The Shadow Government: 9-11 and State Terror

by Len Bracken, Kenn Thomas (Introduction), Andrew Smith (Contributor)

This book presents the alarming evidence that nation-states actively engage in terror, and also passively allow terror to be visited upon their citizens. It is not just liberation movements and radical groups that deploy terrorist tactics for offensive ends. States use terror defensively to directly intimidate their citizens, and to indirectly attack themselves or harm their citizens under a false flag. Their motivation? To provide pretexts for otherwise unwanted wars, or to gain increased police powers. Statesmen have executed indirect terrorism in various ways, but most plots tend to involve the pretence of blind eyes, misdirection, and cover-ups that give the statesmen plausible deniability. The shrinking of the 'Lusitania', the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the October Surprise, the first World Trade Center bombing, the Oklahoma City bombing and other well-known incidents suggest that terrorism is often successfully used by states to take the offensive against enemies at home and abroad. Was 9--11 such an indirect defensive attack?Len Bracken traces the clues circumstantially connecting a multi-armed hydra of oil interests, the CIA, FBI diplomats and statesmen to the September 11 attacks and examines whether they were engineered or allowed as a pretext for the war in Afghanistan. The subsequent anthrax attack targeting Democratic senators is considered in light of the controversial USA Patriot Acts rights-encroaching measures and the act's easy passage under conditions of terror. A shadow government appears to have covered the land like black ice.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 1 out of 5]

A BOOK THAT RAISES PROVOCATIVE QUESTIONS ABOUT 9/11

Len Bracken is also the author of 'The Arch Conspirator: Essays and Actions,' 'Freeplay,' 'The East Is Black,' and 'Guy Debord: The Life and Times of a Situationist Revolutionary.'

Kenn Thomas (editor of Steamshovel Press) wrote in the Foreword to this 2002 book, "the notion of hidden underground bunkers housing the true manipulators of the world... had long been laughed at as the product of crazy, paranoid minds. The September 11 attacks granted a new legitimacy to that idea, to the idea of sleeper agents, mind-controlled assassins... to the whole gamut of conspiracy theory ideas that before had seemed so far-fetched."

Bracken writes, "We promised at the outset to ask pertinent questions. Here is one: Did the administration let its supposed concern for the national interest regarding oil supply, which is in reality a class interest, allow 9-11 to happen as an object in the logic for war?" (Pg. 78)

Later, he asks, "were the threats designed to provoke a preemptive strike that the US defense establishment would allow to happen or even an operation carried out by infiltrators that in either case, would serve as a pretext to invade Afghanistan?" (Pg. 96) Then, "How much would people like (George) Tenet and (Dick) Cheney pay with their souls if in fact they knew about the September 11 attacks in advance and then did nothing to stop them, if they committed contributory negligence in something of an inside job?" (Pg. 115)

Later, he suggests that the War on Terrorism may have been launched by "allowing an attack to take place so as to beat it back" (Pg. 132) His ultimate conclusion is that "the United States provoked a preemptive strike and allowed it to happen to advance energy, construction, and military interests..." (Pg. 142)

Bracken's book raises many interesting questions; you may not be satisfied with his documentation for them (as I am not), but it's an interesting book, for those interested in conspiratorial literature.

[Woolly Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit repetitive and not overly well-written. Didn't really present much unknown information, either