BURNING BUSH.

BIN Laden, Osama, 1957-2011; MOORE, Michael, 1954-; KERRY, John, 1943-; KALOOGIAN, Howard; ALLISON, Bill; BUSH, George W. (George Walker), 1946-

A blistering assault on President George W. Bush, Michael Moore's new film, Fahrenheit 9/11, accuses the White House of dithering while terrorists plotted to attack America, lying to the public about the Iraq war and being in the pocket of rich Saudis--including the family of Osama bin Laden. While Bush's Democratic opponent John Kerry has yet to comment on the controversial film (opening this weekend in more than 500 theaters), plenty of prominent liberals have embraced it. On the other side of the ideological spectrum, Fahrenheit has been condemned as reckless propaganda. Move America Forward, a conservative group, is calling on citizens to protest the film, and its founder Howard Kaloogian calls Moore "a domestic enemy." In Fahrenheit, Moore makes much of the close relationship between the Bush family and Saudi Arabia. As a young man, George W. received $50,000 from James R. Bath, a friend who served as a financial adviser to a brother of Osama bin Laden, to launch his oil company Arbusto. Indeed, many journalists believe that the bin Laden family were probably invested in Arbusto, but investigative reporter Bill Allison, managing editor of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., says the link between George W. and Osama "is a pretty shaky connection." Moore's charges that the White House allowed Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family to flee the country after 9/11, when all other flights had been grounded, have also been widely reported. But the bipartisan 9/11 commission has found that no Saudi planes left before air traffic officially resumed, and the FBI says none who left had terrorist ties. Some believe Fahrenheit is at its most persuasive when there is less of Moore: There is strong footage of angst-ridden recruits in Iraq, a U.S. soldier fondling an Iraqi prisoner and a videotape of President Bush in a Florida elementary school classroom for nearly seven minutes after hearing that a second plane had struck the Twin Towers.