"Then it is dark; a night where kings in golden suits ride elephants over the mountains." - John Cheever

Friday, October 01, 2004


Shameless lift from the popbitch mailout. Definitely worth watching though - I deliberately avoided the drama thing last week...

Radiation bombs are a government fantasy

Last week’s BBC drama about a dirty
bomb in London has helped keep everyone
terrified about terrorism.

But a forthcoming documentary shows that
dirty bombs are actually a fantasy. The
Americans should know: the CIA tried for
years to make one, before realising that
blowing up radioactive material won't hurt
anyone. Radioactive dust disperses so
quickly you'd need to be exposed to it
for about a year before any real
damage occurred.

The documentary, The Power Of Nightmares,
shows how politicians are using fake stories
like the dirty bomb to keep people scared,
and themselves in power. It also demonstrates
that the claim that Al-Qaeda is a global,
hidden, terror network is also a myth.

So what channel is this BBC-debunking
documentary showing on? Er, BBC2.

The Power Of Nightmares. BBC2, 20th October, 9pm.

2 comments:

Col said...

Yes, I read that and was duly heartened. It's worthy of the bad science column in the Life supplement of the Guardian on Thursdays, which is always worth a scan.

John said...

I must admit that one of my main worries vis a vis dirty bombs was that a campaign in London might depress house prices relative to the rest of the country...