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“Few of us can easily surrender our belief that society must somehow make sense. The thought that The State has lost its mind and is punishing so many innocent people is intolerable. And so the evidence has to be internally denied.”

— Arthur Miller
playwright

Chronology of
American State Terrorism

U.S. State Department Policy Planning Study #23, 1948:

“Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity [U.S. military-economic supremacy]... To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming... We should cease to talk about vague and...unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.”

— George Kennan
Director of Policy Planning
U.S. State Department
1948

The following collection of relatively brief entries is divided into three pages. Each page has the full list near the top so you can jump around from entry to entry between pages.

This list of nations represents literally millions of human beings all over the world who have been brutally murdered — directly by the United States military/government or by its obedient proxies. Huge though the list is, there is yet more to add. But it does at least contain most of the known campaigns of American state terrorism, genocide and subversion — all of which are in the historical record for the whole world to see. God only knows what evil the U.S. government and military have committed that remains hidden.

And as long as the United States remains a military power, the list of state terror victims will keep growing.

Page One: Iraq 2003-Present Palestine 1948-Present Iraq 1991-2003 Afghanistan 2001-Present Colombia 1960s-Present Yugoslavia 1992-Present Congo/Zaire 1961-Present Cuba 1959-Present Guatemala 1953-Present El Salvador 1980-Present East Timor 1975-1999 Haiti 1987-1994 Somalia 1993 Afghanistan 1979-1992 Nicaragua 1981-1990 Panama 1989

Page Two: Libya 1981-1989 Iran 1988 Grenada 1979-1984 Greece 1964-1974 Chile 1964-1973 Costa Rica Mid-1950s, 1970-71 Dominican Republic 1963-1966 Vietnam 1945-1974 Cambodia 1955-1973 Laos 1957-1973 Thailand 1965-1973 Italy 1947-1970s Indonesia 1965 Brazil 1961-1964 British Guiana/Guyana 1953-1964 Iraq 1963

Page Three: Soviet Union 1940s-1960s Western Europe 1950s-1960s Haiti 1959 Indonesia 1957-1958 Middle East 1956-1958 Iran 1953 Germany, Italy, Europe 1950s Eastern Europe 1948-1956 Albania 1949-1953 Korea 1945-1953 Philippines 1945-1953 Greece 1947-1949 Marshall Islands 1946-1958 Italy 1947-1948 France 1947 China 1945-1951 Hiroshima & Nagasaki August 1945 Dresden, Germany February 1945 Japan, Germany, France 1942-1945 Around the world 1800s-1930s Philippines 1899-1902 America and Africa 1607-1890

 
2003 – Present
American/British Invasion and State Terrorism of the Iraqi People

Estimated civilian deaths: tens of thousands of people

In March 2003 the literally satanic U.S. military/government launched a murderous invasion of Iraq. Disregarding America’s widely scorned state propaganda, there are three true reasons for the invasion and occupation: 1) taking control of Iraq’s oil; 2) forcing Iraq to return to using the dollar instead of the euro for oil payments; 3) eliminating the largest, independent Arab power on behalf of the terrorist, racist State of Israel.

Along with its British puppets, the American military destroyed the hopelessly outgunned Iraqi military, once again slaughtering thousands of Iraqi civilian men, women and children in the process. The racist invaders now occupy the country and are continuing the mass murder and terrorization of its people.

See report and photos:
Satanic American/British Babykillers: State Terrorism of the Iraqi People

See also:

American-British Terrorism of the Iraqi People 1991-2003

The 3 BIG LIES About Iraq

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

Desert Slaughter: The Imperialist War Against Iraq

The Highway of Death

Iraq’s Poisoned Water

Bibliography:
American Sanctions Against the Iraqi People

[Back to list]

 
1948 – Present
American/Israeli State Terrorism of the Palestinian People

Estimated civilian deaths: 100,000 Palestinian people

From the very beginning of the Zionist State of Israel in 1948, the racist Israelis have mass-murdered and terrorized the Palestinian people.

One of the earliest and most notorious incidents of Israeli terrorism was the Deir Yassin massacre in April, 1948. 250 Palestinian men, women and children were murdered in cold blood by Menachem Begin’s Zionist “Irgun” group as it went from house to house seeking to drive all Palestinians out of their ancient homeland. It hasn’t gotten any better since then.

Besides murdering women and children, Israelis routinely torture Palestinian prisoners in jail. And almost all of it has been kept hidden by the mainstream American mass-media for well over half-a-century.

Just to give you another example of who the Israelis really are: in 1946, Menachem Begin’s terrorist organization blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, murdering British nurses, in order to drive the British out of Palestine. Israeli society later rewarded Menachem Begin by electing him Prime Minister.

And another example: on June 8, 1967 the armed forces of Israel killed 34 U.S. Navy sailors during a sustained air and sea attack on the USS Liberty.

In 1982 the Israelis invaded Lebanon and murdered 17,500 people. During the Israeli occupation, Ariel Sharon was the primary authority behind the massacres at the Shatilla and Sabra refugee camps in which over 1000 helpless Palestinian children, women and civilian men were murdered in cold blood by Lebanese Christians. Now that Ariel Sharon is the Israeli Prime Minister, it should come as no surprise that the viciously racist Israeli Army was encouraged to commit the Jenin massacre. Israelis like having bloodthirsty war criminals as Prime Ministers.

The United States government gives billions of your tax dollars to the Israelis every year. And the U.S. government never pays people to do things it doesn’t want done. Israeli state terrorism is essentially American state terrorism.

See also:

American/Israeli Terrorism of the Palestinian People

Zionism is Jewish Naziism: A Photo Essay on Israeli State Terrorism

The Jenin Massacre

Racist Zionism: Israeli Apartheid (Bibliography)

The Israeli Connection To 9-11

Ariel Sharon: The Jewish Hitler

Return of the Terrorist: The Crimes of Ariel Sharon

[Back to list]

 
2001 – Present
American State Terrorism of the Afghan Peoples

Estimated civilian deaths: 24,000 people

With total hypocrisy the United States military terrorized and mass-murdered thousands of innocent Afghan civilian people, supposedly in reprisal for the terror attacks of September 11. As they did in Yugoslavia and Iraq, heroic U.S. Air Force pilots murdered thousands of women and children by bombing hospitals and schools and private homes. They even bombed an Afghan wedding party. None of these innocent, civilian victims had anything whatsoever to do with the September 11 attacks.

Obviously the so-called “war on terrorism” is a total sham. The real reason the U.S. is in Afghanistan is to get control of Caspian Sea oil. To get the oil out of the Caspian basin they have to run pipelines through Afghanistan. Most unfortunate for the hapless Afghan people.

See also:

Imperial Hypocrisy: American State Terrorism of the Afghan Peoples, 2001-Present

The Truth About American Terrorism of the Afghan Peoples

The United States Government Committed the September 11 Attacks

[Back to list]

 
1991 – Present
American/British State Terrorism of the Iraqi People

Estimated total civilian deaths: at least 200,000 people directly from the 1991 terror campaign;
1,000,000 — 2,000,000 people since then from the combined effects of depleted uranium poisoning, polluted water and sanctions

Like the terrorization of the entire civilian population of Yugoslavia, the so-called Gulf “War” was in fact a cowardly, high-tech slaughter, a total mismatch of military power. 177 million pounds of bombs were dropped on the people of Iraq in the most concentrated aerial bombardment in the history of the world. Sadistic American forces even slaughtered retreating Iraqi soldiers as they tried to flee along a highway back to Iraq.

And as with Yugoslavia, the “Desert Storm” terror campaign was directed primarily against the civilian population, a genocidal six-week assault on all the civilian people and infrastructure of Iraq. Particularly targeted were every grain silo and public water-treatment plant in the country. The assault included the most extensive use in history of depleted uranium missiles, and the most intensive use of cluster bombs, fuel-air bombs, napalm, cruise missiles and so-called “smart bombs”.

The Dutch Laka Foundation estimates that this particular U.S. terror campaign left behind 300-800 tons of radioactive waste from the depleted uranium ammunition all over Kuwait and Iraq — poisoning the air, the land, the water and the people everywhere.

Afterwards, wherever the depleted uranium firing had been concentrated, there were cancer epidemics among Iraqi civilians living nearby. In the ten years since, sanctions, bacteria-laden water and depleted uranium together have killed somewhere between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 Iraqi civilians. Most of the victims were, and are, children.

Since the American terror campaign, thousands of Iraqi babies have been born with horrible birth defects. This is something that has never before been seen in Iraq.

More than 120,000 American Gulf War veterans are chronically ill — suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. A U.S. Department of Veterans study of 251 veterans’ families found that 67% had children with severe illnesses or birth defects.

Even the United Nations estimates that over one million Iraqi civilians, including 600,000 children below the age of five have died as a result of diseases from polluted water — and the American sanctions which deny them the needed medicines.

See also:

Satanic American/British Babykillers: State Terrorism of the Iraqi People

American-British Terrorism of the Iraqi People

The 3 BIG LIES About Iraq

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

Desert Slaughter: The Imperialist War Against Iraq

The Highway of Death

Iraq’s Poisoned Water

Bibliography:
American Sanctions Against the Iraqi People

[Back to list]

 
1960s – Present
American Support for Colombian State Terrorism of the Colombian People

Estimated civilian deaths: over 67,000 people

Under the guise of aid for “counternarcotics” operations, the U.S. Corporate Mafia Government is supplying weapons, training, troops and $1.3 billion of American taxpayers’ money to its murderous apprentices in the Colombian military. The real purpose of all this aid is to support the government’s massive political oppression of the Colombian people. It’s Vietnam all over again.

Colombia is the most violent country in the world. The vast majority of the terror is committed by the U.S.-supported military and right-wing paramilitary forces — who are heavily involved in cocaine production and smuggling. They have tortured and murdered tens of thousands of people in trade unions and left-wing movements, including many human rights activists and grassroots organizers.

See also:

Colombia: the Genocidal Democracy

Chronology of U.S. Terrorism and Genocide of the Central American, South American & Caribbean peoples

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1992 – Present
American/NATO State Terrorism and Subversion of the Yugoslavian Peoples

Estimated civilian deaths: over 3000 people from the 1999 terror-bombing
Weapons of mass-destruction used by U.S.-dominated NATO forces included cluster bombs, depleted uranium missiles, fuel-air bombs, napalm, cruise missiles and other so-called “smart bombs”.

250,000 people were killed during the U.S./German-sponsored civil war in Bosnia of 1992-1995, and in Krajina, 1995.

Estimated civilian injuries: 9000+ people from the 1999 American terror campaign alone. Many people, including children, dismembered and crippled for life by cluster bombs.

In addition, over 1 million people who now live in Serbia-Yugoslavia are refugees from Krajina, Bosnia and Kosovo — victims of the U.S./German-sponsored terror campaigns of the 1990s.

For 78 days and nights in the Spring of 1999, United States Air Force and Navy pilots rained death indiscriminately upon women and children, old men and women shopping in marketplaces, passengers in trains, people in cars and buses, people in schools, patients in hospitals — anyone and everyone — everywhere in Yugoslavia.

The American terror campaign actually began in 1992 with the American/German sponsored subversion and breakup of Yugoslavia and subsequent civil war in Bosnia. It continued with the “ethnic cleansing” of approximately 300,000 to 500,000 Serbians from the Krajina region in 1995. Thousands of Serbian refugees were murdered as they tried to flee the sadistic, gratuitous bombing by the American-backed Croatian forces. American terrorism peaked with the bombing of the entire civilian population and infrastructure of Yugoslavia in 1999. It has continued to this day with the brutal occupation of Kosovo.

NATO/KFOR occupation troops have stood idly by, watching sympathetically as Albanian extremists kidnapped, publicly beat, murdered and tortured Serbs, Roma and Jews, burning down their houses and dynamiting centuries-old Christian churches. Over 200,000 non-Albanians were “ethnically cleansed” from Kosovo with America’s total blessing.

As if this weren’t appalling enough, a massive sex-slave trade of Eastern European women and girls has flourished in Kosovo since the American/NATO occupation began. The women and girls are often beaten, they are forced to live in poverty and filth, they are raped many times every day, and many are murdered. The pimps are all Albanian KLA/mafia with a reputation for brutal violence. The customers are American/NATO occupation troops (ludicrously called “peacekeepers” by the corporate-owned mass-media) and so-called “international peace workers”.

Ah yes, “humanitarianism” and “democracy”. Isn’t that what America is all about?

See also:

Hidden Agenda: U.S./NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia

American State Terrorism of the Yugoslavian Peoples

To Kill A Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia

The U.S./NATO Terror Campaign: Nine Myths and Realities

At a Serb Funeral: Tears for Victims of a “Regrettable Mistake”

NATO in the Balkans: Voices in Opposition

NATO Targets: The Civilian People of Yugoslavia

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1960 – Present
American Assassination of Patrice Lumumba and Support of State Terrorism of the People of The Congo/Zaire

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

In June 1960, Patrice Lumumba became the Congo’s first prime minister after independence from Belgium. But Belgium retained its vast mineral wealth in Katanga province, prominent Eisenhower administration officials had financial ties to the same wealth, and Lumumba, at Independence Day ceremonies before a host of foreign dignitaries, called for the nation’s economic as well as its political liberation, and recounted a list of injustices against the natives by the white owners of the country. The man was obviously a “Communist.” The poor man was obviously doomed.

Eleven days later, Katanga province seceded, in September, Lumumba was dismissed by the president at the instigation of the United States, and in January 1961 he was assassinated at the express request of [President] Dwight Eisenhower. There followed several years of civil conflict and chaos and the rise to power of Mobutu Sese Seko, a man not a stranger to the CIA. Mobutu went on to rule the country for more than 30 years, with a level of corruption and cruelty that shocked even his CIA handlers. The Zairian people lived in abject poverty despite the plentiful natural wealth, while Mobutu became a multibillionaire.

[Back to list]

 
1959 – Present
American Subversion and State Terrorism of the Cuban People

From Killing Hope
by William Blum:

Fidel Castro came to power at the beginning of 1959. A U.S. National Security Council meeting of March 10, 1959 included on its agenda the feasibility of bringing “another government to power in Cuba.” There followed 40 years of terrorist attacks, bombings, full-scale military invasion, sanctions, embargoes, isolation, assassinations...Cuba had carried out The Unforgivable Revolution, a very serious threat of setting a “good example” in Latin America.

The saddest part of this is that the world will never know what kind of society Cuba could have produced if left alone, if not constantly under the gun and the threat of invasion, if allowed to relax its control at home. The idealism, the vision, the talent were all there. But we’ll never know. And that of course was the idea.
(end of Killing Hope excerpt)

In his book Body of Secrets, author James Bamford reveals that 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 Fidel Castro and Cuba. Codenamed “Operation Northwoods”, the plan was intended to provide the propaganda necessary to create popular support for an invasion of Cuba.

See also:

U.S. Terrorism of the Central American, South American and Caribbean Peoples

Bibliography:
Cuban Liberation: Fidel Castro, Che Guevara & Jose Marti

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1953 – Present
American-backed Genocide of the Guatemalan People

Estimated civilian deaths: over 200,000 people

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

A CIA-organized coup overthrew the democratically-elected and progressive government of Jacobo Arbenz, initiating 40 years of military-government death squads, torture, disappearances, mass executions and unimaginable cruelty, totaling more than 200,000 victims — indisputably one of the most inhumane chapters of the 20th century.

The justification for the coup that has been put forth over the years is that Guatemala had been on the verge of the proverbial Soviet takeover. In actuality, the Russians had so little interest in the country that it didn’t even maintain diplomatic relations. The real problem was that Arbenz had taken over some of the uncultivated land of the US firm, United Fruit Company [Chiquita bananas], which had extremely close ties to the American power elite.

Moreover, in the eyes of Washington, there was the danger of Guatemala’s social-democracy model spreading to other countries in Latin America.

Despite a 1996 “peace” accord between the government and rebels, respect for human rights remains as only a concept in Guatemala; death squads continue to operate with a significant measure of impunity against union activists and other dissidents; torture still rears its ugly head; the lower classes are as wretched as ever; the military endures as a formidable institution; the US continues to arm and train the Guatemalan military and carry out exercises with it; and key provisions of the peace accord concerning military reform have not been carried out.

See also:

Making Guatemala a Killing Field
From What Uncle Sam Really Wants
by Noam Chomsky

[Back to list]

 
1980 – Present
American Terrorism of the El Salvadoran People

Estimated civilian deaths: over 75,000 people

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

Massive amounts of arms, training and funding were poured into El Salvador to prop up the puppet government against a popular uprising. Featured the covert use of U.S. air power and ground forces, as well as the training, at the “School of the Americas” [in Ft. Benning, Georgia], of the leaders of the right-wing death squads which executed thousands of Salvadorans.

Some of the highlights of the death squad activities included the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the execution of six Jesuit priests along with their housekeeper and her daughter, the rape and execution of four American church women, and the mass execution of some 800 civilians at the village of El Mozote.

From Killing Hope
by William Blum:

El Salvador’s dissidents tried to work within the system. But with U.S. support, the government made that impossible, using repeated electoral fraud and murdering hundreds of protesters and strikers. In 1980, the dissidents took to the gun, and civil war.

Officially, the U.S. military presence in El Salvador was limited to an advisory capacity. In actuality, military and CIA personnel played a more active role on a continuous basis. About 20 Americans were killed or wounded in helicopter and plane crashes while flying reconnaissance or other missions over combat areas, and considerable evidence surfaced of a U.S. role in the ground fighting as well. The war came to an official end in 1992; 75,000 civilian deaths and the U.S. Treasury depleted by six billion dollars.

Meaningful social change has been largely thwarted. A handful of the wealthy still own the country, the poor remain as ever, and dissidents still have to fear right-wing death squads.

See also:

The Crucifixion of El Salvador
From What Uncle Sam Really Wants
by Noam Chomsky

[Back to list]

 
1975 – 1999
American-backed Genocide of the People of East Timor

Estimated civilian deaths: over 200,000 people

From Killing Hope
by William Blum:

In December 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor, which lies at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, and which had proclaimed its independence after Portugal had relinquished control of it. The invasion was launched the day after U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had left Indonesia after giving Suharto permission to use American arms, which, under U.S. law, could not be used for aggression. Indonesia was Washington’s most valuable tool in Southeast Asia.

Amnesty International estimated that by 1989, Indonesian troops, with the aim of forcibly annexing East Timor, had killed 200,000 people out of a population of between 600,000 and 700,000. The United States consistently supported Indonesia’s claim to East Timor (unlike the UN and the EU), and downplayed the slaughter to a remarkable degree, at the same time supplying Indonesia with all the military hardware and training it needed to carry out the job.

From Derailing Democracy
by Dave McGowan:

The U.S.-backed government of Indonesia invaded East Timor just one day after a visit by President Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger. As many as a third of the tiny island’s population were exterminated using American supplied weaponry.

The Indonesian government, kept propped up with U.S. taxpayers’ money, continues to this day to be one of the worst human rights abusers on the planet.

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1987 – 1994
American-supported State Terrorism of the Haitian People

From Killing Hope
by William Blum:

The U.S. supported the Duvalier family dictatorship for 30 years, then opposed the reformist priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Meanwhile, the CIA was working intimately with death squads, torturers, and drug traffickers.

With this as background, the Clinton White House found itself in the awkward position of having to pretend — because of all their rhetoric about “democracy” — that they supported Aristide’s return to power in Haiti after he had been ousted in a 1991 military coup. After delaying his return for more than two years, Washington finally had its military restore Aristide to office, but only after obliging the priest to guarantee that he would not help the poor at the expense of the rich, and that he would stick closely to free-market economics. This meant that Haiti would continue to be the assembly plant of the Western Hemisphere, with its workers receiving literally starvation wages.

See also:

U.S. Terrorism of the Central American, South American and Caribbean Peoples

[Back to list]

 
1993
American Slaughter of People in Somalia

Estimated civilian deaths: 10,000 people

From Rogue State
by William Blum:

It was supposed to be a mission to help feed the starving masses. Before long, the U.S. was trying to rearrange the country’s political map by eliminating the dominant warlord, Mohamed Aidid, and his power base. On many occasions, beginning in June, U.S. helicopters strafed groups of Aidid’s supporters and fired missiles at them. Scores were killed. Then, in October, a daring attempt by some 120 elite American forces to kidnap two leaders of Aidid’s clan resulted in a horrendous bloody battle. The final tally was five U.S. helicopters shot down, 18 Americans dead, 73 wounded, 500 to 1000 Somalians killed, many more injured.

It’s questionable that getting food to hungry people was as important as the fact that four American oil giants were holding exploratory rights to large areas of land and were hoping that U.S. troops would put an end to the chaos which threatened their highly expensive investments. There was also the Pentagon’s ongoing need to sell itself to those in Congress who were trying to cut the military budget in the post-Cold War world. “Humanitarian” actions and (unnecessary) amphibious landings by U.S. Marines on the beach in the glare of T.V. cameras were thought to be good selling points. Washington designed the operation in such a way that the show would be run by the U.S. military and not the United Nations, under whose aegis it supposedly fell.

In any event, by the time the Marines landed, the worst of the famine was over. It had peaked months before.

From the International Action Center:

On December 12, 1992, the U.S. sent 28,000 soldiers into Somalia under the cover of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) in what they said was a “humanitarian mission” to bring food to starving people. The invasion came when a several-year drought that had taken tens of thousands of lives was actually abating. At the time, the evening news showed images of thousands of starving Somalis. What people didn’t see was U.S. troops — not delivering food — but instead engaged in daily gun battles and bombing raids in heavily populated neighborhoods. In ten months, more than 10,000 Somalis died as the U.S. engaged in aggressive military action against those who resisted.

Resistance among Somali women, men and even children to the foreign troops became widespread. The Somali people have a long and proud history of resistance. They fought for the freedom of their country from Italian, French and British colonialism — and they resisted the U.S. attempts to recolonize their country.

In the beginning of the military intervention in 1992, Colin Powell, at the time the chairman of the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the invasion a “paid political advertisement” for the Pentagon at a time (less than a year after the end of the so-called Cold War) when Congress was under growing pressure to cut the war budget. Powell opposed calls that money be used instead for jobs, education, health care, housing and other social needs, and instead sought to maintain the $300-billion-plus military budget.

In reporting on the U.S./UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM), the human rights organization Africa Rights stated that troops “have engaged in abuses of human rights, including killing of civilians, physical abuse, theft... Many UNOSOM soldiers have also displayed unacceptable levels of racism toward Somalis.” These abuses included opening fire with machine guns against unarmed protesters, firing missiles into residential areas and outright murder civilians, including many youth. The report states “UNOSOM has become an army of occupation.”

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1979 – 1992
American Subversion in Afghanistan

Estimated civilian deaths: over 1,000,000 people

From Killing Hope
by William Blum:

Everyone knows of the unbelievable repression of women in Afghanistan, carried out by Islamic fundamentalists, even before the Taliban. But how many people know that during the late 1970s and most of the 1980s, Afghanistan had a government committed to bringing the incredibly backward nation into the 20th century, including giving women equal rights?

What happened, however, is that the United States poured billions of dollars into waging a terrible war against this government, simply because it was supported by the Soviet Union. Prior to this, CIA operations had knowingly increased the probability of a Soviet intervention, which is what occurred. In the end, the United States won, and the women, and the rest of Afghanistan, lost. More than a million dead, three million disabled, five million refugees, in total about half the population.

See also:

Imperial Hypocrisy: American/British state terrorism of the Afghan Peoples, 2001-2002

The Truth About American Terrorism of the Afghan Peoples

[Back to list]

 
1981 – 1990
American Terrorism of the Nicaraguan People

Estimated civilian deaths: over 13,000 people

From Derailing Democracy
by Dave McGowan:

Following the fall of the Somoza regime, which had been backed for decades by the U.S., the CIA formed and armed the covert army known as the “Contras” from the remains of Somoza’s National Guard. Assisted by covert U.S. air power, this proxy army inflicted considerable death and destruction across the Nicaraguan countryside.

From Killing Hope
by William Blum:

When the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1978, it was clear to Washington that they might well be that long-dreaded beast — “another Cuba.” Under President Carter, attempts to sabotage the revolution took diplomatic and economic forms. Under Reagan, violence was the method of choice. For eight terribly long years, the people of Nicaragua were under attack by Washington’s proxy army, the Contras, formed from Somoza’s vicious National Guard and other supporters of the dictator.

It was all-out war, aiming to destroy the progressive social and economic programs of the government, burning down schools and medical clinics, raping, torturing, mining harbors, bombing and strafing. These were Ronald Reagan’s “freedom fighters.” There would be no revolution in Nicaragua.

From a talk by John Stockwell, 13-year veteran of the CIA and former U.S. Marine Corps major:

“Systematically, the Contras have been assassinating religious workers, teachers, health workers, elected officials, government administrators. Remember the ‘Assassination Manual’ that surfaced in 1984? It caused such a stir that President Reagan had to address it himself in the presidential debates with Walter Mondale. They use terror to traumatize society so that it cannot function.

“I don’t mean to abuse you with verbal violence, but you have to understand what your Government and its agents are doing.

“They go into villages. They haul out families. With the children forced to watch, they castrate the father. They peel the skin off his face. They put a grenade in his mouth, and pull the pin. With the children forced to watch, they gang-rape the mother, and slash her breasts off. And sometimes, for variety, they make the parents watch while they do these things to the children.

“This is nobody’s propaganda!

“There have been over a hundred thousand American ‘Witnesses for Peace’ who’ve gone down there, and they have filmed and photographed and witnessed these atrocities immediately after they’ve happened, and documented thirteen thousand people killed this way — mostly women and children.

“These are the activities done by the Contras. The Contras are the people President Reagan called ‘freedom fighters.’ He said: ‘they are the moral equivalent of our founding fathers.’”

See also:

Teaching Nicaragua a lesson
From What Uncle Sam Really Wants
by Noam Chomsky

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1989
American Invasion of Panama

Estimated civilian deaths: several thousand people

From Rogue State
by William Blum:

Less than two weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States showed its joy that a new era of world peace was now possible by invading Panama, as Washington’s mad bombers struck again. On December 20, 1989, a large tenement barrio in Panama City was wiped out; 15,000 people were left homeless. Counting several days of ground fighting between U.S. and Panamanian forces, 500-something natives dead was the official body count — i.e., what the United States and the new U.S.-installed Panamanian government admitted to. Other sources, examining more evidence, concluded that thousands had died. Additionally, some 3,000 Panamanians were wounded, 23 Americans died, 324 were wounded.

Question from reporter: “Was it really worth it to send people to their death for this? To get Noriega?"

George Bush: “Every human life is precious, and yet I have to answer, yes, it has been worth it.”

Manuel Noriega had been an American ally and informant for years until he outlived his usefulness. But getting him was hardly a major motive for the attack. Bush wanted to send a clear message to the people of Nicaragua, who had an election scheduled in two months, that this might be their fate if they reelected the Sandinistas. Bush also wanted to flex some military muscle to illustrate to Congress the need for a large combat-ready force even after the very recent dissolution of the “Soviet threat.” The official explanation for the American ouster was Noriega’s drug trafficking, which Washington had known about for years and had not been at all bothered by. And they could easily have gotten their hands on the man without wreaking such terrible devastation upon the Panamanian people.

See also:

The Panama Deception

The Invasion of Panama
From What Uncle Sam Really Wants
by Noam Chomsky

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Chronology of Terror, page 2

Chronology of Terror, page 3

See also:

Neighborhood Bully: American Militarism
interview with Ramsey Clark

The Geopolitical Strategy of Imperial America

America’s Bloody History: A Summary of Places and Dates
(This page features a 1.3 MB animated graphic)

Related sites

Information War
http://www.informationwar.org/

“For peace, freedom and plenty for all...”

A valuable site with a wealth of information, including:

• State Terrorism
• U.S. Sponsored Terrorism
• Terrorist Networks
• Video
• Audio
• Bioterrorism
• Past Wars
• Latest News
• Analysis
• People’s Voices
• Articles of Interest
• Anti-War Articles
• Anti-War Activities
• Posters and Leaflets
• Historical Background
• Strategy and Theory of War
• Photo Reportage
• Labour News

Let the Bloody Truth Be Told:
A Chronology of U.S. Imperialism
http://www.neravt.com/left/invade.htm

A partial list of U.S. military interventions from 1890 to 2001, compiled by Zoltan Grossman. This page also has a list of links to more information on genocidal U.S. imperialism.

U.S. Foreign Policy and Empire:
A Selected Bibliography (1995)
compiled by Will Miller
Department of Philosophy, University of Vermont
http://www.neravt.com/left/miller.htm

A Century of U.S. Military Interventions
From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan
Compiled by Zoltan Grossman
http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/interventions.htm

“U.S. military spending ($343 billion in the year 2000) is 69 percent greater than that of the next five highest nations combined.”

Bibliography

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

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

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.

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 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 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

Blackshirts and Reds:
Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
by Michael Parenti

The Beast Reawakens
by Martin A. Lee

To Kill A Nation:
The Attack on Yugoslavia
by Michael Parenti

Apocalypse 1945:
The Destruction of Dresden
by David Irving

What Uncle Sam Really Wants
by Noam Chomsky

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

Against Empire
by Michael Parenti

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

Hidden Agenda:
U.S./NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia
by Ramsey Clark, Nadja Tesich, Michel Chossudovsky, Slobodan Milosevic, numerous authors

NATO in the Balkans:
Voices of Opposition
by Ramsey Clark, Sean Gervasi, Sara Flounders, Thomas Deichmann, Gary Wilson, Richard Becker and Nadja Tesich

Colombia:
The Genocidal Democracy
by Javier Giraldo

The Continuing Terror Against Libya
by Fan Yew Teng

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

Lies My Teacher Told Me:
Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
by James Loewen

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

Counterrevoution: U.S. Foreign Policy
by E. & R. Boorstein
New York, 1990

Deterring Democracy
by Noam Chomsky
New York, 1992

Year 501: The Conquest Continues
by Noam Chomsky
Boston, 1993

Confronting the Third World:
U.S. Foreign Policy 1945-1980
by Gabriel Kolko
New York, 1988

Imperialism:
From the Colonial Age to the Present
by Harry Magdoff
New York, 1978

Culture and Imperialism
by Edward Said
New York, 1993

Imperial Brain Trust:
The Council on Foreign Relations and U.S. Foreign Policy
by Laurence H. Shoup and William Minter
New York, 1977

Trilateralism:
The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management
by Holly Sklar
Boston, 1980

The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
by Gar Alperovitz

Bloody Hell:
The Price Soldiers Pay
by Daniel Hallock

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

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

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

Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!

“If you want free speech you can go down to a street corner and shout.”

— Jim Olson
owner of Humboldt Internet
September 26, 2001

On September 14, 2001, three days after the WTC attack, the owner of the humboldt1.com ISP summarily deleted the original American Terrorism website. When informed that he was suppressing online free speech, he offered the helpful advice above.

http://www.humboldt1.com/~016910/Amerikan_Terrorism.html
Launched: May, 2000  —  Torpedoed: September 14, 2001   R.I.P.

To spare my vocal chords I offer this remaining mirror site:

http://free.freespeech.org/americanstateterrorism/

http://www.AmericanStateTerrorism.com/ (Germany)
AWOL: October 24, 2003 – no response to email inquiries

http://americanterrorism.afedwards.com/ (U.K.)
Missing In Action: May 27, 2002
entire afedwards.com site vanished, email inquiries bounced back

http://www.geocities.com/americanterrorism/
Efficient FTP access terminated for all free sites: April 1, 2002

http://www.angelfire.com/dc/americanterrorism/
Axed by Angelfire.com: December 13, 2001 (see note below)

http://americanterrorism.tripod.com/
Torpedoed by Tripod.com: October 18, 2001 (see note below)