The
AP wire story seems straightforward: Michael Moore is being sued by an Iraq war vet from Massachusetts who feels his depiction in
Fahrenheit 9/11 falsely portrays him as anti-war.
A veteran who lost both arms in the war in Iraq is suing filmmaker Michael Moore for $85 million, alleging that Moore used snippets of a television interview without his permission to falsely portray him as anti-war in "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Sgt. Peter Damon, a National Guardsman from Middleborough, is asking for damages because of "loss of reputation, emotional distress, embarrassment, and personal humiliation," according to the lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court last week.
But it's never quite that simple, is it? Of course, there's more...
The timing and the substance of the lawsuit conveniently re-frame Moore and his film as anti-soldier, and raise the profile of the controversial filmmaker, who has been rather quiet of late. It provides a handy wedge to prop up waning support for the Iraqi campaign and to remind the faithful that Michael Moore -- and, by inference, the Democrats who support him -- will stoop to anything to make their dishonest case against the war.
So is it just a matter of interesting timing on the part of Sgt. Damon? Or is there more to this?
There are some hints in the story. For example, Damon's main complaint is that his interview appears just after Rep. Jim McDermott tells Moore that the Bush Administration is "leaving all kinds of veterans behind.":
Damon contends that Moore's positioning of the clip just after the congressman's comments makes him appear as if he feels like he was "left behind" by the Bush administration and the military.
In his lawsuit, Damon says he "agrees with and supports the President and the United States' war effort, and he was not left behind."
He said that, while at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center recovering from his wounds, he had surgery and physical therapy, learned to use prosthetics and live independently. He also said that Homes For Our Troops, a not-for-profit group, built him a house with handicapped accessibility.
There appears to be no question that "Homes for Our Troops," the organization that built a new house for Sgt. Damon, is exactly what it says it is: a charity devoted solely and impartially to providing user-friendly shelter for injured vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Its founder, John Gonsalves, was, according to the website, a construction supervisor who left his job to head up this non-profit venture. There are commendation letters from both George Bush and Ted Kennedy on the site and a search of Gonsalves political contributions shows just one $250 contribution to a Democratic Congressman Marty Meehan in 1999.
But this is interesting: its very first recipient of a free house? Sgt. Peter Damon.
Middleboro, MA. December 19, 2004 -- Just 8 months after Homes for Our Troops was founded, the organization that builds specially adapted homes for severely disabled veterans will hold their very first ground breaking ceremony for Sgt. Peter Damon's home building project. This will be the first of many handicapped accessible home building and home adaptation projects by Homes for Our Troops for our severely injured veterans.
Now, the timing here is of interest, because Damon was already fairly well known due to a cascade of events that followed his injury.
His first brush with the media came when he was interviewed by Brian Williams for a piece on the NBC Nightly News, apparently in 2003, a few months after Damon was injured. Gonsalves, who like Damon lives in Massachusetts, says that seeing this report is what gave him the idea for starting Homes for Our Troops.
Later, as he was constructing Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore acquired the Damon interview from NBC and used it in his film. Almost immediately upon F911's release, Damon was on record as objecting to his portrayal. On July 15, 2004, the Brockton Enterprise carried an article about Damon's part in the Moore documentary. The piece also included the following:
Jennifer Damon said she saw "Fahrenheit 911" on the Fourth of July, after learning her husband was shown in the film from John Gonsalves, founder of Homes For Our Troops, which is working to build the Damons a home.
Gonsalves said he learned of Peter's film appearance from a neighbor.
"I was shocked. I would have expected if Peter was in the movie that someone would have at least talked to him about it, which I thought was kind of unfair," Gonsalves said. "I think for Michael Moore to portray Peter in there without any knowledge is terrible."
Within a couple of months, Damon was again on camera, this time as a leading exhibit in the anti-Moore screed "FahrenHype 911."
...Damon looks into the camera as though he is speaking directly to Michael Moore, and says, "You know you've lied in making this movie. You know you lied in my case, you know you lied in a whole lot of other cases."
So, to review our timeline thus far:
2003 -- Sgt. Damon is wounded and, later, interviewed by NBC's Brian Williams.
Winter 2004 -- Michael Moore creates "Fahrenheit 9/11," includes video footage of Damon interview with NBC, with the network's permission.
Approx. April 2004 -- John Gonsalves founds "Homes for Our Troops" with intention of building a home for Damon.
June 2004 -- "Fahrenheit 9/11" is released.
July 2004 -- Gonsalves and Damon's wife quoted as objecting to his news clip being used in F911.
October 2004 -- Damon appears in "FahrenHype 911."
December 2004 -- Ground is broken for Damon's new home.
There is one final piece to this, and that is the lawyer representing Damon. The AP article identifies him simply as "Damon's lawyer, Dennis Lynch." Not much to go on.
However, there is an attorney named Dennis Lynch who has been in the news previously. A friend of the late Father Mychal Judge, the NYFD chaplain killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11, attorney Lynch was quite vocal in asserting that Father Judge was not gay. Identified as "General Counsel to the Judge McDonald Foundation," Lynch's essay "A September 11th Hijacking: How 'Gay' Activists Smeared Father Mychal Judge" can be found in several places on the internet.
It is filled with lines like these:
Yet, as is typical with activists, the truth about someone never stood in their way to advance their agenda. This was true with the homosexual activists who saw in Father Mike's heroic death a chance to attack the Roman Catholic Church. It didn't matter if what they said about Father Mike wasn't true. All that mattered was that a heroic, celibate, faithful Catholic priest could become a homosexual icon
There are probably dozens of lawyers in the US named Dennis Lynch. Without a definite link between this one and the attorney representing Sgt. Damon, we are left to guess. But the Dennis Lynch quoted above would surely feel quite at home bringing suit against Michael Moore.
At its heart, this matter may be nothing more than a soldier, tragically injured, who inspired another citizen to build a new charity. And who, coincidentally, twice became a high-profile spokesman against Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11.
But certainly, you could build a circumstantial case that, in the build-up to November's midterm election, the timing of this lawsuit is beneficial to the GOP as background noise. And the players are all, to some extent, politically involved.
But is it happening for that reason? That may be something that only Sgt. Peter Damon knows for certain.