Manufacturing Terrorism

I reviewed the author's books on Britain's secret wars and President Trump in these pages last year. This book is equally penetrating and disturbing in its extensively documented analysis, with the subtitle 'when governments use fear to justify foreign wars and control society' through the deep state of their secret services. Depressingly, it seems that enemies are essential for the way in which politicians and arms companies currently operate, also through revolving doors between government and industry. Without enemies, there is less incentive to innovate in weapons research, so an 'enemy vacuum' may be a threat to economic growth. The author describes a number of chilling documents relating to the Shock and Awe policy visited on Iraqi civilians with the doctrine of Rapid Dominance where bombardment becomes sufficiently intimidating for the country in question to accept the will of the US. He adduces evidence for the connection between the Iraqi invasion and radicalisation, with backup from Chiefs of MI5. He also notes that drones are a terrorist-generating machine, especially with their collateral civilian casualties; and he documents how Al Qaeda was created by the West.

The second part discusses how terrorism can be manufactured in six steps: blowback from bombardment campaigns, including the use of drones (see figures on p. 81); using proxies as part of policies aimed at regime change (see p. 96 ff. for how this applies to Syria); acting as a provocateur to goad individuals to commit terrorist acts; 'green-lighting' whereby terrorists are allowed to strike when they could be captured or killed, for instance Osama bin Laden; false flag operations such as European operations under Gladio, all of which are based on deception of the public; and simulations faking events, with a number of specific examples, including the drills going on during September 11, which the author does not treat in detail on the grounds that analysts do not agree on the causes of the tower collapse - however he could have looked at the collapse of WTC Building 7 as an inexplicable anomaly without some form of controlled demolition. In his conclusion, the author correctly notes that mainstream media tends to pathologise dissent by using the conspiracy theory label, which only serves to further the self-interested agendas of elites using the deep state to achieve their ends. Highly recommended reading.