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Religious, cause-oriented groups mark 10th
anniversary of 9-11
Posted on 10 September 2011 by admin
News Release
September 10, 2011
Various groups from different faiths joined cause-oriented groups in
observing the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks of 2001 which
claimed nearly 3,000 lives in the United States. Christians, Muslims and
other faiths held and service at Plaza Miranda in remembrance of 9-11 as
well as the victims of the US-led “war on terror”.
“We join the peoples of the world in observing the 10th anniversary of the
September 11 attacks in the US. We continue to condole with the victims of
this great tragedy, and we continue to condemn this unacceptable act of
violence against civilians, and the admitted perpetrators in Al Qaeda,”
said
Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.
“The continuing tragedy however is that the 9-11
attacks in New York and Washington were used by the United States
government to justify wars of aggression and the so-called “global war on
terror.” The 9-11 attacks continue to be used to justify US intervention
worldwide, including the Philippines. Fighting terror has become
synonymous with advancing US economic, miilitary and poltiical interests
in all corners of globe,” Reyes said.
Bayan said that while Al Qaeda claimed responsibility
for the attacks in New York and Washington, the US undertook upon itself
to launch a perpetual and borderless war on everyone it considers a
“terrorist threat”, including governments that resisted the US as well as
legitimate liberation movements.
“The sad irony is that there have been more kilings and
other atrocities committed in the name of fighting terror than the
original 9-11 attacks. We witnessed the invasion and occupation of Iraq
and Afghanistan. We saw the Philippines declared as the ‘second front’ in
the war on terror. Repressive legislation, torture, secret prisons and
many other abuses marked the last ten years of this so-called war,” Reyes
said.
Bayan says it does not condone attacks on civilians but
said it is important to understand the economic, political and military
context of why terrorism happens. The group said that US economic and
military policies have given rise to forces that have used extreme
measures to resist foreign imposition. In the caes of Al Qaeda, the US
supported Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan at one point as a force
against the Soviet Union. After the Soviet occupation ended, Al Qaede
turned on the US.
“Terrorism, including state-sponsored terrorism, can
only be overcome if there is fundamental change in how the US and other
great powers deal with the rest of the world. Only by attaining a just,
humane and genuinely free society can the root causes of terrorism be
eliminated,” Reyes said.
Domestic concerns
Bayan also expressed concern that the Aquino government
is still continuing the anti-terror efforts of his predecessor Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo, at the behest of the US government. The group cited
Aquino’s tolerance for permanent US presence in Mindanao as well proposed
amendments to the anti-terror law.
“After what happened over the last 10 years, the
Philippine government should re-examine its unqualified support for the US
war on terror. It should also do away with repressive anti-terror law,
instead of finding ways to give in more teeth. It should scrap failed
counter-insurgency programs that have only resulted in more human rights
abuses,” Reyes said.
“Justice should also be achieved for those wrongfully
arrested, jailed and tortured in the name of fighting the war on terror.
The group cited the case of a suspected terrorist in Basilan, Abdul Khan
Ajid, who was burned and sexually assaulted while being forced to confess
membership in the Abu Sayyaf.###
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9/11 IS A BLOWBACK ON US IMPERIALISM, CONDEMN
BOTH AL QAEDA AND US FOR TERRORISM
ILPS Statement on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
10 September 2011
We, the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS). join the entire
people of the world in commemorating the tenth anniversary of the
September 11 terrorist attacks which claimed the lives of nearly 3,000
people in the United States. In no uncertain terms, we strongly condemn
these horrendous attacks on civilians and al Qaeda as the self-admitted
perpetrator. We stand in solidarity with all the victims, their families
and the entire people in denouncing and opposing terrorism of whatever
scale.
9/11 is a blowback on US imperialism. The US has long promoted Islamic
fundamentalism as an ideological and political weapon against communism as
well as against secular nationalism, especially since the Cold War. Al
Qaeda emerged from the Islamic fundamentalists who were used by the US
against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan but who subsequently became
disgruntled with the US after Soviet occupation ended. It has vowed to
combat the US and its imperialist allies for their policies and acts of
plunder and aggression victimizing Islamic peoples and countries.
Instead of being remorseful for fostering Islamic fundamentalism and the
ground for al Qaeda, the US has used the attacks on the Twin Towers in New
York City and the Pentagon as pretext for terrorism on a far greater scale
under the policy of “global war on terror”. This has generated state
terrorism and wars of aggression and had inflicted atrocities of monstrous
proportions on peoples and countries worldwide. For the last ten years, we
have witnessed the lopsided contest of two monstrosities, the
mega-terrorism of the US and NATO powers and the mini-terrorism of al
Qaeda.
The US policy of “ global war on terror”, designed as a “perpetual” and
“borderless” war, is in fact a global war of terror against the people of
the world and against anti-imperialist and democratic forces. It has
resulted in millions of civilian deaths and the destruction of social
infrastructure. The US and its imperialist allies have seized 9/11 as the
opportunity to justify and use wars of aggression and expansionism as a
means to counter the ever-deepening crisis of monopoly capitalism.
9/11 has given rise to the doctrine of “pre-emptive first strike” used by
the US to invade Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2002. It has been invoked
by the US to declare countries like Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the
“axis of evil”; and to vilify Libya (up to 2004), Syria and Cuba in the
same vein. These countries have been in the crosshairs of the US military
machine. They are the target of war threats and provocations,
psychological warfare and special operations, vilification by the
corporate mass media, political and diplomatic isolation, economic and
trade sanctions.
The US has complemented its open wars of aggression with various forms of
military intervention, including highprofile and low-profile killings of
opponents in various countries, rendition and torture, the recruitment,
training, arming and financing of puppet armed units and joint military
operations with them. In connection with these, US Special Forces and CIA
operatives are deployed in 120 countries and are carrying out a “special
war”.
The US imperialists have encroached on the territory of other countries
and engaged in drone attacks on civilian populations as in Pakistan, the
permanent stationing of US forces and covert US combat and related
operations as in the Philippines and the opening of new US military bases,
forward stations and other installations as in a number of countries in
Central Asia, Latin America and elsewhere. The number and deployment of US
Special Forces under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) have
increased significantly under the regime of Obama.
So-called anti-terror legislation such as the USA PATRIOT Act as well as
the designation of groups and individuals as “foreign terrorists” has also
followed the 9/11 attacks. The PATRIOT Act legitimizes violations of the
rights and civil liberties of the American people. It allows limitless
surveillance, warrantless arrests and indeterminate detention without
charges in the name of security. Hard-won civil and political liberties
and constitutional rights of the people long established in bourgeois
jurisprudence are set aside or violated with impunity in the name of
countering “terrorism”. The PATRIOT Act has set the pattern for developing
the legal infrastructure for fascism on a global scale.
Detention facilities similar to Guantanamo prison and Abu Ghraib have been
established in many countries for detaining suspected terrorists and
“unlawful combatants” of different nationalities indefinitely without
charges. Torture and murder have been committed, especially in secret CIA
prisons across the world. The US, with or without the connivance or
consent of host governments, have carried out rendition operations in many
parts of the world whereby alleged suspected terrorists are covertly
abducted and brought to secret detention centers for interrogation,
torture and indefinite detention.
National liberation movements , anti-imperialist leaders and even
law-abiding Islamic organizations and charitable foundations have been
designated as “terrorist” and subjected to political persecution,
including arbitrary arrests, trumped-up charges, freezing of assets,
denial of political refugee status and related protection and deprivation
of social benefits, as well public defamation and incitement to violence
on tpersons labeled as “terrorist”. Under the aegis of the US-led war of
terror, the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and the
international monopoly media have been used as instruments and willing
accomplices to justify wars of aggression and crimes against humanity.
While condemning the 9/11 attacks on civilians, the ILPS also condemns the
far more destructive and vicious war of terror being waged by the US and
its allies in the name of fighting “terrorism”. This war of terror is
nothing less than the unrelenting attempts by US imperialism to impose
political, military, socio-economic and cultural hegemony on the peoples
of the world through the use of military might. The wars of aggression and
military occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya have brought about
far larger civilian casualties than the original 9/11 attacks. The US-NATO
global war of terror has masqueraded as humanitarian intervention,
protection of civilians and defense of human rights to kill and maim great
numbers of people.
In his inhuman and bizarre way, al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden has been
extremely successful in provoking and bringing out the unbridled
aggressive and terrorist character of imperialism. Even his killing,
considered by the US as a major victory in its so-called war on terror,
has served to whet the appetite of the US and its NATO partners for worse
acts of mega-terrorism. It is also quite ironical that the US and NATO
have once more connived with the al Qaeda through its branch, the Libyan
Islamic Fighting Group, against the Gaddafi government, thus utterly
exposing the “war on terror” as a monstrous and murderous lie.
Estimates show that since 9/11 the US has already spent as much as $4
trillion to fund its wars, occupation and intervention worldwide. The US
government under Bush and subsequently Obama, has delivered hundreds of
billions of dollars to the US military-industrial complex while reducing
spending for social services, entitlements and benefits. The gargantuan
military spending of the US is one of the immediate causes of the current
US debt crisis.
Ten years after 9/11, the US finds itself bogged down in a historic debt
crisis and protracted global depression. Its military forces are
overstretched and pinned down in several theaters of war around the globe.
The US retains more than 150,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and is now
engaged with NATO in a war of aggression in Libya.
Over the past decade, anti-war, anti-imperialist and armed revolutionary
movements have risen to resist the US wars of aggression. The American
people have repeatedly manifested their opposition to the use of 9/11 for
justifying wars of aggression. They have pressed for the withdrawal of
troops from Iraq and Afghanistan while protesting the huge military
spending at the expense of real economic recovery, state subsidies and
social services.
The peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine continue to wage
armed resistance to US-led and US-sponsored occupation and aggression.
Revolutionary and progressive movements in Asia, Latin America and Africa
are at the forefront of the people’s struggles for national and social
liberation. Countries like Cuba, People’s Democratic Republic of Korea and
Venezuela are asserting their sovereignty against US threats of
aggression. Exploited and oppressed peoples in both imperialist and
dominated countries are advancing the struggle against imperialist wars
and for redirecting resources to jobs, livelihood, fair wages and social
welfare.
It is imperative that the peoples of the world wage militant and sustained
struggles against the US and NATO wars of aggression, state terrorism and
counter-revolution. It is only through the struggle of the people that the
people can hope to eliminate all forms of terrorism and achieve a new and
better world of greater freedom, democracy, social justice, all-round
development and world peace. ###
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