Last night I settled into my chair to watch Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of Empire, a documentary released by the Media Education Foundation. The film begins with a quote: “The people can always be brought into the bidding of the leaders. That is easy,” and then proceeds with various quick clips of Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and others who have made statements in our recent past linking Saddam Hussein with the events of 9/11; Iraq with Al Quaida; and Hussein with weapons of mass destruction. We witness once again the mainstream media posing the questions, “Where are they” and “What is this war really about?” based upon failure of U.S. forces to locate these weapons in Iraq over the course of the current Iraqi invasion - despite U.S. government declarations to the contrary on numerous occasions.

The film backtracks to illustrate the origin and rise of neo-conservative policy-shapers like former Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and his cronies, characterizing them as intellectuals and policy-makers who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to use U.S. military might and force more aggressively, unilaterally, and preemptively on other nations of the world - in order to advance the new American Empire. The perspectives of Noam Chomsky, Normal Mailer, Scott Ritter, Stan Goff and others reiterate to the viewer the arrogance and danger these neo-cons pose, characterizing them as “reactionary statists with a radical plan for world domination.”

Addressed is Paul Wolfowitz’ 1992 plan known as The Defense Planning Guidance in which he advises that the U.S. should dramatically increase defense spending and promote preemptive military aggression with or without allies. Wolfowitz’ reasoning: to secure access to vital materials and prevent another nation from becoming more powerful than ours – thereby eliminating any potential challenge to U.S. world supremacy. We see a re-emergence of his plan in 2000, when a Washington-based think-tank calling themselves the “PNAC” (Project for a New American Century) issued a lengthy report entitled Rebuilding America’s Defenses – once more embracing ‘guidance’ thought to be too radical to win the support of the American people or the president in the previous decade. The revamped PNAC report advises that the government should increase military spending to $100 billion/year, deny other nations the use of outer space, and determines that the U.S. should be allowed to act preemptively against any perceived enemy. This goes against the policy of every other previous American president, according to the film. Is that so? How did they come up with that conclusion?

The PNAC report also relates how such an absolute U.S. military transformation is likely to be years in the making and how the advancement of U.S. preeminence can be assisted by some cataclysmic event, such as a new Pearl Harbor. Of course, a year after the release of this report, the nation – and the world – experienced the horrific events of September 11, 2001 which became the catalyst used to manipulate the American people into supporting preemptive strikes in the Middle East. The politics of fear were then set into motion by the government and mainstream media, and the nation has been unwittingly sucked into a deceptive, deranged political scheme to advance imperialistic goals under the guise of fighting terrorists. We are shown how the Bush administration has hammered home the message that the only thing we have to fear is “not enough fear” in all its public statements – thus, the inevitable terror alerts, color charts and theatrical news coverage of the ‘war on terror’.

From the standpoint of the makers of this film and those they interviewed, the current administration is a “gang that needs people to be afraid in order to be successful” in their political objectives. The politics of fear has resulted in being much more dangerous than terrorism itself, and from a personal standpoint, I can hardly disagree. Our government and national media have consistently and diabolically programmed fear into the mind and heart of every American since 9/11, and Wolfowitz’ doctrine has been embraced as official U.S. policy, rejecting Article 51 of the UN Charter, which is supposed to prevent nations from indiscriminately using military force through preemptive aggression. The U.S. government (acting as an arm of the New World Order elite) now feels justified in taking what it wants - whenever, however, and from whomever it chooses - whether the world likes it or not. The NWO’s interests take precedence over the interests of other nations, and this is supposed to justify screwing the whole world. This type of radical policy moves the United States outside the “compass” of international law and sets a most dangerous precedent in the fact that we are now making enemies faster than we can kill them. Today’s foreign policy involves a new strategy based upon old ideas – too radical for the ‘90s but perfectly acceptable in the new millennium. Men like Wolfowitz and those at PNAC promote a re-shaping of the globe in the image of how the controlling elite see it.

The question we are confronted with is: How scared should you be?

The film points out that there no longer exist any well-defined territorial boundaries constraining our government, none that it must adhere to or respect – causing us to consider the statement that today, “time itself belongs to America”.

Public support of current U.S. military action has been gained by the current administration’s selective reading and the creative packaging of intelligence information. The film asserts that the success of Bush’s policies depends upon deception, secrecy, and their ability to disguise what is being done (and for what reasons) before the American people. Thus, what we have witnessed since the events of 9/11 is a highly successful propaganda campaign to convince us that Saddam Hussein posed a direct threat to the safety of this nation – and the people of the world-at-large. It points out that the U.S. has (in the past) supported Hussein through the worst of his crimes as long as his policy remained consistent with U.S. agenda.

The aim of the neo-cons is to secure American control over vitally important regions of the world, and in order to achieve this objective, our government needed to show the world who is MASTER. Thus, the film depicts graphic images of wounded Iraqi adults and children, the “Shock & Awe” strikes which lit up our screens at the onset of this war, and the psychological impact upon the people who watched these events unfold.

A military victory in this new arena depends upon how deeply and permanently the controllers can inflict psychological damage on the consciousness of the occupied nation – or upon the American people, for that matter. The atrocities most of us have witnessed on television or the Internet are direct strikes upon the public mind. They show instant, “nearly incomprehensible” brutality, and these scenes are repeated over and over – psychic driving – creating an impotence and vulnerability in the defeated, as well as American people. American citizens should also consider themselves “conquered” at this point, because we have allowed ourselves to be drawn into the theatrics; we have surrendered our will, critical thinking abilities, and perceptions to the propaganda campaigns from “both” sides.

Our nation faces a frightening future of financial bankruptcy, ever increasing defense expenditures, perpetual simultaneous wars in multiple theaters, a decrease in civil liberties, erosion of our constitutional amendments, and a coinciding decrease in trust for our own government. The current administration has deepened the national debt to an unbelievable amount – over 7 trillion dollars. We can never repay it, so don’t kid yourself.

The problem I have with this film is what it falls short in the telling. Not once does it address the “New World Order,” or trace the well-documented path of the powerful Zionist lobby’s overt and covert grip upon every major power center in our nation, and the extent of its influence over our culture and mindset. This movie also demonstrates political bias – as its sole focus remains on the Bush administration and the neo-cons – saying nothing about the failure of the “other wing” of this dragon – the Democrats – to advance civil liberties here at home, or expose the mass deception of the American public. On these issues, the film fails and disappoints me because they are completely excluded. It presupposes that the Bush administration and neo-con policy shapers are the very pinnacle of this diabolical scheme to advance an American empire throughout the world, but noticeably fails to mention the role of Israel, the international bankers, secret societies, and those who are the political “piston” driving the whole agenda, as well as the public illusions.

While I applaud the valid points it does make and agree with the assessment of the filmmakers as to the media’s gross manipulation of public perceptions (how we never get to see the after-effects of war such as how it impacts the people themselves, the wounded, and the dead except in certain contexts), I do believe that in itself, the video presents a form of mind control, a one-sided view of the evil machinations taking place, and it never presents the whole picture. It conveys an anti-war, pro-peace message, and, while it captivated my attention the whole way through and highlighted important information in many respects, the filmmakers could have – and should have – taken it all the way without sidestepping things like government foreknowledge of the events of 9/11, or CIA operations that took place on the morning of 9/11 in which NORAD and the CIA took part in secret exercises to determine what would happen if planes hit buildings; or the serious number of anomalies and discrepancies with the official government and media version of that unforgettable day.

The film doesn’t attempt to discuss or present any of it, which is regrettable. Instead, the latter half focuses on the human collateral of the war on terror, the shattered lives of Iraqis, the hundreds of dead and wounded American soldiers, and the impact upon the families involved. It’s important to see this aspect of the war, I agree. But I also consider it critical to accurately portray the set-up, including ALL the players – not just Republicans, the Bush administration, or its neo-con crazies. Once again we are not made privy to some key information that is already out in the public domain via the efforts of independent researchers, investigators and authors – and so, this film deprives the public of vital knowledge. To me, this is in itself a form of mind control propaganda, and though worthy of public attention, should be considered as an incomplete, one-sided account.

When you sit down to watch this documentary for yourself, make note of the serious issues that remain un-addressed and remember, Bush is merely an implementer of public policy. The unseen hands pulling the strings of his administration, U.S. military forces, Washington think-tanks, and the national media are the ultimate criminal players in this ever-expanding yet slowly unraveling nightmare. Beware of mind control propaganda in all its forms. See it for what it is and base your conclusions upon ALL of the facts available. Some of the story is simply NOT good enough. The world - and the American people - deserve the entire truth and nothing less.

For copies of this video, visit: http://www.mef.tv.