By Sunder Katwala, The Observer
Sunday October 27, 2002
America's most controversial writer Gore Vidalhas launched the most scathing attack to date on George W Bush'sPresidency, calling for an investigation into the events of 9/11 todiscover whether the Bush administration deliberately chose not toact on warnings of Al-Qaeda's plans.
Vidal's highly controversial 7000 word polemictitled 'The Enemy Within' - published in the print edition of TheObserver today - argues that what he calls a 'Bush junta' used theterrorist attacks as a pretext to enact a pre-existing agenda toinvade Afghanistan and crack down on civil liberties athome.
Vidal writes: 'We still don't know by whom we werestruck that infamous Tuesday, or for what true purpose. But it isfairly plain to many civil libertarians that 9/11 put paid not onlyto much of our fragile Bill of Rights but also to our once-enviedsystem of government which had taken a mortal blow the previous yearwhen the Supreme Court did a little dance in 5/4 time and replaced apopularly elected President with the oil and gas Bush-Cheneyjunta.'
Vidal argues that the real motive for theAfghanistan war was to control the gateway to Eurasia and CentralAsia's energy riches. He quotes extensively from a 1997 analysis ofthe region by Zgibniew Brzezinski, formerly national security adviserto President Carter, in support of this theory. But, Vidal argues, USadministrations, both Democrat and Republican, were aware that theAmerican public would resist any war in Afghanistan without a trulymassive and widely perceived external threat.
'Osama was chosen on aesthetic grounds to be thefrightening logo for our long-contemplated invasion and conquest ofAfghanistan ... [because] the administration is convincedthat Americans are so simple-minded that they can deal with noscenario more complex than the venerable, lone, crazed killer (thistime with zombie helpers) who does evil just for the fun of it 'causehe hates us because we're rich 'n free 'n he's not.' Vidal alsoattacks the American media's failure to discuss 11 September and itsconsequences: 'Apparently, "conspiracy stuff" is now shorthand forunspeakable truth.'
'It is an article of faith that there are noconspiracies in American life. Yet, a year or so ago, who would havethought that most of corporate America had been conspiring withaccountants to cook their books since - well, at least the brightdawn of the era of Reagan and deregulation.'
At the heart of the essay are questions about theevents of 9/11 itself and the two hours after the planes werehijacked. Vidal writes that 'astonished military experts cannotfathom why the government's "automatic standard order of procedure inthe event of a hijacking" was not followed'.
These procedures, says Vidal, determine thatfighter planes should automatically be sent aloft as soon as a planehas deviated from its flight plan. Presidential authority is notrequired until a plane is to be shot down. But, on 11 September, nodecision to start launching planes was taken until 9.40am, eightyminutes after air controllers first knew that Flight 11 had beenhijacked and fifty minutes after the first plane had struck the NorthTower.
'By law, the fighters should have been up ataround 8.15. If they had, all the hijacked planes might have beendiverted and shot down.'
Vidal asks why Bush, as Commander-in-Chief, stayedin a Florida classroom as news of the attacks broke: 'The behaviourof President Bush on 11 September certainly gives rise to notunnatural suspicions.' He also attacks the 'nonchalance' of GeneralRichard B Myers, acting Joint Chief of Staff, in failing to responduntil the planes had crashed into the twin towers.
Asking whether these failures to act expeditiouslywere down to conspiracy, coincidence or error, Vidal notes thatincompetence would usually lead to reprimands for those responsible,writing that 'It is interesting how often in our history, whendisaster strikes, incompetence is considered a better alibi than ....Well, yes, there are worse things.'
Vidal draws comparisons with another 'day ofinfamy' in American history, writing that 'The truth about PearlHarbour is obscured to this day. But it has been much studied. 11September, it is plain, is never going to be investigated if Bush hasanything to say about it.' He quotes CNN reports that Bush personallyasked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to limit Congressionalinvestigation of the day itself, ostensibly on grounds of notdiverting resources from the anti-terror campaign.
Vidal calls bin Laden an 'Islamic zealot' and'evil doer' but argues that 'war' cannot be waged on the abstractionof 'terrorism'. He says that 'Every nation knows how - if it has themeans and will - to protect itself from thugs of the sort thatbrought us 9/11 ... You put a price on their heads and hunt themdown. In recent years, Italy has been doing that with the SicilianMafia; and no-one has suggested bombing Palermo.'
Vidal also highlights the role of American andPakistani intelligence in creating the fundamentalist terroristthreat: 'Apparently, Pakistan did do it - or some of it' but withAmerican support. "From 1979, the largest covert operation in thehistory of the CIA was launched in response to the Soviet invasion ofAfghanistan ... the CIA covertly trained and sponsored thesewarriors.'
Vidal also quotes the highly respected defencejournal Jane's Defence Weekly on how this support for Islamicfundamentalism continued after the emergence of bin Laden: 'In 1988,with US knowledge, bin Laden created Al-Qaeda (The Base); aconglomerate of quasi-independent Islamic terrorist cells spreadacross 26 or so countries. Washington turned a blind eye toAl-Qaeda.'
Vidal, 77, and internationally renowned for hisaward-winning novels and plays, has long been a ferocious, and oftenisolated, critic of the Bush administration at home and abroad. Henow lives in Italy. In Vidal's most recent book, The Last Empire, heargued that 'Americans have no idea of the extent of theirgovernment's mischief ... the number of military strikes we have madeunprovoked, against other countries, since 1947 is more than 250.'
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