Читать книгу America's Betrayal Confirmed - Elias Davidsson - Страница 29

On 26 September 2001, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was asked at a press conference held at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, "Sir, two weeks into the crisis, is the United States incapable of telling its allies precisely what the findings are in regard to evidence related to Osama bin Laden or other terrorists that you might think were behind the attack?" Wolfowitz' answer: "I think the evidence is there for the whole world to see. I think many of the people in this room watched it live on television, watched the two towers of the World Trade Center coming down. If you want evidence I'll be happy to -- oh, I can't, I guess. The FBI controls it."{80}

On 28 September 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft was asked whether the U.S. government was able “to trace any of the 19 hijackers back to Afghanistan.” His response: “I don’t think I’m capable of answering that question.”{81}

In a fax sent by the U.S. Department of State on 1 October 2001 to all U.S. embassies worldwide, and later released to the public, embassy officials were told that “the United States is not obliged in any way to make any kind of showing as a prerequisite or precondition to the exercise of its right of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, whether now or in the future.”{82} The U.S. authorities declared themselves hereby under no obligation to prove to the world that they were attacked from outside their borders and reserved for themselves the right to attack any country on the base of secret evidence.

On 2 October 2001, before he embarked upon a tour of the Middle-East, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was asked in a Press briefing: "Will you be sharing with the leaders [you plan to visit] any evidence of Osama bin Laden's connection with the [9/11] attacks?" He answered:

I think that I will not be sharing the evidence. I would be happy to, but I think that has been done amply. The evidence of the attack is on television every day. The linkages between the terrorist networks involved are on television every day. And it strikes me that anyone who is slightly interested has a very clear idea of what took place the fact that a terrorist organization that's being harbored by more than one country, and has relationships with other terrorist organizations, was directly involved. I don't know if we need any more evidence, or do I think that anyone is asking for any more evidence, except the Taliban.{83}

When President Bush addressed the nation on 7 October 2001 to announce the initiation of the bombing campaign against Afghanistan, he did not link that country to the events of 9/11. He did not even mention 9/11 in his speech.{84}

On the same day - 7 October 2001 — the U.S. Representative to the United Nations, John Negroponte, delivered a letter to the President of the UN Security Council in which he listed the reasons for what he called “military operations” against Afghanistan.{85} In that letter he wrote that his government “has obtained clear and compelling information that the al-Qaeda organization, which is supported by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, had a central role in the attacks.” The letter did not include any evidence in support of the claim that al-Qaeda (if such organization existed at all) played any role whatsoever in the 9/11 attacks.

The bombing campaign against Afghanistan constituted a crime of aggression under customary international law and should have triggered punitive action by the Security Council of the United Nations against the aggressors.{86} NATO members and other governments were undoubtedly aware that the U.S. had failed to prove a link between Afghanistan and 9/11 and that it was acting unlawfully, but they kept silent.{87}