P.D. Allen's Blog, page 15
September 15, 2012
Topiary Bonsai
Quantum Meditation #1716
September 14, 2012
By Our Resonance
Quantum Meditation #1715
Al-Qaeda, Just a Boogyman?
Al-Qaeda, just a Boogyman?
PD Allen
The most important article in this entire series is Under Shattered Skies of Our Own Design
Murderer’s Sky; Book 1 of Under Shattered Skies ~ kindle ~ paperback
Download a pdf of this article (black print on a white background)
The US apprehended the mastermind behind 9-11 four years ago, and it wasn’t Osama bin Laden. It was a man named Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. As it turns out, the man wasn’t even all that close to bin Laden, nor had he ever heard of Al-Qaeda until after 9-11. It turns out that all Osama bin Laden had to do with the 9-11 attacks was to provide some of the financial support, as did Pakistani officials tied to the CIA.
The first mention of Al-Qaeda was in the prosecution of the 1998 US embassy bombings. Prosecutors wanted to try Osama bin Laden in absentia using laws drawn up to fight organized crime. To do so, they first had to establish that Osama was the head of a criminal organization. At the time, all of the evidence about Al-Qaeda’s activities, including the name for the organization was supplied by one man: Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl.
Al-Fadl placed himself in US custody back in 1996 because he had stolen money from Egyptian Islamic Jidah, an organization bin Laden helped to fund. At the time, Al-Fadl told investigators that bin Laden was trying to establish another organization to launch attacks directly against the US. After the embassy bombings in 1998, US officials offered to drop terrorism charges that would have landed Al-Fadl a long stretch of prison time, if he would provide them with the information they needed to try bin Laden in absentia. As a further incentive for his cooperation, Al-Fadl was given a new identity, a residence in the US, and financial aid, costing US tax payers $945,000 by the time Al-Fadl testified in February of 2001.
From the beginning, Al-Fadl’s veracity has been highly suspect. Defense lawyers at the trial and outside analysts contend that much of Al-Fadl’s testimony was a fabrication. Al-Fadl gave prosecution a picture of a powerful international organization with well-defined hierarchy, leading to bin Laden at the top. This was what the FBI needed to charge bin Laden in absentia, under US law. Experts who have studied the militant Islamists contend that this picture could not be farther from the truth. Following the 9-11 attacks, Al-Fadl’s testimony took on a new life, and Al-Qaeda became the powerful arch-enemy of the US. In reality, no one has ever been able to document bin Laden’s use of the term Al-Qaeda until after 9-11, when he attempted to cash in on the powerful image the US had built up of the supposed organization.
The Bin Laden Myth
Who was Osama bin Laden? Was he the criminal mastermind who ordered faithful followers to commit acts of terrorism? Was he some super-villain who could evade our grasp while striking at the very heart of the US?
Evidence suggests that at the time of 9-11, Osama bin Laden was a marginalized figure in the militant Islamist movement. The goal of the overwhelming majority of militant Islamists is to establish Islamic governments in their homelands. Only a few extremists are interested in taking on the United States.
Osama bin Laden came into the militant Islamic movement in the 1985 as the close aide and fund raiser for Abdullah Azzam, a charismatic religious leader. Azzam set up camps in Afghanistan where he trained Arab fighters. He was one of the most powerful figures in the battle against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As such, he worked closely with the CIA and visited the US frequently, often with bin Laden at his side.
Osama bin Laden was lured away from Azzam by the extremist icon, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Zawahiri had recently been released from the Egyptian prison where he had been confined and tortured since the execution of Egyptian President Sadat. While in prison, Zawahiri had developed a very extreme form of militant Islamism. Where Azzam believed the Islamist revolution could be achieved politically, Zawahiri thought that violent revolution was the only way. He contended that politicians and the elite of the Middle East were corrupted by western influences and must be executed. In this way, the people would see the corruption of their government and would rise to overthrow it.
Zawahiri seduced bin Laden with promises that bin Laden could be the emir, or leader, after the Ismalic revolution was complete. It is very clear that bin Laden was played by Zawahiri and other extremists seeking his financial support.
Throughout the 1990’s, the methods of Zawahiri and his followers became more extreme. When there efforts to foment revolution by assassinating corrupt leaders failed, they decided that the public were themselves corrupted. They began to target average people, in an increasingly bloody effort to knock some sense into their fellow Moslems. In the end, the extremists broke into small groups, each targeting anyone who was not a member of their little circle.
Finally, realizing that the corruption was endemic throughout their world, Zawahiri and his followers decided that the only solution was to attack this corruption at its source, the US. They began to reorganize and recruit followers who would serve their new mission against the west. By this time Zawahiri and bin Laden were very marginalized, with virtually no organization and very few supporters. Because bin Laden still had money, he was humored by the Taliban in Afghanistan. He funded several Taliban training camps, and in return was allowed fish for recruits within these camps.
However, most of the Islamists who came to these training camps were only interested in staging an Islamic revolution in their homelands. They had no desire to go to war against the United States. During this time, bin Laden produced a film that has since been shown a great deal in the United States and elsewhere in the western world. In this film, we see bin Laden touring one of “his” training camps, escorted by a large party of armed followers. In truth, this film is a complete sham. The supposed followers were hired as extras, and were even told to provide their own weapons.
In September of 2001, bin Laden had no organization through which he could command and coordinate the 9-11 attacks. While it is apparent that he provided some support for the attacks, he had nothing to do with their planning. While some extremists were inspired by the rhetoric of Zawahiri to plan terrorist strikes against western interests, they were tied to Zawahiri and bin Laden by only the loosest of links. Osama bin Laden donated money to many terrorist plots, only a few of which ever came to fruition.
The War on Imaginary Terror
While bin Laden managed to find very few recruits, the US-led war in Afghanistan cut off his recruitment efforts at the source. Northern Alliance fighters were offered money for every Al-Qaeda member they turned over to the US. With this incentive, they began identifying anyone they had a grudge against as an Al-Qaeda member. As a result, US concentration camps filled up with people who had very little or nothing at all to do with bin Laden. Yet the hierarchy of the Al-Qaeda organization seemed to vanish.
The story was then circulated, originating in rumors among the Northern Alliance, that Al-Qaeda was holed up in their underground stronghold in the mountain fastness of Tora Bora. The US media had fascinating reports where analysts showed schematics of the multileveled stronghold, complete with storage facilities for advanced weapons and armored vehicles. The entire complex was supported to be powered by a hydroelectric project.
After the assault on Tora Bora, all that could be found were a few small caves and primitive excavations used to store small weapons. Once again, bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were nowhere to be found. The rational answer, considering there was no sophisticated underground stronghold, is that bin Laden and his followers were never there. In the end, there is very little to suggest that Al-Qaeda truly existed prior to 9-11, other than the testimony of Al-Fadl and a few other equally questionable informants.
The evidence of sleeper cells within the US is even more flimsy, if not downright laughable. And the various terrorism alerts that followed the 9-11 attacks within the US were contrived at best. Even the talk of the dirty bomb attack was nonsense. Experts on nuclear physics quickly stepped up to dismiss the concept of a dirty bomb as ineffectual. At most, it would only contaminate a small area, and those who were in that area could simply leave. Yet the government and the media played down these assurances and played up the threat. The threat of a dirty bomb is negligible, particularly in comparison with the depleted uranium munitions that have contaminated much of Afghanistan, Iraq and Serbia.
The only marginally successful terrorist attack following 9-11 was the anthrax attacks which followed closely after 9-11. Though it was initially believed that the anthrax attacks were perpetrated by Al-Qaeda or Iraq, investigation traced the bacillus to US stocks and all indications were that this was a domestic act of terrorism. Oddly enough, though Bush halted the investigation of 9-11 to track down the source of the anthrax letters, that investigation died down once it became clear that the source was domestic and probably tied to the US government. Considering the targets of the anthrax letters, the entire episode was highly suspicious from the start. Four letters were mailed, addressed to NBC, The New York Post, and Democratic Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy.
It is hard to see how Islamic terrorists could gain much from targeting the media, the leader of the opposition in the Senate, or the one Senator who was asking pointed questions of the Bush administration. The anthrax letters did effectively silence opposition to the Bush administration both in the media and within Congress. They also made it very difficult for Congress to function at a time when critical terrorism legislation was being voted on, legislation that grant Bush unequaled powers and rip the constitution apart.
Buying the Myth
At this point, it is very tempting to say that 9-11 and the War on Terror is a conspiracy. How else can you explain the anthrax letters? And there are many other aspects of this business that we have not discussed here which also suggest this explanation. But all of this can be explained satisfactorily without resorting to an overarching conspiracy. To do so, we have to understand human nature, how we build up our conception of reality, and how we work together to protect those conceptions.
All of us live in a world of delusion, to some extent or other. To understand this, take a moment to think of what is reality for you? Do you believe in a God? Do you believe in an economic system that supports your current lifestyle? Do you believe in some other economic system? Do you believe that the United States is the champion of all that is good? Do you believe that the United States is a corrupt empire clinging desperately to power?
All of these things are beliefs about reality, but they are not reality. Reality is what is happening at this moment. You are reading this. Your surroundings at this moment are real. Maybe you are hungry, maybe you have to go to the lavatory, maybe you are tired. All of this is reality. Yet it is very natural for humans to conceptualize the world around them. It is our attempt to make sense out of the world. And the more capably we operate in the world, the more successful our conception of reality and the stronger our beliefs in this conception will become. Yet all of this is delusion.
The thing about delusion and beliefs is that they are self-reinforcing, and they tend to support themselves by attracting others with similar belief systems. By self-reinforcing, I mean that once we have a believe, we tend to look on the world around us through the lens of that belief, seeing only whatever supports that belief and ignoring whatever contradicts it. Furthermore, we tend to attract to ourselves, or rather gravitate towards events that confirm our beliefs, and other people whose beliefs coincide with ours or whose behavior will reinforce our beliefs. It is very difficult to strip away these delusions. Most of us would rather lose any part of our true physical reality than to part with our beliefs. We will kill to defend our beliefs, and we will die for our beliefs.
We can classify people into groups according to their beliefs. There are the Christian fundamentalists, the rainbow tribe, the neoconservatives, the conspiracy theorists, etc. In so doing, we can make observations about these various groups of people, and possibly gain a better understanding of them and of reality. However, we must be aware that we are stereotyping, and that all of the people we classify into a certain group are likely to deviate from that classification to some extent or another. What we are doing here is forming more beliefs about reality. See how difficult it is to avoid doing this. If we are going to try to make some sense of what is happening around us, then we will have to form conceptions and beliefs about reality, but let’s try to remain aware that this is what they are. If they prove useful is understanding what is happening, then we can work with them. If not, let’s not continue to carry them around like worn out baggage.
At the turn of the century, there were three groups in ascendancy in the United States, the elite (by which turn I mean the owning class, the powerful CEOs, bankers, financiers and executives who dominate the economy), the religious right, and the neoconservatives. Also in political ascendancy was AIPAC, the powerful Israeli lobby with its hands in the pockets of all the top politicians in Washington.
Of these, the alpha group is the elite. They are the ones who call the shots. If there is any contradiction between their desires and the desires of any of these other groups, it is their will that will be done. There are certainly divisions within the alpha group. What is beneficial for some of them is not necessarily beneficial for others. And there are some who try to take a more moderate or compassionate view. But all of them stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to protecting the system that serves them best.
Among these elite, there were certain well-informed and powerful specimens that were aware of a number pending crises that threatened to tear their system apart. They were aware of peak oil, global warming and a host of other environmental, economic and social problems that would threaten the stability of our socioeconomic system in the coming century. Key players in this group have backed the Bush administration since before the 2000 election, and continue to do so.
Through direct influence on the Bush administration, these players sought to prepare for the tough times ahead. Through the Bush administration, they were able to advance their supremacy over the US and the world. It is they who dictated energy policy, privatization and so-called free trade agreements. And, following 9-11, they backed the invasion of the Middle East in an effort to control the energy resources of the world. They also backed legislation that would make it possible to shelve the US constitution and transform the nation into a police state should the need ever arise. This was not a conspiracy; these players were simply looking out for their own good, in accordance with their belief system.
Subservient to the elite were the neocons. This group believed that the US was the symbol of all that was good, and as such was destined to spread its positive influence throughout the world. And, as in all such simplistic conceptions of good and evil, where the US was the symbol of good, they needed something to symbolize evil — something powerful enough to threaten the US and galvanize the US public. In the 1980s, the neocons had vilified the Soviet Union. They had portrayed the Soviet Union as an evil empire whose tentacles reached everywhere. This was a delusion, as intelligence analysts had long tried to assert that the Soviet Union was disintegrating internally. Yet the neocons believed their own delusions, and when the Soviet Union did collapse, they took the credit for it.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, they needed a new arch-villain. Throughout the 1990s, they pointed fingers at Islamic terrorists, but it was not until the attacks of 9-11 that their rantings were given center stage. Now we had a new archenemy, and the testimony of Jamal Al-Fadl provided them with a portrait of this monster, as well as a name: Al-Qaeda. With Islamic militants presented as the enemy, the neocons could then justify a multi-theater, never-ending war that would place the United States in the seat of world power: the Middle East and Central Asia, where most of the world’s energy wealth was concentrated.
AIPAC was also happy with this war on terror, as they saw it would further their own cause: the safety and supremacy of Israel in the Middle East. And for the religious right, it took on the connotations of a holy war against the ungodly Moslems. For them, God was issuing marching orders in the charge towards Armageddon. There are many other groups to consider, but for the case of this argument, we will look at only these four groups.
Now, as all of the various players were acting through their beliefs, there was really no need for a massive conspiracy. There was negligence to the point of gross criminality, and there was opportunism, but mostly there is plausible deniability. The Bush administration did not want to see any wrongdoing that might implicate close associates and former business partners in the Middle East. The US intelligence community, the Pentagon and the war hawks in the government did not want admit that their associates from the Afghan War days might be plotting against them.
Perhaps certain officials such as Cheney, were aware enough of what was happening on September 11th to sit back and do nothing. It may even be likely that there was a limited conspiracy to allow the attacks to happen. But that is not necessary to explain what happened. The Bush administration and the powers behind the Bush administration did not see what was happening on 9-11 because they did not want to see what was happening.
As for the anthrax letters, they could well have been the work of someone farther down the line, thinking he was doing the right thing to support his leaders in a time of crisis. This was how the Iran-Contra scandal transpired; it is called plausible deniability. Those at the top merely set the mood without offering specific suggestions, and those below follow along loyally, in accordance with their own beliefs.
We can build similar arguments for all aspects of 9-11 and the subsequent War on Terror. For instance, the collapse of the twin towers and building 9. I believe it is probable that these three buildings were taken down in a controlled demolition. Yet it is easy to build a plausible — though deplorable — explanation for this. The World Trade Center was a known target for terrorists. It had even been struck once before, with a bomb planted in the basement. Isn’t is quite likely that, following that previous attack, the owner of the towers, the mayor of New York, and probably the governor and the federal government, decided to have the buildings wired for demolition, just in case some future attack should prove more successful. They could have reasoned that a controlled demolition would save the lives of those in the surrounding area. Then after 9-11, the orders were given to go ahead with the demolition. This explanation is more plausible than any other. What is deplorable is that they may have been able to get more people out of the towers before they collapsed.
All of the unanswered questions surrounding the events of 9-11 can be answered in a similar manner. Or else there is very little evidence to support them in the first place. Most of the inconsistencies and rumors which flew around in the first hours of that day, and even in the week that followed, must be discounted due to confusion and shock.
Through such an exercise, what we find in the end is a government that was criminally negligent and opportunistic. And we find a monolithic system built up of people sharing delusional belief systems that antipathetic to the greater well-being of humankind and the biosphere.
Once again, this is a conception of reality. It is a model of reality built up in an attempt to make sense of the events of September 11th 2001. But it is a much more organic model than the various conspiracy theories, or the official story. As such, it is more likely to mirror reality.
Back to the Mastermind
Since 9-11, Osama bin Laden and others have embraced the name given to them: Al Qaeda. Yes, Al Qaeda does exist now; a boogyman built of our own fears. But it is nothing like the all-pervasive terrorist organization that it is made out to be in the US.
Those who call themselves Al Qaeda are still a marginal element within the militant Islamist movement. Most of Al Qaeda’s new recruits are mourners seeking vengeance for the murder of loved ones by US troops. There were no Al Qaeda in Iraq before the US-led invasion, and the Al Qaeda members there now are not insurgents. For the most part, they are grieving Iraqis who have embraced the name Al Qaeda in their efforts to fight back against their oppressors.
Osama bin Laden’s organization remains poorly organized and poorly manned. It is doubtful that there are really any Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan, as has been trumpeted in the US media. Most likely, these are Taliban training camps, possibly funded in part by Osama bin Laden. Perhaps bin Laden has permission to recruit in these camps, but most of the men attending these training camps are still intent on fomenting Alsamist revolutions within their own countries. Most of the people in the training camps are undoubtedly Afghans, preparing for the next phase of the effort to strike back at the coalition forces and reinstall the Taliban in Afghanistan. The top leader of the Taliban, Mullah Dadullah, has stated that they have 1,800 suicide bombers ready to go into action.
As for the recently publicized confessions of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, they are not worth the paper they are printed on. We cannot believe a word of them. Khalid’s confession was extracted through the use of severe methods of torture, including waterboarding. Furthermore, the CIA abducted Khalid’s sons, age 9 and 7, and used this abduction to pressure Khalid into confessing. One CIA official is quoted as saying that, “His sons are important to him. The promise of their release and their return to Pakistan may be the psychological lever we need to break him.”
I don’t know about you, but if the CIA were holding my children, I would admit to being a member of Al-Qaeda and confess to whatever they wanted. This certainly makes me proud to be a US citizen.
In The Jurist, one of the leading journals of the legal profession within the US, Anthony D’Amato, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law, has compared Khalid’s confession to those made in Stalinist Russia during the purge trials of the 1930s.9 Senator’s Carl Levin (D-Mich) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have both called for an investigation into allegations of abuse against Khalid.10 If the courts accept his coerced confession, it will mark the end of the justice system in the United States. We cannot believe Khalid’s admission to being a member of Al-Qaeda any more than we can believe Al_Fadl’s original portrayal of the organization.
This is why the US will never win the War against Al-Qaeda: it is a war against an enemy that by and large does not exist. It is an effort akin to shadow boxing. Our opponents are linked more closely by an idea than by any organization or government that we can focus an offensive against. The war on terror is the greatest recruitment tool for the terrorists. As long as we continue to strike out in fear and delusion, then our own fears and delusions will strike back at us, until we have completely worn ourselves out.
Conscious Cycle
Quantum Meditation #1713
September 13, 2012
September 12, 2012
Surfing in the Underworld
Quantum Meditation #1709
