Moore interviewed Berg for "Fahrenheit" [index to thread at reply #1859]

Salon.com ^ | May 27, 2004 | Rebecca Traister

[Nita Nupress]

Here's a better one:

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

Time Magazine
May 31, 2004

The Art of Burning Bush;
Michael Moore whipped Cannes into an inferno with Fahrenheit 9/11, but did he make a good film?

Richard Corliss/Cannes

(snip)

For all those eight-figure earners, the largest presence at this French film fete was a fellow from Flint, Mich., who's usually seen in a scruffy beard and duck-hunter couture. Michael Moore was prowling the Riviera, and this time the game he aimed at was George W. Bush. Bull's-eye! His Fahrenheit 9/11 captured Cannes's highest prize, the Palme d'Or, from a jury headed by Quentin Tarantino. "What have you done?" the winner asked in benign shock. "You just did this to mess with me."

(snip) ...  in his acceptance speech, he scolded the President for invading Iraq. So Cannes was primed for his latest movie Molotov cocktail. Its first screening, on a Monday at 8 a.m., got total team news coverage; a dozen or so radio and TV crews circled the U.S. critics to get their early reaction as Miramax Films co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, whose Disney bosses had forbidden him to release the film, paced nearby and chortled, "They say I've lost my edge? Have I lost my edge?" He had not. He spent the rest of the week negotiating with a flock of U.S. distributors hoping to profit from the film's marketable notoriety.

(snip)

The film details, with Moore's usual mix of flippant comedy and moral outrage, the case for the prosecution in the left vs. Bush: the Bush Administration's invasion and occupation of Iraq, its Patriot Act clamping down on civil liberties and its cozy relationship with the ruling families of Saudi Arabia, including the bin Ladens. Moore is particularly indignant that the President had a chummy White House visit on Sept. 13, 2001, with Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, from whose country 15 of the 19 hijackers had come, and that in the dire days after 9/11, when U.S. flights were grounded, two dozen of Osama bin Laden's relatives were flown out of the country without the FBI being allowed to question them.

Much of the material is familiar. The film buttresses its arguments from reports in the New York Times and the Washington Post, Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud and Moore's own best seller Dude, Where's My Country? But Moore, a master propagandist and incorrigible entertainer, knows how to assemble footage in piquant ways. He shows a news clip of Bush on a golf course saying sternly, "We must stop the terror," then reverting to country-club form by adding cheerfully, "Now watch this drive." Moore precedes his section on the Patriot Act by noting that Attorney General John Ashcroft had lost his U.S. Senate seat in 2000 to the recently deceased Governor of Missouri: "Voters preferred the dead guy." There's a shot from a few years back of Moore elbowing his way to talk to then Texas Governor Bush, who recognizes him and says, "Behave yourself, will ya? Go find real work."

Moore's work here is to show the corruptive influence of the war in Iraq: coarsening some Americans abroad, killing others. The film contains previously unseen footage of U.S. soldiers' abuse of Iraqi detainees last Christmas Eve. Toward the end, Moore returns home to Flint to grieve with the parents of a dead soldier, then goes to Washington in a quixotic attempt to badger members of Congress into volunteering their sons and daughters for military service.

(snip)

[woodyinscc]

I'm betting this story will get legs over the next week. Too much intrigue surrounding Berg for even the mainstream to ignore it.

I live in Orange County Ca., And the story is getting some legs here. I was stuck on 405 for the last hr. and heard KFI out of Los Angeles, and 760 out of San Diego, bring it up during their news breaks.

[scott7278]

Could Nick Berg have been hearing different words from his captives than what we heard on the tape? Perhaps what we heard was dubbed in later, and that might explain why he was so calm throughout the "speech."

Maybe they were really talking about him being an abused prisoner, and they would thus avenge his mistreatment. Nick Berg was calm because all he had to do was sit there and play the role -- but he didn't have a clue that he was actually going to die.

The ultimate lesson is that you can't make friends with terrorists, and you certainly cannot trust them. Maybe Michael Moore is sitting on the video because that particular truth would become evident? And a young man died because of it?

[Rennes Templar]

Yes! Hopefully an invesigation won't be far off.

[tophat9000]

Read that also. Need to find out more about the company: When it started, bookkeeping, taxes etc.. This whole thing makes absolutely no sense

Well per busniess database It list it as starting in 2000... It also has a Dun and Bradstreet number... (there alot of databases you have to sigh up in to do biz with the gov.)

[Howlin]

From what I have read, nobody has admitted that he worked for them; I wonder why he was on those towers and why he had the schematics for 60 towers on his laptop.

[A Citizen Reporter]

Last Christmas EVE?!! And according to something above, Nick Berg left for Iraq on Dec 21.

[BlessedByLiberty]

Your supposition about Berg playing a role is what I also think. His demeanor in the beginning of that tape seems to suggest that he was not fearful that he was going to die. The orange jumpsuit also plays into your supposition.

Moore's propaganda may have cost an American his life; he may be culpable in the beheading of an American citizen. In his fantasy world, he would probably justify this as a sacrifice for the message of the medium.

[nopardons]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...questions that REALLY need to be answered and seem to have the kind of answers,that will detrimentally reflect upon the Berg family.

[Howlin]

This was in January, mind you, before the prisoner abuse allegations came to light here in the United States."

The abuse took place in November; it was reported to the military in early January.

[woodyinscc]

I know one thing after reading this thread, and that is no one has to put on their tin foil hat There are too many coincidences that weave their way from Ok to Iraq, and Moore some how had a relationship with Berg.

Please add me to your ping list, thanks.

[Howlin]

Moore shows what was Bush doing when he get the news (sitting in a school, reading a child book) and how he stayed there, doing nothing, for several minutes. The critic to the man is obvious and violently funny. The audience in the theatre was laughing and cheering.

I hate these people.

We also follows with him the story of Lila, who is an ordinary family mother from Flint, Michigan. We follow her in time : her pride that her kid is a soldier, like many in her family before, then the first doubts of Lila, to, eventually, her son's death and her trip to Washington, while, in the meantime, Moore shows himself trying to recruit, unsuccesfully the senators' kids to go to war in Iraq.

Wonder how it is that Moore just happened upon a woman who's son died.

[Trinity_Tx]

From what I read from the forums of tower-guys, there was a "field" of towers at/by Abu Ghraib, making it a good source of work for tower-repair men. Southack said he got special permission to work those towers. I haven't confirmed how.

[Howlin]

Harvey Weinstein

[nopardons]

Yes,there is;however,I think that each sect may have different times and that extreme cases can alter the time.That being said,I think that it's within 24 hours,but I may be wrong.

[Nita Nupress]

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

Morning Star
April 21, 2004
Pg. 8

Rude awakening;
OPINION: As he puts the finishing touches to his latest film, MICHAEL MOORE looks at Bush's claims on Iraq.

MICHAEL MOORE

I HAVE never seen a head so far up a Presidential arse - pardon my Fallujah - than the one I saw last Wednesday at the "news conference" given by George W Bush.

He's still talking about finding "weapons of mass destruction" - this time on Saddam's "turkey farm." Turkey indeed. Clearly, the White House believes that there are enough idiots in the 17 swing states who will buy this. I think that they are in for a rude awakening.

I've been holed up for weeks in the editing room finishing my film Fahrenheit 911. But, after last Wednesday's Lyndon Johnson impersonation from the East Room - essentially promising to send even more troops into the Iraq sinkhole - I had to write.

First, can we stop the Orwellian language and start using the proper names for things? Those are not "contractors" in Iraq. They are not there to fix a roof or to pour concrete in a driveway.

They are mercenaries and soldiers of fortune.

They are there for the money and the money is very good if you live long enough to spend it.

Halliburton is not a "company" doing business in Iraq. It is a war profiteer, skimming millions from the pockets of average US citizens. In past wars, they would have been arrested - or worse.

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "the enemy." They are the revolution, the Minutemen and their numbers will grow - and they will win.

Get it, Mr Bush? You closed down a friggin' weekly newspaper, you great giver of freedom and democracy! Then all hell broke loose. The paper only had 10,000 readers! Why are you smirking?

One year after we wiped the face of the Saddam statue with our US flag before yanking him down, it is now too dangerous for a single media person to go to that square in Baghdad and file a report on the wonderful one-year anniversary celebration.

Of course, there is no celebration and those brave blow-dried "embeds" can't even leave the safety of the fort in downtown Baghdad.

They never actually see what is taking place across Iraq - most of the pictures we see on TV are shot by Arab media and some Europeans.

When you watch a report "from Iraq, " what you are getting is the press release handed out by the occupation force and repeated to you as "news."

I currently have two cameramen/reporters doing work for me in Iraq for my movie unbeknownst to the army.

They are talking to soldiers and gathering the true sentiment about what is really going on.

They Fed Ex the footage back to me each week.

That 's right, Fed Ex. Who said we haven't brought freedom to Iraq!

The funniest story my guys tell me is how when they fly into Baghdad, they don't have to show a passport or go through immigration. Why not?

Because they have not travelled from a foreign country - they're coming from the US to the US, a place that is ours, a new US territory called Iraq.

There is a lot of talk among Bush's opponents that we should turn this war over to the United Nations.

Why should the other countries of this world, countries who tried to talk us out of this folly, now have to clean up our mess?

I oppose the UN or anyone else risking the lives of their citizens to extract us from our debacle.

I'm sorry, but the majority of US citizens supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe - just maybe - God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end.

Until then, enjoy the "pacification" of Fallujah, the "containment" of Sadr City and the next Tet Offensive, oops, I mean "terrorist attack by a small group of Ba'athist loyalists, " followed by a "news conference" where we will be told that we must "stay the course" because we are "winning the hearts and minds of the people."

Don't despair. Remember, that the people of the US are not that stupid. Sure, we can be frightened into a war, but we always come around sooner or later- and the one way that this is not like Vietnam is that it hasn't taken the public four long years to figure out that they were lied to.

Now, if Bush would just quit speaking in public and giving me more free material for my movie, I can get back to work and get it done.

I've got three weeks left until completion.

[Hildy]

In addition, Berg was in Ghana and Uganda 1998-1999. Isn't this a breeding ground for terrorists? My friend, a special ops guy, has been deployed and is leaving for Africa tomorrow. We're all scared to death. He can't tell us where, but there will be no email or mail or phone calls for three months. please keep him my friend your prayers.

[Miss Marple]

You remember the Weinsteins, don't you? They were working with Clinton after his departure to get that penthouse in Manhattan from Tina Brown. Thankfully, the House dug in their heels anad refused to fork over that amount of cash.

I swear, we need J. Edgar Hoover now...round these people up as seditionists!!

[BlessedByLiberty]

Point taken, however, that was copied from the post to which I was replying.

What is striking is that Berg writes an email about the notoriety of the prison and that he wants to work in such a place. A place he does eventually work; a place the media machine continuously exploits.Is Moore or those on his payroll supplying them with pictures?

BTW, we also heard from the FCC regarding our complaint against CBS and their broadcast of the pictures. It was a matter of form, but they are investigating and that is good news.

[Ann Archy]

Howlin....I didn't mean for this to be dumped all on you...I hope others will input to you. I only have a webtv, I know, I'm still in Bedrock!

You will be Crowned Mrs. INFO Freeper of the Year if you can get all this info on one thread!! Good Luck!!