What lies beneath the war in Afghanistan

punditman says...Just to show that punditman doesn't get too hung up on the "ideological purity" of every source he or Peacenik uses on this blog, punditman is posting another Eric Margolis article. Yes, Eric Margolis. Here's how his politics are described by wikipedia:

Margolis identifies his politics as "Eisenhower Republican". Though his domestic political persuasion is moderately conservative (he is a staunch anti-communist and a supporter of capitalism), Margolis' views on the Middle East are sharply at odds with the neoconservatives.

He also happens to have written some of the most insightful pieces on Middle East politics and the so-called "War on Terror" in recent years.

By ERIC MARGOLIS

Truth is war's first casualty. The Afghan war's biggest untruth is, "we've got to fight terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them at home."

Many North Americans still buy this lie because they believe the 9/11 attacks came directly from the Afghanistan-based al-Qaida and Taliban movements.

False. The 9/11 attacks were planned in Germany and Spain, and conducted mainly by U.S.-based Saudis to punish America for supporting Israel.

Taliban, a militant religious, anti-Communist movement of Pashtun tribesmen, was totally surprised by 9/11. Taliban received U.S. aid until May, 2001. The CIA was planning to use Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida to stir up Muslim Uighurs against Chinese rule, and Taliban against Russia's Central Asian allies.

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Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam, al Qaida

By Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers Mon Mar 10, 7:08 PM ET

WASHINGTON — An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East , U.S. officials told McClatchy . However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives found no documents indicating a "direct operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report.

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punditman says...

Indeed, one of the justifications given by the criminals in the White House to invade Iraq, was an implied link amongst Iraq, al Queda and 9-11.

Here are a few reminders of the tricksters at work:

Here's Dick Cheney on Meet the Press on December 9, 2001, "it was pretty well confirmed" that attack mastermind Mohamed Atta had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official.

Then, in 2003, Cheney said the following:

"If we're successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it's not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it's not a safe haven for terrorists, then we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11."

Here's George W., in his speech aboard the aircraft carrier on May 1, 2003: "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda and cut off a source of terrorist funding."

And here is Dubya last July:

"The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims," he said."

And many, many other examples--of how they deliberately tried to connect Iraq to 9-11.

Punditman always knew these were directly misleading statements, or in many cases, outright fibs-- meant to be implanted into the minds of a population suffering from media impoverishment. Thanks in the ensuing years to the power of the internet, for making things a little less impoverished.

The War on Terror as Fraud: Iraq al-Qaida group threatens Iran

CAIRO, Egypt - The leader of an al-Qaida umbrella group in Iraq threatened to wage war against Iran unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq within two months, according to an audiotape released Sunday.
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punditman says:

Let’s see if I get this straight: al-Qaida in Iraq (an organization that never existed before the US invaded), has threatenened Iran, accusing them of arming Shite insurgents in Iraq. Sound familiar? This pronouncement may as well have come straight out of a White House press conference. As usual, the interests of the neo-cons and those of their supposed enemy dovetail in rather convenient fashion.

Unfortunately, we should not be surprised. Lately, award-winning journalist Seymour Hersch has been writing about how the US has been secretly funding al-Qaida-linked groups in Iraq as part of a shifting strategy to confront Iranian (Shia) influence.

At the same time, the Bush administration has a history of accusing Iran of harbouring al-Qaida fighters. Confused? This, despite the fact that Iran handed hundreds of al-Qaida and Taliban detainees over to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and other Arab and European countries, after the US invaded Afghanistan. Iran hates al-Qaida and the US neo-cons sabatoged an opportunity to work closely with Iran in the war against al-Qaida and its Taliban sponsors, back in 2002. Moreover, it was revealed recently that the Bushies have a policy to blame Iran for any future al-Qaida attacks on the US and use it as an excuse to bomb them.

Gotcha! Your war on terror is a fraud. Future historians will debate just how deep the rot goes–-providing there is a livable world once the wackos of all stripes are done with it. But one thing is clear: these insane and deceptive ruses are part and parcel of the Bush administration’s MO–-contradiction and hypocrisy, mere tools of their deadly trade. Thinking people understand this, but they need to act decisively to expose all of the crimes and lies intended to instill fear, confusion and paralysis. Meanwhile, the rest of the population needs to escape from the matrix.

Everyone the US fights in Iraq is now "al-Qaida"

punditman says:
...and everyone Canada fights in Afghanistan is "Taliban."
The analysis below is an excellent example of how the propaganda system works.

by Glenn Greenwald

Josh Marshall publishes an e-mail from a reader who identifies what is one of the most astonishing instances of mindless, pro-government "reporting" yet:

It's a curious thing that, over the past 10 - 12 days, the news from Iraq refers to the combatants there as "al-Qaida" fighters. When did that happen?

Until a few days ago, the combatants in Iraq were "insurgents" or they were referred to as "Sunni" or "Shia'a" fighters in the Iraq Civil War. Suddenly, without evidence, without proof, without any semblance of fact, the US military command is referring to these combatants as "al-Qaida".

Welcome to the latest in Iraq propaganda.

That the Bush administration, and specifically its military commanders, decided to begin using the term "Al Qaeda" to designate "anyone and everyeone we fight against or kill in Iraq" is obvious. All of a sudden, every time one of the top military commanders describes our latest operations or quantifies how many we killed, the enemy is referred to, almost exclusively now, as "Al Qaeda."

But what is even more notable is that the establishment press has followed right along, just as enthusiastically. I don't think the New York Times has published a story about Iraq in the last two weeks without stating that we are killing "Al Qaeda fighters," capturing "Al Qaeda leaders," and every new operation is against "Al Qaeda."

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