Peter Dale Scott, Professor Emeritus of English at the University
of California, Berkeley, has written numerous books over the years
examining what he terms the "deep state" of American politics. His
newest book, The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America,
looks at the current crisis in America manifested through the current
War on Terror, but with a thorough discussion of the roots of Islamic
fundamentalism, the role of the deep state in supporting the growth of
extremism, and how these relationships have served to "blow back" at the
United States. Even this, though, contributes to furthering the plans
of the deep state, though, always at the expense of the public state.
The
book provides an overview of how elements hidden in the American
government, throughout the past thirty years at least, have continually
supported short term oil or security interests at the expense of the
public's (and their own) long term interests. Scott's 423-page book is
nearly half-filled with endnotes, which gives the reader many further
avenues of study, because the book itself is densely packed with
information. An important aspect of the book is that, like other studies
he has done, Scott does not name specific parties as guilty of one
crime or another, accuse the U.S. government of facilitating the attacks
of 9/11, or rely on untested and untestable hypotheses to come to his
conclusions. As the book states, "this book makes a more general
argument that the bureaucratic paranoia inside the American deep state,
undisciplined by the available wisdom of the public state, helped years
ago to create al Qaeda and then to create the circumstances in which,
almost inevitable, elements in al Qaeda would turn against the United
States." Throughout the work, he meticulously connects the dots between
the same players, institutions, and concepts that have so influenced
American foreign and domestic policy.
First, though, any reader of
this book should quickly come to understand Scott's distinction between
the public state of politics, and the deep state. The book examines
"the top 1 percent's direct or indirect control of certain specific
domains of government, beginning in the 1940's with the creation of the
CIA... Those parts of the government responding to their influence I
call the "deep state (if covert) or "security state" (if military)."
Once the reader understands the fundamental difference between the
public and deep state, superficial distinctions (such as Republican or
Democrat) disappear, as the hidden elite work together behind the scenes
for their shared interests more often than they work against each other
for the good of the public.
The erasure of these superficialities
is apparent when Scott examines the three presidencies of Ford, Carter,
and Reagan. Gerald Ford's short period in Oval Office is seen as the
pivotal administration in recent American history, as it brought to the
forefront of American politics the team of Dick Cheney and Donald
Rumsfeld in the White House and George H.W. Bush as Director of Central
Intelligence. But even further, Scott sees this presidency as the
defining moment in the battle in the deep state between the old
conservatives (influenced by the Rockefellers and the Council on Foreign
Relations) and the neoconservatives (influenced by the American
Enterprise Institute).
Although Ford was replaced by Jimmy Carter,
the foreign policy ideas of the previous administration were continued
by the new National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. It was under
Carter that aid to the Islamic militants in Afghanistan was first
provided, even before the Soviet Union invaded the country in 1979. It
was Brzezinski's goal to drag the Russians into their own Vietnam War,
turning public opinion against the USSR, bankrupting the nation, and
destabilizing the Soviet Union in general. This policy of supporting the
Afghan mujahideen continued under Reagan's administration, mainly under
the guidance of CIA Director William Casey.
Scott also examines
numerous other connections and undercurrents to the Afghan War. The
often-overlooked role of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International
is examined, as is the increasing flow of heroin from Afghanistan to the
United States during this period (and afterwards). One of the more
enlightening parts of the book is a chapter called "The Al-Kifah Center,
Al Qaeda, and the U.S. Government, 1988-1998," which examines various
relations between the government, the support of institutions heavily
influenced by Islamic extremism in America, and the growth of al Qaeda
throughout the world. Scott also examines the role of FBI and CIA
informant Ali Mohamed, "a close ally of Osama bin Laden," and
connections between the Saudi establishment, US establishment, and al
Qaeda.
However, some of the most revelatory information in the
book concerns plans for the Continuity of Government (COG), that had
been worked on by Cheney and Rumsfeld and originally disclosed during
the Iran-Contra affair. According to Scott, the COG plan "called for
'suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government over
to FEMA, emergency appointment of military commanders to run state and
local governments and declaration of martial law during a national
crisis.' The plan also gave the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
which had been involved in drafting it, sweeping new powers, including
internment." Disturbingly, the same team that worked on COG plans was
put back together in May 2001 by President George W. Bush to constitute a
task force on terrorism. Furthermore, the attacks of September 11,
2001, resulted in the first implementation of the COG plans.
Another
connection that the book points to is that the same team, headed by
Cheney and Rumsfeld, had been part of the Project for a New American
Century, which argued for greater military involvement in the Middle
East. In effect, the events of 9/11 allowed this team to implement the
two plans they had been working on since the 1980's: wars in two Middle
Easter countries and various parts of the COG planning, including
warrantless detentions and warrantless eavesdropping. As Scott asks,
"Were these practices decided on after 9/11, as the Bush administration
maintains? Or were they already being prepared for as part of the COG
planning revived by Cheney and FEMA in May 2001?"
In the final
chapters, Scott examines how COG was implemented on 9/11 by Cheney, and
the failures of the 9/11 Commission to look at this issue in any detail,
covering up Cheney's actions on that day. The omissions of the 9/11
Commission Report point to what really may have happened on that day,
and the chapter is quite revealing. It is also an in-depth discussion
that needs to be read in its entirety for Scott's arguments to be
followed completely.
In the end, though, The Road to 9/11
points out how influences in the deep state on American politics have
served various interests of the establishment and elite of the country,
while putting the public in greater danger of the attacks the government
is supposed to protect against. Even further, the catastrophic attacks
of 9/11 have led to the implementation of two relevant plans that
higher-ups in the administration currently in power had been working on
for years, in some cases decades. Whether these plans were in the
public's interest or not after such an event, the fundamental problem
for Scott lies in the fact that this deep state has taken such
widespread control of the government, reducing the public state to
little influence. Scott sums up his book by stating "over the past half
century, the open politics and representative institutions of the
American res publica (the public state) have been progressively subordinated to a res privata (a restrictively controlled locus of top-down decision making in the deep state)."
The
final pages of the book discuss various ways that the public can begin
to take back their power, and provide the entire work with hope in the
public state in the face of urgency to combat the influences of the deep
state. It will be an understanding of people by people that bridges the
gap between the civilizations of America and the Islamic world, not
continuing military involvements, and it is only through the free
exchange of information and ideas, through the internet and other
non-state or corporate controlled media that this exchange can take
place, and the true role of the public in restricting the private state
and creating a multinational civil society can be restored.
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