National Geographic: Inside 9/11

I sat down to watch this documentary with an open mind, but after about 20 minutes I realised that this wasn't truly an exploration of the subject in depth. The language was highly coloured with obvious intentions to lead the audience to a conclusion very lacking in nuance. Whenever there were said anything about for example American support of the Afghan rebels, it was highly toned down and reduced to a matter of weapons supply. The complexity of the subject was very badly handled, and the documentary is presenting a very one sided Eurocentric pro American view. For example the documentary does not explore the motivation behind the horrendous act of terrorism on 9/11, but are more intent on labelling the Muslims as the problem. The reasoning is reduced to a share wish to commit harm on anything none Muslim without any other rational then the religion itself. This is very much in tune with the rather simplistic notion the Bush administration propound on the subject, of this being about them hating western freedom rather then a revolt against western involvement in Muslim nations.

One also does get a very limited understanding of the Muslim world, which easily can lead the audience to think Muslim equals terrorist. That imams around the world announced fatwa against terrorist activity wasn't even discussed, leaving us to believe the problem is the Muslim religion rather then extremist factions who uses the religion to fuel intolerance towards everything western. These factions consider this religious warfare, but it is not thereby said that all Muslims subscribe to this idea. That there might be a spreading distrust to the west among Muslims does not imply that large portions of the Muslim population are denunciatory to commit terrorist acts in the name of Allah. By conveniently choosing to limit the scope of the subject to a simple evil vs. good, the documentary ends up as more of a proponent of a rather oversimplified perception then a source for enlightenment. I can easily see this documentary fuelling hatred towards Muslims rather then providing greater knowledge about how and why 9/11 happened.

If you wish to believe that 9/11 happened just because of evil people, who committed evil deed merely because they are evil by nature, then this documentary will be a pleasant watch for you. Though, if you want a more in depth understanding of how these extreme ideologies leading to terrorism works, this documentary will be a rather frustrating watch. I can understand how slogan driven American neoconservatives might love this film, but it is by far a well researched piece and one might easily suspect it for strategically ignoring anything that might reflect badly on America. I got the impression the documentary was attempting to establish the Muslim world as the new Soviet threat to American liberty, and thereby being more of a piece of political propaganda then a source of enlightenment.

The only reason I give the documentary 3 stars is because it is well edited and structured despite the lack in content and scope.

Alongside the COVID-19 pandemic, which, as of this writing (January 1, 2022), is still not over, the horrifying terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 are likely to be the most significant events that end up defining the United States in the 21st century. But while a lot of the focus in the media has gone to those agonizing moments witnessed either first hand or on TV, and rightly so, what has frequently gone missing are the political and sociological conditions that actually led up them-some of which, regrettably, five American presidents (Jimmy Carter; Ronald Reagan; George H. W. Bush; Bill Clinton; George W. Bush) unintentionally may have had a hand in help bringing about. The two-part 2006 National Geographic Channel special INSIDE 9/11, without political bias or spin one way or the other, gets really to the heart of the build-up to those 102 minutes of horror that led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, and, subsequently, our involvement in two overseas wars that caused even more death and destruction to American soldiers and innocent civilians alike.

INSIDE 9/11, which all told runs close to three and a half hours but wastes not a nanosecond, gives us a glimpse into the ancient history of Afghanistan in Part One, leading up to the invasion of it by the Soviet Union in the late fall of 1979, and the start of the United States, still smarting from the humiliation that was Vietnam, only wanting to get involved peripherally by funding what became known as a "mujahadeen". That Islamic movement was what eventually morphed into the Al-Qaeda jihadist network, putting at its head a Saudi exile named Osama Bin Laden. Once the Soviet Union was ousted, in the summer of 1988, after nine years of fighting that was as futile for Moscow as Vietnam had been for us, that's when Al Qaeda became a very big deal, as did the subsequent Taliban regime that came to rule Afghanistan with an ironclad Islamist fist. But once the U. S., under Bush I, set up shop in Saudi Arabia to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, both Al Qaeda and Bin Laden became vengeful against its former ally. This resulted in a car bomb being set off in the parking garage of the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, resulting in the deaths of eight people and at least one thousand others being injured. As it turned out in retrospect, this was just a warm-up for what would be coming out way eight and a half years later.

Part 2 shows us the security lapses that allowed the nineteen hijackers to board the planes that they eventually took over with violent results. Although much of the footage used is familiar to us, it is still painful to look at; and some of it had rarely been shown on TV before that point, including the actual live segment of American Airlines Flight 11 making its impact into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, followed by United 175 impacting the South Tower; American Airlines Flight 77 hitting the southwest side of the Pentagon; and United 93 plunging into the ground in Pennsylvania (the last one bought down by the quick reaction of the passengers aboard, who may have kept this flight from hitting the U. S. Capitol building). Most importantly, we see how easy it was for the impact of the two jets and the extreme heat of the jet fuel to compromise the structural integrity of both WTC towers and cause them to basically implode on everyone still inside them. Of course, it's never been enough to dissuade conspiracy theorists that say 9/11 was an "inside job", but it makes the case for people who are truly thinking clearly.

September 11, 2021 marked twenty years since those horrifying events, which were marked by ceremonies televised all around the nation and the world; and INSIDE 9/11 is an incredible addition into our understanding of the who, what, where, and, most importantly, the Why of this, one of the most ghastly examples of Man's inhumanity to Man since the Holocaust.

National Geographic's "Inside 911" and United 93 are without a doubt, the best DVD's on the Arab Islamic Terrorist attack on the United States. But while United 93 was narrowly banded, Inside 911 was far more comprehensive.

In spite of being a documentary, Inside 911's DVD is incredibly gripping. It will keep you at the edge of your seat. This is particularly true of disk 2 entitled "zero hour." A unique reality of this documentary is that it reveals the heroic actions of civilians who risked and sacrificed their lives to save others. It wasn't their "job," but it became their self-appointed mission. This is perhaps the most elevated level of heroism of all.

Realistically, police efforts are downgraded because they were far less directly involved. The firemen's actions were exemplary and they made extreme sacrifices. But again, more lives were saved by civilians working in the towers than any other group.

Unfortunately, we live in a society that lauds civil servants and diminishes the heroism of people wearing suits and ties. This is very sad because what happened in response to the terrorism of September 11th showed American citizens at their best.

It is also a pity that actions of the new terror-Nazis of the world have subsequently been twisted by the pathology of left-wing denial and conspiratorial driven mental illness.

I'm not sure if it's because they had a lot of information to include and left out things they thought may confuse people, like Ronald Regan calling people from all over to come and support his friends in Afghanistan, the Mujahedin, (Operation Cyclone 1979-1989), then... American policy having moved on, renaming them the Taliban (now the enemy), sounds like the plot of "1984", or it's just people making a 'documentary' about something they know nothing about and doing a quick wiki search, but this is a very uninformed work, which I'm not sure I would categorise as a documentary.

If you want to watch something which will give you a balanced view of world events and help you have an informed position, then I suggest watching something by 3 times Bafta Winner, Adam Curtis, of the BBC, such as "Bitter Lake" or "The Power of Nightmares" Or something by another award winner, John Pilger, such as; "The War You Don't See" The above are considered works, which have taken many months or even years to develop, by renowned journalists, not just a hodge podge of a 3rd hand story some producer/director is doing as a quick job.

Don't waste your time on this, as I did, tutting all the way through at the incomplete information and very blinkered view, or perhaps ignorance of the makers.

I'm giving this 1/10 as it calls itself a documentary, and therefore implies it is a well researched piece of work, which you can reply upon to help develop an informed position, but falls far short of that, not to mention the trivialization of, or blindness to, what would now be classified an Hate Crime, or at least a racially motivated crime, the throwing of the shoes of Muslim Students into a lake while they were at prayers, as a 'practical joke'.

Use your time well and watch; Anything by Adam Curtis of the BBC, such as "Bitter Lake" or "The Power of Nightmares" Or John Pilger "The War You Don't See"

Perhaps with a little more understanding of one another's cultures and people being better informed and holding their governments to greater account, so they don't keep making the same 'mistakes' over and over, on our behalf, we may eventually have a more peaceful world.

Kudos to National Geographic; it's not easy making a four-hour show so gripping, so entertaining you can't keep your eyes off the screen. That's what they did here, breaking the program into two segments and having a minimum of commercial interruptions.

When it was all over, one had a nice feel of heroes who sacrificed their lives, such as firemen going back in the Twin Towers in order to rescue more trapped people, or the heroes on United Flight 93 who prevented their hijacked plane to crash into the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, or the Pentagon workers whose heroism ranked up with those firemen in New York City.

The most fascinating part, to me, was the first two hours which had a lot of material many people probably don't know: the background of the terrorists and how they got to the day of 9-11-01. Not only how they pulled it off, but the mindset behind their actions - absolutely riveting stuff put "on a clock" giving you a chronological history of this historical tragedy from start to finish.

The Towers disaster pictures, of course, we'll all seen although there might have been a couple of new scenes for some watching this. The worst part are the falling bodies and the descriptions of that from a couple of TV reporters on the street.

There are things in this informative show which make your blood boil, from our side such as an airport security person allowing one of the terrorists through even though the guy had a knife sticking out of his back pocket, which we could see! That, and ineptitude by aviation people monitoring the hijackings, just being clueless about everything.

What I couldn't help though, was being amazed how these terrorists pulled it off, which is detailed in this program. Amazing material. Don't this miss.