OK, so this is really contrarian thinking. In the midst of an election campaign in which one of the main issues is how to prosecute "the War on Terror", along comes a documentary which argues that al-Qaida may not really exist. In today's Guardian, Andy Beckett reviews the series The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear which begins on BBC2 next Wednesday. In this three-part series, the director Adam Curtis:
... points out that al-Qaida did not even have a name until early 2001, when the American government decided to prosecute Bin Laden in his absence and had to use anti-Mafia laws that required the existence of a named criminal organisation.
Curtis also cites the Home Office's own statistics for arrests and convictions of suspected terrorists since September 11 2001. Of the 664 people detained up to the end of last month, only 17 have been found guilty. Of these, the majority were Irish Republicans, Sikh militants or members of other groups with no connection to Islamist terrorism. Nobody has been convicted who is a proven member of al-Qaida.
In fact, Curtis is not alone in wondering about all this. Quietly but increasingly, other observers of the war on terror have been having similar doubts. "The grand concept of the war has not succeeded," says Jonathan Eyal, director of the British military thinktank the Royal United Services Institute. "In purely military terms, it has been an inconclusive war ... a rather haphazard operation. Al-Qaida managed the most spectacular attack, but clearly it is also being sustained by the way that we rather cavalierly stick the name al-Qaida on Iraq, Indonesia, the Philippines. There is a long tradition that if you divert all your resources to a threat, then you exaggerate it."
Bill Durodie, director of the international centre for security analysis at King's College London, says: "The reality [of the al-Qaida threat to the west] has been essentially a one-off. There has been one incident in the developed world since 9/11 [the Madrid bombings]. There's no real evidence that all these groups are connected."
Good heavens - maybe Bush was right to dismiss Osama bin Laden as he did. But in that case, who are we supposed to be fighting? Iraqi patriots insurgents? Or perhaps - and even more terrifying - it's....
The BBC has been trailing this new series quite extensively over here on BBC1, typically alongside the news and Question Time, for example. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing it. But, if there is (was) no such thing as Al-Qaida before 2001, then what the hell are we supposed to be fighting against? And, does this just become a self-preserving war, which we started off by actions during the Cold War?
Sometimes I think there are are very clever people and plans that comprise this whole situation with many layers of complexity and detail - but, equally, sometimes I think that we're all looking for more than there is and that it is no more complex than it first appears to be. Who was it that said "the best place to hide things is in plain sight"........
Posted by: Ade at October 15, 2004 07:09 AMIts an interesting paradox winning 'The War on Terror'. Like how do you measure it ? To win does one side actually have to create more Terror in the eye of the people of the World than the other ?
Actually Ade I think you hit the nail on the head in your suggestion about the many layers of complexity and detail. But I think the 'colalition of the willing' countries have been doing their part to add as manly layers of complexities to justify some of their actions.
But when you look at it as simple as possible. Its all about a clash of idiologies, and G.W. trying to finish what he's dady started in order to pay back a favor to some very powerful and rich people.
Its an interesting concept for a doco and I can't wait for it to be shown down here in Oz, but how can something that gets over 1 million hits on google not exist ?
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=+al-Qaida+OR+al-Qaeda&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&output=search
http://www.google.com/search?q=tooth+fairy&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
gets 238,000 hits.
well of course the tooth fairy exists! The really question is if G-d exists ;)
Posted by: Susan in St. Paul at October 16, 2004 04:38 PMHave you seen this ?
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/082004/
Posted by: Mark at October 17, 2004 12:44 PMSo, I watched it and sat there throughout a lot of it repeatedly saying "Oh my word" in almost disbelievement of the facts. Utterly riveting viewing and a telling of the story (and so many facts that I personally never knew) that just makes me so angry. Even more than I have been.
The series looks to be utterly compulsive viewing.
Posted by: Ade at October 21, 2004 03:17 PMI hope it gets shown over here (in the USA) soon. Or else I'll have to buy a DVD (hopefully region-free).
Posted by: Geoff Arnold at October 21, 2004 09:26 PM