Colin S. Cavell, a full Professor of Political Science at Bluefield State College in Bluefield, believes that American plans have been defeated since 9/11 and the U.S. ruling class has empowered Trump to “buy time while trying to reinvigorate a dying U.S. empire”.
“It is highly unlikely that the absolute truth about the events of September 11, 2001 will ever come to light. It would be of interest if further investigation is done on the Saudi role in the events of 9/11,” told Iranian Council for Defending The Truth in an interview.
He notes that Americans are losing their trust to their ruling class and adds “faced with a more conscious working class increasingly understanding the capitalist sickness that has grasped the American ruling class and unwilling to fight for corporate profits abroad, the U.S. ruling class has pulled Donald J. Trump out of its bag of tricks in order to buy time while trying to reinvigorate a dying U.S. empire.”
Following is the full text of the interview.
ICDT: Some experts have discussed reasons to question the events of “9/11” of 2001. They believe that for many reasons, that the official story of 9/11 is a myth that does not correspond to reality. What is your thought?
Colin S. Cavell: In January of 2001, George W. Bush was sworn in as President of the United States, having been selected the previous fall by the Electoral College over his Democratic Party opponent Al Gore, despite the latter having received the most votes in the 2000 general election. Bush Jr., in February, immediately stepped up the attacks on Iraq with joint US-British bombing raids to enforce a US “no-fly zone”. In March, Serbian (and former Yugoslavian) President Slobodan Milošević, who had been indicted by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for alleged “war crimes” in Kosovo in 1999 was arrested and brought to trial. On September 11, 2001, two hijacked planes—both Boeing 767 designs—fly into the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City. Also, a Boeing 757 plane is hijacked and crashes into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., while another Boeing 757 is hijacked and crashes in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, reportedly after passengers fight to take control away from the hijackers.
The two New York City crashes result in the total collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers, the collapse of another building (so-called Building Seven), and the death of nearly 3,000 people. The Pentagon crash destroys a section of the Pentagon and kills 184 persons. The crash in Pennsylvania resulted in the deaths of all passengers and hijackers for a total of 44 people.
Nine days later, President George W. Bush addresses a joint session of Congress and declares a “war on terror”. On October 7th, the U.S. invades Afghanistan and the next day Bush calls for a new Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security, and on October 26, President Bush signs into law the Patriot Act. The invasion of Afghanistan is followed in March of 2003 by the invasion of Iraq. Observers began to comment on the heavy presence around George W. Bush of members of a right-wing think tank called, at the time, The Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which two years prior to 9-11-01 had issued a report advising that if the U.S. were to dominate humanity and the world’s resources in the 21st century, then “some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor” would need to occur. The subsequent Congressional 9/11 Commission advised greater unity in government operations which would require a restructuring of the U.S. government and the operation of its intelligence agencies, for it was observed that prior to September 11, 2001, there was little to raise anyone’s concerns about terrorism, with any problems being satisfactorily resolved. The Commission concluded that in this “new age of terror”, America is the target; consequently, planning for all forms of terrorist attacks became the order of the day.
As an observer of international affairs, it is highly unlikely, in my opinion, that the U.S. government was not aware of external threats to the United States, was woefully ill-prepared for the domestic hijackings on September 11, 2001, could not shoot these planes out of the sky with Air Force quick-response jets, and could only conclude that the solution is for the U.S. to prepare for more terrorist attacks on the United States. I do not know exactly what was behind the so-called “9-11 attacks”, nor do I believe the 9/11 Commission revealed the source of the attacks. What I do believe, is that many Americans, i.e. U.S. citizens, till this day, as poll results indicate, view this event with much skepticism and doubt similar to their perspective on the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, or the actual events which led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964, or who was actually responsible for the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, or who was actually responsible for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, etc.
In my lifetime, it is highly unlikely that the absolute truth about the events of September 11, 2001 will ever come to light. It would be of interest if further investigation is done on the Saudi role in the events of 9/11 (see “The Declassified 28 pages”). Though, even here, given that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is revered by U.S. leaders as one of America’s great allies, so, too, is it doubtful that any light will ever be shed on their involvement in the present epoch.
ICDT: What role did the CIA and Neocons play in 9/11?
Colin S. Cavell: As mentioned, at least nine members of PNAC worked on President George W. Bush’s foreign policy team. As for the CIA, the NSA, Mossad, MI6, the French DGSE, the Saudi GIP, and the roles of other western intelligence agencies, that is a deep swamp and a thick gumbo which is too murky to venture in within the confines of this interview.
ICDT: How do you see the relationship between 9/11 and the Greater Middle East plan?
Colin S. Cavell: The U.S. military classification sometimes referred to as “The Greater Middle East” is a term that could only arise from a country with imperial ambitions seeking to devise a regional strategy, as many of its advocates purport, to either remake the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of East Asia into a gentrified pro-western, albeit subservient, capitalist political bloc or to sew chaos and mayhem and destabilization thus rendering this region paralyzed and impotent has failed on both fronts. First, to date, the U.S. has been unable to overthrow, for a second time, the government of Iran. Secondly, the U.S. has been unable to overthrow the government of Syria. Third, the events of 9/11 as seen from an Arab or Iranian or African perspective, constitute a diminution of the hegemonic power of the United States, demonstrating that the U.S. is easily able to be gas lighted or manipulated into overextending its reach, forcing it to expend untold billions on invasion, war, nation-building, etc.
It is now 2020—i.e. nineteen years after September 11, 2001—and the U.S. is still bogged down in multiple countries in the region, with President Trump able to score major points with his followers by stating that he is against useless regime-change wars. While observers suspect Trump will engage in further wars should he remain in the White House for an additional four years, he and the ruling establishment in Washington D.C. are most acutely aware that a majority of Americans are very much opposed to further regime-change wars and the needless expenditure of national treasure, lives, and opprobrious justification for such adventures.
ICDT: Many experts believe that 9/11 was a pretext to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. What do you think?
Colin S. Cavell: One should note that while the United States has not declared war on another country since WWII, it has nevertheless engaged in numerous police actions, protracted armed conflicts, so-called defensive actions, etc. against numerous governments around the world since. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 and the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq were publicly justified by the U.S. government as legitimate responses to the events of September 11, 2001. While the United Nations Security Council did sanction a “peacekeeping force” for Afghanistan in 2001, they did not do so for the 2003 war on Iraq. Many critics of the U.S. wars on Afghanistan and Iraq pointed out the disproportionate amount of expenses going to the Iraq War effort as opposed to the Afghanistan War effort, as well as President George W. Bush’s statement on March 13, 2002 that he was truly not concerned about hunting down Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, supposedly the mastermind of 9/11, suggesting that Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL), the initial nomenclature for the U.S. military operation was not simply coincidental.
ICDT: In your view, has the US gained the planned purposes?
Colin S. Cavell: Currently, the U.S.—19 years after 9/11—still has troops at bases and forward operating positions throughout the Middle East, is still engaged in the war on Afghanistan, the war on Iraq, the war on Syria, and continues to expend precious treasure on attempting to maintain U.S. hegemony over the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. If this was the U.S.’s original intention, then it is a classic case of imperial overreach; if this was not America’s original intention, then one would have to conclude, after nineteen years of endless war, that their plan has been a colossal failure. Without a doubt, the trust of the American people in the management of U.S. foreign policy is and remains very low.
ICDT: Some scholars argue that 9/11 was the death of the “American Dream”. What is your take on this?
Colin S. Cavell: British imperialist Cecil Rhodes once said of empire that it is a “bread and butter issue” and further that “either we have war abroad or face revolution at home”, and this aptly sums up the situation of the United States at present. Faced with a more conscious working class increasingly understanding the capitalist sickness that has grasped the American ruling class and unwilling to fight for corporate profits abroad, the U.S. ruling class has pulled Donald J. Trump out of its bag of tricks in order to buy time while trying to reinvigorate a dying U.S. empire.