My letter in response to NRO's hatchet job on The Power of Nightmares

[Artemis Bunyon]

The National Review has published an editorial by Clive Davis on the BBC's paradigm-busting "Power of Nightmares" documentary, and it's exactly what you would expect. The names Chomsky and Moore continue their evolution from proper nouns to catch-all pejoratives. Sober, even-handed criticism of the half-baked conspiracy theories of Team B and The Committee for the Present Danger (among others) are portrayed as half-baked conspiracy theories, themselves. Etc, ad nauseum.

You can read it here, in all its pathetic glory:

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/davis200410211043.asp

Also, here is my letter to Davis on one particularly embarrassing point of error. Thought I'd share it with you folks because I don't expect to hear anything back from him on this, much less a retraction or apology.

And why waste five minutes of typing on nobody?


"Dear sir;

In your sad and desperate-sounding diatribe against the BBC's excellent The Power of Nightmares documentary, you claim that the film-makers accuse (the quite insane) Michael Ledeen of being hoodwinked by CIA black propaganda and "using the dubious material in a bestselling book which subsequently convinced CIA director William Casey to over-rule his more cautious analysts and instigate a tougher line against Moscow."

You then make great hay over the fact that Ledeen didn't author the book in question, and that the "real" Terror Network author (Claire Sterling) being one of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's drinking buddies. "GUFFAW!" you implied, "Lookit da stoopid liberal media again! STOOPID!!!"

Upon reading your words, I thought your recollection might be off a bit. A quick review of the video and transcript proved my hunch correct. It turns out the film-makers make no such claim. From the transcript:

"The main proponent of this theory was a leading neoconservative who was the special adviser to the Secretary of State. His name was Michael Ledeen, and he HAD BEEN INFLUENCED BY a best-selling book called The Terror Network."

See that? "...had been influenced by..." Hardly the sloppy journalistic goof you publicly chortled over, is it?

In fact, it seems that YOU are the one who has problems keeping his lunatic, right-wing authors straight.

Perhaps if you'd actually watched the program (instead of simply glancing at the talking points provided by whoever signs your paychecks), you wouldn't have made such an ironic mistake.

Cheers,
YOPJ"

[notadmblnd]

1. Part 3 was very compelling

I was unable to obtain parts 1 and 2 in their entirety. It's a shame I would have like to seen them.

[Artemis Bunyon]

2. Did you go to Informationclearinghouse.info?

They have all three. Not the best audio/video, but hey. It's free.

[jaime_176]

4. the Power of Nightmares

These really gave me a lot to think about. The Straussians haven't changed much have they?

[Artemis Bunyon]

5. Not a whit.

And they haven't gotten much more convincing, either. And the Mainstream Media hasn't gotten any better at refuting their lies. Worse, in fact.

[jaime_176]

8. MSM

sells their lies, and they (neo-cons) are as inept as ever. How anyone can listen to them, I do not know, for I have a hard time with their "non-speak", or their circuitous linguistic babble which says nothing and goes nowhere but back into itself to attempt to support itself. When has Rumsfield ever really answered a question, for example??? Their linguistic maneuvering is so obvious...and yet, some people believe what they have to say????

[Metrix]

3. You can download it here

http://mysite.verizon.net/res7dhyg/id3.html

I finally learned how to use my CD burner. I've been busy, busy.

[notadmblnd]

6. Thank you so much

btw.. great site.

[Artemis Bunyon]

7. Fantastic stuff. I'm downloading as much as possible while I can.

Rip and burn, baby!

[Tinoire]

11. Terrific Site! Thanks!!!!!!! n/t

[Tinoire]

12. How do you download directly to the CD? With Roxio or something

like that? Help lol, I want a ton of these and my HD is crammed full!

[Tinoire]

10. More download sites & transcript here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2876040

Powerful stuff! Still watching it. If only our media were honest enough to show that.

[Cats Against Frist]

9. This part is actually fucking brilliant:

From the article:

"If that seems bizarre enough, the series also sets out to claim that the Islamists and the neocons are, in reality, soul mates. As Curtis explained in a magazine interview this week: "My original intention was to look at the neo-cons and then the radical Islamists. I was astonished to discover that they have the same philosophical roots. They both believe that the problem with modern society is that individuals question anything; by doing that they have already torn down God, that eventually they will tear down everything else and therefore they will have to be opposed."

Duh. Anyone with a limited grasp of philosophy can make this connection. It is DEFINITELY not absurd -- find the "FrontPageMag" article talking about "deconstruction." There's nothing the right hates more than modernity and people "asking questions." And yes -- they are very scared that a faction will tear down the male-centric, white-centric, power-centric narrative that they've built. This is nothing new. I swear to God, it's like people have never read an ounce of history or philosophy. This is classic "eternal return" stuff that was played out in the Ancient world a lllllllong time ago.

[Tinoire]

13. Thanks for writing that letter Artemis

They need to hear these things! :thumbsup:

[Artemis Bunyon]

14. You're welcome! I see they've removed the story. Perhaps they're editing?

?