The Power Of Nightmares: Re-awakened

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Admiral Valdemar
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The Power Of Nightmares: Re-awakened

Post by Admiral Valdemar »

Since I have had chance to finally see the last two episodes of The Power Of Nightmares, a relatively new documentary series by acclaimed documentary writer and producer Adam Curtis as shown on the BBC originally in October 2004. I find it necessary to provide a brief overview of the episodes for those who haven't had a chance to see the series due to being non-British citizens or not having a decent Internet connection with which to download the episodes. The series was reshown for three days this week given the large amount of talk it got going in the public and even made Bush and Blair have an emergency meeting shortly after the first episode was first shown last year.

Here, reproduced from the BBC's site, are the main synopses for each episode. If you look on Google, they are up in numerous forms, be they torrents or streaming media from many politics and global events sites and seemingly offer more discussion than the often attacked Fahrenheit 9/11.
Part I: Baby It's Cold Outside

Should we be worried about the threat from organised terrorism or is it simply a phantom menace being used to stop society from falling apart?

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares.

The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.

In a new series, the Power of Nightmares explores how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion.

It is a myth that has spread unquestioned through politics, the security services and the international media.

At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists.

Both were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world.

These two groups have changed the world but not in the way either intended.

Together they created today's nightmare vision of an organised terror network.

A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. Those with the darkest fears became the most powerful.

The rise of the politics of fear begins in 1949 with two men whose radical ideas would inspire the attack of 9/11 and influence the neo-conservative movement that dominates Washington.

Both these men believed that modern liberal freedoms were eroding the bonds that held society together.

The two movements they inspired set out, in their different ways, to rescue their societies from this decay. But in an age of growing disillusion with politics, the neo-conservatives turned to fear in order to pursue their vision.

They would create a hidden network of evil run by the Soviet Union that only they could see.

The Islamists were faced by the refusal of the masses to follow their dream and began to turn to terror to force the people to "see the truth"'.
Part II: The Phantom Victory

The Power of Nightmares continues its assessment of whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. Part two, the Phantom Victory looks at how two groups, radical Islamists and neo-conservatives with seemingly opposing ideologies came together to defeat a common enemy.

On 25 December 1979, Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan.

Moscow was able to install a friendly government in a neighbouring country but at a price.

The invasion gave a common cause to an extraordinary alliance of radical Islamists in Afghanistan and around the world and to the neo-conservatives in the US.

It was a key battleground of the Cold War.

Washington provided money and arms including even Stinger missiles capable of shooting down Soviet helicopters.

But it was Islamic Mujahideen fighters who would fire them.

Among the many foreigners drawn to Afghanistan was a young, wealthy Saudi called Osama Bin Laden.

Long before 9/11, he would have been seen by neo-conservatives in Washington as one of their foot soldiers, helping fight America's cause.

After nearly 10 years of fighting, Soviet troops pulled out of Afghanistan.

Both the neo-conservatives and the Islamists believed that it is they who defeated the "evil empire" and now had the power to transform the world.

But both failed in their revolutions.

In response, the neo-conservatives invented a new fantasy enemy, Bill Clinton, focusing on the scandal surrounding him and Monica Lewinsky.

Meanwhile, the Islamists descend into a desperate cycle of violence and terror to try to persuade the people to follow them.

Out of all this comes the seeds of the strange world of fantasy, deception, violence and fear in which we now live.
Part III: The Shadows In The Cave

The Power of Nightmares assesses whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. In the concluding part of the series, the programme explains how the illusion was created and who benefits from it.

In the wake of the shock and panic created by the devastating attack on the World Trade Center on 11 September, 2001, the neo-conservatives reconstructed the radical Islamists in the image of their last evil enemy, the Soviet Union - a sinister web of terror run from the centre by Osama Bin Laden in his lair in Afghanistan.

There are dangerous and fanatical individuals and groups around the world who have been inspired by extreme Islamist ideas, and who will use the techniques of mass terror - the attacks on America and Madrid make this only too clear.

But the nightmare vision of a uniquely powerful hidden organisation waiting to strike our societies is an illusion.

Wherever one looks for this al-Qaeda organisation, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the "sleeper cells" in America, the British and Americans are chasing a phantom enemy.

But the reason that no-one questions the illusion is because this nightmare enemy gives so many groups new power and influence in a cynical age - and not just politicians.

Those with the darkest imaginations have now become the most powerful.

In part one, the programme looked at the origins of the neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists in the 1950s.

The second part of the series examined how the radical Islamists and neo-conservatives came together to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
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Post by Rye »

It was a fucking cool series, opened my eyes up to a lot of stuff I'd just accepted before. If the neocon mindset could be applied to a worthy cause, like say, ignorance, especially of science, being the big baddie to fight against, imagine the decent potential for it....

That said, it was really fucking funny to see the nonsense they'd concocted showed with the reality, like where they'd thought al qaeda had hollowed out mountains, complete with secret exits, truck bays, big underground computer and telecom systems, bedrooms, thermal shielding and the like....then they get there, it's a hole in a wall with some bullets in, at best. :lol:

I liked the exposing of the dirty bomb myth (i didn't know that!), and the general style of the programs, and it just goes to show why scientific method should be drilled into people; to prevent these evil menace myths going out of control.

Sensationalism makes victims of us all I suppose, the point of it is its virulence.
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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

How about the doodles of that insane Yemeni who thought he was the minister of defence for all of the Arab world (and yet a key CIA interpreter saw his matchstick planes as being symbols for attacks on US airbases)?

Or how about the African-Americans who went to fight in Afghanistan... and got lost in China?

Then there's the Disney tourist video where a brief look at a garbage can whilst in a queue for an Indiana Jones like ride is a hint to place a bomb there or where a guy accidentally leaving the camcorder on as he walks is really telling the terrorists how many paces to planet a bomb.

It's fucking ridiculous for a second that I even believed this crap to the point that I argued we should go into Iraq, the same country that along with the US tested radiological bombs or "dirty bombs" years ago to find they were bloody useless, and yet the gov'ts here went on about how bad they'd be (when the DoE study said a risk may be present if a bomb went off and people stood still for a year at ground zero of the blast).
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Post by Rye »

I'm actually pissed off at the media for letting this shit get out of hand, this stuff should've been reported and exposed when it all turned out to bea complete misrepresentation and fear tactics. Did you hear from the news that dirty bombs were bullshit, or that the sleeper cells were an invention of the paranoid US Govt?
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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

I knew dirty bombs were bullshit because no one, not even the terrorists, had bothered. Although the DoE and Iraqi military findings I didn't know of, they don't surprise me.

The sleeper cells thing also eluded me. I used to believe all of these threats as if the world was ending soon after 9/11, which is odd given I mocked FOX News' sensationalist reporting. But as we can see here, every agency did the same. There's an FAQ with Curtis on the Beeb's site where one guy asked why the BBC showed this series when it had also made the programme Dirty Bomb which hyped the threats up. There's no real reason other than the corporation just wanted to show a spectrum of stuff.

It is programmes like these that need more airtime though. I can't wait for this to be shown internationally, as if the web hadn't spread it already. F9/11 really doesn't compare.
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Post by Petrosjko »

Rye wrote:I'm actually pissed off at the media for letting this shit get out of hand, this stuff should've been reported and exposed when it all turned out to bea complete misrepresentation and fear tactics. Did you hear from the news that dirty bombs were bullshit, or that the sleeper cells were an invention of the paranoid US Govt?
The media will always take the sensationalist angle. That's no surprise. "DIRTY BOMB MENACE" is guaranteed to get viewers over "Smallpox attack pretty unlikely".
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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

Just noticed there's a Wiki article on it too if anyone's interested.
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Post by Dennis Toy »

the more and more i see it the more im thinking that the terrorist threat is just an adult version of the monster under the bed or the boogeyman hiding in the closet fears we use to have a children.
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Post by Dennis Toy »

Dirty Bomb myth can also be likened to the Bio-terror threat. Bioterrorism is a bullshit myth also because the bio-agents would be ineffective over a wide-range of area. This brainbug was actually coined by the book "Outbreak" and the movie that came after.
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Post by Dennis Toy »

when does this program appear in america?
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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

Dennis Toy wrote:Dirty Bomb myth can also be likened to the Bio-terror threat. Bioterrorism is a bullshit myth also because the bio-agents would be ineffective over a wide-range of area. This brainbug was actually coined by the book "Outbreak" and the movie that came after.
There was no book called Outbreak since the movie was WB trying to mimic the bestseller The Hot Zone which Preston, the author, sold the rights to Paramount who didn't do anything with it. It has nothing really to do with bio-terror and, funnily enough, copies of the video were sent to district health official and municipal buildings to show what would happen if such a virus were used as a weapon.

In anycase, the "fear factor" certainly works and the anthrax attacks soon after 9/11 are evidence of this. You don't need an effective weapon (or indeed any weapon) if mass panic and paranoia is instilled into the target populace.
Dennis Toy wrote:when does this program appear in america?
There's no date yet, but it should appear soon. Also, I'd advise against many consecutive postings like that. It clutters the thread and is annoying to sift through when one post will suffice.
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Post by Dennis Toy »




There was no book called Outbreak since the movie was WB trying to mimic the bestseller The Hot Zone which Preston, the author, sold the rights to Paramount who didn't do anything with it. It has nothing really to do with bio-terror and, funnily enough, copies of the video were sent to district health official and municipal buildings to show what would happen if such a virus were used as a weapon.
no book called outbreak, i thought it was written by Micheal Chricton
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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

Dennis Toy wrote:
no book called outbreak, i thought it was written by Micheal Chricton
Nope, there isn't. See my previous post.
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Post by Illuminatus Primus »

I need to check BBC World for this. If anyone sees the Beeb offer this series for sale tell me ASAP. I want to order it for my film discussion club and upcoming documentary month. This'll be bloody brilliant.
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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

Illuminatus Primus wrote:I need to check BBC World for this. If anyone sees the Beeb offer this series for sale tell me ASAP. I want to order it for my film discussion club and upcoming documentary month. This'll be bloody brilliant.
There are no plans to sell it or make a book yet given the copyright complications with it (has loads of archive footage).

But if it does get shown again, it will likely be on BBC World or BBC America. The Internet at least has the eps in varying quality.
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Post by Illuminatus Primus »

Fuck. I need to find BBC World's showing and make a copy. If anyone finds another means by which I can acquire it (cough) I'd be much appreciated.

Someone needs to explain torrents to me. I haven't run one yet and I'm not well-aquainted.
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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

The BBC acknowledges the downloads and hasn't said anything contrary to the practice, if anything, Curtis seems to want that sort of thing (think Moore, only not an egotistical hypocrite).

If I hear any news of it ever coming to DVD, I shall let you know. In the meantime, the web is all you have outside the UK unless someone you know has taped it (I didn't have any ready, but if it's on for a third time soon, I'll make a copy for you).

EDIT: Try here. This is the site I got Part I off before Xmas. It now has the other two parts it seems.

EDIT 2: Scratch that one. There seems better quality versions, I'll just get the link working first.
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Post by CDS »

I hear rumour BBC will be (eventually) putting some/all/part of their archive up for download at some point.

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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

If BT worked behind this NAT server, it'd be better.
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Post by CDS »

Admiral Valdemar wrote:If BT worked behind this NAT server, it'd be better.
There is nothing wrong with your NAT. Your NAT is good. Your NAT is great. Bittorrent? What do you mean Bitorrent? Be quiet boy and go play on the web like a good boy.

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