Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror
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- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC.
In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan 'the generosity of America and its allies'. Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. In 'liberated' Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, says one woman, 'in many ways worse than the Taliban'.
In Washington, Pilger conducts a series of remarkable interviews with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and leading Administration officials such as Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. These people, and the other architects of the Project for the New American Century, were dismissed as 'the crazies' by the first Bush Administration in the early 90s when they first presented their ideas for pre-emptive strikes and world domination.
Pilger also interviews presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, and former intelligence officers, all the while raising searching questions about the real motives for the 'war on terror'.
While President Bush refers to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as two 'great victories', Pilger asks the question - victories over whom, and for what purpose? Pilger describes Afghanistan as a country 'more devastated than anything I have seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia'. He finds that Al-Qaida has not been defeated and that the Taliban is re-emerging. And of the 'victory' in Iraq, he asks: 'Is this Bush's Vietnam?'
'Astonishing...should be required viewing in every home, school and office. With facts bristling from his fingertips, Pilger revised the Bush/Blair version of events leading up to the conquest of Iraq to reveal an agenda of unprovoked aggression, excused and obscured by ruthless manipulation of September 11.' The Guardian (UK)
'BREAKING THE SILENCE is a film with enormous emotional power, bringing us the human consequences of our military attacks on Middle East countries. It also provides us with important insights into the reasons for these cruelties, exposing the emptiness and hypocrisy of the claims made by the Bush administration that it is fighting terrorism and promoting freedom . I wish this film could be shown in every classroom in the United States, to guard young people against the lies they will hear from on high, and to prepare them to be active citizens in the struggle for a peaceful world.' Howard Zinn, Author, A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present, Terrorism and War
'In 52 minutes, John Pilger succeeds brilliantly where the U.S. mass media have failed miserably -- to examine the war on terror with tough-minded humanism and uncompromising journalism. The result of Pilger's efforts is a powerful expose that demolishes the pretensions of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. In 2004, we need Pilger's documentary BREAKING THE SILENCE more than ever. From Afghanistan and Iraq to New York City and the insulated bastions of power in Washington, this film jolts us to consider the real human costs of flagrant lies still being told in high places. Whether you live in the United States, Britain or anywhere else on the planet, BREAKING THE SILENCE shatters some key myths that often prevent us from developing news media and political priorities to protect human life instead of destroying it.' Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy
'Provides a frighteningly lucid account of President George W. Bush's potentially never-ending war on terror.' The Sunday Times
'This Special Report by John Pilger is as welcome as it is contentious.' The Daily Mail
'Another inspirational hour from John Pilger, which feels like hitting an air pocket after drowning for years in the deluge of 'with us or against us' on-message, embedded reporting.' The Guardian
'Raises crucial questions about the real motives behind the violence...Pilger [makes] a very valid point about the terrible distance between the public statements of the American and British Governments and the actual actions they have taken.' Antiwar.com
'Recommended' Educational Media Reviews Online
'A compelling documentary, almost haunting at times, which takes one of the biggest political bones...and chews it to pieces...[BREAKING THE SILENCE] is as disturbing as it is compelling and, undoubtedly, some of its claims will sound long and loud after this hour ends.' Sydney Morning Herald
'Hard-hitting and thought provoking...spectacular archival and contemporary video footage...raises some unsettling questions that can generate effective discussions in current affairs curriculums.' School Library Journal
'Provides an important foundation to understanding how the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began and why they have devolved into catastrophic endeavors... [BREAKING THE SILENCE] should be required viewing for those who are increasingly concerned about the lack of results in the war on terror. Highly Recommended.' Video Librarian
'Pilger's willingness to probe makes this a welcome counterpart to the often too-credulous mainstream media. For public and academic libraries.' Library Journal
'Remind[s] us that you cannot achieve peace and justice without universal respect for human rights.' Stephen Bowen, Amnesty International UK
'With a subject so loaded, writer-journalist John Pilger must marshal-and succeeds at doing so-an impressive array of speakers whose many areas of expertise contradict official versions and confront the placidity and ignorance of the U.S. viewing public... Pilger's message has historical importance for concerned citizens, but it is important for students of anthropology, in particular. It can make significant contributions in classes on the anthropology of human rights, political and visual anthropology, the Middle East, unpopular culture, women's studies, and discourse analysis. Breaking the Silence presents a model of courage, because it speaks truth to power. Pilger confronts high-ranking Washington war spokesmen and think-tank dogmatists unflinchingly, and with a mastery of facts... The film is of interest to anthropologists of media because it experiments interestingly with media styles and worlds, juxtaposing ethnographic interviews, verite footage, processed imagery, and televised mainstream speeches.'
Peter Biella, Ph.D., San Francisco State University, review for American Anthropologist
'Politically unapologetic and relentless... Piercing the verbosity over the economic development aid and the liberation of women in Afghanistan, Pilger's camera records the devastation of living conditions and the continued violence agaist women... appropriate for a Western classroom to deepen the student's understanding of Iraq and the complicated realities of the war on terror... Breaking the Silence presents a hard edged expose of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.' Lynne Rogers, Al Jadid Magazine
'Provocative...John Pilger pulls together all the threads of evidence to present a complete picture of the real motives and outright deceit that lie behind the 'war on terror'.' Common Dreams News Center
Citation
Main credits
Pilger, John (Screenwriter)
Pilger, John (rpt)
Pilger, John (Director)
Connelly, Steve (Director)
Martin, Christopher (Producer)
Other credits
Composer, Nick Russell-Pavier; photography, Bruno Stevens; cinematographer, Preston Clothier; editor, Andrew Denny.
Distributor subjects
Afghanistan; Anthropology; Asian Studies; Conflict Resolution; Developing World; Foreign Policy, US; Global Issues; History; Human Rights; Humanities; International Studies; Iraq; Islamic Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Military; National Security; Social Justice; Sociology; War and Peace; Women's StudiesKeywords
WEBVTT
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[sil.]
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As we in our coalition partners
are doing in Afghanistan.
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We would bring to the Iraqi people food
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and medicines and supplies
00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:29.999
and freedom.
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So I believe that this
is a fight for freedom
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and I want to make it
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a fight for justice too.
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We have shown freedom’s power.
And in this great conflict
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my fellow Americans we will
see freedom’s victory.
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September 11th, 2001,
00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.999
dominates almost everything
we watch read and hear.
00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.999
We are fighting a war on terror
say George Bush and Tony Blair
00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.999
a noble war against evil itself but
what are the real aims of this war
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and who are the most threatening terrorists
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indeed who is responsible for far greater acts of
violence than those committed by the fanatics of Al-Qaeda
00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:44.999
crimes that have claimed many
more lives than September 11th
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and always in poor
devastated faraway places
00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:54.999
from Latin America to Southeast Asia.
The answer to these questions
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is to be found here in the United
States where those now (inaudible)
00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.999
speak openly about their
conquests and of endless war,
00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.999
Afghanistan, Iraq these they say are
just the beginning look out North Korea
00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.999
Iran even China. This film
is about the rise and rise
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of rapacious imperial power
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.999
and the terrorism that never speaks
its name because it is our terrorism.
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This is Afghanistan and
this woman’s name is Orifa.
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[non-English narration]
00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:39.999
In October, 2001,
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an American plane dropped a five hundred
pound bomb on her modern stone house,
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eight members of a family were killed including
six children, two children died next door.
00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:30.000
[sil.]
00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.999
Afghanistan was claimed (inaudible) victory
00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.999
in America’s war on terror against Islamic
fundamentalists known as Al-Qaeda,
00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.999
the group responsible for the
attacks of September 11th.
00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.999
The Taliban regime in Afghanistan
had given Osama bin Laden a base.
00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:34.999
Bin Laden, the Taliban
leader will never caught.
00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:39.999
Instead more than three thousand
innocent people were bombed to death
00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.999
plus more than were
killed on September 11th.
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President Bush calls this
Operation Enduring Freedom.
00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.000
[sil.]
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[sil.]
00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.999
[music]
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A world away in New York. This is
Rita Lasar and her brother Ape.
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Ape was killed in the Twin Towers on September 11th. He might
have saved himself but chose to help a disable friend.
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My view does not look out
on the World Trade Center
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but I am on the fifteenth
floor in the Lower Manhattan
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and I ran across the hall
to my friend’s apartment
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and her windows looked out on the World Trade Center
and I got there in time to see the second plane
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hit the second building.
00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.999
And strangely enough it was only then that I
said oh my god my brother’s in that building.
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Danny, my son’s best friend called and said
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\"Can I come over\" and we said \"Sure\" and he
said \"Did you watch the president’s speech?\"
00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.999
and we said \"No\" and he said
\"He mentioned your brother\"
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And I looked at him and I
said what he talking about
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and then I thought gee there must have
been a lot of people who stayed behind
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with their friends in wheelchairs you know
you don’t think that it’s your own brother
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you it’s just… You know think that.
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But it was my brother and immediately…
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immediately I knew that my country
was going to use my brother’s death
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to justify killing innocent people in
Afghanistan and wherever else they would look.
00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:59.999
Rita decided to go to Afghanistan
00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.999
to comfort the victims of the
American bombing. She met Orifa,
00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.999
untalkative to the American embassy
in Kabul to seek compensation
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for the killing of a family.
I will tell you that Orifa,
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she had taken a translated description
of what happened to her and her family
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to the American embassy to ask for help
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and had been turned away and
told go away you are a beggar.
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The oppressed people of Afghanistan
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will know the generosity of America and our
allies. As we strike military targets,
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we will also drop food, medicine and supplies for the starving
and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan.
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The United States of America is
a friend to the Afghan people.
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Such a friend but out
of ten billion dollars
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spent in Afghanistan in the last two years,
00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.999
the majority has been spent on the military.
Of all the great humanitarian disasters,
00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.999
few countries are being
helped less than Afghanistan.
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Only three percent of all international
aid has been for reconstruction.
00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.999
[sil.]
00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.999
Such a friend that the United States
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has yet to clear these unexploded cluster bombs
that they have dropped in the center of Kabul,
00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.999
where children play in the lethal rubble.
00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:43.000
[sil.]
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And children are supposed to
learn in this devastation.
00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.999
[non-English narration]
00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:59.999
[sil.]
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The Afghan government
00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:09.999
gets less than 20% of the
aid that is delivered.
00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.999
Omar Zakhilwal is a
government official in Kabul.
00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.999
Well, 20% is about three hundred million.
00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.999
Three hundred million you are meant to rebuild the
country basically with three hundred million?
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Oh no, the government does not have
it’s… its own resources for the
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umm… ordinary budget.
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Their three hundred million become
salaries in electricity and those.
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No, those are not for reconstruction.
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That sounds like you are
left with almost nothing.
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The government has no money
for reconstruction, period.
00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:59.999
[sil.]
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.999
The water in this typical Afghan village
may look clean but it’s contaminated
00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.999
and most of the children suffer
from preventable diseases.
00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.999
Since the overthrow of the
Taliban, little is changed
00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.999
for these people life is just as dangerous.
00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.999
[sil.]
00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:29.999
I found the population of two villagers
00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.999
living destitute in the rubble
of this shoe factory in Kabul.
00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.999
They had fled attacked by warlords who dropped
them and kidnap their wives and daughters.
00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:48.000
[sil.]
00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.999
I have spent much of my life
00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.999
in places of upheaval but I have rarely seen such
a bombed and blasted and ruined city as Kabul.
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Most of the damage was
done not by the Taliban
00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
but by the Afghan warlords backed
and trained and funded by America
00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
for more than twenty years the same warlords who have
been effectively put back into power by George Bush.
00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.999
While Afghanistan’s liberation
from the Taliban was welcomed here
00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.999
and brought certain freedoms
00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.999
such as the opening of schools
and playing of music.
00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
For many people another kind of terror replaced
it, one barely acknowledged in the west.
00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
And not only has the government in Kabul,
00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
no power and no money the president kamikaze does not
leave his office without his forty two bodyguards
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from the U.S. special forces.
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.999
Real power is held by these men warlords
00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.999
whose record of repression and brutality
is little different from the Taliban
00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.999
many Afghans regard them as no better.
00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
For four years from 1992 they fought
each other for control the world,
00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
killing fifty thousand innocent people
and smashing the city to rebels.
00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:23.000
[sil.]
00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.999
By any definition the warlords or terrorists
bribed by the Americans with a fortune in cash
00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.999
and truckloads of arms.
00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.999
Today they control the government in Kabul
and have reestablished the opium trade
00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.999
from which comes most of the heroin
reaching the streets of Britain.
00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.999
Now Human Rights Watch
has broken the silence
00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.999
documenting atrocities committed
by gunmen and warlords
00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.999
who have a centrally hijacked country.
Once again the victims are often women.
00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
Today women are free
00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
and our part of Afghanistan’s new government and we welcome
the new minister of women’s affairs, Dr. Sima Samar.
00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
Dr. Sima Samar is a symbol
of Afghans resistance
00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
and humanity. She defied the
Taliban and (inaudible) for women.
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
In 2001 came an another woman to a
point of (inaudible) government
00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
as a face of liberation but no sooner
had the applause in Washington
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
by the way then she was forced out.
00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
The warlords were not tolerating such an
outspoken voice of freedom for women.
00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.999
Today Dr. Samar lives in
constant fear of her life
00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.999
with bodyguards with her night and day. No one
understands more the plight of Afghan women.
00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.999
It’s not much changed for them.
00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.999
They are still, the majority doesn’t have access to
health care, they don’t have access to education
00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.999
they don’t have access to job opportunity.
00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
The liberation of women in Afghanistan is
mostly a sham and their plight is desperate.
00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
Since the overthrow of the Taliban Human
Rights Watch has documented kidnapping
00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
and the mass rape of women, girls and boys.
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.999
Girl’s schools are being burned down.
00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.999
In the western city of Herat women
can be arrested if they drive
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
and if they are caught with an unrelated man
even a taxi driver, they may be subjected
00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
to a chastity test. This is Marina,
00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.999
a member of an extraordinary organization
called the revolutionary women of Afghanistan,
00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
which is protected uneducated woman
and documented their repression.
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
We have to meet them in secret. The vial
was necessary to cover her identity.
00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
We don’t believe that
there is much difference
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.999
between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance or the commanders
who are now in power in different parts of Afghanistan
00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.999
because the origin is the same. They believe in the same thing,
their nature is the same. They are the two faces of the same coin.
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.999
Women don’t feel secure.
00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
Umm… The police are generally
not functioning properly,
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
courts are not generally functioning properly. You have
places where you have real deep fear of commanders
00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
and of armed groups you know cases
where women get taken by armed groups
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
where people become
imprisoned in private jails.
00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
You have reports that men and women
who are walking down the street
00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
get kicked up almost at random to
check whether or not they are married
00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
to verify that that they haven’t been
having illegal sexual intercourse.
00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
Just uh… a month back these commanders raped women and
a group of thirty five women jumped into the river
00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
along with their children and they died
00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
just to save themselves
from being raped again.
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
The starving, the (inaudible)
the dispossessed,
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
the ignorant those living
in want and squalor
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
from the deserts of Northern Africa to the slums
of Gaza to the mountain regions of Afghanistan
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
they too are our cause.
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:33.000
[sil.]
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
To a growing number of
people around the world
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
America’s war on terror is about
hypocrisy and double standards
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
about terrorists classified as good and bad
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
depending on the usefulness to the
great game of power politics.
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
For years Osama bin Laden was not only
regarded in Washington and London
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
as a good terrorist, he was
virtually our creation.
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
One of the most closely guarded
secrets of the Cold War
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
was America’s role in supporting Afghan
warlords known as the (inaudible)
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
the official story is that America back these
fundamentalists in response to the Soviet invasion
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
of Afghanistan in December,
1979 but that’s not true
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
it was six months before the Soviet
invasion in July of that year
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
the president Jimmy Carter authorized five hundred
million dollars to help set up the (inaudible)
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
a terrorist organization. The American
people were completely unaware that
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
their government together with
the British Secret Service MI6
00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
had begun training and funding Islamic
extremists including Osama bin Laden.
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
Out of this came the Taliban,
Al Qaeda and September 11th.
00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
[non-English narration]
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
Soon after the Taliban
came to power in 1996,
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
the administration of Bill Clinton
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
backed a secret plan for a pipeline
through Afghanistan from Central Asia
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
which has vast reserves of oil and gas. The
Taliban were offered a generous cut in the deal
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
and secretly invited to
Washington and Texas.
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
They were treated royally taken to
shopping and flown to tourist attractions
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
like the NASA Space Center
and Mount Rushmore.
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
Their tour was so secret that
no television news covered it,
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
most Americans knew nothing.
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
By the time George W. Bush came to power
the link between Al Qaeda and the Taliban
00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
was an embarrassment and September
11th gave Bush an opportunity
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
to get rid of them. Today
Afghanistan is run by a regime
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
installed by the Americans and the
pipeline deal is going ahead.
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
[sil.]
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
September 11th also presented an
opportunity to an influential group
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
who even by Republican party
standards were extreme.
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
Ray McGovern is a former senior officer
of the Central Intelligence Agency,
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
the CIA and a personal friend of George
Bush Sr. the president’s father.
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
The same people who are running U.S.
policy now
00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
are people of the president’s
father kept at arms length.
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
They were… they were referred
to uh… in the circles
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
in which I moved when I was briefing at the top intelligence
and policy levels who were referred to as the crazies
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
\"the crazies\" I mean you used to talk about
the crazy everyone knew who they were
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
from Richard Perle, Paul
Wolfowitz, Doug Feith those folks.
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
The crazies also include Donald
Rumsfeld seen here in Baghdad in 1986,
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
warmly greeting Saddam Hussein who
was then big armed to the teeth
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
by America and Britain.
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
This is one of their blueprints published
in 2000 by the extreme right wing group
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
project for a New American
Century the US military will
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
fight multiple simultaneous wars as the
cavalry on the new American frontier.
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
The principal author is William Kristol.
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
The problem with America is not that we go around
garroting around the world imposing ourselves.
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
The problem with America in the last ten fifteen years is
the end of the Cold War really in the last sixty years
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
is that we have been too slow
to get involved in conflicts.
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
Outside America people have worried
about uh… the United States
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
uh… conducting an unprovoked attack
on a country, a soviet country…
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
Yes… yes they are… Really they are worried we’re going
to attack Britain, France, Germany any… any democracy…
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
No… no… no… Any decent regime… No… well no, United
States doesn’t usually attack strong countries.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
Do we attack decent countries?
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
No, I said strong countries. Do I have asking decent countries? I don’t know…
If you are really worried the U.S. is going to go a decent law abiding country
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
and the U.S is gonna come in and say we don’t like the look of you we’re
going to depose you, is that something the U.S. has done quite often.
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
How many countries the U.S. attacked
you know, in last 50 years?
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
Uh… well since World War II, there have been 72
interventions by the United States. Was that right? Yes.
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
That’s ludicrous. Well it’s
not ludicrous it’s true.
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
These are some of the countries where the
United States directly and indirectly
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
has over thrown governments, manipulated elections
and attacked popular movements since 1945.
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
Bush’s war on terror
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
is just another brand name replacing
the red menace as justification
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
for a systematic aggression
this is well documented
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
yet it remains a kind of secret
history seldom reported in the West
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
as a war of terror.
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
Take just one decade the 1970’s.
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
September 11th, 1973 (inaudible),
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
on that day United States (inaudible) the over
throw of the democratic government of Chile.
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
More than 30,000 people were killed
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
including the elected
president Salvador Allende.
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
In the Southeast Asia, American bombers
hundreds and thousands in Cambodia and Laos.
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
In Vietnam, the United States rained a
chemical poison called Agent Orange,
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
a weapon of mass destruction.
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
Today its effects still cause
death and birth deformities.
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
In Indonesia (inaudible)
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
America’s backing of the dictatorship of General
Suharto, lead to as many as a million deaths.
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
The U.S. government multiplied its aid to
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
uh… uh… Indonesia as the slaughter uh…
in… in (inaudible) was occurring.
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
Umm… Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
umm… you know, the United States
ranks pretty high unfortunately in…
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
in supporting uh… uh…
leaders and governments
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
umm… that brutalized their own people.
Last year the Bush administration released
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
its national security strategy behind
the jargon of the war on terror
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
is a new message but America intends to stand
alone and dominate by threat of force.
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
It reminds you I think of the days of the fifties when
people children were told to go under their desks
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
there is an atomic bomb might
hit them or something.
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
I mean it’s just ludicrous what’s going
on and the whole twist of dragging Iraq
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
into the war of terrorism the axis of evil all of
this fundamental sort of rubbish you might say.
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
It’s part of the political games
that are being played by Bush
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
given the opportunity that nine eleven presented to him
and his regime and the survival there off on the future…
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
they are off for the next election in 2004.
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
Today the United States has 152
military bases around the world,
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
these include bases at major sources of energy,
established under cover of the war on terror.
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
The U.S. military calls this
full spectrum dominance.
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
We don’t really give a
damn what anybody thinks.
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
We rub everyone’s face in it we are Americans and you are not and
we are really… We are talking the Roman Empire here I mean we…
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
we will do anything we want to
do anywhere we want to do it
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
uh… and you are either with us or against us
and multilateral institutions like the U.N.
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
are incidental and irrelevant uh… to the powers that
be that is the image we are sending to the world
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
that is what much of the world feels
about this country right this minute.
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
We cannot accept and we will not accept
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
states that harbor, finance, train
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
or equip the agents of terror. Those
nations that violate this principle
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
will be regarded as hostile regimes.
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
How ironic up how Bush’s words because
thousands of known terrorists
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
had to be found in the United
States living beyond the law
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
[sil.] Last year I missed
the international confirm
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
the presence of thousands of torturers
given safe haven in the United States.
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
The report listed notorious
names from Latin America
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
many of them trained here at the School
of Americas, in the state of Georgia
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
where American officers used to manuals like this
to teach the black ops of terror and oppression.
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
Most Americans are
completely unaware of this.
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
You know you look at the Truth
Commission report you know Salvador
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
who was responsible for the massacres
very high percentage of more trained
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
in the United at the School of the Americas in
Georgia. Umm… And down not just in El Salvador,
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
in Panama, in Honduras, in
Guatemala I mean you go as I have
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
umm… you go and meet with you
know the high command in…
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
in the military in Central America and…
and you see on their walls diplomas
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
uh… from the school of Americas
and other U.S. institutions.
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
So when people talk about terrorism it’s
always over there it’s not the terrorists
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
that the United States have supported.
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
We have done more throughout our history
uh… and since World War II in particular
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
I think to create conditions in which
individuals can be free around the world
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
than any other country in history. In Afghanistan
Colonel Rod Davis is helping to spread
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
that message of individual freedom.
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
Good morning I am Colonel Rod Davis, I am
the Director of Public Affairs for CJTF180,
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
that’s the coalition military force
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
uh… stationed here in Afghanistan
specifically at Bagram air base.
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
Uh… This morning what we gonna do is take you on a tour
of Bagram airbase because tour numerous facilities
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
the airfield itself will point out…
This is Bagram air base near Kabul.
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
It’s here that Al-Qaeda
suspects are interrogated
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
and disappear from where there are being allegations
of torture many of them end up in camp X. ray
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
at Guantanamo Bay and Cuba.
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
What happens Colonel to innocent
people who are swept up in this people
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
who have come through your
detention facility here at Bagram
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
but there really isn’t a case to be made
against them and they kind of disappeared.
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
Well, let’s talk about what you
refer to as the detention facility.
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
Your whole life there now you…
How would you describe it?
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
Its not a detention facility
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
I tell you what will talk about that, let’s pull
off you a side here and let you take a few images.
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
This is it over here it is? Well,
we will let you know. Okay.
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
What I can assure you of
your public regard is this.
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
To anyone that is under custody
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
any of the holding locations. They are attended
to medically medical care is provided.
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
They are fair.
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
They are looked at. There is no
abuse or torture that goes on
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
inside of any of these holding facilities. There
have been… there have been allegations of torture
00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
haven’t there uh… Particularly
there is a military pathologist
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
who actually described the
death in custody of a man here
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
I think is name is (inaudible), who
she described as homicide murder.
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
You know that (inaudible) I am aware
of uh… I am aware of the allegation
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
what I’ll say to you as I think one
who is there we have to say that
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
Americans in particular the
(inaudible) members of the coalition
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
uh… aren’t known for committing atrocities.
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
That’s not something that is part of our
history it’s not the way we do business.
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
Uh… It’s not the way we treat people.
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
If you were arrested in the
United States by a foreign army
00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
and brought to the holding facility would
you expect to have certain basic rights
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
that is access to lawyers,
access to people outside
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
not just simply to literally disappear.
Well you… you talk about status before.
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
As I said is rather complicated and I guess
there is some type of continuum or septrum
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
if you will you know probably prisoners
of war off to the far left or right
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
depending on your perspective
and something less than that
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
to the bar other end.
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
Umm… We are somewhere on that spectrum you
know. Somewhere on that spectrum is this man,
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
was (inaudible) Mohamed
is a Kabul taxi driver
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
who disappeared in Bagram April last
year he is now in Guantanamo Bay
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
He is not been charged with anything his
crime was to enquire after a friend
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
another taxi driver who was arrested
00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
and he was since been released.
What makes this case so appalling
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
is that this man is recognized by the present
government as having resisted the Taliban.
00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:10.000
This is his brother Taj Mohammad, a nurse.
00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
This is where he is now, Guantanamo Bay,
where prisoners are shackled (inaudible)
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
and kept in cages eight feet by seven feet
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
for up to twenty four hours a
day the light is always on.
00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
Children and all man are being incarcerated.
Amnesty International calls it a black hall,
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
a violation of the most basic human rights.
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
There are nine British citizens here
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
including this man (inaudible)
from the West Midlands
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
who was affectively kidnapped by the Americans
two weeks after he derived in Pakistan
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
where he has relatives. That
was almost two years ago
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
since then his family has pleaded for
help from the British government
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
but still he’s been charged with nothing.
00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
[sil.]
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
[music]
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
These are the oil fields
of the Middle East,
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
the greatest prize of all. Iraq is the
world’s second biggest oil producer
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
and its conquest gives America a vast base
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
from which to dominate the Middle East. It’s been
a conquest achieved at any price including truth.
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
It was serious dishonesty
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
the result of which uh… includes effect
that thousands of Iraqis have died,
00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
hundreds of soldiers
from their own countries
00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
have tragically died. Andrew Wilkie is the
only serving western intelligence officer
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
to break kaba and expose what
he believes to be the truth
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
about the invasion of Iraq.
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
Working in the top secret office of National
Assessments in Canberra he saw intelligence shared
00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
by America Britain and Australia.
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
We were sold this war on the
basis of Iraq possessing
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
a massive arsenal of weapons
of mass destruction.
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
Which was never found and won’t be found because
there… there was no massive arsenal of weapons.
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
We are also promised a
need for war on the basis
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
of active cooperation
between Iraq and Al Qaida
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
and the fact that it was just a matter of time before
some of these weapons from this massive arsenal
00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
were passed to this terrorist group.
Always a ridiculous proposition
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
and always completely at odds with my
experience in the intelligence community
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
that there was no hard intelligence to establish
that there was a link between Iraq and Al Qaida.
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
You know I never saw any
evidence that would link it
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
and thus far there is been no evidence produced
that would suggest that Saddam was behind al Qaeda
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
in fact my experience in the time I
start would suggest the opposite
00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
that Saddam was the least likely person
to want anything to do with al Qaeda
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
the only reason to have gone to war
was to deal with a threat so imminent
00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
and so dangerous that war as a last resort
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
was the only means available.
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
As I weigh the evidence as I watched the
debate emerge I reflected on my own experience
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
as I listen to the discussions from the Pentagon and
inside the White House I checked with sources in Congress
00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
and people who work hard on the
intelligence that simply wasn’t the case.
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
Isn’t there a problem for us in the west of
honesty about the reason for going to war in Iraq
00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
and that was weapons of mass destruction.
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
You know, I don’t think that was a lie we… we
went to war in large part because of the concern
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
that weapons of mass destruction in the…
in the hands of the Saddam Hussein regime,
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
a regime that used such weapons
in particular nerve gas…
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
and which was supplied by the United States and
Britain with these weapons of mass destruction
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
No, I don’t believe that’s accurate. Well yes they were, most…
most of the weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
weren’t built by him. The uh…
the machine tools and the…
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
the ingredients for his biological weapons they
all came from other countries many of them
00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
from this country and Britain. I don’t think
that’s right I think I really think the…
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
It’s on the record in the library of Congress. I… I… I… I
think… I think that premise of your question is wrong.
00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
Mr. Feith, I don’t need to look
up this congressional record
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
of a US Senate inquiry in 1992.
It shows that the US government
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
approved the sale of biological
weapons to Saddam Hussein.
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
The supplier is with
this company in Maryland
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
and Porton Down in Britain. If you really want to know is the
proof about the state of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
before the invasion listen to
Colin Powell in February 2001,
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
he states clearly that there was
no threat from Saddam Hussein.
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
He is not developed any
significant capability
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
with respect to weapons of mass destruction.
He is unable to project conventional power
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
against his neighbors. And this is Condoleezza
Rice, Bush’s national security adviser
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
in July of the same year,
saying the same thing
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
putting the lie to their own propaganda.
00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
We are able to keep arms from him his military forces
have not been rebuilt. A reflection of a change…
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
And that many believed was the truth, a truth
that was covered up and conveniently forgotten
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
after September 11th when Bush and
Blair decided to attack Iraq.
00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
They found no weapons of mass destruction,
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
no links with al Qaeda, no nuclear
weapons, no forty five minute threat.
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
So was it all a charade?
00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
Uh… It was ninety five
percent charade… charade.
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
A charade indeed.
00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
The invasion has been planned long ago. In July last
year Condoleezza Rice told another Bush official
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
that decision has been made
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
don’t waste your breath. This is not
what Bush told the American people.
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
It’s this that makes the inquiry in London
00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
by Lord Hutton look like a dramatic diversion. Its
narrow terms preventing a far reaching investigation
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
not only into the loss of one life but
thousands of lives of innocent people in Iraq
00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
the victims of an unprovoked war.
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:18.000
[sil.]
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
It’s now reliably estimated
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
that up to ten thousand civilians may
have died in the attack on Iraq.
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
Jo Wilding a human rights observer in Baghdad
during the bombing saw the suffering.
00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
I and a few other observers were being taken
around the hospital by one of the doctors
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
and he was introducing us to some
civilian casualties from the previous day
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
and he was called away to the emergency room so he
took us with him and as we walked in there was a woman
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
probably in a mid thirty’s just screaming over
and over \"we are farmers… we are farmers\"
00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
and she had a little boy in her arms
umm… he was four, his name was Mohammed
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
and the whole right hand side of
his face was cut up by shrapnel
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
and then there were other women and then there was a little
girl and she was just screaming every time anyone moved,
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
and screaming when they took her into the X-ray
room, screaming when they brought her out again.
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
And the doctor pulled back the covers and
showed us this huge gauze of a thigh
00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
and they were trying to clean it and they didn’t
have enough anesthetics or painkillers or anything
00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
so she was just screaming and screaming as they tried to
clean this wound. All of them were just in so much pain
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
and for Taiya the youngest of the daughters
was eight and she was killed in the bombing
00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
and Fatima was just stained with all that blood and
just going from one to another picking them up.
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
Why isn’t wrong for dictators
00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
and terrorists to kill innocent civilians
00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
and right or excusable for the United
States to do exactly the same.
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
Well the United States doesn’t
do it and if we did it,
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
it would be is reprehensible was as what
the… the terrorists do. The United States
00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
doesn’t kill innocent civilians? Uh… No the
United States does not target civilians.
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
Hmm… Those of us on the outside
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
who look at September 11th where three thousand people died in
that tragedy but then look at the thousands who have died since,
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
wonder about double standards here.
00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
How would you address that? I think that the umm… I
think that the numbers that you’re talking about are…
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
are questionable so let’s…
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
let’s leave aside what your numbers… What’s (inaudible)
questionable? I… I mean I don’t accept your assertion
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
that we have killed thousands
of uh… uh… of innocent people
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
but let me give us… There’s a lot… there’s
a lot of… there’s a lot of studies
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
uh… and an examination of…
of facts on the ground
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
that suggest indeed thousands
I mean in Iraq at the moment
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
uh… there are studies that are talking about ten
thousand but I don’t want to get into numbers
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
but certainly thousand seems a fair figure. Uh… I… I don’t… I don’t
know that that’s true and I… and I don’t accept the assertion.
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
If you ask an American student
how many people died in Vietnam
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
we will tell you fifty eight
thousand because they have dismissed
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
the two three maybe four million Vietnamese who were killed by the
United States and its allies in that war so this is a on going issue.
00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
Mr. Powell… Colin Powell, General Colin
Powell I think was quoted for having said
00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
he’s not interested in civilian casualties
in Afghanistan it’s not his concern
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
and that’s the attitude I think with Iraq whether it’s
five thousand or ten thousand it’s really not an issue.
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
Well I think Americans like most people are mostly concerned about
their own countrymen I don’t know how many Iraqi civilians were killed
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
but I can assure you that the number is
the absolute minimal that it’s possible
00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
uh… in modern warfare one of the stunning
things about the quick coalition victory
00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
was how little damage was
done to Iraqi infrastructure
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
and how low Iraqi casualties were and I think…
That’s quiet high, if it’s ten thousand civilians.
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
Well, I think it’s quite low if you look at the
size of the military operation it was undertaken.
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
It’s practically an inevitability
in war that there are going to be
00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
uh… innocent people who get hurt
00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
no matter how much care a professional
military a properly behaved military
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
uh… puts into avoiding damage
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
to noncombatants and to uh…
civilian infrastructure.
00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
It’s a fight that sounds fine
sitting here in Washington
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
but in Iraq and in Afghanistan
which is my most recent experience
00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
that’s not how it looks at all. May I
interrupt for a moment I apologize sir
00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
would you stop Feith for one moment?
Thank you very much… Excuse me.
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
I am doing this purposefully sir.
Have you stopped it?
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
Are you serious? I was not under the impression
sir that… Mr Feith’s minder, an army colonel
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
or suddenly stopped the interview (inaudible)
perused the question of civilian deaths.
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
I agree… Over at the State Department
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
under Secretary John Bolton concluded his interview
with his own insight in to my line of questions.
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
One of our major objectives today is to put the
government of Iraq back in the hands of Iraqi people
00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
so that they can enjoy the benefits
of their country’s resources
00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
and so that American soldiers
can come home soon as possible.
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
Okay, appreciate it. So
you Labor Party member?
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
Well, Labor party they are the conservatives
and… You… you are a Communist Party member?
00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
The American media played a vital role
in the invasion and the deception
00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
instead of challenging the propaganda
it accrued and amplified it.
00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
Well, I… I believe if the media
had been more aggressive
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
umm… and more tenacious towards getting the
truth, there is a very… very good chance
00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
we would not have gone to war in Iraq. It’s pretty clear
to me but there is a fear and paranoia by journalists
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
who realize they can’t always
report everything they know
00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
and that their editors will not their…
their job in the middle of the Iraq war
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
it was not to show some
of the foibles and the
00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
uh… the seat of the White House that was
not your job your job was to be embedded
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
uh… which is a wonderful… wonderful
word which is obviously a metaphor
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
for what’s happened with the American
media covering wars going back decades
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
ever since Vietnam. If you study every
conflict sensual see how the Pentagon
00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
and the political types have
outmaneuvered the media
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
and the media has allowed it to happen. They show up
they do what they’re told and they tell the story
00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
that certain people want them to tell and
that’s what we call quote unquote news.
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
I would go on television
in the United States
00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
and Fox News and the C.S. A C N B C
and the like and I would talk about
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
the importance of applying
the Geneva Conventions
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
and how in fact the Geneva Conventions
protect everybody depict American soldiers
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
just like they protect you know they protect the
good guys just like they protect the bad guys
00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
and I’m treated like you know like a traitor… like
it… like… like you know like I’m committing treason.
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
We have a perpetual war which gives
the incumbent sitting president
00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
over there in the Oval Office a ten fifteen
point bounce on all public opinion
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
he is a wartime president even
though actually we’re not at war.
00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
Uh… There’s something really weird the
truth fact is fiction… fiction is fact
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
war is peace… peace is war
what the hell’s going on here.
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
I mean Mr. Bush is very cleverly
manipulated the fear the anxiety
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
that nine eleven sprang upon the people of
New York and ultimately the entire country
00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
and every time he wants to jack
up his ratings he simply stirs up
00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
the fear part by upgrading the level of impending
danger without any specifics of course
00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
I think it’s just it’s a very ugly game
that’s being played on the Americans.
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
There’s something so similar between
our administration and Al Qaida.
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
In it’s certainty that God is on its side
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
that is laughable.
00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
And that the American people
00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
should fall for this line hurts
me more than I can tell you.
00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
Norman Mailer writes the other
day that he believes that
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
America had entered a pretty fascist state.
00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
What’s your view of that?
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
Well, in a way and I’m not saying this to be cynical but I hope he’s
right because there are others as saying we are already in a fascist
00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
sort of mode if you say
something often enough,
00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
the people begin to believe it
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
and that strategy has been applied
with unfortunately great success
00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
by this administration weapons of
mass destruction, Al Qaida Iraq ties,
00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
other evidence being (inaudible)to
justify an unprovoked war
00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
and so yeah I think without
all the worry about fascism.
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
I think the rest of us should
be extremely concerned
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
we’ve seen a total disregard for the
United Nations United Nations charter
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
and its fundamental concepts we’ve
seen rejection of international law.
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
And the respect for sovereignty
of other countries
00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
we’ve seen a preemptive strike against a
sovereign state which is outrageous in concept
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
and dangerous in consequence and
something we should all worry about
00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
and every country that now is threatened
by Mr. Bush which is his habit
00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
whether it’s Iran or North Korea or Syria
or Libya or others it’s an outrage
00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
that we should stand by and allow these countries
to be threatened by a man so dangerous
00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
that he’s willing to sacrifice American
lives and worse the lives of others
00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
whether they are Iraqis or Afghanis possibly
Syrians others in some mad aggression.
00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
Aggression was at the core of a judgment
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
of the Nuremberg Trial of a German
leadership following World War II.
00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
The judge has decided that unprovoked aggression
was the supreme international war crime
00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
which contained all the
evils of other war crimes.
00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
[sil.]
00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
Blair and Bush of families to justifying
(inaudible) against Afghanistan and against Iraq
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
in terms of particular circumstances
all the violation of particular
00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
umm… requirements uh… but it seems
to me that… that these wars
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
umm… are indeed acts of aggression
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
as defined at Nuremberg
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
and in previous agreements
and that in a sense
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
both Bush and Blair are guilty
and could stand (inaudible)
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
accused of waging aggressive war.
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
The United Nations was founded so that we
would never forget the crimes of great power
00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
how we know in danger of
forgetting do we forget the lies
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
that justified the conquest of Iraq and disguised
America’s plans to dominate all the world
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
do we forget that the British government
has announced for the first time
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
that it’s prepared to launch an attack with
nuclear weapons echoing yet again George Bush
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
and do we accept the distortion
of intellect and morality
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
that entity’s Noble words like democracy
and liberation of their true meaning
00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
that says it’s wrong for terrorist
to kill innocent people
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
but right for governments to commit
the same crimes in our name.
00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
The answer is that we need
not accept any of this
00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
if we recognize that there are now two
superpowers one is the regime in Washington
00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
the other is public opinion now stirring all
over the world perhaps as never before.
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
Make no mistake it’s an epic struggle
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
the alternative is not just the
conquest of faraway countries
00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
it’s the conquest of us of our minds,
our humanity and our self-respect
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:55.000
if we remain silent victory
over us is assured.