- Who Are the Neoconservatives, by Laurent Guyénot (printable PDF)
This extremely insightful article covers the origins of the Neoconservative movement as a 180° turn (after the 1967 Israeli/Arab War) of left-wing peaceniks to pro-Israeli hawks, paralleling Israel's switch of clients from an angered Soviet Union to the U.S. It documents the complex role of the Neocons in relation to the before and after of 9/11. In a particularly relevant passage, Guyénot says "The neocons are, in fact, the original inspirators of the soft challenge to the 9/11 official story, which admits the responsibility of Al Qaeda but points to links between the Bushes, the Saudis, and the bin Ladens. In their 2003 book, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror, Richard Perle and and David Frum (Bush's speech-writer) write that 'The Saudis qualify for their own membership in the axis of evil', and ask President Bush to 'tell the truth about Saudi Arabia', meaning that Saudi princes finance Al Qaeda." He then goes on to describe the absurdity of the claim, and the way in which it was used to implicate Pakistan, as well.
- Dual Citizenship -- Loyal to Whom? (printable PDF)
This quote from the article summarizes its argument: "The U.S., in its special relationship with Israel, has become very sympathetic to allowing Israeli-Americans to retain two nationalities and allowing U.S. citizens not only to hold public office in Israel, but to hold US government positions as well! No other country holds this special exception to our laws of citizenship." The article examines in detail the precedent-setting examples in the history of such exceptions.
- The Project for a New American Century (PNAC)
The efforts of PNAC, one of the most famous neocon think tanks, were oriented toward a modernizational re-arming of the U.S. to enable it to firmly establish world hegemony. It is perhaps most famous for its September 2000 white paper Rebuilding America's Defenses (see also the helpful set of summary extracts from the 90-page document). In the same way that Hitler's Mein Kampf wasn't widely known until World War II, it was only after 9/11 that both PNAC and one of the sentences in its Rebuilding paper became notorious:
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Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor.
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That, combined with the movement of a large number of PNAC neocon members into high-level 9/11-relevant positions of power in the subsequent Bush administration, from which they played significant roles in the ensuing "war on terror." This makes consideration of the neocons as possibly involved in 9/11 a quite reasonable endeavor.
An excellent comprehensive summary of PNAC's history, membership, documents, and articles about its context is available at SourceWatch. This article's only problem is that it pre-dates PNAC's dissolution and morphing into an organization known as The Foreign Policy Initiative. Its mission statement and staff and Board of Directors leaves no doubt that a leopard that changes its spots is still a leopard.
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