Posted on 05/27/2004 9:26:51 PM PDT by Rennes Templar
May 27, 2004 | Filmmaker Michael Moore filmed an interview with American Nicholas Berg in the course of producing his documentary film "Fahrenheit 9/11" before Berg left for Iraq, where he was taken hostage and killed, Moore confirmed to Salon in a statement Thursday. The 20 minutes of footage does not appear in the final version of "Fahrenheit 911," according to the statement.
Word of the footage reached Salon through a source unaffiliated with Moore or his film "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is reported to feature stark images of U.S. civilians and soldiers grappling with conditions in war-torn Iraq, as well as examining the relationship between President George W. Bush and the bin Laden family. It received the Palme d'Or, the Cannes Film Festival's highest honor, on Saturday.
In a statement widely circulated by Moore's people after an initial request for comment by Salon, Moore said, "We have an interview with Nick Berg. It was approximately 20 minutes long. We are not releasing it to the media. It is not in the film. We are dealing privately with the family." Moore's camp declined to comment further on any aspect of the interview. Because the footage is not in the film, a spokeswoman for Miramax Films, the production company behind "Fahrenheit 9/11," said the company had no comment.
It was not clear from Moore's statement whether footage from the interview with Berg had ever been included in early cuts of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Reports about a film industry controversy surrounding distribution of the film first hit the news on May 5, a week before Berg's death. The film officially screened for the public and the press for the first time during the Cannes festival on May 17.
The news that Moore spoke to Berg while he was still in the United States only adds to the mystery surrounding the young man's presence in Iraq and tragic death. The interview was shot before the 26-year-old Berg left for Iraq late last year as a private contractor in the hopes of helping to rebuild the ravaged country. Though it was unclear what Berg spoke about in his interview with Moore, or how the two men met, unrelated reports following his death indicate that he headed for the Middle East with plans to work to improve the country's technological infrastructure and communication abilities. He ran his own company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service, in a suburb of Philadelphia.
Berg did not find employment in Iraq, and when he attempted to return to the United States he was detained by Iraqi police and questioned by American forces. He was released after his family complained. But shortly after, he is believed to have been kidnapped by Islamic terrorists. Video of his beheading was released on an Islamist Web site on May 11. Salon was unable to reach the Berg family for comment before publication.
Moore's film chronicles the United States' military, political and business involvement in the Middle East in the years before and after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. His previous politically charged films, including "Roger & Me" and "Bowling for Columbine," have created controversy and won him praise (including an Oscar, for "Columbine"). "Fahrenheit 9/11" has already sparked a media storm; in early May, Miramax's parent company, Disney, announced that it would not allow Miramax to distribute the film, which is highly critical of Bush and his administration.
Miramax has yet to make a deal with a distributor, though the film's warm reception at Cannes and the publicity surrounding the film have made it a hot property that is generating a lot of interest in Hollywood. "Bowling for Columbine" grossed $21 million, making it the highest-grossing non-IMAX documentary of all time.
A source close to "Fahrenheit 9/11" said that a new distributor will be announced shortly, and that the film is expected to be released in theaters during the first week of July, as originally planned.
On one thread some days back, someone said Prometheus got funding from the Tides Foundation, among other sources.
Someone should tell Algore that Michael Moore is singlehandedly resposnsible for the depletion of the ozone layer.
I skipped through the long posts, but this way no one had to actually go to MM's site and give it undeserved "hits".
I've been to Amman and it's Beautiful and there's an 'Acrpolis" type ancient ruins on top of the mountains overlooking the city. Weird that he would say not saymuch about Amman.
I made a comment about his remark about "good ol' Arab-speaking lands". I agree with your assessment of this email. I was pretty tired last night when I read it, but it just didn't sound like a normal chatty note.
I wonder who all the recipients of this email were.
Thank you for your notes on that email.
I read it last night and it struck me as odd, but I didn't pause and parse it out.
I will say that I was struck right off the bat by the "delete" comment. I had a flash of it being an attempt to joke about "form letters", but a strange way of expressing it.
The other thing that really jumped out was the "free water".
The prison comment made me review his letter to see where he said he saw it, and the "olive" reference caught my eye but I didn't pause to think about code and such.
Strange.
Great research! How do you find the dates of the photos?
Wasn't it Aziz that had access to Berg's cell phone (vs. Infante)?
I'll take Door Number One, with Door Number Two in the bonus round.
There's a link to Tides?
Thanks for posting the info. I guess this means that his sister has a role in what ever is going on?
I wonder what Sara's been up to in the last several years?
That pretty much explains WHY Moore sent them.
Another great post everyone should read.
School paper never had an article about student housing shortage in Norman that I can find. My son asked one of the editors and they have never heard of it either.
Why would someone make that up?
We may have to "send" somebody in to see the movie.......LOL.
I heard the same thing here -- that none of the profs remembered him. It was also in the Norman Transcript piece about the tie-in of Berg to OU. Only people that remembered him were the folks from Lloyd Noble according to the paper. Then I heard later the Islamic Society also remembered him as he hung out with some of them. Hillel had no memory of him.
Now one comes forward -- strange.
Yikes, I think I'd rather go to Iraq. I am off to garden for a while, I need something to offset this Moore hatred I have going.
When the first plane hit they did not realize it was terrorism and he was preparing to comfort the people because of an accident. When the 2nd plane hit minutes later, USSS that was monitoring got the word to Card it was terrorism and the President was told.
Know when I saw footage of the first plane, terrorism didn't strike me -- the second one -- you bet it did.
There is more to the 9-10 and 9-11 in Florida that has not come out and our stupid media is aware of a lot of it but continue to foster their attacks on the President anyway!
Actually, what I was interested in was *when* Berg was in Kenya. Your source shows him to have only gone there in 2003. That contradicts what I was told about him being there in 1998 (when our embassy there was bombed).
Your source, however, is more credible. I was likely misinformed. This works in NB's favor, making it more likely that he was simply naive and kind-hearted and strangely in a lot of coincidental places.
One of the difficult things about following something like this is to not get ourselves bogged down with pre-conceived ideas. For example, on the e-mail I thought that it was odd that Berg had been intensely questioned by Israeli Internal Security. Another poster said that that is routine when entering Israel. So something that seemed sinister to me was, in fact, routine.
The other difficulty about this is that the media is cavalier with facts. Examples are the confusion about whether the e-mail was stolen or loaned, and whether or not there was a housing shortage at OU. Sometimes the press just makes stuff up, as we all know.
Anyway, we need to be careful as we proceed along this path and not let ourselves be led down fruitless paths because we are convinced our theory is right.
I do think the fact that Moore was silent about this until Salon tipped the public off, and that the parents and Moore are trying to keep the film to themselves is highly telling.
Also, I saw a picture of Nick Berg at some sort of conference and he was not wearing a suit. What I don't know is if that picture was taken at the meeting where the brother says he wore a suit, but I sure would like to find out.
AND, I also see that the brother says he wasn't really a Bush supporter!! So who is lying, the father or the brother?
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