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shamrock_uk · 02-04-2005, 07:49 AM

It wasn't about Pakistani politics per se, but spent a bit of time in that area.

It's from a rather good site that was shown to me yesterday - it's by PBS news. Now, I've never heard of them apart from being mocked in the Simpsons, but I'm reliably informed by my friend that they offer the 'best' news coverage in America and I've been fairly impressed so far (having watched 3 1/2 documentaries)

You can find the page here which has links to their 'Frontline' programme.

They're about an hour long, but split up into nice little ~10 min episodes. The one I was quoting from was "The Hunt for Al-Qaeda" filmed in 2002 where this journalist travels through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen amongst others in search of them. Really insightful stuff into the culture of the region and the grievances behind Al-Qaeda support, plus interviews with lots of top people as well.

I've also seen the very latest one "Al-Qaeda's New Front" which discussed the rise of Islamism in Europe, the splits between Europe/US attitudes about how to deal with the threat and was very illuminating.

Perhaps one thing that was really puzzling was that there are many wanted terrorists (for serious atrocities) who are having to be released through lack of evidence as America won't allow witnesses to testify.

I can't imagine what twisted national security agenda they're following - not only would it help put terrorists away for serious time rather than only trivial charges (which is, you would think, what the war on terror is about) but it's causing anger right across Europe when the only thing standing between a terrorist conviction is American intransigence.

I'd heard of it happening in Britain, but this documentary points to cases in Germany and Spain amongst others where the same has taken place.

I also watched a bit from the Wal-Mart episode and one on Missile Defence which was very interesting. It covered the Republican agenda to get a NMD, their continual questioning intelligence findings that ballistic missiles would not be a threat for many years and wasting billions of dollars developing a programme that has produced no results. Two days before September 11th, Rumsfeld threatened a presidential veto if money wasn't transferred from anti-terrorist efforts to NMD - and well, the events speak for themselves at how agenda-driven they were at the expense of the real threat. A really good insight into the current neo-con cabal taking shape.

I'm currently in the middle of the North Korea one which is also quite illuminating.

I would have posted a thread recommending that page, but I thought that two in as many days would be a bit silly [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 02-04-2005, 07:51 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

02-04-2005, 07:49 AM	#5
shamrock_uk Dracolich Join Date: January 24, 2004 Location: UK Age: 42 Posts: 3,092	It wasn't about Pakistani politics per se, but spent a bit of time in that area. It's from a rather good site that was shown to me yesterday - it's by PBS news. Now, I've never heard of them apart from being mocked in the Simpsons, but I'm reliably informed by my friend that they offer the 'best' news coverage in America and I've been fairly impressed so far (having watched 3 1/2 documentaries) You can find the page here which has links to their 'Frontline' programme. They're about an hour long, but split up into nice little ~10 min episodes. The one I was quoting from was "The Hunt for Al-Qaeda" filmed in 2002 where this journalist travels through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen amongst others in search of them. Really insightful stuff into the culture of the region and the grievances behind Al-Qaeda support, plus interviews with lots of top people as well. I've also seen the very latest one "Al-Qaeda's New Front" which discussed the rise of Islamism in Europe, the splits between Europe/US attitudes about how to deal with the threat and was very illuminating. Perhaps one thing that was really puzzling was that there are many wanted terrorists (for serious atrocities) who are having to be released through lack of evidence as America won't allow witnesses to testify. I can't imagine what twisted national security agenda they're following - not only would it help put terrorists away for serious time rather than only trivial charges (which is, you would think, what the war on terror is about) but it's causing anger right across Europe when the only thing standing between a terrorist conviction is American intransigence. I'd heard of it happening in Britain, but this documentary points to cases in Germany and Spain amongst others where the same has taken place. I also watched a bit from the Wal-Mart episode and one on Missile Defence which was very interesting. It covered the Republican agenda to get a NMD, their continual questioning intelligence findings that ballistic missiles would not be a threat for many years and wasting billions of dollars developing a programme that has produced no results. Two days before September 11th, Rumsfeld threatened a presidential veto if money wasn't transferred from anti-terrorist efforts to NMD - and well, the events speak for themselves at how agenda-driven they were at the expense of the real threat. A really good insight into the current neo-con cabal taking shape. I'm currently in the middle of the North Korea one which is also quite illuminating. I would have posted a thread recommending that page, but I thought that two in as many days would be a bit silly [img]smile.gif[/img] [ 02-04-2005, 07:51 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]