BOOK REVIEW

THE 'TRUTH' ACCORDING TO VENETIA KEET - FACT OR FICTION?

"It has been forseen that exactly 350 years into the future, silver phoenixes shall strike down the twin brothers of oppression that carried the king's nation, which shall bring about the apocalypse".
Nostradamus (September 11 1651)
The date is September 11
The year is 1651 + 350 = 2001'

Every September 11 since 2001 the whole world joins the mighty United States of America in commemorating the biggest, most successful attack on its soil since Pearl Harbour in 1941 when the Imperial Japanese Navy hit its naval facility and sunk its warships. More than 3000 people are reported to have died when two jets slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. Others perished when their jet allegedly crashed (even though there are strong allegations that the US Air Force shot it down before it could be buried in the White House) and the other one was used to stab The Pentagon.

Allegedly there were approximately 4000 Jews who worked at the WTC, but who never pitched for work on the day of the attacks. US President George W Bush, a trained pilot himself, is reported to have told the media moments later when asked why didn't he look surprised when his Chief of Staff informed him of the second plane that it was because he saw the first jet on television plunging into the WTC and thought, "what a lousy pilot". It was however discovered that what he claims he saw was unfounded because before he went into the meeting with elementary school learners there hasn't been a broadcast of any plane and the material of the first plane only became available a day after Bush told the media he saw it. What is it that Bush saw and why did he tell such a lie?

Some people say the Bush Administration staged 9/11 to justify the invasion of Afghanistan to simplify their erection of an oil pipeline through the country, a deal they signed with the Taliban but doubted the Mullah's commitment to it. The toppling of Saddam Hussein had everything to do with their greed to access Iraqi oil and post-war reconstruction contracts which include huge military and security tenders plus a permanent military presensce closer to Iran.
Oil is the new gold and whoever has it in abundance will in the future dictate to the world who to elect and how to sit in the toilet. For the record, at the time of writing this review the US is reported in some media to have more oil than the OPEC countries combined. The question might be, why can't they be satisfied with what they have, use their own reserves and loosen the grip on the oil price which determines the above R5 people here pay for a litre which in turn makes taxis expensive and bite a lot into the meager salaries people are paid which in turn means poverty for billions?

The oil prize is the key to the price of food, clothes, water, electricity, paraffin, gas and everything which the world is dependent on today, and the US is not stupid. It has every intention of regime changes in Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Russia, Somalia (done already), Lebanon, Sudan etc and what better way to bring those about than to sanction them oil if they refuse to conform. Of course you can only do that if you control the oil after all reserves have been depleted and for countries like Venezuela and Iran it's tricky because they have their own natural oil reserves.

Another theory is that the US arms industry made billions of dollars during the Cold War due to purported threats throughout the world, in South Korea, Taiwan, Djibouti, Middle East, Europe and every corner of the globe and that when the Cold War ended they were faced with dwindling sales and demand. This in turn meant little revenue and little taxation paid to the US Internal Revenue Service which meant a reduced fiscus with limited ambitions. What better way to prop up the industry than by invading countries and creating the need for Made in the US weapons. What better way than to fight media wars about smart bombs, precision bombs and B52 Bombers, with retired army Generals in news studios commentating the battles and the effectiveness of the weapons deployed, thus marketing the might of the US military establishement. The wars being fought by Israel and America are billboards for arms manufacturers in the US.

Quite interesting there are thousands of conspiracy theories about what is happening in the world today and about the nine or so people who are running it and setting the agenda, even for people like President Thabo Mbeki and his cabinet which does not have a robust branded foreign policy.

What about Osama Bin Laden who they were looking for after 9/11, what happened to him? What about the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) they were searching for in Iraq, where are they? And why should the world believe when they say there are nuclear weapons in Iran? Where next will they look for them? Lesotho? Why should the world believe that Israel is looking for two captured soldiers when it destroys civilian infrastructure in Lebanon?

A book entitled Peanut Brains vividly asks similar questions in 212 pages and provides some answers to some of the mysteries. Written by well traveled and Cape Town based Ms Verenia Keet, Peanut Brains stands above the rest as a book of insight and perspective. Keet has worked in newsroom environments in Johannesburg, Cape Town, London, Karachi and Lahore (Pakistan) and this, her second novel after Colored Hill is set in Pakistan.

The book is ISBN: 0-620-36438-6 and should be available at your nearest book store. For more info on Keet go to http://coloredhill.bravehost.com. Peanut Brains is a compass to have inorder to navigate this global morass.