In 1958 I wrote the following:

'There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.'

I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?

Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavour. The search is your task. More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without realising that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.

I have often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays, except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said. That is what they did.

Most of the plays are engendered by a line, a word or an image. The given word is often shortly followed by the image. I shall give two examples of two lines which came right out of the blue into my head, followed by an image, followed by me.

The plays are The Homecoming and Old Times. The first line of The Homecoming is 'What have you done with the scissors?' The first line of Old Times is 'Dark.'

In each case I had no further information.

In the first case someone was obviously looking for a pair of scissors and was demanding their whereabouts of someone else he suspected had probably stolen them. But I somehow knew that the person addressed didn't give a damn about the scissors or about the questioner either, for that matter.

'Dark' I took to be a description of someone's hair, the hair of a woman, and was the answer to a question. In each case I found myself compelled to pursue the matter. This happened visually, a very slow fade, through shadow into light.

I always start a play by calling the characters A, B and C.

In the play that became The Homecoming I saw a man enter a stark room and ask his question of a younger man sitting on an ugly sofa reading a racing paper. I somehow suspected that A was a father and that B was his son, but I had no proof. This was however confirmed a short time later when B (later to become Lenny) says to A (later to become Max), 'Dad, do you mind if I change the subject? I want to ask you something. The dinner we had before, what was the name of it? What do you call it? Why don't you buy a dog? You're a dog cook. Honest. You think you're cooking for a lot of dogs.' So since B calls A 'Dad' it seemed to me reasonable to assume that they were father and son. A was also clearly the cook and his cooking did not seem to be held in high regard. Did this mean that there was no mother? I didn't know. But, as I told myself at the time, our beginnings never know our ends.

'Dark.' A large window. Evening sky. A man, A (later to become Deeley), and a woman, B (later to become Kate), sitting with drinks. 'Fat or thin?' the man asks. Who are they talking about? But I then see, standing at the window, a woman, C (later to become Anna), in another condition of light, her back to them, her hair dark.

It's a strange moment, the moment of creating characters who up to that moment have had no existence. What follows is fitful, uncertain, even hallucinatory, although sometimes it can be an unstoppable avalanche. The author's position is an odd one. In a sense he is not welcomed by the characters. The characters resist him, they are not easy to live with, they are impossible to define. You certainly can't dictate to them. To a certain extent you play a never-ending game with them, cat and mouse, blind man's buff, hide and seek. But finally you find that you have people of flesh and blood on your hands, people with will and an individual sensibility of their own, made out of component parts you are unable to change, manipulate or distort.

So language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you, the author, at any time.

But as I have said, the search for the truth can never stop. It cannot be adjourned, it cannot be postponed. It has to be faced, right there, on the spot.

Political theatre presents an entirely different set of problems. Sermonising has to be avoided at all cost. Objectivity is essential. The characters must be allowed to breathe their own air. The author cannot confine and constrict them to satisfy his own taste or disposition or prejudice. He must be prepared to approach them from a variety of angles, from a full and uninhibited range of perspectives, take them by surprise, perhaps, occasionally, but nevertheless give them the freedom to go which way they will. This does not always work. And political satire, of course, adheres to none of these precepts, in fact does precisely the opposite, which is its proper function.

In my play The Birthday Party I think I allow a whole range of options to operate in a dense forest of possibility before finally focussing on an act of subjugation.

Mountain Language pretends to no such range of operation. It remains brutal, short and ugly. But the soldiers in the play do get some fun out of it. One sometimes forgets that torturers become easily bored. They need a bit of a laugh to keep their spirits up. This has been confirmed of course by the events at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad. Mountain Language lasts only 20 minutes, but it could go on for hour after hour, on and on and on, the same pattern repeated over and over again, on and on, hour after hour.

Ashes to Ashes, on the other hand, seems to me to be taking place under water. A drowning woman, her hand reaching up through the waves, dropping down out of sight, reaching for others, but finding nobody there, either above or under the water, finding only shadows, reflections, floating; the woman a lost figure in a drowning landscape, a woman unable to escape the doom that seemed to belong only to others.

But as they died, she must die too.

Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.

As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Quaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11th 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true.

The truth is something entirely different. The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role in the world and how it chooses to embody it.

But before I come back to the present I would like to look at the recent past, by which I mean United States foreign policy since the end of the Second World War. I believe it is obligatory upon us to subject this period to at least some kind of even limited scrutiny, which is all that time will allow here.

Everyone knows what happened in the Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe during the post-war period: the systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless suppression of independent thought. All this has been fully documented and verified.

But my contention here is that the US crimes in the same period have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged, let alone recognised as crimes at all. I believe this must be addressed and that the truth has considerable bearing on where the world stands now. Although constrained, to a certain extent, by the existence of the Soviet Union, the United States' actions throughout the world made it clear that it had concluded it had carte blanche to do what it liked.

Direct invasion of a sovereign state has never in fact been America's favoured method. In the main, it has preferred what it has described as 'low intensity conflict'. Low intensity conflict means that thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb on them in one fell swoop. It means that you infect the heart of the country, that you establish a malignant growth and watch the gangrene bloom. When the populace has been subdued - or beaten to death - the same thing - and your own friends, the military and the great corporations, sit comfortably in power, you go before the camera and say that democracy has prevailed. This was a commonplace in US foreign policy in the years to which I refer.

The tragedy of Nicaragua was a highly significant case. I choose to offer it here as a potent example of America's view of its role in the world, both then and now.

I was present at a meeting at the US embassy in London in the late 1980s.

The United States Congress was about to decide whether to give more money to the Contras in their campaign against the state of Nicaragua. I was a member of a delegation speaking on behalf of Nicaragua but the most important member of this delegation was a Father John Metcalf. The leader of the US body was Raymond Seitz (then number two to the ambassador, later ambassador himself). Father Metcalf said: 'Sir, I am in charge of a parish in the north of Nicaragua. My parishioners built a school, a health centre, a cultural centre. We have lived in peace. A few months ago a Contra force attacked the parish. They destroyed everything: the school, the health centre, the cultural centre. They raped nurses and teachers, slaughtered doctors, in the most brutal manner. They behaved like savages. Please demand that the US government withdraw its support from this shocking terrorist activity.'

Raymond Seitz had a very good reputation as a rational, responsible and highly sophisticated man. He was greatly respected in diplomatic circles. He listened, paused and then spoke with some gravity. 'Father,' he said, 'let me tell you something. In war, innocent people always suffer.' There was a frozen silence. We stared at him. He did not flinch.

Innocent people, indeed, always suffer.

Finally somebody said: 'But in this case "innocent people" were the victims of a gruesome atrocity subsidised by your government, one among many. If Congress allows the Contras more money further atrocities of this kind will take place. Is this not the case? Is your government not therefore guilty of supporting acts of murder and destruction upon the citizens of a sovereign state?'

Seitz was imperturbable. 'I don't agree that the facts as presented support your assertions,' he said.

As we were leaving the Embassy a US aide told me that he enjoyed my plays. I did not reply.

I should remind you that at the time President Reagan made the following statement: 'The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.'

The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years. The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution.

The Sandinistas weren't perfect. They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements. But they were intelligent, rational and civilised. They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society. The death penalty was abolished. Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead. Over 100,000 families were given title to land. Two thousand schools were built. A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh. Free education was established and a free health service. Infant mortality was reduced by a third. Polio was eradicated.

The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion. In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set. If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things. There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador.

I spoke earlier about 'a tapestry of lies' which surrounds us. President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a 'totalitarian dungeon'. This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment. But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinista government. There was no record of torture. There was no record of systematic or official military brutality. No priests were ever murdered in Nicaragua. There were in fact three priests in the government, two Jesuits and a Maryknoll missionary. The totalitarian dungeons were actually next door, in El Salvador and Guatemala. The United States had brought down the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is estimated that over 200,000 people had been victims of successive military dictatorships.

Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Alcatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA. That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass. It is estimated that 75,000 people died. Why were they killed? They were killed because they believed a better life was possible and should be achieved. That belief immediately qualified them as communists. They died because they dared to question the status quo, the endless plateau of poverty, disease, degradation and oppression, which had been their birthright.

The United States finally brought down the Sandinista government. It took some years and considerable resistance but relentless economic persecution and 30,000 dead finally undermined the spirit of the Nicaraguan people. They were exhausted and poverty stricken once again. The casinos moved back into the country. Free health and free education were over. Big business returned with a vengeance. 'Democracy' had prevailed.

But this 'policy' was by no means restricted to Central America. It was conducted throughout the world. It was never-ending. And it is as if it never happened.

The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven.

Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn't know it.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It's a winner. Listen to all American presidents on television say the words, 'the American people', as in the sentence, 'I say to the American people it is time to pray and to defend the rights of the American people and I ask the American people to trust their president in the action he is about to take on behalf of the American people.'

It's a scintillating stratagem. Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words 'the American people' provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable. This does not apply of course to the 40 million people living below the poverty line and the 2 million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons, which extends across the US.

The United States no longer bothers about low intensity conflict. It no longer sees any point in being reticent or even devious. It puts its cards on the table without fear or favour. It quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations, international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant. It also has its own bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead, the pathetic and supine Great Britain.

What has happened to our moral sensibility? Did we ever have any? What do these words mean? Do they refer to a term very rarely employed these days - conscience? A conscience to do not only with our own acts but to do with our shared responsibility in the acts of others? Is all this dead? Look at Guantanamo Bay. Hundreds of people detained without charge for over three years, with no legal representation or due process, technically detained forever. This totally illegitimate structure is maintained in defiance of the Geneva Convention. It is not only tolerated but hardly thought about by what's called the 'international community'. This criminal outrage is being committed by a country, which declares itself to be 'the leader of the free world'. Do we think about the inhabitants of Guantanamo Bay? What does the media say about them? They pop up occasionally - a small item on page six. They have been consigned to a no man's land from which indeed they may never return. At present many are on hunger strike, being force-fed, including British residents. No niceties in these force-feeding procedures. No sedative or anaesthetic. Just a tube stuck up your nose and into your throat. You vomit blood. This is torture. What has the British Foreign Secretary said about this? Nothing. What has the British Prime Minister said about this? Nothing. Why not? Because the United States has said: to criticise our conduct in Guantanamo Bay constitutes an unfriendly act. You're either with us or against us. So Blair shuts up.

The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading - as a last resort - all other justifications having failed to justify themselves - as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people.

We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'.

How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice. But Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice. Therefore if any American soldier or for that matter politician finds himself in the dock Bush has warned that he will send in the marines. But Tony Blair has ratified the Court and is therefore available for prosecution. We can let the Court have his address if they're interested. It is Number 10, Downing Street, London.

Death in this context is irrelevant. Both Bush and Blair place death well away on the back burner. At least 100,000 Iraqis were killed by American bombs and missiles before the Iraq insurgency began. These people are of no moment. Their deaths don't exist. They are blank. They are not even recorded as being dead. 'We don't do body counts,' said the American general Tommy Franks.

Early in the invasion there was a photograph published on the front page of British newspapers of Tony Blair kissing the cheek of a little Iraqi boy. 'A grateful child,' said the caption. A few days later there was a story and photograph, on an inside page, of another four-year-old boy with no arms. His family had been blown up by a missile. He was the only survivor. 'When do I get my arms back?' he asked. The story was dropped. Well, Tony Blair wasn't holding him in his arms, nor the body of any other mutilated child, nor the body of any bloody corpse. Blood is dirty. It dirties your shirt and tie when you're making a sincere speech on television.

The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are transported to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive, out of harm's way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some for the rest of their lives. So the dead and the mutilated both rot, in different kinds of graves.

Here is an extract from a poem by Pablo Neruda, 'I'm Explaining a Few Things':

Let me make it quite clear that in quoting from Neruda's poem I am in no way comparing Republican Spain to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. I quote Neruda because nowhere in contemporary poetry have I read such a powerful visceral description of the bombing of civilians.

I have said earlier that the United States is now totally frank about putting its cards on the table. That is the case. Its official declared policy is now defined as 'full spectrum dominance'. That is not my term, it is theirs. 'Full spectrum dominance' means control of land, sea, air and space and all attendant resources.

The United States now occupies 702 military installations throughout the world in 132 countries, with the honourable exception of Sweden, of course. We don't quite know how they got there but they are there all right.

The United States possesses 8,000 active and operational nuclear warheads. Two thousand are on hair trigger alert, ready to be launched with 15 minutes warning. It is developing new systems of nuclear force, known as bunker busters. The British, ever cooperative, are intending to replace their own nuclear missile, Trident. Who, I wonder, are they aiming at? Osama bin Laden? You? Me? Joe Dokes? China? Paris? Who knows? What we do know is that this infantile insanity - the possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons - is at the heart of present American political philosophy. We must remind ourselves that the United States is on a permanent military footing and shows no sign of relaxing it.

Many thousands, if not millions, of people in the United States itself are demonstrably sickened, shamed and angered by their government's actions, but as things stand they are not a coherent political force - yet. But the anxiety, uncertainty and fear which we can see growing daily in the United States is unlikely to diminish.

I know that President Bush has many extremely competent speech writers but I would like to volunteer for the job myself. I propose the following short address which he can make on television to the nation. I see him grave, hair carefully combed, serious, winning, sincere, often beguiling, sometimes employing a wry smile, curiously attractive, a man's man.

'God is good. God is great. God is good. My God is good. Bin Laden's God is bad. His is a bad God. Saddam's God was bad, except he didn't have one. He was a barbarian. We are not barbarians. We don't chop people's heads off. We believe in freedom. So does God. I am not a barbarian. I am the democratically elected leader of a freedom-loving democracy. We are a compassionate society. We give compassionate electrocution and compassionate lethal injection. We are a great nation. I am not a dictator. He is. I am not a barbarian. He is. And he is. They all are. I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority. And don't you forget it.'

A writer's life is a highly vulnerable, almost naked activity. We don't have to weep about that. The writer makes his choice and is stuck with it. But it is true to say that you are open to all the winds, some of them icy indeed. You are out on your own, out on a limb. You find no shelter, no protection - unless you lie - in which case of course you have constructed your own protection and, it could be argued, become a politician.

I have referred to death quite a few times this evening. I shall now quote a poem of my own called 'Death'.

When we look into a mirror we think the image that confronts us is accurate. But move a millimetre and the image changes. We are actually looking at a never-ending range of reflections. But sometimes a writer has to smash the mirror - for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us.

I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.

If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us - the dignity of man.

* Extract from "I'm Explaining a Few Things" translated by Nathaniel Tarn, from Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems, published by Jonathan Cape, London 1970. Used by permission of The Random House Group Limited.
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Science for Peace Guelph - Films

The majority f the text below that describes the films is from the producers of the films and not written by SforP Guelph.

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The Take (2004, 85 min)

Official website: http://www.nfb.ca/thetake

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The End Of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream (2004, 80 min)

Website: http://www.endofsuburbia.com
Trailer: http://www.endofsuburbia.com/previews.htm

But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary.

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Liberty Bound (2004, 90 min)

Official website: http://www.libertybound.com

Liberty Bound takes an entertaining look at America’s ongoing struggle to keep a comfortable balance between democracy, capitalism, and fascism. This is a film about historic events that shape history. It is a film about courage and fear; ignorance and knowledge; propaganda and rhetoric.

Christine Rose sets out to answer these questions on her quest across America:

Through original footage, archived footage, and interviews with people such as Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, and Michael Ruppert, Liberty Bound explores the state of the union and its ostensible move toward fascism. We talk with people who have been interrogated by the Secret Service and threatened with arrest for doing such benign things as sending an email, turning around during a Bush speech, and having a philosophical discussion on a train.

Christine also explores the unanswered questions surrounding the attacks of 9/11, and she takes a closer look at the timeline of that terrible day. She examines the US Government’s reasons for going to war with Afghanistan and Iraq. She also delves into the accusations that the Bush Administration knew about the 9/11 attacks and their warlike agenda is actually centered on oil.

Finally, she studies the elements of previous empires and fascist states as compared to recent occurrences in the United States: the loss of civil liberties, police brutality, homeland security, etc.

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The Origins of AIDS (2004, 60 min)

Official website: http://www.galafilm.com
CBC showed this film: http://www.cbc.ca/witness/originsofaids/film.html

The Origins of AIDS aired Wednesday, June 30, 2004 at 8 p.m. on CBC Television's WITNESS. The critically acclaimed documentary also won a Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago Television Festival and Best Director at the 2004 Hot Docs.

Many believe that the answer is hidden in the research undertaken by scientist Hilary Koprowski to find a cure to the polio epidemic. Between 1957 and 1960, Koprowski injected his experimental vaccine into almost one million Africans. To manufacture his vaccine, Koprowski had to use monkeys, and evidence shows that Koprowski used chimpanzees.

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The Corporation (2003, 145 min)

Official website: http://www.thecorporation.tv
Trailer: http://www.thecorporation.tv/trailer

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Canada: Yes or No? Towards Election 2004 (2003, 80 min)
Featuring Mel Hurtig

This video, which contains new information that has become available since Mel Hurtig's 2002 best-seller The Vanishing Country was published, documents the overwhelming amount of foreign ownership which has swamped Canada, and the remarkable economic damage done to Canada by the FTA and NAFTA. It also identifies "The Radical Right", a Canadian plutocracy which is lobbying to quickly move us towards even more American ownership, standards, policies, and values.

Watch this film for FREE online right now at: http://www.vivelecanada.ca/downloads/Canada-Yes-or-No.rm
More info: http://www.vivelecanada.ca/staticpages/index.php?page=20031214230943175

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War and Globalisation: The Truth Behind September 11 (2003, 120 min)

In this timely study, Michel Chossudovsky (professor of economics at the University of Ottawa) blows away the smokescreen, put up by the mainstream media, that 9-11 was an "intelligence failure". Through meticulous research, the author uncovers a military-intelligence ploy behind the September 11 attacks, and the coverup and complicity of key members of the Bush Administration.

According to Chossudovsky, the so-called "war on terrorism" is a complete fabrication based on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden, outwitted the $30 billion-a-year American intelligence apparatus.

The "war on terrorism" is a war of conquest. Globalisation is the final march to the "New World Order", dominated by Wall Street and the U.S. military-industrial complex.

September 11, 2001 was the moment the Bush Administration had been waiting for, the so-called "useful crisis" which provided a pretext for waging a war without borders.

The hidden agenda consists in extending the frontiers of the American Empire right around the world to facilitate complete U.S. corporate control outside the U.S. and a police state on the inside.

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No Logo: Brands, Globalization, Resistance (2003, 40 min)

Official website + trailer: http://www.mediaed.org/videos/CommercialismPoliticsAndMedia/NoLogo
Also see: http://www.nologo.org
View a similar film online: http://members.tripod.com/the_english_dept/logo/nologofilm.htm

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Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003, 90 min)

Website: http://www.sonyclassics.com/fogofwar
Trailer: http://videodetective.com/home.asp?PublishedID=846203
Also see: http://www.errolmorris.com

From the firebombing of 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo in 1945 to the brink of nuclear catastrophe during the Cuban missile crisis to the
devastating effects of the Vietnam War, The Fog of War examines the psychology and reasoning of the government decision-makers who send men to war. How were decisions made and for what reason? What can we learn from these historical events?

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Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers (2003, 50 min)

Info & trailer (Quicktime): http://www.atmo.se/zino.aspx?articleID=382
Trailers (flash): http://www.atmo.se/zino.aspx?articleID=402

Consumer confidence has been low since September 11. A successful war against Iraq was supposed to be the only way to restore that confidence - and our happiness. But is shopping our salvation? Do we have a choice? Why is the lifestyle of consumerism a source of such rage today? How come the privilege of buying goods does not automatically lead to happiness? Why all this emptiness despite our wealth?

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Arsenal of Hypocrisy (2003, 60 min)

Official website: http://www.arsenalofhypocrisy.com

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Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War (2003, 60 min)

Official website: www.truthuncovered.com
Watch this for FREE online now: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6423.htm

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Whose University Is It? (2003, 50 min)

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AfterMath: Unanswered Questions from 9/11 (2002, 35 min film + 90 min of extra material)

Official website + trailers: http://gnn.tv/after_math

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The Carlyle Connection (2003, 60 min)

Film info: http://portal.omroep.nl/nossites?nav=annyHsHjCqBtEyGzGeC

A revealing documentary about the international world of private equity banking The Carlyle Group, one of the largest investment banks in the world, is based in Washington and has accumulated its capital mainly by investments in the defence industry. On their list of employees are people like Lou Gerstner (former chairman of IBM), George Bush Sr., James Baker III, John Major (former British Prime Minister) and Fidel Ramos (former Prime Minister of the Philipines).

The Carlyle Group invests in areas that are closely tied to government policy: aero space and defense, telecom, real estate, health care and the banking business. With 16 billion dollar under management they have the reputation of being the best-connected company in the world. Their list of private investors include George Soros, the Saudi Royal Family and the Bin Laden Family.

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Invisible War: Depleted Uranium and the Politics of Radiation (2002, 65 min)

Trailer: http://webhome.primus.ca/gwishart/invisible.ram

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The Weather Underground (2002, 90 min)

Official website: http://www.upstatefilms.org/weather/main.html

This was the first demonstration of the Weather Underground's "Days of Rage." Outraged by the Vietnam War and racism in America, the organization waged a low-level war against the U.S. government through much of the 1970s, bombing the Capitol building, breaking Timothy Leary out of prison, and evading one of the largest FBI manhunts in history.

The Weather Underground is a feature-length documentary that explores the rise and fall of this radical movement, as former members speak candidly about the idealistic passion that drove them to "bring the war home" and the trajectory that placed them on the FBI's most wanted list. ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE • BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

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Helen Caldicott: The New Nuclear Danger (2002, 40 min)

Helen Caldicott on Democracy Now talking about her book: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0256245
Audio: http://stream.realimpact.net/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow//dn20020418.ra&start=46:12.1

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Toxic Sludge Is Good For You (2002, 45 min)

Official website + trailer: http://www.mediaed.org/videos/CommercialismPoliticsAndMedia/ToxicSludge

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Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (2002, 50 min)

Official website: http://unprecedented.org
Watch film for FREE online here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5278.htm

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Distorted Morality: America's War on Terror? (2002, 115 min)
Starring Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky: Distorted Morality - America's War on Terror? features scholar

in an hour-long Q & A session in which he defends his position.


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Hidden Wars of Desert Storm Video (2002, 65 min)

Official website: http://www.hiddenwars.com

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The Great Deception: The War on Terrorism - An Alternative View (2002, 40 min)

Media critic Barrie Zwicker, the host of VisionTV Insight: Mediafile, is one of the few North American journalists to offer an alternative viewpoint on the Sept. 11 tragedy. In this provocative six-part series of Mediafile commentaries, he challenges the official explanation for the attacks and considers the troubling implications of America’s new war.

Poring over a wealth of published material, Zwicker finds much that has gone unexamined – from the apparent breakdown of American air defenses on Sept. 11, to the longstanding ties between U.S. intelligence and Osama bin Laden. He also takes a hard look at the actions of President George W. Bush in the midst of the crisis. And he ventures to ask what role U.S. oil interests may have played in these events.

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Power And Terror: Noam Chomsky In Our Times (2002, 70 min)

Official website + trailer: http://www.powerandterror.com

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Gaza Strip (2002, 75 min)

Website: http://www.littleredbutton.com/gaza
Slideshow: (click on first image) http://www.littleredbutton.com/gaza/index2.html
Film info: http://www.globalvisionsfestival.com/2002/gaza_strip.php

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Drug Deals: The Brave New World Of Prescription Drugs (2001, 50 min)

Official website: http://www.onf.ca/drugdeals

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Fidel: The Untold Story (2001, 90 min)

The new documentary film by Estela Bravo, Fidel, offers a unique opportunity to view the man through exclusive interviews with Castro himself, historians, public figures and close friends, with footage from the Cuban State archives. Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, and Sydney Pollack discuss the personality of the man. Former and current US government figures including Arthur Schlesinger, Ramsey Clark, Wayne Smith, Congressman Charles Rangel and a former CIA agent offer political and historical perspectives on Castro and the long-standing US embargo against Cuba. Family members and close friends, including Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, offer a window into the personal life of Fidel. Bravo's camera captures him swimming with bodyguards, visiting his childhood home and school, joking with Nelson Mandela, Ted Turner and Muhammad Ali, meeting Elian Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with members of the Buena Vista Social Club.

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Truth and Lies of 9-11 (2001, 140 min)

Ever since the horrifying deaths of thousands on September 11, in the attacks on the World Trade towers and the Pentagon, disturbing questions have been raised about the possible involvement of some parts of the U.S. security apparatus or Administration. These questions have been supported by extensive circumstantial evidence and are currenly being investigated by several U.S. Congressional Committees. Furthermore, the U.S. media have reported on the well known relationship which exists between President George W. Bush, the Carlyle Group, several oil companies and the Bin Laden Family. As yet, there is not conclusive proof either of the correctness or error of such allegations with respect to potential U.S. involement in the events of September 11, 2001. The film records a lecture Michel Ruppert gave in Portland State University on November 28, 2001. It goes over much of the evidence and the known relationships between some of the principle figures using verifiable sources for his statements.

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The Hidden Story: Confronting Columbia's Dirty War (2001, 30 min)

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The Genetic Takeover Or Mutant Food (2000, 50 min)

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The Secret History Of WWII Science (2000, 22 min)

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Wall Street's War for Drug Money (2000, 100 minutes)

After two years Mike's first professional quality video is a live lecture for

off a huge economic crash. "If you get nothing else, get this. It will change
your life and it may save lives." Mike Ruppert
http://www.fromthewilderness.com

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The Awful Truth - The Complete First Season (2000, 6 hours)

Check out http://michaelmoore.com

This is the complete first season of Michael Moore's cable TV show called The Aweful Truth. There are twelve 30-minute episodes per season and we have both seasons.

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What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy - a compilation by Frank Dorrel (2000, 120 min)
Subtitled: CIA Covert Operations and US military Interventions Since WWII: The War Against the Third World

Official website: http://www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.html

9. Public speech of Ramsey Clark (7 min), former Attorney General of the United States (1998, Los Angeles, evening "Save the Iraqi Children"), the sorry truth about US foreign policy.
10. "The healing of Brian Wilson" (10 min), the Vietnam veteran, who Wages Peace against US foreign policies.

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Falun Gong: The Real Story (1999, 30 min)

Website: http://www.falundafa.org

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Coverup - Behind the Iran-Contra Affair (1988, 90 min)

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The Iran-Contra scandal was not an aberration - it was part of a pattern of abuses of power by a
shadow government willing to subvert domestic and international law to ensure the United States' continued global dominance. Coverup is an investigative documentary about world-wide covert activities backed by the U.S. Government. . .activities that were not revealed by the Iran-Contra Hearings of the U.S. Congress. It wades in where the official hearings were afraid to tread, revealing a tangled web of political leaders, international drug smugglers, weapons dealers, hostages, assassinations, the C.I.A. and the effect of covert U.S. foreign policy on people thoughout the world. More: http://www.webslingerz.com/eclauset/mediasouth/project/cu/

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Advertising & the End of the World (1998, 50 min)

Official website + trailer: http://www.mediaed.org/videos/CommercialismPoliticsAndMedia/Advertising_EndOfWorld

This film is about how advertising is driving the coming environmental crisis by pushing us constantly towards consumer goods to satisfy our needs for love, friendship and autonomy. What it will take for us to leave a world fit for human habitation for future generations. Advertising & the End of the World features an illustrated presentation by Sut Jhally of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Focusing directly on the world of commercial images, he asks some basic questions about the cultural messages emanating from this market-based view of the world: Do our present arrangements deliver what they claim-- happiness and satisfaction? Can we think about our collective as well as our private interests? And, can we think long-term as well as short-term? Drawing from the broad arena of commercial imagery, and utilizing sophisticated graphics, Advertising & the End of the World addresses the issues these questions raise, encouraging viewers to reflect on their own participation in the culture of consumption. Making the connection between society's high-consumption lifestyle and the coming environmental crisis, Jhally forces us to evaluate the physical and material costs of the consumer society and how long we can maintain our present level of production.

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Metal Of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium, the Pentagon's Secret Weapon (1998, 50 min) *****