This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Never much for political correctness, I also went into some detail on the light that might be shed on more plausible reasons why "they hate us" -- Exhibit A being U.S. support for Israel's oppression of the Palestinians. You will not find much on this in the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM), but there is no lack of evidence.I included, for example, the findings of a Sept. 23, 2004, report of the Pentagon-appointed U.S. Defense Science Board, which I'd suggest now has additional impact in light of the tumult in the Middle East and Northern Africa:
"Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf States."The FCM ignored the Defense Science Board report for two months. Finally, on Nov. 24, 2004, the New York Times published a story on the report -- but with some revealing surgery in the above paragraph. The Times quoted the first sentence, but pressed the delete button for the one on what Muslims do object to -- "what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights."
The Times story did include the sentence from the original report that immediately followed the (excised) sentence about Israel. So it was clearly a case of surgical removal of the offending sentence, not merely a need to shorten the paragraph.
Back to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: As he was being interrogated, the drafters of the 9/11 Commission Report found themselves wondering why he would bear such hatred toward the U.S.
They were aware that he earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of North Carolina/Greensboro, and speculated that he suffered some kind of gross indignity during his years there.
Not the case, the drafters were told by those with access to the interrogation reports. Rather, the report concludes on page 147: "By his own account, KSM's animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experience there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel."
This is among the considerations that prompted the authors to observe later in the Commission report:
"America's policy choices have consequences. Right or wrong, it is simply a fact that American policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and American actions in Iraq are dominant staples of popular commentary across the Arab and Muslim world. ... Neither Israel nor the new Iraq will be safer if worldwide Islamist terrorism grows stronger."As for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's motivation, the neocon editors of the Washington Post waited a decent interval -- five years -- apparently in hopes that few readers would get as far as page 147 in the 9/11 Commission report, and/or that those who did would have short memories.
On Aug. 30, 2009, the Post cited an unspecified intelligence summary" for a brand new explanation of his motives:
"KSM's limited and negative experience in the United States -- which included a brief jail stay because of unpaid bills -- almost certainly helped propel him on his path to becoming a terrorist. ... He stated that his contact with the Americans, while minimal, confirmed his view that the United States was a debauched and racist country."Let's give the Post the benefit of the doubt. It could be, I suppose, that the above did not come from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed until his 183rd waterboarding session. In any case, the revised explanation of his motives is surely politically more convenient to those wishing to obscure Mohammed's other explanation implicating "U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel."
White House Gives Up
The New York Times article on the Obama administration's reversal of its earlier attempt to hold key 9/11 trials in a federal court declared in a headline, "White House Gives Up Civilian Court Plan." But what does the reversal mean?
For one thing, it means there is likely to be far less reportage and publicity than would have been the case in federal criminal court, which normally accommodates a far larger audience. Even plain folks like you and I can go and watch. (In 2009, I attended a U.S. Court of Appeals hearing in D.C. that reversed an earlier decision to release 17 innocent Uighur detainees into the United States from Guantanamo.)
Reduced public access to statements made by the 9/11 defendants was one of the specific reasons cited by Sen. Joe Lieberman and other members of Congress for blocking a federal criminal trial.
"Putting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a public courtroom in full view of the public gives him a better platform than any member of al Qaeda has been given to recruit new members," Lieberman said in February, successfully arguing that funds should be denied for holding such a trial.
In other words, Lieberman wanted to prevent Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants from having an opportunity to explain their actions in a way that the U.S. and world public would get to hear.
With the case handled by a much more tightly controlled military tribunal, the defendants are even surer to be denied that public "platform."
Even if Mohammed somehow could seize an opportunity, before sentencing, to explain what drove him to conduct the attacks of 9/11, his comments would likely fall like the proverbial tree in the forest. There might actually be a few journalists within earshot able to listen and report. But willing?
Favored journalists in attendance would be unlikely to provoke their military hosts or their editors back home by passing along to the readers any inconvenient motives that the defendant might express.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
