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The Construction of Synthetic Terror

September 05, 2007 by C R Sridhar

“Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the State."
James Jesus Angleton, Head of CIA Counter Intelligence 1954-1974.

Implicit in the strident rhetoric on the War against Terror is a Manichean struggle between Good and Evil symbolized by the clash between Western Democracies espousing liberal values and Islamic totalitarianism representing obscurantist religious dogmas. The simplification of the issue of terrorism was evident when George Bush in his address to the National Endowment for Democracy said ‘some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; still others, Islamo-fascism. This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision: the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom.’ The whipped up frenzy of al Quaeda and the shadowy figure of utmost evil Osama Bin Laden is standard fare in most media reinforcing the mass hysteria about terrorism.

Post 9/11; there have been growing voices of dissent that the demonisation of Islam as a prime agent of terrorism is an artificial construct to suit the interests of a narrow oligarchy in the US government linked to the powerful oil lobby. ‘ We must stress the idea, unfamiliar and suppressed as it is,’ says W.G. Tarpley, a Fulbright Scholar and an expert on terrorism, ‘that the vast majority of international terrorism conducted on a spectacular scale is indeed state-sponsored terrorism.’ ‘The Arab who feels sympathy,’ he continues, ‘for al Qaeda needs to be forcefully reminded that al Quaeda was created by CIA and continues to be steered by the CIA, through various intermediaries and cut-outs, or discreet go-betweens.’ Terrorism in the modern era is the means adopted by Oligarchies to wage war against its own members of society when its power is threatened.1 Such terror is synthetic in nature as it is artificially created, shaped and guided by a shadowy government for its own ends embedded within a legally constituted government and whose power is not subject to any constitutionally approved checks and balances.

State–sponsored terrorism

The theoretical basis for Synthetic terror was provided by an Italian intellectual Gianfranco Sanguinetti who published in 1979 a remarkable treatise on terrorism titled ‘Del Terrorismo E Dello Stato: La teoria e la practica del terrisomo per la prima volta divulgat’ which was partly translated as ‘On Terrorism and the State’. The publication of this book caused a major scandal in Italy as Sanguinetti boldly asserted that when the state is in crisis, it resorts to acts of terrorism against its own citizens with the terrorism emanating from the parallel structures within the state. Thus, the secret police infiltrates subversive militant organization, substitutes itself at the top of the command structure by arresting or killing the leaders of such groups in encounters with the police. With the infiltrated elements of the secret police within the militant organization, it becomes easy to guide the organization to suit the purposes of the state. As Sanguinetti wryly observes2

‘From then on, the parallel services of the State find they have, at their disposal, a perfectly efficient organism to do as they please with, composed of naive or fanatical militants, which asks for nothing other than to be directed. The original little terrorist group, born of the mirages of its militants about the possibilities of realizing an effective strategic offensive, changes strategists and becomes nothing other than a defensive appendage of the State, which manoeuvres it with the utmost agility and ease, according to its own necessities of the moment, or what it believes to be its own necessities.’

Whenever state power is confronted by social upheavals such as worker strikes, communist movements and demands for distributive justice and if oligarchic interests perceive such threats as grave enough to upset status quo, it swings into action by committing terrorist outrages against its own citizens and blaming them on extremist terrorist organization. As Sanguinetti puts it ‘The outrages that are accomplished directly by the detached corps and parallel services of the State are not usually claimed by anybody, but are each time, imputed or attributed to some or other convenient culprit’ or scapegoat.

The object of such state-sponsored terrorism, in Sanguinetti’s words, ‘is to make the whole population, who, nowadays, can no longer suffer, or is struggling against, this State, believe that it has at least an enemy in common with this State, and from which this State defends it on the condition that it is no longer called into question by anyone.’ By creating the monster of terrorism and blaming it on infiltrated terrorist outfits, the state is able to ward off any threats to its existence. Again as Sanguinetti sums up ‘The population, which is generally hostile to terrorism, and not without reason, must then agree that, at least in this, it needs the State, to which it must thus delegate the widest powers so that it might confront with vigour the arduous task of the common defence against an obscure, mysterious, perfidious, merciless, and, in a word, chimeric, enemy.’

The extraordinary observation of Sanguinetti on state-sponsored terrorism was based on his experience of seemingly inexplicable and bizarre acts of terrorism, which rocked Italy from the mid sixties to the late seventies. Elsewhere in other parts of Europe like Germany and France also witnessed similar acts of terrorism, assassinations, and electoral subversion. The acts of terrorism in Italy ranged from train bombing, random killing of policemen, bombing of a bank at Piazza Fontana to the sensational kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro- a prominent politician belonging to the Italian Christian Democratic Party who wanted the communists to join the government. Though these acts of terrorism were blamed on anarchists, Red Brigade and other left groups, Sanguinetti exposed that the Italian state was behind the outrages planned and executed by neo-fascist and extreme right-wing groups. Sanguinetti astutely perceived that the state-sponsored terrorism was a diabolical ruse to break the back of striking workers and Communist movements in Italy.

Swordplay.

The stand of Sanguinetti was vindicated by a bizarre twist of circumstances. In 1990 Prime minister Giulio Andreotti (member of the Italian Christian Democratic Party) publicly recognized the existence of Gladio. This sensational disclosure was followed by Parliamentary Committee reports, which investigated the unsolved acts of terrorism in various parts of Europe and slowly pieced together the frightening duplicity of Western Intelligence Agencies, namely, CIA and MI6, which cynically planned the terrorist acts in collusion with neo-fascists groups, ex-nazis, neo-fascist P-2 Masonic lodge and extreme right wing groups with the tacit support of the Military Intelligence/ Secret services of Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Denmark , Finland and Greece.

Operation Gladio (from Latin Gladius, meaning sword) was, in the words of Chris Floyd, ‘a decades-long covert campaign of terrorism and deceit directed by the intelligence services of the West — against their own populations. Hundreds of innocent people were killed or maimed in terrorist attacks — on train stations, supermarkets, cafes and offices, which were then blamed on "leftist subversives" or other political opponents.’3

The strategy of tension.

An ex-agent of Gladio, Vincenzo Vinciguerra who in his sworn testimony revealed that the objective of the entire operation was to demonize designated enemies and frighten the public into supporting ever-increasing powers for government leaders — and their elitist cronies. As he said ‘you had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force ... the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security.’ The CIA, for the purpose of frightening the national political classes into adopting US policies, used the strategy of tension.4

The strategy of tension was used by US and its Western allies in its hegemonic quest for world domination. As Mark Curtis says ‘Mutual Anglo-American support in ordering the affairs of key nations and regions, often with violence, to their design has been a consistent feature of the era that followed the Second World War…’5 The compelling reason, according to Director of Research of the California-based Institute for Economic Democracy (IED), Dr. J. W. Smith was, ‘All [Western] intelligence agencies have been, and are still in, the business of destabilizing undeveloped countries to maintain their dependency and the flow of the world’s natural wealth to powerful nations’ industries at a low price and to provide markets for those industries at a high price.’6

More importantly, the consent of the American public had to be obtained by raising the bogey of the Soviet threat and the ogre of Communism. As Michael Parenti says ‘Anti-communism and the Soviet threat seem less a source for policy than a propaganda ploy to frighten the American public and rally support for overseas commitments.’7 After the ending of the cold war new threats to American Freedom had to be reinvented. The bogey of Islamic terrorism came handy to manage public opinion for the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq.

Puppet on a string

The terror of al Qaeda - a chimerical monster of evil with its mastermind Osama Bin Laden - could well be an artificial construct for US to conduct outrageous terror acts in its name. That this view is not as fanciful as it sounds could be collaborated by the testimony of Pierre-Henry Bunel, a former agent for French military intelligence, who said ‘The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the 'TV watcher' to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money.’ In December 2001, a secret French military court convicted Maj. Pierre-Henri Bunel for passing classified documents.

Even Hamas, the arch rival of Israel, says Paul Joseph Watson, ‘was founded and funded by Israel’s dominant Likud party and continues to be bankrolled to this day by political bodies pushing a one-world government system. It is a documented fact reported on by mainstream news outlets and admitted by respected individuals within the US and Israeli governments and intelligence agencies.’8 The same is the case of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was encouraged by Shin Bet (Israeli Intelligence Service) to wage a fratricidal war against secular and progressive groups in the Arab world and liquidate them. The plan was diabolically clever as secular and progressive intellectuals posed a greater threat to US interests and its ally the State of Israel than the Kalashnikov-wielding masked militants.9

The present war on terror against Islamic extremism is a continuation of the geopolitical goal of preserving Anglo- American domination of oil. The strategy of synthetic terrorism is useful to weaken countries like Russia, China and even India. The oligarchic interests see the weakening of the Dollar, as a cause for concern for it is a shock to the system. Synthetic terrorism, as history has shown time and again, could be useful in consolidating US control over oil and other strategic metals by weakening or destabilizing other rival claimants

Distorted images, Distorting mirrors.

In the shadowy world of secret service and military intelligence there are double agents, agent provocateurs, and false flag terror operations. With the controlled media dispensing news about Terrorism, new monsters are created to guide public opinion for the benefit of the few. We see distorted images of terrorism from distorting mirrors. The custodians of law parade patsy Islamic militants accused of horrific terrorist crimes before us. Then they are produced before the court to be sentenced and punished. Platitudes then get written in the press about the horrors of terrorism asking parliament to pass draconian laws to curb it. But the terrible moment of truth arrives sooner or later and when it does- disturbing questions assail our soul- Are they the true terrorists? Or they mere puppets in a synthetic spectacle controlled by someone else? Can we ever see the Puppeteers or the Ringmasters above them?

It is then we hear the mocking laughter of Sanguinetti and see him pointing his finger at the drawn sword of the state.

Notes:
1. 9/11 Synthetic Terror- Made in USA-W.G.Tarpley.
2. On Terrorism and the State- Gianfranco Sanguinetti.
3. Sword Play: Attacking Civilians to Justify "Greater Security”- Chris Floyd | February 29 2005
4. Informationliberation- Operation Gladio.
5. The Ambiguities of Power, Mark Curtis.
6. Economic Democracy- Dr. J. W. Smith.
7. Against Empire- Michael Parenti.
8. Puppet On A String: Hamas Dances To Israel’s Tune- Paul Joseph Watson.
9. Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam - Robert Dreyfuss

Sridhar is a Koshy's regular, a Tinto Brass fan, and a cynical Bangalorean