A Defense Department program that embodies Bush & Co.'s policy of thwarting threats before they reach the US was already entrenched before they were elected: It's called the national missile defense system (it doesn't deserve initial caps). But as the administration does with bin Laden, the program ducks the obvious threats.
As a recent Rolling Stone article explained: "Even the Missile Defense Agency concedes that the [missile defense shield] -- originally envisioned as a defense against a rival superpower -- is no longer of any use against China or Russia."
Let's see if we've got this right. Russian and Chinese nuclear weapons would overpower the shield. Meanwhile, Iran is years away from developing nukes and North Korea negotiates them away. Against whose nukes then are we spending billions to defend ourselves?
"Would you believe," as America's most beloved intelligence agent, Maxwell Smart, used to say, "Venezuela?"
Meanwhile, the more prosaic threats remain legion. They include the obvious: flying planes into buildings (9/11) and blowing up trains (Madrid) and buses (as in London). Equally vulnerable are ports, especially, as Ridgeway details, liquified natural gas tankers.
These come under the heading of what John Robb of Global Guerillas fame calls "systems disruption." Also included are attacks on bridges, tunnels, water supplies, pipelines and refineries. Equally as devastating is a cyber attack on an electrical grid.
Meanwhile, the hard right stokes fear of terrorists storming across the borders as an excuse to bash immigrants. But that doesn't mean the danger doesn't exist. If only a thousandth of each year's three-quarter million illegal immigrants were Islamic terrorists, that still adds up to a battalion of 750. Many believe that sleeper agents, along with nuclear materials such as suitcase bombs, have already infiltrated the US.
The FBI and, especially, local police forces deserve some credit for the six-year sabbatical terrorists have taken from attacking us on our soil. More likely though, thanks to al-Qaeda's reputation for making a virtue of patience, we're in the eye of the storm.
An example of how it may be toying with us was described by Ron Suskind in his book "The One Percent Doctrine." In 2003, plans to release hydrogen cyanide gas (a staple of Nazi gas chambers) in New York City's subways was called off by Ayman al-Zawahiri. Apparently the prospect of a body count that might not exceed 9/11's failed to light his fire.
In other words, the A-man and the Big O dream of a terror extravaganza like a multi-city nuclear attack. Acquiring nuclear know-how and materials requires serious money, though, to which al-Qaeda central may no longer have access.
Bin Laden, for instance, squandered much of his fortune on building projects in Sudan. (Once the heat came down from the US, though, it was: Thanks for the modernization program, Sheikh. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.)
Author Paul Williams ("Osama's Revenge," "The Al Qaeda Connection") maintains al-Qaeda has generated significant cash through drug and blood diamond transactions. However, in 2005, Zawahiri wrote a famous letter to Abu Musab Zarqawi urging him to cool it with the beheadings (bad P.R., you know).
Also, claiming they were short on funds, he hit him up for a donation to the home office. Then, last month, President Bush's homeland security adviser, Frances Townsend, called bin Laden "virtually impotent." (One can't help wonder how she knows.)
Whatever al-Qaeda central's financial standing, there's actually no need to raise a king's ransom to spend on nuclear weapons. After all, attacking the infrastructure is as cheap as it is cost-effective.
In his recent book, "Brave New War," Robb wrote that 9/11 was a "$250,000 attack. . . converted into an event that cost the United States over $80 billion." One of bin Laden's goals, he reminds us, remains "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy."
To expedite that, al-Qaeda has gone viral. As has been well-documented, it grants copyright-free use of its brand to knock-off terrorists like the late Zarqawi.
Russ Wellen is the nuclear deproliferation editor for OpEdNews. He's also on the staffs of Freezerbox and Scholars & Rogues.
"It's hard to tell people not to smoke when you have a cigarette dangling from your mouth." -- Mohamed El Baradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
is cuz the corporate-military-industrial-intelligence-insurance-banking complex benefits from wars and increased public expenditures on war and a domestic security state. Not only have they cultivated enemies, they have created them.
Complete 9/11 Timeline
by
Better World Order (4 articles, 408 quicklinks, 26 diaries, 875 comments)
on Monday, October 22, 2007 at 9:54:59 PM
The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. – J. Edgar Hoover
It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning. -- Henry Ford
Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. – Theodore Roosevelt
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Angry Peasant (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 25 comments)
on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 7:04:03 AM
Of course Homeland Security Works. Why should Bush do another 911? To prove he is a failure? He's a CON- and Murderer! I really have begun to believe Alqaeda and binLadin are the real patriots in this whole fiasco. They are being shot at and killed for something they didn't do. They are defending America from Facist Republican CIA. binLadin is more of an American than Bush. He should run for President.
Freedom from War, Is Freedom.
Soldiers like to claim they are fighting for our freedom. What they can't give me is freedom from War! Something wrong with this! I believe 911 was committed by Bush CIA. More people die for our country who do not believe in war, and they are given nothing, yet they give the medal of honor to a dead soldier who is part of the Military Industrial Complex that has murdered thousands of innocent people, women and children? The news networks are as insane as the government who believes War protects our freedoms. If you can not give me the FREEDOM FROM WAR, you are fighting against freedom, not for it.
by
Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 934 comments)
on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 7:59:35 PM
