Slaying the Osama Myth

In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power. (Power of Nightmares- Adam Curtis- BBC). I thought he couldnt lead eight ducks across the street. -Prince Bandar on Osama Bin LadenThe political assassination of Osama Bin Laden had all the elements of a B grade Hollywood action movie. In a raid codenamed Geronimo a team of Navy seals, flying in modified MH-60 choppers, cut down the bearded terrorist by a hail of bullets. The hi-tech raid was imbued with an air of clean violence which dispatched only villains with pinpoint accuracy. The narrative was a bit tarnished when it was later clarified that his wife, son and two couriers were also killed in the bloody encounter. To add to the confusion of what really happened at Abbottabad in Pakistan- the official version was chopped and changed fueling suspicion that the Obama administration was economical with truth. Badly scripted Hollywood Western movie The garbled official story of the White House exposed the holes in a badly scripted Hollywood Western movie of good versus evil. At first, the spokesperson at the White House claimed that Osama was armed with AK-47 when the commandos burst into the room. Osama got into a fire fight forcing the special unit to kill him and not capture him alive. True to form Osama used his wife as a human shield and she had to be killed. The subliminal message of the White House was clear: the US military machine is designed to spew benevolent violence. If innocent people got shot dead- too bad- for it was their fault if they got into the line of fire. Then the White House did a flip flop on how Osama was gunned down. The spokesperson clarified that Osama was unarmed and did not open fire. Osamas wife was not killed but was shot in the leg when she rushed at the soldiers. The woman who got killed in the crossfire was the wife of one of his aides. What followed was orgiastic scenes of self pity and indignation at the 9/11 site of the World Trade Centre in New York which were shown on the TV screens all over the world. The angry victims of 9/11 stomped the posters of evil Osama. There was also a poster showing the Statue of Liberty holding the decapitated head of Osama. The New York Times in its articles claimed that the American spirit was freed from the shackles of depression, unemployment and negativity. But inconvenient questions cropped up and refused to go away- Why was Osama not captured alive if he was unarmed? Could he not be a treasure trove of valuable intelligence information on Islamic terrorism? And why was his body disposed off at sea? Was Osama better dead than alive for the US government? If so why? Were there any dark secrets of the US war on Islamic terror which the US government didnt want its people to know? The answers to these questions do not lie in either distorting or eliminating the historical basis of Islamic terrorism nor by provoking maudlin self pitying hysteria (They hate us- our freedom, our way of life, and our greatness).With honorable exceptions of the alternative media, the corporate media has consistently misled the people about the real reasons of the wars on terror including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. The killing of Osama and the carefully orchestrated Hyper-

Patriotism by the media exploits the gullibility of the American public. US sponsored Jihad The US sponsorship of Jihad arises from protection of strategic geography and defending sea and air access routes linked to defending the vast reservoirs of oil and natural gas in and around the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, which the industrial world had begun exploiting and depended upon.[i]

Post Second Word War, the rivalry between US and Russia led to cold war. During this phase the policy makers and think tanks associated with the US administration perceived Soviet Russia as a main threat to US geopolitical/ oil interests in the Middle East. The policy makers and political strategists decided that the chief enemy of Communism and Third World Progressive Nationalism (Arab Socialism of Nasser) would be best countered by the Religion of Islam.

As John. K.Cooley, the author of the book Unholy Wars, explains-

The tacit consensus was that the Muslim religion, fundamentally anti-Communist, if translated into politics, could be harnessed as a mighty force to oppose Moscow in the Cold War, in a world growingly polarized by that war.[ii]

What started off as flirtation with Islamic extremism became a marriage of convenience during the Soviet Russian occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. As Ahmed Rashid, an expert on Islamic extremism explains-

With the active encouragement of the CIA and Pakistan's ISI [Inter Services Intelligence], who wanted to turn the Afghan jihad into a global war waged by all Muslim states against the Soviet Union, some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries joined Afghanistan's fight between 1982 and 1992. Tens of thousands more came to study in Pakistani madrasahs. Eventually more than 100,000 foreign Muslim radicals were directly influenced by the Afghan jihad.[iii]

During the Presidency of Reagan -the Washington Post reported in 1992-

The new covert U.S. assistance began with a dramatic increase in arms supplies -- a steady rise to 65,000 tons annually by 1987, ... as well as a "ceaseless stream" of CIA and Pentagon specialists who traveled to the secret headquarters of Pakistan's ISI on the main road near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There the CIA specialists met with Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan operations for the Afghan rebels.

The CIA operated through the Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in training the freedom fighters and the Saudi provided the finance. The jihad against the Russian troops in Afghanistan was also financed by a drug trade controlled by the CIA in Afghanistan which supplied 60% of the heroin demand in US market. Thus the drug trade provided the Islamic fighters billions of dollars in their fight against the Russians in Afghanistan.

The Russians were defeated in Afghanistan and withdrew their troops in 1989. But the price that was paid was high. Afghanistan was devastated in the war and lay in ruins. About 4 million people became refugees in Iran, Pakistan, and Central Asia. Another horrific consequence of the alliance of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan with US hatched the Taliban movement which imposed repressive rule in Afghanistan. Even after the Soviet withdrawal, US continued its support for Jihad through ISI for covert operations in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans. The covert support was extended to the rebels in Chechnya. The geopolitical objectives were clear. The rebels were instrumental in disrupting the Russian oil pipeline which transits through Chechnya and Dagestan. The indirect beneficiaries were the Anglo-American oil companies says Michel Chossudovsky, which are vying for control over oil resources and pipeline corridors out of the Caspian Sea basin.[iv] The contagion of Islamic extremism spread to Egypt where there was a terrorist attack against foreign tourists which left 58 killed. In Algeria during the 90s the Islamic militants killed over 1,00,000 persons in the campaign of terror. In Kashmir, the ISI supplied arms to Kashmiri insurgents who wanted independence from India. Soon US herself became the target of Islamic militants after the war ended in Afghanistan. In 1993 the World Trade Centre was bombed which was followed by the bombing of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on August 7, 1998. Thus, it could be seen that Islamic terrorism was not a spontaneous phenomena but actively sponsored by US foreign policy to stem the Russian influence in Afghanistan. The ultimate objective of US policy was to eradicate the influence of progressive nationalists and to actively promote an anti- Western fundamentalist regime consisting of a gaggle of hereditary monarchs, clerics, mullahs, imams and ayatollahs. The strategy was diabolically clever as it crushed progressive nationalists who could have technologically and economically developed their countries and challenged the US-UK axis in the Middle East. Instead the Islamic countries in the grip of these regressive elements made any Arab revolt seem self-aborting and impotent. [v] With the penetration of US-UK intelligence agencies into the Islamic terrorist cells with double agents atrocities perpetrated in the name of Islam served to discredit it and alienated world opinion. The stage was now set for the phony war on terrorism.

Evil Moriarty Like the fictional character Professor Moriarty in Conon Doyles stories of Sherlock Holmes Osama Bin Laden is portrayed as a master terrorist with an international network of terrorists across 60 countries who would commit mayhem upon receiving the necessary instructions via pigeons from the Tora Bora caves in Afghanistan. He is credited to be the head of Al Qaeda which allegedly carried out the 9/11 attacks on World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon In fact, there is no evidence linking Osama to the terrorist 9/11 attack on World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Weeks after the 9/11 attack, Osama Bin Laden (one of the several Osamas) gave

an interview in a Pakistani newspaper denying any links with the attack. In the interview he said it was un-Islamic to kill innocent civilians especially women and children. Then he darkly hinted-

The United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these attacks within itself; the people who are a part of the U.S. system, but are dissenting against it. Or those who are working for some other system; persons who want to make the present century as a century of conflict between Islam and Christianity so that their own civilization, nation, country, or ideology could survive.[vi]

Several weeks after the interview, another Osama surfaced in a tape where he seemed to acknowledge the responsibility for the 9/11 terrorist attack. In this tape he said-

The brothers, who conducted the operation, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and we asked each of them to go to America but they didnt know anything about the operation, not even one letter. But they were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the planes. ( Meyssan 2002 196)[vii]

Thus, it is impossible to know the real Osama from the fictionalized Osama carefully crafted by the CIA as he is rarely seen in the real world except through the contradictory video tapes and audio tapes. Even the video tapes show that Osama has many physical appearances. Some of them show Osama as gaunt and ailing while others show him as fat and chubby.

On the basis of information available the real Osama was a Saudi born to a very wealthy family who made their fortunes in the construction business and it is also known that he was recruited during the Soviet-Afghan war by the CIA. It is believed that in 1979 he was asked by Prince Turki of Saudi intelligence to mobilize money and volunteers for operations against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Thus Osama the patsy was born.

The Bin Laden family had business relationship with George W Bush through a company called Arbusto Energy, an oil company in Texas. Osamas half brother Salem Bin Laden is said to have invested $50000 through his friend James Bath who was also a close friend of George Bush. It is also known that George Bush worked for an international investment group called Carlyle Group which is owned by the Bin Laden family.[viii]

People who were close to him didnt appear to be impressed by his leadership qualities. Prince Bandar the Saudi Ambassador to US is reported to have said of Osama when they met for the first time in the 1980s-I thought he couldnt lead eight ducks across the street. This impression was shared by his CIA handler Milton Beardman who said that Osama was practically clueless about US manipulating the Islamic militants for her geopolitical ends.[ix] Prince Mahmoud bin Abdel Aziz recalled-

that night a decade ago when Osama Bin Laden attended an evening salon to describe his exploits fighting in Afghanistan.[The prince] remembers young Osama floundering when guests questioned him about the interpretation of religious texts. Finally, I had to signal with my hands for them to stop it, said the prince. He really is quite a simple man.[x]

In all probability Osama was a patsy of incalculable value as a monster with regressive Islamic beliefs for US geopolitical interests to wage terrorist attacks against countries as Russia and Libya. This view gets support from the fact that Osama was protected by the CIA and the State department of US when he required dialysis treatment. For instance, on the night before 9/11, Osama received treatment in a Rawalpindi Military Hospital for his kidney ailment.[xi]He was also spotted in Dubai at the American Hospital in July 2001 for treatment. Eyewitness state that Osama arrived from Quetta (Pakistan) and then he was immediately rushed to the hospital in Dubai for kidney treatment. It was also stated that a local CIA representative was seen entering the room[xii]

Even the CNN file showing Osama with masked guards firing semi-automatic weapons in the air was faked as the whole event was stage managed with the so called fighters being hired for the day and told to get their own weapons. His forays in military adventurism to establish Islamic governments in Africa were met with spectacular failures and he was a bit of a joke among Islamic fighters. Osama along with his ideological soul-mate Ayman Zawahiri were spent forces. Osama had no formal organization until the Americans invented one for him.

A Most Sinister Organization

If Osama as an evil terrorist of diabolical cunning was a synthetic construct of CIA psychological warfare, then the creation of the sinister Al Qaeda was a more audacious feat of imagination. The need to create a mythical terrorist organization rose from the compulsions of American criminal law in the trial of 4 suspects allegedly responsible for the embassy bombings in East Africa. The US administration was in a quandary as it wanted to prosecute Osama (a CIA asset) without his presence in a US court of law. Osamas trial in open court would be a disaster for US image of exceptional benevolence as his testimony would reveal dark secrets of US collusion with Islamic extremism. The US governments hit upon the novel idea of trying Osama in absentia and fabricate evidence of a criminal organization of which he was the titular head. This would permit the persecution of Osama under US law even though he could not be linked to any criminal acts.[xiii]

According to Jason Burke, the author of Al Qaeda, al-Fadl became a key prosecution witness and he was offered huge sums of money by the US government to give false evidence about the existence of Al Qaeda. His fanciful story of a fanatical Muslim messiah who was a head of a diabolical organization called the Al Qaeda was born in perjury and became stock-in-trade of most Television channels around the world reporting on Islamic terrorism.

Jamal al-Fadl, the original creator of the Al Qaeda myth and an ex-associate of Osama, was on the run as he stole $100000 from Osama and there was pressure on him to return the stolen money. Turning into a key prosecution witness was god send opportunity for him to become rich and get a witness protection to enjoy the fruits of perjury.

The Bush administration exploited the phantom Ali Baba and the 40 terrorists hiding in the caves of Afghanistan to the hilt. This led to the speculation that Osama lived in a virtual fortress with underground bunkers in the caves with sophisticated weapons to beat off even super powers. This led to a quixotic charge at Al Qaeda windmills which did not produce any spectacular evidence of either Al Qaeda or the evil chief Osama.

When the British took up the challenge under the government of Tony Blair on the ground of their superior knowledge of Desert warfare, special commando units were dispatched to Tora Bora caves in the quest of the elusive Pimpernel. After six months of combing the caves of Afghanistan the British like the Americans reported failure after spending huge amounts of tax payers money on a quixotic venture. There was no Al Qaeda or the diabolical Messiah Osama. It was a fools crusade chasing phantoms.

When the sinister Al Qaeda did not exist in the caves nor the master terrorist Osama make his dramatic appearance from the caves of Afghanistan to confront the infidels, the war on terror nearly ended in a whimper. But the terror was resurrected by the Bush administration by the phantom of sleeper cells which lay dormant in the length and breadth of US. The fools crusade got a fresh lease of life.

In a bizarre anti- terrorist operation four Arab men living in Detroit were arrested for being sleeper agents working for AI Qaeda. On the basis of flimsy evidence of a con man named Hmimssa, who had fraud charges against him and a video tape of a holiday trip to Disneyland, the four Arab men were charged with terror conspiracy. The Prosecution also produced doodles on a paper found under the sofa in the apartment where the Arab men lived as clinching evidence of a plot to blow up planes in Air base located in Turkey. The charges were later dismissed in a court of law but not before President Bush declared success in the war against sleeper cells. The hysteria went unchecked without any credible evidence or any conviction being obtained in a court of law.

Of the 664 people arrested under the Terrorism Act since September the 11th, none of them have been convicted of belonging to Al Qaeda. Only 3 people have so far been convicted of having any association with any Islamist groups, and none of those convictions were for being involved in a terror plot; they were for fundraising or possessing Islamist literature.[xiv]

Even the case as recent as May 1, 2010 of the alleged terrorist Faisal Shahzad who attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square had all the hallmark of a botched terror attempt predestined to failure. Frank Doyle, an FBI bomb expert, said that the wrong type of fertilizer was used which rendered the bomb harmless. Moreover, the suspect left clues all over the place giving rise to the suspicion that he wanted to be found out.

Equally perplexing were other sensational terror plots such as the shoe bomber Richard Reid- a British citizen converted to Islamic extremism-who was accused of trying to bomb American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in the shoes. The puzzling part of the terror plot was that Reid decided to fly to Israel by Al El prior to boarding the flight from Paris to Miami. It is inconceivable that he could have carried the shoe bomb without detection in one of the most security conscious airlines in the world. So the question arises- Was the bomb planted when Reid was in Israel? Even in Paris the security checks were done by the ICTS International whose senior management were Israeli officials with close links to the Mossad. The shoe bomb was literally a damp squib as the fuse was too damp to ignite. Here was another spectacular terror incident which was botched up.

Then there is the case of an underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab who boarded a Northwest Airlines Flight 253 plane from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to US without a passport. The agency responsible for airport security was ICTS (an Israeli owned company). A counter- terrorism expert Gordon Duff said that the PETN (explosive) of about 80 grams would not be sufficient to blow the seat of his pants.[xv] The botched terror attempt left Abdul Mutallab with burn injuries to his inner thigh and genitalia. But all the other passengers were miraculously safe.

The sensational exposures of the terrorist shoe bomber and the underwear bomber opened up the debate to beef up security measures at the airports. The debate also focused on the point that metal detectors could not detect plastic explosives (PETN/TAPN) and there was the urgent need to deploy Full Body Scanners in the airports. But crucial questions were avoided- How could the underwear bomber board any aircraft to US without a passport? Was it a coincidence that International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS), owned by an Israeli, Ezra Harel was the same security agency which failed to foil the other terrorist attempt by the shoe bomber? Were Abdul Mutallab, Richard Reid and Faisal Shahzad dupes who fell for a Mossad/ CIA fake terror operation to demonize Islam?

Need for powerful myths

In the documentary series Power of Nightmares produced by Adam Curtis argues that in an age when ideologies have failed, politicians have lost their credibility, power and authority to manage governments. As Curtis puts itBut now, they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand. And the greatest danger of all is international terrorism. A powerful and sinister network, with sleeper cells in countries across the world. A threat that needs to be fought by a war on terror. But much of this threat is a fantasy, which has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. Its a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media.[xvi] The neo-conservatives under various Republican Presidents like Gerald Ford, Reagan and Bush junior, inspired by the teaching of Leo Strauss believed that the elite should use deception,

religious fervor and perpetual war to control the ignorant masses. The regressive ideological system of Straussism is steeped in pre-bourgeois era of blood and guts, of imperial domination, of totalitarian rule, of pure fascism. One of the chilling precepts of the system was the belief in aggressive, belligerent policy with contempt for democratic rule. Straussism took its roots in Republican Party, formed neo-conservatism and became known as Neo-cons.[xvii] While it is tempting to dismiss Leo Strauss as a fascist crackpot, it would be a mistake to dismiss him entirely as his teachings influenced a small coterie of his pupils who later on became influential members of the US government. There was Abram Shulsky, the director of the Office of Special Plans, which was created by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who was instrumental in fudging intelligence to make a false case for war against Iraq. Another acolyte close to Leo Strauss was Irving Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, and Chairman of the Project for the New American Century in which the foreign policies of the neo-cons are outlined. Kristol was an admirer of Machiavelli who Leo Strauss admired. Another Strauss pupil who made it in the Bush administration was Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense and assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney. He was also responsible for selling the war on Iraq on the basis of fabricated intelligence reports on Weapons of Mass Destruction which allegedly Saddam had. In the US government these and other neo-cons like Richard Perle were the cheerleaders of the endless wars on terror in which Straussian endorsement of Machiavellian tactics guided the security policies of the state. As Shadia. B. Drury, professor of philosophy and political science at the University of Regina explains.Strauss endorsed Machiavellian tactics in politics are not just lies and the manipulation of public opinion but every manner of unscrupulous conduct necessary to keep the masses in a state of heightened alert, afraid for their lives and their families and therefore willing to do whatever was deemed necessary for the security of the nation. For Strauss as for Machiavelli, only the constant threat of a common enemy could save a people from becoming soft, pampered, and depraved.[xviii] Alarmed by the process of dtente initiated by the Nixon Administration in 1972 which sought to limit the arms nuclear race between USSR and US, the neo-cons set upon creating the phantom of an evil enemy of diabolical proportions which could destroy a country of exceptional benevolence like US. They realized that dtente would destroy fear and the powerful myth of an evil empire (USSR). They got the opportunity when America was in a midst of a political crisis over the defeat in Vietnam and the scandals of the Watergate which rocked the establishment. When Nixon resigned over Watergate the neo-cons seized their moment. As the documentary film Power of Nightmares points outThey allied themselves with two right-wingers in the new administration of Gerald Ford. One was Donald Rumsfeld, the new Secretary of Defense. The other was Dick Cheney, the Presidents Chief of Staff. Rumsfeld began to make speeches alleging that the Soviets were ignoring Kissingers treaties and secretly building up their weapons, with the intention of attacking America.[xix] There was no evidence that the Soviets were building secret weapons. This was also confirmed by CIA and other agencies watching Soviet Russia closely. But the neo-cons decided that myths of Soviet expansionism had to be created to prevent Liberal Democracies like US from collapsing within. To achieve this objective Donald Rumsfeld persuaded Gerald Ford to set up an independent enquiry. The enquiry committee was called Team B. Team B packed with neo-cons was headed by Richard Pipes, a historian who was an anti-Soviet ideologue, and there was another influential member Paul Wolfowitz who was an influential neocon. Team B searched in vain all the CIA data but could not find any information on Soviet secret weapons buildup. They hit upon the novel theory that if secret weapons could not be found the Soviets had developed such sophisticated weapon systems that they remained virtually

undetectable. Thus, it was concluded that absence of evidence of any secret weapons did not mean that such weapon systems did not exist. It simply meant that the Americans could not find it and that the Soviets were clever in concealing it. The CIA rebutted the fantasy of Team B by arguing that USSR was on the verge of collapse and that they posed no threat to US. Dr Anne Cahn who was the member of Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1977-80 said that the search for secret weapons of the Soviets was a pure fantasy and that Team B was wrong on all their assumptions. But the neo-cons relied on the power of myths instead of facts and rational enquiry in their intelligence assessments and decided to publish their finding without a shred of evidence to the press and media. Soon films and Television programmes in spread the gory tales of an evil empire having secret weapons which could not be detected. The threat of the Soviet Russia was hyped up with the publication of the book The Terror Network written by Claire Sterling. In this book it was stated that the Kremlin was behind most terror networks and the ultimate objective of Kremlin was to take over the world. The book was dismissed as cold war propaganda by Melvin Goodman who was the CIA head of Soviet affairs (1976-87). Other critics dismissed it as cold war rubbish of which Claire was a willing conduit. But the neo-cons decided to use the book to hype up the threat about Soviet expansion through terror networks around the world ranging from the PLO to the Baader-Meinhof group in Germany, and the Provisional IRA which were controlled by the Kremlin. The person who promoted this book was a neo-con Michael Ledeen who was the Special Advisor to the US Secretary of State (1981-82). The neo-con enlisted the support of William Casey who asked the CIA to write a report to confirm it. But the CIA analysts told him that the book was a complete fabrication as the material was planted in various papers in Europe to tarnish the Soviets. Casey was unmoved and he asked a university professor to prepare the dossier that said that the hidden terror network controlled did exist. Astonishingly, this fabricated dossier was instrumental in President Reagan signing a secret document in 1983 which gave US powers to fund covert wars against the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, new enemies had to be discovered. The spectre of Islamic terrorism was ahistorically born with the 9/11 attack on US. What was conveniently forgotten was that Islamic terror was created, funded and nurtured by US foreign policy in the proxy war against the Russians- an enemy of incredible evil. In the process a new enemy surfaced called the Al Qaeda- a phantom which has no geographical location. When this myth was embellished by another myth of Osama the master terrorist who rained destruction through messages sent through his pigeons, the US military machine embarked upon a series of endless wars from Afghanistan to Iraq to secure endless peace. But the fatal damage was done. The virus of dark Straussian myths infected policy making and intelligence gathering. This damaged the intelligence apparatus which was supposed to give the President reliable information enabling him to take right decisions in defense of the realm. But when imaginary threats were made real by doctored reports and fabricated facts, the Presidents of US began endless wars against terror starting from the Soviet Union to the caves of Tora Bora where the phantom enemy Al Qaeda had to be vanquished. The myth of Osama even though buried in the watery grave has the terrible power of exacting revenge. Now we learn that a new leader has been selected to head the Al Qaeda and there are reports that Pakistan is rocked by series of bomb blasts. There are also signs that Pakistan wants to defect to China along with Saudi Arabia. Are they revenge attacks by the Al Qaeda to avenge Osama or are they false flag terrorist attacks by the US on its ally for its disloyalty? With Osama and Leo Strauss both dead the terrible secrets of myths may never be known.

C R Sridhar. 22/05/2011

[i] Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International terrorism- John.K.Cooley- page 14. [ii] ibid [iii] Ahmed Rashid, The Taliban: Exporting Extremism, Foreign Affairs, November-December 1999(Quoted in who is Osama Bin laden?-Michel Chossudovskyhttp://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html [iv] ibid [v] 9/11 Synthetic terror- made in USA- W.G.Tarpley- pages 385-386 [vi] Ibid-page-136 -137-Ummat, Karachi, September 28, 2001. [vii] Ibid- page 138. [viii] Ibid pages 140,145. [ix] who is Osama Bin Laden?-Michel Chossudovskyhttp://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html [x] 9/11 Synthetic terror- made in USA- W.G.Tarpley- page [xi] Barry Peterson, Hospital Worker:I Saw Osama, CBS News, January 29, 2002 [xii] October 31, 2001, Le Figaro [xiii] Ali Baba and the Myth of Global War on Terror- Anait Brutianhttp://blog.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/08/07/ali-baba-and-the-myth-of-global-war-on-terror/ [xiv] The Power of Nightmares-produced by Adam Curtis-BBC [xv] Ali Baba and the Myth of Global War on Terror- Anait Brutianhttp://blog.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/08/07/ali-baba-and-the-myth-of-global-war-on-terror

[xvi] Written transcript of BBC documentary Power of Nightmares- Episode 1. [xvii] Straussism: The Neocon Philosophy Directing The Age of Tyranny- Looking Glass NewsJanuary 27th 2007. [xviii] Leo Strauss and the Grand Inquisitor- Shadia. B. Drury- Free Inquiry Magazine- volume 24 no 4 [xix] Written transcript of BBC documentary Power of Nightmares- Episode 1.

C R Sridhar