John Pilger's latest documentary, Breaking the Silence, will be broadcast on SBS television on Tuesday, December 9 at 8.30pm. Pilger investigates Washington's “war on terror”, which was launched following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. It was filmed in Afghanistan, the US and contains previously unseen material from Iraq.

Two years on, Pilger points out that Afghanistan's warlords have regained power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military clashes continue. Human Rights Watch has documented the kidnapping and mass rape of women and girls. Of the US$10 billion spent in Afghanistan in the last two years, only 3% has been spent on reconstruction; most has gone to the military.

As Bush refers to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as two “great victories”, Pilger asks: victories over whom and for what purpose? Pilger describes Afghanistan as a country “more devastated than anything I have seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia.” He finds that al Qaeda has not been defeated and that the Taliban is reemerging.

In Washington, Pilger interviews former senior CIA official Ray McGovern, who reveals that the issue of Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction was “95% charade”.

From Green Left Weekly, December 10, 2003.
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