Published on Monday, October 6, 2003 by the Guardian/UK Answers Please, Mr Bush by Michael Moore ...1. Is it true that the Bin Ladens have had business relations with you and your family off and on for the past 25 years? Most Americans might be surprised to learn that you and your father have known the Bin Ladens for a long time. What, exactly, is the extent of this relationship, Mr Bush? Are you close personal friends, or simply on-again, off-again business associates? Salem bin Laden - Osama's brother - first started coming to Texas in 1973 and later bought some land, built himself a house, and created Bin Laden Aviation at the San Antonio airfield... 2. What is the 'special relationship' between the Bushes and the Saudi royal family? ...They have a trillion dollars invested in our stock market and another trillion dollars in our banks. If they chose suddenly to remove that money, our corporations and financial institutions would be sent into a tailspin, causing an economic crisis the likes of which has never been seen. Couple that with the fact that the 1.5m barrels of oil we need daily from the Saudis could also vanish on a mere royal whim, and we begin to see how not only you, but all of us, are dependent on the House of Saud. George, is this good for our national security, our homeland security? Who is it good for? You? Pops?... 3. Who attacked the US on September 11 - a guy on dialysis from a cave in Afghanistan, or your friend, Saudi Arabia? ...The headlines blared it the first day and they blare it the same way now two years later: "Terrorists Attack United States." Terrorists. I have wondered about this word for some time, so, George, let me ask you a question: if 15 of the 19 hijackers had been North Korean, rather than Saudi, and they had killed 3,000 people, do you think the headline the next day might have read, "NORTH KOREA ATTACKS UNITED STATES"? Of course it would. Or if it had been 15 Iranians or 15 Libyans or 15 Cubans, I think the conventional wisdom would have been, "IRAN [or LIBYA or CUBA] ATTACKS AMERICA!" Yet, when it comes to September 11, have you ever seen the headline, have you ever heard a newscaster, has one of your appointees ever uttered these words: "Saudi Arabia attacked the United States"? Of course you haven't. And so the question must - must - be asked: why not? Why, when Congress released its own investigation into September 11, did you, Mr Bush, censor out 28 pages that deal with the Saudis' role in the attack?... 4. Why did you allow a private Saudi jet to fly around the US in the days after September 11 and pick up members of the Bin Laden family and fly them out of the country without a proper investigation by the FBI? Private jets, under the supervision of the Saudi government - and with your approval - were allowed to fly around the skies of America, when traveling by air was forbidden, and pick up 24 members of the Bin Laden family and take them first to a "secret assembly point in Texas". They then flew to Washington DC, and then on to Boston. Finally, on September 18, they were all flown to Paris, out of the reach of any US officials. They never went through any serious interrogation. This is mind-boggling. Might it have been possible that at least one of the 24 Bin Ladens would have possibly known something?... 5. Why are you protecting the Second Amendment rights of potential terrorists? Mr Bush, in the days after September 11, the FBI began running a check to see if any of the 186 "suspects" the feds had rounded up in the first five days after the attack had purchased any guns in the months leading up to September 11 (two of them had). When your attorney general, John Ashcroft, heard about this, he immediately shut down the search. He told the FBI that the background check files could not be used for such a search and these files were only to be used at the time of a purchase of a gun. Mr Bush, you can't be serious! Is your administration really so gun nutty and so deep in the pocket of the National Rifle Association?... 6. Were you aware that, while you were governor of Texas, the Taliban traveled to Texas to meet with your oil and gas company friends? According to the BBC, the Taliban came to Texas while you were governor to meet with Unocal, the huge oil and energy giant, to discuss Unocal's desire to build a natural-gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and into Pakistan... 7. What exactly was that look on your face in the Florida classroom on the morning of September 11 when your chief of staff told you, 'America is under attack'? ...George, what were you thinking? What did that look on your face mean? Were you thinking you should have taken reports the CIA had given you the month before more seriously? You had been told al-Qaida was planning attacks in the United States and that planes would possibly be used. Or were you just scared shitless?...
Fixed. I will submit that if I was around Moore, he'd probably grate on my *#*#*#*#ing nerves, but that's nothing to do with the fact that these questions, in large measure, remain far less explored - by both your media and our politicans - than *#*#*#*#ing Whitewater, and 3,000 people were murdered...
Move out of a state from which the only contribution of any significance has been a basketball coach with the same first name - and same racial hatreds - as Hitler, and you might be able to comment on, well, anything geographical, with credibility...until then, ferme la Lang may your lum reek, Mel
Michael Moore's just behind the curve. Greg Palast has been on the case about all this for a long time now. And no - no one is answering these questions, not the Moore attackers in this thread, and certainly not anyone close to Bush.
I agree. And for those behind the curve on where Palast is coming from, read for yourself here and here.
Michael Moore....who is he again....oh!He's that guy who doctors interviews to spin it his way. Ok, I was just making sure.
So how old are you little boy? Ahhhh, the fact that the University of Kentucky (I went to U of L, so just remember you can't spell sucks without UK!) had a basketball coach of German origin who was born while Hitler was 12 years old (1889 vs. 1901) makes me unable to comment on anything. I suppose I could use all of the stereotypes about Scotland, but you have just proved that you are sorely lacking the intelligence to converse on such deep subjects. Stick to things more on your level like cartoons and pretty flowers, rainy walks in the hills!
He's a Republican? Seriously, is anybody going to address the message instead of attacking the messenger? I'll be in the corner holding my breath.
Hey listen, when you address the message, and not the messenger, then I'll lay off your basically *#*#*#*#*#*# state...I've got no axe to grind about Scotland, talk about it all you want...I'm not from Scotland. But where I'm from won't change the fact that Moore is STILL asking questions that your media are simply not asking, have never asked...
No, I'm 6' 7", and a happy husband and father of two. It's sad you've posted four times now in a thread and never addressed the thread at all... Come back when you've grown up a little bit, and can discuss the thread. Or don't.
Really? IMO, its not even as funny as saying all cousin lovers live in Kentucky. Not that I'd ever say that.
Some people have such blind faith in Bush, that if Bush were to dump Cheney and have bin Laden as his running mate, they'd figure it was for national security reasons and still support him.
and some people have such faith in negative liberal agenda that if Bin Laden said he was a liberal they'd vote him in as president!
So, the entire Bin Laden family acts as monolithic block? This is a legitimate question? While Moore might have a point about our economy's reliance on the HOS (that's whether or not his stats are actually true, which with Moore IS a leap), is he intimating that this wasn't the case before 1/20/01? Here's a classic case of Moore's logic. He takes an unproved statement, says it's fact (or "conventional wisdom") and then makes a silly statement like "all governements are obviously responsible for all actions of their private citizens". Even a blind dog can find bone once in a while, since I'm as much for dropping 747's on Mecca as the next guy. However, I doubt the Saudi government's role in 9/11 is more than contributions to Muslim "charities" that were involved in terrorist activities. How does Moore know they weren't subject to serious interrogation? And once again, is this even true? 5 and 6 I'll have to look up more on later. 7 is just Moore being his usualy snotty self.
Ok, I disagree because Moore is notorious for flat out making facts up and ignoring the facts that don't fit his agenda. I find him to be a complete moron who has no idea what objectivity is.
As if the Bush Administration hasn't been making up facts on the fly since the get go? He raises legitimate questions which both a supposedly independent press and Congress should be delving into in a much more professional and ethical manner. Extremely unlikely to happen though, not in this day and age.
This is a textbook example of us just being raised with different stimuli...'cause that's almost EXACTLY how I feel about Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice, and Rove...