False-flag operations

I should have read this book a long time ago: Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11 by David Ray Griffin is amongst the best titles ever written on the subject. The author is a theologian with a razor-sharp analytical mind which he turns to the evidence suggesting that 9/11 was a US government-led false-flag operation. He does not write as an enemy of America, but a concerned citizen, worried that the good faith the American people place in their government has been shamelessly exploited. His treatment of the subject, however, is not emotional, as one might expect of somebody writing from a religious perspective, but rational. He begins by a brief historical summary of false-flag operations to demonstrate that governments, including democratic ones and not exempting the USA, have used engineered events to manipulate the public mood in support of ulterior war aims. He moves on to show that in doing so the US government and secret services did not, in the past, shy away from hurting their own allies and their populations in the process, nor did they indeed shirk from contemplating to bring about a disaster on their own soil. Much of the recently declassified CIA documents corroborate Griffin's account.

Having evidenced that the US government was capable of such a monstrous act, Griffin analyses the evidence that has come to light about 9/11 to whether there has been a cover up and whether the official account of events could possibly be true. His conclusion is unequivocal: "The evidence suggests very strongly that it was a false-flag operation orchestrated by domestic terrorists." He discounts the possibility that foreign terrorists would have had the necessary access, nor would they have ensured a course of events which ultimately favoured only played into the hands of the government. Griffin knows that this truth is uncomfortable: "The implications are indeed disturbing", he says, "...so disturbing to the American psyche, the American form of government, and global stability, that [many people believe] it is better to pretend to believe the official version." However, he argues, "Far more devastating to the American psyche, the American form of government, and the world as a whole will be the continued rule of those who brought us 9/11".

After the first part of the book thoroughly destroys any remnant of credibility in the official version of 9/11, it concludes with proving US government culpability since "Bush-Cheney administration, and only it, had both the means and the opportunity to bring about the attacks of 9/11". Part two of the book shifts the focus from an examination of the facts as if in a court of law to a Christian critique of 9/11 and American Imperialism or Pax Americana. After describing the agenda of the want-to-be rulers of the world, viewed by themselves as benign and beneficial appeasement, he compares this American Empire to the Roman Empire it often is said to have been modelled on and which also mercilessly subjected its vassal colonies through military might and terror.

"Christians in America today have two reasons to know something about the Roman Empire", he says. Firstly, it helps the understanding of what America has become and really is. Secondly, it was during the heyday of the Roman Empire that Christianity rose and became what it is today. Griffin sees the gospel essentially as containing an anti-imperial message and considers the later support of empire by the Christian Church as a deviation from it. In his understanding the belief that God would bring about His Kingdom unilaterally gradually replaced the emphasis on the need to work for justice in order to bring about Divine blessing. To explain this shift delves deep into the theology of trying to explain the Divine and the Demonic. As a Muslim I obviously do not share the author's "process theology", but it makes interesting reading nonetheless, and whilst readers less familiar with religious matters may find it quite difficult to understand, it establishes the writer as an honest seeker of the truth whose characterisation of America as a demonic empire has not been reached without proper thought.

It is because of this demonic and evil nature of the proponents of the Pax Americana that they cannot perceive the objections of others to their ideal of world hegemony. A recent example of this doctrine of "benign empire" exporting values like democracy rather than imposing direct rule and stealing other people's wealth came only today in George Bush's incredible statement that in spite of all the devastating violence Iraq might one day turn out as successful as Israel - blinded to the fact that Israel has dominated world events as a key problem and obstacle to peace for over half a century.

Griffin's book is not only an analysis but also "A call to reflection and action". He proposes that irrespective of one's faith background that there are universal morals, which Christians should promote, e.g. "Don't murder other people; don't cause other people to starve; don't steal other people's natural resources, such as their land, water , and oil; don't deprive others of their basic freedoms; don't cause others needless pain; don't terrorize other people; don't rape other people; don't humiliate other people". Clearly, those values are not espoused by American imperial policy, and Griffin gives some examples of foreign policy to illustrate that the American Empire is, therefore, anything but a force for good, followed by a catalogue of suggestions about the discussions Christians should have in their congregations and the actions they should take to re-establish a moral prerogative and wrestle power back from a government which had deceived them.

The book, published last year by Westminster John Knox Press, is a great eye-opener for people who placed too much trust into their politicians' claims of defending Christian values in the face of Islamic terrorism. Which brings me to another likely false-flag operation: Isn't the find of a car bomb in central London the day after the new cabinet was announced just a little bit too convenient to help focus the new British prime minister's mind on the "serious and ongoing threat"? Expect renewed calls for the strengthening of anti-terrorism legislation - or anti-tourism legislation, as I tend to call it, since it stops people from wanting to fly in and out of Britain.