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August 1998 
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"THE ATTACK WAS EITHER PAYBACK TIME OR A BLOODY STEP IN DRIVING THE U.S. OUT OF ITS MIDEAST OIL RAJ. MINDLESS, IT WAS NOT.
EXPECT MORE."

"THE EMBASSIES IN NAIROBI AND DAR-ES-SALAAM SUFFERED DAMAGE ROUGHLY EQUIVALENT TO A HIT BY A 2000-LB BOMB OR 16-INCH NAVAL SHELL -- JUST WHAT THE U.S. LIBERALLY DROPPED ON LIBYA AND IRAQ, OR FIRED AT LEBANON. OR SUPPLIED TO IRAQ, TO DROP ON IRAN. AND SUPPLIED TO ISRAEL TO DROP ON VARIOUS ARAB TARGETS."

 

MER - 8/13:

No American columnist for any establishment paper dares call it "payback time" or point out that there are many around the world who have legitimate reasons to attack the U.S. And nobody allowed on U.S. TV reminds Americans that they have been dropping similar-type bombs "liberally" around the Middle East for some time; not to mention the covert actions of the CIA and Mossad throughout the Middle East, including the campaigns of "abduction" and "assassination" the U.S. and ally Israel take such pride in.

The following column is by the Toronto Sun's Foreign Editor, Eric Margolis:

 

N O   S H O R T A G E   O F   S U S P E C T S

By ERIC MARGOLIS
Contributing Foreign Editor - TORONTO SUN
ZURICH (13 August)

The terror bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania this week horrified Americans, and left them feeling they were once again innocent victims of evil terrorism as mindless it was abominable.

While certainly abominable, the attacks were hardly mindless: they were clearly designed to punish the U.S., though innocent Africans mostly paid the price. So far the culprits remain unknown, though Mideast underground groups are clearly leading suspects.

Most Americans simply don't understand how deeply their nation is involved in the turmoils of Asia and Africa. Or that the United States has fully inherited the role of world imperial power played by Great Britain last century. As the British discovered with notorious Victorian malefactors, like Sudan's Mahdi, Somalia's "Mad Mullah," or China's Boxers, the restless natives occasionally bite back.

The U.S. hardly lacks enemies abroad, thus suspects in the bombing abound. At present, the U.S. openly admits to seeking to overthrow the governments of four nations: Libya, Iraq, Sudan and Iran - the last democratically elected. The U.S. has repeatedly tried to assassinate the leaders of Libya and Iraq for impudently challenging American-British hegemony in the Mideast.

Israel, with enemies galore, is seen in the Mideast as either an extension of the United States, or the United States as an extension of Israel. By the warped logic of the region, attacking the U.S. equals attacking Israel. Last week's embassy bombings were similar to an earlier - and still unsolved - terror attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires.

U.S. agents are conducting a secret war, including abduction or assassination, against numerous Palestinian and Arab groups such as Hamas, the PFLP and Saudi mujahedin. The CIA, FBI and U.S. military intelligence are extremely active in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Persian Gulf in protecting the undemocratic rulers of these nations from being overthrown by their own citizens.

Defending the status quo brings the U.S. into head-on collision with underground groups across the Mideast - like the shadowy Saudi, Osma Bin Laden - whose aim is to replace the region's oil kings and sheiks by popular Islamic and/or even democratic governments.

Radical underground groups in North Africa, Egypt, Jordan, "Holy" Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf claim their nations have been turned into virtual American colonies, under U.S. military occupation. They say Arab "puppet" rulers give away their oil to the U.S. and Britain in exchange for protection. American "occupiers" are thus fair game, as in the bombing two years ago of a U.S. military garrison at El-Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

Other somewhat less likely suspects:

  • U.S.-trained Afghans who fought the Soviet Union - were later branded "terrorists" by Washington, and are now hunted by U.S. and Pakistani agents.
  • Marxist Kurds of the PKK, who see the U.S. as the main supporter of their blood enemy, Turkey.
  • Serbs, to distract Washington from their ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
  • Chechens, to punish the Clinton administration for financing Russia's destruction of their tiny nation, and slaughter of 100,000 people.
  • Colombian, Mexican or Peruvian drug lords angry over the U.S.-led war against their business.
  • Congolese, for revenge against the U.S.-orchestrated overthrow of their late leader, President Mobutu.
  • Angola's UNITA movement - an old ally ditched and lately besieged by the U.S., which now backs Angola's communist regime for reasons of petropolitics.

 

The embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam suffered damage roughly equivalent to a hit by a 2,000-lb bomb or 16-inch naval shell - just what the U.S. liberally dropped on Libya and Iraq, or fired at Lebanon. Or supplied to Iraq, to drop on Iran. And supplied to Israel to drop on various Arab targets.

In other words, the attack was either payback time or a bloody step in driving the U.S. out of its Mideast Oil Raj. Mindless, it was not.  Expect more.


 

 

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