Skip to content

The War on Terror

Greed is the cause of terrorism

By Dr Firoz Osman-Laudium, Tshwane

(source: STAR – January 07, 2010 Edition 1)

The  Star’s editorial, "Terror: no easy answers" (January 5), cites the example of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried to blow up a US airline, in the difficulty in countering terrorism.

Part of the problem, and solution, lies in the statement "that citizens of 14 nations will be subject to intensified screening at airports worldwide". Every targeted country – with one exception, Cuba – is Muslim.

They are Iran, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.Most of the Muslim nations are either invaded and occupied, or have a despotic puppet ruler – armed and propped up by the US and its allies – oppressing the population.

Others are determined to guard their ideology and sovereignty and follow an independent foreign policy, so they are victimised.The problem, therefore, is the invasion, occupation, suppression and exploitation of Muslim lands by the US, Israel, Russia, India, UK and the Nato countries.

Read More »Greed is the cause of terrorism

Hunting monsters quickly turns evil


Hunting monsters quickly turns evil
 


IN THE NAME OF ANTI-TERRORISM: This picture of a hooded Iraqi prisoner cuffed and collapsed over a rail confirmed abuses at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. It was published by the Washington Post in 2004. Picture: AFP

No one from South Africa’s side implicated in this unlawful act was ever called to order Riding roughshod over civil liberties was not confined to issues of terrorism

I was jolted when I read that President Barack Obama did not support the prosecution of CIA agents for the use of torture against terrorism suspects, as long as they acted within the guidelines approved by the George Bush administration.

Would Obama get away with that if he was the president of South Africa today? What about the rule of law and the violation of the constitution? Did our government get sucked into Bush’s agenda?

Obama is steering a delicate path between upholding the rule of law and searching for ways to move beyond the Bush-Dick Cheney legacy. That fine line was visible when Obama opened the possibility of prosecuting Bush administration officials who devised those guidelines.

Obama is engaged in bringing about an enormous turnaround in US policies and practices , one that has considerable significance for the rest of the world.

His predecessor exploited the September 11 terrorist attacks to carve the world into fundamentalist good versus evil camps and to unleash his “war against terrorism”, which legitimised the destruction of civil liberties across the world.

Even the governments of countries that claim to be bastions of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights became partners of the US in this conspiracy. There is evidence that the UK and Germany allowed CIA aircraft to make clandestine prisoner-transfer landings; Poland and Romania allowed the agency to set up secret detention and interrogating centres, so-called “black sites”, on their soil.

Did our country get enmeshed in these machinations? How did this happen? Did we think our collusion with Bush-Cheney would leave us immune to the virus?

The evidence is itsy-bitsy, but it is there.

On October 5 1999, our immigration officers detained and interrogated Khalfan Mohamed, an illegal immigrant from Tanzania, then handed him over to FBI agents who, two days later, whisked him off to New York to stand trial for the bombs in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.

Our Constitutional Court in 2001 found that the handing over of Mohamed was unlawful.

The judgment reveals that on September 13 — about three weeks before Mohamed was detained in Cape Town — our minister of justice and the national director of public prosecutions signed a new extradition treaty with the US. In a meeting with the FBI t hey were told that one of the suspected bombers was living in Cape Town and that they were working on apprehending him.

Our minister told the meeting that once the suspect bomber had been brought to the US, the FBI should remove all traces of the relationship between the bureau and several local counterparts.

It is no surprise, then, that even in the face of this devastating Constitutional Court judgment, no one from South Africa’s side implicated in this unlawful act was ever called to order.

On the contrary, it seems the practice continued.

We now know, again from court records, that Khalid Rashid, an illegal foreigner, was arrested in October 2005, interrogated and secretly flown out of SA. He ended up in Pakistan, endured prolonged torture and was released recently without charge.

Our Supreme Court of Appeal in 2009 found that his deportation was unlawful.

These two court cases give us a fleeting glimpse of what seems to have been happening behind the scenes, and the determined efforts to cover up the truth of our collusion with the Bush administration.

Given what we now know about the renditions, torture and “black sites”, it seems irrefutable that many of our state structures were co-operating with US agencies and our state officials became party to subverting our laws.

This is not to turn a blind eye to the threats of terrorism.

Obama is unequivocal: instead of combating terrorism, all the extra-legal and unlawful measures provide fertile ground for terrorism to thrive and find new recruits.

He argues that terrorism has to be combated vigorously and firmly and that US commitment to civil rights and democracy is the essential platform for waging this struggle.

This is a critical message for all of us. It is always easy for those in power to find justification for curtailing civil rights on the grounds of emergencies.

In the case of South Africa, there are good grounds to believe that once the virus entered our system, the practice of riding roughshod over civil liberties was not confined to issues of terrorism or illegal foreigners. That is the nature of the virus.

With all the fancy footwork in which Obama is caught up, the turnaround that he is engaged in has opened a space for us to put our house in order and ensure that we align our practices to our laws and constitution.

  • Mac wants to hear your views. Write to him at macmaharaj @sundaytimes.co.za.

     

  • Read More »Hunting monsters quickly turns evil

    Icty prosecutor to hold a press conference after Karadzic transfer

    The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia will hold a press conference today following the transfer of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

    Serge Brammertz would address journalists at the tribunal’s offices. Brammertz, who succeeded Carla Del Ponte as prosecutor at the beginning of the year, has rarely faced the media.

    The 63-year-old Karadzic, arrested in Belgrade on Jul 21, was transferred to the tribunal’s detention unit in The Hague this morning to face charges over atrocities committed during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which claimed 100,000 lives.

    He faces charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, notably for the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.

    MRN-AFP

     

    Read More »Icty prosecutor to hold a press conference after Karadzic transfer

    Terrorism always suspect a false flag first

    Real Terrorists Are Rare & Usually Easily Caught
    Always Ask: “Who Gains From This?

    By Gordon Duff

    (source: Veterans Today)

    Every time there is a terrorist attack, the nations blamed say that it was a “false flag” operation. This is what America did to cover up My Lai. We were lying. Germans claimed Poland invaded Germany in 1939. An educated guess is that 75% of terrorist attacks we hear of were staged, never happened or were done by “radical groups” that were first infiltrated, then controlled and eventually financed and supplied by intelligence agencies. Intelligence agencies are, in actuality, the biggest terrorist organizations in the world. The CIA has blown up more buses, airplanes and markets than any almost anyone else. The Mossad may be number one, followed by, well, everyone, the RAW, ISI, MI-6, IRA and dozens of others.

    Either directly or through idiots, clones (operatives using false identity to look like “terrorists”) or through simply doing it themselves, these groups promote national policy by destabilizing nations, swinging elections or defaming religious, national or political groups by staging attacks and using the press to place the blame. The popular video game Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 even has a terrorist attack on a transportation center in Moscow built into it, a “false flag” attack. Today, the real thing happened.

    Read More »Terrorism always suspect a false flag first