ekdumReady
Politcal Worker (100+ posts)
It is an insult, especially to the memory of those who die so tragically in terrorist attacks, when certain members of the society and the media start diluting the whole event with the ever-present help of outlandish theories.
Instead of collectively condemning the ever-growing monster of extremism that is getting fatter by the day, one can now hear some of the most educated urbanites babbling incoherent conspiratorial dribble behind whatever that has gone so terribly wrong in Pakistan.
Take for instance an infamous documentary that has been doing a roaring business at DVD shops since the last few years. The name of this documentary is ‘Loose Change.’ Made in 2005, the documentary created quite a stir when it audaciously claimed to show “evidential proof” that the 9/11 attacks were the work of CIA and the Israeli secret services.
Many Muslims pounced for the documentary, turning it into a multi-million seller in their respective countries, using the startling “evidence” that it claimed to hold as a way to deflect and subdue the criticism extremists were receiving at the hands of the West and moderate Muslims.
The TV channels that had been running this documentary in Muslim countries, conveniently decided to ignore the fact that as soon as the documentary was critiqued, it was at once discredited by a host of experts and intellectuals. Soon, the director of the documentary, Dylan Avery, too changed gears.
In 2006, the film was re-edited and many bits that were debunked as being farcical were cut out. The re-edited version was called ‘Loose Change 2nd Edition.’ This too couldn’t iron-out the inaccuracies that the film had been criticized for.
Unable to defend what it was enthusiastically dishing out, the producers of the documentary once again re-edited the film, this time calling it ‘Loose Change 2nd Edition Re-cut.’
Of course, by now the film had lost all credibility, as the producers set about churning out yet another cut of the documentary, calling it ‘Loose Change: The Final Cut.’
If you watch this latest version of the film (available on the net), you will notice that the conspiracy theories it had espoused in its first version have all but vanished.
Faced with the embarrassment of confessing to the film’s inaccuracies, the following is what one of the film’s producers was reported to have said: “We know there were errors in the documentary, and we’d actually left them in there so that people discredit us and do the research for themselves …”
I mean, really, talk about sheepish afterthoughts.
Eventually, in 2007, the director of the film finally confessed in an interview that “Loose Change really is not a very fair representation of the 9/11 Truth Movement …”
It was almost comical the way ‘Loose Change’ came tumbling down. Though it now stands ashamedly discredited, there remain to be quite a number of people in Pakistan still quoting from it. In fact a large Pakistani TV channel ran an Urdu translation of the first version of the film for the third time on September 11, 2009!
The question arises, is this a case of total ignorance on their part about the history of this film, or did they maliciously believe that no-one would (or should) notice?
It is shocking to note that in matters of the recent spate of terrorism and the Taliban, many in Pakistan are turning towards cranks churning out the most conspicuously loop-holed conspiracy theories.
No one is giving heed to what well known experts on the subject have to say. And these experts need not be Western, because men like author Ahmed Rasheed, Aamir Mir, Saleem Shahzad and Imtiaz Gul are now universally accepted to be the most objective and informed authorities on the matter.
Yet only rarely are they quoted or heard in the local media. In fact sometimes even their most objective assessment of the situation in this context is carelessly attacked as being “pro-West!”
There’s another documentary that is doing a roaring business at local DVD shops. It’s called ‘In Plane Site.’ This one is even worse as it questions the whole 9/11 affair by using, as one respected critic explained, “an exceedingly annoying crackpot theorist and outlandish, unsubstantiated allegations about blurry pixilated photos that don’t really show anything.”
But this does not end at crack-pot documentaries. One can now also see many Pakistanis pulling out another discredited conspiratorial tool to make a point in their drawing room agitation against the war on terror. Back in fashion is the supposed existence of that dusty old book called ‘The Protocols of Zion ,’ an anti-Semitic monologue alleging a Jewish and Masonic plot to achieve world domination.
Published in 1903 in Russia, within years it was convincingly debunked as being a literary forgery and a hoax. The original book has never been seen and nor did such a book ever exist.
However, in spite of its utter debunking, references to the invisible book kept coming up, especially during the Nazi era in Germany and in the Muslim world ever since 9/11.
These are but just a few examples exhibiting how fraudulent literature and half-baked films are deforming the already troubled mind-sets of many Pakistanis.
And I want to conclude by sharing with you a recent experience that I had with a well-to-do executive at an advertising agency. This is what he asked: “Did you know the suicide bomber who blew up that truck outside Marriot (in 2007) wasn’t circumcised?”
I was shocked. “What the heck are you talking about?” I asked. “The murderer was blown to pieces!”
“No, no,” he at once checked himself. “I meant they arrested a potential suicide bomber and found out he wasn’t circumcised!”
I just started at this idiot in utter disbelief. The absurd lengths these people would go to “prove” that all these suicide bombers are not Muslims (read: circumcised men), but “non-Muslim agents” … it’s baffling to say the least.
God have mercy on us all.
Instead of collectively condemning the ever-growing monster of extremism that is getting fatter by the day, one can now hear some of the most educated urbanites babbling incoherent conspiratorial dribble behind whatever that has gone so terribly wrong in Pakistan.
Take for instance an infamous documentary that has been doing a roaring business at DVD shops since the last few years. The name of this documentary is ‘Loose Change.’ Made in 2005, the documentary created quite a stir when it audaciously claimed to show “evidential proof” that the 9/11 attacks were the work of CIA and the Israeli secret services.
Many Muslims pounced for the documentary, turning it into a multi-million seller in their respective countries, using the startling “evidence” that it claimed to hold as a way to deflect and subdue the criticism extremists were receiving at the hands of the West and moderate Muslims.
The TV channels that had been running this documentary in Muslim countries, conveniently decided to ignore the fact that as soon as the documentary was critiqued, it was at once discredited by a host of experts and intellectuals. Soon, the director of the documentary, Dylan Avery, too changed gears.
In 2006, the film was re-edited and many bits that were debunked as being farcical were cut out. The re-edited version was called ‘Loose Change 2nd Edition.’ This too couldn’t iron-out the inaccuracies that the film had been criticized for.
Unable to defend what it was enthusiastically dishing out, the producers of the documentary once again re-edited the film, this time calling it ‘Loose Change 2nd Edition Re-cut.’
Of course, by now the film had lost all credibility, as the producers set about churning out yet another cut of the documentary, calling it ‘Loose Change: The Final Cut.’
If you watch this latest version of the film (available on the net), you will notice that the conspiracy theories it had espoused in its first version have all but vanished.
Faced with the embarrassment of confessing to the film’s inaccuracies, the following is what one of the film’s producers was reported to have said: “We know there were errors in the documentary, and we’d actually left them in there so that people discredit us and do the research for themselves …”
I mean, really, talk about sheepish afterthoughts.
Eventually, in 2007, the director of the film finally confessed in an interview that “Loose Change really is not a very fair representation of the 9/11 Truth Movement …”
It was almost comical the way ‘Loose Change’ came tumbling down. Though it now stands ashamedly discredited, there remain to be quite a number of people in Pakistan still quoting from it. In fact a large Pakistani TV channel ran an Urdu translation of the first version of the film for the third time on September 11, 2009!
The question arises, is this a case of total ignorance on their part about the history of this film, or did they maliciously believe that no-one would (or should) notice?
It is shocking to note that in matters of the recent spate of terrorism and the Taliban, many in Pakistan are turning towards cranks churning out the most conspicuously loop-holed conspiracy theories.
No one is giving heed to what well known experts on the subject have to say. And these experts need not be Western, because men like author Ahmed Rasheed, Aamir Mir, Saleem Shahzad and Imtiaz Gul are now universally accepted to be the most objective and informed authorities on the matter.
Yet only rarely are they quoted or heard in the local media. In fact sometimes even their most objective assessment of the situation in this context is carelessly attacked as being “pro-West!”
There’s another documentary that is doing a roaring business at local DVD shops. It’s called ‘In Plane Site.’ This one is even worse as it questions the whole 9/11 affair by using, as one respected critic explained, “an exceedingly annoying crackpot theorist and outlandish, unsubstantiated allegations about blurry pixilated photos that don’t really show anything.”
But this does not end at crack-pot documentaries. One can now also see many Pakistanis pulling out another discredited conspiratorial tool to make a point in their drawing room agitation against the war on terror. Back in fashion is the supposed existence of that dusty old book called ‘The Protocols of Zion ,’ an anti-Semitic monologue alleging a Jewish and Masonic plot to achieve world domination.
Published in 1903 in Russia, within years it was convincingly debunked as being a literary forgery and a hoax. The original book has never been seen and nor did such a book ever exist.
However, in spite of its utter debunking, references to the invisible book kept coming up, especially during the Nazi era in Germany and in the Muslim world ever since 9/11.
These are but just a few examples exhibiting how fraudulent literature and half-baked films are deforming the already troubled mind-sets of many Pakistanis.
And I want to conclude by sharing with you a recent experience that I had with a well-to-do executive at an advertising agency. This is what he asked: “Did you know the suicide bomber who blew up that truck outside Marriot (in 2007) wasn’t circumcised?”
I was shocked. “What the heck are you talking about?” I asked. “The murderer was blown to pieces!”
“No, no,” he at once checked himself. “I meant they arrested a potential suicide bomber and found out he wasn’t circumcised!”
I just started at this idiot in utter disbelief. The absurd lengths these people would go to “prove” that all these suicide bombers are not Muslims (read: circumcised men), but “non-Muslim agents” … it’s baffling to say the least.
God have mercy on us all.
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بہت خوب لکھا ہے ندیم پراچا نے۔۔۔ ہر چیز کو سازش کہنا ان لوگوں کی یاد میں نا انصافی ہے جو ان حملوں میں جاں بحق ہوۓ ہیں۔[/FONT]
بہت خوب لکھا ہے ندیم پراچا نے۔۔۔ ہر چیز کو سازش کہنا ان لوگوں کی یاد میں نا انصافی ہے جو ان حملوں میں جاں بحق ہوۓ ہیں۔[/FONT]
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