America’s War on Terrorism: The Spoils of War: Afghanistan’s Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade

CHAPTER 16
The Spoils of War: Afghanistan’s Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade

Since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the Golden Crescent opium trade has soared. According to the US media, this lucrative contraband is pro-tected by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, as well as, of course, the regional warlords, in defiance of the “international commu-nity”. The heroin business is said to be “filling the coffers of the Taliban”. In the words of the US State Department:

America’s War on Terrorism: War Criminals in High Office

Part 4: The New World Order

Chapter 15
War Criminals in High Office

Under the Bush administration, torture has become an official US Government policy. The orders to torture POWs in Iraq and Guantanamo emanated from the highest governmental levels. Prison guards, interrogators in the US military and the CIA were responding to precise guidelines.

The President directly authorized the use of torture including “sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs, and sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc.”(1)

The Deportation of Civilians to the Guantanamo Concentration Camp

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 14
The Deportation of Civilians to the Guantanamo Concentration Camp

by Leuren Moret

In November 2001, during the Holy Month of Ramadan, a contingent of ten missionary members from Pakistan made a Tableegh Dora, routine preaching visit to the Northern Afghanistan Province of Kunduz. Among them was Mr. Sagheer, 54, a religious man from Phattan, a town in Pakistan near the border of Afghanistan, who had traveled as a preacher on other Tableegh (preaching missions). During this visit he was swept up and arrested with thousands of others by Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, the area Northern Alliance commander, “on the instructions and orders of the US Government/Army…in a hunt against Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and [Taliban leader] Mullah Umer”.(1)

Mr. Sagheer was transported from Kunduz by truck with other prisoners in containers where many died, some who were injured were buried alive, others held in jails in Afghanistan, and finally he was transported by the US military to Guantanamo Bay.(2) There he was held like other prisoners in small cages, subjected to torture, humiliation, violation of religious prohibitions, denied legal rights, beaten and interrogated at Camp Delta.

America’s War on Terrorism: Protecting Al Qaeda Fighters in the War Theater

Chapter 14
Protecting Al Qaeda Fighters in the War Theater

In late November 2001, the Northern Alliance, supported by US bombing raids, took the hill town of Kunduz in Northern Afghanistan. Eight thousand or more men “had been trapped inside the city in the last days of the siege, roughly half of whom were Pakistanis. Afghans, Uzbeks, Chechens, and various Arab merce-naries accounted for the rest.”(1)

Also among these fighters, were several senior Pakistani military and intelligence officers, who had been dispatched to the war theater by the Pakistani military.

America’s War on Terrorism: Providing a Face to the Enemy: Who is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi?

Chapter 13
Providing a Face to the Enemy: Who is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi?

The “war on terrorism” requires a humanitarian mandate. It is presented as a “Just War” to be fought on moral grounds “to redress a wrong suffered”.

The Just War theory defines “good” and “evil”. It concretely portrays and personifies the terrorist leaders as “evil individuals”.

America’s War on Terrorism: 9/11 and the Iran-Contra Scandal

Chapter 12
9/11 and the Iran-Contra Scandal

The Bush administration accuses people of having links to Al Qaeda. This is the national security doctrine behind the anti-terrorist legislation and Homeland Security. It is not only part of the Administration’s disinformation campaign, it is also used to arrest thousands of people on trumped up charges.

Ironically, several key members of the Bush Administration who were the architects of the anti-terrorist agenda, played a key role in supporting and financing Al Qaeda.

America’s War on Terrorism: War Propaganda: Fabricating an Outside Enemy

PART 3
The Disinformation Campaign

CHAPTER 11
War Propaganda: Fabricating an Outside Enemy

The US intelligence apparatus has created its own terrorist organ-izations. And at the same time, it creates its own terrorist warn-ings concerning the terrorist organizations which it has itself created. In turn, it has developed a cohesive multibillion dollar counterterrorism program “to go after” these terrorist organizations.

Counterterrorism and war propaganda are intertwined. The propaganda apparatus feeds disinformation into the news chain. The terror warnings must appear to be “genuine”. The objective is to present the terror groups as “enemies of America”.

America’s War on Terrorism: Doctoring Official Transcripts

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 10
Doctoring Official Transcripts

Excerpts from the transcripts of Dr. Condoleezza Rice’s press conference of May 16, 2002

Below are excerpts from the transcripts of the same Condoleezza Rice press conference from CNN, the White House (FDCH) and Federal News Service. The latter is the source quoted in Chapter X. The other two sources (CNN and the White House) were manipulated.

CNN SHOW: “Inside Politics” 16:00, May 16, 2002 Transcript # 051600CN.V15:

QUESTION: Are you aware of the reports at the time that (inaudible) was in Washington on September 11. And on September 10, $100,000 was wired from Pakistan to these groups here in this area? And while he was here, was he meeting with you or anybody in the administration?

RICE: I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not meeting with me.

FDCH Federal Department and Agency Documents, May 16, 2002, Agency, White House:

QUESTION: Dr. Rice, are you aware of the reports at the time that (inaudible) was in Washington on September 11th, and on September 10th, $100,000 was wired to Pakistan to this group here in this area? And while he was here was he meeting with you or anybody in the administration?

DR. RICE: I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not meeting with me.

Federal News Service, May 16, 2002, Special White House Briefing:

QUESTION: Are you aware of the reports at the time that the ISI chief was in Washington on September 11th, and on September 10th, $100,000 was wired from Pakistan to these groups here in this area? And why he was here? Was he meeting with you or anybody in the administration?
MS. RICE: I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not meeting with me.

Notice the difference between the three transcripts. Both the White House and CNN exclude the identity of the “ISI chief” to the extent that the transcripts are totally unintelligible.

America’s War on Terrorism: Political Deception: The Missing Link Behind 9/11

CHAPTER 10
Political Deception: The Missing Link Behind 9/11

A Red Herring is a fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue.

On May 16th 2002, The New York Post dropped what appeared to be a bombshell: “Bush Knew.” Hoping to score politically, the Democrats jumped on the bandwagon, pressuring the White House to come clean on two “top-secret documents” made available to President Bush prior to September 11, concerning “advance knowledge” of Al Qaeda attacks. Meanwhile, the US media had already coined a new set of buzzwords: “Yes, there were warnings” and “clues” of possible terrorist attacks, but “there was no way President Bush could have known” what was going to happen. The Democrats agreed to “keep the cat in the bag” by saying: “Osama is at war with the US”and the FBI and the CIA knew something was cooking but “failed to connect the dots”. In the words of House Minority Leader, Richard Gephardt:

Disarming the New World Order

CHAPTER 9
Disarming the New World Order

The “war on terrorism” is a lie. Amply documented, the pretext to wage this war is totally fabricated.

Realities have been turned upside down.

The American Empire

CHAPTER 8
The American Empire

We are on the verge of global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order. (David Rockefeller, Statement to the United Nations
Business Council, 1994)

War Without Borders

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the world is at an important crossroads in its history. The “campaign against terrorism” constitutes a “war of conquest” with devastating consequences for the future of humanity.

America’s New War is not confined to Central Asia. Using the “war on terrorism” as a pretext, the Bush administration had announced already in 2001, the extension of US military operations into new frontiers, including Iraq, Iran and North Korea. While accusing these countries of developing “weapons of mass destruction”, Washington has not excluded itself from using nuclear weapons as part of the “war on terrorism”.

America’s War Machine

CHAPTER 7
America’s War Machine

The 1999 war in Yugoslavia-which coincided with the formation of GUUAM and NATO enlargement into Eastern Europe-marked an important turnaround in East-West relations.

Aleksander Arbatov, Deputy Chairman of the Defense Committee of the Russian State Duma US-Russian Relations, described the war in Yugoslavia as the “worst, most acute, most dangerous juncture since the US-Soviet Berlin and Cuban missile crises”.(1) According to Arbatov:

START II is dead, co-operation with NATO is frozen, co-operation on missile defense is out of the question, and Moscow’s willingness to cooperate on non-proliferation issues is at an all-time low. Moreover, anti-US sentiment in Russia is real, deep and more widespread than ever, and the slogan describing NATO action-”today Serbia, tomorrow Russia,” is deeply planted in Russians’minds.(2)

Despite President Boris Yeltsin’s conciliatory statements at the 1999 G-8 Summit in Cologne, Russia’s military establishment had openly expressed its distrust of the US: “The bombing of Yugoslavia could turn out in the very near future to be just a rehearsal for similar strikes on Russia.”(3)

The Trans-Afghan Pipeline

CHAPTER 6
The Trans-Afghan Pipeline

Washington’s Silk Road Strategy consists in not only excluding Russia from the westbound oil and gas pipeline routes out of the Caspian Sea basin, but also in securing Anglo-American control over strategic southbound and eastbound routes.

This strategy consists in isolating and eventually “encircling” the former Soviet republics by simultaneously taking control of both westbound and east/southbound corridors. In this regard, Washington’s strategy in support of the oil giants is also to prevent the former republics from entering into pipeline ventures (or military cooperation agreements) with Iran and China.

War and the Hidden Agenda

Part II War and Globalization

CHAPTER 5
War and the Hidden Agenda

Conquest of Oil Reserves and Pipeline Routes

“America’s New War” consists in extending the global market system while opening up new “economic frontiers” for US corporate capital. More specifically, the US-led military invasion- in close liaison with Britain-responds to the interests of the Anglo-American oil giants, in alliance with America’s “Big Five” weapons producers: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and General Dynamics.

The “Anglo-American axis” in defense and foreign policy is the driving force behind the military operations in Central Asia and Middle East. This rapprochement between London and Washington is consistent with the integration of British and American business interests in the areas of banking, oil and the defense industry. The merger of British Petroleum (BP) and the American Oil Company (AMOCO) into the world’s largest oil conglomerate has a direct bearing on the pattern of Anglo-American relations and the close relationship between the US President and the British Prime Minister. In the wake of the 1999 war in Yugoslavia, Britain’s giant weapons producer, British Aerospace Systems (BAES), was fully integrated into the US system of defense procurement.

America’s War on Terrorism: Cover-Up or Complicity

CHAPTER 4
Cover-Up or Complicity?

Role of Pakistan’s ISI in the September 11 Attacks

As discussed in Chapter III, the US Administration has consciously used international terrorism in the pursuit of its foreign policy objectives by engaging Pakistan’s ISI as a “go-between”. Ironically, while Pakistan’s ISI has supported and abetted international terrorism (including Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda), the Bush administration, in the wake of September 11, chose to seek the assistance of Pakistan’s ISI in its “campaign against international terrorism”.

Two days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it was reported that a delegation led by the head of Pakistan’s ISI, Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed, was in Washington for high level talks at the State Department.(1)