- Michel Chossudovsky is a noted academic, author, activist
and relentless researcher concentrating on America's imperial crusade to
control planet earth for its markets, resources and cheap exploitable labor.
He's a Canadian economist by profession having taught at the University
of Ottawa as well as at academic institutions in Western Europe, Latin
America and Southeast Asia. In addition, he's been an economic adviser
to developing countries' governments and a consultant for many international
organizations, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, International Labour Organization
(ILO), and World Health Organization (WHO). He's also the editor of the
Centre for Research on Globalization and its web site, Global Research.ca.
-
- "America's War on Terrorism" - An Overview
-
- Chossudovsky's book is a greatly expanded version of
his 2002 book titled, "War and Globalization: The Truth behind September
11." The current newly titled 2005 edition (post-9/11 and the 2003
Iraq invasion and occupation) includes 12 new chapters with those in the
original edition updated. The author states the book's purpose is "to
refute the official narrative and reveal - using detailed evidence and
documentation (not speculation based on opinion alone)" - the true
nature of America's "war on terrorism," that's as relevant now
as when the book was first published.
-
- Chossudovsky calls it a complete fabrication "based
on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden (from a cave in Afghanistan
and hospital bed in Pakistan) outwitted the $40 billion-a-year American
intelligence apparatus." He calls it, instead, what, in fact, it
is - a pretext for permanent "New World Order" wars of conquest
serving the interests of Wall Street and the financial community, the US
military-industrial complex, Big Oil, and all other corporate interests
profiting hugely from a massive scheme harming the public interest, in
the name of protecting it, and potentially all humanity unless it's stopped
in time.
-
- On the morning of 9/11, the Bush administration didn't
miss a beat telling the world Al Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center
(WTC) and Pentagon meaning Osama bin Laden was the main culprit - case
closed without even the benefit of a forensic and intelligence analysis
piecing together all potential helpful information. There was no need to
because, as Chossudovsky explained, "That same (9/11) evening at 9:30
pm, a 'War Cabinet' was formed integrated by a select number of top intelligence
and military advisors. At 11:00PM, at the end of that historic (White House)
meeting, the 'War on Terrorism' was officially launched," and the
rest is history. Chossudovsky continued "The decision was announced
(straightaway) to wage war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in retribution
for the 9/11 attacks" with news headlines the next day asserting,
with certainty, "state sponsorship" responsibility for the attacks
connected to them. The dominant media, in lockstep, called for military
retaliation against Afghanistan even though no evidence proved the Taliban
government responsible, because, in fact, it was not and we knew it.
-
- Four weeks later on October 7, a long-planned war of
illegal aggression began, Afghanistan was bombed and then invaded by US
forces working in partnership with their new allies - the United Islamic
Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan or so-called Northern Alliance "warlords."
Their earlier repressive rule was so extreme, it gave rise to the Taliban
in the first place and has now made them resurgent.
-
- Chossudovsky further explained that the public doesn't
"realize that a large scale theater war is never planned and executed
in a matter of weeks." This one, like all others, was months in the
making needing only what former CentCom Commander General Tommy Franks
called a "terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event" to arouse
enough public anger for the Bush administration to launch it after declaring
their "war on terrorism." Chossudovsky, through thorough and
exhausting research, exposed it as a fraud.
-
- He's been on top of the story ever since uncovering the
"myth of an 'outside enemy' and the threat of 'Islamic terrorists'
(that became) the cornerstone (and core justification) of the Bush administration's
military doctrine." It allowed Washington to wage permanent aggressive
wars beginning with Afghanistan and Iraq, to ignore international law,
and to "repeal civil liberties and constitutional government"
through repression laws like the Patriot and Military Commissions Acts.
A key objective throughout has, and continues to be, Washington's quest
to control the world's energy supplies, primarily oil, starting in the
Middle East where two-thirds of known reserves are located.
-
- Toward that end, the Bush administration created a fictitious
"outside enemy" threat without which no "war on terrorism"
could exist, and no foreign wars could be waged. Chossudovsky exposed the
linchpin of the whole scheme. He uncovered evidence that al Qaeda "was
a creation of the CIA going back to the Soviet-Afghan war" era, and
that in the 1990s Washington "consciously supported Osama bin Laden,
while at the same time placing him on the FBI's 'most wanted list' as the
World's foremost terrorist." He explained that the CIA (since the
1980s and earlier) actively supports international terrorism covertly,
and that on September 10, 2001 "Enemy Number One" bin Laden was
in a Rawalpindi, Pakistan military hospital confirmed on CBS News by Dan
Rather. He easily could have been arrested but wasn't because we had a
"better purpose" in mind for "America's best known fugitive
(to) give a (public) face to the 'war on terrorism' " that meant keeping
bin Laden free to play the role. If he didn't exist, we'd have had to invent
him, but that could have been arranged as well.
-
- The Bush administration's national security doctrine
needs enemies, the way all empires on the march do. Today "Enemy Number
One" rests on the fiction of bin Laden-led Islamic terrorists threatening
the survival of western civilization. In fact, however, Washington uses
Islamic organizations like Islamic Jihad as a "key instrument of US
military-intelligence operations in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union"
while, at the same time, blaming them for the 9/11 attacks calling them
"a threat to America."
-
- "America's War on Terrorism" - In-Depth The
book is in four parts, each discussed enough below to convey the essence
and flavor of the heavily documented power-packed amount of information
in the volume's 365 pages - a healthy serving for each day of the year.
-
- Part I - September 11
-
- September 11, 2001 is a day that will live in infamy,
but not for how official accounts portray it. It wasn't the first September
11 of note and may not be the last. Chileans remember theirs in 1973 when
General Augusto Pinochet, aided by CIA, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger,
ousted and murdered democratically elected President Salvador Allende by
military coup d'etat. It ended the most vibrant democracy in the Americas
ushering in a 16 year fascist reign of terror Chileans are still healing
from 18 years later. Now it's our turn with Bush administration officials
using the myth of an "outside enemy" to hide the real threat
we face from within from real enemies in our own government. They're waging
war on the world, destroying our civil liberties, and shredding our social
state paying for it.
-
- It began long before 9/11, but that day plans became
policy, then hardened, expanded and now threatening all humanity. Chossudovsky
spells in out stating straightaway "The world is at the crossroads
of the most serious crisis in modern history (having) embarked upon a military
adventure" threatening everyone unless exposed and stopped.
-
- He begins with vital heavily documented background information
about 9/11 already covered above. It explained we needed cover for our
"war on terrorism." Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda provided it
as "Enemy Number One" and his network, hiding the fact he and
thousands of Mujahideen fighters were recruited for the largest ever CIA
operation in the 1980s. They were organized, financed and sent to "destabili(ze)
the pro-Soviet government in Afghanistan, but (more importantly) destroy...the
Soviet Union." CIA's Milton Beardman once explained "If Osama
bin Laden did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."
-
- In fact, we did, using Pakistan's Military Intelligence
ISI as intermediary, so bin Laden and Mujahideen fighters weren't aware
who their real paymaster was or why they were recruited. ISI played a
crucial role for Washington in the 1980s. Then, from the end of the Cold
War to the present, it's been "the launch pad for CIA covert operations
in the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Balkans" turning Bosnia into
a "militant Islamic base" and later Kosovo with help from NATO
and Washington. This isn't speculation. It's fact. The ISI-Osama-al Qaeda-Taliban
nexus is a matter of public record, but the "American people have
been consciously and deliberately deceived (about it) by their government."
-
- They have no knowledge the Taliban gained power in 1996
the same covert way - helped by US military aid funneled through Pakistan's
ISI. Janes Defense Weekly confirmed "half of Taliban manpower and
equipment originate(d) in Pakistan under the ISI." Just like today,
our hidden agenda was "oil" with Taliban officials "whisked
off to Houston" to meet with US oil company giant, Unocal, "regarding
the construction of the strategic trans-Afghan pipeline." Afghanistan
is strategically located "at the hub of five nuclear powers: Russia,
China, India, Pakistan and Kazakhstan." It also borders Russia, China
and Iran.
-
- It's why Washington wants a permanent military presence
in the country run by a puppet client government masquerading as a democratically
elected one, and why we're at war so that status won't ever change.
-
- Chossudovsky explains behind the scenes, "military
planners in the State Department, the Pentagon and the CIA call the shots
on foreign policy." They're in league with NATO, the IMF, World Bank
and World Trade Organization (all US-dominated organizations). The real
powers controlling everything are "the global banks and financial
institutions, the military-industrial complex, the oil and energy giants,
the biotech and pharmaceutical conglomerates," other corporate giants
and the dominant media, or de facto ministry of state information and propaganda,
disseminating deception while suppressing the truth. The result is catastrophic.
The rule of law has been suspended, the Republic hangs by a thread, and
"the foundations of an authoritarian state apparatus have emerged"
that, in an emergency, could become as harsh as in Nazi Germany or Soviet
Russia at its worst under Stalin. It's no understatement. Its early disturbing
signs are already present and recognized.
-
- The entire scheme is based on the myth of an "Islamic
Jihad" being a "threat to America" when, in fact, CIA and
the US intelligence community has close ties to the "Islamic Militant
Network." CIA even admits bin Laden was an "intelligent asset"
(as distinct from an "agent") during the Cold War, but that information's
long gone down "the memory hole" and forgotten. He was used
by four presidents beginning with Ronald Reagan, then GHW Bush, Bill Clinton,
and now GW Bush writ large today as "Enemy Number One" in the
phony "war on terrorism."
-
- Part II - War and Globalization
-
- Washington's "hidden agenda" involves waging
preventive wars to "extend...the global market system (and) open...up
new 'economic frontiers' for US corporate capital....in close liaison with
Britain." US-British ties in areas of banking, oil and defense industries
drive our joint military operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and
most anywhere else from this marriage wreaking hell on earth wherever it
marauds.
-
- "America's New War" post-9/11 was "in
the 'pipeline' for at least three years prior to....September 11."
Beginning with the Clinton administration's illegal war of aggression against
Yugoslavia, NATO was enlarged to include Hungary, Poland and the Czech
Republic. Inclusion of former Soviet satellites took aim directly at Yugoslavia
as the West's next target with Russia designated a future one.
-
- With that in mind, GUUAM was formed in 1999 comprised
of four post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - Georgia,
Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova. It's a Western financed regional military
alliance, under US-controlled NATO, "strategically at the hub of the
Caspian oil and gas wealth with Moldova and Ukraine offering (pipeline)
export routes to the West." A key immediate aim of this alliance
is to fracture CIS, exclude Russia from Caspian resources Washington wants
to control, and politically isolate Moscow combined in one strategic blow.
-
- "Militarization of the Eurasian Corridor" was
the plan to do it with Congress adopting the Silk Road Strategy Act (SRS)
in March, 1999. It was a framework to develop "America's business
empire along an extensive geographical corridor" as well as undermine
and destabilize Russia, China and Iran. It was also planned as a first
step toward incorporating all former Soviet republics into "America's
business empire" and sphere of influence, further isolating Russia
and China.
-
- The area involved is vast, extending from the Black Sea
to the Chinese border in a strategically vital part of the world rich in
energy resources a new "Great Game" is being waged for. As already
explained, Afghanistan lies "at the strategic crossroads of the Eurasian
oil pipeline and transport routes." Under US control, it's part of
making SRS work that requires the "militarization of the Eurasian
corridor (for) control over extensive oil and gas reserves (and for protecting)
pipeline routes (planned by) Anglo-American oil companies" like BP-Amoco
and others.
-
- SRS also aims to prevent "former Soviet republics
from developing economic, political and defense ties with China, Iran,
Turkey and Iraq (and to) cut the Russians off altogether from the Caspian
oil and gas fields." What's planned is a number of pipeline routes
(transiting west, south and east) from the Caspian through countries controlled
by the Western military alliance. The whole scheme aims to benefit the
US-Anglo alliance, cut off Russia, China and Iran, and "weaken competing
European oil interests in the Transcaucasus and Central Asia."
-
- When George Bush took office, negotiations with the Taliban
were resumed on behalf of Unocal, after the Clinton administration first
tried and then broke them off in 1999. The talks failed a few months before
9/11 leading to the Afghan war a scant four weeks later on October 7.
It ended after five weeks on November 12 when the Taliban fled Kabul allowing
US-recruited and financed Northern Alliance forces to enter the city the
next day.
-
- Life in Afghanistan's been surreal ever since. In parts
of Kabul, an opulent elite emerged grown rich from rampant corruption and
drugs trafficking discussed further below. This opulent Potemkin facade
hides the harsh, dangerous, desperate conditions for the vast majority
of 26 million Afghans made worse by a US-led war and occupation allowing
Northern Alliance warlords back in power. It reinstated their repressive
rule that helped bring Taliban to power in the first place over two-thirds
of the country including the capital, Kabul.
-
- Today it's de jeva vu all over again with Afghans fed
up with occupation and Northern Alliance brutality. That's allowed Taliban
forces to capitalize on the turmoil and reemerge reclaiming most Southern
parts of the country. It's why war rages on with no resolution in site
and likely will be as unwinnable as the lost cause in Iraq already acknowledged
in US high circles.
-
- The Taliban was ousted in 2001 for various reasons. Among
them was its near-eradication of opium production now flourishing again
under Northern Alliance-occupation forces rule. Drugs trafficking is big
business writ large with Chossudovsky explaining it's "the third biggest
global commodity in cash terms after oil and the arms trade" annually
grossing up to $500 billion according to a UN estimate. That's more than
double the revenue generated by legal prescription drugs Big Pharma reported
in 2005.
-
- A well-hidden Afghan war objective was reinstating opium
production that was achieved writ large post-2001. UN anti-drug chief,
Antonio Maria Costa, said it was at a record 6100 tons in 2006 (enough
for 610 tons of heroin) or 92% of total world supply and 30% more than
the amount consumed globally. Chossudovsky explained narcotics are a major
source of wealth, not just for organized crime, but also for the "US
intelligence apparatus" representing powerful "spheres of finance
and banking."
-
- Intelligence agencies and legal business syndicates
are allied with criminal enterprises blurring the lines between them, at
times indistinguishable. Included are Western international and other
banks and their offshore affiliates in tax havens. Multi-billions from
illicit drugs trafficking pour into them making this revenue source a huge
profit center. None of this is secret, but it remains unreported below
the radar. So is how the money is laundered and recycled into legal enterprises
in real estate, manufacturing, other businesses as well as used for transactions
in stocks, bonds, and other speculative investments.
-
- It's also well documented that CIA trafficked in drugs
(directly or indirectly) throughout its 60 year existence and especially
since the 1980s when it used cocaine revenues funding the Contra wars in
Nicaragua.
-
- Today, CIA is partnered with Afghan "warlords"
and criminal syndicates in the huge business of heroin trafficking. Along
with its other illicit drug dealings, it guarantees the intelligence agency
billions in revenue supplementing its annual budget Mary Margaret Graham,
Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection, disclosed at $44
billion in 2005.
-
- This year it's likely higher with rogue operations ongoing
almost anywhere and CIA able to get whatever it wants just for the asking.
This is how a rogue agency operates Chalmers Johnson calls a global Mafia-style
hit squad in his new book, "Nemesis."
-
- It's a "personal, secret, unaccountable army of
the president" with mischievous covert illegal operations its main
function. They include overthrowing democratically elected governments,
assassinating foreign heads of state and key officials, recruiting and
training secret paramilitary armies, propping up friendly dictators, and
snatching targeted individuals for "extraordinary rendition"
to secret torture-prison hellholes from which they may never emerge.
-
- Under George Bush, CIA is more active than ever with
double the number of covert operatives. Johnson explains "CIA's bag
of dirty tricks....is a defining characteristic of the imperial presidency.
It is a source of unchecked power" gravely threatening the nation
and shortening the life of the Republic and democratic rule he believes
won't survive unless the agency is disbanded.
-
- Along with CIA and Homeland Security, Chossudovsky highlights
"America's War Machine" and the major buildup in it begun after
1999. The aim: "to achieve (an unchallengeable) position of global
military hegemony....through the largest military buildup since the Vietnam
war" with large annual increases planned in future years and no end
to this in sight. For FY 2006, the Pentagon's reported budget was $499.4
billion (excluding multi-billions off-the-book for Iraq and Afghanistan).
For fiscal 2007, it increased to over $583 billion.
-
- Astonishingly, Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute,
Robert Higgs, says high numbers mask the total annual amount spent on defense
in all forms, at home and abroad, that's almost double the budgeted amounts.
For FY 2006, his total is $934.9 billion broken down as follows in billions:
-
- -- Department of Defense: $499.4.
- -- Department of Energy: $16.6
- -- Department of State: $25.3
- -- Department of Veterans Affairs: $69.8
- -- Department of Homeland Security: $69.1
- -- Department of Justice (one-third of FBI): $1.9
- -- Department of the Treasury (for Military Retirement
Fund: $38.5.
- -- NASA: $7.6
- -- Net interest attributable to past debt-financed defense
outlays: $206.7.
-
- Using published budgeted numbers alone, the US now spends
more on its military than the rest of the world combined. In 2005, China
spent around $30 billion, today it's surely higher but even if $50 billion
it's around 8.6% of our FY 2007 defense budget and about 5% of it with
all other expenditures Higgs includes.
-
- Hyping China's threat to the US, however, Department
of Defense (DOD) claimed Beijing spent $65 billion in 2005, $90 billion
in 2006 and $120 budgeted for 2007.
-
- Note, Higgs US defense spending numbers exclude secret
budgets for CIA, NSA, and other off-the-books intelligence operations.
It also excludes smaller budgets for the Selective Service System, the
National Defense Stockpile Center, and the Treasury's program blocking
financial flows to "terrorists." Nonetheless, in total, the numbers
are huge, growing, and already out-of-control with Higgs estimating FY
2007 numbers an astonishing $1.028 trillion.
-
- What is it buying us and at what cost? Chossudovsky
explains it's for plenty including refurbishing our nuclear arsenal with
the latest technology targeting Russia and China. There's also a new generation
of "tactical nuclear weapons" or so-called "mini-nukes"
including "bunker buster" earth penetrating bombs targeting underground
facilities. They're designed to explode deep below ground destroying their
targets while containing toxic radioactive fallout. It's already known
the latter objective fails based on observed tests so far. The information,
however, is suppressed and won't deter the Pentagon from using these weapons
even knowing they spread harmful radiation.
-
- Billions are also being spent developing advanced weapons
systems including the hugely expensive F22 Raptor fighter plane, Joint
Fighter (JF) program and controversial Strategic Defense Initiative "National
Missile Defense Shield" intended for offense, not defense. It's now
caused a public row with Russia over its planned deployment in Eastern
European states close enough to raise justifiable alarm in the Kremlin.
Then there's the ultimate imperial project in space under the doctrine
of "Full Spectrum Dominance" assuring land, sea, air and space
supremacy. It's outlined in the 1998 US Space Command document titled
"Vision for 2020" with the cost to achieve this likely to run
into trillions of dollars.
-
- Even worse is the danger post-9/11 since the Bush administration
scrapped the notion of "nuclear deterrence." A secret report
leaked to the Los Angeles Times state three conditions under which nuclear
weapons may be used henceforth:
-
- -- "against targets able to withstand non-nuclear
attack;
-
- -- in retaliation for attack with nuclear, biological
or chemical weapons; or
-
- -- in the event of surprising military developments"
meaning anything the administration or Pentagon cook up as justification.
-
-
- The administration cites "rogue states" as
potential targets, but clearly new policy has Russia, China and Iran in
mind and maybe North Korea.
-
- China and Russia aren't ignoring the threat adding to
the arms race along with other countries, like Iran, fearful of a US attack.
In 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a new "National
Security Doctrine" marking "a critical shift in East-West relations."
It's further intensified today with Interfax recently reporting Putin
saying Washington is turning Europe into a "powder keg" referring
to it's missile shield deployment plans. Putin also used harsh rhetoric
ahead of the June G-8 summit accusing the Bush administration of imperialism
and starting a new arms race.
-
- At a lengthy well-attended news conference, he had
plenty to say that was suppressed in the West because of his candor. He
voiced the concern of many in the Kremlim that Washington is targeting
Russia by surrounding it with military bases, installing missiles on its
borders, and allying with CIS states to isolate the country in preparation
for regime change.
-
- He emphasized Russia didn't start confrontation and isn't
threatening to attack anyone. However, the nation is preparing for the
worst and in late May test-fired a sophisticated new intercontinental ballistic
missile with multiple warheads and new cruise missiles Russian generals
claim will assure the country's security for the next 40 years. With Washington
intent on destabilizing their country, Russia isn't ignoring the threat
and will act responsibly to defend itself. That includes targeting US
and European sites with "ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or some
completely new systems" according to Putin. Earlier, Russia also
confirmed it wouldn't exclude "a first-strike use" of nuclear
warheads "if attacked even by purely conventional means," having
only one country in mind as a potential aggressor - the US.
-
- Former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, also aimed sharp
comments against Washington and Britain for its support in an early June
BBC interview. He said Russia is trying to be constructive, but America
is squeezing them out of global diplomacy (and is responsible) for the
current state of relations between his country and the West. He also said
the Iraq War undermined Tony Blair's credibility and accused America of
"empire-building." He added Blair has "himself in the embrace
of a military monster (and lost) his credibility in the world and in Europe."
-
- Chossudovsky further deconstructs Washington's agenda
post-9/11 saying "the world is at an important crossroads in its history."
The US "campaign against terrorism" is a "war of conquest"
for empire, threatening future humanity with devastating consequences.
"America's New War" isn't confined to the Middle East and Central
Asia. It's aimed everywhere by militarizing "vast regions of the world,
leading to the consolidation of what is best described as the "American
Empire." The "war on terrorism" is cover to "re-colonize
not only China (and) the former Soviet bloc, but also Iran, Iraq and the
Indian (subcontinent)." Chossudovsky stresses "war and globalization"
are bedfellows umbilically linked.
-
- They benefit Wall Street and the banking community, Big
Anglo-American Oil, US-UK defense contractors and other corporate giants
backing this process to extend "the frontiers of the global market
system" giving them total control everywhere.
-
- The dominant media claim "free trade" and "free
market" reforms will bring the benefits of western civilization to
everyone. Unmentioned is how it's being done - through imperial wars of
conquest as the method of choice, bringing with them massive death and
destruction, extreme exploitation, devastating poverty, totalitarian control,
and, in Iraq, the end of the "Cradle of Civilization" dating
back thousands of years.
-
- Washington's rampaging military juggernaut turned a modern
prosperous nation into a surreal lawless armed wasteland with few essential
services like electricity, clean water, medical care, fuel and most everything
else needed for sustenance and survival including safe streets, homes,
schools and all public places. It also contaminated vast areas of Iraq
with deadly depleted uranium and other hazardous chemicals and pollutants
making the country the most toxic environment on earth and unsafe to live
in.
-
- So much for the benefits of Western civilization and
"free market" reforms. They champion deregulation and privatizing
everything to steal a country's wealth for corporate predators, taking
it from the people it belongs to. They get nothing back but misery and
persecution if they complain. This is democracy American-style that's all
illusion and no reality, and it's coming soon to a neighborhood near you
unless resisted and stopped.
-
- Chossudovsky also deconstructs the language as Orwell
would do. He justifiably calls the "war on terrorism" a cruel
hoax. "Realities," he says, "have been turned upside down."
-
- -- "Acts of war are heralded as 'humanitarian intervention'
(to restore) democracy.
-
- -- Military occupation and (killing civilians are called)
'peacekeeping operations.'
-
- -- The derogation of civilities (through totalitarian
'anti-terror' legislation is called) providing 'domestic security' and
upholding civil liberties.
-
- -- ....expenditures on health and education (and most
other essential social services) are curtailed to finance the military-industrial
complex and police state."
-
- -- Mass human poverty is created worldwide through conquest,
colonization and countries "transformed into open territories"
for savage exploitation.
-
- -- "US protectorates are installed with the blessing
of the 'international community.'
-
- -- 'Interim (or illusory democratically elected) governments
are formed" run by designated political puppets selling out their
nations' sovereignty to the lord and master of the universe for a sliver
of the spoils.
-
- Sum it up - this is what "New World Order"
rule looks like those now under it can explain better than any writer.
It's tyranny masquerading as humanitarian intervention, liberation and
democracy. Here's how Orwell once described it: "If you want a vision
of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."
Today, it's sustained by the illusion of a phony "war on terrorism"
publicly supported through fear of nonexistent enemies, ignoring instead
a real one that does - our own government destroying our freedoms in the
name of protecting them.
-
- Chossudovsky stresses what's vitally needed now to fight
back in our own self-defense - "an unprecedented degree of solidarity
(to build) meaningful mass movements" for real change (restoring)
the balance of power within society...."
-
- He explains "militarization....enforces the
capitalist market system....Military bases must be shut down; the war machine....must
be dismantled....The 'structures of ownership' must be transformed disempowering
banks, financial institutions and transnational corporations (plus instituting)
a radical overhaul of the state apparatus."
-
- A key priority is "stall(ing) the privatization
of collective assets, infrastructure, public utilities (including water
and power), state institutions (like hospitals, schools and law enforcement
including prisons), communal lands" and all else in the commons.
-
- Further, an illegitimate tyrannical system must end by
removing and prosecuting criminal politicians and bureaucrats. The corrupted
judiciary must be replaced by one upholding domestic and international
law. Our system of checks and balances must be restored, and the Constitution
again respected and obeyed, not discarded to the rule of law by what the
chief executive says it is, meaning none at all. The "New World Order"
must end, consigned to the dustbin of history, lest we end up there or
wish we did rather than endure endless misery and abuse.
-
- Part III - The Disinformation Campaign
-
- It's an age-old trick that always works. It's why it's
used so often even after being exposed as phony time and again but quickly
forgotten in what Gore Vidal calls "the United States of amnesia."
It's creating a climate of fear through fictional enemies made to seem
real by the pursuasive power of the dominant media. Wars and propaganda
are partnered at a time truth is the first casualty. Chossudovsky explains
"the main objective of war propaganda (to convince the public war
is justified) is to fabricate an enemy (by) drown(ing) out truth."
-
- The war is waged "from the Pentagon, the State Department,
the CIA" and other parts of the government using the dominant media
to instill fear through disinformation and lies justifying anything in
self-defense. Logic and reality are manipulated and twisted to create a
phony enemy made to look real. An illusion is created that homeland security
is threatened and under attack justifying wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
that are pure acts of illegal aggression for conquest and colonization.
Preventive wars are justified even though common sense and any knowledge
of international law says they never are for any reason.
-
- Chossudovsky explains how propaganda campaigns follow
"a consistent pattern." They need "to instill credibility
and legitimacy" based on claimed "reliable" information
sources. The dominant media then transmit them through endless repetitions
of warnings of the following kinds of information:
-
- -- References to "reliable sources (and a) growing
body of evidence" from government, intelligence and law enforcement
agencies.
-
- -- Claimed evidence linking terrorist groups to bin Laden,
al Qaeda or sympathetic to them.
-
- -- Threats of imminent terrorist attacks "sooner
or later."
-
- -- Vulnerability of "soft targets" likely causing
civilian casualties.
-
- -- Possible terror attacks in "allied countries"
like Britain, France or Germany where public opinion opposes the US "war
on terrorism."
-
- -- "Confirm the need...preventive actions"
are justified against "terrorist organizations and/or foreign governments
which harbor" them.
-
- -- Claim "terrorist groups" likely have WMDs
and are linked to "rogue states" like Iran or Syria.
-
- -- Cite warnings with frightening color-coded alerts
based on uncovered information (later proved phony) of impending "attacks
on US soil (and/or) in Western cities."
-
- -- Cite law enforcement efforts "to apprehend alleged
terrorists."
-
- -- Feature headlined news stories of suspects arrested,
nearly always Muslims/Arabs, that usually turn out to be fabricated hoaxes
using innocent victims to hype fear.
-
- -- Stressing Homeland Security repressive legislation
(like Patriot Acts I and II and the Military Commissions Act) is justified
as well as "ethnic profiling" and mass sweeps and arrests.
-
- All this is done to convince the public harsh "emergency
measures" and preventive wars are in the public interest even though
that turns reality on its head endangering everyone. It works, however,
by giving the enemy a face with Osama bin Laden in the lead role. He's
still got it, but so did Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi up to the time of his reported
death in June, 2006.
-
- Al-Zarqawi was called "the new terrorist mastermind"
even overshadowing "Enemy Number One" bin Laden. Unmentioned
in the media was that Al-Zarqawi, like bin Laden, was recruited by CIA,
through Pakistan's ISI, to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s
and that US intelligence maintained links to the "Islamic militant
network" ever since.
-
- While Al-Zarqawi was reigning top threat, he was linked
to Ansar Al-Islam, an "obscure Islamist group, based in Northern Iraq."
He was also called Al Qaeda's "chief biochemical engineer" and
was blamed for "the suspicious white powder found in a letter sent
to (former) Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist," also containing deadly
ricin poison. In January, 2003, a ricin terror alert was issued signaling
Al-Zarqawi responsible, later proved phony by British police. As already
stressed, the US needs a face on terror to justify illegal wars purportedly
against it.
-
- While he was alive, Al-Zarqawi provided it along with
bin Laden before and since. If neither of these men existed, others would
be invented for their leading roles as "Enemy Number One" with
still more designees in supporting roles. Without them, there's no justification
for the "war on terrorism," and without media disinformation
they'd be no way to get the public to go along.
-
- Part IV - The New World Order
-
- This "new world" flaunts the law, wages illegal
wars on the world against nonexistent threats, and condemns its own people
to state repression in the name of protecting national security it's endangering
by its actions everywhere. One of its most outrageous acts is condoning
and practicing torture as official state policy.
-
- Chossudovsky explains what's now widely known and accepted
- that orders to torture Iraqi, Afghan and Guantanamo prisoners came from
the highest government levels. Thus, prison guards and military and CIA
interrogators followed "precise guidelines" from command directives.
A secret FBI email, dated May 22, 2004, confirmed George Bush "personally
signed off on certain interrogation techniques in an executive order (authorizing)
sleep deprivation, stress positions, use of military dogs, sensory deprivation"
using hoods, and who knows what else so far not made public.
-
- What is known is that CIA and the Pentagon have considerable
knowledge how damaging these acts are to human beings forced to endure
them for extended periods. The current Army field manual states this about
sensory deprivation alone: (It) "may result in extreme anxiety, hallucinations,
bizarre thoughts, depression, and anti-social behavior (and) significant
psychological distress."
-
- Now, try imagining how worse it is on victims undergoing
physical abuse and intimidation daily combined with the damaging effects
of sensory deprivation, never knowing when or if it will end. George Bush,
his Justice Department, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates and others at the
highest levels of the Pentagon and CIA ordered these tortures. It's not
because they work, but because they effectively destroy human beings, control
those who survive it, and intimidate everyone thinking they may be next.
It doesn't matter to officials in charge that most of their victims are
innocent of any crime.
-
- Unreported is who these prisoners are being tortured.
Seton Hall University Law School professors, including Mark Denebeaux,
analyzed unclassified government data obtained through Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) requests. Their report was based on evidentiary summaries from
2004 military hearings on whether 517 Guantanamo "detainees"
were "enemy combatants."
-
- They learned the majority of Afghan prisoners at
Guantanamo weren't accused of hostile acts, but more shockingly, that 95%
were seized by Afghan bounty hunters and sold to US forces for $5000 per
claimed Taliban and $25,000 for supposed al Qaeda members. In addition,
at least 20 detainees were children, some as young as 13.
-
- Chossudovsky calls such actions: "reminiscent of
the Spanish Inquisition" in brazenness "when there was no need
to conceal acts of torture." According to administration twisted
logic and indifference to international law and norms, "torture is
public policy with a humanitarian mandate (because) democracy and freedom
are....upheld by 'going after terrorists.' "
-
- The 400 year ruling feudal order Inquisition aimed to
"maintain and sustain those in authority," and that end justified
any means doing it.
-
- Today, the Pentagon, Homeland Security and CIA are
similar to yesteryear's "great Inquisitor" dispensing justice
through a network of religious courts for political and social control.
It's mandate was: destroy the heretics, and those charged were guilty
by accusation given only a choice to repent and be strangled to death or
stay silent and be burned alive.
-
- It's hard calling those times "the good old days,"
but it's no better today, just more sophisticated.
-
- Through years of experimenting, we've become expert inflicing
maximum pain making victims endure it the longest time possible before
expiring or going insane.
-
- Chossudovsky cites this as one example on our "road
towards a police state" we're well advanced toward already, or maybe
now there. We have outrageous laws in place, Nazis and Stalin would have
been proud of, but now can do what Orwell imagined 58 years ago in his
1984 "Big Brother" society controlling everyone. Technology allows
near-unlimited surveillance and abusive spying to watch, categorize, tag,
and label us through information from our most personal records and behavior.
Only the recesses of our hearts, minds and souls remain unpenetrated -
so far.
-
- Nothing will change at this "critical juncture in
our history" unless we "break the Inquisition." Doing it
means "breaking the consensus (and) disabl(ing) its propaganda"
campaign of fear and intimidation. That entails "unseat(ing) the
Inquisitors" and prosecuting those in high office guilty of crimes
of war and against humanity. Without this, they'll be no justice or an
end to "New World Order" tyranny safe in the hands of a carefully
chosen new "Grand Inquisitor" elected in 2008 picking up where
the old one leaves off.
-
- He (or she) will follow ruling order policy assuring
Congress and the courts are as much in lockstep as today with "the
military-intelligence establishment calling the shots on US foreign policy."
Benefitting hugely at our expense will be predatory corporate giants licking
their chops for more gains ahead from continuing "militarization of
(our) civilian institutions" fast disappearing under military/police
state control.
-
- Chossudovsky raises the issue of administration foreknowledge
of 9/11. He notes the Pentagon conducted a test simulation of a passenger
plane crashing into the Pentagon in October, 2000. Ironically, the CIA
held a similar (quickly hushed up for a year) test at its Chantilly, Virginia
Reconnaissance Office on the morning of 9/11. Both tests refute administration
lies they could not predict events they were preparing for. In addition,
Washington had numerous "intelligence warnings" and that senior
administration officials lied under oath to the 9/11 Commission they had
no foreknowledge or forewarning. They had plenty.
-
- "Carefully documented research" also reveals:
-
- -- The US Air Force got stand-down orders on 9/11 not
to intervene.
-
- -- A cover-up of World Trade Center (WTC) and Pentagoninvestigations
occurred.
-
- -- WTC rubble was hastily removed and disposed of before
it could be examined.
-
- -- Plane debris at the Pentagon was unaccounted for.
-
- -- Huge financial gains were made through insider trading
in the days prior to 9/11.
-
- -- WTC Building 7 either mysteriously collapsed or was
"pulled" the afternoon of 9/11.
-
- -- Critics accuse the White House of "criminal negligence"
for disregarding crucial intelligence that might have prevented the 9/11
attack. These critics contend "they knew (in advance) but failed
to act" preventively.
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