We've come to expect poisonous and unbalanced attacks from the paid far right
propagandists denouncing Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 911." But
more disturbing are the scolds from tepid moderate mainstream journalists who
often fail to read their own newspapers.
New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof attacks the film because "Moore
hints that the real reason Bush invaded Afghanistan was to give his cronies a
chance to profit by building an oil pipeline there." Kristof attacks Moore for
even raising this issue,. But he conveniently ignores volumes of information
readily available to back up Moore's claim.
Perhaps Kristof, like President Bush, refuses to read. At least that would
explain why he missed the raging international debate surrounding the Bush
administration's well-documented, then-secret oil negotiations with the Taliban in
the summer of 2001.
The book FORBIDDEN TRUTH: U.S.-TALIBAN SECRET OIL DIPLOMACY AND THE FAILED
HUNT FOR BIN LADEN was an international bestseller. Written by French
Intelligence experts Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquié, the book asserts that
the Bush administration threatened the Taliban with the now-infamous words:
"Either you accept our carpet of gold or we'll carpet you with bombs." The
threat was made about a month before the attack on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon.
Kristof and his ilk prefer the simple-minded version offered by President
Bush: the Taliban and Al Qaeda hate our freedom and liberty. That the world's
largest military power in search of new oil supplies for the 21st century would
threaten carpet bombing is something the mainstream corporate media simply
refuses to consider.
Kristof also ignores the fact that the U.S. government installed Unocal
advisor Harmid Karzai as the President of Afghanistan and provided him U.S. Special
Forces as his praetorian guard. Moore mentions this in the film, but Kristof
leaves it out of his column, saying the "Administration's huge errors aren't
because of deceit." But that statement itself is very deceitful.
Kristof also fails to acknowledge National Security Advisor Zbigniew
Brzezinski's THE GRAND CHESSBOARD. Brzezinski calmly outlines a thesis that U.S.
domination of the globe in the 21st century depends on its control of Central
Asian oilfields. He also says the American public would not back an attack unless
there was a terrorist attack that galvanized public opinion to seize the
foreign oil.
Tom Teepen, syndicated columnist for the Cox New Service suggests that
"Fahrenheit 911 is a polemic, not a documentary." Teepen says Moore "weaves
conspiracy theories in part by conveniently leaving out key information."
Teepen belongs to that most despicable class of columnists known as
"coincidence theorists." He also doesn't understand the true meaning of "polemic."
F9/11 opens with the 2000 election debacle in Florida. Moore could have
recited from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which documented that 54% of the
rejected ballots in Florida were cast by black voters and 93% of
African-Americans voted for Gore nationwide. The government report singled out George's
brother Governor Jeb Bush, and the Bush brothers' close friend and Republican
ally, Katherine Harris, for blame.
Moore could have presented investigative journalist Gregory Palast's reports
for the BBC documenting that at least 58,000 eligible voters in Florida were
denied the right to vote because their names were the same or similar to a
felon.
Moore could have shown footage of a roadblock and told how Florida law
enforcement officers turned black drivers of vans and buses away from the polls for
failure to provide limousine or chauffer licenses.
Moore could have detailed how 20,000 Gore votes mysteriously disappeared in
Volusia County and were later reinstated. That gap allowed Fox News analyst
John Ellis to project his first cousin, G. W. Bush, to be the winner.
What else did Moore leave out?:
In his AMERICAN DYNASTY, Republican theorist Kevin Philips documents four
generations of Bush family war profiteers dating back to World War I. This
includes Samuel Bush's dual role as entrepreneur with Buckeye Steel Casting and
government official on the Armaments Board.
George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a key operative in the Union
Banking Corporation that was seized by the U.S. government in 1942 and
liquidated under the Trading with the Enemy Act for helping fund the Nazi war
effort. Granddaddy Bush joined the Board of Directors of Union Bank in 1934 and
stayed there as the bank aided Hitler's rise to power. The government liquidation
yielded a reported $750,000 apiece for Prescott Bush and his father-in-law,
George Herbert Walker.
The Bush family is close friends of the self-proclaimed Messiah and creepy
cult leader Reverend Sun Myung Moon. In January 1995, Moon's Women's Federation
for World Peace paid Bush the Elder at least one million dollars for a speech.
Former President Bush was also the principal speaker in the November 1996
opening dinner for Moon's new weekly newspaper "Tiempos del Mundo" of Argentina.
Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh reported in February 2002's New Yorker
that the Bush administration authorized U.S. cooperation with Pakistan in the
December 2001 "Kunduz airlift" that sent airplanes and helicopters to rescue
Pakistanis fighting with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Note that the Unocal pipeline
from Central Asia goes through Afghanistan into Pakistan. A coincidence?
Article VI of the Nuremberg Charter defines "Crimes Against Peace" as
"planning, preparation, initiation or waging of war of aggression or war in violation
of international treaties . . . or participation in a common plan or
conspiracy . . . to wage an aggressive war." The Bush doctrine of "pre-emption" really
had nothing to do with pre-empting an Iraqi attack on the U.S. It is simply
the widely discredited Nazi doctrine of "preventive war" established by Hitler
to claim the right to attack any country that may pose some possible threat at
an unspecific time in the future.
FALSE PROFITS: THE INSIDE STORY OF BCCI, THE WORLD'S MOST CORRUPT FINANCIAL
EMPIRE, by award-winning journalists Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin, documents
in detail that Bush brothers Jeb and George both had close links to the
drug-running Bank of Credit and Commerce International (aka "Bank of Crooks and
Criminals International," according to the CIA).
Criminal and civil suits against BCCI establish that Bush's good buddy James
R. Bath, was a close business associate of Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law,
terrorist financier Khalid bin Mahfouz. Moore correctly shows that Bath and
Bush were both disciplined by the Air National Guard at the same time.
Professor Katherine Van Wormer, co-author of the authoritative text ADDICTION
TREATMENT, suggests that "George W. Bush manifests all the classic patterns
of what alcoholics in recovery call 'the dry drunk.' His behavior fits a
pattern of years of heavy drinking and possible cocaine use."
These are just a few facts that Michael Moore left out of his fair and
balanced documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Those who hate this moderate, well-documented
film may be most bothered by the actual footage of President Bush. Key scenes
include: Bush's infamous, endless study of MY PET GOAT in an elementary
school class while the World Trade Center burned; Bush's legendary banquet
speech referring to "the haves and have-mores" as "my base"; Bush's bumbling,
malapropic final warning to "don't be fooled again."
What most bugs F911 critics is clearly not the material Michael Moore
presents. It's the fair and balanced footage of George W. Bush revealing who he
truly is.
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Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of GEORGE W. BUSH VERSUS THE SUPERPOWER OF PEACE (
http://www.freepress.org/). Bob's newest book, THE BROTHERS VOINOVICH AND THE OHIOGATE SCANDAL, is available at
http://freepress.org. HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE US is available at
http://www.harveywasserman.com/.
