\n\t\t| \n\n\n\n26 November 2001\n<\/b>\n\n\t\t<\/td>\n\t\t | \n\n\nMonday\n<\/b>\n\n\t\t<\/td>\n\t\t | \n\n\n\n10 Ramazan 1422\n<\/b>\n\t\t<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
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\n\nUS has no proof to get Osama convicted: Chomsky\n\n<\/b>
\n\nBy Intikhab Hanif\n\n<\/b>
LAHORE, Nov 25: US scholar Dr Noam Chomsky\r\non Sunday said America wanted Osama bin Laden dead and not alive because\r\nit did not have any proof to get him convicted in a court of law.
\r\n \"If captured alive it will be difficult for America to try Osama in a court\r\nof law and that is why it considers it better to kill him,\" he said while\r\nreplying to questions at a forum of a local newspaper.
The Sept\r\n11 plane attacks on America did not mark a beginning of its end. The happening\r\nmerely changed the history, as it involved the first-ever massive attack\r\nthis time on a major developed country in hundreds of years. But it will\r\nnot change the social and economic and political system of America and the\r\nworld, he said.
Prof Chomsky said it was true that all past empires\r\nfell. But the peak of the US power was in 1945 when it possessed half of\r\nthe world's wealth and a huge military force. But by 1970 this wealth was\r\nreduced to 25 per cent.
Now, he said, there were three major power\r\ncentres, the US based west, the German based West and the Japan and China\r\nbased South East Asia. The events on Sept 11 will not change this set up. \r\n
Prof Chomsky said the Kashmiri people had the right to self- determination\r\nbut the dispute could be resolved only by Pakistan and India through the\r\nsympathetic recognition of each others stand point.
\"America is\r\nnot favouring any of the parties to the conflict. It wants to go its own\r\nway and is showing one side of the picture to Pakistan and another to India.\r\nIt merely wants both the countries to be nice subordinates, desiring that\r\nIslamabad must stop support to violence in the held Kashmir,\" the US scholar\r\nsaid.
He termed the attack on Afghanistan merely an act of establishing\r\nthe power and credibility of America and its allies. Even bombing Taliban\r\nsoldiers was a crime, an illegal act and sheer exercise of power, he said. \r\n
Prof Chomsky said the CIA, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab\r\ncountries created mercenaries in Afghanistan. \"Yes, Afghans had the right\r\nto defend the USSR invasion but America and Muslim countries had no right\r\nto raise mercenaries in Afghanistan,\" he said
He said the USSR invaded\r\nAfghanistan in December 1979, which was a crime, but the US started supporting\r\nthe Mujahideen there six months earlier to fight against their government\r\nand to \"invite and trap\" the USSR in Afghanistan. \"The plan was successful,\"\r\nhe said.
Prof Chomsky said China and Iran too were playing their\r\ngame in the region before 1978. Pakistan also got involved and they all destroyed\r\nAfghanistan, he claimed.
He said both the USSR and the US used the\r\ncold war as a pretext to establish their hegemony in the world and to block\r\neach other. But the same policy continued even after the demise of the USSR\r\nas the US invaded Panama using this time not to defend the country against\r\n\"Moscow but against Spanish drug lords\". The cold war was an illusion and\r\nthe Third World was its victim.
The US scholar said the Central\r\nAsia had oil reserves but these were much less than those in the Gulf region.\r\nThe Central Asian states were not the major source of attraction for their\r\noil reserves as the cold energy (technology) will soon replace the hot energy. \r\n
He said sarcastically referred to the pro-establishment intellectuals\r\nas wise men and said they were the associates of policy makers. \"If you\r\ndon't support the power, you are not considered intellectual,\" he said.
\r\n Prof Chomsky said people in the US were not given full information but still\r\nthere were occasions when public opinion led to a change in the policy. To\r\nprove his point he quoted the examples of the Kennedy and Reagan administrations\r\nwhich made military experiments in Vietnam and Central America and had to\r\nworry about the public reactions against it.
He said the long war\r\nin Vietnam had created strong public opinion against the US administration\r\nbut it stopped the aggression when the business community, which matters\r\nand not the people, said that the conflict had become costly. \"A delegation\r\nof the business community went to Washington and asked the president to resign,\r\nstop bombing and start withdrawing army as the war is costing too much,\"\r\nhe said.
Prof Chomsky said the Reagan administration tried to duplicate\r\nthe action of the Kennedy administration in Vietnam and the media supported\r\nboth the regimes. \"But, the US action against weaker nations must end rapidly\r\nbecause the public support erodes quickly,\" he said.
America raised\r\nthe slogan of the star war to eliminate nuclear weapons whereas it was meant\r\nto accelerate the arms race and was opposed by the people. \"They do respond\r\nto public voice, but as they defend the power, it happens occasionally,\"\r\nhe said.
Prof Chomsky said those who press for democracy were not\r\nserving the West because this was the last thing the West would want. \"The\r\nWest want subordinate system no matter it is being run by military dictator,\"\r\nhe said.
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\r\n<\/td>\n | \n© The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2001\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.dawn.com\/cgi-bin\/dina.pl?file=top4.htm&date=20011126","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"By Intikhab Hanif\r\nLAHORE, Nov 25: US scholar Dr Noam Chomsky on Sunday said America wanted Osama bin Laden dead and not alive because it did not have any proof to get him convicted in a court of law.......","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/11\/top4.html","filesize":"8.7 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/11\/13155.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]} | |