Reflections on Terrorism - Part Two
[The following is an excerpt from Chaco Canyon]
"Organizations like the Bettinger Foundation claim to be in the business of fighting world-wide terrorism. In my opinion, however, they are, to a large degree, in the business of hypocrisy, misdirection and disinformation with respect to the issue of terrorism.
"These kinds of organization are engaged in a mammoth effort to convince the American public there is something like an international terrorist conspiracy, just as there was alleged to be an international communist conspiracy, which is intent on destroying America and democracy. They are using this program of 'educating' Americans in order to direct attention away from, and to cover up, some very dirty policies and activities.
"The effectiveness of this program of 'education' is truly remarkable. All one has to do in order to demonstrate this fact is to ask almost any person in the streets of America who she or he believes is responsible for the terrorist acts taking place in the world, and the name of the United States will never, or almost never, come up as a perpetrator of terrorism.
"The very sad truth of the matter is, however, that many aspects of government, the military and the corporate world in America are now, and have been for quite some time, major players in helping to establish and perpetuate the atmosphere and environment of terrorism in which we live with fear and trembling. Organizations like the Bettinger Foundation play a very important role in not only helping to keep these truths from the American public, but also in helping to obfuscate matters and to control the damage which may occur when such truths do happen to break through into the public consciousness.
"Institutions like Bettinger exist because some elements of government, the military, academia, business and the media do not trust the American people. These elements believe that if the American people were ever given clear, steady and unimpeded access to the truth of what is being done to people and countries around the world in the name of American democracy, then the reign of power, riches, exploitation and oppression which have been enjoyed and used to such self-serving advantage by these malignant elements might become seriously threatened.
"Consequently, not only does much of the rest of the world get forced into de facto slavery as a result of the activities of these morally-challenged individuals, but the vast majority of Americans have become unwitting accessories, both before and after the fact, through the veils of ignorance which are constantly being cast over our collective consciousness by groups such as the Bettinger Foundation. Lies, manipulation, disinformation, censorship, misdirection, propaganda, indoctrination, and duplicity are standard tools of the trade for these people.
"Much of what is seen, heard, read, and learned by the majority of Americans has come to them through a whole series of carefully constructed informational and interpretive filters. Everything is made to appear objective, balanced, scholarly, rigorous, judicious and authoritative, when, in point of fact, quite frequently, none of this is the case.
"Let me give you a variety of examples which help demonstrate the truth of these claims. Although one could go on almost indefinitely with such demonstrations, I'll try to provide you with enough detail to permit you to understand the gist of my take on things.
"Virtually everybody knows about and condemns the massacre in Munich of the eleven Israeli Olympic athletes by a group of Palestinian terrorists which took place in the summer of 1976. Almost nobody knows about the Cuban airliner which was blown up in October of 1976, killing seventy-three people, including the entire gold medal-winning Cuban fencing team.
"The bombing of the plane was organized and conducted by a leading international terrorist. However, this individual had been trained by the CIA and had very close ties with that organization, carrying out many terrorist operations throughout Latin America on its behalf.
"Many Americans also might be surprised to discover that the first hijacking and the first hostage incident in the Middle East were not committed by the PLO or any similar group or organization. In point of fact, in December of 1954, a commercial, civilian jet liner from Syria was forced down at Lydda airport by Israeli jet fighters.
"The purpose of this exercise was to provide the Israeli military with hostages who, subsequently, might be exchanged for certain Israelis being held prisoner in Damascus. Apparently, there were a number of Israeli soldiers who had been on a spying mission in Syria and had the misfortune of being caught. Consequently, the Israeli military had decided to use Syrian, civilian hostages to negotiate the release of the spies.
"Let's move forward thirty-one years to 1985. In this year, an Air India jumbo jet crashed, near Ireland, killing three hundred and twenty-nine people. The cause of the crash was a bomb explosion.
"The primary suspect in this tragedy had been trained at a camp for mercenaries being run out of Alabama. The people who operated this camp were virulently anti-communist.
"While they were primarily interested in training mercenaries to serve as surrogates for US foreign policy throughout Latin America, they also trained a variety of Sikh extremists. One of the people they trained was heavily implicated in the Air India crash.
"In the same year, 1985, in March I believe, there was a car-bombing which occurred in Beirut. This caused the death of some eighty people and wounded, with varying degrees of severity, a further two hundred individuals.
"The operation was conducted by a unit consisting of Lebanese who had been trained, financed and provided with logistical support by the CIA. The unit had been organized in order to assassinate a Shi'ite leader who was merely suspected of being connected, in some way, with attacks on various US installations in Lebanon ... so much for due process and innocent until proven guilty.
"Sticking with Lebanon for a moment, Americans were horrified when two hundred forty-one Marines were killed in that country during October, 1983. These deaths were the result of a suicide bombing operation.
"Many, if not most, Americans were led to believe that the incident was just one more example of the completely irrational, uncivilized terrorist presence which was considered to be responsible for many of the problems in the Middle East. The Marines were portrayed as just the latest victims of the senseless, wanton disease of terrorism which was stalking Americans around the world.
"Few Americans were ever informed that, among other provocations, the US battleship, New Jersey, had been regularly bombing the hills of Lebanon in order to lend support to the Christian-dominated government.
Apparently, bombing defenseless civilians in violation of international law, as well as in violation of the charter of the United Nations, is rational and proper, while trying to fight against those who are illegally occupying one's home land is an act of terrorism.
"Once again, organizations like the Bettinger Foundation play a fundamental role in convincing Americans that white is black and black is white. They have helped us to invert, and, in so doing, pervert, all of the values and principles for which we believe America stands."
Before continuing, Ken asked: "Would you like any coffee or tea or something cold to drink? This main course of our discussion may take a little time, so, you might need a libation with which to wash it down?"
I considered the offer briefly and replied: "My years in Canada must have had more of an influence than I thought. I wouldn't mind having a spot of tea."
"Well," Ken responded, "I can give you a napkin, and we probably could pour a drop or two on it, but in America, we generally have found that cups work nicely. Maybe, this invention hasn't spread that far north yet."
"You should know," I informed Ken, "that I had to go south from my home in northern Maine in order to reach Toronto."
"I guess," said Ken, "this accounts for why you don't know about cups. I'll have to dash off an apology to the Canadian embassy."
Ken disappeared into the kitchen. After making a variety of kitchen-like preparatory noises, he re-emerged and resumed the discussion.
"From approximately the early 1980s until about 1986," he began, "the Libyan leader, whom nearly everyone likes to write off as a crazy, vicious supporter of international terrorism, had, according to Amnesty International, been responsible for the deaths of fourteen individuals, most of whom were Libyan dissidents. Yet, in the same period of time - 1980 to 1986, according, again, to Amnesty International, the government of El Salvador murdered nearly fifty thousand of its people, while the authorities in near-by Guatemala exterminated about seventy thousand of its citizens.
"The difference between, on the one hand, Libya and, on the other hand, Guatemala and El Salvador is simple. Guatemala and El Salvador are now, and have been for many years, client states of the United States, while Libya is the naughty, delinquent, petulant child which not only refuses to take direction from, and serve, US interests in Africa and the Middle East, but often actively seeks to undermine, or oppose, US strategic efforts in the region.
"The armies and police forces in Guatemala and El Salvador are trained, equipped and supported by both the US military and intelligence communities. Libya is not.
"Consequently, the US is prepared to look the other way while one hundred and twenty thousand Latin Americans are massacred. However, the same United States becomes morally outraged with the slaying of fourteen people by the Libyan government, referring to it as exhibit number one with respect to states that are sponsors of world-wide terrorism.
"All murder is repugnant, whether one is talking about one person, fourteen people or one hundred and twenty thousand people. Nonetheless, these acts do not give expression to the same degree of evil.
"The United States and its client states have far, far more blood on their hands than Libya does. Yet, Libya is considered to be one of the world's worst terrorist states, and the United States is all innocence and goodness, at least as far as Americans are concerned, because of the manipulation of public opinion which is being effected by organizations like the Bettinger Foundation.
"In the mid-1980s, Israeli bombers were sent to Tunis to bomb PLO headquarters there. More than fifty Palestinians and some twenty Tunisians died as a result of the attack.
"Interestingly, the United States had requested the Tunisian government, which supposedly was one of our allies, to allow the PLO to set up its headquarters in Tunis after that organization had been expelled from Lebanon by the Israeli invasion. Even more interestingly, the United States did not warn Tunisia about the impending Israeli attack despite the fact that the US Sixth Fleet, which was in the Mediterranean Sea at the time, had been tracking the movements of the Israeli bombers during the latter's flight to Tunis, including the refueling of these planes.
"The strike was said to be in retaliation for the murder of three Israelis in Larnaca, Cyprus. However, the Israelis knew, and later admitted, that the evidence surrounding the Cyprus killings pointed in the direction of Syria, not Tunis.
"In April of 1986, US planes bombed the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya, killing about one hundred people. The raid was said to be in retaliation for the December, 1985 attacks at airports in both Vienna and Rome, as well as for the bombing of the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin on April 5th, 1986, in which several US soldiers were killed.
"The only problem with this is that Libya had nothing to do with either the airport attacks or the nightclub bombing. The evidence all suggested a Syrian connection.
"The US military and intelligence community knew this. Unfortunately, for the one hundred Libyans who died, the United States had another agenda for which the truth was an inconvenience.
"The attack on Libya, like the Israeli bombing of Tunis, was a terrorist attack in violation of all international law. Yet, in America, most people were of the opinion that not only was the United States acting responsibly, prudently and in defense of democratic freedoms, but that Libya got what it so richly deserved.
"Many Americans have these opinions because organizations like the Bettinger Foundation are incessant in their efforts to make sure the American public is fed a steady diet of such misinformation and disinformation. Once we have become accustomed to this diet, then we tend to find that if the occasional tidbit of truth finds its way onto our plates, we consider the experience to be quite distasteful and often are inclined to spit out this morsel of truth immediately."
A whistling sound from the kitchen indicated that the water for the tea was ready. Ken responded to the signal and went into the kitchen.
A few moments later he entered the living room with a tray filled with a pot, two cups, several spoons, some napkins, containers of sugar and milk, as well as a plate containing an assortment of cookies. Ken placed the tray on the 'coffee' table between our chairs.
As we each went about fixing our respective cups of tea, Ken said: "Let's consider another example. For instance, take the case of the second Gulf war involving Iraq.
"Many, perhaps most, Americans cheered the alleged role of the US in defending Kuwait against a belligerent, invading aggressor. This role conforms to the myth, that organizations such as the Bettinger Foundation have created, in which the United States stands like a lonely beacon of freedom against the invasive forces of darkness.
"In reality, Desert Storm is merely a continuation of a self-serving policy which is often dressed up, for purposes of propaganda, in the guise of a courageous defender of freedom and democracy. In truth, whether the United States will permit an invasion, or will act against it, depends entirely on circumstances and the implications which those circumstances have for its various political, military and business interests.
"Issues of democracy, rights, freedoms and so on are purely for public consumption. The real motivations are always about power, control, possession, exploitation, money, resources and influence.
"The United States did not interfere when Iraq invaded Iran in the first Gulf war because certain people of prominence feared that the spread of an Iranian version of Islamic fundamentalism might undermine their control of the area and its resources. Similarly, the United States has permitted Turkey to deal brutally with the Kurdish people because Turkey serves US interests in a variety of ways and because the nationalist aspirations of some twenty million Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria constitute a potential threat to US aspirations in the area.
"America not only permitted Israel to invade Lebanon, but gave logistical support to the latter because Israel was serving the United States' need for a countervailing presence in the Middle East with respect to left-leaning Arab nationalism, Palestinian unrest, and, Islamic fundamentalism. Furthermore, Syria's invasion of Lebanon was allowed to go unchecked by America as long as the attack was directed against Palestinians who were considered to be a destabilizing element as far as US interests in the Middle East were concerned.
"The United States did not object to Indonesia's invasion of East Timor and the slaughter of some two hundred thousand civilians in order to permit Indonesia, among other things, to gain access to the latter's substantial oil deposits. America backed Morocco's invasion of the resource-rich Western Sahara for similar reasons, although with far less loss of life to the inhabitants of that region.
"In each of these cases, US interests were being served. Indonesia and Morocco were both being armed and supported by America because these countries would permit the United States a share in, and some degree of control over, the resources, once the latter had been secured.
"America looked the other way during the '70s and '80s when apartheid-oriented South Africa, directly or through surrogate forces such as the terrorist groups UNITA in Angola and RENAMO in Mozambique, attacked a variety of neighboring states that held political views to which the United States was opposed. At the same time, and much less passively, America financed, armed and gave logistical support to the Contras as they conducted numerous operations against various civilian targets in Nicaragua, ranging from peasant farmers to religious workers to health care professionals to students to union organizers and community workers."
Ken popped a few small cookies into his mouth, chomped on them a bit and, then, took a few sips of tea. When he had finished eating and swallowing, he started to speak again.
"Since approximately 1952, when the Psychological Warfare Center was inaugurated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a program came into being which, eventually, would evolve into a so-called anti-terrorist program. This whole process was set in motion when, within a month or so after the Center opened, the Special Forces branch of the United States Army was established and became attached to the Center in order to help give active expression to the principles and perspective which were the original motivating force behind the founding of the Psychological Warfare Center.
"More specifically, among other things, this Center had been designed to promote the use of unconventional warfare to secure various objectives in foreign territory. This kind of warfare encompasses a wide spectrum of possible strategies and operations which either fall at, or beyond, the borderline of what is allowable under existing international law concerning the rules of warfare.
"Initially, the Special Forces Mobile Training Teams, the so-called 'A team', which usually consisted of up to ten enlisted men and several officers, would be sent into designated areas in order to teach indigenous guerrillas, how to conduct successful operations of unconventional warfare. Naturally, these guerrillas were fighting for goals which were compatible with US objectives.
"Gradually, the focus of the Center changed, and, as a result, so did some of the activities of the Special Forces. One major transformation concerned the switch from showing guerrillas how to carry out unconventional warfare, to showing oppressive, corrupt, exploitive and undemocratic governments how to defeat the guerrillas who were seeking to generate an insurgency against such governments.
"In other words, the primary purpose of the Center was no longer to help people to learn how to fight wars of national liberation through unconventional warfare. The purpose of the Center had become, for the most part, one of helping various authoritarian governments to learn how to use unconventional methods to suppress wars of national liberation.
"Every struggle for national liberation involving a people oppressed by a client of the United States required a response of US-supported programs of counterinsurgency against these cadres of the alleged, world-wide communist conspiracy. When the threat of communism began to crumble, along with the Berlin Wall and the former Soviet Union, then the policy of counterinsurgency was transformed into a policy of counter-terrorism in order to contain the world-wide conspiracy of terrorists and their sponsoring states.
"Counterinsurgency became counter-terrorism in order to take advantage of changing circumstances in the world. Because of events during the last eight or nine years, the 'label' communism no longer evokes the same kind of blind fear it once did during the era of the Red scare, so a new term had to be employed that would re-ignite the same sort of blind fear which could be used to manipulate the American public.
"Thus, the issue of terrorism was seized on. Where, once, the United States used policies of counterinsurgency to defend the free world against the hordes of communists, now, the United States, through policies of counter-terrorism, could defend the free world against the hordes of pathological malcontents known as terrorists.
"Consequently, anyone who objected to the exploitive, oppressive, and undemocratic policies of either the United States or its client states, now were more likely to be labeled as terrorists rather than communists, although, on occasion, the insurgents might be called both. In either case, in order to maintain the status quo of American influence and control, such rebels had to be controlled or eliminated through the use of unconventional measures of warfare.
"Sometimes, Special Forces Mobile Training Teams would be sent into the field to serve as advisors to, as well as instructors for, the military and police forces of foreign governments who were serving American interests. Sometimes, members of the military and police from these countries would be sent to the Psychological Warfare Center, or to the Pentagon's School of the Americas in Panama, or to Fort Benning's program on counter-terrorism, for training.
"In any event, one of the central precepts taught by many of these instructors of counter-terrorism and counterinsurgency was the importance of creating local paramilitary groups. These groups would serve as a counter-organization to local guerrillas.
"Furthermore, considerable stress was laid on recruiting certain kinds of people to these paramilitary organizations. More specifically, the recruits should be those individuals who, for 'reasons' of class, religion, ethnicity, tribe or race, harbored considerable hatred for the people who would become their targets.
"The slaughter, by Christian Phalange, of two to three thousand Palestinian refugees in the Sabra-Shatila camps, including many women and children, is a thoroughly repulsive example of this policy in action. Most regrettably, this same policy has been implemented in many other parts of the world by the US and its client states.
"The focus of this policy was always to be 'soft' targets of opportunity. In other words, instead of going head to head with armed guerrilla groups, these paramilitary counter-terrorist organizations were taught to attack defenseless civilians, especially those who were struggling to implement programs of social justice and human rights which would benefit the poor people of a given region.
"Such attacks were not just because there were civilians who were working toward goals considered to be antithetical to various American interests. The brutalization of these civilians would become the object lesson in terror for the edification of other civilians.
"In other words, to defeat an enemy, one doesn't have to engage in direct, high-intensity, high-risk conflict with the military forces of that enemy, whether these forces be in the form of guerrilla groups or a standing national army. All one has to do is to attack the civilians of a region through low-intensity, low-risk terrorist operations.
"When, as a result of their fear of such terrorist operations, civilians become submissive and pliant, imposing one's will on the region becomes much, much easier. Without the support and assistance of many aspects of the civilian population, guerrilla organizations have considerable difficulty in maintaining themselves and conducting viable campaigns of insurgency against the existing government.
"This approach has been employed by the U. S. and its client states with great success, at least for the short run, in many parts of the world, including Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Far East. In fact, this terrorist model of foreign policy is really nothing more than an updated, technologically refined, exported version of a domestic product which had been developed in America during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries with respect to the Native peoples of North America."
Ken nibbled on another cookie and drank some more tea. His quiet, gentle actions were in stark contrast to the violence of the topics which were sandwiched around his ingestion of cookies and tea.
Picking up a napkin, Ken dabbed at his mouth and the general vicinity surrounding his mouth. As he folded up the napkin and placed it on the tray, he stated: "The use of torture, disappearances, and death-squads to generate an atmosphere of terror and fear in the civilian population became a staple of many of the client states which were trained and supported by America. In fact, these techniques are much more characteristic of US-trained, foreign, military and police forces than they are of anyone else.
"Organizations like the Bettinger Foundation point fingers of condemnation toward the terrorist activities of Carlos the Jackal or Abu Nidal or the German Red Army Faction or the Italian Red Brigade or the PLO or the Shining Path of Peru or the IRA or the two Libyans who are suspects in the Lockerbie, Scotland Pan Am bombing. And, indeed, all terrorist activity deserves to be condemned.
"However, the terrorists whom institutions such as the Bettinger Foundation like to keep reminding us about are rank amateurs compared to the United States and the client states around the world which America trains, arms, supports and encourages in their acts of terrorism.
"From 1968 to the present, all of the minor league terrorists have been responsible for approximately nine to ten thousand deaths. Without any doubt, all of these murders of innocent people are repugnant, immoral and, ultimately, counter-productive.
"Nevertheless, during the same period of time, the major league terrorists, such as the United States and its clients, have been responsible for well over a million and a half deaths in their world-wide campaign of terror. Surely, we ought to find the murder of innocent civilians in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Lebanon, Indonesia, East Timor, Mozambique, Angola, South Africa, Iran, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Iraq, which have taken place by our hand, or by those we have trained and armed, or by those who serve our purposes, to be far more morally repugnant, immoral and, ultimately, counter-productive than anything the minor league terrorists have perpetrated.
"Of course, the retaliatory terror of the minor leaguers is not justified simply because it comes in response to the campaign of terror inflicted on them by the United States and others. Nonetheless, one ought to keep in mind that the United States, its allies and their clients have been among the primary architects of, and contributors to, the problem of terrorism.
"In similar fashion, one needs to understand that the minor league terrorists were not the first to practice terrorism. Indeed, they learned their lessons at the feet of the major league terrorists like the United States, Britain, France, and Germany.
"To mention just one quick example, consider the case of Iraq's use of chemical weapons against certain factions of its Kurdish inhabitants. Many of us seem to derive considerable gratification from our sense of moral superiority on this issue, yet, quite conveniently, we are oblivious to the fact that Iraq's leaders learned this technique from the illustrious example of none other than that great spokesperson for democracy, Winston Churchill.
"As Secretary of State at the War Office, he gave the RAF permission in 1919 to use chemical weapons, as an 'experiment', against the 'uncivilized' Arab tribes of Mesopotamia, one of modern-day Iraq's historical predecessors. In addition, with the approval of the War Office, the RAF continued to carry out a terrorist campaign of bombings against those tribal villagers who were unwilling to accept the puppet government which Britain had installed in order to serve, among other things, the latter's oil interests in the region.
"We condemn, and quite correctly, the Iraqi use of chemical weapons against its Kurdish citizens. Yet, we often do not condemn our own use of chemical weapons, such as when we employed Agent Orange against the Vietnamese and, ironically, our own soldiers, or when our allies use chemical weapons, such as the previously mentioned case in Mesopotamia.
"If the minor league terrorists are monsters, then America and the other major league terrorists should be prepared to accept the fact that we have created them in our own image. Just as the children of abusers often grow up to be abusive toward their own children, so too, we should not be surprised to learn that the children of terror which we have spawned are growing up to be just like their terrorist mentors."
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