Was [Music] it all just a dream? God bless you, Florida. Thank you. Did the last four years not really happen? Look, there's Ben Affleck. He's often in my dreams. And the taxi driver guy, he was there, too. And little Stevie Wonder, he he seemed so happy like like a miracle had taken place. Was it a dream or was it real?

It was election night 2000 and everything seemed to be going as planned. In New York, Al Gore is our projected winner. If the Garden State is green for Gore, we project that Mr. Gore is the winner in Delaware. This state has voted with the winner in Excuse me one second. I'm so sorry to interrupt you, Mike. You know, I wouldn't do this if it weren't big. Florida goes for Al Gore. CNN announces that we call Florida in the Al Gore column. Then something called the Fox News Channel called the election in favor of the other guy. Got to interrupt you. Fox News now projects George W. Bush the winner in Florida and thus it appears the winner of the presidency of the United States. All of a sudden the other network said, "Hey, if Fox said it, it must be true." All of us at the networks made a mistake and projected Florida in the Al Gore column. It was our mistake.

Now, what most people don't know is that the man who was in charge of the decision desk at Fox that night, the man who called it for Bush, was none other than Bush's first cousin, John Ellis. How does someone like Bush get away with something like this? Well, first, it helps if your brother is the governor of the state in question. You know something? We are going to win Florida. Mark my words. You can write it down. Second, make sure the chairman of your campaign is also the vote count woman and that her state has hired a company that's going to knock voters off the rolls who aren't likely to vote for you. You can usually tell them by the color of their skin. Then make sure your side fights like it's life or death. I think all this talk about legitimacy is way overblown. and hope that the other side will just sit by and wait for the phone to ring. And even if numerous independent investigations prove that Gore got the most votes, if there was a statewide recount, under every scenario, Gore won the election, it won't matter just as long as all your daddy's friends on the Supreme Court vote the right way.

While I strongly disagree with the court's decision, I accept it. What we need now is acceptance. We have a new president-elect. It turns out none of this was a dream. It's what really happened. On the day the joint session of both the House of Representatives and the Senate was to certify the election results, Al Gore, in his dual role as outgoing vice president and president of the Senate, presided over the event that would officially anoint George W. Bush as the new president. If any congressman wanted to raise an objection, the rules insisted that he or she had to have the signed support of just one senator.

"Mr. President, and I take great pride in calling you that. Um, I must object because of the overwhelming evidence of official misconduct, deliberate fraud, and an attempt."

"The chair must remind members that under section 18 of Title 3, United States Code. No debate is allowed in the joint session."

"Thank you, Mr. President. To answer your question, Mr. President, the objection is in writing, signed by a number of members of the House of Representatives, but not by a member of the Senate."

"Uh, Mr. President, it is in writing and signed by several House colleagues on behalf and myself of the 27,000 voters of Duval County, in which 16,000 of them are African-Americans that was disenfranchised in this last election."

"Is the objection signed by a member of the Senate?"

"Not signed by a member of the Senate."

"The Senate is missing."

"Mr. President, it is in writing and signed by myself on behalf of many of the diverse constituents in our country, especially those in the 9th Congressional District and all American voters who recognize that the Supreme Court, not the people of the United States decided this election."

"Is the objection uh signed by a senator?"

"Unfortunately, Mr. President, it is not signed by one single senator. Unfortunately, I have no authority over the United States Senate and no senator has signed."

"Mr. President, it is in writing and signed by myself and several of my constituents from Florida. A senator is needed but missing."

"Is the objection uh in writing and signed by a member of the House and a senator?"

"The objection is in writing and I don't care that it is not it is not signed by a member of the Senate."

"The uh the chair will advise that the rules do care and uh the the signature of the senator."

Not a single senator came to the aid of the African-Americans in Congress. One after another, they were told to sit down and shut up. And it's a sad day in America, Mr. President, when we can't find a senator to sign won't sign, Mr. President, gentlemen will The gentleman will suspend [Music] inauguration coverage 2011 on a nasty but it could be worse kind of day in Washington.

"What do we want? Justice. What do we want?"

On the day George W. Bush was inaugurated, tens of thousands of Americans poured into the streets of DC in one last attempt to reclaim what had been taken from them. They pelted Bush's limo with eggs. Get back and brought the inauguration parade to a halt. The plan to have Bush get out of the limo for the traditional walk to the White House was scrapped. Bush's limo hit the gas to prevent an even larger riot. No president had ever witnessed such a thing on his inauguration day. And for the next eight months, it didn't get any better for George W. Bush. He couldn't get his judges appointed. He had trouble getting his legislation passed and he lost Republican control of the Senate. His approval ratings in the polls began to sink. He was already beginning to look like a lame duck president.

With everything going wrong, he did what any of us would do. He went on vacation. [Music] No. In his first eight months in office before September 11th, George W. Bush was on vacation, according to the Washington Post, 42% of the time.

"I hit every shot good. People would say I wasn't working. It was not surprising that Mr. Bush needed some time off. Being president is a lot of work. Got these folks that say you're loping here in Texas, that you're taking too long of a vacation. They don't understand the definition of work then I'm getting a lot done. Secondly, you don't have to be in Washington to work. It's uh it's amazing uh what can happen with telephones and faxes and uh just a destiny. What are you doing the rest of the day? Uh Karen Hughes is coming over. We're working on some things and uh she'll be over here. We'll work on a few things. Matters. I'm working on some initiatives. We're uh you'll see. I mean, there'll be I've got there'll be some decisions that I will have made while I'm here, and we'll be announcing them as time goes on."

The first time I met him, he had some good advice for me. Governor Bush, it's Michael Moore. Behave yourself, will you? Go find real work. And work was something he knew a lot about.

"Anybody want some grits?"

Relaxing at Camp David, yachting off Kennebunkport.

"How you doing?"

Or being a cowboy on the ranch in Texas.

"I love the nature. I love to get in the pickup truck with my dogs. Oh, hi. George Bush spent the rest of August at the ranch where life was less complicated. Armadillo loved to dig the soil looking for bugs. And um so uh I went out there the other day and there was Barney buried in this hole chasing an armadillo. It was a summer to remember. And when it was over, he left Texas for his second favorite place. On September 10th, he joined his brother in Florida where they looked at files and met important Floridians. He went to sleep that night in a bed made with fine French linens."

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"You suppose he's pretty confident on those numbers on Iraqi security forces."

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"Make me look young."

[Music]

"Yeah, I got a little uh sort of air noise. Yeah. Just don't turn it up too much so I don't won't blow my head off."

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"I got I got a mic here if they want to hear. Testing one, two, this is the Oval Office. Testing one, two. Testing one, two. This is the Oval Office. Testing one, two, three, four, five."

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"We have something that has happened here at the World Trade Center. We noticed flame and an awful lot of smoke."

[Applause]

"My idea. Let's go. Come on. Let's go. Oh, there's every"

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"Heat. Heat."

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"Heat. Heat."

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On September 11th, 2001, nearly 3,000 people, including a colleague of mine, Bill Wis, were killed in the largest foreign attack ever on American soil. The targets were the financial and military headquarters of the United States.

"If anyone has any idea or if they've seen him or knows where he is to call us, he's got two little babies. Two little babies."

As the attack took place, Mr. Bush was on his way to an elementary school in Florida. When informed of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center where terrorists had struck just eight years prior, Mr. Bush decided to go ahead with his photo opportunity.

"Good morning, boys and girls. Read this word the fast way. Get ready. Yes, ma'am. Get ready. Yeah. Okay. Get ready to read the words on this page without making a mistake."

When the second plane hit the tower, his chief of staff entered the classroom and told Mr. Bush, "The nation is under attack." Not knowing what to do, with no one telling him what to do and no secret service rushing in to take him to safety, Mr. Bush just sat there and continued to read *My Pet Goat* with the children.

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Nearly 7 minutes passed with nobody doing anything.

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As Bush sat in that Florida classroom, was he wondering if maybe he should have shown up to work more often? Should he have held at least one meeting since taking office to discuss the threat of terrorism with his head of counterterrorism? Or maybe Mr. Bush was wondering why he had cut terrorism funding from the FBI. Or perhaps he just should have read the security briefing that was given to him on August 6th, 2001, which said that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America by hijacking airplanes. But maybe he wasn't worried about the terrorist threat because the title of the report was too vague. I believe the title was "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States." A report like that might make some men jump, but as in days past, George W. just went fishing.

As the minutes went by, George Bush continued to sit in the classroom. Was he thinking, "I've been hanging out with the wrong crowd. Which one of them screwed me? Was it the guy my daddy's friends delivered a lot of weapons to? Was it that group of religious fundamentalists who visited my state when I was governor? Or was it the Saudis? Damn, it was them. I think I better blame it on this guy."

In the days following September 11th, all commercial and private airline traffic was grounded. The FAA has taken the action to close all of the airports in the United States. Even grounding the president's father, former President Bush, on a flight forced to land in Milwaukee. Thousands of travelers were stranded, among them Ricky Martin, due to appear at tonight's Latin Grammy Awards. Not even Ricky Martin could fly. But really, who wanted to fly? No one except the bin Ladens.

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"We had some airplanes authorized at the highest levels of our government to fly to pick up Osama bin Laden's family members and others from Saudi Arabia and transport them out of this country." It turns out that the White House approved planes to pick up the bin Ladens and numerous other Saudis. At least six private jets and nearly two dozen commercial planes carried the Saudis and the bin Ladens out of the US after September 13th. In all, 142 Saudis, including 24 members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to leave the country.

"Osama has always been portrayed as the bad apple, the black sheep in the family, and then they cut off all relationship with him around 1994. In fact, things are much more complicated than that."

"You mean Osama has had contact with other family members?"

"That's right. In the summer of 2001, just before 9/11, one of Osama's sons got married in Afghanistan and several family members showed up at the wedding."

"Bin Laden."

"That's right. So, they've not cut off completely. That's really an exaggeration."

"We now welcome to Larry King Live. Good to see him again. Prince Bandar, the ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States. We had about 24 members of Bin Laden's family and in America students and and his majesty felt it's not fair for those innocent people to be subjected to any harm. In the other hand, we understood had a high emotions. So with coordination with the FBI, we got them all out."

This is retired FBI agent Jack Cloon. Before 9/11, he was a senior agent on the joint FBI CIA al-Qaeda task force.

"I as an investigator would not want these people to have left. I think in the case of of the Bin Laden family, I think it would have been prudent. Hand the subpoenas out, have them come in, get on the record, you know, get on the record. That's the proper procedure."

"Yeah. How many people were pulled off of airlines after that coming into the country who were what? They were from the Middle East or they fit a very general picture."

"We held hundreds of people. We held hundreds and I weeks and months at a time."

"Did the authorities do anything when the bin Ladens tried to leave the country?"

"No, they were identified at the airport. They were they looked at their passports and they were identified."

"Well, that's what would happen to you or I if we were."

"Exactly. So, a little interview, check the passport. What else?"

"Nothing."

"I don't know about you, but usually when the police can't find a murderer, don't they usually want to talk to the family members to find out where they think he might be?"

"You have no idea where your husband might be."

"Well, if you should hear anything, let us know, will you? You willing to come downtown, give us a statement?"

"This going to take long?"

"You got the time?"

"Mine's worth money. Yours isn't. Send in a bill."

"I asked you a question. You're here to answer them, not ask them. Now, you listen to me, cop. I pay your"

"All right, sit down. I'm going to earn it. Yeah, that's how cops do it."

"What was going on here? I think we need to know a lot more about that. That needs to be the subject of a significant investigation. What happened? How did it happen? Why did it happen? And who authorized it?"

"Trying to imagine what those poor bastards were feeling right when they were jumping out of that building to their death. Those those those young guys and cops and firemen that ran into that building, never asked a question, and they're dead. And families' lives are ruined and they'll never they'll never have peace. That's right. And if I had to inconvenience a a uh a member of the Bin Laden family with a subpoena or a grand jury, do you think I'd lose any sleep over it? Not for a minute, Mike. And no one would question it. No, it's right. Not even the biggest civil libertarian. No, it's just No one would question. It's just, you know, you got a lawyer. Fine, counselor. Fine. Mr. Bin Laden, this is why I'm asking you. It's not because I think that you're anything. I just want to ask you the questions that I would anybody, right? And that's all."

None of this made any sense. Can you imagine in the days after the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing, President Clinton helping to arrange a trip out of the country for the McVeigh family? What do you think would have happened to Clinton if that had been revealed?

"Ben, do you know the Bin Laden family?"

"I do very well. What are they like?"

"They're really lovely human beings. Uh he is the only one I never I don't know him well but I met him only once."

"What was the circumstance under which you met him?"

"This is ironic. In mid-80s if you remember we and the United States were supporting the mujahedin to uh liberate Afghanistan from the Soviets. He came to thank me for my efforts to bring the Americans our friends to help us against the atheist. He said the communist."

"Nurse."

"He came to thank you for helping bring America to help him and now he may be responsible for bombing America."

"Absolutely. What did you make of him when you met him?"

"I was not impressed to be honest with you. Not impressed. No, he was I thought he was simple and very quiet guy."

A simple and quiet guy whose family just happened to have a business relationship with the family of George W. Bush. Is that what he was thinking about? Because if the public knew this, it wouldn't look very good. Was he thinking, "You know, I need a big black marker?"

In early 2004, in a speech during the New Hampshire primary, I called George W. Bush, a deserter from his time in the Texas Air National Guard. In response, the White House released his military records in the hopes of disproving the charge. What Bush didn't know is that I already had a copy of his military records, uncensored, obtained in the year 2000. And there is one glaring difference between the records released in 2000 and those he released in 2004.

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A name had been blacked out. In 1972, two airmen were suspended for failing to take their medical examination. One was George W. Bush and the other was James R. Bath. In 2000, the documents show both names. But in 2004, Bush and the White House had Bath's name blacked out. Why didn't Bush want the press and the public to see Bath's name on his military records? Perhaps he was worried that the American people would find out that at one time James R. Bath was the Texas money manager for the Bin Ladens. Bush and Bath had become good friends when they both served in the Texas Air National Guard. After they were discharged, when Bush's dad was head of the CIA, Bath opened up his own aviation business after selling a plane to a man by the name of Salem Bin Laden, heir to the second largest fortune in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Bin Laden Group.

"W at that time was just starting off in the world as a businessman because he's a guy who's always tried to emulate his father. Uh he decided to go into the oil business. He founded an oil company, a drilling company out in West Texas called Arbusto, which was very very good at drilling dry holes that nothing came out of. But the question has always been where did this money come from? Now his dad his dad was rich. His dad could have done this for him, but his dad didn't do this for him. And there's no indication that daddy wrote a check to start him off in this company. So where did George W. Bush get his money?"

"I'm George Bush."

One person who did invest in him was James R. Bath. Bush's good friend, James Bath, was hired by the Bin Laden family to manage their money in Texas and invest in businesses.

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And James Bath himself in turn invested in George W. Bush. Bush ran Arbusto into the ground as he did every other company he was involved in until finally one of his companies was bought by Harken Energy and they gave him a seat on their board.

"A lot of us have suspected through the years that that there has been Saudi oil money involved in all of these companies. Harken, Spectrum 7, uh, Arbusto Drilling, all of the Bush companies. Whenever they got into trouble, there were these angel investors who flowed money into the companies. So, the question is, why would Saudis who had all the oil in the world go around the around the globe to invest in this lousy oil company? And the thing is, it had one big asset. Harken had one thing going for it, which is that George W. Bush was on its board of directors at a time when his father was president of the United States. When you're the president's son and you've got unlimited access combined with some credentials from a prior campaign in Washington D.C., people tend to respect that. I mean, access is power and uh I can find my dad and talk to him anytime of the day. Yes, it helps to be the president's son, especially when you're being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission."

In 1990, when Mr. Bush was a director of Harken Energy, he received this memo from company lawyers warning directors not to sell stock if they had unfavorable information about the company. One week later, he sold $848,000 worth of Harken stock. Two months later, Harken announced losses of more than $23 million. The James Baker law partner who helped Bush beat the rap from the SEC was a man by the name of Robert Jordan, who when George W. became president was appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

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After the Harken debacle, the friends of Bush's dad got him a seat on another board of a company owned by the Carlyle Group.

"We wanted to look at which companies um actually gained from September 11th. Turned up this company Carlyle Group. The Carlyle Group is a multinational conglomerate that invests in heavily government regulated industries like telecommunications, healthcare, and particularly defense. Both George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush worked for the Carlyle Group, the same company that counted the Bin Laden family among its investors. Carlyle Group was holding its annual investor conference on the morning of September 11th in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington D.C. At that meeting uh were all of the Carlyle regulars. James Baker likely John Major definitely George H.W. Bush though he left the morning of September 11th. Shafi Bin Laden who is Osama Bin Laden's half-brother um and was in town to look after his family's investments in the Carlyle Group. um all of them together in one room watching as the um the planes hit the towers. And then in fact, the Bin Laden family was invested in one of their defense funds, which ironically meant that um as the United States started increasing its defense spending, um the Bin Laden family stood to gain from those investments uh through the Carlyle Group."

Our commander-in-chief, President George W. Bush. With all the weapons companies it owned, the Carlyle Group was in essence the 11th largest defense contractor in the United States.

"Thanks a lot. It owned United Defense, makers of the Bradley armored fighting vehicle. September 11th guaranteed that United Defense was going to have a very good year. Just 6 weeks after 9/11, Carlyle filed to take United Defense public and in December made a one-day profit of $237 million. But sadly, with so much attention focused on the Bin Laden family being important Carlyle investors, the Bin Ladens eventually had to withdraw. Bush's dad, though, stayed on as senior adviser to Carlyle's Asia board for another two years. as unseemly as it seems uh to to to know that George H.W. Bush was meeting with the the Bin Laden family um while Osama was a wanted terrorist um well before September 11th. It's very discomforting for for Americans to know that George H.W. Bush is a man who has uh obviously incredible reach into the White House. Um he receives daily CIA briefings which is the right of any ex-president but very few ex-presidents actually exercise that right. Uh he does and I think in in a very real way they are benefiting from the confusion that arises when George H.W. Bush visits Saudi Arabia on behalf of Carlyle and meets with uh the royal family and meets with the Bin Laden family. Um, is he representing the United States of America, uh, or is he representing an investment firm in the United States of America, or is he representing both?"

"Uh, this company is about money. It's not about conspiracies to run the world or, um, you know, engineer political maneuvering and things like that. It's about making money and it's about making a lot of money and they've done very well."

"I can get you on the record on this question. Uh, in the White House view, it there's no ethical conflict in former President Bush and former Secretary of State Jim Baker using their contacts with world leaders to represent one of the most well-known military arms dealers, the Carlyle Group. The president has full faith that his family will conform with all proper ethics laws, all ethics laws, and will act properly in their conduct. Okay?"

So, let's say one group of people, like the American people, pay you $400,000 a year to be president of the United States. But then another group of people invest in you, your friends, and their related businesses $1.4 billion over a number of years. Who are you going to like? Who's your daddy? Because that's how much the Saudi royals and their associates have given the Bush family.

"Oh, we know their friends. How are you, sir? And their related businesses in the past three decades. Seems like a very nice reunion with friends. Is it rude to suggest that when the Bush family wakes up in the morning, they might be thinking about what's best for the Saudis instead of what's best for you or me? Cuz $1.4 billion just doesn't buy a lot of flights out of the country. It buys a lot of love."

Shiny people, shiny happy people. Shiny happy people. Everyone around. Love them. Love them. Put it in your hands. Take it. Take it. There's no time to cry. Happy. Happy. Put it in your heart where tomorrow shines.

[Music]

Golden silver shine.

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Sooner or later, this special relationship with a regime that Amnesty International condemns as a widespread human rights violator would come back to haunt the Bushes. Now, after 9/11, it was an embarrassment, and they preferred that no one ask any questions.

"The investigation should have begun on September 12th. Um, there's no reason why it shouldn't have. 3,000 people were dead. It was a murder, and it should have gotten started immediately."

First, Bush tried to stop Congress from setting up its own 9/11 investigation.

"It's important for us to uh to not reveal how we collect information. That's what the enemy wants, and we're fighting an enemy."

When he couldn't stop Congress, he then tried to stop an independent 9/11 commission from being formed. The president's position was a break from history. Independent investigations were launched within days of Pearl Harbor and President Kennedy's assassination. But when Congress did complete its own investigation, the Bush White House censored 28 pages of the report.

"The president is being pressed by all sides to declassify the report. US officials tell NBC News most of the secret sources involve Saudi Arabia."

"We have uh given extraordinary cooperation with uh Chairman Keane and Hamilton. Uh we haven't gotten the materials we needed and we certainly haven't gotten them in a timely fashion. The deadlines we set have passed."

"Will you testify before the commission?"

"This commission? You know, I don't testify. I mean, I'd be glad to visit with them. What it will do is hold this in my heart and has been in my heart since September 11th. I lost my husband 15 years. I am now by myself. Um, I need to know what happened to him. I I know what I got back from the got the autopsy. Um, that man was my life and I have no plan. I took a I was taking a class and they asked me what was I going to do in the next five years and if I'm not doing something with this I don't know what reason I have to live. So it's very important very important. Okay."

Ignored by the Bush administration, more than 500 relatives of 9/11 victims filed suit against Saudi royals and others. The lawyers the Saudi defense minister hired to fight the 9/11 families. The law firm of Bush family confidant James A. Baker.

"So, we're right here in the center of three important American landmarks. uh the Watergate uh hotel and office building, the Kennedy Center over there, and uh the embassy of Saudi Arabia. How how how much money do the Saudis have invested in America roughly?"

"Uh I've heard figures as high as $860 billion dollars."

"$860 billion. Billion. That's a lot of money. A lot. Yeah. Uh-huh. And uh what what percentage of our economy does that represent? I mean it seems like a lot."

"Well, in terms of in investments on Wall Street, American equities, it's roughly six or 7% of America. They own a fairly good slice of America. And most of that money goes into the great blue chip companies. You uh Citigroup, Citibank is is the largest stockholder is a Saudi. Uh AOL, Time Warner has has big Saudi investors."

"So I read where like the Saudis have a trillion dollars in in our banks of their money. What would happen if like one day and just pulled that trillion dollars out a trillion dollars?"

"That would be an enormous blow to the economy. Right. Right."

"Please, sir. Yeah, sure. How are you doing? Good. How you doing? Steve Kim with Secret Service. How you doing? How you doing, sir? Yes. We're just ascertaining information regarding Are you doing a documentary regarding the Saudi Arabia embassy?"

"Uh no. Uh, I am doing a documentary and part of it is about Saudi Arabia."

Even though we were nowhere near the White House, for some reason the secret service had shown up to ask us what we were doing standing across the street from the Saudi embassy here to cause any trouble or anything. And, you know, is that

"No, that's fine. We just wanted to make sure to get some information as far as actually what was actually what's going on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I didn't realize the Secret Service guards foreign embassies."

"Uh, not usually. No, sir. No. No."

"Did they give you any trouble? Saudis?"

"Uh, no comment on that answer. Oh, okay. Well, I'll take that as a yes. All right, good. Thank you very much. Thanks for the work."

It turns out that Saudi Prince Bandar is perhaps the best protected ambassador in the US. The US State Department provides him with a six-man security detail. Considering how he and his family and the Saudi elite own 7% of America, it's probably not a bad idea.

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Prince Bandar was so close to the Bushes they considered him a member of the family and they even had a nickname for him, Bandar Bush. Two nights after September 11th, George Bush invited Bandar Bush over to the White House for a private dinner and a talk. Even though bin Laden was a Saudi and Saudi money had funded al-Qaeda and 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. Here was the Saudi ambassador casually dining with the president on September 13th. What were they talking about? Were they commiserating or comparing notes? Why would Bandar's government block American investigators from talking to the relatives of the 15 hijackers? Why would Saudi Arabia become reluctant to freeze the hijackers's assets?

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The two of them walked out on the Truman balcony so that Bandar could smoke a cigar and have a drink. In the distance across the Potomac was the Pentagon, partially in ruins. I wonder if Mr. Bush told Prince Bandar not to worry because he already had a plan in motion.

"You come in September 12th ready to plot what response we take to al-Qaeda. Let me talk to the about the response that you got from top administration officials on that day. What did the president say to you?"

"The president in a very intimidating way left us, me and my staff, with the imp the clear indication that he wanted us to come back with a word that there was an Iraqi hand behind 9/11 because they had been planning to do something about Iraq from before the time they came into office."

"Did he ask about any other nations other than Iraq?"

"No, no, no, no, not at all. It was Iraq, Saddam, find out, get back to me."

"And were his questions more about Iraq than about al-Qaeda?"

"Absolutely. Absolutely. He didn't ask me about al-Qaeda."

"And the reaction you got that day from the defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld from his assistant Paul Wolfowitz."

"Well, Donald Rumsfeld said uh when we talked about bombing the al-Qaeda infrastructure in Afghanistan, he said there were no good targets in Afghanistan. Let's bomb Iraq. And we said, but Iraq had nothing to do with this. And that didn't seem to make much difference. And the reason they had to do Afghanistan first was it was obvious that al-Qaeda had attacked us. And it was obvious that al-Qaeda was in Afghanistan. The American people wouldn't have stood by if we had done nothing on Afghanistan."

The United States began bombing Afghanistan just 4 weeks after 9/11. Mr. Bush said he was doing so because the Taliban government of Afghanistan had been harboring Bin Laden.

"We will smoke him out of their holes. We're going to smoke him out. Smoke him out. Smoke him out of his cave. Let's rush him and smoke him out."

All was tough talk. Bush really didn't do much. But what they did was slow and small. They put only 11,000 troops into Afghanistan. There are more police here in Manhattan. More police here in Manhattan than there are U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Basically, the president botched the response to 9/11. He should have gone right after Bin Laden. The U.S. special forces didn't get into the area where Bin Laden was for two months. Two months. A mass murderer who attacked the United States was given a two-month head start. Who in their right mind would do that?

"Dang. Anybody say nice shot? Nice shot. Hell of a shot."

Or was the war in Afghanistan really about something else? Perhaps the answer was in Houston, Texas.

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In 1997, while George W. Bush was governor of Texas, a delegation of Taliban leaders from Afghanistan flew to Houston to meet with Unocal executives to discuss the building of a pipeline through Afghanistan, bringing natural gas from the Caspian Sea. And who got a Caspian Sea drilling contract the same day Unocal signed the pipeline deal? A company headed by a man named Dick Cheney. Halliburton.

"From the point of view of the U.S. government, this was kind of a magic pipeline um because it could serve so many purposes. And who else stood to benefit from the pipeline? Bush's number one campaign contributor, Kenneth Lay, and the good people of Enron. Only the British press covered this trip."

Then in 2001, just 5 and a half months before 9/11, the Bush administration welcomed a special Taliban envoy to tour the United States to help improve the image of the Taliban government.

"You have imprisoned the women. It's a horror, let me tell you. And I'm really sorry to your husband. He might have a very difficult time with you. Here is the Taliban official visiting our State Department to meet with U.S. officials."

Why on earth would the Bush administration allow a Taliban leader to visit the United States knowing that the Taliban were harboring the man who bombed the USS Cole and our African embassies? Well, I guess 9/11 put a stop to that.

When the invasion of Afghanistan was complete, we installed its new president, Hamid Karzai. Who was Hamid Karzai? He was a former adviser to UNOCAL. Bush also appointed as our envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, who was also a former UNOCAL adviser. I guess you can probably see where this is leading. Faster than you can say "black gold Texas tea." Afghanistan signed an agreement with their neighboring countries to build a pipeline through Afghanistan carrying natural gas from the Caspian Sea. Oh, and the Taliban, well, they mostly got away, as did Osama bin Laden and most of al-Qaeda.

"Terror is bigger than one person. And uh he he's just he's he's he's a he's a person who's now been marginalized. So, I I don't know where he is, nor you know, I just don't spend that much time on him. Ellie, to be honest with you, didn't spend much time on him."

"What kind of president was he?"

"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office uh in foreign policy matters with war on my mind."

With the war in Afghanistan over and bin Laden forgotten, the war president had a new target, the American people.

"We've got an unusual terror warning from the feds to tell you about. Fox News has obtained an FBI bulletin that warns terrorists could use pen guns just like in James Bond filled with poison as weapons. Good evening everyone. America is on high alert tonight just 4 days before Christmas. A possible terror threat as bad as or worse than 9/11. But where? How? There's nothing specific to report. Be on the lookout for model airplanes packed with explosives."

[Applause]

"And the FBI is warning fairies may be considered particularly at risk for hijacking. Could these cattle be a target for terrorists?"

[Music]

"Fear works. Fear does work. Yes, you can make people do anything if they're afraid. And how do you make them afraid? Well, you make them afraid by creating an aura of endless threat. They play us like an organ. They raised the the orange and then up to red and then they dropped it back to orange. I mean they they gave these mixed messages which were crazy making. The world has changed after September the 11th. It's changed because we're no longer safe. Fly and enjoy America's great uh destination spots. We've entered what may very well prove to be the most dangerous security environment the world's known. Take your families and enjoy life. Terrorists are doing everything they can to gain even deadlier means of striking us. Get down to Disney World in Florida. It's like a training a dog. You tell them sit down and you tell them to roll over at the same time. Dog doesn't know what to do. Well, the American people were being treated like that. It was really very very skillfully and and and ugly in in what they did. We must stop the terror. I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now, watch this drive. All right. Another They will continue in my view uh as long as this administration is in charge of every once in a while stimulating everybody to be afraid. Just in case you forgot, it's not going to go down to green or blue. It's never going to get there. There clearly is no way that anyone can live constantly on edge like that. The harsh reality facing American families today is that they're not as safe as they used to be. Drug dealers and users looking for their next fix. Gangs who roam the streets in search of their next victim. And the growing threat of terrorists means the need for protection is ever greater. And now that protection is here. Z-Tec Engineering LLC has developed and tested a safe room finally affordable to the average American citizen. The kind of protection formerly obtainable only by the wealthy or powerful. Heck, you can be sitting in here drinking your finest Bordeaux and enjoying life while chaos is erupting outside. Every family in America should prepare uh itself for a terrorist attack. Now to escaping from a skyscraper. John Rivers is the CEO of the Executive Escape Corporation. Good morning to you, John. Good morning, Matt. Tell me about the product you're bringing to the market. It's a uh emergency escape chute. It's an option of last resort. How high do you have to be in the building for that chute to actually take effect? You only have to be on the 10th floor or above. They can put this on themselves, right? They can put this on themselves in as easy as about 30 seconds. It's real easy to put on. Sorry. It's okay. Real easy to put on, but uh when you first get this chute, you're going to want to put it on and try it on a few times yourself. Jamie's having a little trouble putting that thing on, I want to mention. I mean, is this something that that you honestly think in a moment of of panic that someone can can operate properly? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it is. It's This is actually uh Jaime's probably never put this thing on before in her life, so it's okay. Don't worry about it. It's It's something that when you get it, you're going to want to put it on several times. Well, despite the raising of the terror alert level, residents here in Saginaw are continuing with their Christmas errands. Francis Tro and her family do some last minute holiday shopping, knowing that Al Qaeda is planning to attack America. She says being in Saginaw doesn't make her feel any safer than if she was in New York City."

"Midland is close by. And I said, 'Detroit's not far that far away.' I said, 'They could be some and Flint, this could be some be concerns for people around here.' Well, you you never know where they're going to head. You never know where they're going to hit. But one potential target specifically mentioned by the terrorists has security officials baffled. It's tiny Tappahannock, Virginia, population 2016. Such an attack could generate widespread fear that even here in rural small-town America, no one is entirely safe. On the 6:00 news, there was something but a terrorist alert in Tappahannock. What did the FBI tell you?"

"Well, they contacted me by phone uh basically let me know about this word Tappahannock and that's how it started. And there are so-called chatter that they pick up. They were sure Tappahannock. It is a Rappahannock County. This is the Rappahannock River. There is a Rapahannock a place called Rapahannock and they got it mixed up. This is Tappahannock. Not Rapahannock. Is there any terrorist target around here?"

"Not that we can really think of. It can happen anywhere. We have a Walmart here. We have a big spaghetti supper in here. Walmart probably. Do you feel extra suspicious of outsiders?"

"Oh, everybody does that. It's just something that happens. When I look at certain people, I wonder, oh my goodness, do you think they could be a terrorist? You never know what's going to happen. That's right. You never know. You never know what's going to happen. It's gonna happen right now. You know, never trust nobody you don't know. And even if you do know and you really can't trust them then."

From Tappahannock to Rappahannock to every town and village in America, the people were afraid and they turned to their leader to protect them. But protect them from what?

[Music]

Like she's never soared before. From rocky coast to golden shore. Let the mighty meet John Ashcroft. In 2000, he was running for reelection as senator from Missouri against a man who died the month before the election. The voters preferred the dead guy. So, George W. Bush made him his attorney general. He was sworn in on a stack of Bibles. Cuz when you can't beat a dead guy, you need all the help you can get.

During the summer before 9/11, Ashcroft told acting FBI director Thomas Peard that he didn't want to hear anything more about terrorist threats.

"Mr. Peard had come to you and said that the CIA was very concerned that there would be an attack. You said that you told the attorney general this fact repeatedly in these meetings. Is that correct?"

"I've told him at least on two occasions. And you told the staff, according to this statement, that Mr. Ashcroft told you that he did not want to hear about this anymore. Is that correct?"

"That is correct."

His own FBI knew that summer that there were al-Qaeda members in the U.S. and that bin Laden was sending his agents to flight schools around the country. But Ashcroft's Justice Department turned a blind eye and a deaf ear. But after 9/11, John Ashcroft had some brilliant ideas for how to protect America. The USA Patriot Act, adopted by Congress and signed by Bush six weeks after the attacks, has changed the way the government does business. The USA Patriot Act allows for searches of medical and financial records, computer and telephone conversations, and even for the books you take out of the library. But most of the people we spoke to say they're willing to give up some liberties to fight terrorism.

"Maybe that's a good thing. It's definitely sad, but it's it has to be done. Yes, something needed to be done."

These are the good people who make up Peace Fresno, a community group in Fresno, California. Unlike the rest of us, they've received an early lesson in what the Patriot Act is all about. Each week, they meet to discuss matters of peace. They sit around. They share stories. They eat cookies. Some have more than one. This is Aaron Stokes, a member of Peace Fresno. The other members liked him. He had come to the meetings. He went with us. We go out on Friday nights and stand on a very busy corner in Fresno. And he had gone with us. He had handed out flyers. He went with us in June to a WTO protest. Then one day, Aaron didn't show up to the meeting.

"My friend Dan and I were reading the Sunday newspaper, and when I picked up the paper in the local section, Aaron's picture caught my eye. The article said that a sheriff's deputy had been killed, and I saw it had a name that wasn't the right name, and it said that he was a member of the sheriff's anti-terrorism unit. That's right. The photo of the man in the newspaper was not the Aaron Stokes they had"

come to know. He was actually Deputy Aaron Kilner and he had infiltrated their group. Sheriff Pierce made it very clear that yes, in fact, Aaron Kilner was assigned to infiltrate Peace Fresno, that he was able to infiltrate organizations that are open to the public. You could understand why the police needed to spy on a group like Peace Fresno. Just look at them. A gathering of terrorists, if I ever saw one.

This is Barry Ringold, a retired phone worker from Oakland, California. Barry likes to work out in the gym. Somewhere between his cardio and his strength training, Barry got political. "We're up in the gym and it was after we were working out and a number of us were talking about 9/11 and Afghanistan and Bin Laden and someone said, 'Bin Laden's a real [ __ ] for murdering those people,' and I said, 'Yeah, that's true, but he'll never be as big an [ __ ] as Bush, who bombs all over the world for oil profits.'"

Barry didn't have to worry about the police spying on him. His fellow weightlifters were more than willing to turn him in. "I was taking a nap and I guess it was 1:30, 2:00 in the afternoon and they came to my place and I said, 'Well, who's there?' And I said, 'The FBI.' I said, 'The FBI? I mean, why are they here?'" Yes, the FBI had come to see Barry, and they weren't there to jazzize. The FBI said, "Have you been talking to people about 9/11 and about Bin Laden and oil profits and Afghanistan?" I said, "A lot of people are talking about these things. I feel my rights have been, you know, trampled on. I mean, if you have something to say to me in the gym, well, then fine. Don't tell the FBI and they come to my uh apartment while I'm taking a nap."

"There's nothing to be ashamed of here. There's full transparency. There's nothing about the the Patriot Act that I'm ashamed of in any way, shape, or form. I have a 1-800 number. Call me. I'm the guy you call if there's a violation or an abuse. If you've got a poster child on this, I want to see it. That's what I do. I'm hired by the people of the United States to provide oversight. I provide oversight." Trent Lott said the day the bill was introduced, "Maybe now we can do things we've wanted to do for the last 10 years."

"No, I I've always, you know, a dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier. There's no question about it. I mean, they they had they they had all this on the shelf somewhere, ideas of things they would like to do, and they got 9/11 and they said, 'That's our chance. Go for it.'" There was an immediate assumption on the part of the administration that there had to be a surrender of certain of our rights. "There's several definitions in the bill that are quite troubling. First of all, the definition of of terrorist and and um uh it's so expansive that it could include people um who like me."

"No one read it. That's the whole point. They wait till the middle of the night, they drop it in the middle of the night, it's printed in the middle of the night, and the next morning when we come in, it passes. Um how could Congress pass this Patriot Act without even reading it?" "Sit down, my son. Uh, we don't read most of the bills. Do Do you really know what that would entail if we were to read every bill that we passed?" "Uh, well, the good thing it would slow down the legislative process." I couldn't believe that virtually no member of Congress had read the Patriot Act before voting on it. So I decided the only patriotic thing to do was for me to read it to them.

"Members of Congress, this is Michael Moore. I would like to read to you the USA Patriot Act. Section one, section 210 of this code. Reads as follows. Section 2703."

"My job is to secure the homeland. That's exactly what we're going to do. But I'm here to take somebody's order. That would be you, Stretch. What would you like?" "Right behind you. I'm going to order some ribs." "We all know you can't secure the homeland on an empty stomach. And in order to remain secure, everyone needs to sacrifice, especially little Patrick Hamilton."

"I'm sure each of us has our own personal airport security horror story, but here's my favorite. The terrorist threat that was posed by his mommy's breast milk." "I thought, well, if I just put a little bit on my lips, then that that would be sufficient because obviously I'm tasting it. And she looked at me and I felt like she was telling me, 'You need to chug that.' She goes, 'No, you need to drink more.' And of a 4 oz bottle, I wound up drinking two more ounces of breast milk. That then, because it's touched my lips, has to be tossed."

While Homeland Security was making sure breast milk was kept off our planes, they were also doing everything possible to ensure no one could light a firebomb on board. "I can bring that on the plane." "Actually, you can. Yes, you're fine." "Oops. One too many books of matches. You can have four books of matches and two lighters." When we already have the experience of Richard Reed, the shoe bomber, uh, who would have blown up an airplane with his shoe bomb had he had a butane lighter, according to the FBI. Why would the Transportation Security Agency say it's okay to take four books of matches and two butane lighters in your pockets as you board an airplane? I'm guessing that somebody put pressure on them to say, you know, uh, when an airplane lands, people want to light up pretty quickly, so don't take their lighters away.

"Okay, let me see if I got this straight. Old guys in the gym, bad. Peace groups in Fresno, bad. Breast milk, really bad. But matches and lighters on the plane, hey, no problem. Was this really about our safety? Or was something else going on?"

This is where the Pacific Ocean meets the shores of Oregon. Over 100 miles of beautiful open coastline on our border. And thanks to the budget cutbacks, the total number of state police protecting it, one part-time. Meet Trooper Brooks. "I maybe get a chance to hit this stretch of highway once, maybe twice a week during my shifts. Um, you know, it's just just to even drive up here and look, you know, I mean, as far as I know, somebody could there's lots of things they could do. I don't even want to expect because it just makes me ill inside."

Back at the state trooper patrol office, thanks to the budget cuts, Trooper Kenyon had to come in on his day off to catch up on some paperwork. "For the most part, especially during the summertime, when people show up here, this is exactly what they get. They close the door. Um, they they can read the sign about the office closure and it just basically explains that, you know, due to our cutbacks, the our office is not open for administrative business and there's a little sign down the bottom that explains when the office is closed that they can use the phone booth to get in touch with our dispatch." Ironically enough, that phone is a piece of junk. It doesn't work very well. So half the time they pick up the phone and dispatch gets a bunch of static and they don't hear anything.

"For Tuesday, there'll be no troop on patrol. Wednesday, there'll be no troop on patrol. Thursday, there'll be no troop on patrol. You get calls all the time. People will call in a suspicious vehicle or somebody looking suspicious, you know, and I don't hardly ever respond to that anymore. I just don't have the time to do it. One night I asked, 'How many people do we have in the state of Oregon on duty tonight?' and we had eight troopers on for the entire state of Oregon working."

"I think, you know, Oregon is a prime example that Homeland Security is not as secure as what I think people would like to believe. Nobody sent me any manual that says, 'Here's how you catch a terrorist.' You know, and if I if I had that manual, I'd read it, but I don't. So, yeah."

Of course, the Bush administration didn't hand out a manual on how to deal with the terrorist threat because the terrorist threat wasn't what this was all about. They just wanted us to be fearful enough so that we get behind what their real plan was.

"Four minutes. All right. All right. 3 minutes. Okay, folks. 30 seconds. 15 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

"My fellow citizens, Come on. Come on. At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger. On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war."

On March 19th, 2003, George W. Bush and the United States military invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq. A nation that had never attacked the United States. A nation that had never threatened to attack the United States. A nation that had never murdered a single American citizen.

"To find this. I think it's piece of my neighbor, young girl, age 20s. I think other part of her body, that's all. There is a lot of innocent civilians that were killed and I think that is because uh the US Army, you know, uh we came in and we knew it wasn't going to be easy and they pretty much at first shot anything that moved."

"War happens and the fighting starts, you know, it's kind of like we're pumped up, motivated, ready to go. It's the ultimate rush 'cause you know you're going into the fight to begin with and then you got a good song playing in the background and uh that's that gets you real fired up, ready to do the job. You can hook your CD player up to the tank's internal communication. Charlie box so that way when you put your helmet on, you can hear it through the helmet. This is the one we listen to the most. This is the one we try out when we kill the enemy. Johnny pool at the body since the floor is just fitting for the job we were doing."

"We picked the roof was on fire because uh basically it symbolized Baghdad being on fire and uh at the time we wanted it to burn to get Saddam and his regime out. The roof, the roof is on fire. We don't need no water. Let burn."

"This is a whole totally different picture here being pushed into the city. Urban warfare in a tank. You know, civilians. The civilians. It gets it gets you don't know whose friendly are we 'cause we're not who's the enemy. This was a lot more real and true than just a video game. A lot of people thought it was just me, oh yeah, look through the site and shoot. No, a lot of this is face to face. And especially riding by after the some of the the bombs have went off and seeing all the people on the side of the road bloated up and just all the smells around you. I mean, from the people lying dead, rotted and it's it's a lot more gruesome than you think."

"We called in with some artillery and some nayal and things like that. Some innocent women and children got hit. We met them on the road and they had, I mean, little girls with noses blowing off and uh and like husbands carrying their dead wives and things like that. That was extremely difficult to deal with 'cause you're like, you know, shoot like what the hell do we do now?"

"The targeting capabilities and the care that goes into targeting is as impressive as anything anyone could see. Got him. Good. Second one. Hit the other one. The care that goes into it, the humanity that goes into it. I am going to Allahbar."

"Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that, you know, and um be faithful in what happens. Do you trust this president?" "Yes, I do." Britney Spears was not alone. The majority of the American people trusted the president. And why shouldn't they? He had spent the better part of the last year giving them every reason why we should invade Iraq.

"Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein is determined to get his hands on a nuclear bomb. Nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapon. Active chemical munitions bunkers. Mobile production facilities. We know he's got chemical weapons. He's got them. He's got them. He's got them." Huh. That's weird because that's not what Bush's people said when he first took office. "He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."

"Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda. There was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Saddam. Al-Qaeda. Saddam. Al-Qaeda. Saddam. The al-Qaeda. Saddam. Saddam. Saddam. Al-Qaeda."

"It is only a matter of time before terrorist states armed with weapons of mass destruction develop the capability to deliver those weapons to U.S. cities. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence."

"It's a man who hates America. This is a man who cannot stand what we stand for. His willingness to terrorize himself. He hates the fact, like al-Qaeda does, that we love freedom. After all, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time."

"They simply got people to believe that there was a real threat out there when in fact there wasn't one. You get told things every day that don't happen. It doesn't seem to bother people." Of course, the Democrats were there to put a stop to all these falsehoods. "I will vote to give the president the authority he needs. The United States is prepared to lead a coalition of the willing. That will do it. When I say we will lead a coalition of the willing, to disarm him if he chooses not to disarm, I mean it."

Who's in that coalition of the willing? Now, you will find out who's in the coalition of the willing. The coalition of the willing, roll call: the Republic of Bala, the Republic of Costa Rica, the Republic of Iceland. Of course, none of these countries has an army or for that matter weapons. So, it looked like we'd be doing most of the invading stuff ourselves. But then there was also Romania, the Kingdom of Morocco. Morocco wasn't officially a member of the coalition, but according to one report, they did offer to send 2,000 monkeys to help detonate landmines. These are men of vision. The Netherlands. And I'm proud proud to call them allies. Afghanistan. Afghanistan. Oh yeah, they had an army. Our army. I guess that's one way to build a coalition. Just keep invading countries. Yes, with our mighty coalition intact, we were ready. One could almost say it's the mother of all coalitions.

"Fortunately, we have an independent media in this country who would tell us the truth. The rallying around the president, around the flag, and around the troops clearly has begun, and we're going to win. You really have to be with the troops to understand that kind of adrenaline rush that they get. I just want you to know I think Navy Seals rock. The pictures you're seeing are absolutely phenomenal. When my country is at war, uh, I want my country to win. Iraqi opposition has faded in the face of American power. What you're watching here is truly historic television and journalism. It was absolutely electrifying. They actually had to strap me in with my camera at the back of the plane. An awesome synchronized killing machine. There is an inherent bias in the coverage of the American press in general. Am I slated and biased? You damn well bet I am."

But one story the media wasn't covering was the personal story of each and every soldier who was killed in the war. The government would not allow any cameras to show the coffins coming home. That kind of story is a downer, especially when you're getting ready for a party on a boat.

"Look at me. I can't believe it myself. Suddenly I'm up on top of the world. It should have been somebody else. Believe it or not, I'm walking on air. I never thought I could feel so free. Flying away on a wing and a prayer. Who could it be? Believe it or not, it's just me."

"My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

"Come on, baby. Buddy hurting. 162 the number of troops killed by hostile fire. 244 U.S. 384 U.S. troops have lost their lives killed. 484 died in the line of duty. 500 631 American 825 troops have been killed in the largest number of American military deaths since Vietnam."

"There are some who feel like that uh if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they're talking about if that's the case. Let me finish. Um, there are some who uh feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring them on."

The United States was planning on just walking through here like it was going to be easy and all, but it's not that easy to conquer a country, is it?

"The renewed battle for control of Iraq raged for a fourth day today with street clashes in nearly every corner of the country. Iraq could become 'another Vietnam.' Officials say they see evidence that Sunni and Shiite extremists might be joining forces. They're not happy they're occupied. I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either."

"Everybody, here we go. Come on, party people. Throw your hands in the air. Come on, party people." Two Japanese aid workers and a journalist kidnapped by men calling themselves the Mujahadin squadrons. They threatened to burn the hostages alive if Japan does not withdraw its troops from Iraq within 3 days.

"What's happened? They attacked our convoy. Hamill." The Pentagon might keep up to 24,000 troops in combat beyond their tour. "I know our our numbers in the military have gone down. You know, they talk about retention. You know, never really expected to be deployed this long. I don't think anybody did. I don't have any clue as to why we're still in Iraq. Donald Roosevelt was here. I'd ask him for his resignation."

With the war not going as planned and the military in need of many more troops, where would they find the new recruits? Military experts say three times the 120,000 U.S. troops now deployed would be needed to pacify and rebuild the country. They would find them all across America in the places that had been destroyed by the economy. Places where one of the only jobs available was to join the army. Places like my hometown of Flint, Michigan.

"And I was watching TV one day and they showed like some of the buildings and areas that have been hit by bombs and things like that. And while watching I got to thinking like, 'It's part of Flint that look like that and we ain't been in a war. Look at the neighborhood I live in. Most of them are abandoned. I mean, you know what? That's not right. You want to talk about terrorism, come right here. President Bush, right here. Come right here. He knows about this corner. I emailed him.'"

"At the end of January of '04, the unemployment rate in Flint was actually 17%. But you have to take into consideration as well that when your unemployment runs out, you're no longer counted. I would say that we're probably close to at least 50%. Not working or undermployed because being undermployed is just as dangerous. So my family has gone through the welfare system. When it was Job Central in the mid-80s, I came through the Job Training Partnership Program here at Job Central and I went to a secretary school. Years later, I'm the executive assistant to the president of the agency. Interesting."

"My mother used to tell me all the time that why do you always go for the underdog? It was because the underdog is who needed me. People that don't have anything. That's who I have to fight for and that's who I have fought for my entire life."

"I started taking my children and telling my children, 'The military is a good option. I can't afford to have you go to college. I cannot pay your way. Financial aid will not help you.' So, I as a mother started teaching my children about the options that the military could do. They would take them AC around the world. They would see all the things that I as a mother could not let them see. It would pay for their education that I as their mother and their father could not pay for. Military is a good option for kids in Flint. Military is an excellent option for the people in the city of Flint."

"How many of you have a friend or family member in the service? Anybody currently serving overseas?" "Brother, my cousin already cousin." "Where's your brother?" "Iraq. Germany." "My cousin got shipped off to uh Iraq like three days ago." "There's like a army or navy recruiter or Marines recruiter up there almost every week. He's in the lunchroom recruiting students from uh out the lunchroom."

"There are people with a calling. Most serve one weekend a month and two weeks a year. Earning money for college, protecting their community in the Army National Guard. You can I'm going into the Air Force myself. I'm going to take a year off probably after high school and then just go and make a career. I want to be an aircraft maintenance technician."

"I ran into a recruiter and uh there was something I noticed about it and this is kind of on another it was just I noticed it was odd. It was more like he was hiring me for a job than recruiting me for the army. It was the way he approached me, approached a friend of mine. I was in Borders Books and Music. He just came up. It was like he was handed us a business card. He had business cards made for the army and everything."

Meet Marine Staff Sergeant Dale Courtman and Sergeant Raymond Flower. They are two of the many recruiters assigned to Flint, Michigan. They're very busy these days. "Look at He's running away already. Seen this coming. Yeah. What do we got here? Uh-uh. Need a little gangster. Yeah. We're heading over to the Courtland Mall right now." They decided not to go to the wealthier Genesee Valley Mall in the suburbs. They have a hard time recruiting young people there. Instead, they went to the other mall. "Let's go into Mer in through MVIN. In through MVIN and then we can walk straight down straight back and then go down to lunchroom or whatever. Gent, you know we're looking at you, right? You guys ever think about joining up?"

"Thought about going to college and playing basketball." "You any good?" "Oh, yeah. Especially basketball." "Good. You can play ball for the Marine Corps as well, you know, travel around the world, getting on Marine Corps basketball team. Um, David Robinson was in the military as well. So, yeah, you can definitely hook it up."

"So, right now there's somebody out there who wants to be a Marine but has no idea how to do it. Where you work at?" "I work at KFC on Jordan Lier." "You can hook us up with some deals." "Yes, they're waiting to get recruited. I don't know. I was probably going to try to get a little career music or something." "Career music. Music. Maybe we can get you a career in music. You know, let the Marines go for it. I'm sure you know who Shaggy is, right?" "Yeah." "You know anything about him?" "Yeah. He had a Jamaican uh" "How about a former Marine?" "Oh, did you know it? You definitely need to know discipline if you're gonna get into music. Yeah, I understand. Especially discipline with the money. You make a million, you need to manage that money. So, come in the office. We can sit down and talk. Show you everything we know about the Marines. Sound like a plan. What do you got going on later this afternoon? How about tomorrow? We say right around 10:00 Monday morning. Yeah, that that sound pretty good. Okay. You want me to come pick you up?"

"Better to get them when they're ones and twos. Hey, pal. And look at them that way. How are you ladies? You ready to join up? Green hat right behind us. Looks young. He's young. Yeah. Yeah. Where I get We got two over here. Yeah. Right over by the red van. Yeah. You go that way. I go this way. We corner them."

"You're in the ninth grade." "Yes, sir." "Man, you look older than ninth grade. So," "Yes, sir." "All right. Here's my card. You ever thought about being a Marine Man?" "Um, I thought about it. I got a wife and kid now. So, even more reason to join." "What I want to do, ma'am, real quick, is uh just get some information from you so I can scratch you off my list saying I've already talked to you and you know you're not interested. Is that cool? All right. What's your name? What's your phone number? What's your address, Mario?" Add another one to the list.

"However, you know, one would love to have that chance to experience college life, you know, stuff young people can do without having the risk of dying in the process."

"I guess I can say candidly, the holidays do add a little bit more friction as opposed to just another night in the fact that we want to give our guys a little bit time off, a little bit time to relax. However, we are in a combat zone. My soldiers do recognize that fact. Everybody's a little bit nervous about it. I guess we're professionals. We're going to take care of you. I promise."

"Every house here has the right to uh to have weapons. Maximum, excuse me, one AK-47. We always expect the targets to be armed. Rock and roll."

"[ __ ] bolt cutters. These goddamn things. Try doors open. Pop this in there. You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not. I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town. He's making a list, checking it twice. He's going to find out who's naughty and nice. Santa Claus is coming to town. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're away. He knows if you've been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake."

"Hey, just hold up. Let him chill. Where she going? I'll go with her. Where is she going? She She going to call him. She's going to call him. No, no, no, no. Just where is she? Where is he at right now? I need Not on the phone. Not on the phone. Is he in the house? Is he in the house? Passelli. Is he in the house? Passelli. He is. He is in the house. Where? Get up there. Second floor. Second floor. Watch out. Watch out. Go. Go. Go. Watch out. Adele. Watch out. Watch out. Hey, one coming up. What's your name? This is This is This is killing up the roof. We will not be home. We appreciate your consensation. This is the target. So he about dur bring him out."

"We have to as you go back to the old the old saying we uh win the hearts and minds of the people. That's our job. We have to we have to bring the the ideal of democracy and freedom to the country and show them that the American people are not here to to rule Iraq."

"Be quiet." "Start doing evidence turn in. That process takes about three hours. So, uh, that's going to be it for the night. And that concludes Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas, BRT. Merry Christmas. Santa came to you guys. Trying to keep the skies clear for you."

"Santa, you consider yourself a proud American?" "Absolutely. I'm extremely proud American. I think I'm probably more proud than the average Joe. When I put my flag out, I can't allow it to touch the ground because I know the lives that were lost and the blood that was shed so that I could be here and have a flag." "All right. How often do you put the flag out?" "Every single day. Every single day. I started when my daughter was in Desert Storm. I had the same flag flying on my front porch and the same yellow ribbons praying and hoping every single day that my child would come home safe and that everybody's child would come home safe. And she did. And she did."

"You have other family members that have been in the military." "Absolutely. Uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers, father. A very strong military. Very strong. My family was My family is what I consider part of the backbone of America. It's families like mine. And it's not just my family. There's hundreds of family, millions of families out here that this country was founded on their backs."

"I have been known to be a conservative Democrat. Yeah. That's what you consider yourself." "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great country. It's a great country. It's a great country."

"The cross that I choose to wear, if you notice, it's a multicultural a multicolor cross. That's because I believe that all God's people come in many colors and my family itself is multicultural. You have a daughter uh who went into the military. Then your firstborn son in the military. That's uh, you know, that's quite a a gift to the country, you know, from your family." "Exactly. Right. So having a son in the army, pretty proud uh thing." "Oh, you know what? He made it."

"What was your reaction to protesters during say the Gulf War or Vietnam or" "I always hated the protesters. I always hated the protesters. It was just a slap in my face. It was just like they were dishonoring my son. And I burned in my soul to tell them, 'You don't understand. They're not there because they want to be there.' But then I came to understand that they weren't protesting the men and the women that were there. They were protesting the concept of the war."

"I know I'm a soldier and I'm here to do a job and been a soldier for a while. Once you have to go and do your job and you see the things that you see. Uh, I was saying there's some disillusionment in that."

"Commander fully expects us to um be attacked at in some type of way before we get to Farell. I know that so far it's been pretty calm. Not much has happened, but be aware that it can and it probably will. They're beginning to organize themselves just in neighborhoods. The kids get together a lot. Well, I can't say kids, but uh guys about 17, 18 starting to come together. They hate us, which why? I'm not really sure."

"Immoral behavior breeds immoral behavior. When a president commits the immoral act of sending otherwise good kids to war based on a lie, this is what you get. Still has a heart on the mother. Why you touching somebody else? He touches dick to have these people shoot at us, kill us, blow us up, whatever means they can and I don't understand it. We're trying to help these people and it seems they don't want our help. Get out of here. But the minute something goes wrong with them, oh, why weren't you here? Why didn't you do this? You know, it's I hate this country."

"You know, you you I feel that a part of your soul uh is is destroyed in taking another life. And yeah, that statement is very true. You cannot kill someone without killing a part of yourself."

"If you get called up, you go back to Iraq." "No, you're not. No." "What What repercussions do you face?" "So don't possible jail time. That's one possible thing." "Are you willing to risk that?" "Yes. Yes. I I will not let my my person I will I will not let anyone send me back over there to kill other poor people, especially when they pose no threat to me and my country." "I won't do it."

"This is an impressive crowd. The halves and the have. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base."

While Bush was busy taking care of his base and professing his love for our troops, he proposed cutting combat soldiers' pay by 33% and assistance to their families by 60%. He opposed giving veterans a billion dollars more in healthcare benefits and he supported closing veteran hospitals. He tried to double the prescription drug costs for veterans and opposed full benefits for part-time reser. And when Staff Sergeant Brett Petricken from Flint was killed in Iraq on May 26th, the Army sent his last paycheck to his family, but they docked him for the last 5 days of the month that he didn't work because he was dead.

"They say they're not going to leave any veteran behind, but they're leaving all kinds of veterans behind. To say that we're forgotten. No. But I know we're not forgotten, but missed. Yes. Yes. You know, there's a lot of soldiers that have been missed. You know, they've been skipped over um that didn't get the proper coverage that they deserve. They have a death toll, but they're not showing the amount of people that's being injured or being amputated because of the injuries. You know, like I still feel like I have hands. Yeah. And the pain is like my hands are being crushed in a vice. But they do a lot to help it and they uh take a lot of the edge off of it and it's makes makes it a lot more tolerable."

"And I was injured in late April on patrol in Baghdad. Um, couple of guys come out and ambushed us. Uh, I got nerve damage and stuff like that. I've got a lot of pain. I'm constantly in pain. um take a lot of morphine to help with that and stuff. Uh doing doing um, you know, just readjusting getting getting life back on track. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I'm not going to do what it is that I did before. Um, I I was a Republican for quite a few years and um, it for some reason they uh they conduct business in a very dishonest way. I'm going to be incredibly active in the Democratic party down where I live once I get out. So going to definitely do my best to ensure that the Democrats wouldn't control Iraq."

"Baghdad. I didn't know anything of those things. And he we were in the hallway in the upstairs of our house and he was crying and he said that he was really scared and he didn't want to have to go to Iraq. So we were able to have a whole conversation about sometimes some fears healthy because it keeps our senses about us. And and that's when he told me that he had not told anybody else but he knew he was going to Baghdad."

"We were, as everybody, we were glued to the TV. Just glued, completely glued to the television in hopes of seeing a glimpse of him. Can't you please go over to where the helicopters are? Can't you please let us see him?" Then that night, it was about 10 something. I went upstairs to the bedroom and I was laying in bed and I was flipping the channels with the remote. All I heard was Blackhawk Down, South Central Iraq. What I can tell you at this hour is that last night the army did indeed lose a Blackhawk helicopter. We are being told by officers on the ground that there were six occupants inside the Blackhawk.

"So the next morning I got up and I said, 'You push those thoughts out of your mind. Okay, Jesus, I need you to come in. I need you, Jesus. You got to help me through this.'"

"The army called me and I remember getting on the phone and him saying asking me, 'Was I Laya Lipkcom?' And I said, 'Yes,' and he said, 'Mother of Sergeant Michael Patterson.' And I remember dropping the telephone. And all I can honestly say that I remember is, 'Ma'am, the United States Army, the Secretary of Defense regretfully informed you.' That's all I know. The grief grabbed me so hard that I literally fell on the floor and I was alone. I didn't have anybody to pick me up. So, I literally crawled over to my desk and was hanging on and I remember screaming, 'Why does it have to be Michael? Why did you have to take my son? Why is it my son that you had to take?' He didn't do anything. He wasn't a bad guy. He was a good guy. Why did you have to take my son?"

"Uh I uh I I I'm a I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a son or a daughter or a husband and or a wife for that matter. And I it pains me."

"You had his last letter and it was mailed March 16th, but I didn't get it until probably a week before he was killed. 'Hello. Hey, Mama. Well, sorry I haven't been able to call. They took the phone seven days ago. I got the letter and box. That is so cool. Your first grandson came the same day your oldest son did. How is everyone? I'm doing fine. We are just out here in the sand and windstorms waiting. What in the world is wrong with George? trying to be like his dad Bush. He got us out here for nothing whatsoever. I am so furious right now. Mama, I really hope they do not reelect that fool. Honestly, I am in good spirits and I am doing okay. I really miss you guys. Thanks for the Bible and books and candy. I really look forward to letters from you guys. We'll all tell all the family hello and that I am doing fine. We don't expect anything to happen anytime soon. I cannot wait to get home and get back to my life. Tell Spudnick congrats and I'll see my first nephew soon as soon as I get back to the States. Hope you guys are doing okay and keep sending the mail. It makes getting through the days easier. Well, I am on my way to bed. So, I will write you guys soon. I love and miss all of you guys.'"

"I wanted to be alive and I can't make you alive. But your flesh just aches. You want your child. It's out of sink. A parent is not supposed to bury their child. I feel I I I feel sad for my family because we lost our son, but I really feel sorry for the others families that is losing their kids as we speak and for what I I don't that's the I guess the signaling both wet."

"You've heard a lot about Halliburton lately. Criticism is okay. We can take it. Criticism is not failure. Our employees are doing a great job. We're feeding the soldiers. We're rebuilding Iraq. Will things go wrong? Sure they will. It's a war zone. We're serving the troops because of what we know, not who we know. Well, let me tell you about Halliburton and the company I ran. I'm very proud of what I did at Halliburton. The people of Halliburton are very proud of what they've accomplished and uh I frankly uh don't feel any need to apologize for the way I've spent my time over the last 5 years as the CEO and chairman of a major American corporation."

"This is also an attempt to to divert attention away from the fact they have no energy policy and as the secretary of energy said, we were caught unawares. In the middle of the war, Microsoft, DHL, and other corporations invited Halliburton to a conference to figure out how much money could be made in Iraq. Having worked this uh um effort even since before the the uh invasion, the the uh liberation of Iraq started. You industry are definitely a vital part of that effort. We appreciate your your interest in this. We need you."

"Now, lots of you are small businesses and you're struggling. How do we get piece of this big action? All of you, the big guys are going to get it and the rest of us have subcontracting capability or no, none at all. US TDA is for you. Once that oil start flowing and money coming, it's going to be lots of money. It's the second largest reserve of oil in the world. There's no question about how much money is that. And I've been getting complaints from Iraqi firms and from American firms uh that the lack of transparency, the corruption. I think the profits that American companies are making that the major the main companies uh are so overwhelming. I mean uh like when you have a line item for a million dollars and you subcontract it out for 50 or 60 or $70,000, that's a huge profit and it's the American taxpayer that's going to pay for that. And it's going to get better. start building relationships because it's going to get much better as the oil flows and their budget increase. And the good news is whatever it costs, the government will pay you."

"War is always good for certain companies, I mean, that are in the war, the business of war. We're very proud of the work we're doing. Again, it's supporting the U.S. government and the U.S. military. And the real heroes of the campaign, real heroes of the reconstruction are the men and women of the U.S. armed forces. And we're very proud to be any part of that that we can in supporting them. Halliburton delivers hot meals, supplies, clean clothing, and communications to our soldiers so they can be Yeah. a little closer to home. It's a girl. It's a girl. Halliburton. Proud to serve our troops."

"I just read in the paper Halliburton got another contract. Halliburton got another contract. That's right. it which is not being contested at all because nobody knows. Well, it's in the paper so somebody knows, but that's after it happens. It's after the fact. It's too late."

"The United States is now a major player in the Iraqi oil business. American troops guard the oil fields as Texas oil workers assess their potential. So, it's a safe environment to work in. Uh, we don't feel any risk. We feel like we're being well protected here or we wouldn't be here. It's no secret. I mean, I make anywhere, I don't know, between 2 and 3,000 a month. A Halliburton employee out here driving a bus can make all between 8 10,000 a month. Explain that one to me. For 40 hours a week driving the same 2 and a half mile route, go figure. Where do you Where's the justification in that?"

"There's no other single uh area of the world today with the opportunity for for business, new business uh similar to the opportunity that's available today in Iraq. The president went in and did what he did and we're all supporting him and our troops and we want to make sure that, you know, the efforts and the lost lives and it wasn't for no reason. If it wasn't for the oil and nobody would be there. Yeah. Nobody would worry about it. Unfortunately, at least for the near term, we think it's gonna be a good situation or a dangerous situation. Good for business, bad for the people."

"Today on the news, uh Rumsfeld was saying and w Wolfowitz was saying, 'Oh, the Iraqi people are much much better off. Uh, isn't it better that we got rid of Saddam and now the Iraqi people can do what they want to do and really be free?' Will they ever be free? No, they'll not be free. And where are the the weapons of mass destruction? It was a We were duped. We were really duped. And these poor people, the young men and women who are being killed there, it's unnecessary. That's the disgrace. I I'm That's it. No more disgrace."

"They died in a just cause for defending freedom and they will not have died in vain." Laya had called to tell me that she was coming down from Flint to Washington D.C. to attend a jobs conference. On her break, she said she was going to go and pay a visit to the White House.

"Kill children. Iraqi children. My son killed kill my people in Spain. Lies kill people. Your children too. Yes. My son business to do in Iraq now. And they killing all these young Americans. Yes. For what? For oil. Of course he's terrorists. No, he isn't. This is stage. Where was he killed? Don't tell me my son was not a stage. Where was he? Car by lying. April is not a stage. My son is dead. didn't have to go to war. They didn't have to attack people because of the blame. What' that woman yell at you? That I'm supposed to blame the al-Qaeda. The al-Qaeda didn't make a decision to send my son to Iraq."

"Ignorance that we deal with with everyday people because they don't know. People think they know, but you don't know. I thought I knew, but I didn't know. I need my son. God, it's tougher than I thought it was going to be to be here. But it's freeing also 'cause I finally have a place to to put all my pain and all my anger and to release it."

"I guess I was tired of seeing people like Laya Lipkcom suffer. Especially when out of the 535 members of Congress, only one had an enlisted son in Iraq. I asked Corporal Henderson of the United States Marine Corps to join me on Capitol Hill to see how many members of Congress we could convince to enlist their children to go to Iraq."

"Congressman, I'm Michael Moore." "Hey, Michael. How are you doing?" "I'm good. John Tanner. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Very nice to meet you. How you all doing?" "Well, I'm here with Corporal Henderson here. United States Marine Corp. Corporal." "I was in the Navy years ago. So, 1968 to 72. We had Marines guard the base. Do you have kids?" "Yeah." "If any way we can get them to enlist uh and go over there and help out with the effort, all the brochures. One of them got two children." "Oh, yeah. Well, see, there's not many congressmen that have got kids over there. In fact, only one, you know. So, we just thought maybe uh, you know, they you guys should send your kids there first." "That's right. What do you think about that idea?" "I don't disagree with it." "Oh, you don't? Oh, good. Well, here. Take some brochures then. Here. At least take a marine brochure. I think Yeah. Pass it around. Yeah. Encourage the fellow members, you know, if they're for the war to get behind it, you know, and send their own. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much."

"Congressman, Michael Moore. Good. Good. trying to get members of Congress to get their kids to enlist in the uh army and go over to Iraq. Congressman, Congressman, Congressman Castle, Congressman Castle, Congressman, Congress, Congressman Dittle, Michael Moore. I'm wondering if uh uh is there any way to"

Of course, not a single member of Congress wanted to sacrifice their child for the war in Iraq. And who could blame them? Who would want to give up their child? Would you? Would he?

"I've always been amazed that the very people forced to live in the worst parts of town, go to the worst schools, and who have it the hardest are always the first to step up to defend that very system. They serve so that we don't have to. They offer to give up their lives so that we can be free. It is remarkably their gift to us. And all they ask for in return is that we never send them into harm's way unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Will they ever trust us again?"

"He had used weapons. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tretrret and Baghdad and and east, west, south, and north. There is a tie between um Iraq and and what happened on 9/11. The struggle can only end with their complete and permanent destruction. We wage a war to save civilization itself. We did not seek it, but we will fight it and we will prevail."

George Orwell once wrote that it's not a matter of whether the war is not real or if it is. Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous. A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle, the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects. And its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.

There's an old saying in Tennessee, I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says, "Fool me once, shame on Shame on you. It fooled me. We can't get fooled again." For once, we agreed. Keep on rocking the free world. Keep on rocking in the free world. Keep on rocking in the free world.

Colors on the street. Red, white, and blue. People shuffling their feet. People sleeping in their shoes. There's a warning sign on the road in the lake. There's a lot of people saying we'd be better off. There's one more kid that'll never go to school. Never get to fall in love. Never get to be cool. Keep on rocking in the free world. Keep on rocking the free world.

We got a thousand points a night for the homeless man. We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand. We got a man of the people for life to drive. Keep on rocking the free world. Keep on rocking in the free world. Keep on rocking in the free world.

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From Twin Towers to Baghdad: Fahrenheit 9/11 | Full Documentary

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