Rogue Intelligence

Retired intelligence officers often make a minor career out of giving newspaper interviews, so it's no surprise to find ex-KGB general Leonid Shebarshin expounding his views on such topics as September 11, rogue agents, and Al Qaeda in the pages of the Russian periodical Argumenty i fakty. What does seem mildly surprising (though not if one has read previous statements by the gentleman) in view of the much-touted "U.S.-Russian co-operation in the fight against terror" is the eagerness General Shebarshin shows to implicate U.S. intelligence forces in the planning and execution of 9/11:

[Shebarshin] I believe the Al-Qaeda terrorist acts in New York and Washington on 11 September 2001 were a provocation by American special services. Moreover on such a colossal scale that it is mind-boggling. Can one believe, for example, that Bin-Laden, hiding somewhere in Afghan mountains and without electronic means of communication, organized the simultaneous seizure of five aircraft? Yes, you try and organize a meeting of 10 people in Moscow, without using the telephone.

The provocation of 11 September was so crude that, at one of the airports, "hot on the trail" the FBI allegedly found a parked car in which there were Arab passports, the Koran and manuals for flying a Boeing, written in Arabic . The whole absurdity was that, firstly, there are no manuals in any other language but English, secondly, can one fly a Boeing after just reading the manuals and, thirdly, how can one board an aircraft without a passport?

It seems, having realized the whole stupidity of its "find", the USA never mentioned it again. Only one thing is clear: we shall never know the whole truth about 11 September.

The USA stood to gain from 11 September

[Question] Who needed such an enormous provocation?

[Shebarshin] In order to find who is behind it, one can use the method used in Ancient Rome and ask oneself a question: who stands to gain from it? And the belligerent group of neoconservatives in the US leadership stood to gain from 11 September. They used it as an excuse for occupying Afghanistan and searching for terrorist gangs there that Afghanistan never had. But Afghanistan is a bridgehead for establishing control over Central Asia with its oil and gas deposits and the routes of their transportation.

Besides, Afghanistan and Central Asian countries are a bridgehead for a possible war with China.

Furthermore, on an excuse of fighting terrorism, the USA occupied Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein, although it is known that Saddam could not stand terrorists and did not let them into Iraq. Thus, "thanks" to 11 September, the USA established control over the world's largest oil deposits located in Iraq. In addition, Pentagon, whose budget reached astronomical figures, and agencies dealing with domestic security gained as a result. That was the price the 3,000 people, who were killed in the terrorist acts of 11 September 2001, had to pay.

There's a lot more in this vein. In the second part of the interview, Shebarshin changes tack a bit, and starts pooh-poohing the idea, for example, that the CIA was involved in the break-up of the Soviet Union. He also talks a bit about "rogue agents", and refers to Noriega as an example. He sees Bin Laden as another such rogue agent, and considers that "had the Americans wanted, they would have arrested him very quickly. But Bin Laden and Al Qaida he is in charge of are a myth created and whipped up by the USA in order to frighten the world with the threat of terrorism. Although both Bin Laden and Al Qaida may exist in reality, the scale of their activities is microscopic."

The interview concludes with some philosophical musing about what makes people commit treason - is it money, or antagonism to the established order, or both?

If a person is in conflict with his management or in conflict with his environment, if a person cannot express himself, this is where we, intelligence employees, step in. One can talk to us like to a doctor about anything. We shall always understand, support and... [newspaper parenthesis] recruit.

It's interesting to note that there are currently 345 comments on this article at the AiF website.

Of course, one can't exclude the very tiny possibility that Shebarshin's latest outing may just be one more routine attempt to discredit ex-KGB intelligence officers (Gordievsky, Litvinenko and others) who talk too openly to the press...