Defending American lives

“Whether it’s through the use of our military, through the use of our law enforcement capacity, if you harm Americans, it is the sworn duty of every person in the executive branch to find you and hold you accountable. It doesn’t matter where you are, we’ll find you, we’ll hunt you down, and we’ll hold you accountable.”

These are the words of Attorney General Eric Holder speaking to the newest version of Osama bin Laden, “Jihadi John”, a 26-year-old British citizen named Mohammad Emwazi, who is supposedly the man behind the black mask in the beheadings of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, both American citizens, and British aid worker David Haines, as well as British taxi driver Alan Henning.

“Jihad John” appears to be the latest Madison Avenue production. Identifying and focusing our anger and desire for revenge for such brutal acts is being made without any shared evidence to support the allegations. All we have seen so far is a man wearing a black mask and speaking with an English accent.

Emwazi’s background does not reveal any associations with fanatical or extremist organizations or that he participated in activities that would lead us to accept his involvement in conducting the TV productions of beheadings by ISIS. Before I accept the official narrative, I would like to know what evidence exists.

Just as the official story for 9-11 was that bin Laden led and organized the attack from a cave in Afghanistan and while our FBI admitted that there was no evidence linking bin Laden to 9-11, he was accepted as the villain, I am reluctant to assume that the official version is true and accurate.

President Obama doubled down on Mr. Holder’s comments by stating, “Any time any American is harmed anywhere in the world, the United States government is going to be going after that person. And eventually, if you hurt an American, you’re going to be brought to justice in some fashion.”

Such protection of U.S. citizens did not always exist. Rachel Corrie from Olympia, Washington, was an American peace activist. She was a member of the pro-Palestinian group called the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She was killed by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored bulldozer in a combat zone in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, under contested circumstances during the height of the second Palestinian intifada.

She had come to Gaza as part of her senior-year college assignment to connect her home town with Rafah in a sister cities project. While there, she had engaged with other ISM activists in efforts to prevent the Israeli army’s demolition of Palestinian houses.

Less than two months after her arrival, on March 16, 2003, Corrie was killed during an Israeli military operation after a three-hour confrontation between Israeli soldiers operating two bulldozers and eight ISM activists.

What was the official U.S. response to an American citizen being purposely run over by an Israeli bulldozer? The government accepted Israel’s explanation that this was an accident and no one was held responsible. To add insult to injury, the bulldozers were likely manufactured by Caterpillar in the U.S.

If this were the only occasion where American lives were lost to Israeli action, there would be less basis for my argument to demonstrate the contradiction in the response to “Jihad John”, whoever that is, and the U.S. response to Israeli’s killing of Americans.

In 1967, during the Six Day War, Israel attacked the USS Liberty, killing 34 U.S. Navy men and injuring 171 others. Israel claimed that this was a case of mistaken identity where they did not recognize the ship as American.

Of course, identifying the ship, which was in international waters, must have been difficult as a large American flag waved in the breeze on a bright sunny day. New evidence, an audio tape of a conversation between Israeli Air Force pilots and their controllers back at the base verifies that they knew that the targeted ship was American. Yet, the attack on the ship continued for almost two hours.

Israel’s goal was to destroy the ship and make certain there were no survivors.

There is talk that former President, Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara pressured the folks investigating the event to find that this attack was an accident, despite overwhelming evidence that this was not the case.

Retired Admiral Thomas Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who spent a year investigating the attack as part of an independent panel he formed with other former military officials, declared that this was “one of the classic all-American cover-ups.”

The assault on the Liberty is well documented. With no warning, the Liberty was attacked by successive waves of unmarked jets using cannon, rockets and napalm. The attacking jets jammed all the US communications frequencies, an indication they knew the Liberty was an American ship.

“Why would our government put Israel’s interests ahead of our own?” Moorer asked from his wheelchair at the news conference. He was chief of naval operations at the time of the attack.

One explanation is that it would be political suicide for Johnson to confront Israel.

Further, Israel was engaged with Egypt in the Six Day War and by sinking the USS Liberty hoped to blame Egypt and provoke the U.S. into attacking Egypt. This is what is generally referred to as a “false flag” operation. Lives are expendable in order to pursue the established agenda.

Although, President Johnson was enraged and believed Israel’s attack was intentional, political pressure influenced his decision to accept Israel’s explanation. And, of course, the N.Y. Times cooperated by placing the article reporting the attack on page 19. Here, again, we have the media and government working hand-in-hand.

Why do I refer to an event that took place 47 years ago?

It’s clear that the U.S. government will protect American citizens but only when it serves their political purposes. Israel serves an important role for the U.S. in the Middle East and also has an extremely powerful political lobby in this country The survivors of the USS Liberty discovered that their lives and safety were not as meaningful as the military and political objectives of the imperialistic and militaristic United States.

If the U.S was willing to look the other way when 34 members of our Navy were killed by Israel, can we expect more when one young American woman is run over by an Israeli driven bulldozer? After all, as most of our political leaders have declared, “we stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel.” After all, they have every right to defend themselves even if it’s from a U.S. ship or a young woman protesting Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes.

Let us consider a more recent attack on the U.S., 9-11.

The Bush administration wanted to get rid of the Saddam Hussein regime and establish a military presence in the Middle East. In order to get public support, they needed an event that would garner such support. Lo and behold, we are “attacked by fanatical Muslims.” What a brilliant coincidence and how fortunate it was to have it timed so conveniently.

Nearly three thousand people died that day, most of them American citizens. Scientific evidence shows that the official explanation of the events of that day have no basis. Also, much of what occurred could not have been successful without cooperation from within our own government. This is another example of a “false flag” operation.

The reality is our lives are meaningless to our elected leaders, unless they serves someone’s purpose or agenda. The people who run this country, our elected leaders and their bosses from the wealthy and influential corporations, establish the agenda and then use us in any manner they decide.

Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.