Stake through the heart.
Someone’s really, really gone & done it with this one. Of all the subjects, arguably the most murderous of them all is a rarely scrutinised radius, a concealment strategy that is crucial to it’s perpetuation.
The arms trade.
Andrew Feinstein has been relentlessly exposing & investigating this lucrative bloodbath for decades, & director Johan Grimonprez has based this astonishing film on his 2012, 551 page book – The Shadow World, with Feinstein also contributing to the documentary as one of the talking heads.
Primarily focussed on the notorious Al-Yamamah arms deal, & the “neutralised” Serious Fraud Office investigation, derailed on the orders of then prime minister Tony Blair & Prince Andrew, the feature expands into the larger atrocity of this mass murdering marketplace.
Stained with perhaps more corruption than any other sector of commercial “trade” (& by today’s sub-standards, that is quite a accomplishment) this secretive & shadowy serial killing en-masse is mired in disrepute for it’s proclivity of bribery, prostitution & blackmail.
This is an excruciatingly powerful documentary, with superb editing & production. But on the merit of exposure, it’s in a league of it’s own.
Not only is this perversion so rarely afforded coverage or penetrable scrutiny, but the cast of contributors here is exceptionally strong.
Both the dissection & elucidation is simply immense.
One of the most extraordinary & revealing proponents is a European “arms & equipment” dealer themselves – Riccardo Privitera of Talisman Ltd.
Disarmingly frank & deeply sardonic, he provides some of the starkest “reality check” disclosures on the shocking axiom of this blood ocean industry.
Or how about retired Colonel of the US Army Lawrence Wilkerson?
Who’s devastating truisms on the “military industrial complex” & genocide profiteering will leave even the cynic abraded.
Other excellent cast include Chris Hedges, Clare Short (who went on to resign as MP on principle in response to Blair/Murdoch’s decision to invade occupy Iraq), Helen Garlick lead prosecutor at the SFO against Al-Yamamah, along with veterans on the subject such as Jeremy Scahill & the brilliant Vijay Prashad.
This is an extremely important work, hence why you probably have not heard of it & visibility is so strangled, despite the effort & considerable expertise that have gone into this startling picture.
It’s brilliance is outweighed only by the necessity of such investigation & exposure.
The scale, frequency & strength of the “global arms trade” & the ease with which it continues to both operate & dominate clearly demonstrates the level of malicious insanity & commercial belligerence that is happily ensconced in the inner sanctuary of the modern world & at the forefront of “trade” relations & international economies.
The devil’s work.
Johan Grimonprez/Andrew Feinstein, 2016
With special thanks to Blacc Pasha.