This morning I spared some time reading e-materials on Ahmad Shah Masood... So, here's my tentative scenario for the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in NY & WA:
The whole terrorist scheme was mainly plotted by Russian and European secret services --see? I'm doing our Jewish audience a favor... Indeed, I don't credit the Mossad with conspiring such a wild bloodshed against a US city whose population is predominantly Jewish (New York). HOWEVER, I do believe that the Mossad was game to give the Yanks just the thrill of "NIMBY terrorism", that is, "NOW-in-my-backyard terrorism".
Actually, I think that's how the whole hijacking scheme was sold: following the life-size exercises of December 11, 2000 and March 15, 2001, Masood and the Russians offered the Europeans and the Israelis a "low-intensity" hijacking ploy. The obvious purpose was to galvanize US public opinion into supporting both Europe's and Israel's anti-Arab policy. As a side note: yesterday, France's public network France 2 invited European Deputy Jean-Charles Marchiani (Pasqua's sidekick) to comment on the current terrorist crisis. Well, the guy said flat-footedly that it's time for the US to choose the right party and then lamented about the US propping up an Islamic state "right in the midst of Europe" (Kosovo and environs).
The incentive for Masood and his henchmen was a no-brainer: the guy was cornered in a desperate, entrenched sitzkrieg in Northern Afghanistan against Taleban and Pakistani troops. The irony is that both Arafat and Masood bore the same predicament: they were routinely hit by US-made shells and missiles --whether from Israeli or Pakistani supplies.
Besides, Masood and his troops were genuine Muslims --praying five times a day and branding themselves "Mujahedeen", that is "Holy Warriors". Although Western mass-media cast the whole Afghan warfare as Western Masood vs Fanatic Talebans, both camps are actually made up of Muslim warriors --and maybe both are equally fanaticized...
Anyway, my feeling is that, at some point, the whole plot, somehow, swerved away from its initial "low-key" pitch: perhaps Masood changed the screenplay at the last minute and told the hijackers to go for it BIG-TIME. After all, he was likely the one who felt the deepest hatred for the US. Hence, the hijackings were turned into suicide raids. When European and/or Israeli intelligence outfits got aware of the new scenario they attempted to pull the plug on the whole mess and dispatched the fake reporters to kill Masood. It's a plausible scenario since, in any such large-scale operation there's always a "loose-canon" factor that jeopardizes the whole (remember the failed hostage rescue in Iran in 1978). And a terrorist conspiracy is the rogue operation par excellence.
Now, from the hijackers' standpoint, it's clear that they didn't switch to a suicidal mindset overnight. But they also realized that they were not playing in Saudi Arabia, or Turkey, or even Great Britain (see the Dec 11th, 2000 hijacking when passengers, crewmembers and hijackers alike ended up applying for the asylum-refugee status!!) but in the United States --the terrorists' Nemesis. So, even if they stuck to their "initial plan" and landed the hijacked aircraft on a US airport, their survival prospects looked pretty grim:
#1-- If they started haggling with the FBI for refueling and flying over to Cuba or Europe, the FBI would have given its SWAT teams the greenlight (remember, they were armed with knives and cutters only);
#2-- Or they eventually surrendered to the FBI and... spent the rest of their lives in a high-security jail (remember, they hijacked a commercial airplane AND slit some crewmembers' throats in the process)
Bottom line: they seized their chance for a "martyr-attack of a lifetime"...
Gus |
