Hollywood superstar Bruce Willis has offered a $1 million reward for anyone who can help lead to the capture of wanted Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and his followers, Ayman Al Zawahiri and Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, thought to have masterminded the September 11th attacks on the United States.
Willis made his reward offer public while appearing recently on the MSNBC television show “Rita Cosby: Live and Direct”. He said that the prize would be awarded to anyone who could either hand over the suspects or provide information leading to their capture.
The actor also criticized US media coverage of the war in Iraq, saying that Americans were only shown one side of the reality of the war. "I am baffled to understand why the things that I saw happening in Iraq, really good things happening in Iraq, are not being reported on," he told viewers on the show.
Willis, who was born into a military family in a US army base in Germany, visited US troops serving in Iraq in 2003. He preformed publicly with his band, "The Accelerator," for soldiers in Tel Afar and Tikrit, former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's home town. He also held performances for US soldiers in neighboring Kuwait at the time.
The actor, a supporter of US President Bush's Republican party, is one of the few American entertainers to publicly support of the US-led military campaign in Iraq.
"Being over here just a couple of days," he said in an interview after his 2003 visit, "seeing how well our troops and the allied troops are being received here, (I) think the Iraqi people are happy we're here" he said.
He added, "Children are being taken care of, starting being inoculated, starting being looked after. Wherever these guys go they get thumbs up. They no longer have to contend with the terrorist leader."
But the star later admitted he had not met many Iraqis because he had been traveling the country by helicopter.
The actor, however, has been outspoken politically, and has also criticized the US government on many occasions, according to an interview with USAToday. He told reporters that he would prefer to have someone as president who knew little about politics but was honest, than someone who was corrupt.
He also maintains that people should be allowed to own weapons. "Everyone has a right to bear arms. If you take guns away from legal gun owners, then the only people who have guns are the bad guys." Even a pacifist, he insists, would get violent if someone were trying to kill her. "You would fight for your life."
Though Willis is most well-known internationally for his roles in violent action films, he stresses the fragility of life. "I've lost a couple of friends in freak accidents," he told reporters in a recent interview. "It makes you realize how fragile life is, how quickly it can be taken away."
