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The Power of Nightmares

Last week, the US military presented videos seized in Iraq apparently from Al Qaeda hideouts. The videos show fighters training children who could be as young as ten years old to kidnap and kill. The images were broadcast widely and came on the heels of twin suicide bombings in Baghdad carried out by explosives strapped to two mentally ill women. Violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and many other countries in South and West Asia, has become commonplace and a seemingly inevitable part of our post-9-11 world.

But what are the origins of today’s international conflict that the US calls the “Global War on Terror”? A three-part documentary produced by British film maker Adam Curtis for the BBC, lays out a comprehensive, chronological, and compelling account of the rise of the two sides of this war, going back decades to today. The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of The Politics of Fear, traces the origins of the American Neo-conservative Movement, and Islamic Fundamentalist terrorism in three hour long episodes, which we are pleased to offer today as a thank you gift for your donation.

The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear features interviews with William and Irving Kristol, Richard Pipes and Richard Perle to document the history of neoconservatives from their own mouths. It also features prominent philosophers like Azzam Tamimi of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought, political scientist Roxanne Euben and Abdulla Anas, General Commander of Afghan Arabs in Northern Afghanistan, to trace the rise of the violent fundamentalist movements in the Muslim world.

This is by far, the most compelling, interesting, and exciting documentary I have seen in a very long time. What is most shocking is that the film has aired on television in Britain, Canada and Australia, it has barely been viewed in the US aside from a few film festivals. The film maker, Adam Curtis has expressed shock at his inability to get even HBO to air it.

Today this film, which has not been officially released on DVD, is available to our listeners through a special deal for just a $75 pledge.

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