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| Britain |
| BBC: International Terrorism is a Myth |
| 2005-04-27 |
| 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"'. The Power of Nightmares will be broadcast over three nights from Tuesday 18 to Thursday, 20 January, 2005 at 2320 GMT on BBC Two. The final part has been updated in the wake of the Law Lords ruling in December that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial was illegal. "And there was no such thing as the Holocaust because the Nazis were just actors wearing outrageous clothing in Hollywood movies!" |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #12 Re #10 -- That's a great post, AC. A careful read, indeed, but truly a spot-on, nailed-it, covered-the-bases, bullseye. Thx! And re #11, well hell, when you're right, you're right! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-27 11:46:33 PM |
| #11 I'm reminded of a story from the darkest days of World War 2, the period just before the French surrender to the Germans in 1940. A Polish submarine, having escaped when Poland was overrun the previous autumn, was operating with the British. The captain's name was Boris. His crew spotted an Italian ship. Italy had just attacked reeling France, and Great Britain had declared war on the Italians. Captain Boris, however, was informed that the Polish government-in-exile had not gotten around to declaring war on Italy, and he could therefore not attack the ship he had in his sights. The Captain, a man of action, instantly responded, "I, Boris, declare war on Italy" and promptly sank the ship. I, AC, declare war on the BBC. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-04-27 11:39:05 PM |
| #10 "He who has ears, let him hear." The Beeb must present this rebuttal precisely because such a network is proven to exist and the Beeb's agenda is desperately threatened by this knowledge. The Beeb's case will be a strawman, simply demonstrating that terrorism is not perpetrated by a single monolithic organization, and that it is not the product of a single ideology. It will not address the reality as I and other neo-Enlightenment thinkers see it: that the terror gangs are part of an enormous network of power-seeking ideologues, a global culture of media-based totalitarianism, each element blending into the next and including the BBC itself. Al Qaeda is a real, if loose, organization in and of itself. The 19 9-11 hijackers did not dream up and execute their plan all by themselves. It is only one of many terror gangs, all of which have informal contacts and common resources with at least some of the others. In turn, there is an obvious symbiosis between the institutional media culture and the terrorists themselves, with totalitarian academia (another nest of vile authoritarians) playing a supporting role. Besides their supreme confidence in their own fitness to rule, these elements have one other thing in common: they are threatened by the modern world, the world of the internet and rising incomes and rising literacy rates. Far from being progressives, they represent a reactionary force, a continuation of the centralized elitist power-structure that prevailed before the Enlightenment. Mass advertising, especially the classic "illusion of distinction" trope, has created millions of little aristocrats, the mass produced elites of pop-culture and middle-class status-seeking. That the terrorists find their main support among those who see, or hope to see, themselves as relatively privileged, from the 9-11 hijackers themselves to their campus moonbat apologists, is scarcely in doubt. The final elimination of this element, rooted in the conflicts and upheavels of the 18th century, is a natural step in societal evolution. The elitist institutional media are the key, fueling the elitist pretensions that drive the power-seekers. Their destruction is both necessary and inevitable. Power to the people, death to traitors, death to the media lords. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-04-27 11:29:26 PM |
| #9 Matt - the group has a name and a very long tradition. |
| Posted by: AJackson 2005-04-27 10:46:10 PM |
| #8 Matt - Your group is much larger than you think. (I'm a member, and I know many others.) And much, much larger than the Beeb thinks. Those wankers are going to be the first to go when the jihadis decide they're no longer useful. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-04-27 9:52:35 PM |
| #7 Matt: Sign me up for the category you mention. I won't ever forget the poor jumpers. |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H. 2005-04-27 9:31:00 PM |
| #6 CBC (the Canadian equivalent to the BBC, which is even more anti-American and socialist, if thatâs possible) is airing this show and I saw one of the episodes. It basically said that al-Qaida is a fabrication that was the brainchild of the US Government during the trial for the 1998 embassy bombers. As for Government conspiracies, it basically says that Islamic terrorism isnât such a big deal and that the governments are playing up these fears for their own agenda. This âdocumentaryâ is a conspiracy theorists dream. Sadly, it would be laughable if so many didnât take these âtheoriesâ so seriously. |
| Posted by: bonanzabucks 2005-04-27 8:47:11 PM |
| #5 At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists. I'm really offended. The Beeb has left out my group, Americans Who Get Seriously Pissed When They Have To Watch Other Americans Jump Out Of Tall Office Buildings And Who Are Prone To Hold Violent Grudges For Damn Near Eternity. I don't know how many of us there are, but I think enough to merit a mention. |
| Posted by: Matt 2005-04-27 8:41:19 PM |
| #4 You know, if I was the british public, I'd not only cancel my service, but I'd demand a refund. These people running things like the BBC need to be locked away or used for the organ banks. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2005-04-27 8:18:27 PM |
| #3 The Beeb will keep up this blather because they are a useful idiot of the radicals---at this time. One day one of their brilliant reporters will piss off a jihadi and they will get boomed, sliced, diced, or shot. Then the beeb may change their story---or not. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-04-27 8:11:52 PM |
| #2 Whew! The Power of Nightmares. Okay. Gotcha. Thx, Beeb, for that in-depth analysis and monkey spank. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-27 7:06:25 PM |
| #1 Expect more of this, as the Tranzi-socialist sink deeper into conspiracy theories in order to explain the failure of their vision. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-27 7:02:26 PM |