Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the
center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy,
does not exist? To even raise the question amid all the officially
inspired hysteria is heretical. Yet a brilliant new BBC film produced by
one of Britain's leading documentary filmmakers systematically
challenges this. "The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of
Fear" ... argues coherently that much of what we have been told about
the threat of international terrorism "is a fantasy that has been
exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has
spread unquestioned ... around the world." Why have we heard so much
frightening talk about "dirty bombs" when experts say it is panic rather
than radioactivity that would kill people? Why did Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld claim on "Meet the Press" in 2001 that Al Qaeda
controlled massive high-tech cave complexes in Afghanistan, when British
and U.S. military forces later found no such thing? The film
... directly challenges the conventional wisdom by making a powerful
case that the Bush administration, led by a tight-knit cabal of
Machiavellian neoconservatives, has seized upon the false image of a
unified international terrorist threat to replace the expired Soviet
empire in order to push a political agenda. "The nightmare
vision of a uniquely powerful hidden organization waiting to strike our
societies is an illusion. Wherever one looks for this Al Qaeda
organization, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the 'sleeper cells'
in America, the British and Americans are chasing a phantom enemy."
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