Although they portrayed the Contras as freedom fighters, it was well known that they used murder, assassination and torture. And also were allegedly using CIA-supplied planes to smuggle cocaine back into the United States. And to finance the Contras, the Neo-Conservatives were even prepared to deal with the America’s enemy – the leaders of the Iranian revolution. In 1985 those running the Nicaraguan operation held a series of secret meetings with Iranian leaders in Europe. They arranged to sell the Iranians American weapons; in return the Iranians would release American hostages held in Lebanon. Then the money from these sales would be used by those running Project Democracy to fund the Contras. The only problem was that this was completely illegal. And the President knew it. ibid.
What was beginning to emerge was the problem of spreading freedom around the world. To do it those leading Project Democracy had turned not just to manipulation and violence but were beginning to undermine the ideals of democracy in America. The very thing they were trying to create abroad. It was the corruption of freedom that Isaiah Berlin had warned of. ibid.
A new elite was beginning to emerge who snapped up vast sections of Russian industry: they became known as the Oligarchs. ibid.
Corruption on a huge scale: more than $350 billion has been sent to Iraq for reconstruction. ibid.
The Americans began to turn to violence and torture to enforce their kind of freedom. ibid.
The Neo-Conservatives were beginning to believe that their ideal of freedom was an absolute. And that this then justified lying and exaggerating in order to enforce that vision. The end justified the means. Although they portrayed the Contras as freedom fighters, it was well known that they used murder, assassination and torture. And also were allegedly using CIA-supplied planes to smuggle cocaine back into the United States. And to finance the Contras, the Neo-Conservatives were even prepared to deal with America’s enemy – the leaders of the Iranian revolution. In 1985 those running the Nicaragua operation held a series of secret meetings with Iranian leaders in Europe. They arranged to sell the Iranians American weapons; in return the Iranians would release American hostages held in Lebanon. Then the money from these sales would be used by those running Project Democracy to fund the Contras. The only problem was that this was completely illegal. And the President knew it. Adam Curtis: The Trap III: We Will Force You to be Free
What was beginning to emerge was the problem of spreading freedom around the world. To do it those leading Project Democracy had turned not just to manipulation and violence but were beginning to undermine the ideals of democracy in America. The very thing they were trying to create abroad. It was the corruption of freedom that Isaiah Berlin had warned of. ibid.
For Neo-Conservatives religion is an instrument of promoting morality. Michael Lind
You see already in ’91 the hopes of [Paul] Wolfowitz and others that the battle against Saddam Hussein or other petty tyrants could take the place of the battle against the Soviet Union and could bear this interpretation of a battle between Good against Evil. Professor Stephen Holmes, political philosopher
The current Bush administration is probably the worst administration that we have had in the twentieth century. By that I mean it is the most unrestrained by public opinion or the most unrestrained by world opinion. It has the tightest little constellation of right-wing people that we have seen in government. And it seems to be absolutely determined to be at war. Howard Zinn, Liberty Bound 2004
In my opinion, treason! The cabal of Neo-Conservatives at PNAC who planned this war – Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Perle ... this cabal knew the American people would not stand for a war against Iraq unless there was, as they put it in their own documents, a New Pearl Harbor. 9/11 supplied that. Dr Robert Bowman, former Democratic contender
Americans flatly accepted following New York the invasion of Afghanistan that had already been planned to the smallest detail. PSTV.tv – New American Century
Seen from up close the official versions soon started to show some serious weaknesses. Too many curious events, too many inconsistencies, too many coincidences pointed at the possibility that the Truth was somewhat different from what we had been told. ibid.
But who are the Neo-Cons? The Neo-Conservative school of thought can be traced to the University of Chicago’s Professor Leo Strauss, who began enunciating its principles by the end of the sixties. ibid.
The novelty introduced by the Neo-Cons however was that for the first time in history the adversary would be the entire world. ibid.
The Wolfowitz doctrine which established the right of the United States to engage in pre-emptive war anywhere in the world in order to avoid other nations challenging their authority. ibid.
Rumsfeld managed to convince Gerald Ford to create an independent group to re-examine all the information the CIA had gathered about the Russians from the beginning. The group was called Team B. ibid.
The western media however had already made up their mind [Osama] bin Laden was the guy, and from him anything could be expected at that point. ibid.
September 11 was not the first time American was drawn into a war by an ambiguous incident ... In 1898 the United States went to war against Spain in order to take control of the Caribbean area. The pretext came from the sinking of USS Maine ... Only in 1980, almost a century later, would America recognise that the Spanish were not responsible for the attack. ibid.
In 1915 it was the sinking of the USS Lusitania ... It appears however that the US had secretly slipped to the Germans the information. ibid.
In 1941 there was the infamous Pearl Harbor attack to generate a wave of indignation large enough for President Roosevelt to declare war on Japan ... History would later reveal that the administration knew of the attack in advance. ibid.
In 1964 the United States decided to officially declare war on North Vietnam ... The so-called Tonkin Gulf incident ... But [Robert] McNamara forty years later would openly confess that the attack on the Maddox never took place. ibid.
The US secretly informed Saddam that they had nothing against him taking over the oilfields of Kuwait ... Saddam took the bait. ibid.
Operation Northwoods unclassified documents: A) We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba; B) We could blow up a drone (unmanned) vessel anywhere ... 8) It is possible to create an incident which will demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft has attacked and shot down a chartered civil airliner en route from the United States ... The actual registered aircraft would be converted to a drone. ibid.
The Industrial Military Complex: the American military elite seems to have responded to a recurring need of waging wars of conquest both to increase the control of world-wide resources and to maintain a healthy and productive war for industry. ibid.
Another important element that contributes to the recurring need for America to extend its reach beyond the national borders is definitely oil. ibid.
Thus began the quest for the so-called American Dream: the dream made of wealth comfort and well-being ... The connection between liberty and wealth was being continually reinforced. ibid.
The need for foreign oil has been rising dramatically for the United States over the past thirty years. ibid.
On September 10th [2001] a detailed plan to attack Afghanistan was put on George Bush’s desk for him to be signed on his return from Florida. The following morning, the twin towers were turned into rubble. ibid.
In 2003 it was the Iraqis who showed the world the remnants of their immense artistic heritage which had been stolen or destroyed by the Americans. ibid.
The Bush administration convinced Congress to approve the extraordinary printing of $20 billion in cash for the reconstruction of Iraq. 360 tons of $100 were physically transported to Iraq. ibid.
The only companies allowed to participate in the no-bid contracts were Halliburton and its subsidiaries which ended up getting the entire share of the pie. ibid.
All the money literally disappeared in a couple of months without a single school, hospital or bridge ever being built. ibid.
The so-called Abu Ghraib scandal shook the world. ibid.
It’s this kind of ideology which has grown up in the wake of the Cold War propounded quite openly by what we are calling Neo-Conservatives in America, that identifies the United States as a colossus to thwart the world, a new Rome, beyond good and evil. Chalmers Johnson, author Sorrows of Empire
This is not just a Republican take-over, this is a very specific wing of the Republican Party. It’s Neo-Conservative, it’s unilateralist, it doesn’t believe in the rule of law. It doesn’t believe you have to tell the public the truth. William Hartung, fellow World Policy Institute
Iraq was the target because Neo-Conservatives wanted to remake the governments of the Middle East, to secure long-term US access to oil, to open the economies to American investment and to protect Israel through installation of governments friendly to the United States. David Moberg
In a broad new policy statement that is in its final drafting phase, the Defense Department asserts that America’s political and military mission in the post-cold-war era will be to ensure that no rival superpower is allowed to emerge in Western Europe, Asia or the territories of the former Soviet Union.