[PEN-L:36304] Moore: Fahrenheit 9-11 (next is Bush, Sr. and bin Ladens)

[Paul Zarembka <zarembka@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Oscar winner targets Bush and bin Laden

Edward Helmore in New York
Sunday March 30, 2003
The Observer

Fresh from his Oscar ceremony tirade against a 'fictitious President'
fighting a 'fictitious war', documentary-maker Michael Moore has said he
is setting his sights on the alleged links between former President George
Bush senior and the Saudi family of Osama bin Laden.

Moore, whose exploration of US gun violence, Bowling for Columbine, is one
of the most commercially successful documentaries ever, said his new film,
tentatively titled Fahrenheit 911, will examine what has happened to the
US since 11 September.

The film will look at the alleged 'murky relationship' between Bush
senior, controversial defence investment firm the Carlyle Group, and the
bin Laden family. According to Moore, the former President had a business
relationship with bin Laden's father, Mohammed, who left $300 million to
his son.

Although the bin Laden family has severed its ties with Osama, 'the senior
Bush kept his ties with the bin Laden family up until two months after 11
September,' Moore claimed.

Moore, who has carved himself a role as critic-in-chief of the US
administration, said he has no regrets about turning his Oscar acceptance
speech into an evisceration of Bush junior.

'If I had won the Oscar for a movie about birds or insects, I'd say
something about them,' he said. 'But I made a movie about violence - and
global violence - so I felt I had to say something about that. I just hope
I generated a discussion about Bush and the war.'

The choice of Moore's new subject - the relationship between the arms
industry, the Bush administration and the war on terrorism - could hardly
be better timed.

Last week administration adviser Richard Perle resigned from the
influential Defence Policy Review Board amid allegations of a conflict of
interest between his roles as an influential hawk and as a paid adviser to
defence and communications firms.

Yesterday it was revealed that, in addition to acting as an adviser to
communications company Global Crossing as it sought to overcome Defence
Department opposition to its sale, Perle advised a major US satellite
maker, Loral Space and Communications, as it faced government accusations
that it improperly transferred rocket technology to China.

Two weeks ago the New Yorker detailed a lunch that Perle had taken with
Saudi arms dealer Adnan Kashoggi, at which he allegedly implied he would
temper his criticism of the House of Saud in exchange for investment in a
new security and defence investment firm with which he is involved. Perle
denies the accusation.

http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,925548,00.html

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"Confronting 9-11, Ideologies of Race, and Eminent Economists", Vol. 20
RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY,  Paul Zarembka, editor, Elsevier Science
******************** http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka