United States Terrorism

How PR Sold the War in the Persian Gulf
Excerpted from Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, Chapter 10

"If I wanted to lie, or if we wanted to lie, if we wanted to exaggerate, I wouldn't use my daughter to do so. I could easily buy other people to do it."--Saud Nasir al-Sabah, Kuwait's Ambassador to the United States and Canada

On August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops led by dictator Saddam Hussein invaded the oil-producing nation of Kuwait. Like Noriega in Panama, Hussein had been a US ally for nearly a decade. From 1980 to 1988, he had killed about 150,000 Iranians, in addition to at least 13,000 of his own citizens. Despite complaints from international human rights group, however, the Reagan and Bush administrations had treated Hussein as a valuable ally in the US confrontation with Iran. As late as July 25 - a week before the invasion of Kuwait - US Ambassador April Glaspie commiserated with Hussein over a "cheap and unjust" profile by ABC's Diane Sawyer, and wished for an "appearance in the media, even for five minutes," by Hussein that "would help explain Iraq to the American people."69

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USA in Review -- Dealing with the war on terrorism; foreign policy; and selected domestic issues.

How an Algerian boy evolved into a terrorist. How he crossed international borders with impunity, even as he left a trail of crimes. How he learned to kill in Osama bin Ladens al-Qaida camps. How he planned to use those lessons against Americans on the eve of the new millennium, 20 months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. How he nearly got away with it. And how, since Sept. 11, he has been one of the U.S. governments best resources in the war on terror.

"American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center" -- For thirty years the Twin Towers had stood above the streets as all tall buildings do, as a bomb of sorts, a repository for the prodigious energy originally required to raise so much weight so high. Now, in a single morning, in twin ten-second pulses, the towers released that energy back into New York. Massive steel beams flew through the neighborhood like gargantuan spears, penetrating subway lines and underground passages to depths of thirty feet, crushing them, rupturing water mains and gas lines, and stabbing high into the sides of nearby office towers, where they lodged. The phone system, the fiber-optic network, and the electric power grid were knocked out. Ambulances, cars, and fire trucks were smashed flat by falling debris, and some were hammered five floors down from the street into the insane turmoil erupting inside the World Trade Center's immense "bathtub"a ten-acre foundation hole, seventy feet deep, that suffered unimaginable violence as it absorbed the brunt of each tower's collapse.

The attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon using civilian airplanes as weapons of mass destruction have been universally condemned as barbarous acts. They are also fundamental breaches of international humanitarian law, which governs the rules of armed conflict. Yet the rapid resort by political leaders to use of the terminology of war has caused both the public and some other governments to question whether the attacks are to be viewed first and foremost as acts of war under international law, as terrorist acts, or criminal acts.

It's Only the Constitution -- "Precisely because the need for action against the scourge is manifest, the need for vigilance against excess is great. The first, and worst, casualty will be the precious liberties of our citizens." -- Justice Thurgood Marshall

Will Congress push for real reform in the CIA and FBI? -- When news broke about the infamous FBI "Phoenix" memo, which warned headquarters of possible terrorist activity in US aviation schools last July, members of Congress could be heard fulminating across the land. "How in the world could somebody have read this document and not had lights, firecrackers, rockets go off in their head that this is something that is really important?" asked Senator Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat who heads the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. Why has Congress failed to demand long-recommended improvements in the coordination of counterterrorism efforts between the CIA, the FBI, and other agencies? Even in the months after September 11, when the need was clear, the Senate and House intelligence committees failed to address the intelligence community's lack of preparedness for major terrorist attacks. What's more, in May a Senate committee went ahead and approved President Bush's request for an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion increase in the intelligence budget for fiscal 2003, bringing the total intelligence budget to an estimated $35 billion.

After revelations that 9/11 might have been averted, President Bush tries to change the subject by creating a new office to protect America's homeland.

New Book Alleges that US was in negotiations with the Taliban for an oil pipeline in Afghanistan. Bush Fuels Oil Conspiracy Theory -- The Taliban government and their Al Qaeda "guests", were bit players in terror. The State Department cozied up to these anti-American extremists, choosing a nation led by a dictator who seized power in an illegal coup as our principal South Asian ally. The American military strategy in Afghanistan, dropping bombs without significant ground troops guaranteed Osama would live. The 3rd Afghan War isn't about fighting terrorism -- it's about oil. Bush and Cheney were both former oil company execs. National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, was corporate counsel at Chevron. Oil fields dot northern Afghanistan near its border with Turkmenistan, but the jackpot is under the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan is destined to become the world's largest oil producing nation, and will dwarf Saudi Arabia.

Terrorism' CEO: An interview with Peter Bergen -- "This guy was probably one of the biggest businessmen in Sudan between 1991 and 1996. There wasn't a single type of business in Sudan that he didn't have, whether it was a bank or a tannery or a bakery or a construction company or an import/export firm. He employed thousands of people." In *Holy War, Inc.*, Peter Bergen examines how Osama Bin Laden turned al Qaeda into the world's preeminent terrorist organization. The Atlantic Monthly

Target Somalia: A Hidden US Agenda? -- After its military success in Afghanistan, there is growing speculation that America is gunning next for Somalia. The speculation fueled by numerous high ranking government officials, most recently by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who told the New York Times that Somalia "fitted the bill of a lawless state that draws terrorists like a magnet."

Unsafe at Any Price -- Oil and the nukes are more vulnerable than ever to hostile forces. America's energy policies will remain wedged between Iraq and an irradiated place. While soldiers might be asked to die protecting fuel supplies, it's civilians who'll suffer the immediate death or homelessness, lingering cancers, and future birth defects if terrorists smash into any of our 103 active nuclear reactors.

The nightmarish cover story in the May 26 New York Times Magazine, "How Scared Should We Be?," by Bill Keller, lights up unsparingly the "seriousness gap" between the likelihood and lethality of the dangers that face us and what we are doing to defend against them. While it will take 3 more years until all luggage on every flight is routinely inspected (according to a source who handles baggage at Boston's Logan Airport, only 2% of bags are being inspected now), while less than 5% of the shipping containers that arrive at US ports each day are inspected, and while the Energy Department has yet to develop equipment for detecting radiological bombs being smuggled in trucks ("What is the Energy Department waiting for?," former undersecretary of defense Fred Ikle asks, "the next 9/11?"), the Pentagon is using the war on terror to binge on Cold War weapons, including a missile-defense system.

Carlyle's Way -- Making a mint inside "the iron triangle" of defense, government and industry -- Like everyone else in the US, the group stood transfixed as the events of September 11 unfolded. Present were former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci, former secretary of state James Baker III, and representatives of the bin Laden family. This was not some underground presidential bunker or CIA interrogation room. It was the Ritz-Carlton in DC, the annual investor conference of one of the most powerful, well-connected, and secretive companies in the world: the Carlyle Group. Boomtown, U.S.A. Far from the front lines of combat, there is a place where people do the unlikeliest work imaginable. Here is the story of the men and women of McAlester, Oklahoma, who run the factory that makes virtually every non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal.

Defending the 'homeland' in a post 9-11 America -- The scenario has become familiar since the creation of Office of Homeland Security: Director Tom Ridge calls a press conference issuing vague warnings about a possible pending terrorist attack. How should the public react? Should the nation panic or just go about business as usual? The events of Sept. 11 have placed the media and the public in uncharted territory.

Defense intelligence expert, Anthony H. Cordesman -- Senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies CSIS, stressed these points at the FACS conference on terrorism: "The context of the war on terrorism is that it is a broad war; it covers a broad range of threats; it will be fought over decades; and there will be no be absolute victory, and there will always be gaps in defense," Cordesman said. "This story isn't going to go away soon, and victory by definition is going to be relative."

Russian, Victor Bout, known to US intelligence for years as the world's most notorious arms trafficker, is the subject of an international manhunt. British military intelligence recently found documents and other evidence in Afghanistan they believe proves Bout supplied arms to the Taliban and al Qaeda until September 11.

Many have died in Afghanistan to make us more secure. Are we? ..... Would we have done so, if we knew our bombing would kill at least a thousand civilians, indirectly lead to an estimated 3,000 other civilian deaths, and produce 500,000 refugees and displaced persons? If we knew our campaign would kill more civilians than the September 11 would we have demanded that the government find an alternative to bombing? A professor at the University of New Hampshire is challenging Pentagon's claims that our War Against Terrorism has kept civilian casualties to a minimum. Marc Herold, argues that American bombs have killed more than 3,700 Afghan civilians since the war began on October 7, a fact that "a compliant media" prefers to ignore. Reuel Marc Gerecht, former CIA spy in the Middle East, argues that the only way to douse the fires of Islamic radicalism is through stunning, overwhelming, military force. The Atlantic Monthly

Cluster Bombs in Afghanistan -- The US led alliance began its air campaign in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. While the Pentagon has been reluctant to talk of specific weapons used in the bombing, US military sources told Human Rights Watch that the Air Force began dropping cluster bombs within a matter of days. During the first week of the campaign, it is believed that Air Force B-1 bombers dropped 50 CBU-87 cluster bombs in some five missions. CBU-87 cluster bomb use has continued after the first week, and it is believed that other airplanes joined B-1s in dropping cluster bombs on both fixed and mobile targets. US landmines policy - what you can do to help.

The People of the Valley -- As the US moves toward a massive, military intervention in Iraq, we would do well to look at the devastation that's already been wrought here, and listen to people like Dr. Mahmoud Mehi, the director of al-Mansour Pediatric Hospital in Baghdad, who asks Americans to, "use wisdom, and think in a better way for other countries."

Despite the pounding of Tora Bora's caves by US air strikes, despite US attacks on Afghan villages, some killing innocent civilians, despite a $25 million US government bounty on his head, Osama bin Laden's exact whereabouts remain a mystery. Speculation about the whereabouts and health of Osama bin Laden picked up when Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said he thought bin Laden died of kidney failure.

Prime Minister tells Bush to tread carefully -- Tony Blair has warned President George Bush that the treatment of Taliban prisoners being held at the Guantanamo military base threatens to become a 'political issue' which will lead to widespread and damaging criticism of US policies in Afghanistan.

Soldier of Terror -- Mohamed Atta -- He's believed to be the ringleader of the terrorist cell that attacked the US on September 11, 2001. Court TV

Seven months after September 11, six months after New York gallery owner Max Protetch asked many of the most prominent architects in the world to suggest ideas for rebuilding and memorializing the World Trade Center site, and three months after the results of that request--nearly 60 proposals in total--went on display in Manhattan, the whole show has been packed up and shipped down to Washington, DC Reassembled at the National Building Museum (NBM), it has gained an institutional feel and looks more strongly toward the future--to the actual complex task of reconstruction--than it did in New York.

Americans are examining the state of their spiritual lives and relationships with each other. People across the nation are indicating an increased interest in spiritual issues. Impromptu neighborhood prayer gatherings and candlelight vigils, large and small are cropping up.

American Muslims Struggle for the Soul of Islam -- American Muslims had long been a docile and silent lot, content to let a few leaders and imams do the talking, keeping misgivings private. Not any more. Now, the soul of Islam is at stake.

Visitors here are instantly struck by the extent to which Afghans help one another. Everyone jumps to the assistance of anyone who needs it without being asked. If you drop a heavy load, a dozen men will rush up and offer not only to assist, but to carry the item themselves. And no, they're not grabbing your wallet as they do it.

Afghan Women's Summit -- It took just two days for the 50 delegates to the first Afghan Women's Summit here to come up with a blueprint for the future of women in their country.

Todd M. Beamer Foundation -- A nonprofit organization whose mission is meeting the long term needs of the children who lost a parent in the events of September 11th, 2001, assisting future victims of terrorism, and continuing Todds passion for mentoring and equipping youth to make the same heroic choices he did throughout his life.

The attack on New York is discussed as if it were the worst thing to have happened to any nation in recent times. Few would deny that it was a major atrocity, but we are required to offer the American people a unique and exclusive sympathy. Now that demand is being extended to earlier American losses.

The World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in late 1999 left quite a legacy: Seattle suffered more than $2.5 million in damage, more than 500 protesters were arrested, the opening WTO ceremonies were canceled and eventually trade talks collapsed.

A conversation with William Langewiesche, the author of "The Crash of EgyptAir 990," on the cultural reverberations of a seemingly straightforward airplane crash. The Atlantic Monthly

On Jan. 17, 1991 the US went to war against Iraq. Operation Desert Storm lasted 10 weeks, officially the shortest war in US history. But for many, it's not yet over.

June 1987 -- Behind the Terror -- A little-publicized group led by Christians eager for Syria to dominate the Middle East is reponsible for many highly publicized terrorist acts by Ehud Ya'ari -- To inspire his troops to seek martyrdom, the Ayatollah Khomeini promises them a room next to his in paradise. The suicide bombers of the Hizballah (Party of God), whose terrorist arm is better known as the Islamic Jihad, look forward to everlasting life in the bosom of the merciful Allah. But there is a more bizarre growth spreading in the landscape of international terrorism: a party whose members go knowingly and willingly to their deaths without the comfort of a hereafter, out of pure conviction, in the service of an idea. It is a party whose leaders, men approaching their seventies, send pregnant teenagers on suicide missions in booby-trapped cars. And it is a party whose members, mostly Christians from churchgoing families, dream of resuming the war of the ancient Canaanites against Joshua and the Children of Israel. They greet their leaders with a Hitlerian salute; sing their Arabic anthem, "Greetings to You, Syria," to the strains of "Deutschland, Deutschland ber alles"; and throng to the symbol of the red hurricane, a swastika in circular motion. These are the hallmarks of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), the oldest terrorist organization in existence today and one of the most secret and deadly.

The Symbionese Liberation Army -- Born fall 1973 in Berkeley, CA from a black convicts and middle class white radicals. The 12 or so founding members of the SLA sought to ignite a "people's rebellion" against the US government and corporate America. The core of the SLA died in a clash with police in May 1974 and in September 1975, after the FBI captured three surviving members, including heiress Patty Hearst, authorities declared the SLA dead.