December 12, 2001 — Justin Raimondo of anti-war.com claims to be a great skeptic of the government, a libertarian. Many consider Raimondo the Internet's leading anti-war voice. Still more people go to anti-war.com for their news, believing that anti-war.com is an alternate to the shamelessly pro-war American news media. But I believe Raimondo and anti-war.com are part of the fake opposition.

* Fake Opposition? What's That? *

For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. This is true in physics and true in warfare.

When a war is planned, the designers know some will oppose the war effort. The designers want to control the opposition so that it does not get out of hand. Their aim is to squash it, to mute it, or to see that the opposition is led into futile activities.

In advance, those planning the war covertly set up conduits to channel opposition. We can call these channels "designated" opposition, or fake opposition.

When the war starts, the fake opposition is already in place, well-funded and able to reach vast numbers of would-be resisters. The fake opposition deplores the war, but covertly promotes war propaganda. "Osama bin Laden and his people were responsible for the 9-11 attacks" is war propaganda. This lie is the basis upon which the war is justified.

The resisters, believing the fake opposition to be genuine, unwittingly swallow the pro-war propaganda. Their outrage over the war is neutralized: After all, Osama and his people were responsible for the 9-11 attacks, right?

Now back to Justin Raimondo and anti-war.com.

For the three months since September 11, I have been reading Raimondo's columns. To my knowledge, that great skeptic and libertarian has never questioned the US claim that Osama bin Laden and his people directed the 9-11 attacks, even though that claim justifies the war Raimondo says he hates.

Moreover, Raimondo continually promotes the US government's lie that justifies the war. Witness his December 7, 2001, column: "Fear Has Its Uses." http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j120701.html Deploring the endless alerts of terrorist attacks issuing forth from Tom Ridge's Office of Homeland Security, Raimondo says:

"The government claims these warnings are not based on thin air, but on intercepted messages exchanged by the terrorists. This raises all sorts of questions, the first one being: don't the terrorists realize they're being eavesdropped on? Surely they do. In that case, it seems this might be a tactic to instill fear and demoralize the American populace."

Then Raimondo says:

"By trumpeting these threats, Ridge is merely playing into their hands. Just as the Bin Ladenites used our vaunted technology against us, turning airliners into deadly weapons ..."

See? According to Raimondo, the Bin Ladenites did it ... Now, would it occur to Raimondo that the beneficiaries of the 9-11 attack — the Israelis — might have pulled the job off, and set the Arabs up as fall guys? Never. While Raimondo criticizes Israel, he never broaches the BIG question.

Just one day before the attack, the Washington Times ran a story in which the Army's School of Advanced Military Studies was quoted, predicting the Mossad might just pull off such a caper — pull off a terrorist attack on the US and blame the Arabs. ("US troops would enforce peace under Army study," Washington Times, September 10, 2001.) The story was broadly circulated on the Internet, but somehow the story escaped Raimondo's attention.

When the fake al-Jazeera video of bin Laden was released in early October (see "Taliban Home Video," below) Raimondo swallowed it hook, line and sinker. He said bin Laden's remarks were tantamount to a confession. Yet just a week before, the Pakistani newspaper, the Daily Ummat, published an authentic interview with bin Laden , in which bin Laden deplored the 9-11 attacks. Curiously, anti-war.com news coverage did not pick up the Daily Ummat interview. Readers of anti-war.com remained ignorant. So anti-war.com readers got news of the fake (incriminating) interview, the fake interview was accorded credibility, and news of the real (exonerating) interview was squashed.

In fact, anti-war.com and Raimondo have ignored many well-researched and documented articles on the 9-11 attacks — articles which have flooded the Internet in the last several months. These articles demolish the following US claims:

* That the US Air Force was caught unawares and was unable to intercept the renegade flights.

* That the 9-11 airline jets were flown by suicide pilots.

* That the World Trade Center collapse was caused by fires ignited by jet fuel.

* That Osama bin Laden praised the attacks and/or claimed responsibility for those attacks.

Here are some URLs Raimondo & company ignore:

• Operation 911: NO SUICIDE PILOTS http://www.holocausts.org/911/robotplane.html
• The Taliban Home Video http://www.holocausts.org/911/hvideo.html
• Bin Laden: AUTHENTIC INTERVIEW http://www.holocausts.org/911/oblintrv.html
• MUSLIMS SUSPEND LAWS OF PHYSICS http://www.holocausts.org/911/mcmichael.html
• Osama bin Surplus http://www.holocausts.org/911/obsurplus.html
• Osama bin CIA Agent http://www.holocausts.org/911/ob_cia.html
• Guilty for 9-11: Bush, Rumsfeld, Myers http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-1.htm

Remember: Raimondo presents himself as a skeptic of the government. Does he act like one? No, he acts like a member of the fake opposition.

Anti-war.com is a well-organized, expensive operation. I wonder who pays for it?

— Carol A. Valentine
President, Public Action, Inc.
http://www.holocausts.org/