Correcting the Myth
Yesterday the Good Doc and I went out to the Castro to hang with our gay peeps. We met out friend Sandra as well, who happens to be French.
We talked about politics, as we usually do, and Sandra brought up the supposed fact that a plane load of Bin Laden family members were flown out of the US after the attacks on September 11. She stated that she thought Osama Bin Laden was on that flight and that Bush is hiding him somewhere, waiting to reveal him, perhaps before the election this November.
Well, if the Republicans could manage to pull their heads out of their asses long enough to find their hands I might believe some crazy-ass story like this one. "Where would someone get such an insane idea" you might ask. Well, in France a book came out not long ago claiming that 9/11 was a big hoax perpetrated by a military/industrial cabal within the US government and assisted by the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service. In addition Michael Moore's new movie Fahrenheit 9-11 suggests that the administration was up to no good by flying these people out of the country.
Demagogues never let fact or reason get in the way of their lies, but I can still lay some out here. Why would Israel help in the 9/11 attacks? How does it benefit Israel to have the US, Israel's main protector, involved in a destabilizing war in the Middle East, which serves only to threaten Israel and increase anti-Israeli feeling?
Some in France will say this book is the truth, but what it really is is the same old rank anti-Semitism that holds Europe in its thrall and always has. The same anti-Semitism that lead to the Holocaust and to which many Europeans still subscribe. The notion that Jews control everything behind the scenes is an old one, fed by lies and propaganda, but it's sad (and not surprising) to see it still has a place in modern European thinking.
Now onto Michael Moore. In a recent post I highlighted some criticism of his movie's fast and loose playing with the facts. In return I received replies which stated that the authors of this criticism were "fucking nobodies and fucking losers" to be exact. Chris Hitchens was one of those criticizing the movie, and as a writer for Vanity Fair and author of the book The Trials of Henry Kissinger, which called for an indictment on war crimes violations for the former US Secretary of State, I hardly think he qualifies for the title "fucking loser" and "fucking nobody" but still, I guess opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one.
A central point of Moore's film is that by allowing Bin Laden family members to leave the US after September 11 the Bush administration aided and abetted the escape of possible terrorists. So who today said this wasn't true, despite his disagreement with the war in Iraq and his criticism of Bush's handling of the aftermath of 9/11? Read this quote and then guess, and please tell me if this man is also a "fucking loser" and a "fucking nobody."
Clarke took issue with some elements of filmmaker Michael Moore's new documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," which depicts how the Bush administration allowed Saudi nationals and members of Osama bin Laden's family to leave the United States days after the September 11 attacks.
Clarke said he thought the Saudi government was "perfectly justified" in wanting its citizens to leave the United States out of fears of "vigilantism" by Americans.
The Saudis were not allowed to leave until the FBI cleared them of posing any danger and having knowledge of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts, Clarke said.
Making the incident a big part of the movie was a mistake, said Clarke, who added that he agrees with many things Moore stands for.
So says Richard Clarke, former White House anti-terrorism czar.
5:37:10 PM 
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