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Bracken, Len (with Andrew Smith) "The Shadow Government, 9-11 and State Terror". Adventures Unlimited, 2002. 274pp. bibliog. index. 1-931882-05-3. £13.99 from Counter Productions in the UK, $16.00 in USA.

Len Bracken, known as a biographer of Guy Debord, or as the Arch Conspirator, certainly raises the readers expectations with the title of this book. Is this, one wonders, the book that finally provides the proof so many have been waiting for, proof that the US Government / Intelligence Services / and sundry arms and energy traders were in some way responsible for pulling off the stunt of the century (well it was only a year or so old) with the near simultaneous crashing of three airliners into targets in mainland USA (and one more mysterious crash) ostensibly by fanatical Islamic terrorists but actually planned and executed by the top bods in the Pentagon and the White House?

Wonder no more, it isn't. Instead what Bracken does is piece together a suggestive case that it's possible that they may have had something to with it. But proof, I'm afraid is totally lacking. That said he presents his case reasonably well. Firstly by establishing that the US Government has "form", i.e. it has, in the past, conspired to initiate warfare by what he describes as indirect defensive attacks (whereby war gets to be declared due one's "opponent" attacking one in a most outrageous manner - but not in a way that actually creates much harm to the ability to subsequently destroy them). Secondly he shows that the war on Afghanistan and the crack-down on domestic opponents were planned prior to the attacks on September 11th 2001 and that these were part of an overall strategy. Thirdly, ample evidence is produced to show that the USAF failed to response promptly to the threats posed by the hijacked airliners and that the FBI and CIA stymied investigation into many potential "terrorist" threats in the lead-up to the hijackings.

He also brings into the equation the mysterious anthrax attacks, which even at the time seemed to be an inside job, and which subsequent investigation has revealed had to have been carried out by someone in the USA with the training and access to the facilities only possessed by the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Dettrick, Maryland. The timing of the anthrax letters shows all the hallmarks of being a deliberate attempt to stampede the Democrat opposition and the mass media into supporting the "War on Terror" (similar to the British bombings in Dublin the night the Irish Government were debating anti-terrorism measures in December 1972) Although the book was published some time ago I doubt if the author is surprised that nobody has been charged with any offences relating to the anthrax attacks. They served their purpose, so the actual perpetrator is irrelevant to the powers that be. The fact that White House staff were dosing themselves up on anthrax antidotes prior to the attacks being made public only makes it more suspicious.

As a biographer of Debord, Bracken is well aware of the writings of the Situationist Gianfanco Sanguinetti, in particular "On terrorism and the State", published in English by BM Chronos in 1982. Sanguinetti was writing primarily about the Italian situation and the use by the State of so-called terrorist groups (both extreme left and right wing as elements of the "Strategy of Tension", whereby terrorism on the streets was to mobilise public support for the state against oppositional forces.) He makes the point that the once the leadership of groups such as the Red Brigades (and one can extend this to Al Qu'aida if one believes that bin Laden has been dead a long time) have been removed then the groups can be taken over and used for ends of whoever bankrolls and commands them. Bracken also points however that bin Laden had many mutually beneficial contacts with the CIA over the years (and members of his family were major investors in the Carlyle Group which features people such as George Bush senior, John Major, James Baker, and Frank Carlucci among its senior personnel.)

Bracken is also comfortable with the notion of "conspiracy" inasmuch as the workings of the state and capital epitomise conspiracy, especially when one looks at the connections between capital and the state and the intelligence agencies among the main players in this story. He also notes George W. Bush's public dissing of the "conspiracy theories" which started circulating almost as soon as the airliners started hitting the World Trade Centre. That siad I can't help but think that some Americans find it impossible that Arabs could actually have planned and executed the attacks without outsaide assistance, and that is in part due to ignorance of Al Q'aida's sophistication but also a form of racism which thinks they simply haven't the guts or intelligence to do it. (Not to mention the popular portrayal of Osama bin laden as a loony would spent all his life in caves - whereas whilst in Afghanistan he and his family and acolytes lived in the cities.)

But in the end he can't nail it down. And neither can any of the Internet and small publisher researchers, many of whom Bracken quotes from. We can all fulminate against the supposed perpetrators of the conspiracy, we can point out historical parallels, we can suggest all manner of possible reasons as to why the conspiracy happened but we simply don't have the killer facts that can prove it.

Does this mean that the book is worthless? No I don't think so. I'd recommend ordering it from your library - in the hope that other readers might come across it who haven't been following the story and who need to have the possibility of conspiracy pointed out to them. It's a tidy read, not too long (and generously spaced out on the page!) and doesn't demand any great familiarity with technical or academic concepts. The thesis is supplemented by a Time line of the (selected) main events and the bibliography and suggested reading are definitely worth following up. Pricewise, well as it's a US import, I can understand the pricing, but it's more than I'd normally spend on a new book, but if you can get it cheaper, it's definitely worth getting.

7/10

Richard Alexander