Moore is currently on tour promoting his book, "Stupid White Men," which has spent 4 weeks in the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list for non-fiction. He is also known for his movie, "Roger and Me", about General Motors and its effect on Flint, Michigan, and his television show, "TV Nation". During 2000, Moore campaigned for Ralph Nader. He has been an ardent critic of the Bush administration and its policies.

He spoke about many topics, but spent a good chunk of time talking about 9.11, and wondering why people aren't demanding an investigation. That Moore has joined those asking questions about 9.11 is helping to bring this topic out of the fringe and into the mainstream. Critics of 9.11 investigation should take notice.

The following are excerpts from portland indymedia coverage of his April 21st speech in Eugene. The complete portland indymedia coverage can be found here: http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=9571&group=webcast

"This isn't a war on terrorists. This is a war on us."
"Why are our leaders and the media afraid to ask questions?" Moore demanded. "I have some questions. I'm an American. Someone I know died that day." Diving right in, Moore asked: "First, what are the financial connections between the bin Laden and Bush families?" According to the New York Times and the New Yorker, cited Moore, the bin Laden family has been "funding" the Bushes since 1979. In that year, Arbusto, George W.'s first company, an oil business in Texas, started with the help of bin Laden money.

At this point, the room we were in got deathly silent. You could feel the tension rise all around. About a half dozen people got up and left. It felt like the whole audience was on the edge of their seats.

In 1993, Moore went on, Bush Sr. started the Carlisle investment group, which has since become the 11th largest defense contractor in the nation. It buys failing defense firms, revives them, and sells them at a profit. Who was one of the first investors in Carlisle, right up until September 11, 2001? The bin Laden family. The New York times mentioned this in three articles post-9.11. Imitating those who question the relevance of these facts, Moore whined, "You can't blame the brothers and fathers for Osama." But you can, Moore said. "They haven't all quite divested themselves from him. Several family members continued to visit him in Afghanistan, as recently as June", 2001. "Isn't this odd?" Moore said. "A financial relationship that goes back over two decades?"

For perspective, Moore speculated on what would have happened if a similar relationship had been discovered after the destruction of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, in 1995, and it had turned out that the McVeighs had been funding Clinton since the 70's. "Would anyone have asked to investigate or appoint a special counsel? Wouldn't the press have asked even one question?"

"In the week after September 11, two dozen bin Ladens were allowed to fly out of the country" on private chartered Saudi jets. "'We're concerned about their safety,' they said." This makes no sense, in Moore's opinion. "In a murder investigation, you ask the family questions, 'Where is he?' 'When was the last time you saw him?' 'Could you help us if you see him again?'" Describing 9.11 as the "largest mass murder in the history of the country", Moore asked why "24 bin Ladens were whisked out and nobody asks a question. Isn't this a little bizarre?"

Referring to the nationalities of the alleged hijackers, Moore said, "Fifteen out of Nineteen were from Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan. Did we miss? What's that all about?"

"But Afghanistan was harboring El Quaida," Moore said, again imitating a skeptic. But, he answered, "Since when does the government go after the landlord on our behalf?" Moore speculated that we didn't hit Saudi Arabia because we "can't bomb business partners of daddy [Bush]".

Citing the Washington Post, Moore reminded the audience that Osama bin Laden was on dialysis at this time. However, "Bush wanted a mastermind, a villain, someone scary, a reason to pass the PATRIOT Act." But the story disappeared quickly because Osama bin Laden is "not so scary hooked up to dialysis, is he? Did he have a kidney machine in every fifth cave in Afghanistan? We're supposed to believe that he's controlling all this from caves? I can't even get cell reception from Salem to Eugene! They think we're stupid."

"This isn't a war on terror," Moore stated. "This is a war on us, to shred the Constitution and take away our liberties. They think they're going to get away with it."

Bringing to light yet more fishy information, Moore cited the BBC, which reported that members of the Taliban came to Texas in 1997 to meet with George W.'s oil company buddies, while George W. was governor there. Who were these companies? "Unocal, which wanted a pipeline across Afghanistan," "Halliburton, whose president was Dick Cheney," and "Enron, which did the feasibility study" for the pipeline, and which wanted another pipeline to supply natural gas to a plant it had built in India.

Later, during the question and answer session, one questioner mentioned Mike Ruppert's recent appearance in Eugene, cited evidence from his website, copvcia.com, and asked Moore's opinion of him. "I've read his website. He's asking some good and scary questions. Much scarier than mine. We should all be asking these questions." Moore pointed out that the put options placed on United and American Airlines stock right before 9.11 were suspicious.

Slackers Unite! Rise up and do something!
Excerpt from another portland indymedia article covering Moore's lecture:
I was pleased to hear him tell, what felt to me like a mostly rapacious audience, that we need to be questioning why 9.11 happened. He said that he has a few potent questions to ask the administration: what about the oil pipeline in the Caspian Sea, Enron, the Bin laden family financial support of the Bush’s, the jet escort of Bin laden family members out of the country a few days post 9.11, etc, etc. With these hard-hitting questions, that many people do not want to hear, do not want to think about (as per evidenced with those who think that the other Mike (Ruppert) is a conspiracy theorist) came some uneasy energy in the room with a few people quietly getting out of their seats and heading for the nearest exit. Yup, lots of people don’t want to hear it. I think that these people came for an afternoon of entertainment, and were disappointed when Moore started speaking of such things.

We need more Mikes, more individuals who are willing to step up to the plate and ask questions, questions that challenge the current outmoded myth that the media has been spoon feeding us re 9.11. A lot of people don’t want to hear it, don’t want to talk about it. I myself was told to quit dredging up history, and to let those poor victims of 9.11 rest in peace when I first started questioning the events surrounding 9.11. This is what I am attempting to do, to let all of those who die in the name of greed, to one day, rest in peace. The only way to do this is to know our history so that we do not repeat it but instead learn from it, but first we must know what really happened and why it happened. I am not content to "let sleeping dogs lie" or to swallow the media myth. None of us should be.

 

See also portland indymedia's interviews with Mike Ruppert in Portland and Eugene, April 13-14, 2002, at: http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=9571&group=webcast