 The
U.S. was attacked [on
September 11] because of
its ... total backing for
Israel's iron-fisted
repression of the
Palestinians.
|
 Toronto, Canada, Sunday, September 8,
2002 Uncertainties
abound in pinpointing the real
enemy By ERIC
MARGOLIS
Contributing Foreign
Editor PARIS -- A year after
the 9/11 attacks on the United States, we
know remarkably little about the
attackers, or about who really organized
the complex operation that seems well
beyond the capabilities of amateur
terrorists. Among the major questions: - The suicide attackers were
apparently middle-class Saudis, though
some identities are still in
question.
- They were quiet, well-educated,
"westernized" technical students living
in Hamburg, Germany, whose links to the
bin Laden Afghan-based al-Qaida remain
uncertain. Part of the attack planning
was done in Spain.
- The men who piloted the doomed
aircraft were trained at American
flying schools.
- Some may have briefly visited
Afghanistan, but none resided there or
were known al-Qaida members.
- Were they sent by Osama bin
Laden?
- Bin Laden lauded the attacks that
murdered 3,000 civilians, but denied
involvement, though a trail of
circumstantial evidence leads to
him.
Al-Qaida is portrayed by the U.S.
government and media as an octopoid,
world-wide conspiracy with thousands of
members. In fact, Qaida -- which began as
a guest-house for holy warriors during the
1980s anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan,
never numbered more than 1,000 men, and
usually much less. Today, there are
probably only 300 or so hardline Qaida
members, scattered mainly in Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Europe. But there are
numerous other underground, militant
Islamic groups that align themselves from
time to time with Qaida, or draw
inspiration from bin Laden's fiery
preachings. Such fighting groups as
Egyptian Jihad, Gamma Islamiya, and
Algeria's Armed Islamic Groups, have
formed a loose anti-American/anti-Israel
alliance of convenience. But other Islamic
groups, notably Lebanon's Hezbollah, have
nothing to do with al-Qaida. Nor do Iraq
and Syria, whose rulers have been targets
of bin Laden's wrath for a decade. Taliban and a variety of Muslim
resistance groups -- Kashmiri independence
fighters, anti-communist insurgents from
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Filipino Moros,
and Uighurs fighting China's ethnic
absorption of Eastern Turkestan (Chinese
Sinjiang), have all been lumped together
as "Qaida." Some of these Islamic
International Brigades were trained in old
Afghan camps originally funded by CIA.
Others went through two service support
and commando training camps run by
al-Qaida -- a sort of Islamic version of
Ft. Bragg, home of the U.S. Green Berets.
The biggest camps were not run by Qaida,
but by ISI -- Pakistani intelligence --
preparing holy warriors, or "jihadis," for
combat in Indian-held Kashmir. Many of the
1,000 prisoners captured and murdered
by Uzbek forces of Gen. Rashid
Dostam -- assisted by U.S. Special
Forces -- were from the international
brigades. President George Bush claimed
America was attacked because the
assailants "hated" democracy and America's
way of life. He describes terrorism as
pure evil, unrelated to any specific
political events. This is nonsense. The
U.S. was attacked because of its deep
involvement in Mideast affairs, and total
backing for Israel's iron-fisted
repression of the Palestinians. In July, Washington agreed to Israel's
request to replenish huge amounts of heavy
munitions used in crushing the Palestinian
intifada. These included $80 million US
worth of TOW heavy anti-tank missiles to
be fired at buildings, tank shells packed
with thousands of razor-sharp flechettes,
and Hellfire air-to-ground missiles.
Israel reportedly used more heavy
munitions against Palestinians in one week
last April than it expended in the
previous 20 years.
American money and
weapons kill Arabs, Arabs kill
Americans. Bin Laden
arrogated to himself the right to
champion revenge against the United
States for the bloodbath in Palestine.
"There will be no peace in America,"
bin Laden warned, "until there is peace
in Palestine." These frightening words were never
widely reported in the North American
media, which is filled with uninformed
commentators explaining why Muslims are
inherently bloodthirsty or anti-western.
America's virtual military occupation of
Saudi Arabia, its punishment of Iraq that
caused at least 500,000 civilian deaths,
and Bush's planned jihad against Iraq have
enraged the entire Islamic world against
the United States. There is little doubt
more attacks against American targets will
be coming. Such is the cost of empire. Did the 9/11 perpetrators foresee the
immense damage they would inflict on the
United States? Besides the 3,000 Americans
murdered, $70 billion in property losses;
$10 billion so far of airline losses;
insurance rates across the U.S. soaring by
up to 300%. 9/11 helped puncture the stock
market tech bubble that brought $3
trillion in equity losses that cost
160,000 jobs. The next attack on the U.S.
may be designed to cause more economic
mayhem rather than kill people, targeting
telecommunications nodes, power systems
and airports. 9/11 triggered a psychotic episode in
the Bush administration, producing a
futile invasion of Afghanistan; plans for
war against Iraq, and possibly Iran,
spurred by the embarrassing failure to
find bin Laden or crush al-Qaida. A
massive, $32-billion increase to a
preposterous $396-billion defence budget
-- 36% of total world military spending --
as the deficit soars towards $150 billion.
And Bush's crass rejection of
international accords on criminal justice,
free trade, environmental protection,
disarmament, and human rights has damaged
America's good name abroad. The rest of the world,
deeply dismayed, wonders when the Bush
administration will recover its
senses. Also
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write to David
Irving