Majorityrights Central > Category: War on Terror

Susan Lindauer, peace activist, 9/11 activist, former CIA asset, and true American patriot, talks to DanielS and GW about power, politics and corruption, immigration, and the future of America and the West. You cannot fail to learn something new from an hour’s conservation with this remarkable woman..
       

by Alexander Baron

This morning, it was announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan. Most world politicians seem to believe this is a good thing. But not Congressman Ron Paul.

The death of Osama Bin Laden was big news here in England, and even bigger in the USA, understandably. People, and especially Obama supporters, were outside the White House in the small hours calling for “Four more years”, which he will probably get. British Prime Minister David Cameron – Call Me Dave, as he is known – was among the first to congratulate Obama, along with former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Though the possibility or even the likelihood of Al-Qaeda striking back has not been overlooked, and we have all been put on alert, there is something else everybody seems to have overlooked in the euphoria; everybody except Congressman Ron Paul, who in a speech delivered February 24, 2010, Now It’s Assassinations, asked some embarrassing questions:

“What have we allowed ourselves to become? Are we no longer a nation of laws…have we decided that the writ of habeas corpus is not worth defending? Is torture now an acceptable tool for making us safe? Unfortunately the single answer to all of these questions from the leaders of our country and to many of our citizens appears to be yes. And now we’re told that assassination of foreigners as well as American citizens is legitimate and necessary to provide security for our people. It is my firm opinion that nothing could be further from the truth.”

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by Alexander Baron

One afternoon in July 1976, I swallowed four packets of over the counter painkillers in my Ladbroke Grove bedsit flat, and lay down to die. If I hadn’t washed down each packet with a pint mug of orange juice, I wouldn’t be writing these words now. At the time I was disgusted with myself, but in retrospect, waking up covered in vomit was better than not waking up at all.

A shade over seven years later, on August 26, 1983 to be precise, I stood on Richmond Bridge in South-West London, and tossed a coin. How I got there from Ladbroke Grove, via Manchester, Leeds, Bradford and - the day before – Margate, is a long, convoluted, and for me, painful, story. As the coin neared the ground I called audibly “Heads”. Fortunately for me it landed tails, and I didn’t jump in the river, which in view of the shin length steel toe-capped boots I was wearing would have meant certain death, even if I had been able to swim.

At the time of my first suicide attempt, I was just shy of my twentieth birthday; next month I will be fifty-four years old. Though not a great age, it is one I had never expected to see. Like most people of my age, I have regrets, more than most. One of my biggest regrets is that my genes will die with me. I didn’t have to die childless, I had my chance, a big chance, and like so many of my other chances, I blew it. In the first half of my life I achieved nothing. Well, as a junior I did win a county chess championship, although even that was only because all the really good players were playing in the national championships at Eastbourne.

Although my personal life – such as it is – has continued to be empty and lonely, I’ve grown used to solitude. I can’t really call my researching and writing my professional life because I’ve made precious little money out of it over the space of more than twenty years, but I can say without reservation that it is something of which I am immensely proud, because I have done many things others haven’t. Due to the current political situation and more particularly the stranglehold our enemies have over the Western mind, I have received little in the way of recognition, but fifty or a hundred years from now – if Man still exists - I will be judged far more kindly than by the creeps and liars who currently control our media.

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My thanks to Bo Sears for the link to this Washington Times piece, Al Qaeda eyes bio attack from Mexico.

Last October, Bo picked up on Joe Biden’s warning of a nation-shaking event.  Now we get one from “U.S. counterterrorism officials” who have:

authenticated a video by an al Qaeda recruiter threatening to smuggle a biological weapon into the United States via tunnels under the Mexico border, the latest sign of the terrorist group’s determination to stage another mass-casualty attack on the U.S. homeland.

The video aired earlier this year as a recruitment tool makes clear that al Qaeda is looking to exploit weaknesses in U.S. border security and also is willing to ally itself with white militia groups or other anti-government entities interested in carrying out an attack inside the United States, according to counterterrorism officials interviewed by The Washington Times.

The officials, who spoke only on the condition they not be named because of the sensitive nature of their work, stressed that there is no credible information that al Qaeda has acquired the capabilities to carry out a mass biological attack although its members have clearly sought the expertise.

The video first aired by the Arabic news network Al Jazeera in February and later posted to several Web sites shows Kuwaiti dissident Abdullah al-Nafisi telling a room full of supporters in Bahrain that al Qaeda is casing the U.S. border with Mexico to assess how to send terrorists and weapons into the U.S.

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So the papers say you are that mysterious entity, an “anti-terrorist chief”.  It’s very gratifying, and sounds rather grand, too, doesn’t it?  Supercop meets M in the corridors of power, and all that.

But, actually, you are just a New Labour policeman.  That’s the sort of policeman who doesn’t have large feet, a drink habit and problems at home.  The sort who has a degree in sociology, who knows the rules of the political game, who networks.  Who, naturally enough, gets fast-tracked to the top.

Did I say “New Labour policeman”?  I meant stooge, of course.

But it’s not all working lunches with the Ministerial team and educational visits to Vancouver and Las Vegas.  Such plod-power and privilege as your undoubted ambition has brought you also brings the odd sticky wicket along.  None more sticky than when the Minister “tasked” you to dissuade your favourite Yorkshiremen - the ones who flop down in the direction of Mecca five times a day - from doing inconvenient things with rucksacks and gas canisters.  You know, blowing-up passengers in buses and trains ... planting car-bombs outside nightclubs ... driving them into airport terminals.  That sort of thing.

Of course, it’s no particular problem to set up a security solution.  Not these days with biometrics, electronic eavesdropping, MI5, C5 and the rest.  It’s just a matter of scaling up.

But, annoyingly, that’s not what the Minister wants.  No, it seems that your talents aren’t needed at all on the heavy stuff.  They are required for something altogether more familiar, more ... political.  And therein lay the sticky bit.  Somehow you have to:-

1. Make Muslims feel that the state is not targeting them when, in fact, it is.

2. Make them think it’s all about al-Qaeda instead.

3. At all costs don’t make the white punters jumpy about the MultiCult.

And how have you gone about this delicate little balancing act?  Well, you are not an “anti-terrorist chief” for nothing:-

Blond, white schoolboy is al-Qa’eda extremist, say police

A schoolboy aged 12 has been identified as an al-Qaeda inspired extremist after sending beheading videos to his classmates, police have disclosed.

Anti-terrorism chiefs have said the example revealed how violent extremism is spreading “like a virus infecting young minds”.

The blond, white schoolboy from West Yorkshire is among 120 people being dealt with by police in a new anti-terrorism scheme targeting al-Qa’eda inspired youths.

He has been identified only by the initials BC and was reported by his school after he was found circulating video clips of terrorists beheading Westerners.

Sir Norman Bettison, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, said: “That was bad enough, but he also has an unnatural interest in guns and weapons.

“He spoke openly of his wish to be a sniper and spoke of his curiosity of what it would be like to kill someone.”

Sir Norman described him as an “angelic looking boy” whose police mugshot showed a fair-haired child so short that his head was barely in the frame of the camera.

“He is at risk of being a violent young man and a threat to society,” the chief constable said.

“He is not a Muslim. He is not driven by ideology – he is too young to spell the word.

“But he is being influenced and intoxicated by the imagery and appeal of Jihadist and other internet violence.”

Sir Norman, speaking at a conference of police chiefs in Liverpool, said that the internet helped to peddle the “virus”.

He added: “We know that there is a latent sense of grievance in the minds of many young people which, in the right conditions, can lead to the desire for violent expression.

“What happens if they learn how to build and deploy an explosive device that will cause mass casualties? Or if core al-Qa’eda can get their hands on these people to act as mules for a more sophisticated attack?”

The police chief urged every parent – particularly Muslims – to address the issue of extremism with their children.

“The al-Qa’eda brand of violent extremism continues to spread like a virus infecting young minds,” he said.

“Every young Muslim will be introduced to ideas around al-Qa’eda and a ‘global struggle’. I don’t see how you can avoid it in 2008.”

The 12-year-old boy arrived in Britain as an asylum seeker in July 2005, and at the age of eight allegedly assisted a nine-year-old and a 12-year-old boy in the forced rape of his sister, although he was never prosecuted, police revealed.

He is now being handled under a scheme known as the Channel Project, which has been running for the past nine months.

The number of suspects uncovered so far – 124 - was “higher than expected”, Sir Norman added.

They have been referred to the police and other agencies by schools, community leaders, mosques and others.

“We are trying to intervene early. We are trying to snuff out violent extremism,” said Sir Norman.

Sir Norman said none of the referrals had been prosecuted because officers were attempting to avoid using anti-terror laws against anyone identified by the scheme.

“Throwing the book at them in terms of the Prevention of Terrorism Act would be complete overkill,” the chief constable said.

“We are not talking about criminal actions. We are talking about vulnerable kids.”

Two other cases highlighted by the senior policeman were Muslim youths, known only as NH and YH, who were both 15 when they were reported by their communities because they were showing extremist and racist tendencies.

So far, then, Britain has been treated to 7/7, 21/7, Bluewater, the Barot offensive, the West End poets and the inflammatory Glasgow doctors.  And let us not forget Richard Reid, the Shoe Bomber.  But yesterday, our Prime Minister’s new head security guard informed us:-

We’re talking about such a big change in the way people behave that it’s inevitably going to take 10 to 15 years, and that’s if we’re lucky, and that’s what I hope we can achieve.

I think it would be wrong to pretend otherwise to the British nation.

He then went on to pretend that the Moslems currently domiciled in my homeland can be got to look beyond the palms of their hands and “snitch” on the AQ-intoxicated.  The real enemy, apparently, is a “disparate core” of “racist” people, often based abroad, who want power.  Elsewhere we learn that “these people are trying to destroy one’s entire way of life.”  And that life is, you know, “our” collective Moslem and non-Moslem MultiCult rainbow-dream thingy:-

Britishness does not normally involve snitching or talking about someone.  I’m afraid, in this situation, anyone who’s got any information should say something because the people we are talking about are trying to destroy our entire way of life.

“We’ll have to be a little bit unBritish, I think . . . and say something and tell something.

So let’s put the pieces together from a majority perspective.

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The picture emerging tonight of the attempted double bombing in London’s West End looks very like both the Barot and the Bluewater gang plans of attack.  The leader of the Bluewater gang, it should be noted, was never caught.

In any event, I find it strange and interesting that these, of course, deeply religious young men should wish to dismember and incinerate “slags” in a London nighclub - Tiger Tiger, the club in The Haymarket, was running a ladies night when the car-bomb was parked thoughtfully outside and the occupant sprinted away into the night.  According to one BBC report:-

Islamist extremist literature sometimes singles out clubs as examples of the immoral hypocrisy of countries like the UK.

We’ve seen Islamic terrorist attacks on nightclubs before, most notably and unforgettably in 2002 in Bali.  But then it was possible to see this as an economic attack on the Indonesian government as well as a punishment for John Howard’s support of Bush’s War on Terror.  Certainly as regards the former, Islamic terrorists had bombed the Jakarta Stock Exchange attack a full year before 9/11.

The next landmark attack was the double hit in Istanbul in November 2003.  This time there was no question that the targets were political and economic: the British consulate and the HSBC bank headquarters in Istanbul.

Obviously, there is no shortage of potential political or economic targets in London.  There are American targets.  There are Israeli and Jewish diaspore targets.  One would think that the destruction of one or other of these would resonate well enough with the Ummah ... always assuming that the Ummah was moved by revenge attacks for the indignity of Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine.  But here we have nothing of that sort but, apparently, a third large-scale attack on the decadence of the West.  Why?

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We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations.  Three of these involved our own country.  Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world.  Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America’s leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

Throughout America’s adventure in free government, such basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among peoples and among nations.

... Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry.  American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well.  But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment.  We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience.  The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government.  We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.  Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

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.

The stark warning of Dwight D Eisenhower, contained in his farewell address of January 17, 1961.

You do have to follow the money.  If you follow the money here, it’s not so much that Halliburton wanted a war so they told Dick Cheney to go get one for them.  It wasn’t that.  But you do get a willingness to go to war.

Lt.Col Karen Kwiatkowski, US Dept of Defense (ret) and noted critic of the war in Iraq, quoted in the BBC documentary Why We Fight, broadcast on 23rd March, 2005.

The United States is moving closer to war with Iran by accusing the “highest levels” of the Iranian government of supplying sophisticated roadside bombs that have killed 170 US troops and wounded 620.

The allegations against Iran are similar in tone and credibility to those made four years ago by the US government about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the invasion of 2003.

The Indy’s front page lead today.

Below the fold is that BBC documentary in four parts, as it is packaged for YouTube.  Certainly it is beautifully produced, and duly received its professional encomia from Robert Redford’s friends.  But the BBC is a wholly left-leaning organisation and it shows.  By way of a health warning, be aware that the programme opens with a carefully cut and edited version of Ike’s farewell speech (in the opening quote to this post I have re-contextualised his words).  Of the integrity of the rest of the programme I won’t comment in any detail, save to say that the conclusions broadly agree with my understanding of how this wicked world works.

Bear in mind also that the saving grace of the programme-makers is their discontent.  As they make clear in their criticism of Congress they are from a tradition that is not at all the same as the political left.  On this we may find common cause.

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