Posted on 08/19/2004 6:45:05 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Uncovered: The War on Iraq
Directed by Robert Greenwald
Cinema Libre, opens August 20
Anybody who tries to deconstruct the new American empire erected by the Bush regime's schnooks and crooks winds up babbling to himself and others, "You can't make this shit up." But then you have to get your hands dirty and mold it into something that's interesting to look at. That's something Michael Moore did in Fahrenheit 9/11, but which Robert Greenwald doesn't do in Uncovered: The War on Iraq. Moore created a movie; Greenwald gives us a cinematized blog.
His vast made-for-TV experience (The Burning Bed, with Farrah Fawcett) didn't serve Greenwald well when he put his strong social conscience to work on this documentary. Yes, he was pressed for time, because he's been scrambling to get this thing done and out, according to published reports. But he must have misplaced the formula: The result is that he shot interviews with a horde of credible counterterrorism experts and basically posted the results.
Greenwald hunted the elephant with a crudely fashioned atomic pea-shooter—you can fire a hell of a lot of spitwads with one of those, but they're not necessarily going to penetrate. Moore, on the other hand, used an elephant gun. And while the creature was still breathing, Moore cut through its hide like a doctor on CSI: Bush, pulled out some ugly material, and closely examined it. Fahrenheit 9/11 was an autopsy on a living thing. No wonder the elephant yelped.
There are some fascinating nuggets to be fished out of the flash flood of quotes in Uncovered. The most intriguing spills out at the end, when former CIA analyst Ray McGovern says, "When the emperor has no clothes, you have to have the presence of mind and the courage to stand up and say, 'The emperor has no clothes.' " OK, there's some sort of narrative thread there. Back to the cutting room, Bob.
In addition to being a lefty, he's produced/directed some really awful films:
Xanadu (1980)
I'm still recovering from seeing that one. . .
"The ACLU is funding his upcoming "Unconstitutional.""
Why am I not surprised. . .
So can we count on Kerry to denounce it? < /sarcasm >
One can argue about the wisdom of their Kissingerian, balance-of-power, don't-rock-the-boat school of foreign policy. I laughed out loud when Milt Bearden, an ex-CIA honcho, said such thinking has served the world pretty well since the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia (the end of the Thirty Years' War). Mr. Bearden must have slept through the 20th century.
Also, I thought Robert Baer, another CIA dude, bordered on anti-Semitism with his snide little remark about how the neocons have never set foot in the Middle East, save for Tel Aviv — meaning they're all Jews.
I just found McGovern shows up with some guy named David MacMichael here.
The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) group is headed by Ray McGovern. Counterpunch.org published one of their screeds and mentioned that VIPS could be contacted through counterpunch.org at : vips@counterpunch.org
As was pointed out, VIPS appears to be nothing more than a front group of the group counterpunch, which is anything but "right wing."
DAVID MACMICHAEL: "Well after the Mrs. Bush’s memoir came out with that statement which charged Phillip Agee effectively with commission of a felony, that is, violation of exposing this - exposing Richard Welch – ok, that’s a libel per se, as they say in law. Phillip Agee filed a suit some months after the book came out in Washington DC charging libel and seeking damages for that. He did not drop the suit. The case was dismissed by the presiding judge on grounds that Phillip’s place of residence at the time did not give him standing to sue in US courts on this, and the case went away. The subsequent, as I think the article indicates and you said, the subsequent additions of Mrs. Bush’s book did not contain this erroneous charge, but it serves to indicate that this is a very serious matter. If former President Bush could define Philip Agee as a traitor for exposing the identities of serving intelligence officers, if his son’s political advisor has done the same, while it has not come under the heading of treason, believe me, it is a very serious felony under the current Act."
I notice that one thing Ray McGovern's buddy MacMichael didn't mention was where Agee's place of residence was- he moved a lot because he had to but didn't he end up in Cuba? And wasn't he considered a Cuban agent? And didn't he form a worldwie leftwing organization whose stated goal was to undermine the CIA?
Thanks
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