Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed – The War on Freedom

400 Pages·2002·1.12 MB·English

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How and Why America was Attacked,
September 11th, 2001
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Tree of Life Publications
Joshua Tree, California
A Media Messenger Book
A Public Interest Initiative of the
Institute for Policy Research & Development
The War on Freedom:
How and Why America was Attacked, September 11th, 2001
www.Thewaronfreedom.com,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOnFreedom
Copyright © 2002 Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Executive Director,
Institute for Policy Research & Development
Suite 414, 91 Western Road, Brighton,
East Sussex, BN1 2NW, United Kingdom,
E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.globalresearch.org.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, written,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
“Backword” Copyright © 2002 John Leonard
Edited & Published by
Tree of Life Publications, PO Box 126, Joshua Tree, CA 92252
E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.treeoflifebooks.com
In cooperation with
Media Monitors Network, www.mediamonitors.net
Cover Design
Michael Mursell, a fish in sea
PO Box 22398, London, W13 9XL, England
[email protected]
International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 0-930852-40-0
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2002107291
A Media Messenger Book
Printed in the United States of America
by BooksJustBooks.com
First printing, June 2002
Unabridged edition.
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Critical acclaim for
THE WAR ON FREEDOM
“This riveting and thoroughly documented study is a ‘must’ resource for
everyone seeking to understand the attack on the World Trade Center of New
York on September 11, 2001 and ‘America’s New War’ since. It connects
together over 10 years of relevant covert actions and decisions by top-level
U.S. security-state operations, and organises the whole into a coherent and
devastating exposé of the real meaning and construction of the historic turn
of ‘the war against terrorism’ now rewriting laws and constitutions across
borders. For those who have seen or filed facts on these matters from web-
disclosures and scattered revelations of newspapers, this volume provides the
detailed documentation in a definitive and masterful record.”
Professor John McMurtry, Department of Philosophy, University of
Ontario; Fellow at the Royal Society of Canada; Chair of Jurists, War
Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Tribunal at the Alternative
World Summit in Toronto, 1989 (Canada)
“The most complete book I know of, summarizing the relevant background
and foreground intersecting upon the events of September 11, 2001... A tour de
force in every respect: organization, methodology, timeliness, clarity of
purpose and of scope, activist commitment to more inquiry, evenness, relative
comprehensiveness… I can’t say how much I admire this work. It must be seen
by as many people as possible all over the world as soon as possible.”
Barry Zwicker, Producer and Host, MediaFile, Vision TV Insight;
award-winning journalist on CBC-TV and CTV (Canada)
“The material you have collected is immensely important and useful. You
look at the right subjects and report a number of things I had missed entirely…
We need more people doing the important research that you have done.”
Professor Peter Dale Scott, Co-Founder of the Peace and Conflict
Studies Program, University of California, Berkeley (United States)
“Powerful, disturbing, and interesting indeed. Your excellent research on
the background of Sep 11 should become known to a larger audience.”
Professor Arno Tausch, Institute for Political Science,
University of Innsbruck (Austria)
“A meticulous investigation of circumstances, events and circumstantial
evidence of what really happened before and on September 11. There aren’t
many people who still take the task of following the trails of their own
doubts… Your excellent report goes deep into what really happened and
what the American defense machinery had let happen.”
Peter G. Spengler, Editor, Contemporary Studies (Germany)
Dedication
This study is dedicated to the innocent civilians murdered
in the terrorist attacks against the United States on
11th September 2001, their families, their friends,
and to all the other victims of terrorism around the world,
including those killed, injured and starving in Afghanistan.
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A T A
BOUT HE UTHOR
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, a British political scientist and human rights
activist, is Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research &
Development in Brighton, UK, www.globalresearch.org, a ‘think tank’
dedicated to the promotion of human rights, justice and peace.
Ahmed is the author of many internationally acclaimed research papers
and reports on human rights practices and Western foreign policy. He has
been invited to lecture on U.S. foreign policy in various universities and
educational establishments around the world. He has been an Oxfam
Campaigner since 1996.
Ahmed’s work on the history and development of the conflict in
Afghanistan as a consequence of international policies, has been
recommended as a resource by Harvard University’s Program on
Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, the Department of
Communications Studies at California State University, and the English
Department at Warren College on Staten Island. His archive of political
analyses, published on the Web by Media Monitors Network in Los Angeles,
has been nominated a Cool Site on the Netscape Open Directory Project. He
was also recently named a Global Expert on War, Peace and International
Affairs by The Freedom Network of The Henry Hazlitt Foundation in
Chicago. A rising star, Ahmed is still only 23 years old, is married and lives
in Brighton.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Professor Andre Gunder Frank, currently at the
Department of History in the University of Nebraska, for reading various
successive drafts of my manuscript and providing detailed advice on content and
structure. Relevant data that he also provided was very useful in following up
specific leads and uncovering pertinent facts. I am indebted to social philosopher
Professor John McMurtry of the Department of Philosophy at the University of
Guelph, Ontario, for his thorough review of the manuscript shortly prior to
publication. I must also express my gratitude to the former Canadian diplomat
and leading political scientist Professor Peter Dale Scott of the University of
California, Berkeley, for pointing out some potential holes and flaws in my
argument. My friend, Johnathan G. Baston (Abdul Nasser), a British local
government health officer and active human rights campaigner, must be credited
for his initial analysis and speculations that led me to embark on this project in
the first place. Baston must also be thanked for assessing an early draft of the
manuscript and making invaluable suggestions for further research. Kamran
Naqui, another good friend, deserves due praise for scouring an early, messy
draft of the manuscript with a fine-tooth comb. I cannot forget to mention Aamir
Jiwa, who looked through the earliest pilot version of this study and gave me
welcome encouragement. I must express my heartfelt appreciation to John
Leonard, without whose indefatigable efforts this study would not be published.
A special thanks is due to Mrs. Erika Anderson, without whose unexpected and
invaluable contributions, this book could never have got to the printers. Media
Monitors Network Chief Editor Ali Khan was also a constant source of
invaluable support and advice. I must also thank Michael Mursell (www.
afishinsea.co.uk) for his inspired cover designs. Others who deserve thanks
include Mark Jones, who dropped an early draft of this study into his A-List,
thus leading to highly useful comments and criticisms, and Louis Proyect, whose
rigid opposition to my thesis provided me with crucial insight into how to
formulate it properly. I also thank Greg Bates of Common Courage Press, who
kindly took the time to assess the manuscript and offer very useful criticisms and
suggestions. I should also mention my father-in-law, whose support, advice and
pointers throughout this project and beyond, have been priceless. My mother and
father also deserve due recognition for putting up with me while I was struggling
to discover my true vocation; if they hadn’t put up with me then, this study
would not exist. In connection with the task of enduring my vocation, I must
most of all thank my wife, who has been a constant source of support, advice,
inspiration and peace. Without her ideas, pointers, and provision of important
data, this study would not be what it is. Last but not least, I would like to thank
our baby, who has been a source of strength and resolve for the future. Needless
to say, as the author, I bear sole responsibility for the contents of this work.
Table of Contents 7
Table of Contents
Preface 10
Foreword: a Synopsis 12
Executive Summary 14
1. The Role of the International Community in the Afghan Crisis 19
Cold War Imperialism.......................................................................20
Afghanistan After the Cold War........................................................23
Northern Alliance Rule 1992-1996.....................................................24
The Rise of the Taliban.....................................................................27
Humanitarian Catastrophe Under Factional War.................................29
Misogynism Under Taliban Rule .......................................................32
The Distortion of Islam.....................................................................34
2. The United States, Afghanistan and the Taliban, 1994-2001 41
Turning a Blind Eye..........................................................................41
America and the Taliban: Dancing with the Devil...............................44
U.S. Support of the Taliban...............................................................48
The Decline of the U.S.-Taliban Alliance and U.S. War Plans.............54
3. Strategic Design Behind U.S. War Plans 68
Contemplating Central Asia...............................................................68
Strategies for Intervention by the Council on Foreign Relations...........73
The Irrelevance of Bin Laden............................................................77
4. Warning Signs of 9-11 and Intelligence Failures 81
Using Planes as Bombs.....................................................................81
Al-Qaeda’s Plans: Project Bojinka.....................................................82
Post-Bojinka Intelligence Gathering...................................................85
Air Authorities Were Warned of Bojinka............................................90
Intensification of Surveillance After Confirmation of Bojinka Plans....92
High-Level Government Blocks on Intelligence Investigations.........106
Multiple Intelligence Warnings Converged on 11th September...........113
11th September Warnings Were Not Ignored by U.S. Authorities.......124
The U.S. Intelligence Community....................................................126
5. The Collapse of Standard Operating Procedures on 9-11 144
Standard Operating Procedures for Air Emergencies.........................145
Flights 175 and 11..........................................................................149
Flight 77.........................................................................................153
Flight 93.........................................................................................160
An Overview of the Collapse of SOP on 9-11...................................160
Myers and Bush on 9-11: Negligence Points to Complicity...............164
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6. American Ties with the Most Wanted Man on Earth 176
Osama bin Laden and the CIA: Cold War Allies...............................176
Osama: Not a Black Sheep..............................................................178
Bush and Bin Laden Family Ties.....................................................179
Osama and the Saudis: a Covert Alliance.........................................187
The U.S.-Saudi Alliance..................................................................191
Osamagate?...................................................................................197
U.S. Protection of Osama................................................................203
The U.S.-Pakistan Alliance and the ISI............................................214
7. The New War: Power and Profit, at Home and Abroad 236
The Bush Crisis..............................................................................236
Exploiting 9-11...............................................................................240
Starving to Death, Waiting to be Killed............................................241
The Air War...................................................................................248
Securing Regional U.S. Interests.....................................................257
9-11: From Crisis to Silver Lining....................................................262
The New American Police State......................................................265
Imperialism at Home......................................................................275
9-11: Who Benefits?.......................................................................279
Conclusions 290
Appendix A: Excerpts from Hearings on U.S. Interests in the Central
Asian Republics 301
Appendix B: Excerpts from Hearings on Global Terrorism and South
Asia 312
Appendix C: Pearl Harbor and Operation Northwoods 322
Appendix D: Excerpts from Declassified Northwoods Documents 326
Backword: Where would we be without our Wars? 329
Cutting up......................................................................................349
The Smoking Gun...........................................................................361
The Pattern of Provocation..............................................................363
Conclusions....................................................................................376
Index 385
Quotations 9
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,
by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous
rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the
weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic
processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and
knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge
industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful
methods and goals, so that security and liberty may
prosper together.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America,
Farewell Address (17 January 1961)
“Turkistan, Afghanistan, Transcaspia, Persia... are the pieces on a
chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the dominance
of the world.”
Lord George Curzon, British Foreign Secretary,
Russia in Central Asia (1889)
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Lord John Acton, Regius Professor of Modern History
at Cambridge University (1887)
“Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”
Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States of America,
Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)
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Preface
On the 11th September 2001, a catastrophe occurred which signaled
unprecedented transformations in world order. Two hijacked jetliners hit the
World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City, a third hit the Pentagon
outside Washington, and a fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field in
Pennsylvania. Trading on Wall Street stopped. The Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) halted all flight operations at U.S. airports. President
Bush addressed the nation, vowing to “find those responsible and bring them
to justice.” Hundreds of New York City firemen and policemen sent to
rescue WTC workers were lost when the WTC Twin Towers collapsed. So
far, the confirmed death toll appears to be just under 3,000.
The world has, indeed, changed forever—but not necessarily in the way
slavishly described by the majority of academic and media commentators.
This study analyses the events of 11th September 2001, the responses of U.S.
government, military, and intelligence agencies, as well as the historical,
strategic and economic context of current U.S. policy. The study examines
the development of U.S. policy prior to, and in the aftermath of, the 11th
September attacks, in relation to Afghanistan and the surrounding region, as
well as within the U.S. It builds on the conclusions of previous papers by this
author, Afghanistan, the Taliban and the United States: The Role of Human
Rights in Western Foreign Policy1 and Distortion, Deception and Terrorism:
The Bombing of Afghanistan,2 as well as the work of other researchers.
The study begins by examining the history of U.S. policy in Afghanistan
from the 1980s to the year 2001. It highlights evidence that a war on
Afghanistan had been planned for several years prior to the terrible tragedy
that occurred on 11th September on U.S. soil. It attempts to explore the
interests from which these U.S. military plans may have sprung, principally
those related to the strategic and economic domination of Central Asia and
the Caspian. The study further investigates the multiple warnings of the 11th
September attacks received by the U.S. intelligence community, and in that
context considers in detail the U.S. response to those attacks. It also
investigates the history of relations between the U.S. and Osama bin Laden,
and their possible impact on the events of the 11th September.
The study then considers the developments in Afghanistan as well as
within the United States, as a consequence of the U.S.-led military
intervention that began in October 2001. The purpose of this study is not to
provide exhaustive conclusions, but to point to the most pertinent questions
and issues that have as yet to be thoroughly examined in a comprehensive
manner, by assessing the facts on record.