The Power of Nightmares, subtitled
The Rise of the Politics of Fear, is a
BBC documentary film series, written and produced by
Adam Curtis. Its three one-hour parts consist mostly of a montage of archive footage with Curtis's narration. The series was first broadcast in the United Kingdom in late 2004 and has subsequently been broadcast in multiple countries and shown in several film festivals, including the
2005 Cannes Film Festival.
The films compare the rise of the
Neo-Conservative movement in the United States and the
radical Islamist movement, making comparisons on their origins and claiming similarities between the two. More controversially, it argues that the threat of radical Islamism as a massive, sinister organised force of destruction, specifically in the form of
al-Qaeda, is a myth perpetrated by politicians in many countries—and particularly American Neo-Conservatives—in an
attempt to unite and inspire their people following the failure of earlier, more
utopian ideologies.
The Power of Nightmares has been praised by film critics in both Britain and the United States. Its message and content have also been the subject of various critiques and criticisms from
conservatives and
progressives.
player
This film explores the origins in the 1940s and 50s of Islamic Fundamentalism in the Middle East, and Neoconservatism in America, parallels between these movements, and their effect on the world today. From the introduction to Part 1:
"Both [the Islamists and Neoconservatives] were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. And both had a very similar explanation for what caused that failure. These two groups have changed the world, but not in the way that either intended. Together, they created today's nightmare vision of a secret, organized evil that threatens the world. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. And those with the darkest fears became the most powerful. " The Power of Nightmares, Baby It's Cold Outside.
Part 1 - Baby it's Cold Outside |
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Part 2 - The Phantom Victory |
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Part 3 - The Shadows in the Cave |
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An
NTSC DVD ISO is available to make burning this to DVD easier.
This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films
Producer: Adam Curtis
Production Company: BBC
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Adam Curtis
Sayyid Qutb (
Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [ˈsæjjed ˈʔotˤb],
Arabic: [ˈsæjjed ˈqotˤb]) (also Said, Syed, Seyyid, Sayid, or Sayed; Koteb, Qutub, Kotb, or Kutb) (
Arabic:
سيد قطب; October 9, 1906
[1] – August 29, 1966) was an
Egyptian author, educator,
Islamist theorist,
poet, and the leading member of the
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and '60s.
Author of 24 books, including novels, literary arts’ critique and works on education, he is best known in the Muslim world for his work on what he believed to be the social and political role of
Islam, particularly in his books
Social Justice and
Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq (
Milestones). His
magnum opus,
Fi Zilal al-Qur'an (
In the shade of the Qur'an), is a 30-volume commentary on the
Qur'an.
During most of his life, Qutb's inner circle mainly consisted of influential politicians, intellectuals, poets and literary figures, both of his age and of the preceding generation. By the mid-1940s, many of his writings were officially among the curricula of schools, colleges and universities.
[2]
Even though most of his observations and criticism were leveled at the Muslim world, Qutb is also known for his intense disapproval of the society and culture of the
United States,
[3][4] which he saw as obsessed with materialism, violence, and sexual pleasures.
[5] Views on Qutb vary widely. He has been described by some as a great
artist and
martyr for Islam,
[6][7] but by many Western observers as one who shaped the ideas of
Islamists[8] and particularly of groups such as
Al Qaeda.
[9][10][11][12] Today, his supporters are identified as
Qutbists[13] or "Qutbi" (by their opponents, not by themselves).
[14]
Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was a
German-
American political philosopher and
classicist who specialized in classical
political philosophy. He was born in Germany to
Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States. He spent most of his career as a professor of political science at the
University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students and published fifteen books.
[1]
Originally trained in the
Neo-Kantian tradition with
Ernst Cassirer and immersed in the work of the
phenomenologists Edmund Husserl and
Martin Heidegger, Strauss later focused his research on the Greek texts of
Plato and
Aristotle, retracing their interpretation through medieval
Islamic and
Jewish philosophy, and encouraged application of their ideas to contemporary political theory.
[2]
Irving Kristol (January 22, 1920 – September 18, 2009) was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of
neoconservatism".
[1] As the founder, editor, and contributor to various magazines, he played an influential role in the intellectual and political culture of the last half-century;
[2] after his death he was described by
The Daily Telegraph as being "perhaps the most consequential public intellectual of the latter half of the 20th century".
[3]
The BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares is often quoted by 9/11 researchers, in particular for its analysis of al Qaeda. One of the claims it makes is that there is "no evidence that bin Laden used the term “Al Qaeda” to refer to the name of a group until after September the 11th, when he realized that this was the term the Americans have given it".
Here's the context to that:
JASON BURKE , AUTHOR, “AL QAEDA” : During the investigation of the 1998 bombings, there is a walk- in source, Jamal al-Fadl, who is a Sudanese militant who was with bin Laden in the early 90s, who has been passed around a whole series of Middle East secret services, none of whom want much to do with him, and who ends up in America and is taken on by—uh—the American government, effectively, as a key prosecution witness and is given a huge amount of American taxpayers’ money at the same time. And his account is used as raw material to build up a picture of Al Qaeda. The picture that the FBI want to build up is one that will fit the existing laws that they will have to use to prosecute those responsible for the bombing. Now, those laws were drawn up to counteract organised crime: the Mafia, drugs crime, crimes where people being a member of an organisation is extremely important. You have to have an organisation to get a prosecution. And you have al-Fadl and a number of other witness, a number of other sources, who are happy to feed into this. You’ve got material that, looked at in a certain way, can be seen to show this organisation’s existence. You put the two together and you get what is the first bin Laden myth—the first Al Qaeda myth. And because it’s one of the first, it’s extremely influential. VO: The picture al-Fadl drew for the Americans of bin Laden was of an all-powerful figure at the head of a large terrorist network that had an organised network of control. He also said that bin Laden had given this network a name: “Al Qaeda.” It was a dramatic and powerful picture of bin Laden, but it bore little relationship to the truth.
[ EXCERPT, CNN EXCLUSIVE VIDEO : BIN LADEN AND SOLDIERS ]
VO: The reality was that bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri had become the focus of a loose association of disillusioned Islamist militants who were attracted by the new strategy. But there was no organisation. These were militants who mostly planned their own operations and looked to bin Laden for funding and assistance. He was not their commander. There is also no evidence that bin Laden used the term “Al Qaeda” to refer to the name of a group until after September the 11th, when he realized that this was the term the Americans have given it.
[ CUT TO MANHATTAN SKYLINE ] VO: In reality, Jamal al-Fadl was on the run from bin Laden, having stolen money from him. In return for his evidence, the Americans gave him witness protection in America and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many lawyers at the trial believed that al-Fadl exaggerated and lied to give the Americans the picture of a terrorist organisation that they needed to prosecute bin Laden.
SAM SCHMIDT , DEFENCE LAWYER EMBASSY BOMBINGS TRIAL: And there were selective portions of al-Fadl’s testimony that I believe was false, to help support the picture that he helped the Americans join together. I think he lied in a number of specific testimony about a unified image of what this organisation was. It made Al Qaeda the new Mafia or the new Communists. It made them identifiable as a group and therefore made it easier to prosecute any person associated with Al Qaeda for any acts or statements made by bin Laden—who talked a lot.
BURKE : The idea—which is critical to the FBI’s prosecution—that bin Laden ran a coherent organisation with operatives and cells all around the world of which you could be a member is a myth. There is no Al Qaeda organisation. There is no international network with a leader, with cadres who will unquestioningly obey orders, with tentacles that stretch out to sleeper cells in America, in Africa, in Europe. That idea of a coherent, structured terrorist network with an organised capability simply does not exist.
http://www.durodie.net/pdf/PowerOfNightmares3.pdf
There is "no evidence that bin Laden used the term “Al Qaeda” to refer to the name of a group until after September the 11th, when he realized that this was the term the Americans have given it"?
Here’s a comment bin Ladin made from an October 2001 interview:
When was the name first established? Lawrence Wright in The Looming Tower points to a document called the "Tareek Osama", "a collection of memos, letters, and notes that were taken from an al Qaeda computer captured in Bosnia and entered into evidence in United States v Enaam Arnout". One of these documents details a meeting on August 11, 1988, "when the name al-Qaeda first surfaces", and includes snippets like the following:
Read the
United States v Enaam Arnout evidentiary proffer for more.
Wright is sceptical about parts of the document, and its poor translation, but reports communicating with one of the meeting participants (through an intermediary) and receiving confirmation that it happened, and that a vote was taken at the end of the meeting on the formation of al Qaeda.
"Special forces and CIA legend" Billy Waugh reports first hearing the name al Qaeda in 1992:
When I arrived in Khartoum, I was told by our chief of station that bin Laden was one of our targets. "Keep an eye on him," he told me. "We don't know what he's up to, but we know he's a wealthy financier and we think he's harboring some of these outfits called al Qaeda. See what you can find out." I was familiar with bin Laden from agency traffic, but this was the first time I had heard the term al Qaeda.
Hunting the Jackal, Billy Waugh with Tim Keown, page 183
Wright tells us that the French mentioned al Qaeda in 1993:
There is an Agence France Presse article, "Jordanian Militants Train in Afghanistan to Confront Regime", dated May 30 1993, in which a "27-year-old militant" admits that he has been trained by a wealthy Saudi businessman who owns a construction firm in Jeddah, Osama ibn [sic] Laden."
Page 410, "The Looming Tower", Lawrence Wright
Another early reference to al Qaeda came in this US State Department statement on bin Ladin from August 14th 1996:
This information came from a State Department report summarised in Mideast Mirror:
Mideast Mirror, August 16, 1996 The misguided U.S. war on Arab and Islamic "terror" -- al-Quds al-Arabi
BIN-LADEN: Also on Wednesday, a report released by the State Department said wealthy Arab businessman Usama Bin-Laden is one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world.
It said Ramzi Yousef, alleged mastermind of the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing, lived for three years at a guesthouse funded by Bin-Laden in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Bin-Laden funded extremist groups in Egypt, Algeria and Yemen, as well as terrorist training camps in Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"On the general matter of private funding of terrorist acts, that is a serious problem and it's a matter of very serious concern to the United States," State Department deputy spokesman Glyn Davies told reporters.
"It's difficult to track and it's difficult to counter because it is very secretive by nature, but we've made some progress," he said.
He argued the U.S. has been leading the fight against the problem, noting Clinton last year blocked assets in the United States of terrorists and terrorist groups and in April signed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which bans terrorist fundraising in the United States.
Bin-Laden, one of 20 sons of Saudi construction magnate Mohammad Bin-Laden, joined the Afghan resistance movement following the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the State Department report said.
He gained prominence during the Afghan war by financing recruitment, transportation and training of Arab nationals who volunteered to fight alongside the Afghan mujahideen.
In 1994, Riyadh revoked Bin-Laden's Saudi citizenship "for behavior that contradicts the kingdom's interests and risks harming its relations with fraternal countries," the report said.
But still Bin-Laden "is one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world today... (His) support for extremist causes continues despite criticism from regional governments and his family."
By 1985 Bin-Laden had drawn on his family's wealth -- plus donations from sympathetic merchant families in the Gulf region -- to organize the Islamic Salvation Foundation, or al-Qaida, for this purpose, the report said.
Al-Qaida recruitment centers and guesthouses in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have enlisted and sheltered thousands of Arab recruits and his foundation has also funded camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the report said.
The report also made these charges:
-- Islamic extremists responsible for the December 1992 attempted bombings against some 100 U.S. servicemen in Somalia claimed Bin-Laden financed their group.
-- A joint Egyptian-Saudi investigation revealed in May 1993 that Bin-Laden "business interests helped funnel money to Egyptian extremists who used the cash to buy unspecified equipment, printing presses and weapons."
-- By January 1994, Bin-Laden "had begun financing at least three terrorist training camps in northern Sudan."
-- Bin-Laden remains "the key financier behind the 'Kunar' camp in Afghanistan which provides terror training to al-Gihad and al-Gama'a al-Islamiya members."
Bin-Laden has denied any role in terrorism. Britain's The Independent newspaper caught up with him last month in Afghanistan where it quoted him as saying the Saudi bombings marked the start of a war between Moslems and the United States.
"What happened in Riyadh and al-Khobar is clear evidence of the huge anger of Saudi people against America. The Saudis now know their real enemy is America," Bin-Laden said.
"I believe that sooner or later the Americans will leave Saudi Arabia and that the war declared by America against the Saudi people means war against all Moslems everywhere," Bin-Laden said in the interview with The Independent's Robert Fisk.
"Resistance against America will spread in many, many places in Moslem countries. Our trusted leaders, the ulema (Moslem scholars), have given us a fatwa (Islamic edict) that we must drive out the Americans. The solution to this crisis is the withdrawal of American troops... their military presence is an insult for the Saudi people."
There’s definitely evidence for widespread use of the name al Qaeda before 9/11, then, including confirmation from bin Laden himself. The Power of Nightmares claim simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
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