March 25, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 21, 1424

HOLLYWOOD, March 23: Famed US filmmaker Michael Moore used his Oscar win on Sunday to launch a violent attack on US President George Bush and war in Iraq, drawing loud boos from the star-studded audience.

The assault on the US president appeared to stun and then outrage many of the 3,500 people packed into Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre, but the outspoken director was unrepentant.

“We live in fictitious times,” he said when picking up the award for best documentary for his anti-gun film “Bowling for Columbine.”

“We live in a time with fictitious election results that elect fictitious presidents,” he said referring to Bush’s contest 2000 election victory. “We live in a time when we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons.

“We are against this war Mr Bush. Shame on you. Shame on you!,” he said to loud boos from an audience of 3,500, including most of Hollywood’s top stars.

Backstage, Moore rejected US claims that a threat to the United States from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was imminent.

The reality, he said “is that we’re over there because they have the second-largest supply of oil in the world.

“(Bush) almost said it the other night when he said, ‘Now don’t burn those oil fields.”

Steve Martin, the evening’s host, quipped later that the controversial author, filmmaker, and political activist Moore, who was born in Michigan in 1954, has been stuffed into a car boot by Teamster unionists.

But when the filmmaker went backstage at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre to face reporters, Moore was unapologetic for his outburst.

“I’m an American, and you don’t leave your citizenship when you enter the doors of the Kodak Theatre. What’s great about this country is that you can speak your mind,” he said.

He insisted that, far from being appalled, many people in the audience stood up to applaud him.

“I say tonight I put America in a good light,” he said, praising the decision to push ahead with the Oscars despite the war raging in the Middle East.

“I showed how vital it is to have free speech in our country and all Americans have the right to stand up for what they believe in,” he said.

Moore, describing himself as an “honest and sincere person” and saying he believed deeply that the war was wrong, pointed to the violence that exists within US society. —AFP