USA/VARIOUS: FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE HENRY KISSINGER COMMENTS ON U.S. FOREIGN POLICY IN WAKE OF TERRORIST ATTACKS

Record ID: 858821

  • Title: USA/VARIOUS: FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE HENRY KISSINGER COMMENTS ON U.S. FOREIGN POLICY IN WAKE OF TERRORIST ATTACKS
  • Date: 26th September 2001
  • Summary: (W1)BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FILE) (REUTERS) LV: NIGHT TIME BOMBINGS DURING GULF WAR
  • Embargoed: 11th October 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN / RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA / NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: Usa Pakistan Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAE8J1CW0KHDD0SHW0FQ2PK002L
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: The leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has blamed the "erroneous policies" of the U.S.
    government for the suicide attacks of September 11 that left nearly 7,000 people dead, and he urged Americans to question their government's foreign agenda.
    Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State has warned that the U.S. has been blind to the antipathy created in the wake of the Gulf War, the Camp David accords and the 1993 bombings of sites in Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for attacks on US embassies in East Africa.
    Among the grievances harboured by the ultra conservative Muslim group are the presence of American forces in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf and American support for Israel.
    Specifically, Mullah Omar has demanded the withdrawal of US forces from the Gulf and the end of its "partisanship in Palestine."
    On Tuesday (September 25,) the U.S. greeted the announcement that Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat had agreed to resume peace talks. The U.S. considers such talks critical to its own effort to form a coalition of supporters against the so called "war on terrorism." But, for many in the Muslim world, the role of the U.S. as a mediator in the Middle East is anathema.
    Particularly galling to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born fugitive believed to be behind the September 11 attacks, is America's heavy presence in the Gulf states. The military build-up dates back to George Bush Sr.'s directive ahead of the 1991 Gulf War. There are currently 7,000 American soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia, home of Islam's holiest site.
    Analysts note that the deep anti-Americanism of the Taliban may stem from foreign policy directives, but take no account of much assistance that Afghanistan has received from the U.S.
    "Every progress towards peace that has been made in the Middle East has come as a result of American initiatives, or American pressure. The largest aid distributor in Afghanistan is America. So, to say that a grievance caused this, I think the challenge they pose, or the terrorists pose, is to our existence. It is our fundamental values that they think threaten them," said Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State.
    But Kissinger warned that the U.S. has been blind to the antipathy created in the wake of the Gulf War, the Camp David accords and the 1993 bombings of sites in Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for attacks on US embassies in East Africa.
    " We have been complacent ... there was a certain amount of smugness, " he said in an interview with Reuters.
    As for the average American, who has been urged by the Taliban leader to "use sense," some agreed that "we have a lot to think about."
    Others said they thought that the U.S. is in "big trouble." And one young man wearing a "wanted" t-shirt with the picture of bin Laden said George Bush Sr. was to blame -- in initiating the Gulf War.

    (ek/tw/lh)
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