For almost forty years, the US military state has funded, armed, and directed takfiri forces as foot soldiers of US foreign policy. Most people living in the US know little about this longstanding policy that their government has employed in the Middle East and Northern Africa. The majority of people in the US are forcibly misled to believe what the corporate media and Washington tells them about terrorism and so-called "Islamic fundamentalism." Washington and the corporate media cooperate closely to keep people in the dark and paint takfiri terrorism as a byproduct of hatred toward the "Free World." A 28-page report currently circulating in Washington could change this dynamic entirely.

The 28-page Congressional�report is a heavily redacted document that has the potential to unearth the hidden details of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. These attacks shook the world and led to the illegal US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the draconian policies of domestic surveillance outlined in legislation such as the Patriot Act. Muslims all over the world were labeled terrorists to justify state intervention. Washington then covered up the attack's�root causes. It not only created a climate of fear that discouraged independent investigation of the attacks, but also thoroughly suppressed�the results of the internal�investigation that produced the Congressional Report.

Whenever one questions the�mainstream story of�the September 11th attacks, they are at high risk of being called a "conspiracy theorist." This term is used to shut down criticism of US imperial motives. It assists in alienating critics of US government policy that came in response to the attacks. The silencing of so-called "conspiracy theorists" regarding 9/11 gave cover to the broad agenda of the War on Terror. And this agenda had absolutely nothing to do with fighting terrorism.

The War on Terror was launched to expand and maintain US hegemony in a period where the nation's political and economic system, capitalism, was becoming increasingly unstable. After the Soviet Union fell, anti-communism no longer sufficed as a justification for war. The world capitalist system was entering a slowdown that would lead to the 2008 crash. As former NATO general secretary Wesley Clark made clear in 2007, the US had already made plans to wage war on seven different countries prior to 9/11. After the 9/11 attacks, the US found its justification for the implementation of these wars.

The US took immediate action after 9/11 but failed to provide an explanation of why the attacks occurred in the first place. Instead, the people of the US were fed a heavy dose of fear and told that takfiri terrorists were after their freedoms. While the dominant narrative regarding 9/11 remains a blatant lie, the phenomenon of takfiri terrorism deserves examination. The September 11th should not be seen as a random occurrence. Washington and its imperial allies in the region have created the conditions from which takfiri terrorism arose.

In 1979, the CIA trained and armed a proxy force called the Mujahideen that comprised of mostly Saudi and other Wahhabi mercenaries. This force was created to destabilize the socialist state of Afghanistan and further weaken Soviet influence in the region at large. After almost a decade of war that led to Soviet withdrawal, fundamentalist fighters in the Mujahideen found refuge along the Afghan and Pakistani border. The CIA front ISI in Pakistan continued to sponsor takfirists, laying the material basis for the rise of Al-Qaeda. Takfiri groups such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda can thus be traced back to the suppressed history of Washington's first war in Afghanistan.

After the Soviet Union fell, war�served as the buttressing force that gave takfiries room to terrorize the peoples of sovereign nations. The chaos that followed the 2003 invasion of Iraq created thenecessary conditions for ISIS to form. Thereafter, a continuous flow of weapons from Gulf Monarchies such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar gave takfiries steady employment for future imperialist ventures. In 2011, takfiries provided the spark for US imperialism to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi. �When the war reached a climax with the destabilization of Libya,�many of the same takfiries deployed to Libya brought their armsto Syria to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad.

So it should be of no surprise to anyone that takfiri proxies paid and armed by the imperialist states just so�happen to be reigning terror on the very states imperialism has targeted since the beginning of the War on Terror. The 28 page Congressional report could unravel�US foreign policy by exposing its role in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Millions of people inside of the US would for the first time have access to the results of the government investigation of an event that has been shrouded in mystery. However, just as Washington murdered Osama Bin Laden to keep him fromexposing US and Saudi support for his role in the proliferation of takfiri terrorism, the political apparatus in the US is attempting to distort the document's content for the same purpose.

Saudi Arabia has been singularly named in the report as one of the primary countries responsible for aiding and abetting those who committed the 9/11 attacks. The Senate quickly responded bypassing a bill that allows families affected by the attacks to take legal action against the Saudi government. However, if the Saudi Monarchy is going to be held responsible, so should the US. The US government holds close bilateral relations with the Saudi government, trading billions of dollars worth of weapons in exchange for oil. These weapons often end up in the hands of the very takfiri proxies currently wreaking havoc across the Middle East and North Africa.

Saudi Arabia isn't happy about the report or the Senate bill. But Washington could care less. The US ruling class understands that the Saudi regime needs Washington's military aid. It also understands that the Saudi regime is currently experiencing an economic crisis of its own. These conditions place Saudi Arabia in a complicated geopolitical situation. Saudi Arabia's�corrupt semi-feudal ruling class has become so dependent on Washington that it can do little but express disgust at the actions of its closest ally.

The legacy of 9/11 cannot be left in the hands of Washington's imperial double cross of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is indeed a culprit in the development of the global takfiri network currently doing imperialism's bidding. But without the backing of Washington, the House of Saud would fall under from the weight of its own decrepit social order. Progressive and radical forces in the US need to demand the full 28 page report be released to the public. The information in it could ignite a fire of popular anger around US imperial warfare so desperately needed in this moment.

This article was written by Danny Haiphong for American Herald Tribune on May 24, 2016. Danny Haiphong is a activist and radical journalist in the Boston Area.