Michael Moore Faces U.S. Treasury Probe

The Bu$h MISadministration is attempting yet another diversion tactic from the unwarranted war by investigating Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore.

He is under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department for taking ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming health-care documentary "Sicko," The Associated Press has learned.

"Sicko" promises to take the health-care industry to task the way Moore confronted America's passion for guns in "Bowling for Columbine" and skewered Bush over his handling of Sept. 11 in "Fahrenheit 9/11. In his upcoming health-care documentary, Moore takes 9/11 workers to Cuba trying to prove the point that it has a better health care system than the U.S.

In March, Moore took about 10 ailing workers from the Ground Zero rescue effort in Manhattan for treatment in Cuba, said a person working with the filmmaker on the release of "Sicko."

"Our health-care system is broken and, all too often, deadly," Producer Megan O'Hara said. "The efforts of the Bush administration to conduct a politically motivated investigation of Michael Moore and `Sicko' will not stop us from making sure the American people see this film."

Sept. 11 rescue workers "risked their lives searching for survivors, recovering bodies, and clearing away toxic rubble," O'Hara said. "Now, many of these heroes face serious health issues, and far too many of them are not receiving the care they need and deserve."

A dissection of the U.S. health-care system, "Sicko" was inspired by a segment on Moore's TV show "The Awful Truth," in which he staged a mock funeral outside a health-maintenance organization that had declined a pancreas transplant for a diabetic man. The HMO later relented.

The timing of the investigation is reminiscent of the firestorm that preceded the Cannes debut of "Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the festival's top prize in 2004.