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--- Begin Message ---
The Liquid Bomb Hoax: The Larger Implications
http://informationclearinghouse. info/article1470 9.htm
By James Petras
08/26/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- The charges leveled by the
British, US and Pakistani regimes that they uncovered a major bomb plot
directed against nine US airlines is based on the flimsiest of evidence,
which would be thrown out of any court, worthy of its name.
An analysis of the current state of the investigation raises a series of
questions regarding the governments´ claims of a bomb plot concocted by
24 Brits of Pakistani origin.
The arrests were followed by the search for evidence, as the August 12,
2006 Financial Times states: "The police set about the mammoth task of
gathering evidence of the alleged terrorist bomb plot yesterday." (FT,
August 12/, 2006) In other words, the arrests and charges took place
without sufficient evidence -- a peculiar method of operation -- which
reverses normal investigatory procedures in which arrests follow the
"monumental task of gathering evidence." If the arrests were made without
prior accumulation of evidence, what were the bases of the arrests?
The government search of financial records and transfers turned up no
money trail despite the freezing of accounts. The police search revealed
limited amounts of savings, as one would expect from young workers,
students and employees from low-income immigrant families.
The British government, backed by Washington, claimed that the Pakistani
government´s arrest of two British-Pakistanis provided "critical
evidence" in uncovering the plot and identifying the alleged terrorist.
No Western judicial hearing would accept evidence procured by the
Pakistani intelligence services that are notorious for their use of
torture in extracting `confessions´. The Pakistani dictatorship´ s
evidence is based on a supposed encounter between a relative of one of
the suspects and an Al Qaeda operative on the Afghan border. According to
the Pakistani police, the Al Qaeda agent provided the relative and thus
the accused with the bomb-making information and operative instructions.
The transmission of bomb-making information does not require a trip half-
way around the world, least of all to a frontier under military siege by
US led forces on one side and the Pakistani military on the other.
Moreover it is extremely dubious that Al Qaeda agents in the mountains of
Afghanistan have any detailed knowledge of specific British airline
security, procedures or conditions of operations in London. Lacking
substantive evidence, Pakistani intelligence and their British
counterparts touched all the propaganda buttons: A clandestine meeting
with Al Qaeda, bomb-making information exchanges on the Pakistani-Afghan
border, Pakistani-Brits with Islamic friends, family and terrorist
connections in England . . .
US intelligence claimed, and London repeated, that sums of money had been
wired from Pakistan to allow the plotters to buy airline tickets. Yet air
tickets were found in only one residence (and the airline and itinerary
were not stated by the police). None of the other suspects possessed
plane tickets and some did not even have passports. In other words, the
most preliminary moves in the so-called bomb plot had not been taken by
the accused. No terrorist plot to bomb airplanes exists when the alleged
conspirators are lacking travel funds, documents and tickets. It is not
credible to argue that the alleged conspirators depended on instructions
from distant handlers ignorant of the basic ground level conditions.
Initially the British and US authorities claimed that the explosive
device was a "liquid bomb," yet no liquid or non-liquid bomb was
discovered on the premises or persons of any of the accused. Nor has any
evidence been produced as to the capability of any of the suspects in
making, moving or detonating the "liquid bomb" -- a very volatile
solution if handled by unskilled operatives. No evidence has been
presented on the nature of the specific liquid bomb question, or any
spoken discussion or written documents about the liquid bomb, which would
implicate any of the suspects. No bottle, liquid or chemical formula has
been found among any of the suspects. Nor have any of the ingredients
that go into making the "liquid bomb" been uncovered. Nor has any
evidence been presented as to where the liquid was supposed to come from
(the source) or whether it was purchased locally or overseas.
When the liquid bomb story was ridiculed into obscurity, British Deputy
Assistant Commissioner Peter Clark claimed that, "bomb making equipment
including chemicals and electric components had been found," (BBC News,
8/21/2006)
Once again there is no mention of what "electronic components" and
"chemicals" were found, in whose home or office and if they might be
related to non-bomb making activities. Were these so-called new bomb-
making items owned by a specific person or group of persons, and if so
were they known by the parties implicated to be part of a bombing plot.
Moreover, when and why have the authorities switched from the liquid
bombs to identifying old fashion electronic detonators? Is there any
evidence -- documents or taped discussions -- that link these electronic
detonators and chemicals with the specific plot to "blow up 9 US bound
airliners"?
Instead of providing relevant facts clearing up basic questions of names,
dates, weapons, and travel dates, Commissioner Clark gives the press a
laundry list of items that could be found in millions of homes and the
large number of buildings searched (69 so far). If stair climbing earns
promotions, Clark should be nominated for a knighthood. According to
Clark the police discovered more than 400 computers, 200 mobile
telephones, 8,000 computer media items (items as catastrophic as memory
sticks, CDs and DVDs); police removed 6,000 gigabytes of data from the
seized computers (150 from each computer) and a few video recordings. One
presumes, in the absence of any qualitative data demonstrating that the
suspects were in fact preparing bombs in order to destroy nine US
airliners, that Commissioner Clark is seeking public sympathy for his
minions´ enormous capacity to lift and remove electronic equipment from
one site to another in up to 69 buildings. This is a notable achievement
if we are talking about a moving company and not a high-powered police
investigation of an event of "catastrophic consequences."
Some of the suspects were arrested because they have traveled to Pakistan
at the beginning of the school year holidays. British and US authorities
forget to mention that tens of thousands of Pakistani ex-pats return to
visit family at precisely that time of year.
The wise guys on Wall Street and The City of London never took the liquid
bomb plot seriously: At no point did the Market respond, nose-dive, crash
or panic. The announced plot to bomb airlines was ignored by all Big
Players on the US and London stock markets. In fact, petrol prices
dropped slightly. In contrast to 9/11 and the Madrid and London bombings
(to which this plot is compared) the stock market `makers´ were not
impressed by the governments´ claims of a `major catastrophe.´ George
Bush or Tony Blair, who were informed and discussed the "liquid bomb
plot" several days beforehand, didn´t even skip a day of their vacations,
in response to the catastrophic threat.
And each and every claim and piece of `evidence´ put forth by the police
and the Blair and Bush security authorities runs a cropper. Some of the
alleged suspects are released, and new equally paltry `evidence´ is
breathlessly presented: two tape recordings of "martyr messages" were
found in the computer of one suspect, which, we are told, foretold a
planned terrorist attack. The Clark team claimed with great aplomb that
they found one or a few martyr videotapes, without clarifying the fact
that the videos were not made by the suspects but viewed by them. Many
people the world over pay homage to suicide martyrs to a great variety of
political causes. Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan visits a shrine
dedicated to World War II military dead -- including kamikaze suicide
pilots, defying Chinese and Korean protests. Millions of US citizens and
politicians pay homage to the war heroes in Arlington cemetery each year,
some of whom deliberately sacrificed their lives in order to defend their
comrades, their flag and the justice of their cause. It should be of no
surprise that Asians, Muslims and others should collect videos of anti-
Israeli or anti-occupation martyrs. In none of the above cases where
people honor martyrs is there any police attempt to link the reverent
observer with future suicide bomb plots -- except if they are Muslims.
Hero worship of fallen fighters is a normal everyday phenomenon -- and is
certainly no evidence that the idolaters are engaged in murderous
activity.
A "martyr message" is neither a plot, conspiracy nor action, it is only
an _expression_ of free speech -- one might add, `internal speech´ (between
the speaker and his computer) which might at some future time become
public speech. Are we to make private dialogue a terrorist offense?
As the legal time limit expires on the holding of suspects without
charges, the British authorities released two suspects, charged eleven,
and eleven others continue to be held without charges, probably because
there is no basis for proceeding further. As the number of accused
plotters thin out in England, Clark and company have deflected attention
to a world-wide plot with links to Spain, Italy, the Middle East and
elsewhere. Apparently the logic here is that a wider net compensates for
the large holes. In the case at hand, of the eleven who have been
remanded to trial, only eight have been charged with conspiracy to
prepare acts of terrorism; the other three are accused of "not disclosing
information" (or being informers . . . of what?) and "possessing articles
useful to a person preparing acts of terrorism." (BBC News, 8/21/06)
Since no bombs have been found and no plans of action have been revealed,
we are left with the vague charge of `conspiracy´, which can mean a
hostile private discussion directed against US and British subjects by
several like-thinking individuals. The reason that it appears that ideas
and not actions are in question is because the police have not turned up
any weapons or specific measures to enter into the locus of attack (air
tickets to board planes, passports and so on). How can suspects be
charged with failing to disclose information, when the police lack any
concrete information pertaining to the alleged bomb plot. The fact that
the police are further diluting their charges against three more plotters
is indicative of the flimsy basis of their original arrests and public
claims. To charge a 17 year-old-boy with "possessing articles useful to a
person preparing acts of terrorism" is so open-ended as to be laughable:
Did the article have other uses for the boy or for his family (like a box
cutter). Did he `possess´ written articles because they were informative
or fascinating to a young person? Since he still possessed the article,
he had not passed these articles to any person making bombs. Did he know
of any specific plans to make bombs or any bomb-makers? The charges could
implicate anyone possessing and reading a good spy novel or science
fiction thriller in which bomb making is discussed. The eleven have
already pleaded innocent; the trial will begin in due time. The
government and mass media have already convicted the accused in the
electronic and print media. Panic has been sown. Fear and hysterical
anger is present in the long security lines at airports and train
stations . . . Asian men quietly saying prayers are being pulled off of
airplanes and planes diverted or airports evacuated.
The bomb plot hoax has caused enormous losses (in the hundreds of
millions of dollars) to the airlines, business people, oil companies,
duty free shops, tourist agencies, resorts and hotels, not to speak of
the tremendous inconvenience and health related problems of millions of
stranded and stressed travelers. The restrictions on laptop computers,
travel bags, accessories, special foods and liquid medicines have added
to the `costs´ of traveling.
Clearly the decision to cook up the phony bomb plot was not motivated by
economic interests, but domestic political reasons. The Blair
administration, already highly unpopular for supporting Bush´s wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, was under attack for his unconditional support for
Israel´s invasion of Lebanon, his refusal to call for an immediate
ceasefire and his unstinting support for Bush´s servility to US Zionist
lobbies. Even within the Labor party over a hundred backbenchers were
speaking out against his policies, while even junior cabinet ministers
such as Prescott stated that Boss Bush´s foreign policy smelled of the
barnyard. Bush was not yet cornered by his colleagues in the same way as
Blair, but unpopularity was threatening to lead his Republican party to
congressional defeat and possible loss of a majority of seats.
According to top security officials in England, Bush and Blair were
"knowledgeable" about the investigation into a possible "liquid bomb"
plot. We know that Blair gave the go-ahead for the arrests, even as the
authorities must have told him they lacked the evidence and at best it
was premature. Some reports from British police insiders claim that the
Bush Administration pushed Blair for early arrests and the announcement
of the `liquid bomb´ plot. Security officials then launched a massive,
all-out `terror propaganda´ campaign designed to capture the attention
and support of the public with the total support of the mass media. The
security-mass media campaign served its objective -- Bush´s popularity
increased, Blair avoided censure and both continued on their vacations.
The bomb plot political ploy fits the previous political pattern of
sacrificing capitalist economic interests to serve domestic political and
ideological positions. Foreign policy failures lead to domestic political
crimes, just as domestic policy crises lead to aggressive military
expansion.
The criminal frame-up of young Muslim-South Asian British citizens by the
British security officials was specifically designed to cover up for the
failed Anglo-American invasion of Iraq and the Anglo-American backing for
Israel´s destructive but failed invasion of Lebanon. Blair´s "liquid
bombers" plot sacrificed a multiplicity of British capitalist interests
in order to retain political offices and stave off an unceremonious early
exit from power. The costs of failed militarism are borne by citizens and
businesses.
In an analogous fashion Bush and his Zioncon and other militarists
exploited the events of 9/11 to pursue a militarist multi-war strategy in
Southwest Asia and the Middle East. With time and scientific research,
the official version of the events of 9/11 have come under serious
questioning -- both regarding the collapse of one of the towers in New
York, as well as the explosions in the Pentagon. The events of 9/11 and
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq sacrificed major US economic interests:
Losses in New York, tourism, airline industry and massive physical
destruction; losses in terms of a major increase in oil prices and
instability, increasing the costs to US, European and Asian consumers and
industries.
Likewise the Israeli military invasion of Gaza and Lebanon, backed by the
US and Great Britain, were economically costly destroying property,
investments and markets, while raising the level of mass anti-imperial
opposition.
In other words, the politics of US, British and Israeli (and by extension
World Zionist) militarism has been at the expense of strategic sectors of
the civilian economy. These losses to key economic sectors require the
civilian-militarists to resort to domestic political crimes (phony bomb
plots and frame-up trials) to distract the public from their costly and
failed policies and to tighten political control. On both counts, the
civilian militarists and the Zioncons are losing ground. The "liquid
bomb" plot is unraveling, Israel is in turmoil, the Zioncons are
preaching to the converted, and the US is, as always, the United States:
The Democratic civilian militarists are capitalizing on the failures of
their incumbent colleagues.
James Petras, a former Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University,
New York, owns a 50-year membership in the class struggle, is an adviser
to the landless and jobless in Brazil and Argentina, and is co-author of
Globalization Unmasked (Zed Books). His latest book is, The Power of
Israel in the United States (Clarity Press, 2006). He can be reached at:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]edu .
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~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a
philosopher." - Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
Don't ask about caste or riches but instead ask about conduct. Look
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wood"and it doesn't matter what wood. In the same way, a wise
person can come from wood of any sort. It is through firmness and
restraint and a sense of truth that one becomes noble, not through
caste. -Sutta Nipata
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