10 Reasons Why Bush Wants to Ban Moore Film

Mirror.co.uk

May 22, 2004

Ryan Parry

A NEW film is sending shockwaves through the United States in general
and
the White House in particular - and it hasn't even been released yet.

Fahrenheit 9/11, which this week got the longest standing ovation in
Cannes
Film Festival history, tells what its director Michael Moore sees as the
truth behind the war in Iraq and on terror.

It is said to be so powerful it could tip November's US presidential
election against George W Bush. As Moore says: "We were able to get film
crews embedded with American troops without them knowing it was Michael
Moore. They are totally f***ed."

Disney has refused to distribute the film in the States, saying its
content
could upset the presidential elections. Moore says that's precisely why
the
public should see it.

These are the 10 killer questions the film poses.

1, AFTER the 9/11 attacks, why was the only plane to fly out of the US
carrying 24 members of Osama bin Laden's family?

IN the wake of the attacks, the US became a no-fly zone. Moore
asks: "Why
did Bush allow a private Saudi jet to fly around the US in the days
after
September 11 to pick up members of the bin Laden family and fly them
out of
the country without a proper FBI investigation? Might it have been
possible
that at least one of the 24 bin Ladens would have known something?"

2, ARE the media covering up abuse of Iraqi prisoners and the
disillusionment of American troops?

MOORE'S film shows soldiers hooding and mistreating Iraqi detainees, and
even shows troops taking it in turns to sexually abuse a drunk elderly
man.

He says: "This occurred outside the Abu Ghraib prison walls. The media
is
there every single day. Why haven't they seen this? I don't think we've
heard American soldiers in the field talk as they do in this film about
their disillusionment and their despair; about their questioning of
what was
going on."

3, IS Bush deliberately creating a culture of fear to get poor American
youth to fight his war?

MOORE accuses the Bush administration of deliberately creating a
climate of
fear, particularly by the instigation of the Department of Homeland
Security, to increase numbers signing up for the armed forces. He calls
this
"the immoral act of sending kids to war on the basis of a lie".

4, HOW deep does the connection between the Bush family and bin Laden
family
actually run?

MOORE exposes business links between the bin Ladens and the Bushes over
the
last 25 years. Bush Snr became a highly paid consultant for the Carlyle
Group, one of the nation's largest defence contractors. One of the
investors
in Carlyle - to the tune of at least $2million (#1.2m) - was the bin
Laden
family.

The campaigner says: "The bin Laden family have extensive dealings with
large companies in the US. They have donated $2m to Bush's alma mater,
Harvard. They own property in Texas, Florida and Massachusetts. In
short,
they have their hands deep in our pants."

5, JUST how sinister was the White House's doctoring of Bush's military
record?

MOORE suggests that, far from being simply an exercise in proving that
Bush
attended to his Texas Air National Guard duties, the White House version
also sought to hide evidence that Bush and his associates had close ties
with various Saudi oil companies. He also suggests that a former
military
pal of Bush's, James R Bath, once sold a plane to the bin Laden family.

6, DID Bush miss an opportunity to nail bin Laden during secret talks
with
the Taliban?

MOORE claims that while Bush was governor of Texas he built a
relationship
with the Taliban rulers of A
fg
hanistan. They met in Texas to discuss a
project to build a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through
Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and into Pakistan.

Representatives of the Bush administration met the Taliban in the
summer of
2001. Moore says they ignored the bin Laden issue and were pre-occupied
with
oil. He asks: "Was Bush discussing their offer to hand over bin Laden?
Was
he threatening them with force? Was he discussing a new pipeline?"

7, WHY does the Bush family have a "special relationship" with the Saudi
royal family?

"MORE than 1.5 million barrels of oil needed in the US daily from the
Saudis
could vanish on a royal whim, so we begin to see how not only Bush, but
all
of us, are dependent on the House of Saud," says Moore. "This can't be
good
for national security."

Moore also refers to Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to
the
US, who is nicknamed Bandar Bush because of his close links with the
president. Despite increasing evidence linking the September 11
atrocity to
Saudi militants, Bush still met Prince Bandar for dinner two days later.

8, WAS Bush spending too much time on holiday to concentrate on
terrorism?

BUSH was on holiday for 42 per cent of the eight months before
September 11,
letting his guard down, according to Moore. At a 9/11 commission
hearing,
CIA director George Tenet admitted he had known since August 2001 that
Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man charged in connection with 9/11, had
been
taking lessons on how to fly a 747. Tenet claimed he didn't tell Bush
because the president, "was on vacation".

9, DID Bush panic when he was told about the attack on the twin towers?

ON the morning of September 11, President Bush was posing for cameras
at a
children's literacy event in Florida.

Moore has previously unseen footage showing the rabbit-in-car-headlights
expression on the president's face when he is told about the second
plane
hitting the twin towers.

A stopwatch appears in the corner of the screen, as the minutes tick by
and
the president keeps reading My Pet Goat, not knowing what to do without
his
advisers to tell him.

Moore says: "Was Bush thinking he should have taken reports the CIA had
given him the month before more seriously? That he had been told al-
Qaeda
was planning attacks in the US and planes would possibly be used. Or
was he
scared witless?"

10, DID Bush manipulate the major US media companies to fix his 2000
election win?

BUSH'S cousin John Ellis, a Fox News executive, was instrumental
in "calling
it" for Bush/Cheney on election night and cowed the other networks into
joining in. This confusion helped set the scene for the debacle that
ended
in his election despite Al Gore winning the popular majority.

I just got home from seeing Michael Moore's movie. Incredible. I was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be and the theater was packed, but I had a great time.

There was so much to touch upon and I think Moore did a pretty good job handling it.

Say what you will I guess. I thought it was good.

Haha no i don't hate you. That's just how I remember seeing you for the first time. We were at spot and you and a bunch of friends came in and scooped up the open table. It was mad busy.

anyway hates such a harsh word. mmm LOL besides it was like five years ago.

:o)

but anyway. i was thinking that a great way to advertise elmwoodstrip.com would be to have people put the addy in their away messages. I have 87 people on my buddy list. if they check it and join then put it in their aways... yada yada yada

ok back to the book

I finally got it. I am going to read it asap. Everyone seems to have read it and really liked it.

:op Clinton's book is next on my list of things to read.

haha I suck at pool. Its embarassing. Luckily I was on Steve-o's team so we kicked ass. :oD

Fugazi's was fun last night. I have a vague memory of typing this up, but I'm too lazy to check, soooo i'm just gonna drop it here.

Going to dinner, the CEPA gallery opening, then to the moore film. yay!

I want ((blank)).

I stood in line today at the UPS store while this hopeless woman tried to make up her mind. She wanted to FedEx a package out and get it there by Monday morning. It took her forever to get out what could have been summed up in a few sound bites. I want to sent this out so it gets to CA by Monday morning.

ARG. The clerk was no better. I wish i had taped it so you could hear the whole situation. It was worse in person.

Comedicqueen: I like your headshot. I think its very nice.

I went to Fugazi's tonight of the first time in a long time. It was great. I wound up running into a whole bunch of people I haven't seen in a long time. ((i got free drinks too, so it worked out well))

I am going to see the Michael Moore film tomorrow, I hope at 930. I never saw Bowling for Columbine and apparently everyone else has... so I guess I'll be watching it Saturday after work.

haha I've been telling everyone I'm off this weekend and actually I have to be at work Saturday at 9am, ugh. I want to go out tomorrow nigh too. I wonder what people would say if they knew that their pharmacy technicians showed up on the weekends hung over and really not functioning at all before 2pm. It seems to irresponsible, yet o so right. haha

Hey Mike! I've seen you at Spot for a long time, haha like years, but never knew who you were until about two weeks ago. ((thank Teres)) Soooo. Hello. :o)

I spent two years without a car and I loved it. I took me pretty much the same amount of time to get somewhere as it did anyone with a car that I knew.

Now that I am back home and have a car I am a little annoyed. I don't really care to hunt for parking spots and when I travel with people and park at the end of the lot where there are plenty of open spaces I get complaints.

I can't understand why people get preoccupied with finding the closest spot to the door they can. I spent longer than necessary waiting for a spot to open up that was close to the door of Target with my friend yesterday. It was ridiculous. In the time it took us to actually find the spot, we could have parked further away and just walked inside.

On a selfish note, its was way more fun to go out drinking and just walk back to my apartment then it is to either find a DD or, haha limit my alcohol consumption to something reasonable.

I ran into an old boyfriend today at the bank. After we stopped seeing each other, he met a girl, got married and graduated from law school. They have a kid too.

YikES!