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December 26, 2001
John Chuckman
In
Praise of the Unspeakable
Sam Bahour
2002:
Year of the Twos
December 25, 2001
Jennifer Loewenstein
Israel's
Human Rights Record
December 24, 2001
Sam Bahour
It
Happened One Morning
Yair Khilou
Why I Resisted
Being Drafted into the Israeli Army
Michael
Chisari
War
as Diversionary Tactic
Cockburn/St. Clair
Enron
and the Green Seal
December 21, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
War
Good for Bush
John Chuckman
The
First Victim in the
War on Terror
December 20, 2001
Lawrence
McGuire
Killing
Other People's Children
Miriam Rozen
Foundation
Without Representation?
Kenneth
Roth
A
Letter to Rumsfeld on
Military Tribunals
William Blum
Casualties:
Theirs and Ours
December 19, 2001
Marjorie
Cohn
Don't
Pre-Judge John Walker
Sam Bahour
Palestine
and You
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
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Five
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Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
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CounterPunch
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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December 27,
2001
A Possible Scenario on the Whereabouts
of Osama bin Laden
By Nelson P. Valdés
Let us suppose, for a moment that Osama Bin Laden
had something to do with the events of September 11.
Let us suppose, also, that he understood
how the United States government would react.
Let us suppose that he, like those who
actually implemented the September 11 attacks, were concerned
with Saudi Arabia since most of the parties involved were born
there. Moreover, Saudi Arabia is important because: a) it has
a strategic amount of oil on which the US depends, b) the Saudi
royal family is split, one faction supported the Taliban and
the other is thoroughly corrupt c) Mecca and Medina--the two
sacred places of Islam, happen to be in Saudi Arabia.
So where could Osama bin Laden be today?
Afghanistan? Hardly.
Assuming that bin Laden and associates
will use their many years of guerrilla war experience, then they
should understand the military value of symbolic actions and
the use of the global mass media.
Imagine the symbolic value of Osama bin
Laden within Mecca.
Let us consider the benefits from Osama
bin Laden's perspective:
The moment it is announced that Osama
bin Laden is inside Saudi Arabia and in the most sacred Mosque
of Islam, havoc will follow. The U.S. war effort will have to
be reassessed. If the war on Afghanistan was unleashed to capture
bin Laden, then -- will a war be waged against Saudi Arabia as
well?
Probably the stock market and the price
of oil will not escape such news either. The political stability
of Saudi Arabia will be a black box that no one could decipher.
The Saudi government would be compelled
to act, yet would be frozen by the political consequences of
taking proactive military measures at Mecca or Medina.
The United States government would be
tempted to use its military forces within the Arabian peninsula
but indecision could be expected, for immediate action could
create very serious consequences throughout the Muslim world.
The potential political and economic
crises confronting the United States government could unleash
a major debate within the ranks of U.S. conservatives on what
to do. It is doubtful that the consensus of waging war could
be continued.
It would not be surprising if recriminations
surfaced within the country as people asked about the capabilities
of the "intelligence" community.
The world community could conclude that
the policy makers in the United States, including its intelligence
agencies, had totally mishandled the aftermath of the September
11 tragedy.
What ensues thereafter would be certainly
hard to imagine.
Nelson Valdés is a professor of sociology at the University
of New Mexico.
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