Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

The documentary begins by suggesting that friends and political allies of George W. Bush at Fox News Channel tilted the election of 2000 by prematurely declaring Bush the winner. It then suggests that the handling of the voting controversy in Florida constituted election fraud. The documentary then segues into the September 11 attacks of 2001. Moore says that Bush was informed of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center on his way to an elementary school in Florida. Bush is then shown sitting in an Emma E. Booker Elementary School classroom with children. When told that a second plane has crashed into the World Trade Center and that the nation is "under attack", Bush allows the students to finish their book-reading, and Moore notes that he continued reading The Pet Goat for nearly seven minutes. Moore then discusses the tangled relationships among the U.S. government and the Bush family, the bin Laden family, the Saudi Arabian government, and the Taliban, which span over three decades. Moore then states that the United States Government had evacuated 24 members of the bin Laden family on a secret flight shortly after the attacks, without subjecting them to any form of interrogation. Moore moves on to examine George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard service record. Moore contends that Bush's dry-hole-oil-well attempts were partially funded by the Saudis and by the bin Laden family through the intermediation of James R. Bath, whose name is shown to have been blacked out from Bush's records. Moore alleges that these conflicts of interest suggest that the Bush administration does not serve in the interests of Americans. The movie continues by suggesting ulterior motives for the War in Afghanistan, including a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean. Moore suggests that the Bush administration induced a climate of fear among the American population through the mass media. Moore then describes purported anti-terror efforts, including government infiltration of pacifist groups and other events, and the signing of the USA PATRIOT Act. The documentary then turns to the subject of the Iraq War, comparing the lives of Iraqis before and after the invasion. The citizens of Iraq are portrayed as living relatively happy lives prior to the country's invasion by the U.S. Armed Forces. The film also takes pains to depict war cheerleading in the U.S. media and the general bias of journalists, with quotes from news organizations and embedded journalists. Moore suggests that atrocities will occur in Iraq and shows footage depicting U.S. abuse of prisoners. Later in the film, Lila Lipscomb appears with her family after hearing of the death of her son, Sgt. Michael Pedersen, who was killed on April 2, 2003, in Karbala. Anguished and tearful, she questions the purpose of the war. Tying together several themes and points, Moore thanks those serving in the U.S. military. He claims that the working class of America are always the first to join the Army, while people of higher class display less such readiness. He states that those valuable citizens should not be sent to risk their lives unless it is truly necessary to defend America. The credits roll while Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" plays.