Title: Re: Bush's Osama bin Laden option ? - Now You See Him... Now You Don't!
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America's overreaction - alienating its slavish following and banishing
the mythical notion of an international community with Washington at
its NATO-enforced head - is probably the only ultimate good that could
ever possibly ensue from Bush's deplorable rabble-rousing in the wake
of events in New York and DC on September 11th 2001. Right now, the
US teeters on the very brink of doing just that and bringing its beloved
New World Order temple down about its own ears.
The trouble is, the President's advisors are likely to have calculated that,
deciding that massive strikes against the poor, indescribably destitute
population of an indescribably poor and impoverished country could be
terminally counter-productive for the NATO alliance. And thus they may
take a far more cynically calculating approach...
With the Western media in their pockets, what's to stop US forces from
making just one or two televisually spectacular but relatively muted
strikes into the remote badlands of Afghanistan... then announcing to the
whole world that Our attacks were successful! In one fell swoop our
vialiant forces have not only decimated the Taliban but killed bin Laden
and finally removed the threat of his Al Qaeda terrorist network forever... ?
It may or may not be true - but that wouldn't matter. What can the Taliban
do? - short of further terrorist outrages against the West, which are not
likely in the short term? And, anyway - if and when that need arises - can
easily be put down to other factions... of which there's never going to be
any shortage.
Certainly, bin Laden - even if he were left alive and foolish enough to try -
would hardly be able to emerge convincingly out into the open and publicly
announce the fact...
John Jay
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From: Miroslav Antic [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], BALKAN [EMAIL PROTECTED], NATO [EMAIL PROTECTED], Siem-News [EMAIL PROTECTED], SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED], 'SNN-Yahoo' [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: SIN [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: US May Confront Its Own Arms, Experts Say [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Date: Sun, Sep 23, 2001, 4:23 pm
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Published on Sunday, September 23, 2001 in the Boston
http://www.boston.com/globe Globe
'Blowback'
US May Confront Its Own Arms, Experts Say
As US military planners prepare the final details of a retaliatory
strike inside Afghanistan, they seem keenly aware of what's known in the
intelligence community as ''blow-back.''
Defined as US-made weapons and military expertise that are turned
against US troops, ''blow-back'' is a distinct possibility - perhaps an
inevitability - in Afghanistan, according to US intelligence sources,
military analysts and weapons specialists.
http://www.commondreams.org/images/startquote.gif
Americans ought to learn about this phenomenon of blow-back because it
is likely to end up killing Americans.
http://www.commondreams.org/images/endquote.gif
William Hartung
Director of the World Policy Institute's Arms
http://worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/ Trade Resource Center
During the Cold War in the 1980s, billions in weaponry and military
training was funneled by the CIA, through Pakistan, to the Afghans
fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Out of that CIA-backed resistance emerged the Taliban, which today
controls most of Afghanistan and the sprawling terrorist enterprise
controlled by Osama bin Laden, whom the Taliban is believed to be
harboring.
Equipment as crude as machine guns and as sophisticated as antiaircraft
Stinger missiles are now believed to be in the hands of the Taliban
regime's military, and quite possibly in the clutches of the heavily
armed militias that surround Osama bin Laden.
If US forces undertake a ground operation, that US-supplied weaponry and
training could cause US casualties.
''Is there concern about that? Yes,'' said an intelligence official in
Washington. ''There are a lot of weapons awash in that part of the
world, and they are American-made weapons, for sure, and lots of weapons
made elsewhere.''
''Steps have been taken to try to get them under control, but we can
never be certain,'' the official said, referring to the CIA's efforts to
recover some of the more advanced weapons, such as the Stinger missiles,
which are accurate, and which, if operational, could take down a US
helicopter over Afghanistan. ''We cannot rule out the possibility that
some might work.''
The Afghan resistance eventually ended up in a bloody civil war that
left the country in ruins and resulted in the emergence of the Taliban,
a group known for its centuries-old interpretation of Islamic Law. The
Taliban's rise to power allowed bin Laden to sharpen his terrorist
network known as Al Qaeda.
The
