The Need
For Speed  |
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| The Need For Speed: Going To War On
Drugs |
| ARD/Studio Hamburg |
| Germany: ARD |
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When Tom Cruise uttered those famous words in
the Hollywood blockbuster, ‘Top Gun’: "I feel a need, a need
for speed", he would not have known that his words had already
been taken literally by the U.S. Air Force, in a way he could
never have imagined.
In the latest Jamie Doran
documentary, ‘the need for speed’ exposes how the Pentagon has
been issuing a concoction of mind-altering drugs to its
soldiers and airmen, resulting in the deaths of allied forces,
innocent civilians and, almost certainly, their own men. |
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Pilot Tom Heemstra |
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Amphetamines, sedatives, anti-nerve
agents, adrenaline and a whole variety of vaccines, including
anthrax, make up a cocktail of chemicals banned by civilian
authorities in the ordinary workplace, yet forced upon pilots
flying multi-million dollar jets into combat and Special
Forces soldiers operating behind enemy lines.
In an
extraordinary investigation, American military personnel speak
for the first time to explain how they were used as guinea
pigs in wars ranging from Panama, the Gulf, Bosnia,
Afghanistan and right up until the recent conflict in Iraq.
These are not dissidents, nor are they unpatriotic: they love
their country and were ready to give their lives in its
service. But they can no longer stand by and watch their
comrades suffer as the Pentagon pushes more and more drugs
onto the frontline. |
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Pilot Steve Tate |
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"I guess I best remember it as almost
paranoia. I had a dizziness; I wasn’t falling over dizzy, but
there was a little bit of a tumbling sensation going on. I
felt paranoia where I was nervous and skittish about what was
around me and what was happening. I wasn’t in complete
control." Steve Tait: Gulf War Hero "They made you ruthless,
just utterly ruthless. I made decisions that I feel now I
would not have made. I eliminated individuals that I
considered to be a threat, that I would not normally have
done." ‘Mike’: U.S. Special Forces
"A lot of times the
fighter pilots say: ‘speed is life, speed is life’; in this
case, speed became death." Lt. Col Tom Heemstra: F-16 Squadron
Cder "Many of the times, the sad part is that they can’t tell
if it was real or not. That’s the part that is really
frightening." Cpt Joyce Riley: Air Force Nurse
In this
documentary, filmed at locations throughout the United States
and Britain, we speak with a former White House ‘Drugs Czar’
who expresses grave concerns about the use of amphetamines in
the military; we interview the man who, as Air Force Chief of
Staff, banned the drugs as soon as he took over, only to see
them re-introduced after his retirement; we follow the story
of one pilot who sacrificed his career in pursuit of the
truth; we feature the case of a ‘ground’ soldier who killed
innocent civilians for reasons he cannot understand to this
day.
We explain how the ‘voluntary’ nature of
dispensing these drugs makes legal nonsense and how the
Pentagon may very well be breaking its own laws, to the
detriment of its serving men and women; only to establish
that, in reality, the U.S. military is a law unto
itself.
We discover that vital information on ‘friendly
fire’ incidents, including the deaths of nine British soldiers
in the Gulf War, has been withheld and we examine the true
human costs of wars fought on drugs.
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| 25 June 2003 |
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