The presidential palace was bombed by the Chilean Air Force and Allende killed himself in the ruins. Salvador Allende was a popular political leader in Chile and was a founder of the Chilean Socialist Party in 1933. In 1938, he became the Chief Organizer in Valparaiso of the campaign to elect Aguirre Cerda, the popular front candidate, to the Presidency. In 1939, for a very brief period he became the Minister of Health under Cerda's government. He sat in the Senate from 1945 to 1970 and was Vice-President of the Senate for five years and President for two years. He was also the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party in 1943 and stood unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1952, 1958 and 1964. In 1970 he was elected as the first socialist President at the head of a broadly based Popular Front Coalition.
With the assuming of political power, Allende preached a glowing vision of economic and social equality. Nationalization and collectivization sealed new reforms in the country. Although Allende was seen as a saviour to many at home, the United States could not stomach a Socialist in power in their hemisphere. It is a well-known and confirmed fact in the annals of recent history, that the U.S. Government encouraged the coup to destabilize the popularly elected government and rejoiced when it succeeded.
Allende's fall brought General Augusto Pinochet to power for 17 years. During this dark period in the history of Chile, he unleashed appalling violence. According to unconfirmed statistics more than 3,000 people died, and many more-possibly hundred of thousands were tortured. Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt, a historian says that third-class methods were used to silence the opponents of the fascist regime. When the warrants were issued to arrest Pinochet in London, it was alleged that under the authority of Pinochet's regime, a series of punishable actions were committed under the fiercest ideological repression, the purpose of which was the elimination, disappearance and kidnapping of thousands of persons who were also systematically tortured. While these atrocities were mainly conducted in Chile, such activities were also alleged to have been undertaken with the involvement of other states of the region according to 'Plan Condor'.
September 11 is a watershed once again. The United States of America which was not harmed in anyway, during the first and the second world wars, was the victim of a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Nearly 3000 people died in the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. In lower Manhatten, on a field in Pennsylvania and along the banks of the Potomac, the United States suffered the single largest loss of life from an enemy attack on its soil.
There was a huge public cry in the United States against the administration of President George W. Bush and in November 2002, the United States Congress and the President established by law the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission. This independent, bipartisan panel was directed to examine the facts and circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks, identify lessons learned and provide recommendations to safeguard against future acts of terrorism.
Among the 10 commissioners appointed there were five Republicans and five Democrats. There were, Thomas H. Kean (Chairman), Lee H. Hamilton (Vice-Chairman), Richard Ben Veniste, Bob Kerrey, Fred F. Fielding, John F. Lehman, Jamie S. Gorelick, Timothy J. Roemer, Slade Gorton and James R. Thompson.
Under the Public Law of 107-306, promulgated on November 27, 2002, this commission was given wide and sweeping powers to investigate "facts and circumstances relating to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001" including those relating to intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies. diplomacy, immigration issues and border control the flow of assets to terrorist organizations, commercial aviation, the role of congressional oversight and resource allocation and other areas determined relevant by the commission. .
Before releasing the final report, the commission has investigated 2.5 million pages of documents and also has interviewed more than 1,200 persons in ten countries. It is stated in the final report that it has held 19 days of hearings and has recorded public testimony from 160 witnesses.
Preface to the final report says:
"We learned about an enemy who is sophisticated, patient, disciplined and lethal We learned that the institutions charged with protecting our borders, civil aviation, and national security did not understand how great this threat could be and did not adjust their policies, plans and practices to deter or defeat it. We learned of fault lines within our government- between foreign and domestic intelligence and between and within agencies. We learned of the pervasive problems of managing and sharing information across a large and unwieldy government that had been built in a different era to confront different dangers".
"At the outset of our work, we said we were looking backward in order to look forward. We hope that the terrible losses chronicled in this report can create something positive- an America that is safer, stronger, and wiser. That September Day we came together as a nation. The test before us is to sustain that unity of purpose and meet the challenges now confronting us."
"We need to design a balanced strategy for the long haul, to attack terrorists and prevent their ranks from swelling while at the same time protecting our country against future attacks. We have been forced to think about the way our government is organized. The massive departments and agencies that prevailed in the great struggles of the 20th Century must work together in new ways, so that all the instruments of national power can be combined. Congress needs dramatic change as well as strengthen oversight and focus accountability,"
Al Qaeda operatives who are being named and blamed for this attack, managed to keep their plans of attack a secret from the U.S. Government until July 24, 2004. A raid carried-out on the house of an Al Qaeda leader in Pakistan uncovered three laptop computers and 51 data-rich discs. Stored on the computers were 500 photographs of potential targets inside the U.S; minutely detailed analyses of the vulnerabilities to a terrorist attack of several of them and communications among some of the most wanted terrorists in the world. In their volume and specificity, the discs amounted to what a senior U. S. intelligence official calls an unprecedented "treasure- trove" of information about Al Qaeda's determination to pull off more catastrophic acts on U.S. soil.
It is revealed that Al Qaeda has cased targets for years before attacking; As an example preparations for the 1998 bombings of two U. S. Embassies in Africa began in 1993. Though the surveillance information on the discs was done mostly in 2000 and 2001, one disc contained an updated photo of the Prudential Plaza building that was added to the Al Qaeda file in January of this year. The discs also detailed the operative's extensive reconnaissance of the design, construction and layouts of four other sites; the New York Stock Exchange, the Citizen Group Building and the Washington Headquarters of both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The computers also contained surveillance of helicopter ports in New York City as well as cockpits and control of helicopters, suggesting that Al Qaeda has investigated the possibility of using them for an airborne attack. "'This new information is chilling in tone, dramatic in its detail and very professional" says a senior U.S. intelligence official.
Criticisms leveled against the United States intelligence community is almost a daily event now in the United States of America. The latest attack, however, has not originated from the media or from Congress but from its own ranks. A recently published book under the title, "IMPERIAL HUBRIS" and edited by one of the veterans of the intelligence community who has remained anonymous, claims that successive U.S. administrations and CIA leaders have under-played or mishandled the threat posed by Bin Laden. Without any hesitation or reservations he condemns the invasion of Iraq as an "avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat," noting that "there is nothing that Bin Laden could have hoped for more than the American invasion and occupation of Iraq." His considered opinion is that Bin Laden is safely ensconced in the unruly tribal lands of Pakistan and argues that Al Qaeda may actually become stronger, with a new generation of computer-literate terrorists filling the void left by captured deputies.
The 10-member commission by Mr. Thomas H. Kean has recommended several measures and proposals to safeguard the interests of the United States of America and its citizens. However it has not taken into account the arbitrary & provocative policies carried-out by Pentagon in the post-cold war era. The United States of America is seeking to install a new world order all over the world by not only ignoring the world opinion but even sidelining the protests of American public.
A new world order can only be established by tolerance and compromise. No super power has the right to dictate terms to other nations. If the present political leadership of the United Sates of America is genuinely interested in establishing a new world order on democratic foundation, the first task of the United States is to abide by the collective decisions of the United Nations and safeguard the principles enshrined in its charter.
