No end to the terrible legacy of 9/11?
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Nerun Yakub
The eighth anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terror strike against US symbols of power ---- four fuel-laden jetliners crashing into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a Pennysylvania field, killing some 3000, most of them in New York ----- passed with the usual somber ceremonies and rituals at all venues. President Obama himself led the tribute giving from the White House lawn. The incredible attacks had sent shockwaves around the world, and quickly, a thousand and one theories and stories and plots had been constructed around the almost surrealistic strikes.
The full truth behind the attacks was not immediately comprehensible to the ordinary public. And the global powers-that-be would not tarry for truth to trickle down, embarking soon after on equally, if not doubly terrifying, offensives first against Afghanistan on the pretext of ferreting out Osama Bin Laden, claimed to be the mastermind behind 9/11. Next they went after their favourite rogue, Saddam Hossain. The move against Saddam had in fact started way back in 1991 with the first Gulf War under Bush Senior, leaving Junior to finish him off. No matter what the 'collateral damage' turned out to be.
Every high-tech weaponry that the US-UK axis wanted to test was tested on the land, the people, the flora and fauna of these ill-fated countries. These 'smart' weapons were employed with spectacularly devastating effects and the 'embedded' media impressed the world with awesome footage beamed straight from the front. The thermobaric bomb, or BLU-1185, which sucks out oxygen from enclosed spaces and demolishes structures without killing, daisy cutters, uranium-tipped killers and many other deadly toys were used on dispensible human beings. Then there were the older weapons that had to be gotten rid off, in order to make place for the latest marvels the 21st century was developing. The war-game players were simply itching to test the latest, on one pretext or the other, on the hapless citizens of both beleagured countries, generating giddy profits for arms manufacturers, building contractors and agents of all kinds, and eventually grabbing the huge gas and oil resources in the Gulf region and the Caspian Sea Basin.
Practice-strikes with precision-guided bombs had in fact started over the so-called no fly zone areas in Iraq since they were created after the first Gulf War in 1990-91. Hundreds of attacks used to take place every year and each attack was followed by 'damage assessment' of life and limb, in a macabre skill-development exercise. The purpose of picking fights with every rogue who walks into the US-UK trap, as worldwatchers know, is to kill many birds with one stone, so to say ---- test weapons of all kinds on unwanted people and do away with strongmen who were sitting on enormous gas and oil wealth.
For honest, peace-loving people ----- of all creeds, class, colour, gender and nationality ------ the appalling brutality of the 9/11 strikes have paled in the face of the ruthless policies pursued by the US and its allies since then. All on the pretext of hunting down mysteriously elusive elements who were deemed to have been behind the Twin Tower attacks. The irrationality of making whole nations pay for delinquents, which everyone knows were US creations in the first place, could not deter them, so blinding is 'great-power chauvinism'.
In fact mainstream, dominant media around the world were being used unabashedly to propagate a chimera in the name of Islamic fundamentalism ever since the demise of the Soviet Union. And the 9/11 terror strike was meant to provide the perfect excuse to press the button on neo-con programmes to contain this Islamic bogey. Bush and his allies did not even blink when initiating pre-emptive strikes in the face of worldwide protests. Spectacular mobilizations of anti-war demonstrations across the globe cried 'Foul ! Peace, not war ! Truth not lies!' Demonstrators minced no words, coming out with blunt and brutal critiques of the US President and his cheerleaders, notably Britain's Tony Blair. The actual agenda behind the dirty war, they pointed out, had nothing to do with democracy or disarmament but everything to do with strategic power and control of the huge gas and oil wealth in the region. Apart from Central Asia and the Middle East the global military-corporate nexus has its eyes on other potential and proven areas as well, all the way from Venezuela down to Indonesia, with no holds barred.
Lest this scribe be faulted with too much cynicism, it would be wise to remind ourselves that the much-talked about blueprint, Project for the New American Century (PNAC), was readied for Bush Junior well before he entered the White House. Drafted a year before 9/11/2001,it suggested that America needed a justification to activate its global design for the 21st century, 'some catastrophic and catalyzing event ----- like a new Pearl Harbour'. Was'nt that precisely what the traumatizing WTC tragedy was compared to by the embedded media over and over again ? Playing on the sentiments of the people and whipping up mass hysteria, paranoia, insecurity and Islamphobia ? As soon as the images and analogies had sunk in, Bush's National Security Advisor, had reportedly asked her senior officers to 'capitalise on these opportunities'.
Those who have not ceased wondering about the mind-boggling suicide strikes against US symbols of power with planes full of passengers, should delve into PNAC-related reports available in the public domain.
(John Pilger, New Statesman 16/12/02; Neil Mackey, Sunday Herald, 15/09/02; Aijaz Ahmed, Frontline 31/01.03) PNAC is the brainchild of far right think tanks and hawks who were prominent figures at the Pentagon during the regime of Bush senior, and continued to exercise insidious influence over George W Bush. Even Barak Obama is not quite free from that legacy, as members of the neo-con pressure group continue to exert influence both from within and outside his administration. Obama is seen as the best brand that the public relations industry could sell for 'damage limitation' following the excesses committed by the neo-con cabal. And who knows when the curtain may come down on this symbol of American goodness and greatness, a lyrically articulate black president with a Muslim father ? Wait till all the Islam-wooing-American-image-repairing exercises are over.
We are witnessing the beginning of an era that is being technologically transformed beyond the wildest imaginations of ordinary folk, with corporate concentration of power, wealth and scientific knowledge in the hands of those who wish to be sole Rulers of the World. The US military industrial complex, with powers willing to play second fiddle, is geared to exploit every development in science for global command and control. With mind-boggling advances in the life sciences today, we are told, it is very much possible to take over the minds of people, control their behaviour and use them to do dirty work which none but the puppeteers themselves would know ! Manipulations of individuals and whole nations is just a joy-stick away on the world screen for game-playing emperors on planet earth.
The eighth anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terror strike against US symbols of power ---- four fuel-laden jetliners crashing into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a Pennysylvania field, killing some 3000, most of them in New York ----- passed with the usual somber ceremonies and rituals at all venues. President Obama himself led the tribute giving from the White House lawn. The incredible attacks had sent shockwaves around the world, and quickly, a thousand and one theories and stories and plots had been constructed around the almost surrealistic strikes.
The full truth behind the attacks was not immediately comprehensible to the ordinary public. And the global powers-that-be would not tarry for truth to trickle down, embarking soon after on equally, if not doubly terrifying, offensives first against Afghanistan on the pretext of ferreting out Osama Bin Laden, claimed to be the mastermind behind 9/11. Next they went after their favourite rogue, Saddam Hossain. The move against Saddam had in fact started way back in 1991 with the first Gulf War under Bush Senior, leaving Junior to finish him off. No matter what the 'collateral damage' turned out to be.
Every high-tech weaponry that the US-UK axis wanted to test was tested on the land, the people, the flora and fauna of these ill-fated countries. These 'smart' weapons were employed with spectacularly devastating effects and the 'embedded' media impressed the world with awesome footage beamed straight from the front. The thermobaric bomb, or BLU-1185, which sucks out oxygen from enclosed spaces and demolishes structures without killing, daisy cutters, uranium-tipped killers and many other deadly toys were used on dispensible human beings. Then there were the older weapons that had to be gotten rid off, in order to make place for the latest marvels the 21st century was developing. The war-game players were simply itching to test the latest, on one pretext or the other, on the hapless citizens of both beleagured countries, generating giddy profits for arms manufacturers, building contractors and agents of all kinds, and eventually grabbing the huge gas and oil resources in the Gulf region and the Caspian Sea Basin.
Practice-strikes with precision-guided bombs had in fact started over the so-called no fly zone areas in Iraq since they were created after the first Gulf War in 1990-91. Hundreds of attacks used to take place every year and each attack was followed by 'damage assessment' of life and limb, in a macabre skill-development exercise. The purpose of picking fights with every rogue who walks into the US-UK trap, as worldwatchers know, is to kill many birds with one stone, so to say ---- test weapons of all kinds on unwanted people and do away with strongmen who were sitting on enormous gas and oil wealth.
For honest, peace-loving people ----- of all creeds, class, colour, gender and nationality ------ the appalling brutality of the 9/11 strikes have paled in the face of the ruthless policies pursued by the US and its allies since then. All on the pretext of hunting down mysteriously elusive elements who were deemed to have been behind the Twin Tower attacks. The irrationality of making whole nations pay for delinquents, which everyone knows were US creations in the first place, could not deter them, so blinding is 'great-power chauvinism'.
In fact mainstream, dominant media around the world were being used unabashedly to propagate a chimera in the name of Islamic fundamentalism ever since the demise of the Soviet Union. And the 9/11 terror strike was meant to provide the perfect excuse to press the button on neo-con programmes to contain this Islamic bogey. Bush and his allies did not even blink when initiating pre-emptive strikes in the face of worldwide protests. Spectacular mobilizations of anti-war demonstrations across the globe cried 'Foul ! Peace, not war ! Truth not lies!' Demonstrators minced no words, coming out with blunt and brutal critiques of the US President and his cheerleaders, notably Britain's Tony Blair. The actual agenda behind the dirty war, they pointed out, had nothing to do with democracy or disarmament but everything to do with strategic power and control of the huge gas and oil wealth in the region. Apart from Central Asia and the Middle East the global military-corporate nexus has its eyes on other potential and proven areas as well, all the way from Venezuela down to Indonesia, with no holds barred.
Lest this scribe be faulted with too much cynicism, it would be wise to remind ourselves that the much-talked about blueprint, Project for the New American Century (PNAC), was readied for Bush Junior well before he entered the White House. Drafted a year before 9/11/2001,it suggested that America needed a justification to activate its global design for the 21st century, 'some catastrophic and catalyzing event ----- like a new Pearl Harbour'. Was'nt that precisely what the traumatizing WTC tragedy was compared to by the embedded media over and over again ? Playing on the sentiments of the people and whipping up mass hysteria, paranoia, insecurity and Islamphobia ? As soon as the images and analogies had sunk in, Bush's National Security Advisor, had reportedly asked her senior officers to 'capitalise on these opportunities'.
Those who have not ceased wondering about the mind-boggling suicide strikes against US symbols of power with planes full of passengers, should delve into PNAC-related reports available in the public domain.
(John Pilger, New Statesman 16/12/02; Neil Mackey, Sunday Herald, 15/09/02; Aijaz Ahmed, Frontline 31/01.03) PNAC is the brainchild of far right think tanks and hawks who were prominent figures at the Pentagon during the regime of Bush senior, and continued to exercise insidious influence over George W Bush. Even Barak Obama is not quite free from that legacy, as members of the neo-con pressure group continue to exert influence both from within and outside his administration. Obama is seen as the best brand that the public relations industry could sell for 'damage limitation' following the excesses committed by the neo-con cabal. And who knows when the curtain may come down on this symbol of American goodness and greatness, a lyrically articulate black president with a Muslim father ? Wait till all the Islam-wooing-American-image-repairing exercises are over.
We are witnessing the beginning of an era that is being technologically transformed beyond the wildest imaginations of ordinary folk, with corporate concentration of power, wealth and scientific knowledge in the hands of those who wish to be sole Rulers of the World. The US military industrial complex, with powers willing to play second fiddle, is geared to exploit every development in science for global command and control. With mind-boggling advances in the life sciences today, we are told, it is very much possible to take over the minds of people, control their behaviour and use them to do dirty work which none but the puppeteers themselves would know ! Manipulations of individuals and whole nations is just a joy-stick away on the world screen for game-playing emperors on planet earth.