The Boogeyman Called al-Qaeda

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion...l=la-news-comment-opinions&ctrack=2&cset=true

Robert Scheer:

Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?

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, especially in the context of the U.S. media's supine acceptance of administration claims relating to national security. Yet a brilliant new BBC film produced by one of Britain's leading documentary filmmakers systematically challenges this and many other accepted articles of faith in the so-called war on terror.

"The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear," a three-hour historical film by Adam Curtis recently aired by the British Broadcasting Corp., 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 through governments around the world, the security services and the international media."

Stern stuff, indeed. But consider just a few of the many questions the program poses along the way:

• If Osama bin Laden does, in fact, head a vast international terrorist organization with trained operatives in more than 40 countries, as claimed by Bush, why, despite torture of prisoners, has this administration failed to produce hard evidence of it?

• How can it be that in Britain since 9/11, 664 people have been detained on suspicion of terrorism but only 17 have been found guilty, most of them with no connection to Islamist groups and none who were proven members of Al Qaeda?

• 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?

Of course, the documentary does not doubt that an embittered, well-connected and wealthy Saudi man named Osama bin Laden helped finance various affinity groups of Islamist fanatics that have engaged in terror, including the 9/11 attacks. Nor does it challenge the notion that a terrifying version of fundamentalist Islam has led to gruesome spates of violence throughout the world. But the film, both more sober and more deeply provocative than Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," 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.

Terrorism is deeply threatening, but it appears to be a much more fragmented and complex phenomenon than the octopus-network image of Al Qaeda, with Bin Laden as its head, would suggest.

While the BBC documentary acknowledges that the threat of terrorism is both real and growing, it disagrees that the threat is centralized:

"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 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."

The fact is, despite the efforts of several government commissions and a vast army of investigators, we still do not have a credible narrative of a "war on terror" that is being fought in the shadows.

Consider, for example, that neither the 9/11 commission nor any court of law has been able to directly take evidence from the key post-9/11 terror detainees held by the United States. Everything we know comes from two sides that both have a great stake in exaggerating the threat posed by Al Qaeda: the terrorists themselves and the military and intelligence agencies that have a vested interest in maintaining the facade of an overwhelmingly dangerous enemy.

Such a state of national ignorance about an endless war is, as "The Power of Nightmares" makes clear, simply unacceptable in a functioning democracy.

 

I have to give you credit Rat , without you this would be a very boring forum .....

Keep up the good work ....

 

Its the Emmanuel Goldstein myth and has been from the very start. Those that buy into it simply believe whatever the media inflates to keep the war machine rolling on and the dollars rolling in.

 

Theres a reason why that was in the "opinion" section.

Al Queda is real. They are closer than many people realize. They may not be active cadre or members, but they may be passive/active supporters.

 

Whatever..we need Alqaeda..what other excuse would we have for blowing up a country and killing 100,000 civilians? not that we need an excuse..we have'nt given one yet

 

the 100,000 killed number is still an unsubstantiated number. The real number is between 30-40,000.

 

That makes it so much easier to justify doesn't it andrew? Interesting how you can say with such certitude what the "real" number is, especially when the Pentagon couldn't really care less about the unfortunate "collateral damage".

 

exactly. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Besides, only 30,000....yeah that barely even sounds like a tragedy, I'm not against the war now! JUST 30,000!

 

You totally missed the point. No one knows how many people have died in this war. And no source can PROVE how many deaths have occured. I just don't agree with the misleading quoted numbers that fuel your "sit on your ass and bitch" concept about this war. If you want do do somthing about it, moaning and groaning about its atrocities does nothing, write your leaders, and stop bitching.

 

Do you know if this film is available for download anywhere on the 'net?

 

if you notice the bias in favour of islam in the media, especially on the bbc , its no wonder you get people pushing their islamist agenda .
mohammed said war is deceit or deception , so you make a attack like sept 11, and the 2000 other major attacks since 9/11, and then you sell the lie that you are not making the attacks .

That the real threat is some conspiracy like the conspiracy thats hiding all the ufos.

its pretty classic .

try to imagine you are a islamist and you really hate the west, but you are not stupid because these guys are not stupid .
you know your weaker in conventional terms but islam has a great history of defeating people who thought they were stronger and more democratic .
and one of the main tactics you use is psychological warfare , you get sections of your enemy to fight amongst themselves.

look at all the storys you hear and imagine who this is helping

 

Quite possibly the most sane post I have read on here,
Thank you

 

very good point rat. but once again, it can not be proven either way. it's the government and their mindless followers against the group of people who actually believe that the government COULD JUST POSSIBLY BE corrupt.

Because we all personally know an Al Queda member.

And because we all know there's a reason besides pushing their agenda for oil and that bullshit for being in Iraq. "We just wanted to help the people"


Curious, did you people read about that bomb that hit the wrong target? Ended up being a house. "Oops!" The sad part is that the "wrong" target was the one they had sighted. They hit their intended target, just it wasnt the right one.

 

THIS POST IS OFF-TOPIC, YOU ARE WARNED THIS IS A VIOLATION OF THE FORUM GUIDELINES.



-SKIP

Well I see how you care about the value of a human life. When you are making luv and not war and a child comes about because of your love making, and the woman gets an abortion. Do you protest her decision to murder her child. Or do you only value human life when a Republican is in the White House. And please don't tell me you are personally against abortion, but support a womans right to murder her child. I have heard all that crap before.

 

ugh, go back to your religion forums. only your kind would bring abortion into a war thread. Higherthanhell was obviously using sarcasm.

and yes i know, "god will abort me". we've all heard it before campbell. don't respond.

we need abortion. it cuts down the number of people like you.

 

It has Begun!!!!
MOOOOOORAL COMBAT...

 

Harsh !! But funny ........

 

Yes you are so right, we really should focus on the 100,00 dead in Iraq. The liberals in this country are so concerened about the taking of innocent life. Lets just forget about the 40 million Americans we have slaughtered. And lets not think about the fact that most of those children would of been future Democrats. And sadly for some, because of their absence, George Bush has been voted back into office for a second term. The only funny part of this whole atrocity is the Democrats are still scratching their heads, trying to figure out where their voting base went to. What goes around comes around.

 

do do do do do do do do do do do do

*starts doing crazy matial arts dancing moves*