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READER SAYS EMPEROR'S CLOTHES WRONG ON BIN LADEN, 9-11
[Posted 28 September 2001]
(The discussion refers to 'The Creation Called Osama'
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/creat.htm )
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To Emperor's Clothes:
Letter from Attorney J.B. (name withheld)
Hello!
Contrary to the article, 'The Creation called Osama", the news media has not hidden
the true story of bin Laden. Must you guys find United States conspiracies and lies in
everything? Is there a country that does not lie? You make it sound like the US is
this evil country that gets what it deserves. While it is true that our own actions
can be traced as a cause of the terrorist attacks, they are not THE cause, or the
proximate cause as we say at law. You guys have the "boy who cried wolf" mentality,
who find a conspiracy in everything, who read only what you feel is "between the
lines" and not the lines themselves... This shows a tremendous bias in your reporting.
Nonetheless, thank you for your columns and I will keep reading them.
- Signed, Attorney J.B. (full name withheld)
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Editor, Jared Israel replies: "The Creation Called Osama" Does Have an Error, But...
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Dear Attorney J.B.:
Thank you for the compliment of continuing to read Emperor's Clothes despite
disagreements.
You say, "You make it sound like the US is this evil country that gets what it
deserves."
We don't believe that, period. Ordinary people in this country - the people who were
killed and terrorized September 11 - are innocent. They did not "get what they
deserve." They deserve to be alive, with their loved ones. New York did not deserve to
be trashed.
The 200 murdered firemen did not bomb Yugoslavia. The porters and janitors and
cleaning ladies and rest of the army of workers at the Towers did not starve the
children of Iraq.
The small number of people responsible for crimes that have been committed in
America's name did not suffer on 9-11. And now these powerful forces are using the
tragic deaths for their own gain, to create a cloud of anger to justify strategic
military moves under the guise of a phony "infinite war against terror."
By the way, we often use 'U.S.' to mean the government, as is commonly done in news
analysis. (For example, a journalist might write, 'Today France declared,' when
obviously France is not capable of declaring anything.)
Regarding the article, "The Creation Called Osama," you say "The news media has not
hidden the true story of bin Laden."
Please keep in mind, the article was reprinted from "The Hindu" so we couldn't edit
it. It contains useful points. It's also partly wrong, as you noted. Here is what I
observed about media coverage of bin Laden.
The first few days after the WTC attacks almost nothing appeared in the media about
bin Laden. Then the story came out on the Internet. Only after that was it covered in
the mass media; and this coverage was consistently inaccurate. Worse than nothing.
Bin Laden's public image was created in 1998, after the U.S. government bombed a pill
factory in Sudan and "terrorist training camps" in Afghanistan. I wrote an article
analyzing news coverage of those bombing raids. I could find only one report (1)
mentioning the fact that the CIA had built the 'training camps' the U.S. bombed. (My
article, called 'Credible Deception,' is at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/sudan.html (1a))
Starting back in 1998, the government and media gave people the impression bin Laden
was an all-powerful evil genius, controlling terror all over the world. This view,
reminiscent of comic book villains, has stuck.
Starting around Sept. 13th, the CIA connection began being discussed widely in the
media, but with crucial distortions.
Distortion #1: The CIA only supported Afghan Islamist terrorists against Russia. (That
is, Washington simply chose some bad allies.)
Reality: Does a parent ally with his child? Washington instigated the war in
Afghanistan (2) and Washington deliberately created the violent Islamist movement,
utilizing for this purpose the harsh Wahhibi version of Islam pushed by U.S. ally
Saudi Arabia. Some say this was 'just a bad mistake,' but it involved debate in the
highest circles and careful planning and vast sums of money and the intimate
participation of the covert forces of the U.S. and junior partners. As late as this
May, President Bush promised to send the Taliban another 43 million dollars. (2a)
Distortion # 2: "Bin Laden's network" is the source of all terror.
Reality: Nonsense. Bin laden couldn't exist without the Taliban which took control of
Afghanistan (and much of the drug trade) and the Taliban could only do these things
because they were supported by the U.S.-controlled Pakistani secret police, the ISI.
(3) Before you conclude that "U.S.-controlled" is too strong, consider how fast the
ISI buckled concerning the Taliban once the U.S applied pressure.
The Taliban fulfilled, or were supposed to fulfill, a key US strategy: to threaten the
former Soviet Republics in Central Asia. The message was: cooperate with the US
(especially, let the U.S. military take over your defense apparatus with U.S.
advisers, arms, etc.) or the Taliban will get you. It is because the Taliban has
proved inadequate for this task that the U.S. government is now moving to take
Afghanistan into receivership.
Distortion # 3: We are told bin Laden broke with the U.S. during the Gulf War.
Reality: Who knows the truth? We're dealing with covert forces here. If he did break,
why have he and, more important, a whole army of Islamist terrorists been involved on
the side of U.S.-backed (or U.S. created!) terrorists in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia?
[See: http://emperors-clothes.com/news/binl.htm ]
By pushing the comic book notion of the Evil Genius bin Laden, the Clinton and Bush
administrations have hidden the amazing fact that the US Establishment has created a
giant terrorist apparatus throughout the Balkans and Central Asia. It has even
involved the UN in creating a front group for the terrorists in Kosovo - the Kosovo
protection Corps. (3a) Terrorists attacking Macedonia are paid members of this UN
group, this "Protection Corp". True, some of these people are Islamists who -
paradoxically - hate the U.S.
This apparatus has been used to smash groups inclined to resist the U.S. drive to
conquer the former Soviet Union. That is why the terrorists are especially active in
the geo-strategic Balkans and Central Asia. If they aren't planning to attack Russia,
why have the U.S. elite got Russia surrounded?
The third region strategic for attacking Russia is the Baltic area. The U.S. has
pushed for the active active involvement of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania in NATO. Lithuania was the staging ground for recent maneuvers by 14
countries including Germany and the U.S.
This is clearly meant as a military threat to Belarus, a former Soviet state between
Lithuania and Russia, whose government has disdained Washington control. The U.S. is
sponsoring some 300 organizations in Belarus. One for every 30,000 inhabitants. If you
want to know the purpose of these organizations, the U.S. Ambassador to Belarus
recently made it perfectly clear.
Ambassador Michael Kozak announced that his government has a 'Nicaraguan"-type policy
towards Belarus. The Ambassador was referring to Washington's creation and sponsorship
of the Contra drug-gangsters (remember Iran/Contra?) whom Washington organized to
terrorize Nicaragua during the 1980s. The goal was to destroy the left-nationalist
Sandanista government. Kozak was himself a U.S. operative in that terror campaign, so
his outrageous threat should be taken seriously. (3b)
Thus, again, terror as a political weapon.
The U.S. attack on Belarus clearly violates international law - for instance, the
Helsinki Final Act, which the U.S., by the way, signed. Perhaps Mr. Bush is unaware
that the Helsinki Final Act exists. Perhaps his understanding of international law is:
'We do what we want and you do what we want or we kill you.' [An excerpt from the
Helsinki Final Act is posted near the end of this discussion.]
Why is there no uproar in the U.S. Congress about the violent, illegal attack on
Belarus which risks nuclear war? Belarus is allied with Russia and is nuclear-armed.
Why is the U.S. government doing these things if it wants peace and is uninterested in
seizing control of the former Soviet Union?
The Washington-created terrorist apparatus has been used to crush secular and
multiethnic regimes. The victims - especially Serbia and Macedonia - are then
slandered in the Western media. "Human Rights Groups" (4) controlled by the U.S.
foreign policy establishment are dispatched to victim countries and 'discover' that
these places (e.g., Serbia and Macedonia) are cruel and abusive in fighting the
terrorists that the same U.S. foreign policy elite has sent to attack them. It's a
nightmare.
The American people do not support Imperial aggression. But if they feel they are
being attacked, they support extreme actions. The powers-that-be can use Islamist
terrorists to stage seeming 'outside attacks' to whip up a war fever. Given the
complex web the CIA has woven in creating and nurturing terrorism, it is perfectly
possible for the CIA to motivate a group of these people to do something to attack
ordinary American people (whom they loathe) without the terrorists knowing the real
origin of the orders or even the full plan of the attack.
- Jared Israel
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Attorney JB responds: You're Going Too Far!
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Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
While I can see the apparent plausibility of many of your arguments, I do not see how
you make the leap to the following statement:
"It is perfectly possible for the CIA to motivate a > group of these people to > do
something to attack ordinary American people > without the terrorists knowing > the
real origin of the orders or even the full plan > of the attack"
I grant that this is POSSIBLE, but you seem to be suggesting that it may have
happened. Yes, we helped to create the monster attack dog, and we can see that the dog
bit us hard; but are you suggesting that the CIA directed these guys to conduct the
9-11-01 attacks? If so, what would the reason be for such an outrage? You may consider
this a naive view, but I cannot consider as remotely possible the suggestion that our
own government was directly involved in actively launching these attacks.
- Peace, JB
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Jared Israel responds: You 'Underestimate' Our Exalted Leaders
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I don't think you're naïve. I think you're smart and sane. Therefore you make the
mistake of thinking those on top are like you. You have trouble believing they are mad
with lust for power. Their God is money. They view ordinary Americans the way an
agribusiness views chickens.
The U.S. Establishment has been staging fake incidents to justify wars for a hundred
years. US operatives blew up the Maine, a second class battleship in Havana Harbor in
1898, killing 266 U.S. sailors. Why? To justify the War with Spain which netted the
U.S. elite the control of Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. In the process,
a million Filipinos were slaughtered. The tactics used in the Philippines were just
like those employed later in Vietnam, as described by Colin Powell:
"In his 1995 autobiography, My American Journey, Powell describes burning [Vietnamese]
peasants out of their huts in 1963, 'starting the blaze with Ronson and Zippo
lighters.'
"'Why were we torching homes and destroying crops?' Powell asks rhetorically. 'Ho Chi
Minh had said the people were like the sea in which his guerillas swam. We tried to
solve the problem by making the whole sea uninhabitable.'" (Quoted in "Nobody's hero,"
at http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2504/edit2504.html)
If this man could commit such war crimes as a soldier, imagine what he is capable of
as an exalted leader.
The bombing of North Vietnm was "legalized" by the Congressional passage of the Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution. This was pushed through based on the lie that North Vietnamese
boats fired on US destroyers. (See former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee's
comments, at the end, after 'Further Reading.')
Another example - former El Salvador death Squad organizer William Walker staged the
phony Racak incident to justify the bombing of Serbia.(5)
More - there could not have been massive and consistent media lies about Yugoslavia -
for a decade - without top level "conspiracy." Just check out our article "KLA Attacks
Everyone, Media Attacks...Miloshevich" which proves the American people have been sold
a mound of cow pie concerning that Yugoslav leader. (5A)
Are we wrong? Here's a thought: We'll soon be posting a list of 50 key articles on
Emperor's Clothes. Arranged by subject. Take the Emperor's Clothes challenge. Read any
or all and show us where we're wrong. We'll post the most convincing criticisms, with
replies.
- Jared Israel
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Attorney JB Responds: How Can You Say The US Gains?
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One further thought. Regarding your point about who gained, I don't see how the USA
has gained by 9-11-01: our economy has been at least temporarily hammered; and our
people have suffered and live with a new level of fear. We will perhaps use bases in
some former Soviet republics; but I don't see how this benefits us--after all, that is
an exceedingly poor part of the world, and I do not think that we will establish major
long-term presences there because of recent events. I think peaceful coexistence with
Russia is much more in our national interests than pissing them off by de facto
surrounding them. Putin would not put up with that. You state that money is the God of
our most powerful elements. Maybe so, but this whole venture costs a lot more than it
repays, as far as I can see.
-- Attorney J.B.
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To which editor Jared Israel responds: Not the whole U.S. Just a few.
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The US as a whole did not gain. Part of the US - a very small part - gained. Most
people lost. The difference between you and me is you see one America; I see two. One
part, very small, unbelievably rich, very powerful, along with their untouchable
flunkies in the covert and semi-covert apparatus that dominates U.S. foreign
adventures - that part is using 9-11 to carry forward their very dangerous plans.
You say "I think peaceful coexistence with Russia is much more in our national
interests than pissing them off by de facto surrounding them."
For you, and for millions of other decent Americans, yes. But not for the rulers of
this land.
If you say we are wrong about this then you must explain: why HAS the US government
pushed NATO - a military machine - right to Russia's borders? For fun?
Why is U.S. Ambassador to Belarus saying the U.S. is using terror to break that
independent country? (6)
Why the devastation of Yugoslavia? Why the assault on Macedonia? Why the declaration,
just a few days ago, by the U.S. Ambassador to England, that the Balkans will be a
"prominent theater of operations and training" for NATO. Operations against whom? Why
all this aggressive action when there is no enemy? Unless the goal is the penetration
and conquest of Russia. (7)
You say the former Soviet Union is poor. This is half-true. It has been impoverished
by the aggressive policies of the International Monetary fund which, if applied in the
US, would wipe out the economy. Nevertheless it is one of the richest storehouses of
natural wealth in the world. In addition, it has the capacity, if reunited, to resist
U.S. expansion.
If this explanation is wrong, what does explain the actions summarized above? How can
the U.S. engage in coordinated and aggressive international action by accident?
Further Reading:
1) ''Taliban Camps U.S. bombed in Afghanistan Were Built by NATO' Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/camps.htm
1a) 'Credible Deception' Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/sudan.html
2) 'Why Washington Wants Afghanistan,' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/afghan.htm#8
2a) On involvement of CIA: 'Washington's Backing of Afghan Terrorists: Deliberate
Policy'. This includes an article from the "Washington Post' with an introductory note
from 'Emperor's Clothes'. Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/anatomy.htm
On $43 million aid: "The Bush administration has not been deterred [by talk of Taliban
atrocities]. Last week it pledged another $ 43 million in assistance to Afghanistan,
raising total aid this year to $ 124 million and making the United States the largest
humanitarian donor to the country." ('The Washington Post,' 25 May 2001)
3) 'Washington's Pakistani Allies: Drug Dealers, Killers' Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/allies.htm
3a) 'How will you plead at the trial, Mr.Annan? 'Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/howwill.htm
3b) 'For Nicaragua, Read Belarus' Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/alm.htm
4) 'WHY 'HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH' IS GUNNING FOR MACEDONIA' Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/treanor/hrw.htm
5) 'The Racak Incident' Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/racak.htm
5a) 'KLA Attacks Everyone. Media Attacks...Miloshevich?' Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/expan.htm
6) 'Tough Measures Needed in Belarus!' Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/tough.htm
7) On Macedonia see: "SORRY, VIRGINIA, BUT THEY ARE NATO TROOPS, NOT 'REBELS'" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/mac/times.htm
Regarding the U.S. making the Balkans a "Prominent theater of operations" see 'NATO
Buildup in the Balkans: Part of a Deadly Game ' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/farish.htm
Former 'Washington Post' Executive Editor Ben Bradlee on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident
"Now let me ask you to jump ahead some eight months to August 1964, still more than 20
years ago, to an issue of Time magazine.
'Through the darkness, from the West and South, the intruders boldly sped. There were
at least six of them, Russian-designed Swatow gunboats armed with 37-mm and 28-mm
guns, and P-4's. At 9.52 they opened fire on the destroyers with automatic weapons,
and this time from as close as 2,000 yards. The night glowed earily with the
nightmarish glare of air dropped flares and boat's searchlights. Two of the enemy
boats went down. '
"That's the kind of vivid detail that the news magazines have made famous. I don't
mean to single out Time. On the same date Life said almost the same thing and that
week's issue of Newsweek had torpedoes whipping by, US ships blazing out salvo after
salvo of shells. It had a PT boat bursting into flames.
"There was only one trouble. There was no battle. There was not a single intruder,
never mind six of them. Never mind Russian designed Swatow gunboats armed with 37mm
and 28mm guns. They never opened fire. They never sank. They never fired torpedoes.
They never were.
"It has really taken 20 years for this truth to emerge. My authority is Admiral Jim
Stockdale, who has written a fascinating book. In Love and War. Jim Stockdale was shot
down over Vietnam a few days later and was a prisoner of the Vietnamese for more than
seven years.
"But on the night in question he was in a Sabre jet fighter flying cover over the
Maddox and the Turner Joy, and he scoured the seas for more than two hours; and he is
as sure as man can be that they were fighting phantom blips on a radar screen.
"In case the Vietnam years have blurred in your minds, or even disappeared from your
screens, may I remind you that this so-called Battle of Tonkin Gulf was the sole basis
of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which was the entire justification for the United
States' war against Vietnam. This non-event happened on August 4, 1964. President
Johnson went on television that very night to ask the country to support a
Congressional resolution. The resolution went to Congress the next day. Two days later
it was approved unanimously by the House and 88-2 by the Senate.
"The 'facts' behind this critically important resolution were quite simply wrong.
Misinformation? Disinformation? Deceit? Whatever! Lies. [This is an excerpt from the
speech by Ben Bradlee, former Executive Editor, 'Washington Post.' It was delivered as
the first James Cameron Memorial Lecture and is quoted in full in 'The Guardian'
(London) April 29, 1987. If anyone would like to read the full text of his talk let us
know and we will post it on tenc.net.]
Excerpt from Helsinki Final Act
The following is from the Helsinki Final Act, considered a centerpiece of modern
International Law, and which the U.S. signed:
"The participating States will refrain in their mutual relations, as well as in their
international relations in general, from the threat or use of force against the
territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner
inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations and with the present Declaration.
No consideration may be invoked to serve to warrant resort to the threat or use of
force in contravention of this principle.
"Accordingly, the participating States will refrain from any acts constituting a
threat of force or direct or indirect use of force against another participating
State. Likewise they will refrain from any manifestation of force for the purpose of
inducing another participating State to renounce the full exercise of its sovereign
rights. Likewise they will also refrain in their mutual relations from any act of
reprisal by force."
All citizens of the U.S. can benefit from reading the Final Act for it gives a
perspective from which to view the U.S. government's actions. It can be read in full
at http://www.hri.org/docs/Helsinki75.html - JI
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include your name or identifying information without getting your approval. If we
cannot reach you, we will assume you wish your name withheld. - Jared Israel, editor.]
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