now entering its uh uh fourth day we're looking at

hello and welcome to press tv, spot light and thanks so much for being with us, well it has been 23 years since the tantowers in new york were brought down on that day, almost 300 people were killed in the attacks. since that day, millions have been killed around the world under the guys of the us is war on terror when an actual terrorism was being

committed against the people of west asia and other places. stay with us as we take a look back at 911 and its repercussions inside the us and around the world. i'd like to welcome my guests to the program. out of new york, correspondent racial hamdun and out of london activists and political analysts, thank you both for being with me, well let me start this off actually in in the states in new york uh with rachel, i mean with any attack or war, the question to ask usually is who benefits the most, who or which entity would you say benefited the most from those 911 attacks and analysts that you have seen um talking about that day and the... aftermath:

first of all, good evening, i would like to start by saying it is definitely the us that has benefited out of the 9/11 attacks. i mean, 9/11 has been the gateway for the us to start what they called the global war on terror, that's 911 was 23 years ago, and since then every american gathers in new york city in order to commemorate that day as... thousand were left killed, however, one moment of tragedy has left a history of of devastation for the arab and muslim world as a result of g.w. bush, george w. bush's declaration of the global war on terror has left hundreds of thousands, if not more killed in countries such as yemen, syria, libya, and so on. the us was able to fund terrorism through its own campaign, it's

smear campaign against islam, against what it called the global war on terror, when it in fact was not only funding it, but it was fueling it, it was using the american weakness at the time, it was using the overwhelming sensation of weakness in order to mobilize the american public against muslims both in the us and outside the us. all right, we stay with me, batul, i mean after the 911 attacks, then us president george. bush declared the us war on terror, do you think that washington could have invaded the countries that it did without the 9/11 pretext? right, it definitely would have found another pretext, but essentially the war of terror was within the quote and quote new middle east uh strategy that was put forward by the evangelical uh right wing uh within uh george uh's department um the us decided at that point that direct intervention was its strategy. and 911 was

just the pretext for the us to then launch that terror mayhem in the region of west asia for the next 2 decades to come. the objective of the war of terror was number one for the us to... band its direct military presence in west asia to gain dominance over the natural resources, the oil of the countries, essentially it wanted iraq to be its kind of headquarters through which it can dominate the region. now why is the region so important? because if you control it then you basically control the oil top of the world and therefore world economies and number two, it wanted to attack iran under this new middle east project, so this was done through invading afghanistan, then iraq, they stationed their troops in pakistan, their forces in the persian gulf countries and the persian gulf waters, and then reinforced their bases in syria, so this was done in order to eliminate iran's friends, aka, destroy the resistance access, whether that's in palestine, the resistance in lebanon that they had just that had essentially just kicked the israeli occupation entity out in 2000, to then top all the government in syria, which they continued using the

so-called arab spring, and then within their strategy it was to establish the so-called arab israel peace within the region after they had done that, because by that point they had decided that the arab puppet. regimes were effectively uh ineffective. um, so it was within this strategy that we also saw the 2006 war in lebanon, the war in syria with the west, backing the so-called moderate rebels in order to top bashal assad and the insurrection of isis, so if this was just about fighting quote and quote terrorism, they wouldn't have invaded west asia, this resulted in more terrorism, it increased after the invasion, during 9/11 the terrorism was limited, it multiplied after all the regions that they went into the terrorism increased the likes of al-qaeda and actually got isis thereafter. okay, well rachel, how was the united states affected itself or change with the passing of the patriot act and in general after the 9/11 bombings? after the 9/11 bombings, it was not just the patriot act is, it is worth mentioning as

well that in 2001, a week after the attacks, they also passed the aumf law, that is called the authorization. the use of military force, which the us used as an excuse in order to not only invade the middle east and west asia, but it used it in order to devastate, as bathud said, economies, infrastructure, educational systems, lives, and that was a way for them to self-legitimize their way and their encroachment into the middle east by using the term counter terrorism operations, i mean they they invade. afghanistan in 2001, they invaded yemen in 2002, iraq in 2003, pakistan in 2004, libya in 2011 and syria in 2014, and they are still there. in addition, if you look at what is going on in occupied

palestine right now, you can you can see that israel is is the mere means to an end for the us, this is a continuation for them to fund and fuel terrorism. both through patriot act and through the aumf act. okay, well thank you. now uh, turning back uh uh to london, um, former us retired general wesley clark pointed out how he found out from friends at the pentagon around 10 days after the 911 attacks that the us would invade seven countries in five years. they were iraq, syria, lebanon, libya, somalia, sudan and of course iran. i mean, let's look at this, and what does this mean? um, your take, so were all these invasions or um, aggressions pre-planned, how do you see it? absolutely, of course they were pre-planned, as i as i was explaining, it was pre-planned as part of

the new middle east project that was put forward by the evangelical right, and 911 was simply used as that excuse, and as i've also mentioned, you know, if the argument was to defeat terrorism, well terrorism was actually... generated and multiplied as a result of and actually it was the resistance access on the ground that defeated that subsequent terrorism and actually america used the terrorism that was generated and the capacity for it that was created in afghanistan in iraq to actually target the line of resistance that they consider to be a real threat to their hegemonic interests in the region and and globally and beyond so we see how terrorism actually became within the american strategy and actually benefited it, so consider how for example, america uses isis uh, and they consider them the best candidate to fight the version of islam that is really a threat to them, and that is the version that is spearheaded by the islamic republic of iran since 1979, that says no to

humiliation and and no to to foreign invasions and occupations, no east, no west, islamic republic standing its two feet uh supporting the rest of the region that is fighting that common primary enemy which iran struggle against the zionist aggression, put forward as as the great satan, whether that's uh helping the palestinians in their lebanon likewise, iraq in the fight against daesh, which these invasions created the capacity for and yemen fighting um the uh saudi entity that is essentially propped there by uh the so-called great country, britain. well, rachel, i i want to talk, because you're inside of the united states, i want to talk about the american public itself, so on the one hand, we we talk about the um the events of 911, and and i want to look at that, because if the us really felt as if it was on... threat, um, why would it want to attack so many countries instead of trying to concentrate, for example, on the

ledge perpetrator, and i'm just wondering, um, americans, when they look at this, this many years later, 23 years later, are they questioning the narrative, i mean, do they understand the ramifications of what took place on 911, not only for americans, but mostly for other parts of the world like west asia. "well, if you look at it and you look a lot of research, right now americans are starting to understand not only the ramifications that narratives are being questioned, um, you can see that the american public right now, 9/11 every year is still remains the equivalent of anti-muslim sentiment in the us, so hatrid and discrimination against muslims in the us, and and when you said about for example..." if if you look about the aumf law, really there aren't any geographical restrictions, there

aren't any any designated entities, it's just an open allowance in order to invade the middle east and in order to call itself a global war on terror, but it doesn't designate any significant geographical boundaries, it doesn't designate a significant so quote unquote terrorist organization that it says it wants to... uh attack, and if you look at it as well, the us is trying to compensate for 9/11, it's it's become more of like a tit for tat type of situation. us government after 2001 is trying to compensate to the american public after so much weakness, vulnerability and hatred rose from that moment until now, but research does still show that right now americans are starting to question the american media narrative and government narrative around the incident at that time? yeah, it is quite amazing that it took this long, but we're

happy that the american public is at least beginning to wake up. mean, but tool on october 7th, 2001, that's when the us started its war on afghanistan, just three weeks of course, after september 11th. mean, logically, why would the us bomb afghanistan for hijackers who were allegedly from arabia and and even if as it said it wanted to get osama bin laden, i mean why wouldn't the us use special forces, what would be the need to bomb a whole country and remain in afghanistan for 20 years, and and how do they get away with justifying this, your perspective? absolutely, um, afghanistan, they invaded, as i mentioned because they want to be directly in the region, they want to foresee uh the the affairs of the region themselves and to take it into their hands. and this all happened when the right-wing so-called evangelicals came and proposed this idea of the quote and quote new middle east, groups

like the taliban, like alqia, they were used as a tool by american, we all know this to fight the soviets, they were actually never the target, never was it a struggle between this you know islamist terrorism and america, rather we know how actually this you know islamist terrorism was used as a functional role to serve the american strategy and continued with the formation. the creation and the initiation of isis uh and the west playing a functional role in that to, as i mentioned, target the line of resistance, that's a real threat to western germany in the region, and actually the became that strong excuse for them to be present in the region after these groups then turned uh against uh america, so ultimately uh this was all about the new strategy for america that started with 9/11, this was an era of unipolarity, you post... soviet union collapse, they wanted to get rid of the puppets and the arab countries and um for

america to lead the whole world from iraq as its headquarters, they use 9/11 as excuse um and this was really their strategy. well rachel, uh after afghanistan, the next major step for the us so-called war on terror was iraq. iraqi lives have been effective killing, displacing and may millions of them, though iraq had nothing to do with the attacks, the us spread is terrorism. out the country was, which still has not totally recovered from what it experienced at the hands of the us. i mean, what was the ultimate goal of the us's invasion of iraq in your perspective, and what do you think? washington got for it? well, as as batul said, that was one of the, as i would say, means to an end in order for them to not only gain traction into the area, but it was, i mean, think of it as well, there's there's the economy, there's the oil, oil was was and still is major major point of focus for the

us, and iraq was just one of the one of the means to an end, i mean, i mean, you have... libya and and yemen and pakistan, afghanistan, and economy, oil was one of the main points of focus, even though, as you said, idok had nothing to do with 9/11, but the region was the point of focus for them, oil was the point of focus for them, and they were trying implement this us versus them complex, the civilized and the savage, this was just one of the way for them to do that, right, right, well, but to, i mean, during... during the barack obama rain, the us so-called war on terror continued with covert uh lethal drone strikes throughout the world, and during obama's e years as u.s. president, 563 drone strikes were carried out targeting countries from pakistan to somalia to yemen. would you say the us became judge, jury and executioner, not following any international

legal protocols and targeting people and countries at will, and and what are the ramification? of this: aby, the fact that this all happened during obama's era as you rightly stated tells you that actually this was within the strategy of the deep state trajectory as in it didn't matter if a republican bush was in power or democrat obama was in power, this was the american strategy for the region, the desperate attempt in light of the real expansionism of the resistance access that the region was witnessing with levi and... just defeated the zionist entity, the 2005 withdrawal of the uh zionists from uh ghazza, you know the the expansion of the veins of the resistance in syria you know within that strategy as well uh where they you know assassinated to pull syria out of uh lebanon uh in order to make the uh resistance of lebanon vulnerable, then it was forced to enter into government, the

2006 war that then happened, the arab spring, starting a war doesn't mean that you were in control of it, the war's ultimate. in the region failed, these air strikes that we're mentioning, they failed to reach the intended objective of the west, and the results were uncontrollable, and ultimately they used the situation in the region of breeding terrorism for their own strategies, they then they then use the pretext of daesh um in syria and iraq for them to basically loot syrian oil and to maintain their presence uh in iraq, so this all happened within the american planning and the american strategy that not only fermented the... terrorism within the region, but also ratcheted up islamophobia in europe, because remember one of the fears of the west is that the people of the west will get affected by the real line and the real movement of islam on the ground that is being spearheaded by the resistance access, they fear that, so for that reason they want to muddy the waters when it comes to ratcheting islamophobia and

making all kinds of resistance against colonialism as equating to that of daesh and other real terrorists that... west breeds essentially, right? well, rachel, other parts the u.s. war on terrorism, um, we can see the prisons in black sites that were created by the us specifically by the cia, from bagrim in afghanistan to abu ghraib and iraq, to guantanamo and so many others. i mean, these sites became infamous for their lack of abiding by any international law. do you think that these type of actions, evading international law, has set up a dangerous pr'? precidents in the world, and and your take on why the us still hasn't been held responsible? well, us hasn't been held responsible regarding local law, international law, i mean, if you look at guantanamo bay, last year a lot of reports have come out showing the methods of torture

that already american law has prohibited, such as water boarding and... it's it's it's amazing to just see the similarity between for example the torture being used in abu ghraib or guantanamo bay and the torture being used in israeli prisons against palestinian prisoners, the us isn't going to be held accountable for violating international law just as israel won't be held for prohibiting uh for violating international law, and that's because the us, as you can see... "the un for example holds an upper hand when it comes to vetos, they the world can see the atrocities being being done in in prisons, in wars, in countries against people." and as i say, as long as money talks, the law isn't just going to set itself straight, and so you can see that guantanamo bay, abu ghraib and other prisons

are the excuse for the us to say because of 9/11 we have the right to do this against those who we think have committed this atrocery on 9/11 and they're going to keep doing that by using that alibai, by using that excuse in order to... international crimes and international uh war crimes. yeah, interesting point, rachel, and batul, i mean, uh, exactly what you said, we're looking at an extension of that right now, of course, unfortunately when we see what is happening in gaza, and the excuses that the the regime, the israeli regime uses as for as their continual attacks and genocide basically taking place, so overall now when we look at the world today, is the world safer today than it was, and... 2001 and in your perspective, the overall result of the us's war on terror? the war of terror ultimately failed uh, the real defeat of terrorism

didn't happen, in fact it only encouraged it. uh, the nations in the region and the resistance access essentially, iran to syria, to lebanon, to iraq, to yemen, is what actually fought this terrorism that the west uh, not only supported, but created the capacity for, uh, us withdraw. has been occurring in the region, whether that's in afghanistan in in 2021, um, the presence of america in iraq is not sustainable, and actually what's really interesting is the whole war of terror is actually backfired, we now see a resistance access that's a lot more stronger and coordinated, the hash shabi in iraq wouldn't have been created without the creation of daesh essentially by by by the west and it sustaining, the israeli occupation entity will fall in the same way america has been withdrawing. from the region, these kinds of policies are not sustainable, they create reactions, so in the same way that this war of terror has failed through direct military uh interventions, you

know, we've seen that the sectarianism through the arab spring strategy has failed and the world is now, especially the region is realizing, the um is realizing we have been lied to regarding syria you know and the threat of the so-called shii cresents, we've seen that the economic sanctions on the islamic republic, on lebanon, on syria through through the caesar acts have failed, the... campaigns to cause cous and color revolutions have failed and the resistance access is only getting stronger. well thank you ladies, it's been a pleasure talking to both of you that brings us to the end of the spotlight. rachel hamduon, press tv correspondent out of new york, bato sovietty activists and political analysts out of london. and thank you viewers for being with us on another spotlight. i'm marzia hashi me hope to see you right here next time. goodbye.

in 2002, the first detanees were transferred there, hooded, shackled and masked, most of them without charge or a criminal trial. it's very easy to do whatever. they want to do with this prisoners without anybody looking, supervising or controlling what's happening there. since then, reports of secret detentions, torture, and suicides have hit the headlines time and time again. as being dragged through the mud by american soldiers and being punched and kicked and stripped naked again and photographed and shackled and spat on, so let's get now. this is an exclusive... report on gitmo only on press tv.

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tv the headlines at press tv: the israeli warm machine fueled by the us claims the lives of more palestinians in gaza and the occupied west bank. iran. condemns the iof's al-mawasi attack as a minus to global peace and security and indicative of tel aviv's genecidal agenda against palestinians and russia says a massive drone attack by ukraine on residential areas near moscow has killed at least one woman.