November 10, 2010
Julian Assange, 9/11 and the 9/11 Wars
Joshua Blakeney
More by this author...Julian Assange's WikiLeaks made history unleashing an archive of some 400,000 documents which confirm some of the worst fears and suspicions about the nature of the illegal US-led occupation of Iraq.
The harsh truths contained in the newly released ‘Iraq War Files’ were characterized by George Galloway in his weekly blog as follows: “Four hundred thousand hitherto suppressed memos of mayhem telling the truth to the people about the actions of those with power. . .I will never denounce conspiracy theorists again.”
The leaked documents, which span from 2004 to 2009, confirm that U.S. and British officials consciously ignored and suppressed evidence that proves flagrant violations of the Geneva Conventions, and other international covenants and conventions, were taking place under their auspices.
One of the most significant questions elucidated by this gargantuan exposé is the issue of whether or not civilian deaths were documented and whether or not any information about civilian deaths was being censored from the public domain.
It is now transparent that when the US and British governments were stating “we do not do body counts”, as General Tommy Franks, who directed the invasion stated, they were in fact lying.
The leaked files contain documentary evidence of 109,000 deaths at least 60% of which were facilitated by coalition forces, all of which were documented and then suppressed by the governments implicated. Amazingly, 15,000 of those Iraqis massacred were hitherto unaccounted for.
Thus, all previous estimations of death rates on the killing fields of Iraq need to be totted up by a further 15,000 lives.
Furthermore, the leaked memoranda reveal that rather than take precautions to prevent killings of Iraqi civilians, the U.S.-led occupiers gave the Iraqi comprador administration carte blanch to mete out violence and terror with US armed and funded death squads against those Iraqis who opposed the unlawful agenda of the US-led coalition.
The leaked documents reveal secret policies enshrined by the occupation forces mandating non-intervention when known instances of torture were being perpetrated by the Iraqi regime’s armed forces against detainees.
So brutal are the puppet regime’s henchmen that many of those captured and kidnapped by them, the leaked documents reveal, falsely confessed to being so called “jihadists” or “terrorists” so they would be handed over to the US forces, the lesser of two evils.
This process of false confession clearly helped inflate the numbers of those recognized as terrorists wishing to harm Americans, helping to compound one of the core mythologies of the post-9/11 era.
One of the files describes the incarceration of 95 detainees in a single room “sitting cross-legged with blindfolds, all facing the same direction.”
That file continues “many of them bear marks of abuse [including] cigarette burns, bruising consistent with beatings and open sores... according to one of the detainees questioned on site, 12 detainees have died of disease in recent weeks.”
The Iraq War Files exposé also contains evidence which proves Iraqis who were in the process of surrendering were killed at the hands of the occupations forces.
This alone is an egregious violation of several international laws of warfare. For example, some of the reports describe civilian women being killed at US checkpoints.
In an interview with Russia Today Julian Assange described the Iraq War Files as “the most accurate description of war that has ever been released in the historic record.”
Assange emphasized “[the promise] the west would clean up the government system of Iraq, introduce the rule of law and prevent torture has completely failed,” continuing “lawlessness, absence of the rule of law and arbitrary killings were much higher than they were under Saddam Hussein and now we’re left with an Iraqi government that commits torture.”
No Government Repudiation of the Iraq War Files
The Iraq War Files are particularly subversive because they are not primarily the second hand testimonies of those who witnessed the atrocities in Iraq. Rather, leaked files overwhelmingly contain data emanating directly from US and British governmental agencies. They are primary not secondary sources.
This has made the revelations difficult to deny or reproach from the standpoint of the governments implicated. Rather than question the veracity of the content of the leaked files the US and British governments have merely challenged the timing and methods with which WikiLeaks disseminated the documents.
It is therefore the case that the contents of these memoranda remains generally undenied even by the governments indicted by the leaks.
All the US government could muster in response were allegations that WikiLeaks were somehow endangering lives as if it was Julian Assange, rather than them, who deployed the young men and women of the US military to the dusty plains of Iraq.
"By disclosing such sensitive information, WikiLeaks continues to put at risk the lives of our troops, their coalition partners and those Iraqis and Afghans working with us,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell opined.
Spokesman Marine Corps Colonel Dave Lapan fulminated “We know terrorist organizations have been mining the leaked Afghan documents for information to use against us, and this Iraq leak is more than four times as large…. The only responsible course of action for WikiLeaks at this point is to return the stolen material and expunge it from their websites as soon as possible”
This call for censorship of the evidence brought forth by WikiLeaks vindicates Assange’s credo that “truth is the first casualty of war.”
Evidence Shy Jason Kenney?
The evidence emanating from WikiLeaks sources has been welcomed by those who call for the prosecution of those leaders such as George W. Bush and Anthony Blair who invoked a particular interpretation of 9/11 and who lied about Iraq’s possession of WMD’s to justify these murderous wars of aggression.
How much longer can the Canadian government get away with glossing over the laws enshrined in Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act when they allow such credibly accused war criminals to enter and exit Canada with impunity?
This new evidence should be brought to the attention of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney who, after receiving such evidence, should take the necessary actions to uphold the rule of law in Canada.
9/11 and WikiLeaks: A Litmus Test
No doubt it is hoped by many that WikiLeaks will soon disclose more evidence pertaining to 9/11, a seminal event which millions of researchers globally suspect was a false-flag terror attack. This would require WikiLeaks to delve deeper into the world of “deep politics.”
WikiLeaks did take a step in this direction when they published a CIA manual entitled Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces in 2008.
The manual was used to instruct occupation forces on how to encourage terrorist activities, prosecute individuals for terrorism who are not terrorists, and plan and execute false-flag terrorist operations.
Brilliant as Julian Assange has been in highlighting the crimes and blunders inherent to the 9/11 Wars, he has, it must be said, been rather mediocre when it comes to addressing the origins of those wars.
In an interview with The Belfast Telegraph Assange repelled many 9/11 truth-seekers when he flippantly opined “I'm constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies such as 9/11, when all around we provide evidence of real conspiracies, for war or mass financial fraud.” Assange’s apparent weak understanding of what did and did not happen on 9/11 and his failure to even acknowledge the axiom that the official story of 9/11 is itself a conspiracy theory, has led some credible investigators to espouse suspicion about Mr. Assange.
World renowned journalist Webster Tarpley, for example, has alleged that WikiLeaks' disproportionate access to voluminous government documents coupled with the recent role of Assange in delegitimizing elements in Pakistan - perhaps helping to justify US military incursions into Pakistan - makes WikiLeaks a contender as a controlled left gatekeeping mechanism.
Tarpley has stated that WikiLeaks “Fulfils the prima facie case for a limited hangout operation by the intelligence agencies themselves.”
It is possible, alleges Tarpley, that WikiLeaks represents the fulfillment of the “cognitive infiltration” of the 9/11 Truth Movement prescribed by Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein in his perplexing paper on “Conspiracy Theories” [ii] which was published in 2008.
Tarpley opined “The lie of the 21st century is…terrorism itself…[i.e. the existence of a threat from] Al Qaeda/Bin Laden. The papers this Assange has released include all kinds of references about Bin Laden [being in Pakistan]…”
Tarpley has also raised what he labels “obvious” questions such as: Who pays Jualian Assange? And who pays for this “jetset” lifestyle he has? Whether WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange will continue to show hostility to the 9/11 Truth Movement or whether the whistle blowing maestros will come to support those who investigate 9/11 is yet to be seen.
Certainly the Iraq War Files should be viewed as crucial evidence which takes us closer to the desired outcome of Nuremberg-style trials of those leaders who instigated the 9/11 Wars.
That said, we should all continue to show skepticism towards those on the left who fail to properly investigate the lies and crimes inherent to the origins of the wars WikiLeaks has so adeptly helped to demystify. So far WikiLeaks has appeared wanting in that regard.
----------------------------
[i] http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/georgegalloway/2010/10/my-eyes-have-been-opened-by-ir.html
[ii] http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Susstein1.pdf