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# Through Terror to Despotism and Empire

## The U.S. Cabal's Design

* * *

[Franklin Freeman][5]

written winter 2001-2; revised spring 2002

  


> If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator. 
> 
> (George W Bush, President-elect, [18 Dec. 2000][6])
> 
>   

> 
> ... it is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes. It may even lie on the surface; but we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions -- especially selfish ones.
> 
> (Alexander Solzhenitsyn, _Peace and Violence_)

The September 11 attacks were too sophisticated an operation to have been organized by a foreign conspiracy, with scarcely a trace being visible to U.S. intelligence agencies in advance. In conjunction with the anthrax attacks and the U.S. government's well-organized response, they point to a domestic scheme developed mainly within the U.S. administration itself.

The members and affiliates of this scheme are, evidently, right-wing elements within the U.S. political establishment, and are best described as a _cabal_ or covert group. The cabal presumably consists of a policy-making nucleus (perhaps with a supreme director), surrounded by a collection of loyal agents, and a more casual periphery of (conscious and unconscious) puppets. At the higher levels must be elements of the CIA and perhaps other U.S. security and intelligence agencies; elements of the Republican Party and, since the Presidential election, the Government (it is almost impossible to imagine that President Bush and many of his cabinet are not at least the _conscious agents_ of the cabal); and elements of the military. The FBI presumably also contains at least a few affiliates at its top; but this body appears more the victim than a part of the cabal (see [below][14]).

The aims are to overthrow democracy and the constitution and to establish a police-state despotism in America; and to lay the foundations of a world empire -- the immediate goal here is the Middle East and its oil.

The techniques used in pursuit of these aims are:-  
     (1) the fostering of a general atmosphere of fear and anger in America (and western Europe) by (a) instigating acts of unprecedented terrorism -- the September 11 kamikaze attacks and the anthrax attacks; (b) supplementing these by the issuance of general and unspecific warnings of further attacks; and  
     (2) the stirring-up of international conflagration between the West and target non-Western lands, by attacking the persons and basic sensibilities of their peoples; and also by destabilizing the target countries themselves, by stirring up internal conflict. A policy of provocation and polarization, in a word.

The bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo campaign in 1999, instigated by (a section of) the CIA, was an earlier, simpler and probably one-off attempt along the same lines (aimed, in this case, at the communist-remnant countries). It was carried out during the Democratic presidency of Clinton, and was unable to achieve anything. (See the [next section][7] for details.)

The conspiracy (in its current version) is more disguised, more complex, and rather better organized. But the diguise is not sophisticated; rather it has a cartoon-strip obviousness about it. 'Any 16-year old with a liking for courtroom dramas could tear this story apart like a two-dollar shirt'. If we of the West do not see it, it is because it is more comfortable for us not to. The cabal shows great, perhaps unlimited ruthlessness. It is also in a desperate hurry, partly to achieve its aims before it is exposed: and from its brazen obviousness, it may soon be.

It may be that the visible conspiracy is all that there is. Or perhaps what we see is only a front. In this case the front-men may have been set up as potential fall-guys, to take the consequences of possible exposure. Those who may be behind them -- whoever they are -- will reap the benefits, having removed the inconveniences of constitutionalism, and having the beginnings of world empire in their hands.

### CIA-Instigated Bombing of China's Belgrade Embassy, 1999

The Kosovo liberation war of spring 1999 saw renewed confrontation between the West and the (now-remnants of) the Communist regimes (Russia, China, Yugoslavia, etc). It was (despite the fall of Soviet Communism) an international crisis comparable in seriousness to the Berlin crisis of 1948 or the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, for example. As in those crises, the world appeared to hover on the brink of war. At one time, the communist leader of the Russian Parliament claimed that nuclear missiles had been re-targeted on the West. 

In May a lone American aircraft bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. The U.S. government quickly claimed that this was accidental, and that another building 1000 yards away was the intended target. China (amongst others) had great difficulty in accepting this explanation, and it was only with great difficulty and the payment of substantial compensation that her feelings were soothed.

Another suggested explanation was that the embassy was relaying Yugoslav army messages; but a number of other embassies in Belgrade were doing the same, and this is anyway not a reasonable explanation of what was (and would have been even in normal times) a major international incident. In the context of the time, this was the second-most provocative target that could have been chosen -- the first, of course, being the Russian embassy.

The bombing mission was independent of the 900-odd missions sanctioned by NATO during the campaign. It was the only one instigated by the CIA, a fact testified to in Congress by CIA director George Tenet in July 1999. Moreover it was initiated by a group within the CIA outside of the expected chain-of-command. 'The Counter-Proliferation Division within the CIA is known for its opposition to [then-President] Clinton's China policy. The CIA's regular targeting office -- the Central Targeting Staff -- was not consulted about the mission. Instead the Counter-Proliferation Division forwarded the target information to U.S. forces.'

_References_:-  
['U.S. Media Overlook Expose on Chinese Embassy Bombing'][15] (FAIR action alert, 13 Oct. 1999)  
['New York Times Reports on Embassy Bombing Investigation'][16] (FAIR activism update, 28 April 2000)  
['Did the U.S. Deliberately Bomb the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade?'][17] (ProjectCensored.org)  
['Now for the Reprimand'][18] (ABCNEWS.com, 9 April 2000).

### CIA Links with al-Qaeda, c. 1995 - 2001

The CIA originally provided backing for the forerunners of al-Qaeda, in the shape of arms and training, when they were part of the resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. However, the CIA's connections and apparent support have been maintained ever since, even up to the eve of September 11, 2001. This is in spite of bin Laden and al-Qaeda having been publicly declared by the U.S. as public enemy no. 1 after the 1998 bombings of its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 

_Le Figaro_ and _Radio France Internationale_ have published the following information. In the mid 1990s the CIA supplied U.S. military explosives to al-Qaeda, of the type of which traces were later found by the FBI in the ruins of the embassies. On 12 July 2001 the CIA's regional representative, Larry Mitchell, apparently met bin Laden at the American hospital in Dubai. It is not known what the meeting was about. (The CIA and the American hospital have denied these claims.)

_References_:-  
Michael Moran, ['Bin Laden comes home to roost: His CIA ties ...'][19], MSNBC News, 24 Aug. 1998;  
'Terror "blowback" burns CIA', _The Independent on Sunday_, 1 Nov. 1998 (not online);  
['Egyptian agent worked with Green Berets, bin Laden'][20], _The Jerusalem Post_, internet edn, 31 Dec. 2001 (own recording; orig. vanished);  
Michel Chossudovsky, [Osamagate][21] (9 Oct. 2001; deals mainly with the former Yugoslavia);  
[_Scoop_ translation of _Le Figaro_ article][22], containing link to French original (_Le Figaro_, 31 Oct. 2001, p.2);  
LBO Talk Archive, [brief translation and French original of _Radio France Internationale_ report, 1 Nov. 2001][23].  


Note: The Taliban regime was said to have been warned by America in mid July 2001 that it would be attacked if it did not hand over bin Laden. ([BBC News report, 18 Sept. 2001][24]; [_Guardian_ report, 22 Sept. 2001][25].) This was immediately after bin Laden was said to have met with the CIA representative. There may be a connection here.

### The September 11 Atrocities

The simultaneous hijacking of four airliners was an event unprecedented in the history of terrorism. The coordination and expertise needed to carry out the kamikaze attacks would have required professionally-trained pilots. Several of the alleged hijackers are said to have received flight training at secure U.S. military bases in the 1990s. ([MSNBC _Newsweek_, 15 Sept. 2001][26]; [_Pensacola News Journal_, 17 Sept. 2001][27]) As the U.S. government itself admitted, the operation would also have needed the backing of a national government (the type the U.S. suggested was, of course, that of a Middle East 'terrorist state'.) 

Taking as true the story that Middle Eastern suicide fliers carried out the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks (it probably is). We can reasonably assume that these fliers _believed_ that they were carrying out a mission on behalf of their ('Islamic-terrorist') cause. However their puppet-masters had a different agenda. We should assume that the U.S. cabal covertly orchestrated, facilitated, channeled the operation. It no doubt fed information and issued instructions to them through intermediaries.

[paragraph added 8 May 2002:] Prof. Chossudovsky suggests that the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, was behind the operation, in liaison with its counterparts in the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Pentagon. The ISI has had a decades-long history as an instrument of the CIA. (Michel Chossudovsky, ['Cover-up or Complicity of the Bush Administration? The Role of Pakistan's Military Intelligence Agency (ISI) in the September 11 Attacks'][28], 2 Nov. 2001.) India has claimed that $100,000 was wired to Mohammed Atta at the instance of General Mahmoud (then the head of the ISI) shortly before the attacks (Manoj Joshi, ['India helped FBI trace ISI-terrorist links'][29], _The Times of India_, 9 Oct. 2001); India is hardly an impartial commentator on Pakistan, so this report must be treated with caution. Another report says that bin Laden himself entered a Pakistani hospital on 10 Sept. 2001, where he was surrounded by the Pakistani military (apparently for his own security) (['Hospital Worker: I Saw Osama'][30], CBS Evening News, 29 Jan. 2002; ['Bin Laden Whereabouts Before 9/11'][31] )

The wing of the Pentagon struck by one of the kamikaze fliers had recently been evacuated and was under renovation. This could be evidence of military foreknowledge of, and complicity in, the attacks. The fliers could have been drawn to this target by false information that this section was a _good_ target, that many key military personnel and much key equipment would be taken out.

One of the motivations behind the U.S. obsession with exterminating the membership of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is the urgent need to remove material witnesses. Hence, for example, the massacre of prisoners-of-war at Qala-e-Jangi (late November). The massacre was assisted by American and British special forces; they may even have been the main executors of it. CIA agents on the ground may have been instrumental in provoking it, perhaps as the unwitting patsies of their masters (one -- Johnny 'Mike' Spann -- is said to have died for it). Amnesty International and the UN Commission on Human Rights have called for an investigation. (E.g, Ramimullah Yusufzai, ['The Massacre of Hundreds of POWs In Mazar-i-Sharif Merits Probe'][32], Rense.com, 28 Nov. 2001; Luke Harding _et al_, ['Fatal errors that led to massacre'][33], _Guardian_, 1 Dec. 2001.)

### The Anthrax Attacks

These were a systematic attack on the organs of the American government and the mass media, and the second stage of the scheme. The purposes of the attacks were evidently to paralyse the functioning of government (and perhaps to infiltrate government offices in order to plant bugs, steal documents, etc. [Note : Colson][34]), and to foster a general atmosphere of fear in the U.S.A. (and the Western World). 

Central to this was the attack on Congress. This was designed to knock out this central organ of democracy. The Senate has a Democrat majority of one, and the anthrax letter in this case was directed to the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Tom Daschle (a move which evidences the right-wing nature of the conspiracy). An attempt was then made to close both Houses, and only a Senate 'revolt' prevented that body from closing. On Sunday 14 October I heard a report (on British ITV news) that Congress was to be re-opened inside a military base ('for its own protection'). If such a move had gone ahead, Congress (or at least the Democrats) would have been effectively imprisoned, or worse. Possibly an accident or terrorist attack would have been then staged to take it out. But Congress was evidently not content to play along with this scheme, and re-opened in the third week of October. (If true, this plan is further evidence that elements of the military are members of the conspiracy; they would have been needed to act as prison warders or whatever.) (Cf. ['Ft. McNair Ready For House Action'][35], _Roll Call_, 1 Nov. 2001.)

With incredible folly, the conspiracy used weapons-grade anthrax of a type only available from the U.S. biological warfare program (prior to the latter's official abolition in 1969). In spite of official attempts to introduce red herrings, government-appointed scientists have testified privately to American newspapers that the bacilli are of a type identical with the U.S. military ones (_Washington Post_, 25 Oct. 2001; _New York Times_, 3 Dec. 2001). Subsequently this has been further narrowed down to a sub-strain of the Ames bacillus (see [below][14]). The CIA has now admitted that it has secretly held stocks of this sub-strain for the last 25 years or so.(See, e.g, [_Washington Post_, 23 Dec. 2001, p.A20.][36])

[added 1 July 2002:] R. J. Ochs suggests a detailed schedule of how the anthrax attacks were used to pressure the 'Patriot Act' (see [below][12]) through Congress. See his essay '[Government By Anthrax][37]'.

### All the President's Men

_George W Bush, U.S. President:-_  
Son of former President George Bush; Bush family is rich from their enterprise in (Texas) oil; family has or had alleged business connections with bin Laden family (not here Osama), and personal interest in increasing American control of Middle East oil (also personal underlined awareness of declining oil reserves); George jnr a former drunkard (?alchoholic) -- possible life deficiency / inferiority complex etc (?in face of wealth-creator father); suggest used more than using -- only a fool would have given his future intentions away ('If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator') even in the form of a so-called joke.  
     What, if anything, does the Enron scandal have to do with all this? 

_Dick Cheney, Vice-President:-_  
Has been an oil executive. Suggested, autumn 2001, that we could expect the "war on terrorism" to go on for the rest of our lives (or something of the sort), and that some liberty at least would have to be sacrificed for the sake of 'security'.

_Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary:-_  
Administration 'hawk'. Henry Kissinger has called him 'the most ruthless man I ever met'. Rumsfeld's views were out of favour until Sept. 11, 2001.  
     Was also defense secretary under Ford and Bush senior. Has also worked in pharmaceuticals (Searle, Gilead Sciences).

_Tom Ridge, 'Homeland Security Director':-_  
A worthy police-state title. His office may indeed have been created as one of the foundation stones of a police state. Right-wing law-and-order man. His social agenda as Pennsylvania governor has included the 'three-strikes' law (life imprisonment after three serious crimes) and a faster death penalty process.

_John Ashcroft, Attorney General:-_  
Hard-right fundamentalist. Suggested that the anthrax attacks could be a 'domestic conspiracy'.

_Gen. Tommy Franks:-_  
Commander-in-Chief (CINC) of the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM), which covers operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan (and other regions around the Indian Ocean). CENTCOM's supreme HQ are the McDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. It also has important command and logistics structures in the Persian Gulf. CENTCOM, and its CINC Franks, are the military keystone of the cabal's Middle-Eastern empire-building.

_Rudolph Giuliani, New York mayor 1994 thru 2001:-_  
New York arguably the leading U.S. city, key etc; Giuliani mayor for (maximum) two terms. Right-wing Republican, executor of the 'zero-tolerance' policy against crime in New York. Father was a Mafia enforcer; son is not responsible for 'the sins of the father', _unless_ he carries on the family tradition; infinitely-corny but still effective Hollywood gangster verbal terror technique used re. anthrax attacks {must find quote -- a re-iteration of another faction member's usage}. Was execrated by New York liberals for his 'despotic' methods -- until September 11. Transformed his image into hero of the hour; poor bloody firemen used; tried unsuccessfully to ride the wave to an (unconstitutional) extension of his mayoralty term, but secured his preferred successor instead (by narrow electoral majority), the billionaire Republican Michael Bloomburg.

_George Tenet, CIA Director:-_  
Tenet was appointed Deputy Director of Central Intelligence in July 1995, acting Director in Dec. 1996 and permanent Director in July 1997. Tenet was one of the few Clinton appointees kept on by Bush. The CIA's world role has expanded under his leadership. Besides its connections with al-Qaeda, the CIA has, since 1996, become involved in Israeli-Palestinian relations, with its officials acting as arbitrators. Five CIA offices have been opened in Palestine, and Tenet himself has visited a number of times. (['Hearings held on Mideast role ...'][38], _th-record.com_, Oct. 26, 1998; ['Coming In From The Cold'][39], _Time Magazine_, 2 Nov. 1998.) Tenet's latest visit was in June 2001; cf. [below][13].  
[He went again in June 2002.]      [Paragraph added 24 March 2002:] According to Vendyl Jones (in 'The Days to Come--Have Just Arrived!'), 'the CIA has trained and employed hundreds of Palestinians as special police under the direct authority of the CIA in ... the West Bank and Gaza'. He adds that 'George Tenet recall[ed] all CIA staff from the West Bank and Gaza and evacuate[d] them from Israel precisely one week BEFORE September 11'. However, he doesn't give his source references, and I haven't found this information elsewhere on the web. (His page is at [www.etz-chayim.org/NEWS%20ITEMS%20DEC%202001.doc][40], and is in PDF format.)

_Robert Mueller, FBI Director:-_  
Conservative Republican. Appointed July 2001 by President Bush; took up his post 4 Sept. Had gained backing of Attorney-General Ashcroft after serving as his deputy Jan.-May 2001. (['Profile: FBI chief Robert Mueller'][41], BBC News, 28 Sept. 2001)

### Preliminary Police-State Measures, Autumn 2001

> [The 'Patriot Act'][42] -- [Military Tribunals][43] -- [An Outright Putsch?][44] -- [The CIA versus the FBI][14] -- [Microsoft and the Internet?][45]

In September 2001, following the kamikaze attacks, Congress passed a resolution allowing the President to take 'all necessary measures' for the defence of the nation. This general resolution has crystalised into the following pieces of legislation.

_The 'Patriot Act'_  
The terror-stampeded Congress passed this measure in just six weeks, on 29 October 2001. Its provisions include detention without trial for non-citizen terror suspects, surveillance of mobile phone messages and email, and internet tracking. It empowers the CIA to extend its intelligence-gathering operations from the foreign to the domestic field for the first time.

_Military Tribunals_  
Set up by Presidential decree, 13 November 2001. May have been a second-best resort after the failure of the attempt to shackle and/or destroy Congress in mid October. (As a U.S. civil-rights activist has recently pointed out) The military tribunals are an attempt by the Federal executive government to sidestep the constitutional writ of Congress. They do not apply to U.S. citizens, and will not be held on U.S. soil (Guam and the U.S. military base at Guantanamo, Cuba have been put forward as locations). Ostensibly for use against al-Qaeda terrorists, the tribunals' area of enforcement includes in practice the large majority of the world's population.

_An Outright Putsch?_  
The above measures are of course a second-best to a full-scale coup-d'etat. This possibility must remain on the cards. The massive and unprecedented 'security operation' at Salt Lake City during the Winter Olympics (Feb. 2002; see [diary][46], 9 Feb.) made a handy dress rehearsal for a coup in Washington DC. This April there has been a massive police 'security operation' in Washington during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meeting there.

But such an event would be a first for the American Republic, and one cannot expect it to proceed with lightning speed or efficiency. The supporters of the old democracy are still strong and determined. It would probably still be under a pretext of foreign terrorism, and a juddering, stuttering affair, with advances and retreats, thrusts, feints and parries.

_The CIA versus the FBI_  
The genius of Bush and the CIA in immediately assigning blame to bin Laden and al-Qaeda for the September 11 attacks (in spite of almost no apparent foreknowledge), was in utter contrast with the abject failure of the FBI in finding culprits, either for the September 11 or the anthrax attacks.

The FBI has been frustrated and baffled at every turn in its investigations into the terrorist attacks. Orders from 'on high' have pulled rank-and-file investigators off investigations of al-Qaeda and the anthrax attacks. In the former case, one reason suggested is the danger of exposing the Bush family's financial-oil connections with the bin Laden family (e.g. [BBC _Newsnight_, 6 Nov. 2001][47]). But a more important reason is probably that they would expose the ultimate involvement of the cabal in these attacks.

Key FBI investigative agents of the terror attacks are to be removed from their headquarters in Washington and scattered throughout the U.S.A. on the pretext of increasing the efficiency of the investigations, but in reality to neutralize their effectiveness. On 8 November 2001Attorney-General Ashcroft announced a 'wartime' reorganization of the Justice Department in which 10 per cent of the FBI's personnel would be transferred to field offices across the country. In a revealing psychological slip, Ashcroft said that 'the war on terrorism will not be fought in Washington'. (Logically he should have said: will not _just_ be fought in Washington ...)

[paragraph added 25 May:] Since the Hanssen spy scandal and the September attacks, the FBI's traditional anti-terrorist HQ in Manhattan has gone into eclipse. Both Ashcroft and the new FBI Director Mueller have sought to consolidate power in the FBI's Washington HQ (in apparent contradiction to the last paragraph). Mueller has plans for centralized 'super squads', and has (up to May 2002) purged one-quarter of the FBI's senior executives. (['FBI Director to Propose "Super Squad" for Terror'][48], _Washington Post_, 15 May 2002, p.A01.)

During winter 2001-2 the FBI made some efforts to fight back via its legitimate police investigation into the anthrax attacks. It narrowed down the type of anthrax used against used against Democratic senators to a sub-strain of the Ames variety used in U.S. army and CIA laboratories, though several other laboratories have received it from the army. But since then its investigation has apparently run into the sands. Barbara Rosenberg (head of bioweapons research at the Federation of American Scientists) says that the FBI is 'dragging its heels' because their chief suspect is a 'former' government worker familiar with secret government projects. He may have been a member of a CIA covert operation 'which went madly out of control'. (['Army denies anthrax attack link'][49], BBC News online, 17 Dec. 2001; ['Anthrax: The story so far'][50], BBC News online, 19 Dec. 2001; ['Anthrax suspect is US scientist'][51], _Guardian_, 20 Feb. 2002; ['Anthrax attacks'][52], BBC Newsnight, 14 March 2002. )

_Microsoft and the Internet?_  
The internet's afficionados regard it as an instrument of liberation from information control and censorship. But an internet under the control of a totalitarian police state would indeed be a fearsome instrument of surveillance and control. And America contains the heart of the internet.

The Justice Department's recent deal with Microsoft, settling the 3-year antitrust lawsuit against the company, is regarded as a sellout to the company by its critics. We may speculate that the agreement contains secret clauses to provide the State with data on the activities of both U.S. citizens and non-citizens -- in the 'interests of national security' of course. Concerns have been voiced for some time over the personal data-gathering requirements of Microsoft's computer-operating system (Windows XP, which has almost a monopoly on new computers now); and the Microsoft-owned Hotmail e-mail system has a database of 100 million users. Also, was the 'anthrax attack' on Microsoft's Reno office (in October) a cover for point-of-presence infiltration of the company's network?

'XP' also represents the Greek letter combination _chi-rho_ standing for _Christos_ -- Christ. One could speculate on the blasphemous / Antichrist connotations of this, and proceed to look for triple-six combinations in the software's codes. While I don't want to develop this idea too much, still -- I do wonder.

[paragraph added 19 March 2002:] Among the wave of computer-virus attacks last summer and autumn (now mysteriously disappeared from the news) may have been field-experiments by the cabal for taking down, blocking, and taking over the internet. Microsoft too had a surprising number of downloadable 'security corrections' to its XP system at this time -- the opposite intent, possibly?

### Oil and Empire

We could speculate on the cabal's long-term imperial ambitions (and at the cabal's breakneck pace, 'long-term' may mean merely a couple of years). It may seek to bring western Europe, Russia and China under its control. (The apparent attempt to provoke war with China and possibly Russia in 1999 -- see [above][7] -- may have been an early abortive attempt at this.) 

But the cabal's most immediate concern is the Middle East and its oil reserves. The declining stock of the world's petroleum reserves is one motive for securing better control over them. The oil-and-finance business connections of the Bush and bin Laden families (not including Osama) (see, e.g, [BBC _Newsnight_, 6 Nov. 2001][47]) may be another aspect to this affair.

One reason for seizing Afghanistan is said to be to gain convenient access to 'Caspian' (Central-Asian) oil reserves by means of a pipeline through the country -- for which a secure, friendly regime is required (see, e.g, ['America's Pipe Dream'][53], _The Guardian_, 23 Oct. 2001). But political control of traditional Middle Eastern oil reserves may be even more important. The cabal evidently intends to 'box in' Saudi Arabia and other leading producers in the region. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the eastern wing of this pincer-movement; Israel is the western wing. There appears to be a southern wing too, in Yemen and Somalia; and a northern one in the southern ex-Soviet republics (Georgia, Kirghizstan etc).

The cabal has used gangster-terror methods to try to whip the new Afghan government into accepting a role as an American puppet. The U.S. Afghan military command, displeased with Hamid Karzai's offer of amnesty to Taleban leader Mullah Omar, said they let him know 'in no uncertain terms' of the U.S's hostility to such a move. Indeed they did. On the very day of Karzai's appointment as interim leader (5 Dec. 2001), a 'misdirected' 2000-lb bomb was dropped, far enough away to leave Karzai only mildly hurt, but with a clear message: you're our puppet or we'll kill you. The bomb did kill three Green Berets and five anti-Taleban Afghan soldiers. This tactic seems to have been repeated on the day of the new government's inauguration, with a bombing attack on a column of his supporters travelling to greet him (22 Dec.). The U.S. command claimed to believe that the column was of al-Qaeda leadership. In both cases, apparently, U.S. special forces on the ground called for the attacks.

The intensification of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, starting in early December, is the second leg of the campaign, the western side of the pincer movement. The 'Hamas' suicide bombings occurred during Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to New York and Washington (late Nov.). Sharon is a right-winger whose path to power anticipated that of the U.S. cabal. His visit to Temple Mount, the Jerusalem site sacred to both Jews and Arabs (28 Sept. 2000), was a deliberate provocation to the Palestinians. The inevitable resurgence of _intifada_ that followed produced a reaction among Israelis who subsequently voted in Sharon with his hard-line policies.

Was a new stage of provocation-policy decided on during Sharon's visit to New York and Washington, and how far has Sharon participated in it? Have the cabal used the same 'facilitation' techniques for the 'Hamas' suicide bombings as they presumably did for the al-Qaeda kamikaze attacks in New York and Washington? The CIA has been developing a role in Israeli-Palestinian relations since 1996 (see [above][54]). CIA Director Tenet's latest visit was in June 2001, when he negotiated a 'ceasefire framework' between the two sides. (The retired US general Anthony Zinni has also played a role as a mediator.) The ostensible peacemaking role of the CIA has become increasingly ineffective. The June 2001 ceasefire quickly broke down.

Iraq, Somalia and Yemen are further touted targets, and (with Israel) (if occupied by pro-U.S. troops or having puppet regimes installed) will establish fair surround control of Middle East oil; in particular they will box in the key oil-producer Saudi Arabia. (And Iraq itself has the world's second-largest oil reserves: 112 billion barrels, compared with Saudi Arabia's 263 billion.) So far the cabal has prevaricated over an attack on Iraq; their West European allies may not support such a dangerous move. The cabal has made some efforts to produce 'evidence from Iraqi defectors' of the supposed Iraqi resumption of production of weapons of mass destruction. Clearly this is to provide justification for an invasion.

One could also speculate on the securing of the Biblical lands for Antichrist purposes.

[paragraph added 18 April 2002:] Venezuela too is on the cabal's oil-empire list. The attempted military coup there (12 - 14 April) doubtless had the backing of the CIA and the cabal. Venezuela is the U.S.'s third-biggest supplier of oil, and president Chavez's populist economic policies are counter to American oil interests. (E.g, Conn Hallinan, ['U.S. cooking up a coup in Venezuela?'][55], _San Francisco Examiner_, 28 Dec. 2001; ['Profile: Hugo Chavez'][56], BBC News Online, 14 April 2002.) The coup attempt is unlikely to be the last word.

### Spengler, Caesarism, Totalitarianism

The historical philosopher Oswald Spengler showed that civilizations have a detailed comparable evolution or life-cycle (he dealt with seven in detail in his book _The Decline of the West_). The victory of force-politics and Caesarism is inherent in the late stage of every civilization, and concurs with its inner creative decline. Spengler has been criticised for not predicting 20th-century totalitarianism. But totalitarianism _is_ the Western civilization's version of force-politics. Its 'Faustian soul', its 'will-to-infinity' makes totalitarianism its force-politics. 

_Civilizations: Parallel Lives_  
In the late stage of all civilizations a single member nation comes to dominate the civilization and eventually unites it in an empire -- Rome in the Classical civilization, for example. The German Spengler, writing in the aftermath of World War I, tried hard to show that Germany was the Rome of the Western Civilization (and thus to elevate it from its then sorry state). This misplaced chauvinism does not spoil his theory as a whole. There was much evidence even then to suggest that America was the 'Roman' state of the West; after World War II its dominant international role made this fact more obvious. [Note : Riencort][57]

Spengler defined three successive 'political' ruling forces in the history of every civilization: landed property, money, and 'force-politics'. (For a 'combined' table of _three_ of Spengler's parallel 'culture-cycles', see [Bart Stewart's Spengler page][58].) For the West, Spengler predicted the victory of force-politics over money around the year 2000. He appears to have been pretty well on target! The Western civilization, certainly its 'Roman' state, America, has suddenly and dramatically transcended from democracy to force-politics. The cabal is currently engaged in a hell-for-leather subordination of constitutionalism to the will of the leader (though it may be doubted whether George W Bush himself can fulfil such a role, or whether he will remain the agent of a deeper body). The Presidency may evolve into an authoritarian Caesarism, or it may be overthrown and replaced by such an institution.

_Totalitarianism_  
Having collapsed in the former Soviet bloc, totalitarianism seems to be in the process of transferring from its extinct Soviet host to the West. The U.S.A, having won the cold war against the Soviet bloc, is transforming from the guardian of freedom to freedom's greatest opponent. 'In slaying my enemy, I am become my enemy.' In defeating the Soviet regime, America adopts the methods and ambitions of its cold-war rival. Its military and intelligence machine, hitherto used in the defence of the free world and now finding itself unemployed, turns outward to ambition and aggression. America is becoming the Soviet Union of the 21st century.

The 20th century saw the first experiments in totalitarianism: Stalinism, its 'left-wing' variety, and Nazism, on the right, being the two most outstanding cases (ignoring Maoism, a spin-off of Soviet communism). The U.S. cabal's burgeoning variety is a right-wing one, apparently friendly to unfettered big business and financial 'globalization'. However, the extremes of totalitarianism are inimically opposed to the freedom that is the necessary foundation of entrepreneurship. Lenin was forced to concede this by 1921, when he made limited concessions to free enterprise (the 'New Economic Policy'). And Hitler's projects in the end led Germany to economic ruin (contrary to the hopes of those magnates who had backed Hitler's original takeover).

Totalitarianism has hitherto worn a cloak of socialism, either of the radical Marxist variety or of the mongrel fascist (national-syndicalist) type. Socialism was the birth-mother of totalitarianism. But there is no reason to expect her infant, as it matures, to continue to pay homage to its parent's ideals. It may wear the garb of the current Christian revival, or have no masking ideal at all (i.e. be naked power politics). It could develop into a negative ideology of the 'necessity of keeping society under control', of 'preventing it from dissolving in chaos'. (The 'Legalist' totalitarian ideology in ancient China was just such a school of thought, and seems to have been applied rigorously at certain epochs.)

_Ruthlessness_  
We need have no doubt of the cabal's unlimited ruthlessness. Their readiness to kill 6000 businessmen in New York is small fry when compared with their attempt to trigger (or at least risk) World War III in 1999, by the bombing of China's Belgrade embassy ([see above][7]). So too we see the bestial massacres of enemy soldiers in Afghanistan; in these we can read our own, not too distant, future. And in the constant terror-warnings issued by them, ostensibly against the threat from foreign organizations, with which they menace the Western world.

_Conspiracy theories: the last 30 years_  
Watergate was the child; conspiracy-politics has come of age. (There may be an element of revenge here for the constitutional coup of the legislative [the Democratic Congress] over the executive [the Republican presidency, Nixon, Ford] that occurred in the aftermath of Watergate.)

Thirty years of conspiracy theories, of which Watergate was the real-life midwife, have sunk deep into the American psyche: they have become a standard strand of social thought. They have taken increasingly extravagant forms, and have become blended (in 'fact' and fiction) with science fiction and the supernatural. Potential conspirators themselves have absorbed this body of ideas, and may be influenced by it. On the other hand crank conspiracy theories are convenient to conspirators, since their elements can be mixed with factual evidence so as to tar that evidence with the same brush of crankery. Conspirators thus have a _motive_ to promote theories which are absurd and bizarre malformations of the truth.

But conspiracy theories too are a symptom of the decay of national faith in the constitution and the 'American way', and thus of the decay of these ideals themselves.

**Antichrist in 21st-century America -- a cultural necessity?**  
One does not has to be religious to agree that the ruthlessness shown by the current conspiracy is worthy of an Antichrist. But is the Reign of the Antichrist a _cultural_ necessity for the contemporary Western World? The age of rational, secular, scientific belief is passing, and reality is increasingly viewed through the lens of the aboriginal intuitive and religious beliefs of the beginning of the Western civilization. National and international power struggles become increasingly seen as, ultimately, _supernatural_ conflicts of good and evil, of God and the Devil, of whom the human combatants are the pawns.

And, as a sidenote. Religious fundamentalists (especially in the USA) were no doubt sorely disappointed when, on the turn of the millenium, the apocalyptic struggle failed to materialize. Here is one more energy to be exploited by the aspirants of totalitarianism and imperialism.

**Conclusion**  
The evidence is such that no rational person could reject it. Unfortunately, rationality as a collective trait of society may be dying. The bulk of the people may unquestioningly resign themselves to becoming a tramping-ground for a few competing warlords and despots.

Can this despotism be stopped? Probably the majority of the American armed forces and intelligence services remain loyal to the constitution. Can resistance be raised and coordinated from among these ranks? This may be a recipe for civil war rather than the restoration of equitable government. So it was during the decay of the Roman republic. Then, as now, the rivalry of political parties deteriorated into a kaleidoscope of demagogy, ephemeral despotisms, and armed conflict between opportunist and pro-constitution warlords (from c.100 B.C.). This was the beginning of the collapse of the republican constitution.

Authoritarian government and empire are (almost) inevitable for America. What can and must be stopped is the despotism, satanic in its intensity and ruthlessness, which is now being shaped.

  


* * *

_Copyright (C) the author 2001, 2002. This article may be reproduced, as a whole or in part, on non-profitmaking websites, subject to the condition of 'fair use'. Otherwise all rights are reserved._

* * *

  


NOTES:

Note : Colson. A similar suggestion was made, though not carried out, during President Nixon's 'dirty tricks' campaign. In 1970 Nixon's aide Charles W Colson (the 'evil genius' of Watergate), suggested firebombing the Brookings Institution in Washington (a Democratic think-tank) as a cover for theft of documents. The firebombing would presumably have looked like the work of contemporary extreme-left terrorists such as the Weathermen. {See Fred Emery, _Watergate: The Corruption and Fall of Richard Nixon_ (Cape, London, 1994), pp.26, 48.}  


[Back to text][59]

Note : Riencort. Amaury de Riencort, who published _The American Empire_ and other works, is Spenglerian through-and-through, though he hardly ever refers to Spengler in his writings. [Back][60]

  


  


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   [23]: http://nuance.dhs.org/lbo-talk/0111/0075.html
   [24]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1550000/1550366.stm
   [25]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4262511,00.html
   [26]: http://www.msnbc.com/news/629529.asp
   [27]: http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/news/091701/Local/ST001.shtml
   [28]: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO111A.html
   [29]: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?catkey=-2128936835&art_id=1454238160&sType=1
   [30]: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/28/eveningnews/main325887.shtml
   [31]: http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CBS203A.html
   [32]: http://www.rense.com/general17/themassacreofhundreds.htm
   [33]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,610058,00.html
   [34]: #Colson
   [35]: http://www.rollcall.com/pages/news/00/2001/11/news1101b.html
   [36]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17776-2001Dec22.html
   [37]: http://www.freefromterror.net
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   [49]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1716000/1716114.stm
   [50]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1719000/1719534.stm
   [51]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/anthrax/story/0,1520,653082,00.html
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   [53]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,579174,00.html
   [54]: #Tenet
   [55]: http://www.examiner.com/opinion/default.jsp?story=OPhallinan1228w
   [56]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1925000/1925236.stm
   [57]: #note:Riencourt (go to footnote)
   [58]: http://www.draftymanor.com/bart/h_spengl.htm
   [59]: #Note:Colson
   [60]: #Riencourt
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