The U.K.'s Guardian explains the BBC's view, to be shown as a 3-part series. Some excerpts:
Much of the currently perceived threat from international terrorism, the series argues, "is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media."There's no need to even attempt to editorialize or Fisk such -- what -- there isn't even a word for what the above is, that fully captures the combination of outrageous, dangerous nonsense tinged with insanity and wrapped in cognitive dissonance.
The Power of Nightmares [on BBC2] seeks to overturn much of what is widely believed about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. The latter, it argues, is not an organised international network. It does not have members or a leader. It does not have "sleeper cells". It does not have an overall strategy. In fact, it barely exists at all, except as an idea about cleansing a corrupt world through religious
violence.
Curtis' evidence for these assertions is not easily dismissed.
Bill Durodie, director of the international centre for security analysis at King's College London, says: "The reality [of the al- Qaida threat to the west] has been essentially a one-off. There has been one incident in the developed world since 9/11 [the Madrid bombings]. There's no real evidence that all these groups are connected."
"Almost no one questions this myth about al-Qaida because so many people have got an interest in keeping it alive," says Curtis.
A sceptical observer of the war on terror in the British security services says: "All they need is a big bomb every 18 months to keep this going."
But whatever the reception of the series, this fear could be around for a while... the cold war was sustained for almost half a century without Russia invading the west, or even conclusive evidence that it ever intended to.