Al-Qaeda, A CIA by-product, Is Antithetical to Kashmiri Struggle

BASHARAT SHAMEEM

Regarding the newly found Al-Qaeda and Daesh fantasy of some “charged up” Kashmiris, it is important for Kashmiris to know that aligning with groups like these is to essentially do what their oppressors have been wanting them to do rather failingly–to deny and malign the primacy of their historical struggle and sacrifices which date back to several centuries. These groups are the illegal products and binaries of the dirty world of US imperialism whose aim is to maintain its hegemony and to crush all its opponents. It is for those misled youth to think that the authenticity of Kashmir’s political struggle needs to be maintained. For all those stirred up youth who fantasize Al-Qaeda and Daesh, this article is a small intro on the genesis of Al-Qaeda which must lay bare certain delusions that the extremist propaganda proliferates in the young minds.

In 1979, when USSR had done the mistake of invading Afghanistan, a person named Zbigniew Brzezinski, the then US National Security Advisor and a very astute political scientist, is said to have conceived the plan of American proxies going to hit USSR and defeat the Communist bloc by turning Afghanistan into USSR’s “Vietnam”. Brezinzski is sometimes regarded as the Godfather of Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. He is reported to have told the US establishment then, “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.” Zbigniew Brzezinski visited Afganistan in the same year and met with Osama Bin Laden, the pictures of which are still preserved. Brzezinski is reported to have conveyed to the mujahideen: “We know of your deep belief in God, and we are confident your struggle will succeed. That land over there is yours, you’ll go back to it one day because your fight will prevail, and you’ll have your homes and your mosques back again. Because your cause is right and God is on your side.” Imagine the ludicrousness of American imperial interests coinciding with sacred Jihadi goals; it is nothing but pure rubbish.

To hurt USSR, the CIA along with help from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, funded, organized, armed and trained radical recruits to fight the Soviet Army in a manufactured holy war in Afghanistan. In this way, the foundation of Al-Qaeda, was laid by CIA and its head was none else but one of the more trusted CIA operatives, Osama Bin Laden. Al-Qaeda was created to serve as a CIA proxy in Afghanistan and as such, it had got nothing to do with Islam as such. A former British Foreign secretary, Robin Cook has said: “Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.”

Many informed analysts, authors, journalists, secret agents, intelligence chiefs, and leaders have substantiated the claim that Al-Qaeda was funded, armed and trained by the CIA to fulfill the US imperialist objectives–the first of which was to destroy the Communist bloc and later on, when this goal was achieved, to create a binary enemy among Muslims which will allow the US to perpetuate and justify wars in the Muslim countries.It was the CIA which trained Al Qaeda in special terrorist operations for which it is now known. These include car bombs, assassinations, hijackings, kidnappings which are now dubbed as terrorist acts. Eminent US journalists and authors like Alex Jones and Webster Tarpley have expressed serious doubts over the official US narrative on 9/11 attacks. In his book, “9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA”, Tarpley alludes to it as another dirty operation done by rogue CIA elements in collusion with their manufactured proxies like Al-Qaeda so as to achieve the long term strategic goals in the world. Further, in an interview with Press TV, Tarpley, quoting various US defense sources, refers to Ayman Zawahiri, the so-called current Al-Qaeda chief, as a double agent of CIA and MI 6. In 2010, Washington Post carried a report in which it was revealed that it was CIA which had created several fake Osama videos in order to perpetuate its enterprise of lies and deception regarding Al-Qaeda.
It is no surprise that as the 1997 official US government security document titled “Project for the New American Century” revealed, the US will strike and invade any country at will at any time because the US has a God given right of destroying any power that challenges its hegemony in any way. Since much of US attention is focused on the oil resources of Middle East, it thinks that where it can, it will invade directly and where it cannot, it will use its satellite state Israel and also other well nurtured proxies like Al-Qaeda and ISIS. As Tariq Ali says, the role of such groups is also to create widespread destabilisation and destruction of progressive people and governments within the Islamic world. A case in study is Syria and much of the Middle East. What is intriguing is that despite being only some distance away from Israel, the ISIS hasn’t carried one attack against it and that too when it believes in the complete annihilation of the so-called “infidels”. But still, the ISIS goes and strikes deep into the heart of Europe.

There has indeed been a whole lot of analysis about the dirty linkages between CIA and the international terrorist organizations, but perhaps, the most startling revelation about Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda in the recent times has come from the former CIA/NSA officer Edward Snowden. In an interview with the Moscow Tribune in May 2016, Snowden reveals rather astonishingly:

“The so-called leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, who was supposedly killed in Pakistan in 2011 by U.S. special forces, is still alive and well, living in the Bahamas, on the payroll of the CIA…I have documents showing that Bin Laden is still on the CIA’s payroll. He is still receiving more than $100,000 a month, which is being transferred through some front businesses and organizations, directly to his Nassau bank account. I am not certain where he is now, but in 2013, he was living quietly in his villa with five of his wives and many children… The CIA orchestrated the fake death of the former leader of Al-Qaeda who was one of the CIA’s most efficient operatives for a long time. What kind of message would it send their other operatives if they were to let the SEALs kill him? They organized his fake death with the collaboration of the Pakistani Secret Services, and he simply abandoned his cover. Since everyone believes he is dead, nobody’s looking for him, so it was pretty easy to disappear. Without the beard and the military jacket, nobody recognizes him.”

Edward Snowden further states that he will talk about the documents which prove Bin Laden is alive in his soon-to-be-released book. Even though Snowden’s claims have not been substantiated and confirmed by other sources, there are enough reasons to believe the dirty fiddlings of CIA in creating imaginary binaries in terrorist groups and individuals from time to time. The sad part is that disaffected and disenchanted youth (like Zakir Moosa, for instance)in the Muslim societies do fall prey to this dirty trap which is meant only to bring ruin to their own cultures and societies. The need is to delink the social and political struggles from these terrible imperialist traps from Morocco to Indonesia and Kashmir is no exception.

There is no need to get trapped into radicalism or the so called Caliphate glory even if a right wing frenzy is fast overtaking Indian polity and society alike. In these circumstances, maintaining political authenticity will make the Kashmir struggle morally more credible. On the contrary, efforts should be made to broaden its scope by making it more plural and comprehensive. That can be done by forming solidarity consensus with other struggling people in India and elsewhere. There is also a need to recalibrate the different social movements of different sections like peasants, workers and students within the broader political movement. While all the focus has been on politics, it is imperative to note that the effect of the Land Reforms of 1950s is now waning to a significant level and consequently, new challenges have erupted for the Kashmiri peasantry. The floods of 2014 have also ravaged them; they are now under a heavy burden of bank loans. The turmoil of the last two and a half decades has also given rise to a kleptocracy of its own in Kashmir, primarily because of a blind patronage to the loyalist elites by the Indian state. This has resulted in a large scale corruption and plunder of the state’s resources with simply no accountability at all. All this has come at the cost of the exploitation of the working class masses. The Daily Wage system/ Casual Labour system in vogue in the state is one of the most repressive. The plight of these labourers is terribly bad; they face severe circumstances while undertaking difficult jobs for a very meagre biological minimum. For instance, every week, a story comes about the death or serious injury to a PDD Daily wager. These labourers are exploited by almost every government department. Till this day, nobody has shown any serious concern towards their plight. Another serious issue is the gradual privatisation of the state’s education sector and a complete lack of attention towards the government sponsored education due to the paucity of funds. This is proving highly detrimental as the children of the disaffected populations are being deprived of the quality education. There is a total alienation among these social classes. Instead of falling into the trap of an illusionary enterprise of global fundamentalism, there is ample scope to calibrate and the energize the political struggle by incorporating these class based struggles to make it a truly mass movement aimed to deliver political and social emancipation in real and concrete terms.