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“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

— Archbishop Desmond Tutu

America: the Ultimate Terrorist

As the West prepares for an assault on Iraq, John Pilger argues that the “war on terror” is a smokescreen created by the ultimate terrorist... America itself.

by John Pilger
22 Jul 2002
http://pilger.carlton.com/print/111624

It is 10 months since 11 September, and still the great charade plays on. Having appropriated our shocked response to that momentous day, the rulers of the world have since ground our language into a paean of cliches and lies about the “war on terrorism” — when the most enduring menace, and source of terror, is them.

The fanatics who attacked America came from Saudi Arabia and Egypt. No bombs fell on these American protectorates. Instead, more than 5,000 civilians have been bombed to death in stricken Afghanistan, the latest a wedding party of 40 people, mostly women and children. Not a single al-Qaeda leader of importance has been caught.

Following this “stunning victory”, hundreds of prisoners were shipped to an American concentration camp in Cuba, where they have been held against all the conventions of war and international law. No evidence of their alleged crimes has been produced, and the FBI confirms only one is a genuine suspect. In the United States, more than 1,000 people of Muslim background have “disappeared”; none has been charged. Under the draconian Patriot Act, the FBI’s new powers include the authority to go into libraries and ask who is reading what.

Meanwhile, the Blair government has made fools of the British Army by insisting they pursue warring tribesmen: exactly what squaddies in putties and pith helmets did over a century ago when Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, described Afghanistan as one of the “pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a great game for the domination of the world”.

There is no war on terrorism; it is the great game speeded up. The difference is the rampant nature of the superpower, ensuring infinite dangers for us all.

Having swept the Palestinians into the arms of the supreme terrorist Ariel Sharon, the Christian Right fundamentalists running the plutocracy in Washington, now replenish their arsenal in preparation for an attack on the 22 million suffering people of Iraq. Should anyone need reminding, Iraq is a nation held hostage to an American-led embargo every bit as barbaric as the dictatorship over which Iraqis have no control. Contrary to propaganda orchestrated from Washington and London, the coming attack has nothing to do with Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction”, if these exist at all. The reason is that America wants a more compliant thug to run the world’s second greatest source of oil.

The drum-beaters rarely mention this truth, and the people of Iraq. Everyone is Saddam Hussein, the demon of demons. Four years ago, the Pentagon warned President Clinton that an all-out attack on Iraq might kill “at least” 10,000 civilians: that, too, is unmentionable. In a sustained propaganda campaign to justify this outrage, journalists on both sides of the Atlantic have been used as channels, “conduits”, for a stream of rumours and lies. These have ranged from false claims about an Iraqi connection with the anthrax attacks in America to a discredited link between the leader of the 11 September hijacks and Iraqi intelligence. When the attack comes, these consorting journalists will share responsibility for the crime.

It was Tony Blair who served notice that imperialism’s return journey to respectability was under way. Hark, the Christian gentleman-bomber’s vision of a better world for “the starving, the wretched, the dispossessed, the ignorant, those living in want and squalor from the deserts of northern Africa to the slums of Gaza to the mountain ranges of Afghanistan.” Hark, his “abiding” concern for the “human rights of the suffering women of Afghanistan” as he colluded with Bush who, as the New York Times reported, “demanded the elimination of truck convoys that provide much of the food and other supplies to Afghanistan’s civilian population”. Hark his compassion for the “dispossessed” in the “slums of Gaza”, where Israeli gunships, manufactured with vital British parts, fire their missiles into crowded civilian areas.

As Frank Furedi reminds us in The New Ideology of Imperialism, it is not long ago “that the moral claims of imperialism were seldom questioned in the West. Imperialism and the global expansion of the western powers were represented in unambiguously positive terms as a major contributor to human civilisation.” The quest went wrong when it was clear that fascism was imperialism, too, and the word vanished from academic discourse. In the best Stalinist tradition, imperialism no longer existed. Today, the preferred euphemism is “civilisation”; or if an adjective is required, “cultural”.

From Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, an ally of crypto-fascists, to impeccably liberal commentators, the new imperialists share a concept whose true meaning relies on a xenophobic or racist comparison with those who are deemed uncivilised, culturally inferior and might challenge the “values” of the West. Watch the “debates” on Newsnight. The question is how best “we” can deal with the problem of “them”.

For much of the western media, especially those commentators in thrall to and neutered by the supercult of America, the most salient truths remain taboos. Professor Richard Falk, of Cornell university, put it succinctly some years ago. Western foreign policy, he wrote, is propagated in the media “through a self righteous, one-way moral/legal screen [with] positive images of western values and innocence portrayed as threatened, validating a campaign of unrestricted violence”.

Perhaps the most important taboo is the longevity of the United States as both a terrorist state and a haven for terrorists. That the US is the only state on record to have been condemned by the World Court for international terrorism (in Nicaragua) and has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling on governments to observe international law, is unmentionable.

“In the war against terrorism,” said Bush from his bunker following 11 September, “we’re going to hunt down these evil-doers wherever they are, no matter how long it takes.”

Strictly speaking, it should not take long, as more terrorists are given training and sanctuary in the United States than anywhere on earth. They include mass murderers, torturers, former and future tyrants and assorted international criminals. This is virtually unknown to the American public, thanks to the freest media on earth.

There is no terrorist sanctuary to compare with Florida, currently governed by the [unelected] President’s brother, Jeb Bush. In his book Rogue State, former senior State Department official Bill Blum describes a typical Florida trial of three anti-Castro terrorists, who hijacked a plane to Miami at knifepoint. “Even though the kidnapped pilot was brought back from Cuba to testify against the men,” he wrote, “the defence simply told the jurors the man was lying, and the jury deliberated for less than an hour before acquitting the defendants.”

General Jose Guillermo Garcia has lived comfortably in Florida since the 1990s. He was head of El Salvador’s military during the 1980s when death squads with ties to the army murdered thousands of people. General Prosper Avril, the Haitian dictator, liked to display the bloodied victims of his torture on television. When he was overthrown, he was flown to Florida by the US Government. Thiounn Prasith, Pol Pot’s henchman and apologist at the United Nations, lives in New York. General Mansour Moharari, who ran the Shah of Iran’s notorious prisons, is wanted in Iran, but untroubled in the United States.

Al-Qaeda’s training camps in Afghanistan were kindergartens compared with the world’s leading university of terrorism at Fort Benning in Georgia. Known until recently as the School of the Americas, it trained tyrants and some 60,000 Latin American special forces, paramilitaries and intelligence agents in the black arts of terrorism.

In 1993, the UN Truth Commission on El Salvador named the army officers who had committed the worst atrocities of the civil war; two-thirds of them had been trained at Fort Benning. In Chile, the school’s graduates ran Pinochet’s secret police and three principal concentration camps. In 1996, the US government was forced to release copies of the school’s training manuals, which recommended blackmail, torture, execution and the arrest of witnesses’ relatives.

In recent months, the Bush regime has torn up the Kyoto treaty, which would ease global warming, to which the United States is the greatest contributor. It has threatened the use of nuclear weapons in “pre-emptive” strikes (a threat echoed by [UK] Defence Minister Geoffrey Hoon). It has tried to abort the birth of an international criminal court. It has further undermined the United Nations by blocking a UN investigation of the Israeli assault on a Palestinian refugee camp [the Jenin Massacre]; and it has ordered the Palestinians to replace their elected leader with an American stooge. At summit conferences in Canada and Indonesia, Bush’s people have blocked hundreds of millions of dollars going to the most deprived people on earth, those without clean water and electricity.

These facts will no doubt beckon the inane slur of “anti-Americanism”. This is the imperial prerogative: the last refuge of those whose contortion of intellect and morality demands a loyalty oath. As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, the Nazis silenced argument and criticism with “anti German” slurs. Of course, the United States is not Germany; it is the home of some of history’s greatest civil rights movements, such as the epic movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

I was in the US last week and glimpsed that other America, the one rarely seen among the media and Hollywood stereotypes, and what was clear was that it was stirring again. The other day, in an open letter to their compatriots and the world, almost 100 of America’s most distinguished names in art, literature and education wrote this:

“Let it not be said that people in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression. We believe that questioning, criticism and dissent must be valued and protected. Such rights are always contested and must be fought for. We, too, watched with shock the horrific events of September 11. But the mourning had barely begun when our leaders launched a spirit of revenge. The government now openly prepares to wage war on Iraq — a country that has no connection with September 11.

“We say this to the world. Too many times in history people have waited until it was too late to resist. We draw on the inspiration of those who fought slavery and all those other great causes of freedom that began with dissent. We call on all like-minded people around the world to join us.”

It is time we joined them.

Related pages

The 3 BIG LIES About Iraq
by John Pilger

The United States Government Committed the September 11 Attacks

The Israeli Connection To 9-11

Fox News Special Report: Israeli Spying on the U.S.

Massive Israeli Spy Ring Linked to September 11

9-11 Was a Mossad “False Flag Operation”

9-11, Mossad, the CIA and “False Flag Operations”

The CIA, Insider Trading and the World Trade Center Terror Attack

Operation 911: NO SUICIDE PILOTS

Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency (about Operation Northwoods)

Fake Terror: the Road to Dictatorship

Related sites

The journalism and films of John Pilger
http://www.johnpilger.com/

“It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it.”

The CIA: America’s Premier International Terrorist Organization
http://serendipity.magnet.ch/cia.html

“Most of this page concerns the CIA’s involvement in drug trafficking, but we should first note that this is only one part of its activities, the means by which it finances its operations in addition to the billions of dollars it gets from U.S. taxpayers courtesy of the U.S. federal government (the exact amount, of course, being kept secret from U.S. taxpayers).

“In addition to being the principal source of U.S. propaganda for domestic and foreign consumption the CIA is the covert operations division of the U.S. government and as such has engaged in many terrorist activities.

“In fact the CIA is a terrorist organization, funded by the profits of international drug smuggling.”

Homeland Insecurity:
Phoenix, Chaos, The Enterprise, and the Politics of Terror in America
by Douglas Valentine
http://www.counterpunch.org/homeland1.html

“This ability to commit the most horrific acts of terror, and successfully blame them on its enemies through black propaganda, is what makes the CIA’s inclusion in the OHS [Office of Homeland Security] so dangerous.

“This one-two punch, in conjunction with the CIA’s expertise at ‘provoked responses’ and ‘false flag recruitments,’ also makes the CIA itself a prime suspect in the terror attacks of 11 September, and the current propaganda campaign being waged in America now, as a pretext to threaten terror against the Bush Administration’s domestic political opponents, as well as to win support from the terrified middle class for the illegitimate Bush regime.”

Defrauding America
http://www.defraudingamerica.com/

“Government Agents and Deep-Cover Operatives Reveal and Document Widespread Corruption In Key Judicial and Other Government Offices.”

“This website, and the books referred to, can provide you case studies of widespread corruption in government...”

ARE AMERICANS THE VICTIMS OF A HOAX?
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/hoax.html

“The time has come to stop using the flag as a blindfold, to stop waving our guns and our gods at each other, to take a close look at the facts which have emerged from the attacks on the World Trade Towers and to recognize the very real possibility, indeed probability, that We The People are the victims of a gigantic and deadly hoax.”

Stan Goff: The So-Called Evidence Is A Farce
http://www.truefacts.co.uk/cgi-bin/trufax.cgi?a=110901l

“I’m a retired Special Forces Master Sergeant. ... I studied and taught military science and doctrine. I was a tactics instructor at the Jungle Operations Training Center in Panama, and I taught Military Science at West Point. ...

“Based on that experience, and operations in eight designated conflict areas from Vietnam to Haiti, I have to say that the story we hear on the news and read in the newspapers is simply not believable. The most cursory glance at the verifiable facts, before, during, and after September 11th, does not support the official line or conform to the current actions of the United States government.”

US planned war in Afghanistan long before September 11
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/nov2001/afgh-n20.shtml

“The United States ruling elite has been contemplating war in Central Asia for at least a decade. ... American oil companies have acquired rights to as much as 75 percent of the output of these new [Caspian Sea oil] fields, and US government officials have hailed the Caspian and Central Asia as a potential alternative to dependence on oil from the unstable Persian Gulf region.

“The major problem in exploiting the energy riches of Central Asia is how to get the oil and gas from the landlocked region to the world market. ...US oil companies and government officials have explored...pipeline routes...south from Turkmenistan across western Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean.”

GUILTY FOR 9-11: BUSH, RUMSFELD, MYERS
http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-1.htm

“Andrews Air Force Base is a huge military installation just 10 miles from the Pentagon.

“On 11 September there were two entire squadrons of combat-ready fighter jets at Andrews. Their job was to protect the skies over Washington D.C. They failed to do their job. Despite over one hour’s advance warning of a terrorist attack in progress, not a single Andrews fighter tried to protect the city.”

USS LIBERTY Memorial
http://ussliberty.org/

“This web site is dedicated to the memory of thirty-four fine young men who gave their lives on June 8, 1967, defending the USS Liberty against a sustained air and sea attack by the armed forces of the State of Israel.”

Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/

“In his new exposé of the National Security Agency entitled Body of Secrets, author James Bamford highlights a set of proposals on Cuba by the Joint Chiefs of Staff codenamed OPERATION NORTHWOODS.

“This document, titled ‘Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba’ was provided by the JCS to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962, as the key component of Northwoods. Written in response to a request from the Chief of the Cuba Project, Col. Edward Lansdale, the Top Secret memorandum describes U.S. plans to covertly engineer various pretexts that would justify a U.S. invasion of Cuba.

“These proposals - part of a secret anti-Castro program known as Operation Mongoose - included staging the assassinations of Cubans living in the United States, developing a fake ‘Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington,’ including ‘sink[ing] a boatload of Cuban refugees (real or simulated),’ faking a Cuban airforce attack on a civilian jetliner, and concocting a ‘Remember the Maine’ incident by blowing up a U.S. ship in Cuban waters and then blaming the incident on Cuban sabotage. Bamford himself writes that Operation Northwoods ‘may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government.’”

Pentagon documents detail provocations against Cuba
http://www.wsws.org/public_html/iwb12-8/cuba.htm

“The Pentagon offered a wide range of options for manufacturing a pretext to attack Cuba. In one memo it proposed using Soviet-made MIG fighter planes piloted by Americans to shoot down either a US warplane or a ‘civil airliner en route from the United States to Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama or Venezuela.’ The downing of the plane would then be blamed on Cuba and the US would launch a massive assault on the island.

“Another document declared: ‘We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington.’”

 
Bibliography

Body of Secrets:
Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency
by James Bamford

In 1962, U.S. military leaders had a top-secret plan for committing terrorist attacks on Americans in Miami and Washington D.C., while blaming Cuba. Codenamed “Operation Northwoods”, the plan was intended to provide the propaganda necessary to create popular support for an invasion of Cuba.

Bin Laden, the Forbidden Truth
by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie
published originally in France as Bin Laden, la Verite Interdite

This book reveals that FBI deputy director John O’Neill resigned in July 2001 to protest official U.S. government obstruction of his investigation of terrorism.

The authors report that O’Neill told them: “The main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate interests and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it.”

Osama bin Laden is a Saudi who has worked with the CIA since the 1980s, when they supplied him with U.S.-made Stinger missiles so his forces could shoot down Russian helicopters in Afghanistan.

Rogue State:
A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower
by William Blum

Pirates and Emperors, Old and New:
International Terrorism in the Real World
by Noam Chomsky

The Real Terror Network:
Terrorism in Fact and Propaganda
by Edward S. Herman

Western State Terrorism
Alexander George, editor; essays by Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman, Gerry O’Sullivan and others

The Culture of Terrorism
by Noam Chomsky

Terrorizing the Neighborhood:
American Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era
by Noam Chomsky
Pressure Drop Press, 1991

Killing Hope:
U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since WWII
by William Blum

The Fire This Time:
U.S. War Crimes in the Gulf
by Ramsey Clark

Desert Slaughter:
The Imperialist War Against Iraq
by the Workers League

The Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine

Against Empire
by Michael Parenti

The Sword and the Dollar:
Imperialism, Revolution and the Arms Race
by Michael Parenti

What Uncle Sam Really Wants
by Noam Chomsky

Deadly Deceits:
My 25 years in the CIA
by Ralph W. McGehee

A People’s History of the United States:
1492 — Present
by Howard Zinn

Bloody Hell:
The Price Soldiers Pay
by Daniel Hallock

Corporate Predators:
The Hunt for Mega-Profits and the Attack on Democracy
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Derailing Democracy:
The America the Media Don’t Want You to See
by David McGowan

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
by Gore Vidal

Apocalypse 1945:
The Destruction of Dresden
by David Irving

Saving Private Power:
The Hidden History of “The Good War”
by Michael Zezima

The Continuing Terror Against Libya
by Fan Yew Teng

The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
by Gar Alperovitz

The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media:
Decoding Spin and Lies in Mainstream News
by Norman Solomon

Inventing Reality:
The Politics of News Media
by Michael Parenti

Manufacturing Consent:
The Political Economy of the Mass Media
by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky

Toxic Sludge is Good for You!:
Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry
by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

The Hidden Persuaders:
What makes us buy, believe – and even vote – the way we do?
by Vance Packard

War, Lies & Videotape:
How media monopoly stifles truth
edited by Lenora Foerstel; multiple authors