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The Terrorists'
Secret War Strategy
by
Jack Anderson
Meridian's
senior editor, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jack Anderson says
a world-class mastermind is behind the terrorist attacks and the
design may be more sinister than we know.
Intelligence
analysts say there is disturbing evidence that the kamikaze war
against the United States is not the work of a wild group of terrorists,
but the carefully calculated operation of some world class strategists
who know exactly what they are doing. Much of our current hardship
and future danger are now traceable to these invisible masterminds
who are keeping their heads below the retaliation level.
The terrorists
comprise a far-flung, disjointed, unruly combination that operate
in a subterranean world of murky half-light. The overwhelming evidence
indicates that the terrorists would have a difficult time operating
and coordinating any joint assault on the world's economic system.
The rogue nations
that support the terrorists are headed by radicals who rose on their
own individual trajectory, and most of them came to power through
various stages of street agitator, back alley conspirator, urban
mob master, organizer of cabals, spinner of intrigues, and manipulator
of religion. They are masters of slogans, using demagoguery to hold
the many, terrorism and blackmail to intimidate the few. There seems
to be a wild gene in their makeup that compels them to communicate
with great posturings and braggadocio. They are not the kind of
leaders who can be brought together behind a coordinated strategy.
Who has the
solid leadership to pull this operation off?
As the jigsaw
pieces of this puzzle come to light, many of them point to Saudi
Arabia which is probably the world's most cautious monarchy. As
I rush to explain, let me stress that our intelligence has not developed
a solid case against Saudi Arabia, that the ruling monarchy may
be having as much trouble with some of their unruly subjects as
we are having, that their own country is torn apart by feuding factions
that can be found in most governments. But someone-- unfortunately
we have not identified exactly who-is engaged in a remorseless,
carefully calculated plan. It's ultimate goal is to destroy the
free enterprise system.
Step back and
consider. The Saudis have acquired wealth without working. They
have made enormous profits without producing. They have stockpiled
all the latest technological equipment, and they still have no technology.
They have trillions of dollars in the bank, but control no capital.
They have never demonstrated the capacity to convert their vast
wealth into real power. At the slightest scowl from Uncle Sam they
sign any agreement, make any deal to assure Washington that they
are on our side.
But there is
evidence that someone, probably in Saudi Arabia, is guiding the
terrorists who resist any guidance, that the attack on the United
States was a calculated catastrophe, that it was intended to spread
economic devastation that would threaten the basic cohesion of the
West. The Arab world-and particularly the Saudi's-are still inherently
fearful, weak and helpless, afraid of Iran at the top of the Persian
Gulf, powerless before Israel and totally dependent on the West
for defense.
Yet some of
the evidence suggest that the great appeasers are secretly directing
the assault upon the free enterprise system, and therefore the attack
on the United States which drives the free enterprise system. Intelligence
sources suggests that they had hoped the attack on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon would derail the free enterprise system
causing incalculable misery and mischief. This is why the World
Trade Center was the number one target as it had been once before.
Washington's
leaders are having trouble acknowledging that they could have misjudged
their Saudi friends. They find it less demeaning to be victims of
predestination rather than folly, less embarrassing if our poor
preparation was dictated by geology or history rather than self-inflicted
by our own leaders. They prefer to think their misjudgments were
not a blind yielding to economic aggression, but an unforeseen vulnerability
in the face of fanatic terror.
These aggressors
represent the world's puniest regimes assailing the world's greatest
combination of power. Because they know its hazards, they are proceeding
with a small nation's caution. They follow a pattern of selective
prudence and maintain an invisibility beyond anything our stealth
technology can produce.
But it is at
least significant that Osama bin Laden is a Saudi, and though he
is supposedly exiled by the monarchy and blackballed by his own
family, intelligence reports suggest this arrangement may not be
entirely what it seems. His family is one of the ruling and more
prosperous clans, entrenched in the Saudi hierachy, and he may be
getting surreptitious support from them.
Evidence suggests
that Saudis have already tested an alternative to the free enterprise
system. They have succeeded in causing the greatest transfer of
wealth from one group of nations to another in human history. For
the first time, the small weak nations have looted the great and
powerful. The Saudis are the powers behind the oil cartels. They
have gotten away with controlling the price of the world's fourth
most needed element after air, water, and food which is, of course,
energy which is primarily produced by oil
Obviously the
OPEC nations cannot continue indefinitely to suck dry the world's
oil wells. It takes nature much longer to produce a barrel of oil
than it takes mankind to burn it. Yet at this point in history,
the oil reserves are continuing to grow faster than the oil consumption.
Picture these reserves as a great underground black ocean. This
ocean has increased in size every year since the first oil was discovered,
yet the oil cartel speared by the Arab oil sheikdoms has manipulated
prices and squeezed all the blood they can get out of the oil-consuming
countries.
Oil in the 1970's
which could be produced for $1.25 was pumped up to $44 dollars a
barrel. It has settled back down to a lower price, but the fat is
still there. It is the source of a staggering profit for the oil-producers,
even though there was oil supplies ample to every need and available
at little more than $1 a barrel.
This system
has worked so well and enriched the Saudis so greatly that they
would like to install the same system to control other industries--with
themselves doing the controlling. While destroying the free enterprise
system may work to their great disadvantage in the short run, they
see long-term benefits. They have ties to the West, but in their
heart of hearts, their yearnings and their boasts exceed their ability
to produce.
No Saudi leaders
are likely to step forth and confess to this conspiracy. And our
own political leaders are too close to the Saudis even to suggest
it, yet the World Trade Center was attacked. It is becoming clear
that this was the main target and that United States was also hit
only because it stood as the chief defender of the free enterprise
system.
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© 2001 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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