the NATO led wars on Yugoslavia (1991-2001).
Prime suspect in the New York and Washington terrorists attacks, branded
by the FBI as an "international terrorist" for his role in the
African US embassy bombings, Saudi born Osama bin
Laden was recruited during the Soviet-Afghan war "ironically under the
auspices of the CIA, to fight Soviet invaders".
Rarely mentioned in 9/11 news reports, the "Islamic Militant
Network" was created during Jimmy Carter’s presidency (1976-1981). In July
1979, Carter signed a presidential directive to launch a secret plan in support
of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Confirmed by former CIA director, Robert Gates, in his book, From
the Shadows, this "secret plan" was instrumental in triggering
the Soviet-Afghan war.
According to CBS News, Osamahad been admitted to a Pakistani military hospital on
September 10, courtesy of America's ally. In all likelihood he was still in
hospital in Rawalpindi
on the 11th of September, when the attacks occurred.
Three weeks before 9/11, the US government and the "Islamic Militant Network" were working
hand in glove in supporting and financing the self-proclaimed National
Liberation Army (NLA), involved in the terrorist
attacks in Macedonia.
US military advisers mingle with Mujahideen within
the same paramilitary force, Western mercenaries from NATO countries fight
alongside Mujahideen recruited in the Middle East and Central Asia. And
the US media calls this a "blowback" where so-called
"intelligence assets" have gone against their sponsors!
Sec. Colin Powell accused Baghdad of supporting Ansar al-Islam, a "deadly
terrorist network" based in the ethnic Kurd controlled region of Northern Iraq
The
Bush administration desperately needs the "war on terrorism" as a
justification for the killings of civilians in Iraq,
which it describes as "collateral damage".
To reach its foreign policy objectives, the images of terrorism must
remain vivid in the minds of the citizens, who are constantly
reminded of the terrorist threat.
The "war on terrorism" rests on the creation of one or more
evil bogeymen, the terror leaders, Osama bin Laden,
Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, et
al, whose names and photos are presented ad nauseam in
daily news reports.
Al Qaeda fighters and their senior Pakistani
advisers were "saved" on the orders of Donald Rumsfeld.
Meanwhile, also on the orders of the Secretary of Defense,
innocent civilians who had no relationship whatsoever to the war theaterwere categorized as "enemy
combatants", kidnapped, interrogated and sent to Guantanamo.
In October 2000, a military exercise was conducted which consisted in
establishing the scenario of a simulated passenger plane crashing into the
Pentagon.
Pakistan's chief spy Lt.
General Mahmoud Ahmad "was in the US when the attacks
occurred." He arrived in the US on the 4th of
September, a full week before the attacks. He had meetings at the State
Department "after" the attacks on the WTC. But he also had "a regular visit of consultations"
with his US counterparts at
the CIA and the Pentagon during the week prior to September 11.
