Was 9/11 an act of terrorism?

Terrorism is the systematic use of apparently random violence to instil fear in a population such that it will force its leadership to change policies.

Since September 11, 2001 the American population has been relentlessly lambasted with the word Terrorism, largely from its own leadership, as a means of forcing the people to accept the pre-existing agendas of the small and exclusive leadership class. This, in itself, is a form of terrorism; it is psychological terrorism waged by a government on its own people.

But what about the reality of the World Trade Center? Most analysts agree that this attack was an "unconventional paramilitary attack", not an act of terrorism. If intended as terrorism, it was a short lived failure. Why? Because, to be effective, a terrorist act must instil fear in a broad based, general population. People, at large, must be unsure of where it might strike next; they must be made unsure of their own safety.

Certainly, the broad population reacted with shock at the incessant television replays of the impacting airliner and the collapsing buildings. But, very quickly, that same population said, "I don't live in New York", "I don't work in an iconic high rise", "I don't fly often, if at all", and, "My chances of dying in an air accident are far greater than those of dying from terrorists taking the plane". In other words, the event was quickly localized both geographically and demographically. It might happen again, but to the other guy.

If 9/11 was not terrorism, and was used as a pretext for the launching of a preordained ethnically/religiously based grab for oil, what terrorism has there been, aside from the Bush administration's ceaseless efforts to instill fear in Americans, on U.S. soil? The Anthrax mailings were a perfect example of terrorism. From coast to coast Americans were afraid to open mail unless they were absolutely certain of the sender. This vehicle targeted no particular locality or demographic. This vehicle, once the contaminant had been produced and refined (anthrax is a relatively large, sticky spore. To be aerosolized it must be chemically washed and reduced to 5 microns) could be launched by anyone with an envelope and postage. No amount of centralized vigilance over mail distribution is practically within reach. And, unlike the incredibly convenient circumstance of a "hi-jacker's passport" quickly turning up atop the millions of tons of paper and construction debris at the WTC, there was no identifiable source; it could have been that reclusive neighbour of yours.

Yet, regardless of the preposterous "bio-weapons" claims, based on statements from a previously discredited source code named "curveball" that were put before the U.N., the anthrax events were barely mentioned by the administration. Yes, we put effort into the case. I was the Crisis Interventionist for the 90 person Centers for Disease Control team that scoured Washington, D.C. for weeks. Several doctors and microbiologists on our team had been redeployed, without break, from the WTC, where they had been busy cataloguing and analysing >29,000 body parts – testing for contaminants including explosives, and chemical and biologic agents. Our first three days were 23 hours on and 1 hour off. I did have to relieve and replace several team members.

In the following months I was frequently asked to speak to large audiences, often craving some basis of knowledge for their growing feelings of hatred. Facing shouts of "They hate us for what we have!" and "Those miserable ragheads are just jealous of us!", I tried to call upon my two years of living in North African Muslim countries to explain the Muslim concept of "Ummah" – the body of Islam, just as "the Church" is conceived as the body of Christianity. I explained that a fundamental precept of Islam is the rendering of aid to a fellow Muslim. Indeed, hospitality to anyone, Muslim or not, is almost unparalleled elsewhere. I explained that the daily Israeli abuses of Palestinians, including land grabs, deprivation of clean water and fuel, shameful degradation at checkpoints, and even the causing of death among men, women and children in ambulances held up at Israeli checkpoints are seen in the Muslim world as an attack on the Ummah. And no one can deny that the Israeli regime is overwhelmingly funded and armed by the American taxpayer. In the face of such a daily, massive assault it is no wonder that those who are capable of doing so would bring the fight beyond the well armed puppet to the soft underbelly of the puppet master. In the same logic paradigm so famously spouted by the nominal President Bush, "If you're not for us, you're against us", the Ummah has said, "Not saying No is saying Yes". And saying Yes must mean being willing to pay the price.

So long as a people is willing to support and fund a proxy assault on another, less well armed and organized people they must look forward to an asymmetric, generalized, and random response. Terrorism is not a State level policy, or even a strategy. It is a tactic employed by people who see themselves as a nation, in the same way that a member of the Cherokee Nation living in North Carolina feels an assault against a fellow Cherokee living in Oklahoma. When the perpetrator of that assault is seen as a State level entity, the members of that State are seen as equally culpable wherever they may be found.

Let's think about our thinking.