Le Monde selon Bush

After his CIA, Guerres secrètes (2003), director William Karel again investigates the methods of the American government, along with co-scriptwriter Eric Laurent, author of the book The World According to Bush. For this more journalistic counterpart of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, many people involved in the policies of two Presidents Bush are interviewed, including political associates like Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz, neo-conservative Richard Perle and Frank Carlucci, the founder of the influential Carlyle investors group. But Karel also interviews critics like UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and Niger investigator Joe Wilson, who repudiated that Iraq had tried to buy uranium ore there and who, like the CIA's chief weapon inspector, saw his findings being ignored. A voiceover links up the rapid succession of talking heads into a disquieting common thread: George W. Bush is a sincere Born-Again Christian who believes that he was called to the office by God, but who unquestioningly lets himself be guided by neo-conservatives, the Christian Right (comprising sixty million Americans) and the corporate community. The assertions by the interviewees about Iraq, the Patriot Act, grandfather Bush's Nazi connections and other issues are alternated with photographs and archival footage, including the terrifying scene with the acting deputy undersecretary of defence for intelligence, three-star general Richard Boykin, who claims that during fights with Muslims, a “demonic spirit” was photographed. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)