Posted 10 December 2001]

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The Northwoods plan for staging phony attacks on the U.S. to justify invading Cuba was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962. It was never implemented, perhaps due to fear of Soviet retaliation.

The Northwoods document was obtained by the National Security Archive which is attached to George Washington University and describes itself as:

"...an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals."

The Emperor's Clothes summary of evidence, "Guilty for 9-11," charges that the Bush Administration staged the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The purpose: to justify a U.S. military crusade, an eternal War Against Terror, starting with the invasion of Afghanistan. (1)

But the attack on Afghanistan is not intended to fight terrorism. Rather than crushing terrorism, the U.S. Establishment hopes to create a new, more subservient terrorist apparatus in Afghanistan, including elements of both the Northern Alliance and 'moderate' Taliban.

The goal of the current protracted war against a weak foe - indeed, against a foe largely created by the U.S. and its client states, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - is to position the U.S. military-intelligence apparatus firmly in Central Asia.

From that strategic position, Washington hopes to complete the dismemberment of the states of the former Soviet Union.

U.S. military and intelligence operatives will cultivate quislings like Mr. Putin, penetrate military defense structures and political groups in the former Soviet States, instigate terrorist attacks to destabilize the area, and build or take control of powerful military bases. These will be used to stage direct military assaults when, as is sure to happen, some of the former Soviet Republics resist. Thus this strategy risks nuclear war.

Some people who oppose the Afghan war disagree with this explanation. They claim that Mr. Bush's motive is to establish control of oil deposits in the Caspian basin and/or to construct oil pipelines.

This theory has been put forward by everyone from the U.S. Communist Party to some conservative Websites.

The other day I received an email with an article by the reporter John Pilger, who says:

"Bush's concealed agenda is to exploit the oil and gas reserves in the Caspian basin, the greatest source of untapped fossil fuel on earth and enough, according to one estimate, to meet America's voracious energy needs for a generation."

Mr. Pilger is dead wrong. The U.S. does not need to destabilize highly volatile Central and Southern Asia, which includes several nuclear powers, just to get oil.

Consider Fidel Castro's statement on this subject. Castro has survived four decades of attempts by the world's biggest superpower to destroy the revolution in his tiny country. (Indeed, Cuba was the proposed target of Operation Northwoods!) So perhaps Mr. Castro understands a thing or three about U.S. strategy.

In a speech on 2 November, Castro said:

"I do not share the view that the United States' main pursuit in Afghanistan was oil. I rather see it as part of a geo-strategic concept. No one would make such a mistake simply to go after oil, least of all a country with access to any oil in the world, including all the Russian oil and gas it wishes. It would be sufficient for the U.S. to invest, to buy and to pay."

-- full text at: http://emperors-clothes.com/news/castro.htm

The Emperor's Clothes editors agree.

Indeed the immediate effect of 9-11 and the current military campaign has been to destabilize the oil business. For example Enron, one of the main U.S. energy companies and Mr. Bush's biggest contributor, (3) has been driven into bankruptcy.

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* Today Afghanistan,

Tomorrow Russia, And Then - The World *

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Why is this economic disruption justified in the minds of the fraction of a percent who control the U.S.? Because they have a 'grand' strategy. That strategy is to seize the center of the Central Asian chessboard and from there to reduce the states of the former Soviet Union to the status of impoverished protectorates, just as the U.S. Establishment is now doing to the NATO puppet state (!) of Macedonia. (4)

Indeed, Macedonia is an object lesson. Macedonia has done everything Washington asked, and as a reward, Washington has unleashed the fascist-terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army against Macedonia.(4)

Russian President Putin's subservience to Washington will not protect Russia from getting the Macedonian treatment. Rather, Mr. Putin's haste to do everything Washington wants, including, apparently, to rid his country of heavy missiles, will only encourage the most aggressive behavior by Washington. Mr. Putin's slave-like devotion to Bush does not prove our analysis of Washington's intentions is wrong. Rather, his openly quisling behavior, so shocking to millions of Russians, indicates that the attack on Russia is proceeding, bull steam ahead.

By reducing the former Soviet Union to a series of bite-sized protectorates, the U.S. Establishment would gain control of 1/6 of the earth's land surface - not only oil deposits, but vast forests, gold, diamonds, natural gas, iron and other minerals, not to mention millions of impoverished but highly skilled workers, and on and on.

At the same time, Washington could eliminate or control the former Soviet Union's still immense military power, which even now restrains U.S. adventures. Of course this does not mean the U.S. Establishment will not use the excuse of the phony war on terror to attack other countries, such as Iraq. But the strategic target is the former Soviet Union.

This analysis is dealt with more thoroughly in

'Why Does Washington Want Afghanistan'and in'Why is NATO Decimating the Balkans and Trying to Force Milosevic to Surrender?' (2)

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