Sicko's Cuba trip was legal, says Moore (Guardian UK)

[marmar]

Sicko's Cuba trip was legal, says Moore


Staff and agencies
Tuesday June 12, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


Ready for battle ... Michael Moore in Sicko

Michael Moore yesterday lashed out at US authorities for investigating the Cuban chapter of his Sicko, Moore's healthcare exposé which opened in Cannes last month. The documentary features footage of Moore travelling to Cuba with September 11 aid workers.
During a press conference in New York, the Fahrenheit 9/11 director said the US Treasury's investigation, which is looking into whether Moore broke a 45-year-old US trade embargo on Cuba, is "a form of harassment".

"We are going to fight this and we are going to be very aggressive to find who is behind this," said Moore.

The trip was legal because it was a "journalistic endeavour", authorised under the embargo law, argued Moore's lawyer. "This is not about Cuba and it is not about whether you like Castro or not," said David Boies. "This is about freedom of the press and an attempt to discriminate against Michael Moore's journalism." At the centre of the storm is a 15-minute section of Sicko, a film on the problems of the US healthcare system, which shows Moore attempting to reach the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to make the point that suspected al-Qaida detainees were getting better health-care treatment than three ailing September 11 rescue workers onboard with him. The director then goes to Cuba to seek treatment for the workers and to film Cuba's healthcare system. Moore said he was "concerned about what the Bush administration might do over the next couple of weeks. "I would have thought they would have waited until long after the film had been released to go after me," he said, adding that he sent a copy of the film to Canada to prevent possible attempts by US authorities to seize the film. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Guardian/0,,2100972,00.html