Today it is common knowledge that the Second Iraq War was based on a lie. There were no weapons of mass destruction. The “source” that Secretary Powell referenced in his infamous speech on Feb 5, 2003 lives in Germany. His name is Rafed Ahmed Alwan, he came to Germany in 1999 as an Iraqi refugee and is now a German citizen (living under police protection). The information he provided about WMDs passed through the hands of several intelligence agencies, including the German BND, Britain's MI6, and the CIA. Suddenly, an Iraqi refugee became a key instigator of the Iraq War.
It was only four years later, in 2007, that a group of American journalists blew Alwan’s cover, blaming him for the drawn-out war. But Alwan shows no remorse. To this day he takes pride in his role as the man who helped oust Saddam Hussein.
Alwan’s story reveals the mechanisms at play at the intersection of politics and intelligence. Matthias Bittner's documentary WAR OF LIES is a portrait of a man who unwittingly changed the course of history by miscalculating the consequences of his lie. His story would make an electrifying political thriller, but it is really a journey into the depths of our human nature that Bittner tries to capture in his sophomore doc, whose North American premiere we are happy to co-present at the
Hot Docs Festival.
Munich director Bittner explains what attracted him to the story and how he approached an ambiguous character like Alwan:
"I was stunned when I first heard that Rafed Ahmed Alwan was supposed to be the one man most responsible for causing the Second Iraq War in 2003. How? Was he a genius, a jack-of-all-trades or some kind of a real-life James Bond? He is none of the above. Having spent almost three years working on this film, I got to know Alwan and found a man who trusts no one, who sees treachery lurking behind every corner. Crucified by the media, he currently bears the brunt of blame for the Iraq War.
As a documentary filmmaker, I’m presented with a quandary. On the one hand, getting to the truth is the very essence of the genre. But can a documentary that deals with international intrigue, intelligence, and war ever really speak the truth? Can a protagonist like Alwan be trusted when his lies resulted in a decade of war? Is it possible to have faith in a man who will go down in history as a liar?
Alwan’s lie had fatal consequences for himself, and even more so, for his country. Today he claims that he always knew that his lies would lead to war. In fact, that is his justification for lying. Without that war, his homeland Iraq would never have experienced the change it so needed, it would see no progress.
This strange claim echoed in my mind throughout the making of the film.
I could not help wonder what must be going through a person’s head to make him want to plunge his country into war. What horrors must he have experienced there?
After extensive research,
I gave up on my original notion of telling his story based on cold facts. I decided to understand the man himself, including his convoluted psyche. I now believe that it is impossible to get to the absolute truth. The
thicket of constructed realities, misinformation, and political interests is far too tangled for that, especially given the actions and reactions of all the other players in this drama. There seems to be a conspiracy of silence, intended to keep the public unaware of even the most basic facts. In some ways, this story even reminds me of the tangled web of lies surrounding the current wiretapping scandal in Germany and the role of the NSA.
But perhaps the French actor Jean Gabin was right when he said, '
If all people always told the truth, it would be hell on earth.'”
Hot Docs Screenings:
April 27, 9:15pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 1
April 29, 1:00pm,TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 1
May 3, 9:30pm, Bloor Hot Docs Cinema
Email arts@toronto.goethe.org until April 17 for a chance to win a ticket to the premiere screening of “War of Lies” on Apr 27 with director Matthias Bittner in attendance!