The Brandeis Republicans screened Fahrenhype 9/11, a movie whose stated purpose was to debunk popular filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, in the multi-purpose room of the Shapiro Campus Center last Thursday.Robbie Schwartz '08, the development director of the Brandeis Republicans, said he thought that the turnout of approximately 20 students was good, considering that most of their fliers were torn down.

The screening was followed by a discussion with Prof. Jerry Cohen (AMST), who is recognized as an expert in conspiracy theory.

"We want to offer students an alternative to Michael Moore's version of the events," said Jacob Baime '08, the vice president of the Brandeis Republicans.

The documentary, developed by Dick Morris, a political adviser to the Clinton administration who is now a right-wing pundit, claimed to reveal many errors that Michael Moore made in Fahrenheit 9/11.

In his movie, Moore accused President Bush of spending 42 percent of his first eight months in office on vacation. However, Morris said that this figure included weekends, travel time, and 38 days at Camp David.

Morris said the time spent at Camp David was not vacation time, as Bush was only there while his office was being remodeled.

Moore's documentary attempts to show that Saudi Arabians and members of the bin Laden family were given special treatment and were allowed to fly around the country before leaving without investigation, even while U.S. air traffic was halted.

Fahrenhype 9/11 said that several Saudis and the bin Laden family left after the national ban on air traffic was eased and only after a thorough investigation by the FBI. It also said that they weren't given special permission by the White House to leave.

Morris also showed that Saudi investment in the United States was nowhere near Michael Moore's figure of six to seven percent of U.S. corporate stocks and bonds.

"I don't think you silence Moore by debating him point for point, his appeal is at a much more emotional level than just his ideas," Cohen said. "It is a film made for people already converted to its view."

Cohen said he found a mistake in Fahrenhype 9/11. He said that the object of the war was not to free Iraq, like the film said it was, but it was to remove Saddam Hussein. Cohen said that Saddam was playing a "cosmic game of chicken" with the United States.

"When [Saddam Hussein] refused to offer proof that he had destroyed weapons of mass destruction [he was] betting that the U.S. would turn their car away and avoid the collision," Cohen said. "He lost his bet. He could have avoided his own defeat [but] he wanted to retain his reputation in the Arab world as a powerful man. Therefore I don't think Bush lied when he said that he believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction."

Students mentioned in the discussion that Fahrenhype 9/11 neglected the issue of how to get out of Iraq. Cohen said that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Bush and Vice President Cheney never said that Iraq was an eminent threat or that this was going to be a "quick in and out." He said that America's argument was that the earlier Iraq war never actually ended. According to the U.N., that war was supposed to end with Saddam Hussein's compliance.

"The evidence of Saddam Hussein's direct participation in the second World Trade Center attack on 9/11 is quite weak. There is strong evidence of his participation in the first attack on the Trade Center in 1993," Cohen said. "That first attack, like the second, aimed at destroying both towers of the Trade Center, and all the thousands of people working there."

Amelia Leibhold '08, who has never seen Fahrenheit 9/11 and considers herself very liberal, said the makers of Fahrenhype 9/11 exaggerated a lot of the points and made it seem as though the whole military was in favor of the war in Iraq.

Mike Bell (GRAD) said he did some research on the Internet after watching Fahrenheit 9/11 and found many of Moore's arguments to be false.

"It bothers me that millions of people saw Fahrenheit [9/11], but I would bet that only one in a thousand went home and looked into the facts for themselves," said Bell. "It seems that so many people look at Fahrenheit, which was propaganda at its finest, to be fact.