Four hundred and two years after His Majesty’s goverment foiled the biggest ever terrorist attack on British soil, why does no one believe the authorities when they make repeated warnings about terrorist threats?
Most people I meet do not believe any of the official versions concerning the foiled attacks so far, each believing them to be government ploys to distract us from us from various failings. Scepticism is healthy, of course, but for the right motives, and scepticism for its own sake is a sign of credulity. I was not surprised to read that belief in hidden aliens and crop circles was far higher amongst the less well-off and less well educated. But I suspect that educated, middle class secularists follow the conspiracy line not out of ignorance or stupidity but of fear: fear, that is, of offending Muslim sensibilities and facing a threat they wish would just go away.
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8 responses
***** Best site background graphic.
There are fairly compelling arguments that beg explanation but a healthy questioning of the exercise of power by the US Government in reaction to terrorism is important.
It is incredulous to believe that a government would need to manipulate thus with a staged event but now seems plain that the event was used as a false pretext to declare war on Iraq.
To say “terrorism” does not exist is of course ignoring history - terrorism has always existed.
A somewhat presumptuous theory - surely countering counterknowledge with counterknowledge is only going to muddy the waters further? If this site is to be taken seriously I really don’t think that’s a practice that should be encouraged - you are dangerously close the propagating the same “counterknowledge” you purport to expose.
The inherent problem I and many of my “middle class” friends have with 9/11 is the way the US Government handled the investigation and the closed and secretive nature of the reports that followed - this (and the extremely tenuous links devised to excuse the Bush administration’s foreign policy) is the root cause of our scepticism - we’ve seen a war artificially escalated and deliberately propagated by the powers that be in America, so it’s little wonder people have started to treat terrorist threats the same way.
In the past 3yrs I’ve not met anyone who is afraid of “offending Muslim sensibilities” but have met many that have openly expressed their nervousness amount sharing Tube carriages with anyone of Arabic descent - you’re correct - there is a threat from extremist Muslim fundamentalists, but there is also a threat this threat will be misused and manipulated by Politicians, and this appears to be something you are prepared to conveniently forget.
I have to agree with John’s comment almost entirely here.
It’s the systematic failure of our Institutions to conduct themselves properly that have made people distrustful of them (quite where Islam comes into the equation I don’t know) - unfortunately the original Ed West article would not look out of place on the BNP website.
I’ve read parts of the official 9/11 Commission Report, I’ve read the conspiracy theories and read the Debunking of the Conspiracy Theories and what is obvious (to me): still far too many inconsistencies and coincidences in the official story. Not just a few coincidences but hundreds! For you to say “counterknowledge” flys in the face of reality: there is no adequate independent investigation of 9/11, there is no science, no FAA crash reports, no criminal investigations. The relatives of the victims of 9/11 are calling for new investigations (See “9/11 Press for Truth”) (Do you know something more than they do?) and then to say people shouldn’t hold skeptical views on the official story? Seems like counterknowledge to me.
“…..the CIA is giving arms-length support, supplying money and weapons, to an Iranian militant group, Jundullah, which has conducted raids into Iran from bases in Pakistan.”
(Telegraph)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1552784/Bush-sanctions-%27black-ops%27-against-Iran.html
Bush sanctions ‘black ops’ against Iran - Telegraph
“…..Attaur Rehman is yet another face of the new Islamic militancy in Pakistan. A graduate from Karachi University, he was arrested in June for masterminding a series of terrorist attacks in Karachi. A tall and heavily built man in his early 30s, Rehman was associated with Islami Jamiat-Talba, the student wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami. He later broke away from the Jamaat to form his own militant group, Jundullah (Army of God), which draws its cadres mainly from the educated and professional classes.
According to police, Rehman is closely associated with Al-Qaeda’s network in Pakistan, which has grown in strength despite the capture of hundreds of its operatives over the last few years. A well-knit cell comprising some 20 militants, most of them in their 20s and 30s, Jundullah is one of the new and, perhaps, the most fierce of the militant groups behind the recent spate of violence in Karachi. The group hit the headlines after a daring attack last month on the motorcade of Karachi’s Corps Commander. The general narrowly escaped death, but 11 people, including eight soldiers were killed. It was the most serious terrorist action targeting the military since the two failed assassination attempts on President Musharraf in Rawalpindi in December last year. Jundullah has also been involved in attacks on rangers, police stations, as well as the twin car bombings outside the Pakistan-US Cultural Center last month.
Jundullah is but one of several small terrorist cells that have emerged after the government’s crackdown on ‘jihadi’ elements. According to police officials, some 20 cells, largely splinters of the banned militant outfits, are operating in Karachi, which has become the main center of terrorist activities in recent months. “Many of those involved in the recent terrorist attacks in the city received training in camps in Waziristan,” says Tariq Jamil, chief of the Karachi police. “Jundullah has close ties with Al-Qaeda.”
(Newsline)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1552784/Bush-sanctions-%27black-ops%27-against-Iran.html
Bush sanctions ‘black ops’ against Iran - Telegraph
“Jundullah is a purely militant outfit whose objective is to target Pakistan’s pro-US rulers and US and British interests in the country. Members receive training in Afghanistan and South Waziristan, and it is now actively recruiting.
The organization produces propaganda literature, including documentary films, and has a studio named Ummat. It does similar work for al-Qaeda’s media wing, which is called the al-Sahab Foundation.
These media outlets incite the sentiments of Muslim youths by producing films showing Western - particularly Israeli and US - “atrocities” against Muslim communities. This is the basic tool through which a new generation of jihadis is being raised.
Jundullah was allegedly headed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaeda operational commander of the September 11 terrorist attack in the US. He was arrested in Pakistan early last year.”
(Asia Times)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FG20Df05.html
Asia Times Online
“The CIA has denied any direct ties with the group, but U.S. officials tell ABC News U.S. intelligence officers frequently meet and advise Jundullah leaders, and current and former intelligence officers are working to prevent the men from being sent to Iran.”
(ABC News)
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4913927&page=1
ABC News: Pakistan May Turn Over U.S. ‘Spies’ to Iran
I meant to include a link to the article in “Newsline”….
http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsAug2004/cover1Aug2004.htm
Al-Qaeda’s New Face
Fraser’s ignorance shines through again. The thought that there might be more than one organisation called ‘Army of God’ (Jundollah/Jundallah/Jundullah) - one an insurgent group active in Iranian Baluchistan, the other a terrorist group active in Karachi (i.e. in the Pakistani Province of Sindh) - seems to have escaped him.
Closer reading of the news article he linked to might also have shown no link between Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan and the Iranian Jundollah.
Never mind, Fraser. It’s only evidence, after all.
It is also worth noting that Pakistan’s jundollah aren’t even Baluchis (unlike the Iranian version):
http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4648&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=167&no_cache=1
Just be a truther and make shit up.