Book Review: The War on Freedom How and Why America Was Attacked on September 11 2001 by Wanda Ballentine 2 December 2002 This is not a cheery message, but I feel I need to alert everyone to these facts, though I am having trouble believing them myself. I have just read the most difficult book I have ever read: The War on Freedom -- How and Why America Was Attacked on September 11 2001, by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Director of The Institute for Policy Research & Development in Britain, highly thought of as a researcher, who has been studying the geopolitics of the mideast, Afghanistan, etc. for some time. Publisher John Leonard added a "Backword" historical section with even more bad news. I strongly urge making reading this book a top priority and to start screaming -- the way things are going, we may very shortly not have the right to speak out. The Brave New World of 1984 is starting us in the face. You can order the book at www.thewaronfreedom.com. It contains bits and pieces of much that I had already seen via articles from the Internet, but it connects the dots and includes much more. There are copious references from credible sources. We must face the fact that we do not live in the country or the world we thought we did. 9/11 didn't change things so much as it has led to the revelation that we haven't lived as we thought for some time. Bush has finally agreed to an investigation of 9/11 and put that old fox, Kissinger, in charge of the hen house -- with the admonishment 'not to point fingers and lay blame.' There must be a HUGE grassroots movement of demonstrations, calls, letters, whatever we can think of to demand that this investigation truly investigates the situation. Congress, the media, talk shows must be bombarded with the fact that the people know and want the truth. I do not like George W.; I think he stole the 2000 election; I think the GOP may have manipulated the last one; I hate everything he's done since he's been in office, but I have stopped short of thinking he had anything to do with 9/11. That seemed too heinous even for him. I can no longer disregard this possibility. I see that I didn't learn from history because I didn't know a lot of it -- there's a whole lot more that has yet to be declassified, and of course W. has just taken action to prevent presidential papers from ever being declassified. The amount of information Ahmed has amassed from many different credible sources makes it clear that U.S. intelligence had plenty of knowledge that the 9/11 attack has been in the works since 1995! And everyone in the various agencies who had the information has been extremely frustrated that no action was taken on the info they provided. In many areas, automatic safeguards and protocol were simply disregarded, no action taken -- on "orders from above." There are 13 separate intelligence agencies involved that were interacting, and the way the chain of command works, the information HAD to get to the President and the Cabinet. Bush may possibly have been kept out of the loop, but the likelihood seems very slim -- unless he was told in such a way as to misinterpret, which he seems to do well. But it is very clear that HIGH-RANKING somebodies knew what the hell was up and took no action to stop it. What then is clear is that there was nothing wrong with U.S. intelligence -- yet its supposed inadequacy is what has been used as the basis for the fascist "Patriot" Act and the "Homeland Security" Act [+, ++, +++] -- and their purpose can be seen even more clearly for what hey are -- an egregious abrogation of our democratic rights. Experts in the area of air transportation are flabbergasted that four planes could have been hijacked and complete their missions before interception because there are multiple fail-safe procedures in place that are _automatic and used routinely_ when carriers get off course for any reason. I won't go into the details, but they are overwhelming. Yet in interviews, Cheney indicated that only the President had the authority to send out fighters to intercept those planes. This is flat-out not true. Several intelligence experts talked about the FDR ploy -- the decision to allow damage for the purpose of a greater good -- to allow the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in order to get America into WWII. And historically we also have the Spanish-American war, the Gulf of Tonkin, and other government-planned actions to outrage the people to get them to approve what the government wanted to do. This tactic is evidently extremely common in Israeli history. (By some counts, Israel has 19 divisions of ground troops -- the U.S. has 13 worldwide.) Bush & co. also squelched the investigation into who dumped airline stock in the days before 9/11 -- another major indicator that not a few people knew what was coming down with the WTC. Bush & co. want the American people and people the world over, to believe that an ongoing war against terrorism is absolutely essential. A war in Afghanistan had been planned for several years because that poor country has the misfortune of being central to oil exploration and transportation as well as the gateway to points east, and has been the site of almost continuing battle starting at least with the British Empire. Religious extremism has been fostered by various countries as a means of pitting factions against each other to achieve those countries' ends. 9/11 was a handy excuse to start the war, and, though promised, there was no concern for civilians or civilian targets. The thing is, of all the governments battling for control of Afghanistan, I would want none of them in control. Giving control to the Afghan people isn't even a solution, as the country is divided among brutal warlords who have been warring for centuries. Everything the U.S. government has done has been for economic and political maneuvering and to hell with the needs/rights of the people. Power, oil, and hegemony trump everything. Al-Qaeda's bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania did not halt Clinton's indirect support of bin Laden's network because "they figured the U.S. would gain more from it in the long run." The U.S. is still maintaining ties with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, heavily implicated with Al-Qaeda and bin Laden. Will more be gained in the long run as huge holes are being blown in our economy uber alles? The airlines are foundering -- tourism -- and the news that terrorists can bring down a plane with a shotgun is great additional news that may hinder air travel even more. I presume the NRA will be out there defending the right of everyone to hunt aircraft. But -- maybe we'll finally get a decent train system. Does Bush count on war industries keeping the economy afloat? Will the U.S. continue to export weapons to all those countries out to get America? The fact that the U.S. has enraged so many people with its policies does mean that there are plenty of people interested in destroying it. Our government has created this terrorist situation. The U.S. government never learns that when it chooses to back evil men in order to further its own interests -- Noriega, Saddam, Pinochet, bin Laden, etc. -- that there will be a backlash. (U.S. taxpayers paid Taliban salaries in 1999.) It believes it can control and crush all opposition through propaganda and guns. Unfortunately, it has succeeded most of the time. The relationship between the U.S., bin Laden, the Saudis, the Pakistanis, and the Israelis is truly a mine field in the middle of a rattlesnake nest, going way back to at least Reagan, making the plots of Le Carré look almost simplistic. The U.S. has blocked investigations of these groups, many of the aliens involved in 9/11 were allowed into the country with usual precautions and requirements waived. Bin Laden is supposedly estranged from his family, but this is not true, and members of the bin Laden family were allowed to leave the U.S. immediately after 9/11. A question was raised this past week as to whether bin Laden is really as ill as has been reported -- of course, it's hard to know what to believe. The fact that bin Laden has not been caught raises questions as to whether he is a double agent. The relationship between the Bush family and these groups is also a hornet's nest, i.e. the Carlyle Group, which is making billions arming the world. It's a tightrope balancing act trying to keep control of the area. Seems there are not only double agents, but triple agents, and who knows how they remember who they are. And, finally, given the enormous entanglements involved, it is very hard to see how to rectify the situation. With all these corrupt governments, how do we turn things around to start working on meeting all people's basic needs, on instituting true democracy, civil and human rights? The message that came out yesterday from the director of Iceland's Peace2000 that he had been arrested and detained in solitary confinement for several days and his computers confiscated and not returned to him is absolutely chilling. These are Nazi tactics. Iceland has kept out of military involvement and suddenly its PM wants to support NATO in the war on Iraq. Whatever, forget impeachment -- Bush and co. should be tried for high treason. Below is a summary of conclusions from the book: 1. U. S. & U.S.S.R. govts. responsible for rise of religious extremism in Afghanisatan since the 1980s, and U.S. in particular for the distorted `jihadi' ideology that fueled terrorism there after U.S.S.R. withdrawal -- and ultimately the current ongoing war. 2. U.S. government approved, supported both tacitly and with funding, the rise of the Taliban, despite terrible human rights abuses, in order to secure regional strategic and economic interests. 3. U.S. government had planned a war on Afghanistan for at least a year prior to 9/11/01, again relating to strategic and economic interests, control of Eurasia, and consolidation of unrivaled U.S. hegemony. 4. U.S. government has consistently blocked investigations and inquiries into Saudi royals & businessmen, & bin Laden family implicated in supporting Osama bin Laden and terrorists linked to him. 5. U.S. government has consistently blocked attempts to indict and apprehend bin Laden, indirectly protecting him. 6. U.S. government allowed suspected terrorists linked to bin Laden to train at U.S. military facilities & American flight schools for years, all financed by the Saudis 7. High-level elements of the U.S. government, military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies received numerous credible and urgent warnings about 9/11. The nature of the warnings received plus the false claims by intelligence agencies that they had not received them suggests they did have the knowledge and are preventing public recognition. 8. Despite extensive forewarnings, the U.S. Air Force response systems collapsed on 9/11 in violation of clear rules normally followed routinely on a strict basis. This could only occur as a result of deliberate obstructions to emergency SOP. 9. Such obstructions could only be set in place by key U.S. government and military officials. Both Pres. Bush and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers displayed sheer indifference to the attacks as they were occurring. 10. Independent journalists revealed that Mahmoud Ahmed, Pakistan's ISI (CIA counterpart) Director-General had channeled U.S. government funding to Mohamed Atta, supposed `lead hi-jacker.' The U.S. government simply asked Ahmed to resign, blocking inquiry and scandal. 11. The 9/11 tragedy has been of crucial benefit to the Bush administration, justifying consolidation of elite power and profit throughout the world, allowing it to crack down on domestic freedoms while ruthlessly bombing Afghanistan, killing almost double the number of civilians killed at the WTC. Prior to 9/11, the administration was facing both domestic and international crises of legitimacy and escalating worldwide dissent and protest against U.S. hegemony. The U.S. government may not have staged 9/11, but it certainly facilitated it and has maintained close political, financial, military and intelligence ties to key figures who supported those responsible. You can order the book at www.thewaronfreedom.com. (While it lasts, PDF copy of the book in its entirety is at: http://globalfreepress.com/books/warfre-book.pdf.) http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/WoFreview.html (hypertext) http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/WoFreview.txt (text only) http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/WoFreview.pdf (print ready)