It was all over the news, Michael Moore was going to be censored by Mickey Mouse, well not exactly Mickey. The Disney company was blocking distributions of Michael Moore’s film, Fahrenheit 9/11, which exposes the links between the Bush family and the prominent Saudis including the family of Osama Bin-Laden. An article from The Guardian explains, “Mr. Moore's agent said Disney had pulled out because its involvement could jeopardise tax breaks the company receives from the state of Florida, where Mr Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor”. Miramax, a division of and owned by Disney, was told by Disney that they could not release the film.

Governor Jeb Bush was exposed by Michael Moore in his book Stupid White Man, inregards to the influence Jeb had on the 2000 election, and the controversy of George W. Bush stealing the election to become president of the United States. Miramax spokesman Matthew Hilzik told the New York Times: "We are discussing the issues with Disney. We're looking at our options and look forward to resolving this amicably." Miramax struck a deal with Diseny, and the film got a lot of buzz at the Cannes film festival launch. Fahrenheit 9/11 opened to about 1,000 US screens on June 25th. By the end of that weekend, Fahrenheit 9/11 was #1 in the box office. 

Then ABC and NBC attacked, not the facts of the new film, but instead they attacked Moore’s slant on the film. They called into question his interpretation of information trying to discredit him. After I saw the documentary, I met an old friend from high school who was about to see the film for the first time too. She told me to take Michael Moore with agrain of salt. Although I agree, I pointed out that the public tends to believe that news from corporations is not slanted at all. It is only when we see an opinion from the left, that we can be critical of the daily opinions from the right that we intake as gospel truth every day. If we are more critical about ABC and NBC, it is easy to realize what their slant is. 

NBC is owned by General Electric, and GE is a defence contractor and weaponsmanufacturer, so war is literally the business of NBC. ABC is owned by Disney, and thatis the company that did not want Miramax to distribute the film in the first place. “LastThursday's Wall Street Journal reported that Disney may sever its ties with Miramax next year. And Disney is about to release a feel-good documentary called America's Heart and Soul”. NBC and ABC are slanted, and Moore might be slanted too, but the facts that the Bush family has connections with prominent Saudi families including the Bin Laden's is true. In fact this Saudi connection might even be the influence of the current leader of the so-called sovereign Iraq.

The power transfer to Iraq was suppose to happen on June 30th, but was moved a head to June 28th. Could this early transfer of sovereignty be a result of a Michael Moore film? Could this documentary hitting #1 in the first weekend influence the Bush government to wash itself of Iraq, and to try and show the American people that they are not the puppet master of Iraq? On June 28 the occupation of Iraq ended, and the Iraqi interim government authority assumed full sovereign authority on behalf of the Iraqi people - or did they? I have to question the new leadership of Iraq and what  connections they might have to Bush and the Saudi's.

The new Iraq government is headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Allawi has said, “We would like to hand over the hand of peace to Iran and Turkey... Syria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia... After all, we are brothers and we are here to protect the interests of our region... We will also study the project of privatisation... I would like to call on friendly countries to contribute to reconstruction in Iraq”. U.S. companies are profiting from reconstruction contracts, especially companies that have connections to Bush and his friends. But after Moore found a connection between Bush and the Bin Laden’s on the BBC website, I had to check up on Allawi. I found an article on BBC called “Who's who in Iraq: Iyad Allawi”. I should not have been surprised about his CIA and Saudi connections, especailly after what I just quoted him saying about Iraq’s future.

Iyad Allawi, the hand picked leader of Iraq, was once a Baath member, but when the party came to power, he had a fall out with Saddam Hussein, who later tried to have him assinated in 1978. “Mr Allawi went on to co-found the Iraqi National Accord (INA) party, which is known for attracting disillusioned former Baathists from the military and security fields. From its foundation in 1991, with the backing of the US Central Intelligence Agency and British intelligence, the group supported the idea of fostering a coup from within the Iraqi army to overthrow Saddam Hussein, but its attempts ended disastrously. Correspondents say Mr. Allawi is well-connected politically in Washington and London, has extensive business dealings and has close relations with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait” (BBC Website). 

I think Michael Moore’s next question should be what is the relationship of Allawi to theSaudi’s, and furthermore, what is Alawi’s relation to the Bush family. During the first Gulf War when the Iraqi National Accord was founded, it had the backing of the CIA, andGeorge Bush Senior was director of that secret organization. The man in power of Iraq,Allawi, talks about giving out contracts to countries friendly with Iraq, and talks aboutmaking friends with the Saudi’s. I believe the sole purpose of Allawi in power is to makesure the Bush and Saudi families continue to get the lucrative contracts in the reconstruction and in the future of Iraq too. Iraq masquerades as a free country, but nothing has changed on June 28th. I also wonder what the Saudi relations are with Britain intelligence and why Blair would join Bush in war. I still have lots of questions, and I will continue my research.

-Jason Setnyk