The Empire Strikes Back

This Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the largest terrorist act in history, which was organized (at least officially) without the direct involvement of any government agencies.

The response was rapid. America adopted the Patriot Act, which allows the government to poke its nose into every crevice. The Department of Homeland Security was created. Almost anyone who disagrees with the policies of the ruling party is declared to be a terrorist accomplice. The legend about American freedoms has cracked.

But the main thing is that “the empire struck back” around the world. The United States invaded Iraq. They got involved in the centuries-old civil war in Afghanistan and took the drug producer’s side. They also acquired military bases in former Soviet republics in Central Asia.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of inconsistencies in the American story. There are reasonable explanations for almost all of them. And what I’ve seen on live TV a decade ago is more in line with the official version of events than with conspiracy theories.

However, 24 Arabs in America behaved so ridiculously for such a long time that the CIA could not have failed to notice them. Al-Qaida — that is, the conduit for payments of Saudi money to terrorists recruited by the U.S. to fight against our forces in Afghanistan — was unlikely to bite the hand that feeds it. And most importantly, the timing of the terrorist attack was too convenient. The U.S. was just finishing its post-Soviet legacy, and a crisis was once again on the horizon. Such coincidences are too rare to make them believable.