From the October 2001 Idaho Observer:

Terrorism? Which Terrorism?

In the wake of the “terrorist attack” on American icons of financial and military might our government began beating war drums while the pied pipers of the Pinocchio press lead us off to a war against terrorism. “Why were we attacked?” many small voices from the wilderness of citizenry want to know. If you will notice, the pied pipers skillfully avoid asking our government to answer this simple and logical question. Why? Because to ask why leads to another question: What has our government done to cause so many of our countrymen to be killed?

By Hari Heath

What is the history of our national foreign policy that has led up to such death and destruction? Let us begin in our own homeland and how we acquired it. We celebrate Thanksgiving in remembrance of the native people who brought the early colonists food for the winter which made their continued existence possible. How have we repaid such generosity? The “Trail of Tears” forcibly evicted the Cherokee people from their homeland so we could obtain the Carolinas for our agrarian interests. The slaughter of millions of Buffalo eliminated the “supply ship” of the plains tribes, which combined with other acts of U.S. government sponsored “terrorism” weakened and eventually subjugated these native peoples. Bio-terrorism was first conducted on American soil when the U.S. government handed out small pox infected blankets to complete the genocide against our early inhabitants. Conduct similar to the government's treatment of America's original people has been expanded outwards to people from all corners of the globe.

Do the following examples begin to answer the question “why” anyone might want to attack our American financial and military icons?

* By 1963 the U.S. has blockaded Cuba, engaged in many covert attempts to overthrow its government, including numerous assassination attempts against Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro.

* The CIA interfered with and manipulated the free election process in Australia from 1973 to 1975.

* In 1973, a CIA backed coup ousted Chile's elected president and installed military General Pinochet. Decades of human rights abuses follow. Thousands are still “missing.”

* CIA funnels millions of covert dollars to destabilize and sabotage our NATO ally, Portugal, in 1974.

* 1976-92 - CIA assists South African-backed rebels during the war in Angola.

* U.S. supports overthrow of Chad's government in 1982. CIA supported secret police kill and torture tens of thousands.

* Afghanistan 1979-82 - U.S. supports, arms and trains Mujahadeen rebels including rebel leader Osama bin Laden.

* U.S. aids the El Salvador government, condemned for gross human rights violations from 1980 to 1992. Murder and mayhem is taught to El Salvadorian “terrorists” in the CIA-run School of the Americas.

* Nicaragua 1981-92 - U.S. directs and illegally supports contra war and mines the harbor there. Allows open flow of narcotics into U.S. The Iran-Contra affair exposed how CIA guns for drugs deals in Central America funded the weapons sales to the now “terrorist” nation of Iran.

* Honduras 1982-90 - U.S. builds bases near borders to support a government that uses death squads against its own citizens.

* U.S. bombs and shells Muslim positions in Lebanon from 1982 to 1984 and expels PLO from territory.

* Grenada 1983-84 - U.S. military invades tiny island and kills 400 Grenadians.

* U.S. shoots down two Libyan jets in 1982.

* 1989 - U.S. bombs the Libyan capitol of Tripoli killing 55 civilians and calls it “collateral damage.”

* Philippines 1989 - U.S. supports the corrupt government of Ferdinand Marcos against a popular citizen uprising.

* U.S. invades Panama in 1989 with 27,000 soldiers. Kills 3000+ Panamanians; kidnaps it's own installed drug-dealing leader and CIA asset Manuel Noriega.

* Iraq 1987-88 - U.S. supports and arms Saddam Hussein's Iraq in war against Iran. U.S. shoots down Iranian passenger airliner in 1988, killing 290 civilians. Claims it was an “accident.”

* Kuwait 1991 - U.S. invades Middle East, contradicting its position by intervening in inter-Arab affairs. Returns Kuwaiti monarchy accused of human right abuses to throne.

* Iraq 1990 - present - U.S. bombs civilian areas and blockades Iraqi ports, preventing humanitarian or medical aid. An estimated 10,000 Iraqis die monthly as result.

* 1991 - CIA funnels millions of dollars into Bulgaria to destabilize one of its first freely elected governments.

* Somalia 1992-94 - U.S. sends in humanitarian aid. Becomes involved in civil war, takes sides attacking one Mogadishu faction. Kills 500+ Somalis.

* Peru 1992 to present - U.S. provides military support, millions of dollars to corrupt Fujimori government. Drug kingpin Vladimir Montesino is on CIA payroll while serving as Intelligence Chief. Involved directly in shooting down missionary aircraft, killing an American woman and her infant child.

* Colombia 1992 - present - U.S. supports Colombian military, heavily involved in drug trafficking. 1,640 pounds of cocaine lands in Ft. Lauderdale Florida hidden inside Colombian Air Force cargo plane. Nearly 20,000 people killed by the U.S.-supported military and para-military so far.

* Bosnia 1993 - U.S. naval blockade of Serbia and Montenegro.

* U.S. blockades the island government of Haiti in 1994. CIA supports military coup to remove their elected President Aristide, then forcibly re-installs Aristide as President after he agrees to U.S. conditions of rule.

* 1998 - U.S. bombs Sudan aspirin factory in Khartoum, killing many civilians.

* Afghanistan 1998 - U.S. missiles kill 28 civilians.

* Yugoslavia 1999 - U.S. laser-guided bombs destroy Chinese Embassy in Belgrade killing three Chinese journalists. Thousands more are killed in an undefined air war over Serbia and Kosovo. UN “peacekeepers” switch alliances with local factions several times resulting in an ongoing armed conflict.

The U.S. is also suspected of involvement in many foreign assassinations, which have been prohibited by presidential decree since 1976. The Cuban leader Che Guevara, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, Chilean President Salvador Allende, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and many others, have all succumbed to what are suspected to be covert U. S. political hits. Assassination attempts have also targeted Fidel Castro, Manuel Noriega, Moammar Qaddafi, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Prohibitions against political assassinations apparently matter little. Our covert operatives are rarely held accountable, except for a slap on the wrist from a congressional oversight committee.

Last February, Harper's magazine published a 28-page article entitled, “The Making of a War Criminal.” It was an expose of former Secretary of State Henry Kissenger. According to the article, Dr. Kissenger's policies have been behind nearly every genocidal event that has occurred in the world over the last 40 years.

The IMF and the World Bank, creations of the U. S. Congress, manipulate foreign economies to destabilize them and then rush in with a relief program, trading debt laden bail-outs for an interest in the resources of the targeted nation. Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and Korea are only a few of the many nations that have been subjected to IMF mischief. Suharto, the former ruler of Indonesia, proposed an East Asian financial cartel independent of the Federal Reserve/IMF/European Banks to his eastern Pacific neighbors. His attempt at independence from the global financial elite was rewarded with an all out attack on his nation's economy by the IMF and their colleagues. Indonesia's “manipulation” resulted in civil war and the loss of thousands of lives. The IMF and many of its partners in global economic terrorism were quartered in the WTC buildings. Were the events of 9-11 a terrorist attack or an attack on terrorism?

Closer to home, over two million Americans (approximately one out of every 140) are currently incarcerated; according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, 6.47 million Americans (one in every 32) is somehow tied to the “corrections” system. These incarcerations have created major industries of private prisons, judicial enterprises and an often federally-funded police force. Over half of those incarcerated are non-violent drug offenders, casualties of the un-winnable “war on drugs.” “Collateral damage” includes many spouses and children who suffer the loss of their family members and the loss of property to unconstitutional forfeiture schemes. Many more are terrorized daily by this war on the Bill of Rights.

Judicial terrorism has become the all-too-common result of an unaccountable collection of power held by members of the third branch of government and their judicially controlled army of attorneys. Making their own rules of procedure and disregarding our laws, the constitutional pillars of our nation have been reduced to rubble, leaving no remedy for the citizen who has been cast into a condition of serfdom -- serfdom created in part with the taxes extracted by the IRS. Proof abounds that the Income Tax is voluntary, the 16th Amendment was never ratified and the citizenry cannot be compelled to file tax returns, but no court wants to hear such facts, preferring instead to jail and fine tax dissidents -- a state-sanctioned inducement of terror to obtain compliance.

Many federal, state and local environmental, land use and regulatory agencies further terrorize the citizenry, using techniques prescribed in the Communist Manifesto. Forfeitures, evictions, seizures, condemnation proceedings and other takings often exterminate the people's right to property, laying a silent wave of state-sanctioned kleptocratic terrorism across the land.

The question is, for those of you who wanted to dance to the media drumbeat and bomb the terrorists in Afghanistan, which terrorists do you want to bomb now? If you really believe in the eye-for-an-eye doctrine, then lets put it in an honest perspective. Consider the totality of U.S.-sponsored terrorism around the globe and at home. Although it was a serious and incalculable loss, those 6,000 plus people who lost their lives on September 11, under the eye-for-an-eye doctrine, are but the plucking of an eyelash in contrast to the collective terrorist activity of the U.S. government and the shadow elite who control it.

Who is ultimately responsible for the events of Sept. 11? Is it the radical Islamic fundamentalists based in Afghanistan? Is it our government with the most terroristic foreign policy in world history? Or is it American citizens who enable our government, with their taxes and their “see-no-evil” worldview, to terrorize the people of the world -- including their own friends, family and neighbors?

If the new wave of American “patriots” could stop waving their flags long enough to take a look at the facts, would Osama bin Laden's demands seem so out of line? All he wants is for the United States and the western world to stop terrorizing the Arab world. Is that too much to ask? Who among “us” could still justify bombing “them” after we realize that the real terrorists are US -- U.S. Terrorism Inc.?