I had a busy weekend on Press TV.
First, yesterday's interview:
War against Muslims started even before 9/11
(watch the video)
Reports about a
Virginia military course that taught officers to prepare for a total war
on Islam indicate the US right wing agenda even before 9/11, an analyst
tells Press TV.
Press TV has interviewed Dr. Kevin Barrett, author of ‘Questioning
the War on Terror’ about the orchestrated campaign against Islam since
September 11th, 2001.
What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: The Virginia (military) course that was mentioned
there in our report has also warned officers between the link of the
Muslim Civil Liberties Advocacy organization, which is known as CAIR
(Council on American Islamic Relations) and other such groups, and
Hamas, which is referred to as the enemy.
Why have these rights groups been targeted?
Dr. Barrett: Well, that's a good question and another good
question is why is Hamas considered America's enemy? Hamas is not
opposed to America; Hamas is opposed to Zionists in Israel.
So, this leads us to the real reason for this wave of Islamophobic
hysteria that's swept over the USA since 9/11 and that is, to sum it up -
September 11th was a coup d'etat by extreme right wing forces in the US
military particularly with dispensationalist Christian extremists at the
top of the Air Force.
It was overseen by Cheney and the Israeli MOSSAD with its assets in
the New York crime scene blew up the World trade Center… and deceptively
blamed it on Muslims to launch a war against the religion of Islam.
Today, with these recent revelations, we are only beginning to learn
- not we… people like me have know this for a long time, but others
that have been in denial about the reality of what really happened on
September 11th have just begun to learn how absolutely insane these extreme
right wing forces in the USA are.
The good news is that they are being rooted out. The Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey has been one of many professional
leaders in the US military who are unhappy about the September 11th
coup d'etat and the War on Islam. And they are slowly, but surely
rooting out these crazed Islamophobic forces.
And yes, these Islamophobes are absolutely committed to going after
anybody that defends Islam in any way including those who are using the
freedom of speech granted under the US Constitution to defend the
religion of Islam.
Press TV: You've written a book on the War on Terror and I'd
like to bring this issue up with you, our guest in Washington was
suggesting there that this is a war on Islam that has been supported by
three sides and this is not just a non-profit organization maybe in the
US giving out an extreme view on Islam, but this is a policy that is
entrenched in the government and is part of the policy.
Sometimes we even think when we see for instance reports of Qu'ran
burning in Afghanistan Islam are attempts to test the nerves of Islam
community. What do you think this war on terror is about and has it
become, on the ground, a war on Islam?
Dr. Barrett: Actually, the guest in London was absolutely
correct that this does go back to before 9/11. I think the war on terror
actually began in 1979 at the Jerusalem Conference on International
terrorism (JCIT). Netanyahu summoned George H W Bush and Scoop Jackson
who was the leading Senate military budget guy and other big time movers
and shakers in the US military establishment and policy makers to
Jerusalem.
And at that Jerusalem conference on International Terrorism in 1979,
before the Cold War was over, they laid out a plan to replace communism
with terrorism as the next great enemy.
Now, terrorism should have been put in quotes because what was
really going on was that Netanyahu and his people were setting Islam up
to be the next great enemy of the West. Why is that? Because Islam -
well, not so much the religion of Islam, but the world's 1.5 billion
Muslims is an obstacle to Greater Israel.
The Zionists have been stealing more and more land; butchering more
and more people; pushing their ethnic cleansing harder and harder all
the time. The hardcore Zionists want to take the whole of the Middle
East for themselves. They want everything from the Nile to the Euphrates
and they want to dominate the rest of it.
And in order to do that they basically have to go to war with
Muslims because it so happens that the people who live in that part of
the world are Muslims. So the war on terror is really a disguised war on
Islam on behalf of radical Zionists led by Benyamin Netanyahu who
started the whole thing with the Jerusalem conference on International
terrorism back in 1979.
Press TV: Suggesting a nuclear attack to justify the
destruction of the holy cities of Medina and Mecca we've heard, Dr.
Barrett, it does sound completely radical and we never hear any official
trying to justify it let alone repeat it, but nonetheless, how
effective are these kinds of ideas in promoting extremist behaviour
towards Muslims?
Dr. Barrett: Well, unfortunately they are effective within a
small group of extremists who have become ensconced in certain parts of
our military as well as some of the Zionists. There are plenty of
liberal Zionists who are somewhat horrified by this kind of extreme
rhetoric, but who let it pass and are willing to go along with it
because it serves their interests.
Now, we need to step back here for a moment and talk about what
would have happened here in the US if for instance we had heard that a
US military teacher had drawn up these official documents saying that we
might need to have a total war against Jews, on the order of let's say
Dachau and Auschwitz.
What would have happened? The American media would have gone bananas
and the US army would have been torn apart and everybody involved would
have been kicked out.
The US Constitution has a clause, which says that all religions must
be treated equally - that's our First Amendment. And so, here in
America we need to wake up and put a stop to this kind of extreme
Islamophobia that wouldn’t ever be accepted if it were directed against
any other group.
* * *
Saturday's interview:
Saudis seek Nazi-style occupation of Bahrain: Analyst
(watch the video)
As Saudi Arabia has
reportedly thrown its weight behind a plan to unify the six Arab member
states of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council, many analysts see the
move as Riyadh’s agenda to expand its dominance over Bahrain.
Members of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council, including Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, are
expected to meet and discuss closer union among the six countries on May
14.
The member states claim the purpose of the unity is to counter regional threats.
In December 2011, Saudi King Abdullah called on the council members
to move “beyond the stage of cooperation and into the stage of unity in a
single entity.”
Reports say Saudi Arabia will merge initially with Bahrain in order for the six-member Arab council to reach unity.
This comes while some members of the council have expressed concern
about Saudi Arabia’s possible dominance over the other five countries if
the council becomes unified.
A Qatari official, whose name was not mentioned in the news reports,
said on Friday that Doha “sees this all as Saudi Arabia’s way of undermining
the [Persian] Gulf States bilateral relations and forcing its own
agenda.”
Meanwhile, many commentators say it is unlikely that such unification will occur within the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council.
The following is the transcript of Press TV’s interview with Kevin Barrett, author and Islamic studies expert, about the issue:
Press TV: The Bahraini information minister has said the
union could start with two or three members of the Persian Gulf
Cooperation Council. On the other hand, we are already seeing rejections
being voiced by some of those member states. Is this primarily about a
Bahrain-Saudi Arabia union and a move by Saudi Arabia to get the support
of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council on this?
Kevin Barrett: Yes, I think the Saudis are trying to keep the
lid on protests in the region and they are trying to strengthen their
position in Bahrain which they already invaded last year.
To call this a move on the European Union model is disingenuous. I
think this is more along the lines of Hitler’s Anschluss, when Nazi
Germany invaded Austria. The big difference is that the majority of
people in Austria supported that. Whereas today, the vast majority of
people in Bahrain will be horrified to be occupied by and digested into
Wahhabi Saudi Arabia.
Normally, I think it would be a good thing for countries in the
Islamic world to join together according to a sort of European Union
model, perhaps have a united currency -- gold Dinar being the obvious
currency standard -- but in this case we have seen the most regressive
countries, the sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf that have been repressing
their people for many decades up until very recently, half the people in
Saudi Arabia were still illiterate and impoverished...There has been
some improvement, but this is not a regime that has the welfare of it
own people in mind. This is a regime that is playing ball with the
world’s biggest imperialist financial powers to privilege the region of
its oil wealth and to put that money into the petro-dollar.
Press TV: We were speaking to a Bahraini human rights
campaigner earlier and he said it is not only Saudi Arabia. Even Saudi
Arabia, because of the crisis that it is facing inside the country
itself, it is on shaky grounds itself and these are orders that Saudi
Arabia is getting from the United States and these cannot happen without
the US consent. What is your view on that?
Kevin Barrett: I am sure that is correct. The Saudi
leadership has been with the US leadership since [former US president]
Franklin Roosevelt signed a pact with the king of Saudi Arabia in 1945
and another key moment in this very close relationships was in 1970 when
the US and Saudis arranged to take the US dollar off the gold standard
and inaugurate the petro-dollar backed by Saudi oil sales.
Since then, revenue from the Saudi oil has been propping up the
dominance of the petro-dollars in world trade. So, these two
countries are very closely connected and from a human rights
perspective, it is a shame. The United States is always talking about
democracy and human rights and yet Saudi Arabia is one of the worst
countries on earth for that. It is a terrible example for the Muslim
world and yet we have the Americans propping up this cruel dictatorship
and encouraging it to invade neighboring Bahrain, where they have an
Arab Spring mass movement happening.
The American people, I think if they knew what was going on there, I
hope would stand up and stop supporting this kind of oppression. The US
needs to allow the countries of the Persian Gulf and the rest of the
world a lot more independence. The US has been running an empire since
the World War II and it is time for the US to let go of this empire and
start dealing with the people of the other countries in the world fairly
and once we do that the Arab Spring will reach to the Persian Gulf.
Press TV: The US has for decades been urging the Persian Gulf
Arab states to agree to set up, for instance, a shared missile shield
and this is seen as a step towards a joint arms pact that would require
basing radar system in one country missiles in another country. But does
the fact that this has not happened up until now show that there is
strong end to the Arab feud do you think and is this latest proposal
going to intensify that feuding between these states?
Kevin Barrett: I think the question pretty well answered
itself correctly. The US is pushing for this kind of so-called
cooperation, meaning Saudi dominance, because basically these countries
have not been very effective at setting up powerful modern societies.
So, basically they have been colonial outposts of the US empire which
has dominated these countries, but they continue to squabble. I would
not be surprised if this proposal does not go very far.
Certainly, the people of Bahrain are not likely to welcome it and I
think they will keep their Arab Spring protest going and I assume that
the world will not look happily upon Saudi Arabia invading a
neighbouring country and incorporating it to its own country.
This is what [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hossein tried to do it
to Kuwait and the world was not terribly happy about it. I think a
similar lack of success will probably be met here as well.
Labels: 9/11 coup, 9/11 truth, bahrain, coup d'etat, human rights, Kevin Barrett, Press TV, saudi arabia, war on islam, War on Terror