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.
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