HIJACKING CATASTROPHE: 9/11, FEAR & THE SELLING OF
AMERICAN EMPIRE
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Immediate Pictures
Grade: B
Directed by: Jeremy Earp, Sut Jhally
Written by: Jeremy Earp, Sut Jhally
Cast: Tariq Ali, Benjamin Barber, Julian Bond, Norman Mailer,
others
Screened on: DVD
Bill Clinton lied about having "sex with that woman" and was
impeached. George Bush lied about the reasons for the war in
Iraq and retains a fifty-percent approval rating vis-a-vis his
Democratic challenger. How to explain this absurdity? With
"Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American
Empire," filmmakers Jeremy Earp and Sut Jhally add to the
already impressive list of books and films about the Bush
administration and the motivations for America's entry into Iraq.
While the brief but powerful picture does not explain Bush's
continued, albeit declining, popularity and does not add to what is
known by anyone who keeps up with current events, the directors
do get to interview some high-level members of think tanks to the
left of center, while exhibiting Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz and
others in action.
Earp and Jhally are not Michael Moore, whose "Fahrenheit
9/11" will probably continue to rank as the number one critique of
the Bushies, exploiting Moore's fantastic sense of humor and
ability to show the apparatchiks for the clowns he thinks they are.
"Hijacking Catastrophe" makes only one jocular statement in an
otherwise sober, calculating and effective deconstruction of our
current high government officials. Specifically, when describing
the Shock and Awe policy, meant to frighten Iraqis of all stripes
by a blitzkrieg in Baghdad, we hear that several products have
stepped forward to patent the expression, including one maker of
condoms.
Broadly, the position taken by the documentary is that the
current administration in Washington had made long-term plans
for an invasion of Iraq well before 9/11, its members waiting for
an opportunity to excuse our intervention in that Middle Eastern
nation. The goal of the Bush government, according to some
who are interviewed, is only partly to control the oil, which we do
by situating military bases in Iraq in areas through which the long
pipeline would carry the black gold. The ultimate goal, however,
is to frighten the entire world–perhaps in the way that the A-
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was designed to frighten the
Soviets–as a warning to would-rivals to U.S. power.
Among those interviewed are Noam Chomsky, the linguist-
turned-political-scientist who is furthest to the left in his criticism
of the neoconsatives in the current administration; and novelist
Norman Mailer, who like Daniel Ellsberg, Benjamin Barber, Mark
Crispin Miller and a couple of dozen others featured in this doc
toe the left-leaning party line.
As a result of policies drawn up as early as the first Reagan
administration, the radical neo-conservatives (those with imperial
ambitions for the U.S.) planned to scrap U.S. participation in
international treaties perceived to be against American interests,
incrementally to scrap some of our civil liberties, specifically the
fourth and sixth amendments to the Constitution (which provide
for the requirement of search warrants and swift jury trials), and
explode the national debt so much that future generations would
have to assume the burden of paying off creditors via higher
taxes. 9/11 provided the Pearl Harbor for a program of what at
least one subject called creeping fascism.
Julian Bond narrates the film, an excellent primer for those who
are not regular readers of periodicals like the New Republic,
Nation, and columnists in the New York Times like Paul
Krugman. For the cognoscenti, however, there's nothing new
except for some particularly dramatic footage of the approach
and collisions of two aircraft against the Twin Towers.
Not Rated. 68 minutes. © 2004 by Harvey Karten
at harveycritic@cs.com
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