|
Cui
Bono
was the Latin legal term in old Rome for investigating a crime.
Who benefited from 9/11 is the question?
No
one would accuse Bush of the strategy used by Roosevelt at Pearl
Harbor to get America into the Second World War. But for
others in Washington the question of Who Benefited may be the
way to find out Who Knew?
Many Washington interests have thrived since 9/11. They all
had an interest in keeping quiet or suppressing any information
which might have thwarted the attack. This by no means implies
that such groups as a whole were involved, but rather that certain
individuals could have had an interest in obfuscating information
about a pending attack.
Remember the Neo-conservatives,
urging for two years that the military budget be increased by
$100 Billion, and that America become the military hegemon of
the world. Typically an editorial in the Weekly
Standard urged that instead of tax cuts, new revenues should
go to the military. The attack brought them exactly what
they wanted. They always argue against negotiations and want
war and empire. Their advice (and plan we might call it)
was to go on killing
Iraqis, maintaining U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia, knowing how
we insulted and threatened fundamentalist Muslims, and loudly
telling Bush to avoid trying to mediate the Palestinian conflict. It's
not rocket science to argue that they wanted enraged Muslims to
attack America. Earlier they had an agenda to agitate China. For
them any war will do to grow the empire.
Then there is the War Party
itself: all the vested interests in Washington which thrive
from war. Look now at the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Pork
complex, we've just seen how it works with efforts to stop
funding that howitzer from Oklahoma. Now it's getting
new equipment, an enemy to actually fight with, air bases in Central
Asia, budget increases beyond their dreams. There's no more
talk of closing military bases or cutting waste, it's just spend,
spend, spend. (Every soldier now costs $98,000 per year –
New York Times 4/19).
Then there is the Armageddon
Lobby . "Worse is better," to quote Leon Trotsky
from another era's plan for paradise on earth. Anything that
promotes chaos and war in the Middle East is what a powerful offshoot
of Christian Fundamentalism foretells and what many of them strive
to bring about and hunger for. They argue that Israel is
doing God's work to bring about the return of Christ and paradise
on earth (after most human beings are killed). They now have
a very major voice in Republican congressional leadership.
And of course, there is the Israeli Lobby, better now called the
Sharon-Settler Lobby. Most Jews would trade land for peace,
but the lobby has been taken over by its most militant minorities. The
attack on America gave them cover to re-invade and again destroy
the Palestinian economy. Here we have been some astounding
reports. One of the first, strangely enough, was on Fox
News, about prior Israeli knowledge. Then it was removed
mysteriously for weeks from its website, but later put back. The
question of Israeli agents who were tracking al Qaeda terrorists
and may have known of plans for attack has exposed their operations
like nothing since the Pollard
Case. To ask intelligence agents about possible Israeli
spying brings knowing facial expressions and furtive glances around
to see if anyone else has heard the question. One said to
me, "We are told that Israel is an ally, that we are not
to be concerned with their actions." It's off the table,
career ending, not to be talked about, is what they will say in
confidence. Most will only give non-committal answers but
one can often sense their bitterness about it.
Indeed the reason the intelligence community is so adamant against
releasing imprisoned Israeli spy Pollard is that he's the only
one they've convicted. They want him kept in prison as an
example for others; equally the reason the Israelis keep trying
to get him a pardon. An aside to all this is that secrets
sent to Israel may then be stolen by or sold to Russia and China
(some of the Pollard stuff went to Russia); one reporter's source
argued that this was a reason Russia no longer needed its communications
surveillance base in Cuba. His story was about an earlier
spy case involving intercepts of west coast police wiretaps by
the Russian mafia in Israel, which stole them from the Israeli
company doing the taps, and then sold the information to drug
dealers. See U.S. Police
and Intelligence Hit by Spy Network.
Then
visit Israeli Spies Exposed. It
is an investigative update of what is known so far about 9/11. Following
is an excerpt. Fox News reported Dec. 13th "Investigators
within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that
to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying ... is considered career
suicide.
"Cameron told me in similar language that's what journalists
also can face. And, what's clear is that Fox quickly removed
the story from its web site. It was reposted this month by
Fox after other media began showing interest in the story. These
kinds of stories occasionally slip past the Neo-conservative curtain
by young reporters who don't know the rules.
After Cameron's initial reports, the story pretty much evaporated
in the United States before Christmas. Then, all hell broke loose
in the last few weeks. Intelligence Online in France obtained
the same 60-page June 2001 federal report. The French web site
reported that 120 Israelis had by now been detained or deported
by U.S. authorities."
Next see the Israeli
Spy Scandal Overview on Antiwar.com. It includes reports
from Salon, Ha'aretz, AP, Le Monde,
Newsmax and the detailed studies by Justin Raimondo with
links to varied sources.
A Congressional investigation would naturally try to avoid bringing
up any question on Israeli spying. But it might be difficult
to avoid, so we think that both parties will finally agree to
severely limit the parameters of any investigation. Still,
one never knows. Investigations, like war, once started,
carry their own momentum with unforeseen consequences. There
is tremendous resentment in both Congress and the intelligence
agencies at the brute Israeli political power dominating them,
so leaks may get out.
Jon Basil Utley
is the Robert A. Taft Fellow at the Ludwig
von Mises Institute. A former correspondent for Knight/Ridder
in South America, Utley has written for the Harvard Business Review
on foreign nationalism and Insight Magazine on preparation for
terrorist threats.
|
Previous
articles by Jon Basil Utley on Antiwar.com
'Anti-Terror'
Bill Splits Conservatives
11/27/01
Alternative
to Unending War
11/9/01
Answering
the 'Wolfowitz Doctrine' on American Empire
8/24/01
American
Interventionism and The Terrorist Threat
8/16/02
The
Seven Big Lies About Iraq
3/9/01
|
