The Looming Documentary: HBO’s My Trip to Al-Qaeda
HBO continues to provide a valuable service to subscribers via its original programming slate, filling a glaring gap left by other media outlets.
My Trip to Al-Qaeda, the channel’s new documentary, reveals the face of the Western world’s enemy in a way that will haunt viewers.
The film, inspired by the off-Broadway show of the same name by author turned actor Lawrence Wright, details al-Qaeda’s philosophy in ways that feel fresh and frightening.
Sure, Wright brings a liberal’s gimlet eye for blaming America to the proceedings, something likely advanced by noted Bush-bashing director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side).
The film’s far bigger takeaway involves a death culture eager to prey on vulnerable populations.
Al-Qaeda, debuting this month, uses Wright’s one-man show as a vessel to tell an expanded version of the terror group’s roots and realities.
It isn’t a simple case of “why do they hate us?” — an inane question that emerged post-9/11. It’s more about why they hate their own lives and how a supposedly noble death as a suicide bomber is often their only escape.
Gibney wisely opens up the show to include footage taken from Middle Eastern countries, returning to the stage play for occasional close-ups of Wright’s face.
He’s a crack storyteller, and he speaks in an easy cadence that reminds one of actor Owen Wilson. But the messages behind Wright’s stories are hardly comforting.
Wright, the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, has been interviewing radical and reasonable Muslims alike for years. His stories are told in sometimes illogical order, but he keeps the narrative in one piece by showing how each brushes up against al-Qaeda.
He draw out the roots of the modern terrorist movement from Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat signing a peace treaty with Israel — akin to signing his death warrant, Wright argues — to the Egyptian prisons which tortured those responsible for Sadat’s death.
Consider al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, a doctor who spent time in an Egyptian jail for his role in the assassination.
“He entered prison a surgeon. He came out a butcher,” Wright says.
My Trip to Al-Qaeda offers few solutions on how to deal with the terrorist organization, nor does Wright complete thoughts about his own role studying their behavior. How should he respond if he snared an interview with Osama bin Laden himself? Does he stab the militant with the nearest sharp object, or simply record his thoughts like any responsible journalist might?
“I begin to wonder, ‘who am I when I’m talking to al-Qaeda?’” he asks himself.
Wright also co-wrote The Siege, the 1998 thriller that took a prescient look at terrorists attacking on U.S. soil. The movie feared the loss of civil liberties if a terrorist attack hit our shores, and Wright believes that’s precisely what happened after 9/11.
He conflates the degradations at Abu Ghraib with America in toto, and cries in horror to learn the U.S. waterboarded several al-Qaeda members to glean more information about future attacks.
Wright is an dedicated journalist who was best known to me after his New Yorker article, Remembering Satan, about a miscarriage of justice involving recovered memories of satanic ritual abuse was turned into a book. http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Satan-Tragic-Recovered-Memory/dp/0679755829 (read some of the comments on this book by scrolling down) I was living in Olympia WA at the time and met some of the principles of the Paul Ingram case Wright wrote on.
Wright is a sensitive soft spoken Texan who comes across as very interested in the truth and the story behind the truth. His book, The Looming Tower, is a riveting account of the backstory to 9/11 and received very favorable reviews. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/books/review/06filkins.html
He was recently on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air, a show I rarely listen too anymore due to its boring celebrities and extreme and consistent left-wing bias. But you can get feel for Wright from the transcript. http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=129697986
He does have a soft spot for the underdog and this is a bias of his that does affect his otherwise fine work on terrorism.
“But what’s Plan B?”
Fear. Pure, lethal, fear. If even the most radical Islamists really FEAR you, they will leave you alone. They will be convinced that it is a lot easier to prey on weaker societies, rather than on the stronger ones. And if you manage to kill many radical Islamists while instilling this fear into all of the Muslims in the Middle East, so much the better. They continue to attack us because they don’t fear us. Isolated Predator drone attacks will not do it. It must be a wave of hurt that will strike at the very foundation of their homicidal culture. You will not stop these maniacs with peace signs and flowers. You will stop them with fear. It’s the only thing they really understand.
If they fear us more than they fear the Islamic authorities, then they will give up their allegiance to the evil system of Islam. That’s what we did to the Third Reich. That’s what we did to the USSR. We can do it now.
In both instances, many people under each regime considered themselves to be under a tyranny and wanted out. On the other hand, many others did what they could perpetuate the totalitarian systems they lived under. The same is true with Islam. Currently Islamic countries will have to go through a de-Islamification that is far more thoroughgoing than the de-Nazification of Europe.
I wish someone like Lawrence Wright would tackle the REAL question. We understand that the ‘radical’ Islamists supposedly ‘radicalize’ the ‘moderate’ average Muslim next door. But the REAL question is:
Who ‘radicalizes’ the ‘radicals’???
The simple answer comes from the book that Pastor Jones is threatening to burn, the ‘holy’ Koran, and the other primary texts of Islam, the Ahadith and the Sirah Rasul Allah.
The hard truth is that all ‘radical’ Islamists are ultimately ‘radicalized’ by Islam itself, and Islams sociopathic ‘holy prophet’, the archetypal Islamic Jihadist Muhammed.
I like the fact that Pastor Jones has brought so much attention to the Koran. I hope people read it, rather than burn it…..or at least read it before they burn it.
The Koran is, by and large, a war manual. It was composed by a looting, thieving sadistic gangster-warlord. If you simply read it, along with the Sirah Rasul Allah (the biography of Muhammed), you will come to the same inescapable conclusion.
The truly disturbing thing about understanding this, however, is that it makes one realize that ANY Muslim who truly embrace their religion is a potential ‘radical’ Islamist, a potential Islamic Jihadist.
We must challenge the ‘moderate’ Muslims to defend their barbarian prince, Muhammed. If they cannot or will not reject his actions and teachings as evil, then you know where they truly stand.
~ The Infidel Alliance
What is your opinion of the Muslim soldiers who serve in our military? Or the many Muslim diplomats and intelligence officers we employ?
I mean seriously. You really think Islam is this evil religion bent on world domination? Do you even have an education? I’m asking seriously because if you’re older than 14 and/or employed I’m literally astounded (color me impressed!
oh what can you do but laugh. you people are so sad if you think anyone besides your in-bred sister takes you seriously or cares that you hate Muslims and Lefties and probably basically everyone who doesn’t give you an unemployment check . hahahaha. enjoy your happy space.
I will say: the ultimate irony is that the same ignorance that allows Islamic extremism to take root is what’s at the heart of your hatred for it. Oh but I don’t expect you to understand that. I know you won’t. I do pity you, though.
‘Bout the same as my opinion of the Indian Scouts who fought on our side during the Indian Wars?
The one who is in a prison hospital after killing 13 and wounding many more should be executed by firing squad. The others, I don’t know what they are thinking. Maybe they are waiting for just the right moment to turn on us. Can you say that is not so?
Dear ‘Thought Experiment’,
Your pathetic ad-hominem attacks against me and my ‘in-bred’ sister simply show how shallow your ‘thought experiment’ is. Why don’t you stick to the issues you creep?
You ask “What is my opinion of the Muslim soldiers who serve in our military? Or the many Muslim diplomats and intelligence officers we employ?”
I think that if they are true Islamists, like Major Nidal Malik Hasan MD who submit in fealty to their evil God Allah and their barbarian prince Muhammed and slaughter in their name, then they cannot be trusted. And the problem is that ALL Muslims submit in fealty to Allah and Muhammed, don’t they?
“I mean seriously. You really think Islam is this evil religion bent on world domination?”
No, I don’t think it, I know it. It says so right there in the Islamic ‘holy’ books which unlike you I have actually taken the time to read (unless you are a dissimulating Islamist yourself).
The simple truth is that America didn’t create Osama Bin Laden, Allah and Muhammed did, and what ‘allows Islamic extremism to take root’ is Islam.
Any more questions?
~ The Infidel Alliance
I mean seriously. You really think Islam is this evil religion bent on world domination?
To answer your question, yes. Sadly – more sadly than I have words for, yes. The problem I have with the naivety of people like you – Thought Experiment – is that Islam makes little attempt to hide this objective in their English propaganda and absolutely no attempt to hide this intent in their Arabic communication. The reason I “really think Islam is this evil religion bent on world domination” (to use your words) is that they tell us they are clearly, repeatedly and explicitly. They then back up these statements with horrific action – daily.
I wish to God I was wrong. I can find absolutely no indication that I am wrong. People like you try to tell us the Muslims are just like us – they just go to a different church – but TE – Muslims don’t even make that claim. Muslims tell us that world peace is possible only under a one world Islamic government and that resistance to Islam is, in and of itself, an act of war. Muslims (even moderate Muslims) believe than no evil done to us even compares of the evil we do simply by rejecting Islam.
Please my friend, study Islam, study Saudi Arabia, Iran and all the other Islamic theocracies. Read the Koran. Watch the Stoning of Syria (sp) M. Watch the Daniel Pearl video. Read the written words of the Saudi trained American imams. Look at what happens in suburban Paris and in other places in Europe when Muslims achieve a majority in a small town. Please – wake up.
Your self-righteousness disgusts me. Is there anybody in this world who really likes you? Didn’t think so.
Craigh Win, the author of The Prophet of Doom, poses a very interesting question that goes like:
Before Islam there is not a single historical record describing Arabs leaving Arabia to terrorize, conquer, plunder, or control anyone. … that is what happens after Islam. The question is. What has corrupted what? Were the Arabs who corrupted Islam or was Islam who corrupted the Arabs.
This article touches on a couple of the key points of jihadism, namely keeping half the population (women) in ignorant submission when they ought to be literate so as to civilize their families; and a culture of death, or more accurately of murder from honor killings to genocide. However, he leaves the roots of this undisturbed: an all-encompassing political, economic and social death and murder cult masquerading as a religion; its lie upon lie about the pornographic afterlife promised to those men who serve as its hitmen; and the disregard of rich fathers for their many sons of different wives. There is also that same culture of death in the United States that rejects God, embraces abortion and euthanasia, and prostrates itself before the jihadists. That is called American liberalism.
Regarding Abu Ghraib, how come it is never pointed out that the scandal became public AFTER the military investigated and charged those responsible for doing the abuse.
IOW, if this sort of thing was US policy as alleged, why would the US prosecute those who were doing it BEFORE it became public knowledge?
My Trip to Al-Qaeda is tough to watch, tougher to turn away from, and an invaluable aid to those who don’t understand the true nature of the enemy we all face.
Since Wright doesn’t deal with the source of their problems, Islam, turning away is a sensible response.
Islam is inverted Darwinism. It’s subjects cannot advance as human beings, and happiness is only found in Jannah, which comes at death.
They should be fully accommodated.
What an interesting contrast. The Looming Tower is an insightful and well researched work, so it’s surprising to me that the author privately believes in such emotionally soggy ideals. Still, if putting up with his squishy personal views are the price we pay to get to his more left-brained work on the roots of terrorism, then I’d say it’s worth it.
It must be hard line of work to be a liberal in. Having spent more than a few years living in Islamic countries and dealing with the locals, you can’t even begin to compare our societies unless you don’t believe that all men are created equal. Abu G? Gitmo? Waterboarding terorrists? Please. They disfigure people here with acid for adultery, selling alcohol, and not wearing a scarf on your head.
That said, Wright’s attention to detail is remarkable, and he unwittingly reveals a very inconvenient truth that most liberals avoid like Devil himself. He’s conceding that our enemy is not al-Qa’ida. It’s Islamic culture.
Which is exactly right. Islamic society is saddled with a wierd, legalistic code of behavior that hobbles normal emotional growth, and encourages some very dark impulses in the human psyche. This phenomenon is nothing new, but when armed with modern technology, it goes from being a ugly provincial blight to a truly global threat.
because they hate themselves, ans see this as the ultimate escape from their misery? then, wish wish for a massive muslim exodus to the land of 10,000 virgins, and free lunch on allah’s tab (try the pork chops, they’re great) don’t forget to take the movie crew with you! too bad our military is handcuffed, and isn’t allowed to help them along on their journey to where ever they go after they’ve bought the farm!
The populace in those nations are illiterate in both mind and emotions. Education is the key to the well being of any Nation. Until that changes, not likely, there isn’t much the rest of the world can do but fight back at the beast and never allow acceptance.
Save yourself the time of watching the program everybody and just read Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer.
On the subject of pundits; I just watched a Fox military pundit recommend a peace agreement with the Taliban, as though they could be trusted. Where do they find these people The Jerry Springer Show?
“And that hardly begins to describe life in Saudi Arabia, a cauldron for some of today’s most radical minds.”
This war will begin to be brought to a successful close when we employ whatever level of force is required to cause Saudi Arabia to respect the universal human right of religious freedom. Let proselytizers of any faith as will come to Mecca to be protected by American guns, and we’ll see if this century isn’t Wahhabi Islam’s last, as it should be.
There was a head of the IAF called Benny Peled who suggested during or after the Yom Kippur War that Israel needed to strike Saudi Arabia instead of fooling around with the Egyptian and Syrian armies, or in addition to. He was roundly ignored. Orwell calls the tune, we dance to it.
Taunt them by burning Korans, ban the burqa, make comedies of their disturbing hypocrisies and finally, publish academic and religious studies on the disastrous family structure that is polygamy. Water-boarding disturbs him? How about beheadings?
Unlike some of the posters here, I am not impressed with Wright’s recent work and question his dedication to his research. He wrote a slanted piece about the Israeli operation in Gaza in 2009 that repeated numerous claims about damage in Gaza that had already been shown to be false by the time he wrote the piece. One example, he claimed that 16 hospitals had been destroyed when it was already confirmed by UN agencies that none had been. I don’t trust an ideologue to write history.
I saw him on C-Span several years ago and that was my takeaway. He was very mild-mannered, nice Protestant boy or whatever, but he basically said that extremism in Egypt was a direct result of the Camp David Accords and Egyptian ‘anger’ over the Lebanon war, etc.
There are no extremists in Islam. Those who follow Mohammad are the ones flower children are calling extremists.
Those within Islam not following Mohammad are Apostate, and should get another religion. Apostates are the real extremists.
Religion of peace my arse!
And in Indonesia they stab and beat a couple of random christians, for whatever reason.
Savages need to be dealt with as the savages they are. They cannot understand, nor will accept, anything less.
“He entered prison a surgeon. He came out a butcher,” Wright says.
Great sound bite but what Wright fails to mention is that he also entered the prison a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad which at the time of his arrest was in the process of planning a coup to overthrow the government. Part of the coup was to execute most high ranking officials in the government (one could only imagine where that blood-bath would end). He served three years in prison for the charge of receiving weapons (there is some suspicion that the sentence was short because he revealed names and hiding places of other Al Jihad members.
During the round up one cell was missed and it was the one that murdered Anwar Sadat.
Sometimes the problem in the West is the inability to understand that the problem is just what it seems to be: ideology. I think it is a symptom of not really having any serious opinions about anything, where we try on different hypothetical philosophical systems just because we’re comfortable and bored and our universities encourage us to be impractical in our thinking, that we can’t conceive of anyone being sincere in their beliefs of any stripe. There always has to be some Marxist inspired “root cause” somewhere.
Abu Ghraib…? Waterboarding…? Seriously…?
We are such pussies!!!
“He conflates the degradations at Abu Ghraib with America in toto ….”
To paraphrase Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Abu Ghraib does not bother me, does your conscience bother you?”
Of Birthers and Truthers, Part Two
. . . Now that the ninth anniversary of what is easily the most godawful day in American history, September 11th, 2001, has passed without the threatened Qur’an burnings in Florida–thanks to the persuasive words and strong arms of the FBI–we can sit back and await the momentous tenth anniversary which may see a mosque overshadowing Ground Zero.
One group of people won’t be sitting back, however. The 9/11 Truthers, aka 9/11 Skeptics, aka Truth Activists, rarely sit back.
They believe in their gut that the United States government and/or President George W. Bush somehow, in some way, planned/caused/executed/allowed/consented to (choose one or more of the foregoing) the hijacking of four American airliners and flying them into the World Trade Center towers, into the Pentagon, and into the ground at Shanksville, PA.
On face value, the Truthers’ case would have to be considered the most preposterous of all conspiracy theories, the most outrageous accusations against its government by its people, a reflection of a bitterness and cynicism so complete and sinister that they could conceive of their leadership murdering 3,000 innocents to accomplish their own Machiavellian ends.
I don’t buy it but I have to admit these Truthers raise troubling and still unanswered questions about 9/11.
I started out with ingrained opinions on the Truthers but, as with the Birthers, I try to be as objective as possible, one reason being that I promised a good friend, a closet Truther, that I would strive for objectivity. . .
(Read more about Truthers at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1895
Sounds like another leftwing blame America first loon movie to me. Never mind the fact that we are the products of Western civilization and Muhammadans are the products of Islamic civilization, and the way we see the world couldn’t be more diametrically opposed to the way they see the world. Nevertheless, Wright no doubt applies his leftwing political correct Westernized sensibilities to Muhammadans and then assumes they would all see the world exactly like he does if it weren’t for all the poverty and despair. No thanks; I think I’ll pass.
My Trip to Al-Qaeda is tough to watch, tougher to turn away from, and an invaluable aid to those who don’t understand the true nature of the enemy we all face.
I can promise you won’t understand the true nature of the enemy we face by watching this mentally incompetent garbage. I can also promise that he doesn’t have the first clue.
He says that the US and UN forces who parked in Saudi Arabia to eventually repel the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991 were “mostly Christians and Jews”. That sounds like he doesn’t like Jews because as far as I know these armed forces have fewer than 1% Jews. Tops. Just playing into the hands of the haters. Which he apparently, is one.