WAR ON TERRORISM - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
Sharm el-Sheik and the Strategy of Tension |
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from Another Day in the Empire
Entered into the database on Sunday, July 24th, 2005 @ 10:22:06 MST |
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“Officials believe the mastermind behind [the Sharm el-Sheik] attacks
could be linked to the attacks in October on resorts in the Sinai Peninsula
resorts. The deadly tally in those attacks that entailed three explosions that
destroyed hotels in Taba and two other Sinai resorts: 34 people, most of them
Israelis,” writes Joe
Gandelman in a news round-up. It
is said the Abdullah Azzam Brigades of al-Qaeda in Syria and Egypt claimed
responsibility for the Taba and Ras Shitan bombings. Abdullah Azzam’s name rings a bell. A Palestinian university professor
and member of the CIA-penetrated Muslim Brotherhood, Azzam set up the Services
Office (Maktab al-Khadamat) a CIA- and Saudi-sponsored support organization
for the mujahideen (through Prince Turki of Saudi intelligence) fighting the
Soviets in Afghanistan, providing a network infrastructure based in Peshawar,
Pakistan, that would later form the basis for al Qaeda, itself a CIA-ISI contrivance
(see Gerecht, Atlantic Monthly, July 2001). In short, the Sharm el-Sheik operation smells of CIA (in the current context,
“CIA” translates into cooperation between several intelligence agencies—CIA,
U.S. and British military intelligence, and Mossad—and “black”
covert ops such as the bombings at Sharm el-Sheik are entirely off the books
and use long-groomed assets such as al-Qaeda and other “Islamic terror”
groups spawned by the long-compromised Muslim Brotherhood). Soon after the Sharm el-Sheik bombings, NATO secretary general Jaap
de Hoop Scheffer chimed in with an obligatory statement: the bombings “demonstrate
that people of all nations and of all faiths are victims of the indiscriminate
threat of terrorism. They also confirm the need for the international community
to stand together to defend against this threat.” It is, to say the least,
disingenuous of NATO to make such a proclamation, considering it provided financial
and military support to al-Qaeda in Kosovo and Bosnia (a well-documented fact
although never mentioned here in the United States—see Isabel Vincent,
U.S.
supported al-Qaeda cells during Balkan Wars). In short, we should take note
when a terrorist-funding organization such as NATO issues statements in the
wake of terrorist events. In addition to funding and supporting al-Qaeda in
the Balkans, NATO worked closely with British intelligence agents and the CIA
to create Operation Gladio (the Italian variant of a wide-ranging series of
fascist, anti-communist covert paramilitaries) As Daniele
Ganser writes, Gladio-like operations spanned across Europe and beyond:
“…in Belgium, the secret NATO army was code-named SDRA8, in Denmark
Absalon, in Germany TD BDJ, in Greece LOK, in Luxemburg Stay-Behind, in the
Netherlands I&O, in Norway ROC, in Portugal Aginter, in Switzerland P26,
in Turkey Counter-Guerrilla, and in Austria OWSGV. However, the code names of
the secret armies in France, Finland, Spain, and Sweden remain unknown…
In order to guarantee a solid anti-communist ideology of its recruits, the CIA
and MI6 generally relied on men of the conservative political Right. At times,
former Nazis and right-wing terrorists were also recruited, and eventually these
“right-wing terrorists” engaged in bombings and assassinations subsequently
blamed on the left, part of a “strategy of tension” (from 1969 to
1974). Ganser writes: In this age of global concern about terrorism, in which secret services
are thought of as part of the solution and not as part of the problem, it is
greatly upsetting to discover that Western Europe and the United States collaborated
in establishing secret armed networks which in the majority of countries are
suspected of having had links to acts of terrorism. In the United States, such
nations have been called rogue states and are the object of hostility and sanction.
Can it be that the United States itself, potentially in alliance with Great
Britain and other NATO members, should be on the list of states sponsoring terrorism,
together with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran? Or, alternatively, is it plausible
to assume the secret NATO armies operated for years beyond the control of legitimate
political authorities? For Ms. Ganser, this may be upsetting, but for many of us it is all too typical
of the way the fascist and neolib (and neocon faction) state does business.
Islamic terrorism, created in large part by the state (as amply documented),
is a new (or extended) Gladio black op on steroids. “Throughout history governments have used terrorism against their own
people and created paper tiger enemies as a means of obtaining and retaining
the trust of the masses in the process of gradually enslaving them,” write
Paul
Joseph Watson and Alex Jones. “The Anglo-American establishment that
controls the military-industrial complex of the West has been caught over a
hundred times carrying out bombings and other terrorist attacks around the world
to further their corporate aims and to blame their enemies… How many of
the family members of the London subway bombing victims are aware of the fact
that in a 2000 investigation the Italian Senate concluded that the 1980 Bologna
train bombing [a Gladio op] that killed 85 people was carried out by ‘men
inside Italian state institutions and … men linked to the structures of
United States intelligence’?” It is impossible to ignore (unless you get your news exclusively from Fox)
the links between Islamic terrorism and “structures of United States [and
British and Italian] intelligence.” It makes absolutely no sense for “al-Qaeda”
(and its variants) to kill innocent civilians at Sharm el-Sheik or in the subways
of London—unless we are to presume, as the state and its various corporate
media propaganda ministries would have us believe, that Muslims simply embrace
an “evil ideology” and engage in senseless and pointless violence
without logical political objectives. It should be obvious this violence benefits
the United States and its collaborators in a well-orchestrated effort to build
a military and police super-state (a “New World Order,” for lack
of a better term). Sharm el-Sheik is but another step in a global strategy of
tension (and terror) designed to build a frightened and thus illogical consensus
for repressive police state tactics. |