A book, entitled Days that changed the world, lists 50 defining events of world history. The first event listed in it is the Battle of Salamis, in which the Athenian Navy destroyed the Persian fleet of King Xerxes on September 28, 480 BC. The last event listed occurred 2,481 years later: September 11, 2001. It is a coincidence that in both these events the east and the west clashed. The ancient event is an established east-west conflict. The attack on the World Trade Centre (WTC), commonly known as 9/11, still nurtures doubts and misgivings. On September 11, 2001, two passenger aircrafts crashed into two WTC towers; the third allegedly rocketed into one wing of the Pentagon complex in Virginia; while the fourth crashed in the open fields of Pittsburgh in Somerset County that was presumably heading for the US Capitol Building. Of these four, the attack on WTC gets maximum publicity. Aircrafts smashing into the twin towers have been elaborately covered in video footage, as if those making the movie of the incident had prior knowledge and were stationed at vantage points. On every anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, elaborate TV programmes are aired throughout the world. All focus on the attacks on the twin towers; whereas other crashes are just referred to! The 11th anniversary will be no different!Al-Qaeda Chief Osama bin Laden was squarely blamed for the attacks. The propaganda blitz has been and still is so intense that almost everyone in the world believes that he was behind them. The US intelligence agencies built near plausible scenarios in minute details of these attacks. Yet, there are some lingering questions that remain unanswered.Two aircrafts rammed into the WTC between 8:50 am and 9:04 am. Both flights took off from Boston’s Logan Airport, presumably for the West Coast. First was AAFLT 11 and the second was UAFLT 175. After takeoff from Boston, these flights veered off their scheduled flight paths and headed south to New York about 190 miles away; a modern passenger jet covers that distance in approximately 35-40 minutes. The UAFLT 93 that crashed in Somerset County took off from Newark in New Jersey for San Francisco. This too veered off course in a south-westerly direction and crashed 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Fourth aircraft, AAFLT 77, took off from Dulles International towards Washington DC, turned almost 180 degrees and crashed into Pentagon. We all know that aircrafts do not fly at random. They follow a strict flight plan indicating directions and heights. Their flight plans are strictly controlled by Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) and any deviation en route is taken seriously. In a country, like the US, where air traffic density is the highest in the world, ATCs function very effectively and are quite vigilant. It is surprising that on 9/11 four aircrafts veered off their scheduled flight paths and the ATCs did not raise any alarm, despite the fact that they were in the densest airspace for almost one hour. It is not possible that OBL - hooked on to a kidney machine in some cave in Afghanistan - could pull off these attacks.Douglas Herman writes that there are proofs that the neocons are behind the 9/11 incident. For details one should read his Proof-positive-9/11 at Google and Rense.com. The neoconservative movement, as a rightwing political philosophy in the US, dates back several years. It is essentially a Jewish movement and holds Jewish-Zionist interests at its core; majority of neocons are Jews. It proposes US foreign policy objectives that support Israel. Its thinkers had realised in the 1970s that the USSR would crumble, leaving the global political arena for America as the only superpower in the world. So they developed a plan for the “New American Century”, in which only the US will be global mover. They formulated and executed the aggressive foreign policy goals under Reagan’s presidency from 1981-89. This policy projects three strategic objectives; domination of the ME for unchallenged exploitation of its energy sources; control of all commercial sea-lanes that this area dominates; and security and defence of Israel. Reagan passed on the baton to his Deputy Bush Sr. He under the influence of neocon policy stage-managed military interference in the ME and launched the Desert Storm against Iraq; his “New World Order” address still resonates.They launched the project for the “New American Century” and on June 3, 1997, issued a “Statement of Principles” for this project; it is a mission statement for the America’s imperialistic designs. The document can be read on Google and needs serious analysis by political analysts of the Muslim World. It lays down policy objectives for the future: “We need to accept responsibility for America’s unique role in preserving and extending ‘an international order’ friendly to our security, prosperity and our principles.” It advocates an aggressive military policy to build on the successes of 20th century. The mission statement calls for an imperial new order that was announced by President Bush Sr when he launched the Desert Storm. There are 25 names on this document; three stand out as they held the most senior positions in Bush Jr’s Administration. They are Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz. Jeb Bush, the President’s brother, is also a signatory of this document; he was the Governor of Florida where elections results were engineered in favour of Bush against Al Gore.In 1997, three years before the presidential elections, plans had to be reset for actions through the mission statement indicated above. Bush won through controversial elections and the neocon authors of the document occupied most important portfolios in the administration. They needed a forceful excuse to attack Iraq; plan to attack it was there much before 9/11 happened. George Tenet, who was Director CIA in 2001, in his book recounts that on the morning of September 12, 2001, when he went to see the President he saw Richard Perle coming out of the west wing of the White House. He describes Perle as “one of the godfathers” of the neocon movement, who headed the Defence Policy Board. Perle told Tenet: “Iraq has to pay the price for what happened yesterday. They bear responsibility.” Evidently, the neocons needed an excuse to launch the attack. As one analyst has put it America needed a second Pearl Harbour; since there was no power to do that they had to enact one of their own. The defence and security of a country’s airspace is the responsibility of its Defence Department and the military; the civil aviation and the ATCs operate under their directions. With neocons, Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary Defence and Paul Wolfowitz as his Deputy, these operations in the USA fell under their effective control. They had the power and resources to keep the airspace in projected areas clear and keep the ATCs off the radar screens when the attacks took place. Tenet writes that though he wondered whom Perle had met in the White House “so early in the morning on today of all days? I never learned the answer to that question.” Hidden powers move events in the USA. There is a strong motive to suggest that 9/11 was an inside job; Osama bin Laden (and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad) are merely the fall guys.The Battle of Salamis on a September day in 480 BC effectively checked the westward march of an eastern imperial power. The attack on WTC in 2001 effectively set a modern western imperial power on the eastward adventure. It has destroyed two countries in its path and is threatening Iran and Pakistan. Where this march will end cannot be predicted. The leaders of the Muslim World have to realise the collective danger that they face and have to come up with a united and collective strategy to stop this adventure. Otherwise, the Muslims will lose everything - their freedom, resources, sovereignty, dignity and even their Islamic identity under the “New World Order” that is being imposed!
The writer is a retired brigadier.Email: arjerral639@hotmail.com