Hijacking Catastrophe: Politics of Citizenship (10 of 10)

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"By helping us understand how fear is being actively cultivated and manipulated by the current administration, Hijacking Catastrophe stands to become an explosive and empowering information weapon in this decisive year in U.S. history."
Naomi Klein | Author, No Logo

"The Media Education Foundation has been carrying out vitally important work on major issues of the day, in a highly meritorious effort to raise public awareness and understanding, work that is particularly crucial in advance of the coming election, which may well cast a long shadow over the country's future."
Noam Chomsky | Professor of Linguistics, MIT


"The next Presidential election will be a watershed mark in our history and the urgency of producing and distributing materials that show exactly what is at stake has never been higher. Hijacking Catastrophe will be a vital tool in the campaign to rescue American democracy from its internal enemies. It will enrage and empower as it enlightens and explains."
Robert McChesney | Author, Rich Media, Poor Democracy


�What it really comes down to is this: Are the American voters going to sit still for this? Are we going to treat our democracy like some sort of spectator sport, like watching the Super Bowl, or are we going to ask a little more of ourselves this time? Are we going to explore the Bush Administration�s claims? Are we going to look at the details of what this administration has actually done?�
William Hartung | Senior Fellow, World Policy Institute


The 9/11 terror attacks continue to send shock waves through the American political system. Continuing fears about American vulnerability alternate with images of American military prowess and patriotic bravado in a transformed media landscape charged with emotion and starved for information. The result is that we have had little detailed debate about the radical turn US policy has taken since 9/11.


Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party has used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home.


The documentary places the Bush Administration's false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neoconservatives to dramatically increase military spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by means of military force.


At the same time, the documentary argues that the Bush Administration has sold this radical and controversial plan for aggressive American military intervention by deliberately manipulating intelligence, political imagery, and the fears of the American people after 9/11.


Narrated by Julian Bond, Hijacking Catastrophe features interviews with more than twenty prominent political observers, including Pentagon whistleblower Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who witnessed first-hand how the Bush Administration set up a sophisticated propaganda operation to link the anxieties generated by 9/11 to a pre-existing foreign policy agenda that included a preemptive war on Iraq.


Joining Kwiatkowski in a wide-ranging, accessible, and ultimately empowering analysis of American foreign policy, media manipulation, and their global and domestic implications, are former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams, author Norman Mailer, MIT professor Noam Chomsky, Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, defense policy analyst William Hartung, author Chalmers Johnson, and Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Stan Goff (Ret.).


At its core, the film places the deceptions of the Bush Administration within the larger frame of questions seldom posed in the mainstream: What, exactly, is the agenda that drove the administration's pre-war deceptions? How is 9/11 being used to sell this agenda? And what are the stakes for America, Americans, and the world if this agenda succeeds in being fully implemented during a second Bush term?

INTERVIEWS INCLUDE
Tariq Ali | Benjamin Barber | Medea Benjamin | Noam Chomsky | Kevin Danaher | Mark Danner | Shadia Drury | Michael Dyson | Daniel Ellsberg | Michael Franti | Stan Goff | William Hartung
Robert Jensen | Chalmers Johnson | Jackson Katz | Michael T. Klare | Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski (Ret.) | Norman Mailer | Zia Mian | Mark Crispin Miller | Scott Ritter | Vandana Shiva | Norman Solomon | Greg Speeter | Fernando Suarez del Solar | Immanuel Wallerstein | Jody Williams | Max Wolff

Directed by Sut Jhally & Jeremy Earp

Channel: News & Politics
Uploaded: February 21, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Author: ChallengingMedia

Length: 00:10:32
Rating: 4.83
Views: 23336

Tags: MEF Iran Bush War Neocons Neoconservatives Iraq Empire Propaganda 9/11 WMD EFP oil media Rumsfeld Cheney

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Video Comments:
Honeymouu (August 16, 2008 at 12:05 am)
just dont volunteer,dont sign up to fight for your country . there is no reason to worry . its not like a draft is going too happen.
sjvietboy408 (August 8, 2008 at 12:40 am)
So the neocon-chicken hawks and the global elitists chicken hawks really has fear?? That's good news, now we will have a better chance fighting against them when the right time comes.
jackiechan511 (July 20, 2008 at 8:46 pm)
So these so-called "neo-cons" dodge their military service and won't send their children to Iraq right now. This is proof that there's a double standard here and using regular American soldiers as patsys for the ideology of these "neo-cons".
alleyghost (June 12, 2008 at 5:56 am)
Typical LTCJeffWhite banter:

"I am a Soldier, a Servant of God. The Almighty has blessed and purified me so I can participate in the Great Battle for Good over Evil and this forever. I know right from wrong, unlike you who is a moron and lies all the time. Also I must be right because I am a US soldier and have been and forever will be, so that says a lot on the level of veracity of anything I say. It cannot be false since God wants it, and God is on my side, you fools. I speak truth. Repent."
bestinhouse (May 28, 2008 at 5:20 am)
Great video - neocons are imperialist criminals - a cadre or little Neros thinking they are emperors, blessed by the voice of god, whispering in their ears that their cause is right, and that they are the the holy benefactors of all the fruits of the earth. The soldiers who have been sent to fight for a fascist charade should cut off their heads.
zxcvbnm6012 (May 27, 2008 at 2:15 am)
great ending
sana6 (May 26, 2008 at 10:17 am)
This is coming from a Canadian, you ALL have the power to do something. you HAVE the power to stop this hatred, to stop the instability in the middle-east, to stop this anti-arab/muslim prejudice, to stop unjust wars, to stop all that is wrong. know how? go and VOTE on election day. STAND IN LINE and VOTE. If McCain gets elected his taking this to a NEW level, war aganist Islamic extremists. He should just say Muslims. SO GET UP AND VOTE on election day. Its YOUR RESPONSIBILITY as American citiz
alleyghost (June 12, 2008 at 5:32 am)
Votes are rigged, but give it a try.
Then you can start insurging.
Ajmauritz (May 8, 2008 at 10:16 am)
We must use the power that resides in side each one of us to resist this. The men and women in control of the government do not have the good of the United States in mind, instead they seek to increase their personal power and wealth. We must fight against this using the power given to us, the power of democracy, the power to elect who we wish to lead us. we cannot allow this to go on any longer. The U.S. needs to come to the realization that our government is wrong. only then will we change it.
BGSoccerMagic (May 4, 2008 at 8:54 am)
You are right, I didn't. I remember I watched the video after I came back from my night shift so I was tired, and when the mind is tired it tends to skip. My apologies.