alt.politics.gw-bush

Bush the 'Best Ally' of Bin Laden

( ) - President Bush is the "best ally" of Osama bin Laden and
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, leftist MIT professor Noam Chomsky
was quoted as telling one of Japan's largest newspapers on Tuesday.

The newspaper, Mainichi Shimbun, published what it called an exclusive
interview with Chomsky, to coincide with the sixth anniversary of al-Qaeda's
terrorist attacks on the United States.

In the interview, Chomsky argued that the Iraq war "significantly increased
the threat of terror," and he cited Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst
and author of the book "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on
Terror," as calling Bush bin Laden's main ally.

Chomsky later added, "just as Bush is Osama Bin Laden's best ally, he is
also Ahmadinejad's best ally." Washington's "threats" against Iran had the
anticipated effect of making the Iranian government "more harsh and verbal,"
he said.

The interview was published four days after al-Qaeda released a video
message from bin Laden in which the fugitive terrorist approvingly cited
both Chomsky and Scheuer.

"This war [in Iraq] was entirely unnecessary," bin Laden said in the video,
according to the transcript released by the SITE Institute. "And among the
most capable of those from your own side who speak to you on this topic and
on the manufacturing of public opinion is Noam Chomsky, who spoke sober
words of advice prior to the war, but the leader of Texas doesn't like those
who give advice."

The al-Qaeda chief also urged those wanting to know the reasons why the West
is "losing" the war to "read the book of Michael Scheuer."

Elsewhere in the Mainichi interview, Chomsky is quoted as saying:

-- That he had predicted directly after 9/11 that governments would use the
attacks "as an excuse" to intensify repression.

-- That the invasion of Iraq was a war crime.

-- That the . bombed Taliban-ruled Afghanistan after 9/11 despite having
no real evidence at the time that the plot had been hatched in that country.

-- That while Afghanistan today needs constructive help, including offers of
alternatives to poppy cultivation by peasants, "what the West prefers to do
is to bomb."

-- That "the United States is not a functioning democracy."

-- That the "first 9/11" wasn't the al-Qaeda attack in 2001 but the Sept.
11, 1973 military coup that toppled Chile's communist President Salvadore
Allende. "The effect of the first 9/11 was incomparably worse than the
second 9/11," Chomsky says. "How come nobody talks about that? Well there is
a simple reason. Because we were responsible for it."
/news/11553776/

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's
not that important. It's not our priority." - . Bush, 3/13/02