September 11, 2001 was a day none of us will ever forget. I woke up to an early morning phone call. My friend was screaming for me to turn on BBC news.

The BBC newsman asked a man dressed in a suit and tie, a man who looked and sounded as if he had an education, if he thought the events at the WTC could be the result of US foreign policy in the Middle East.

I’ll never forget what this man on the streets of New York said:

"What does flying airplanes into buildings have to do with politics?"

The public is not used to questioning its government, or questioning how a continuous stream of oil is provided at under $30 a barrel. They never question the means through which their lifestyle is provided.

Most just don’t want to know the truth.

The truth is, war is always a last resort. It’s the reaction of people backed into a corner, which is precisely where western society is today. We face the immediate and perpetual decline in our standard of living if we don’t steal every oil, gas and uranium deposit on Earth before 2012.

This is a simple mathematical fact. Population growth and industrial demand are outpacing energy production growth, and have been since 1979. World oil production will peak around 2012, and after that, it’s a rapid slide downhill.

Short of a major energy breakthrough, we face a never before seen energy crisis by the end of this decade, made worse by the exponential rise in Chinese, Caspian and Indian energy demands between now and 2012.

Governments know this. So do the energy companies. But they’re not interested in finding an alternate energy source, because to do so would mean the government and its corporate sponsors in the petroleum and defence industries will no longer be on top of the heap.

And they really, really like being in charge.

So rather than spend on scientific research into sustainable energy, we spend nearly $1 trillion a year making things to kill lots and lots of colored people, steal their land and steal their mineral rights. In doing so, we extend the life of the empire by baby steps, at the cost of millions of lives and trillions of taxpayer’s dollars.

Harry Truman used to have a sign on his desk that said, "The buck stops here."

Let’s follow that buck. Let’s follow the flow of history, and then follow the money.

First, a timeline to show why the world is mad at the USA. Then a timeline to let the reader decide what the war on terror is about: using genocide to keep the top dogs on top, or fighting terrorists.

Sept. 11, 1609 Henry Hudson "discovers" (i.e. steals) Manhattan Island. Blankets infected with bubonic plague and smallpox are given to the natives so the colonial armies can save bullets. In the NY area alone, more than 150,000 First Nations people are killed or left homeless in the ensuing years.

Sept. 11, 1839 President Martin van Buren, through the US state department, tried to have the executive branch interfere with the judiciary, in order to have a group of Africans, free men by American law at the time, returned to their "rightful owners," the Spanish Crown, and sent to Cuba for detention followed by trial and execution, even though US law at the time stated clearly that only slaves born into slavery were legally slaves in the United States.

Sept. 11, 1917 Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines president from1965 to '86) is born. His US sponsored military dictatorship and death squads trained at Fort Benning, Georgia were responsible for the death of tens of thousands of Philippinos. Hundreds of thousands more were tortured, mutilated and had their homes burnt to the ground with US state department approval.

Sept. 11, 1919 The US once again invades Honduras on behalf of the United Fruit Company to put down a popular revolt against a US puppet dictatorship that had been murdering, starving and torturing the populace at the behest of United Fruit for decades.

Sept. 11, 1922 The British mandate of Palestine begins. British guns killed tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs, displacing them from their homes and settlements that were then given to Jewish settlers. More than 1,200 villages were totally destroyed by the British in collaboration with Jewish militants. Since that time, more than three million Palestinians have been made homeless, and more than 100,000 have been killed by British, American and Israeli soldiers, to make room for Jewish settlers in contravention of international law, and in violation of no less than 30 directives of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Sept. 11, 1941 Ground is first broken for construction of the Pentagon, with financial support coming from many US corporations that were actively trading with the Nazis, some of them until 1945. Among those corporations were IBM, GE, Ford and ITT.

But there were also many others. One of these Nazi collaborators was Prescott Bush, grandfather of G W Bush. Prescott used Auschwitz slave labor contracted from IG Farben at his Nazi steel manufacturing plant, Consolidated Silesian Steel, of which he was managing director.

www.bushnews.com/jews.htm

Wall Street and the US media were so enthralled with Hitler that Roosevelt had to trick Americans into going to war by allowing the bombing of Pearl Harbor after backing Japan into a corner with a trade embargo.

Since that time, the Pentagon has made the US the only nation in history to use atomic bombs against civilians, not once, but twice. It has murdered three million in Korea, three million in Vietnam, three million in Cambodia, one million in Laos, more than a million in Latin America and two million in Iraq so far. The US has armed dictators in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Africa who have murdered millions more.

Sept. 11, 1946 US troops land in Korea to begin the slaughter of Korean civilians at Nogun-Ri and hundreds of other sites. In all, more than three million Koreans lose their lives, out of a combined North and South Korean population of 30 million.

Sept. 11, 1973 Chile's elected President Salvador Allende is deposed in a CIA backed military coup, resulting in 3,175 deaths on the first day of Augusto Pinochet’s reign. During Pinochet’s US backed tenure, more than 100,000 people disappeared, and hundreds of thousands were tortured using tactics taught at Fort Benning, Georgia’s School of the Americas using the now declassified CIA Kubark Manual.

Thanks to declassified documents accessed under the Freedom of Information Act, we now know that Henry Kissinger in fact gave the implicit green light for many of these atrocities.

Sept. 11, 1990 George H W Bush makes his "Toward a new world order" speech, announcing the Iraqi sanctions, which by 1998 had killed more than 1.5 million people.

www.sweetliberty.org/issues/war/bushsr.htm

"They've already intercepted more than 700 ships to enforce the sanctions. Three regional leaders I spoke with just yesterday told me that these sanctions are working. Iraq is feeling the heat. We continue to hope that Iraq's leaders will recalculate just what their aggression has cost them. They are cut off from world trade, unable to sell their oil. And only a tiny fraction of goods gets through.

The communique with President Gorbachev made mention of what happens when the embargo is so effective that children of Iraq literally need milk or the sick truly need medicine. Then, under strict international supervision that guarantees the proper destination, then food will be permitted:"

From this speech, and from the NSA reports that followed, the intent of the sanctions regime is clear: to punish the children and sick people in Iraq, who are specifically named as targets by Bush and Gorbachev. This is illegal according to the Geneva Convention, to which the USA is a chief signatory. Thousands of children are still dying each month in Iraq, from treatable illness, hunger and dehydration forced on them by inadequate funds from the oil-for-food program.

So while Americans will never forget the events of 9/11, the same can be said for many others, over many generations, who have experienced colonial expansion American style.

The number of dead in Iraq since 9/11 is the equivalent of the events of Sept. 11 happening to the people of Iraq once a week, every week, for the last 12 years, since George H W Bush made his New World Order speech announcing the sanctions regime against Baghdad on Sept. 11, 1990.

Half of the nearly two million Iraqi casualties are children under the age of five. That’s more than 330 WTCs full of little kids. By comparison, only six children under the age of five died at the WTC on Sept. 11, 2001.

Now for part one of the follow the money timeline:

1970s The Bush family begins a long term business relationship with the Bin Ladin family and the Mahfouz family, which continues to this day. The Bin Ladins and Mahfouzes invest in G W Bush’s Harken Energy and Caterair, and later the Bin Ladins invest in the Carlyle Group.

1979 Osama Bin Laden goes to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, with support from Pakistan’s ISI, with the ISI’s operation being funded by the CIA.

1980s Bin Laden forms Makhtab Al Khidimat (MAK), precursor to Al-Qaeda.

1986-1988 Numerous think tank reports are published calling for a larger US presence in the Persian Gulf, in order to protect American oil and gas interests in the Middle East, in particular the need to increase the US presence in Saudi Arabia.

1988 The Soviets pull out of Afghanistan, defeated by the Mujeheddin and Bin Laden’s MAK, after more than $6 billion is spent by the CIA.

1989 Bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia, where the US is looking to expand its military presence, and begins stirring up political dissent.

1989 The Sudanese government begins dealing with Canadian, Russian and Chinese oil and gas interests, refusing to deal with US interests. US oil interests are looking for pressure to be applied to Sudan by the US state department, but no pretext exists for US sanctions against Sudan.

1990 Kuwait begins slant drilling for oil at the Iraqi border. Saddam is tricked into attacking Kuwait after his cousin is told by a high ranking US official that the US will not get involved in a Middle Eastern domestic dispute.

Summer 1990 Doctored satellite photos are shown to King Fahd by the US state department. These fake photos show an Iraqi military presence near the Saudi border where in fact there is no such Iraqi presence. The photos were proven to be fake by Dr. Peter D. Zimmerman, who compared them with Russian satellite images of the same locations taken during the same time period.

"Former" CIA/ISI asset Bin Laden goes to King Fahd and offers to bring his Mujeheddin to Saudi Arabia to defend the Islamic Holy Land against Iraqi attack.

Fearing a coup by the politically active Bin Laden, King Fahd rejects Bin Laden’s offer, jails him, and asks the Americans to come protect Saudi Arabia. The bases set up by the US in Saudi Arabia in 1991 are still there today.

Sept. 11, 1990 G H W Bush makes his "Toward a new world order" speech.

Jan. 16, 1991 The US invades Iraq, along with a UN coalition.

1991 Bin Laden somehow escapes from a Saudi prison and ends up settling in Sudan, where the US has been looking for a pretext for sanctions or invasion since the 1980s. Bin Laden sets up Al-Qaeda training camps in Sudan.

1991 India allows privatization of energy suppliers.

1991 Heavy US interest in the Caspian Basin’s oil and gas reserves begins. Major oil companies begin the process of negotiating exploitation deals. US companies are also interested in uranium mining in Somalia, but have been unable to make headway.

1992 G H W Bush begins planning for a "humanitarian operation" in Somalia.

January 1993 The Clinton administration goes ahead with the operation in Somalia.

Spring 1993 Clinton escalates the Somalia operation, in an attempt to oust the warlords.

1993 Enron signs a deal with India for the Enron Dhabol project, amidst a slew of controversy. Accusations of bribery, thuggery and all forms of corrupt coercion are made against Enron.

According to the World Bank, the deal makes no economic sense, as there’s no existing energy source cheap enough to power the plant in a profitable fashion. Only with an energy source close to India, perhaps a source from the Caspian Basin, could the project succeed, and no such pipeline is in existence. The World Bank refuses to participate or sign off on the project. Enron goes ahead with the project regardless of the financial realities existing at this time, which indicate the project is a money sink.

October 1993 After suffering casualties and horrible media coverage of dead American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Clinton begins the pullout from Somalia. No uranium exploitation deals are signed, and to date no uranium exploitation by US companies has taken place.

1994 Exxon forms the Exxon Natural Gas Indonesia Corporation in 1994, under the corrupt Suharto regime. In November, they sign a $35 billion gas exploration deal with Indonesia, for exploration of the Natuna gas field in the Spratly Islands.

Objections are immediately raised by China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam, all of which are equidistant from the Spratlys and lay claim to the mineral rights.

1994 Exxon, Chevron, BP, Unocal, Lukoil and others are signing deals and exploring for oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Basin.

1995 A number of Caspian exploration and pipeline consortiums are formed between Exxon, Chevron, BP, Unocal, Lukoil, Delta Oil and other oil and gas players.

1995 Unocal signs a deal with Turkmenistan for gas exploitation, but has no way to get the product to market.

1995 Unocal begins negotiations with Uzbekistan for oil and gas rights. US military aid to the Uzbeks begins two months after Unocal signs a deal with Turkmenistan and began negotiations with the Uzbeks.

1995 Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-American employee of Unocal, begins negotiations with the Taliban on the company’s behalf in order to secure a pipeline deal through Afghanistan to Pakistan. On the Afghan side, Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, is working for Unocal as an advisor, and also wooing the Taliban on behalf of Unocal.

www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A3401-2001Nov22

1996 Negotiations with the Taliban are going badly. It wants a better deal than the US conglomerates are willing to give, and refuses to take a pittance in tax revenues to make billions for Unocal and the Centgas consortium.

June 1996 After the Khobar bombing in Saudi Arabia, which is blamed on Al-Qaeda, the Clinton administration sets up sanctions against Sudan, where US oil companies have been stymied.

1996 The Sudanese government offers to share information on Bin Laden’s whereabouts and operations in the Sudan with the Clinton administration. Clinton refuses to accept the information from the Sudanese government, so Bin Laden remains at large.

Summer 1996 Osama Bin Laden leaves Sudan after sanctions are in place, and runs to Afghanistan, where pipeline negotiations with US companies have stalled.

1997 Taliban representatives sit down to dinner with Unocal in Houston, and take a tour of NASA’s space centre while they’re at it. They’re being wooed heavily by US oil and gas interests, fronted by Khalilzad and Karzai, but refuse to sign a deal with Unocal.

www.tehelka.com/channels/currentaffairs/2001/oct/3/ca100301us1.htm

1997 Unocal gives up on pipeline negotiations in late 1997. Khalilzad leaves Unocal, and joins the Rand Corporation, a think tank with great influence in Washington. Khalilzad does an about face and turns on the Taliban, now claiming they’re a blight on humanity that have to be forcibly removed from power.

1998 Feb. 12, John Maresca (vice-chairman of Unocal) makes a speech to congress, which has become the outline for the current war and for oil and gas pipelines:

www.house.gov/international_relations/105th/ap/wsap212982.htm

":In spite of this, a route through Afghanistan appears to be the best option with the fewest technical obstacles. It is the shortest route to the sea and has relatively favorable terrain for a pipeline. The route through Afghanistan is the one that would bring Central Asian oil closest to Asian markets and thus would be the cheapest in terms of transporting the oil.

Unocal envisions the creation of a Central Asian oil pipeline consortium. The pipeline would become an integral part of a regional oil pipeline system that will utilize and gather oil from existing pipeline infrastructure in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia.

The announced placement and construction of 10 new military bases in and around Afghanistan in December 2002 coincides with the planned route for the newly announced Turkmen-Afghan-Pakistan pipeline deal, which is the route Unocal proposed in 1998.

Read Remember 9/11 Part 2

Hsing Lee can be contacted by email at: lee8798@shaw.ca