The omnipotence of Al Qaeda and meaninglessness of "Terrorism" By Glenn Greenwald

[David Guyatt]

He referred to an "offer" made to al-Zawahiri in November 1997 on behalf of U.S. intelligence, granting his Islamists a free hand in Egypt as long as they lent support to U.S. forces in the Balkans.

The origin of the Muslim Brotherhood's ouster of Hosni Mubarak presumably?

Edmonds did not speculate on the objectives of the Pentagon's Gladio B' operations, but highlighted the following possibilities: projecting U.S. power in the former Soviet sphere of influence to access previously untapped strategic energy and mineral reserves for U.S. and European companies; pushing back Russian and Chinese power; and expanding the scope of lucrative criminal activities, particularly illegal arms and drugs trafficking.

And

Terrorism finance expert Loretta Napoleoni estimates the total value of this criminal economy to be about $1.5 trillion annually, the bulk of which "flows into Western economies, where it gets recycled in the U.S. and in Europe" as a "vital element of the cash flow of these economies."

Combining capitalist greed with grand geographical strategy.

It is no coincidence then that the opium trade, Edmonds told this author, has grown rapidly under the tutelage of NATO in Afghanistan: "I know for a fact that NATO planes routinely shipped heroin to Belgium, where they then made their way into Europe and to the UK. They also shipped heroin to distribution centres in Chicago and New Jersey. FBI counterintelligence and DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) operations had acquired evidence of this drug trafficking in its surveillance of a wide range of targets, including senior officials in the Pentagon, CIA and State Department. As part of this surveillance, the role of the Dickersons with the support of these senior U.S. officials in facilitating drug-trafficking, came up. It was clear from this evidence that the whole funnel of drugs, money and terror in Central Asia was directed by these officials."

Using NATO aircraft to "routinely" ship heroin to Belgium HQ of NATO for distribution to UK and Europe, and also ship to distribution centres in Chicago and New Jersey.


The Military-Dope complex.

"The way the story was dropped was unusual, but the belief amongst my colleagues this happened under political pressure is plausible." He cryptically described an "editorial mechanism, linked to the paper but not formally part of it, which could however exert control on stories when necessary, linked to certain interests." When asked which interests, the journalist said, "I can't say. I can't talk about that."

That "editorial mechanism" would be Rupe Murdoch, I guess?