US has long history of committing terrorism against civilian planes

By Kevin Barrett

Mourners carry coffins through the streets of Tehran, Iran, during a mass funeral for the victims aboard Iran Air flight 655, which was shot down by the USS Vincennes in the Persian Gulf, on July 3, 1988. (File photo by AP)

The US military is apparently lying about its harassment of an Iranian passenger plane over Syria. The US military spokespeople are saying that this apparent harassment by F15 warplanes didn't really happen, they were just on a routine mission and it just sort of happened to go by 1000 feet away from the Iranian passenger plane for no particular reason, when in fact this was obviously deliberate harassment. 

So why would they be lying? And is this bad for their reputation? I suppose...although the reputation of the US government and its military for telling the truth has been shredded long ago. And so I think the world pretty much expects lies from the American military, especially about these kinds of incidents. 

But it is very disturbing, this kind of terrorism—because it is terrorism. Any targeting of civilians is the very definition of terrorism. And civilian airliners are obviously not military targets. And so when they're put in danger by this kind of threatening behavior by warplanes, that is an act of terrorism. It's just as if Daesh militants were firing their rockets at civilian planes, that's terrorism, even if they don't hit the plane, even if their rockets are not capable of hitting the planes more than 10% of the time, risking the lives of civilian passengers is an act of terrorism. 

And we just saw how bad this can get. Last year the Israelis caused a Russian Flight to get shot down, they deliberately did that apparently. The Israelis were using a Russian civilian plane to sneak into Syria, under the cover of that civilian plane knowing that their presence would trigger the anti-aircraft defenses and that led to the death of a bunch of Russian civilians on that plane. So these kinds of reckless endangering terroristic actions against civilian targets are unfortunately fully in line with the standard practices of the Americans and the Israelis around the world and especially in the Muslim East region. 

Now what this American F15 squad was doing there anyway is a good question. It's totally illegal. The Americans have a big base al-Tanf which is in Syria. And the Americans have been specifically disinvited from Syria. They're not allowed to have anybody in Syria. And yet they just invaded and established their own airbase in Syria, which is an illegal occupation. And from that base in Syria, they're conducting terroristic attacks on civilians like this one which fortunately didn't involve any loss of life.

Iran pays tribute to victims of 1988 US downing of passenger jet

Iran commemorates the 32nd anniversary of the downing of its passenger aircraft by a US Navy guided-missile cruiser over the Persian Gulf.

But the US has a history of causing loss of life with civilian airliners. For instance, the shootdown of the Iranian plane (Iran Air 655) at the tail end of the first Persian Gulf War, the Iran-Iraq war, that was clearly deliberate, and a message to Iran to accept the terms that Iran never would have accepted otherwise. So this kind of terrorism, deliberately killing civilian passengers on airplanes, is par for the course for the Americans. And likewise, the US embargo on spare parts for civilian planes has led to a fair number of deaths in the Iranian civilian aviation industry over the decades. 

So, this is completely unacceptable.But unfortunately, we don't have any real international law capable of being enforced. The US Empire still gives itself the right to invade anybody it wants, as it's invaded Syria, to occupy anybody it wants, as it's occupying Syria, and to continue to try to destroy the region on behalf of the Zionist settler colony. 

And so that will change when the world balance of power changes, and it's changing pretty fast. The US Empire is definitely in decline. And the final sunset on the US Empire is likely to happen within the next decade, or decade and a half. And when that happens, these kinds of acts of terrorism can be actually prosecuted and stopped.

Kevin Barrett is an American author, journalist and radio host with a Ph.D. in Islamic and Arabic Studies. He has been studying the events of 9/11 since late 2003. He recorded this article for Press TV website.