# Transcript

GEORGE W. BUSH
As we and our coalition partners are doing in Afghanistan, we will bring to the Iraqi people food and medicines and supplies and freedom.
TONY BLAIR
So I believe that this is a fight for freedom. And I want to make it a fight for justice, too.
GEORGE W. BUSH
We have shown freedom's power. And in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see freedom's victory.
JOHN PILGER
September the 11th, 2001 dominates almost everything we watch, read, and hear. We're fighting a war on terror, say George Bush and Tony Blair, a noble war against evil itself. But what are the real aims of this war? And who are the most threatening terrorists? Indeed, who is responsible for far greater acts of violence than those committed by the fanatics of al-Qaeda, crimes that have claimed many more lives than September the 11th and always in poor, devastated, far away places from Latin America to Southeast Asia? The answer to these questions is to be found here in the United States, where those now in power speak openly of their conquests and of endless war. Afghanistan, Iraq, these, they say, are just the beginning. Look out North Korea, Iran, even China. This film is about the rise and rise of rapacious, imperial power and a terrorism that never speaks its name because it is our terrorism. This is Afghanistan. And this woman's name is Orifa. In October, 2001, an American plane dropped a 500-pound bomb on her mud and stone house. Eight members of her family were killed, including six children. Two children died next door. Afghanistan was claimed as the first victory in America's War on Terror against Islamic fundamentalists known as al-Qaeda, the group responsible for the attacks of September the 11th. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan had given Osama bin Laden a base. But bin Laden and the Taliban leader were never caught. Instead, more than 3000 innocent people were bombed to death. That's more than were killed on September the 11th. President Bush calls this Operation Enduring Freedom. A world away, in New York, this is Rita Lasar and her brother Abe. Abe was killed in the Twin Towers on September the 11th. He might have saved himself but chose to help a disabled friend.
RITA LASAR
My view does not look out on the World Trade Centre but I'm on the 15th floor, in lower Manhattan. And I ran across the hall to my friend's apartment and her windows looked out on the World Trade Centre. And I got there in time to see the second plane hit the second building. And strangely enough, it was only then that I said, "Oh, my god, my brother's in that building". Danny, my son's best friend, called and said, "Can I come over?" And we said, "Sure". And he said, "Did you watch the president's speech"? And we said, "No". And he said, "He mentioned your brother". And I looked at him and I said, "What are you talking about?" And then I thought, gee, there must have been a lot of people who stayed behind with their friends in wheelchairs. You know, you don't think that it's your own brother. You just don't think that. But it was my brother. And immediately-- immediately-- I knew that my country was going to use my brother's death to justify killing innocent people in Afghanistan and wherever else they would look.
JOHN PILGER
Rita decided to go to Afghanistan to comfort the victims of the American bombing. She met Orifa and took her to the American embassy in Kabul to seek compensation for the killing of her family.
RITA LASAR
I'll tell you about Orifa. She had taken a translated description of what had happened to her and her family to the American embassy to ask for help and had been turned away and told, "Go away. You're a beggar".
GEORGE W. BUSH
The oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and our allies. As we strike military targets, we will also drop food, medicine and supplies to the starving and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan. The United States of America is a friend to the Afghan people.
JOHN PILGER
Such a friend that out of $10 billion spent in Afghanistan in the last two years, the majority has been spent on the military. Of all the great humanitarian disasters, few countries have been helped less than Afghanistan. Only 3% of all international aid has been for reconstruction. Such a friend that the United States has yet to clear these unexploded cluster bombs it dropped in the Centre of Kabul where children play in the lethal rubble.
JOHN PILGER
And children are supposed to learn in this devastation.
JOHN PILGER
The Afghan government gets less than 20% of the aid that is delivered. Omar Zakhilwal is a government official in Kabul.
OMAR ZAKHILWAL
Well, 20% is about 300 million.
JOHN PILGER
300 million? You're meant to rebuild the country basically with 300 million?
OMAR ZAKHILWAL
Oh, no. The government does not have its own resources for the ordinary budget. The 300 million becomes salaries and electricity and those. No, those are not for reconstruction.
JOHN PILGER
That sounds like you're left with almost nothing then.
OMAR ZAKHILWAL
The government has no money for reconstruction, period.