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Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Global repercussions of Sept. 11 terror attacks continue to reverberate 23 years later

Fallout of attacks continues to ripple across the globe after US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq led to further instability, return and creation of new extremist groups

Michael Gabriel Hernandez |11.09.2024 - TRT/AA




WASHINGTON

The chaos and terror that swept across the nation 23 years ago is increasingly becoming a distant memory for many Americans, even as the global shockwaves that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks continue to be felt.

For those who lived through that terrifying and sobering morning, watching as scene after scene of carnage unfolded in New York City before spreading further, the horror lives on.

It all started when a passenger plane slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8.46 a.m. on a busy Tuesday morning. Just 17 minutes later, another plane struck the South Tower.

The massive 110-story skyscrapers, burning and badly damaged by the plane strikes, would collapse within minutes of one another, sending a thick cloud of toxic dust and ash ripping through the streets of Manhattan as people desperately ran away in terror.

Amid the devastation in New York, another plane struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. at 9.37 a.m.

A national panic not seen since Pearl Harbor, some 60 years prior, had rapidly set in.

Just minutes after the Defense Department was struck, authorities closed all US airspace, but United Airlines Flight 93 had already been overrun.

Passengers and crew were rushing to the cockpit in an effort to wrest control of the plane from the four hijackers. About five minutes later, the plane would jackknife into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all onboard.

The plane was about 20 minutes flying time from Washington, D.C., where authorities believe the hijackers sought to strike either the White House or the US Capitol.

It would take time, but Americans would eventually find out that 19 al-Qaeda terrorists were responsible for hijacking the four passenger planes in a plot orchestrated by the terror group’s longtime leader, Osama bin Laden.

A total of 2,977 people were killed on Sept. 11. Thousands more were injured that day. An estimated 400,000 other victims, including firefighters and police who worked tirelessly to rescue as many survivors as possible, were exposed to the carcinogenic dust cloud that swept through New York City when the World Trade Center collapsed.

The fallout has been nothing short of disastrous.

And so began the War on Terror

With the nation scrambling for answers, President George W. Bush would quickly go on the offensive, telling all nations worldwide that if they harbor al-Qaeda, its operatives or its leaders, the US would take action: “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

“From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime,” Bush said during a joint address to Congress nine days after the attacks, putting the US squarely on a war footing.

“The only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it, and destroy it where it grows,” he added.

In just three weeks, Bush would begin what would become America’s longest war when he invaded Afghanistan, the country from which bin Laden and al-Qaeda planned and executed the devastating Sept. 11 attacks.

The Global War on Terror had officially begun.

The Taliban government would quickly collapse in the face of the vastly superior US military, but the militants would go on to stage a two-decade long insurgency against American and allied forces in Afghanistan, striking from the shadows.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared an end to “major combat” operations in Afghanistan on May 1, 2003, but the US occupation of the Central Asian country would continue for 18 years until President Joe Biden withdrew all American forces in 2021.

The Taliban rapidly returned to power as US and international troops left Afghanistan, ousting the internationally-recognized government and reimposing their hardline grip on the impoverished nation.

US launches war on Iraq, but never finds alleged weapons of mass destruction

Just a year-and-a-half after Bush declared war on the Taliban, he began a second front in the War on Terror in far-away Iraq.

The pretext for this war was Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction. But evidence of the program, detailed before the UN Security Council by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, was never found.

“My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions,” Powell told the Council one month before the March 2003 invasion. “What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.”

No chemical or biological weapons were ever recovered, despite robust investigative efforts after Saddam and his military were eliminated. Powell later reflected that the Feb. 5, 2003 speech was his singular greatest regret during his decades of public service.

Like the Taliban, Saddam’s forces rapidly fell apart in the face of US military power, but like what happened in Afghanistan, an insurgency would form that would bring with it years of violence against coalition forces until the US withdrew in 2011.

Legacy of torture mars War on Terror

The kinetic wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dominated international and domestic headlines for years. But below the surface, US intelligence agencies were carrying out a far more secretive war that involved clandestine renditions of terror suspects, CIA black sites, and a program whose name would become a euphemism for torture.

The “Enhanced Interrogation Program,” as it would be known, was implemented worldwide with hundreds of detainees being subjected, most notably at the infamous US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The interrogation program was publicly detailed in a damning 500-page Senate Intelligence Committee report that was released in redacted form in 2014.

“CIA personnel, aided by two outside contractors, decided to initiate a program of indefinite secret detention and the use of brutal interrogation techniques in violation of U.S. law, treaty obligations, and our values,” Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein wrote in the report.

“It is my personal conclusion that, under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured. I also believe that the conditions of confinement and the use of authorized and unauthorized interrogation and conditioning techniques were cruel, inhuman and degrading. I believe the evidence of this is overwhelming and incontrovertible,” she added.

The report brought to light systemic, widespread abuses perpetrated by CIA officers, including the now infamous practice of waterboarding, placing detainees in extended periods of stress positions, sleep deprivation and punitive forced rectal feeding and rehydration.

It further said the CIA’s justifications for the program, based on its alleged effectiveness, were “inaccurate.” A review of 20 cases used by the agency to justify the enhanced interrogation techniques found that there was either no link between torture that was used and counterterrorism successes or found that the CIA falsely claimed a correlation between the intelligence it gained and the methods used.

The report determined that in such cases, the intelligence was either gained from a detainee prior to interrogation or was already available to the CIA from other sources.

Clandestine US operation kills bin Laden not in Afghanistan, but in neighboring Pakistan

It took a decade for the US to find and kill bin Laden. Ultimately, the al-Qaeda leader was not found in Afghanistan, where he had been holed up in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

He was discovered across the border in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, residing in a sprawling compound less than one mile from the country’s premier military academy.

On May 2, 2011, a pair of previously undisclosed modified Black Hawk stealth helicopters crossed the Pakistani border, flying fast and low as they closed in on bin Laden’s safe house. As soon as they reached their target, US special operations forces rapidly disembarked, entered the compound and killed the al-Qaeda leader, taking his body for confirmation.

Bin Laden was subsequently buried at sea after a positive identification was made in what marked the most significant US victory in the war on terror.


Rise of Daesh/ISIS poses far greater threat than al-Qaeda

The victory proved short-lived, however. Just three years later, a new terror group would rise from the remnants of Saddam’s Baathist military before spreading worldwide.

Daesh/ISIS gained global attention when it rapidly overran vast swathes of Syria and then Iraq as it announced the formation of its self-styled caliphate in 2014. Adherents from around the globe would flock to join the terror group’s ranks as its territorial grip grew.

At its height, Daesh/ISIS controlled one-third of Syria and 40% of Iraq amid widespread instability, claiming major cities including Mosul and Raqqa and bringing with it an iron-fisted fundamentalist rule. That was something al-Qaeda only ever aspired to.

While it no longer lays formal claim to any territory in either country following a years-long international military campaign led by the US, Daesh/ISIS maintains cells in the region and has grown to include affiliates as far afield as West Africa and Afghanistan.

It was, in fact, Daesh/ISIS's affiliate in the country that claimed a deadly 2021 suicide bombing on Kabul's international airport as US troops were withdrawing from Afghanistan, killing 13 US troops and nearly 170 civilians.

The terror group's Afghanistan branch has gone on to carry out a series of other attacks on the Taliban following the US exit.

US forces, meanwhile, continue to carry out operations around the world, including in Afghanistan, aimed at eliminating the group. There continues to be no end in sight.


Remembering the Costs of September 11


The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. changed not only the United States forever. They also had global consequences that are felt to this day.

September 11, 2024

1

At 8:46 AM, American Airlines flight 11 struck the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. A second plane, United Airlines flight 175, struck the south tower 17 minutes later.

2

A third plane, American Airlines flight 77, struck the Pentagon at 9:37 AM. A fourth plane, United Airlines flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania at 10:03 AM after its passengers attempted to overpower the hijackers.

3

The attacks were carried out by 19 terrorists associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda, and were — and remain — the deadliest terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in the country’s history.

4

The attacks were planned by members of the so-called “Hamburg Cell.” It was located in Hamburg, Germany, and included the ringleader, Mohamed Atta.

5

15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens. Saudi Arabia was also the birthplace of al-Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden.

6

Some 2,753 people were killed in New York, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 in Pennsylvania. All 19 hijackers were also killed.

7

An estimated 400,000 people were exposed to toxic contaminants, risk of physical injury and physically and emotionally stressful conditions in the days and months following the attacks.

8

In response to the attacks, instead of pursuing targeted counter-terrorism operations, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the ill-fated Global War on Terror. The United States began military operations in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001.

9

The war in Afghanistan was the longest war in U.S. history. It lasted for 20 years and cost the lives of 2,443 U.S. soldiers.

10

Since the U.S. withdrawal, the Taliban, who had given al-Qaeda safe haven, are once again in control of the country.

11

On March 20, 2003, President George W. Bush announced that U.S. forces had begun military operation against Iraq. The goal was to topple dictator Saddam Hussein and confiscate his alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

12

No weapons of mass destruction were found, and the gradual U.S. withdrawal led to the rise of the Islamic State. Saddam Hussein was executed for crimes against humanity by the new Iraqi government on December 30, 2006.

13

The mastermind behind the attacks, Osama bin Laden, was killed in a raid on his hideout in Pakistan on May 2, 2011.

14

More than 7,000 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with more than 8,000 contractors. The financial cost of the War on Terror to the United States is estimated to be over $8 trillion.

15

Globally, it is estimated that over 940,000 people have died in the post-September 11 wars due to direct war violence. An estimated 3.6-3.8 million people died indirectly in post-September 11 war zones, bringing the total death toll to approximately 4.5-4.7 million.

Sources: Britannica, George W. Bush Library, Washington Post, Politico, Al Jazeera, CIA, Watson Institute, World Trade Center Health Program, Reuters




Tuesday, September 10, 2024

K-pop fans in Havana -
 
Copyright © africanewsRamon Espinosa/Copyright 2024 
The AP. All rights reserved
By Rédaction Africanews

Even socialist Cuba, the birthplace of salsa and many other rhythms that conquered the world, has surrendered to the invasion of South Korean pop music.

Thirteen-thousand kilometres separate the Asian nation and the Caribbean island, as well as their completely different languages and cultures.

However, all of these differences vanish in a second for the young people who attended "discorea", a dancing place for K-pop enthusiasts.

Twenty-four-year-old Francisco Piedra, who adopted the artistic name 'Ken,' never misses an event and rehearses every day.

He aspires to be a K-pop choreographer.

"K-pop has given me happiness, it has given me a world where I can be myself. I can enjoy laughing, singing, dancing, and expressing myself as I really am,” he said.

Dedicated fans gather in the capital, Havana, almost every weekend to show their moves and exchange the latest gossip on their favourite K-pop artists.

Earlier this year, Cuba and South Korea re-established diplomatic relations that had been severed after the Cuban revolution in 1959.

However, K-Pop made its way to the island around four years ago when mobile internet service for cell phones finally became available.

The K-pop tribe, as they like to call themselves, uses their phones to stay updated on the latest K-pop songs and dance moves.

Tania Abreu is an electronic engineer by profession and the leader of the Macrocosmos cultural project specialising in this genre.

She said K-pop has become popular not only because of the quality of the music but also because the songs touch on social issues that are common in Cuba.

“When the kids found out that it is a beautiful music, very beautiful music, that has nice lyrics, they started to download them and identified with that world,” she said.

There is no exact number of people participating in this mostly youthful K-pop movement, but she said several thousand people are involved and are very visible in Havana and Santiago de Cuba.

Monday, September 09, 2024

The Decline of the U.S. Empire: Where Is It Taking Us All?


 
 September 9, 2024
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General Motors HQ, Detroit. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

The evidence suggests that empires often react to periods of their own decline by over-extending their coping mechanisms. Military actions, infrastructure problems, and social welfare demands may then combine or clash, accumulating costs and backlash effects that the declining empire cannot manage. Policies aimed to strengthen empire—and that once did—now undermine it. Contemporary social changes inside and outside the empire can reinforce, slow, or reverse the decline. However, when decline leads leaders to deny its existence, it can become self-accelerating. In empires’ early years, leaders and the led may repress those among them who stress or merely even mention decline. Social problems may likewise be denied, minimized, or, if admitted, blamed on convenient scapegoats—immigrants, foreign powers, or ethnic minorities—rather than linked to imperial decline.

The U.S. empire, audaciously proclaimed by the Monroe Doctrine soon after two independence wars won against Britain, grew across the 19th and 20th centuries, and peaked during the decades between 1945 and 2010. The rise of the U.S. empire overlapped with the decline of the British empire. The Soviet Union represented limited political and military challenges, but never any serious economic competition or threat. The Cold War was a lopsided contest whose outcome was programmed in from its beginning. All of the U.S. empire’s potential economic competitors or threats were devastated by World War II. The following years found Europe losing its colonies. The unique global position of the United States then, with its disproportional position in world trade and investment, was anomalous and likely unsustainable. An attitude of denial at the time that decline was all but certain morphed only too readily into the attitude of denial now that the decline is well underway.

The United States could not prevail militarily over all of Korea in its 1950–53 war there. The United States lost its subsequent wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The NATO alliance was insufficient to alter any of those outcomes. U.S. military and financial support for Ukraine and the massive United States and NATO sanctions war against Russia are failures to date and are likely to remain so. U.S. sanctions programs against Cuba, Iran, and China have failed too. Meanwhile, the BRICS alliance counteracts U.S. policies to protect its empire, including its sanctions warfare, with increasing effectiveness.

In the realms of trade, investment, and finance, we can measure the decline of the U.S. empire differently. One index is the decline of the U.S. dollar as a central bank reserve holding. Another is its decline as a means of trade, loans, and investment. Finally, consider the U.S. dollar’s decline alongside that of dollar-denominated assets as internationally desired means of holding wealth. Across the Global South, countries, industries, or firms seeking trade, loans, or investments used to go to London, Washington, or Paris for decades; they now have other options. They can go instead to Beijing, New Delhi, or Moscow, where they often secure more attractive terms.

Empire confers special advantages that translate into extraordinary profits for firms located in the country that dominates the empire. The 19th century was remarkable for its endless confrontations and struggles among empires competing for territory to dominate and thus for their industries’ higher profits. Declines of any one empire could enhance opportunities for competing empires. If the latter grabbed those opportunities, the former’s decline could worsen. One set of competing empires delivered two world wars in the last century. Another set seems increasingly driven to deliver worse, possibly nuclear world wars in this century.

Before World War I, theories circulated that the evolution of multinational corporations out of merely national mega-corporations would end or reduce the risks of war. Owners and directors of increasingly global corporations would work against war among countries as a logical extension of their profit-maximizing strategies. The century’s two world wars undermined those theories’ appearance of truth. So too did the fact that multinational mega-corporations increasingly purchased governments and subordinated state policies to those corporations’ competing growth strategies. Capitalists’ competition governed state policies at least as much as the reverse. Out of their interaction emerged the wars of the 21st century in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza. Likewise from their interaction, rising U.S.-China tensions emerged around Taiwan and the South China Sea.

China presents a unique analytical problem. The private capitalist half of its hybrid economic system exhibits growth imperatives parallel to those agitating economies where 90–100 percent of enterprises are private capitalist in organization. The state-owned-and-operated enterprises comprising the other half of China’s economy exhibit different drives and motivations. Profit is less their bottom line than it is for private capitalist enterprises. Similarly, the Communist Party’s rule over the state—including the state’s regulation of the entire Chinese economy—introduces other objectives besides profit, ones that also govern enterprise decisions. Since China and its major economic allies (BRICS) comprise the entity now competing with the declining U.S. empire and its major economic allies (G7), China’s uniqueness may yield an outcome different from past clashes of empires.

In the past, one empire often supplanted another. That may be our future with this century becoming “China’s” as previous empires were American, British, and so on. However, China’s history includes earlier empires that rose and fell: another unique quality. Might China’s past and its present hybrid economy influence China away from becoming another empire and rather toward a genuinely multipolar global organization instead? Might the dreams and hopes behind the League of Nations and the United Nations achieve reality if and when China makes that happen? Or will China become the next global hegemon against heightened resistance from the United States, bringing the risk of nuclear war closer?

A rough historical parallel may shed some additional light from a different angle on where today’s class of empires may lead. The movement toward independence of its North American colony irritated Britain sufficiently for it to attempt two wars (1775–83 and 1812–15) to stop that movement. Both wars failed. Britain learned the valuable lesson that peaceful co-existence with some co-respective planning and accommodation would enable both economies to function and grow, including in trade and investment both ways across their borders. That peaceful co-existence extended to allowing the imperial reach of the one to give way to that of the other.

Why not suggest a similar trajectory for U.S.-China relations over the next generation? Except for ideologues detached from reality, the world would prefer it over the nuclear alternative. Dealing with the two massive, unwanted consequences of capitalism—climate change and unequal distributions of wealth and income—offers projects for a U.S.-China partnership that the world will applaud. Capitalism changed dramatically in both Britain and the United States after 1815. It will likely do so again after 2025. The opportunities are attractively open-ended.

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Richard Wolff is the author of Capitalism Hits the Fan and Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens. He is founder of Democracy at Work.