For Your Information

Who is Harbouring and Financing Terrorists?

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, U.S. President George W. Bush has pledged to strike back, not only at the terrorists who committed the attacks, but also against all those countries that harbour terrorists and finance their activities. Various "experts" on terrorism have appeared on television to suggest that the countries that fit this description are Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Algeria and Libya. Others have added Pakistan, China, North Korea and other countries to the list. But if Bush is indeed serious about his pledge, perhaps he should be looking closer.

Since the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Batista regime in Cuba in 1959, the U.S. CIA has actively recruited, trained, financed and armed thousands of Cuban expatriots to commit innumerable terrorist attacks against the people of Cuba. These CIA operatives have also been used to commit terrorist acts in other countries of Latin America. For over 40 years they have found sanctuary in Miami.

Through its School of the Americas, the CIA has also recruited, trained, and armed the death squads that have murdered tens of thousands of peasants, labour leaders and religious personalities in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia and other countries of Latin America.

During the 1980s, the U.S., with the support of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait recruited, organized, financed and armed the so-called Islamic fundamentalists to wage a "holy war" against the Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan and eventually against the Soviet troops sent to shore up that government. Amongst the "Islamic fundamentalists" organized by the U.S. and their allies were both the Taliban Afghanis who eventually seized control of the country and the al-Qaida organization controlled by Osama bin Laden. Following the 1989 withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan, a section of these forces created by the U.S. were used by the Americans to fight on their behalf in Bosnia. Other sections went to Algeria and Egypt where they have murdered thousands of civilians and hundreds of tourists in attempts to destabilize those governments.

In recent days U.S. security experts have admitted that the Saudi Arabian royal family has financed Osama bin Laden's group, as well as "Islamic" terrorists in Algeria and Egypt. Yet Saudi Arabia is not on any of the lists of those who should be bombed for "harbouring and financing terrorist networks". Instead, the same "experts" have suggested that the U.S. should "speak to the Saudi government" about cutting off their financial support for bin Laden, while proposing military strikes against countries which have no demonstrated links to those groups.