TVScope: The Power of Nightmares, BBC 2, November 3rd
Unable to offer us dreams of a better future, politicians now offer to protect us from imagined nightmares with power going to those with the darkest fears. In the immediate wake of the US elections, documentary maker Adam Curtis's arguments in The Power of Nightmares are particularly thought provoking.
His ambitious three-part documentary sets out to prove that the idea that we are threatened by a hidden international terror organisation is a myth. In the first two episodes he traced the entwined histories of two ideologies, American neo-conservatism and Islamic fundamentalism.
In the concluding part of the series, entitled The Shadows In The Cave, the programme explains how the illusion was created and who benefits from it.
Simply put, he argues that following on from the attacks on September 11th, 2001, American neo-conservatives reconstructed radical Islamists in the image of their last evil enemy, the Soviet Union.
Controversially, however, he insists that this time round the enemy, al-Qaeda as invoked by Bush and Blair, doesn't exist at all. It does not have members, organised leadership or indeed sleeper cells, he argues. It only exists as an Islamist idea about cleansing the world through violence.
Dangerous groups, inspired by extreme Islamist ideas, have used mass terror such as in the attacks on America and Madrid, but this is not the work of a global network of terrorists directed by someone from a high-tech lair in Afghanistan, according to Curtis.
He argues that al-Qaeda did not exist as a formal organisation and did not have a name until early 2001, when the US government decided to prosecute Bin Laden in his absence used anti-Mafia and gangster laws. In fact, he states, there is no evidence that Osama bin Laden used the term al-Qaeda until after the 9/11 attacks when he realised the power of the name.
Wherever the al-Qaeda organisation is sought, from the desolate mountains of Afghanistan to the so-called sleeper cells in the West, the British and Americans are chasing a "phantom enemy", he contends. Curtis cites the British government's own statistics for arrests and convictions of suspected terrorists since September 11th. Of the over 600 people detained, only a handful have been found guilty. The majority were Irish paramilitaries or members of other groups with no connection to Islamist terrorism. Nobody has been convicted who is a proven member of al-Qaeda, he argues.
In the US he documents the case of a group of Muslim men charged with being members of the organisation. A home movie of a trip to Disneyland was key in the case against them.
The myth suits both sides, he believes. It makes al-Qaeda look more powerful than it is, and turns Bush and Blair into heroes.
At times Curtis' arguments come across as a bit over the top but they are provocatively, confidently and artfully made. It was an hour of provoking and entertaining television. With more than a nod to Michael Moore at times his irreverent music choice and archival footage tend towards black comedy. It gives, however, an intellectual and BBC sheen to some of the tricks and arguments we have seen from Moore.