The Power of Nightmares

The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear is a BBC television
documentary series by Adam Curtis. It mainly consists of archive footage, with The Power of Nightmares
Curtis narrating. The series was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom in
2004.[1] It has subsequently been aired in multiple countries and shown at
various film festivals, including the2005 Cannes Film Festival.

The film compares the rise of the neoconservative movement in the United
States and the radical Islamist movement, drawing comparisons between their
origins, and remarking on similarities between the two groups. More
controversially, it argues that radical Islamism as a massive, sinister
organisation, specifically in the form of al-Qaeda, is a myth, or noble lie,
perpetuated by leaders of many countries—and particularly neoconservatives in
Title screen
the U.S.—in a renewed attempt to unite and inspire their people after the
ultimate failure of utopian ideas.
Written by Adam Curtis
Directed by Adam Curtis
The Power of Nightmares was praised by film critics in Britain and the United
Country of United Kingdom
States. Its message and content have also been the subject of various critiques
origin
and criticisms from conservatives and progressives.
Original English
language(s)
No. of series 1
Contents
No. of episodes 3
Synopsis
Part 1. "Baby It's Cold Outside" Production
Part 2. "The Phantom Victory" Executive Stephen Lambert
Part 3. "The Shadows in the Cave" producer(s) Peter Horrocks
Contributors
Producer(s) Adam Curtis
Content Lucy Kelsall
Airings and distribution
Running time 180 mins (in three
Reaction
parts)
Critical reaction
Political reaction Production BBC
Comparisons to Fahrenheit 9/11 company(s)
See also Release
References Original BBC Two
External links network
Picture format 16:9 576i

Synopsis Audio format Stereo

Original 20 October – 3
release November 2004
Part 1. "Baby It's Cold Outside" Chronology
The first part of the series explains the origins ofIslamism and neoconservatism.
Preceded by The Century of the
It shows Egyptian civil servant Sayyid Qutb, depicted as the founder of modern
Self (2002)
Islamist thinking, visiting the U.S. to learn about its education system, then
becoming disgusted at what he judged as the corruption of morals and virtues in Followed by The Trap (2007)
western society through individualism. When he returns to Egypt, he is
disturbed by westernisation under Gamal Abdel Nasser and becomes convinced that in order to save his own society, it must be
completely restructured along the lines of Islamic law while still using western technology. He then becomes convinced that his
vision can only be accomplished through use of an elite "vanguard" to lead a revolution against the established order. Qutb becomes a
leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and, after being tortured in one of Nasser's jails, comes to believe that western-influenced leaders
can be justifiably killed to remove their corruption. Qutb isexecuted in 1966, but he influences Ayman al-Zawahiri, the future mentor
of Osama bin Laden, to start his own secret Islamist group. Inspired by the 1979 Iranian revolution, Zawahiri and his allies
assassinate Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat in 1981 in the hopes of starting their own revolution. However, the revolution does
not materialise, and Zawahiri comes to believe that a majority of Muslims have been corrupted, not only by their western-inspired
leaders, but Muslims themselves have been affected by jahilliyah and thus may be legitimate targets of violence if they refuse to join
his cause. They continued to believe that a vanguard was necessary to rise up and overthrow the corrupt regime and replace it with a
'pure' Islamist state.

At the same time in the United States, a group of disillusioned liberals, including Irving Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz, look to the
political thinking of Leo Strauss after the perceived failure of President Johnson's "Great Society". They conclude that an emphasis
on individual liberty was the undoing of Johnson's plans. They envisioned restructuring America by uniting the American people
against a common evil, and set about creating a mythical enemy. These factions, the neoconservatives, came to power during the
1980s under the Reagan administration, with their allies Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. They alleged that the Soviet Union was
not following the terms of a disarmament treaty between the two countries, and together with the outcomes of "Team B", they built a
case using dubious evidence and methods to prove it to Ronald Reagan.

Part 2. "The Phantom Victory"

In the second part, Islamist factions, rapidly falling under the more radical influence of Zawahiri and his rich Saudi acolyte Osama
bin Laden, join the neoconservative-influenced Reagan administration to combat the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. When
the Soviets eventually pull out of Afghanistan, and when the Eastern Bloc begins to collapse in 1989, both the Islamists and the
neoconservatives believe they are the primary architects of the Soviet Union's demise. Curtis argues that the Soviet Union was on the
verge of collapsing anyway. However, the Islamists see it quite differently. In their triumph, they believe they have the power to
create 'pure' Islamic states in Egypt and Algeria. Attempts to create such Islamic states are blocked by force. The Islamists then try to
foment revolutions in Egypt and Algeria by using terrorism to scare the people into rising up against their leaders. But the people are
terrified by the violence, and the Algerian government exploits that fear as a way to hang on to power. In the end, the Islamists
declare the entire populations of the countries to be thoroughly contaminated by western values. Finally
, in Algeria, they begin to turn
on each other, each believing that members of other terrorist groups are not true Muslims.

In America, neoconservative aspirations to use the United States' military power to further destroy evildoers are thrown off track by
the election of George H. W. Bush to the presidency, followed by the election in 1992 of Bill Clinton which left them totally out of
power. The neoconservatives, along with their conservative Christian allies, attempt to demonize Clinton throughout his presidency
with various real and fabricated stories of corruption and immorality. To their disappointment, the American people do not turn
against Clinton. Meanwhile, Islamist attempts at revolution end in massive bloodshed, leaving the Islamists without popular support.
Zawahiri and bin Laden flee to the relative safety of Afghanistan and declare a new strategy. To fight Western-inspired moral decay,
they must deal a blow to its source: the United States.

Part 3. "The Shadows in the Cave"

The final part addresses the actual rise of al-Qaeda. 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 on independent operatives to carry
out their new call for jihad. However, the film argues that in order to prosecute bin Laden in absentia for the 1998 U.S. embassy
bombings, U.S. prosecutors had to prove that he is the head of a criminal organisation responsible for the bombings. They find a
former associate of bin Laden, Jamal al-Fadl, and pay him to testify that bin Laden is the head of a massive terrorist organisation
called "al-Qaeda". With the September 11 attacks, neoconservatives in the new
Republican administration of George W. Bush use this invented concept of an
organisation to justify another crusade against a new enemy, culminating in the launch
of the War on Terror.

After the American invasion of Afghanistan fails to uproot the alleged terrorist
organisation, the Bush administration focuses inwards, searching unsuccessfully for
terrorist sleeper cells in America. In 2003, they extend the War on Terror to a war on
general perceived evils with theinvasion of Iraq. The ideas and tactics also spread to the The neoconservatives use the11
United Kingdom, where Tony Blair uses the threat of terrorism to give him a new moral September attacks, with al-Fadl's
authority. The repercussions of the neoconservative strategy are also explored, with an description of al-Qaeda, to launch
investigation of indefinitely-detained terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay, many the War on Terror.
allegedly taken on the word of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance without actual
investigation on the part of the United States military, and other forms of "preemption"
against non-existent and unlikely threats made simply on the grounds that the parties involved had the potential to become a threat.
Curtis specifically attempts to allay fears of a dirty bomb attack, and concludes by reassuring viewers that politicians will eventually
have to concede that some threats are exaggerated and others have no foundation in reality. He says, "In an age when all the grand
ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power
."

Contributors
John Calvert, historian of Islamism
Prof. Harvey Mansfield, Straussian philosopher,
Harvard University
Prof. Stanley Rosen, pupil of Leo Strauss, 1949
Dr Azzam Tamimi, Institute of Islamic Political Thought
General Fouad Allam, interrogator, Interior Ministry
1958–87
Roxanne Euben, political scientist
Irving Kristol, founder of neoconservative movement
William Kristol, Chief of Staff to the Vice President
1988–92
Prof. Stephen Holmes, political philosopher
Henry Kissinger (interviewed 1975)
Melvin Goodman, Head of Office, Soviet Affairs, CIA
1976–87
Prof. Richard Pipes, adviser to President Reagan
1980–83
Dr Anne Cahn, Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency 1977–80
Omar Azzam, cousin ofAyman al-Zawahiri, Egyptian
al-Qaeda leader
Dr Kamal Habib, founder member of Islamic Jihad
Gilles Kepel, historian of Islamist Movement
Paul Weyrich, religious activist; member of Republican
Party
Michael Ledeen, Special Adviser to the US Secretary
of State 1981–82
Jack Wheeler, Adviser to the Reagan administration
1981–84
Richard Perle, Assistant Secretary of Defense 1981–
87; Chairman of Pentagon Defense Policy Board
2001–03
Milton Bearden, CIA Field Officer, Afghanistan 1985–
89
Abdullah Anas, General Commander, Afghan Arabs,
Northern Afghanistan 1984–89
Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary, Soviet
Communist Party (archive)
Saif Al Banna, senior member of Muslim Brotherhood,
Egypt (archive)
Ali Haroun, Algerian Minister for Human Rights 1991–
92 (archive)
Essam el-Erian, senior member of Muslim
Brotherhood, Egypt
Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser to
President George Bush Snr (interviewed 1996)
Michael Lind, journalist and former neoconservative
David Brock, author, Blinded by the Right
Judge Robert Bork, senior member, Federalist Society
Joe Conason, writer, The Hunting of the President
Jason Burke, author, Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of
Terror
Sam Schmidt, defence lawyer at US Embassy
Bombings trial
Vincent Cannistraro, Head of Counter-terrorism, CIA
1988–90
Paul Wolfowitz, US Deputy Secretary of Defense
Prof. David Cole, law professor, Georgetown
University
Ron Hansen, reporter, The Detroit News
William Swor, defence lawyer at Detroit Sleeper Cell
trail
John Molloy, defence lawyer at Lackawanna Cell trial
Bill Durodié, Director, International Centre for Security
Analysis, Kings College
Dr John Prados, National Security Archive,
Washington
Dr Theodore Rockwell, nuclear scientist
Lewis Z. Koch, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
 David Johnston, Intelligence Specialist,New York
Times

Content
Adam Curtis originally intended to make a film about conflict within the conservative
movement between the ideologies of neoconservative "elitism" and the more individualist
libertarian factions. During his research into the conservative movement, Curtis discovered
what he saw as similarities in the origins of the neoconservative and Islamist ideologies. The
topic of the planned documentary shifted to these other two ideologies, with the libertarian
element eventually being phased out.[2] Curtis first pitched the idea of a documentary on
conservative ideology in 2003 and spent half a year researching the film.[3][4] Final
recordings were made on 10 October, 19 October and 1 November 2004.[5][6][7]

As with many of Curtis's films, The Power of Nightmares uses a montage of stock footage
taken from the BBC archives which Curtis narrates.[2][3] Curtis has credited James Mossman Adam Curtis, the director of
as the inspiration for his montage technique, which he first employed for the 1992 series The Power of Nightmares
Pandora's Box,[8] while his use of humour has been credited to his first work with television
as a talent-scout for the magazine programme That's Life![3] Curtis has also compared the
entertainment aspect of his films to the Fox News channel in America, claiming that the network is successful because of "[their
viewers] really enjoying what they're doing."[2]

To help drive his points, Curtis uses interviews with various political and intellectual figures. In the first two parts, former Arms
Control and Disarmament Agency member Anne Cahn and former American Spectator writer David Brock accuse the
neoconservatives of knowingly using false evidence of wrongdoing in their campaigns against the Soviet Union and President Bill
Clinton. Jason Burke, author of Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror, comments in The Shadows in the Cave on the failure to
expose a massive terrorist network in Afghanistan. Additional interviews with major figures are added to drive the film's narrative.
Neoconservatives William and Irving Kristol, Richard Pipes, Richard Perle and Michael Ledeen are invited to provide a
neoconservative view of the film's subject. The history of Islamism is discussed by the Institute of Islamic Political Thought's Azzam
Tamimi, political scientist Roxanne Euben, and IslamistAbdullah Anas.

The film's soundtrack includes at least two pieces of music from the films of John Carpenter, who Curtis credited as inspiration for
his soundtrack arrangement techniques,[8] as well as tracks fromBrian Eno's Another Green World. There is also music by composers
Charles Ives and Ennio Morricone, while Curtis has credited theindustrial band Skinny Puppy for the "best" music in the films.[9]

Airings and distribution

The Power of Nightmares was first broadcast in three parts on BBC Two in 2004 in the United Kingdom, beginning with 'Baby it's
Cold Outside' on 20 October, 'The Phantom Victory' on 27 October, and 'The Shadows in the Cave' on 3 November. The murder of
[5][6][7][10] It was broadcast again over three days
Kenneth Bigley led the BBC to cease publicising the final episode prior to its airing.
in January 2005, with the third part updated to note the Law Lords ruling from the previous December that detaining foreign terrorist
suspects without trial was illegal.[11]

In May 2005, the film was screened in a 2½ hour edit at the Cannes Film Festival.[12] Pathé purchased distribution rights for this cut
of the film.[4]

By 2008, the film had yet to be aired in the United States. Curtis has remarked on this failure,

“ Something extraordinary has happened to American TV since September 11. A

head of the leading networks who had better remain nameless said to me that there
was no way they could show it. He said, 'Who are you to say this?' and then he
”
added, 'We would get slaughtered if we put this out.' When I was in New York, I took
a DVD to the head of documentaries at HBO. I still haven't heard from him.[4]
Although the series has never been shown on U.S. television, its three parts were shown on 26 February 2005 as part of the
True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, with a personal appearance made by Curtis.[13][14] It has also been featured at the
2006 Seattle International Film Festivaland the San Francisco International Film Festival, the latter awarding Curtis their Persistence
of Vision Award.[15][16][17] The film was also screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, and there was a brief theatrical run
in New York City in 2005.[18][19]

The film was first aired by CBC in Canada in April 2005, and again in July 2006.[20] The Australian channel SBS had originally
planned to air the series in July 2005, but it was cancelled, reportedly in light of the London bombings of 7 July.[21][22] It was
ultimately aired in December, followed by Peter Taylor's The New Al-Qaeda under the billing of a counter-argument to Curtis.[23]

In April 2005, Curtis expressed interest in releasing an official DVD because of popular demand, but noted that his montage
technique created serious legal problems with getting such a release approved.[24] An unofficial DVD release was made in the
quarterly DVD magazineWholphin over three issues.[25][26][27]

Reaction

Critical reaction
The Power of Nightmares received generally favourable reviews from critics.[28] Rotten Tomatoes reported that 88% of critics gave
the film positive write-ups, with an average score of 8.1/10, based upon a sample of 8 reviews.[29] At Metacritic, which assigns a
normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 78, based on six reviews,
indicating "generally favorable reviews".[28] Entertainment Weekly described the film as "a fluid cinematic essay, rooted in
painstakingly assembled evidence, that heightens and cleanses your perceptions" while Variety called it "a superb, eye-opening and
often absurdly funny deconstruction of the myths and realities of global terrorism."[30][31] The San Francisco Chronicle had an
equally enthusiastic view of the film and likened it to "a brilliant piece in the Atlantic Monthly that's (thankfully) come to cinematic
life."[32] The New York Times had a more skeptical review, unimpressed by efforts to compare attacks on Bill Clinton by American
conservatives with Islamist revolutionary activities, claiming (in a review by literary and film critic A. O. Scott) that, "its
understanding of politics, geo- and national, can seem curiously thin."[19] In May 2005, Adam Curtis was quoted as saying that 94%
[4]
of e-mails to the BBC in response to the film were supportive.

The film won a BAFTA Award in the category of Best Factual Series in 2005.[33] Other awards were given by the Director's Guild of
Great Britain and the Royal Television Society.[34][35]

Political reaction
Progressive observers were particularly pleased with the film.Common Dreams had a highly positive response to the film, comparing
it to the "red pill" of the Matrix series, a comparison Curtis appreciated.[24][36] Commentary in The Village Voice was also mostly
favorable, noting, "As partisan filmmaking, it is often brilliant and sometimes hilarious – a superior version of Syriana."[37] The
Nation, while offering a detailed critique on the film's content, said of the film itself "[it] is arguably the most important film about
the 'war on terrorism' since the events of September 1."[38]

Among conservative and neoconservative critics in the United States, The Power of Nightmares has been described as "conspiracy
theory", anti-American or both. David Asman of FoxNews.com said, "We wish we didn't have to keep presenting examples of how
the European media have become obsessively anti-American. But they keep pushing the barrier, now to the point of absurdity."[39]
His views were shared by commentator Clive Davis, ending his commentary on the film for National Review by saying, "British
producers, hooked on Chomskyite visions of 'Amerika' as the fount of all evil, are clearly not interested in even beginning to dig for
the truth."[40] Other commentators have variously described the film as pushing a conspiracy theory. Davis and British commentator
David Aaronovitch both explicitly labelled the film's message as a conspiracy theory, with the latter saying of Curtis "his argument is
as subtle as a house-brick."[40][41] Attacks in this vein continued after the 7 July 2005 London bombings, with the Christian
Broadcasting Network referencing the film as a source for claims by the "British left" that "the U.S. War on Terror was a fraud", and
the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council calling it "the loopiest, most extreme anti-war documentary series ever sponsored by
the BBC."[22][42] In The Shadows in the Cave, Curtis emphasises that he does not discount the possibility of any terrorist activity
taking place, but that the threat of terrorism had been greatly exaggerated. He responded to accusations of creating a conspiracy
theory by saying he believes the alleged use of fear as a force in politics is not the result of a conspiracy but rather the subjects of the
film "have stumbled on it."[24]

Peter Bergen, writing for The Nation, offered a detailed critique of the film. Bergen wrote that even if al-Qaeda is not as organised as
the Bush administration stressed, it is still a very dangerous force due to the fanaticism of its followers and the resources available to
bin Laden. On Curtis's claim that al-Qaeda was a creation of neoconservative politicians, Bergen said, "This is nonsense. There is
substantial evidence that Al Qaeda was founded in 1988 by bin Laden and a small group of like-minded militants, and that the group
would mushroom into the secretive, disciplined organisation that implemented the 9/11 attacks."[43] Bergen further claimed that
Curtis's arguments serve as a defence of Bush's failure to capture bin Laden in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and his ignoring
warnings of a terrorist attack prior to 1 September.[43]

Additional issues have been raised over Curtis's depiction of the neoconservatives. Davis's article in National Review showed his
displeasure with Curtis's depiction of Leo Strauss, claiming, "In Curtis's world, it is Strauss, not Osama bin Laden, who is the real
evil genius."[40] Peter Bergen claimed the film exaggerated the influence of Strauss over neoconservatism, crediting the political
philosophy more to Albert Wohlstetter.[43] A 2005 review on Christopher Null's Filmcritic.com took issue with Curtis's retelling of
the attacks on Bill Clinton in 'The Phantom Victory', crediting these more to the American Religious Right than the "bookish
[44]
university types" of the neoconservative movement.

Daniel Pipes, a conservative American political commentator and son of Richard Pipes who was interviewed in the film, wrote that
the film dismisses the threat posed by Communism to the United States as, in Pipes words, "only a scattering of countries that had
harmless Communist parties, who could in no way threaten America." Pipes noted that the film adopts this conclusion without
mentioning the Comintern, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Klaus Fuchs or Igor Gouzenko.[45]

Allegations have been made of omissions in the history described by the film. The absence of discussion of the Israeli–Palestinian
conflict was noticed by some viewers.[19][37] Davis claimed that Leo Strauss's ideas had been formed by his experiences in Germany
during the Weimar Republic, and alleged that the film's failure to mention this was motivated by a wish to portray Strauss as
concerned with Americansuburban culture, like Qutb.[40]

Comparisons to Fahrenheit 9/11

After its release, The Power of Nightmares received multiple comparisons to Fahrenheit 9/11, American filmmaker Michael Moore's
2004 critique of the first four years of George W. Bush's presidency of the United States. TheVillage Voice directly named The Power
of Nightmares as, "the most widely discussed docu agitprop since Fahrenheit 9/11."[37] The Nation and Variety both gave comments
lauding Curtis's film as superior to Fahrenheit and other political documentaries in various fields; the former cited Curtis's work as
being more "intellectually engaging" and "historically probing", while the latter cited "balance, broad-mindedness and sense of
historical perspective."[31][38] Moore's work has also been used as a point of comparison by conservative critics of Curtis.
[40]

Curtis has attempted to distinguish his work from Moore's film, describing Moore as "a political agitprop film-maker," arguing that,
[ Power of Nightmares]."[4]
"you'd be hard pushed to tell my politics from watchingThe

See also
Bitter Lake
The Century of the Self
Culture of fear
Adam Curtis
The Living Dead
The Mayfair Set
Pandora's Box
 The Trap

References
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External links
Part 1 - Official page at BBC News
Part 2 - Official page at BBC News
Part 3 - Official page at BBC News
The Power of Nightmareson IMDb
Power of Nightmares re-awakened– Questions from BBC viewers answered by Curtis
Power of Nightmares background– Further reading suggested by Curtis
Interview with Adam Curtisat Cinema Scope
Interview with Adam Curtisat GreenCine, 12 May 2005 (archived 2013)
"Adam Curtis talks with Errol Morris"at errolmorris.com

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