The Power of Nightmares
The Power of Nightmares
The Power of Nightmares
The Rise of the Politics of Fear
Documentary
80
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Overview
Examines how politicians have used our fears to increase their power and control over society.
Status: Ended
First Air Date: 2004-10-20
Runtime: 1h 0m
Director: Adam Curtis
Writer: Adam Curtis
Top Cast
Gilles Kepel
Gilles Kepel
Himself
Melvin Goodman
Melvin Goodman
Himself
Stephen Holmes
Stephen Holmes
Himself
William Kristol
William Kristol
Himself
Michael Ledeen
Michael Ledeen
Himself
Richard Perle
Richard Perle
Himself
Azzam Tamimi
Azzam Tamimi
Himself
Fouad Allam
Fouad Allam
Himself
Abdullah Anas
Abdullah Anas
Himself
Milton Bearden
Milton Bearden
Himself
Vincent Cannistraro
Vincent Cannistraro
Himself
Anne Cahn
Anne Cahn
Herself
Episodes - Season 1
Baby It's Cold Outside
Baby It's Cold Outside
Episode 1
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. The first part of the series explains the origins of Islamism and Neo-Conservatism.
The Phantom Victory
The Phantom Victory
Episode 2
Islamist factions, rapidly falling under the more radical influence of Zawahiri and his rich Saudi acolyte Osama bin Laden, join the Neo-Conservative-influenced Reagan Administration to combat the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. They are successful in repulsing the Soviet armies and, when the Eastern Bloc begins to collapse in the late 1980s, both groups believe they were the primary architect of the "Evil Empire's" defeat and thus have the power to carry out their revolutions in their homelands. Curtis instead argues that the Soviets were on their last legs and were doomed to collapse without intervention.
The Shadows in the Cave
The Shadows in the Cave
Episode 3
Curtis argues that, after their failed revolutions, bin Laden and Zawahiri had little or no popular support, let alone a serious complex organisation of terrorists, and were dependent upon independent operatives to carry out their new call for jihad. The film instead shows the United States government wanting to prosecute bin Laden in absentia for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, and needing to prove him to be the head of a criminal organisation to do so. They find a former associate of bin Laden, Jamal al-Fadl, and pay him to testify that bin Laden was the head of a massive terrorist organisation called "al-Qaeda". With the September 11th attacks, Neo-Conservatives in the new Republican government of George W. Bush use this created concept of an organisation to justify another crusade against a new evil enemy, leading to the launch of the War on Terrorism.
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