The criminals who got away with 9/11 are planning more far larger scale attacks.
INN Preview Exclusive -June 2
By Webster Griffin Tarpley
Toronto, May 30 – Intelligence patterns monitored over the US Memorial
Day weekend now point conclusively to an imminent new round of ABC
(atomic-bacteriological-chemical) terror attacks in the United States,
Great Britain, Canada, and possibly other nations. These attacks could
include nuclear detonations, radiological dirty bombs, poison gas and
other chemical weapons, or biological agents, to be unleashed in such
urban settings as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC,
Vancouver BC, or London.
The goal of these operations would be to
produce a worldwide shock several orders of magnitude greater than the
original 9-11, with a view to stopping the collapse of the Bush
administration, the Wall Street-centered financial structures, and the
US-UK strategic position generally. The attacks would be attributed by
US/UK intelligence to controlled patsy terrorist groups who would be
linked by the media to countries like Iran, Syria, Cuba, or North
Korea.
The organizers of the attacks would in reality be substantially
the same secret command cell in the United States which set up the 9-11
events and its associated networks, which have been able to continue in
operation because of the abject failure of all 9-11 investigations to
date to identify them....
These forces are now in a desperate flight forward to escape from their current increasingly grim position.
Their goal is now to establish a neocon fascist dictatorship in the United
States, complete with martial law, special tribunals, press and media
censorship, and the full pervasive apparatus of the modern police state.
The chatter in Washington points to state-sponsored terrorism on a
grand scale, with the desperados of the neocon faction calling the shots. The
looming event will be an "own goal" of the Am ericans.
In short, a coup d'etat is being prepared in the United States – not a
coup against the existing government, but rather for the purpose of
disciplining and dragooning the entire political process for escalated
foreign aggression, with the homeland secured by emergency rule. It
goes without saying that those associated with such a coup are felons,
war criminals, and traitors to their country.
The leading edge of the propaganda campaign designed to establish the
credibility of the coming ABC (atomic, bacteriological, chemical)
terror wave is the May 26 press conference of Attorney General Ashcroft
and FBI Director Robert Mueller to announce the coming summer "perfect
storm" of terrorism. According to advance wire service reports, "U.S.
officials have obtained new intelligence deemed highly credible
indicating al-Qaeda or other terrorists are in the United States and
preparing to launch a major attack this summer….(AP, 25 May 2004)
The following is a partial grid of evidence backing up this thesis.
This overview cannot be exhaustive, but is sufficiently comprehensive to
establish that a new pattern does indeed exist.
Official Statements
Since the beginning of April, there has been a qualitative escalation in
the urgency and vehemence of the terror demagogy of the Bush
administration. Bush and especially Cheney have made terror warning
their stock in trade since September 11, 2001, but early April 2004
stands out as a watershed, for reasons which are discussed below.
A dramatic turning point on the way to the current emergency came on
April 21, when Bush delivered two speeches which represented a palpable
escalation of the tone of his usual demagogy of terrorism and fear. In
the afternoon, he assured the Newspaper Association of America,
composed of newspaper editors, that Iran "will be dealt with" if they
pursue a nuclear development program. Bush went on to characterize the
United States as "a battlefield in the war on terror."
He was at pains to build up the stature of Al Qaeda, whose members he emphatically
characterized as "smart…tough…and sophisticated." Because the terrorist
are so formidable, Bush said that the United States "is a hard country
to defend. Our intelligence is good. It's just never perfect, is the
problem. We are disrupting some cells here in America. We're chasing
people down. But it is – we've got a big country."
Later, Bush spoke to the same themes at a closed-door gathering at the
White House. "...On Tuesday evening, Bush told Republican congressional
leaders during a meeting at the White House that it was all but
certain that terrorists would attempt a major attack on the United
States before the election, according to a congressional aide. The
leaders were struck by Bush's definitiveness and gravity, the aide
said... (Washington Post, 4/22/04)"
Vice President Cheney has been predicting imminent terrorist attacks on
the US in many of his speeches since no later than May 20, 2002. On
that Sunday, Cheney went on Fox News Sunday to announce that "In my
opinion, the prospects of a future attack against the United States are
almost certain." For Cheney, the question of a new terrorist assault on
the US is "not a matter of if, but when."
Several weeks later, an account published under the title "White House
Nightmare Scenario" in US News and World Report reflected the thinking
of top Bush officials about the relation between terrorism and the
coming US presidential elections. According to this article, 'White
House officials say they've got a "working premise" about terrorism and
the presidential election: It's going to happen. "We assume," says a
top administration official, "an attack will happen leading up to the
election." And, he added, "it will happen here." There are two
worst-case scenarios, the official says. The first posits an attack on
Washington, possibly the Capitol, which was believed to be the target
of the 9/11 jet that crashed in Pennsylvania. Theory 2: smaller but
more frequent attacks in Washington and other major cities leading up
to the election. To prepare, the administration has been holding secret
antiterrorism drills to make sure top officials know what to do. "There
was a sense," says one official involved in the drills, "of mass
confusion on 9/11. Now we have a sense of order." Unclear is the
political impact, though most Bushies think the nation would rally
around the president. "I can tell you one thing," adds the official
sternly, "we won't be like Spain," which tossed its government days
after the Madrid train bombings. (US News and World Report, 17 May
2004)
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told Fox News on Sunday,
April 19, that the government is bracing for possible terrorist attacks
before November's Presidential election. Referencing last month's
Madrid bombings, she said the opportunity for terrorists to influence
the election may "be too good to pass up for them," and that "the
terrorists might have learned, we hope, the wrong lesson from Spain."
Condoleezza Rice's remarks came in the context of a lengthy US tour by
Jose Maria Aznar, the defeated Spanish Prime Minister. Aznar was ousted
in Spain's March 13 elections, partly because 90% of Spaniards rejected
Aznar's subservience to Bush in joining the US invasion coalition in
Iraq, and partly because Spanish voters were convinced that Aznar was
lying about the March 11 terrorist attacks on commuter trains in the
Madrid region. Aznar is counted as a neocon, but his party contains the
remnants of Francisco Franco's falangist-fascist apparatus. Aznar is
associated with thesis that the March 11 terrorist attacks decided the
Spanish elections in favor of the PSOE (socialist) challenger,
Zapatero. Aznar also claims that his own defeat was a victory for
terrorism, since the newly elected Zapatero, acting in conformity with
the will of the Spanish people, withdrew the Spanish troop contingent
from Iraq as soon as he had taken office. The Spanish elections were
viewed with hysteria by Washington elites, first because of the Spanish
quitting coalition, but also because the terrorist attacks had failed
to produce the expected effects. The Washington consensus had
previously been that terrorism would infallibly stampede the voters of
any country into voting for the incumbent, but this time it was the
anti-Bush challenger who was the beneficiary. Aznar is known to have
attempted to call off the Spanish vote and to continue to ruling by
decree, but his efforts were blocked. Aznar's briefing would seem to
have included the notion that if there is going to be pre-election
terrorism, it needs to be of sufficient magnitude to provide a pretext
for calling off all scheduled elections.
On May 20, 2004 wires various wires reported that in the U.S. between
May 16/17 and 19, maneuvers have been conducted by Homeland Security
Apparatus, simulating terrorist attacks. On May 19, Yahoo reported a
statement made by Lt. Gen. (ret) Patrick Hughes, who told AP in an
interview, that while America has become better at predicting and
safeguarding itself against attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, he fears that
new terrorists "are being made every single day on the streets of the
Middle East."
Based on captured material, interviews, and other sources
of information, Hughes said he believes al Qaeda wants to strike with
something other than a conventional explosive device. It is reported
that he worries about chemical and biological attacks, including a
dirty bomb.
In mid-April, Aznar began issuing warnings of election-related
terrorism. These warning were directed most immediately to Tony Blair
and George Bush. Aznar said, "I told George Bush, and Tony Blair and
other political leaders to be extremely careful before elections ...
and to be very vigilant." But there are also major election campaigns
going on in Canada (at the federal level) and in the 25 member states
of the European Union for the European Parliament. (Once Noticias,
Once-TV, 4/19/04. Mexico)
During his visit to California, Aznar referred more than once about a
terrorist attack taking place in the United States in June, 2004, which
would lead to a Federal Emergency Management Agency takeover of the
U.S. (International Herald Tribune, May 15, 16, 17, Los Angeles Times,
May 15)
On May 18, El Pais reported that Aznar had visited Los Angeles, and had
then gone one to Washington, where he met Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.
Present at the meeting, reports El Pais, were various Democratic and
Republican Congressmen. Aznar was satisfied with the meeting. After the
meeting, during an intervention at the Heritage Foundation, Rumsfeld
spoke about how he dealt with the ex-Prime Minister by saying: "In
Spain, in Madrid, the terrorists changed the result of the elections,
without any doubt. In a premeditated way as consequence of the aim of
the terrorists, the election results were changed. I had dinner with
Prime Minister Aznar, and he is convinced that this is how it
happened," said Rumsfeld. In California, Aznar told the press on Monday
that Islamic terrorism has as objective, to influence elections in
democratic countries.
"If they could do it in Spain, why would they not intend to do it in another place?" he said and added, "It's important to understand that the terrorists will do everything to change the next elections in the USA.
They will do everything possible to make the U.S.
fail." He furthermore said in Los Angeles that he thought that the
government of Zapatero sent an "inappropriate message to the terrorists
by withdrawing the troops." Aznar on Tuesday had a 40-minute meeting
with President Bush in the White House. Present at the meeting were:
Vice President Dick Cheney; Condi Rice; Colin Powell; and White House
Chief of Staff Andrew Card. The White House press spokesman identified
the meeting as "private" -- "a meeting with a good friend of the
President."
An important sidelight on these statements by Aznar is the revelation
that the group accused of carrying out the Madrid bombings was
thoroughly penetrated by the Spanish police, who had at least
informants within that group, according to El Mundo of May 6, 2004. El
Mundo reported that among the people arrested for the Madrid bombing,
were two police informants.
This paper published an exclusive report given by Rafa Zhueri, who was among those arrested after the March 11 terror bombings. Zhueri revealed that he worked for years as police informant for a part of the Spanish Civil Guard (UCO Undidad Central
Operativa). The article is headlined "I informed the Civil Guard that
an Asturian offered me dynamite."
The Kean-Hamilton Commission of 9-11 has not produced any serious
insights into those events, but it has served as a propaganda soapbox
for figures such as the former Navy Secretary and establishment
operative John Lehman. In the recent New York sessions of the
commission, Lehman stressed repeatedly that the overwhelming consensus
among US officials is that new terror attacks are coming soon This
view was shared by former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
The former leader of the US Central Command, Gen. Tommy Franks, told
the magazine Cigar Afficionado earlier this year that he considered it
possible that the US would be under emergency rule in the coming months.
(Photo: FEMA CIO Barry West)
Exercises and Incidents
On May 11-12, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) ran a
large-scale exercise involving more than 2,500 federal employees, to
determine how the federal government could continue operating in the
face of a massive terrorist attack or other catastrophe. The government
employees went to more than 100 secret sites, as part of a training
exercise to prepare them to operate under catastrophic conditions. The
exercise, called "Forward Challenge '04," was in preparation for over a
year, according to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who spoke to
reporters from an undisclosed location. (Washington Post, May 14)
There is also an unprecedented pattern of local and regional
preparations for emergency rule and continuity of government
operations. For example, Florida television station Wftv.com reports
May 19th under the title "Massive Mock Terror Drill Will Span Three
Local Counties", that Daytona International Speedway (Florida) will be
the second stage of a three-part mock terror drill across Central
Florida. This is to be "one of the largest and longest mock terror
drills ever conducted in Central Florida since 9/11." The wire says
that "dozens of emergency agencies will take part from all across
Central Florida, with more than 1000 responders and actors who will
play victims of a simulated attack." The newswire nynewsdayd.com, under
the title "City stages mock explosion in subway to test emergency
protocols", was reporting May 16th that Lower Manhattan was swamped
with 1,000 police, firefighters, and land emergency personnel
responding to a simulated bombing involving scores of casualties.
"The terror response drill, part of a joint city-federal plan to beef up
response efforts, it is reported, came just two days before the 9/11
commission was scheduled to be in New York to grill local officials
about Gotham's emergency preparedness...." The drill "was the first
large scale test of a new protocol aimed at clarifying the roles of
firefighters and cops at disaster scenes." Yahoo furthermore reports on
May 17th that in Idaho one of the largest disaster drills was staged
over three days in southwest Idaho, conducted by the department of
Homeland Security. The State of Georgia declared "state of emergency",
because of a summit of the group of eight industrialized nations, which
begins June 8.
There is also an intensive pattern of incidents pointing in the
direction of a terrorist attack on rail systems, on the Madrid model.
This pattern includes suspicious activity in the Northeast rail
corridor between Washington and Boston. A Philadelphia television
station reported the discovery of a wireless transmitter carefully
hidden in the gravel along the SEPTA (Southeast Pennsylvania Transit
Authority) rail tracks in Philadelphia. An infrared sensor, painted
black and buried in the trackside ballast, was found along the SEPTA
tracks, which could be used as a triggering device. It sends a signal
when something crosses its infrared beam. (WPVI News, Philadelphia, May
20)
On May 1, New York City police found five empty suitcases at Penn
Station, New York FBI headquarters, and other sensitive points.
According to The New York Post, the police feared that these empty
suitcases represented "a test by terrorist bent on a Madrid-type
attack" on commuter trains. (New York Post, May 2, 2004)
There is also an uptick in the detected activities of foreign
intelligence services, such as the Mossad, on US territory. According
to a Florida newspaper, for the second time in two weeks Israelis in a
moving van were detained near a U.S. nuclear facility, this time at the
Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base near St. Marys, GA., near Sea Island,
host of the G-8 Summit next month." (Jacksonville Times-Union, 21 May
2004)
On May 6, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that the new head
of the British intelligence service MI-6 will be John Scarlett. The
choice immediately caused protests from British political opposition
leaders. Scarlett was the author and stubborn defender of the
now-totally-discredited and artificially sexed-up "Iraqi WMD" report
issued by the Blair government in support of the US-UK war drive. Dr.
David Kelley lost his life in the scandal that developed around the
manipulations in this report, but the role of the government was
whitewashed in the inquiry conducted by Lord Hutton of the Law Lords.
This appointment means that MI-6 will lack the leadership of a
competent and independent professional who might act to prevent the
coming terrorism, and will instead be under the domination of a
political hack of dubious judgment and loyalty. (Wire services, May 6)
In addition, the US government appears top have imposed an embargo on
the sharing of critical anti-terror intelligence with European
authorities. Whatever the intent, the net effect of this blackout is to
screen certain activities in the US from scrutiny by the allies. In an
article published May 6 the German economic paper Handelsblatt reported
in reference to a similar article which appeared in the Wall Street
Journal, that Spanish investigators, like many of their colleagues in
Europe, are find it very difficult to obtain information from US
circles which are engaged in the fight against terrorism.
Mentioned is the case of Spanish Judge Balthazar Garzon who reportedly was unable to
proceed with certain investigations on Al Qaeda after Sept 11th, like
the case of Al Qaeda member Ramzi Binalshibh, who is imprisoned in an
unknown location. The problem is compounded by the fact that the
anti-terrorism fight in the US is being conducted by non-public
military courts and military intelligence, neither of which, as the
article claims, is sharing testimony and evidence with their European
colleagues for further use. (Handelsblatt, May 6; Yahoo wires, May 7)
Propaganda Buildup
Lurid accounts of coming ABC terrorist attacks are proliferating in the
US media. Whatever, the subjective intentions or motivations of the
authors, these accounts objectively serve as propaganda preparation for
terror attacks, specifically by introducing to the US ;public the alien
notions of emergency rules, martial law, and the state of siege, all of
which are favorite themes of neocon writers going back to the Nazi Carl
Schmitt.
A particularly fulsome example is the article by Michael Ignatieff
which appeared on May 2, 2004 New York Times Magazine. Here are some
excerpts:
Consider the consequences of a second major attack on the mainland
United States -- the detonation of a radiological or dirty bomb,
perhaps, or a low-yield nuclear device or a chemical strike in a
subway. Any of these events could cause death, devastation and panic on
a scale that would make 9/11 seem like a pale prelude. After such an
attack, a pall of mourning, melancholy, anger and fear would hang over
our public life for a generation.
An attack of this sort is already in the realm of possibility. The
recipes for making ultimate weapons are on the Internet, and the
materiel required is available for the right price. Democracies live by
free markets, but a free market in everything -- enriched uranium,
ricin, anthrax -- will mean the death of democracy. Armageddon is being
privatized, and unless we shut down these markets, doomsday will be for
sale. Sept. 11, for all its horror, was a conventional attack. We have
the best of reasons to fear the fire next time.
A democracy can allow its leaders one fatal mistake -- and that's what
9/11 looks like to many observers -- but Americans will not forgive a
second one. A succession of large-scale attacks would pull at the
already-fragile tissue of trust that binds us to our leadership and
destroy the trust we have in one another. Once the zones of devastation
were cordoned off and the bodies buried, we might find ourselves, in
short order, living in a national-security state on continuous alert,
with sealed borders, constant identity checks and permanent detention
camps for dissidents and aliens.
Our constitutional rights might disappear from our courts, while torture might reappear in our interrogation cells. The worst of it is that government would not have
to impose tyranny on a cowed populace. We would demand it for our own
protection. And if the institutions of our democracy were unable to
protect us from our enemies, we might go even further, taking the law
into our own hands. We have a history of lynching in this country, and
by the time fear and paranoia settled deep in our bones, we might
repeat the worst episodes from our past, killing our former neighbors,
our onetime friends. (emphasis added)
The coming of martial law to the US in the wake of a new large-scale
terror attack was also the theme of Ted Koppel's Nightline broadcast of
April 7, 2004. Here Koppel was joined by former terror czar Richard
Clarke and the Reagan White House chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein.
The broadcast was titled "The Armageddon Plan", and featured questions
of continuity in government (COG) after an attack that had decimated
the US Congress.
Koppel asked Duberstein: "Aren't we left for at least the foreseeable
future with some sort of martial law anyway?"
Duberstein replied: "You have to suspend rights."
Koppel elaborated: "And during that period, then, and given the sense
of panic that is inevitable under circumstances like this, the executive
branch of government takes on extraordinary power doesn't it?"
Clarke chimed in: "I think in any war where Washington were destroyed,
inevitably, there would be a period of, for lack of a better term,
something like martial law." Also taking part in this broadcast was
James Mann of the Brookings Institution, author of the new book Rise of
the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet, published this year by
Viking. This work contains an extensive discussion of COG operations,
which also figure in John Dean's new boom comparing the Bush
administration to the Nixon regime. (Nightline, April 7, 2004)
The Washington Post used the release of the latest set of Nixon
administration tapes to issue what can only be interpreted as a signal
piece, indicating to the witting that the operation is indeed on. This
piece bore the headline" Haig Said Nixon Joked of Nuking Hill." The
content involves a telephone conversation between Nixon's then Chief of
Staff, Gen. Alexander Haig, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in
March 1974 – a few months before Nixon was forced out of office. "I was
told to get the football," reports Haig to Kissinger, a reference to
the codes used by the president to order nuclear attacks. In response
to a question from Kissinger, Haig specifies that the request is for
"His nuclear black bag. He is going to drop it on the Hill." The
context is Nixon's growing fear of his own looming impeachment. The
message is that a nuclear bomb will detonate on the US Congress.
Canadian newspapers, by contrast, used an all-purpose AP wire story
with very different emphasis. The Montreal Gazette headline, for example,
stressed another incident in which Nixon was too drunk to talk to UK
Prime Minister Ted Heath. Here the headline was "Mr. Nixon can't come
to the phone – he's sozzled." This version contained no mention of
nuking the Congress. The Toronto Star version of the AP wire had a
headline about Nixon being drunk, and relegated the question of nuking
the US Congress to the last paragraphs.
The White House now possesses its own "Continuity of Government"
Commission, a kind of Committee of Public Safety which appears to be
developing plans for the imposition of authoritarian rule. This is a
board made up of Establishment worthies, starting with former
presidents Carter and Ford, and including such figures as Newt
Gingrich, Lloyd Cutler, Alan Simpson, Kenneth Duberstein, Jamie
Gorelick (also of the Kean-Hamilton Commission), Tom Foley, Leon
Panetta, and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach. This is a bi-partisan body that
would seem to be engaged in forming a consensus in the oligarchical
elite circles in favor of the need for police state measures to
preserve the system.
The following are some of the main danger points that emerge from
recent press accounts. It must however be stressed that large-scale attacks
could of course occur anywhere and anytime.
Memorial Day weekend – opening of US World War II Memorial in
Washington DC
June 8: Group of 8 summit in Sea Island, Georgia
NATO summit in Turkey
Olympics in Athens
July: Democratic National Convention in Boston
August-September: Republican National Convention in New York City
Why, and Why Now
The reasons for the genocidal crimes now being prepared are to be found
in the stunning reverses suffered by the Bush regime over the last
several months. These can be identified as follows:
During April, Iraqi resistance forces have initiated a national
uprising against the invasion of their country. The failure of the vaunted US
military machine before Fallujah and Najaf has ended the myth of US
superpower invincibility, and set off uncontrollable processes of
disintegration throughout the global system. The US is politically and
militarily defeated, and the neocons are responsible.
During May, the war crimes and atrocities carried out by US, UK and
other coalition forces in Iraq have wrecked the moral credibility of
the United States and its allies, making these aggressive powers into
an object of absolute execration around the world.
As a result, the ad hoc "Coalition of the Willing" assembled by the
Bush regime has begun to disintegrate, with Spain, Honduras, El Salvador,
Kazakhstan, and Norway either leaving Iraq or announcing their
departure. The Netherlands are expected to defect within 4 to 5 weeks.
Previously, anti-Bush political forces had been defeated in elections
in Germany, South Korea, Spain, and most recently India. Governments
subservient to Bush in Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Denmark, and other
countries now face a grim electoral future, with further pullouts from
Iraq as the likely result. The entire alliance system created by the US
at the end of World War II is now a dead letter.
In the case of Spain, US elites have been shocked by the failure of the
March 11 terror attacks to accomplish their obvious goal of stampeding
support to the right-wing, neo-falangist government of Jose Maria
Aznar. Due to the intelligence and courage of the Spanish people, these
attacks in effect backfired, as Aznar's blatant lying secured the
election of the anti-Bush candidate, Zapatero. US elites have been
profoundly concerned that the terror weapon, which they had regarded as
a sure-fire means of coalescing support around an existing government,
can also bring down that government. Their main conclusion seems to be
that, for guaranteed success, the terrorism must be so colossal that
the planned elections can simply be cancelled, as Aznar tried but
failed to do.
The three principal leaders of world aggression, Bush, Blair, and
Sharon, are now engulfed by domestic political crises threatening them
with ouster over the short term, with increased danger of prosecution
and the wrecking of their political machines amidst recrimination for
the Iraq and other disasters. Bush and his neocon handlers in
particular face a rising tide of hatred in their own armed forces,
especially in the US Army, which has born the brunt of their utopian
aggressive policies. Bush's handlers are also worried that their man's
reputation as an anti-terror leader, his only conceivable basis for
asking to be returned to office, has been deeply tarnished by
Condoleezza Rice's wretched performance and attendant revelations
during the April-May hearings of the Kean-Hamilton Commission on 9-11.
This has gone so far that only a new large-scale terror event could
restore Bush's credentials, they reason.
Concomitantly with these events, the New York-London financial system
has begun to exhibit symptoms of severe instability leading to systemic
crisis. The US is now running a merchandise trade deficit of over 0
billion, and a federal budget deficit which actually approaches 0
billion. This is a bankrupt state. Interest rates on US government
securities have risen sharply since early April, and the resulting
rising interest rates have raised fears of an explosion of the housing
bubble of the past years.
This is expressed by the de facto bankruptcy of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which represent trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities, and whose implosion would wreck US capital markets.
The Federal Reserve now says that even the biggest banks may
not be too big to fail. For the average person, the net impact of this
new turbulence is readily seen in the sky-high price of gasoline,
building materials, and related commodities. An integral feature of the
post-coup regime now being planned would be to keep these bankrupt
institutions alive with the help of government bailouts.
Because of the manifest bankruptcy of the United States, the
Anglo-American finance oligarchs fear the termination of the US dollar
as a reserve currency. This would take the form of a dumping of the
dollar as the currency in which the posted price of oil is expressed by
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, and other OPEC states. The former
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Mohammed has issued repeated calls for
such a measure, and also urged Moslem countries to sell off their US
Treasury securities, for financial as well as political reasons. The
far stronger and more stable euro would be the beneficiary of these
moves, and it is the euro which would prove to be far more attractive
to most countries in a world divided into currency blocks.
Finally, there are signs that the absurd myth propagated by the US
government and the controlled corporate media about the events of 9-11
is fraying. Although the Kean-Hamilton Commission has been on the whole
a half-baked farce, it has unavoidably produced a number of facts as a
by-product of its proceedings – facts which have begun to undermine
public belief in the Myth. David Ray Griffin's book The New Pearl
Harbor has emerged as a runaway best-seller in the wake of similar
books in France and Germany, and is now among the top ten on
amazon.com. Calls have multiplied for a serious independent
international truth commission on 9-11 to do the work the Kean-Hamilton
cover-up has refused to address. A dismantling of the 9-11 myth would
lead, in all probability, to the collapse of the US Republican Party
and related institutions in the context of a general party
re-alignment.
Taken together, these developments would add up to the collapse of the
entire US imperialist system. The protagonists of the coming terror are
determined to disrupt these processes, imposing on the world a regime
of unilateral US diktat and military intervention, with a domestic
police state to make sure that no opposition emerges on the home front.
What the Neocons Fear
The neocons are also deeply concerned about their own personal fate.
During their assent, this exceptionally ideological and close-knit
faction has by its arrogance and incompetence made many enemies. During
May, there have been repeated editorial calls for the firing of not
just Rumsfeld, but also of Wolfowitz and the other neocons who have
made such a mess of the Pentagon. The demand to oust Rumsfeld and
Wolfowitz has also been raised by the veteran Republican Senators who
exercise great authority within that body. According to press accounts,
Senators Warner and McCain led a group of about a dozen senior GOP
leaders who called on Bush to demand the sacking of Rumsfeld and
Wolfowitz as a matter of urgent political expediency. Bush reportedly
sat stony-faced and said nothing.
Time magazine and the New York Times have both published reports that
the investigation of Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress
(INC) may, in fact, involve a hunt for someone in the White House or
Pentagon who could be guilty of treason in passing top secret
intelligence to Chalabi. The information that Chalabi and his
intelligence chief Aras Karim Habib are alleged to have passed to the
government of Iran "was highly classified, and known only to a few in
the U.S. government,'' wrote Time's Romesh Ratnesar.
"The probe will examine whether U.S. officials illegally transmitted state secrets to
the INC. The investigation could ultimately reach high-ranking civilian
officials at the Pentagon and the Defense Intelligence Agency who had
dealings with Chalabi and his organization.'' Ratnesar cites "a senior
U.S. official'' as his source. New York Times reporters David Johnston
and Richard Oppel, Jr. also citing ``government officials,'' called the
information `"so highly classified that federal investigators have
intensified their inquiry to find out whether anyone in the American
government gave the material to Mr. Chalabi.''
They also cite ``intelligence officials'' saying that the probe, by the FBI, centers
on the handful of U.S. officials with regular contact with Chalabi in
Washington, and an even smaller number who had access to the
intelligence. ``Most of them are at the Pentagon,'' they wrote;
however, Chalabi himself, on `"Meet the Press'' on May 23, acknowledged
three personal meetings with Vice President Cheney. Right-wing
columnist Robert Novak, in a Washington Post op-ed on the Chalabi
scandal, comments on a different angle within the Republican Party and
the uniformed military:
"Republican Senators, who do not yet want to be
quoted by name, feel there must be some accountability for this massive
blunder, as there must be for the prisoner abuse scandal. They want the
President at least to consider'' firing Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and
perhaps others of the neo-con gang. Rumsfeld the senior Republican
Congressional leaders are backed in this, by high U.S. military brass.
(Time, May 25, NY Times May 24, 2004)
Richard Perle is the target of a huge civil suit growing out of his
involvement in the fraudulent conveyances and embezzlement carried out
by the neocon press baron and moneybags Lord Conrad Black, who appears
to have taken money from Hollinger to help fund neocon think tanks like
the American Enterprise Institute. Perle has worked closely with the
purloining Lord in recent years, and might also face criminal charges
in this case.
There is also the special prosecutor investigating the leaking to
Robert Novak of the fact that Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush critic
Ambassador Joseph Wilson (who exposed the fraud of the Bush 2002 State
of the Union charges that Iraq had sought uranium yellowcake in Niger)
was working for the CIA. Prime suspects are Bush's political strategist
Karl Rove, and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Revealing the
identity of a CIA agent is a serious felony under federal law.
Countervailing Tendencies?
The situation of the party of terrorism inside the United States is
uncertain. The political leaders who would be the beneficiaries of new
terror attacks would be figures like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz,
Ashcroft, Ridge, and the neocon Gestapo (as Colin Powell calls it) in
general. The main agencies for their dictatorship would be FEMA
(Federal Emergency Management Agency), Ridge's Department of Homeland
Security, the Department of Justice, and the FBI. The US military,
especially the US Army, has now become profoundly disillusioned with
the Bush-Cheney preventive war policy. They also resent being
scapegoated for the Abu Graib atrocities, which were ordered by CIA,
DIA, and Cheney's mercenary contractors. Some generals now realize that
a successful terror coup, which would have the result of cementing the
current gang in power for the foreseeable future – without benefit of
checks and balances – would guarantee that US forces would be fed into
meatgrinders far worse than Iraq.
In addition to Syria, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba, a post –coup USD regime could not avoid collision with China and/or Russia. It remains to be seen whether this awareness will
be enough to motivate the US military to do something to stop the coup
which is now imminent. Similar considerations apply to the State
Department, which has virtually no place in the post-coup world eagerly
planned by the neocons.
Sidney Blumenthal, a former advisor to the Clinton Administration, now
with Salon.com, wrote a piece in the Guardian on how the U.S. officer
corps has turned against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The
piece, by, is headlined "America's Military Coup." Retired General
William Odom, who was the head of the National Security Agency, the
main US electronic spying center, and who is now at the Hudson
Institute, is quoted saying: "It was never in our interest to go into
Iraq. It is a diversion from the war on terrorism; the rationale for
the Iraq war (finding WMD) is phony; the US army is overstretched and
being driven into the ground; and the prospect of building a democracy
is zero. In Iraqi politics legitimacy is going to be tied to expelling
us. Wisdom in military affairs dictates withdrawal in this situation.
We can't afford to fail, that's mindless. The issue is how we stop
failing more. I am arguing a strategic decision." Another military
figure told Blumenthal that Rumsfeld was "detested" and that "if
there's a sentiment in the army it is: support our troops, impeach
Rumsfeld." Blumenthal then references an essay by Lt.Col. Charles
Dunlap, which had received a prize in 1992 from then General Colin
Powell.
The title of the piece was "The Origins of the American
Military Coup of 2012," which was a cautionary tale of how the U.S.
military launched a coup because of the failures of the government.
(Guardian, May 13, 2004) Former CENTCOM commanders Zinni and Hoar have
also published attacks on the Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz policies. One account
suggested that, given the degree of military hatred against the
administration, any other country would have already witnessed a
military coup.
The US Congress ought to be particularly concerned, since one of the
most plausible coup scenarios features the destruction of the US
Capitol and its adjacent office buildings, exterminating large numbers
of Senators, Congressmen, and staff. Incredibly, the Congress is
conniving in its own liquidation through the bill ordering instant
elections to replace deceased Congressmen which is now making its way
in to law. The gullible lawmakers would seem to be signing their own
death warrant, since if there is anything that would facilitate the
erection of a police state, it is the lack of an intact and functioning
legislative branch – a fact illustrated all too well by the Nazi
burning of the German Reichstag shortly after Hitler's seizure of
power. But will the Congress act?
France, Germany, and Russia are the countries with the best recent
track record in opposing the illegal aggressions of the US government. They
need to ponder the devastating challenge to their vital national
interests that would be represented by the events now leading toward a
coup d'etat in the United States. They must mobilize their forces,
including their intelligence agencies, to expose, disrupt, and
frustrate the preparations now being made. The same imperative applies
to the other Europeans, China, India, the Arab and Islamic states, and
the Latin Americans. None could hope to avoid costly confrontation with
a post-coup US bandit regime. Enlightened self-interest ought to
dictate that they take all possible measures to prevent the terror
actions which are the only means the US neocons have of consolidating
their power.
But supporters of civilization around the world cannot wait for the
actions of their government. There are concrete and highly effective
measures they can and moist take at once to defend the survival of
humanity. They should:
What to Do?
Make this analysis into the basis for a parliamentary question in your
nation's parliament.
Bring this analysis to alternative media outlets, or to major media
wherever possible. In the US, bombard talk radio hosts with the demand
that they speak out against this new state-sponsored terrorism.
Inform trade union leaders. They should announce that their response to
a state-sponsored terror coup in the US would be an open-ended general
strike.
Bring this analysis to the attention of lawyers, jurists, university
students, civil liberties groups, humanitarians, and other persons of
good will. Ask them to join in warning public opinion about what is
being prepared.
Webster Griffin Tarpley is a historian and journalist based in
Washington DC. He is the author of the best-selling critical study
George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992), on the internet at
www.tarpley.net.
www.infowars.com/print/Bush/planned_attack_tarpley.htm
Original: THE SUMMER OF TERROR 2004