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Dear all:<br>
<br>
I think this Newletter from the site of the "World Forum" of
Porto Alegre (Brasil), <br>
concerned with the NY tragedy and the even greater tragedy in preparation
(war),<br>
may be of interest to some of you.<br>
<br>
As anyone who so wishes can subscribe to "Other Words" (see at
the end) I will not <br>
foward any further newsletters.<br>
<br>
Regards<br>
<br>
Artur<br>
<font face="arial" size=2>
<br>
</font><div align="center">
<font face="arial" color="#808080"><b>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial">OTHER WORDS PORTO ALEGRE 2002 SITE UPDATE
NEWSLETTER -- MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2001 -- Nº 2<br>
<br>
<hr>
</b></font></div>
<font face="arial" size=2><br>
<br>
See in this issue:<br>
<br>
<b>Can those who created Bin Laden combat terrorism?</b> On the basis of
texts from the North American magazine <i>The Nation</i>, <i>Other
Words</i> tells the forbidden history of the alliance between Washington
and Osama Bin Laden. Read on at the end of this message.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#FF0000"><b>Porto Alegre 2002
site opens a special section on the
crisis:</font><font face="arial" size=2> </b>Read in
<a href="http://www.portoalegre2002.org/publique/cgi/public/cgilua.exe/sys/reader/htm/preindexview.htm?user=reader&editionsectionid=69"><i>The
Empire seeks an enemy</a></i>, a collection of analyses of the even more
violent, unequal and antidemocratic world the USA wants to bring into
being and about how to oppose it. Texts by Noam Chomsky, ATTAC-France,
Norman Salomon, Robert Fisk and many others. Interview with Adolfo Perez
Esquivel.<br>
<br>
<b>Noam Chomsky sees another side to the attack:
</b><a href="http://www.portoalegre2002.org/publique/cgi/public/cgilua.exe/web/templates/htm/ingles/view.htm?user=reader&infoid=884&editionsectionid=15">"This
crime is a favor to the extreme right, which yearns to use
force"</a>, says the North American linguist and political activist.
<a href="http://www.portoalegre2002.org/publique/cgi/public/cgilua.exe/web/templates/htm/ingles/view.htm?search_by_day_from=&infoid=903&search_by_month_from=&search_by_day_to=&search_by_year_from=&editionsectionid=69&numinfosperpage=&us">A
note from ATTAC-France </a>adds "The attacks that targeted New York
and Washington are part of an early terrorism that can find no
justification in any cause at all".<br>
<br>
<b>The secret reasons behind the new crusade:
</b><a href="http://www.portoalegre2002.org/publique/cgi/public/cgilua.exe/web/templates/htm/ingles/view.htm?search_by_month_to=&search_by_field=tax&search_by_authorname=Ben+Cohen,,+AlterNet&infoid=901&search_by_year_from=&search_by_state=all&s">Ben
Cohen shows </a>that the US$ 344-billion budget for military spending,
proposed by the White House to the US Congress, is useless for combating
terrorism. IN order to justify it, a new enemy will have to be found
.<br>
<br>
<b>Media in speculation and infamy:
</b><a href="http://www.portoalegre2002.org/publique/cgi/public/cgilua.exe/web/templates/htm/ingles/view.htm?search_by_month_from=&search_by_section=all&search_by_priority=all&editionsectionid=69&search_by_state=all&search_by_day_from=&search_b">Norman
Solomon</a><b> </b>and
<a href="http://www.portoalegre2002.org/publique/cgi/public/cgilua.exe/web/templates/htm/ingles/view.htm?search_by_month_to=&search_by_field=tax&search_by_headline=false&search_by_day_from=&search_by_year_to=&search_by_authorname=Geov+Parrish,,">Geov
Parrish </a>show that the North American press is treating the attacks
with the same sensationalism used by TV for police news. The coverage is
distinguished mainly by its incitement to revenge, demonization of
non-whites and concealment of the violence perpetrated by the US against
other peoples.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#FF0000"><b>And
more:</b></font><font face="arial" size=2> "Will Pakistan jump to US
demands?" by
<a href="http://www.portoalegre2002.org/publique/cgi/public/cgilua.exe/web/templates/htm/ingles/view.htm?search_by_month_to=&search_by_headline=false&search_by_year_from=&search_by_field=tax&user=reader&search_by_authorname=Tariq+Ali,,+Counter+">Tariq
Ali</a>, "The bigger day come the harder day fall" by
<a href="http://www.portoalegre2002.org/publique/cgi/public/cgilua.exe/web/templates/htm/ingles/view.htm?search_by_month_to=&query=advnostatus&search_by_day_from=&infoid=968&search_by_priority=all&keywords=&search_by_section=all&search_">Matthey
Parris</a>, War on Whom? by
<a href="http://www.portoalegre2002.org/publique/cgi/public/cgilua.exe/web/templates/htm/ingles/view.htm?search_by_month_to=&search_by_field=tax&editionsectionid=69&search_by_headline=false&search_by_day_from=&search_by_year_to=&search_by_a">Michael
Moore</a>.<br>
<br>
</font><div align="center">
<font face="arial" size=4> <br>
<br>
<b>The forbidden history of the alliance between Washington and Osama Bin
Laden<br>
<br>
</b></font></div>
<font face="arial" size=2>"Enemy sought for US$ 344-billion budget
", remarked the North American magazine Z-Net a few days ago, in
relation to the unprecedented military spending proposed by the White
House to the United States Congress, which extend to the militarization
of space. It used the phrase as a comment on the lack of proportion
between the spending and the absence of threats to justify it. To judge
from the news of the last few hours, the USA have already found their
enemy. They have chosen the Saudi millionaire, Osama bin Laden, who has
been sheltered for years in Afghanistan by the Taliban. It will never be
possible to combat him nor to prevent repeats of Tuesday s carnage with
the new Star Wars programme", but that does not matter. Humiliated
by the attacks, Washington needs to show the world and especially the
financial markets that it has not lost the initiative, nor readiness to
pursue its plans. Official media sources will prevent the mismatch
between the real risks that terrorism represents and what is to be done
on the pretext of combating it. Symptomatically, the newspapers have
already started to forget a history of crucial importance to North
American security, should Bin Laden prove to be the culprit. This tells
of the alliance that Washington maintained for years with its present
public enemy No. 1 , which was indispensable to his gaining both the
organizational capability he enjoys today and his aura as the supposed
avenger of the Arab world.<br>
<br>
<div align="center">
<b> </font><font face="arial" size=4>In the missile shelter built
with US money<br>
<br>
</b></font></div>
<font face="arial" size=2>The facts practically prohibited by the press
aligned with the system are available in certain North America
alternative publications, notably in addition to <i>Z-Net</i> the
magazine <i>The Nation</i>. Writing for the latter is Robert Fisk, a
veteran reporter specializing in Middle East issues. His text can be read
on
<a href="http://www.portoalegre2002.net/" eudora="autourl">www.portoalegre2002.net</a>,
in the section #<i>Armed Conflicts</i>. He speaks with the authority of
someone who, in his capacity as a journalist, has met Bin Laden several
times. The last was in 1997, in the mountains of Afghanistan. The Saudi
he met had the bearing and the traditional dress with which he is
normally shown in the western press: traditional afghan robes, reclining
in his cave, calm. Bin Laden seemed to have a very superficial knowledge
of the world situation. He pounced on the newspaper that Fisk had with
him. He gave him to understand that reading brought him much new
information, but abandoned this activity after half an hour. He preferred
to talk about his belief in the protection that he was assured by Allah.
He related the many episodes when, confronting the Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan, he escaped unscathed because the rockets fired at his
hideouts failed to explode. He claimed not to fear death, because as a
Moslem, I believe that when we die in combat we go to Paradise ".
But never for an instant did he leave the shelter he was in. Fisk writes:
it was "a relic from the days when he fought the Soviets: a niche
eight meters high cut into the rock, proof against even missile
attack".<br>
<br>
<div align="center">
<b> For the sake of victory over the Soviets, agreement with the
extremists<br>
<br>
</b></div>
In another text an analytical article signed by Dilip Hiro and
titled The cost of Afghan Victory (#"O custo da vitória afegã")
<i>The Nation </i>recalls the circumstances of the alliance that was to
lead to Washington s involvement with Bin Laden. The scene is
Afghanistan; the time, the final phase of the Cold War. In 1979, a
military take-over had brought groups aligned with the Soviet Union
(USSR) to power. Zbigniew Brzezinsky, a fervent anti-Communist and
national Security Advisor to the then President Jimmy Carter, glimpsed an
opportunity to go from defence onto the offensive. He wanted not only to
reinstall in Kabul a government loyal to the West. He intended to spread
among the Moslem populations of the USSR a kind of religious thinking
capable of inciting them to the utmost against the government in Moscow.
<i>The Nation </i>stresses: there were alternatives, even for those who,
like the National Security Advisor, were set on waging the Cold War. In
Afghanistan, there were "several secular and nationalist groups
opposed to the Soviets". Instead of supporting them, however, the
White House opted for what it held to be a stroke of genius. It fuelled
the most fundamentalist Afghan organizations, which, in 1983, has formed
the Islamic Alliance of Afghan Mujahidin (IAAM).<br>
<br>
<div align="center">
<b>Encouraging fundamentalism and the <i>Jihad</i>, in favour of US
interests<br>
<br>
</b></div>
Washington did not content itself with diplomatic backing for the IAAM.
It constructed an alliance capable of putting the IAAM in a position
financially, militarily and ideologically to defeat the Soviets. In
addition to the US, participants in the project included Pakistan,
governed by General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, who had taken power in a
military coup, and Saudi Arabia, controlled for decades by a royal family
of corrupt nabobs. The cement used by the US to consolidate is strategic
interests was religious extremism. Thousands of Afghans and Pakistanis
were drawn to anti-Soviet guerrilla training camps. These were directed
by the ISI, the secret service of Pakistan. The instructors instilled the
supreme value of the holy war (<i>Jihad)</i> against Moscow. The White
House hoped to kill two birds with one stone. This purported defence of
Islam against Soviet attacks would serve, in Pakistan, to bolster the
power of Zia ul-Haq, a loyal ally of the West. The third link in the
coalition, Saudi Arabia, where another pro-US government, although very
wealthy, was in need of an ideological boost. Over a period of several
years, the Saudi princes would be invited to donate US$ 20 billion to the
IAAM crusade. Through the CIA, the United States chipped in with a
further US$ 20 billion. The rivers of greenbacks would serve to recruit
and train fanatical guerrillas and arm them to the teeth. Their arsenal
included anti-helicopter missiles, which would be decisive in their
confronting and defeating both the pro-USSR government and the Soviet
troops themselves, who had occupied Afghanistan in support of their ally
in 1979.<br>
<br>
<div align="center">
<b>A Saudi millionaire joins forces with strange "freedom fighters
"<br>
<br>
</b></div>
It was this climate of extremism and intolerance roused by Washington
that attracted the Saudi Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan. When he arrived
there in the early 80s, he was just the young millionaire heir to a
family in the construction business. He was fascinated by the <i>jihad
</i>sponsored by the USA. He was the first Saudi to join it and in time
he was to bring with him at least 4,000 compatriots. He became the leader
of the volunteers in Afghanistan. He got close to the IAAM leaders who,
thanks to White House support, had set up the <i>Taliban</i> government
years earlier. He built reinforced shelters for arms caches, participated
in guerrilla actions. He never lacked western moral support. The reporter
Robert Fisk relates: "I was in Afghanistan in 1980, when Laden
arrived. I still have a lot of reporting notes from those days. They
record that the Mujahidin guerillas burned schools and cut the teachers
throats, because the government had decided to form mixed classes, boys
and girls. The London <i>Times </i>called them freedom fighters. Later,
when the Mujahidin brought down an Afghan civil plane with its 49
passengers (with an English Blowpipe missile), the <i>Times </i>called
them rebels. Strangely, the word terrorists was never used to describe
them .<br>
<br>
<div align="center">
<b>Terrorism against the US; acts of heroism against the USSR<br>
<br>
</b></div>
From 1989 onwards, with the collapse of the pro-Soviet government in
Afghanistan and of the Soviet Union itself, the "volunteers"
started to return to their home countries. On returning to the Arab
world, explains Dilip Hiro, they formed a group apart, and became known
as the Afghans They had certain very distinguishing marks. Their
intolerance and scorn for human life were the same cultivated under the
command of, and as a deliberate decision by, the United States. In the
years of anti-Soviet warfare, they had become highly skilled in terrorist
techniques. Politically, however, they were less experienced. They came
to perceive how countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt were governed by
élites as submissive to the United States as the Afghani government they
had fought was subordinated to the Soviets.<br>
<br>
<div align="center">
<b>The snake bites the hand that fed it<br>
<br>
</b></div>
The Gulf War turned them against Washington once and for all. Once the
campaign against Iraq was over, in 1991, the White House failed to keep
its promise to withdraw its military bases and the thousands of soldiers
mobilized against Saddam Hussein from Saudi Arabia, the country where the
sacred cities of Mecca and Medina are located. Bin Laden and his
followers remembered that this was against <i>Sharia</i>, the Islamis
law. In 1993, King Fahd, perhaps the US s loyalist ally in the world,
still courted the millionaire, going as far as to appoint him to a Royal
Advisory Council. In 94, after further disagreements, Bin Laden was
expelled from Saudi Arabia. In 96, he declared a <i>jihad</i> against the
North American presence in his country. He declared then that
"driving out the American occupier is the most important duty of
Moslems, after the duty of believing in God". Two years later, a
joint declaration signed by a front of fundamentalist organizations
formed by Bin Laden exhorted: "The decision to kill North Americans
and their allies civil and military is an individual duty for all Moslems
who can do so in any country where possible, for the purpose of freeing
the Al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem] and the Holy Mosque [in Mecca] from
their clutches. This is in consonance with the word of almighty
God".<br>
<br>
<div align="center">
<b> A love and hate relationship with terror<br>
<br>
</b></div>
In his account for <i>The Nation</i>, Robert Fisk recalls that Bin
Laden is not the first ally with which the White House has had a close
relationship for a certain time, only later when it no longer needs his
services to denounce him fairly or unfairly as a terrorist. He cites the
cases of Saddam Hussein, seen as a hero when he attacked Iran with
chemical weapons; or Yasser Arafat, considered a
"super-terrorist" when he led the struggle for the liberation
of Palestine and later as a "respectable statesman", when he
signed peace accords with Israel that were never fulfilled.<br>
<br>
It is enough to look at Latin America to find a multitude of
examples of special relations between Washington and terrorists,
practitioners of military coups, tyrannical, corrupt leaders, torturers.
Moreover, in another, sense less direct, but more menacing the alliance
with terror is being reworked at this very moment. Bin Laden uses US and
Israeli oppression of the Arab world as a pretext to justify his
intolerance and criminal acts. All the declarations by North American
leaders since the attack indicate that the White House intends to allege
the real risk of terrorism to unleash a military and political offensive
which, unless it is forestalled, will make the planet a far more violent,
undemocratic and unequal place. Perhaps that is why societies have the
right to say that, against the barbarity of the extremists and the
Empire, the only way out is to build another world.<br>
<br>
</font><tt>To subscribe to Other Words, just visit
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