Morgan Spurlock's Search for Bin Laden

By Jeffrey Breinholt

I went to the new Morgan Spurlock documentary, as I try to keep up with anything related to counterterrorism. I was not particularly taken by his earlier movie, “Supersize Me,” though I was forced to sit through several DVD screenings because my wife liked it so much. Even then, I still doubted his thesis - that McDonald’s can kill you - in part because there were people featured in the movie who gorged on Big Macs all their lives and seemed no worse for wear. My attitude was kind of like my reaction to Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” which claimed that the kids who orchestrated the bloody school massacre in Colorado had no chance in life because they grew up in the shadow of the U.S. military-industrial complex. Last I checked, Ford Motor Co. was also a defense contractor, and growing up in Flint, Michigan did not make Moore into anything but a smug fat guy. Why did Moore not turn his weapons on his classmates, as opposed to his camera on people he views as villains, growing up as he did in the shadow of a McPentagon franchise?

Spurlock does not rub me as wrong as Moore does, but I cannot say I am a huge fan. Part of why I paid admission to “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden” was because I knew he had sought the expertise of three of my friends - Doug Farah, Evan Kohlman and Josh Meyer. It turns out their faces were left on the cutting room floor, although the front cover of Doug’s Blood From Stones is depicted briefly among a stack of books, and all three were named in the closing credits.

Spurlock decided to go to Middle East shortly after discovering that his wife was pregnant. (“What kind of world am I bringing a child into,” he asks.) The trip requires some antivirus shots and some hand-to-hand combat and tradecraft training, since his itinerary included some dangerous places, and some discussions with our friends in the counterterrorism business to get perspective on this whole, like, Muslim thing.

In the end, Spurlock talks to a bunch of people in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt and Israel on film. It is mildly amusing. He debunks at least one myth - that solving the Israel-Palestinian problem will allay al Qaeda. Of course, that is obvious to anyone who follows al Qaeda communiqués, where the Palestinian cause seemed like a last-minute insertion into a college term paper as the deadline approaches. Spurlock’s only near-death experience in the Middle East comes when he seeks to enter a part of Jerusalem controlled by Hasidic Jews, and the Israeli police are called to rescue him. I suppose this editorial decision is telling. Amazingly, Spurlock was not physically threatened in Riyadh. The Saudis have managed to solve the crime problem there. If only the biggest worry for the civilized world were Hasidic Jews, I would rest a little easier.

Is it true that Uncle Sam found himself making friends with some odious characters in the Arab World because of the exigencies of the Cold War, as Spurlock depicts in cartoon form in the movie? Absolutely. That does not fully explain why 9/11 happened, and is hardly a new revelation. One of the things that comes through in Spurlock’s man-in-the-streets interviews is how disgusted Muslims around the world are with America, particularly what we’re doing in Iraq. Still, as I have said before, “Muslim perception” does not lend itself well to questions of statecraft. This is a group, after all, that includes people who do not subscribe to any separation of church and state, and who believe the proper punishment for homosexuals and adulterers is execution and stoning, respectively. Their “perception problem” will exist as long as other countries do not agree with them. I am not sure we should use them as any sort of reference group.

There were not any laugh-out-loud moments for me (the closest being Spurlock's ascension on a Riyadh escalator dressed as a Saudi prince), nor any scenes that blew me away with insight, which makes “Where In The World is Osama Bin Laden” sort of like “Supersize Me.” However, I can say this: if Hollywood is starting to realize the value of consulting people affiliated with the Counterterrorism Blog, as Spurlock did, we should reward those filmmakers with our patronage.

The views in this article are not those of the Department of Justice.

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