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9). Sources and Websites (2001):
For quick access to many English-language outlets of the world
press, go directly to
the NPR's
web page on World News Coverage This is invaluable, but not complete.
For an excellent new website on the global drug traffic, go to
www.geopium.org, with hotlinks to important articles.
I would like to recommend strongly two books by
the Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. The first is
Taliban: Militant Islam,
Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia. Originally published in
2000, it has been reissued in paper this year by Yale ($14.95).
Thus its revelations about drugs, oil, and the U.S.-Saudi-Pakistani
role in privileging fundamentalist leaders like bin Laden, were
written before the 9/11 crisis. Check out the following excerpt on
How the US
helped create bin Laden.
The second, published since 9/11, is Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam
in Central Asia (New Haven: Yale UP, 2002; $24.00). This book
offers insights into Islamist conflict in countries like Uzbekistan,
about which we shall probably hear more in the future. It shows on
the one hand how "Western oil companies, by creating an extremely wealthy,
corrupt minority class, are breeding even greater social discontent"
(p. 237). At the same time it describes how potentially "Oil offers
the greatest hope for regional cooperation" (p. 239).
Other excellent books: John K. Cooley, Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism (London: Pluto Press, 2000); and Michael
Griffin, Reaping the Whirlwind: The Taliban Movement in Afghanistan (London: Pluto Press, 2001); and (in French) Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, Ben Laden: La Verite Interdite (Paris: Denoel Impacts, 2001).
For a summary of this last in English, go to my
FLASH 2; or the story therein contained from the
Irish Times.
It is then useful to pursue important terms in these books
in the current press. A good way to do this on-line is to go to
www.daypop.com and search for
vital but less known terms mentioned in Rashid's book, such as "Bridas,"
"Prince Turki" and "Makhtab." By thus combining historic background
with breaking news stories (such as the Security Council freezing
of Makhtab al Khidmat assets on October 9), one discerns more
clearly the dimensions of an Islamicist movement that absolutely cannot
and should not be pinned on the shoulders of one man, Osama bin Laden.
Using daypop.com in this way will lead you to such important stories
as the following in the
London Guardian: "CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July:
French report claims terrorist leader stayed in Dubai hospital"
Though this story means more in historical context, it
by itself validates using daypop as a search engine.
This is just one example of many stories given prominence abroad,
which are suppressed, delayed, or only published locally in this country.
Thus I advise reading newspapers from time to time from a variety of
foreign sources, such as:
Jane's Intelligence Digest" (sample article of 10/5/01, "Why was Russia's intelligence on Al-Qaeda ignored?")
The Irish Times (this sample story on bin Laden, the US, and UK)
The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Le Monde (France - in French)
I strongly recommend the global survey in Antiwar.com.
CounterPunch
has an excellent list of hotlinks to other "Resources on 9/11 and the War on Afghanistan," particularly from the Middle East and South Asia.
An English website close to bin Laden is
Azzam.com, which reproduces bin Laden's fatwas against America. Under "Azzam Brigades" it reproduces an excellent article on "Arab Veterans of the Afghan War by James Bruce , from Jane's Intelligence Review, April 1, 1995 SECTION: MIDDLE EAST; Vol 7; No. 4; Pg 175.
It is useful to check on other Muslim sources, such as
Al Jazeerah or
IslamOnline.net or
Muslimedia
have to say (in this case on
oil and gas)
and also pro-Israel sources such as
JINSA or
Debka (e.g. Debka's important 11/27/01
story on the evacuation of al-Qaeda troops from Kunduz in late
November 2001 by Pakistani ISI aircraft).
There is a wealth of material available from Asian websites, such as the
Hong Kong Asian Times Online (sample on Afghan heroin connection), or the
Far Eastern Economic Review (story on Afghan food relief crisis).
I recommend both the
Times of India and the
Pakistan Frontier Post (story of 12/5/01 alleging that heroin labs are opening up as part of a scheme to fragmentize Afghanistan).
In the same spirit of even-handedness I recommend checking both critical stories on
antiwar.com
or
OpenDemocracy; and also from the other side, such as
The Foreign Military Studies Office of Fort Leavenworth, or
G2mil or
The Washington Quarterly. (I would be grateful to hear from any reader of a dedicated "prowar.com" website to
balance antiwar.com.)
The risk of using the Web is that we become saturated with information
reflecting our own point of view, leaving us without the time or patience
to compare with other points of view. Reading one side only may help us be partisans. But to find a way out of this current crisis requires not only
partisanship but understanding, indeed the ability on occasion to evaluate
a crisis from more than one point of view.
Here are other websites and on-line articles I recommend:
News From Al Jazeera in Translation
"What Did They Know and When Did They Know It?" (i.e. before 9/11?)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/family.html
Bin Ladens, Saudis, Shakarshi [drug money-laundering, CIA aid to Afghan
rebels, BCCI], etc.
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html Who Is Osama Bin Laden? (Drugs, CIA, and much more)
Bibliography for the Study of Oil and War
http://www.balkanpeace.org/our/our09.shtml Bin Laden, the Balkans, KLA, CIA
http://www.afrocubaweb.com/news/binladen.htm
Robert Parry's useful website.
Chalmers Johnson on "Blowback" in The Nation. One of the most insightful articles I have read.
Stratfor
A private website on Strategic Foreign Intelligence (see below in Part 6).
Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
Middle East Research and Information Project
Center for Defense Information
The Nation (Special WTC Website)
Antiwar.com. Connects to breaking stories.
National Security Archive collection of US government documents on bin Laden, etc.
Intelligence allegations against al-Qaeda from the Moonie-financed Washington Times
In addition an excellent library of
War Links is being continuously updated by the Peninsula Peace
and Justice Center of Palo Also, CA.
I will update this section when I return from Thailand to better web access in the United States. In the meantime I refer you to the
list of sources and websites at unansweredquestions.org -- PDS.