It’s a rather polemical TV series which makes the bold (but – to me – fairly plausible) claim that effectively ‘Al Queda’ does not exist.
The programme suggests it is largely a phantom dreamed up by politicians – particularly American neo-conservatives – (with the tacit collusion of the media and the security services) to give western politicians a new role in a cynical world.
It gives copious examples of how the alleged ‘terror cells’ in the UK and US that have been found have been painted as such on the basis of flimsy – even ludicrous – evidence. A summary of the programme with links to transcripts and audio is available at the “Disinfopedia”:http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=The_Power_of_Nightmares/.
Of course that is not to say that Islamic terrorists do not exist or have the ability to carry out atrocities – 9/11 and the Madrid bombings clearly show otherwise – but it suggests these are disparate groups of loosely allied people not some kind of sinister octopus. It is clearly not balanced either – it is making a case and I would be interested to hear the other side of the story. But it does raise the important question – how will we know when the war on terror is won?
I agree wholeheartedly. These loosely stiched togethergroups have one thing that binds them together and it is fear and hate. The larger our presence there, the more they fear and hate us, the more resistance they will make, and it is like trying to drive a pin with a sledgehammer.
Doesnt anybody read HISTORY
Comment by Daddyo — 7 December 2004 @ 4:13 am
Prospect magazine had what I thought was a very good article on the developmental stages of Al Qaeda a couple of months ago. The theory it posited (from memory) was that it started as a cell, became an organisation and is now a movement.
Comment by Andrew Brown — 10 December 2004 @ 9:09 am