Disinformation: Manufacturing Monsters
Tipu Sultan Shaheed
Following destruction of European economies by WW1, Americans stepped into the role of world leadership. Woodrow Wilson made many statements like "every people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live…. " and that "no right anywhere exists to hand peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property." Ho Chi Minh was disappointed when Americans refused to help the Vietnamese in their struggle for freedom against the French. Like many other leaders of independence movements, he learned of the disconnect between words and policies that is a characteristic of disinformation. In the curious reasoning of an official U.S. commission to the Philippines, "American sovereignty is only another name for the liberty of the Filipinos."
Because of strong popular support for democracy and freedom within American public, the postwar USA strategy for global domination took a distinctly different shape from the pre-war imperialism. Taking a leaf from Machiavelli who recommended creating and slaying enemies, they invented the enemy of “Communism” and painted it in the worst possible colors. USA wars to dominate the globe and control world economies were painted in terms of a battle of Good and Evil – much like Star Wars. This myth, that the Americans were pure, good, and had all excellent human qualities, while their enemies were purely evil and had no redeeming virtues, was deeply planted into the American psyche. Hollywood and many other media initiatives spread this message, and it was widely believed by the rest of the world. There is plenty of documentation proving that CIA grossly exaggerated the potential of the communist threat and strength of the Russian economy and war capability, so as to scare the American public and to generate more funding for “Defense” (note the clever mislabeling: USA has never fought a defensive war). Fabricated rumors of Russian plots to destroy USA democracy created national hysteria destroying lives and careers of thousands of Americans during the “Red Scare”.
Imperialism USA style sought to protect business interests and maintain an economic stranglehold on the world. Under the pretext of fighting communism, USA destroyed economies and ruined lives of millions of poor people all over the world. When the USA sought to replace the French rule over Vietnam (as they had replaced Spanish rule over Latin America), they labeled the Vietnamese independence movement as communist. Forced to fight against the USA whom they had hoped would be their ally, the Vietnamese turned to the other superpowers, Russia and China for support, turning this into a self fulfilling labeling.
British monopoly on Iranian oil permitted them to pay only 16% of its value to Iran. When immensely popular Mossadegh took over via democratic process in 1951, he nationalized the oil and paid the British a fair price. The tactics used by CIA to create a coup and regain control of Iranian oil are of special interest. They bribed journalists, preachers and other opinion leaders to create hostility to Mossadegh, hired thugs to attack people, making it look as if the attacks were by Mossadegh. Street gangs were paid to set off riots. A plague of violence descended on Tehran. Gangs of thugs ran wildly through the streets, breaking shop windows, firing guns into mosques, beating passerby, and shouting ‘Long live Mossadegh and Communism!” CIA subverted the army to stage a coup and replaced him by a US puppet. US oil companies — Gulf, Standard of New Jersey, Texaco and Mobil — received a 40 percent share of the new National Iranian Oil Company. The Shah established a tyrannical dictatorship with the help of the CIA-trained Savak. Some of their infamous torture techniques are described in the CIA Kubark Manual. McCoy, who has written a history of torture, writes that CIA techniques based on scientific research are the first genuine advance in the science of inflicting pain since the middle ages.
Chile had enjoyed 160 years of peaceful democratic rule, when Salvador Allende came to power. US Copper mining interests had earned 7 billion dollars profits on an investment of 1 billion in Chile, and were threatened by Allende’s plans to nationalize copper mines. CIA trainers whipped the Chilean military into an anti-Communist frenzy, persuading them that socialists were de facto Russian spies, a force alien to Chilean society—a homegrown "enemy within." In fact, it was the military that had become the true domestic enemy, ready to turn its weapons on the population it was sworn to protect. General Pinochet carried out a coup on both the economic and political front. Mass killings and torture of citizens were justified on the grounds that the Government was fighting a war against dangerous Marxist terrorists, funded and controlled by the KGB. In every case, the threat was either wildly exaggerated or completely manufactured, as revealed by later declassified U.S. government's own intelligence reports. At the same time, the best social security system in Latin America for the poor was dismantled leading to widespread poverty (cheap labor) where none had existed. Policies wildly favorable to foreign multinationals and harmful to domestic interests were put in place with a systematic campaign of “disinformation” on the economic front.
The collapse of Russia led to national consensus in the USA on enjoying the “peace dividend” ; evil had been vanquished, and there were no enemies left to fight. NATO was no longer necessary, and should be dismantled. Congress proposed to divert the massive cold war budget to social welfare, building or repairing essential infrastructure (lack of which led to the Katrina disaster). Within the corridors of the Pentagon and the “Defense” industry threatened by billions of dollars of budget cuts, there was desperate brainstorming about need to manufacture a new monster. Their dilemma was that there were no worthy enemies to be found. With USA war capabilities much greater than that of the rest of the world combined, there was no one who could step into the position vacated by Russia. Perhaps we can take perverse pride in that the lot fell on us, the poor Muslims. Proceeding were started by Samuel Huntington, who put forth the thesis that henceforth wars would be fought between civilizations, and that the Muslims were the biggest threat to the Western civilization. The entire civilization of the Muslims as a whole was a sufficiently big target that there was no chance of achieving success in destroying it quickly, leading to the need for a new enemy. Close on the heels of Russian collapse, the CIA lured Saddam Hussain into invading Kuwait, providing a pretext for the Gulf War, and buying time to put the new strategy in place. Before the first budget cut proposals could see the light of day, enough new enemies were in place that US “Defense” budgets kept increasing. Meanwhile, the monster manufacturing industry was in full gear, and today the USA public feels the same hysteria against Islam and Muslims that was once attached to communists.
Today, exactly the same tactics that worked so successfully in Iran and Chile and numerous other parts of the world – for details see The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein – is being repeated without essential changes in Pakistan. Army intelligence sources conclude that there are less than 4000 “American Taliban” in the NWFP. These have been heavily supplied with arms and money by the CIA, and can recruit local populace in the name of Islam at heavy salaries. Just as thugs in Iran were paid to vandalize and shout slogans favoring communism and Mossadegh, so thugs have been hired to shout Islamic slogans and carry out extremely cruel acts. Movies have been made of grisly slaughter by people shouting the Kalima, and widely circulated. Trillions of dollars of USA defense budget depends on making the Islamic monster as fearsome as possible. The skill of the CIA at manufacturing videos for disinformation is well established. Key policy makers and opinion leaders have been deceived into believing that there is “home-grown” enemy within, exactly as in Chile. This has led to widespread support for a war against our own civilians, a sure-fire recipe for disaster and disintegration of Pakistan.
The only way to slip out of the noose currently tightening around our collective necks is to wake up and become aware of the enemy strategy to deceive and destroy us. It is madness to bomb our own civilian population, in a futile attempt to get rid of a small number of paid CIA agents, who are informed well in advance. We in Pakistan have been living with Mullahs and Talibans for a long time, and we never saw the atrocities currently being witnessed. On the other hand, these atrocities and grisly killings are a trade mark of CIA training methods, and were used systematically by CIA trained guerillas fighting to destabilize anti-American Latin American regimes. Our only problem in Pakistan is foreign interference, and CIA schemes and plots very similar to those they have successfully implemented in many other countries. A clear understanding of this will generate the national consensus and unity required to rescue us from this time of great difficulty.
EVIDENCE: Many readers have asked for evidence of CIA involvement. First note that it is a spy agency and does covert actions. Its very purpose is concealment of its hand. Studying how they have worked in the past provides a good clue to how they will operate in the present. CIA agents do not go around asking people to betray Islam or Pakistan for money. Following standard practice, Lawrence of Arabia faked a conversion to Islam, performed Hajj, mingled with the people before inciting Arab leaders to revolt against the Turks with the help of the British. With the understanding that we are not going to get the documents proving CIA involvement until fifty years later, when the Freedom of Information Act might be used to extract them, here is the necessarily indirect evidence.
1. There are many substantiated reports from many sources that these “American” Taliban are not locals. The NWFP is a closed, traditional, society which is well knit together. People know each other and those in nearby villages, and can identify families and clans which have been there for a long period of time. Nobody knows who these Taliban are.
2. There is only a small number of them. They are able to hire local people at wages which are outrageously high – especially in view of local poverty. They have access to supplies of weapons and funds which clearly smack of CIA involvement. Nobody else is rich enough to finance such an operation.
3. Many eyewitness accounts testify to their complete lack of Islamic values; surprising when they claim to have the goal of fighting for the establishment of Shariah.
4. Afghani Taliban leadership has issued many statements disclaiming any connection with these people.
5. Locals report that these Taliban leaders are nowhere to be found during engagements – only the innocent dupes they hire actually engage in fights with the Pakistan army or with local residents.
6. The grisly methods they use in killing, widely distributed via movies, is a hallmark of CIA operations in Latin America. Islamic Law prohibits mutilation of dead bodies, torture, and many other methods used by these Taliban. Nothing like this was reported against the Afghani Taliban. Indeed a female British reporter captured by the Taliban was so impressed by their behavior that she later converted to Islam.
7. This kind of operation, destabilizing government by funding groups to fight against the government, setting the army and the politicians at loggerheads, buying up both political and army leadership to support US goals, and concealing their hand in the chaos that follows, is the standard modus operandi that the CIA has used countless times in Latin America successfully to topple governments that they did not like. This is well documented in many places, including books written by ex CIA agents like William Blum. Read Killing Hope by Blum or Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein..
8. Numerous sources readily available on internet report on covert US plans to destabilize and disintegrate Pakistan. The kind of random violence we see on the streets has NO OTHER possible explanation. Locals can kill for profit or for personal or for political motives. However, CIA finances general rampages which are not motivated by any personal reasons, but meant only to destabilize and bring about desired regime change or dissolution. This type of CIA operation against other countries is well documented Ours will acquire its documentation fifty years later.