BEg2 ch25 summary - forgot the most important part

Tue Mar 22 14:09:35 UTC 2022

I want to offer my generalized reverb to this from Rich...It tracks the
reading I've been offering here and goes elsewhere, maybe deeper
as stated....It is, maybe, anti-conspiracy theory in any literal plot-like
sense,,,,,,YET BE may be the best book on the 'conspiracy' that one could
call late capitalism?

On Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 11:40 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> After re-reading BE, I got the sense that the dark lords of them, some
> within and without the intelligence community, didnt plan 9/11, just found
> ways, like much of the country would afterwards, to make a killing in the
> markets, and/or exploit new and existing relationships, which I would argue
> is much more important than 9/11 itself, in the novel which in many ways is
> alluded to in different scenarios and locations throughout. Even Ice, the
> US gov't and govts are pawns. I grant there is much ambiguity over much in
> BE.
>
> rich
>
> On Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 10:04 AM Thomas Eckhardt via Pynchon-l <
> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>
> > “Sure, blast from past, part from Stinger missile launcher.
> > Battery-coolant receptacle cap.”
> > (...)
> > “This writing on the battery cap, what’s it say, can you read it?”
> > “Pashto, ‘God is great,’ maybe legit, maybe CIA forgery to look
> > like mujahedeen, covering up some caper of their own.”
> >
> > (The "caper of their own" would be a "false-flag caper" as mentioned by
> > Windust on p. 378. "Nobody is that good.")
> >
> > I like Igor's matter-of-factness:
> >
> > "You used to get shot at with Stingers." (...)
> >
> > "Me, my friends, nothing personal."
> >
> > The historical reference is of course to Operation Cyclone:
> >
> > -- Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central
> > Intelligence Agency (CIA) program to arm and finance the Afghan
> > mujahideen in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1992, prior to and during the
> > military intervention by the USSR in support of the Democratic Republic
> > of Afghanistan. The mujahideen were also supported by Britain's MI6, who
> > conducted separate covert actions. The program leaned heavily towards
> > supporting militant Islamic groups, including groups with jihadist ties,
> > that were favored by the regime of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in neighboring
> > Pakistan, rather than other, less ideological Afghan resistance groups
> > that had also been fighting the Soviet-oriented Democratic Republic of
> > Afghanistan administration since before the Soviet intervention. --
> >
> > As for the links between the mujahideen and Al-Qaeda:
> >
> > -- Some have alleged that bin Laden and al Qaeda were beneficiaries of
> > CIA assistance. This is challenged by experts such as Coll—who notes
> > that declassified CIA records and interviews with CIA officers do not
> > support such claims—and Peter Bergen, who argues: "It's worth mentioning
> > here that there is simply no evidence for the common myth that bin Laden
> > and his Afghan Arabs were supported by the CIA financially. Nor is there
> > any evidence that CIA officials at any level met with bin Laden or
> > anyone in his circle." Bergen insists that U.S. funding went to the
> > Afghan mujahideen, not the Arab volunteers who arrived to assist them.
> >
> > However, Sir Martin Ewans noted that the Afghan Arabs "benefited
> > indirectly from the CIA's funding, through the ISI and resistance
> > organizations," and that "it has been reckoned that as many as 35,000
> > 'Arab-Afghans' may have received military training in Pakistan at an
> > estimated cost of $800 million in the years up to and including 1988.
> > Some of the CIA's greatest Afghan beneficiaries were Arabist commanders
> > such as Haqqani and Hekmatyar who were key allies of bin Laden over many
> > years. Haqqani—one of bin Laden's closest associates in the
> > 1980s—received direct cash payments from CIA agents, without the
> > mediation of the ISI. This independent source of funding gave Haqqani
> > disproportionate influence over the mujahideen. Haqqani and his network
> > played an important role in the formation and growth of al Qaeda, with
> > Haqqani allowing bin Laden to train mujahideen volunteers in Haqqani
> > territory and build extensive infrastructure there. Milton Bearden, the
> > CIA's Islamabad station chief from mid-1986 until mid-1989, took an
> > admiring view of bin Laden at the time. --
> >
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone
> >
> > Some see the attacks of 9/11 as "blowback" of supporting the
> > mudjahideen. This claim, however is disputed:
> >
> > -- A number of commentators have described Al-Qaeda attacks as
> > "blowback" or an unintended consequence of American aid to the
> > mujahideen. In response, the United States government and American and
> > Pakistani intelligence officials involved in the operation have denied
> > this theory. Many journalists including Peter Bergen have also refuted
> > the claim. They maintain the aid was given out by the Pakistan
> > government, that it went to Afghan not foreign mujahideen, and that
> > there was no contact between the Afghan Arabs (foreign mujahideen) and
> > the CIA and other American officials, let alone the arming, training,
> > coaching or indoctrination. --
> >
> >
> >
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_assistance_to_Osama_bin_Laden
> >
> > Recommended reading:
> >
> > Steve Coll, "Ghost Wars"
> > Lawrence Wright, "The Looming Tower"
> > Peter Dale Scott, "The Road to 9/11"
> >
> > The CIA on supporting the mujahideen with Stinger missiles:
> >
> > https://twitter.com/CIA/status/1379437049728659459?s=20
> >
> > In BE, the scenario on the Deseret rooftop is one element of a
> > conspiracy theory that, to the best of my knowledge, Pynchon invented
> > out of whole cloth. In this fictional CT, developed by March and Maxine,
> > there was a "dry run" for 9/11 with a manpad crew, presumably civilian
> > contractors from the US, threatening to shoot down incoming airplanes,
> > and a sniper as "[i]nsurance to see that they go through with it".
> > (265-269). Maxine later learns from Igor that the DVD has a hidden track
> > showing "young men of Arab background" building a virtual-cathode
> > oscillator (330) at #hashlingerz.
> >
> > In any case, the coolant receptacle cap suggests that the events on the
> > roof of the Deseret filmed by Reg really took place within BE's
> > fictional world. What they mean is less clear.
> >
> > P.S. From the CIA's online museum:
> >
> > "This silver coin commemorating an anticipated (but never realized) Bay
> > of Pigs victory features an outline of Cuba with a rebel invader
> > advancing past a fallen member of Castro's military in the foreground."
> >
> > https://twitter.com/CIA/status/1397193234086957056
> >
> >
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>