 |
| The Ambassador...you can tell by his hair, this guy is slick. And not to be confused with the Fiber One guy. |
At this point in the season, when Assad and President
Palmer negotiate for peace, the Ambassador from Assad and Fayed’s unnamed
native country comes on scene, expressing ‘shock’ and ‘regret’ over the nuclear
attack, and informs Palmer not to trust Assad as he has carried out repeated
attacks against his own countrymen. Assad shouts, “Your policies precipitated
those actions!”
“That’s your justification for killing innocent people?”
the Ambassador asks.
“You and I define innocent in different ways,” Assad
mutters.
The Ambassador steps toward him. “My own deputy lost his
seven year old son in one of your bombings! That is how I define innocent!”
Before the two Muslims can fight, Palmer makes a proposal.
If Assad does not appear on TV with the Ambassador’s country’s support, Palmer
will move a Navy carrier group closer to its shores (boy, what a deal!). Assad
and the Ambassador quickly agree.
As Palmer
and Assad prepare their press conference, one of Palmer’s staff members, with
the support of those who believe Palmer is too soft on the Muslim threat,
plants a bomb in the speaker’s podium. Assad agrees to speak first. Before he
does, he reveals his fear that Fayed’s men will not listen. Palmer shares a
similar feeling. “The people we’re trying to reach out to abandoned the
political progress a long time ago.”
Assad nods, but tells him, “All we need is a foundation to
build on. The rest will follow.”
One that note, Assad steps behind the podium and it
explodes.
 |
| Assad, seconds before the Big Bang. |
President
Palmer is incapacitated by the blast (and gives us a reprieve from his wooden
acting). Assad is killed, and what began as a strong, complicated character
turned into a push-over before the American President. Then, just when the show
takes steps toward examining political realities, it uses Assad’s death to
shift viewer sympathy to the seriously injured Palmer. Like Ahmed and Sahlib,
Assad is violent at heart—on 24, violence
deserves violent ends. Like Walid, the end of his character’s story arc serves
only to push an American’s character further, and in doing so, the show loses
its most interesting Muslim in the process.
Okay, so, the Ambassador—
He’s a key
secondary character in the last half of the season. Once again, 24 casts an Indian as a Middle Easterner. Ajay Mehta plays this
thankless role with appropriate exasperation.
After his exciting exchange with Assad, we next see the
Ambassador (who remains unnamed, therefore enabling us to see him only as an
abstraction of ethnicity) when Vice President Daniels takes office. At 6pm,
Daniels informs the Ambassador that Assad planted the podium bomb with the
support of his country (Daniels, the bastard, knows this is untrue). The
Ambassador balks. “Assad was not working at the behest of our government. He was
as much a wanted man in our country as in yours.”
Daniels sneers, “Not as much,” and implies Fayed, too, has
governmental support. Taking the same tact as Palmer, he threatens to ‘unleash
the full power of his military’ on the Ambassador’s country if he does not help
stop Fayed.
During that hour, CTU informs
Daniels that Fayed and Gredenko have acquired nuclear drones, small, plane-like
bombers that operate under remote control. Daniels, craving military action
against Fayed’s country, breaks the news to his cabinet. Secretary of State
Ethan Kanin is confused. “We were of the notion that these terrorists are
essentially stateless.”
Daniels
growls, “That’s the fiction they hide behind! Everyone in this room knows that
elements within Fayed’s country train and fund terrorist organizations like
his. It is time to hold them responsible!”
 |
| VP Noah Daniels, another asshole in an asshole-filled season. |
These
lines mimic Bush’s ‘Axis’ of Evil’ speech: “Our…goal is to prevent regimes that
sponsor terror from threatening America. States like these and the terrorist
allies constitute an axis of evil, aiming to threaten the peace of the world.”
While
this may be an arguable reality, as there is certainly evidence for it, 24 makes no serious effort to repeat
that the people of the Ambassador’s
country do not sponsor terrorism. Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for CAIR, shared
a similar reaction. “I’m concerned about the image it ingrains in the minds of
the American public and the American government, particularly when you have
anti-Muslim statements spewing from the mouths of government officials” (BBC
News). When Fayed threatens to kill innocent Americans for an unjust cause, the
audience should despise him, but when the Vice President threatens to kill
innocent Muslims based on known lies, it is acceptable self-defense (counter-terrorism, if you will).
The
Ambassador, like Ahmed and Sahlib, is a liar with hidden agendas. This proves
true in the next few episodes after Palmer miraculously recovers and becomes
President once more.
 |
| Yes, the bomb victim recovery process naturally goes from this... |
 |
| ...to this... |
 |
| ...to this in the matter of hours. |
At
11pm, with his intuition telling him the Ambassador is hiding something; Palmer
launches a nuclear attack on his country. Immediately, the Ambassador enters
with surprising information: Fayed is supported by a high-ranking general named
Habib (what an original name, right?). His country has arrested Habib and is
interrogating him. He pleads with Palmer to abort the attack. Palmer chuckles.
“Your government has known about this man for quite
some time haven’t they?”
The Ambassador denies it.
“Stop lying to me!” Palmer shouts.
The Ambassador asks for compassion. “You must understand
the fragile political climate of our country. General Habib is a high-ranking
military commander.”
Palmer nods. “I hope protecting this man was worth pushing
us to the brink of World War III.” He aborts the missile launch. “The
difference [between us] is I wasn’t about it take innocent lives to prove my
point.”
Palmer
urges the Ambassador to have Habib call Fayed to set up his capture. The
Ambassador shakes his head. “That may be difficult. Habib has been resistant.”
Karen
Hayes, who always deplores torture, loses her moral compass in such close
contact with a Muslim, crying, “Maybe you should be more persuasive!”
The
Ambassador, showing the fire he possessed in only one scene, replies, “I resent
your tone. I don’t need to be told how dire the situation is!”
Hayes
shouts back, “It’s not the time for your indignation as it’s your country’s
inactions that have brought us to this point!”
 |
| "Listen, listen, you must torture General Habib...Yes, I know it is a stupid name, but what can I do? Yes, torture him, or else the mean American man will nuke our country! Yes, he's staring at me right now!" |
Fayed
is not an isolated product, an American anomaly like
Jack Bauer, but rather a product of his region and its people. It is the
country and its atmosphere, not misleading radical leadership and skewed
ideology that is to blame.
Palmer then suggests the Ambassador’s country threaten to
kill Habib’s family.
The Ambassador is shocked. “But what you’re suggesting is
barbaric!”
Palmer almost screams, “I’m fully aware of how your country
treats political dissidents, so don’t you dare speak to me of barbarism!”
Remember, Palmer and America only mistreat to prisoners when necessary, while
the Middle East revels in violence almost as a sacred tradition.
As a character, the Ambassador is consistently Muslim, at
least for 24: a liar, a cheat, unsure
of himself and willing to back down to forceful Americans. Like Assad, the
fiery spark he once possessed that supposed he was a character, not a stereotype, is snuffed out in exchange for
reminding the audience to be afraid of the Middle East. As Michael Dougherty
wrote, ‘24’s writers are willing to
sacrifice human compassion and fair treatment for a conservative branding of
omnipresent guilt.’
In Part 7, I’ll continue to analyze this season by looking
at its main villain, Abu Fayed (oh, and he’s a good one).
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Dougherty, Michael Brendan. "What Would Jack Bauer
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Flynn, Gillian. “24: TV Review.” Entertainment Weekly. 11 January 2007.
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