BOOK REVIEW:  “America’s War on Terrorism” (Michel Chossudovsky)

by Stephen Lendman

Michel Chossudovsky is a noted academic, author,
activist and relentless researcher concentrating on
America’s imperial crusade to control planet earth for
its markets, resources and cheap exploitable labor.
He’s a Canadian economist by profession having taught
at the University of Ottawa as well as at academic

institutions in Western Europe, Latin America and
Southeast Asia.  In addition, he’s been an economic
adviser to developing countries’ governments and a
consultant for many international organizations,
including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN
Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean, International Labour Organization (ILO),
and World Health Organization (WHO).  He’s also the
editor of the Centre for Research on Globalization and
its web site, ( Global Research.ca ).

“America’s War on Terrorism” - An Overview

Chossudovsky’s book is a greatly expanded version of
his 2002 book titled, “War and Globalization: The
Truth behind September 11.”  The current newly titled
2005 edition (post-9/11 and the 2003 Iraq invasion and
occupation) includes 12 new chapters with those in the
original edition updated.  The author states the
book’s purpose is “to refute the official narrative
and reveal - using detailed evidence and documentation
(not speculation based on opinion alone)” - the true
nature of America’s “war on terrorism,” that’s as
relevant now as when the book was first published.

Chossudovsky calls it a complete fabrication “based on
the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden (from a
cave in Afghanistan and hospital bed in Pakistan)
outwitted the $40 billion-a-year American intelligence
apparatus.”  He calls it, instead, what, in fact, it
is - a pretext for permanent “New World Order” wars of
conquest serving the interests of Wall Street and the
financial community, the US military-industrial
complex, Big Oil, and all other corporate interests
profiting hugely from a massive scheme harming the
public interest, in the name of protecting it, and
potentially all humanity unless it’s stopped in time.

On the morning of 9/11, the Bush administration didn’t
miss a beat telling the world Al Qaeda attacked the
World Trade Center (WTC) and Pentagon meaning Osama
bin Laden was the main culprit - case closed without
even the benefit of a forensic and intelligence
analysis piecing together all potential helpful
information. There was no need to because, as
Chossudovsky explained, “That same (9/11) evening at
9:30 pm, a ‘War Cabinet’ was formed integrated by a
select number of top intelligence and military
advisors. At 11:00PM, at the end of that historic
(White House) meeting, the ‘War on Terrorism’ was
officially launched,” and the rest is history.

Chossudovsky continued “The decision was announced
(straightaway) to wage war against the Taliban and Al
Qaeda in retribution for the 9/11 attacks” with news
headlines the next day asserting, with certainty,
“state sponsorship” responsibility for the attacks
connected to them. The dominant media, in lockstep,
called for military retaliation against Afghanistan
even though no evidence proved the Taliban government
responsible, because, in fact, it was not and we knew
it.

Four weeks later on October 7, a long-planned war of
illegal aggression began, Afghanistan was bombed and
then invaded by US forces working in partnership with
their new allies - the United Islamic Front for the
Salvation of Afghanistan or so-called Northern
Alliance “warlords.” Their earlier repressive rule was
so extreme, it gave rise to the Taliban in the first
place and has now made them resurgent.
Chossudovsky further explained that the public doesn’t
“realize that a large scale theater war is never
planned and executed in a matter of weeks.” This one,
like all others, was months in the making needing only
what former CentCom Commander General Tommy Franks
called a “terrorist, massive, casualty-producing
event” to arouse enough public anger for the Bush
administration to launch it after declaring their “war
on terrorism.” Chossudovsky, through thorough and
exhausting research, exposed it as a fraud.

He’s been on top of the story ever since uncovering
the “myth of an ‘outside enemy’ and the threat of
‘Islamic terrorists’ (that became) the cornerstone
(and core justification) of the Bush administration’s
military doctrine.” It allowed Washington to wage
permanent aggressive wars beginning with Afghanistan
and Iraq, to ignore international law, and to “repeal
civil liberties and constitutional government” through
repression laws like the Patriot and Military
Commissions Acts. A key objective throughout has, and
continues to be, Washington’s quest to control the
world’s energy supplies, primarily oil, starting in
the Middle East where two-thirds of known reserves are
located.

Toward that end, the Bush administration created a
fictitious “outside enemy” threat without which no
“war on terrorism” could exist, and no foreign wars
could be waged. Chossudovsky exposed the linchpin of
the whole scheme. He uncovered evidence that Al Queda
“was a creation of the CIA going back to the
Soviet-Afghan war” era, and that in the 1990s
Washington “consciously supported Osama bin Laden,
while at the same time placing him on the FBI’s ‘most
wanted list’ as the World’s foremost terrorist.” He
explained that the CIA (since the 1980s and earlier)
actively supports international terrorism covertly,
and that on September 10, 2001 “Enemy Number One” bin
Laden was in a Rawalpindi, Pakistan military hospital
confirmed on CBS News by Dan Rather. He easily could
have been arrested but wasn’t because we had a “better
purpose” in mind for “America’s best known fugitive
(to) give a (public) face to the ‘war on terrorism’ “
that meant keeping bin Laden free to play the role. If
he didn’t exist, we’d have had to invent him, but that
could have been arranged as well.

The Bush administration’s national security doctrine
needs enemies, the way all empires on the march do.
Today “Enemy Number One” rests on the fiction of bin
Laden-led Islamic terrorists threatening the survival
of western civilization. In fact, however, Washington
uses Islamic organizations like Islamic Jihad as a
“key instrument of US military-intelligence operations
in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union” while, at
the same time, blaming them for the 9/11 attacks
calling them “a threat to America.”

“America’s War on Terrorism” - In-Depth

The book is in four parts, each discussed enough below
to convey the essence and flavor of the heavily
documented power-packed amount of information in the
volume’s 365 pages - a healthy serving for each day of
the year.

Part I - September 11

September 11, 2001 is a day that will live in infamy,
but not for how official accounts portray it.  It
wasn’t the first September 11 of note and may not be
the last.  Chileans remember theirs in 1973 when
General Augusto Pinochet, aided by CIA, Richard Nixon
and Henry Kissinger, ousted and murdered
democratically elected President Salvador Allende by
military coup d’etat.  It ended the most vibrant
democracy in the Americas ushering in a 16 year
fascist reign of terror Chileans are still healing
from 18 years later.  Now it’s our turn with Bush
administration officials using the myth of an “outside
enemy” to hide the real threat we face from within
from real enemies in our own government.  They’re
waging war on the world, destroying our civil
liberties, and shredding our social state paying for
it.

It began long before 9/11, but that day plans became
policy, then hardened, expanded and now threatening
all humanity.  Chossudovsky spells in out stating
straightaway “The world is at the crossroads of the
most serious crisis in modern history (having)
embarked upon a military adventure” threatening
everyone unless exposed and stopped.

He begins with vital heavily documented background
information about 9/11 already covered above.  It
explained we needed cover for our “war on terrorism.”
Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda provided it as “Enemy
Number One” and his network, hiding the fact he and
thousands of Mujahideen fighters were recruited for
the largest ever CIA operation in the 1980s.  They
were organized, financed and sent to “destabili(ze)
the pro-Soviet government in Afghanistan, but (more
importantly) destroy…the Soviet Union.” CIA’s Milton
Beardman once explained “If Osama bin Laden did not
exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” 

In fact, we did, using Pakistan’s Military
Intelligence ISI as intermediary, so bin Laden and
Mujahideen fighters weren’t aware who their real
paymaster was or why they were recruited.  ISI played
a crucial role for Washington in the 1980s.  Then,
from the end of the Cold War to the present, it’s been
“the launch pad for CIA covert operations in the
Caucasus, Central Asia and the Balkans” turning Bosnia
into a “militant Islamic base” and later Kosovo with
help from NATO and Washington.  This isn’t
speculation.  It’s fact. The ISI-Osama-Al
Queda-Taliban nexus is a matter of public record, but
the “American people have been consciously and
deliberately deceived (about it) by their government.”
They have no knowledge the Taliban gained power in
1996 the same covert way - helped by US military aid
funneled through Pakistan’s ISI. Janes Defense Weekly
confirmed “half of Taliban manpower and equipment
originate(d) in Pakistan under the ISI.”  Just like
today, our hidden agenda was “oil” with Taliban
officials “whisked off to Houston” to meet with US oil
company giant, Unocal, “regarding the construction of
the strategic trans-Afghan pipeline.” Afghanistan is
strategically located “at the hub of five nuclear
powers: Russia, China, India, Pakistan and
Kazakhstan.”  It also borders Russia, China and Iran.

It’s why Washington wants a permanent military
presence in the country run by a puppet client
government masquerading as a democratically elected
one, and why we’re at war so that status won’t ever
change.

Chossudovsky explains behind the scenes, “military
planners in the State Department, the Pentagon and the
CIA call the shots on foreign policy.”  They’re in
league with NATO, the IMF, World Bank and World Trade
Organization (all US-dominated organizations).  The
real powers controlling everything are “the global
banks and financial institutions, the
military-industrial complex, the oil and energy
giants, the biotech and pharmaceutical conglomerates,”
other corporate giants and the dominant media, or de
facto ministry of state information and propaganda,
disseminating deception while suppressing the truth.
The result is catastrophic. The rule of law has been
suspended, the Republic hangs by a thread, and “the
foundations of an authoritarian state apparatus have
emerged” that, in an emergency, could become as harsh
as in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia at its worst under
Stalin.  It’s no understatement.  Its early disturbing
signs are already present and recognized.

The entire scheme is based on the myth of an “Islamic
Jihad” being a “threat to America” when, in fact, CIA
and the US intelligence community has close ties to
the “Islamic Militant Network.”  CIA even admits bin
Laden was an “intelligent asset” (as distinct from an
“agent”) during the Cold War, but that information’s
long gone down “the memory hole” and forgotten.  He
was used by four presidents beginning with Ronald
Reagan, then GHW Bush, Bill Clinton, and now GW Bush
writ large today as “Enemy Number One” in the phony
“war on terrorism.”

Part II - War and Globalization

Washington’s “hidden agenda” involves waging
preventive wars to “extend…the global market system
(and) open…up new ‘economic frontiers’ for US
corporate capital….in close liaison with Britain.”
US-British ties in areas of banking, oil and defense
industries drive our joint military operations in the
Middle East, Central Asia and most anywhere else from
this marriage wreaking hell on earth wherever it
marauds.

“America’s New War” post-9/11 was “in the ‘pipeline’
for at least three years prior to….September 11.”
Beginning with the Clinton administration’s illegal
war of aggression against Yugoslavia, NATO was
enlarged to include Hungary, Poland and the Czech
Republic.  Inclusion of former Soviet satellites took
aim directly at Yugoslavia as the West’s next target
with Russia designated a future one.  With that in
mind, GUUAM was formed in 1999 comprised of four
post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) -
Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova. It’s a
Western financed regional military alliance, under
US-controlled NATO, “strategically at the hub of the
Caspian oil and gas wealth with Moldova and Ukraine
offering (pipeline) export routes to the West.”  A key
immediate aim of this alliance is to fracture CIS,
exclude Russia from Caspian resources Washington wants
to control, and politically isolate Moscow combined in
one strategic blow.

“Militarization of the Eurasian Corridor” was the plan
to do it with Congress adopting the Silk Road Strategy
Act (SRS) in March, 1999.  It was a framework to
develop “America’s business empire along an extensive
geographical corridor” as well as undermine and
destabilize Russia, China and Iran.  It was also
planned as a first step toward incorporating all
former Soviet republics into “America’s business
empire” and sphere of influence, further isolating
Russia and China. The area involved is vast, extending
from the Black Sea to the Chinese border in a
strategically vital part of the world rich in energy
resources a new “Great Game” is being waged for. 

As already explained, Afghanistan lies “at the
strategic crossroads of the Eurasian oil pipeline and
transport routes.”  Under US control, it’s part of
making SRS work that requires the “militarization of
the Eurasian corridor (for) control over extensive oil
and gas reserves (and for protecting) pipeline routes
(planned by) Anglo-American oil companies” like
BP-Amoco and others.

SRS also aims to prevent “former Soviet republics from
developing economic, political and defense ties with
China, Iran, Turkey and Iraq (and to) cut the Russians
off altogether from the Caspian oil and gas fields.”
What’s planned is a number of pipeline routes
(transiting west, south and east) from the Caspian
through countries controlled by the Western military
alliance.  The whole scheme aims to benefit the
US-Anglo alliance, cut off Russia, China and Iran, and
“weaken competing European oil interests in the
Transcaucasus and Central Asia.” 

When George Bush took office, negotiations with the
Taliban were resumed on behalf of Unocal, after the
Clinton administration first tried and then broke them
off in 1999. The talks failed a few months before 9/11
leading to the Afghan war a scant four weeks later on
October 7.  It ended after five weeks on November 12
when the Taliban fled Kabul allowing US-recruited and
financed Northern Alliance forces to enter the city
the next day. 

Life in Afghanistan’s been surreal ever since.  In
parts of Kabul, an opulent elite emerged grown rich
from rampant corruption and drugs trafficking
discussed further below.  This opulent Potemkin facade
hides the harsh, dangerous, desperate conditions for
the vast majority of 26 million Afghans made worse by
a US-led war and occupation allowing Northern Alliance
warlords back in power.  It reinstated their
repressive rule that helped bring Taliban to power in
the first place over two-thirds of the country
including the capital, Kabul.  Today it’s de jeva vu
all over again with Afghans fed up with occupation and
Northern Alliance brutality.  That’s allowed Taliban
forces to capitalize on the turmoil and reemerge
reclaiming most Southern parts of the country.  It’s
why war rages on with no resolution in site and likely
will be as unwinnable as the lost cause in Iraq
already acknowledged in US high circles.

The Taliban was ousted in 2001 for various reasons.
Among them was its near-eradication of opium
production now flourishing again under Northern
Alliance-occupation forces rule.  Drugs trafficking is
big business writ large with Chossudovsky explaining
it’s “the third biggest global commodity in cash terms
after oil and the arms trade” annually grossing up to
$500 billion according to a UN estimate.  That’s more
than double the revenue generated by legal
prescription drugs Big Pharma reported in 2005.
A well-hidden Afghan war objective was reinstating
opium production that was achieved writ large
post-2001. UN anti-drug chief, Antonio Maria Costa,
said it was at a record 6100 tons in 2006 (enough for
610 tons of heroin) or 92% of total world supply and
30% more than the amount consumed globally.

Chossudovsky explained narcotics are a major source of
wealth, not just for organized crime, but also for the
“US intelligence apparatus” representing powerful
“spheres of finance and banking.” Intelligence
agencies and legal business syndicates are allied with
criminal enterprises blurring the lines between them,
at times indistinguishable.  Included are Western
international and other banks and their offshore
affiliates in tax havens.  Multi-billions from illicit
drugs trafficking pour into them making this revenue
source a huge profit center.  None of this is secret,
but it remains unreported below the radar.  So is how
the money is laundered and recycled into legal
enterprises in real estate, manufacturing, other
businesses as well as used for transactions in stocks,
bonds, and other speculative investments. 

It’s also well documented that CIA trafficked in drugs
(directly or indirectly) throughout its 60 year
existence and especially since the 1980s when it used
cocaine revenues funding the Contra wars in Nicaragua.
Today, CIA is partnered with Afghan “warlords” and
criminal syndicates in the huge business of heroin
trafficking.  Along with its other illicit drug
dealings, it guarantees the intelligence agency
billions in revenue supplementing its annual budget
Mary Margaret Graham, Deputy Director of National
Intelligence for Collection, disclosed at $44 billion
in 2005. 

This year it’s likely higher with rogue operations
ongoing almost anywhere and CIA able to get whatever
it wants just for the asking.  This is how a rogue
agency operates Chalmers Johnson calls a global
Mafia-style hit squad in his new book, “Nemesis.”
It’s a “personal, secret, unaccountable army of the
president” with mischievous covert illegal operations
its main function.  They include overthrowing
democratically elected governments, assassinating
foreign heads of state and key officials, recruiting
and training secret paramilitary armies, propping up
friendly dictators, and snatching targeted individuals
for “extraordinary rendition” to secret torture-prison
hellholes from which they may never emerge. 

Under George Bush, CIA is more active than ever with
double the number of covert operatives.  Johnson
explains “CIA’s bag of dirty tricks….is a defining
characteristic of the imperial presidency.  It is a
source of unchecked power” gravely threatening the
nation and shortening the life of the Republic and
democratic rule he believes won’t survive unless the
agency is disbanded.

Along with CIA and Homeland Security, Chossudovsky
highlights “America’s War Machine” and the major
buildup in it begun after 1999.  The aim: “to achieve
(an unchallengeable) position of global military
hegemony….through the largest military buildup since
the Vietnam war” with large annual increases planned
in future years and no end to this in sight.  For FY
2006, the Pentagon’s reported budget was $499.4
billion (excluding multi-billions off-the-book for
Iraq and Afghanistan).  For fiscal 2007, it increased
to over $583 billion. 

Astonishingly, Senior Fellow at The Independent
Institute, Robert Higgs, says high numbers mask the
total annual amount spent on defense in all forms, at
home and abroad, that’s almost double the budgeted
amounts.  For FY 2006, his total is $934.9 billion
broken down as follows in billions:

—Department of Defense: $499.4.
—Department of Energy: $16.6
—Department of State: $25.3
—Department of Veterans Affairs: $69.8
—Department of Homeland Security: $69.1
—Department of Justice (one-third of FBI): $1.9
—Department of the Treasury (for Military Retirement
Fund: $38.5.
—NASA: $7.6
—Net interest attributable to past debt-financed
defense outlays: $206.7.

Using published budgeted numbers alone, the US now
spends more on its military than the rest of the world
combined.  In 2005, China spent around $30 billion,
today it’s surely higher but even if $50 billion it’s
around 8.6% of our FY 2007 defense budget and about 5%
of it with all other expenditures Higgs includes.
Hyping China’s threat to the US, however, Department
of Defense (DOD) claimed Beijing spent $65 billion in
2005, $90 billion in 2006 and $120 budgeted for 2007.
Note, Higgs US defense spending numbers exclude secret
budgets for CIA, NSA, and other off-the-books
intelligence operations.  It also excludes smaller
budgets for the Selective Service System, the National
Defense Stockpile Center, and the Treasury’s program
blocking financial flows to “terrorists.” Nonetheless,
in total, the numbers are huge, growing, and already
out-of-control with Higgs estimating FY 2007 numbers
an astonishing $1.028 trillion. 

What is it buying us and at what cost?  Chossudovsky
explains it’s for plenty including refurbishing our
nuclear arsenal with the latest technology targeting
Russia and China.  There’s also a new generation of
“tactical nuclear weapons” or so-called “mini-nukes”
including “bunker buster” earth penetrating bombs
targeting underground facilities.  They’re designed to
explode deep below ground destroying their targets
while containing toxic radioactive fallout.  It’s
already known the latter objective fails based on
observed tests so far.  The information, however, is
suppressed and won’t deter the Pentagon from using
these weapons even knowing they spread harmful
radiation.

Billions are also being spent developing advanced
weapons systems including the hugely expensive F22
Raptor fighter plane, Joint Fighter (JF) program and
controversial Strategic Defense Initiative “National
Missile Defense Shield” intended for offense, not
defense. It’s now caused a public row with Russia over
its planned deployment in Eastern European states
close enough to raise justifiable alarm in the
Kremlin.  Then there’s the ultimate imperial project
in space under the doctrine of “Full Spectrum
Dominance” assuring land, sea, air and space
supremacy.  It’s outlined in the 1998 US Space Command
document titled “Vision for 2020” with the cost to
achieve this likely to run into trillions of dollars.

Even worse is the danger post-9/11 since the Bush
administration scrapped the notion of “nuclear
deterrence.”  A secret report leaked to the Los
Angeles Times state three conditions under which
nuclear weapons may be used henceforth:

—“against targets able to withstand non-nuclear
attack;
—in retaliation for attack with nuclear, biological
or chemical weapons; or
—in the event of surprising military developments”
meaning anything the administration or Pentagon cook
up as justification.

The administration cites “rogue states” as potential
targets, but clearly new policy has Russia, China and
Iran in mind and maybe North Korea.

China and Russia aren’t ignoring the threat adding to
the arms race along with other countries, like Iran,
fearful of a US attack.  In 2000, Russian President
Vladimir Putin signed into law a new “National
Security Doctrine” marking “a critical shift in
East-West relations.”  It’s further intensified today
with Interfax recently reporting Putin saying
Washington is turning Europe into a “powder keg”
referring to it’s missile shield deployment plans.
Putin also used harsh rhetoric ahead of the June G-8
summit accusing the Bush administration of imperialism
and starting a new arms race.  At a lengthy
well-attended news conference, he had plenty to say
that was suppressed in the West because of his candor.
He voiced the concern of many in the Kremlim that
Washington is targeting Russia by surrounding it with
military bases, installing missiles on its borders,
and allying with CIS states to isolate the country in
preparation for regime change.

He emphasized Russia didn’t start confrontation and
isn’t threatening to attack anyone. However, the
nation is preparing for the worst and in late May
test-fired a sophisticated new intercontinental
ballistic missile with multiple warheads and new
cruise missiles Russian generals claim will assure the
country’s security for the next 40 years.  With
Washington intent on destabilizing their country,
Russia isn’t ignoring the threat and will act
responsibly to defend itself.  That includes targeting
US and European sites with “ballistic missiles, cruise
missiles or some completely new systems” according to
Putin.  Earlier, Russia also confirmed it wouldn’t
exclude “a first-strike use” of nuclear warheads “if
attacked even by purely conventional means,” having
only one country in mind as a potential aggressor -
the US.

Former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, also aimed
sharp comments against Washington and Britain for its
support in an early June BBC interview.  He said
Russia is trying to be constructive, but America is
squeezing them out of global diplomacy (and is
responsible) for the current state of relations
between his country and the West. He also said the
Iraq War undermined Tony Blair’s credibility and
accused America of “empire-building.” He added Blair
has “himself in the embrace of a military monster (and
lost) his credibility in the world and in Europe.”

Chossudovsky further deconstructs Washington’s agenda
post-9/11 saying “the world is at an important
crossroads in its history.”  The US “campaign against
terrorism” is a “war of conquest” for empire,
threatening future humanity with devastating
consequences.  “America’s New War” isn’t confined to
the Middle East and Central Asia. It’s aimed
everywhere by militarizing “vast regions of the world,
leading to the consolidation of what is best described
as the “American Empire.”  The “war on terrorism” is
cover to “re-colonize not only China (and) the former
Soviet bloc, but also Iran, Iraq and the Indian
(subcontinent).”  Chossudovsky stresses “war and
globalization” are bedfellows umbilically linked.
They benefit Wall Street and the banking community,
Big Anglo-American Oil, US-UK defense contractors and
other corporate giants backing this process to extend
“the frontiers of the global market system” giving
them total control everywhere.

The dominant media claim “free trade” and “free
market” reforms will bring the benefits of western
civilization to everyone. Unmentioned is how it’s
being done - through imperial wars of conquest as the
method of choice, bringing with them massive death and
destruction, extreme exploitation, devastating
poverty, totalitarian control, and, in Iraq, the end
of the “Cradle of Civilization” dating back thousands
of years.  Washington’s rampaging military juggernaut
turned a modern prosperous nation into a surreal
lawless armed wasteland with few essential services
like electricity, clean water, medical care, fuel and
most everything else needed for sustenance and
survival including safe streets, homes, schools and
all public places.  It also contaminated vast areas of
Iraq with deadly depleted uranium and other hazardous
chemicals and pollutants making the country the most
toxic environment on earth and unsafe to live in.

So much for the benefits of Western civilization and
“free market” reforms.  They champion deregulation and
privatizing everything to steal a country’s wealth for
corporate predators, taking it from the people it
belongs to.  They get nothing back but misery and
persecution if they complain. This is democracy
American-style that’s all illusion and no reality, and
it’s coming soon to a neighborhood near you unless
resisted and stopped.

Chossudovsky also deconstructs the language as Orwell
would do.  He justifiably calls the “war on terrorism”
a cruel hoax. “Realities,” he says, “have been turned
upside down.”

—“Acts of war are heralded as ‘humanitarian
intervention’ (to restore) democracy.
—Military occupation and (killing civilians are
called) ‘peacekeeping operations.’
—The derogation of civilities (through totalitarian
‘anti-terror’ legislation is called) providing
‘domestic security’ and upholding civil liberties.
—....expenditures on health and education (and most
other essential social services) are curtailed to
finance the military-industrial complex and police
state.”
—Mass human poverty is created worldwide through
conquest, colonization and countries “transformed into
open territories” for savage exploitation.
—“US protectorates are installed with the blessing
of the ‘international community.’
—‘Interim (or illusory democratically elected)
governments are formed” run by designated political
puppets selling out their nations’ sovereignty to the
lord and master of the universe for a sliver of the
spoils.

Sum it up - this is what “New World Order” rule looks
like those now under it can explain better than any
writer.  It’s tyranny masquerading as humanitarian
intervention, liberation and democracy.  Here’s how
Orwell once described it: “If you want a vision of the
future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -
forever.”  Today, it’s sustained by the illusion of a
phony “war on terrorism” publicly supported through
fear of nonexistent enemies, ignoring instead a real
one that does - our own government destroying our
freedoms in the name of protecting them.

Chossudovsky stresses what’s vitally needed now to
fight back in our own self-defense - “an unprecedented
degree of solidarity (to build) meaningful mass
movements” for real change (restoring) the balance of
power within society….”  He explains
“militarization….enforces the capitalist market
system….Military bases must be shut down; the war
machine….must be dismantled….The ‘structures of
ownership’ must be transformed disempowering banks,
financial institutions and transnational corporations
(plus instituting) a radical overhaul of the state
apparatus.”  A key priority is “stall(ing) the
privatization of collective assets, infrastructure,
public utilities (including water and power), state
institutions (like hospitals, schools and law
enforcement including prisons), communal lands” and
all else in the commons. 

Further, an illegitimate tyrannical system must end by
removing and prosecuting criminal politicians and
bureaucrats.  The corrupted judiciary must be replaced
by one upholding domestic and international law.  Our
system of checks and balances must be restored, and
the Constitution again respected and obeyed, not
discarded to the rule of law by what the chief
executive says it is, meaning none at all. The “New
World Order” must end, consigned to the dustbin of
history, lest we end up there or wish we did rather
than endure endless misery and abuse.

Part III - The Disinformation Campaign

It’s an age-old trick that always works. It’s why it’s
used so often even after being exposed as phony time
and again but quickly forgotten in what Gore Vidal
calls “the United States of amnesia.”  It’s creating a
climate of fear through fictional enemies made to seem
real by the pursuasive power of the dominant media.
Wars and propaganda are partnered at a time truth is
the first casualty.  Chossudovsky explains “the main
objective of war propaganda (to convince the public
war is justified) is to fabricate an enemy (by)
drown(ing) out truth.”

The war is waged “from the Pentagon, the State
Department, the CIA” and other parts of the government
using the dominant media to instill fear through
disinformation and lies justifying anything in
self-defense. Logic and reality are manipulated and
twisted to create a phony enemy made to look real.  An
illusion is created that homeland security is
threatened and under attack justifying wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan that are pure acts of illegal
aggression for conquest and colonization.  Preventive
wars are justified even though common sense and any
knowledge of international law says they never are for
any reason.

Chossudovsky explains how propaganda campaigns follow
“a consistent pattern.” They need “to instill
credibility and legitimacy” based on claimed
“reliable” information sources.  The dominant media
then transmit them through endless repetitions of
warnings of the following kinds of information:

—References to “reliable sources (and a) growing
body of evidence” from government, intelligence and
law enforcement agencies.
—Claimed evidence linking terrorist groups to bin
Laden, Al Queda or sympathetic to them.
—Threats of imminent terrorist attacks “sooner or
later.”
—Vulnerability of “soft targets” likely causing
civilian casualties.
—Possible terror attacks in “allied countries” like
Britain, France or Germany where public opinion
opposes the US “war on terrorism.”
—“Confirm the need…preventive actions” are
justified against “terrorist organizations and/or
foreign governments which harbor” them.
—Claim “terrorist groups” likely have WMDs and are
linked to “rogue states” like Iran or Syria.
—Cite warnings with frightening color-coded alerts
based on uncovered information (later proved phony) of
impending “attacks on US soil (and/or) in Western
cities.”
—Cite law enforcement efforts “to apprehend alleged
terrorists.”
—Feature headlined news stories of suspects
arrested, nearly always Muslims/Arabs, that usually
turn out to be fabricated hoaxes using innocent
victims to hype fear.
—Stressing Homeland Security repressive legislation
(like Patriot Acts I and II and the Military
Commissions Act) is justified as well as “ethnic
profiling” and mass sweeps and arrests.

All this is done to convince the public harsh
“emergency measures” and preventive wars are in the
public interest even though that turns reality on its
head endangering everyone.  It works, however, by
giving the enemy a face with Osama bin Laden in the
lead role.  He’s still got it, but so did Abu Musab
Al-Zarqawi up to the time of his reported death in
June, 2006.  Al-Zarqawi was called “the new terrorist
mastermind” even overshadowing “Enemy Number One” bin
Laden.  Unmentioned in the media was that Al-Zarqawi,
like bin Laden, was recruited by CIA, through
Pakistan’s ISI, to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in
the 1980s and that US intelligence maintained links to
the “Islamic militant network” ever since.

While Al-Zarqawi was reigning top threat, he was
linked to Ansar Al-Islam, an “obscure Islamist group,
based in Northern Iraq.”  He was also called Al
Qaeda’s “chief biochemical engineer” and was blamed
for “the suspicious white powder found in a letter
sent to (former) Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist,”
also containing deadly ricin poison.  In January,
2003, a ricin terror alert was issued signaling
Al-Zarqawi responsible, later proved phony by British
police.  As already stressed, the US needs a face on
terror to justify illegal wars purportedly against it.
While he was alive, Al-Zarqawi provided it along with
bin Laden before and since.  If neither of these men
existed, others would be invented for their leading
roles as “Enemy Number One” with still more designees
in supporting roles.  Without them, there’s no
justification for the “war on terrorism,” and without
media disinformation they’d be no way to get the
public to go along.

Part IV - The New World Order

This “new world” flaunts the law, wages illegal wars
on the world against nonexistent threats, and condemns
its own people to state repression in the name of
protecting national security it’s endangering by its
actions everywhere.  One of its most outrageous acts
is condoning and practicing torture as official state
policy.  Chossudovsky explains what’s now widely known
and accepted - that orders to torture Iraqi, Afghan
and Guantanamo prisoners came from the highest
government levels.  Thus, prison guards and military
and CIA interrogators followed “precise guidelines”
from command directives.  A secret FBI email, dated
May 22, 2004, confirmed George Bush “personally signed
off on certain interrogation techniques in an
executive order (authorizing) sleep deprivation,
stress positions, use of military dogs, sensory
deprivation” using hoods, and who knows what else so
far not made public.

What is known is that CIA and the Pentagon have
considerable knowledge how damaging these acts are to
human beings forced to endure them for extended
periods. The current Army field manual states this
about sensory deprivation alone: (It) “may result in
extreme anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts,
depression, and anti-social behavior (and) significant
psychological distress.” Now try imagining how worse
it is on victims undergoing physical abuse and
intimidation daily combined with the damaging effects
of sensory deprivation, never knowing when or if it
will end.  George Bush, his Justice Department, Donald
Rumsfeld, Robert Gates and others at the highest
levels of the Pentagon and CIA ordered these tortures.
It’s not because they work, but because they
effectively destroy human beings, control those who
survive it, and intimidate everyone thinking they may
be next.  It doesn’t matter to officials in charge
that most of their victims are innocent of any crime.

Unreported is who these prisoners are being tortured.
Seton Hall University Law School professors, including
Mark Denebeaux, analyzed unclassified government data
obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests.  Their report was based on evidentiary
summaries from 2004 military hearings on whether 517
Guantanamo “detainees” were “enemy combatants.”  They
learned the majority of Afghan prisoners at Guantanamo
weren’t accused of hostile acts, but more shockingly,
that 95% were seized by Afghan bounty hunters and sold
to US forces for $5000 per claimed Taliban and $25,000
for supposed Al Queda members.  In addition, at least
20 detainees were children, some as young as 13.

Chossudovsky calls such actions: “reminiscent of the
Spanish Inquisition” in brazenness “when there was no
need to conceal acts of torture.”  According to
administration twisted logic and indifference to
international law and norms, “torture is public policy
with a humanitarian mandate (because) democracy and
freedom are….upheld by ‘going after terrorists.’ ”
The 400 year ruling feudal order Inquisition aimed to
“maintain and sustain those in authority,” and that
end justified any means doing it.  Today, the
Pentagon, Homeland Security and CIA are similar to
yesteryear’s “great Inquisitor” dispensing justice
through a network of religious courts for political
and social control.  It’s mandate was: destroy the
heretics, and those charged were guilty by accusation
given only a choice to repent and be strangled to
death or stay silent and be burned alive. 

It’s hard calling those times “the good old days,” but
it’s no better today, just more sophisticated.
Through years of experimenting, we’ve become expert
inflicing maximum pain making victims endure it the
longest time possible before expiring or going insane.
Chossudovsky cites this as one example on our “road
towards a police state” we’re well advanced toward
already, or maybe now there.  We have outrageous laws
in place, Nazis and Stalin would have been proud of,
but now can do what Orwell imagined 58 years ago in
his 1984 “Big Brother” society controlling everyone.
Technology allows near-unlimited surveillance and
abusive spying to watch, categorize, tag, and label us
through information from our most personal records and
behavior.  Only the recesses of our hearts, minds and
souls remain unpenetrated - so far.

Nothing will change at this “critical juncture in our
history” unless we “break the Inquisition.”  Doing it
means “breaking the consensus (and) disabl(ing) its
propaganda” campaign of fear and intimidation.  That
entails “unseat(ing) the Inquisitors” and prosecuting
those in high office guilty of crimes of war and
against humanity. Without this, they’ll be no justice
or an end to “New World Order” tyranny safe in the
hands of a carefully chosen new “Grand Inquisitor”
elected in 2008 picking up where the old one leaves
off.  He (or she) will follow ruling order policy
assuring Congress and the courts are as much in
lockstep as today with “the military-intelligence
establishment calling the shots on US foreign policy.”

Benefitting hugely at our expense will be predatory
corporate giants licking their chops for more gains
ahead from continuing “militarization of (our)
civilian institutions” fast disappearing under
military/police state control.

Chossudovsky raises the issue of administration
foreknowledge of 9/11. He notes the Pentagon conducted
a test simulation of a passenger plane crashing into
the Pentagon in October, 2000.  Ironically, the CIA
held a similar (quickly hushed up for a year) test at
its Chantilly, Virginia Reconnaissance Office on the
morning of 9/11. Both tests refute administration lies
they could not predict events they were preparing for.

In addition, Washington had numerous “intelligence
warnings” and that senior administration officials
lied under oath to the 9/11 Commission they had no
foreknowledge or forewarning.  They had plenty.
“Carefully documented research” also reveals:

—The US Air Force got stand-down orders on 9/11 not
to intervene.
—A cover-up of World Trade Center (WTC) and Pentagon
investigations occurred.
—WTC rubble was hastily removed and disposed of
before it could be examined.
—Plane debris at the Pentagon was unaccounted for.
—Huge financial gains were made through insider
trading in the days prior to 9/11.
—WTC Building 7 either mysteriously collapsed or was
“pulled” the afternoon of 9/11.
—Critics accuse the White House of “criminal
negligence” for disregarding crucial intelligence that
might have prevented the 9/11 attack.  These critics
contend “they knew (in advance) but failed to act”
preventively.

Chussodovsky rebukes this line of reasoning saying
revealing Bush administration lies regarding
foreknowledge contributes to reinforcing the 9/11
cover-up.  Foreknowledge then “becomes part of the
disinformation campaign (serving) to present Al Queda
as a threat (to American security), when, in fact, Al
Queda is a creation of the US intelligence apparatus”
and is still being used by it.  Pinning responsibility
on Islamic terrorists justifies the “war on terrorism”
and against Iraq and Afghanistan.  It also provides
cover for repressive police state legislation
shredding our civil liberties and dismantling our
social state to pay for militarizing it. 

While debate centers around “incompetence” or “an
intelligence failure,” Al Queda and “Enemy Number One”
are blamed,” and the beat goes on allowing the
administration to get away with (mass) murder
literally. Explained above, this is Washington’s
strategy.  Without Al Queda to blame and a gullible
public believing it, the Bush house of cards
collapses, there’s “no war on terrorism” nor all it
spawned at home and abroad. 

The 9/11 (whitewash) Commission was part of the
scheme.  It revealed Bush administration officials
lied under oath, then did nothing about it. “Yet
nobody had begged the key question,” Chossudovsky
asserts: “What is the significance of these ‘warnings’
emanating from the intelligence apparatus, knowing
that the CIA is the creator of Al Queda and that Al
Queda is an ‘intelligence asset’ (as distinct from an
agent).”  Were Bush administration officials
deliberately lying to the 9/11 Commission to cover up
a bigger lie no one’s been held accountable for?
Chossudovsky debunks another 9/11 lie asking “On the
Morning of 9/11: What Happened on the Planes?”  Events
in their cabins were based on supposedly
“corroborating evidence” from cell and air phone
conversations to family members or others.  Only one
cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was recovered - from UAL
93.  The 9/11 Commission gave the impression cell
phone communications to and from the planes were of
good quality.  It was never mentioned prevailing
technology made it near impossible to place a wireless
cell call from an aircraft travelling at high speed
above 8000 feet.  Installed air phones, in contrast,
provide clear communications. 

The Commission’s timeline suggests the planes were at
higher altitudes so claimed cell phone conversations
reported were dubious at best and likely contrived,
exaggerated or plain lies.  Reports of these calls on
the day of the attack were crucial “to sustain the
illusion” America was under attack.  It was “part of
the disinformation campaign….dispel(ling) the
historical role played by US intelligence in
supporting the development of the (Al Queda) terror
network.”

Heightening the level of fear and conditioning the
public for what may lie ahead, we’re now warned about
a “Second 9/11.”  Former CentCom Commander General
Tommy Franks did it in an interview in December, 2003
saying “another mass, casualty-producing event” would
result in the Constitution being suspended and martial
law declared - in other words, the end of the Republic
officially replaced by tyranny.  Chossudovsky stresses
Franks’ comment wasn’t opinion.  It was “consistent
with the dominant viewpoint….in the Pentagon….and
Homeland Security….in case of a national emergency.”
Further, the “war on terrorism” is the cornerstone of
Bush’s National Security doctrine providing
“justification for repealing the Rule of Law” in the
event of a significant external threat or event.
Should this happen, it will amount to the
“Criminalization of the State, the repeal of
democracy,” and the end of America as we know it -
officially.  From all available evidence, it appears
this is planned using a fabricated terrorist threat
and second 9/11 to pull it off with public consent
believing it’s for our own security, henceforth
compromised and lost.

Chossudovsky discusses the major Pentagon 2005
document outlining what’s planned ahead for global
military dominance along with police state control at
home. It’s called “The National Defense Strategy of
the United States of America (NDS).  It extends the
“contours of Washington’s global military agenda
(envisaging possible) military intervention against
countries (not constituting) a threat to the US
homeland.”  This goes beyond preventive war to a more
“proactive” strategy against declared enemies to
“preserve peace (and) defend America.”  This is
insanity, yet four major threats are considered:

—“Traditional challenges” from recognized military
powers.
—“Irregular threats” from forces using
“unconventional” means.
—“The catastrophic challenge” from WMDs.
—“Disruptive challenges” from “potential
adversaries” using new technologies against us.

NDS listed 25 countries “deemed unstable and, thus,
candidates for (military) intervention.”  Those named
remain secret, but some have been identified including
Venezuela, Nepal, Haiti, Algeria, Peru, Bolivia,
Sudan, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote
d’Ivoire.  It’s hard imagining Iran, Syria and Lebanon
aren’t targets as well with others qualified for
membership by failing to place our sovereignty above
their own.  Helping them “stabilize” is used as the
pretext for any planned military intervention.  That
means any nation opting out of our “free market” model
can expect the Marines to show up to return them to
the fold.  It’s called democracy American-style.
At home, as already explained, creating fear is the
method of choice keeping the public on board
supporting the phony “war on terrorism.”  That’s what
color-coded terror alerts are all about.  They’re seen
daily on TV, and raised to “high risk” Code Orange at
strategic moments when elevated fear levels are needed
to get legislation passed, divert attention from
administration embarrassments, diffuse anti-war
protests, or simply re-stoke public angst about terror
threats so people don’t forget them.  Never mind, as
Chossudovsky documents, these threats, headlining for
days at times, are nearly always based on “fabricated
intelligence.”

So in the run-up to the March, 2003 Iraq war, a
disinformation campaign was waged about WMDs and
linking Saddam with Al Queda and 9/11.  It was to
build public support for the war and weaken anti-war
protests against it that were unprecendented in size
worldwide before it began.  Once the truth on both
counts came out, it was too late, and it was on to the
next scare scam. 

Chossudovsky cites the Air France Christmas, 2003
stand down orders based on phony evidence Al Queda and
Taliban operatives were on Flight 68.  It was a lie,
but it kept Los Angeles International Airport on
“maximum deployment” throughout the holiday period and
FBI officials working around the clock - for nothing
because of “fake intelligence” to heighten fear.  The
nation was on “high risk” Code Orange alert, six
heavy-traffic Air France flights paid the price, and
so did the public getting scammed.

Whenever a strategic moment arises or Washington
thinks public fear is ebbing, get ready for more
headlined news of terror plots and arrests made or
suspects being hunted down.  It happened in early June
with hyped stories of a plot to blow up JFK Airport’s
jet fuel tanks and supply lines some reports claimed
would be “more devastating than 9/11.”  This nonsense
keeps being used because people believe it.

This time, four men were charged even though no crime
was committed, the suspects had no apparent means to
carry out the supposed plot, and the only so-called
“evidence” comes from conversations recorded between
“the source” (identified as an unnamed drug
trafficker) and defendants.  We’re told the informant
agreed to infiltrate the “terror cell” in return for
leniency on his pending sentence, guaranteeing he’d
say anything to get himself off. 

This plot gets thicker, but the point is once again
hyped accounts have again been used to stoke public
fear.  And once again, Muslims are vicimized as
“terrorists.” Sadly, even though likely innocent,
these men may end up convicted and imprisoned just
like other high-profile targets Sami Al-Arian and
Rafil Dhafir.  They’re both innocent men now serving
hard time victimized by Washington’s “war on
terrorism.”

Chossudovsky explains we live in a “Big Brother,
Homeland Security State.”  A July, 2004 Homeland
Security Council (HSC) report refers to a “Universal
Adversary” (UA) defined as four categories of
“conspirators:”

—“foreign (Islamic) terrorists;”
—“domestic (anti-war, civil and human rights)
groups;”
—“state-sponsored adversaries” (“Rogue States,
unstable or failed states”); and
—“disgruntled employees” (labor and union
activists).

Chossudovsky explains the notion of a “Universal
Adversary” is being used to prepare the public for a
“real life emergency situation” under which no
political or social dissent will be tolerated.  If it
happens, it will trigger a Code Red Alert signaling
the highest threat level of severe or imminent
terrorist attack preparing the public for imposition
of martial law and suspension of the Constitution.
Shortly after the invasion of Iraq, anti-terrorist
“drills” were held in major cities to build “a broad
consensus among ‘top officials,’ within federal, State
and municipal bodies, as well as within the business
community and civil society organizations that the
outside enemy exists and that ‘the threat is real.’ “
Chossudovsky calls it “a world of fiction (that)
becomes fact.”

In the event of an emergency, the military will be
involved that was forbidden under the 1878 Posse
Comitatus Act, never enforced, and now repealed since
October 17, 2006.  That was when George Bush signed
the Military Commissions (torture authorization) Act
and National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2007
containing a provision annulling the 1807 Insurrection
Act.  Now the president can (legally) deploy federal
or National Guard troops on the nation’s streets for
whatever he calls public disorder, including peaceful
anti-war protests.  These laws, along with Patriot
Acts I and II (violating our most personal privacy
rights) have set the table for martial law imposition
whenever the chief executive orders it.

Chossudovsky explains media disinformation is
preparing the public “for the unthinkable” likely to
be police state rule under the facade of a
“functioning democracy.” Its parameters have already
been defined:

—“the Big Brother surveillance apparatus,
through….consolidated data banks on citizens;
—the militarization of justice and law enforcement;
—the disinformation and propaganda network;
—the covert support to terrorist organizations;
—political assassinations, torture manuals, and
(homeland) concentration camps (being built); and
—extensive war crimes and the blatant violation of
international law.”

Conclusions

Chossudovsky wrote an important book in 2002 titled
“War and Globalization.” This volume, “America’s War
on Terrorism,” updated it with voluminous, heavily
documented new information on the state of America
today under both parties and the threat that poses for
the Republic, hanging by a thread.  Though published
in 2005, it’s as fresh now as when it first appeared,
and his conclusion is essentially the same as what
Chalmers Johnson wrote in his 2006 book, “Nemesis -
The Last Days of the American Republic.”  Johnson
explained our well-entrenched militarism and
single-minded pursuit of empire saying we have a
choice.  We can keep on this path and lose our
democracy, but history is clear: we can’t have both.
Chossudovsky and Johnson both agree - the signs are
ominous, and conclusive evidence post-9/11 proves it,
amply spelled out in “America’s War on Terrorism.”

That doesn’t mean we’re doomed or change can’t come.
It can, but never from the top down.  The lessons of
history are clear. Mass-action grassroots efforts can
achieve what governments won’t do willingly. Scare
tactics to bring us in line won’t work if we don’t let
them.  But it will take millions mobilized to resist
to do it. Is saving the Republic incentive enough to
try?  We better hope so.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
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Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Steve Lendman News and Information Hour
on TheMicroEffect.com Saturdays at noon US central
time.