Terrorist Networks, Terrorist States
Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and a loosely linked network of associated extremists have been committing mass murder across the globe for more than a decade. The events on Thursday hit me hard - Britain is my home. But I am not oblivious to the terrorist outrages committed elsewhere, and I am not ignorant of the terrorist acts committed by nation states.The United States of America, its empire and a network of allied nation states have been committing terrorist acts across the globe for more than half a century. They have carried out extremely serious interventions into more than 70 nations in this period. Today, the United States produces and exports more arms than any other nation on Earth.
Below is a list of al-Qeada's crimes, and just a few of the outrages committed by the US Empire.
AL-QAEDA
29 DECEMBER 1992 - ADEN, YEMEN
A bomb in a hotel kills two tourists.
26 FEBRUARY 1993 - NEW YORK
A bomb explodes in the car park at the World Trade Centre, killing six and injuring more than 1,000.
25 JUNE 1996 - SAUDI ARABIA
19 US servicemen are killed by an explosion in a military complex.
7 AUGUST 1998 - EAST AFRICA
Simultaneous bombings at three US embassies kill 224 and injure 5,000.
12 OCTOBER 2000 - ADEN, YEMEN
A suicide attack on the USS Cole kills 17 US servicemen.
11 SEPTEMBER 2001 - NEW YORK
2,948 die in the New York and Washington attacks.
11 APRIL 2002 - DJERBA, TUNISIA
Truck explodes near an ancient Jewish shrine killing 20 tourists.
8 MAY 2002 - KARACHI, PAKISTAN
A suicide bomber kills 11 French navy experts and three Pakistanis outside the Sheraton Hotel.
14 JUNE 2002 - KARACHI. PAKISTAN
Suicide car bomb at the American consulate kills 12 and injures 45.
12 OCTOBER 2002 - BALI, INDONESIA
Bombs explode outside Sari nightspot on Kuta Beach, killing 202 and injuring 132.
28 NOVEMBER 2002 - MOMBASA, KENYA
Bomb at the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel kills 16 and injures 40, minutes after two missiles narrowly missed an Israeli holiday jet.
12 MAY 2003 - RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA
Suicide bombers shoot into housing compounds for expatriates, killing 34.
16 MAY - CASABLANCA, MOROCCO
Five bombs hit a restaurant, a five-star hotel and a Jewish community centre, killing 45 people, including 12 bombers, and wounding about 60.
19 AUGUST - BAGHDAD
Truck bomb devastates the UN headquarters, killing 22.
15 NOVEMBER - ISTANBUL
Two car bombs explode outside synagogues, killing 25.
20 NOVEMBER - ISTANBUL
Bombs at the HSBC HQ and at the British Consulate, killing 30 and wounding over 400.
11 MARCH 2004 - MADRID, SPAIN
191 dead and 1,463 hurt in bomb attacks at Madrid stations.
7 JULY 2005 - LONDON
Blasts on trains and a bus during the Thursday rush hour. At least 70 dead.
USA and ALLIES
CHINA, 1945-49:
Intervened in a civil war, taking the side of Chiang Kai-shek against the Communists.
ITALY, 1947-48:
U.S. interfered in the elections to prevent the Communist Party from coming to power legally and fairly.
GREECE, 1947-49:
Intervened in a civil war, taking the side of the neo-fascists against the Greek left which had fought the Nazis courageously.
PHILIPPINES, 1945-53:
U.S. military fought against leftist forces (Huks) even while the Huks were still fighting against the Japanese invaders.
SOUTH KOREA, 1945-53:
After World War II, the United States suppressed the popular progressive forces in favor of the conservatives who had collaborated with the Japanese. This led to a long era of corrupt, reactionary, and brutal governments.
ALBANIA, 1949-53:
The U.S. and Britain tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the communist government and install a new one that would have been pro-Western and composed largely of monarchists and collaborators with Italian fascists and Nazis.
GERMANY, 1950s:
The CIA orchestrated a wide-ranging campaign of sabotage, terrorism, dirty tricks, and psychological warfare against East Germany. This was one of the factors which led to the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
IRAN, 1953:
Prime Minister Mossadegh was overthrown in a joint U.S./British operation. Mossadegh had been elected to his position by a large majority of parliament. The coup restored the Shah to absolute power and began a period of 25 years of repression and torture, with the oil industry being restored to foreign ownership, as follows: Britain and the U.S., each 40 percent, other nations 20 percent.
GUATEMALA, 1953-1990s:
A CIA-organized coup overthrew the democratically-elected and progressive government of Jacobo Arbenz, initiating 40 years of death-squads, torture, disappearances, mass executions, and unimaginable cruelty, totaling well over 100,000 victims
VIETNAM, 1950-73:
Twenty-three years saw more than a million dead. Nuff said.
CAMBODIA, 1955-73:
Prince Sihanouk was yet another leader who did not fancy being an American client. After many years of hostility towards his regime, including assassination plots and the infamous Nixon/Kissinger secret "carpet bombings" of 1969-70, Washington finally overthrew Sihanouk in a coup in 1970. Five years later, the genocidal Pol Pot siezed power.
CUBA, 1959-present:
40 years of terrorist attacks, bombings, full-scale military invasion, sanctions, embargoes, isolation, assassinations.
CHILE, 1964-73:
The much admired Salvador Allende was an elected Marxist who honored the constitution and was popular during his time in power. The CIA and the rest of the American foreign policy machine left no stone unturned in their attempt to destabilize the Allende government over the next three years, paying particular attention to building up military hostility. Finally, in September 1973, the military overthrew the government, Allende dying in the process. More than 3,000 were executed in he aftermath.
EAST TIMOR, 1975
The invasion was launched the day after U. S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had left Indonesia after giving Suharto permission to use American arms, which, under U.S. Iaw, could not be used for aggression. Amnesty International estimated that by 1989, Indonesian troops, with the aim of forcibly annexing East Timor, had killed 200,000 people out of a population of between 600,000 and 700,000.
NICARAGUA, 1978-89:
For eight terribly long years, the people of Nicaragua were under attack by Washington's proxy army, the Contras, formed from deposed Somoza's vicious National Guard and other supporters of the former dictator. The contras burned down schools and medical clinics, raping, torturing, mining harbors, bombing and strafing. These were Ronald Reagan's "freedom fighters."
GRENADA, 1979-84:
In the aftermath of the US invasion, human rights organizations reported that Grenada's new U.S.-trained police force and counter-insurgency forces had acquired a reputation for brutality, arbitrary arrest, and abuse of authority, and were eroding civil rights.
PANAMA, 1989:
Manuel Noriega had been an American ally and informant for years, until he outlived his usefulness. Then the US invaded, killing thousands of innocent civilians in the process.
EL SALVADOR, 1980-92:
Officially, the U.S. military presence in El Salvador was limited to an advisory capacity. In actuality, military and CIA personnel played a more active role on a continuous basis. The result was 75,000 civilian deaths.
IRAQ, 1990s:
Since the 1990s, Iraw has suffered the most concentrated aerial onslaught in the history of the world. Depleted uranium weapons incinerating people, causing cancer; the infrastructure was destroyed, with a terrible effect on health; sanctions resulted in a million children dead. In 2003, the US invaded Iraq, overthrowing and eventually capturing Saddam Hussein. The attempt to then turn Iraq into a neo-colonial free market experiment provoked an insurgency which has seen thousands more killed since the invasion and occupation began.
Of course, this doesn't include the US interventions in Afghanistan, it's support for Israel and the many other interventions carried out by the US military and US secret services in the Middle East.
posted by Julaybib at
7/10/2005 01:15:00 AM
3 comment(s):
By
Anonymous, at
7/11/2005 02:00:00 AM
When ordinary people use the media in order to challenge hegemonic ideologies and beliefs, its called agitprop.
However, I assume you are using the term to suggest the facts above are selected in order to make a point, which if other facts were known might be open to challenge - presumably that US foreign police really hasn't resulted in a considerably greater loss of innocent life, or refuting that, that in some sense the deaths were otherwise justifiable in the way Al-Qaeda's acts are not.
If that is your view - convince the grieving mothers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. Or convince me they do not grieve as the families of the London bombings do.
Peace
By
Julaybib, at
7/11/2005 04:49:00 AM
By
Anonymous, at
7/11/2005 10:17:00 AM
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