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1
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MUSIC: The Vanishing American Family
by Scuba Z
2
00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:27,960
EXPLOSION
3
00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:31,360
We live in a strange time.
4
00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:33,400
Extraordinary events keep happening
5
00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,160
that undermine the
stability of our world.
6
00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:38,360
Suicide bombs, waves of refugees,
7
00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:41,320
Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin,
8
00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:42,680
even Brexit.
9
00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:45,680
EXPLOSION
10
00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:49,680
Yet those in control
seem unable to deal with them,
11
00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:51,320
and no-one has any vision
12
00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:54,000
of a different
or a better kind of future.
13
00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,720
MUSIC: Something I Can Never Have
by Nine Inch Nails
14
00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:00,240
This film will tell the story
of how we got to this strange place.
15
00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:04,560
It is about how,
over the past 40 years,
16
00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:08,640
politicians, financiers
and technological utopians,
17
00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:12,360
rather than face up to the real
complexities of the world,
18
00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:14,160
retreated.
19
00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:19,400
Instead, they constructed
a simpler version of the world
20
00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:21,720
in order to hang on to power.
21
00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:25,560
And as this fake world grew,
all of us went along with it,
22
00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:28,640
because the simplicity
was reassuring.
23
00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:34,840
Even those who thought they were
attacking the system -
24
00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:37,800
the radicals, the artists,
the musicians,
25
00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:39,760
and our whole counterculture -
26
00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,800
actually became part
of the trickery,
27
00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:47,480
because they, too, had retreated
into the make-believe world,
28
00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:50,880
which is why their opposition
has no effect
29
00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:52,800
and nothing ever changes.
30
00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:55,200
MUSIC: The Vanishing American Family
by Scuba Z
31
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But this retreat into a dream world
32
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allowed dark and destructive forces
to fester and grow outside.
33
00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:07,520
Forces that are now returning
to pierce the fragile surface
34
00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:10,560
of our carefully constructed
fake world.
35
00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:16,880
# In dreams
36
00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:21,160
# I live... #
37
00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:49,600
The story begins in two cities
at the same moment in 1975.
38
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One is New York.
39
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The other is Damascus.
40
00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:00,680
It was a moment when two ideas
about how it might be possible
41
00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:03,880
to run the world without politics
first took hold.
42
00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:16,640
In 1975, New York City
was on the verge of collapse.
43
00:03:16,640 --> 00:03:19,280
For 30 years, the politicians
who ran the city
44
00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:21,920
had borrowed more and more money
from the banks
45
00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:25,560
to pay for its growing services
and welfare.
46
00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:29,760
But in the early '70s, the middle
classes fled from the city
47
00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,160
and the taxes they paid disappeared
with them.
48
00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:37,560
So, the banks lent the city
even more.
49
00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:41,240
But then, they began to get worried
about the size of the growing debt
50
00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:44,520
and whether the city would ever be
able to pay it back.
51
00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:49,000
And then one day in 1975,
52
00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,440
the banks just stopped.
53
00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:58,280
The city held its regular meeting
to issue bonds
54
00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:02,680
in return for the loans, overseen by
the city's financial controller.
55
00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:06,920
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
56
00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:09,920
Today, the city of New York is
offering for competitive bidding
57
00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:13,360
the sale of 260 million
tax anticipation notes,
58
00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:18,080
of which 100 million will mature
on June 3rd, 1975.
59
00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:22,800
The banks were supposed
to turn up at 11am,
60
00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:27,080
but it soon became clear that none
of them were going to appear.
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00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:30,000
The meeting was rescheduled for 2pm
62
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,640
and the banks
promised they would turn up.
63
00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:44,640
The announcement on behalf of the
controller is that the offer,
64
00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:47,040
which we had expected to receive
65
00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:50,400
and announce at two o'clock
this afternoon,
66
00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,440
is now expected at four o'clock.
67
00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:56,200
Paul, does this mean that, so far,
nobody wants those bonds?
68
00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:59,200
We will be making a further
announcement at four o'clock
69
00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:02,640
and anything further that I could
say now I think would not advance
70
00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:05,440
the interest of the sale,
which is now in progress.
71
00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:09,200
Does this mean that you have not
been able to sell them so far today?
72
00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:11,920
We will have a further announcement
at four o'clock.
73
00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:19,600
What happened that day in New York
marked a radical shift in power.
74
00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,160
The banks insisted that in order
to protect their loans
75
00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:27,360
they should be allowed
to take control of the city.
76
00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:30,000
The city appealed to the President,
77
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but he refused to help,
78
00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:36,000
so a new committee was set up
to manage the city's finances.
79
00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:39,080
Out of nine members,
eight of them were bankers.
80
00:05:40,840 --> 00:05:43,600
It was the start
of an extraordinary experiment
81
00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:48,120
where the financial institutions
took power away from the politicians
82
00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:51,040
and started to run
society themselves.
83
00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:53,400
The city had no other option.
84
00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:57,160
The bankers enforced what was called
"austerity" on the city,
85
00:05:57,160 --> 00:06:00,000
insisting that thousands of
teachers, policemen
86
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,640
and firemen were sacked.
87
00:06:04,840 --> 00:06:06,920
This was a new kind of politics.
88
00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:10,360
The old politicians believed
that crises were solved
89
00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:13,560
through negotiation and deals.
90
00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:16,760
The bankers had a completely
different view.
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00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:19,040
They were just the representatives
92
00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:21,840
of something that couldn't
be negotiated with -
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00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:24,160
the logic of the market.
94
00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:27,440
To them, there was no alternative
to this system.
95
00:06:28,840 --> 00:06:31,120
It should run society.
96
00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:38,880
Just by shifting paper around,
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these slobs can make $60 million,
$65 million in a single transaction.
98
00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:46,080
That would take care of all
of the lay-offs in the city,
99
00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:48,760
so it's reckless, it's cruel
and it's a disgrace.
100
00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:51,520
There would be a fair number
of bankers, of course,
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00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:53,840
who'd say it's the unions who have
been too greedy.
102
00:06:53,840 --> 00:06:57,000
What would your reaction be to that?
I guess they're right in a way.
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00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:59,480
If you can make $60 million
on a single transaction,
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00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:03,760
and a worker makes $8,000, $9,000
a year, I suppose they're correct,
105
00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:07,240
and as they go back to their little
estates in Greenwich, Connecticut,
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00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:09,480
I want to wish them well, the slobs.
107
00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:15,440
But the extraordinary thing was
no-one opposed the bankers.
108
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The radicals and the left-wingers
who, ten years before,
109
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had dreamt of changing America
through revolution did nothing.
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00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:24,800
They had retreated
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and were living in the abandoned
buildings in Manhattan.
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00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:40,800
The singer Patti Smith later
described the mood of disillusion
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00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:43,000
that had come over them.
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00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:44,240
"I could not identify
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00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:47,280
"with the political movements any
longer," she said.
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00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:50,840
"All the manic activity
in the streets.
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00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:53,720
"In trying to join them,
I felt overwhelmed
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00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:56,240
"by yet another form
of bureaucracy."
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00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:02,520
What she was describing was the rise
of a new, powerful individualism
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00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:06,400
that could not fit with the idea
of collective political action.
121
00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:12,240
Instead, Patti Smith and many others
122
00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:14,880
became a new kind
of individual radical,
123
00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:18,080
who watched the decaying city
with a cool detachment.
124
00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:21,360
They didn't try and change it.
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00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:24,000
They just experienced it.
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Look at that. Isn't that cool?
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00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:29,560
I love that, where, like,
kids write all over the walls.
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00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:32,440
That, to me, is neater
than any art sometimes.
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"Jose and Maria forever."
130
00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:42,400
Oh, there's a lot of things, like,
when you pass by big movie houses,
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00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:46,080
maybe we'll find one, but they have
little movie screens,
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00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,840
where you can see clips of,
like, Z, or something like that.
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00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:51,240
People watch it over and over.
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00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:54,600
I've seen people,
I've checked them out. All day!
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00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:56,800
I've gone back and forth
and they're still there
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00:08:56,800 --> 00:08:59,880
watching the credits of a movie,
cos they don't have enough dough,
137
00:08:59,880 --> 00:09:01,880
but it's some entertainment,
you know?
138
00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:06,520
Instead, radicals across America
turned to art and music
139
00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:09,560
as a means of expressing
their criticism of society.
140
00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:14,760
They believed that instead of trying
to change the world outside
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00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:17,520
the new radicalism should try
and change
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00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:19,760
what was inside
people's heads,
143
00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:23,400
and the way to do this was through
self-expression,
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00:09:23,400 --> 00:09:25,600
not collective action.
145
00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:33,320
U
146
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:37,960
V
147
00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:40,400
W
148
00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:42,000
X
149
00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:46,960
Y
150
00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:54,200
Z
151
00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:05,480
But some of the Left saw that
something else was really going on -
152
00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:10,000
that by detaching themselves and
retreating into an ironic coolness,
153
00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:13,280
a whole generation were beginning
to lose touch
154
00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:15,640
with the reality of power.
155
00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:20,680
Shut up.
156
00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:22,400
Shut up!
157
00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:26,320
One of them wrote of that time,
158
00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:28,080
"It was the mood of the era
159
00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:31,440
"and the revolution was
deferred indefinitely.
160
00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:37,160
"And while we were dozing,
the money crept in."
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00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:42,960
SOBBING
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00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:48,560
What's your date of birth, Larry?
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00:10:49,560 --> 00:10:53,600
But one of the people who did
understand how to use this new power
164
00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:55,760
was Donald Trump.
165
00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:58,400
Trump realised that there was
now no future
166
00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:01,040
in building housing
for ordinary people,
167
00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:04,280
because all the government
grants had gone.
168
00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:06,160
But he saw there were other ways
169
00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:09,160
to get vast amounts of money
out of the state.
170
00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:14,840
Trump started to buy up
derelict buildings in New York
171
00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,320
and he announced that he was going
to transform them
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00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:19,920
into luxury hotels
and apartments.
173
00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:23,560
But in return, he negotiated
the biggest tax break
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00:11:23,560 --> 00:11:27,040
in New York's history,
worth $160 million.
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00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:32,480
The city had to agree
because they were desperate,
176
00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,160
and the banks,
seeing a new opportunity,
177
00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:37,560
also started to lend him money.
178
00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:44,160
And Donald Trump began to transform
New York into a city for the rich,
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00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:46,560
while he paid practically nothing.
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00:12:02,680 --> 00:12:04,960
At the very same time, in 1975,
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00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:09,680
there was a confrontation between
two powerful men in Damascus,
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00:12:09,680 --> 00:12:10,920
the capital of Syria.
183
00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:16,200
One was Henry Kissinger,
the US Secretary of State.
184
00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:21,520
The other was the President
of Syria, Hafez al-Assad.
185
00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:24,720
The battle between the two men
186
00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:27,880
was going to have profound
consequences for the world.
187
00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:32,280
And like in New York,
it was going to be a struggle
188
00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:36,960
between the old idea of using
politics to change the world
189
00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:41,200
and a new idea that you could run
the world as a stable system.
190
00:12:46,680 --> 00:12:49,240
President Assad dominated Syria.
191
00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:53,560
The country was full of giant images
and statues that glorified him.
192
00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:57,240
He was brutal and ruthless,
193
00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:01,280
killing or imprisoning anyone
he suspected of being a threat.
194
00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:07,520
But Assad believed that
the violence was for a purpose.
195
00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:10,480
He wanted to find a way of uniting
the Arab countries
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00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:13,840
and using that power
to stand up to the West.
197
00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:17,680
Four,
198
00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:20,880
three,
199
00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:24,080
two,
200
00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:25,840
one.
201
00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:29,160
Kissinger was also tough
and ruthless.
202
00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:30,800
He had started in the 1950s
203
00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:33,720
as an expert in the theory
of nuclear strategy.
204
00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:38,240
What was called
"the delicate balance of terror."
205
00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:40,760
It was the system that ran
the Cold War.
206
00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:44,920
Both sides believed
that if they attacked,
207
00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,360
the other side would immediately
launch their missiles
208
00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:50,480
and everyone would be annihilated.
209
00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:53,640
Kissinger had been one of the
models for the character
210
00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:56,360
of Dr Strangelove
in Stanley Kubrick's film.
211
00:13:56,360 --> 00:14:00,080
Mr President, I would not rule
out the chance
212
00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:03,160
to preserve a nucleus
of human specimens.
213
00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:05,840
It would be quite easy.
214
00:14:07,560 --> 00:14:13,120
At the bottom of some
of our deeper mineshafts.
215
00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:18,920
Henry was not a warm, friendly,
modest, jovial sort of person.
216
00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:23,480
He was thought of as one
of the more...
217
00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:31,920
..anxious, temperamental,
self-conscious,
218
00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:36,400
ambitious, inconsiderate people
at Harvard.
219
00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,920
Kissinger saw himself
as a hard realist.
220
00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:47,920
He had no time for the emotional
turmoil of political ideologies.
221
00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:52,400
He believed that history had always
really been a struggle for power
222
00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:54,400
between groups and nations.
223
00:14:55,960 --> 00:14:58,320
But what Kissinger took
from the Cold War
224
00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:02,800
was a way of seeing the world
as an interconnected system,
225
00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:06,480
and his aim was to keep
that system in balance
226
00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:10,360
and prevent it from falling
into chaos.
227
00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:18,200
I believe that with all the
dislocations we now experience,
228
00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:21,440
there also exists
an extraordinary opportunity
229
00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:26,080
to form, for the first time in
history, a truly global society
230
00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,080
carried up by the principle
of interdependence,
231
00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:32,520
and if we act wisely,
and with vision,
232
00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:36,040
I think we can look back
to all this turmoil
233
00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:42,240
as the birth pangs of a more
creative and better system.
234
00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:45,640
If we miss the opportunity,
I think there's going to be chaos.
235
00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:49,600
The flight has been delayed,
we understand now.
236
00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:54,400
Kissinger will be arriving here
about an hour and a half from now,
237
00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:56,720
so we'll just
have the press informed
238
00:15:56,720 --> 00:15:59,360
and then we'll stay
in contact with you...
239
00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:04,120
And it was this idea that Kissinger
set out to impose
240
00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:06,640
on the chaotic politics
of the Middle East.
241
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:11,440
But to manage it,
242
00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:15,280
he knew that he was going to have to
deal with President Assad of Syria.
243
00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:21,920
President Assad was convinced
that there would only ever be
244
00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:25,080
a real and lasting peace between
the Arabs and Israel
245
00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:29,960
if the Palestinian refugees were
allowed to return to their homeland.
246
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:32,600
Hundreds of thousands
of Palestinians
247
00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:34,720
were living in exile in Syria,
248
00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:37,200
as well as in the Lebanon
and Jordan.
249
00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:40,920
Have you found that the Palestinians
here want to integrate
250
00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:42,000
with the Syrians at all?
251
00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:43,440
Oh, no. No, never.
252
00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:44,800
They don't want...
253
00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:48,400
Not here or neither in Lebanon
or in Jordan, never.
254
00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:52,880
No, because they want to stay as
a whole, as...Palestinian.
255
00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:56,240
As... They call themselves,
"Those Who Go Back" -
256
00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:59,040
"al-a'iduun", you say in Arabic.
257
00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:02,640
Assad also believed
that such a peace
258
00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:04,280
would strengthen the Arab world.
259
00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:08,680
But Kissinger thought that
strengthening the Arabs
260
00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:11,160
would destabilise
his balance of power.
261
00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:14,640
So, he set out
to do the very opposite -
262
00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:17,640
to fracture the power
of the Arab countries,
263
00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:20,800
by dividing them
and breaking their alliances,
264
00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:23,200
so they would
keep each other in check.
265
00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:27,040
Kissinger now played a double game.
266
00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:32,080
Or as he termed it,
"constructive ambiguity".
267
00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,400
In a series of meetings,
he persuaded Egypt
268
00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:39,520
to sign a separate agreement
with Israel.
269
00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,240
But at the same time, he led Assad
to believe
270
00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:46,000
that he was working
for a wider peace agreement,
271
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,440
one that WOULD include the
Palestinians.
272
00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:56,400
In reality,
the Palestinians were ignored.
273
00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:59,080
They were irrelevant
to the structural balance
274
00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:00,560
of the global system.
275
00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:11,400
The hallmark of Kissinger's thinking
about international politics
276
00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:14,800
is its structural design.
277
00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:18,240
Everything is always connected
in his mind to everything else.
278
00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:22,120
But his first thoughts
are on that level,
279
00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:25,240
on this structural
global balance of power level.
280
00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:30,800
And as he addresses questions
of human dignity,
281
00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:32,440
human survival, human freedom...
282
00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:35,680
..I think they tend
to come into his mind
283
00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:40,480
as an adjunct of the play of nations
at the power game.
284
00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:45,160
When Assad found out the truth,
it was too late.
285
00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:48,520
In a series of confrontations
with Kissinger in Damascus,
286
00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:51,160
Assad raged about this treachery.
287
00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:54,680
He told Kissinger
that what he had done
288
00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:58,640
would release demons hidden under
the surface of the Arab world.
289
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:05,280
Kissinger described their meetings.
290
00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:08,160
"Assad's controlled fury," he wrote,
291
00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:11,640
"was all the more impressive
for its eerily cold,
292
00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:13,840
"seemingly unemotional, demeanour."
293
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:19,040
Assad now retreated.
294
00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:22,880
He started to build a giant palace
that loomed over Damascus...
295
00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:27,800
..and his belief that it would be
possible to transform the Arab world
296
00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:29,160
began to fade.
297
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:33,440
A British journalist,
who knew Assad, wrote...
298
00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:35,880
"Assad's optimism has gone.
299
00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:38,760
"A trust in the future has gone.
300
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:44,800
"What has emerged instead
is a brutal, vengeful Assad,
301
00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:47,680
"who believes in nothing
except revenge."
302
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:24,280
The original dream
of the Soviet Union
303
00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:27,040
had been to create
a glorious new world.
304
00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:29,200
A world where not only the society,
305
00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:32,920
but the people themselves
would be transformed.
306
00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:36,440
They would become new and better
kinds of human beings.
307
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:45,560
But by the 1980s, it was clear
that the dream had failed.
308
00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:48,560
WOMAN GASPS
309
00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:51,440
WOMAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN
310
00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:55,840
The Soviet Union became instead
311
00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:59,160
a society where no-one believed
in anything
312
00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:00,960
or had any vision of the future.
313
00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:55,720
RUSSIAN SONG PLAYS
314
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:31,360
Those who ran the Soviet Union
had believed that they could plan
315
00:23:31,360 --> 00:23:34,200
and manage a new kind
of socialist society.
316
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:37,600
But they had discovered that
it was impossible
317
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:39,440
to control and predict everything
318
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:41,840
and the plan had run out of control.
319
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:47,240
But rather than reveal this,
the technocrats began to pretend
320
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:50,440
that everything was still going
according to plan.
321
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:55,480
And what emerged instead
was a fake version of the society.
322
00:23:56,800 --> 00:24:00,040
The Soviet Union became a society
where everyone knew
323
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,760
that what their leaders said
was not real
324
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:04,960
because they could see
with their own eyes
325
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,000
that the economy was falling apart.
326
00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:12,160
But everybody had to play along
and pretend that it WAS real
327
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:15,080
because no-one could imagine
any alternative.
328
00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,280
One Soviet writer called it
"hypernormalisation".
329
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:23,560
You were so much
a part of the system
330
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:26,880
that it was impossible
to see beyond it.
331
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:29,360
The fakeness was hypernormal.
332
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:40,720
TANNOY ANNOUNCEMENT IN RUSSIAN
333
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:43,360
In this stagnant world,
two brothers -
334
00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:46,120
called Arkady and Boris Strugatsky -
335
00:24:46,120 --> 00:24:49,480
became the inspiration
of a growing new dissident movement.
336
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:55,080
They weren't politicians,
they were science fiction writers,
337
00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:56,480
and in their stories,
338
00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:59,720
they expressed
the strange mood that was rising up
339
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:01,600
as the Soviet Empire collapsed.
340
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:05,920
Their most famous book
was called Roadside Picnic.
341
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:10,680
It is set in a world
that seems like the present,
342
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:14,160
except there is a zone that
has been created by an alien force.
343
00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:18,680
People, known as "stalkers",
go into the zone.
344
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:22,480
They find that nothing
is what it seems,
345
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:24,760
that reality changes
minute by minute.
346
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:27,960
Shadows go the wrong way.
347
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:30,680
There are hidden forces
that twist your body
348
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:32,760
and change the way
you think and feel.
349
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:37,360
The picture the Strugatskys gave
350
00:25:37,360 --> 00:25:39,760
was of a world
where nothing was fixed.
351
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:45,000
Where reality - both what you saw
and what you believed -
352
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,280
had become shifting and unstable.
353
00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:59,840
And in 1979, the film director
Andrei Tarkovsky
354
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,920
made a film that was based
on Roadside Picnic.
355
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:04,720
He called it Stalker.
356
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:12,840
WIND WHISTLES
357
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:16,360
I, Ronald Reagan,
do solemnly swear...
358
00:27:16,360 --> 00:27:18,080
..That I will faithfully execute
359
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,840
the office of president
of the United States.
360
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:22,320
..that I will faithfully execute
361
00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:25,800
the office of president
of the United States.
362
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:29,320
The new president of America
had a new vision of the world.
363
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:33,840
It wasn't the harsh realism
of Henry Kissinger any longer,
364
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:35,560
it was different -
365
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,240
it was a simple, moral crusade,
366
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:42,240
where America had a special destiny
to fight evil
367
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,320
and to make the world
a better place.
368
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,280
The places and the periods
in which man has known freedom
369
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:51,640
are few and far between -
370
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,400
just scattered moments
on the span of time.
371
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:56,960
And most of those moments
have been ours.
372
00:27:56,960 --> 00:28:01,920
The American people have a genius
for great and unselfish deeds.
373
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,080
Into the hands of America,
374
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:07,560
God has placed the destiny
of an afflicted mankind.
375
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:10,600
God bless America.
376
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:17,400
But this crusade
was going to lead Reagan
377
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,680
to come face-to-face
with Henry Kissinger's legacy...
378
00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:26,360
..and, above all, the vengeful fury
of President Assad of Syria.
379
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,080
EXPLOSION
380
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,080
Israel was now determined
381
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:34,960
to finally destroy
the power of the Palestinians.
382
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:39,440
And, in 1982,
they sent a massive army
383
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,320
to encircle the Palestinian camps
in the Lebanon.
384
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:47,960
Do you know... Do you know how
strong the Israelis are?
385
00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:52,080
Do you know how many tanks
they have outside Beirut?
386
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:53,760
Do you know how strong they are?
387
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:58,320
HE TRANSLATES
388
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:11,240
That means
"We are not ready to surrender".
389
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:18,320
Young, young, young!
390
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:22,640
NEARBY EXPLOSIONS
391
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:24,400
Keep going!
392
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:29,880
Dashed into this building here
because the PLO guys with us
393
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:32,640
expect that, sooner or later,
there will be a huge explosion.
394
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:37,080
There've been several of these
in the last few minutes.
395
00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:38,160
As you can see,
396
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:41,720
there's enormous damage
in all the buildings round here.
397
00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:44,600
EXPLOSION
398
00:29:56,960 --> 00:29:58,440
Quick, quick!
399
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:09,240
DISTANT EXPLOSIONS
400
00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:19,600
Two months later,
thousands of Palestinian refugees
401
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:21,400
were massacred in the camps.
402
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:24,960
It horrified the world.
403
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:26,920
But what was even more shocking
404
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,240
was that Israel
had allowed it to happen.
405
00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:32,120
Its troops had stood by and watched
406
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:35,600
as a Christian Lebanese faction
murdered the Palestinians.
407
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,800
This was the first of the massacres
we discovered yesterday.
408
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:48,720
Now, 24 hours later,
the stench here is appalling.
409
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:50,160
But the effects on the Israelis
410
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:52,240
of what their Christian allies
did here
411
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:54,480
and in dozens of other places
around this camp
412
00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:56,160
are going to be immense.
413
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:59,480
There's always been a risk of such
massacres if Christian militiamen
414
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:01,960
were allowed to come
into Palestinian camps,
415
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:03,920
and the Israelis
seem to have done nothing
416
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,800
to prevent them
coming into this one.
417
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,680
In the face of the horror
and the growing chaos,
418
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:11,920
President Reagan was forced to act.
419
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:15,600
He announced that American marines
would come to Beirut
420
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:17,400
to lead a peacekeeping force.
421
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,520
Reagan insisted that
the troops were neutral.
422
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:26,360
But President Assad was convinced
that there was another reality.
423
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,240
He saw the troops as part
of the growing conspiracy
424
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:34,200
between America and Israel to divide
the Middle East into factions
425
00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:36,440
and destroy the power of the Arabs.
426
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:42,480
Assad decided to get the Americans
out of the Middle East.
427
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:44,760
And to do this, he made an alliance
428
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:48,680
with the new revolutionary force
of Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran.
429
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:52,800
And what Khomeini
could bring to Assad
430
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:56,120
was an extraordinary new weapon
that he had just created.
431
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:02,480
It was called it
"the poor man's atomic bomb".
432
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:11,760
CHANTING:
433
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:20,480
Ayatollah Khomeini had come to power
two years before
434
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:23,200
as the leader
of the Iranian revolution.
435
00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:26,320
But his hold on power
was precarious,
436
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:30,360
and Khomeini had developed a new
idea of how to fight his enemies
437
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:31,880
and defend the revolution.
438
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:36,800
Khomeini told his followers
that they could destroy themselves
439
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:41,080
in order to save the revolution
providing that, in the process,
440
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:44,080
they killed as many enemies
around them as possible.
441
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:48,080
This was completely new,
442
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:51,160
because the Koran
specifically prohibited suicide.
443
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,600
In the past, you became a martyr
on the battlefield
444
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:59,520
because God chose the time and place
of your death.
445
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:01,920
But Khomeini changed this.
446
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:06,120
He did it by going back to one of
the central rituals of Shia Islam.
447
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:09,600
MUSIC PLAYS
448
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:12,200
Every year,
Shi'ites march in a procession
449
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,920
mourning the sacrifice
of their founder, Husayn.
450
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:18,320
As they do, they whip themselves,
451
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:21,120
symbolically re-enacting
Husayn's suffering.
452
00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:27,920
Khomeini said that
the ultimate act of penitence
453
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:30,120
was not just to whip yourself,
454
00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:31,480
but to kill yourself...
455
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:36,080
..providing it was for
the greater good of the revolution.
456
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:42,120
In the name of God,
the compassionate, the merciful,
457
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:43,520
good afternoon.
458
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:46,360
"An Iraqi Soviet-made MiG-23
was shot down
459
00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:49,480
"by the air-force jet fighters
of the Islamic Republic
460
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:52,240
"over the north-western Iranian
border region of Marivan
461
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:54,840
"at 10.08 hours local time,
Saturday,"
462
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:58,280
said the Joint Staff Commands
communique numbered 1710.
463
00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:01,600
Khomeini had mobilised this force
464
00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:04,440
when the country
was attacked by Iraq.
465
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:06,920
Iran faced almost certain defeat
466
00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:09,520
because Iraq
had far superior weapons,
467
00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:11,440
many of them supplied by America.
468
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:16,560
So, the revolutionaries
took tens of thousands of young boys
469
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:20,960
out of schools, put them on buses
and sent them to the front line.
470
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:22,920
CHANTING
471
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:26,480
Their job was to walk through
the enemies' minefields,
472
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:30,680
deliberately blowing themselves up
in order to open gaps
473
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:34,120
that would allow the Iranian army
to pass through unharmed.
474
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:40,680
It was organised suicide
on a vast scale.
475
00:34:43,240 --> 00:34:45,720
This human sacrifice
was commemorated
476
00:34:45,720 --> 00:34:49,200
in giant cemeteries
across the country.
477
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:51,960
Fountains flowing
with blood red-water
478
00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:54,280
glorified this new kind
of martyrdom.
479
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:17,680
And it was this new idea -
480
00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:20,240
of an unstoppable human weapon -
481
00:35:20,240 --> 00:35:23,560
that President Assad
took from Khomeini,
482
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:25,800
and brought to the West
for the first time.
483
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:28,480
But, as it travelled,
484
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:31,280
it would mutate
into something even more deadly.
485
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:34,600
Instead of just killing yourself,
486
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:38,880
you would take explosives with you
into the heart of the enemy
487
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:40,760
and then blow yourself up,
488
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:43,480
taking dozens or even hundreds
along with you.
489
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:47,280
It would become known
as "suicide bombing".
490
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:54,800
In October 1983, two suicide bombers
491
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:57,920
drove trucks into
the US marine barracks in Beirut.
492
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:06,000
It was seeing something move
that took me out of my trance.
493
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:09,920
And then I recognised, "Oh, yes,
marines were in that building.
494
00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:12,640
"A lot of marines
were in that building."
495
00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:15,520
And that's when I ran down and...
496
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:17,640
And it was a black...
black marine.
497
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:18,920
He looked white.
498
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:20,880
The dust had just covered him.
499
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:25,560
The massive explosions
killed 241 Americans.
500
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,640
The bombers were members
of a new militant group
501
00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:32,080
that no-one had heard of.
502
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:35,520
They called themselves Hezbollah
503
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:37,760
and, although many of them
were Iranian,
504
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:39,880
they were very much
under the control of Syria
505
00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:42,360
and the Syrian
intelligence agencies.
506
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:47,360
President Assad was using them
as his proxies to attack America.
507
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:55,680
Whoever carried out yesterday's
bombings - Shia Muslim fanatics,
508
00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:58,520
devotees of the Ayatollah Khomeini,
or whatever -
509
00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:01,320
it is Syria
who profits politically.
510
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:05,840
The most significant fact is that
the dissidents live and work
511
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:08,280
with Syrian protection.
512
00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:12,640
So, it is to Syria rather than to
the dissident group's guiding light,
513
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:16,240
Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, that we
must look for an explanation
514
00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:20,000
of the group's activities.
Destabilisation is Syria's
515
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:23,120
Middle-Eastern way of reminding
the world that Syria
516
00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:26,600
must not be left out of plans
for the future of the area.
517
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:39,240
There are no words that can express
our sorrow and grief
518
00:37:39,240 --> 00:37:42,360
for the loss of those
splendid young men
519
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:44,960
and the injury to so many others.
520
00:37:46,240 --> 00:37:51,000
These deeds make so evident
the bestial nature
521
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:53,920
of those who would assume power
522
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:58,920
if they could have their way
and drive us out of that area.
523
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:02,200
But despite his words,
within four months,
524
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:06,240
President Reagan withdrew all the
American troops from the Lebanon.
525
00:38:06,240 --> 00:38:09,520
The Secretary of State
George Shultz explained.
526
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,000
"We became paralysed by the
complexity that we faced," he said.
527
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:17,000
So, the Americans turned and left.
528
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:22,360
For President Assad,
it was an extraordinary achievement.
529
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:25,640
He was the only Arab leader to have
defeated the Americans
530
00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:28,000
and forced them
to leave the Middle East.
531
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:33,040
He had done it by using
the new force of suicide bombing.
532
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:34,800
A force that, once unleashed,
533
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,560
was going to spread
with unstoppable power.
534
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:41,520
But at this point,
both Assad and the Iranians
535
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:43,560
thought that they could control it.
536
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:47,480
And what gave it this
extraordinary power
537
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:49,160
was that it held out the dream
538
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:51,760
of transcending the corruptions
of the world
539
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:54,680
and entering a new and better realm.
540
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:57,640
TRANSLATION: One should defend
the realm of Islam and Muslims
541
00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:00,320
against heretics and invaders.
542
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:04,120
And to fulfil this duty, one should
even sacrifice one's life.
543
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,640
We believe that martyrs can overlook
our deeds from the other world.
544
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:13,880
It means that, after death,
545
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:17,400
the martyr lives and can still
witness this world.
546
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:48,040
By the middle of the 1980s,
the banks were rising up
547
00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:51,680
and becoming ever more powerful
in America.
548
00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:54,360
What had started ten years before
in New York,
549
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:58,880
the idea that the financial system
could run society,
550
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:00,240
was spreading.
551
00:40:00,240 --> 00:40:04,000
But unlike older systems of power,
it was mostly invisible.
552
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:07,520
A writer called William Gibson
553
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:09,600
tried to dramatise what was
happening
554
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:14,520
in a powerful, imaginative way,
in a series of novels.
555
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,680
Gibson had noticed how the banks
and the new corporations
556
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:22,960
were beginning to link themselves
together through computer systems.
557
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:25,760
What they were creating was
a series of giant networks of
558
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:30,280
information that were invisible
to ordinary people
559
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:32,520
and to politicians.
560
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:35,560
But those networks gave
the corporations
561
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:38,040
extraordinary new powers of control.
562
00:40:43,240 --> 00:40:45,920
'Good morning. South-West
Development. May I help you?'
563
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:48,760
Gibson gave this new world a name.
564
00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:52,880
He called it "cyberspace"
565
00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:56,920
and his novels described a future
that was dangerous and frightening.
566
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:02,360
Hackers could literally enter
into cyberspace and as they did,
567
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,200
they travelled through systems
that were so powerful
568
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:10,480
that they could reach out and crush
intruders by destroying their minds.
569
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:16,000
In cyberspace, there were no laws
and no politicians to protect you.
570
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:21,520
Just raw, brutal corporate power.
571
00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:35,400
But then, a strange thing happened.
572
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:37,840
A new group of visionaries
in America
573
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,600
took Gibson's idea of
a hidden, secret world
574
00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:44,720
and transformed it into something
completely different.
575
00:41:44,720 --> 00:41:48,080
They turned it
into a dream of a new utopia.
576
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:56,800
They were the technological utopians
who were rising up
577
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,880
on the West Coast of America.
578
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:03,160
They turned Gibson's idea
on its head.
579
00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:05,880
Instead of cyberspace
being a frightening place,
580
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:08,440
dominated by powerful corporations,
581
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:11,920
they reinvented it
as the very opposite.
582
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:17,120
A new, safe world where radical
dreams could come true.
583
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:21,320
Ten years before, faced by the
complexity of real politics,
584
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:26,280
the radicals had given up on
the idea of changing the world.
585
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:30,400
But now, the computer utopians
saw, in cyberspace,
586
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:32,560
an alternative reality.
587
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:37,000
A place they could retreat to away
from the harsh right-wing politics
588
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,480
that now dominated Reagan's America.
589
00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:46,160
The roots of this vision lay back
in the counterculture
590
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:50,320
of the 1960s,
and, above all, with LSD.
591
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:05,280
We've got some more acid over here
if you want to go ahead.
592
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:07,800
Many of those who had
taken LSD in the '60s
593
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:11,320
were convinced that it was more
than just another drug,
594
00:43:11,320 --> 00:43:13,280
that it opened human perception
595
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:15,480
and allowed people to see
new realities
596
00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:17,560
that were normally
hidden from them.
597
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:19,920
See, the ones that have white
in them are really great.
598
00:43:21,720 --> 00:43:23,200
SHE GIGGLES
599
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:26,160
I feel like a rabbit.
600
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:33,120
It freed them from the narrow,
limited view of the world
601
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:36,840
that was imposed on them by
politicians and those in power.
602
00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:39,400
In the United States, in the next,
five, ten, 15 years,
603
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:42,840
you're going to see more and more
people taking LSD and making it
604
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:46,400
a part of their lives, so there will
be an LSD country within 15 years.
605
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,480
An LSD society, there will
be less interest
606
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:51,560
in, obviously, warfare,
607
00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:53,200
in power politics.
608
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:56,720
You know, politics today is
a disease, it's a real addiction.
609
00:43:56,720 --> 00:43:58,520
Politics, politics, politics,
politics.
610
00:43:58,520 --> 00:44:01,840
Don't politick, don't vote -
these are old men's games.
611
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:04,600
Impotent and senile old man
that want to put you
612
00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:07,240
onto their old chess games
of war and power.
613
00:44:07,240 --> 00:44:11,920
20 years later, the new networks
of machines seemed to offer
614
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:14,880
a way to construct
a real alternate reality.
615
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,400
Not just one that was
chemically induced,
616
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:19,480
but a space that actually existed
617
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:22,120
in a parallel dimension
to the real world.
618
00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:26,680
And like with acid,
619
00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:30,560
cyberspace could be a place where
you would be liberated from the old,
620
00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:35,760
corrupt hierarchies of politics and
power and explore new ways of being.
621
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:42,640
One of the leading exponents of this
idea was called John Perry Barlow.
622
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:45,600
In the '60s, he had written songs
for the Grateful Dead
623
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:48,440
and been part of the acid
counterculture.
624
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:52,120
Now, he organised
what he called "cyberthons",
625
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:55,280
to try and bring the cyberspace
movement together.
626
00:44:57,120 --> 00:45:00,320
Well, you know, the cyberthon
as it was originally conceived
627
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:02,880
was supposed to be...
628
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:07,880
..the '90s equivalent of
the acid test
629
00:45:07,880 --> 00:45:12,040
and we had thought to involve
some of the same personnel.
630
00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:15,840
You and I and Timmy should sit down
and talk. OK. That is good.
631
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:19,640
And it immediately acquired
a financial quality
632
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:22,600
or a commercial quality
that was initially
633
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:24,560
a little unsettling
to an old hippy like me,
634
00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:28,160
but as soon as I saw it actually
working, then I thought,
635
00:45:28,160 --> 00:45:31,480
"Ah, well, if you're going to have
an acid test for the '90s,
636
00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:32,920
"money better be involved."
637
00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:36,840
Instead of having a glass barrier
that separates you -
638
00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:39,640
your mind - from the mind of
the computer,
639
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:43,560
the computer pulls us inside
and creates a world for us.
640
00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:46,880
Incorporates everything
that could be incorporated.
641
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:49,240
It incorporates experience itself.
642
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:52,960
Barlow then wrote a manifesto
643
00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:57,560
that he called A Declaration Of
Independence Of Cyberspace.
644
00:45:57,560 --> 00:45:59,800
It was addressed to all politicians,
645
00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,560
telling them to keep out
of this new world.
646
00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:06,880
It was going to be incredibly
influential,
647
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:11,240
because what Barlow did was give
a powerful picture of the internet
648
00:46:11,240 --> 00:46:14,640
not as a network controlled
by giant corporations,
649
00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:18,240
but, instead, as a kind
of magical, free place.
650
00:46:18,240 --> 00:46:22,040
An alternative to the
old systems of power.
651
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:25,440
It was a vision that would come
to dominate the internet
652
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:27,520
over the next 20 years.
653
00:46:31,600 --> 00:46:34,320
Governments of the industrial world,
654
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:38,240
cyberspace does not lie
within your borders.
655
00:46:38,240 --> 00:46:40,840
We are creating
a world where anyone,
656
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:44,760
anywhere, may express his or her
beliefs,
657
00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:47,040
no matter how singular,
658
00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:49,920
without fear of being coerced
659
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:52,720
into silence or conformity.
660
00:46:52,720 --> 00:46:57,160
I declare the global social space
we are building
661
00:46:57,160 --> 00:46:59,760
to be naturally independent
662
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:03,440
of the tyrannies you seek
to impose on us.
663
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:09,520
We will create a civilisation
of the mind in cyberspace.
664
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:11,560
May it be more humane and fair
665
00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:15,400
than the world your governments
have made before.
666
00:47:17,640 --> 00:47:19,040
It's begun.
667
00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,040
This is the key to a new order.
668
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:29,080
This code disk means freedom.
669
00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:37,080
But two young hackers in New York
thought that Barlow
670
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:39,840
was describing a fantasy world,
671
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:42,320
that his vision bore
no relationship at all
672
00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:44,400
to what was really emerging online.
673
00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:48,400
They were cult figures
on the early online scene
674
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:50,960
and their fans followed
and recorded them.
675
00:47:50,960 --> 00:47:54,840
They called themselves Phiber Optik
and Acid Phreak
676
00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:58,080
and they spent their time exploring
and breaking in
677
00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:00,880
to giant computer networks
that they knew
678
00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:05,120
were the hard realities
of modern digital power.
679
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:10,480
My specific instance, I was charged
with conspiracy
680
00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:14,720
to commit a few dozen "overacts",
they called them.
681
00:48:14,720 --> 00:48:20,160
Among a number of things having to
do with computer trespass and...
682
00:48:20,160 --> 00:48:23,600
and I guess computer eavesdropping,
interception.
683
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:26,680
Unauthorised access to federal
interest computers,
684
00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:30,960
which is pretty vague law.
685
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:33,800
Communications network
computers and so on.
686
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:39,320
In a notorious public debate online,
the two hackers attacked Barlow.
687
00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:42,600
What infuriated them most
was Barlow's insistence
688
00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:44,480
that there was no hierarchy
689
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:47,560
or controlling powers in
the new cyber world.
690
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:52,680
The hackers set out to demonstrate
that he was wrong.
691
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:54,920
Acid Phreak hacked into
the computers of
692
00:48:54,920 --> 00:48:57,720
a giant corporation called TRW.
693
00:48:57,720 --> 00:49:00,360
TRW had originally built the systems
694
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:03,240
that ran the Cold War
for the US military.
695
00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:07,760
They had helped create the
delicate balance of terror.
696
00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:12,960
Now, TRW had adapted their
computers to run a new system,
697
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:15,040
that of credit and debt.
698
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:20,200
Their computers gathered up the
credit data of millions of Americans
699
00:49:20,200 --> 00:49:24,360
and were being used by the banks to
decide individuals' credit ratings.
700
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:30,320
The hackers broke into the
TRW network,
701
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:33,680
stole Barlow's credit history
and published it online.
702
00:49:38,720 --> 00:49:42,520
The hackers were demonstrating
the growing power of finance.
703
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:45,120
How the companies that ran the new
systems of credit
704
00:49:45,120 --> 00:49:47,080
knew more and more about you,
705
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:51,480
and, increasingly, used that
information to control your destiny.
706
00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:55,320
But the system that was allowing
this to happen
707
00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:57,920
were the new
giant networks of information
708
00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:00,200
connected through computer servers.
709
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:08,080
The hackers were questioning whether
Barlow's utopian rhetoric
710
00:50:08,080 --> 00:50:13,000
about cyberspace might really be
a convenient camouflage
711
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:16,720
hiding the emergence of a new and
growing power
712
00:50:16,720 --> 00:50:19,120
that was way beyond politics.
713
00:50:49,600 --> 00:50:53,520
But cyberspace was not the only
imaginary story being created.
714
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,640
Faced with the humiliating defeat
in the Lebanon,
715
00:50:57,640 --> 00:51:00,800
President Reagan's government
was desperate to shore up
716
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:03,080
the vision of a moral world
717
00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:06,920
where a good America
struggled against evil.
718
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:11,240
And to do this they were going to
create a simple villain.
719
00:51:11,240 --> 00:51:13,800
An imaginary enemy, one that would
free them
720
00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:17,880
from the paralysing complexity of
real Middle-Eastern politics.
721
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:22,960
The perfect candidate was
waiting in the wings.
722
00:51:22,960 --> 00:51:25,920
Colonel Gaddafi, the ruler of Libya.
723
00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:35,720
The Americans were going to
ruthlessly use Colonel Gaddafi
724
00:51:35,720 --> 00:51:38,440
to create a fake terrorist
mastermind.
725
00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:44,760
And Gaddafi was going to happily
play along,
726
00:51:44,760 --> 00:51:49,040
because it would turn him into
a famous global figure.
727
00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:08,560
Colonel Gaddafi had taken power
in a coup in the 1970s
728
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:10,480
but from the very start,
729
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:14,480
he was convinced that he was more
than just the leader of one country.
730
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:17,880
He believed that he was
an international revolutionary
731
00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:21,240
whose destiny was to challenge
the power of the West.
732
00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:29,400
Gentlemen, the Queen.
733
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:37,440
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN PLAYS
734
00:52:37,440 --> 00:52:39,040
When he was a young officer,
735
00:52:39,040 --> 00:52:41,760
Gaddafi had been sent
to England for training
736
00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:45,120
and he had detested
the patronising racism
737
00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:48,640
that he said he had found
at the heart of British society.
738
00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:52,200
Yes, I attended a course.
739
00:52:52,200 --> 00:53:00,040
I had been in England in 1966
from February to August.
740
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:01,560
You had the best months.
741
00:53:01,560 --> 00:53:04,000
HE CHUCKLES
742
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:06,000
I was in Beaconsfield,
743
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:08,360
a village called Beaconsfield,
744
00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:11,640
in an army school.
745
00:53:14,120 --> 00:53:22,120
In fact, we were ill-treated in that
place from some British officers.
746
00:53:24,360 --> 00:53:30,200
I think the officers were Jews,
747
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:31,880
maybe Jews.
748
00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:34,160
Ill-treated in what sort of way?
749
00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:37,760
In many ways.
750
00:53:40,520 --> 00:53:43,760
They ill-treat us every time.
751
00:53:45,280 --> 00:53:48,480
By being rude or by bullying or...?
752
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:57,120
In their own behaviour towards us,
they ill-treated us.
753
00:53:57,120 --> 00:53:59,440
They hate us in there
754
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:02,480
because of colonisation.
755
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:04,280
It is the result of colonising.
756
00:54:08,640 --> 00:54:12,960
Once in power, Gaddafi had developed
his own revolutionary theory,
757
00:54:12,960 --> 00:54:17,120
which he called
the Third Universal Theory.
758
00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:21,040
It was an alternative, he said,
to communism and capitalism.
759
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:22,920
He published it in a green book,
760
00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:24,960
but practically no-one read it.
761
00:54:26,240 --> 00:54:29,160
He had sent money and weapons
to the IRA in Ireland
762
00:54:29,160 --> 00:54:32,440
to help them overthrow
the British ruling class.
763
00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:37,800
But all the other Arab leaders
rejected him and his ideas.
764
00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:40,600
They thought that he was mad.
765
00:54:40,600 --> 00:54:45,200
And by the mid-1980s,
Gaddafi was an isolated figure
766
00:54:45,200 --> 00:54:48,520
with no friends
and no global influence.
767
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:52,440
Then, suddenly, that changed.
768
00:54:56,480 --> 00:54:58,400
In December 1985,
769
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:01,960
terrorists attacked Rome
and Vienna airports simultaneously,
770
00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:03,880
killing 19 people,
771
00:55:03,880 --> 00:55:06,640
including five Americans.
772
00:55:06,640 --> 00:55:10,680
There was growing pressure on
President Reagan to retaliate.
773
00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:13,160
It's time to rename
your State Department
774
00:55:13,160 --> 00:55:15,240
the Capitulation Department.
775
00:55:15,240 --> 00:55:18,200
Get off of your stick, Mr President.
776
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:21,960
The American people are sick
and tired of being kicked around.
777
00:55:21,960 --> 00:55:23,560
You talk tough,
778
00:55:23,560 --> 00:55:26,560
let's see you use some
of these billions and billions
779
00:55:26,560 --> 00:55:28,760
and billions of dollars' worth
of weapons
780
00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:30,720
that you've asked us to approve.
781
00:55:30,720 --> 00:55:32,960
Your words are cheap talk.
782
00:55:32,960 --> 00:55:35,160
President Reagan
immediately announced
783
00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:38,880
that Colonel Gaddafi was
definitely behind the attacks.
784
00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:41,640
These murderers
could not carry out their crimes
785
00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:43,800
without the sanctuary and support
786
00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:47,320
provided by regimes
such as Colonel Gaddafi's in Libya.
787
00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:49,480
The Rome and Vienna murders
are only the latest
788
00:55:49,480 --> 00:55:54,360
in a series of brutal terrorist acts
committed with Gaddafi's backing.
789
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:58,080
But the European security services
who investigated the attacks
790
00:55:58,080 --> 00:56:01,200
were convinced that Libya
was not involved at all
791
00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:05,400
and that the mastermind behind
the attacks was, in fact, Syria -
792
00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:07,960
that the terrorists
had been directed
793
00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:10,160
by the Syrian intelligence agencies.
794
00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:15,720
But the Americans say that
the attack at Rome Airport
795
00:56:15,720 --> 00:56:20,280
was organised by Gaddafi,
not by Damascus. What do you say?
796
00:56:20,280 --> 00:56:23,680
No, we don't have any evidence...
You have no evidence?
797
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:28,840
..supporting such an...affirmation.
798
00:56:31,040 --> 00:56:33,800
The only evidence we have
799
00:56:33,800 --> 00:56:37,040
shows a Syrian connection.
800
00:56:37,040 --> 00:56:39,480
You say that it was Libya
and the President
801
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:44,240
said the evidence of Libya's
culpability was irrefutable. Yeah.
802
00:56:44,240 --> 00:56:48,560
But the Italian authorities to whom
I've spoken say emphatically
803
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:52,080
on the record that their
investigations have shown
804
00:56:52,080 --> 00:56:55,080
that it was entirely
masterminded by Syria.
805
00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:56,760
I don't agree with that at all.
806
00:56:56,760 --> 00:57:00,240
Well, they interrogated
the surviving terrorists.
807
00:57:00,240 --> 00:57:02,880
I must just say
I don't agree with that.
808
00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:05,400
But you've no evidence that Libya
was in on the planning either.
809
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:09,680
Our evidence on Libya is
circumstantial, but very strong.
810
00:57:09,680 --> 00:57:12,400
But why does the President
then say it's "irrefutable",
811
00:57:12,400 --> 00:57:14,240
if you call it "circumstantial"?
812
00:57:14,240 --> 00:57:18,000
Well, people can be convicted
and sentenced in our courts
813
00:57:18,000 --> 00:57:19,920
on circumstantial evidence.
814
00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:22,480
But what made it
even more confusing
815
00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:24,600
was that although there
seemed to be no evidence
816
00:57:24,600 --> 00:57:26,840
that Gaddafi had been
behind the attacks,
817
00:57:26,840 --> 00:57:30,280
he made no attempt
to deny the allegations.
818
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:32,480
Instead, he went the other way
819
00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:35,240
and turned the crisis
into a global drama...
820
00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:37,400
It is not a time of saying.
821
00:57:37,400 --> 00:57:39,000
It is a time of war,
822
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:41,320
a time of confrontation.
823
00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:44,360
..threatening suicide attacks
against America.
824
00:57:46,200 --> 00:57:49,720
TRANSLATION:
825
00:58:09,760 --> 00:58:11,960
Gaddafi now started to play a role
826
00:58:11,960 --> 00:58:14,480
that was going
to become very familiar.
827
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:16,680
He grabbed the publicity
that had been given to him
828
00:58:16,680 --> 00:58:19,320
by the Americans
and used it dramatically.
829
00:58:20,680 --> 00:58:23,880
He promoted himself as
an international revolutionary
830
00:58:23,880 --> 00:58:27,720
who would help to liberate
oppressed peoples around the world,
831
00:58:27,720 --> 00:58:29,600
even the blacks in America.
832
00:58:33,080 --> 00:58:35,760
Gaddafi arranged
for a live satellite link
833
00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:38,640
to a mass meeting of
the Nation Of Islam in Chicago.
834
00:58:39,760 --> 00:58:41,280
Brothers and sisters,
835
00:58:41,280 --> 00:58:44,520
it is with great honour and
privilege that I present to you
836
00:58:44,520 --> 00:58:48,480
the leader of the
al-Fateh Revolution from Libya,
837
00:58:48,480 --> 00:58:51,040
our brother Muammar al-Gaddafi.
838
00:58:51,040 --> 00:58:52,920
APPLAUSE
839
00:58:52,920 --> 00:58:56,200
Gaddafi told them that Libya
was now their ally
840
00:58:56,200 --> 00:58:59,040
in their struggle against
white America.
841
00:58:59,040 --> 00:59:05,320
..To express my full support
and support of my country
842
00:59:05,320 --> 00:59:09,400
to your struggle for freedom,
for emancipation.
843
00:59:09,400 --> 00:59:11,960
Gaddafi promised that
he would supply weapons
844
00:59:11,960 --> 00:59:15,560
to create a black army in America
of 400,000 men.
845
00:59:16,600 --> 00:59:20,440
"If white America refuses
to accept blacks as US citizens,"
846
00:59:20,440 --> 00:59:23,040
he told them,
"it must therefore be destroyed."
847
00:59:28,840 --> 00:59:32,400
Gaddafi also invited
a group of German rocket scientists
848
00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:35,160
to come to Libya
to build him a rocket.
849
00:59:35,160 --> 00:59:38,280
He insisted that
it had no military purpose.
850
00:59:38,280 --> 00:59:41,120
Libya was now going to
explore outer space.
851
00:59:43,920 --> 00:59:48,400
I think it is peaceful and civil...
852
00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:49,720
Civilian?
853
00:59:49,720 --> 00:59:52,160
..civilian activity
854
00:59:52,160 --> 00:59:55,320
for investigation of space
855
00:59:55,320 --> 00:59:56,720
and something like this
856
00:59:56,720 --> 01:00:03,640
and it has nothing to do
with any military things.
857
01:00:03,640 --> 01:00:05,560
But no-one believed him.
858
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:09,280
Journalists warned that Gaddafi was
really preparing to attack Europe,
859
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:12,160
vividly dramatising
the new danger.
860
01:00:12,160 --> 01:00:13,720
That is something like this
861
01:00:13,720 --> 01:00:15,960
which goes that way
to put something into space.
862
01:00:15,960 --> 01:00:18,840
But the same device tilted, say,
to an angle of 45 degrees
863
01:00:18,840 --> 01:00:21,800
could, of course,
become something very different -
864
01:00:21,800 --> 01:00:24,240
a missile possibly
carrying a warhead.
865
01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:28,120
That would put Libya
within range of an enormous area.
866
01:00:28,120 --> 01:00:31,920
A chilling proposition
with its range of 2,000km.
867
01:00:32,960 --> 01:00:36,200
The Americans and Gaddafi
now became locked together
868
01:00:36,200 --> 01:00:38,480
in a cycle of mutual reinforcement.
869
01:00:40,160 --> 01:00:43,280
In the process,
a powerful new image was created
870
01:00:43,280 --> 01:00:46,880
that was going to capture
the imagination of the West.
871
01:00:46,880 --> 01:00:50,200
Gaddafi became
a global supervillain,
872
01:00:50,200 --> 01:00:53,360
at the head of
what was called a "rogue state" -
873
01:00:53,360 --> 01:00:56,640
a madman who threatened
the stability of the world.
874
01:00:57,840 --> 01:01:00,920
And Gaddafi was loving
every minute of it.
875
01:01:00,920 --> 01:01:02,760
So, you think, in the past,
876
01:01:02,760 --> 01:01:07,440
his decisions sometimes
have been taken too quickly...
877
01:01:07,440 --> 01:01:10,560
Maybe, maybe.
..on world affairs? Maybe.
878
01:01:12,400 --> 01:01:15,800
I think, sometimes, that is what
has made people in the world
879
01:01:15,800 --> 01:01:17,720
nervous of you, perhaps? Maybe.
880
01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:22,720
HE CHUCKLES
881
01:01:37,880 --> 01:01:40,480
Then, there was
another terrorist attack
882
01:01:40,480 --> 01:01:42,600
at a discotheque in West Berlin.
883
01:01:46,560 --> 01:01:50,920
A bomb killed an American soldier
and injured hundreds.
884
01:01:50,920 --> 01:01:54,040
The Americans released
what they said were intercepts
885
01:01:54,040 --> 01:01:56,040
by the National Security Agency
886
01:01:56,040 --> 01:01:59,800
that proved that Colonel Gaddafi
was behind the bombing
887
01:01:59,800 --> 01:02:03,280
and a dossier that they said proved
that he was also the mastermind
888
01:02:03,280 --> 01:02:05,560
behind a whole range
of other attacks.
889
01:02:07,400 --> 01:02:09,920
President Reagan
ordered the Pentagon
890
01:02:09,920 --> 01:02:12,280
to prepare to bomb Libya.
891
01:02:12,280 --> 01:02:13,960
But again, there were doubts -
892
01:02:13,960 --> 01:02:17,120
this time, within the
American Government itself.
893
01:02:18,920 --> 01:02:21,800
There were concerns
that analysts were being pressured
894
01:02:21,800 --> 01:02:24,520
to make a case
that didn't really exist...
895
01:02:25,560 --> 01:02:29,560
..and to do it, they were taking
Gaddafi's rhetoric about himself
896
01:02:29,560 --> 01:02:33,040
as a global revolutionary
and his manic ravings
897
01:02:33,040 --> 01:02:35,400
and then re-presenting
them as fact.
898
01:02:36,680 --> 01:02:38,360
And, in the process, together,
899
01:02:38,360 --> 01:02:43,520
the Americans and Gaddafi were
constructing a fictional world.
900
01:02:43,520 --> 01:02:48,480
The analysts were certainly,
I'm convinced...
901
01:02:48,480 --> 01:02:53,160
pressured into developing
a prima facie case
902
01:02:53,160 --> 01:02:55,320
against the Libyan Government.
903
01:02:55,320 --> 01:03:01,240
From the somewhat
incoherent ravings of a maniac,
904
01:03:01,240 --> 01:03:06,120
both interceptions
of a clandestine nature
905
01:03:06,120 --> 01:03:11,960
and interceptions of an open radio
broadcast or whatever,
906
01:03:11,960 --> 01:03:15,360
as well as other sources,
quotations of his,
907
01:03:15,360 --> 01:03:19,760
one can assemble
a neatly-put-together package
908
01:03:19,760 --> 01:03:24,600
demonstrating that the man
had violent interests
909
01:03:24,600 --> 01:03:28,000
against the United States
and its European allies.
910
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:30,320
The European intelligence agencies
911
01:03:30,320 --> 01:03:32,560
told the Americans
that they were wrong,
912
01:03:32,560 --> 01:03:36,400
that it was Syria that was
behind the bombing, not Libya.
913
01:03:36,400 --> 01:03:39,040
But the Americans
had decided to attack Libya
914
01:03:39,040 --> 01:03:42,000
because they couldn't face
the dangerous consequences
915
01:03:42,000 --> 01:03:43,440
of attacking Syria.
916
01:03:44,800 --> 01:03:47,200
Instead, they went for Gaddafi,
917
01:03:47,200 --> 01:03:49,080
a man without friends or allies.
918
01:03:50,400 --> 01:03:56,040
Libya had less downsided
consequences, if you will.
919
01:03:56,040 --> 01:03:59,520
There's less Arab support
for Gaddafi,
920
01:03:59,520 --> 01:04:02,880
we figured there would be less
Soviet support for Gaddafi.
921
01:04:04,080 --> 01:04:10,440
There's no question that Libya was
more vulnerable than Syria and Iran.
922
01:04:10,440 --> 01:04:13,760
He was a soft target? And that
is certainly an element, of course.
923
01:04:17,200 --> 01:04:20,120
In April 1986,
the Americans attacked Libya.
924
01:04:21,840 --> 01:04:24,920
Their targets included
Colonel Gaddafi's own house.
925
01:04:25,960 --> 01:04:27,440
Immediately after the attack,
926
01:04:27,440 --> 01:04:31,320
Gaddafi appeared in the ruins
to describe what had happened.
927
01:04:31,320 --> 01:04:35,280
TRANSLATION: The family
were asleep and my wife
928
01:04:35,280 --> 01:04:37,720
was, that day, tied down to the bed
929
01:04:37,720 --> 01:04:40,000
because she had a slipped disc.
930
01:04:40,000 --> 01:04:41,720
I tried to rescue the children
931
01:04:41,720 --> 01:04:43,720
and the house started to collapse,
932
01:04:43,720 --> 01:04:45,160
as you can see.
933
01:04:45,160 --> 01:04:47,680
And the bombs started to land.
934
01:04:47,680 --> 01:04:50,120
They concentrated
on the children's room
935
01:04:50,120 --> 01:04:53,560
so that they would kill
all the children.
936
01:04:53,560 --> 01:04:56,120
Our small adopted daughter
was killed
937
01:04:56,120 --> 01:04:58,840
and two of our children
were injured.
938
01:04:58,840 --> 01:05:01,600
But, yet again,
Gaddafi might have been lying.
939
01:05:01,600 --> 01:05:02,760
Ever since then,
940
01:05:02,760 --> 01:05:07,440
there have been rumours that his
adopted daughter actually survived.
941
01:05:07,440 --> 01:05:10,040
But many other children
were killed in the raid
942
01:05:10,040 --> 01:05:12,840
because the American bombing
was so inaccurate.
943
01:05:14,280 --> 01:05:17,320
Gaddafi realised that
the attention of the whole world
944
01:05:17,320 --> 01:05:19,200
was now focused on him
945
01:05:19,200 --> 01:05:22,760
and he grabbed the moment to promote
his own revolutionary theory,
946
01:05:22,760 --> 01:05:26,840
The Third Way, as a
global alternative to democracy.
947
01:05:28,360 --> 01:05:31,840
TRANSLATION: I feel that
I'm really responsible
948
01:05:31,840 --> 01:05:35,000
for conveying the Third Way theory
and the Green Book
949
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:39,320
to the rising generations, to the
young American and British people,
950
01:05:39,320 --> 01:05:41,840
so that we can rescue America
and Britain
951
01:05:41,840 --> 01:05:45,760
and these generations
of young people from this theory,
952
01:05:45,760 --> 01:05:47,920
this electoral party theory
953
01:05:47,920 --> 01:05:50,760
which enabled an imbecile
like Reagan
954
01:05:50,760 --> 01:05:53,160
to rule the mightiest power on Earth
955
01:05:53,160 --> 01:05:56,240
and use it to destroy
other people's homes
956
01:05:56,240 --> 01:06:00,560
and enabled a harlot like Thatcher
to rule a great nation like Britain.
957
01:06:15,480 --> 01:06:19,120
MAN: Wow, look at that.
What the heck is that?
958
01:06:20,520 --> 01:06:22,680
Oh, my God, look at that.
959
01:06:27,160 --> 01:06:28,680
Holy crap!
960
01:06:34,240 --> 01:06:38,720
It's just moving really slowly. Wow!
961
01:06:38,720 --> 01:06:41,240
Look, look, look! Come here,
come here! What is it doing?
962
01:06:41,240 --> 01:06:42,560
What the heck?!
963
01:06:45,000 --> 01:06:46,440
Guys, it's...
964
01:06:46,440 --> 01:06:48,120
Whoa! Oh, my gosh!
965
01:06:48,120 --> 01:06:50,040
Wow!
966
01:06:50,040 --> 01:06:52,640
What is happening?
Dude, what is happening?!
967
01:06:52,640 --> 01:06:55,760
What is going on?
Oh, my gosh!
968
01:06:55,760 --> 01:07:01,600
Oh, my God, guys!
Guys, is that a freaking UFO?
969
01:07:02,680 --> 01:07:07,040
Wait, can you get a good video?
What is it? What the hell?
970
01:07:09,320 --> 01:07:12,360
In the 1980s, more and more people
in the United States
971
01:07:12,360 --> 01:07:15,800
reported seeing unexplained objects
and lights in the sky.
972
01:07:17,560 --> 01:07:20,880
At the same time,
investigators who believed in UFOs
973
01:07:20,880 --> 01:07:24,720
revealed that they had discovered
top-secret government documents
974
01:07:24,720 --> 01:07:28,280
that stated that alien craft
had visited Earth.
975
01:07:30,920 --> 01:07:33,720
The documents had been hidden
for 20 years
976
01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:37,240
and they seemed to prove that
there had been a giant cover-up.
977
01:07:39,240 --> 01:07:42,360
But, actually, the reality
was even stranger.
978
01:07:42,360 --> 01:07:45,880
The American Government
might have been making it all up,
979
01:07:45,880 --> 01:07:48,680
that they had created
a fake conspiracy
980
01:07:48,680 --> 01:07:51,480
to deliberately mislead
the population.
981
01:07:53,000 --> 01:07:55,560
The lights that people
imagined were UFOs
982
01:07:55,560 --> 01:07:59,600
may, in reality, have been
new high-technology weapons
983
01:07:59,600 --> 01:08:02,200
that the US Government were testing.
984
01:08:07,200 --> 01:08:09,240
The government
had developed the weapons
985
01:08:09,240 --> 01:08:10,720
because they, in turn,
986
01:08:10,720 --> 01:08:14,600
imagined that the Soviet Union
was far stronger than it was
987
01:08:14,600 --> 01:08:17,000
and still wanted to conquer
the world.
988
01:08:19,160 --> 01:08:21,920
The government wanted
to keep the weapons secret,
989
01:08:21,920 --> 01:08:25,760
but they couldn't always hide
their appearance in the skies
990
01:08:25,760 --> 01:08:29,440
so it is alleged that they chose
a number of people to use
991
01:08:29,440 --> 01:08:34,000
to spread the rumour that these
were really alien visitations.
992
01:08:34,000 --> 01:08:36,440
One of those chosen
was called Paul Bennewitz
993
01:08:36,440 --> 01:08:40,200
who lived outside
a giant air base in New Mexico
994
01:08:40,200 --> 01:08:42,880
and had noticed strange things
going on.
995
01:08:44,520 --> 01:08:46,600
Years later,
996
01:08:46,600 --> 01:08:49,160
I sat down with Paul at dinner
997
01:08:49,160 --> 01:08:52,840
and told Paul exactly
that everything we did
998
01:08:52,840 --> 01:08:56,440
was a sanctioned counterintelligence
operation to convince him
999
01:08:56,440 --> 01:08:58,840
that what he was seeing was UFOs
1000
01:08:58,840 --> 01:09:01,240
and that what we didn't want him
to know was
1001
01:09:01,240 --> 01:09:03,960
that he had tapped
into something on the base
1002
01:09:03,960 --> 01:09:07,520
and we didn't want him
to ever disclose that.
1003
01:09:07,520 --> 01:09:10,440
We kind of planted the seed in Paul
1004
01:09:10,440 --> 01:09:12,640
that what he was seeing
and what he was hearing
1005
01:09:12,640 --> 01:09:15,200
and what he was collecting
was, in fact,
1006
01:09:15,200 --> 01:09:16,800
probably, maybe, UFOs.
1007
01:09:16,800 --> 01:09:19,880
Bennewitz and others
chosen by the agency
1008
01:09:19,880 --> 01:09:23,560
were, it is alleged,
given a series of forged documents.
1009
01:09:23,560 --> 01:09:26,640
Many of them were top-secret memos
by the military
1010
01:09:26,640 --> 01:09:30,400
describing sightings of
unidentified aerial vehicles.
1011
01:09:32,520 --> 01:09:35,080
The documents spread like wildfire
1012
01:09:35,080 --> 01:09:38,280
and they formed the basis
for the wave of belief in UFOs
1013
01:09:38,280 --> 01:09:41,880
that would spread through
America in the 1990s.
1014
01:09:45,560 --> 01:09:47,800
What the fuck is that? That's a...
1015
01:09:53,640 --> 01:09:55,160
That's crazy, bro.
1016
01:09:58,480 --> 01:10:00,080
Is that that space, uh...?
1017
01:10:01,880 --> 01:10:05,200
And it also fuelled
the wider growing belief
1018
01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:07,600
that governments lied to you -
1019
01:10:07,600 --> 01:10:09,720
that conspiracies were real.
1020
01:10:13,520 --> 01:10:16,080
What the Reagan administration
were doing,
1021
01:10:16,080 --> 01:10:19,240
both with Colonel Gaddafi
and with the UFOs,
1022
01:10:19,240 --> 01:10:22,120
was a blurring of fact and fiction
1023
01:10:22,120 --> 01:10:24,760
but it was part of
an even broader programme.
1024
01:10:26,200 --> 01:10:29,440
The President's advisers
had given it a name -
1025
01:10:29,440 --> 01:10:32,200
they called it
"perception management"
1026
01:10:32,200 --> 01:10:35,000
and it became a central part
of the American Government
1027
01:10:35,000 --> 01:10:36,520
during the 1980s.
1028
01:10:38,920 --> 01:10:43,680
The aim was to tell dramatic stories
that grabbed the public imagination,
1029
01:10:43,680 --> 01:10:45,520
not just about the Middle East,
1030
01:10:45,520 --> 01:10:47,680
but about Central America
1031
01:10:47,680 --> 01:10:49,360
and the Soviet Union
1032
01:10:49,360 --> 01:10:53,240
and it didn't matter
if the stories were true or not,
1033
01:10:53,240 --> 01:10:57,400
providing they distracted people
and you, the politician,
1034
01:10:57,400 --> 01:10:59,320
from having to deal with
1035
01:10:59,320 --> 01:11:03,040
the intractable complexities
of the real world.
1036
01:11:12,760 --> 01:11:14,200
Reality became less and less
1037
01:11:14,200 --> 01:11:16,600
of an important factor
in American politics.
1038
01:11:16,600 --> 01:11:19,240
It wasn't what was real that was
driving anything
1039
01:11:19,240 --> 01:11:21,320
or the facts driving anything.
1040
01:11:21,320 --> 01:11:23,760
It was how you could turn those
facts or twist those facts
1041
01:11:23,760 --> 01:11:26,640
or even make up the facts to make
your opponent look bad.
1042
01:11:26,640 --> 01:11:29,240
So, perception management became
a device
1043
01:11:29,240 --> 01:11:32,920
and the facts could be twisted.
Anything could be anything.
1044
01:11:32,920 --> 01:11:36,000
It becomes how can you manipulate
the American people?
1045
01:11:36,000 --> 01:11:38,640
And, in the process, reality
becomes what?
1046
01:11:38,640 --> 01:11:42,320
Reality becomes simply something
to play with to achieve that end.
1047
01:11:42,320 --> 01:11:45,280
Reality is not important
in this context.
1048
01:11:45,280 --> 01:11:47,880
Reality is simply something
that you handle.
1049
01:11:52,120 --> 01:11:55,720
But something was about to happen
that would demonstrate dramatically
1050
01:11:55,720 --> 01:12:00,840
just how far the American Government
had detached from reality.
1051
01:12:00,840 --> 01:12:03,120
The Soviet Empire was about
to implode.
1052
01:12:06,800 --> 01:12:09,360
And no-one, none of the
politicians,
1053
01:12:09,360 --> 01:12:10,840
or the journalists,
1054
01:12:10,840 --> 01:12:12,640
or the think tank experts,
1055
01:12:12,640 --> 01:12:13,960
or the economists,
1056
01:12:13,960 --> 01:12:16,280
or the academics saw it coming.
1057
01:12:51,320 --> 01:12:53,040
That's it! Whoo!
1058
01:12:53,040 --> 01:12:55,280
Get ready to work out.
1059
01:13:34,280 --> 01:13:35,560
GUNSHOTS
1060
01:14:51,760 --> 01:14:53,640
The collapse of the Soviet Union
1061
01:14:53,640 --> 01:14:57,200
also had a powerful effect
on the West.
1062
01:14:57,200 --> 01:15:00,400
For many, it symbolised the final
failure of the dream
1063
01:15:00,400 --> 01:15:03,720
that politics could be used to build
a new kind of world.
1064
01:15:06,000 --> 01:15:09,720
What was going to emerge instead
was a new system that had nothing
1065
01:15:09,720 --> 01:15:11,360
to do with politics.
1066
01:15:12,600 --> 01:15:15,800
A system whose aim was not to try
and change things,
1067
01:15:15,800 --> 01:15:19,360
but rather, to manage
a post-political world.
1068
01:15:24,920 --> 01:15:28,080
One of the first people to describe
this dramatic change
1069
01:15:28,080 --> 01:15:31,680
was a left-wing German political
thinker called Ulrich Beck.
1070
01:15:33,040 --> 01:15:36,120
Beck said that any politician who
believed that they could take
1071
01:15:36,120 --> 01:15:39,160
control of society, and drive it
forward to build
1072
01:15:39,160 --> 01:15:41,920
a better future, was now
seen as dangerous.
1073
01:15:44,400 --> 01:15:47,800
In the past, politicians might have
been able to do this.
1074
01:15:47,800 --> 01:15:51,280
But now they were faced with what
he called "a runaway world."
1075
01:15:52,560 --> 01:15:55,280
Where things were
so complex and interconnected,
1076
01:15:55,280 --> 01:15:59,200
and modern technologies
so potentially dangerous
1077
01:15:59,200 --> 01:16:03,760
that it was impossible to predict
the outcomes of anything you did.
1078
01:16:03,760 --> 01:16:07,000
The catalogue of environmental
disasters proved this.
1079
01:16:08,760 --> 01:16:12,120
Politicians would have to give up
any idea of trying to change
1080
01:16:12,120 --> 01:16:13,920
the world.
1081
01:16:13,920 --> 01:16:17,320
Instead, their new aim would be
to try and predict the dangers
1082
01:16:17,320 --> 01:16:21,080
in the future, and then, find ways
to avoid those risks.
1083
01:16:25,440 --> 01:16:27,920
Although Beck came
from the political left,
1084
01:16:27,920 --> 01:16:30,720
the world he saw coming was deeply
conservative.
1085
01:16:32,640 --> 01:16:33,880
The picture he gave
1086
01:16:33,880 --> 01:16:38,280
was of a political class reduced to
trying to steer society
1087
01:16:38,280 --> 01:16:41,000
into a dark and frightening future.
1088
01:16:41,000 --> 01:16:42,800
Constantly peering forward
1089
01:16:42,800 --> 01:16:45,720
and trying to see the risks
coming towards them.
1090
01:16:47,160 --> 01:16:50,560
Their only aim, to avoid those risks
1091
01:16:50,560 --> 01:16:52,960
and keep society stable.
1092
01:16:52,960 --> 01:16:55,720
It only lasted for a few seconds
so you were basically shocked,
1093
01:16:55,720 --> 01:16:57,840
you really didn't know what
was going on at the time.
1094
01:16:57,840 --> 01:17:00,280
Where were you in the building
and where was the explosion?
1095
01:17:00,280 --> 01:17:02,800
EXPLOSION
1096
01:17:00,280 --> 01:17:02,800
Oh, my God!
1097
01:17:04,240 --> 01:17:06,880
But a system that could
anticipate the future
1098
01:17:06,880 --> 01:17:10,520
and keep society stable was already
being built,
1099
01:17:10,520 --> 01:17:13,640
pieced together
from all kinds of different,
1100
01:17:13,640 --> 01:17:16,200
and sometimes surprising, sources.
1101
01:17:16,200 --> 01:17:18,040
All of them outside politics.
1102
01:17:19,600 --> 01:17:22,600
One part of it was taking shape
in a tiny town
1103
01:17:22,600 --> 01:17:26,640
in the far north-west of the United
States called East Wenatchee.
1104
01:17:28,200 --> 01:17:29,720
It was a giant computer
1105
01:17:29,720 --> 01:17:32,760
whose job was to make
the future predictable.
1106
01:17:41,880 --> 01:17:44,760
The man building it was
a banker called Larry Fink.
1107
01:17:48,040 --> 01:17:49,200
Back in 1986,
1108
01:17:49,200 --> 01:17:52,000
Mr Fink's career had collapsed.
1109
01:17:52,000 --> 01:17:53,240
Shoot!
1110
01:17:55,000 --> 01:17:58,600
He lost $100 million in a deal
and had been sacked.
1111
01:18:00,560 --> 01:18:03,320
He became determined
it wouldn't happen again.
1112
01:18:07,640 --> 01:18:10,360
Fink started a company called
BlackRock and built
1113
01:18:10,360 --> 01:18:12,720
a computer he called Aladdin.
1114
01:18:14,000 --> 01:18:16,080
It is housed in a series
of large sheds
1115
01:18:16,080 --> 01:18:18,960
in the apple orchards
outside Wenatchee.
1116
01:18:21,400 --> 01:18:24,880
Fink's aim was to use the computer
to predict, with certainty,
1117
01:18:24,880 --> 01:18:27,960
what the risk of any deal
or investment was going to be.
1118
01:18:29,680 --> 01:18:32,880
The computer constantly
monitors the world
1119
01:18:32,880 --> 01:18:35,360
and it take things that it sees
happening,
1120
01:18:35,360 --> 01:18:38,000
and then, compares them to events
in the past.
1121
01:18:39,760 --> 01:18:42,800
It can do this because it has,
in its memory, a vast history
1122
01:18:42,800 --> 01:18:47,640
of the past 50 years. Not just
financial, but all kinds of events.
1123
01:18:49,280 --> 01:18:51,640
Out of the millions and millions
of correlations,
1124
01:18:51,640 --> 01:18:54,520
the computer
then spots possible disasters,
1125
01:18:54,520 --> 01:18:57,200
possible dangers lying in the
future
1126
01:18:57,200 --> 01:19:01,160
and moves the investments
to avoid any radical change
1127
01:19:01,160 --> 01:19:03,640
and keep the system stable.
1128
01:19:03,640 --> 01:19:07,240
Today, I'm going
to deliver 1.8 million reports.
1129
01:19:07,240 --> 01:19:09,240
Execute 25,000 trades.
1130
01:19:09,240 --> 01:19:10,800
And avert 3,000 disasters.
1131
01:19:10,800 --> 01:19:13,440
I'm going to monitor interest rates
in Europe.
1132
01:19:13,440 --> 01:19:16,080
Silver prices in Asia.
Droughts in the Midwest.
1133
01:19:16,080 --> 01:19:18,680
I'm going to witness 4 billion
shares change hands on the
1134
01:19:18,680 --> 01:19:20,000
New York Stock Exchange.
1135
01:19:20,000 --> 01:19:24,120
And record the effects
on 14 trillion in assets
1136
01:19:24,120 --> 01:19:26,600
across 20,000 portfolios.
1137
01:19:26,600 --> 01:19:28,960
I am Aladdin. I am Aladdin.
1138
01:19:28,960 --> 01:19:32,440
And, today, I'll find the numbers
behind the numbers.
1139
01:19:32,440 --> 01:19:34,640
I will see the trends the models
don't.
1140
01:19:34,640 --> 01:19:36,320
The connections. The risks.
1141
01:19:37,440 --> 01:19:41,360
I am Aladdin. I am Aladdin, and I
will get the data right.
1142
01:19:41,360 --> 01:19:43,240
I am 25 million lines of code.
1143
01:19:43,240 --> 01:19:45,280
Written by hundreds of people.
1144
01:19:45,280 --> 01:19:46,920
Across two decades.
1145
01:19:46,920 --> 01:19:48,760
I'm smarter than any algorithm.
1146
01:19:48,760 --> 01:19:50,760
More powerful than any processor.
1147
01:19:50,760 --> 01:19:52,000
Because I am Aladdin.
1148
01:19:52,000 --> 01:19:53,240
Because I am Aladdin.
1149
01:19:54,440 --> 01:19:55,720
I am Aladdin.
1150
01:19:55,720 --> 01:19:57,240
I am Aladdin...
1151
01:20:01,040 --> 01:20:04,160
Aladdin has proved to be
incredibly successful.
1152
01:20:04,160 --> 01:20:06,560
The assets it guides and controls
1153
01:20:06,560 --> 01:20:08,600
now amount to $15 trillion,
1154
01:20:08,600 --> 01:20:12,080
which is 7% of the world's
total wealth.
1155
01:20:18,000 --> 01:20:20,840
But Wenatchee
was also a dramatic example
1156
01:20:20,840 --> 01:20:22,640
of another kind of craving
1157
01:20:22,640 --> 01:20:24,840
for stability and reassurance.
1158
01:20:24,840 --> 01:20:26,840
More of its citizens
took Prozac
1159
01:20:26,840 --> 01:20:29,520
than practically
any other town in America.
1160
01:20:31,440 --> 01:20:35,880
When a person's central nervous
system is changed by an SSRI,
1161
01:20:35,880 --> 01:20:38,920
with that medicine they will view
things differently
1162
01:20:38,920 --> 01:20:41,480
and they will be strangers.
1163
01:20:41,480 --> 01:20:43,200
They look at things differently.
1164
01:20:43,200 --> 01:20:45,320
I have a chemical up here that
changes me.
1165
01:20:45,320 --> 01:20:46,480
I think differently.
1166
01:20:46,480 --> 01:20:49,320
For me it was like walking around
like this for my whole life
1167
01:20:49,320 --> 01:20:52,160
and really not knowing that I was
near-sighted. I mean, really.
1168
01:20:52,160 --> 01:20:54,120
I mean, no-one had ever offered
me glasses.
1169
01:20:54,120 --> 01:20:56,640
And then, all of a sudden,
here comes somebody that says,
1170
01:20:56,640 --> 01:20:59,160
"OK, now try these on.
Try this Prozac on."
1171
01:20:59,160 --> 01:21:02,200
And I tried it on and for the
first time in my life I went,
1172
01:21:02,200 --> 01:21:05,840
"Whoa! Is this the way
reality really is?"
1173
01:21:05,840 --> 01:21:08,160
Your perception can be changed
and it's frightening
1174
01:21:08,160 --> 01:21:10,000
and it's scary to people.
1175
01:21:10,000 --> 01:21:12,960
It speaks of science fiction almost.
1176
01:21:20,120 --> 01:21:24,760
Well, the medicine just kind of lets
you listen to what needs to go on.
1177
01:21:24,760 --> 01:21:27,160
And then your doctor,
every time you come back, says,
1178
01:21:27,160 --> 01:21:29,440
"You're looking so much better."
1179
01:21:29,440 --> 01:21:31,960
And then every time I go in he goes,
1180
01:21:31,960 --> 01:21:34,520
"You're so beautiful." You know?
1181
01:21:34,520 --> 01:21:37,640
He isn't even sucking up.
He's being nice, you know?
1182
01:21:37,640 --> 01:21:40,200
"You're beautiful, you're nice,
you're friendly.
1183
01:21:40,200 --> 01:21:44,080
"You've got so much going for you."
I think, "Yeah, I do."
1184
01:21:44,080 --> 01:21:45,960
So, I go out and tell my friends,
1185
01:21:45,960 --> 01:21:48,240
"I feel so much better
about myself."
1186
01:21:48,240 --> 01:21:51,360
Mom goes out, "Oh, I feel so much
better about myself."
1187
01:21:51,360 --> 01:21:54,440
So, your friends start saying,
"I've seen such an improvement.
1188
01:21:54,440 --> 01:21:56,320
"I've seen such improvement."
1189
01:21:56,320 --> 01:21:59,280
And everybody improves all the way
around. They see improvement.
1190
01:21:59,280 --> 01:22:03,160
It's like everybody's brainwashing
each other into being happy.
1191
01:22:05,720 --> 01:22:08,360
But there was a more effective way
of reassuring people
1192
01:22:08,360 --> 01:22:12,160
that was being developed that did
not involve medication.
1193
01:22:15,320 --> 01:22:18,160
It, too, came from computer systems
1194
01:22:18,160 --> 01:22:20,880
but this time,
artificial intelligence.
1195
01:22:22,120 --> 01:22:25,080
But the way to do it
had been discovered by accident.
1196
01:22:33,480 --> 01:22:36,160
Back in the 1960s, there had been
optimistic dreams
1197
01:22:36,160 --> 01:22:38,800
that it would
be possible to develop computers
1198
01:22:38,800 --> 01:22:40,840
that could think like human beings.
1199
01:22:43,640 --> 01:22:46,600
Scientists then spent years
trying to programme the rules
1200
01:22:46,600 --> 01:22:48,360
that governed human thought...
1201
01:22:50,600 --> 01:22:52,120
..but they never worked.
1202
01:22:59,040 --> 01:23:01,120
One computer scientist, at MIT,
1203
01:23:01,120 --> 01:23:05,080
became so disillusioned that he
decided to build a computer
programme
1204
01:23:05,080 --> 01:23:08,080
that would parody
these hopeless attempts.
1205
01:23:09,320 --> 01:23:11,560
He was called Joseph Weizenbaum
1206
01:23:11,560 --> 01:23:16,240
and he built what he claimed
was a computer psychotherapist.
1207
01:23:16,240 --> 01:23:19,800
Just like a therapist, people could
come and talk to the machine
1208
01:23:19,800 --> 01:23:21,440
by typing in their problems.
1209
01:23:24,120 --> 01:23:26,640
Weizenbaum called the programme
"Eliza".
1210
01:23:27,800 --> 01:23:30,880
He modelled it on a real
psychotherapist called Carl Rogers
1211
01:23:30,880 --> 01:23:33,880
who was famous for simply
repeating back to the patient
1212
01:23:33,880 --> 01:23:35,240
what they had just said.
1213
01:23:36,840 --> 01:23:38,360
And that is what Eliza did.
1214
01:23:39,400 --> 01:23:41,720
The patient sat in front of the
screen and typed in
1215
01:23:41,720 --> 01:23:43,560
what they were feeling
1216
01:23:43,560 --> 01:23:46,920
and the programme repeated it back
to them,
1217
01:23:46,920 --> 01:23:48,720
often in the form of a question.
1218
01:24:06,320 --> 01:24:09,000
He says I'm depressed much
of the time.
1219
01:24:17,840 --> 01:24:19,560
Well, I need some help.
1220
01:24:19,560 --> 01:24:21,480
That much seems certain.
1221
01:24:21,480 --> 01:24:25,400
One of the first people to use Eliza
was Weizenbaum's secretary
1222
01:24:25,400 --> 01:24:29,080
and her reaction was something
that he had not predicted at all.
1223
01:24:30,480 --> 01:24:33,000
I asked her to my office and sat her
down at the keyboard
1224
01:24:33,000 --> 01:24:34,920
and then she began to type and, of
course,
1225
01:24:34,920 --> 01:24:37,200
I looked over her shoulder to
make sure everything
1226
01:24:37,200 --> 01:24:40,160
was operating properly.
After two or three interchanges
1227
01:24:40,160 --> 01:24:42,760
with the machine she turned to
me and she said,
1228
01:24:42,760 --> 01:24:45,240
"Would you mind
leaving the room, please?"
1229
01:24:45,240 --> 01:24:50,200
And yet she knew, as Weizenbaum did,
that Eliza didn't understand
1230
01:24:50,200 --> 01:24:52,760
a single word that was being
typed into it.
1231
01:24:54,080 --> 01:24:56,880
You're like my father in some ways.
1232
01:24:56,880 --> 01:25:00,440
You don't argue with me. Why do you
think I don't argue with you?
1233
01:25:01,480 --> 01:25:05,200
You're afraid of me. Does it please
you to think I'm afraid of you?
1234
01:25:06,200 --> 01:25:08,120
My father's afraid of everybody.
1235
01:25:10,840 --> 01:25:12,560
My father's afraid of everybody...
1236
01:25:12,560 --> 01:25:14,200
Weizenbaum was astonished.
1237
01:25:14,200 --> 01:25:18,960
He discovered that everyone who
tried Eliza became engrossed.
1238
01:25:18,960 --> 01:25:21,240
They would sit for hours
telling the machine
1239
01:25:21,240 --> 01:25:22,720
about their inner feelings
1240
01:25:22,720 --> 01:25:25,400
and incredibly intimate details
of their lives.
1241
01:25:26,880 --> 01:25:29,000
They also liked it
because it was free
1242
01:25:29,000 --> 01:25:31,240
of any kind of
patronising elitism.
1243
01:25:32,480 --> 01:25:37,240
One person said, "After all,
the computer doesn't burn out,
1244
01:25:37,240 --> 01:25:40,640
"look down on you,
or try to have sex with you."
1245
01:25:44,840 --> 01:25:48,760
What Eliza showed was that, in an
age of individualism,
1246
01:25:48,760 --> 01:25:50,640
what made people feel secure
1247
01:25:50,640 --> 01:25:53,720
was having themselves reflected back
to them.
1248
01:25:55,320 --> 01:25:56,560
Just like in a mirror.
1249
01:26:07,440 --> 01:26:10,360
Artificial intelligence changed
direction
1250
01:26:10,360 --> 01:26:13,720
and started to create new systems
that did just that,
1251
01:26:13,720 --> 01:26:15,080
but on a giant scale.
1252
01:26:16,880 --> 01:26:19,080
They were called intelligent agents.
1253
01:26:20,080 --> 01:26:22,440
They worked by monitoring
individuals,
1254
01:26:22,440 --> 01:26:26,280
gathering vast amounts of data about
their past behaviour
1255
01:26:26,280 --> 01:26:29,120
and then looked for patterns
and correlations
1256
01:26:29,120 --> 01:26:32,880
from which they could predict
what they would want in the future.
1257
01:26:34,440 --> 01:26:36,800
It was a system that ordered
the world in a way
1258
01:26:36,800 --> 01:26:39,200
that was centred around you.
1259
01:26:39,200 --> 01:26:42,200
And in an age of anxious
individualism,
1260
01:26:42,200 --> 01:26:44,480
frightened of the future,
1261
01:26:44,480 --> 01:26:47,840
that was reassuring,
just like Eliza.
1262
01:26:48,880 --> 01:26:50,760
A safe bubble that protected you
1263
01:26:50,760 --> 01:26:53,920
from the complexities of the
world outside.
1264
01:26:59,080 --> 01:27:00,840
And the applications of this new
direction
1265
01:27:00,840 --> 01:27:02,920
proved fruitful and profitable.
1266
01:27:04,280 --> 01:27:07,080
If you liked that, you'll love this.
1267
01:27:14,240 --> 01:27:16,280
What was rising up in
different ways
1268
01:27:16,280 --> 01:27:19,520
was a new system that promised to
keep the world stable.
1269
01:27:20,760 --> 01:27:23,960
Its tentacles reached
into every area of our lives.
1270
01:27:25,240 --> 01:27:28,320
Finance promised that it could
control the unpredictability
1271
01:27:28,320 --> 01:27:29,840
of the free market...
1272
01:27:30,880 --> 01:27:33,360
..while individuals
were more and more monitored
1273
01:27:33,360 --> 01:27:36,320
to stabilise their physical and
mental states.
1274
01:27:37,520 --> 01:27:40,240
And, increasingly, the
intelligent agents online
1275
01:27:40,240 --> 01:27:43,520
predicted what people
would want in the future
1276
01:27:43,520 --> 01:27:45,400
and how they would behave.
1277
01:27:47,800 --> 01:27:50,160
But the biggest change
was to politics.
1278
01:27:51,520 --> 01:27:55,160
In a world where the overriding
aim was now stability,
1279
01:27:55,160 --> 01:27:59,520
politics became just part of a wider
system of managing the world.
1280
01:28:01,680 --> 01:28:04,040
The old idea of democratic
politics,
1281
01:28:04,040 --> 01:28:08,320
that it gave a voice to the weak
against the powerful, was eroded.
1282
01:28:10,600 --> 01:28:14,520
And a resentment began to quietly
grow out on the edges of society.
1283
01:28:48,680 --> 01:28:52,240
But the new system did have
a dangerous flaw.
1284
01:28:52,240 --> 01:28:55,680
Because in the real world,
not everything can be predicted
1285
01:28:55,680 --> 01:28:57,680
by reading data from the past.
1286
01:29:02,000 --> 01:29:04,480
And someone who was about to
discover that,
1287
01:29:04,480 --> 01:29:06,480
to his own cost, was Donald Trump.
1288
01:29:12,040 --> 01:29:16,480
One day a man called Jess Marcum
received a phone call.
1289
01:29:16,480 --> 01:29:17,920
It was from Donald Trump
1290
01:29:17,920 --> 01:29:20,000
and Trump was desperate for help.
1291
01:29:22,600 --> 01:29:25,400
Marcum was a strange,
mysterious figure.
1292
01:29:25,400 --> 01:29:27,640
He had been a nuclear scientist
in the 1950s
1293
01:29:27,640 --> 01:29:31,320
and studied the effect of radiation
from nuclear weapons
1294
01:29:31,320 --> 01:29:33,000
on the human body.
1295
01:29:35,920 --> 01:29:39,760
Then Marcum had gone to Las Vegas
and become obsessed by gambling.
1296
01:29:40,840 --> 01:29:44,040
He had a photographic memory
and he used it to instantly
1297
01:29:44,040 --> 01:29:47,680
process the data of the games
as they were played.
1298
01:29:47,680 --> 01:29:50,800
From that, he could predict the
outcome.
1299
01:29:50,800 --> 01:29:52,240
And he always won.
1300
01:29:54,240 --> 01:29:57,280
The Las Vegas gangsters were
fascinated by him.
1301
01:29:57,280 --> 01:29:59,640
They called him "The Automat".
1302
01:29:59,640 --> 01:30:03,040
Where are we going?
Let's go. Go, go, go.
1303
01:30:03,040 --> 01:30:06,360
Donald Trump was one
of the heroes of the age.
1304
01:30:06,360 --> 01:30:09,520
But, in reality, much of this
success was a facade.
1305
01:30:10,760 --> 01:30:12,880
The banks that had lent Trump
millions
1306
01:30:12,880 --> 01:30:15,000
had discovered that he could no
longer
1307
01:30:15,000 --> 01:30:17,400
pay the interest on the loans.
1308
01:30:17,400 --> 01:30:20,240
Trump's empire
was facing bankruptcy.
1309
01:30:20,240 --> 01:30:24,240
His wife Ivana hated him
because he was having an affair
1310
01:30:24,240 --> 01:30:26,520
with Miss Hawaiian Tropic 1985.
1311
01:30:29,840 --> 01:30:34,280
And then, a famous Japanese gambler
called Akio Kashiwagi
1312
01:30:34,280 --> 01:30:36,480
came to one of Trump's casinos
1313
01:30:36,480 --> 01:30:38,600
and started to win millions
of dollars
1314
01:30:38,600 --> 01:30:40,480
in an extraordinary run of luck.
1315
01:30:41,760 --> 01:30:44,280
Trump, who was desperate for money,
1316
01:30:44,280 --> 01:30:46,480
panicked as day-after-day
he watched millions
1317
01:30:46,480 --> 01:30:48,600
being siphoned out of his casino.
1318
01:30:52,280 --> 01:30:55,560
So, he turned for help
to Jess Marcum.
1319
01:30:55,560 --> 01:30:59,320
Marcum came to Trump's casino
in Atlantic City.
1320
01:30:59,320 --> 01:31:03,280
He analysed all the data about the
way the Kashiwagi had been playing.
1321
01:31:04,440 --> 01:31:07,920
He then told Trump to suggest
a particular high-stakes game
1322
01:31:07,920 --> 01:31:11,320
that he knew the Japanese
gambler could not resist.
1323
01:31:13,160 --> 01:31:17,440
His model, Marcum said, predicted
that Kashiwagi had to lose.
1324
01:31:19,760 --> 01:31:23,160
And after five agonising days,
he did.
1325
01:31:23,160 --> 01:31:26,480
Kashiwagi lost $10 million
and he gave up.
1326
01:31:28,040 --> 01:31:29,880
Donald Trump was elated.
1327
01:31:29,880 --> 01:31:31,880
He thought he'd got his money back.
1328
01:31:45,600 --> 01:31:47,360
IN JAPANESE:
1329
01:31:52,040 --> 01:31:54,360
Before Kashiwagi could pay
his debt,
1330
01:31:54,360 --> 01:31:57,640
he was hacked to death in
his kitchen by Yakuza gangsters...
1331
01:31:59,160 --> 01:32:01,360
..and Donald Trump
didn't get his money.
1332
01:32:03,840 --> 01:32:05,680
Trump's business went bankrupt
1333
01:32:05,680 --> 01:32:09,040
and he was forced to sell most of
his buildings to the banks.
1334
01:32:10,480 --> 01:32:12,600
And he married Miss Hawaiian Tropic.
1335
01:32:14,200 --> 01:32:17,120
In the future, he would sell his
name to other people
1336
01:32:17,120 --> 01:32:18,480
to put on their buildings
1337
01:32:18,480 --> 01:32:22,120
and he himself would become
a celebrity tycoon.
1338
01:32:32,880 --> 01:32:35,440
President Assad
didn't want stability.
1339
01:32:35,440 --> 01:32:37,080
He wanted revenge.
1340
01:32:47,320 --> 01:32:48,960
In December 1988,
1341
01:32:48,960 --> 01:32:52,400
a bomb exploded on a Pan Am plane
over Lockerbie in Scotland.
1342
01:32:53,800 --> 01:32:56,600
Almost immediately, investigators
and journalists
1343
01:32:56,600 --> 01:32:58,240
pointed the finger at Syria.
1344
01:32:59,560 --> 01:33:03,000
"The bombing had been done," they
said, "in revenge for the Americans
1345
01:33:03,000 --> 01:33:06,920
"shooting down an Iranian airliner
in the Gulf a few months before."
1346
01:33:09,200 --> 01:33:12,560
And for 18 months, everyone agreed
that this was the truth.
1347
01:33:14,560 --> 01:33:16,640
But then, a strange thing happened.
1348
01:33:18,000 --> 01:33:21,640
The security agencies
said that they had been wrong.
1349
01:33:21,640 --> 01:33:23,240
It hadn't been Syria at all.
1350
01:33:24,320 --> 01:33:28,360
It was Libya who had been behind
the Lockerbie bombing.
1351
01:33:28,360 --> 01:33:31,960
But many journalists and politicians
did not believe it.
1352
01:33:31,960 --> 01:33:34,160
They were convinced
that the switch had happened
1353
01:33:34,160 --> 01:33:36,040
for the most cynical of reasons.
1354
01:33:37,280 --> 01:33:40,720
That America and Britain desperately
needed Assad as an ally
1355
01:33:40,720 --> 01:33:43,520
in the coming Gulf War against
Saddam Hussein.
1356
01:33:45,080 --> 01:33:49,640
So, once again, they blamed Colonel
Gaddafi as the terrorist mastermind.
1357
01:33:53,000 --> 01:33:55,520
Syria, of course, was,
unfortunately, accused
1358
01:33:55,520 --> 01:33:59,120
of many terrorist outrages and
of harbouring terrorist groups.
1359
01:33:59,120 --> 01:34:01,480
It appears that we have now
restored relations with them,
1360
01:34:01,480 --> 01:34:04,080
as have the Americans.
They're now our friends,
1361
01:34:04,080 --> 01:34:07,240
although we've got no real
assurances on the past whatsoever.
1362
01:34:07,240 --> 01:34:09,840
It strikes me as very strange indeed
that many of the things
1363
01:34:09,840 --> 01:34:12,840
we thought were previously
the responsibility of Syria
1364
01:34:12,840 --> 01:34:15,560
have now, dramatically, become
the responsibility of Libya.
1365
01:34:17,400 --> 01:34:19,680
But Assad was not really in control.
1366
01:34:19,680 --> 01:34:22,320
Because he had released forces
1367
01:34:22,320 --> 01:34:25,520
that no-one would be able
to control.
1368
01:34:25,520 --> 01:34:27,400
The force that, ten years before,
1369
01:34:27,400 --> 01:34:31,120
he had brought from Iran to attack
the West - the human bomb -
1370
01:34:31,120 --> 01:34:33,720
was now about to jump,
like a virus,
1371
01:34:33,720 --> 01:34:35,760
from Shia to Sunni Islam.
1372
01:34:42,520 --> 01:34:45,600
In December 1992,
the militant group Hamas
1373
01:34:45,600 --> 01:34:49,040
kidnapped an Israeli border guard
and stabbed him to death.
1374
01:34:50,400 --> 01:34:53,360
The Israeli response
was overwhelming.
1375
01:34:53,360 --> 01:34:56,280
They arrested 415 members of Hamas,
1376
01:34:56,280 --> 01:34:59,960
put them on buses and took them
to the top of a bleak mountain
1377
01:34:59,960 --> 01:35:02,000
in southern Lebanon.
1378
01:35:10,560 --> 01:35:12,680
They left them there -
1379
01:35:12,680 --> 01:35:15,640
and refused to allow any
humanitarian aid through.
1380
01:35:15,640 --> 01:35:18,000
THEY CHANT AND SHOUT
1381
01:35:20,640 --> 01:35:23,440
But the Israelis
had dumped the Hamas militants
1382
01:35:23,440 --> 01:35:25,520
in an area controlled by Hezbollah.
1383
01:35:26,640 --> 01:35:28,640
They spent six months there,
1384
01:35:28,640 --> 01:35:31,280
and during that time,
they learnt from Hezbollah
1385
01:35:31,280 --> 01:35:34,760
how powerful
suicide bombing could be.
1386
01:35:34,760 --> 01:35:37,280
Hezbollah told them how they
had used it
1387
01:35:37,280 --> 01:35:39,920
to force the Israelis out of Beirut
1388
01:35:39,920 --> 01:35:41,680
and back to the border.
1389
01:35:43,920 --> 01:35:46,720
The first sign that the idea
had spread to Hamas
1390
01:35:46,720 --> 01:35:48,760
was when a group of the deportees
1391
01:35:48,760 --> 01:35:52,240
marched in protest towards the
Israeli border,
1392
01:35:52,240 --> 01:35:55,280
dressed as martyrs,
as the Israelis shelled them.
1393
01:35:57,320 --> 01:35:59,720
But it soon became more
than just theatre.
1394
01:36:01,080 --> 01:36:04,080
Hamas began a wave of suicide
attacks in Israel.
1395
01:36:05,960 --> 01:36:09,080
REPORTER: Just before nine, at the
height of Tel Aviv's rush hour,
1396
01:36:09,080 --> 01:36:11,560
the bomb ripped apart
a commuter bus.
1397
01:36:11,560 --> 01:36:15,360
An amateur cameraman recorded
the scene in the moments afterwards
1398
01:36:15,360 --> 01:36:18,800
as a dazed woman was helped out
of the smouldering wreckage.
1399
01:36:21,400 --> 01:36:25,520
I didn't want to believe that under
my house there is a bomb.
1400
01:36:25,520 --> 01:36:27,280
And when I realised it's a bomb,
I...
1401
01:36:29,160 --> 01:36:30,920
I started to cry.
1402
01:36:30,920 --> 01:36:34,560
Because it was the first time
I saw it in Tel Aviv.
1403
01:36:34,560 --> 01:36:37,800
Hamas sent the bombers into
the heart of Israeli cities
1404
01:36:37,800 --> 01:36:41,680
to blow themselves up and kill
as many around them as possible.
1405
01:36:43,400 --> 01:36:47,600
In doing this, Hamas were going much
further than Hezbollah ever had.
1406
01:36:47,600 --> 01:36:49,800
They were targeting civilians,
1407
01:36:49,800 --> 01:36:51,920
something Hezbollah had never done.
1408
01:36:53,120 --> 01:36:55,200
The tactic shocked the Sunni world.
1409
01:36:56,200 --> 01:36:59,800
This was something completely
alien to its history.
1410
01:36:59,800 --> 01:37:02,600
Not only did the
Koran forbid suicide,
1411
01:37:02,600 --> 01:37:05,960
but Sunni Islam did not have any
rituals of self-sacrifice -
1412
01:37:05,960 --> 01:37:07,360
unlike the Shias.
1413
01:37:08,760 --> 01:37:11,520
The most senior religious leader
in Saudi Arabia
1414
01:37:11,520 --> 01:37:12,840
insisted it was wrong.
1415
01:37:14,320 --> 01:37:16,560
But a mainstream theologian
from Egypt
1416
01:37:16,560 --> 01:37:20,400
called Sheikh Qaradawi
seized the moment.
1417
01:37:20,400 --> 01:37:23,000
He issued a fatwa that
justified the attacks.
1418
01:37:24,000 --> 01:37:27,960
"And," he added, "it was also
justified to kill civilians,
1419
01:37:27,960 --> 01:37:30,240
"because, in Israel, everyone -
1420
01:37:30,240 --> 01:37:33,160
"including women -
serve as reservists.
1421
01:37:33,160 --> 01:37:35,880
"So, really, they are all part
of the enemy army."
1422
01:37:41,040 --> 01:37:45,240
TRANSLATION: It's not suicide.
It is martyrdom in the name of God.
1423
01:37:45,240 --> 01:37:47,960
Islamic theologians and
jurisprudence
1424
01:37:47,960 --> 01:37:49,680
have debated this issue.
1425
01:37:49,680 --> 01:37:52,520
Israeli women are not like
women in our society,
1426
01:37:52,520 --> 01:37:55,560
because Israeli women
are militarised.
1427
01:37:55,560 --> 01:37:59,600
Secondly, I consider this type
of martyrdom operation
1428
01:37:59,600 --> 01:38:04,320
as an indication of justice
of Allah, our Almighty.
1429
01:38:04,320 --> 01:38:05,920
Allah is just.
1430
01:38:05,920 --> 01:38:07,560
Through his infinite wisdom,
1431
01:38:07,560 --> 01:38:11,320
he has given the weak
what the strong do not possess.
1432
01:38:11,320 --> 01:38:14,800
And that is their ability to turn
their bodies into bombs
1433
01:38:14,800 --> 01:38:17,000
like the Palestinians do.
1434
01:38:17,000 --> 01:38:19,720
Hamas kept sending the bombers
into Israel.
1435
01:38:19,720 --> 01:38:21,480
Sometimes day-after-day.
1436
01:38:22,560 --> 01:38:24,880
The horror overwhelmed
Israeli society
1437
01:38:24,880 --> 01:38:28,360
and it completely destroyed
the ability of politics
1438
01:38:28,360 --> 01:38:30,280
to solve the Palestinian crisis.
1439
01:38:33,000 --> 01:38:36,440
Instead,
in the Israeli election of 1996,
1440
01:38:36,440 --> 01:38:39,040
Benjamin Netanyahu took power.
1441
01:38:39,040 --> 01:38:43,320
He turned against the peace process,
which was exactly what Hamas wanted.
1442
01:38:44,840 --> 01:38:48,120
And from then on, the two sides
became locked together
1443
01:38:48,120 --> 01:38:50,520
in ever more horrific cycles
of violence.
1444
01:38:50,520 --> 01:38:52,520
# Netanyahu! #
1445
01:38:52,520 --> 01:38:55,080
The human bomb had destroyed
the very thing
1446
01:38:55,080 --> 01:38:57,440
that President Assad
had first wanted.
1447
01:38:58,760 --> 01:39:02,320
A real political solution
to the Palestinian question.
1448
01:39:04,120 --> 01:39:05,960
REPORTER:
It was just after one o'clock
1449
01:39:05,960 --> 01:39:08,000
and the market
was full of shoppers.
1450
01:39:08,000 --> 01:39:10,360
SIRENS WAIL
1451
01:39:10,360 --> 01:39:14,120
Streams of ambulances came to carry
away the dead and the injured.
1452
01:39:15,720 --> 01:39:18,240
It was a place of appalling
suffering.
1453
01:39:18,240 --> 01:39:19,720
But even with the first grief
1454
01:39:19,720 --> 01:39:23,840
came the immediate political
impact on the peace process.
1455
01:39:23,840 --> 01:39:24,960
Peace impossible!
1456
01:39:24,960 --> 01:39:27,560
This moment, it will be the end!
1457
01:39:27,560 --> 01:39:30,680
It must be the end of
this bloody peace process.
1458
01:39:42,160 --> 01:39:45,560
And, in America, all optimistic
visions of the future
1459
01:39:45,560 --> 01:39:47,000
had also disappeared.
1460
01:39:48,200 --> 01:39:51,400
Instead everyone in society
- not just the politicians -
1461
01:39:51,400 --> 01:39:55,200
but the scientists, the journalists,
and all kinds of experts
1462
01:39:55,200 --> 01:39:59,360
had begun to focus on the dangers
that might be hidden in the future.
1463
01:40:00,880 --> 01:40:03,640
This, in turn, created a pessimistic
mood
1464
01:40:03,640 --> 01:40:07,960
that then began to spread out
from the rational technocratic world
1465
01:40:07,960 --> 01:40:10,040
and infect the whole of the culture.
1466
01:40:13,600 --> 01:40:17,920
And everyone became possessed
by dark forebodings,
1467
01:40:17,920 --> 01:40:20,480
imagining the very worst
that might happen.
1468
01:40:31,080 --> 01:40:32,640
# Dream, baby, dream
1469
01:40:35,480 --> 01:40:37,520
# Dream, baby, dream
1470
01:40:38,640 --> 01:40:39,800
# Dream, baby, dream
1471
01:40:41,840 --> 01:40:43,680
# Dream, baby, dream
1472
01:40:44,760 --> 01:40:46,160
# Forever
1473
01:41:04,680 --> 01:41:06,720
# Oh, dream, baby, dream
1474
01:41:08,000 --> 01:41:09,800
# Dream, baby, dream
1475
01:41:11,520 --> 01:41:13,920
# Dream, baby, dream
1476
01:41:15,000 --> 01:41:17,080
# Dream, baby, dream
1477
01:41:18,440 --> 01:41:20,360
# Forever... #
1478
01:41:36,920 --> 01:41:38,480
SHATTERING EXPLOSIONS
1479
01:41:38,480 --> 01:41:40,800
# ..Dream, baby, dream
1480
01:41:40,800 --> 01:41:43,240
# Oh, baby, we gotta
keep that dream alive
1481
01:41:44,680 --> 01:41:46,680
# Keep that dream alive
1482
01:41:46,680 --> 01:41:48,040
# Forever
1483
01:41:49,360 --> 01:41:53,000
# Oh, dream, baby, dream
1484
01:41:53,000 --> 01:41:54,760
# Dream, baby, dream
1485
01:41:54,760 --> 01:41:56,320
# Dream, baby, dream
1486
01:41:56,320 --> 01:41:58,160
# Dream, baby, dream
1487
01:41:58,160 --> 01:42:00,640
# Oh, dream, baby, dream, baby,
dream, baby
1488
01:42:00,640 --> 01:42:03,160
# Dream, baby, dream, baby
1489
01:42:04,440 --> 01:42:06,560
# Oh, dream, baby, dream... #
SCREAMING
1490
01:42:06,560 --> 01:42:09,080
PANICKED SCREAMS
1491
01:42:16,760 --> 01:42:18,680
RUMBLING, SHATTERING GLASS
1492
01:42:25,080 --> 01:42:27,520
# Oh, you keep that fire,
burning, baby
1493
01:42:31,320 --> 01:42:34,040
# Oh, you gotta keep that flame
burning brightly, baby... #
1494
01:42:34,040 --> 01:42:36,360
CRASHING EXPLOSIONS
1495
01:42:36,360 --> 01:42:38,400
SILENCE
1496
01:42:50,680 --> 01:42:53,520
DISTANT SIRENS
1497
01:43:00,080 --> 01:43:04,600
The attacks in September 2001
were suicide bombs,
1498
01:43:04,600 --> 01:43:06,040
but now on a huge scale.
1499
01:43:08,000 --> 01:43:11,400
They demonstrated the terrifying
power of this new force
1500
01:43:11,400 --> 01:43:13,040
to penetrate all defences.
1501
01:43:14,040 --> 01:43:17,760
They had come to kill thousands
of Americans on their own soil.
1502
01:43:24,320 --> 01:43:25,520
20 years before,
1503
01:43:25,520 --> 01:43:29,480
President Reagan had been confronted
by the first suicide bombers.
1504
01:43:30,880 --> 01:43:33,800
They had been unleashed by
President Assad of Syria
1505
01:43:33,800 --> 01:43:36,080
to force America out
of the Middle East.
1506
01:43:37,720 --> 01:43:40,480
But rather than confront
the complexity of Syria
1507
01:43:40,480 --> 01:43:43,240
and Israel and the Palestinian
problem,
1508
01:43:43,240 --> 01:43:46,480
America had retreated
and left Syria -
1509
01:43:46,480 --> 01:43:48,320
and suicide bombing -
1510
01:43:48,320 --> 01:43:50,160
to fester and mutate.
1511
01:43:51,920 --> 01:43:54,680
They had gone instead
for Colonel Gaddafi
1512
01:43:54,680 --> 01:43:57,280
and turned him into
an evil global terrorist.
1513
01:43:59,560 --> 01:44:02,640
But, in the process, this changed
the way people saw
1514
01:44:02,640 --> 01:44:04,360
and understood terrorism.
1515
01:44:05,880 --> 01:44:09,760
Instead of a violence born out
of political struggles for power,
1516
01:44:09,760 --> 01:44:14,240
it became replaced by a much simpler
image of an evil tyrant
1517
01:44:14,240 --> 01:44:16,240
at the head of a rogue state
1518
01:44:16,240 --> 01:44:18,400
who became more like an
archcriminal
1519
01:44:18,400 --> 01:44:20,400
who wanted to terrorise the world.
1520
01:44:25,320 --> 01:44:28,600
All the politics and power
dropped away.
1521
01:44:28,600 --> 01:44:31,840
The problem was just them
and their evil personalities.
1522
01:44:37,880 --> 01:44:43,120
And after 9/11, this led to a new,
and equally simple, idea.
1523
01:44:43,120 --> 01:44:46,600
That if only you could remove
these tyrannical figures,
1524
01:44:46,600 --> 01:44:48,920
then the grateful people
of their country
1525
01:44:48,920 --> 01:44:52,360
would transform
naturally into a democracy,
1526
01:44:52,360 --> 01:44:55,000
because they would be free
of the evil.
1527
01:44:55,000 --> 01:44:59,120
We owe it to the future of
civilisation
1528
01:44:59,120 --> 01:45:03,080
not to allow the
world's worst leaders
1529
01:45:03,080 --> 01:45:07,080
to develop and deploy,
and therefore,
1530
01:45:07,080 --> 01:45:09,320
blackmail freedom-loving countries
1531
01:45:09,320 --> 01:45:11,280
with the world's worst weapons.
1532
01:45:11,280 --> 01:45:13,960
We know they've already got chemical
and biological weapons there.
1533
01:45:13,960 --> 01:45:16,160
We know that they're certainly doing
their best
1534
01:45:16,160 --> 01:45:17,960
to acquire nuclear
weapons technology.
1535
01:45:17,960 --> 01:45:19,640
If we allow them to do that,
1536
01:45:19,640 --> 01:45:21,600
and do nothing about it, then,
1537
01:45:21,600 --> 01:45:25,200
I think, later generations will
consider us deeply irresponsible.
1538
01:45:25,200 --> 01:45:30,120
Both Tony Blair and George Bush
became possessed by the idea
1539
01:45:30,120 --> 01:45:33,000
of ridding the world
of Saddam Hussein.
1540
01:45:33,000 --> 01:45:35,360
So possessed that they believed
any story
1541
01:45:35,360 --> 01:45:38,080
that proved his evil intentions.
1542
01:45:38,080 --> 01:45:41,920
And the line between reality and
fiction became ever more blurred.
1543
01:45:43,720 --> 01:45:48,520
In September 2002, the head
of MI6 rushed to Downing Street
1544
01:45:48,520 --> 01:45:52,400
to tell Blair excitedly that
they had finally found the source
1545
01:45:52,400 --> 01:45:55,000
that confirmed everything.
1546
01:45:55,000 --> 01:45:57,440
The source, he said,
had "direct access"
1547
01:45:57,440 --> 01:46:00,440
to Saddam Hussein's chemical
weapons programme
1548
01:46:00,440 --> 01:46:03,640
which was making vast quantities
of VX and sarin nerve agents.
1549
01:46:05,240 --> 01:46:10,000
The nerve agents were being loaded
into "linked hollow glass spheres".
1550
01:46:10,000 --> 01:46:11,760
But then someone in MI6 noticed
1551
01:46:11,760 --> 01:46:15,680
that the detail the source
was describing was identical
1552
01:46:15,680 --> 01:46:18,880
to scenes in the 1996 movie
The Rock,
1553
01:46:18,880 --> 01:46:21,400
starring Sean Connery
and Nicolas Cage.
1554
01:46:28,960 --> 01:46:31,640
Really elegant string-of-pearls
configuration.
1555
01:46:31,640 --> 01:46:34,400
Unfortunately, incredibly unstable.
1556
01:46:34,400 --> 01:46:36,320
What exactly does this stuff do?
1557
01:46:36,320 --> 01:46:37,680
If the rocket renders it aerosol,
1558
01:46:37,680 --> 01:46:39,720
it could take out the entire city
of people.
1559
01:46:39,720 --> 01:46:41,720
How? It's a
cholinesterase inhibitor.
1560
01:46:41,720 --> 01:46:45,160
Stops the brain from sending nerve
messages down the spinal cord...
1561
01:46:45,160 --> 01:46:48,280
A later report into
the Iraq War pointed out,
1562
01:46:48,280 --> 01:46:52,160
"Glass containers were not typically
used in chemical munitions..."
1563
01:46:52,160 --> 01:46:54,880
..seizes your nervous system...
Do not move that!
1564
01:46:54,880 --> 01:46:56,720
"..and the informant
had obviously seen
1565
01:46:56,720 --> 01:46:59,560
"a popular movie known as The Rock
1566
01:46:59,560 --> 01:47:02,600
"that had inaccurately depicted
nerve agents being carried
1567
01:47:02,600 --> 01:47:04,200
"in glass beads or spheres."
1568
01:47:04,200 --> 01:47:06,240
..that's after your skin melts off.
1569
01:47:06,240 --> 01:47:07,680
My God.
1570
01:47:07,680 --> 01:47:10,280
That there is a threat from
Saddam Hussein
1571
01:47:10,280 --> 01:47:13,800
and the weapons of mass destruction
that he has acquired,
1572
01:47:13,800 --> 01:47:15,440
is not in doubt at all.
1573
01:47:27,160 --> 01:47:30,880
Hafez al-Assad had died in 2000.
1574
01:47:30,880 --> 01:47:34,040
His son, Bashar, became the new
president of Syria.
1575
01:47:35,440 --> 01:47:38,040
But he couldn't escape the
inexorable logic
1576
01:47:38,040 --> 01:47:39,840
of what his father had started.
1577
01:47:41,640 --> 01:47:45,480
20 years before, his father had
sent Shi'ite suicide bombers
1578
01:47:45,480 --> 01:47:47,560
to attack the Americans in Lebanon.
1579
01:47:49,160 --> 01:47:52,040
Now, as America and Britain
invaded Iraq,
1580
01:47:52,040 --> 01:47:54,960
Bashar decided that
he would copy his father.
1581
01:47:56,400 --> 01:48:00,920
But what he was about to let loose
would tear the Arab world apart -
1582
01:48:00,920 --> 01:48:04,360
and then come back to try
to destroy him.
1583
01:48:04,360 --> 01:48:06,560
STATELY FANFARE PLAYS
1584
01:48:14,400 --> 01:48:17,840
Bashar Assad had was never
supposed to have been president.
1585
01:48:17,840 --> 01:48:21,360
It was always going to have
been his elder brother, Bassel.
1586
01:48:21,360 --> 01:48:23,560
But then, Bassel had died
in a car crash.
1587
01:48:24,880 --> 01:48:27,240
So now, Bashar took
over the giant palace
1588
01:48:27,240 --> 01:48:29,720
that his father had built
above Damascus.
1589
01:48:38,400 --> 01:48:42,280
Up to this point, Bashar had not
been interested in politics.
1590
01:48:42,280 --> 01:48:44,960
He was fascinated by computers.
1591
01:48:44,960 --> 01:48:47,080
He founded the
Syrian Computer Society
1592
01:48:47,080 --> 01:48:49,800
and brought the
internet to the country.
1593
01:48:49,800 --> 01:48:53,640
His favourite band was the
Electric Light Orchestra.
1594
01:48:55,360 --> 01:48:56,880
But now, he was president.
1595
01:48:59,400 --> 01:49:01,680
And he set out to attack America.
1596
01:49:09,360 --> 01:49:12,280
Bashar Assad was convinced
that the invasion of Iraq
1597
01:49:12,280 --> 01:49:16,000
was just the first step of a plot
by the Western powers
1598
01:49:16,000 --> 01:49:19,200
to take over the whole
of the Middle East.
1599
01:49:19,200 --> 01:49:21,360
He knew that the invasion
had outraged
1600
01:49:21,360 --> 01:49:24,080
many of the radical Islamists
in Syria
1601
01:49:24,080 --> 01:49:28,000
and what they most wanted to do was
to go to Iraq and kill Americans.
1602
01:49:29,080 --> 01:49:32,080
So, Bashar instructed
the Syrian Intelligence Services
1603
01:49:32,080 --> 01:49:34,120
to help them do this.
1604
01:49:34,120 --> 01:49:36,880
Syrian agents set up a pipeline
1605
01:49:36,880 --> 01:49:40,440
that began to feed thousands
of militants across the border
1606
01:49:40,440 --> 01:49:42,680
and into the heart
of the insurgency.
1607
01:49:44,160 --> 01:49:45,680
And it grew.
1608
01:49:45,680 --> 01:49:48,320
Within a year,
almost all of the foreign fighters
1609
01:49:48,320 --> 01:49:51,120
from across the world were
coming through Syria...
1610
01:49:53,000 --> 01:49:56,280
..and they brought suicide
bombing with them.
1611
01:49:56,280 --> 01:50:00,720
The Americans estimated that 90%
of the suicide bombers in Iraq
1612
01:50:00,720 --> 01:50:02,400
were foreign fighters.
1613
01:50:09,720 --> 01:50:11,640
But it began to run out of control.
1614
01:50:11,640 --> 01:50:16,080
Most of the jihadists had joined
the group al-Qaeda in Iraq
1615
01:50:16,080 --> 01:50:20,120
that then turned to killing Shi'ites
in an attempt to create a civil war.
1616
01:50:21,560 --> 01:50:25,040
And the force that had originally
been invented by the Shi'ites,
1617
01:50:25,040 --> 01:50:27,360
suicide bombing, now returned
1618
01:50:27,360 --> 01:50:29,280
and started to kill them.
1619
01:50:33,080 --> 01:50:34,240
Then, this.
1620
01:50:34,240 --> 01:50:35,480
EXPLOSION
1621
01:50:35,480 --> 01:50:37,000
STUNNED SILENCE
1622
01:50:37,000 --> 01:50:40,640
A moment of silence before people
realised what was happening.
1623
01:50:40,640 --> 01:50:42,240
SCREAMING
1624
01:50:42,240 --> 01:50:45,520
A few seconds ago, we just
had repeated explosions
1625
01:50:45,520 --> 01:50:47,080
in the street below me.
1626
01:50:47,080 --> 01:50:48,680
People are now fleeing in terror
1627
01:50:48,680 --> 01:50:50,800
from the central square
around the mosque.
1628
01:50:50,800 --> 01:50:53,000
This is what everybody feared...
DISTANT EXPLOSION
1629
01:50:53,000 --> 01:50:55,240
We just heard another explosion
in the distance.
1630
01:50:55,240 --> 01:50:58,160
..that somebody would try to target
this religious festival
1631
01:50:58,160 --> 01:51:01,200
to try to bring about
a sectarian conflict in Iraq.
1632
01:51:01,200 --> 01:51:03,240
SCREAMING
1633
01:51:06,280 --> 01:51:07,400
There was panic.
1634
01:51:07,400 --> 01:51:09,400
A terrified stampede.
1635
01:51:12,400 --> 01:51:16,200
But some of these people
were running into the next bombs.
1636
01:51:16,200 --> 01:51:18,080
EXPLOSIONS
1637
01:51:19,400 --> 01:51:22,440
We counted at least six
separate explosions.
1638
01:51:23,720 --> 01:51:27,160
MUSIC DROWNS AUDIO
1639
01:51:36,520 --> 01:51:39,680
Tony Blair and George Bush
were faced by disaster.
1640
01:51:39,680 --> 01:51:41,720
Iraq was imploding.
1641
01:51:41,720 --> 01:51:45,120
While, at home, they were being
accused of lying to their own people
1642
01:51:45,120 --> 01:51:46,560
to justify the invasion.
1643
01:51:47,840 --> 01:51:50,920
What they desperately needed
was something that would show
1644
01:51:50,920 --> 01:51:54,360
that the invasion was having
a good effect in the Arab world.
1645
01:51:56,880 --> 01:52:00,320
So, they made
an extraordinary decision.
1646
01:52:00,320 --> 01:52:03,720
They turned for help to the man
who they had always insisted
1647
01:52:03,720 --> 01:52:06,280
was one of the world's most
dangerous tyrants.
1648
01:52:08,080 --> 01:52:09,760
Colonel Gaddafi.
1649
01:52:12,120 --> 01:52:15,760
And, instead, they set out to make
him their new best friend.
1650
01:52:16,960 --> 01:52:19,280
It was going to be
the highest achievement
1651
01:52:19,280 --> 01:52:21,520
of Perception Management.
1652
01:52:21,520 --> 01:52:24,240
A man who had been created
by the West
1653
01:52:24,240 --> 01:52:27,080
as a fake global supervillain
1654
01:52:27,080 --> 01:52:30,680
was now going to be turned
into a fake hero of democracy.
1655
01:52:32,240 --> 01:52:36,320
And everyone, not just politicians,
would become involved.
1656
01:52:36,320 --> 01:52:38,520
Public relations, academics,
1657
01:52:38,520 --> 01:52:41,720
television presenters, spies,
and even musicians
1658
01:52:41,720 --> 01:52:44,760
were all going to
help reinvent Colonel Gaddafi.
1659
01:52:46,400 --> 01:52:50,280
It would show just how many people
in the Western Establishment
1660
01:52:50,280 --> 01:52:54,520
had, by now, become the engineers
of this fake world.
1661
01:53:00,600 --> 01:53:03,480
Ever since he had been accused
of the Lockerbie bombing,
1662
01:53:03,480 --> 01:53:06,480
Colonel Gaddafi
had been a complete outcast.
1663
01:53:06,480 --> 01:53:08,800
The West had imposed
sanctions on Libya
1664
01:53:08,800 --> 01:53:11,040
and the economy was falling apart.
1665
01:53:12,600 --> 01:53:17,680
But then, suddenly, Tony Blair broke
live into the BBC evening news.
1666
01:53:18,760 --> 01:53:22,200
The Prime Minister, Tony Blair,
is about to make a statement,
1667
01:53:22,200 --> 01:53:24,360
the BBC understands,
from Downing Street.
1668
01:53:24,360 --> 01:53:26,000
It's of international significance.
1669
01:53:26,000 --> 01:53:28,120
He'll be making his statement
at any moment now.
1670
01:53:28,120 --> 01:53:30,200
We can see pictures
of him in Durham...
1671
01:53:30,200 --> 01:53:31,760
This evening... Here he is.
1672
01:53:31,760 --> 01:53:35,320
..Colonel Gaddafi has confirmed
that Libya has, in the past,
1673
01:53:35,320 --> 01:53:37,360
sought to develop
weapons-of-mass-destruction
1674
01:53:37,360 --> 01:53:38,720
capabilities.
1675
01:53:38,720 --> 01:53:42,240
Libya has now declared its intention
to dismantle
1676
01:53:42,240 --> 01:53:46,600
its weapons of
mass destruction completely.
1677
01:53:46,600 --> 01:53:50,000
This decision by Colonel Gaddafi
is a historic one,
1678
01:53:50,000 --> 01:53:52,040
and a courageous one,
and I applaud it.
1679
01:53:52,040 --> 01:53:54,560
Today, in Tripoli,
1680
01:53:54,560 --> 01:53:57,000
the leader of Libya,
1681
01:53:57,000 --> 01:53:59,440
Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi...
1682
01:54:00,480 --> 01:54:05,120
..publically confirmed his
commitment to disclose and dismantle
1683
01:54:05,120 --> 01:54:09,320
all weapons-of-mass-destruction
programmes in his country.
1684
01:54:09,320 --> 01:54:11,640
Colonel Gaddafi now became,
1685
01:54:11,640 --> 01:54:15,120
for Western politicians,
a heroic figure.
1686
01:54:15,120 --> 01:54:18,480
His decision to give up his weapons
of mass destruction
1687
01:54:18,480 --> 01:54:20,800
seemed to prove
that the invasion of Iraq
1688
01:54:20,800 --> 01:54:22,720
could transform the Middle East.
1689
01:54:25,240 --> 01:54:28,840
And Tony Blair travelled to meet
Gaddafi in his desert tent.
1690
01:54:30,960 --> 01:54:34,120
To welcome him back into
what one journalist called,
1691
01:54:34,120 --> 01:54:36,720
"The community
of civilised nations."
1692
01:54:44,880 --> 01:54:45,960
But, as in the past,
1693
01:54:45,960 --> 01:54:48,760
nothing was what it seemed
with Colonel Gaddafi.
1694
01:54:51,160 --> 01:54:53,440
In reality, Gaddafi
did not really have
1695
01:54:53,440 --> 01:54:55,600
the terrifying
weapons of mass destruction
1696
01:54:55,600 --> 01:54:58,200
that he was promising to destroy.
1697
01:54:58,200 --> 01:55:02,000
His nuclear programme
had stuttered to a halt long ago
1698
01:55:02,000 --> 01:55:05,080
and never produced
anything dangerous.
1699
01:55:05,080 --> 01:55:08,240
He had managed to buy some
equipment on the black market,
1700
01:55:08,240 --> 01:55:11,840
but his technicians had been
unable to assemble it.
1701
01:55:11,840 --> 01:55:14,560
His biological weapons
were non-existent.
1702
01:55:14,560 --> 01:55:18,800
All he had was some old mustard gas
in leaking barrels.
1703
01:55:19,840 --> 01:55:25,040
But now, he had to pretend to have
a terrifying arsenal of weapons.
1704
01:55:25,040 --> 01:55:27,160
And the West had to pretend
1705
01:55:27,160 --> 01:55:29,760
that they had avoided
another global threat.
1706
01:55:33,480 --> 01:55:37,200
And then the made-up stories
became even more complicated.
1707
01:55:37,200 --> 01:55:40,440
As part of the deal, the West said
that if Gaddafi admitted
1708
01:55:40,440 --> 01:55:42,840
that Libya had done
the Lockerbie bombing,
1709
01:55:42,840 --> 01:55:45,400
then they would lift
the sanctions.
1710
01:55:45,400 --> 01:55:48,160
But many of those who
had investigated Lockerbie
1711
01:55:48,160 --> 01:55:51,120
were still convinced
that Libya hadn't done it.
1712
01:55:51,120 --> 01:55:52,840
That, really, it had been Syria.
1713
01:55:54,880 --> 01:55:57,600
But Colonel Gaddafi confessed.
1714
01:55:57,600 --> 01:56:00,360
His son, Saif, was interviewed
about this confession.
1715
01:56:01,680 --> 01:56:04,240
He said that his father
was simply pretending
1716
01:56:04,240 --> 01:56:06,200
that he had been behind
the Lockerbie bombing
1717
01:56:06,200 --> 01:56:08,800
to get the sanctions lifted.
1718
01:56:08,800 --> 01:56:12,200
That new lies were being built
on top of old lies
1719
01:56:12,200 --> 01:56:15,200
to construct a completely
make-believe world.
1720
01:56:17,160 --> 01:56:20,440
You have to accept,
or you had to accept at the time,
1721
01:56:20,440 --> 01:56:25,000
a responsibility, because you have
to accept responsibilities,
1722
01:56:25,000 --> 01:56:28,520
you have to pay compensation in
order to get rid of sanction.
1723
01:56:28,520 --> 01:56:32,240
We did that, not because we are
convinced that we did it,
1724
01:56:32,240 --> 01:56:35,760
but because of the final exit
out of this nightmare.
1725
01:56:35,760 --> 01:56:39,080
So, what you're saying is that
you accept responsibility,
1726
01:56:39,080 --> 01:56:41,400
but you're not admitting
that you did it. Yes.
1727
01:56:43,280 --> 01:56:46,040
And this is all a sham,
1728
01:56:46,040 --> 01:56:48,880
you're saying,
just to get sanctions over with
1729
01:56:48,880 --> 01:56:53,000
so that you can start normal
diplomatic relations with the West.
1730
01:56:53,000 --> 01:56:54,680
OK. OK. What's wrong with that?
1731
01:56:55,920 --> 01:57:00,440
It's a very cynical way to behave,
as a country, isn't it?
1732
01:57:00,440 --> 01:57:03,600
Many people would say...
First of all...
1733
01:57:03,600 --> 01:57:06,160
I mean,
the Americans and the British,
1734
01:57:06,160 --> 01:57:07,760
they told us to write that letter.
1735
01:57:08,920 --> 01:57:12,000
They told us to pay compensation.
1736
01:57:12,000 --> 01:57:14,080
And then, they opened their
embassies
1737
01:57:14,080 --> 01:57:16,000
and they restored their relation.
1738
01:57:16,960 --> 01:57:18,280
They came to us.
1739
01:57:19,800 --> 01:57:22,040
It was their game. Not our game.
1740
01:57:24,520 --> 01:57:28,600
Does the... Does the leader know
there's a picture on the television?
1741
01:57:28,600 --> 01:57:30,560
Will you tell him?
Oh, good. Thank you.
1742
01:57:30,560 --> 01:57:32,800
INDISTINCT CONVERSATION
1743
01:57:36,960 --> 01:57:39,560
Public relations companies
then came to Libya
1744
01:57:39,560 --> 01:57:42,560
to do what they
called "reframing the narrative".
1745
01:57:44,760 --> 01:57:48,080
One firm was paid
$3 million to turn Gaddafi
1746
01:57:48,080 --> 01:57:51,760
into what they described
as a modern world thinker.
1747
01:57:51,760 --> 01:57:53,440
CREW MURMURS
1748
01:57:53,440 --> 01:57:57,000
OK. We're going in ten.
1749
01:57:57,000 --> 01:58:00,440
They did this by bringing
other famous world thinkers
1750
01:58:00,440 --> 01:58:03,600
and TV presenters out to Libya
to meet the colonel
1751
01:58:03,600 --> 01:58:05,640
and discuss his theories.
1752
01:58:07,400 --> 01:58:11,680
Hello, and welcome to
Libya In The Global Age,
1753
01:58:11,680 --> 01:58:16,280
A Conversation With Muammar Gaddafi.
1754
01:58:16,280 --> 01:58:22,760
But first,
let's get the story so far of Libya.
1755
01:58:22,760 --> 01:58:26,440
One world thinker was called
Lord Anthony Giddens.
1756
01:58:26,440 --> 01:58:30,440
Coincidentally, he had a theory
which he called "The Third Way"
1757
01:58:30,440 --> 01:58:32,800
which had inspired Tony Blair.
1758
01:58:32,800 --> 01:58:38,120
Colonel Gaddafi's own theory was
called "The Third Universal Theory."
1759
01:58:38,120 --> 01:58:40,400
Lord Giddens later wrote
about his talks
1760
01:58:40,400 --> 01:58:42,440
with the Libyan leader.
1761
01:58:42,440 --> 01:58:45,000
"Colonel Gaddafi likes my term
'the third way'
1762
01:58:45,000 --> 01:58:47,400
"because his own political
philosophy
1763
01:58:47,400 --> 01:58:48,920
"is a version of this idea.
1764
01:58:49,960 --> 01:58:53,360
"He makes many intelligent
and perceptive points.
1765
01:58:53,360 --> 01:58:55,640
"I leave enlivened and encouraged."
1766
01:58:58,320 --> 01:59:03,120
That for 40 years, the leader of
Libya, Muammar Gaddafi...
1767
01:59:03,120 --> 01:59:06,800
And then, Colonel Gaddafi
achieved his lifelong dream.
1768
01:59:06,800 --> 01:59:10,160
He was invited to address
the United Nations.
1769
01:59:10,160 --> 01:59:14,840
He spent almost two hours explaining
his Third International Theory.
1770
01:59:14,840 --> 01:59:16,880
And also demanding an investigation
1771
01:59:16,880 --> 01:59:20,920
into the shootings of President
Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
1772
01:59:22,440 --> 01:59:25,280
When he was in New York,
Gaddafi was offered a tent,
1773
01:59:25,280 --> 01:59:27,480
just like the one he had at home,
1774
01:59:27,480 --> 01:59:29,520
in the gardens of a grand mansion.
1775
01:59:29,520 --> 01:59:33,280
The man who made the offer was
Donald Trump.
1776
01:59:33,280 --> 01:59:35,200
TRUMP: 'I've dealt with everybody.
1777
01:59:35,200 --> 01:59:37,480
'And by the way, I can tell you
something else!' What?
1778
01:59:37,480 --> 01:59:39,480
'I've dealt with Gaddafi.'
1779
01:59:39,480 --> 01:59:44,280
What did you do? 'Excuse me.
I rented him a piece of land.
1780
01:59:44,280 --> 01:59:47,680
'He paid me more for one night
than the land was worth
1781
01:59:47,680 --> 01:59:49,720
'for the whole year
or for two years.
1782
01:59:49,720 --> 01:59:51,360
'And then,
I didn't let him use the land!
1783
01:59:51,360 --> 01:59:53,960
'That's what we should be doing.'
Was that over in New Jersey?
1784
01:59:53,960 --> 01:59:56,360
'I don't want to use the word
"screw", but I screwed him.
1785
01:59:56,360 --> 01:59:57,840
'That's what we should be doing!'
1786
02:00:15,320 --> 02:00:17,520
People in Britain and
America now began to
1787
02:00:17,520 --> 02:00:19,120
turn away from politics.
1788
02:00:20,440 --> 02:00:23,960
The effect of the Iraq war had been
very powerful.
1789
02:00:23,960 --> 02:00:26,960
Not only did millions of people feel
that they had been lied to
1790
02:00:26,960 --> 02:00:28,960
over the weapons of
mass destruction,
1791
02:00:28,960 --> 02:00:32,120
but there was a deeper
feeling - that whatever
1792
02:00:32,120 --> 02:00:33,840
they did or said had no effect.
1793
02:00:35,320 --> 02:00:38,960
That despite the mass protests, and
the fears and the warnings -
1794
02:00:38,960 --> 02:00:40,600
the war had happened anyway.
1795
02:00:44,240 --> 02:00:47,200
Liberals, radicals and
a whole new generation
1796
02:00:47,200 --> 02:00:48,800
of young people retreated.
1797
02:00:50,240 --> 02:00:54,320
They turned instead to another world
that was free of this hypocrisy
1798
02:00:54,320 --> 02:00:56,840
and the corruption of politics
1799
02:00:57,840 --> 02:00:59,440
They went into cyberspace.
1800
02:00:59,440 --> 02:01:03,800
# Once upon a time it was you by the
door
1801
02:01:24,000 --> 02:01:25,280
# I... #
1802
02:01:32,360 --> 02:01:34,560
By now cyberspace had
become even more
1803
02:01:34,560 --> 02:01:37,640
sophisticated and
responsive to human interaction.
1804
02:01:39,000 --> 02:01:40,880
The online
world was full of algorithms
1805
02:01:40,880 --> 02:01:43,680
that could
analyse and predict human behaviour.
1806
02:01:45,320 --> 02:01:46,880
The man
behind much of this was
1807
02:01:46,880 --> 02:01:49,480
a scientist called Judea Pearl.
1808
02:01:49,480 --> 02:01:52,760
He was the godfather of modern
Artificial Intelligence.
1809
02:01:54,000 --> 02:01:56,640
Pearl's breakthrough had
been to use what were
1810
02:01:56,640 --> 02:01:58,640
called Bayesian Belief Networks.
1811
02:01:59,680 --> 02:02:02,520
They were systems that could
predict behaviour,
1812
02:02:02,520 --> 02:02:05,000
even when the information was
incomplete.
1813
02:02:07,680 --> 02:02:10,760
But to make the system work, Pearl
and others had imported
1814
02:02:10,760 --> 02:02:13,520
a model of human beings
drawn from economics.
1815
02:02:15,040 --> 02:02:18,040
They created what were
called rational agents,
1816
02:02:18,040 --> 02:02:20,640
software that mimicked human beings
1817
02:02:20,640 --> 02:02:22,360
but in a very simplified form.
1818
02:02:23,720 --> 02:02:27,200
The model assumed that the agent
would always act rationally in
1819
02:02:27,200 --> 02:02:30,520
order to get what it
wanted. Nothing more.
1820
02:02:32,200 --> 02:02:34,520
One of the early
utopians of cyberspace,
1821
02:02:34,520 --> 02:02:37,480
Jaron Lanier, warned of
the implications of this.
1822
02:02:39,480 --> 02:02:41,400
"The agent's model of
what you are
1823
02:02:41,400 --> 02:02:44,280
"interested in will
always be a cartoon.
1824
02:02:45,680 --> 02:02:48,120
"And in return you
will see a cartoon
1825
02:02:48,120 --> 02:02:50,880
"version of the world
through the agent's eyes."
1826
02:02:53,880 --> 02:02:57,040
And, he added,
"It will never be clear
1827
02:02:57,040 --> 02:03:02,080
"who they are working
for - you or someone else."
1828
02:03:12,400 --> 02:03:15,200
New technology began to
allow people to upload
1829
02:03:15,200 --> 02:03:18,000
millions of images and
videos into cyberspace.
1830
02:03:19,200 --> 02:03:21,600
And the web - which up
to that point had seemed
1831
02:03:21,600 --> 02:03:24,440
like an abstract
otherworld - began to
1832
02:03:24,440 --> 02:03:26,400
look and feel like the
real world.
1833
02:03:26,400 --> 02:03:27,440
INDISTINCT
1834
02:03:29,000 --> 02:03:30,760
No, not yet.
1835
02:03:32,360 --> 02:03:34,240
From videos of animals,
personal moments of
1836
02:03:34,240 --> 02:03:36,400
experience,
extraordinary events,
1837
02:03:36,400 --> 02:03:39,720
to horrific terror videos,
more and more was uploaded.
1838
02:03:39,720 --> 02:03:40,760
HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYS
1839
02:03:59,120 --> 02:04:01,080
And in a
strange, sad twist,
1840
02:04:01,080 --> 02:04:03,840
the first terrorist
beheading video that was
1841
02:04:03,840 --> 02:04:05,800
posted online was that of
1842
02:04:05,800 --> 02:04:08,720
Judea Pearl's own son, Daniel Pearl.
1843
02:04:10,040 --> 02:04:11,240
He was a journalist for the
1844
02:04:11,240 --> 02:04:13,800
Wall Street Journal and
had been kidnapped by
1845
02:04:13,800 --> 02:04:15,680
radical Islamists in Pakistan.
1846
02:04:17,040 --> 02:04:19,840
They recorded what they said was his
confession...
1847
02:04:20,920 --> 02:04:22,320
..and then his killing.
1848
02:04:26,280 --> 02:04:27,880
My name is Daniel Pearl.
1849
02:04:27,880 --> 02:04:29,440
I'm a Jewish-American.
1850
02:04:29,440 --> 02:04:33,400
I come from... On my father's side
of the family, are Zionists.
1851
02:04:34,600 --> 02:04:36,320
My father is Jewish.
1852
02:04:36,320 --> 02:04:38,960
My mother is Jewish.
I'm Jewish.
1853
02:04:38,960 --> 02:04:44,120
Only now do I think about some of
the people in Guantanamo Bay
1854
02:04:44,120 --> 02:04:46,240
must be in a similar situation.
1855
02:04:49,160 --> 02:04:52,040
This was a new world
that the old systems of power
1856
02:04:52,040 --> 02:04:55,120
found it very
difficult to deal with.
1857
02:04:55,120 --> 02:04:56,920
In the wake of the 9/11
attacks,
1858
02:04:56,920 --> 02:05:00,040
the security agencies secretly
collected data from
1859
02:05:00,040 --> 02:05:01,640
millions of people online.
1860
02:05:02,880 --> 02:05:06,960
One programme was called
Optic Nerve. It took stills from
1861
02:05:06,960 --> 02:05:10,240
the webcam conversations of
millions of people across the world,
1862
02:05:10,240 --> 02:05:13,320
trying to spot terrorists planning
another attack.
1863
02:05:14,800 --> 02:05:18,040
The programme did not
discover a single terrorist.
1864
02:05:18,040 --> 02:05:20,120
But it did
discover something else.
1865
02:05:21,640 --> 02:05:23,520
A top secret assessment said...
1866
02:05:55,640 --> 02:05:57,520
But increasingly, people
were using
1867
02:05:57,520 --> 02:06:00,000
the internet in other ways - to
present themselves as
1868
02:06:00,000 --> 02:06:01,320
THEY wanted to be seen.
1869
02:06:02,880 --> 02:06:04,760
I guess the video blog is about me.
1870
02:06:08,360 --> 02:06:10,680
I don't really want to tell you
where I live
1871
02:06:10,680 --> 02:06:14,120
because you could, like, stalk me.
1872
02:06:14,120 --> 02:06:17,000
The web drew people in
because it was mesmerising.
1873
02:06:17,000 --> 02:06:19,520
It was somewhere that you could
explore
1874
02:06:19,520 --> 02:06:21,600
and get lost in in any way
you wanted.
1875
02:06:23,240 --> 02:06:26,080
But behind the screen,
like in a two-way mirror,
1876
02:06:26,080 --> 02:06:28,240
the simplified
agents were watching and
1877
02:06:28,240 --> 02:06:31,120
predicting and guiding
your hand on the mouse.
1878
02:06:32,280 --> 02:06:34,280
Stop...
1879
02:06:34,280 --> 02:06:36,960
I nearly...
threw my phone away!
1880
02:06:36,960 --> 02:06:39,000
Stop! Stop!
1881
02:06:39,000 --> 02:06:41,320
Pose. Pose. And snap a selfie...
1882
02:06:41,320 --> 02:06:42,520
PHONE CAMERA WHIRS
1883
02:06:42,520 --> 02:06:43,880
There you go. There you go.
1884
02:06:55,440 --> 02:06:57,880
They play with themselves.
1885
02:06:57,880 --> 02:06:59,440
But what they don't know...
1886
02:07:24,560 --> 02:07:26,960
As the intelligent
systems online gathered
1887
02:07:26,960 --> 02:07:30,440
ever more data, new
forms of guidance began to emerge.
1888
02:07:32,200 --> 02:07:34,560
Social media
created filters -
1889
02:07:34,560 --> 02:07:36,480
complex algorithms that
looked at what
1890
02:07:36,480 --> 02:07:39,320
individuals liked - and
then fed more of the same
1891
02:07:39,320 --> 02:07:40,360
back to them.
1892
02:07:43,200 --> 02:07:45,280
In the process,
individuals began to
1893
02:07:45,280 --> 02:07:48,360
move, without noticing,
into bubbles that
1894
02:07:48,360 --> 02:07:51,800
isolated them from enormous amounts
of other information.
1895
02:07:53,120 --> 02:07:55,400
They
only heard and saw what they liked.
1896
02:07:57,280 --> 02:07:58,960
And the news
feeds increasingly
1897
02:07:58,960 --> 02:08:01,360
excluded anything that
might challenge people's
1898
02:08:01,360 --> 02:08:02,760
pre-existing beliefs.
1899
02:08:05,880 --> 02:08:09,720
# And now it's all right
1900
02:08:09,720 --> 02:08:14,720
# I know my own lie
1901
02:08:14,720 --> 02:08:18,640
# Is coming to say
1902
02:08:18,640 --> 02:08:21,680
# You will call out
1903
02:08:21,680 --> 02:08:24,760
# Yourself
1904
02:08:24,760 --> 02:08:27,520
# I know I thought
1905
02:08:27,520 --> 02:08:32,840
# Makes my face and hands cold
1906
02:08:32,840 --> 02:08:34,360
# And I
1907
02:08:34,360 --> 02:08:36,680
# Ooh
1908
02:08:36,680 --> 02:08:38,400
# Ooh
1909
02:08:38,400 --> 02:08:41,360
# Ooh... #
1910
02:08:53,880 --> 02:08:55,720
The version of
cyberspace that was
1911
02:08:55,720 --> 02:08:57,880
rising up seemed to be
very much like
1912
02:08:57,880 --> 02:08:59,960
William Gibson's original vision.
1913
02:09:01,480 --> 02:09:03,920
That behind the superficial freedoms
of the web
1914
02:09:03,920 --> 02:09:07,920
were a few giant corporations with
opaque systems that controlled
1915
02:09:07,920 --> 02:09:10,520
what people saw and
shaped what they thought.
1916
02:09:13,040 --> 02:09:15,160
And what was
even more mysterious was
1917
02:09:15,160 --> 02:09:19,400
how they made their decisions about
what you should like.
1918
02:09:19,400 --> 02:09:21,400
And what
should be hidden from you.
1919
02:09:23,560 --> 02:09:28,240
But then, the other utopian vision
of cyberspace re-emerged.
1920
02:09:35,360 --> 02:09:37,400
Taking over the roadway.
1921
02:09:37,400 --> 02:09:40,360
CHANTING
1922
02:09:42,360 --> 02:09:44,080
Take it!
1923
02:09:44,080 --> 02:09:47,840
CHEERING AND WHOOPING
1924
02:09:47,840 --> 02:09:50,880
CHANTING
1925
02:09:50,880 --> 02:09:53,960
After the financial
crash of 2008
1926
02:09:53,960 --> 02:09:55,880
the politicians saved the banks.
1927
02:09:57,000 --> 02:09:59,640
But they did practically nothing
about the massive corruption
1928
02:09:59,640 --> 02:10:01,680
that was
revealed in its wake.
1929
02:10:01,680 --> 02:10:03,720
And the reason they gave
was that it might
1930
02:10:03,720 --> 02:10:05,160
destabilise the system.
1931
02:10:06,760 --> 02:10:11,000
Public anger burst out. The Occupy
movement took over Wall Street
1932
02:10:11,000 --> 02:10:13,640
and then the Senate in Washington.
1933
02:10:13,640 --> 02:10:16,040
The issue is that certain
individuals
1934
02:10:16,040 --> 02:10:19,840
that are very wealthy, have pretty
much corrupted our political system
1935
02:10:19,840 --> 02:10:21,680
and this is the heart of it.
1936
02:10:21,680 --> 02:10:23,360
This is the Senate building.
1937
02:10:23,360 --> 02:10:26,320
These people have been cut off and
they've corrupted our democracy
1938
02:10:26,320 --> 02:10:27,880
and it's literally killing people.
1939
02:10:27,880 --> 02:10:30,440
I'm an Iraqi war vet.
I went to Iraq in 2009.
1940
02:10:30,440 --> 02:10:33,120
I've seen what happens first hand
when we let corruption
1941
02:10:33,120 --> 02:10:36,280
rule our elected government and
democracy. We're coming here today
1942
02:10:36,280 --> 02:10:37,800
just to raise awareness.
1943
02:10:37,800 --> 02:10:40,000
What drove the Occupy
movement was the
1944
02:10:40,000 --> 02:10:42,200
original dream of the
internet that people
1945
02:10:42,200 --> 02:10:45,760
like John Perry Barlow
had outlined in the early 1990s.
1946
02:10:47,480 --> 02:10:50,640
In his Declaration of the
Independence of Cyberspace,
1947
02:10:50,640 --> 02:10:54,200
Barlow had described a new world
free of politics and the
1948
02:10:54,200 --> 02:10:56,560
old hierarchies of power.
1949
02:10:56,560 --> 02:11:00,760
A space where people connected
together as equals in a network
1950
02:11:00,760 --> 02:11:03,080
and built a
new society without leaders.
1951
02:11:04,720 --> 02:11:07,160
Now, the Occupy
movement set out to
1952
02:11:07,160 --> 02:11:09,720
build that kind of
society in the real world.
1953
02:11:11,840 --> 02:11:14,200
The camps were to
be the models.
1954
02:11:14,200 --> 02:11:18,000
All the meetings used the idea
of the human microphone.
1955
02:11:18,000 --> 02:11:19,960
People throughout the
crowd repeated a
1956
02:11:19,960 --> 02:11:22,560
speaker's words so
everyone could hear them.
1957
02:11:22,560 --> 02:11:25,280
ALL: We are now going to vote...
1958
02:11:25,280 --> 02:11:29,000
SPEAKER: ..on whether to stay here
for the next two hours...
1959
02:11:29,000 --> 02:11:32,760
ALL: ..on whether to stay here for
the next two hours...
1960
02:11:32,760 --> 02:11:34,880
SPEAKER: ..or leave now.
1961
02:11:34,880 --> 02:11:36,360
ALL: ..or leave now.
1962
02:11:36,360 --> 02:11:39,400
But if someone wanted to
challenge the speaker,
1963
02:11:39,400 --> 02:11:42,760
the human amplifiers
also had to repeat THEIR words
1964
02:11:42,760 --> 02:11:45,320
so their voice
had equal power.
1965
02:11:45,320 --> 02:11:46,960
SPEAKER: ..what she said...
1966
02:11:46,960 --> 02:11:48,440
ALL: ..what she said...
1967
02:11:48,440 --> 02:11:51,640
SPEAKER: ..was that... ALL: ..was
that... SPEAKER: ..the proposal...
1968
02:11:51,640 --> 02:11:54,880
Each person was an autonomous
individual who expressed
1969
02:11:54,880 --> 02:11:57,080
what they believed.
1970
02:11:57,080 --> 02:12:00,920
But together they became components
in a network that organised itself
1971
02:12:00,920 --> 02:12:05,480
through the feedback of information
around the system.
1972
02:12:05,480 --> 02:12:09,160
You could organise people without
the exercise of power.
1973
02:12:09,160 --> 02:12:10,840
CHANTING
1974
02:12:10,840 --> 02:12:11,960
CAR HORNS BLARE
1975
02:12:11,960 --> 02:12:14,520
The crisis in Egypt.
1976
02:12:14,520 --> 02:12:17,800
CHANTING AND SHOUTING
1977
02:12:20,080 --> 02:12:22,080
A march through our main streets.
1978
02:12:22,080 --> 02:12:25,000
Looks like chaos. Looks like
1979
02:12:25,000 --> 02:12:26,680
police is running around
1980
02:12:26,680 --> 02:12:31,000
and a few hundred people walking
down the street.
1981
02:12:32,840 --> 02:12:35,720
Then, almost immediately,
the Arab Spring began.
1982
02:12:37,200 --> 02:12:38,920
The first
revolution started in Tunisia,
1983
02:12:38,920 --> 02:12:40,960
but it
quickly spread to Egypt.
1984
02:12:42,640 --> 02:12:46,160
On January 25th 2011,
thousands of Egyptians
1985
02:12:46,160 --> 02:12:48,720
came out in groups
across Cairo and then
1986
02:12:48,720 --> 02:12:51,000
started moving towards
Tahrir Square.
1987
02:12:53,720 --> 02:12:56,800
It seemed like a spontaneous
uprising but the internet
1988
02:12:56,800 --> 02:12:59,480
had played a
key role in organising the groups.
1989
02:13:01,040 --> 02:13:02,520
One of the main activists was
1990
02:13:02,520 --> 02:13:05,480
an Egyptian computer
engineer called Wael Ghonim.
1991
02:13:06,560 --> 02:13:08,160
He worked for Google in Egypt
1992
02:13:08,160 --> 02:13:11,080
but he had also set up the
Facebook site that
1993
02:13:11,080 --> 02:13:14,160
played the key role in
organising the first protests.
1994
02:13:16,040 --> 02:13:18,240
As hundreds of
thousands took over Tahrir Square,
1995
02:13:18,240 --> 02:13:20,720
Ghonim
gave an interview on Egyptian TV.
1996
02:14:04,120 --> 02:14:06,680
But Ghonim was also
overwhelmed by the power
1997
02:14:06,680 --> 02:14:08,520
this new technology had,
1998
02:14:08,520 --> 02:14:12,080
that a computer engineer with a
keyboard could call out
1999
02:14:12,080 --> 02:14:14,120
thousands of people...
2000
02:14:14,120 --> 02:14:17,000
some of whom then died in the
midst of the protests.
2001
02:14:50,960 --> 02:14:53,440
Many liberals in the
West saw this as proof
2002
02:14:53,440 --> 02:14:56,800
of the revolutionary
power of the internet.
2003
02:14:56,800 --> 02:14:58,960
Again it seemed to be
able to organise
2004
02:14:58,960 --> 02:15:00,680
a revolution without leaders.
2005
02:15:02,040 --> 02:15:05,000
A revolution powerful enough to
topple a brutal dictator
2006
02:15:05,000 --> 02:15:08,160
who had been backed by
America and the West for 30 years.
2007
02:15:15,720 --> 02:15:17,520
But the internet
radicals were not the
2008
02:15:17,520 --> 02:15:19,880
only ones who saw their
dreams being fulfilled
2009
02:15:19,880 --> 02:15:21,000
in the Arab Spring.
2010
02:15:22,080 --> 02:15:24,720
Many of the political leaders of the
West also
2011
02:15:24,720 --> 02:15:27,560
enthusiastically supported the
revolutions
2012
02:15:27,560 --> 02:15:31,280
because it seemed to fit with their
simple idea of regime change.
2013
02:15:32,760 --> 02:15:34,840
It might have
failed in Iraq
2014
02:15:34,840 --> 02:15:37,800
but now the people, everywhere,
were rising up to rid
2015
02:15:37,800 --> 02:15:40,560
themselves of the evil
tyrants.
2016
02:15:40,560 --> 02:15:42,360
And democracy would flourish.
2017
02:15:56,160 --> 02:15:58,480
So when an uprising
began in Libya,
2018
02:15:58,480 --> 02:16:00,960
Britain, France and
America supported it.
2019
02:16:02,320 --> 02:16:04,760
And suddenly, Colonel
Gaddafi stopped being
2020
02:16:04,760 --> 02:16:05,920
a hero of the West.
2021
02:16:09,040 --> 02:16:13,040
All the politicians, and the public
relations people, and the academics
2022
02:16:13,040 --> 02:16:15,920
who had all promoted him as
a global thinker
2023
02:16:15,920 --> 02:16:17,320
suddenly disappeared.
2024
02:16:18,520 --> 02:16:23,320
And Gaddafi became yet again an evil
dictator who had to be overthrown.
2025
02:16:25,360 --> 02:16:28,400
His son Saif said, "The
way these people are
2026
02:16:28,400 --> 02:16:31,040
"disowning me and my
father is disgusting.
2027
02:16:32,680 --> 02:16:34,840
"Just a few months ago, we
were being treated as
2028
02:16:34,840 --> 02:16:36,760
"honoured friends.
2029
02:16:36,760 --> 02:16:40,120
"Now that rebels are threatening our
country, these cowards
2030
02:16:40,120 --> 02:16:41,360
"are turning on us."
2031
02:16:42,440 --> 02:16:45,600
Colonel Gaddafi retreated to the
ruins of the house that
2032
02:16:45,600 --> 02:16:49,840
the Americans had bombed 30 years
before and addressed the world.
2033
02:16:49,840 --> 02:16:53,400
TRANSLATION:
Muammar Gaddafi is the glory.
2034
02:16:53,400 --> 02:16:55,720
If I had a position, if I were a
president,
2035
02:16:55,720 --> 02:16:56,880
I would have resigned.
2036
02:16:56,880 --> 02:16:59,680
I would have thrown my resignation
in your face.
2037
02:16:59,680 --> 02:17:02,360
But I have no position, no post.
2038
02:17:02,360 --> 02:17:04,080
I have nowhere to resign from.
2039
02:17:04,080 --> 02:17:08,120
I have my gun, I have my rifle
to fight for Libya.
2040
02:17:10,080 --> 02:17:12,400
Withdraw your children from the
streets.
2041
02:17:14,320 --> 02:17:16,080
Take your children back.
2042
02:17:16,080 --> 02:17:18,400
They are drugging your children.
2043
02:17:18,400 --> 02:17:20,200
They are making your children drunk
2044
02:17:20,200 --> 02:17:23,120
and they are sending them to hell.
2045
02:17:23,120 --> 02:17:25,400
Your children will die. What for?
2046
02:17:36,240 --> 02:17:41,240
In November 2011 a large convoy was
spotted driving at high speed
2047
02:17:41,240 --> 02:17:44,000
away from Colonel Gaddafi's home
town of Sirte.
2048
02:17:45,360 --> 02:17:46,560
An American drone,
2049
02:17:46,560 --> 02:17:49,160
controlled from a shed
outside Las Vegas,
2050
02:17:49,160 --> 02:17:50,400
was sent to follow it.
2051
02:17:51,360 --> 02:17:53,080
CAR HORN BEEPS
2052
02:17:54,200 --> 02:17:57,240
CAR HORNS BEEP
2053
02:17:58,920 --> 02:18:02,400
The operator fired a missile at the
lead car of the convoy.
2054
02:18:13,520 --> 02:18:16,480
Gaddafi then fled -
looking for shelter from
2055
02:18:16,480 --> 02:18:18,080
the oncoming rebel forces.
2056
02:18:19,320 --> 02:18:21,600
He hid under the road in a drainage
pipe.
2057
02:18:56,960 --> 02:18:59,040
But instead of becoming
a democracy,
2058
02:18:59,040 --> 02:19:01,040
Libya began to descend into chaos.
2059
02:19:10,240 --> 02:19:13,160
And the other
revolutions were also failing.
2060
02:19:13,160 --> 02:19:16,920
The Occupy camps had become trapped
in endless meetings.
2061
02:19:16,920 --> 02:19:18,920
And it
became clear that there
2062
02:19:18,920 --> 02:19:22,040
was a terrible confusion
at the heart of the movement.
2063
02:19:22,040 --> 02:19:23,680
The radicals
had believed that if
2064
02:19:23,680 --> 02:19:26,520
they could create a new
way of organising people
2065
02:19:26,520 --> 02:19:29,120
then a new society
would emerge.
2066
02:19:29,120 --> 02:19:31,960
But what they did not have was a
picture of what that
2067
02:19:31,960 --> 02:19:35,040
society would be like, a
vision of the future.
2068
02:19:37,080 --> 02:19:40,360
The truth was that their
revolution was not about an idea.
2069
02:19:41,520 --> 02:19:43,520
It was about
how you manage things.
2070
02:19:46,600 --> 02:19:48,760
And those who had
started the revolution
2071
02:19:48,760 --> 02:19:52,000
in Egypt came face-to-face with the
same terrible fact.
2072
02:19:53,440 --> 02:19:54,480
Social media had helped
2073
02:19:54,480 --> 02:19:56,960
to bring people together
in Tahrir square.
2074
02:19:58,000 --> 02:20:00,800
But once there, the
internet gave no clue as
2075
02:20:00,800 --> 02:20:03,880
to what kind of new
society they could create in Egypt.
2076
02:20:05,240 --> 02:20:06,560
The movement stalled.
2077
02:20:08,160 --> 02:20:10,440
And a group that DID have a
powerful idea - the
2078
02:20:10,440 --> 02:20:13,320
Muslim Brotherhood -
rushed in to fill the vacuum.
2079
02:20:14,640 --> 02:20:16,920
The Brotherhood
took power in an election
2080
02:20:16,920 --> 02:20:19,800
and one of them, Mohamed Morsi,
became President.
2081
02:20:22,600 --> 02:20:24,880
The liberals and the Left were
shocked.
2082
02:20:24,880 --> 02:20:26,760
And, bit by
bit, they turned back to
2083
02:20:26,760 --> 02:20:30,040
the military, protesting,
asking them to save
2084
02:20:30,040 --> 02:20:32,920
the revolution from
being captured by Islamists.
2085
02:20:36,520 --> 02:20:40,720
In the spring of 2013,
the military took action.
2086
02:20:40,720 --> 02:20:42,600
They arrested
the President and
2087
02:20:42,600 --> 02:20:45,480
killed hundreds of his
supporters who protested.
2088
02:20:47,120 --> 02:20:50,960
And an extraordinary spectacle
unfolded in Tahrir Square.
2089
02:20:51,960 --> 02:20:54,040
Thousands of the
liberal activists who
2090
02:20:54,040 --> 02:20:56,360
had begun the revolution
two years before,
2091
02:20:56,360 --> 02:20:59,440
summoned by social
media, now welcomed the
2092
02:20:59,440 --> 02:21:02,440
military back by waving
their laser pens at the
2093
02:21:02,440 --> 02:21:04,240
helicopters flying overhead.
2094
02:21:10,440 --> 02:21:13,720
The crowd had been summoned there
once again by Facebook.
2095
02:21:42,560 --> 02:21:44,560
After the failure of the
revolutions, it was not
2096
02:21:44,560 --> 02:21:47,480
just the radicals -
no-one in the West had
2097
02:21:47,480 --> 02:21:49,720
any idea of how to
change the world.
2098
02:21:51,080 --> 02:21:53,520
At home, the politicians had
given so much of their
2099
02:21:53,520 --> 02:21:56,360
power away, to finance
and the ever-growing
2100
02:21:56,360 --> 02:21:59,680
managerial bureaucracies,
that they in effect
2101
02:21:59,680 --> 02:22:01,600
had become managers themselves.
2102
02:22:03,320 --> 02:22:06,080
While abroad, all their adventures
had failed.
2103
02:22:07,200 --> 02:22:10,040
And their simplistic vision of the
world had been exposed
2104
02:22:10,040 --> 02:22:11,840
as dangerous and
destructive.
2105
02:22:16,840 --> 02:22:18,960
But in Russia, there
was a group of men who
2106
02:22:18,960 --> 02:22:21,000
had seen how this very
lack of belief in
2107
02:22:21,000 --> 02:22:23,640
politics, and dark
uncertainty about the
2108
02:22:23,640 --> 02:22:25,960
future could work to
their advantage.
2109
02:22:28,040 --> 02:22:30,880
What they had done was turn
politics into a strange
2110
02:22:30,880 --> 02:22:33,720
theatre where nobody
knew what was true or
2111
02:22:33,720 --> 02:22:35,160
what was fake any longer.
2112
02:22:38,760 --> 02:22:41,280
They were called political
technologists and they were
2113
02:22:41,280 --> 02:22:43,440
the key figures behind
President Putin.
2114
02:22:44,640 --> 02:22:47,800
They had kept him in power,
unchallenged, for 15 years.
2115
02:22:50,440 --> 02:22:52,600
Some of them had been dissidents
back in the 1970s
2116
02:22:52,600 --> 02:22:55,480
and had been powerfully
influenced by the
2117
02:22:55,480 --> 02:22:58,640
science fiction writings
of the Strugatsky brothers.
2118
02:23:00,280 --> 02:23:01,920
20 years
later, when Russia fell
2119
02:23:01,920 --> 02:23:05,000
apart after the end of
communism, they rose up
2120
02:23:05,000 --> 02:23:06,720
and took control of the media.
2121
02:23:08,080 --> 02:23:11,560
And they used it to manipulate the
electorate on a vast scale.
2122
02:23:13,440 --> 02:23:15,680
For them, reality
was just something that
2123
02:23:15,680 --> 02:23:18,800
could be manipulated
and shaped into anything
2124
02:23:18,800 --> 02:23:19,920
you wanted it to be.
2125
02:23:34,520 --> 02:23:37,560
GLASS THUDS
2126
02:23:39,360 --> 02:23:43,040
But then a technologist
emerged who went much further.
2127
02:23:43,040 --> 02:23:44,960
And his ideas
would become central to
2128
02:23:44,960 --> 02:23:46,280
Putin's grip on power.
2129
02:23:48,280 --> 02:23:51,200
He was called Vladislav Surkov.
2130
02:23:51,200 --> 02:23:54,520
Surkov came originally from the
theatre world and those who have
2131
02:23:54,520 --> 02:23:57,280
studied his career say that what
he did was take
2132
02:23:57,280 --> 02:23:59,800
avant-garde ideas from
the theatre and bring
2133
02:23:59,800 --> 02:24:01,840
them into the heart of
politics.
2134
02:24:03,160 --> 02:24:06,600
Surkov's aim was not just to
manipulate people
2135
02:24:06,600 --> 02:24:09,760
but to go deeper and play
with, and undermine
2136
02:24:09,760 --> 02:24:12,600
their very perception of
the world so they are
2137
02:24:12,600 --> 02:24:14,720
never sure what is
really happening.
2138
02:24:21,920 --> 02:24:23,920
Surkov turned Russian
politics into
2139
02:24:23,920 --> 02:24:27,960
a bewildering, constantly
changing piece of theatre.
2140
02:24:27,960 --> 02:24:29,560
He used Kremlin
money to sponsor
2141
02:24:29,560 --> 02:24:34,000
all kinds of groups - from mass
anti-fascist youth organisations,
2142
02:24:34,000 --> 02:24:36,560
to the
very opposite - neo-Nazi skinheads.
2143
02:24:40,280 --> 02:24:42,080
And liberal
human rights groups who
2144
02:24:42,080 --> 02:24:44,320
then attacked the government.
2145
02:24:44,320 --> 02:24:47,120
Surkov even backed whole political
parties that were
2146
02:24:47,120 --> 02:24:49,000
opposed to President Putin.
2147
02:24:50,840 --> 02:24:54,720
But the key thing was that Surkov
then let it be known that this
2148
02:24:54,720 --> 02:24:56,760
was what he was doing.
2149
02:24:56,760 --> 02:24:59,960
Which meant that no-one was sure
what was real or what was fake
2150
02:24:59,960 --> 02:25:01,000
in modern Russia.
2151
02:25:03,000 --> 02:25:04,760
As one journalist put it,
2152
02:25:04,760 --> 02:25:08,200
"It's a strategy of power
that keeps any opposition
2153
02:25:08,200 --> 02:25:09,840
"constantly confused -
2154
02:25:09,840 --> 02:25:13,840
"a ceaseless shape-shifting
that is unstoppable
2155
02:25:13,840 --> 02:25:15,720
"because it is indefinable."
2156
02:25:20,080 --> 02:25:23,400
Meanwhile, real power
was elsewhere -
2157
02:25:23,400 --> 02:25:24,960
hidden away behind the stage,
2158
02:25:24,960 --> 02:25:28,120
exercised without
anyone seeing it.
2159
02:25:32,280 --> 02:25:36,920
And then the same thing seemed to
start happening in the West.
2160
02:25:38,080 --> 02:25:40,600
By now it was becoming ever more
clear
2161
02:25:40,600 --> 02:25:43,040
that the system had deep flaws.
2162
02:25:43,040 --> 02:25:45,640
Every month there were
new revelations,
2163
02:25:45,640 --> 02:25:49,440
of most of the banks' involvement
in global corruption,
2164
02:25:49,440 --> 02:25:52,520
of massive tax avoidance by
all the major corporations,
2165
02:25:52,520 --> 02:25:55,240
of the secret surveillance
of everyone's e-mails
2166
02:25:55,240 --> 02:25:57,920
by the National Security Agency.
2167
02:25:57,920 --> 02:26:00,400
Yet no-one was prosecuted,
2168
02:26:00,400 --> 02:26:03,200
except for a few people
at the lowest levels.
2169
02:26:04,280 --> 02:26:05,880
And behind it all,
2170
02:26:05,880 --> 02:26:08,640
the massive inequality
kept on growing.
2171
02:26:08,640 --> 02:26:11,760
Yet the structure of power
remained the same.
2172
02:26:11,760 --> 02:26:14,960
Nothing ever changed -
2173
02:26:14,960 --> 02:26:19,160
because nothing could be allowed
to destabilise the system.
2174
02:26:19,160 --> 02:26:21,600
But then the shape-shifting began.
2175
02:26:22,680 --> 02:26:25,000
CHEERING
2176
02:26:25,000 --> 02:26:27,280
Thank you very much. So nice.
2177
02:26:27,280 --> 02:26:30,880
So amazing. So amazing.
2178
02:26:30,880 --> 02:26:33,040
WOMAN: We love you.
What? That's OK.
2179
02:26:33,040 --> 02:26:34,400
I love you more, OK?
2180
02:26:34,400 --> 02:26:35,880
CHEERING
2181
02:26:35,880 --> 02:26:37,760
The campaign that Donald Trump ran
2182
02:26:37,760 --> 02:26:40,440
was unlike anything before
in politics.
2183
02:26:40,440 --> 02:26:41,920
Nothing was fixed.
2184
02:26:41,920 --> 02:26:44,040
What he said, who he attacked
2185
02:26:44,040 --> 02:26:49,480
and how he attacked them was
constantly changing and shifting.
2186
02:26:49,480 --> 02:26:51,320
Trump attacked his Republican rivals
2187
02:26:51,320 --> 02:26:54,960
as all being part of
a broken and corrupt system -
2188
02:26:54,960 --> 02:26:58,080
a politics where everyone
could be bought,
2189
02:26:58,080 --> 02:27:02,360
using words that could have come
from the Occupy movement.
2190
02:27:02,360 --> 02:27:05,280
You've also donated to several
Democratic candidates,
2191
02:27:05,280 --> 02:27:07,800
Hillary Clinton included,
Nancy Pelosi.
2192
02:27:07,800 --> 02:27:10,840
You explained away those donations
saying you did that
2193
02:27:10,840 --> 02:27:13,200
to get business-related favours.
2194
02:27:13,200 --> 02:27:15,640
And you said recently,
"When you give,
2195
02:27:15,640 --> 02:27:18,840
"they do whatever the hell
you want them to do."
2196
02:27:18,840 --> 02:27:22,200
You'd better believe it.
So what specifically did they do?
2197
02:27:22,200 --> 02:27:24,600
If I ask them, if I need them...
2198
02:27:24,600 --> 02:27:26,480
You know, most of the people
on this stage,
2199
02:27:26,480 --> 02:27:29,320
I've given to, just so
you understand, a lot of money.
2200
02:27:29,320 --> 02:27:31,800
I will tell you that
our system is broken.
2201
02:27:31,800 --> 02:27:33,760
I give to many people.
2202
02:27:33,760 --> 02:27:36,160
Before this, before two months ago,
I was a businessman.
2203
02:27:36,160 --> 02:27:38,720
I give to everybody.
When they call, I give.
2204
02:27:38,720 --> 02:27:41,360
And you know what, when I need
something from them,
2205
02:27:41,360 --> 02:27:43,880
two years later, three years later,
I call them.
2206
02:27:43,880 --> 02:27:47,240
They are there for me. So what did
you get? And that's a broken system.
2207
02:27:47,240 --> 02:27:50,440
But at the same time,
Trump used the language
2208
02:27:50,440 --> 02:27:53,520
of the extreme racist right
in America,
2209
02:27:53,520 --> 02:27:55,960
connecting with
people's darkest fears -
2210
02:27:55,960 --> 02:27:59,560
pushing them and bringing
those fears out into the open.
2211
02:27:59,560 --> 02:28:01,800
Get the fuck out of here!
2212
02:28:01,800 --> 02:28:04,240
Our country, motherfucker!
2213
02:28:04,240 --> 02:28:05,760
Our country!
2214
02:28:05,760 --> 02:28:07,400
Proud fucking American!
2215
02:28:07,400 --> 02:28:09,040
Made in the USA, bitch!
2216
02:28:09,040 --> 02:28:11,720
Made in the fucking USA!
2217
02:28:11,720 --> 02:28:14,120
Don't fucking come back,
burrito bitch!
2218
02:28:16,760 --> 02:28:19,920
Go fucking right back to jail,
motherfucker!
2219
02:28:19,920 --> 02:28:22,920
Build that fucking wall for me!
2220
02:28:22,920 --> 02:28:25,240
Trump! Donald Trump!
2221
02:28:25,240 --> 02:28:27,720
Fuck you! I love my country!
2222
02:28:27,720 --> 02:28:30,920
Yeah! I'll fuck like at least
ten of you up in one session,
2223
02:28:30,920 --> 02:28:32,760
you fucking pussy!
2224
02:28:32,760 --> 02:28:35,600
Many of the facts
that Trump asserted
2225
02:28:35,600 --> 02:28:37,840
were also completely untrue.
2226
02:28:37,840 --> 02:28:39,960
But Trump didn't care.
2227
02:28:39,960 --> 02:28:42,920
He and his audience knew
that much of what he said
2228
02:28:42,920 --> 02:28:45,120
bore little relationship to reality.
2229
02:28:46,680 --> 02:28:49,800
This meant that
Trump defeated journalism -
2230
02:28:49,800 --> 02:28:52,160
because the journalists'
central belief was that
2231
02:28:52,160 --> 02:28:56,360
their job was to expose
lies and assert the truth.
2232
02:28:56,360 --> 02:28:58,520
With Trump, this became irrelevant.
2233
02:29:00,440 --> 02:29:04,000
Not surprisingly,
Vladimir Putin admired this.
2234
02:29:05,000 --> 02:29:07,280
MAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN
2235
02:29:52,840 --> 02:29:55,600
The liberals were outraged by Trump.
2236
02:29:55,600 --> 02:29:58,440
But they expressed their
anger in cyberspace,
2237
02:29:58,440 --> 02:30:00,120
so it had no effect -
2238
02:30:00,120 --> 02:30:03,640
because the algorithms made sure
that they only spoke to people
2239
02:30:03,640 --> 02:30:05,200
who already agreed with them.
2240
02:30:06,560 --> 02:30:10,800
Instead, ironically, their waves
of angry messages and tweets
2241
02:30:10,800 --> 02:30:14,840
benefitted the large corporations
who ran the social media platforms.
2242
02:30:16,320 --> 02:30:21,000
One online analyst put it simply,
"Angry people click more."
2243
02:30:25,240 --> 02:30:27,080
It meant that the radical fury
2244
02:30:27,080 --> 02:30:29,480
that came like waves across
the internet
2245
02:30:29,480 --> 02:30:32,880
no longer had the power
to change the world.
2246
02:30:32,880 --> 02:30:35,600
Instead, it was becoming a fuel
2247
02:30:35,600 --> 02:30:38,400
that was feeding the new systems
of power
2248
02:30:38,400 --> 02:30:40,400
and making them ever more powerful.
2249
02:30:45,000 --> 02:30:47,800
But none of the liberals
could possibly imagine
2250
02:30:47,800 --> 02:30:50,520
that Donald Trump
could ever win the nomination.
2251
02:30:50,520 --> 02:30:53,000
It was just a giant pantomime.
2252
02:30:56,440 --> 02:30:58,520
Then of course
there's Donald Trump.
2253
02:30:58,520 --> 02:31:00,960
Donald Trump has been saying that
he will run for president
2254
02:31:00,960 --> 02:31:02,920
as a Republican,
which is surprising,
2255
02:31:02,920 --> 02:31:05,040
since I just assumed he was
running as a joke.
2256
02:31:05,040 --> 02:31:08,560
LAUGHTER
2257
02:31:13,400 --> 02:31:16,840
Donald Trump often appears on
Fox, which is ironic,
2258
02:31:16,840 --> 02:31:19,760
because a fox often appears on
Donald Trump's head.
2259
02:31:19,760 --> 02:31:21,320
LAUGHTER
2260
02:31:27,440 --> 02:31:29,640
Donald Trump owns
the Miss USA Pageant,
2261
02:31:29,640 --> 02:31:31,240
which is great for Republicans
2262
02:31:31,240 --> 02:31:33,880
because it will streamline their
search for a vice president.
2263
02:31:33,880 --> 02:31:35,400
LAUGHTER
2264
02:31:40,920 --> 02:31:44,480
Donald Trump said recently he has a
great relationship with the blacks.
2265
02:31:44,480 --> 02:31:47,200
though unless the Blacks
are a family of white people,
2266
02:31:47,200 --> 02:31:49,640
I bet he's mistaken.
2267
02:31:49,640 --> 02:31:51,080
LAUGHTER
2268
02:32:01,160 --> 02:32:03,320
But underneath the liberal disdain,
2269
02:32:03,320 --> 02:32:07,640
both Donald Trump in America,
and Vladislav Surkov in Russia
2270
02:32:07,640 --> 02:32:09,920
had realised the same thing -
2271
02:32:09,920 --> 02:32:13,520
that the version of reality that
politics presented
2272
02:32:13,520 --> 02:32:15,680
was no longer believable,
2273
02:32:15,680 --> 02:32:19,400
that the stories politicians told
their people about the world
2274
02:32:19,400 --> 02:32:22,120
had stopped making sense.
2275
02:32:22,120 --> 02:32:25,920
And in the face of that,
you could play with reality,
2276
02:32:25,920 --> 02:32:28,800
constantly shifting and changing,
2277
02:32:28,800 --> 02:32:31,960
and in the process,
further undermine and weaken
2278
02:32:31,960 --> 02:32:33,800
the old forms of power.
2279
02:32:33,800 --> 02:32:35,640
CHILDREN SING
2280
02:33:00,360 --> 02:33:03,880
And there was another force that was
about to dramatically reveal
2281
02:33:03,880 --> 02:33:07,200
just how weak politics had
become in the West -
2282
02:33:07,200 --> 02:33:08,560
Syria.
2283
02:33:08,560 --> 02:33:10,560
CHILDREN SING
2284
02:33:31,320 --> 02:33:34,400
The attack happened here at
a central police station
2285
02:33:34,400 --> 02:33:35,800
in Damascus.
2286
02:33:35,800 --> 02:33:39,160
Police say the bomber
came up the stairs,
2287
02:33:39,160 --> 02:33:41,720
police then opened fire,
2288
02:33:41,720 --> 02:33:44,840
and then police say
he detonated the explosives.
2289
02:33:44,840 --> 02:33:46,600
And the damage is here to see.
2290
02:33:46,600 --> 02:33:51,560
Behind me, the pockmarked walls
where the ball bearings hit.
2291
02:33:51,560 --> 02:33:55,040
Blood splattered on the walls.
2292
02:33:55,040 --> 02:33:59,040
And the force of the blast
caused walls to collapse.
2293
02:33:59,040 --> 02:34:03,760
And everything is topsy-turvy,
everything destroyed.
2294
02:34:10,040 --> 02:34:14,040
By now Syria was being torn apart
by a horrific civil war.
2295
02:34:14,040 --> 02:34:16,960
What had started as part of the
Arab Spring
2296
02:34:16,960 --> 02:34:19,680
had turned into a vicious battle
to the death
2297
02:34:19,680 --> 02:34:23,000
between Bashar Assad
and his opponents.
2298
02:34:23,000 --> 02:34:24,960
And at the heart of the conflict
2299
02:34:24,960 --> 02:34:28,440
was the force that his father had
first brought to the West -
2300
02:34:28,440 --> 02:34:30,680
suicide bombing.
2301
02:34:30,680 --> 02:34:32,760
THEY SPEAK IN OWN LANGUAGE
2302
02:34:36,600 --> 02:34:37,840
Back in the 1980s
2303
02:34:37,840 --> 02:34:41,080
Bashar Assad's father had
seen suicide bombing
2304
02:34:41,080 --> 02:34:42,920
as a weapon he could use
2305
02:34:42,920 --> 02:34:46,480
to force the Americans
out of the Middle East.
2306
02:34:46,480 --> 02:34:49,880
But over the next 30 years it had
shifted and mutated
2307
02:34:49,880 --> 02:34:53,320
into something that had now ended up
doing the very opposite -
2308
02:34:53,320 --> 02:34:55,720
tearing the Arab world apart.
2309
02:34:59,120 --> 02:35:03,720
Hafez al-Assad's dream of a
powerful and united Arab world
2310
02:35:03,720 --> 02:35:05,440
was now destroyed.
2311
02:35:05,440 --> 02:35:10,000
In Iraq, extremist Sunni groups
had used suicide bombing
2312
02:35:10,000 --> 02:35:13,520
as a way to start a sectarian war.
2313
02:35:13,520 --> 02:35:18,560
And now groups like Isis brought the
same techniques into Syria
2314
02:35:18,560 --> 02:35:22,160
to attack not just Assad's son
but his fellow Shi'ites.
2315
02:35:28,640 --> 02:35:32,120
And like his father,
Bashar Assad retaliated
2316
02:35:32,120 --> 02:35:34,160
with a vengeful fury.
2317
02:35:34,160 --> 02:35:35,960
And the country fell apart.
2318
02:35:38,680 --> 02:35:40,520
MAN: Allahu Akbar.
2319
02:35:40,520 --> 02:35:42,040
WHOOSHING
2320
02:35:46,440 --> 02:35:48,760
Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.
2321
02:35:56,520 --> 02:35:58,080
ROARING
2322
02:36:03,640 --> 02:36:05,200
My fellow Americans...
2323
02:36:05,200 --> 02:36:08,200
tonight I want to talk to you
about Syria -
2324
02:36:08,200 --> 02:36:12,720
why it matters and
where we go from here.
2325
02:36:12,720 --> 02:36:16,680
Faced by the war, western
politicians were bewildered.
2326
02:36:16,680 --> 02:36:20,400
They insisted Bashar Assad was evil.
2327
02:36:20,400 --> 02:36:23,920
But then it turned out that
his enemies were more evil
2328
02:36:23,920 --> 02:36:25,680
and more horrific than him.
2329
02:36:25,680 --> 02:36:27,840
The question before the House today
2330
02:36:27,840 --> 02:36:30,880
is how we keep the British people
safe from the threat
2331
02:36:30,880 --> 02:36:32,520
posed by Isil.
2332
02:36:32,520 --> 02:36:36,000
This is not about whether we want
to fight terrorism,
2333
02:36:36,000 --> 02:36:37,720
it's about how best we do that.
2334
02:36:39,240 --> 02:36:41,680
So Britain, America and France
2335
02:36:41,680 --> 02:36:45,240
decided to bomb
the terrorist threat.
2336
02:36:45,240 --> 02:36:48,600
But the effect of that
was to help keep Assad in power.
2337
02:36:50,400 --> 02:36:51,920
WHOOSHING
2338
02:36:53,600 --> 02:36:55,320
CLATTERING
2339
02:36:55,320 --> 02:36:58,000
Then it became more confusing.
2340
02:36:58,000 --> 02:37:00,920
Suddenly, the Russians intervened.
2341
02:37:02,120 --> 02:37:05,280
President Putin sent hundreds of
planes and combat troops
2342
02:37:05,280 --> 02:37:07,720
to support Assad.
2343
02:37:07,720 --> 02:37:11,840
But no-one knew what
their underlying aim was.
2344
02:37:11,840 --> 02:37:14,160
They seemed to be using
a strategy that
2345
02:37:14,160 --> 02:37:16,960
Vladislav Surkov had developed
in the Ukraine.
2346
02:37:18,200 --> 02:37:20,880
He called it non-linear warfare.
2347
02:37:20,880 --> 02:37:24,200
It was a new kind of war -
where you never know
2348
02:37:24,200 --> 02:37:26,520
what the enemy are really up to.
2349
02:37:26,520 --> 02:37:28,760
MAN: Allahu Akbar.
2350
02:37:28,760 --> 02:37:32,640
The underlying aim, Surkov said,
was not to win the war,
2351
02:37:32,640 --> 02:37:35,720
but to use the conflict
to create a constant state
2352
02:37:35,720 --> 02:37:37,800
of destabilised perception -
2353
02:37:37,800 --> 02:37:40,520
in order to manage and control.
2354
02:37:40,520 --> 02:37:42,480
MAN BREATHES HEAVILY
2355
02:37:43,400 --> 02:37:44,840
Allahu Akbar.
2356
02:37:44,840 --> 02:37:46,880
ORCHESTRA PLAYS
2357
02:37:50,280 --> 02:37:54,640
In March 2016 the Russians suddenly
announced with a great fanfare
2358
02:37:54,640 --> 02:37:57,000
that they were leaving Syria.
2359
02:37:57,000 --> 02:38:00,000
And a concert was held
in the ruins of Palmyra
2360
02:38:00,000 --> 02:38:01,640
to celebrate the withdrawal.
2361
02:38:03,880 --> 02:38:07,480
But in reality,
the Russians never left.
2362
02:38:07,480 --> 02:38:08,680
They are still there,
2363
02:38:08,680 --> 02:38:12,040
and still
no-one knows what they want.
2364
02:38:12,040 --> 02:38:14,160
HE SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE
2365
02:38:21,440 --> 02:38:25,080
And within Syria
there was a new Islamist ideologist
2366
02:38:25,080 --> 02:38:28,240
who was determined to exploit
the growing uncertainties
2367
02:38:28,240 --> 02:38:30,600
in Europe and America.
2368
02:38:30,600 --> 02:38:33,720
He was called
Abu Musab al-Suri -
2369
02:38:33,720 --> 02:38:35,720
the Syrian.
2370
02:38:37,520 --> 02:38:39,360
HE SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE
2371
02:38:45,360 --> 02:38:49,600
Al-Suri had originally worked with
Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan,
2372
02:38:49,600 --> 02:38:52,320
but he had turned against him.
2373
02:38:52,320 --> 02:38:55,080
Al-Suri gave lectures that
had a powerful effect
2374
02:38:55,080 --> 02:38:56,560
on the Islamist movement.
2375
02:38:56,560 --> 02:38:59,720
He argued that
bin Laden had been wrong
2376
02:38:59,720 --> 02:39:01,640
to attack the West head on,
2377
02:39:01,640 --> 02:39:04,600
because it created a massive
military response
2378
02:39:04,600 --> 02:39:07,880
that had almost destroyed Islamism.
2379
02:39:07,880 --> 02:39:09,880
Instead, al-Suri said,
2380
02:39:09,880 --> 02:39:12,360
independent groups or individuals
2381
02:39:12,360 --> 02:39:15,280
should stage random,
small-scale attacks
2382
02:39:15,280 --> 02:39:17,920
on civilians in Europe and America.
2383
02:39:17,920 --> 02:39:20,080
The aim was to spread fear,
2384
02:39:20,080 --> 02:39:22,360
uncertainty and doubt -
2385
02:39:22,360 --> 02:39:26,320
and undermine the already failing
authority of western politicians.
2386
02:39:46,880 --> 02:39:50,560
The effect of the attacks shocked
Europe and America
2387
02:39:50,560 --> 02:39:55,640
and gave powerful force to the new
politics of uncertainty and anxiety.
2388
02:39:57,200 --> 02:39:59,840
I'm sure that you, with me,
2389
02:39:59,840 --> 02:40:04,080
share the absolute horror
and total revulsion
2390
02:40:04,080 --> 02:40:07,440
at what happened in Paris
last Friday.
2391
02:40:07,440 --> 02:40:09,200
And I'm afraid there is,
2392
02:40:09,200 --> 02:40:12,000
and we have to be honest and frank
about this
2393
02:40:12,000 --> 02:40:15,320
and talk about these things
without being fearful,
2394
02:40:15,320 --> 02:40:21,960
there is a problem with some of the
Muslim community in this country.
2395
02:40:21,960 --> 02:40:24,480
There is a problem.
And we have to be honest about it.
2396
02:40:24,480 --> 02:40:27,520
Our politicians, I'm afraid,
haven't had the guts.
2397
02:40:27,520 --> 02:40:31,360
APPLAUSE
2398
02:40:31,360 --> 02:40:34,160
This could be the great Trojan horse
of all time,
2399
02:40:34,160 --> 02:40:37,840
because you look at the migration...
Study it, look at it.
2400
02:40:37,840 --> 02:40:40,680
Now they'll start infiltrating
with women and children.
2401
02:40:40,680 --> 02:40:43,840
Both the Brexit campaign in Britain
2402
02:40:43,840 --> 02:40:45,720
and Donald Trump in America
2403
02:40:45,720 --> 02:40:48,600
did exactly what
al-Suri had predicted.
2404
02:40:48,600 --> 02:40:51,920
They used the fear to dramatise
a world where everything -
2405
02:40:51,920 --> 02:40:55,240
even going to a restaurant -
had become a risky event.
2406
02:40:56,400 --> 02:41:00,560
And what had been seen as doomed
campaigns on the fringes of society
2407
02:41:00,560 --> 02:41:03,040
that could never win
became frighteningly real.
2408
02:41:04,560 --> 02:41:08,440
I am genuinely freaked out right
now about this whole Brexit thing.
2409
02:41:08,440 --> 02:41:11,400
Because we'd all been told that
it wasn't going to happen,
2410
02:41:11,400 --> 02:41:13,960
like it was going away, it was going
away from Brexiting
2411
02:41:13,960 --> 02:41:15,440
and on to the staying.
2412
02:41:15,440 --> 02:41:18,440
And because I had this,
like bedrock belief...
2413
02:41:18,440 --> 02:41:20,960
I have friends who, like,
live and work in London,
2414
02:41:20,960 --> 02:41:24,400
and they said, "Don't worry,
we're a very sensible people."
2415
02:41:24,400 --> 02:41:25,560
LAUGHTER
2416
02:41:25,560 --> 02:41:27,640
"This isn't going to happen.
It's a lot of talk,
2417
02:41:27,640 --> 02:41:29,800
"but we don't do that
sort of stuff here."
2418
02:41:29,800 --> 02:41:32,280
Um...they were wrong.
2419
02:41:32,280 --> 02:41:33,840
LAUGHTER
2420
02:41:33,840 --> 02:41:38,840
And that really kind of
crushes my view of,
2421
02:41:38,840 --> 02:41:40,560
like, what can happen that is bad
2422
02:41:40,560 --> 02:41:42,680
that we don't think
is going to happen.
2423
02:41:42,680 --> 02:41:44,600
Like it's just not supposed
to happen.
2424
02:41:48,560 --> 02:41:50,320
CROWD GASPS
2425
02:41:56,080 --> 02:41:58,040
CLANKING
2426
02:41:58,040 --> 02:42:00,360
DRIPPING
2427
02:42:00,360 --> 02:42:02,040
CLANKING
2428
02:42:03,480 --> 02:42:06,120
I fear that we are watching
2429
02:42:06,120 --> 02:42:10,640
the stirrings of fascism
in Europe again.
2430
02:42:10,640 --> 02:42:15,520
And I genuinely never thought
it would be my country
2431
02:42:15,520 --> 02:42:16,880
that did that.
2432
02:42:16,880 --> 02:42:18,960
I thought this would be America.
2433
02:42:18,960 --> 02:42:22,600
I thought America was the people
who were so filled with hate.
2434
02:42:22,600 --> 02:42:24,160
Not us.
2435
02:42:24,160 --> 02:42:28,480
And I'm so disappointed.
2436
02:42:28,480 --> 02:42:30,280
I'm so hurt.
2437
02:42:34,960 --> 02:42:36,320
Zee.
2438
02:42:38,520 --> 02:42:41,120
MUSIC: Standing Room Only
by Barbara Mandrell.
2439
02:42:51,800 --> 02:42:57,640
# You must think my bed's a bus stop
2440
02:42:57,640 --> 02:43:02,960
# The way you come and go
2441
02:42:57,640 --> 02:43:02,960
HE COUGHS
2442
02:43:02,960 --> 02:43:07,240
# I ain't seen you
with the lights on
2443
02:43:08,800 --> 02:43:12,240
# Two nights in a row
2444
02:43:13,840 --> 02:43:17,880
# So pack your rusty razor
2445
02:43:19,200 --> 02:43:22,760
# Don't bother with goodbye
2446
02:43:24,840 --> 02:43:28,520
# Your cup runneth open
2447
02:43:29,800 --> 02:43:35,240
# But mine is always dry
2448
02:43:37,440 --> 02:43:40,680
# Standing room only
2449
02:43:41,800 --> 02:43:45,400
# I can't stand no more
2450
02:43:48,240 --> 02:43:52,520
# Standing room only
2451
02:43:52,520 --> 02:43:57,000
# Outside my door
2452
02:44:00,240 --> 02:44:04,280
# Don't help me set the table
2453
02:44:05,640 --> 02:44:10,120
# Cos now there's one less place
2454
02:44:12,160 --> 02:44:17,120
# I won't lay Mama's silver
2455
02:44:17,120 --> 02:44:21,520
# For a man who won't say grace
2456
02:44:22,680 --> 02:44:25,520
# If home is where the heart is... #
2457
02:44:25,520 --> 02:44:27,840
This is my right to free speech
going on here, OK?
2458
02:44:27,840 --> 02:44:32,320
# Then your home's on the streets
2459
02:44:33,800 --> 02:44:37,760
# Me, I'll read a good book
2460
02:44:39,080 --> 02:44:43,480
# Turn out the lights
and go to sleep
2461
02:44:45,920 --> 02:44:48,400
# Standing room only
2462
02:44:50,120 --> 02:44:55,360
# I can't stand no more, no more
2463
02:44:56,920 --> 02:45:00,440
# Standing room only
2464
02:45:02,160 --> 02:45:05,040
# Outside my door... #
2465
02:45:05,040 --> 02:45:07,480
TINNY MUSIC PLAYS
2466
02:45:07,480 --> 02:45:09,520
INDISTINCT SPEECH
2467
02:45:20,080 --> 02:45:21,520
Oh.
2468
02:45:23,640 --> 02:45:25,120
You're on video. Oh.
2469
02:45:28,960 --> 02:45:31,400
Say bye, Heather.
2470
02:45:31,400 --> 02:45:32,680
VIDEO OFF
313224
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