By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
September 12, 2001
Increasingly, the chief suspect as the killer of an estimated 10,000 people (probably a low estimate)in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon yesterday is an eccentric fundamentalist Muslim oil millionaire Osama bin Laden. Yet, supporters of bin Laden say he doesn't have the ability to pull off such an attack.
Who would want to, and could, destroy the World Trade Center? Does bin Laden have the ability to orchestrate the hi-jacking of four domestic airliners at about the same time from several airports and pilot them into the middle of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. from his bat cave headquarters deep in the mountains of Afghanistan? At least a dozen people and probably more than that had to have been willing to die for their cause in yesterday's terrorism.
And, they would have to be well trained and sophisticated pilots to fly the planes, control them when flying at higher than usual speeds, find the targets and execute the plan. A friend who was an instructor at the Air Force Academy told me yesterday that ONLY a skilled pilot could control that size airplane, at the apparent high speed they were flying when they struck their targets.
Whoever is responsible must have the ability to fly complex and large jet airliners. They probably are not military people since the targets were mostly civilians. They would need to be a large enough group to be able to furnish a dozen people with top flying skills and were willing to undertake a suicide mission. That requires a high level of hate and fanaticism. What nations, or groups, would have those characteristics?
Most Americans think immediately of the "foreigners" - Osama bin Ladin and the Muslim fundamentalists who hate America. However, there are others who hate Americans. Some of them are other Americans. On August 22nd I wrote an analysis entitled "Expect Planned Violence in Capitol in September" (http://www.bannerofliberty.com/OS8-01MQC/8-22-2001.1.html)at the upcoming International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of environmentalist and anti-globalist groups are planning what one website calls
"a mass revolutionary movement of workers and youth: that is the way to greet the capitalist get-togethers that carve-up our futures behind closed doors. When the lights go out, the luxury food stops arriving, and the internet connection dies: that's when they'll realise we don't just want to share the pie: we want to take over the bakery."
In the first hours following the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, we were hearing people demand that we "nuke" the Arabs, because, like today, they were SURE it was those middle-eastern dark-skinned folks. We even heard the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, blame talk show hosts for encouraging "hate" that led to the bombing. Yet, Timothy McVeigh was a home-grown terrorist, willing to die because of his anger over the government's action at Waco and Ruby Ridge. The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was a home-grown radical environmentalist terrorist who killed those he believed were cutting down trees or improving technology.
Who are the people who are frankly admitting they "don't just want to share the pie, we want to take over the bakery?" They are the radicals on the left, not the radicals on the right - especially the religious right. Somehow, in all the speculation I've listened to since the first of those planes flew into the World Trade Center, I've not heard a single network talking head even mention the growing violence from the non-religious left we've watched since the planned violence at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle:
"The spirit of revolution was ignited in Seattle on November 30, 1999 and it burns hot in the hearts of those who came together to shut the WTO down."
In an article entitled "Upcoming Battle of Washington" the destroyimf.org website tells us:
"In the wake of a rising tide of international protest against the globalization of capitalism-and capitalism itself-which has disrupted meetings of numerous world bodies, the IMF/World Bank is scheduled to meet in Washington DC from September 28 - October 4."Not surprisingly, thousands of anti-capitalists, anarchists, environmental militants and radicals, as well as members of the labor movement, students and the rest of civil society, are expected to converge on Washington DC during that period to protest, challenge, disrupt, and potentially crush the global Joint Annual General Meeting. The confrontation could end up being the largest and most militant anti-capitalist showdown Washington has ever seen. Already, hundreds of affinity groups are forming, plans of attack are being drawn up, buildings cased, and gas masks stockpiled.
"Clearly, global capitalist meeting planners are in a pickle and running scared. The last time the IMF/World Bank met in Washington, delegates had to wake up at 3 a.m. to take buses escorted by hordes of police to circumvent activist blockades.
"Given this context - what an opportunity to have the IMF/World Bank meet right in Washington, DC. The leaders of the neoliberal project will have to make the impossible choice between almost certain disruption of their meeting, or turning the capital of the "free world" to an armed camp. Either way, they lose the most important battle, that for political hegemony.
"Because the Battle of Washington is impossible for the IMF/World Bank to win, it is the most important confrontation of the year for opponents of capitalist domination. Everyone reading this article is strongly encouraged to get time off work September 28 - October 4, 2001, buy a plane ticket to Washington DC, organize your friends, family and neighbors, and help turn this opportunity to a legendary defeat for the neoliberal project."
It sure looks to me as if the "Battle of Washington" was begun yesterday with the bombing of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. In a world with a population of 8 billion people, 100,000 well trained, dedicated terrorists with the technical ability and the money to plan, coordinate and execute an attack like we saw yesterday can make a lot of trouble, especially when they are pictured in a supportive media as mere "protestors" and the police are labeled as the monsters.
We Americans, as the most technologically advanced and the wealthiest nation of the world, who use 25% of the fossil fuels in the world, are the enemy to a number of Marxist, Muslim Fundamentalist and radical environmentalist radicals that have been systematically portrayed as the "downtrodden" since the Seattle riots in 1999. All these groups have one thing in common: they plan on getting into a position, in the name of "democracy," to tell you how to live your life.
I remember when Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan. We promptly went to war. And, that war wasn't just against Japan. The world divided into two groups - the Axis and the Allies. The Axis powers included not only Japan, Germany and Italy, the major powers, but a bunch of smaller powers like Romania, Croatia, Albania.
It may be about time for America to wake up. Again we have a bunch of enemies. Its not just Osama bin Laden. He may be one of the smaller powers. We may find that the major enemy we have is a media that doesn't tell us the truth and our own willingness to lie to ourselves.
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com