by Xu Chi

GENEVA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The global "war on terror" after the 9/11 terrorist attacks is a "cataclysmic failure by any standards," a former British MP has said.

Recalling the "sheer scale of the horror of this act of mass murder (9/11 terrorist attacks)," George Galloway, a former British MP well-known for his anti-war stance, told Xinhua in a recent video interview that "the way the U.S. handled the aftermath of 9/11 is where we -- many of us in the antiwar movement -- will part company with the government of George W. Bush, and that of Tony Blair and those of many others around the world."

"I was virtually alone in the Parliament of the United Kingdom in the days and weeks that followed. We were a group of five or six MPs who demanded that ... we aim before we shoot, highlighting the danger of the reaction being even worse than the crime," Galloway said.

"Our words fell on stony ground amongst the official media and official political class, though not amongst the public," Galloway added.

The former British MP accused the pro-war political leaders of the time of lying and conspiring against the interests of their own people.

Decrying the hypocrisy of the global "war on terror," Galloway pointed out that the West planted the seeds for many of the terrorist organizations it is dealing with today.

"The presence of this ... ISIS, Al-Qaeda mentality has now spread all over the world. And of course, Britain and America are supporting it in some parts of the world, whilst opposing it in other parts of the world," said Galloway.

"Today's militants were undoubtedly created by us, by the West ... But we could have at least learned from our mistakes in the 1980s. We don't have to back all these same people again," he said.

"But instead, we compounded those mistakes over and over again. That is what is difficult to understand," said Galloway, adding that the United States made its latest mistake by removing the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement from its list of terrorist organizations.

Galloway said he believes the brutality of warfare is what creates future enemies. "And that's what we've been doing for the last 20 years."

Claiming Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the United States invaded the Middle East country in 2003.

Months after the invasion of Iraq, a prominent British weapons expert who publicly disputed the premises of the war was found dead in circumstances many deem suspicious. Galloway made a documentary on the subject.

"David Kelly was an eminent weapons expert, scientist of the highest rank, recognized by the Queen, awaiting a knighthood from the Queen. He began to go rogue; he began to tell senior journalists that the case for the Iraq War had been a pack of lies," said Galloway.

"I was present in the room in Parliament when he appeared before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, just a couple of days after which he was found dead in the woods, as he had earlier predicted that he would be. It was the worst and least convincing case of suicide that anyone could imagine," Galloway added.

Following the 9/11 attacks, anthrax-laced letters began appearing in the United States, seemingly as part of terrorist attacks. In February 2003, then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell showed a tube of white powder at the UN Security Council, hinting that Iraq had been using the anthrax pathogen to research and develop biological weapons.

But the prime suspect for the anthrax attacks, identified years later, was Bruce Edwards Ivins, a scientist working for the Fort Detrick, a U.S. military bio-lab. He too was found dead in 2008, before the court trial against him even began. The FBI closed the anthrax case after Ivins' death.

"The sinister events in the Fort Detrick, now closed, of course, in controversial circumstances, are amongst the many, many things we don't yet know about 9/11," said Galloway, adding "That's a remarkable thing, 20 years after the event. Imagine! There are still vital pieces of evidence about the 9/11 day itself, never mind the days that followed, that are still kept secret from the people of America and from the people of the world." Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)