The Power of Nightmareschevron_right

S01E03: The Shadows in the Cave

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.

Genres:

Documentary

Air Date:

Nov 03, 2004

Runtime:

60 minutes

Casts:

Gilles Kepel, Melvin Goodman, Stephen Holmes, William Kristol, Michael Ledeen, Richard Perle, Azzam Tamimi, Fouad Allam, Abdullah Anas, Milton Bearden, Vincent Cannistraro, Anne Cahn, Ali Haroun, Richard Pipes, Stanley Rosen, Jack Wheeler, Leo Strauss, John Kerry, John Ashcroft, Paula Jones, Vladimir Pozner jr., Adam Curtis