By Sajjad Shaukat
Taking note of the acts of terrorism in San Bernardino, Orlando, Paris, Brussels, Munich and Nice, Pakistani author Sajjad Shaukat said in a detailed statement that in his research-based book, “US vs Islamic, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations,” which was first published in 2005, he had already predicted terror attacks in the US and Europe.
Shaukat elaborated that these terror-attacks cannot be seen in isolation, as the same are part of some other related-developments, as he analyzed in the book.
Explaining previous developments, the author wrote that injustices of the New World Order and anti-Muslim policies had already been started by the American former President Bush, (The Senior) when the United States emerged as the sole superpower in the unipolar world after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union.
Mentioning other developments and terror-events such as the manipulation of the 9/11 tragedy by the US President George W. Bush, neoconservatives and Israeli lobbies against the Muslims and Islamic countries, occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq by the US-led Western countries (NATO), their brutal tactics like heavy air bombardment and ground shelling by the sophisticated war machinery, including special military operations and extra-judicial assassinations which killed several innocent Muslims in these countries and other states like Somalia, Yemen etc. where America was indirectly involved, and exploitation of the global war on terror by Israel and India who accelerated state terrorism in the occupied territories of the Palestine and Kashmir, and in response, the guerilla warfare by the Muslim radicals, exchange of firings and suicide attacks on the Western installations and nationals in the occupied countries and in various vulnerable Islamic countries and Philippines, Shaukat has already pointed out that it was due to this faulty strategy which organized the Islamic militant outfits like Al-Qaeda on global and regional level, having links with one another. Such a policy of the US-led state terrorism also resulted into more recruitment by the militant groups who began checking the hegemony of America—inequalities of the US-led world’s status quo like a state actor since the 9/11 tragedy, and counterbalanced the power of the sole superpower in another way.
In the book, the author has also mentioned Guantanamo Bay, Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and CIA torture cells which were set up in several Muslim countries and in ships where US secret agencies and military personnel employed various methods of torture on the militants and suspected persons like physical violence and even murder. And without evidence, CIA continued indiscriminate mass round-ups of the suspected Muslim men and women in Afghanistan and Iraq and in some Arab countries.
Shaukat wrote that the US had planned to spark a civil war between Sunnis and Shias. In this respect, he pointed to a report of the Rand Corporation, which was prepared on behalf of the then US Deputy Chief of Staff for Air Force. The report advocated that Sunni-Shia, Arab-non-Arab sectarian and ethnic divides should be exploited to promote the US objectives in the Muslim World.
The report was first implemented in Iraq in 2004 where a chain of Shia-Sunni clashes started. After that experiment, more deadly pattern of sectarian violence was conducted in Pakistan, which still continues. Now, terror attacks on sectarian lines could also be noted in case of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria and in some African countries.
In reaction to perennial state terrorism by the US-led entities, a number of terror-attacks and attempts by the militants like a series of bomb attacks on London’s transport network in 2005, and plane plot in UK in 2006 with liquid bombs, and defeat of Israel in the 2006 war by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah are in consonance with author’s future assessments.
The author also gave valuable suggestions to America and its Western allies, which included solution of Palestinian and Kashmir issues, withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan, reforming of the UNO by giving importance to the General Assembly equally with the Security Council, redressing the grievances of the Third World, particularly those of the Islamic countries. He emphasized stability in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East, which are necessary for America and its Western partners to promote their regional and global interests. Otherwise, he forecast that if the US new style conflict with the Muslim factions continued, it would assume a dangerous turn in the near future. This war would prolong and America and its allies would have to attack a number of Muslim countries. But, instead of rectifying America’s external policy of Bush-era, President Barack Obama and its Western allies, particularly Europe continued faulty policies such as maintenance of troops in Afghanistan, air strikes on Libya, support to Syrian rebels and the terrorists of the Islamic State group (Also known as Daesh, ISIS, ISIL), including Al-Qaeda’s Al-Nusra Front in fighting against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Quite contrary to Shaukat’s positive proposals, President Obama also carried on extrajudicial killings of the innocent people through illegal CIA-operated drone attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen etc., and toppled the democratic government of Egypt by backing the military, including support to pro-American dictators of some Arab states like Saudi Arabia who also assist ISIS.
Sajjad Shaukat who thoroughly analyzed secret strategies of the sovereign states in his book, says that If President Bush franchised Al-Qaeda, President Obama and its European allies franchised both Al-Qaeda and ISIS. It was owing to their irresponsible approach or double game that especially ISIS has become more dangerous terrorist group in the world, which conducted terror assaults in Indonesia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Yemen, Libya and in some other African countries, and has, now, enveloped the US and Europe. While, various terror attacks on Christians in Nigeria and some other African countries by Al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups are also noteworthy.
After the terror-related incidents which occurred in the US and Europe, Western think-tanks and researchers have, again, been focusing on the causes of the suicide attacks. In this context, the author wrote in the book that besides other causes, the most important cause behind the suicide attacks is that when real brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, parents and the fellows of the Muslims, demanding independence from the US-led neo-imperialism are being killed due to state terrorism, extremism develops in the concerned persons who feel psychologically compelled to commit violent acts and the political objectives they espouse are only a rationalization. Psychologically speaking, when a person crosses the stage of fear towards non-fear in these adverse circumstances, the previous one can never be achieved and in such a case, even a coward person becomes bold to commit suicide or any violent acts. A number of suicide missions in Iraq (During occupation), Afghanistan, Israel and the Indian-held Kashmir verify this fact. Particularly, some events of women committing suicide also testify this fact. It is because of these reasons that human lives themselves become bombs, supplying the requisites of new style deterrence.
Shaukat who clarified in the book that like other religions, Islam is a religion of peace and Jihad does not permit acts of terrorism or suicide assaults. By updating his observation, he said that just as, the US-led major developed countries misused the global war on terror to impose the agenda of neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism on the Islamic countries, terrorist outfits such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS and their affiliated groups also misinterpret the concept of Jihad to motivate the common Muslims to join their outfits to target Christians, Westerners and especially Americans. He also stated that it is religious fervour, created by Trump against the Muslims and some irresponsible politicians of Europe, which will further endanger the world in general and the US and Europe in particular.
Shaukat already opined that the states and these stateless warriors could cause a major war in the Middle East and South Asia by exploiting the terrorism phenomena. This actually happened when there was likelihood of war between Pakistan and India, after the Mumbai terror-attacks of 2008. Similarly, besides previous tension between Syria and Israel, present one between Russian-led coalition of Iran, Iraq, Syrian forces, Hezbollah and the US-led West, especially Europe are also in accordance with author’s future assessments, as he also predicted that the Islamic radical factions have the power to disturb a regional balance in their favour and to give a setback to the peace processes. On the other hand, state actors like Israel and India who are being encouraged by the double standards of America and Europe also manipulate the opportunity to fulfill their selfish interests, as noted in case of Syrian war and Kashmir.
The author indicated that equation of wars of liberation in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine with terrorism have also resulted in manipulation of the terrorism-phenomena by the militant outfits like ISIS.
Shaukat wrote that millions of Muslims are living in the US and Europe. Some of extremist Muslims might have been cooperating with the Islamic extremists. In this respect, the twin bombings in the Boston Marathon (USA) which killed three people on April 15, 2013 were carried out by two Chechens who were from Chechnya. Similarly, in a barbaric attack on May 22, 2013, two terrorists killed one British soldier in London with knives. One of the killers was a British citizen of Nigerian origin. Three days after that incident, a French soldier was stabbed in the throat by an unknown terrorist in Paris. French investigations pointed out that these two brutal acts show similarities and connections among the extremist Muslims. Besides some terror assaults such as at US military facilities in Chattanooga by a Kuwaiti citizen Abdulazeez, on July 16, 2015 are notable, as ISIL claimed responsibility for these terror attacks.
Citing references of history of Europe and secret strategies of the power-theorists like Machiavelli, Hobbes, Morgenthau and Henry Kissinger, which are being followed by the US and Western countries, Shaukat said in light of his book that terrorism-related incidents of San Bernardino, Orlando, Paris, Brussels, Munich and Nice were false flag operations, because some state actors like Israel and America and their intelligence agencies such as CIA and particularly Israeli Mossad were in collaboration with the ISIS which has, itself, used home-grown Muslim extremists of America and Europe in arranging these terror assaults. Washington and Tel Aviv wanted to obtain several aims through these false flag terrorist attacks. In this context, they wanted to keep the US and Europe united against Russian-led coalition in relation to Syrian war, to divert the attention of American and European public from the prolonged war in Afghanistan, to avoid the two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue—exaggeration of the so-called Islamophobia, persecution of the Muslims in their countries and to ensure the pro-Israeli and pro-Indian Donald J. Trump-the Republican presidential nominee’s success in the coming presidential elections of the United States, as he is well-known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and in manipulation of the terror incidents which occurred in America and Europe.
The author mentioned that preplanned scheme of the CIA-Mossad is also inspiring the Christians and Muslims against each other. Some terror-related assaults in America and Europe are the result of self-resentment, conducted by the individuals, having no links with the ISIL. For example, the teenager Ali David Sonboly who killed 9 people in Munich had no connection with the ISIS. Police investigation revealed that he was a mentally troubled person and police also discovered extremist material, linked to the attack by Andres Behring Brevik, the white supremacist who murdered 77 persons in Norway in 2011. Likewise, an Afghan refugee attacked people with an ax-and-knife in a German train near Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, leaving five people severely injured. Although, the ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on the German train, yet the German authorities disclosed, “It appears the 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who was killed by police have self-radicalized and had no direct link to the extremists.” Regarding mass shooting at the night gay club of Orlando, even, President Obama stated on June 12, 2016, “Federal authorities had made no definitive judgement on the killer’s motivation, and whether he was inspired by or directed by Islamic State or other terrorist groups. Obama made it clear by elaborating, “Shooting was the result of Mateen’s personal resentment in relation to the gay club.”
On July 25, this year, a priest has been killed in an attack by two armed men in a church of France near the city of Rouen. ISIL claimed responsibility for the assault. However, CIA and Mossad are radicalizing the Christians and the Muslims. In one way or the other, all these events were false flag terror attacks.
Nevertheless, the author added that all these terror-events verified his future observations. In this connection, Shaukat has also used the term of “intermixing of races” for the Western multicultural societies and explained that in America and Europe, it provides a successful cover to the Muslim activists, including CIA and Mossad in keeping them anonymous.
Sajjad Shaukat remarked that when Iraq-based ISIS which proclaimed a worldwide caliphate by its leader Abu Baker al-Baghdadi on June 29, 2014, its criminal actions had widely been criticized in the world, with many Islamic communities judging the group to be unrepresentative of Islam. One of ISIS’s goals has been to establish a radical Sunni Islamic state in Iraq and Syria Jordan, Palestine etc. (Levant region). It has been used by the US and Israel for distorting the image of Islam and for inciting the feelings of Western Christians and Kurds against the Muslims. For the purpose, like Al-Qaeda, it is widely known for its violent acts and propaganda which includes Internet videos of beheadings etc. Nonetheless, besides some Islamic countries, a majority of the religious extremists (Muslims) from the Western World joined the ISIS. In this regard, oblivion on the part of the West—especially the US and Europe about ISIS recruits from their countries is questionable.
The author pointed out that despite their vast resources, technical intelligence e.g. satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and human intelligence—extraordinary long-range aerial military capacity, the ability to strike at will from the space at any point on the globe, America and its major European allies, including their secret agencies failed in destroying the networks of ISIS and Al Qaeda, and in stopping acts of sabotage in the US and Europe.
He wrote in the book that line between official and non-official terrorism has been blurred in this ‘different war,’ owing to the US-led major European countries who consider themselves rational actors, but take the weak-small Muslim countries as irrational actors, while these big states act upon irrational policies.
The author has warned in the last chapter of the book that if new system for world peace is not being evolved by reconciling realism (power factor) with idealism by taking cognizance of the collective interests of humanity—big and small states, without discrimination, and if poverty is not being eliminated in the poor countries, the international community could divide on religious lines, culminating into clash of civilizations. He indicated that in case, Israeli-Palestinian issue and Kashmir dispute remain unsettled due to the silence of America and its major European partners, and NATO states keep presence in Afghanistan, these countries would remain breeding grounds of militants. He has also proposed to deploy UN forces between Israeli and Palestinian territories and to set up no-fly zone. But Israeli-led America did not agree. In light of analysis, mentioned in the book, Shaukat also emphasized on the solution of the Syrian crisis.
In the book, Shaukat has said that after the failure of power factor by America and its allies, more state terrorism would result into more terrorism led by the militant outfits. He has predicted more terror attacks in the US and Europe by opining that if America and its Western allies, especially European partners continued their present irresponsible policies in connection with Syria, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Palestine, ISIS etc.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of this book.
Email: sajjad_logic_pak@hotmail.com
Courtesy Veterans Today.
