Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ Served a Russian Propaganda Narrative

Today, I’m continuing my ‘fact shaming‘ series (see part 1 here), and I’m going to talk about Michael Moore. Moore’s newest documentary: Fahrenheit 11/9 is coming out on September 21 and I think this is a great time to point out why Moore’s prior films (especially Fahrenheit 9/11) serve ‘communistic’ and/or Russian propaganda interests. One can expect this latest entry from the Russian propaganda ‘fat boy’ will be no different.

First, a refresher on 9/11 propaganda research to date.

Let’s remember that we can attribute a lot of the conspiracy theories which circulated around 9/11 to Russian Information Warfare. As previously blogged / studied:

1. Responsibility for the “False Flag” (a.k.a. “Inside Job“) conspiracy of 9/11 spread originally from Alex Jones’ network (now Russia connected). RT has used this idea as a cornerstone of its anti-American conspiracy theory in the post-2001 time frame.
2. The “4,000 Jews Stayed Home” conspiracy theory of 9/11 was created by the Syrian Government (and similar claims appeared as late as 2005 in a Syrian Ministry of Information-approved publication of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion). There was an established military deal in place between Russia and Syria at the time of the 9/11 attacks, which has only grown since and been evidenced by Russia’s patronage of Syria. Syrian intelligence is observed to be very close to the recruitment of several of the 9/11 hijackers, including Mohammed Atta.
3. Other conspiracy theories about 9/11 such as “Putin threatens to release satellite evidence of 9/11” spread from other Russia-connected information channels like Veterans Today. (Before the 2016 election hacking, this concept was the top search on Google if you searched “Russia” AND “9/11” there.)
4. The ‘Nostradamus predicted 9/11’ emails, texts, and message board posts which led to “Nostradamus” being the top search of 2001 have never been officially attributed. Nostradamus prophecies are a kind of conspiracy theory classified as “popular eschatology”.

However, we may actually be able to make some cultural attributions to Russia here:

a. The faked prophecies embodied Eastern European mysticism and similar patterns of online activity regarding Nostradamus (classified on Google Trends alternatively as Apothecary or French Physician) have been seen in April 2010 in Poland, March 2014 in Ukraine, and in Hungary in August 2015 during known periods of Russian geopolitical activity.

b. Online Russian media and culture can be seen to express quantitatively much greater apparent interest in Nostradamus than in other countries; and their media qualitatively treats Nostradamus with credibility, whereas in the ‘West’ the concept is generally treated with skepticism.

c. Driven by the online prophecies, the top selling movie of the time around 9/11 was Orson Welles and Erika Cheetham’s The Man Who Saw Tomorrow (1981). Cheetham and Welles were both connected to the Cambridge Five spy ring, and in addition, the film has antifascist qualities which are emblematic of Soviet-era propaganda. The film and Cheetham’s books are seen to describe multiple events as being predicted by Nostradamus which have been revealed by the Mitrokhin Archive as Russian Active Measures. (In alternate versions of the film which aired on Australian television, it is implied specifically for example that the CIA was involved in the Kennedy assassination; but all versions implied innocence of Lee Harvey Oswald.)

d. The Man Who Saw Tomorrow predicted that an “Islamic antichrist” from “Greater Arabia” would strike New York using Russian nuclear weapons. Following 9/11, many people speculated that Osama Bin Laden was this “third antichrist” or Islamic antichrist which had been predicted by Nostradamus, and that Nostradamus had accurately predicted an attack on New York. However, this is one of Erika Cheetham’s most controversial interpretations and is widely debunked, mainly since New York is not near 45 degrees latitude.

e. The top selling book of 9/11 was John Hogue’s Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies. By his own admission, Hogue was inspired to originally get into Nostradamus in large part due to his own viewing of The Man Who Saw Tomorrow. Moreover, Hogue had predicted in June 2001 that Osama Bin Laden was the third antichrist foretold by Nostradamus. This fit a pattern of Russian arguments that Osama Bin Laden was determined to attack the US around June 2001. Today, Hogue admits that RT and Qatari government-owned Current TV are his preferred media outlets and he has consistently been a proponent of Assadist propaganda coming from Syria.

f. It is possible that the Russian 1999 apartment bombings were influenced by medieval magical beliefs about apocalypse in part due to their explainability in terms of Nostradamus prophecies which had been controversially altered by Erika Cheetham. Alexander Dugin has repeatedly referenced Cheetham’s controversial version of the 1999 Nostradamus prophecy in regards to validating the rise of Vladimir Putin, who he views as an embodiment of the “eternal Tsar” of Russia. The alterations to the prophecy made by Cheetham include the terms “Mongols” and “terror” which were not apparent in Nostradamus’ original version, and have particular relevance to Nostradamus’ 16th century contemporary, Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible). The 1999 Cheetham prophecy is also popularly associated with Nostradamus’ so-called third antichrist (which also does not fit the 2001 NYC example). Dugin affiliates with an ultra-nationalist group of Russian Orthodox Christians commonly known as Old Believers who believe the Russian Tsar to be a literal incarnation of antichrist.

g. The emailed and texted 2001 prophecies could possibly have been circulated by the common cyber threats of the day, which had common mass-mailing features and cycled several different messages (see Sircam, CodeRed, and Nimda, especially). Targets of these cyberattacks included The White House, the Government of Ukraine, and the FBI. Sircam stole large caches of documents in a WikiLeaks-like fashion. Nimda was questioned as an act of cyberterrorism as it occurred one week after 9/11 and was exceedingly sophisticated. However, Al Qaeda did not have the apparent technical proficiency to carry out such attacks in 2001. The similarly structured red herring evidence for the attacks pointed to China (in the case of CodeRed and Nimda, though Mexico in the case of SirCam). But the motive was all Russia’s.

Altogether it is clear that based on the above research, Russian conspiracy theories were focused on suggesting some kind of US Government, Saudi, and/or Israeli (Mossad) involvement in the events of September 11. However, the strongest evidence based on the facts to date implicates Syria and Russia in creating and spreading the conspiracies and being involved in other kinds of information warfare at the time of the attacks.

Alexander Litvinenko went so far as to suggest that Russia had been the principal trainer of Ayman Al Zawahiri. Noting the Syrian intelligence patronage of other 9/11 hijackers and planners, it does not seem so far-fetched.

Bottom line, Russia and Syria are much better suspects with more plausible motives for engineering September 11 than anyone else, especially the US, the Saudis, and Israel.

Since 9/11, many of these same players have been involved in perpetuating the ‘Syrian chemical weapons false flag’ story, which has attacked Saudis, British, Israelis, Turkey, and the US in varying capacities. 

With that primer, let’s take a quick look at an itemized history of both Michael Moore and his Fahrenheit 9/11.

1. The film takes certain inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola’s (and John Milius’) Apocalypse Now. Apocalypse Now has been honored by Putin and is drawn from Orson Welles’ efforts to develop an antifascist Heart of Darkness.
2. The film has a pro Al Gore story which creates a conspiracy about George W. Bush, while completely overlooking the accusations of Soviet influence of the Gore family by possible agent of influence Armand Hammer.
3. Strong Detroit-socialist politics in the narrative (appearances by the Harvey Weinstein-like Congressman John Conyers, suggested today by credible information operators to have KGB ties).
4. Anti-police statement about police penetrating peace movements in California which have clear Communist origins. This shows him making the Patriot Act look bad for doing what it was supposed to do (detect foreign influence and espionage efforts). Similarly, it has an anti-war message which seems derivative from previous Russian propaganda. Moore focuses on the disillusionment of soldiers. (Kind of the narrative which would go to inspire folks like Manning and Snowden apparently.)
5. Broadly, Fahrenheit 9/11 uses propaganda techniques and the narrative is about degradation of America couched in anti-imperialism, anticapitalism, and what is basically just classical Marxist-Leninist / Soviet rhetoric. It has specifically been called “propaganda” and “counterpropaganda”.
6. A 2004 Harvey Weinstein production. Fahrenheit 11/9’s funding was jeopardized by the scandal surrounding Harvey Weinstein too.   (Moore’s other films, Sicko and Capitalism: A Love Story were produced by Weinstein and seem to carry on ‘communistic’ narratives about capitalism.)
7. Moore did not talk about an ‘inside job’ in Fahrenheit 9/11 but since 2011 he has called for a reopening of the investigation, and he tried to portray the US as criminals by association with Saudi Arabia, implying a conspiracy.
8. American ‘intelligence failure’ narrative; which has been used elsewhere by apparent Russian influencers in this same pro-Syrian network like Seymour Hersh.
9. Moore expressed what may be classically Marxist-Leninist anti-Semitism and/or Stalinist anti-Zionism. He was too radical for 1980’s Mother Jones on the issue of the Sandinistas, and when he got fired, he blamed “Jewish” and “Zionist” influence at the magazine.
10. Moore is serving as executive producer of an upcoming Orson Welles documentary endorsed by Welles’ family.
11. Moore has been accused of attending rallies which were funded by Russia around the 2016 US Presidential election.
12. He is commonly used by RT in the context of condemning western decay. Most recently RT is using Moore’s upcoming Fahrenheit 11/9 to argue that Trump is an “evil genius” who would be the “last president of US”. (RT also seems to use Moore extensively with Spanish speaking audiences – note the promotion of Moore arguments to begin impeachment of Trump or support Bernie Sanders after the 2016 election – which conflicts with otherwise known efforts by Russia to get Trump elected. Altogether, Moore seems to serve Russia’s “both sides” political warfare model.)

Concluding Ideas

It seems clear that Fahrenheit 9/11 corroborates a narrative attack on US Government and Saudi elements at least. This matches the ‘narrative strategy’ of the 2001 ‘false flag’ and Bin Laden-linked (Saudi) ‘third antichrist attacks New York’ conspiracies.

While Moore doesn’t attack Israel specifically, he is seen to have had notable historical controversies at the ‘communistic’ Mother Jones regarding his engagement in conspiratorial anti-Semitism and radical politics regarding Nicaragua’s Soviet-intelligence aligned Sandinistas.

Much of the cause of leftist anti-Semitism in the case of global finance is apparently due to the legacy of agreement in Marxist-Leninist worldviews with those from the Tsarist police-created Protocols of the Elders of Zion as propagated through historical Soviet-led Communism. Financial conspiracy is a theme at the core of Fahrenheit 9/11 and financial conspiratorial movements like the Moore-affiliated Occupy (notwithstanding its probable subversion by Russia) are noted for anti-Semitism.

Moore’s films can be seen to contribute to a generally pro-Communist discourse – for example, Roger and Me, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Story; not to mention a positive portrayal in a clearly anti-capitalist Rage Against the Machine music video. Moore’s other films like Bowling for Columbine, and Where to Invade Next, can be seen to aid cultural warfare narratives exacerbated by Russia (especially left side conspiracism).

Ultimately, Moore’s attack in Fahrenheit 9/11 on Haliburton projects which build pipelines that bypass Iranian and Russian interests in the former Soviet spheres of the Middle East could be seen as partly explanatory for the film. Perhaps this is the best ‘tell’ to the strategic intent behind Fahrenheit 9/11 – and the 9/11 conspiracies in general – that of ensuring good future oil profits for Russia and its clients Syria and Iran. 

Maybe Moore hates what America has done in the Middle East after 9/11, but I am curious if he hates what Russia has done in Syria. Anyway, when (and if) you see Fahrenheit 11/9, I’ll bet you a dollar it is chock-full of Russian propaganda goodness as RT‘s endorsement attests.

Once again, Trey Parker and Matt Stone got it right with their satire way ahead of the curve.