On Sunday, amid tearful remembrances of 9/11, the U.S. news media avoided any serious criticism of how the U.S. government responded to the attacks with 10 years of slaughter that has left hundreds of thousands dead, the vast majority having had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. Gareth Porter looks at the reasons for this oversight.
In the commentary on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the news and infotainment media predictably framed the discussion by the question of how successful the CIA and the military have been in destroying al Qaeda.
Absent from the torrent of opinion and analysis was any mention of how the U.S. military occupation of Muslim lands and wars which continue to kill Muslim civilians fuel jihadist sentiment that will keep the threat of terrorism high for many years to come.
The failure to have that discussion is not an accident. In December 2007, at a conference in Washington, D.C. on al Qaeda, former State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism Daniel Benjamin offered a laundry list of things the United States could do to reduce the threat from al Qaeda.
But he said nothing about the most important thing to be done: pledging to the Islamic world that the United States would pull its military forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq and end its warfare against those in Islamic countries resisting U.S. military presence.
TEN YEARS after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the world is still reeling from the consequences of the terrorist attacks and the geopolitical shifts that followed.
Moments after the attack, President George W. Bush and his military planners were discussing how to use people’s anger and fear for their political advantage.
The Bush administration saw the horrific events of September 11 as a rare chance to carry out plans that long predated the attacks and package these as defensive rather than offensive measures. Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, immediately set to work to target Iraq, despite the fact that the country had no link at all to the attacks.
Iraqi detainees were severely tortured, beaten, and raped in an Iraqi National Police detention complex in 2006, according to a confidential State Department cable released by WikiLeaks. Discovery by US officials of the abuse did not lead to criminal investigations of the perpetrators and much of the mistreatment was permitted to continue.
On May 30, 2006, “a joint US-Iraqi inspection” of an Iraqi detention facility “discovered more than 1,400 detainees in squalid, cramped conditions,” many of whom were illegally detained. Prisoners “displayed bruising, broken bones, and lash-marks, many claimed to have been hung by handcuffs from a hook in the ceiling and beaten on the soles of their feet and their buttocks.”
The inspectors found a torture contraption where ”a hook…on the ceiling of an empty room at the facility” was “attached [to] a chain-and-pulley system ordinarily used for lifting vehicles” and that “apparent bloodspots stained the floor underneath.” All 41 prisoners interviewed by US inspectors had reported being tortured and 37 juveniles were held illegally.
It is a common recognition of Indian “mainstream” politics that however the various off-shoots of the Sangh Parivar may seem to be warring from time to time, they all obey the RSS.
A more macro version of the above is the following: that however the Congress and the BJP may be warring on issue after issue, both these faces of Indian Capitalism obey the Ambanis. And sundry other corporates that have any real clout.
Think of the many recent reports on corruption of one kind or another germinated by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG for short). Apart from the lip service done to this “constitutional authority” by all sections of the political class, the fact remains that its findings are now endorsed, now not by either of the two major parties, depending on how the reports of this body suit or not suit their realpolitik of the moment. Too many instances here in very recent public memory and media exposure to need recounting.
But, as the CPI(M) has just pointed out in a most instructive Press Release, when it comes to the CAG exposure of the corruption engaged in by the Reliance Group of Industries with respect to oil exploration rights and stipulations in the KG-6 deep water block, a pall of eloquent silence seems to have fallen over both the Congress and the BJP. Not a squeak thus far. True guru bhais in this regard, you may say.
A US drone strike against the Hasou Khel village in North Waziristan Agency today killed at least five people and left a number of others wounded. The attack destroyed a pickup truck and also leveled a house, burying people within.
Pakistani officials said that the four people slain in the vehicle were “militants” but the identities of the people in the destroyed house have not been made clear. Locals say the toll may rise further as rescue workers continue to search for more people buried in the house.
The attacks have been one of the primary grievances among Pakistani civilians, and a key reason for the rising anti-US sentiment across the nation, as US officials treat the complaints about push-button killing as an afterthought, and certainly nothing that would cause a change in policy.
“We support your war of terror,” proclaims Borat to a cheering crowd of Americans in a stadium, in the popular Sacha Baron Cohen film. The crowd apparently thinks he got the preposition wrong, but what makes the line darkly humorous is that he didn’t.
Most of the victims of America’s wars that are supposedly “against terror” have been civilians, and torture has also been deployed as a weapon. Civilians in Pakistan are killed on average every week in drone strikes, according to a recent report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and also regularly in Afghanistan in “night raids.”
And sometimes they are just shot point blank, as in March 2006 when US soldiers reportedly executed at least 10 civilians, including a 70-year old woman and a 5-month old baby, and then called in an airstrike to bomb the house and cover it up. Arecently discovered US diplomatic cable from Wikileaks provides evidence of this crime. Iraq veteranEthan McCord says that killings of civilians by US forces was “standard operating procedure” while he was deployed there.
‘Strike him so that he may feel that he is dying.’
Caligula, Emperor of Rome
How many times does a practice have to be publicly outlawed before people stop pretending they didn’t know it was wrong? Suppose someone in a position of authority was being tried for murder. Would any court accept the excuse that he didn’t know it was illegal to kill someone? Yet this is precisely what has happened in the case of the British armed forces using illegal interrogation techniques.
The techniques (hooding, stress positions, subjection to noise, sleep deprivation and food and drink deprivation) were banned under the Geneva conventions; by the UK parliament in 1972; again by the UK signing the Convention Against Torture (1987), and yet again when the Human Rights Act became part of UK domestic law (1998). Evidence at the Baha Mousa Inquiry showed the techniques were still being taught to troops in the 1980s and in 2002. Attempts to stop the practice of hooding were countermanded by directives from ‘higher up the chain of command’. In April 2003 hooding and other practices were banned by Lt General Brims, seen to be still in use in July 2003, clearly in use in September 2003 when Baha Mousa died, banned again by Lt Gen Sir John Reith in October 2003, and in May 2004 the order banning hooding was extended to other theatres in which UK forces were operating.
Nearly 12,000 prosecutions since February is astounding and shows how Egypt’s military rulers are undermining the transition to democracy. The military can end these trials today all it takes is one order to end this travesty of justice.
Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch
(New York) – Since it took over patrolling the streets from the police on January 28, 2011, Egypt’s military has arrested almost 12,000 civilians and brought them before military tribunals, Human Rights Watch said today. This is more than the total number of civilians who faced military trials during the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak and undermines Egypt’s move from dictatorship to democratic rule, Human Rights Watch said.
“Nearly 12,000 prosecutions since February is astounding and shows how Egypt’s military rulers are undermining the transition to democracy,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The military can end these trials today – all it takes is one order to end this travesty of justice.”
In a September 5 news conference Gen. Adel Morsy of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) said that between January 28 and August 29, military tribunals tried 11,879 civilians. The tribunals convicted 8,071, including 1,836 suspended sentences; a further 1,225 convictions are awaiting ratification by the military.
When the UN Secretary General announced on 2 August 2010 that a Panel of Inquiry had been established to investigate the Israeli attacks of 31 May on the Mavi Marmara and five other ships carrying humanitarian aid to the beleaguered people of Gaza, there was widespread hope that international law would be vindicated and the Israelis would finally be held accountable. With the release of the Palmer Report, these hopes have been largely dashed, as the report failed to address the central international law issues in a credible and satisfactory manner. Turkey, not surprisingly, responded strongly that it was not prepared to live with the central finding of the 105-page report reaching the astonishing conclusions that the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip is lawful and could be enforced by Israel against a humanitarian mission even in international waters.
Note: I have slightly added some more text to the following article / comment that was published earlier.
I fully appreciate the concerns of Mr Engelhardt and agree with him that the attacks of 9/11 were horrific acts. Obviously, in the eyes of the Americans and their friends world-wide the terrorist plot was the work of al-Qaeda and its ubiquitous leader Osama. Thus the bogey of Osama was transformed into something what to believers may seem to be almost a mysterious ghoulish power! As a result, he could be a serious threat to the Empire and the greatest military power in the whole of recorded history. It was as if the fate of God’s own country was at stake! We all prayed for the safety of America.
The strange thing is that not long ago Osama was a CIA functionary who was trained and equipped to advance American military objectives in Afghanistan against the Soviet military involvement. After the Soviet withdrawal the Osama-CIA liaison came to an end. Now he had turned against his former mentors. After 9/11 the US presented itself almost in the Kafkaesque fashion as a weak beetle that could be crushed by the Great Threat! Even though Osama as a hireling had learnt much from his CIA bosses, he surreptitiously may have kept some of his secrets close to his chest. Who knows, as an Arab he might have used some mystical incantations to get the fabled Lamp of Aladdin. Just by rubbing his lamp, he could have the jinni standing in front of him to perform the impossible tasks and also to make himself invisible. The Empire was helpless and the jinni was on the rampage!!
But in a famous documentary film, Loose Change 9/11, produced in 2006, challenged the official explanation of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It also aroused a great deal of controversy; it had its supporters and opponents.
Since I am not an expert on the technical details of the attacks which the U.S. authorities offered or the views of those who contradict or refute the official version as in this film, I refrain from passing any final word on the issues involved. However, I try to find more about the events and will continue to do so because this tragic date became the sign-post, which was used by the Bush-Cheney administration to start and justify their wars of aggression and global terror that resulted in the occupation and destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, the deaths of more than a million people and the uprooting and destitution of countless millions of people. The present U.S. administration under President Obama has not only continued the wars of aggression of his predecessor but also extended them to other countries and areas by using advanced technologies and weapons to kill and destroy with impunity and without any accountability for his actions to anyone in the United States or anywhere else in the world.
No matter who were the actual criminals or conspirators who committed the crimes on 9/11 that resulted in the deaths of 2749 Americans, one thing is absolutely clear that the people of Iraq and its ruler Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the 9/11. The people or the rulers of Afghanistan or Pakistan were not involved in this crime either. Even if any individual from Afghanistan or Pakistan may have been involved in this crime in some way or the other that should have been the act of an individual. The people of Afghanistan or Pakistan had no part in such a crime, but they are still being killed by the U.S-led NATO forces and American drone attacks.
I assume it is only fair that viewers should have a chance to see the whole film open-mindedly, without any mental inhibitions. Whether they agree with every single detail of the happenings or not is for each individual to discuss and decide after a critical scrutiny of the well-known story. But there is no doubt that some viewers will have some questions about the main course and the details of the events. Those who are interested in finding the facts will have to do some research themselves to find the answers to such questions. No doubt, the matter is complicated and it is not easy to disentangle the facts from the legends. Consequently, there lies the challenge to those who aspire to find the truth about the 9/11.
Pakistani officials said that the f
Peace and Justice Post 