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Terrorism
There's no one agreed upon definition, but there are some common elements
- First, intent to terrorize someone or some group, to 'provoke a state of terror.'
- Second is the use of violence. Usually this is distinct from war-related violence--more likely targeting civilian populations.
- Resistance against governments. Some definitions include this component--trying to change the behavior of governments. Others admit that governments are often involved in similar activities that meet many of the above criteria (hence the point of view from the Roy article ...).
- Asymmetry--Some definitions focus on the this--especially when it is a form of protest or resistance against governments or powerful entities with overwhelming force advantages.
- War vs crime--there is disagreement over how to treat terrorism, as either an act of war, or as a crime.
Blowback
Unintended consequences, usually of government's secret (covert) operations, of which the public knows nothing. How can the public put events such as the attacks on 9/11 in context if they were based in part on American acts uncovered in the commercial media? The CIA recently released 700 pages of classified documents, commonly referred to as the 'Family Jewels,' about previous covert activities.
''Weapons of the Weak'
Marginalized populations cannot compete with governments for power--governments tend to have a virtual monopoly on force. Populations often find ways to resist, however, what they perceive as illegitimate power exercised against them. Often these 'weapons' manifest themselves as 'ordinary, every day forms of resistance.' In a village, this might mean sabotage, theft, killing of livestock, etc. Political Scientist James Scott says this type of resistance, to effect real social change, must:
- be collective and organised rather than private and unorganised;
- be principled and selfless rather than opportunistic and selfish;
- have revolutionary consequences; and
- negate rather than accept the basis of domination (Yee, 1994)
False Flag operations (Vietnam; Persian Gulf War)
Military Industrial Complex -- President Eisenhower gave his now-famous speech as he left office in 1961. Military spending has mushroomed since then, partly driven by fears of the 'Cold War' with the Soviet Union. He was warning of an alliance between the military branch of government, defense industries, and Congress, leading to ever-higher defense expenditures, justified as necessary to protect and defend the country and its citizens against attack. Some of the graphs below will give you a picture of the growth of the arms industry:
- Eisenhower's speech
- Growth of the arms industry
- Military expenditures by country
- For 2011 fiscal year (you can enlarge this graph)
- Defense spending since 2001
- From 1945 - 1996
- In the world
- Military industrial complex, or a matrix? (Sony, Danskin, Sara Lee, IBM, New Balance, Hanes, Noxzema, Head & Shoulders, Sears, General Electric .....)
Video footage
Some context
- Osama bin Laden, from Saudi Arabia, was part of a rebel insurgency, trained and armed in part by the US government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to resist the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1980.
- bin Laden was upset with the government of Saudi Arabia, when it allowed US military forces to set up military bases in its country in 1990 in preparation for a military operation to repel Iraqi troops from Kuwait in the first 'Gulf War.' He declared a fatwah against the United States for its occupation of Holy Lands. Later he was instrumental in the formation of the terrorist group al Qaida, which claimed responsibility for the attacks of September 11, 2001. There is some controversy, though, about the strength or even the organization of al Qaida before 9/11.
- Mohammed Mosaddeq was the Prime Minister of Iran in 1953, when he accused the British Government of seeking too much control over Iran's natural resources. He attempted to nationalize Iran's natural resources (that is, to have them owned and administered by the state) and declared the United Kingdom an 'enemy.' The British sought the help of the US Government, President Eisenhower labeled Mosaddeq a communist, and he was shortly deposed. The Shah of Iran at the time, who shared power in the Iranian monarchy, was exiled, but returned and installed by the US through a covert CIA operation.
- The Shah used repressive measures, including a secret police force, to control the citizenry and maintain an unpopular alliance with Western governments. In 1979, an Islamic revolution, a direct response to the Shah's rule and the US support for his government, overthrew the government (but not before the US had shared uranium enrichment technology with Iran, in an effort to develop nuclear power capacity). The CIA refers to this sort thing as blowback.
- In late 1979, Iran overran the US Embassy and took 53 US diplomates hostage for over a year. Iran was also engaged with Iraq in a bloody war, and when Iraq, controlled by former army officer Saddam Hussein appeared to be losing the war, the US stepped in to help with arms (including biochemical weapons) and intelligence. Donald Rumsfeld met with Hussein personally in 1983.
- Fast forward--Saddam Hussein was no longer the US friend after he invaded Kuwait--whose government he had accused of 'slant drilling' for oil into Iraq's oil fields--and the US may have feared he would continue to Saudi Arabia (which has the largest known oil reserves in the world). Certain factions within the US have been trying to find a way to remove him from power since, chief among them individuals who were part of the Project for a New American Century ('neoconservatives' mostly, with close ties to the defense industry).
- After the first Gulf War, in which Saddam Hussein and his troops retreated from Kuwait, the US and other countries imposed economic sanctions on Iraq to try to marginalize him and erode his power base in the Middle East.
- In the mid 1990s, Osama bin Laden declared a 'fatwah' against the US, primarily because they had used Saudi Arabian soil as part of their military operations to wage the first Gulf War (see above). He was very upset at the Saudi Government for allowing the US Military to deploy on what the Moslem world considers its Holy Land. It is probably no coincidence that 15 of the 19 hijackers who perpetrated the attacks on the US on 9/11 were Saudis. The Saudi Government, to maintain control, has no doubt had to compromise with those more fundamentalist elements of the Islamic faith unhappy with their relationship with the US, and part of that probably had to do with not pursuing al Qaida and other terrorist groups operating in the country (in other words, it may have been a 'safe haven' in some ways).
- Epilogue? bin Laden is assassinated by US troops on May 1, 2011. Pentagon releases video.
- Is it over? Ever?
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