In case anyone needs to be further convinced as to the prescience of Nick Turse's The Complex, as previously featured on this blog, it is worth checking out the related investigations in the clips I'm posting here. My post on avid toy collecting also obliquely touched on this subject too, but I neglected to include a shot of the President Bush figurine. In combination the clips provide the full story, namely just how significant that manifestation of militarism really is....
I've been following a few other stories about the simulations of the military entertainment complex. The next clip is the trailer for the post apocalyptic epic, Fallout 3, which I understand is produced by the developers responsible for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.
Aside from the compelling narrative of its protagonists emerging from their enormous underground shelters to forage and skirmish in the decimated urban environment, some would also be aware of the controversy following media claims its imagery of Washington D.C. had featured in terrorist propaganda. Note the parallels with the militainment clip with respect to the "hostage" [sic] video of the captured American combatant.
Aside from the compelling narrative of its protagonists emerging from their enormous underground shelters to forage and skirmish in the decimated urban environment, some would also be aware of the controversy following media claims its imagery of Washington D.C. had featured in terrorist propaganda. Note the parallels with the militainment clip with respect to the "hostage" [sic] video of the captured American combatant.
Anti-Terror Consultants Deny Report That They Classified Fallout 3 Screenshot as Al Qaeda Material
US Anti-Terror Consultants Deny Report That They Classified Fallout 3 Screenshot as Al Qaeda Material
May 30, 2008
UPDATE: The SITE Intelligence Group has issued a press release which says, categorically, that the article in the Telegraph (upon which this story is based) is wrong. From SITE:
On May 30, 2008, the Telegraph newspaper ran a misleading story... which incorrectly and falsely described analysis provided by the SITE Intelligence Group.
Discussing a computer-generated image of a destroyed Capitol Building in Washington that was posted to a jihadist forum, the Telegraph claimed, without any basis, "The SITE Intelligence Group said that the image, showing a ruined Capitol Building in Washington, was created by extremists as part of discussions about the feasibility of nuclear strikes against the US and Britain."
This claim is entirely false, as is the characterization that SITE is "embarrassed" or "red-faced." SITE rejects the claims by the Telegraph and stands fully behind the accuracy of its information and analysis. SITE at no time maintained that the image "was created by extremists."
(original story follows:)
A US defense contractor has mistakenly identified a screenshot from the upcoming Fallout 3 role-playing adventure as an al Qaeda-created graphic.
As reported by the Telegraph, the SITE Intelligence Group claimed that the image (seen at left) was created by terrorists as part of an al Qaeda investigation as to the feasibility of launching nuclear attacks against the US and UK.
From the newspaper report:
The images appeared in a video, called Nuclear Jihad: The Ultimate Terror, posted on two password-protected websites... believed to be affiliated with al-Qa’eda. SITE also released translated several chatroom threads... discussing the possibility of nuclear attacks on the West.
However, it has transpired that far from being a detailed simulation created by terrorist masterminds, the apocalyptic vision is in fact lifted from the computer game Fallout 3, by US game designers Bethesda Softworks.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper The Australian was among news outlets which ran the story including SITE's claim that the graphic was an Al Qaeda product.
This isn't the first time that video game graphics have shown up in US intelligence reports on Islamic terrorism. As GamePolitics reported in May, 2006, footage from EA's popular first-person shooter Battlefield 2 and even a voice-over from the film Team America: World Police were presented to the House Select Committe on Intelligence as al Qaeda propaganda.
And what of these uncanny parallels?:
Did Ghost Recon Predict Russia-Georgia Conflict?
August 13, 2008
A number of GamePolitics readers have suggested that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, a 2001 first-person shooter, foreshadowed the current hostilities between Russia and Georgia.
The Bulletin serves up a detailed analysis:
Sometimes life imitates art, rather than the other way around, and the 2001 video game "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon" stands as a prime example. The game... accurately predicted the eruption of hostilities between an expansionist Russia and Georgia... the player takes on obstacles posed by South Ossetian rebels intent on creating a pretext for a Russian invasion.
The game's opening sequence features a Russian leadership intent on bringing the former Soviet republics back under its control. The narrator describes a Russian leader eerily similar to Vladimir Putin... As the game's intro opens, a lone 2008 flashes on the screen before the narrator reads the following words: "The year is 2008, and the world teeters on the brink of war. Radical ultranationalists have seized power in Moscow - their goal, the reestablishment of the old Soviet empire... The world holds its breath, and waits."
The Bulletin also points out that the National Review Online has noticed the eerie similarity between game and real-life events in McCain, Obama Respond to Scenario Out of First Level of 'Ghost Recon.
August 13, 2008
A number of GamePolitics readers have suggested that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, a 2001 first-person shooter, foreshadowed the current hostilities between Russia and Georgia.
The Bulletin serves up a detailed analysis:
Sometimes life imitates art, rather than the other way around, and the 2001 video game "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon" stands as a prime example. The game... accurately predicted the eruption of hostilities between an expansionist Russia and Georgia... the player takes on obstacles posed by South Ossetian rebels intent on creating a pretext for a Russian invasion.
The game's opening sequence features a Russian leadership intent on bringing the former Soviet republics back under its control. The narrator describes a Russian leader eerily similar to Vladimir Putin... As the game's intro opens, a lone 2008 flashes on the screen before the narrator reads the following words: "The year is 2008, and the world teeters on the brink of war. Radical ultranationalists have seized power in Moscow - their goal, the reestablishment of the old Soviet empire... The world holds its breath, and waits."
The Bulletin also points out that the National Review Online has noticed the eerie similarity between game and real-life events in McCain, Obama Respond to Scenario Out of First Level of 'Ghost Recon.
1 comment:
gimme photo credit son!
pushingplay.com
holler back.
Post a Comment