From: phurrballs@yahoo.com   
      
   Clooney relishes 'traitor' attacks for questioning US policy   
   Fri Feb 24, 9:50 PM ET   
      
   US actor and director George Clooney says he was proud to be denounced as   
   unpatriotic for questioning US policy because he wanted to be on "the right   
   side of history".   
      
   Interviewed on BBC television's Newsnight about his latest films "Syriana"   
   and "Good Night, and Good Luck," Clooney said that not only did he accept   
   the right to be attacked for his views but he even relished them.   
      
   Clooney, who has weathered attacks since opposing the 2003 Iraq invasion,   
   said at one point that it was "frustrating" to be listed as a "traitor" on a   
   set of playing cards, but he also accepted people's right to free speech.   
      
   He later admitted he relished the attacks.   
      
   "I think it's important to be on the right side of history," Clooney said.   
      
   "I want to be on that deck of cards. And I want to be able to say that they   
   boycotted my films... I want to be able to say I was on the cover of a   
   magazine called a 'traitor,'" he said.   
      
   "I'm proud of those because those were badges of honor for me because that   
   was when you did it when it was hard to do," the actor and director said.   
      
   Clooney has received critical acclaim for "Syriana" -- about oil politics   
   and Islamic extremism -- and for "Good Night, and Good Luck," a reminder of   
   the threat to civil liberties through a story about the anti-communist   
   hysteria in the United States of the 1950s.   
      
   Clooney said "Syriana" did not single out US President George W. Bush's   
   administration for attack, though it "certainly goes at this administration"   
   as well as at 60 years of failed Middle East policy.   
      
   "If it's an attack, it's because you're asking questions," Clooney said.   
      
   Clooney has said the chilling effect of the September 11, 2001 attacks on US   
   politics had inspired "Syriana" and its unflinching look at the ways   
   extremism and political instability are fostered by the interests of big   
   oil.   
      
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