Fahrenheit 9/11(2004)

Plot Summary

• The documentary begins by suggesting that friends and political allies of George W. Bush at Fox News Channel tilted the election of 2000 by prematurely declaring Bush the winner in the race against Al Gore. This was after CBS had already called Florida in favor of Al Gore. Florida was the crucial swing state, and the candidate who won Florida would be the next POTUS. The man in charge of calling the election in favor of Bush at Fox was his own first cousin John Ellis. Bush's brother was the Governor of Florida.It then suggests that the handling of the voting controversy in Florida constituted election fraud. The chairman of Bush's campaign was the in charge of vote count in Florida and had hired a company to knock voters off the rolls, who were unlikely to vote for Bush. Mostly African Americans were removed from voter rolls. The Supreme Court Judges, appointed by Bush Sr, voted for Bush, even though every independent investigation revealed that Gore won Florida. In the US Congress, any objections to the US election results could be raised but had to be supported by one member of the Senate. While many African American Congressmen came forward with their objections, but not one Senate member supported them. One after another, they were told to sit down and shut up.African American protested even on the day of Bush's inauguration. This was a stolen election to them. Bush could not get his judges approved, could not get any legislation passed, and lost Republican control of the Senate. Bush was on vacation 42% of the time.The documentary then segues into the September 11 attacks of 2001. This was the largest foreign attack on US soil, ever. Moore says Bush was informed of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center on his way to an elementary school in Florida. Bush is then shown sitting in an Emma E. Booker Elementary School classroom with children. When told that a second plane has crashed into the World Trade Center and that the nation is "under attack", Bush allows the students to finish their book reading, and Moore notes that he continued reading The Pet Goat for nearly seven minutes. Bush was given a report in August 2001 about Bin Laden planning an attack on the US by hijacking planes.Moore then discusses the complex relationships between the U.S. government and the Bush family; and between the Bin Laden family, the Saudi Arabian government, and the Taliban. The Bin Ladens invested $1.4 Billion via the Bush family, their family and their associated businesses over the last 30 years.Moore then states that the United States government evacuated 24 members of the Bin Laden family on a secret flight shortly after the attacks (after September 13th), without subjecting them to any form of interrogation. 6 private jets and 24 commercial planes were chartered to evacuate the family and numerous other Saudis (in all 142 Saudi citizens). The family was flown outside of the US. This was when the entire nation was under a FAA flight ban, and no flights were operating.Moore moves on to examine George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard service record. Moore contends that Bush's dry-hole oil well attempts were partially funded by the Saudis and by the Bin Laden family through the intermediary of James R. Bath, whose name is shown to have been blacked out from Bush's records. Bush's capital for his failed oil business came from the Bin Ladens. In 1990, one of his companies was bought by Harken Energy and Bush got a seat on their board, at the time when Bush Sr was POTUS. Bush was investigated by the SEC for selling $848,000 of Harken stock just before unfavorable information about the company became public. The lawyer who helped Bush best the SEC, was later appointed as US ambassador to Saudi Arabia.Then Bush became director of the Carlyle Group, a company that benefited heavily from the war on Iraq. Bin Laden family was investors in the Carlyle Group. Carlyle Group had defense companies in its umbrella, which stood to gain when US increased defense funding and this also benefited the Bin Laden family. Moore alleges that these conflicts of interest suggest that the Bush administration does not serve the interests of Americans. After 9/11 Bush censored 28 pages of a Congressional investigation report, most of it focused on the Bush family links with Saudi and Bin Ladens. The Saudis has $860 Billion invested in US economy and owned 6-7% of all US equities.From the beginning, Bush targeted Iraq over the 9/11 attacks. And wanted all agencies to produce evidence linking Iraq to 9/11. No other nation, including Al-Qaeda were the focus for the administration. The US military started bombing Afghanistan 4 weeks after 9/11 and they argued that the Taliban were sheltering Osama. But only 11,000 troops were committed to the ground. The US forces were not allowed into the area where Osama was for 2 months. The movie continues by suggesting ulterior motives for the War in Afghanistan, including a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean. Dick Cheney (who worked at oil firm Unocal) and Kenneth Lay (of Enron) stood to benefit from the pipeline. 5 months before 9/11 a Taliban delegation was welcomed to the US to improve the image of the regime. After the invasion Hamid Karzai was installed as Afghan President. Karzai worked for Unocal, and so did the US ambassador to Afghanistan.Moore alleges that the Bush administration induced a climate of fear among the American population through the mass media. Moore then describes purported anti-terror efforts, including government infiltration of pacifist groups and other events, and the signing of the USA PATRIOT Act.The documentary then turns to the subject of the Iraq War, comparing the lives of the Iraqis before and after the invasion. The citizens of Iraq are portrayed as living relatively happy lives prior to the country's invasion by the U.S. Armed Forces. The film also takes pains to demonstrate war cheer-leading in the U.S. media and general bias of journalists, with quotes from news organizations and embedded journalists. Moore suggests that atrocities will occur in Iraq and shows footage depicting U.S. abuse of prisoners.Later in the film, Lila Lipscomb appears with her family after hearing of the death of her son, Sgt. Michael Pedersen, who was killed on April 2, 2003, in Karbala. Anguished and tearful, she begins to question the purpose of the war.Tying together several themes and points, Moore compliments those serving in the U.S. military. He claims that the working class of America are always the first to join the Army, so that the people better off do not have to join. He states that those valuable troops should not be sent to risk their lives unless it is necessary to defend America. The credits roll while Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" plays.Moore dedicated the film to his friend who was killed in the World Trade Center attacks and to those servicemen and women from Flint, Michigan that have been killed in Iraq: "Michael Pedersen, Brett Petriken and all the soldiers from the Flint area who have died in the Iraq War. Bill Weems and the 2973 who died on 9/11/01 and the countless thousands who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq as a result of our actions."

Storyline

• 's view on what happened to the United States after 9/11 and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Following up on 'Bowling for Columbine', film-maker Michael Moore provides deep and though-provoking insights on the American security system, the paranoia level, fear, uncertainty, false values, and patriotism, which all combined to set the stage for George W. Bush to launch a war on Iraq instead of focusing on getting the real culprit(s) behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This documentary also focuses on how some Saudis were safely and secretly flown out of America while planes were ostensibly grounded after the attacks. Archived film footage, candid interviews with politicians, and an overall waste of public funds for a war that was initiated on false pretension to wit: a weapon of mass distraction--to take the focus away from the real enemy and get Americans glued to their TV sets to watch innocent Iraqis and Afghans getting killed. And a war that would eventually alienate the U.S. and its citizens from almost every country on Earth. — rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com) In this film, muckraker Michael Moore turns his eye on George W. Bush and his War on Terrorism agenda. He illustrates his argument about how this failed businessman with deep connections to the royal house of Saud of Saudia Arabia and the Bin Ladens got elected on fraudulent circumstances and proceeded to blunder through his duties while ignoring warnings of the looming betrayal by his foreign partners. When that treachery hits with the 9/11 attacks, Moore explains how Bush failed to take immediate action to defend his nation, only to later cynically manipulate it to serve his wealthy backers' corrupt ambitions. Through facts, footage and interviews, Moore illustrates his contention of how Bush and his cronies have gotten America into worse trouble than ever before and why Americans should not stand for it. — Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)