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07/06/2004: "Fahrenheit 9/11"

OK, so I went to see it. I'm a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment, and I own a copy of "Bowling for Columbine" too. Both films "go too far", but then, both films are theatre. They have a right to exagerate in the name of message.

I think the critics are upset because Moore has found a way to leverage his access to the media to
promulgate his messages to an ever-increasing audience.

The film does a good job of stretching the facts.

Take, for instance all the time devoted to the Carlyle Group blender of Bushes, Bin Ladens, Jim Baker, John Major and various other fun fellahs. Back at Wayport (while we were trying to close the year-old/falling market march-of-death round) Vucina and I got an appointment with Carlyle. I took a look around the room at the "tombstones" (Lucite markers inscribed with the names of the fund's companies who had raised funds, or subsequently gone public) and silently hoped that they wouldn't be that interested. Lots of "black" and semi-black companies. True death-mongers over there.

Fortunately, I got my wish (and we still closed the round).

Why wouldn't Shrub and the rest of his family want a part in that?

But I'm left to wonder why Moore didn't mention BCCI *once*? You remember BCCI, the bank that defrauded depositors of $10 billion during the ‘80s, while providing a money laundry conduit for the Medellin drug cartel, Asia’s major heroin cartel, Manuel Noriega, and Saddam Hussein?

Here's what the WSJ had to say:

The number of BCCI-connected people who had dealings with Harken—all since George W. Bush came on board—raises the question of whether they mask an effort to cozy up to a presidential son.”


Or even the president. (Ahem).

Nor does Moore mention that Bath finally came under investigation by the FBI in 1992 for his Saudi business relationships, accused of funneling Saudi money through Houston in order to influence the foreign policies of the Reagan and first Bush administrations.

And in case you didn't think the whole BCCI connection was interesting enough, when Salem bin Laden died in 1988, Saudi Arabian banker and BCCI principal Khalid bin Mahfouz inherited his interests in Houston. James Bath (Moore spent significant time on him) ran a business for bin Mahfouz in Houston and joined a partnership with bin Mahfouz and Gaith Pharaon, BCCI’s frontman in Houston’s Main Bank. Its been widely reported (and debunked) that bin Mahfouz has a sister who is married to Osama bin Laden. At least Moore didn't go there.

And why is it that nobody discusses Shrub's cokehead daze anymore?

OK, don't get me started. There is a ton of this kind of thing. I'm happy enough to have not voted for him the first time he ran (and anyone who knows me well can explain how conservative I can be.)

If Moore had been interested in really slapping Shrub around, he would have certanily mentioned this. Perhaps he did, but it got left on the cutting room floor. The audience might find it all tiresome, people wouldn't buy tickets and books, and Michael would still be as poor as he makes out to be. (Love the shots from Flint, MI dude. Can we see your house now?)

Moore isn't a conspiracy nut, or if he's trying to be, he's not as good at is as Alex Jones, he's a filmmaker who's stock in trade is infuriating people into buying his product. He's a polemicist, not a journalist. A master provocateur and self-promotion artist.

All that said, the last half of the movie is gripping, and disturbing. Tellingly, Moore is all but absent from the second hour of the film, and the movie is better for it. In fact, if there is a reason for going, it is to see the sceens of the war and the results on the homefront. I don't know where he got those sequences, but its gripping, and serves as a marker to what we're really up against in Iraq, and what Iraq is up against with us there, and now, unfortunately, its too late to pull out.

Occupation is a nearly impossible task. In recent memory only the U.S. occupation of Japan, post-WWII was successful. Vietnam, Palestine, Somalia all failed. The British failed to quell the revolution that fueled the start of the U.S.A. Short of genocide, its really tough to control a crowd the size of a nation using force.

Jim says, "Go see it anyway, just to know what's happening in Iraq, and grok the buddha-nature of Wolfowitz as he combs his hair."

Yuk.