By the Editor.

Several news agencies including the UK Guardian, the UK Independent, the Washington Post, and The Financial Times today reported that senior US officials are pointing the finger at the Pakistani Taliban for the recent Times Square bomb plot. This notion might not seem out of the ordinary to the uninitiated, but it doesn’t sit well with those knowledgeable about The Taliban. Historically, the Taliban has only had domestic intentions and aspirations; not seeking to exert influence beyond its own borders.

Al-Qaeda on the other hand, quite clearly has global intentions and always has. The problem here however, is that the US government has itself admitted that there are less than 100 al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. In order to prop up waning support for its imperialist war, the US has to paint the Taliban as a global threat. This is terribly convenient for them; any Afghan or Pakistani who decides to take up arms and resist the illegal invasion, who decides to avenge his dead or maimed family, is labelled by the media as ‘Taliban’. Domestic freedom fighting, and localised resistance against an invading colonial power is rendered in the media as a unified Islamist militia movement that aims to destroy the West. This systemic propaganda allows the US & UK to deceive its own people, and indeed citizens of the world as to the reality of this war for resources and retention of global primacy.

The exact same tactic has been used ever since 2001 with respect to al-Qaeda. The western corporate-owned mainstream media has constructed an apparition named ‘al-Qaeda’. Al-Qaeda is portrayed in the media as a global terrorist organisation with a central commanding body, waging a war on all ‘infidels’ who dare to indulge in western ‘freedoms’. This is utterly false. ‘Al-Qaeda’ is in fact an expansive, disconnected body of fighters across the globe who share a common ideology & grievance: a mixture between religious fanaticism and anger, stirred by the imperialist crimes of the USA and her allies.

An important point to keep in mind here also, is that western military intelligence services have a long history of covertly sponsoring Islamist terror networks both to control strategic energy resources and to counter their geopolitical rivals. Even now, nearly a decade after 9/11, covert sponsorship of al-Qaeda networks continues.

Though I don’t currently believe it, it may indeed turn out to be true that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the recent NY bomb plot. If this is the case, I’m confident that I know what has caused the Taliban of Pakistan to set a precedent and attack a foreign power on its own soil. US drone strikes on Pakistan began in 2004 under Bush, vastly increasing in regularity and lethality year-on-year. In his first year as President, Barack Obama killed 700 civilians in Pakistan using the Predator UAV. These illegal strikes (which violate Pakistan’s sovereignty, and constitute acts of war on a supposed ally) continue to this day and are currently occurring at the rate of two per week, inflicting hundreds of casualties each year.

One cannot pour fuel on the fire and then complain of being burned. The citizens of the United States should push their government to adopt a new anti-terror strategy: stop terrorising.