The myth of the monster Osama bin Laden is constructed; here's why.
The films in the series compare the rise of our Neo-Conservative movement in the United States and the supposed "radical Islamist" movement around the world, making comparisons on their origins and claiming similarities between the two.
More controversially, it argues that the threat of radical Islamism -- as a massive, sinister organized force of destruction, specifically taking the form of al-Qaeda -- is a myth.
It is perpetrated by politicians in many countries -- particularly American Neo-Conservatives -- in an attempt to unite and inspire their populations to follow the failure of earlier, more Utopian ideologies.
Part 1: Baby It's Cold Outside
The first part of the series explains the origin of Islamism and Neo-Conservatism. It shows Egyptian civil servant Sayyid Qutb, depicted as the founder of modern Islamist thought, visiting the U.S. to learn about the education system, but becoming disgusted with what he saw as a corruption of morals and virtues in Western society through individualism.
When he returns to Egypt, he is disturbed by westernization under Gamal Abdel Nasser and becomes convinced that in order to save society it must be completely restructured along the lines of Islamic law while still using Western technology.
He also becomes convinced that this can only be accomplished through the use of an elite "vanguard" to lead a revolution against the established order. Qutb becomes a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and, after being tortured in one of Nasser's jails, comes to believe that Western-influenced leaders can justly be killed for the sake of removing their corruption.
Qutb is executed in 1966, but he influences the future mentor of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to start his own secret Islamist group. Inspired by the 1979 Iranian revolution, Zawahiri and his allies assassinate Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat, in 1981, in hopes of starting their own revolution.
The revolution does not materialize. And Zawahiri comes to believe that the majority of Muslims have been corrupted not only by their Western-inspired leaders, but Muslims themselves have been affected by the disease of jahilliyah.
Thus both may be legitimate targets of violence if they do not join him. They continued to have the belief that a vanguard was necessary to rise up and overthrow the corrupt regime and replace it with a pure Islamist state.
At the same time in the United States, a group of disillusioned liberals, including Irving Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz, look to the political thinking of Leo Strauss after the perceived failure of President Johnson's "Great Society."
They come to the conclusion that the emphasis on individual liberty was the undoing of the plan. They envisioned restructuring America by uniting the American people against a common evil -- and set about creating a mythical enemy.
These factions, the Neo-Conservatives, came to power under the Reagan administration, with their allies Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and work to unite the United States in FEAR of the Soviet Union.
The Neo-Conservatives allege that the Soviet Union is not following the terms of disarmament between the two countries. And with the investigation of "Team B," they accumulate a case to prove this with dubious evidence and methods. President Reagan is convinced nonetheless.