AUSTRALIANS AT WAR

AUSTRALIANS AT WAR
THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY is a compelling factual history of neoconservatism and its influence on US Foreign Policy in the Middle East during the first decade of the twenty-first century. Click on image above for details.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

‘AL QAEDA’: A FIGMENT OF THE FEAR- AND WAR-MONGERING PROPAGANDISTS IMAGINATION.

Yesterday the Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his band of fearmongering lunatics warned Australians gathering at Gallipoli for ANZAC Day to be aware of a ‘terrorist threat’. In the UK Guardian today it is reported that the ‘head of Scotland Yard's counterterrorism command said yesterday that al-Qaida had survived the six-year long "war on terror" launched by President George Bush and Tony Blair, and its central leadership had retained the ability to order devastating attacks on Britain.’ As well as Gallipoli that is. And in Iraq, where it seems the Iraqi franchise of ‘al Qaeda’ has claimed responsibility for the deaths yesterday of nine US troops.

So good is the ‘al Qaeda’ franchise business that even the Israelis have tried to set up an ‘al Qaeda’ shop in Palestine. Unfortunately the locals soon discovered that the business wasn’t genuine (apparently Mossad hadn’t paid bin Laden the franchise fee) so the business was quickly shut down.

Of course al Qaeda exists, or at least existed, (indeed, it was set up with the assistance of the CIA as part of their covert war against the Soviets in Afghanistan before the Taliban took over there) but it doesn’t exist in the way that the western neocon-dominated press would have us believe. Despite the continued references to ‘al Qaeda’ everyday as we are told that they are responsible for every conceivable atrocity that occurs on our planet, there has not been any evidence whatsoever that ‘al Qaeda’ per se has ever been responsible for anything beyond the borders of Afghanistan and the remoter parts of Pakistan.

The western propagandists have presented to the world a picture of an ‘al Qaeda’ as being a massive and extremely well disciplined international organisation that has branches everywhere. Yet nowhere is there any prima facie evidence to suggest that they even exist, let alone in such an organised and disciplined way. As the piece in today’s UK Guardian demonstrates, we are expected to simply believe what we are told with the total lack of evidence being conveniently explained away as; ‘for security reasons we can’t divulge the source’.

In Iraq the US and their allies are currently busy trying to wedge the Sunni and Shi’ite factions by blaming ‘al Qaeda’ for the friction between the two groupings. This is nothing new; they’ve tried it before, but now they are putting more effort into their blame game because they see it as away of polarising the rest of Islam in the Middle East and beyond thus diverting attention away from the Israelis and their efforts to subdue Palestine, Hamas and Hizbollah but, at the same time, demonising further an Iran that has a predominately Shiite population (as against the rest of the Islamic world which is around 80% Sunni).

The problem for the US, Israel, and their western allies, is that all this propaganda is for consumption in the west only. The Middle Eastern peoples, Sunni or Shia, are very much aware that their relationships with each other are quite secure and have been for decades. For them the myth of ‘al Qaeda’ remains just that – a myth, and that the struggles that exist between various Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq are mainly a combination of political and criminal secular differences in a post-Saddam lawless era and that such violence, as bloody as it often is, is contained within Iraq and has nothing to do with the battles that Islamic peoples and Arabs generally are fighting against Israeli right-wing Zionism in Palestine and US hegemonic colonialism in the Middle East and Central Asia.
‘Al Qaeda’ remains, as it has since the US decided that they were to blame for the events of 9/11, a myth that exists solely to perpetuate fear and the illusion that there is always an enemy to justify the continued ‘Global War on Terrorism’.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

The "al-Qaeda" boogieman is a manufactured hoax straight out of the George Orwell novel, "1984."

In that excellent book, the beaten down populace is trained to rail against and threaten violence against an imaginary enemy called "Emmanuel Goldstein" during the government mandated "Two Minutes Hate."

This is done to keep people's minds off the deteriorating conditions under which they are forced to live, due to an endless war that consumes nearly everything that is produced by society.

People who question the "official" version of state matters are disappeared, tortured and eventually, killed.

Sound familiar?

Anonymous said...

You can always get your daily two-minutes of hate here at Damian's blog, Greg - as long as the people you want to hate are Jewish, American of in government in Australia, that is.

Anonymous said...

I looked through couple of articles here, and did not find a single mention of Jewish or American nationality.

Of course, whole Zionist agenda is based on the assumption that they represent all Jews everywhere.

Anonymous said...

Only Israel benefits from these endless Middle East wars. Iraq is the beginning. As we commit war-crimes in Baghdad, the US gov't commits treason at home by opening mail, eliminating habeas corpus, using the judiciary to steal private lands, banning books like "America Deceived" from Amazon and Wikipedia, conducting warrantless wiretaps and engaging in illegal wars on behalf of AIPAC's 'money-men'. Soon, another US false-flag operation will occur (sinking of an Aircraft Carrier by Mossad) and the US will invade Iran.. Then we'll invade Syria, then Saudi Arabia, then Lebanon (again) then ....
Final link (before Google Books bends to gov't demands and censors the title):
America Deceived(book)

Anonymous said...

Let's get something straight, people. The "new boogieman" aka "Al-Qaeda" is clearly a manufactured entity. It is said that it translates to "the toilet". Nobody would want to be known for that, except for someone with a sick sense of humor. As far as this article is concerned, the author didn't mention "Jews". Most folks who do bring that name into their writings are ill-informed or relate Jews to the Zionists, which for the most part is closer to the root of the evils. As far as the "West", yes indeed that is the USA, where we are constantly bombarded by propaganda. One commenter has pointed out other "American" problems and that is just scratching the surface. In the USA, the only "people" who benefit from the endless war are the Military-Industrial Complex, which our corrupt government is part of. We also have major issues with "Big Pharma" and the "Health"care industries. Follow the money to the root of all evil, and you will get to the truth...everytime. I should also mention that the evildoers pay people to monitor these blogs and contradict the truth, just as they pay big bucks to broadcast lies on television and radio...they also hire "ex"CIA (etc) to put on TV. Connect the dots, ignore the NWO dupes, wise up, and rise up.

Damian Lataan said...

Anonymous who reckons: “Damian's anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, anti-Howard and general hatred of the free West is published here for all to see.”

You will indeed find plenty of anti-Howard stuff here for the simple reason that Howard is a warmongering liar who has made Australia complicit in warcrimes. You will also find plenty of anti right-wing Zionism here but there is no anti-Semitism. People like you are prone to deliberately practicing the deceit and lie that being anti right-wing Zionist somehow morphs into anti-Semitism. You’ll find not a skerrick of anti-Semitism put on this site by me; you will find plenty of anti right-wing Zionism.

The same with anti-Americanism; you’ll find none. Anti-Bush and co? Plenty! But again, you expose yourself as a liar and deceiver by attempting to cast my anti-Bush and co rhetoric as being ‘anti-American’. I’m no more anti-American than I am anti-Australia because I am anti-Howard. As for ‘hatred of the free West’… if only the West was ‘free’. While the likes of Bush, Blair and Howard are around with their lies, warmongering arrogance and democracy- and justice-denying hypocrisy the West will never be truly ‘free’.

Now, if you really want to see what hatred is, here are a couple of examples of Australian right-wing pro-Zionist hate speech as used by the Australian wing of the ‘Israeli Lobby’.

There’s this from Noelene Konstandinitis, an Australian Israeli pro-Zionist blogger that has posted at Webdiary and Harry Heidelberg’s, from Heidelberg’s blog:

“Of course it is EXCELLENT news that Israel is FINALLY sticking up for itself!What neither the Pals, nor the western bourgeois left, seems to be able to get their think [sic] heads around is that Israel could have destroyed Egypt, Syria, AND Jordan AND kicked the Pals out in 1948, 56, 67, 73, etc. The only thing stopping them every single time was the US!All this would have been over DECADES over [sic], if the U.S. had just let nature take its course.The wretched camel-jockeys have NO right to be in the Holy Land and the sooner they catch the next magic carpet or camel sleigh to Jordan, Syria, or Egypt the better! The Israelis MUST seize this opportunity to totally turn around the whole tedious farce of the middle east. It is time to bitchslap the fetid Mohammedans into next week. Vaporize the pigs!A world without Muslims would be a lovely world indeed!”

Then there is this from Australian Israeli pro-Zionist blogger Geoff Pahoff, also a regular at the popular Australian blog Webdiary, describing his thoughts on the death of the elderly wheel-chair bound spiritual leader of Palestine’s Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin:

“I celebrated wildly when that filthy bag of puss, ‘the old blind wheel-chair bound spiritual leader’ finally kissed what was left of his miserable fanny and did the world the enormous favour, albeit somewhat forced, of departing from it for all eternity. Thereby correcting a major anomaly in the order of things by being born in the first place. Or not drowned slowly at the first opportunity. The slimy ignorant lying slice of toxic shit.”]

Australia too has an ‘Israeli Lobby’ that uses hate speech as part of its rhetoric of lies and deceit.

Anonymous said...

Interesting comments, Damian. What was the context? Can you post the links?

RE: Sheikh Ahmed Yassin - what do you object to in the comment: the words chosen or that the death of this man is celebrated?

Damian Lataan said...

1)These are the links:

Noelene Konstandinitis, Comment at Harry Heidelberg’s blog, 28 June 2006. Available online: http://kramgasse.typepad.com/harry_heidelberg/2006/06/israel_moves_in.html#comment-19084996 Accessed 29 June 2006.
Geoff Pahoff, Comment at Harry Heidelberg’s blog, 13 July 2006. Available online: http://kramgasse.typepad.com/harry_heidelberg/2006/07/america_hegemon.html#comment-19691619 Accessed 19 July 2006.

2) Both

Anonymous said...

1./ Thanks for the links.

2./ For me, celebrating the death of a terrorist is something I can imagine doing. This particular guy (the Sheikh) I don't know much about - but bin Laden, for example, would be worth a cold beer or two. I would choose different words than what you cited but a world with fewer terrorists would be a better place.

Damian Lataan said...

‘A world with fewer terrorists would be a better place’ you say? The only ‘terrorists’ around at the moment are those that are on lands that are not theirs and who are and have been killing innocent men, women, and children by the hundreds of thousands in Iraq, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon and Afghanistan. Israeli and US ‘terrorists’ have invaded, plundered, slaughtered, destroyed homes, jobs, infrastructure, hospitals, etc., all in lands that are not theirs. These are the real terrorists; not little old men in wheelchairs that advocate defending what is theirs.

So, yes, a world with fewer ‘terrorists’ would indeed be a better place.

Anonymous said...

You claimed all war is terrorism but then claim the "only ‘terrorists’ around at the moment are those that are on lands that are not theirs and who are and have been killing innocent men, women, and children by the hundreds of thousands in Iraq, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon and Afghanistan."

Why aren't the people fighting other wars in other places in the world also terrorists? Why the focus on Israel and the US alone?

Damian Lataan said...

Of course all war is ‘terrorism’ inasmuch that if you are on the receiving end of it you will find it terrifying. However, there is terrorism and then there is terrorism. Sometimes when one is being terrorised, such as when your country has been invaded and your country is being destroyed, the only recourse that one may have is to terrorise those that are terrorising you in the hope that such an act may deter those that are the original aggressors or terrorists from continuing to terrorise you. If there is no other means by which you can stop terrorists terrorising you then using such a tactic may be all that is left at ones disposal to defend oneself.

The philosophy applies to all wars. My emphasis on the US and Israel is because they, at the moment, are areas of particular interest to me.

Anonymous said...

"Sometimes when one is being terrorised, such as when your country has been invaded and your country is being destroyed, the only recourse that one may have is to terrorise those that are terrorising you in the hope that such an act may deter those that are the original aggressors or terrorists from continuing to terrorise you. If there is no other means by which you can stop terrorists terrorising you then using such a tactic may be all that is left at ones disposal to defend oneself."

So you are saying that terrorism can - in some circumstances - be justified?

Surely the terrorism against Israeli civillians cannot - or are the children of Israeli soldiers just as legitimate a target as the soldiers themselves?

Damian Lataan said...

Perhaps if Israeli terrorists didn't go on to lands that aren't theirs and murder the children of Palestinians and Palestinians generally then the Palestinians wouldn't need to kill anyone for any reason.

Anonymous said...

I didn't mean to imply that killing Palestinian civillians and children is justified. Those not involved in a conflict should be safe from it.

But just to be clear, are you saying that some terrorism can be justified depending on the circumstances in which it takes place?

Damian Lataan said...

Not justified, but understandable in circumstances where those terrorised by invaders feel they should respond in such a way.

This aspect of the discussion is now closed. You are going round in circles and I have far better things to do than continue justifying my argument to you.

Anonymous said...

It's worrying that you can understand the murder of innocent children and sympathise with the murderers.

Damian Lataan said...

What's really worrying is the hypocrisy of people like you who think that it's OK for Israeli terrorists to be on other peoples lands killing Palestinian children and civilians but get really upset when they retaliate.

The best thing that can happen is that the Israeli right-wing Zionists give up their rediculous notion of a Greater Israel, remove their settlements from lands that do not belong to them and get back to behind the 1967 line. Perhaps then no kidz will get killed.

Don't bother posting your hypocritical Ziononazi garbage here again.

Ann said...

Hi Damian,

I've only just happened upon your blog and its a refreshing find, good to see a fellow Australian blogger I can add to the blogroll as well. You've been bookmarked. Feel free to visit my blog as well.

Al-CIA-duh, indeed.

cheers
Ann

Damian Lataan said...

G'day Ann
Hope you find some interesting stuff here. I've payed a visit to your blog and very impressive it is too. Just as soon as I've figured out how to work the 'links' bizzo I'll be adding yours to the link list (together with a load of others I've been meaning to add on). To be honest, I've forgotton how I put the couple that are there now on. It was some time ago and I think the blogspot people have changed the format - either that or I'm just getting old!

Calm said...

I find it kinda' stunning that we can claim that people in the American government (christians) were responsible for the 9-11 incident ... we can call Bush and The Clowns a bunch of baby killers ... we can scream all day about conspiracies and untruths against a majority christian population, .... but if we questioned the reasons for the holocaust (not whether it happened or not), If we suggested a conspiracy of sorts, or asked what prompted Hitler to hate the Jewish folks, we would be charged with a hate crime.

Pretty tense, I think.

Calm

Damian Lataan said...

Interesting thoughts Calm, but I can't quite see the connection between the events of 9/11 in the twenty-first century to something that happened in Europe during the first half of the last century.

Calm said...

Hi! Damian Lataan

The point I was tryin' to make was that we cab detail any conspiracy theory in the world except a conspiracy involving the Jewish folks.

We can question every detail or theory surrounding the events of 9-11, Osama and The Clowns or that the war with Iraq was for Israel.

It is almost considered the patriotic thing to do.

However; if we question the actions of the Israeli's or suggest conspiracy theories concerning the occupation of Palestine, or the effect of the Jewish Lobby on U.S. policy or perhaps question the facts surrounding the holocaust, it is considered anti-semitic or a hate crime.

We can find or discuss conspiracy theories with any event except an event involving the Jewish folks.

Calm

Damian Lataan said...

G'day Calm

Now that you've made your perspective clear I, of course, see your point.

I tend not to be too perturbed by being called an 'anti-Semite' by right-wing Zionists and their supporters. It's a slur that they not just use to denote those that truly hate Jews, but a term that they now abuse in their futile attempt to demonise those that are anti right-wing Zionists - even other Jews. It's the classic 'boy who cried wolf' syndrome - nobody's listening any more because everyone knows it's just an abuse.

A regular abuser of the term has just had his comment deleted both from this thread and another. When the term is used in this abusive manner I have a policy of simply deleting the comment. These people will get no voice at all at this blog.

Thankfully the world is slowly waking up to their lunatic ideas of war, occupation and lunatic dreams of a Greater Israel. Even Jews, both in Israel and throughout the Diaspora, are waking up the futility of it.