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Revision as of 03:46, 23 May 2008 view sourceDrGabriela (talk | contribs)179 edits Here is more of your "evidence" that I agree with half of the editors: the Japan section in full is appropriate. Sorry to disagree with you, William.← Previous edit Latest revision as of 21:31, 24 November 2024 view source XTheBedrockX (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users83,152 edits new key for Category:Terrorism committed by the United States: " " using HotCat 
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{{short description|Terrorism allegations against the U.S.}}
{{Articleissues
{{about|allegations of US state terrorism|terrorism sponsored by the United States|United States and state-sponsored terrorism}}
| citationstyle = March 2008
{{pp-protected|small=yes}}
| POV = July 2007
]
| original research = April 2008
{{terrorism}}
|}}
Several scholars have accused the ] of involvement in ]. They have written about the US and other ]' use of state terrorism, particularly in relation to the ]. According to them, state terrorism is used to protect the interest of ] elites, and the U.S. organized a ] system of ], co-operating with regional elites to rule through terror.
The ''']''' has been accused of having directly committed acts of ''']''', as well as funding, training, and harboring individuals and groups who engage in ].<ref>More details:
*{{cite web
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|title=TERRORISM, HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIAL JUSTICE, FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY: SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE LEGAL AND JUSTICE PROFESSIONALS OF THE ‘COALITION OF THE WILLING’
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*{{cite web
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}}
*{{cite web
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}}
*{{cite web
|url=http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/sanjuan180906.html
|title=Class Struggle and Socialist Revolution in the Philippines: Understanding the Crisis of U.S. Hegemony, Arroyo State Terrorism, and Neoliberal Globalization
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}}
*{{cite web
|url=http://www.india-seminar.com/2002/518/518%20roland%20g.%20simbulan.htm
|title=The Real Threat
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|first=Roland G.
|publisher=Seminar
|date=], ]
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}}
*{{cite book
|last=Piszkiewicz
|first=Dennis
|title=Terrorism's War with America: A History
|date=], ]
|publisher=Praeger Publishers
|pages=224
|isbn=978-0275979522
}}
*{{cite web
|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-95571886.html
|title=Understanding, responding to, and preventing terrorism
|last=Cohn
|first=Marjorie
|date=], ]
|publisher=Arab Studies Quarterly
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}}
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|title=The UN and its conduct during the invasion and occupation of Iraq
|last=Halliday
|first=Dennis
|publisher=Centre for Research on Globalization
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2007-07-09
}}
*{{cite episode
|title=Noam Chomsky Interview on CBC
|series=Hot Type
|network=]
|airdate=2003-12-09
}}</ref>


Such works include ] and ]'s '']'' (1979), Herman's ''The Real Terror Network'' (1985), ]'s ''Western State Terrorism'' (1991), Frederick Gareau's ''State Terrorism and the United States'' (2004), and ]' ''America's Other War'' (2005). Of these, Ruth J. Blakeley considers Chomsky and Herman as being the foremost writers on the United States and state terrorism.<ref name="Blakeley"/>
==Definitions==
{{main|State terrorism}}
{{main|Definition of terrorism}}
Like the ] and the definition of ], the definition of ] remains controversial. There is no international consensus on what terrorism, state-sponsored terrorism, or state terrorism is.<ref></ref> Professor Igor Primoratz of the ] says that many scholars have been reluctant to assign the word "terrorism" to activities that could be construed as "legitimate state aims". Primoratz himself defines terrorism as "the deliberate use of violence, or threat of its use, against innocent people...", and writes that his definition can be applied to both state and non-state activities.<ref>{{citation | last=Primoratz | first=Igor | url=http://eprints.unimelb.edu.au/archive/00000137/01/Primorat.pdf | contribution=State Terrorism and Counterterrorism | title=Working Paper Number 2002/2003 | publisher=University of Melbourne}}</ref>


This work has proved controversial with mainstream scholars of ], who concentrate on non-state terrorism and the state terrorism of dictatorships.<ref name="Blakeley">{{cite book|last=Blakeley|first=Ruth|date=2009|title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South |url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415462402/|publisher=]|pages=, , |isbn=978-0415686174|access-date=2015-06-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150614055306/http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415462402/|archive-date=2015-06-14|url-status=live}}</ref>
==General allegations against the US==
{{see also|low-intensity conflict}}
], Emeritus Professor of History at Princeton University, has stated that "since 1947 America has been the chief and pioneering perpetrator of 'preemptive' state terror, exclusively in the Third World and therefore widely dissembled."<ref>, also see George, Alexander, ed. "Western State Terrorism",1 and Selden, Mark, ed. "War and State Terrorism: The United States, Japan and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century, 13.</ref> ] also argues that "Washington is the center of global state terrorism and has been for years."<ref> </ref>
Chomsky has characterized the tactics used by agents of the U.S. government and their proxies in their execution of ] — in such countries as ] — as a form of terrorism and has also described the U.S as "a leading terrorist state."<ref name="barsamian" />


==Notable works==
After President ] began using the term "War on Terrorism", Chomsky stated in an interview:<ref name="barsamian">{{cite web
Beginning in the late 1970s, ] and ] wrote a series of books on the United States' involvement with ]. Their writings coincided with reports by ] and other ] of a new global "epidemic" of ] and murder. Chomsky and Herman argued that terror was concentrated in the U.S. ] in ], and documented ] carried out by U.S. ]s in ]. They argued that of ten Latin American countries that had ], all were US client states. Worldwide they claimed that 74% of regimes that used torture on an administrative basis were U.S. client states, receiving military and other support from the U.S. to retain power. They concluded that the global rise in state terror was a result of ].<ref>Sluka, p. 8</ref>
|url=http://www.monthlyreview.org/1101chomsky.htm
|title=The United States is a Leading Terrorist State
|last=Barsamian
|first=David
|publisher=]
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2007-07-10
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Military Operations in Low Intensity Conflict | url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/100-20/10020ch1.htm#s_9 | publisher=Headquarters Departments of the Army and Air Force}}</ref>


Chomsky concluded that all powers backed state terrorism in client states. At the top were the U.S. and other powers, notably the United Kingdom and France, that provided financial, military, and diplomatic support to ] regimes kept in power through violence. These governments acted together with ], particularly in the arms and security industries. In addition, other developing countries outside the Western sphere of influence carried out state terror supported by rival powers.<ref name="Sluka, p. 9">Sluka, p. 9</ref>
{{quote|The U.S. is officially committed to what is called "low-intensity warfare"... If you read the definition of low-intensity conflict in army manuals and compare it with official definitions of "terrorism" in army manuals, or the U.S. Code, you find they're almost the same.}}


The alleged involvement of major powers in state terrorism in developing countries has led scholars to study it as a global phenomenon rather than study individual countries in isolation.<ref name="Sluka, p. 9"/>
===State terrorism and propaganda===
Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton, has argued that the U.S. and other first-world states, as well as mainstream ] institutions, have obfuscated the true character and scope of terrorism, promulgating a one-sided view from the standpoint of first-world privilege. He has said that "if 'terrorism' as a term of moral and legal opprobrium is to be used at all, then it should apply to violence deliberately targeting civilians, whether committed by state actors or their non-state enemies."<ref>{{cite book
|last=Falk
|first=Richard
|title=Revolutionaries and Functionaries: The Dual Face of Terrorism
|city=New York
|publisher=Dutton
|year=]
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.transnational.org/SAJT/forum/Nonviolence/2004/Falk_GandhiNonviolence.html
|title=Gandhi, Nonviolence and the Struggle Against War
|last=Falk
|first=Richard
|publisher=The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2007-07-10
}}</ref> Moreover, Falk argues that the repudiation of authentic non-state terrorism is insufficient as a strategy for mitigating it, writing that "we must also illuminate the character of terrorism, and its true scope... The propagandists of the modern state conceal its reliance on terrorism and associate it exclusively with Third World revolutionaries and their leftist sympathizers in the industrial countries."<ref name="falk">{{cite journal|title=Thinking About Terrorism|journal=]|date=1986-06-28|first=Richard|last=Falk|coauthors=|volume=242|issue=25|pages=873-892|id= |url=|format=|accessdate=2008-01-30}}</ref>


In 1991, a book edited by ] also argued that other ] powers sponsored terror in developing countries. It concluded that the U.S. and its allies were the main supporters of ] throughout the world.<ref>Sluka, pp. 8–9</ref> Gareau states that the number of deaths caused by non-state terrorism (3,668 deaths between 1968 and 1980, as estimated by the ] (CIA)) is "dwarfed" by those resulting from state terrorism in US-backed regimes such as Guatemala (150,000 killed, 50,000 missing during the ] – 93% of whom Gareau classifies as "victims of state terrorism").<ref>
==Specific allegations against the US by region==
{{cite book

|author=Gareau, Frederick Henry
===Cuba (1956-present)===
|title=The United Nations and other international institutions: a critical analysis
After revolutionary forces vanquished ]’s forces, a new government was formed in ] on January 2, 1959. The ] initiated a campaign of regime change in the early parts of 1959<ref></ref>, and by the spring of 1959 was arming ] guerrillas inside Cuba. By winter of that year US-based Cubans were being supervised by the CIA in the orchestration of bombings and incendiary raids against Cuba. <ref>Chomsky, Noam. Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, Henry Holt and Company, 80.</ref>
|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield

|year=2002
====Operation Mongoose====
|page=246
{{Further|], ], ], ]}}
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ipWSObZsXYQC&pg=PA246

|isbn=978-0-8304-1578-6
A prime focus of the ] administration was the removal of ] from power. To this end it implemented ], a US program of sabotage and other secret operations against the island. <ref>Domínguez, Jorge I. "The @#$%& Missile Crisis (Or, What was 'Cuban' about U.S. Decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis.Diplomatic History: The Journal of the Society for Historians of Foreign Relations, Vol. 24, No. 2, (Spring 2000): 305-15.)</ref> Mongoose was led by ] in the Defense Department and ] at the ]. Samuel Halpern, a CIA co-organizer, conveyed the breadth of involvement: “CIA and the U. S. Army and military forces and Department of Commerce, and Immigration, Treasury, God knows who else — everybody was in Mongoose. It was a government-wide operation run out of Bobby Kennedy's office with Ed Lansdale as the mastermind.” <ref>James G. Blight, and Peter Kornbluh, eds., Politics of Illusion: The Bay of Pigs Invasion Reexamined. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1999, 125)</ref>. The scope of Mongoose included sabotage actions against a railway bridge, petroleum storage facilities, a molasses storage container, a petroleum refinery, a power plant, a sawmill, and a floating crane. Harvard Historian Jorge Domínguez states that "only once in thousand pages of documentation did a U.S. official raise something that resembled a faint moral objection to U.S. government sponsored terrorism." <ref>Domínguez, Jorge I. "The @#$%& Missile Crisis (Or, What was 'Cuban' about U.S. Decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis)." Diplomatic History: The Journal of the Society for Historians of Foreign Relations, Vol. 24, No. 2, (Spring 2000): 305-15.</ref> The CIA operation was based in ], ] and among other aspects of the operation, enlisted the help of the ] to plot an assassination attempt against ], the Cuban president; for instance, ] was one of the CIA case officers who directly dealt with the mafiosi ].<ref>{{cite news | author = Jack Anderson | title = 6 Attempts to Kill Castro Laid to CIA | publisher = The Washington Post | date = ]}}</ref>
|access-date=2016-01-05

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506025300/https://books.google.com/books?id=ipWSObZsXYQC&pg=PA246
Dominguez writes that Kennedy put a hold on Mongoose actions as the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated, and the "Kennedy administration returned to its policy of sponsoring terrorism against Cuba as the confrontation with the Soviet Union lessened." <ref>Domínguez, Jorge I. "The @#$%& Missile Crisis (Or, What was 'Cuban' about U.S. Decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis)." Diplomatic History: The Journal of the Society for Historians of Foreign Relations, Vol. 24, No. 2, (Spring 2000): 305-15.</ref> However, Chomsky argued that “terrorist operations continued through the tensest moments of the missile crisis,” remarking that “they were formally canceled on October 30, several days after the Kennedy and Khrushchev agreement, but went on nonetheless.” Accordingly, "the Executive Committee of the National Security Council recommended various courses of action, "including ‘using selected Cuban exiles to sabotage key Cuban installations in such a manner that the auction can plausibly be attributed to Cubans in Cuba’ as well as ‘sabotaging Cuban cargo and shipping, and Bloc cargo and shipping to Cuba." <ref>Chomsky, Noam. Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, Henry Holt and Company, 80.</ref> Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the ] at George Washington University, raised the point that according to the documentary record, directly after the first executive committee (]) meeting that was held on the missile crisis, Attorney General Robert Kennedy “convened a meeting of the Operation Mongoose team” expressing disappointment in its results and pledging to take a closer personal attention on the matter. Kornbluh accused RFK of taking “the most irrational position during the most extraordinary crisis in the history of U. S. foreign policy”, remarking that “Not to belabor the obvious, but for chrissake, a nuclear crisis is happening and Bobby wants to start blowing things up.”<ref>James G. Blight, and Peter Kornbluh, eds., Politics of Illusion: The Bay of Pigs Invasion Reexamined. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1999, 125</ref>.
|archive-date=2016-05-06

|url-status=live
Professor of History Stephen Rabe writes that “scholars have understandably focused on…the Bay of Pigs invasion, the U.S. campaign of terrorism and sabotage known as Operation Mongoose, the assassination plots against ], and, of course, the Cuban missile crisis. Less attention has been given to the state of U.S.-Cuban relations in the aftermath of the missile crisis.” In contrast Rabe writes that reports from the Church Committee reveal that from June 1963 onward the Kennedy administration intensified its war against Cuba while the CIA integrated propaganda, "economic denial", and sabotage to attack the Cuban state as well as specific targets within.<ref>Stephen G. Rabe -Presidential Studies Quarterly. Volume: 30. Issue: 4. 2000,714 </ref> One example cited is an incident where CIA agents, seeking to assassinate Castro, provided a Cuban official, Rolando Cubela Secades, with a ballpoint pen rigged with a poisonous hypodermic needle.<ref>Stephen G. Rabe -Presidential Studies Quarterly. Volume: 30. Issue: 4. 2000,714 </ref> At this time the CIA received authorization for thirteen major operations within Cuba; these included attacks on an electric power plant, an oil refinery, and a sugar mill.<ref>Stephen G. Rabe -Presidential Studies Quarterly. Volume: 30. Issue: 4. 2000,714 </ref> Historian Stephen Rabe has observed that the “Kennedy administration...showed no interest in Castro's repeated request that the United States cease its campaign of sabotage and terrorism against Cuba. Kennedy did not pursue a dual-track policy toward Cuba....The United States would entertain only proposals of surrender." Rabe further documents how "Exile groups, such as ] and the Second Front of Escambray, staged hit-and-run raids on the island...on ships transporting goods…purchased arms in the United States and launched...attacks from the Bahamas.” <ref>Stephen G. Rabe -Presidential Studies Quarterly. Volume: 30. Issue: 4. 2000,714 </ref>
}}

</ref>
====Operation Northwoods====
A secret plan, ], was approved by the ] and ] and submitted for action to ]<ref>, excerpted from ''Class Warfare'' by Noam Chomsky</ref> then ]. This plan included acts of violence on U.S. soil or against U.S. interests, such as plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities; blowing up a U.S. ship, and contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in ] and blame Cuba," and, "The U.S. could follow up with an air/sea rescue operation covered by U.S. fighters 'evacuate' remaining members of the non-existent crew. Casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation." The plan was rejected by the Kennedy administration after the ].<ref name=PEARL-HARBOUR-COVER-UP-1>{{cite news|title=Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/|date=]|publisher=]|accessdate=2007-04-27}}</ref><ref name=PEARL-HARBOUR-COVER-UP-3>{{cite news|title=U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba|url=http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662|date=]|publisher=]|accessdate=2007-04-27}}</ref>

] officials have accused the United States Government of being an accomplice and protector of terrorism against ] on many occasions.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2005/12/051207_cubacaricom.shtml
|title=Fidel Castro meets Caricom leaders
|publisher=]
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2007-02-02
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.granma.cu/miami5/ingles/415.html
|title=The United States is an accomplice and protector of terrorism, states Alarcón
|last=Rodríguez
|first=Javier
|publisher=Granma
|accessdate=2007-07-10
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.granma.cu/cubademanda/ingles/demanda9-i.html
|title=Terrorism organized and directed by the CIA
|publisher=Granma
|accessdate=2007-07-10
}}</ref> According to ], President of ] "Terrorism and violence, crimes against Cuba, have been part and parcel of U.S. policy for almost half a century.”<ref name="landau">{{cite web
|url=http://www.tni.org/archives/landau/alarcon.htm
|title=Interview with Ricardo Alarcón
|last=Landau
|first=Saul
|publisher=Transnational Institute
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2007-07-10
}}</ref> The claims formed part of Cuba's $181.1 billion lawsuit in 1999 in Havana's Popular Provincial Tribunal against the United States on behalf of the Cuban people which alleged that for over 40 years, "terrorism has been permanently used by the U.S. as an instrument of its foreign policy against Cuba," and it "became more systematic as a result of the covert action program."<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.workers.org/ww/1999/cuba0916.php
|title=Cuba's case against Washington
|last=Wood
|first=Nick
|publisher=Workers World
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2007-07-10
}}</ref> The lawsuit detailed a history of terrorism allegedly supported by the United States. The United States has long denied any involvement in the acts named in the lawsuit.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9906/02/cuba.billions/
|title=Cuba sues U.S. for billions, alleging 'war' damages
|publisher=]
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2007-07-10
}}</ref>
] operatives including Guillermo Novo Sampol, (left; fourth from camera) wanted in ] for extradition in connection with terrorist acts,<ref name="sanchez">{{cite web
|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57838-2004Sep2.html
|title=Moral Misstep
|last=Sanchez
|first=Marcela
|publisher=]
|date=], ]
}}</ref> Mexico City ] ].]]

Cuba also claims U.S. involvement in the paramilitary group ], the CIA undercover operation known as ], and the umbrella group the ]. Cuban ] investigator Roberto Hernández testified in a ] court that the bomb attacks were "part of a campaign of terror designed to scare civilians and foreign tourists, harming Cuba's single largest industry."<ref> Miami Herald </ref>Testifying before the United States Senate in 1978, Richard Helms, former CIA Director, stated; "We had task forces that that were striking at Cuba constantly. We were attempting to blow up power plants. We were attempting to ruin sugar mills. We were attempting to do all kinds of things in this period. This was a matter of American government policy."<ref>House Select Committee on Assassinations Report, Volume IV, page 125. September 22, 1978</ref>

In 2001, Cuban Ambassador to the UN Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla called for ] to address all forms and manifestations of terrorism in every corner of the world, including - without exception - state terrorism. He alleged to the ] that 3,478 Cubans have died as a result of aggressions and terrorist acts.<ref name="United"> since the ]</ref> He also alleged that the United States had provided safe shelter to "those who funded, planned and carried out terrorist acts with absolute impunity, tolerated by the United States Government."<ref name="United"> since the ]</ref> The Cuban government also asserted that in the 1990s, a total of 68 acts of terrorism were perpetrated against Cuba.<ref name="United"/>

====Allegations of harboring terrorists====
The Cuban revolution resulted in a large Cuban ] community in the U.S., some of whom have conducted sustained long-term insurgency campaigns against Cuba.<ref name = "poptel-Cuba"> Cuba solidarity</ref> and conducted training sessions at a secluded camp near the Florida Everglades. Initially these efforts are known to have been directly supported by the United States government.<ref>Bohning,Don. The Castro Obsession: U.S.Covert Operations Against Cuba 1959-1965, Potomac Books,137-138</ref> The failed military invasion of Cuba during the administration of ] at the ] marked the end of documented U.S. involvement.

The Cuban Government, its supporters and some outside observers believe that the group ], whose former secretary general Andrés Nazario Sargén acknowledged terrorist attacks on Cuban tourist spots in the 1990s<ref name = "poptel-Cuba"/> and conducted training sessions at a secluded camp near the Florida Everglades,<ref> . The Los Angeles Times.</ref> has, according to Cuba's official newspaper ], been supported by the ], the ] and, more directly, the CIA.<ref> granma</ref>

The U.S. has also been criticized for failing to condemn Panama's pardoning of the alleged terrorists Guillermo and Ignacio Novo Sampoll, Pedro Remon, and Gaspar Jimenez, instead allowing them to walk free on U.S. streets.<ref name="sanchez" /> Claudia Furiati has suggested Sampol was linked to ] and plans to kill President Castro.<ref>{{Cite book
| edition = 2nd
| publisher = Ocean Press (AU)
| isbn = 1875284850
| pages = 164
| last = Furiati
| first = Claudia
| title = ZR Rifle : The Plot to Kill Kennedy and Castro
| date = 1994-10
}}</ref>

====Luis Posada====
] is a ]n-born ]n and a former CIA operative. He has been accused of a string of terrorist bombings, including that of ] in 1976. Shortly after the bombing, the Castro government accused the CIA of "directly" participating. The Cubans also cite the involvement of FBI attaché Joseph Leo, who admitted multiple contacts with one of the convicted bombers of Cubana 455, Hernan Ricardo, before the attack.<ref name="nation_posada"> . The Nation. </ref> Cuba has not repeated these accusations more recently but still criticizes the US for not extraditing Posada.<ref name="msnbc_posada">{{cite web|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7679032/page/2/|title=Cuban official demands action on Posada|accessdate=2007-07-09}}</ref> In an interview in 2001, Cuban Vice President ] stated: "The most quoted phrase by President Bush or ever repeated by him refers to the same idea every time he speaks. 'Those who harbor a terrorist are as guilty as the terrorist himself.'"<ref name="landau" /> In a 2003 statement to a U.N. committee, the Cuban ambassador to the U.N. said that "instead of bringing to trial the eight individuals who had hijacked a Cuban plane last November, the United States had provided them with asylum."<ref name="United"/>

As described by researcher ] of the non-governmental research institute ], he "is a terrorist, but he’s our terrorist," referring to Posada's relationship with the U.S. government. In 2006, the ] described Posada as “an unrepentant criminal and admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks on tourist sites.”<ref name="posada-times">{{cite news|title = Castro Foe Puts U.S. in an Awkward Spot|url=http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/world/americas/08posada.html|publisher=New York Times|date=October 2006|accessdate=2008-01-08}}</ref> On May 18, 2005, the National Security Archive posted additional documents that purportedly show the CIA had concrete advance intelligence, as early as June 1976, on plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups to bomb an airliner of the Cuban airline ]. The Archive also says that while Posada stopped being a CIA agent in 1974, there remained "occasional contact" until June 1976, a few months before the bombing.<ref name="posada">{{cite web|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/|title=CIA and FBI Documents Detail Career in International Terrorism; Connection to U.S.|accessdate=2007-07-09}}</ref> Political scientist ] claims that an FBI agent involved in a case concerning the assassination of ] confirmed that Posada had participated in 1976 meeting of a coalition of violent anti-Castro organizations named CORU (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations), in the Dominican Republic "in which both the airline bombing and the Letelier assassination were planned."<ref>{{cite journal| url=http://www.nacla.org/art_display.php?art=2584 | title=Americas: Condor figures reappear | publisher=] | journal=NACLA Report on the Americas | date=July/August 2005 | volume=39 | issue=1 | last=McSherry | first=Patrice J.}}</ref> McSherry writes that "according to several sources the CIA had actively approved of the Bonan meeting- and perhaps even instigated it- and encouraged CORU to “punish” Castro for Cuban intervention in Angola."<ref>{{cite book | last= McSherry | first=Patrice J. | title=Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield | year=2005 | pages=158}}</ref>

In a series of interviews with the ], Posada claimed responsibility for deadly bombings at hotels and nightclubs in Cuba in 1997 in which an ] tourist died and scores more were injured. Posada stated "The FBI and the CIA do not bother me, and I am neutral with them...Whenever I can help them, I do."<ref name="observer">{{cite web|url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/146.html |title=Posada "I will kill Castro if it's the last thing I do" |publisher=Hartford Web Publishing (Republished)}}</ref> He later denied that he was involved, stating that he had only wanted to create publicity for the bombing campaign in order to scare tourists.<ref name="cnn">http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0505/19/i_ins.01.html Jose Posada Carriles: Hero or Hardened Killer?.CNN.</ref>

Journalist ] wrote in a column in the ] "For almost 40 years, we have isolated Cuba on the assumption that the tiny island is a center of terrorism in the hemisphere, and year after year we gain new evidence that it is the U.S. that has terrorized Cuba and not the other way around."<ref>{{cite news | work=Los Angeles Times | title=A Startling Tale of U.S. Complicity | date=1998-06-20 | author=Robert Scheer}}</ref>

] has accused the US of hypocrisy on terrorism since the US "virtually" collaborated with convicted terrorist Luis Posada by failing to contest statements that Posada would be tortured if he were extradited to Venezuela. Some U.S. officials, who declined to speak on the record, also deplored the decision by immigration judge William Abbott not to extradite Posada. The administration stressed that Posada may still be subject to deportation to another country, although their efforts thus far to persuade several Latin American countries have proved fruitless.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0929/dailyUpdate.html
|title=Venezuela accuses U.S. of 'double standard' on terrorism
|last=Regan
|first=Tom
|date=], ]
|publisher=]
|accessdate=2007-02-02
}}</ref><ref name=>{{cite news|title= Cuban Terror Case Erodes US Credibility, Critics Say|url=http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30459|publisher=]|date=]|accessdate=2007-07-10 }}</ref>

===Nicaragua (1979-90)===
{{see also|Iran-Contra affair}}
{{Further|]}}

Following the rise to power of the left-wing ] government in ], the ] administration ordered the CIA to organize and train the ], a right wing guerrilla group. In 1981 President ] secretly authorized his Central Intelligence Agency under his appointee CIA director ] to recruit and support the guerrillas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB210/index.htm|title=The Iran-Contra Affair 20 Years On: Documents Spotlight Role of Reagan, Top Aides|date=2006-11-24|publisher=The National Security Archive}}</ref>

''The Republic of ] of America''<ref name="name">Official name: ''Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicar. v. U.S.), Jurisdiction and Admissibility, 1984 ICJ REP. 392'' June 27, 1986.</ref> was a case heard in 1986 by the ] which found that the ] had violated ] by direct acts of U.S. personnel and by the supporting ] guerrillas in their war against the ]n government and by mining Nicaragua's harbors. The US was not imputable for possible human rights violations done by the Contras.

===Guatemala (1954-96)===
{{Further|], ], ], ], ] }}

Professor of History, Stephen G. Rabe, writes "in destroying the popularly elected government of ] (1950-1954), the United States initiated a nearly four-decade-long cycle of terror and repression" <ref>{{cite book|title=Managing the Counterrevolution: The United States and Guatemala, 1954-1961 (review) |publisher=The Americas |page=Volume 59, Number 4 |date=April 2003 |pages=601-603 |author=Stephen G. Rabe}}</ref>

After the U.S.-backed coup, which toppled president ], lead coup plotter ] assumed power. Author and university professor, Patrice McSherry argues that with Armas at the head of government, "the United States began to militarize Guatemala almost immediately, financing and reorganizing the police and military."<ref name=" EvolutionofNationalSecurityState "> J. Patrice McSherry. “The Evolution of the National Security State: The Case of Guatemala.” ''Socialism and Democracy''. Spring/Summer 1990, 133.</ref>

In his book “State Terror and Popular Resistance in Guatemala”, human rights expert Michael McClintock<ref>{{cite web| title = About Michael McClintock | publisher = Human Rights First | url = http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/about_us/staff/mcclintock_m.htm | accessdate = 2007-07-03}}</ref> has argued that the national security apparatus Armas presided over was “almost entirely oriented toward countering subversion,” and that the key component of that apparatus was “an intelligence system set up by the United States.”<ref name="AmericanConnection"> Michael McClintock. ''The American Connection Volume 2: State Terror and Popular Resistance in Guatemala''. London: Zed Books Ltd., 1985, pp. 2, 32. </ref> At the core of this intelligence system were records of communist party members, pro-Arbenz organizations, teacher associations, and peasant unions which were used to create a detailed “Black List” with names and information about some 70,000 individuals that were viewed as potential subversives. It was “CIA counter-intelligence officers who sorted the records and determined how they could be put to use.”<ref>McClintock 32-33.</ref> McClintock argues that this list persisted as an index of subversives for several decades and probably served as a database of possible targets for the counter-insurgency campaign that began in the early 1960s.<ref>McClintock 33.</ref> McClintock writes:

{{quote|United States counter-insurgency doctrine encouraged the Guatemalan military to adopt both new organizational forms and new techniques in order to root out insurgency more effectively. New techniques would revolve around a central precept of the new counter-insurgency: that counter insurgent war must be waged free of restriction by laws, by the rules of war, or moral considerations: guerrilla “terror” could be defeated only by the untrammeled use of “counter-terror”, the terrorism of the state.|Michael McClintock<ref>McClintock 54.</ref>}}

McClintock writes that this idea was also articulated by Colonel John Webber, the chief of the U.S. Military Mission in Guatemala, who instigated the technique of “counter-terror.” Colonel Webber defended his policy by saying, “That’s the way this country is. The Communists are using everything they have, including terror. And it must be met.”<ref>McClintock 61.</ref>

Utilizing declassified government documents, researchers Kate Doyle and Carlos Osorio from the research institute the ] document that Guatemalan Colonel Byron Lima Estrada took military police and counterintelligence courses at the ]. He later served in several elite counterinsurgency units trained and equipped by the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP). He would eventually rise to command ], the Guatemalan Military Intelligence services who were responsible for many of the terror tactics wielded throughout the 1980s.<ref name="NSAArchive-Guatemala03">
{{cite web|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB25/index.htm|title=Colonel Byron Disrael Lima Estrada |publisher=George Washington University NSA Archive (Republished)}}</ref>

===School of the Americas===
{{main|Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation}}
Professor Gareau argues that the School of the Americas (reorganized in 2001 as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), a U.S. training institution mainly for Latin America, is a terrorist training ground. He cites a UN report which states the school has "graduated 500 of the worst human rights abusers in the hemisphere." Gareau alleges that by funding, training and supervising Guatemalan 'Death Squads' Washington was complicit in state terrorism.<ref name="Gareaupp22">
{{cite book |last=Gareau |first=Frederick H. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=State Terrorism and the United States |year=2004 |publisher=Zed Books |location=London |id=ISBN 1-84277-535-9 |pages=pp22-25 and pp61-63}}</ref>

Defenders argue that the alleged connection to human rights abusers is often weak. For example, ]'s sole link to the SOA is that he had taken a course in Radio Operations long before El Salvador's civil war began.<ref>{{cite web|author=Paul Mulshine|title=The War in Central America Continues|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20021219221936/http:/216.247.220.66/archives/politics/watchwar.htm|accessdaymonth=6 November |accessyear=2007}}</ref> They also argue that no school should be held accountable for the actions of only some of its many graduates. Before coming to the current WHINSEC each student is now “vetted” by his/her nation and the U.S. embassy in that country. All students are now required to receive "human rights training in law, ethics, rule of law and practical applications in military and police operations."<ref>""</ref><ref>{{cite web | author = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | title = FAQ | url = https://www.benning.army.mil/WHINSEC/about.asp?id=37 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | author = Center for International Policy | title = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | url = http://www.ciponline.org/facts/soa.htm | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref>

===El Salvador (1980-92)===

The ] was predominantly fought between the government of El Salvador against a coalition of four leftist guerrilla groups and one communist group known as the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) mainly between 1980 and 1992. A violent insurgency existed already in the 1970s. The United States supported the government and Cuba and other Communist states the guerrillas. In total the civil war killed 75,000 people.

===Chile===
{{main|United States intervention in Chile}}

In the period of 1970-1973, the United States has been accused of supporting and committing State Terrorism during the overthrow of the socialist elected Chilean government of ]. Prof. Stohl writes, "In addition to nonterroristic strategies...the United States embarked on a program to create economic and political chaos in Chile...After the failure to prevent Allende from taking office, efforts shifted to obtaining his removal." Money authorized for the CIA to destabilize Chilean society, included, "financing and assisting opposition groups and right-wing terrorist paramilitary groups such as ] ("Fatherland and Liberty")." ] (also known as '''Track II''') was the codename for the secret ] operations that were intended to undermine ]'s government and promote a ]. In September 1973 the Allende government was overthrown in a violent military coup in which the United States is claimed to have been "intimately involved." <ref>"The State as Terrorist: The Dynamics of Governmental Violence and Repression" by Prof. Michael Stohl, and Prof. George A. Lopez; Greenwood Press, 1984. Page 51 </ref>

Professor Gareau, writes on the subject: "Washington's training of thousands of military personnel from Chile who later committed state terrorism again makes Washington eligible for the charge of accessory before the fact to state terrorism. The CIA's close relationship during the height of the terror to ], Chile's chief terrorist (with the possible exception of ] himself), lays Washington open to the charge of accessory during the fact." Gareau argues that the fuller extend involved the US taking charge of coordinating counterinsurgency efforts between all Latin American countries. He writes, "Washington's service as the overall coordinator of state terrorism in ] demonstrates the enthusiasm with which Washington played its role as an accomplice to state terrorism in the region. It was not a reluctant player. Rather it not only trained Latin American governments in terrorism and financed the means to commit terrorism; it also encouraged them to apply the lessons learned to put down what it called “the communist threat.” Its enthusiasm extended to coordinating efforts to apprehend those wanted by terrorist states who had fled to other countries in the region....The evidence available leads to the conclusion that Washington's influence over the decision to commit these acts was considerable."<ref>State Terrorism and the United States: From Counterinsurgency to the War on Terrorism by Frederick H. Gareau, Page78-79.</ref>"Given that they knew about the terrorism of this regime, what did the elites in Washington during the ] and Ford administrations do about it? The elites in Washington reacted by increasing U.S. military assistance and sales to the state terrorists, by covering up their terrorism, by urging U.S. diplomats to do so also, and by assuring the terrorists of their support, thereby becoming accessories to state terrorism before, during, and after the fact." <ref>State Terrorism and the United States: From Counterinsurgency to the War on Terrorism by Frederick H. Gareau, Page 87.</ref>

Scholars have written on Chile as an example of State Terrorism of a very open kind that did not attempt a façade of civilian governance, and that had a "September 11th effect" through the hemisphere. Professor of History Thomas Wright, argues that "unlike their Brazilian counterparts, they did not embrace state terrorism as a last recourse; they launched a wave of terrorism on the day of the coup. In contrast to the Brazilians and Uruguayans, the Chileans were very public about their objectives and their methods; there was nothing subtle about rounding up thousands of prisoners, the extensive use of torture, executions following sham court-marshal, and shootings in cold blood. After the initial wave of open terrorism, the Chilean armed forces constructed a sophisticated apparatus for the secret application of state terrorism that lasted until the dictatorship’s end...The impact of the Chilean coup reached far beyond the country’s borders. Through their aid in the overthrow of Allende and their support of the Pinochet dictatorship, President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, sent a clear signal to all of Latin America that anti-revolutionary regimes employing repression, even state terrorism, could count on the support of the United States. The U.S. government in effect, gave a green light to Latin America’s right wing and its armed forces to eradicate the left and use repression to erase the advances that workers - and in some countries, campesinos - had made through decades of struggle. This “Septmember 11 effect” was soon felt around the hemisphere.” <ref>Wright, Thomas C. State Terrorism and Latin America: Chile, Argentina, and International Human Rights, Rowman & Littlefield, page 29</ref>

Prof. Gareau concludes, "The message for the populations of Latin American nations and particularly the Left opposition was clear: the United States would not permit the continuation of a Socialist government, even if it came to power in a democratic election and continued to uphold the basic democratic structure of that society."<ref>State Terrorism and the United States: From Counterinsurgency to the War on Terrorism by Frederick H. Gareau, Page 87.</ref>

===Iran (1979-present)===
In ], an article in the ] by an Indian diplomat asserted that the United States was providing aid to rebels in ] revolting against the ] government.<ref name="Asia Times">{{cite journal
|first=M. K.
|last=Bhadrakumar
|date=], ]
|title=Foreign devils in the Iranian mountains
|publisher=]
|url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB24Ak01.html
}}</ref> An Asian Times article refers to this as part of a U.S. policy of continuous fomenting of ethnic strife and sponsorship of terrorism in Iran.<ref name="ZAHEDAN"> The New York Times</ref>

====Jundullah====
The ] militant organization ] has been identified as a terrorist organization by Iran and Pakistan<ref>{{cite web|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/16/iran.bombing/|title=2nd blast in 3 days hits Iranian city|publisher=CNN|date=2007-02-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsAug2004/cover1Aug2004.htm|title=Al-Qaeda's New Face|publisher=Newsline|date=2004-08-15}}</ref>. According to an April 2007 report by ] and ] of ], the ] had been secretly encouraging and advising the Jundullah in its attacks against Iranian targets. This support is said to have started in 2005 and arranged so that the United States provided no direct funding to the group, which would require congressional oversight and attract media attention.<ref></ref> The report was denied by ] official sources.<ref name="Rood"> Justin Rood and Gretchen Peters, , ], ], ]</ref><ref>n.b. ], one of the sources quoted by Ross and Isham in in their report alleging US support for the Jundullah, resigned from ABC News in June 2007, after ABC officials discovered he faked several interviews while working for the company. See: {{cite web
|first=Howard
|last=Kurtz
|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/12/AR2007091202333.html?sub=AR
|title=Consultant Probed in Bogus Interview
|publisher=]
|date=2007-09-13}}, and {{cite web
|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/15/business/media/15abc.html?ex=1347508800&en=ade79fbecbd7f5de&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
|title=Former ABC Consultant Says He Faked Nothing
|first=Bill
|last=Carter
|publisher=The New York Times
|date=2007-09-15}}</ref>

], an Iranian state run news agency, reported that the United States government is involved in the terrorist acts of the ] (PRMI).<ref></ref> The ], the official broadcasting service of the United States government, interviewed Jundullah leader ] in ], an act condemned by the Iranian government.<ref>http://www.alalam.ir/english/en-NewsPage.asp?newsid=018030120070404130601</ref><ref></ref><ref> (in Persian)</ref><ref></ref>

====People's Mujahedin of Iran====
In April 2007, ] reported that the US military and the ] were protecting the ], with the US army regularly escorting PMOI supply runs between ] and its base, ].<ref name="cnn06apr07">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/05/protected.terrorists/|title= U.S. protects Iranian opposition group in Iraq|accessdate=2007-04-06|publisher=CNN|year=2007|author=Ware, Michael|work=CNN website, ], ]. }}</ref> The PMOI have been designated as a ] by the United States (since 1997), ], and ].<ref name="eu-fto">{{cite journal | title=COUNCIL COMMON POSITION 2005/847/CFSP| journal=Official Journal of the European Union| year=2005| volume=L 314| page=44| url=http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_314/l_31420051130en00410045.pdf}}</ref><ref name="crt">{{Cite web|url=http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2006/82738.htm|title=Chapter 6 -- Terrorist Organizations|accessdate=2007-07-15|publisher=US Department of State|year=2007}}</ref> According to the ]<ref name="WSJ"> {{Cite |title= Iranian Imbroglio Gives New Boost To Odd Exile Group |date=2006-11-29|publisher=Wall Street Journal |year=2006|author=Andrew Higgins and Jay Solomon }}</ref> "senior diplomats in the ] administration say the PMOI figured prominently as a bargaining chip in a bridge-building effort with Tehran." The PMOI is also on the ]'s blacklist of terrorist organizations, which lists 28 organizations, since 2002.<ref name="Bonnet"> , ], former director of the French ] {{fr icon}} </ref> The enlistments included: ] by the United States in 1997 under the ], and again in 2001 pursuant to section 1(b) of ]; as well as by the ] (EU) in 2002.<ref>, ], ], ]</ref> Its bank accounts were frozen in 2002 after the ] and a call by the EU to block terrorist organizations' funding. However, the ] has overturned this in December 2006 and has criticized the lack of "transparency" with which the blacklist is composed.<ref> , '']'', ], ] {{fr icon}} </ref> However, the ] declared on ] ] that it would maintain the organization on the blacklist.<ref> , ] website, ], ]. </ref><ref>, NCRI website, ], ] </ref> The EU-freezing of funds was lifted on ], ] by the ].<ref name="lifted">http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp06/aff/cp060097en.pdf</ref> In 2003 the US State Department included the NCRI on the blacklist, under Executive Order 13224.<ref> by ], Acting Spokesman, ], ] </ref>

According to a 2003 article by the New York Times, the US 1997 proscription of the group on the terrorist blacklist was done as "a goodwill gesture toward Iran's newly elected reform-minded president, ]" (succeeded in 2005 by the more conservative ]).<ref name="Rubin">{{cite web| url=http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/sloth/2003-07-15.html| title= The Cult of Rajavi| first=New York Times| last=Rubin, Elizabeth| accessdate=2006-04-21}} {{en icon}}</ref> In 2002, 150 members of the ] signed a letter calling for the lifting of this designation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-71383195.html|title=
U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo: Mujahedin offers hope for a new Iran|publisher=Rocky Mountain News|date=2003-01-07}}</ref> The PMOI have also tried to have the designation removed through several court cases in the U.S. The PMOI has now lost three appeals (1999, 2001 and 2003) to the US government to be removed from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and its terrorist status was reaffirmed each time. The PMOI has continued to protest worldwide against its listing, with the overt support of some US political figures.<ref name="au_act">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rn/2002-03/03rn43.htm|title=Behind the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MeK)|accessdate=2007-07-15|publisher=Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Group, Parliament of Australia|year=2003|author=Nigel Brew}}</ref><ref>United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Argued ], ] Decided ], ], </ref>

Past supporters of the PMOI have included Rep. ] (R-CO), Rep. ], (D-CA), and Sen. ] (R-MO), and former ] ], "who became involved with the while a Republican senator from Missouri."<ref>Michael Isikoff, ": Why the attorney general and others in Washington have backed a terror group with ties to Iraq", ''Newsweek'' (] ]).</ref><ref name="gso">{{Cite web|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2005/050531-terror-list.htm|title=Group on U.S. terror list lobbies hard|accessdate=2007-07-15|publisher=United Press International|year=2005|author=Angela Woodall}}</ref> In 2000, 200 U.S. Congress members signed a statement endorsing the organization's cause.<ref name="newsweek">{{Cite web|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6242223/site/newsweek/ShadesofGray|title=Shades of Gray|accessdate=2007-07-15|publisher=Newsweek|year=2004|author=Michael Isikoff & Mark Hosenball}}</ref>

===Iraq (1992-95)===
The '']'' reported that, according to former U.S. intelligence officials, the CIA once orchestrated a bombing and sabotage campaign between 1992 and 1995 in Iraq via one of the resistance organizations, ]'s group in an attempt to destabilize the country. According to the Iraqi government at the time, and one former CIA officer, the bombing campaign against ] included both government and civilian targets. According to this former CIA official, the civilian targets included a movie theater and a bombing of a school bus where children were killed. No public records of the secret bombing campaign are known to exist, and the former U.S. officials said their recollections were in many cases sketchy, and in some cases contradictory. "But whether the bombings actually killed any civilians could not be confirmed because," as a former CIA official said, "the United States had no significant intelligence sources in Iraq then."<ref name="NYT">{{cite journal
| first =Joel
| last =Brinkley
| authorlink =
| coauthors =
| year =June 9
| month =2004
| title =Ex-C.I.A. Aides Say Iraq Leader Helped Agency in 90's Attacks
| journal =New York Times
| volume =
| issue =
| pages =
| id =
| url =http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0609-02.htm
}}</ref><ref>Counter Currents, 2004 June 19, "Who Is Allawi?" http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-hassan190604.htm; World War 4 Report, "Iraq Meets the New Boss" http://ww4report.com/static/iraq5.html</ref>

===Lebanon (1985)===
The CIA has been accused of being the perpetrator of a ] which killed 81 people. The bombing was apparently an assassination attempt on an ] cleric, Sheikh ].<ref name = "Time.com-8816"> Richard Zoglin ''TIME'' October 12, 1987</ref><ref name = "Woodward-CIA-1987">{{cite book
|first=Bob
|last=Woodward
|title=Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA
|publisher=Simon and Schuster
|date=1987
}}</ref> The bombing, known as the Bir bombing after Bir el-Abed, the impoverished ] neighborhood in which it had occurred, was reported by the New York Times to have caused a "massive" explosion "even by local standards," killing 81 people, and wounding more than 200.<ref name="worldbobmade">{{cite web|url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF27Ak01.html|title=The Gates Inheritance, Part 3: The world that Bob made|publisher=Asia Times|date=2007-06-27}}</ref> Investigative journalist ] stated that the CIA was funded by the ]n ] to arrange the bombing.<ref name = "Time.com-8816"/><ref name = "Woodward-CIA-1987"/> Fadlallah himself also claims to have evidence that the CIA was behind the attack and that the Saudis paid $3 million.<ref> Paul Cochrane ''Worldpress.org'' July 5, 2004</ref>

The U.S. ] ] admitted that those responsible for the bomb may have had American training, but that they were "rogue operative(s)" and the CIA in no way sanctioned or supported the attack.<ref name="target"></ref> Roger Morris writes in the Asia Times that the next day, a notice hung over the devastated area where families were still digging the bodies of relatives out of the rubble. It read: "Made in the USA". The terrorist strike on Bir el-Abed is seen as a product of U.S. covert policy in Lebanon. Agreeing with the proposals of CIA director ], president ] sanctioned the Bir attack in retaliation for the ] at Beirut airport in October 1983, which, Roger Morris alleges, in turn had been a reprisal for earlier U.S. acts of intervention and diplomatic dealings in ] that had resulted in hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian lives. After CIA operatives had repeatedly failed to arrange Casey's car-bombing, the CIA allegedly "farmed out" the operation to agents of its longtime Lebanese client, the Phalange, a ], anti-Islamic militia.<ref name="worldbobmade"/> Others allege the 1984 Bombing of the U.S. Embassy annex northeast of Beirut as the motivating factor.<ref name="target"/>


Among other scholars, Ruth J. Blakeley says that the United States and its allies sponsored and deployed state terrorism on an "enormous scale" during the ]. The justification given for this was to contain ], but Blakeley contends it was also a means by which to buttress the interests of U.S. business elites and to promote the expansion of ] throughout the ].<ref name="Blakeley"/> Mark Aarons posits that right-wing authoritarian regimes and dictatorships backed by Western powers committed atrocities and mass killings that rival the Communist world, citing examples such as the ], the ], the "]" in Guatemala during the civil war, and the assassinations and state terrorism associated with ] throughout South America.<ref name ="BlumenthalMcCormack">
===Japan (1945)===
Mark Aarons (2007). "." In David A. Blumenthal and Timothy L. H. McCormack (eds). '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105053952/http://www.brill.com/legacy-nuremberg-civilising-influence-or-institutionalised-vengeance |date=2016-01-05 }}'' ]. {{ISBN|9004156917}} pp. &
{{see|Debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki}}
</ref> In ''Worse Than War,'' ] argues that during the last two decades of the Cold War, the number of American client states practicing mass murder outnumbered those of the ].<ref>] (2009). ''Worse Than War.'' ]. {{ISBN|1586487698}} p.537
* "During the 1970s and 1980s, the number of American client states practicing mass-murderous politics exceeded those of the Soviets."</ref> According to Latin Americanist ], the number of repression victims in Latin America alone far surpassed that of the U.S.S.R. and its East European satellites between 1960 and 1990.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Coatsworth|first1=John Henry|author-link=John Henry Coatsworth |chapter= The Cold War in Central America, 1975–1991 | editor1-last=Leffler|editor1-first=Melvyn P.|editor1-link=Melvyn P. Leffler|editor2-last=Westad|editor2-first=Odd Arne|editor2-link=Odd Arne Westad|date=2012 |title=The Cambridge History of the Cold War (Volume 3)|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xjTVBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT230|publisher=]|page=230 |isbn=978-1107602311}}</ref> ] asserts that "hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans were tortured, abducted or killed by right-wing military regimes as part of the US-led anti-communist crusade."<ref>{{cite book|last1=McSherry|first1=J. Patrice|author-link1= J. Patrice McSherry|editor1=Esparza, Marcia |editor2=Henry R. Huttenbach|editor3=Daniel Feierstein|title=State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies)|chapter=Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America |page=|publisher=]|year=2011|isbn=978-0415664578|chapter-url=https://www.routledge.com/State-Violence-and-Genocide-in-Latin-America-The-Cold-War-Years/Esparza-Huttenbach-Feierstein/p/book/9780415496377}}</ref>


==Definition==
Some legal scholars, ], other governments, and human rights organizations have characterized the United States' ] ] against the ] as state terrorism. The ] remain the only time a state has used nuclear weapons against concentrated civilian populated areas.<ref>
{{See also|State terrorism|Definitions of terrorism}}
The ] ] excludes acts done by recognized ].<ref>
{{cite book {{cite book
|author=Gupta, Dipak K.
| last = Frey
|title=Understanding terrorism and political violence: the life cycle of birth, growth, transformation, and demise
| first =Robert S.
|publisher=Taylor & Francis
| title = The Genocidal Temptation: Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Rwanda and Beyond
|year=2008
| publisher =University Press of America
|page=8
| date =2004
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a5S8tAyPuQwC&pg=PA8
| id = ISBN 0761827439 }} Reviewed at:
|isbn=978-0-415-77164-1
|access-date=2016-01-05
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502065534/https://books.google.com/books?id=a5S8tAyPuQwC&pg=PA8
|archive-date=2016-05-02
|url-status=live
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite journal {{cite journal
|title=How to Define Terrorism
| last = Rice
| first =Sarah |first=Joshua
|last=Sinai
| title =The Genocidal Temptation: Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Rwanda and Beyond (Review)
| journal =Harvard Human Rights Journal |journal=Perspectives on Terrorism
| volume =Vol. 18 |volume=2
|issue=4
| date =2005
|year=2008
| url = http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss18/booknotes-Genocidal.shtml
|url=http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/33/html
| accessdate = }}</ref><ref>
|access-date=2011-07-06
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005054712/http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/33/html
|archive-date=2011-10-05
|url-status=live
}}
</ref> According to U.S. law (22 U.S.C. 2656f(d)(2))<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/422/2656f-
|title=Title 22 > Chapter 38 > § 2656f - Annual country reports on terrorism
|date=February 1, 2010
|author=U.S. Department of State
|publisher=Cornell University Law School, Legal Information Institute
}}</ref> terrorism is defined as "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience".<ref>Gupta, p. 8</ref><ref>
{{cite journal {{cite journal
|volume = 2
| last = Dower
|issue = 4
| first =John
|year = 2008
| title =The Bombed: Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japanese Memory
|title = How to Define Terrorism
| journal =Diplomatic History
|first = Joshua
| volume =Vol. 19
|last = Sinai
| issue =no. 2
|journal = Perspectives on Terrorism
| date =1995
|url = http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/33/html
| url =
|access-date = 2011-07-06
| accessdate = }}</ref>
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111005054712/http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/33/html

|archive-date = 2011-10-05
The role of the bombings in ] and the United States' justification for them has been the subject of scholarly and popular debate for decades. J. Samuel Walker writes in an April 2005 overview of recent historiography on the issue, "the controversy over the use of the bomb seems certain to continue."<ref> {{cite journal|title=Recent Literature on Truman's Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground|journal=Diplomatic History|date=]|first=J. Samuel|last=Walker|coauthors=|volume=29|issue=2|pages=334|id= |url=|format=|accessdate=2008-01-30 }}</ref> Most interpretations of the atomic attacks as "state terrorism" center around the targeting of innocents to achieve a political goal. Supporters of this classification argue that the meeting of the Target Committee on May 10–11 1945<ref>{{cite web | title=Atomic Bomb: Decision — Target Committee, May 10–11, 1945 | url=http://www.dannen.com/decision/targets.html | accessmonthday= August 6 | accessyear= 2005 }}</ref> rejected the use of the weapons against a strictly military objective and chose a large civilian population to create a psychological effect that would be felt around the world.<ref> {{cite book|title=Thinking About International Ethics: Moral Theory And Cases From American Foreign Policy|date=]|first=Frances Vryling|last=Harbour|ISBN 0813328470|page=134|id= |url=|format=|}}</ref>The attacks in this context were thus seen as both militarily unnecessary and as transgressing moral barriers.<ref>
|url-status = live
{{cite book
}}
| last = Eisenhower
</ref><ref>
| first = Dwight D.
| authorlink =Dwight D. Eisenhower
| title = The White House Years; Mandate For Change: 1953-1956
| publisher = Doubleday & Company
| date =1963
| pages = pp. 312-313
| id = }}</ref><ref name="Hiroshima: Quotes">
{{cite web {{cite web
|work=National Counterterrorism Center: Annex of Statistical Information
| title=Hiroshima: Quotes
|title=Country Reports on Terrorism - Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
| url=http://www.doug-long.com/quotes.htm
|date=April 30, 2007
| accessmonthday = August 6
|publisher=U.S. State Department
| accessyear= 2005 }}</ref><ref name="Bard Memorandum">
|url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2006/82739.htm
{{cite web
|access-date=2017-06-25
| title=Bard Memorandum
}}
| url=http://www.dannen.com/decision/bardmemo.html
</ref> There is no international consensus on a legal or academic definition of terrorism.<ref name="Williamson-38">{{cite book
| accessmonthday = May 8
|author=Williamson, Myra
| accessyear = 2006 }}</ref><ref>
|title=Terrorism, war and international law: the legality of the use of force against Afghanistan in 2001
{{cite web
|publisher=Ashgate Publishing
| title=Decision: Part I
|year=2009
| url=http://www.doug-long.com/ga1.htm
|isbn=978-0-7546-7403-0
| accessmonthday = August 6
|page=38
| accessyear= 2005 }}</ref><ref name = "CD"> {{cite journal
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuJIPP9HfRsC&pg=PA38
| first =Robert
}}</ref> United Nations conventions have failed to reach consensus on definitions of non-state or state terrorism.<ref>{{cite web|work=U.N. Action to Counter Terrorism |title=The UN's fight against terrorism: five years after 9/11 |first=Javier |last=Rupérez |publisher=]|location=Spain|author-link=Javier Rupérez |date=6 September 2006 |url=https://www.un.org/terrorism/ruperez-article.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110411034734/http://www.un.org/terrorism/ruperez-article.html |archive-date=April 11, 2011 }}</ref>
| last =Freeman
| coauthors =
| year =2006
| month =August 6
| title =Was the Atomic Bombing of Japan Necessary?
| journal =CommonDreams.org
| volume =
| issue =
| pages =
| id =
| url =http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0806-25.htm
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web
| url = http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/USSBS-PTO-Summary.html#jstetw
| title = United States Strategic Bombing Survey; Summary Report
| accessmonthday = July 28
| accessyear = 2006
| author =
| last =
| first =
| authorlink =
| coauthors =
| date =
| year = 1946
| month =
| format =
| work =
| publisher = United States Government Printing Office
| pages = pg. 26
}}</ref>


According to professor Mark Selden, "American politicians and most social scientists definitionally exclude actions and policies of the United States and its allies" as terrorism.<ref>Selden </ref> Historian ] wrote that "Even when definitions of terrorism allow for ''state terrorism'', state actions in this area tend to be seen through the prism of war or national self-defense, not terror."<ref>{{cite book|author=Hor, Michael Yew Meng|title=Global anti-terrorism law and policy|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-521-10870-6|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nzQOAR5rqvcC&pg=PA20|access-date=2016-11-12|archive-date=2019-03-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190303234424/https://books.google.com/books?id=nzQOAR5rqvcC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA20|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to Dr Myra Williamson, the meaning of "terrorism" has undergone a transformation. During the reign of terror a regime or system of terrorism was used as an instrument of governance, wielded by a recently established revolutionary state against the enemies of the people. Now the term "terrorism" is commonly used to describe terrorist acts committed by ''non-state or subnational entities'' against a state.<ref>Williamson </ref>
Historian ] writes: "if 'terrorism' has a useful meaning (and I believe it does, because it marks off an act as intolerable, since it involves the indiscriminate use of violence against human beings for some political purpose), then it applies exactly to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."<ref name="ZinnBreakingSilence" />


In ''State terrorism and the United States'' Frederick F. Gareau writes that the intent of terrorism is to intimidate or coerce both targeted groups and larger sectors of society that share or could be led to share the values of targeted groups by causing them "intense fear, anxiety, apprehension, panic, dread and/or horror".<ref>{{cite book|last=Gareau|first=Frederick H.|title=State terrorism and the United States : from counterinsurgency to the war on terrorism|year=2004|publisher=Clarity Press|location=Atlanta|isbn=978-0-932863-39-3|page=14}}</ref> The objective of terrorism against the state is to force governments to change their policies, to overthrow governments or even to destroy the state. The objective of state terrorism is to eliminate people who are considered to be actual or potential enemies, and to discourage those actual or potential enemies who are not eliminated.<ref>Wright, p. 11</ref>
Howard Zinn cites the sociologist Kai Erikson who states that the attacks {{quote|"...were not 'combat' in any of the ways that word is normally used. Nor were they primarily attempts to destroy military targets, for the two cities had been chosen not despite but because they had a high density of civilian housing...the attacks were to be a show, a display, a demonstration. The question is: What kind of mood does a fundamentally decent people have to be in, what kind of moral arrangements must it make, before it is willing to annihilate as many as a quarter of a million human beings for the sake of making a point?"<ref name="ZinnBreakingSilence"> {{cite web|url=http://polymer.bu.edu/~amaral/Personal/zinn.html |title=Hiroshima; Breaking the Silence |accessdate=2008-01-30 |first=Howard Zinn }}</ref>}}


==General critiques==
] writes of it as an example of "...war terrorism: the effort to kill civilians in such large numbers that their government is forced to surrender. Hiroshima seems to me the classic case."<ref>{{cite journal
{{Overquotation|section|date=September 2017}}
| author = Walzer, Michael
Professor ], formerly the ] under President Reagan's administration, wrote:
| name = Dissent Magazine
| title = Five Questions About Terrorism
| publisher = Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, Inc.
| date = 2002
| url = http://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/LpB/Lehre/WS%2002-03/Walzer%20on%20Terror.pdf
| volume = 49
| issue = 1
| accessdate=2007-07-11}}</ref>


<blockquote>As many critics have pointed out, terrorism is not an enemy. It is a tactic. Because the United States itself has a long record of supporting terrorists and using terrorist tactics, the slogans of today's war on terrorism merely makes the United States look hypocritical to the rest of the world.<ref name="odom_terrorismtactic">
Professor ] is head of the ] ] and studies political violence, ], ], and ].<ref> {{cite web|url=http://www.cappe.edu.au/staff/tony-coady.htm |title=Professor Tony Coady |accessdate=2008-01-30 }}</ref> He writes in ''Terrorism and Justice: Moral Argument in a Threatened World'': "Several of the contributors consider the issue of state terrorism and there is a general agreement that states not only can sponsor terrorism by non state groups but that states can, and do, directly engage in terrorism. Coady instances the terror bombings of World War II, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as acts of terrorism."<ref>{{cite book|title = Terrorism and Justice: Moral Argument in a Threatened World |publisher = Melbourne University Publishing |year = 2004 |month = June |last = Coady |first = Tony |ISBN = 0-52285049-9 |pages = XV}}</ref>
{{Cite journal|author=Odom, General William|title=American Hegemony: How to Use It, How to Lose It|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume=151|issue=4|date=December 2007|page=410}}. Online copy available {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614105156/http://www.middlebury.edu/media/view/214721/original/OdomPaper.pdf |date=2011-06-14 }}
</ref></blockquote>


Professor ] holds that the US and other rich states, as well as mainstream ] institutions, have obfuscated the true character and scope of terrorism, promulgating a one-sided view from the standpoint of ] privilege. He has said that:
Mark Selden, professor of sociology and history at ] and author of ''War and State Terrorism: The United States, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century'', writes, "This deployment of air power against civilians would become the centerpiece of all subsequent U.S. wars, a practice in direct contravention of the Geneva principles, and cumulatively the single most important example of the use of terror in twentieth century warfare."<ref>{{cite news | first=Mark | last=Selden | coauthors= | title=Terrorism Before and After 9-11 | date=] | publisher=] | url =http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2310 | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2008-01-30 | language = }}</ref>


<blockquote>If 'terrorism' as a term of moral and legal opprobrium is to be used at all, then it should apply to violence deliberately targeting civilians, whether committed by state actors or their non-state enemies.<ref name="Falk 1988">{{Cite book|last=Falk |first=Richard |title=Revolutionaries and Functionaries: The Dual Face of Terrorism |url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionariesf0000falk |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Dutton |year=1988|isbn=9780525246046 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web
], professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at ] has written in some detail about Hiroshima and Nagasaki as instances of ]. He writes "The graveyards of ] are the number-one exhibits of state terrorism... Consider the hypocrisy of an Administration that portrays ] as barbaric while preparing to inflict terrorism on a far grander scale... Any counter terrorism policy worth the name must include a convincing indictment of the First World variety."<ref name="falk" />. He also writes:
|url = http://www.transnational.org/SAJT/forum/Nonviolence/2004/Falk_GandhiNonviolence.html
|title = Gandhi, Nonviolence and the Struggle Against War
|last = Falk
|first = Richard
|publisher = The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research
|date = January 28, 2004
|access-date = 2007-07-10
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070802103222/http://www.transnational.org/SAJT/forum/Nonviolence/2004/Falk_GandhiNonviolence.html
|archive-date = August 2, 2007
|url-status = dead
|df = mdy-all
}}</ref></blockquote>


Falk has argued that the repudiation of authentic non-state terrorism is insufficient as a strategy for mitigating it.<ref name="falk">{{cite journal
{{quote|Undoubtedly the most extreme and permanently traumatizing instance of state terrorism, perhaps in the history of warfare, involved the use of atomic bombs against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in military settings in which the explicit function of the attacks was to terrorize the population through mass slaughter and to confront its leaders with the prospect of national annihilation....the idea that massive death can be deliberately inflicted on a helpless civilian population as a tactic of war certainly qualifies as state terror of unprecedented magnitude, particularly as the United States stood on the edge of victory, which might well have been consummated by diplomacy.|Richard Falk|''War and State Terrorism''<ref>Falk, Richard. "State Terror versus Humanitarian Law",in Selden,, Mark, editor (November 28, 2003). War and State Terrorism: The United States, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.. ISBN 978-0742523913. ,45</ref>}}
|title=Thinking About Terrorism
|journal=]
|date=June 28, 1986
|first=Richard |last=Falk
|volume=242|issue=25|pages=873–892
}}</ref>
Falk also argued that people who committed "terrorist" acts against the United States could use the ].


], reviewing Falk's ''Revolutionaries and Functionaries'', stated that Falk's definition of terrorism hinges on some unstated definition of "permissible"; this, says Schorr, makes the judgment of what is terrorism inherently "subjective", and furthermore, he claims, leads Falk to label some acts he considers impermissible as "terrorism", but others he considers permissible as merely "terroristic".<ref>{{Cite news
While paying tribute to the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ] - President of Venezuela - referred to the bombings as "the greatest act of terrorism in recorded history."<ref>{{cite news | first=Maria Salomé | last=Campanioni | coauthors= | title=Chavez Calls Dropping of A-Bomb, 'Greatest Act of Terrorism in Recorded History' | date=] | publisher= | url =http://www.watchingamerica.com/radiorebelde000001.html | work =watchingamerica.com | pages = | accessdate = 2008-01-30 | language = }}</ref>
|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFD8133BF932A35756C0A96E948260
|title=The Politics of Violence
|first= Daniel |last=Schorr
|date=1 May 1988
|newspaper=The New York Times
}}</ref>


In a review of Chomsky and Herman's ''The Political Economy of Human Rights'', Yale political science professor ] holds that the authors' case for accusing the United States of state terrorism is "shockingly overstated". Fishkin writes of Chomsky and Herman:
Burleigh Taylor Wilkins states in Terrorism and Collective Responsibility that "any definition which allowed the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to count as instances of terrorism would be too broad." He goes on to explain "The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while obviously intended by the American government to alter the policies of the Japanese government, seem for all the terror they involved, more an act of war than of terrorism."<ref>{{cite book|title=Terrorism and Collective Responsibility |publisher=Routledge |last=Wilkins |first=Taylor |isbn=0-41504152-X |pages=11}}</ref> It has also been argued that because Japan was engaged in ] "there was no difference between civilians and soldiers"<ref>{{cite web | title=The Avalon Project : The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/abomb/mp25.htm | accessmonthday= August 6 | accessyear= 2005 }}</ref> and that Hiroshima and Nagasaki did also have strategic significance as army headquarters and for military production.<ref>{{cite web
| url= http://www.hiroshima-spirit.jp/en/museum/morgue_e11.html
| title= Hiroshima Before the Bombing
|date= |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher= ]
| accessdate= 2008-03-16 }}</ref><ref name="hanson"/><ref> Dr. Hubertus Hoffmann</ref><ref></ref>


<blockquote>They infer an extent of American control and coordination comparable to ]. ... Yet even if all evidence were accepted ... it would add up to no more than systematic support, not control. Hence the comparison to Eastern Europe appears grossly overstated. And from the fact that we give assistance to countries that practice terror it is too much to conclude that "Washington has become the torture and political murder capital of the world." Chomsky's and Herman's indictment of US foreign policy is thus the mirror image of the '']'' rhetoric they criticize: it rests on the illusion of American omnipotence throughout the world. And because they refuse to attribute any substantial independence to countries that are, in some sense, within America's sphere of influence, the entire burden for all the political crimes of the non-communist world can be brought home to Washington.<ref name=Fishkin>{{cite magazine
Some scholars argue that the institutionalized form of terrorism carried out by states have occurred as a result of changes that took place following World War ll, and in particular these atomic bombings.{{Fact|date=May 2008}} In this analysis state terrorism as a form of foreign policy was shaped by the presence and use of weapons of mass destruction, and that the legitimizing of such violent behavior led to an increasingly accepted form of state behavior. Examples of state terrorism cited are Germany’s bombing of London and the U.S. atomic destruction of Hiroshima. The argument is discussed by Professor of Political Science ] and ], in their book "Terrible beyond Endurance? The Foreign Policy of State Terrorism." 1988.
|last=Fishkin|first=James S.
|title=American Dream/Global Nightmare: The Dilemma of U.S. Human Rights Policy by Sandy Vogelgesang (W. W. Norton)<br/> The Political Economy of Human Rights Volume I: The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism <br/>Volume II: After the Cataclysm: Postwar Indochina and the Reconstruction of Imperial Ideology by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman (South End Press)
|magazine=]
|date=September 6{{ndash}}13, 1980
|volume=183| issue=10/11
|pages=37–38
}}</ref></blockquote>


Fishkin praises Chomsky and Herman for documenting human rights violations, but argues that this is evidence "for a far lesser moral charge", namely, that the United States could have used its influence to prevent certain governments from committing acts of torture or murder but chose not to do so.<ref name=Fishkin/>
=== Philippines ===
In “The Terrorist Foundations of US Foreign Policy”, Professor of International Law ] argues that during the ], when the U.S. was “confronted by a nationalistic resistance movement in the Philippines,” American forces were responsible for state terrorism. Falk relates that “as with the wars against native American peoples, the adversary was demonized (and victimized). In the struggle, US forces, with their wide margin of military superiority, inflicted disproportionate casualties, almost always a sign of terrorist tactics, and usually associated with refusal or inability to limit political violence to a discernible military opponent. The dispossession of a people from their land almost always is a product of terrorist forms of belligerency. In contrast, interventions in Central and South America in the area of so-called “Gunboat Diplomacy” were generally not terrorist in character, as little violence was required to influence political struggle for ascendancy between competing factions of an indigenous elite.” <ref>Falk, Richard. Terrorist Foundations of US Foreign Policy, in Western State Terrorism, Alexander George, ed.,Polity Press,110</ref>


Commenting on Chomsky's ''9-11'', former US Secretary of Education ] said: "Chomsky says in the book that the United States is a leading terrorist state. That's a preposterous and ridiculous claim. ... What we have done is ], helped in ] and the ]. We have provided sanctuary for people of all faiths, including Islam, in the United States. We tried to help in ]. ... Do we have faults and imperfections? Of course. The notion that we're a leading terrorist state is preposterous."<ref>
In “Instruments of Statecraft"], human rights researcher ] described the intensification of the U.S. role during the ] rebellion in 1950, when concerns about a perceived communist-led Huk insurgency prompted sharp increases in military aid and a reorganization of tactics towards methods of guerrilla warfare. McClintock describes the role of U.S. "advisers" to the Philippine Minister of National Defense, ], remarking that they “adroitly managed Magsaysay's every move.” Air Force Lt. Col. ] was a psywar propaganda specialist who became the close personal adviser and confidant of Magsaysay. The forte of another key adviser, Charles Bohannan, was guerrilla warfare. McClintock cites several examples to demonstrate that “terror played an important part” in the psychological operations under U.S. guidance. Those psywar operations that utilized terror included theatrical displays involving the exemplary display of dead Huk bodies in an effort to incite fear in rural villagers. In another psywar operation described by Lansdale, Philippine troops engaged in nocturnal captures of individual Huks. They punctured the necks of the victims and drained the corpses of blood, leaving the bodies to be discovered when daylight came, so as to play upon fears associated with the local folklore of the Asuang, or vampire.]
{{cite news
|title=American Morning with Paula Zahn
|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0205/09/ltm.10.html
|newspaper=CNN
|date=May 9, 2002
|access-date=7 July 2011
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026045701/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0205/09/ltm.10.html
|archive-date=2012-10-26
|url-status=live
}}
</ref>


Stephen Morris also criticized Chomsky's thesis:
For McClintock, this Philippines episode is particularly important because of its formative influence on U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine. In his essay, American Doctrine and State Terror, McClintock explained that U.S. Army instruction manuals of the 1960's concerning 'counterterrorism' often referred to "the particular experiences of the Philippines and Vietnam." Noting that tactics similar to those used during the Huk Rebellion (from 1946-54) in the Philippines were cited in the manuals, he elaborated that the "Department of the Army's 1976 psywar publication, DA Pamphlet 525-7-1, refers to some of the classic counterterror techniques and account of the practical application of terror. These include the capture and murder of suspected guerillas in a manner suggesting the deed was done by legendary vampires (the 'asuang'); and a prototypical "Eye of God" technique in which a stylized eye would be painted opposite the house of a suspect." <ref>McClintock, Michael. American Doctrine and State Terror in Western State Terrorism. Alexander George, ed.,Polity Press, 134</ref>


<blockquote>There is only one regime which has received arms and aid from the United States, and which has a record of brutality that is even a noticeable fraction of the brutality of ], ], ], or the ]. That is the ] government in ]. But ... the United States was not the principal foreign supplier of Indonesia when the generals seized power (nor is there any credible evidence of American involvement in the coup). Within the period of American assistance to Indonesia, and in particular during the period of the ], the number of political prisoners has ''declined''. Finally, the current brutality of the Suharto regime is being directed against the people of ], a former colony of Portugal that Indonesia is attempting to take over by force ... not as part of its normal process of domestic rule.<ref>Morris, Stephen, Chomsky on U.S. foreign policy, ''Harvard International Review,'' December–January 1981, pg. 26.</ref></blockquote>
==Opposing views==
{{Unbalanced}}
{{Expand|date=March 2008}}
:''See also: ]


In 2017, declassified documents from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta have confirmed that the United States government, from the very beginning, was ] in the campaign of mass killings which followed Suharto's seizure of power.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/telegrams-confirm-scale-of-us-complicity-in-1965-genocide/|title=Telegrams confirm scale of US complicity in 1965 genocide|last= Melvin|first=Jess|date=20 October 2017|website=Indonesia at Melbourne|publisher=]|access-date=July 27, 2018|quote="The new telegrams confirm the US actively encouraged and facilitated genocide in Indonesia to pursue its own political interests in the region, while propagating an explanation of the killings it knew to be untrue."}}</ref><ref>
Regarding support for various dictatorships, especially during the ], a response is that they were seen as necessary evil, with the alternatives even worse Communist or fundamentalist dictatorships.
{{cite news|last=Scott|first=Margaret|date=October 26, 2017|title=Uncovering Indonesia's Act of Killing|url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/10/20/uncovering-indonesias-act-of-killing/|work=]|access-date=July 27, 2018|quote=According to Simpson, these previously unseen cables, telegrams, letters, and reports "contain damning details that the U.S. was willfully and gleefully pushing for the mass murder of innocent people."|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625161434/https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/10/20/uncovering-indonesias-act-of-killing/|archive-date=2018-06-25|url-status=live}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite news|last=Head|first=Mike|author-link=Mike Head|date=25 October 2017|title=Documents show US participation in 1965-66 massacres in Indonesia|url=http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/10/25/indo-o25.html|work=]|access-date=July 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727181153/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/10/25/indo-o25.html|archive-date=2018-07-27|url-status=live}}
</ref> Without the support of the U.S. and its Western allies, the massacres would not have happened.<ref>
{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=Geoffrey B.|date=2018|title=The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66|url=https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11135.html|publisher=]|pages=22–23, 177|isbn=9781400888863|access-date=2018-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820162717/https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11135.html|archive-date=2018-08-20|url-status=live}}
</ref> In 2016, an international tribunal in ] ruled that the killings constitute ] and it also ruled that the United States and other Western governments were complicit in the crimes.<ref>
{{cite news|last=Perry|first=Juliet|date=21 July 2016|title=Tribunal finds Indonesia guilty of 1965 genocide; US, UK complicit|url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/21/asia/indonesia-genocide-panel/index.html|work=CNN|access-date=July 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613234256/https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/21/asia/indonesia-genocide-panel/index.html|archive-date=2018-06-13|url-status=live}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite news|last=Yosephine|first=Liza|date=21 July 2016|title=US, UK, Australia complicit in Indonesia's 1965 mass killings: People's Tribunal|url=http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/07/21/us-uk-australia-complicit-in-indonesias-1965-mass-killings-peoples-tribunal.html|work=]|access-date=July 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727151655/http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/07/21/us-uk-australia-complicit-in-indonesias-1965-mass-killings-peoples-tribunal.html|archive-date=2018-07-27|url-status=live}}
</ref> Indian historian ] says that the complicity of the United States and its Western allies in the massacres "is beyond doubt," as they "provided the Indonesian armed forces with lists of Communists who were to be assassinated" and "egged on the Army to conduct these massacres." He adds they covered up this "absolute atrocity" and that the US in particular refuses to fully declassify its records for this period.<ref>{{cite book |last=Prashad |first=Vijay |author-link=Vijay Prashad |date=2020 |title=Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations |publisher=]|page=85 |isbn=978-1583679067 }}</ref> According to ], the Indonesian mass killings were not an aberration, but the apex of a loose network of US-backed ] campaigns in the ] during the Cold War.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bevins |first1=Vincent|authorlink=Vincent Bevins |title= ]|date=2020 |publisher= ]|pages=238–243 |isbn= 978-1541742406}}</ref> According to historian Brad Simpson:


<blockquote>Washington did everything in its power to encourage and facilitate the army-led massacre of alleged PKI members, and U.S. officials worried only that the killing of the party's unarmed supporters might not go far enough, permitting Sukarno to return to power and frustrate the Administration's emerging plans for a post-Sukarno Indonesia. This was efficacious terror, an essential building block of the ] policies that the West would attempt to impose on Indonesia after Sukarno's ouster.<ref>
Empirical studies (see ] which has been argued to be equivalent to state terrorism<ref name=Kisangani2007>{{cite journal | author = Kisangani, E. | year = 2007 | title = The Political Economy Of State Terror | journal = Defence and Peace Economics | volume = 18 | issue = 5 | pages = 405-414 | url = http://www.informaworld.com/index/781318312.pdf | accessdate = 2008-04-02}}</ref>) have found that democracies, including the United States, have killed much fewer civilians than dictatorships.<ref> DEATH BY GOVERNMENT By R.J. Rummel New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1994. Online links: </ref><ref>'''', Barbara Harff, 2003.</ref>
{{cite book|last=Simpson|first=Bradley|date=2010|title=Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.–Indonesian Relations, 1960–1968|url=https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=7853|publisher=]|page=193|isbn=978-0804771825|access-date=2018-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625213245/https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=7853|archive-date=2018-06-25|url-status=live}}
</ref></blockquote>


==See also== ==See also==
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{{wikiquote|State terrorism and the United States}}
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==External links==
*


==Notes== ==Notes==
{{Reflist|colwidth=35em}}
{{reflist|2}}


==References== ==References==
*{{cite book |last1=Bevins |first1=Vincent|authorlink=Vincent Bevins |title= ]|date=2020 |publisher= ] |isbn= 978-1541742406}}
*{{cite book
* Blakeley, Ruth (2009). ''.'' ]. {{ISBN|0415686172}}
|last=Alexander
* Donahue, Laura K. "Terrorism and counter-terrorist discourse". In Hor, Michael Yew Meng, Ramraj, Victor Vridar and Roach, Kent (Eds.), ''Global anti-terrorism law and policy''. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2005 {{ISBN|0-521-85125-4}}
|first=George
*{{cite book|editor1=Esparza, Marcia |editor2=Henry R. Huttenbach|editor3=Daniel Feierstein|title=State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies)|publisher=]|year=2011|isbn=978-0415664578|url=https://www.routledge.com/State-Violence-and-Genocide-in-Latin-America-The-Cold-War-Years/Esparza-Huttenbach-Feierstein/p/book/9780415496377}}
|title=Western State Terrorism
*{{cite book |last=Prashad |first=Vijay |author-link=Vijay Prashad |date=2020 |title=Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations |publisher=] |isbn=978-1583679067 }}
|publisher=Polity Press
* {{Cite book|editor-last=Sluka|editor-first=Jeffrey A.|title=Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-8122-1711-7|url=https://archive.org/details/deathsquadanthro00sluk}}
|date=December 1991
* Taylor, Antony James William. ''Justice as a basic human need''. Nova Science Publishers, 2006. {{ISBN|1-59454-915-X}}
|pages=276
* {{Cite book|last=Wright|first=Thomas C.|title=State Terrorism in Latin America: Chile, Argentina, and International Human Rights|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.|date=February 28, 2007|isbn=978-0-7425-3721-7}}
|isbn=9780745609317
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Chomsky
|first=Noam
|title=The Culture of Terrorism
|publisher=South End Press
|date=January 1988
|pages=269
|isbn=9780896083349
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Sluka,
|first=Jeffrey A., editor
|title=Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror
|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press
|date=1999
|isbn=978-0-8122-1711-7
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Selden,
|first=Mark, editor
|title=War and State Terrorism: The United States, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century
|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
|date=]
|isbn=978-0742523913
}}
* Menjívar, Cecilia and Rodríguez,Néstor, editors, ''When States Kill:Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror,'' University of Texas Press 2005,isbn=978-0-292-70647-7
*{{cite web
|url=http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Pilger_John/Bush_Terror_Elite.html
|title=Bush Terror Elite Wanted 9/11 to Happen
|last=Pilger
|first=John
|publisher=Third World Traveler
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2007-07-09
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Perdue
|first=William D.
|title=Terrorism and the State: A Critique of Domination Through Fear
|publisher=Praeger Press
|city=New York
|pages=240
|date=], ]
|isbn=9780275931407
}}
*Campbell, Bruce B., and Brenner,Arthur D.,eds. 2000. ''Death Squads in Global Perspective: Murder with Deniability''. New York: St. Martin's Press
*{{cite web
|url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/august97/terror04.html
|title=Understanding Terrorism
|publisher=]
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2007-07-09
}}
*{{cite web
|url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/nov2001/reic-n24.shtml
|title=Bush nominee linked to Latin American terrorism
|last=Vann
|first=Bill
|publisher=World Socialist Web Site
|date=], ]
|accessdate=2007-07-09
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Wright,
|first=Thomas C.
|title=State Terrorism in Latin America: Chile, Argentina, and International Human Rights
|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
|date=]
|isbn=978-0742537217
}}
{{refend}}


==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Alexander |first=George |title=Western State Terrorism |publisher=Polity Press |date=December 1991 |page=276 |isbn=978-0-7456-0931-7}}
* {{Cite book|last=Blum|first=William|title=Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II|publisher=Common Courage Press|year=1995|page=|isbn=978-1-56751-052-2|url=https://archive.org/details/killinghopeusmil00blum_0/page/457}}
* Campbell, Bruce B., and Brenner, Arthur D., eds. 2000. ''Death Squads in Global Perspective: Murder with Deniability''. New York: St. Martin's Press
* {{Cite book|last=Chomsky|first=Noam|title=The Culture of Terrorism|publisher=South End Press|date=January 1988|page=|isbn=978-0-89608-334-9|url=https://archive.org/details/cultureofterrori00chom/page/269}}
* {{Cite book|last=Churchill|first=Ward|title=On The Justice of Roosting Chickens|publisher=AK Press|year=2003|page=|isbn=978-1-902593-79-1|url=https://archive.org/details/onjusticeofroost00chur/page/309}}
* {{Cite book|editor1=Jackson, Richard |editor2=Smyth, Marie |editor3=Gunning, Jeroen|title=Critical terrorism studies: a new research agenda|publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-415-45507-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tMXaeS3azK8C}}
* Menjívar, Cecilia and Rodríguez, Néstor, editors, ''When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror'', University of Texas Press 2005,{{ISBN|978-0-292-70647-7}}
* {{Cite book|last=Perdue|first=William D.|title=Terrorism and the State: A Critique of Domination Through Fear|publisher=Praeger Press|location=New York|page=240|date=August 7, 1989|isbn=978-0-275-93140-7}}
* {{Cite book|editor-last=Selden|editor-first=Mark|title=War and State Terrorism: The United States, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.|date=November 28, 2003|isbn=978-0-7425-2391-3}}

{{Terrorism topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:United States And State Terrorism}}
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Latest revision as of 21:31, 24 November 2024

Terrorism allegations against the U.S. This article is about allegations of US state terrorism. For terrorism sponsored by the United States, see United States and state-sponsored terrorism.

Protester with a sign reading "The U.S. is the #1 Terrorist State" at a demonstration against the Iraq War in 2003.
Part of a series on
Terrorism and political violence
By ideology
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State terrorism
State-sponsored terrorism
Response to terrorism

Several scholars have accused the United States of involvement in state terrorism. They have written about the US and other liberal democracies' use of state terrorism, particularly in relation to the Cold War. According to them, state terrorism is used to protect the interest of capitalist elites, and the U.S. organized a neo-colonial system of client states, co-operating with regional elites to rule through terror.

Such works include Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman's The Political Economy of Human Rights (1979), Herman's The Real Terror Network (1985), Alexander L. George's Western State Terrorism (1991), Frederick Gareau's State Terrorism and the United States (2004), and Doug Stokes' America's Other War (2005). Of these, Ruth J. Blakeley considers Chomsky and Herman as being the foremost writers on the United States and state terrorism.

This work has proved controversial with mainstream scholars of terrorism, who concentrate on non-state terrorism and the state terrorism of dictatorships.

Notable works

Beginning in the late 1970s, Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman wrote a series of books on the United States' involvement with state terrorism. Their writings coincided with reports by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations of a new global "epidemic" of state torture and murder. Chomsky and Herman argued that terror was concentrated in the U.S. sphere of influence in developing countries, and documented human rights abuses carried out by U.S. client states in Latin America. They argued that of ten Latin American countries that had death squads, all were US client states. Worldwide they claimed that 74% of regimes that used torture on an administrative basis were U.S. client states, receiving military and other support from the U.S. to retain power. They concluded that the global rise in state terror was a result of U.S. foreign policy.

Chomsky concluded that all powers backed state terrorism in client states. At the top were the U.S. and other powers, notably the United Kingdom and France, that provided financial, military, and diplomatic support to Third World regimes kept in power through violence. These governments acted together with multinational corporations, particularly in the arms and security industries. In addition, other developing countries outside the Western sphere of influence carried out state terror supported by rival powers.

The alleged involvement of major powers in state terrorism in developing countries has led scholars to study it as a global phenomenon rather than study individual countries in isolation.

In 1991, a book edited by Alexander L. George also argued that other Western powers sponsored terror in developing countries. It concluded that the U.S. and its allies were the main supporters of terrorism throughout the world. Gareau states that the number of deaths caused by non-state terrorism (3,668 deaths between 1968 and 1980, as estimated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)) is "dwarfed" by those resulting from state terrorism in US-backed regimes such as Guatemala (150,000 killed, 50,000 missing during the Guatemalan Civil War – 93% of whom Gareau classifies as "victims of state terrorism").

Among other scholars, Ruth J. Blakeley says that the United States and its allies sponsored and deployed state terrorism on an "enormous scale" during the Cold War. The justification given for this was to contain Communism, but Blakeley contends it was also a means by which to buttress the interests of U.S. business elites and to promote the expansion of neoliberalism throughout the Global South. Mark Aarons posits that right-wing authoritarian regimes and dictatorships backed by Western powers committed atrocities and mass killings that rival the Communist world, citing examples such as the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66, the "disappearances" in Guatemala during the civil war, and the assassinations and state terrorism associated with Operation Condor throughout South America. In Worse Than War, Daniel Goldhagen argues that during the last two decades of the Cold War, the number of American client states practicing mass murder outnumbered those of the Soviet Union. According to Latin Americanist John Henry Coatsworth, the number of repression victims in Latin America alone far surpassed that of the U.S.S.R. and its East European satellites between 1960 and 1990. J. Patrice McSherry asserts that "hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans were tortured, abducted or killed by right-wing military regimes as part of the US-led anti-communist crusade."

Definition

See also: State terrorism and Definitions of terrorism

The United States legal definition of terrorism excludes acts done by recognized states. According to U.S. law (22 U.S.C. 2656f(d)(2)) terrorism is defined as "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience". There is no international consensus on a legal or academic definition of terrorism. United Nations conventions have failed to reach consensus on definitions of non-state or state terrorism.

According to professor Mark Selden, "American politicians and most social scientists definitionally exclude actions and policies of the United States and its allies" as terrorism. Historian Henry Commager wrote that "Even when definitions of terrorism allow for state terrorism, state actions in this area tend to be seen through the prism of war or national self-defense, not terror." According to Dr Myra Williamson, the meaning of "terrorism" has undergone a transformation. During the reign of terror a regime or system of terrorism was used as an instrument of governance, wielded by a recently established revolutionary state against the enemies of the people. Now the term "terrorism" is commonly used to describe terrorist acts committed by non-state or subnational entities against a state.

In State terrorism and the United States Frederick F. Gareau writes that the intent of terrorism is to intimidate or coerce both targeted groups and larger sectors of society that share or could be led to share the values of targeted groups by causing them "intense fear, anxiety, apprehension, panic, dread and/or horror". The objective of terrorism against the state is to force governments to change their policies, to overthrow governments or even to destroy the state. The objective of state terrorism is to eliminate people who are considered to be actual or potential enemies, and to discourage those actual or potential enemies who are not eliminated.

General critiques

This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. Please help summarize the quotations. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote or excerpts to Wikisource. (September 2017)

Professor William Odom, formerly the director of the National Security Agency under President Reagan's administration, wrote:

As many critics have pointed out, terrorism is not an enemy. It is a tactic. Because the United States itself has a long record of supporting terrorists and using terrorist tactics, the slogans of today's war on terrorism merely makes the United States look hypocritical to the rest of the world.

Professor Richard Falk holds that the US and other rich states, as well as mainstream mass media institutions, have obfuscated the true character and scope of terrorism, promulgating a one-sided view from the standpoint of First World privilege. He has said that:

If 'terrorism' as a term of moral and legal opprobrium is to be used at all, then it should apply to violence deliberately targeting civilians, whether committed by state actors or their non-state enemies.

Falk has argued that the repudiation of authentic non-state terrorism is insufficient as a strategy for mitigating it. Falk also argued that people who committed "terrorist" acts against the United States could use the Nuremberg Defense.

Daniel Schorr, reviewing Falk's Revolutionaries and Functionaries, stated that Falk's definition of terrorism hinges on some unstated definition of "permissible"; this, says Schorr, makes the judgment of what is terrorism inherently "subjective", and furthermore, he claims, leads Falk to label some acts he considers impermissible as "terrorism", but others he considers permissible as merely "terroristic".

In a review of Chomsky and Herman's The Political Economy of Human Rights, Yale political science professor James S. Fishkin holds that the authors' case for accusing the United States of state terrorism is "shockingly overstated". Fishkin writes of Chomsky and Herman:

They infer an extent of American control and coordination comparable to the Soviet role in Eastern Europe. ... Yet even if all evidence were accepted ... it would add up to no more than systematic support, not control. Hence the comparison to Eastern Europe appears grossly overstated. And from the fact that we give assistance to countries that practice terror it is too much to conclude that "Washington has become the torture and political murder capital of the world." Chomsky's and Herman's indictment of US foreign policy is thus the mirror image of the Pax Americana rhetoric they criticize: it rests on the illusion of American omnipotence throughout the world. And because they refuse to attribute any substantial independence to countries that are, in some sense, within America's sphere of influence, the entire burden for all the political crimes of the non-communist world can be brought home to Washington.

Fishkin praises Chomsky and Herman for documenting human rights violations, but argues that this is evidence "for a far lesser moral charge", namely, that the United States could have used its influence to prevent certain governments from committing acts of torture or murder but chose not to do so.

Commenting on Chomsky's 9-11, former US Secretary of Education William Bennett said: "Chomsky says in the book that the United States is a leading terrorist state. That's a preposterous and ridiculous claim. ... What we have done is liberated Kuwait, helped in Bosnia and the Balkans. We have provided sanctuary for people of all faiths, including Islam, in the United States. We tried to help in Somalia. ... Do we have faults and imperfections? Of course. The notion that we're a leading terrorist state is preposterous."

Stephen Morris also criticized Chomsky's thesis:

There is only one regime which has received arms and aid from the United States, and which has a record of brutality that is even a noticeable fraction of the brutality of Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Mao, or the Hanoi Politburo. That is the Suharto government in Indonesia. But ... the United States was not the principal foreign supplier of Indonesia when the generals seized power (nor is there any credible evidence of American involvement in the coup). Within the period of American assistance to Indonesia, and in particular during the period of the Carter administration, the number of political prisoners has declined. Finally, the current brutality of the Suharto regime is being directed against the people of East Timor, a former colony of Portugal that Indonesia is attempting to take over by force ... not as part of its normal process of domestic rule.

In 2017, declassified documents from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta have confirmed that the United States government, from the very beginning, was deeply involved in the campaign of mass killings which followed Suharto's seizure of power. Without the support of the U.S. and its Western allies, the massacres would not have happened. In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled that the killings constitute crimes against humanity and it also ruled that the United States and other Western governments were complicit in the crimes. Indian historian Vijay Prashad says that the complicity of the United States and its Western allies in the massacres "is beyond doubt," as they "provided the Indonesian armed forces with lists of Communists who were to be assassinated" and "egged on the Army to conduct these massacres." He adds they covered up this "absolute atrocity" and that the US in particular refuses to fully declassify its records for this period. According to Vincent Bevins, the Indonesian mass killings were not an aberration, but the apex of a loose network of US-backed anti-communist mass killing campaigns in the Global South during the Cold War. According to historian Brad Simpson:

Washington did everything in its power to encourage and facilitate the army-led massacre of alleged PKI members, and U.S. officials worried only that the killing of the party's unarmed supporters might not go far enough, permitting Sukarno to return to power and frustrate the Administration's emerging plans for a post-Sukarno Indonesia. This was efficacious terror, an essential building block of the neoliberal policies that the West would attempt to impose on Indonesia after Sukarno's ouster.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Blakeley, Ruth (2009). State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South. Routledge. pp. 4, 20-23, 88. ISBN 978-0415686174. Archived from the original on 2015-06-14. Retrieved 2015-06-12.
  2. Sluka, p. 8
  3. ^ Sluka, p. 9
  4. Sluka, pp. 8–9
  5. Gareau, Frederick Henry (2002). The United Nations and other international institutions: a critical analysis. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-8304-1578-6. Archived from the original on 2016-05-06. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
  6. Mark Aarons (2007). "Justice Betrayed: Post-1945 Responses to Genocide." In David A. Blumenthal and Timothy L. H. McCormack (eds). The Legacy of Nuremberg: Civilising Influence or Institutionalised Vengeance? (International Humanitarian Law). Archived 2016-01-05 at the Wayback Machine Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN 9004156917 pp. 71 & 80–81
  7. Daniel Goldhagen (2009). Worse Than War. PublicAffairs. ISBN 1586487698 p.537
    • "During the 1970s and 1980s, the number of American client states practicing mass-murderous politics exceeded those of the Soviets."
  8. Coatsworth, John Henry (2012). "The Cold War in Central America, 1975–1991". In Leffler, Melvyn P.; Westad, Odd Arne (eds.). The Cambridge History of the Cold War (Volume 3). Cambridge University Press. p. 230. ISBN 978-1107602311.
  9. McSherry, J. Patrice (2011). "Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America". In Esparza, Marcia; Henry R. Huttenbach; Daniel Feierstein (eds.). State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies). Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 978-0415664578.
  10. Gupta, Dipak K. (2008). Understanding terrorism and political violence: the life cycle of birth, growth, transformation, and demise. Taylor & Francis. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-415-77164-1. Archived from the original on 2016-05-02. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
  11. Sinai, Joshua (2008). "How to Define Terrorism". Perspectives on Terrorism. 2 (4). Archived from the original on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  12. U.S. Department of State (February 1, 2010). "Title 22 > Chapter 38 > § 2656f - Annual country reports on terrorism". Cornell University Law School, Legal Information Institute.
  13. Gupta, p. 8
  14. Sinai, Joshua (2008). "How to Define Terrorism". Perspectives on Terrorism. 2 (4). Archived from the original on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  15. "Country Reports on Terrorism - Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism". National Counterterrorism Center: Annex of Statistical Information. U.S. State Department. April 30, 2007. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  16. Williamson, Myra (2009). Terrorism, war and international law: the legality of the use of force against Afghanistan in 2001. Ashgate Publishing. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-7546-7403-0.
  17. Rupérez, Javier (6 September 2006). "The UN's fight against terrorism: five years after 9/11". U.N. Action to Counter Terrorism. Spain: Real Instituto Elcano. Archived from the original on April 11, 2011.
  18. Selden p. 4
  19. Hor, Michael Yew Meng (2005). Global anti-terrorism law and policy. Cambridge University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-521-10870-6. Archived from the original on 2019-03-03. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  20. Williamson p. 43
  21. Gareau, Frederick H. (2004). State terrorism and the United States : from counterinsurgency to the war on terrorism. Atlanta: Clarity Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-932863-39-3.
  22. Wright, p. 11
  23. Odom, General William (December 2007). "American Hegemony: How to Use It, How to Lose It". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 151 (4): 410.. Online copy available here Archived 2011-06-14 at the Wayback Machine
  24. Falk, Richard (1988). Revolutionaries and Functionaries: The Dual Face of Terrorism. New York: Dutton. ISBN 9780525246046.
  25. Falk, Richard (January 28, 2004). "Gandhi, Nonviolence and the Struggle Against War". The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research. Archived from the original on August 2, 2007. Retrieved July 10, 2007.
  26. Falk, Richard (June 28, 1986). "Thinking About Terrorism". The Nation. 242 (25): 873–892.
  27. Schorr, Daniel (1 May 1988). "The Politics of Violence". The New York Times.
  28. ^ Fishkin, James S. (September 6–13, 1980). "American Dream/Global Nightmare: The Dilemma of U.S. Human Rights Policy by Sandy Vogelgesang (W. W. Norton)
    The Political Economy of Human Rights Volume I: The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism
    Volume II: After the Cataclysm: Postwar Indochina and the Reconstruction of Imperial Ideology by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman (South End Press)". The New Republic. Vol. 183, no. 10/11. pp. 37–38.
  29. "American Morning with Paula Zahn". CNN. May 9, 2002. Archived from the original on 2012-10-26. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  30. Morris, Stephen, Chomsky on U.S. foreign policy, Harvard International Review, December–January 1981, pg. 26.
  31. Melvin, Jess (20 October 2017). "Telegrams confirm scale of US complicity in 1965 genocide". Indonesia at Melbourne. University of Melbourne. Retrieved July 27, 2018. The new telegrams confirm the US actively encouraged and facilitated genocide in Indonesia to pursue its own political interests in the region, while propagating an explanation of the killings it knew to be untrue.
  32. Scott, Margaret (October 26, 2017). "Uncovering Indonesia's Act of Killing". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 2018-06-25. Retrieved July 27, 2018. According to Simpson, these previously unseen cables, telegrams, letters, and reports "contain damning details that the U.S. was willfully and gleefully pushing for the mass murder of innocent people."
  33. Head, Mike (25 October 2017). "Documents show US participation in 1965-66 massacres in Indonesia". World Socialist Web Site. Archived from the original on 2018-07-27. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  34. Robinson, Geoffrey B. (2018). The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66. Princeton University Press. pp. 22–23, 177. ISBN 9781400888863. Archived from the original on 2018-08-20. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  35. Perry, Juliet (21 July 2016). "Tribunal finds Indonesia guilty of 1965 genocide; US, UK complicit". CNN. Archived from the original on 2018-06-13. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  36. Yosephine, Liza (21 July 2016). "US, UK, Australia complicit in Indonesia's 1965 mass killings: People's Tribunal". The Jakarta Post. Archived from the original on 2018-07-27. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  37. Prashad, Vijay (2020). Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations. Monthly Review Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-1583679067.
  38. Bevins, Vincent (2020). The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World. PublicAffairs. pp. 238–243. ISBN 978-1541742406.
  39. Simpson, Bradley (2010). Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.–Indonesian Relations, 1960–1968. Stanford University Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0804771825. Archived from the original on 2018-06-25. Retrieved 2018-07-27.

References

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