by Paul Polansky
[continua]
Saša Rašić
IL PREMIO OFFUSCAMENTO: mette in discussione le intenzioni, l'apertura e la trasparenza di un ministro del governo kosovaro riguardo al salvare gli zingari dei campi di Mitrovica sotto la sua giurisdizione.
Saša Rašić, Ministro per le Comunità ed i Ritorni nel Governo del Kosovo, è nato il 18-07-1973, nel povero villaggio serbo di campagna di Dobrotin, comune di Lipljan. Prima di diventare ministro del governo kosovaro, questo Serbo è stato vice ministro agli Affari Interni. Prima ancora ha lavorato come avvocato, interprete della KFOR britannica a Lipljan, ed assistente e coordinatore della polizia UNMIK a Lipljan e Priština.
Uno dei suoi compiti dopo essere diventato Ministro per le Comunità ed i Ritorni era di supervisionare ed evacuare i campi zingari che si trovano su terreni contaminati, la cui gestione è stata passata nel 2008 dall'UNHCR al governo del Kosovo. Nonostante i ripetuti rapporti dei media mondiali (BBC, International Herald Tribune, Washington Times, Aljazeera, Bild Zeitung, ZDF, ARTE TV, The Sun, ecc.) che richiamavano l'attenzione su questi "campi di morte", né Rašić né nessun membro del suo ufficio hanno mai visitato i campi. A tutt'oggi, il Ministro Rašić non ha ancora rivelato un piano per evacuare medicalmente i campi, come richiesto dall'OMS (Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità) e da innumerevoli altre OnG.
Da quando è diventato membro del gabinetto del Primo Ministro Thachi, Rašić ha rifiutato di incontrare i giornalisti stranieri che volevano discutere il tema dei campi contaminati dal piombo, o la costruzione dei 60 appartamenti per IDP (Persone Disperse Internamente), nel villaggio di Laplje Selo dove gli zingari dei campi fuori dalla città di Mitrovica (che non hanno mai vissuto nel quartiere Fabricka a Mitrovica sud) potrebbero essere trasferiti. Nonostante fosse programmato come uno sviluppo multietnico dal ministero di Rašić, i 60 appartamenti sono stati assegnati soltanto a Serbi, che non hanno sofferto una situazione di minaccia alla vita come gli zingari sui terreni contaminati.
Sebbene in loco ci siano forti sospetti che chi ha costruito i 60 appartamenti ha costruito nel contempo sull'altro lato della strada un palazzo per il Ministro Rašić, anche se la stupenda casa in effetti esiste (l'ho fotografata), non credo ci sia una prova scritta che provi questo gossip. Sono sicuro che il governo del Kosovo ha già investigato su questi rumori locali senza sostanza e li abbia trovati infondati. Nondimeno, sarebbe conveniente che il Ministro Rašić ed il governo kosovaro fossero più trasparenti con i giornalisti e con il pubblico e, naturalmente, per salvare i Rom/Askali assieme ai vicini serbi del Ministro Rašić.
Ambasciata Svizzera a Pristina
Agenzia Svizzera per lo Sviluppo e la Cooperazione (SDC)
Società per i Popoli Minacciati (GFBV - sezione Svizzera)
PREMIO "NON FATE NESSUN RUMORE": disonora i summenzionati partner che rifiutarono di "fare rumore" a favore dei bambini zingari che soffrivano di livelli di piombo mortali negli ex campi ONU ora gestiti dal governo del Kosovo.
Poco dopo la morte di Jenita Mehmeti, quattro anni, per avvelenamento da piombo nel campo ONU di Zitkovavc, mi precipitai nell'ufficio SDC di Pristina e li supplicai di aiutarmi. Per due anni SDC aveva generosamente finanziato le mie classi per insegnare l'inglese ai Rom nelle enclavi serbe vicino a Pristina, ed anche nei quartieri Gabeli/Egizi a Peja e Gjakova. SDC aveva anche finanziato i miei piccoli progetti lavorativi per gli zingari di tutto il Kosovo.
La morte di Jenita non era stata causata soltanto dal terreno contaminato dove l'ONU aveva piazzato la sua famiglia, ma anche dal fatto che suo padre riciclava batterie d'auto nella loro baracca ONU. L'attività era stata approvata dai gestori del campo. I Serbi che gli portavano le batterie avevano una licenza rilasciata dall'ufficio ONU di Zitkovac. ACT (Agenzia Svizzera di Soccorso) e NCA (Norwegian Church Agency) che assieme amministravano il campo ONU ammettevano che le batterie per auto, consegnate di solito a mezzogiorno in un camioncino aperto, venissero scaricate dai bambini zingari che non avevano altro da fare. L'atteggiamento di NCA era che gli zingari trovassero un lavoro (di qualsiasi tipo) invece di essere parassiti, dipendenti dagli aiuti umanitari.
La mia richiesta all'SDC era di farmi finanziare piccoli progetti lavorativi per i campi Rom/Askali, così che non dovessero smaltire le batterie delle macchine. Sfortunatamente, l'SDC aveva appena cambiato il proprio capo missione. Ero sicuro che il capo precedente avrebbe istantaneamente approvato il mio progetto che salvava delle vite, ma il nuovo, una donna svizzera di nome Barbara Burri, rifiutò.
Non ne fui sorpreso. Per diversi anni come vice capo missione, aveva rifiutato di assumere personale delle minoranze, solo Albanesi. Il capo precedente dell'SDC a Pristina era imbarazzato per questo atteggiamento, ma fece con me un accordo. Fintanto che non mi lamentavo del rifiuto dell'SDC di assumere minoranze, avrebbe finanziato i miei progetti zingari. Ma il nuovo capo missione non la pensava così. Ero andato troppo oltre nel tentare di coinvolgere la Svizzera. L'SDC intendeva ancora aiutare gli zingari onesti che vivevano nelle enclavi. Ma non gli zingari che morivano nei campi ONU. Sarebbe stato troppo politico per la loro "mentalità svizzera neutrale". Dopo tutto, dove aveva l'UNHCR (gli amministratori dei campi della morte) il proprio quartier generale? A Ginevra, Svizzera.
Con l'Ambasciata Svizzera non andò meglio. Anche loro si rifiutavano di assumere dalle minoranze, solo Albanesi. Quando feci appello all'ambasciatore in carica per aiutare questi bambini che morivano di avvelenamento da piombo, mi disse di cercare dei fondi altrove. Farsi coinvolgere in un progetto che avrebbe potuto imbarazzare l'ONU o gli Albanesi, non era nelle corde della Svizzera.
Il mio terzo tentativo di cercare aiuto dalla Svizzera avvenne cinque anni più tardi, quando contattai la Società per i Popoli Minacciati, a Berna. Sin dall'estate 1999 l'organizzazione madre in Germania era stata attiva nel denunciare l'avvelenamento da piombo nei campi e a chiederne l'evacuazione assieme all'OMS ed altre OnG. Infatti, la GFBV tedesca aiutò mandando una TV della Germania (ZDF) e la Bild Zeitung nei campi per dare più risonanza possibile sulla sofferenza di quei bambini. All'inizio GFBV (Svizzera) mostrò appoggio per un'azione diretta, proponendo persino di tenere assieme a noi una manifestazione presso il quartier generale UNHCR a Ginevra. Ma dopo una visita in Kosovo e dopo discussioni con l'Ambasciata Svizzera a Pristina (che disse loro di non creare rumori attorno ai campi), GFBV (Svizzera) non solo rifiutò di appoggiare la nostra campagna ma convinse anche GFBV in Germania ad unirsi a loro nel non dare più risalto alla questione dei campi.
Adottando la medesima mentalità della II guerra mondiale, la neutralità rimane il modus operandi della Svizzera. E proprio come agli Ebrei venne impedito di entrare in Svizzera durante la guerra, così pure ai nostri bambini Rom/Askali veniva proibito adesso di entrare nei cuori e nelle menti dell'Ambasciata Svizzera e dell'ufficio SDC a Pristina.
Ancora, non ne fui sorpreso. Assumendo solo Albanesi per lavorare nei loro uffici; essendo uno dei primi paesi a riconoscere il Kosovo come uno stato indipendente; perché ora gli Svizzeri avrebbero voluto "salvare gli zingari" e mettere in imbarazzo il governo del Kosovo? Probabilmente gli Svizzeri avevano paura che salvare dei "gypos" nei "campi della morte" ora gestiti dagli Albanesi poteva causare uno sciopero del loro staff albanese.
Fine undicesima puntata
by Paul Polansky
[continua]
Prof. dr. Alush Gashi
IL PREMIO MENGELE: disonora e disgrazia questo ministro della Sanità del Kosovo che rifiuta di svolgere i suoi dovere e richiedere l'immediata evacuazione medica dei campi contaminati dove più di 80 zingari sono morti per complicazioni dovute all'avvelenamento da piombo e dove ogni bambino nasce con danni irreversibili al cervello.
Se vuoi bere il miglior vino rosso in Kosovo, il prof. dr. Alush Gashi è l'uomo da tenere in considerazione nei "suoi giri". Nei ristoranti di Pristina il vino migliore non è mai sul menù. E' riservato soltanto ai "politicos" come Gashi, che è un grande intenditore. Vorrei soltanto che ponesse altrettanta attenzione ai bambini zingari che muoiono nei campi ONU, ora sotto l'amministrazione del governo del Kosovo e del suo ministero della salute.
Una volta bevvi con Alush in un ristorante esclusivo in un parco fuori Pristina. Stavamo discutendo con un comandante di marina degli USA degli attacchi nel marzo2004 di rivoltosi albanesi contro le enclavi delle minoranze. Alush era stato nominato dal parlamento del Kosovo per investigare sulle cause della rivolta. Alla terza o quarta bottiglia di squisito vino rosso, Alush confessò che l'attacco era stato così ben pianificato che non intendeva procedere oltre con le indagini. Avrebbe soltanto imbarazzato gli alleati del Kosovo se si fosse rivelato quali politici kosovari avevano organizzato i disordini. Invece, Alush ordinò un'altra bottiglia "del migliore" nascosto nella cantina del ristorante lontano dai normali clienti.
Alush Gashi è nato il 4 ottobre 1950. La sua biografia sulla pagina web del governo del Kosovo per i gabinetti ministeriali è molto approssimativa. Ma tramite una ricerca su Google ho trovato che Alush ha scritto di essere dottore in medicina, professore di anatomia, chirurgo generale ed una volta è stato professore assistente alla facoltà di medicina dell'Università di California a San Francisco. Ha anche dichiarato di essersi recato diverse volte in America e in Europa per scopi di studio ed è autore di testi professionali e scientifici pubblicati in Kosovo, Europa Occidentale ed America (non sono riuscito a trovarne nessuno). E' stato preside della facoltà di medicina a Pristina e consigliere per i Diritti Umani del dr. Rugova, l'ultimo presidente del Kosovo. Attualmente è membro del parlamento del Kosovo per il partito LDK e ministro della Sanità del Kosovo.
Andavo a trovare Alush molte volte nel suo ufficio di ministro della Sanità. Fummo buoni amici fino a quando non portai troppi giornalisti a vederlo a proposito dei campi zingari contaminati dal piombo, che ora erano di sua responsabilità. Due anni fa le sue ultime parole che mi disse furono: "Quei campi sono la mia priorità numero uno." Ma non ci andò mai. Nemmeno nessun membro del suo staff.
Alush una volta descrisse se stesso in un'intervista ad un giornale americano come "...un innocente medico che cerca di aiutare gli altri."
Un giornale britannico una volta scrisse "ALUSH GASHI è un uomo piccolo, asciutto, dagli occhi vivaci, un chirurgo, un guaritore."
Ma i riconoscimenti della stampa straniera sono finiti da quando Alush ora rifiuta di incontrare i giornalisti stranieri che cercano da lui risposte sui bambini zingari che muoiono nei campi di morte del governo del Kosovo. A volte Alush concede al suo addetto stampa di parlare coi giornalisti internazionali, ma quando questi menzionano i campi zingari l'intervista viene improvvisamente interrotta.
Anche se il prof. dr. Alush Gashi non è il salvatore degli zingari del Kosovo, è un grande entusiasta dell'America e dei valori americani. In un'intervista ad una pubblicazione di Washington DC, Alush ha detto: "...L'America ha dato ai membri di questa comunità dei Balcani conoscenza e simpatia per i valori americani. Gli Stati Uniti sono venuti in aiuto del Kosovo in risposta alla campagna di pulizia etnica del presidente dell'ex Jugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic, che intendeva sterminare qualsiasi popolo non-serbo dalla provincia. L'impegno americano in Kosovo è unico, a partire dall'aiuto umanitario pre-guerra... poi l'America inviò i suoi figli e le sue figlie a combattere Milosevic e le truppe serbe per salvare civili innocenti, a cui era capitato di essere musulmani... e creare le condizioni perché i Kosovari potessero tornare a casa, stabilire la democrazia e rimodellare il loro futuro. Sotto la protezione NATO i Kosovari sono ritornati a casa, ma gli Americani ed i loro alleati sono rimasti. Sono rimasti ed hanno continuato a supportare chi amava la pace e stava costruendo un Kosova post-bellico... costruendo scuole, ospedali, strade e moschee. Credo che gli Albanesi del Kosova amino l'America perché sono coscienti dei valori americani."
Sfortunatamente, anche i valori americani (assieme ad Alush) sono assenti nei campi zingari. Non solo l'ambasciata americana a Pristina ha rifiutato di chiederne l'evacuazione per motivi medici, come richiesto dall'OMS, ma l'ambasciatore americano si è rifiutato di incontrarmi per discutere una soluzione sanitaria (vedi lettera seguente). Forse Alush Gashi, ministro della Sanità del Kosovo, i suoi valori li ha appresi dall'ambasciatore americano Christopher Dell.
Ambasciatore Cristopher W. Dell
6 luglio 2009
Spett. Ambasciatore Dell,
Sono un cittadino americano che ha lavorato in Kosovo dal luglio 2009 come capo missione della Società per i Popoli Minacciati. Il mio lavoro è stato quasi esclusivamente con i Rom kosovari, specialmente con quanti vivono dal settembre 1999 nei campi per IDP costruiti su terreni contaminati a Mitrovica nord. Dalla vostra udienza di conferma, vedo che siete a conoscenza di questa tragedia che dura da dieci anni.
Per diverso tempo, ho cercato senza successo di parlare con l'attuale ambasciatore americano a Pristina sulle adeguate cure mediche per questi Rom. Sfortunatamente, nessuno vuole discutere di un'immediata soluzione sanitaria, solo di future rilocazioni, ancora molto lontane. Anche quanti sono stati reinsediati dal 2006 nella loro precedente mahala a Mitrovica sud, non hanno ancora ricevuto il promesso trattamento per avvelenamento da piombo.
Ci sono precedenti in Kosovo per salvare migliaia di vite di vite di Albanesi e Serbi con l'immediata evacuazione, quando le loro vite erano in pericolo. Tuttora per questi Rom di Mitrovica che hanno i più alti livelli di piombo nella storia medica, non è stata considerata nessuna evacuazione d'emergenza.
Riguardo al reinsediamento, Mercy Corps non intende iniziare la costruzione delle 50 case prima di settembre, e soltanto se i test sulla tossicità del terreno (ancora da fare) saranno negativi. Nel contempo, MC rifiuta di rivelare qualsiasi piano sanitario. Come Ambasciatore americano in Kosovo, ritengo Lei possa incoraggiare il governo del Kosovo, Mercy Corps, USAID, UE/CE a salvare questi poveri Rom. Non soltanto abbiamo avuto già tra di loro 82 morti (molti di loro bambini) su questi terreni contaminati, ma secondo un dottore tedesco che li ha visitati e analizzato i risultati dei test, ogni bambino concepito nascerà con danni irreversibili al cervello.
Spero, Ambasciatore Dell, che lei mi riceva per discutere un'urgente soluzione medica prima che sia troppo tardi per salvare questi bambini.
In fede,
Paul Polansky
Il senatore USA Russ Feingold ha inviato la mia lettera assieme ad una sua presentazione, chiedendo all'ambasciatore Dell di ricevermi. L'ambasciatore Dell non ha mai risposto.
Fine dodicesima puntata
by Paul Polansky
[continua]
Dr. Sergey Shevchenko
[FOTO] Il Percorso della Salute del dr. Shevchenko costruito accanto ai cumuli di scorie tossiche che attorniano i campi zingari. I cartelli sono in inglese, serbo ed albanese. In inglese dicono: Inala l'odoure (sic) della salute. E' una sfida per te. VINCILA. L'esercizio creato per un corpo sano.
IL PREMIO "PERCORSO DELLA MORTE": disonora e disgrazia quel dottore ONU che approfittò finanziariamente della costruzione di impianti sportivi su terreni contaminati.
Non tanto tempo fa, chiesi ad un incaricato dell'UNMIK chi avrebbe perseguito per questa tragedia dei campi zingari contaminati da piombo. Senza esitazione, mi disse: 1- il dr. Kouchner per aver messo lì gli zingari; 2- Norwegian Church Aid per aver amministrato i campi senza riportare un decesso o senza aver poi protestato; 3- il dr. Shevchenko per essersi riempito le tasche di soldi con i progetti sportivi realizzati su terreni contaminati.
Il dr. Shevchenko, un optometrista, era il dottore ONU incaricato di Mitrovica nord, che includeva due dei tre campi originari (Cesmin Lug e Kablare). Alcuni del suo staff dicono che è un russo originario di Vladivostok e gira con un passaporto diplomatico russo, ma che vive oggi a Vancouver, BC, Canada. Però, nel 2005 disse all'avvocato americano Dianne Post di avere passaporto canadese.
Ma la cattiva fama del dr. Shevchenko è dovuta al "Percorso della Salute". Ispirandosi ad un parco della salute in Canada, Shevchenko costruì il suo Percorso della Salute su un terreno contaminato tra i campi zingari di Kablare e Cesmin Lug ed i 100 milioni di scorie tossiche la cui polvere per molti giorni ricopriva i campi. Il dr. Shevchenko trasformò un vecchio sentiero di 1,5 Km. in un percorso di jogging tossico ed installò anche barre per gli esercizi accanto al cammino, più una rete da basket e due porte improvvisate da calcio. Pose cartelli blu di due metri con scritte in bianco, firmati dall'ONU in tre lingue, incoraggiando i locali a "respirare l'odore della salute". Gli esercizi, aprire i polmoni, permette a più polvere tossica di entrare nel corpo, ma questo non era menzionato sopra la firma dell'ONU.
Secondo il suo staff ONU, Shevchenko raccolse 66.000 euro per costruire queste infrastrutture sportive, pagandole però ai contraenti locali che le costruirono solo 10.000 euro. Incoraggiato da come fosse facile ottenere fondi per "progetti zingari", il dottore-affarista Shevchenko scrisse allora un progetto da 300.000 euro per costruire più baracche sui terreni contaminati per rifugiati zingari, a favore dei rifugiati che l'ONU stava rimpatriando dalla Serbia. Secondo il suo staff locale il nostro optometrista in orgasmo da sviluppo aveva un contraente serbo locale che intendeva costruire le baracche per 100.000 euro. Quando venne chiesto loro (il suo staff) su perché non premessero per dar luogo ai lavori, mi dissero che avevano così paura di perderlo. Shevchenko lasciò il Kosovo prima che il suo progetto dei baracche venisse approvato.
KAAD (Kosovo Agency for Advacacy and Development)
IL PREMIO DIETA SPECIALE: disonora questa OnG di Pristina che ha amministrato il campo zingaro di Osterode dal dicembre 2008, ma sta facendo pochissimi sforzi per tenere in vita i bambini.
Non ho mai pensato che potesse esserci un amministratore di campi peggiore di Norwegian Church Aid nel non curarsi se i bambini dei campi zingari vivessero o morissero. Ma questa OnG albanese a contratto e finanziata dal governo del Kosovo, potrebbe essere di parecchio peggiore. Ergin Salihi, bambino di nove anni, è entrato ed uscito sette volte dall'ospedale negli ultimi anni per insufficienza renale causata da malnutrizione e debolezza del sistema immunitario causata da avvelenamento da piombo. Suo fratello Robert, cinque anni, è in condizioni persino peggiori. Senza una dieta adeguata, dicono i dottori locali, non vivranno a lungo. Sino a settembre 2009, KAAD ha fornito la dieta speciale al costo di 7 euro al giorno. Da settembre, KAAD ha sospeso la somministrazione dicendo di non potersela permettere.
Quando Human Rights Watch (l'OnG internazionale con base a New York) a novembre 2008 visitò i campi, parlò con una dottoressa part-time del campo, Javorka Jovanovic, che dichiarò che era impossibile distinguere tra cause mediche dipendenti solamente dal piombo e quelle semplicemente collegate alla povertà e alla deprivazione. Aggiunse che la combinazione dei due fattori peggiorava sempre di più ogni condizione. Tuttavia, notava nei bambini su base giornaliera i sintomi da contaminazione come rachitismo, nervosismo, fatica ed epilessia. Disse che l'avvelenamento da piombo stava rendendo i bambini più vulnerabili alle altre malattie.
La dottoressa Jovanovic sentiva che la cattiva salute dei bambini peggiorava a causa della loro dieta. Molte, se non la maggior parte, delle famiglie vanno a cercare il cibo nei container delle discariche cittadine. Nel 2002 ACT/NCA interruppero tutti gli aiuti alimentari ai campi, dicendo che gli zingari ne rivendevano una parte per comprarsi le sigarette. Gli zingari ammisero di vendere alcuni degli aiuti, ma soprattutto per comprare le scarpe perché i bambini potessero andare a scuola. Nondimeno, tutti gli aiuti alimentari vennero fermati nel 2002.
Tutte le madri del campo si sono lamentate con KAAD sulle cattive condizioni igieniche e per la dieta che sta esacerbando la situazione sanitaria dei più vulnerabili, i bambini sotto i sei anni d'età e le donne incinte. La dottoressa Jovanovic ha detto che la concentrazione di malattie nei campi rende la situazione medica senza paragoni con nient'altro che abbia mai visto nei suoi 35 anni come dottoressa.
Anche se KAAD ed il governo del Kosovo non sono responsabili per la costruzione di questi campi su terreni contaminati, furono gli Albanesi che allontanarono gli zingari dalle loro case dopo che le truppe NATO francesi avevano occupato la città. Punire ora i bambini nati lì dopo la guerra appare una rivincita senza senso. Ma è quello che sta succedendo adesso. Altrimenti perché KAAD dovrebbe interrompere la dieta speciale del novenne Ergin? Sicuramente KAAD che mantiene uno staff di 42 persone ed è finanziata dal governo del Kosovo può permettersi 7 euro al giorno per salvare Ergin ed i suoi fratelli. Nessuno in Kosovo, KAAD specialmente, sembra comprendere che la negligenza dolosa verso i bambini è un crimine.
Fine tredicesima puntata
Global Research, September 5, 2010 | |
- 2010-09-04 |
Anticipating An Attack For several years prior to the events of 9/11, top American strategists had been acknowledging the necessity of what they oft-termed a “new Pearl Harbor”, a momentous attack upon America itself, in order to mobilize the American populace for a new global war of domination. As Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote in his 1997 book The Grand Chessboard, “America's primary interest is to help ensure that no single power comes to control this geopolitical space [of Central Asia] and that the global community has unhindered financial and economic access to it.”[1] Brzezinski acknowledged in his book that, “the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public’s sense of domestic well-being.”[2] He also wrote that, “The public supported America’s engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.”[3] In 1999, Andrew Krepinevich, Executive Director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments testified before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. He stated that the US faces an “unprecedented challenge”: [T]he need to transform our armed forces into a very different kind of military from that which exists today, while sustaining the military’s ability to play a very active role in supporting U.S. near-term efforts to preserve global stability within a national security strategy of engagement and enlargement.[4] After advocating a massive re-imagining of the role and nature of US military might, pushing the notion of a “revolution in military affairs” and an acceleration of imperial ambitions, he told the Senate Committee: There appears to be general agreement concerning the need to transform the U.S. military into a significantly different kind of force from that which emerged victorious from the Cold and Gulf Wars. Yet this verbal support has not been translated into a defense program supporting transformation. [. . . ] While there is growing support in Congress for transformation, the “critical mass” [i.e., public support] needed to effect it has not yet been achieved. One may conclude that, in the absence of a strong external shock to the United States—a latter-day “Pearl Harbor” of sorts—surmounting the barriers to transformation will likely prove a long, arduous process.[5] In 1999, Graham Fuller, former Deputy Director of the CIA’s National Council on Intelligence, advocated using Muslim forces to further US interests in Central Asia. He stated that, “The policy of guiding the evolution of Islam and of helping them against our adversaries worked marvelously well in Afghanistan against [the Russians]. The same doctrines can still be used to destabilize what remains of Russian power, and especially to counter the Chinese influence in Central Asia.”[6] In June of 2000, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Pentagon released Joint Vision 2020, outlining the American military strategy that the Department of Defense “will follow in the future.” The emphasis in the report was put on the notion of “Full Spectrum Dominance,” which means “the ability of U.S. forces, operating alone or with allies, to defeat any adversary and control any situation across the range of military operations”: Joint Vision 2020 addresses full-spectrum dominance across the range of conflicts from nuclear war to major theater wars to smaller-scale contingencies. It also addresses amorphous situations like peacekeeping and noncombat humanitarian relief.[7] The neoconservative think tank the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) released a report in September of 2000 called Rebuilding America’s Defenses in which they advocated for a massive expansion of America’s empire and “full spectrum dominance” as well as the necessity to undertake a “Revolution in military affairs,” and undertake multiple simultaneous wars in different regions of the world. Several members of the think tank and authors of the report would go on to enter key policy positions within the Bush administration several months later (including, but not limited to Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Zalmay Khalilzad). While acknowledging the massive undertaking this “project” would be, the report stated: Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.”[8] In January of 2001, the Rumsfeld Commission, which was set up to analyze the US National Security Space Management and Organization, chaired by incoming US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (who had also been a signatory to and member of the Project for the New American Century at the same time). It advocated an expansion of military capabilities in Space and a total reorganization of the armed forces and intelligence agencies of the United States. The report stated that: History is replete with instances in which warning signs were ignored and change resisted until an external, “improbable” event forced resistant bureaucracies to take action. The question is whether the US will be wise enough to act responsibly and soon enough to reduce US space vulnerability. Or whether, as in the past, a disabling attack against the country and its people – a “Space Pearl Harbor” – will be the only event able to galvanize the nation and cause the US Government to act.[9] As early as 1998, the President was warned in his CIA daily briefing that, “bin Laden and his allies are preparing for an attack in the US, including an aircraft hijacking.” NORAD, the “North American Aerospace Defense command also conducted an exercise to counter a terrorist attack involving smashing an airplane into a building.” In August 1999, “the Federal Aviation Administration's intelligence branch warned of a possible "suicide hijacking operation" by Osama Bin Laden.”[10] In October of 2000, the Pentagon undertook an emergency response exercise in which “there was a mock terrorist incident at the Pentagon Metro stop and a construction accident,” and it further envisioned a “downed passenger aircraft” in the Pentagon courtyard.[11] For years, NORAD had been conducting military exercises and drills in which it envisioned planes being hijacked and flown into buildings in the United States.[12] One of the intended targets in the NORAD drills was the World Trade Center: In another exercise, jets performed a mock shootdown over the Atlantic Ocean of a jet supposedly laden with chemical poisons headed toward a target in the United States. In a third scenario, the target was the Pentagon — but that drill was not run after Defense officials said it was unrealistic.[13] As the Guardian revealed in April of 2004: Five months before the September 11 attacks, US military planners suggested a war game to practise a response to a terrorist attack using a commercial airliner flown into the Pentagon, but senior officers rejected the scenario as "too unrealistic".[14] In May of 2001, an exercise involving U.S. Central Command, U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Joint Forces Command took place in which the military establishment “forecasted” the first war of the 21st century so closely that, “Nostradamus couldn't have nailed the first battle of the next war any closer than we did,” as articulated by a former top official with the exercise, Dave Ozolek. The exercise, Unified Vision 2001: [G]rew out of the realization that the threat was changing. Ozolek said the scenario was a major regional threat emanating from the Middle East. The scenario called for global deployment into a landlocked country with hostile terrain and a lack of basing and agreements with neighboring countries for U.S. access. [. . . ] The threat we portrayed was an unstable and hostile state, but the primary enemy was not the state itself but a transnational actor based out of that area, globally connected, capable and willing to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S. as part of that campaign. [. . . ] "Many of the participants in Unified Vision, 100 days later, were war planners," Ozolek said. They took their experiences in Unified Vision back to their commands and put them to use as the commands created plans for operations Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle, he said. They had an idea of the tactics, techniques and procedures needed to operate against such an enemy, he noted. Ozolek said Unified Vision refutes the pundits who make a living out of critiquing the Department of Defense. "The first thing they like to talk about is that we always dwell on the last battle of the last war," he said. "What we're showing them is that this time we got it right: We really were looking at the first battle of the next war, and we nailed it pretty darned close."[15] After 9/11, in May of 2002, Condoleezza Rice stated that, “I don't think anybody could have predicted that ... they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile.”[16] So Condi is a fool or a liar, because that statement is nothing if not entirely and utterly false. The national security apparatus had fully anticipated, and even war gamed and drilled this very scenario. It was expected, planned for, and no less with war plans waiting in the wings. The 9/11 Commission Of critical importance in understanding the events of 9/11 is taking note of the funding for the operation. The 9/11 Commission itself stated: To date the U.S. government has not been able to determine the origin of the money used for the 9/11 attacks. Ultimately the question is of little practical significance.[17] However, one should take issue with this claim. The fact is that any comprehensive investigation, criminal or otherwise, should pay special attention to the role of financing; follow the money. This is not the only failure of the 9/11 Commission, as has been amply documented. From its inception, the 9/11 Commission was plagued with problems. The Bush administration had resisted attempts to form a commission to investigate the attacks of 9/11 for over a year, even pressuring Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle not to launch an inquiry.[18] In May of 2002, President Bush voiced his opposition to the formation of a 9/11 commission.[19] In September of 2002, Bush reversed his previous decision and backed the proposal to form an “independent” commission to investigate the attacks.[20] Within a month of this statement, the White House began undermining the process, as “an almost completed Congressional deal was suddenly undone in October after a Republican lawmaker involved in the final negotiations received a call from Vice President Dick Cheney,” which led to a stalling of the process.[21] In mid-November, Congress approved the creation of a bi-partisan 9/11 Commission to investigate the attacks, with 10 Congressmen, 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans, with the Chairman appointed by the Bush administration and the Vice Chair appointed by the Democrats.[22] The Bush administration chose as the Chairman none other than Henry Kissinger, former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State for Nixon and Ford, “a consummate Washington insider,” not to mention war criminal. Even the New York Times had to admit: Unfortunately, his affinity for power and the commercial interests he has cultivated since leaving government may make him less than the staunchly independent figure that is needed for this critical post. Indeed, it is tempting to wonder if the choice of Mr. Kissinger is not a clever maneuver by the White House to contain an investigation it long opposed.[23] Two week later, “Facing questions about potential conflicts of interest, Henry Kissinger resigned” as Chairman of the 9/11 Commission.[24] He was replaced with former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean. As of November 2003, one Commissioner, Max Cleland, claimed that the “investigation is now compromised” by the White House.[25] Shortly after the release of the final 9/11 Commission Report in 2004, Harper’s Magazine called it “a cheat and a fraud,” declaring the report a “whitewash.”[26] In 2006, the two co-Chairs of the Commission published a book in which they claimed that the Commission was lied to by both the FAA and the Department of Defense, specifically NORAD.[27] Several commissioners are on the record as saying they felt that the Pentagon purposely lied to them in order to mislead them.[28] Further, much of the information the commission received and used in its report “was the product of harsh interrogations of al-Qaida operatives - interrogations that many critics have labeled torture.”[29] As it turned out, the Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow, was a man of dubious priorities and connections. He was the ultimate author of the final report and controlled the research staff of the commission. Zelikow, “a former colleague of then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, was appointed executive director of the 9/11 Commission despite his close ties to the Bush White House, and he remained in regular contact with [Karl] Rove while overseeing the commission.” Zelikow “secretly spoke with President Bush's close adviser Karl Rove and others within the White House while the ostensibly autonomous commission was completing its report.” Zelikow had even previously co-authored a book with Condoleezza Rice. Following the publication of the report, Zelikow then went to work as an adviser to Condoleezza Rice in the White House.[30] The Bin Ladens There are many fascinating and important revelations regarding the intricate relationship between the CIA, the ISI, and al-Qaeda in the lead-up to the events of 9/11 that deserve to be subjected to more scrutiny. First, let’s take a look at Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, whose relationship with the CIA in the past had been well documented, reportedly acted as a rogue following the 1991 US Gulf War against Iraq and American stationing of troops and military bases in Saudi Arabia. However, there are reports that would indicate that the relationship between bin Laden and the US intelligence apparatus remained, at least to some degree, for many years. We must remember the nature of al-Qaeda, as an organization, or network, of intelligence assets funded, armed, trained and dispersed around the world by a complex network of intelligence agencies from the United States, France, Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. A French court undertook a probe into the financial network of Osama bin Laden, who was widely assumed to simply be independently wealthy, and financed al-Qaeda operations through his own funds. However, it was revealed that Osama maintained a joint bank account with his half-brother Yeslam bin Laden in Switzerland between 1990 and 1997. Of particular interest to investigators was “a 241 million euro transfer made to Pakistan in 2000 from an account belonging to a company called Cambridge, a SBG [Saudi Bin Laden Group] subsidiary, that was opened at Deutsche Bank in Geneva,” with the funds “transferred into an account belonging jointly to Osama bin Laden and someone of Pakistani nationality.”[31] Der Spiegel, a major German newspaper, was granted access to thousands of pages of intelligence documents relating to bin Laden and al-Qaeda. In the report on the documents, the authors revealed that when bin Laden needed financing, “The Saudi elite -- and his own family -- came to his assistance.” The list of financiers: is a veritable who's who of the Middle Eastern monarchy, including the signatures of two former cabinet ministers, six bankers and twelve prominent businessmen. The list also mentions "the bin Laden brothers." ... Did "the bin Laden brothers," who first pledged money to Al-Qaida and then, in 1994, issued a joint press statement declaring that they were ejecting Osama from the family as a "black sheep," truly break ties with their blood relatives -- or were they simply pulling the wool over the eyes of the world?[32] Osama bin Laden’s sister-in-law even stated: I absolutely do not believe that the bin Ladens disowned Osama. In this family, a brother is always a brother, no matter what he has done. I am convinced that the complex and tightly woven network between the bin Laden clan and the Saudi royal family is still in operation.[33] Following the death of Osama’s father, Salem bin Laden, Osama’s brother, became head of the company, Saudi Binladen Group (SBG). As Der Spiegel reported: Salem bin Laden established the company's ties to the American political elite when, according to French intelligence sources, he helped the Reagan administration circumvent the US Senate and funnel $34 million to the right-wing Contra rebels operating in Nicaragua. He also developed close ties with the Bush family in Texas.[34] While Osama was fighting in Afghanistan against the Soviets, he would often be personally visited by Saudi Prince Turki, the head of Saudi intelligence, and was funded by both the Saudi Binladen Group (SBG) and the Saudi royal family. In 1990, when King Fahd of Saudi Arabia allowed the Americans to establish military bases in Saudi Arabia, the SBG got the contract to build the bases.[35] Though the Bin Laden family claimed Osama was a “black sheep” and that they cut off ties with him in the early 1990s, the evidence remains strong that not only did Osama maintain ties with his family, but he maintained his ties with Saudi intelligence. While Osama was in Sudan in the early 1990s, Saudi intelligence would so frequently send his family over to meet with him, and kept in such close contact with him, that the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, believed Osama was a Saudi spy. In 1994, under intense public pressure, both Saudi Arabia and the bin Laden family publicly revoked their ties with Osama.[36] Yet, even after this, when Osama returned to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s to work with the Taliban, Prince Turki of Saudi intelligence would still maintain contact and even visit Osama, even bringing “gifts” such as dozens of trucks: According to a former member of the Taliban intelligence service, Prince Turki and OBL [Osama bin Laden] made a deal: The Saudis would support al-Qaida financially, but only under the condition that there would be no attacks on Saudi soil.[37] On January 9, 2001, Osama attended his sons wedding in Afghanistan, accompanied by his mother and two brothers, hardly the actions of a “black sheep”. Further, two of Osama’s sisters traveled to Abu Dhabi in February of 2001 to “deliver large sums of cash” to an al-Qaeda agent. In the United States, the Bin Laden family had diplomatic passports, so following the 9/11 attacks, they could not be questioned, but instead were flown out of the country. The Bin Ladens were also in business with the Bush family through the investment company, the Carlyle Group.[38] No one ever seemed to question why the bin Laden family had diplomatic passports, a strange occurrence, it would seem, for a Saudi ‘business’ family who weren’t engaged in any official or formal ‘diplomacy’. In March of 2000, it was reported that Osama bin Laden was sick and suffering from kidney and liver disease.[39] A western intelligence source told the Hong-Kong based magazine, Asiaweek, that bin Laden was dying of kidney failure.[40] In July of 2001, Osama bin Laden spent 10 days at the American hospital in Dubai for treatment. He traveled from Pakistan to Dubai on July 4, 2001, to be treated in the urology department. While he was in the hospital, Osama was visited by several members of his family, Saudi officials, and the CIA. One visitor was Saudi Prince Turki al Faisal, the head of Saudi intelligence, and the CIA station chief in Dubai, who was soon after recalled back to Washington.[41] On September 10, 2001, the night before the attacks of 9/11, Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan “getting medical treatment with the support of the very military that days later pledged its backing for the U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan.” Pakistani intelligence reported that bin Laden was quickly taken to a military hospital in Rawalpindi for kidney dialysis treatment. As one medical worker said, “they moved out all the regular staff in the urology department and sent in a secret team to replace them.” Pakistani President Musharraf openly stated in public that Osama suffers from kidney disease and is near death.[42] The Pakistani ISI and 9/11 Throughout the entire time of overt and covert assistance by Pakistan’s ISI to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the CIA had maintained its close ties with the ISI that they had developed during the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s, in which they used the ISI as a conduit; as was set up through the Safari Club in the 1970s, which was the organization of western intelligence agencies which used Middle Eastern and Asian intelligence agencies as conduits for their covert activities. Thus, the CIA maintained its extensive contact with the ISI, and so would be well aware of its activities.[43] A top Indian intelligence official even stated that, “America's Defence Intelligence Agency was aware that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was sponsoring the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but the Bush Administration chose to ignore its findings.”[44] Is it inconceivable that since the CIA maintained its extensive contacts with the ISI, and the ISI maintained and expanded its contacts with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, that the CIA was not in fact sponsoring both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda through the ISI as well? We know that the CIA was supporting the Taliban through the same network of the ISI that was supporting al-Qaeda operatives,[45] thus it would take a stretch of the imagination to think that the CIA would be unaware of its subsequent support for al-Qaeda. Whether direct or indirect, the CIA was supporting al-Qaeda. Shortly after 9/11, Indian intelligence became aware of the fact that General Mahmoud Ahmad, head of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had wired $100,000 from Saeed Sheikh, a convicted terrorist who had associations with the ISI, to Mohamed Atta, the purported ringleader and one of the 9/11 hijackers. Thus, the ISI in effect, financed the 9/11 attacks. However, there are several more ambiguous facets to this story. It just so happens that General Mahmoud Ahmad went to Washington, D.C. on September 4th, 2001 for a weeklong visit. On September 10, the day before 9/11, a Pakistani newspaper ran a story on Ahmad’s visit: ISI Chief Lt-Gen Mahmood's week-long presence in Washington has triggered speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council. Officially, State Department sources say he is on a routine visit in return to CIA Director George Tenet's earlier visit to Islamabad. Official sources confirm that he met Tenet this week. He also held long parleys with unspecified officials at the White House and the Pentagon. But the most important meeting was with Mark Grossman, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. ... What added interest to his visit is the history of such visits. Last time Ziauddin Butt, Mahmood's predecessor, was here during Nawaz Sharif's government the domestic politics turned topsy-turvy within days. That this is not the first visit by Mahmood in the last three months shows the urgency of the ongoing parleys.[46] General Ahmad, while in Washington, met with CIA Director George Tenet and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. On the morning of 9/11, General Ahmad was in a meeting with the Chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Senator Bob Graham and Representative Porter Goss, a former 10-year veteran of CIA clandestine operations. Porter Goss was later put in charge of a joint House-Senate investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks, and later became the CIA director.[47] General Mahmoud, having wired $100,000 to Mohamad Atta, the purported lead 9/11 hijacker, implicates the ISI in the attacks of 9/11, at least from a financial standing. The FBI even confirmed the transaction took place.[48] The ISI’s extensive ties to American intelligence and the fact that Ahmad was in D.C. talking to high level legislators, State Department, Pentagon and intelligence officials begs the question of what the precise nature of these secret meetings were. Michael Meacher, a former British MP and member of Tony Blair’s cabinet, wrote in the Guardian that: Ahmed, the paymaster for the hijackers, was actually in Washington on 9/11, and had a series of pre-9/11 top-level meetings in the White House, the Pentagon, the national security council, and with George Tenet, then head of the CIA, and Marc Grossman, the under-secretary of state for political affairs. When Ahmed was exposed by the Wall Street Journal as having sent the money to the hijackers, he was forced to "retire" by President Pervez Musharraf.[49] Meacher further discussed the case of Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator-turned-whistleblower who tried to expose evidence of what she saw as collusion between intelligence agencies and the terrorists behind 9/11. She was subsequently gagged by the U.S. Department of Justice: She is a 33-year-old Turkish-American former FBI translator of intelligence, fluent in Farsi, the language spoken mainly in Iran and Afghanistan, who had top-secret security clearance. She tried to blow the whistle on the cover-up of intelligence that names some of the culprits who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, but is now under two gagging orders that forbid her from testifying in court or mentioning the names of the people or the countries involved. She has been quoted as saying: "My translations of the 9/11 intercepts included [terrorist] money laundering, detailed and date-specific information ... if they were to do real investigations, we would see several significant high-level criminal prosecutions in this country [the US] ... and believe me, they will do everything to cover this up".[50] In August of 2009, Sibel Edmonds revealed that, “the US was on 'intimate' terms with the Taliban and al-Qaeda using the militants to further certain goals in central Asia,” and stated, “With those groups, we had operations in Central Asia.” She explained that Washington used those groups “as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict.”[51] In other words, the US was arming, funding and using al-Qaeda for its own objectives, just as it always had. On September 11, 2009, 8 years to the day of the events of 9/11, a major British newspaper, the Daily Mail, ran a story critical of the official story regarding Osama bin Laden. In it, the author posed the question: What if he has been dead for years, and the British and U.S. intelligence services are actually playing a game of double bluff? What if everything we have seen or heard of him on video and audio tapes since the early days after 9/11 is a fake - and that he is being kept 'alive' by the Western allies to stir up support for the war on terror?[52] The article quoted former U.S. foreign intelligence officer and senior editor Angelo M. Codevilla, a professor of international relations at Boston University as saying, “All the evidence suggests Elvis Presley is more alive today than Osama Bin Laden”: Prof Codevilla asserted: 'The video and audio tapes alleged to be Osama's never convince the impartial observer,' he asserted. 'The guy just does not look like Osama. Some videos show him with a Semitic, aquiline nose, while others show him with a shorter, broader one. Next to that, differences between the colours and styles of his beard are small stuff.'[53] Interesting to note is that following the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden, in at least four separate statements to Middle Eastern press and media, stated that he did not take part in the 9/11 attacks, while the video in which he supposedly claimed responsibility for the attacks has him wearing gold rings, which is forbidden by his Wahhabist religion, as well as writing with his right hand, whereas the FBI website says that he is left handed, and his face is blurred and difficult to make out. On September 28, 2001, Osama bin Laden said, “'I have already said I am not involved. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge... nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act.”[54] Osama bin Laden was even reported to have died of kidney failure on December 13, 2001, in the mountains of Tora Bora on the Afghan-Pakistan border. On that same day, the U.S. government released the fateful videotape in which Osama claimed responsibility for the attacks. However, the bin Laden in the video was very different from the known images of the real bin Laden, and even had a different shaped nose, his beard was darker, his skin paler, and his fingers were no longer long and thin, as well as the fact that he looked to be in good health.[55] As the Los Angeles Times reported in November of 2009, the extensive and close relationship between the CIA and the ISI has not diminished since 9/11, but had in fact, accelerated: “the CIA has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan's intelligence service since the Sept. 11 attacks, accounting for as much as one-third of the foreign spy agency's annual budget.” Further, “the payments to Pakistan are authorized under a covert program initially approved by then-President Bush and continued under President Obama.” Further, “the CIA has routinely brought ISI operatives to a secret training facility in North Carolina,” and as the article pointed out, “the CIA also directs millions of dollars to other foreign spy services. But the magnitude of the payments to the ISI reflect Pakistan's central role.” As the report in the Los Angeles Times explained, the CIA financial support to the ISI began during the Afghan-Soviet conflict, and has not stopped since then, and since 9/11, it has actually accelerated.[56] The Nexus Personified: The Case of Ali Mohamed Perhaps the perfect example of the complex relationship and nexus between intelligence agencies and al-Qaeda is the case of a man named Ali Mohamed. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2001, “A former U.S. Army sergeant who trained Osama bin Laden's bodyguards and helped plan the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya was a U.S. government informant during much of his terrorist career.” Ali Mohamed, an Egyptian-born US citizen had approached the CIA in the mid-1980s to inform for them. He also spent years as an FBI informant, all the while being a top-level al-Qaeda operative, even training Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards, as well as training terrorists in camps in Afghanistan and Sudan, and planned the 1998 US Embassy bombing in Kenya.[57] State Department officials proclaimed this was merely a sign of the problems associated with recruiting informants, that Mohamed was a double agent working for al-Qaeda, and they should have “known better.” However, the ignorance plea can only go so far, and considering Mohamed’s extensive ties to not one, but several US agencies, there is no doubt he was a double agent, but perhaps it is more likely he was working as an al-Qaeda operative for the US government. After all, it is one thing to say the Ali Mohamed was lucky in his evading being caught, but he was continuously lucky, over and over again. One wonders when ‘luck’ is organized. In 1971, Ali Mohamed joined the Egyptian Army, rising to the rank of major. Well educated in Egypt, he was fluent in English. In 1981, he joined the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, “a group of radical Muslim fundamentalists opposed to the Egyptian government's ties to the United States and Israel that included members of the Egyptian military.” The very same year, in 1981, Mohamed traveled to the United States for the first time, “graduating from a special program for foreign officers at the U.S. Army Special Forces school at Fort Bragg, N.C.” In 1984, Mohamed left the Egyptian military.[58] In 1984, Ali Mohamed approached the CIA office in Egypt offering to be a spy. Officially, the CIA then cut off contact with him shortly thereafter, as he made contact with terrorist organizations and informed them he was working with the CIA, supposedly proposing to spy on US intelligence agencies. So the CIA had the State Department add him to a “watch list” so that he could not enter the United States. However, the next year, Ali Mohamed obtained a visa from the American Embassy and went to the United States. He then joined the American Army and “served with one of its most elite units.”[59] From 1986 until 1989, Ali Mohamed served at the Army’s Special Forces base in Fort Bragg, N.C., until he was honourably discharged in 1989. While on active duty, he went to New York where he trained local Muslims in military tactics to go fight in the Afghan-Soviet war. One of his students was “El Sayyid A. Nosair, the Egyptian immigrant convicted of killing Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the Jewish Defense League, in 1990,” which was the first recorded al-Qaeda operation on U.S. soil.[60] In the early 1990s, Ali Mohamed began working for the FBI. Mohamed then forged ties with Osama bin Laden as early as 1991, and assisted in a variety of ways, such as helping bin Laden and ‘al-Qaeda’ obtain fake documents, assisted with logistical tasks, and even helped Osama relocate from Afghanistan to the Sudan in 1991. Many terrorists that Mohamed trained were subsequently involved in the 1993 plot to blow up the World Trade Center. In 1992, Mohamed returned to Afghanistan to continue training militants. That same year, he was detained by officials in Rome, yet was released shortly thereafter.[61] In 1992, Ali Mohamed created an al-Qaeda terrorist cell in Kenya, and in 1993, bin Laden asked Mohamed to scout for potential terrorist targets in Nairobi, Kenya. He took photos of and scouted the French Embassy, the US AID office and the American Embassy. Bin Laden subsequently chose the American Embassy as the target.[62] In 1993, he was detained by the RCMP in Vancouver, Canada, “while traveling in the company of a suspected associate of Mr. bin Laden's who was trying to enter the United States using false documents.”[63] However, after the RCMP were told to contact his FBI handlers, Mohamed was released.[64] He subsequently masterminded the American Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.[65] However, there are implications that may suggest that Ali Mohamed’s ties to the CIA did not end or evaporate in the 1980s. Following 9/11, several revelations were reported in the media about a covert program of allowing high-level terrorists to enter the United States under a secret CIA program which had the State Department issue visas to terrorists in order to enter the United States. |
L'URLO DEL KOSOVO
libro e DVD
sulle conseguenze subite dalla popolazione civile dopo i bombardamenti della Nato del 1999 sulla Jugoslavia
di Alessandro Di Meo
edito da ExOrma - 2010
Il libro e il dvd - L'Urlo del Kosovo - sono disponibili in edizione unica al costo di 18 euro. Le copie si possono richiedere direttamente all'autore (alessandro.di.meo@...), all'associazione Un Ponte per... (posta@... o info@...), a ExOrma edizioni (o.pagnani@... o m.sassara@...) o attraverso il sito internet di Un Ponte per...
In occasione dell'80° anniversario
della fucilazione dei quattro antifascisti
(Ferdo Bidovec, Franjo Marušič,
Zvonimir Miloš e Alojš Valenčič)
presso il poligono di Basovizza
giovedì 9 settembre alle ore 17,
presso la Sala Tessitori
piazza Oberdan 6
conferenza - dibattito:
LA PRIMA
RESISTENZA EUROPEA
parlerà
Milan Pahor,
presidente del
Comitato per le onoranze ai Martiri di Basovizza
organizza
Il Coordinamento antifascista di Trieste
in collaborazione con il
Gruppo consiliare regionale della Sinistra Arcobaleno
---
V 80. obletnici
ustrelitve štirih antifašistov
(Ferdo Bidovec, Franjo Marušič,
Zvonimir Miloš e Alojš Valenčič)
na zastrelišču pri Bazovici
V četrtek 9. septembra ob 17 uri,
v dvorani Tessitori
Trg Oberdan 6
predavanje:
PRVI
EVROPSKI ODPOR
Govoril bo
Milan PAHOR
predsednik
Odbora za proslavo bazoviških junakov
organizirata
Tržaški antifašistični odbor
in
Deželna svetniška skupina Levica Mavrica
[Diffondiamo per conoscenza e contributo alla discussione questo interessante documento della RKS,...
Fact-checker, Google e social coinvolti nel massacro di Gaza e in altre operazioni...
[english / italiano] Pristina mette fuori legge il dinaro e la polizia del Kosovo effettua raid...
[srpskohrvatski / italiano] 1) Breve storia del giacimento di litio di Loznica 2) Ana Brnabić:...
In concomitanza con la tradizionale "pastasciutta antifascista"
Testi di Laura Ruggeri e dal Simposio internazionale tenuto a Banja Luka nel 2014
Calcio e politica nell’ex Jugoslavia dall’era socialista ai giorni nostri
Temi trattati: intervista al presidente serbo Vučić del settimanale svizzero Die Weltwoche /...
[srpskohrvatski / italiano] VIDEO sulla storia di Davor Ristic e la questione dei rapiti nel...
Con l'associazione Bosna u srcu / La Bosnia nel cuore
[deutsch / english / italiano] Aleksandar Vučić - intervista al quotidiano svizzero Die Weltwoche - 8...
Si è tenuta domenica 19 maggio 2024 in Canada la 22ma Conferenza sulla memoria dello sterminio...
[english / deutsch / srpskohrvatski / français / italiano] Giovedì 23 maggio 2024 si è svolta la...
[srpskohrvatski / english / italiano] ПОРУКА СОЛИДАРНОСТИ СА НАРОДОМ ПАЛЕСТИНЕ / A LETTER OF...
[english / italiano] Xi: la Cina “non dimenticherà mai” il bombardamento Nato della sua ambasciata a...
[srpskohrvatski / italiano] Dačić: “Siamo sinceri, ISRAELE HA RICONOSCIUTO IL KOSOVO... LA...
1) I millantati crediti della “Brigata Ebraica”. Un po’ di storia che va conosciuta (Alberto...
Il libro di Michel Chossudovsky The US-NATO War of Aggression against Yugoslavia, edito in lingua...
[lo stesso articolo in lingua italiana] Top secret papers reviewed by The Grayzone reveal Tony...
[Il libro di Michel Chossudovsky, edito in lingua inglese e serbocroata a cura del Forum di...
Dal giugno 2023 Jugocoord è Ente del Terzo Settore (ETS)
IL COMITATO SCIENTIFICO E ARTISTICO
operazione trasparenza: IL BILANCIO DI JUGOCOORD
attenzione! i trasferimenti di denaro via Paypal sono soggetti a commissioni salate! per evitarle usate piuttosto il CCP indicato in fondo a questa pagina!
info sulla deduzione o detrazione dei versamenti a Jugocoord