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Did Saudi Investors Pressure Disney To Drop Michael Moore's
New Film on 9/11?
'House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between
the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties'
Banned in Britain: Why British Readers Can't Read 'House
of Bush, House of Saud'
Did Saudi Investors Pressure Disney To Drop Michael
Moore's New Film on 9/11?
Disney has been widely criticized for barring its subsidiary
Miramax from distributing Fahrenheit 911, Moore's new documentary
examining 9/11 and the ties between the Bushes and the Bin
Ladens. Peter Hart from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
(FAIR) reveals that a powerful member of the House of Saud,
Al-Walid bin Talal, owns a major stake in Eurodisney. [includes
rush transcript]
In a letter to his fans and supporters this week, filmmaker
Michael Moore said his latest film Farenheight 9/11 will hit
American theaters well before November’s presidential
election despite what Moore calls the Disney Corporation’s
attempts to censor the film. The New York Times revealed last
week that Disney executives have forbid Miramax films from
distributing it. The film explores the Bush family's close
personal and financial ties to the Saudi royal family, and
describes how the current Bush administration helped evacuate
relatives of Osama bin Laden from the United States after
the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Disney executives were quoted in the New York Times as saying
that when Michael Eisner was the company’s top executive,
he “expressed particular concern that it would endanger
tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and
other ventures in Florida, where President Bush's brother,
Jeb, is governor." But the media watchgroup FAIR released
a statement giving another potential motive. FAIR said, “Disney
may have another reason, not mentioned by the Times, to reject
a film that might offend the Saudi royal family: A powerful
member of the family, Al-Walid bin Talal, owns a major stake
in Eurodisney and has been instrumental in the past in bailing
out the financially troubled amusement park. The project is
facing a new cash crunch, and Al-Walid has been mentioned
as a potential rescuer. In a moment, we will be joined by
Peter Hart from FAIR.
But first, we turn to an interview I had with Michael Moore
last October. We discussed an incident that happened in the
days after the September 11th attacks when all flights in
the U.S. were grounded.
American skies were empty, yet at the same time 140 influential
Saudis were effectively chaperoned out of the country, without
ever being questioned by the FBI. Among them, were several
dozen members of the bin Laden family.
Despite the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi
Arabia, top White House officials approved the evacuation
of Saudi citizens at a time when all other planes were grounded.
This is what Michael Moore had to say.
- Michael Moore, speaking on Democracy Now! October 15,
2003.
- Peter Hart, analyst at the media watchgroup Fairness
and Accuracy in Reporting. He is author of "The Oh
Really Factor."
'House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship
Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties'
Journalist Craig Unger joins us in our studios to discuss
his new book that examines the complex negotiations on war,
oil, illegal arms deals and murky banking deals conducted
between the Bushes and the Saudis - connecting a US presidential
dynasty to a foreign power.
Saudi Arabia Oil Minister announced Monday he will urge OPEC
to increase production in its upcoming June meeting, reversing
an output cut that began just last month.
OPEC - the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
- pumps about a third of the world's oil, and Saudi Arabia
is its biggest producer and de facto leader.
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said the change in oil
policy is due to concern that high prices could hurt the world
economy and reduce demand for oil. Raising the daily production
limit of oil will serve to lower gas prices over the coming
months. Oil is currently at a 13-year high.
The sudden reversal in Saudi oil policy came only weeks after
Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward said in a new book
that Saudi Arabia had made a deal with the White House to
drive down U.S. gasoline prices and help President Bush win
re-election. Saudi and U.S. officials have since denied the
charge.
In March Juan Gonzalez and I spoke with journalist and author
Craig Unger about the long-term relationship between the Bush
family and the Saudi Royal family that dates back over two
decades is the subject of his new book House of Bush, House
of Saud: The Secret Relationship between the World's Two Most
Powerful Dynasties.
In it, Unger writes: “In order to understand this relationship,
one would have to journey back to the time to the birth of
Al-Qaeda. One would have to study the Iran-Iraq war of the
1980's, the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraq War of 2003.
“One would have to try to deduce what had happened
within the corporate suites of the oil barons, of Dallas and
Houston, the executive offices of Carlyle Group.
“Finally, one would have to put all this information
together to shape a continuum, a narrative in which the House
of Bush and the House of Saud dominated the world stage together
in one era after another. Having done so, one would have to
come to a singular, inescapable conclusion, namely that horrifying
as it sounds, the secret relationship between these two great
families helped to trigger the age of terror and give rise
to see the tragedy of 9-11.”
- Craig Unger, author of the new book, House of Bush, House
of Saud: The Secret Relationship between the World's Two
Most Powerful Dynasties. He served as deputy editor of the
New York Observer and was the editor of Boston Magazine.
He has written about George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush
for the New Yorker, Esquire Magazine and Vanity Fair.
Banned in Britain: Why British Readers Can't Read
'House of Bush, House of Saud'
The British publisher of House of Bush, House of Saud has
decided not to publish the book fearing lawsuits from the
Saudis. Author Craig Unger discusses the banning of his book
and Disney's refusal to distribute Michael Moore's new film
that examines the ties between the Bushes and Saudia Arabia.
In late March, Salon.con reported:
"A controversial new book that casts a critical eye
on the three-decade-old relationship between the Bush and
Saud families, House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret
Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties,
by Craig Unger, has been dropped by its British publisher
just weeks before it was scheduled to arrive in stores.
Making its decision in the shadow of the aggressive use
of the British legal system and its plaintiff-friendly libel
laws by wealthy Saudis, the publisher has backed down from
issuing the book.
"We've had to withdraw it for legal reasons,"
says an editor at Secker & Warburg, a U.K. division
of Random House. "We expected we would be able to publish
it with a degree of risk. But regrettably in the final analysis
we decided we could not."
We asked Craig Unger about the book banning in Britain and
Disney's refusal to distribute Michael Moore's new film.
- Craig Unger, author of the new book, House of Bush, House
of Saud: The Secret Relationship between the World's Two
Most Powerful Dynasties.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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