Charlie Rose

futurevisionaries  04/22/2011 01:38 PM Report

Mahmoud

Why cant all people all countries work Together for world peace . www.futurevisionaries.com

viewer2  10/01/2010 02:13 PM Report

"Christiane Amanpour, Charlie Rose, and Larry King in particular are being criticized for providing Ahmadinejad with a global forum to say whatever nonsense he wishes without enough of a serious challenge to his statements -- some of which are flat-out lies."

from: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/28/dabashi.media.ahmadinejad/index.html

This is the link for the cartoon the article refers to:

http://www.mardomak.org/cartoon/#56290

NadePaulKuciGravMcKi  09/27/2010 08:38 PM Report

Only the guilty fear the REAL 9/11 investigation.

FLPatriot  09/27/2010 05:14 PM Report

If you really want the truth, look at this.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/911-where-are-all-the-whistleblowers.html

The co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission (Thomas Keane and Lee Hamilton) said that the CIA (and likely the White House) “obstructed our investigation”.

The co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission also said that the 9/11 Commissioners knew that military officials misrepresented the facts to the Commission, and the Commission considered recommending criminal charges for such false statements, yet didn’t bother to tell the American people (free subscription required).

Indeed, the co-chairs of the Commission now admit that the Commission largely operated based upon political considerations.

9/11 Commission co-chair Lee Hamilton says “I don’t believe for a minute we got everything right”, that the Commission was set up to fail, that people should keep asking questions about 9/11, that the 9/11 debate should continue, and that the 9/11 Commission report was only “the first draft” of history.

9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey said that “There are ample reasons to suspect that there may be some alternative to what we outlined in our version . . . We didn’t have access . . . .”

9/11 Commissioner Timothy Roemer said “We were extremely frustrated with the false statements we were getting”

Former 9/11 Commissioner Max Cleland resigned from the Commission, stating: “It is a national scandal”; “This investigation is now compromised”; and “One of these days we will have to get the full story because the 9-11 issue is so important to America. But this White House wants to cover it up”.

9/11 Commissioner John Lehman said that “We purposely put together a staff that had – in a way – conflicts of interest“.

The Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission (John Farmer) who led the 9/11 staff’s inquiry, said “I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described …. The tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public for two years…. This is not spin. This is not true.”

MILITARY LEADERS

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan (Col. Ronald D. Ray) said that the official story of 9/11 is “the dog that doesn’t hunt” (bio)

Director of the U.S. “Star Wars” space defense program in both Republican and Democratic administrations, who was a senior air force colonel who flew 101 combat missions (Col. Robert Bowman) stated that 9/11 was an inside job. He also said:

“If our government had merely [done] nothing, and I say that as an old interceptor pilot-I know the drill, I know what it takes, I know how long it takes, I know what the procedures are, I know what they were, and I know what they’ve changed them to-if our government had merely done nothing, and allowed normal procedures to happen on that morning of 9/11, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive. [T]hat is treason!“

U.S. Army Air Defense Officer and NORAD Tac Director, decorated with the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and the Soldiers Medal (Capt. Daniel Davis) stated:

“there is no way that an aircraft . . . would not be intercepted when they deviate from their flight plan, turn off their transponders, or stop communication with Air Traffic Control … Attempts to obscure facts by calling them a ‘conspiracy Theory’ does not change the truth. It seems, ‘Something is rotten in the State.’ “

President of the U.S. Air Force Accident Investigation Board, who also served as Pentagon Weapons Requirement Officer and as a member of the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, and who was awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses for Heroism, four Air Medals, four Meritorious Service Medals, and nine Aerial Achievement Medals (Lt. Col. Jeff Latas) is a member of a group which doubts the government’s version of 9/11

U.S. General, Commanding General of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, decorated with the Bronze Star, Silver Star, and Purple Heart (General Wesley Clark) said “We’ve never finished the investigation of 9/11 and whether the administration actually misused the intelligence information it had. The evidence seems pretty clear to me. I’ve seen that for a long time.”

Air Force Colonel and key Pentagon official (Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski) finds various aspects of 9/11 suspicious

Lieutenant colonel, 24-year Air Force career, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the Defense Language Institute (Lt. Colonel Steve Butler) said “Of course Bush knew about the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism.”

Two-Star general (Major General Albert Stubbelbine) questions the attack on the Pentagon

U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, former instructor at the USAF Fighter Weapons School and NATO’s Tactical Leadership Program, with a 20-year Air Force career (Lt. Colonel Guy S. Razer) said the following:

“I am 100% convinced that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were planned, organized, and committed by treasonous perpetrators that have infiltrated the highest levels of our government ….

Those of us in the military took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”. Just because we have retired does not make that oath invalid, so it is not just our responsibility, it is our duty to expose the real perpetrators of 9/11 and bring them to justice, no matter how hard it is, how long it takes, or how much we have to suffer to do it.

We owe it to those who have gone before us who executed that same oath, and who are doing the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. Those of us who joined the military and faithfully executed orders that were given us had to trust our leaders. The violation and abuse of that trust is not only heinous, but ultimately the most accurate definition of treason!”

U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, a fighter pilot with over 300 combat missions flown and a 21-year Marine Corps career (Lt. Colonel Shelton F. Lankford) believes that 9/11 was an inside job, and said:

“This isn’t about party, it isn’t about Bush Bashing. It’s about our country, our constitution, and our future. …

Your countrymen have been murdered and the more you delve into it the more it looks as though they were murdered by our government, who used it as an excuse to murder other people thousands of miles away.

If you ridicule others who have sincere doubts and who know factual information that directly contradicts the official report and who want explanations from those who hold the keys to our government, and have motive, means, and opportunity to pull off a 9/11, but you are too lazy or fearful, or … to check into the facts yourself, what does that make you? ….

Are you afraid that you will learn the truth and you can’t handle it? …”

U.S. Navy ‘Top Gun’ pilot (Commander Ralph Kolstad) who questions the official account of 9/11 and is calling for a new investigation, says “When one starts using his own mind, and not what one was told, there is very little to believe in the official story”.

The Group Director on matters of national security in the U.S. Government Accountability Office said that President Bush did not respond to unprecedented warnings of the 9/11 disaster and conducted a massive cover-up instead of accepting responsibility

Additionally, numerous military leaders from allied governments have questioned 9/11, such as:

Canadian Minister of Defense, the top military leader of Canada (Paul Hellyer)

Assistant German Defense Minister (Andreas Von Bulow)

Commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy (Anatoli Kornukov)

Chief of staff of the Russian armed forces (General Leonid Ivashov)

DAKOTA  09/27/2010 11:51 AM Report

Mr. Rose:

You were nervous because he went way over your script.

richie8811  09/27/2010 12:15 AM Report

Mused and Amused: Seizing the Advantage of American Discord

By Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

FLPatriot  09/26/2010 04:32 PM Report

Dear Diva,

My apologies for hitting the wrong button and reporting your post. I did not have my glasses on and assumed it said reply.

Is it possible my friend that you yourself do not have your glasses on also? Were you aware of a site called 9lltruth.org? There are hundreds of sites springing up everyday and yet you feel this man has no right to call for an independent investigation. Why? Over a Million Muslims have been killed in Iraq and millions more have been displaced.

Were you aware that six of the ten commissioners of the 911 report said it was not accurate? I feel that in sane man who wants to live in a free Country must start to look at the cold hard facts that criminals in our Govt. did this horrific act. It saddens me to say that we have lost the moral high ground on this issue and Obama knows it.

What else could he (Obama) do to respond to this allegation?

Millions now in this Country are starting to see the big picture and unless people like you go and at least check out these claims, we will have another false flag attack on our soil.

Worldwatcher let me say God bless you for the way you are trying to open up the eyes of your neighbors. Charlie Rose and all those in the media know this was done by rouge elements in our Govt. but due to fear of being labeled a kook, they sit silent and wait for more of us to wake up and allow them to come out and tell the truth.

We will live in as much tyranny as we will accept. Go and look at bldg. 7 fall in its on imprint and ask yourself how office fires allowed this to happen. Many in this Country don't want to see the truth because they realize what this would mean. We are the majority on this issue so don't be afraid. Stand with us and help us save this Country.

God bless all who read these words.

Sentient  09/25/2010 12:20 PM Report

worldwatcher,

Go, go, go. Damn the criticism. Hail Truth and Justice! I'm taking notes.

Indian Dalit,

I suggest you also take notes. People who would dismiss worldwatcher as a looney because of his CAPS and writing STYLE are not serious students and will probably FLUNK the course.

IndianDalit  09/25/2010 11:26 AM Report

To Worldwatcher,

You have many valid points.

But, I suggest that you calm down a bit, and stop making long posts with BOLD WRITING.

Otherwise, people are just going to dismiss you as a looney and ignore what you write.

worldwatcher  09/25/2010 10:34 AM Report

LibraryDiva: "If we are to give a terrorist like this a platform with tax payer owned broadcasting stations, then lets at least give his torture victims equal time."

worldwatcher: You mean like the *state terrorists* who go start a war BASED ON A BLATANT PRETEXTUAL LIE -- a war that directly and consequently has killed at least a MILLION people -- and continues to occupy their country? -- without even and ever saying, "We're sorry?"

GO LISTEN TO ANI DIFRANCO'S SONG "SELF-EVIDENT", ON YOUTUBE.

Or, the *state terrorists* who have a history of financing and arming right-wing proxy terrorists in places like Latin America and Africa?

Or, the European *Jewish* terrorists (ever hear of the Irgun and the Stern, Jewish terrorist organizations in Palestine -- go look them up in a book, or online as a start) who incepted and declared the state of Israel? Terrorist, like Menachim Begin, who became the head of the Irgun Jewish terrorist organization, who no less than Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt, in a formal letter published in the New York Times, called Begin a racist and a fascist?

You mean the Jewish terrorists who ASSASSINATED A SPECIAL UN CHIEF *PEACE* ENVOY, Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte, in 1948 (the year Zionists declared the state of Israel), the head of the Swedish Red Cross who saved thousands of Jews from concentration/death camps during WWII? -- and that's the thanks *he* got from the incipient Israeli state, because the Zionists didn't want peace: the Zionists wanted land! What if the Palestinians ever did something like assassinate a UN special peace envoy!?: the *U.S.* itself would go bomb Ramallah and Gaza and every major Palestinian town and every major Palestinian institution.

Or, the Jewish terrorists, disguised as Arabs, who, in 1946, secretly planted bombs in, blew up and collapsed an entire wing of a, then-considered, highrise, 12-story hotel in Jerusalem, The King David Hotel, killing over 100 innocent people? (If you ever saw photos of it, you'd be amazed. I call it the *original* 'Oklahoma city' bombing.)

Or, the *state terrorists* who literally shredded (with cluster bombs) or incinerated (with napalm or phosphorus bombs) 2-3 MILLION Vietnamese who were trying to resist re-colonization and, after defeating France, de facto colonization by the United States?

You mean *state terrorists*, like ISRAEL, WHO *INVENTED* THE CAR BOMB for use in Lebanon? You see, ISRAEL *invented* the car bomb; the U.S. CIA *used* the car bomb; but Arabs '*perfected*' it.

Or, like the *CIA* (assassinators and overthrowers of many democrats or democratic governments in the 3rd World -- and supporters of many dictatorships: *our* dictators) who, in 1983, planted a car bomb in Beirut that killed about, just plus-or-minus, 100 innocent people, but missed its target?

You mean the *state terrorists* --like a U.S. naval warship captain in/near Iranian waters-- who, in 1988, through trigger-happy, wanton incompetence, brazenly shot down a regularly scheduled Iranian airliner full of innocent passengers (killing all 290 passengers, including men and women and *66 children*, and 38 non-Iranians), but then the U.S. tried to first *lie* that it *was* a regularly scheduled innocent passenger airliner not doing anything suspicious?

You mean the foreign *state terrorism* and the *torture* scandals at abu-Graib, or Bagram? -- let alone against completely innocent people who had/have been kidnapped by the bureaucratic euphemism, "extraordinary rendition", and secretly imprisoned and tortured, or sent to allied countries to be secretly imprisoned and tortured?

You mean *state terrorists*, like Israel telling Lebanese civilians to evacuate their towns and villages, but then, with fighter jets, *purposely* attacks those fleeing civilians (men, women, children, the elderly, the infirmed, the handicapped) on the roads out of town?

And ISRAEL BLEW UP A COUPLE OF TWIN TOWERS IN LEBANON (although not nearly as tall at the World Trade Center was), in its first Lebanon invasion and occupation. Maybe some other Arabs saw that, saw that was possible, and got a 'bright' idea to get even with Israel's financial and military suppliers and hypocritical, double standard guarantors!

I could give many other examples. See what I mean by double standards?

And, speaking of *egos*, what about the egos of European/American/Western Zionist Jews, who think that nobody else who's been brtualized and oppressed, even those in their own native (Palestinian) land, racistly, brutally, oppressed and subjugated at the hands of grossly hypocritical European/American/Western Zionist Jews, ever matters!?: that, "Never again!", means *ONLY* for them!

American and Israeli *state terrorists* -- versus *THEIR* victims?

The U.S./Israeli government CAN'T even officially *DEFINE* TERRORISM in a way that always excludes actions and behaviors of the *U.S/Israel*, and their respective armed forces, itself!

I don't have to -- and I *don't* -- approve of a very conservative, highly patriarchal, Islamic theocratic government (it, under the Ayatollah Khomeini, originally killed and imprisoned, often with names often supplied by the U.S. government, hundreds/thousands of Iranian progressives and leftists, who went back to Iran, many from exile in the U.S., after the overthrow of the Shah, and hoping to build a secular democratic state), to analytically recognize the validity of the statements of Ahmadinejad in American television interviews, and to recognize the right of the Iran people not to be attacked, bombed, invaded and taken over (Sarah Palin once said that, if we ever did, then they should all be forced to convert to Christianity!) by the imperialist US government.

So, LibrayDiva, Charlie -- and other PBS programs like the PBS Newshour -- has/have interviewed Saudi and Kuwaiti and Egyptian and Jordanian government leaders (all dictatorial *allies* of the U.S.) who's feet are *never* held to the interview fire on PBS or elsewhere on American TV -- three U.S.-allied governments that are *at least as* or *much* more conservative than Iran (especially against women). Who's holding *them* politically accountable in the U.S.? WHY HAVEN'T YOU EVER RAILED AGAINST *THOSE* POLITICAL LEADERS being interviewed on PBS?

YOU SEE, THE U.S. PREFERS RIGHT-WING *DICTATORS* IN THE 3RD WORLD, BECAUSE 3RD WORLD RIGHT-WING DICTATORS CAN BE PAID OFF BY THE U.S. AND/OR GUARANTEED THEIR EXISTENCE TO DO WHAT THE U.S. WANTS -- WITHOUT THEIR HAVING TO DEMOCRATICALLY CONSULT THEIR POPULATION.

(And why are you prejudicially engaged in size-ism about Ahmadinejad?: as, "this little man". What does his *height* have to do with anything? Both very good and very evil, and very smart and very dum people have been short -- or tall. Maybe people could make fun about your physique or aspects thereof. I happen to be rather tall, so I'm not asking this out of self-interest. Hitler used to criticize the supposed *Jewish* physique or aspects thereof.)

But, I also recognize that Israel too has a very conservative, *ideologically Jewish* [as opposed to ideologically Islamic], semi-theocratic government -- many of who's members (especially in the Knesset) are *openly* racist, and *openly* advocate *complete* ethnic cleansing, or even *genocide*(!!), against the Palestinians -- the Jewish-fundamentalist settlers are the *most* violent and *most* openly racist -- but their comments never get shown or reported in our media. Who's holding *them* politically accountable in the U.S.?

That's why a recent Pew research poll showed that the people of the world see the *U.S.* and *Israel* as the *greatest* danger to peace in the world!

And, I recognize that all those right-wing Christians and Tea Party leaders would establish a theocratic, ultra-patriarchal *Christian* fundamentalist government in this country, if they could and ever got their way: they certainly keep trying to push us in that direction.

I didn't approve of Bush -- of course, I wouldn't have appproved of McCain -- and I don't approve of Obama -- and I was *never* fooled by Obama -- I *never* drank the Obamalade (his since continuing, or even exceeding, Bush's military and major domestic and foreign neoliberal economic policies, and continued emplacing of surviellance & control, state apparatus), but that doesn't mean that innocent civilians deserve/d to be bombed in this country, or our water, sewage and public health systems, or our hospitals and schools, our farms fields, grainhouses and storehouses, and anything else we need for a healthy and civilized existence, deserve to be bombed by another country, which would then try to set up a puppet government here in order to run our country and steal our mineral resources.

You know, when Gandhi was once asked what he thought about Western civilization, he immediately replied, "I think that would be a good idea!"

LibraryDiva  09/25/2010 03:02 AM Report

It should sadden all of us, that dictators like this get the forum to futher boost their egos, and help legitimize their positions. Especially when hundreds of journalists are sitting in prisions in Tehran rotting away, being tortured. PBS can do better, and frankly I thought this was Charlie's softest go at this guy yet. If we are to give a terrorist like this a platform with tax payer owned broadcasting stations, then lets at least give his torture victims equal time. Iran is such a rich and great culture it is pitful that we have wasted time on this foolish little man.

worldwatcher  09/24/2010 09:13 PM Report

worldwatcher 09/24/2010 10:01 AM: "What we do know is that the Cheney and neocon elements in our government, as well as the state of Israel, hit ***THE JACKPOT*** when 9-11 happened -- in terms of pushing stuff that right-wingers in the U.S. government always wanted to do..."

In fact, the erosion of our legal and civil rights and civil liberties has been enormous -- too much for me to all go into here has been frightening if you knew the entire extent of what legal rights you no longer have. But, let me say this: of course, stuff that used to be *grossly illegal* for the state to do before, has been *legalized* or uncontested by the Congress and the courts.

Now, for example, the state can claim that a backyard office or storage shed, or your garage, where you might have or store documents and personal items are now *not* a part of your home -- and therefore the police or federal/state agents _don't even need_ to get a court search warrant to go search those places; your car can be "administratively seized" without any due process; your cell phone or laptop can be seized at an airport on any pretext and you might not ever get your items back, or you'd have to go through an expensive legal process to get them back. And the only people, for example, who have been *not* allowed to cross into or from Canada, at the Canadian-US border, or arrested before a *peaceful* major anti-war march, have been *AMERICAN CITIZENS* who are *KNOWN* human rights activists -- *not* terrorists!

And, now, *AMERICAN CITIZENS* can be put on no-fly lists, even for their return flight home, without *any* due process, without knowing *how* they got on such a list, *why* they are on such a list, how to get *off* such a list, and, if they want to legally assert their innocence and lack of connection with any terrorism, how to procedurally contest it either administratively or in a court of law: many of them -- perhaps accused of terrorism by someone with a grudge, or having the same common name, or so much as a first or last name of someone else on some govt "terrorist" list -- are *stuck overseas* (and not in countries connected with any terrorist groups/organizations: they might be stuck in Britain!), with no way to get back home, in a legal limbo and catch-22 -- denied by some American courts the right to even *try* to challenge their situation because they are not on American soil!!

And we (some of us) now know that even the Obama administration claims the right to assassinate *AMERICAN CITIZENS* without *any* due process -- as supposedly connected with "terrorism" -- anywhere in the world! Let us hope that when this starts happening, the U.S. govt/military *ERROR RATE* isn't the same as when other innocent people, homes, women and children, entire families, or even wedding parties, or even entire innocent villages are mistakenly massacred, shot up or bombed and killed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan by American special forces, troops, or drones.

worldwatcher  09/24/2010 07:04 PM Report

FLPatriot: "It is easy to be like a defense lawyer and scream and say how koo koo people are who do not believe the official lie that was told and is being told to the American people."

Thanks for your post, FL.

And thank you, too, Sentient.

And some very important figures (including a fmr American ambassador to the Middle East, fmr CIA analysts, at least one or two fmr/ret. US military colonels (kind of reminds me of that U.S. military colonel figure, breathtakingly advising Jim Garrison, in Oliver Stone's movie "JFK"), an American Corpwatch expert (an author and professional monitor of the American arms industry and military contractors), and a highly respected Canadian military veteran, analyst and syndicated Canadian/UK columnist [but not carried in the US] and now living in London) have increasingly said that the war in Iraq (and even the one in Afghanistan, which was treated as a full-scale *war* by the US as opposed to just going after, supposedly, "the 9-11 terrorists & their organization") was **A WAR FOR ISRAEL** (cooked up by the Zionist neocons in the Bush Administration).

"A WAR FOR ISRAEL" -- which is the title of an excellent article *available online* and written by a Jeffrey Blankfort, an anti-Zionist Jewish-American veteran journalist and this country's foremost expert on the Israel lobby: oh, you won't see *him* -- or the rest of *them* -- invited to be on the Charlie Rose show or any other mainstream American TV news/talk show, even though he is quite well-known nationally in political circles dealing with Israel -- and the government of Israel knows who he is very well too! The *ADL* (another Zionist front for Israel) even conducted a years-long *illegal* domestic spying operation against him and several other anti-Zionist Jews and, when it was discovered, Blankfort et al successfully *SUED* THE ADL, and won a sizeable monetary award, for that ADL illegal operation and for violating his civil rights: you can read about that online!

Actually, the Canadian military analyst and the American Corpwatch analyst won't quite dare go so far (because they know what might happen to their careers if they did) as to *yet* openly and publicly assert that the Iraq war was a war for Israel (and most the other experts previously mentioned just say that the war in Iraq was a [Zionist] *neocon* war, but we all know what that really means. But, those experts adamantly say that they *never* believed it was a war for "WMDs", or even a pretextual war for oil, or "a war for democracy" (that old chestnut always trotted out by the U.S. government when it comes to direct/proxy U.S. wars or military interventions the 3rd World), or "a war to free the women" (as in Afghanistan), or anything else.

BTW, speaking of "freeing the women", WHY DOESN'T THE U.S. GOVT GET THE WOMEN FREED IN SAUDI ARABIA AND KUWAIT -- _THE U.S.'s CLOSEST ARAB ALLIED GOVERNMENTS / FAMILY *DICTATORSHIPS*_ -- WHERE WOMEN HAVE TO COVER THEMSELVES HEAD-TO-FOOT, AND CAN'T EVEN BE A MEMBER OF THE GOVT, HOLD JOBS, GO OUT BY THEMSELVES, SPEAK TO ANY NON-IMMEDIATE-RELATIVE MALE, OR EVEN DRIVE CARS!!?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Hey muchgunjoe, you mean government *element* conspiracies like the Gulf of Tonkin affair, the Watergate affair, the perpetration and, *certainly*, cover-up of the JFK asssassination, the Plumbers, FBI conspiracies to frame political dissidents in the late '60's & '70's, the many attempts to assassinat Castro (which led to the Cuban missile crisis that had the world on the verge of nuclear annihilation/fallout/contamination/'winter'), the CIA conspiracy to overthrow Mossadeq (the very scholarly, democratcially elected and very democratic president of Iran in the early 1950's) in order to install Shah, other now very well-documented, now even admitted, domestic and international U.S. govt (or agencies/elements within) conspiracies, etc.? Don't be a *dope*, machngunjoe! (What a very apt username/moniker you've chosen here.)

And, actually, "machngunjoe", the starting point -- and *common point* -- of people like me -- and anyone with a brain -- about 9-11 -- not that we all necessarily agree on every other point -- is that WE DON'T BELIEVE THE *U.S. GOVERNMENT'S* VERSION OF THE STORY -- which even the leading 9-11 widows groups/organizations have complained has too many holes in, and suspicions about, it -- like, for example, *ignoring* or *getting rid* of much of the *evidence*!!

I don't know why you suddenly bring up Mos Def out of the blue -- except to try to prejudice the debate -- since nobody else brought him up. Mos Def is a politically and social commentary oriented rapper, like, for example, Chuck D of Public Enemy, or Paris (rapper, producer and label-owner), or Sister Souljah (later turned author and public speaker), or Queen Latifah (now turned actor and singer), or Ice Cube (turned actor, music and movie producer, and now just occasional rapper), or Ice T (later turned public lecturer, even at universities like Harvard, author and actor), or X Clan, and such, and of course Tupac (rapper and later also actor), were -- old-school rappers -- or like Dead Prez, or Immortal Technique, or The Coup, and other such rappers are today -- and, as such, they *do* have a developed progressive political consciousness and an articulate intellectual point of view, even an articulate world view and analysis on numerous national and global issues -- if you ever bothered to actually *listen* to their political raps songs and/or them, instead of writing them off because they're Black, don't speak in a white dialect, and often came from the working-class -- and all these people had/have a large white audience (in Sister Soujah's case, based on her public/recorded lectures about teenage female self-respect, even white moms!) of open-minded people, who didn't judge others based on class and color.

Mos Def, who's actually indeed mature now in terms of age, as many rappers are now even in their *40's*, has actually held and hosted public progressive political discussion events, conferences and panels -- and I think that he/they could intellectually go up against you, "machngunjoe", *any* day. If such Black rappers, many from tha ghetto or da 'hood, had originally had a more relatively privileged (or had/caught just the right breaks or otherwise lucky) life course available to them when they were growing up, they could have easily become university professors and/or political authors. I have friends from the ghetto/'hood who are *analytically* as smart and articulate (if but in a "Black" dialect) -- and usually know as much and often *more* about society and how politics works -- as/than any of my white (or other) friends (including graduate/doctoral students and professors), friendly associates or contacts from the most prestigious universities. And I'm sure they know more than *you*, machngunjoe.

Yo, machngunjoe: ...What do political hip-hop generation rappers/singers say/rap/sing?: "*FREE YOUR MINNND*!!..."

FLPatriot  09/24/2010 03:25 PM Report

I would just say that it is great to see people so passionate about this subject. As a retired US Army veteran who loves his Country, let me say that it pains me to say that rouge elements in this Govt. were responsible for what happened on 9/11. Anyone who will just take a few minutes and go to AE911truth and read what Engineers and Architects have uncovered will realize that our Govt. is not telling us the truth about what happened on this fateful day.

There are so many things that stand out to any honest man or women who really wants to know the truth. My brother-in-law who is a tank commander was shocked when he went and saw what was on this site. Now does that mean that MA is an angel? No, but he did come to the UN and bring up an issue that millions of people in the United States agree with him on.

It is easy to be like a defense lawyer and scream and say how koo koo people are who do not believe the official lie that was told and is being told to the American people. I am now reading about NASA Engineers and Two Star Generals and many many more who are coming out and telling the American people that 9/11 was done by rouge elements in our Govt. Millions are now opening their eyes to what is going on and my words to you would be to wake up and realize that there are tens of millions of us truthers who are sadden that over a million women and children in the middle east have been killed over a lie.

This may not bother you but to us soldiers who have gone to the other side of the world because of this lie, it does bother us. No one hates war more than the American soldier and those who call for us to Bomb Iran I would just say this, be careful wishing for something that could destroy us all. Soldiers have been at war over over 9 years and the American military is at its breaking point. How much longer do you expect these men to be away from their families? Many of these men and women have been gone so long their children have grown up without them.

Wake up my friends before we suffer a bigger false flag next time. These criminals at the top will not be satisfied until this Country is bankrupted. Oh that's right, we are bankrupted. What a shame that so many of you who know the truth will not speak out for your Country and let the man or the women who is beside you to know that you know to what happen on that fateful day. That criminals in our Govt. killed our neighbors on that day in Sept.

God be with all who read these words.

machngunjoe  09/24/2010 02:37 PM Report

Wow, I almost thought I was on youtube with some of the comments below. I would be careful with agreeing with Ahmadinejad. And people need to get over the Government conspiracy being responsible for 9/11. You simply will believe anything if you believe that, not to mention ignoring many simple facts, that probably haven't even been researched with credible sources. Many Americans don't believe that ridiculous conspiracy theory... Mos Def does, but I don't look to Mos Def to Political beliefs or maturity. Those beliefs are extremely weak and are derived from a common mentality that governments conspire to cause wars, which I do think is true, however not in this circumstance.

Sentient  09/24/2010 10:31 AM Report

Thanks, worldwatcher, for your insightful and fair comments.

CarolJ, thank you for sparking more gems from worldwatcher. You can now go wash the egg off your face and send more money to Israel to help it continue its atrocities.

worldwatcher  09/24/2010 10:01 AM Report

CarolJ: "Per news media reports M.A. now states we are responsible for 9-11-2001!"

worldwatcher: I don't claim to know *what* happened on 9-11. But, I do know *this*: anyone who believes the U.S. government version of the story is an idiot!

Certainly the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd U.S. government version -- and sometimes even the 4th, and even 5th, version -- and fallback versions progressively containing/conceding more elements of the truth -- of events is usually -- and usually historically proven to have been -- A LIE.

(This so, as when Condoleeza Rice was forced to admit before Congress that the goal of, supposedly, bin Laden &/or "al-Qaeda" using passenger planes to attack the WTC was *not at all* some unforeseeable surprise.)

Like with the JFK, MLK, RFK assassinations, or as with the Gulf of Tonkin incident, we may not find out more of what *really* happened for decades.

What we do know is that the Cheney and neocon elements in our government, as well as the state of Israel, hit ***THE JACKPOT*** when 9-11 happened -- in terms of pushing stuff that right-wingers in the U.S. government always wanted to do (particularly turn the U.S. into an all-encompassing police-surveillance state, and at least *put in place* all the administrative and legal elements of a police state, should our country ever turn into something like Pinochet's Chile or The Dirty War regime in Argentina -- of course, following the *next* major "terrorist" attack). Netanyahu at first accidentally blurted out, to the *media*, that, "It was a good thing", when 9-11 happened, "Because it brought Israel and the U.S. closer together." Later, he had to admend (ahem, "clarify", as they say when officials at first say what they *really* mean) that part about, "It was a good thing". And, remember the newspaper stories -- including The New York Times, as well as several New Jersey newspapers (I still have copies of those articles in my computer files) -- about "the dancing [what turned out to be] Israelis [agents]", on 9-11, in New Jersey, across the river from the destroyed WTC?

At any rate, Ahmadinejad said what, more or less, indeed, many Americans believe! -- even if I might not go that far. I just don't believe the *government's* version (and that much I share with the 9-11 Truth Community, which itself doesn't all believe the same thing, but all believe in certain core questions and disbeliefs) -- whatever really happened and whomever really did 9-11.

But, even informed progressive Jewish-American researchers/analyists say that the only people *really* pushing for a U.S. military attack on *Iran* (which is not some country that has been militarily worn down by 10-12 years of US-led sanctions and US-UK weekly bombings) is *Israel*, the Israel lobby and, once again, the neocons who pushed for an attack on Iraq using phony, doctored and twisted 'intelligence'.

The people leading these media attacks and demonstrations against Ahmadinejad, and claims that he's developing nuclear WMDs, and whipping up war fever against Iran -- haven't we been here before? -- are Zionists (*HMMM, CAROLJ*?), the Israel lobby, and *Israel*. The people (besides Iranians) who would fight and die in a widened war in the Middle East as a result of any U.S. military attack on Iran would be *Americans*.

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CarolJ: "Get a grip M.A. and stay in your own country."

worldwatcher: Ahmadinejad is here because *the UN is here*. As head of a member state, it's his *responsibility* to be here. Hey, the US could always have the UN moved to some other country. But then how could the US quite as easily tail, spy on and bug the hotel suites, or evesdrop on embassies or guest residences of foreign leaders, their entourage, other officials and staffers?

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CarolJ: "Gee, why then did other peoples claimed they were responsible."

worldwatcher: Remember what JFK once said?: "Success has *many* 'fathers', but failure is an orphan."

(Btw, have you heard of false flag operations: Israel has conducted a number of major ones in its history -- attacking both British foreign facilities and US foreign facilities, even the USS Liberty -- and tried to blame or frame the Arabs, until it was later discovered that it *wasn't* the Arabs.)

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CarolJ: " Hey worldwatcher why don't you make shorter posts, I fall asleep before I can read it all."

worldwatcher: My arguments are too effective, huh CarolJ? Haven't you heard?...: this is *supposed* to still, yet, be "a free country". (Until another major "terrorist" attack. That's why I keep my passport handy, because then I know this country will turn into an out-and-out police state: 'you' won't be able to protest so much as a major hike in your water rates, and water will all be privitized by then.) Anyway, don't want to read my posts, CarolJ? -- not too much into *reading*, CarolJ? -- then *don't read them*. I think that many other readers will have a greater intellectual capacity.

worldwatcher  09/24/2010 08:32 AM Report

aceaceca: "Americans need to wake up to the fact that your government lies to you."

Addendum: Mark Twain, after first patriotically supporting the Philippine-American War (the U.S. side, of course), but later discovering how the U.S. government had blatantly lied about the origin of the war and the U.S.'s lofty stated goal and mission (about freedom and liberation) -- vs. the U.S.'s *true* imperialist/colonial designs on the Philippines -- Twain became a vehement opponent of the U.S. war -- and a genocidal war at that -- and, otherwise, referred to American troops as "our uniformed assassins" who committed many blatant atrocities. Twain had no trouble getting widely published, until he started writing in criticism of the Philippine-American war.

Before his death in 1940, retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history, revealed the true nature of the U.S. military as a front for and military arm of American multinational corporations in the non-European world, and particularly in Latin America, especially in Central America and in the Caribbean. In 1935 he wrote the exposé book, "War Is a Racket".

CarolJ  09/24/2010 08:07 AM Report

Per news media reports M.A. now states we are responsible for 9-11-2001! Gee, why then did other peoples claimed they were responsible. Get a grip M.A. and stay in your own country. The U.S. appears to be your stage to open your big mouth. Hey worldwatcher why don't you make shorter posts, I fall asleep before I can read it all.

worldwatcher  09/24/2010 07:17 AM Report

MALCOLM X: "COLONIALISM[/IMPERIALISM/ZIONISM/MILITARISM] IS THE PERPETRATION THAT TRIES TO MAKE THE *WOLF* [the brutal invaders] LOOK LIKE THE *LAMB*, AND THE *LAMB* LOOK LIKE THE *WOLF*!

(Thus, for example, Israel *always* plays the *victim*, even when it is the clear brutal aggressor or oppressor -- even when it murderously attacks unarmed civilian Gaza relief volunteers on the high seas.)

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aceaceca: "Americans need to wake up to the fact that your government lies to you."

worldwatcher: And our mainstream media too. It is always pushing _purposely mistranslated_, purported, "quotes" of Ahmadinejad-- quotes falsely pushed by Zionists neocons, Israel, and the Israel lobby (who all pushed _knowingly false_ 'intelligence' stories about Saddam's WMDs too).

Every day our mainstream media (and the mainstream media of our allied countries) reels out _a false narrative_ and steady daily diet of children's horror stories ('Once there was a man named Saddam/Ahmadinejad/bin Laden/etc...') about some big bad boogeyman -- THAT KEEPS US ALL WOUND UP -- and often boogeymen and 'Frankensteins' that our government originally supported/created, or ones that are the result of blowback (like when the US did overthrow a democratically elected government in Iran and installed a dictator who's overthrow led to the Ayatollah) -- and how that boogeyman or Frankenstein is now coming to *get* us!

For example, AHMADINEJAD NEVER SAID (and Charlie knows this too, but at least Charlie conducts a much more comparatively fair interview with Ahmadinejad) that Iran was going to wipe (with nuclear weapons or whatever) Israel from the earth: Ahmadinejad said that the racist Zionist [Jewish white-supremacist] invaders' colonial [apartheid] regime in Palestine was going to, or should, one day, pass from the earth. (And hopefully it will, just like the decades-long racist Christian white-supremacist apartheid colonial regime in South Africa passed from the earth, due to massive international pressure, especially a boycotts, divestments and sanctions movement.) There are many Jews, too, including Jewish holocaust survivors and anti-Nazi underground resistance fighters, who *oppose* Zionism -- including IJAN (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network) and those Jews in the Palestinian ISM (International Solidarity Movement) -- although, quite unfortunately, and quite hypocritically, not the majority of Jews in the world, and certainly not very many in Israel, oppose Zionism and the historical & current dispossession and brutal oppression of the Palestinian people, the *indigenous* people [incuding a very small percentage of indigenous Palestinian Jews who were *also* heavily discriminated against by invading European Jews!], by the state of Israel.

Another example of _purposeful mistranslation_: Ahmadinejad (and, for that matter, Hezbollah and Hamas, and any other Palestinian/Arab resistance movement against Israeli Zionist colonialism, as well as other educated and informed people) always refers to opposing Zionist Jews as *Zionists*, not as Jews per se, and refers to Israel as *the Zionist entity/regime* (just as Ahmadinejad said in the interview); NOT opposing _Jews_ or wanting to wipe _Jews_ off the map, as is always _purposely mistranslated_ by our media (_purposeful mistranslations_ pushed by Israel, the Israel lobby, the Zionist neocons, Zionist organizations and other Zionists, to make Ahamadinejad, or any critic of Israel, sound Hitlerian/Nazi).

PALESTINIANS, OTHER ARABS, AND OTHER MIDDLE EASTERNERS DON'T HATE JEWISH *PEOPLE* -- THEY HATE (ESPECIALLY, *HYPOCRITICAL*) JEWISH/ZIONIST *RACISM*!

And, as a matter of fact, there are some 25,000 *JEWS* living in Iran -- *Iranian*/Persian Jews -- and if Ahmadinejad, the Iranian government, or anyone else in Iran hated Jews as Jews, then some 70-75 million other Iranians could certainly wipe out 25,000 Iranian Jews. In fact, at least one Iranian Jewish family who once emigrated to Israel, finally got fed up with Israel and *returned* to Iran! There are Jewish minorities to this day who still live in other Arab countries -- and those Jews haven't been wiped out (although many were scared out, back in the 1940's & 1950's, by Zionist/Israeli agents, disguised as Arabs and posing as anti-Jewish terrorists).

Our university professors, our presidential expert/scholarly advisors, our graduate libraries (its books) know all this. Even our mainstream media know this, because any Western (especially, American) mainstream journalist knows what will happen to their career if they tell the truth (and, especially, about Israel) -- especially the *fundamental/unvarnished* truth (as opposed to quibbles about this or that factoid or policy party line administrative *management* disputes). Even Charlie knows this -- at least by now. But, if you want to keep your career, you better, at least *publicly*, play the game.

American policy (along with its military allies) in the Middle East (like historically in Latin America) is purely the engagement of self-interested, capitalistic, international and geopolitical POWER POLITICS in which "might makes right" (straight-up gangsta, with the US as the top dog, militarily, on the world block, and *F* double standards and moral hypocrisy) -- which is why the US maintains the largest military budget, by many multiples, and the largest military, in the world. Besides, if you did everything that the US govt/military has done throughout the world, supporting dictators, strongmen, morally corrupt US mono-crop or rip-off mineral extraction corporations, and such, in the 3rd World, YOU'D BE AFRAID THAT EVERYONE WAS, SOME DAY, AFTER YOU TOO!!

WHAT'S THAT SAYING?...: "THE NEIGHBORHOOD THIEF IS THE MOST PARANOID PERSON IN THE NEIGBHORHOOD."

The US government has lied so often before to take this country to war. It lied about the USS Maine ("Remember the Maine!") and going to war against Spain; it lied about the start/origin of the Korean War (a lie that still stands today, except by Korean War academics/scholars); it lied about the Gulf of Tonkin incident; it lied about the Contras (calling those ultra-right-wing terrorists and the kind of people the US usually/historicallly supports as Latin-American dictators, "freedom fighters") and the US proxy wars in dictatorial Central America; it originally lied about Nelson Mandela and the ANC (our government calling them terrorists); it lied about the origin of the Gulf War (the Amb. April Glaspie controversy); it has lied about other US proxy wars and foreign government overthrows and democratically elected 3rd World governments; it even tried to lie about the Georgian-Russian conflict and was going to go nose-to-nose with the Russian fleet there (except that, it being in Russia's own 'backyard', the Russian forces had the clear advantage); it has lied about other wars. The only war our government didn't lie about was the Revolutionary War (although that was really a war about rich American merchants/entrepreneurs wanting America all to themselves and not wanting to split their piece of the action with Britain any longer: with millions of genocided Native Americans and millions of black slaves, it certainly wasn't about "all men are created equal" and freedom for all), the Civil War, and WWII.

War is such dirty business, because whoever starts them has to tell such dirty lies! And the US is about big business -- and the biggest business in the US is *WAR* (&/or the arms and, domestically, the paramilitary weapons and police state technology/equipment industry)!!

What's amazing is that Americans (especially ordinary grassroots right-wingers), who don't trust the government to tell the truth about anything else, always --at least in the beginning-- trust the government to tell us the truth about all our wars: wars that their sons & daughters will be sent off to fight, often kill innocent people, and die in a country that, beforehand, they never knew existed.

The only 'good' thing about today's media-boogeyman political football about Ahmadinejad being in New York for the UN session, is that it has finally knocked the daily, 'all you can eat', media diet about 'the ground zero mosque' media-boogeyman political football off of every TV news show's video headline -- at least for a while.

FLPatriot  09/24/2010 05:26 AM Report

Great interview. Charlie, it was refreshing to see you give an honest interview. I thought you both held your own and I will start coming to this site more often now. You understand the the internet will not allow you to act like the MSM.

AA realizes that all he has to do is speak the truth and for the most part all you can really do is say, "you're right." That is not to say that this was not a first rate interview because it was. It was an honest interview by a serious Newsman. I wished you would interview Richard Gage but I guess that is to much to ask for right now. The American people know that 9/11 is more than what the US Govt. is telling us and more and more people are waking up to the truth everyday. Again, thank you for an honest interview.

aceaceca  09/24/2010 01:07 AM Report

How refreshing to hear well taken points by the leader of a country portrayed by America as a villian. Americans need to wake up to the fact that your government lies to you. Hear what other world leaders are saying about you.

worldwatcher  09/23/2010 06:26 AM Report

nfabrice: "There is obvious more dignity in dying by injection than dying under the hits of stoning."

worldwatcher: Obviously nfabrice has not heard of the numerous _botched_ lethal injections (where even the prison executioners admitted that "things didn't go according to plan") where the victims (often of questionable guilt) of such lethal injections have suffered and convulsed for maybe up to or over 30 minutes before, finally, their deaths. The death penalty itself is barbaric because at one time in one state alone (Illinios) there were more people on death row found, due to DNA, *innocent* of murder than there were other people awaiting execution on death row!: i.e., the majority of people on death row had been narrowly found innocent after *years* on death row. Where is the dignity of being *innocent* and on death row, besides the indignity of being *innocent* and --given the prior error rate (even paying or threatening informants to lie or beating false confessions out of poor minorities) we must assume this has happened already -- languishing on death row and *executed* by the state?

This is why most Western countries have *outlawed* capital punishment, because not only do minorities and the poor often get unfair/rigged trials (with representation by even both incompetent and, in the South, often even intoxicated/dosing-off, state-appointed, defendant-mill attorneys) --it is said that a _guilty_ *rich* white man stands a better chance of evading conviction than a *poor*, _innocent_ minority (and sometimes even a poor innocent white man)-- but also because human judgement is *fallible* and death (as defined by the cessation of brainwaves) is an infallible --i.e., unrevokable-- condition.

Quick, instant, death by the sword (a hand-held 'guillotine') probably is more humane than death by electrocution (where you fry the person alive with electricity) or lethal injection (a cocktail of injections whereby you merely silence their convulsive screams/moans). And a well-placed stone can certainly knock someone out instantly and even kill them right away. So, who are *we*, as Americans (with state "killing machines" like the state of Texas), to smugly point fingers.

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nfabrice: "a Nuclear Iran could pass nuclear weapon to rogue elements who then perpetrate deadly attacks on our soil. That is where lies the problem."

worldwatcher: You ever hear that a mind is a terrible thing to waste?

This nfabrice is someone who's been listening to the likes of right-wing Zionist Charles Krauthammer and other neocons and looney right-wingers for too damn long. Not even anyone in the US military heirarchy believes this for a second.

First of all, if it's "rogue elements" that means that they can't be controlled/trusted, so why would any nuclear power nation just give aways hard-years-long-developed nuclear weapons to "rogue elements"?

The Soviets didn't do it; China hasn't done it; Pakistan hasn't done it (and elements in the Pakistan govt/ISI supposedly *support* the Taliban/al-Qaeda or "terrorist groups" against India, and on the face of it those Pakistani govt/ISI elements would hypothetically be much more likely to do so); no nuclear country has ever just given away nuclear weapons to any "rogue elements". And if a country ever did so so, what country do you suppose would be nuclear retaliated against in return?

Why even the US said that an attack from any country shooting off Soviet/Chinese/etc nuclear missiles against the US would be regarded as an attack by the USSR/China/etc itself against the US, and that that country would be retaliated against by a devastating US nuclear strike from any place in the world that the US had nuclear weapons.

Also, if Iran (which unlike the US or Israel has never started a war against another country -- and Israel started *all* of its wars except for one) wanted to give "rogue elements" WMD's that would truly terrorize another country, all Iran would have to hypothetically do is to give those "rogue elements" chemical or, especially, biological weapons (which could certainly kill at least as many people as in the former World Trade Center and spread terror even wider!). And Iran has never done even that.

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nfabrice: "A nuclear Iran will never be able to challenge our deterrent capabilities."

worldwatcher: A nuclear North Korea sure stopped the *US* in its tracks. And that's how we, the world's public, *knew* that North Korea probably had nuclear weapons: because the US *didn't* attack it.

So, while the US was falsely declaring that Saddam supposedly had nuclear weapons, North Korea was busy saying, 'Yoohoo!! Hey guys (the US), *we've* got nuclear weapons... -- and we'll bury the West Coast of the US in _a lake of fire_ if you (the US) come and attack us. *So*..., are ya (the US) feelin' *lucky*, punk? ...Well..., *are* ya?...' And, after the US's (especially Hillary's) woof-woof-woofin', and Kim Jong-il saying '*You've* got more to lose than *we* do", the US backed right down.

You know, a determined,, spiritually and militarily disciplined people -- and steadfastly patient (like anyone who will plant/pluck a whole wide field of seedlings/stalks by *hand* all day) -- and when you're invading people like that, then you gonna have a *big problem* -- haven't quaked in their boots about the US ever since Vietnam.

nfabrice  09/22/2010 10:51 PM Report

Great interview Charlie! But next time come prepared. Improve your understanding of the issues of the Middle East politics.Also loose up and speak your mind.

I think A.A successfully exposed our irrational approach of our foreign policy in the region. We want to demonize his government when in fact A.A is very progressive on social issues compared to hardliner of the regime- and that s how he enjoys his popularity. Charlie looks at the substance and don t buy into the empty soundbites such as violation of human rights,...see our A.A twisted around the case of the lady who probably await stoning...You could have made the case that everyone deserve dignity even when in the corridor of death. There is obvious more dignity in dying by injection than dying under the hits of stoning. Also,A.A made clear allusion to Saudi Arabia/others and Iraq when he mention sword execution and hanging. So avoid philosphical questions ofhuman rights unless you have solid case at hand.

On the Israel/Palestinian issues,Charlie you know,there are flagrant injustices.. so please do not defend what is not defensible.

I take issue with Iran especially on the Nuclear question. Iran is animated by hatred toward Israel that I am afraid that a Nuclear Iran could pass nuclear weapon to rogue elements who then perpetrate deadly attacks on our soil. That is where lies the problem. A nuclear Iran will never be able to challenge our deterrent capabilities.

Instead of using the language of force, and vain toughness we ought to skilfully work at use of soft power to win over the heart of the Muslim world. To achieve that, we need to start with RESPECT. A.A was unfortunately right.

That said Charlie we love your show!

worldwatcher  09/22/2010 05:00 PM Report

The thing is that *ANYONE* is on rather strong ground when they criticize U.S. _HYPOCRISY_ and _DOUBLE STANDARDS_ -- something most of the non-European world (and even much of the public of the European world) hates the U.S. (and its English poodle Tony Blair) for _constantly_ engaging in.

This is the U.S., a country which attacked a former *ally*, Saddam Husein (after the U.S. had no more use for him, after he had no more brown-skin people to go kill, after the Iraq-Iran war, which he started with U.S. support, ended), and the military invaded Iraq and immiserated tens of millions of people, based on _A BLATANT LIE_ perpetrated by the U.S., the UK, Israel, and mightily pushed by largely Zionist neocons in Washington.

So, thus, of course, it was easy for Ahmadinejad to be quite articulate in his interview with Charlie Rose.

Furthermore, it was the U.S. (once again somewhere in the world...) and UK overthrow of a *democratic* government in Iran in 1953 (*we'd* still remember if hypothetically Iran once came over and overthrew Truman), and installing a brutal dictatorship (the Shah, including encouraging his nuclear power development) that led to the very situation (professor emritus & author Chalmers Johnson calls it "blowback") that exists in Iran today. So much for the idea that Islam (even, historically, Iran, but for the U.S.) is *inherently* incompatible with democracy. Maybe that's it: in the 3rd World, it's the *U.S.* that has been historically, inherently incompatible with democarcy.

I, for one, think that Iran *should* become a nuclear weapons power -- or at least nuclear weapons-ready (and this is probably what Iran is really after and what Israel, who *first* introduced *hundreds* of nuclear weapons into the Middle East, is really worried about), because then Iran's nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons-ready power would become a *STABILIZING* geopolitical influence in the Middle East against constant U.S./Israeli threats, and the U.S./Israel would have to settle for less than total/imperialistic hegemony in the Middle East. (Just as North Korea's, now, nuclear weapons will tend to have a stabilizing geopolitical influence on the Korean peninsula, where the U.S. was the *first* to introduce *hundreds* of nuclear weapons.) And then Iran (and even North Korea, once it knew its very existence could no longer be threatened by the U.S.) could proceed with the natural development and progression of its society (including, in Iran, progression on gender issues, although women are *much* freer in Iran than in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, two close U.S. allies) to eventually a more secular democracy. Btw, a secular democracy: something the (anti-abortion, anti-concontraceptive, anti-women priest, completely male-dominated Vatican) Pope has *not* been encouraging, but quite the opposite (he thinks that Christianity is not prominent enough in British and other countries' politics, like Brits would want the kind of patriarchal Christian conservative nutcases that we have here in the U.S.), in his recent speaking tour in Britain (and look how socially backward a semi-theocratic Roman Catholic state once kept The Republic of Ireland, before its totaly grasp was finally thrown off there by its public). And, something that the semi-theacratic, religio-ethnic, ideologically Jewish, Zionist, apartheid, Jim Crow, Segregationist state of ISRAEL is *not*: of course, *neither* truly secular *nor* a true democracy (at best, Israel is a "democracy" for *Jews* only).

I'm generally against nuclear weapons, but first we have to interntaionally outlaw them *all* -- because they really are just, ultimately, mega-mass terror weapons to be used on another nation's civilian population. We can't have *some* states possessing and even, like the U.S., constantly *improving* their nuclear weapons in order to dominate and capriciously bully around other states.

Metro  09/22/2010 03:16 PM Report

Absolute disaster! I feel sorry for hundreds of Iranian journalists in jail and thousands of peaceful protesters because the inadequacy of Charlie Rose in interviewing Ahmadinejad will be like rubbing salt on their wounds. Absolute disgrace

robdverity  09/22/2010 02:28 PM Report

Some refreshing cogent rejoinders (immediately) below. None of the tiresome USA can do no wrong BS, when our recent history has damn little right.

Maybe there's hope?

2LtCENCTOM  09/22/2010 02:14 PM Report

TO THE INDIVIDUAL NAMED "shknfth" WHO POSTED A COMMENT. SIR, I AGREE WITH YOUR EVALUATION OF THE SITUATION. YOU ARE CORRECT IN ALL POINTS THAT YOU MADE. IT IS THE TASK OF GOOD AMERICANS SUCH AS YOURSELF TO THINK CRITICALLY AND CAREFULLY ABOUT ISSUES WHICH WILL AFFECT OUR FOREIGN POLICY GOING FORWARD. TWO CLAPS AND A SALUTE TO YOU. GOOD DAY.

IndianDalit  09/22/2010 01:25 PM Report

Thanks Charlie for this interview. Like other commenters, I do wish you had come prepared with better questions.

Although I'm opposed to the hardline fundamentalist stance of the Iranian regime, especially during the aftermath of the elections, I came away from this actually impressed by Ahmadinejad and his ability to counter the propaganda being promulgated in the western media.

He pointed to the hypocrisy of Israel with its nuclear arsenal, American reluctance to talk to he democratically elected government- Hamas, of Palestine, the fact that the POTUS did not respond to his overtures but instead to the Ayatollah, and to many other duplicitous behavior by the USA and its allies.

Everyone loves to quote Ahmadinejad with his threats against Israel. How about the statements below:

Aug 30

" God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague", calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week.

- Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel’s government

teto  09/22/2010 09:27 AM Report

Credit to Charlie Rose (CR) for this lengthy un-sounbite-like interview. Interesting to notice that CR was out-done on pretty much every issue. It's funny if it weren't tragic, because the sound-bites (passing for arguments) we are exposed to every day through the mainstream media, and duly passed on as questions by CR, are so absurdly one-sided and topsy-turvy that they can be easily debunked even by a moderately articulate member of a rather ugly and utterly undemocratic regime. Few gems:

* Ahmadinejad giving CR and the American audience a 101 course on propaganda, when he discusses the coverage of the Iranian woman vs. the American woman, the former still investigated for complicity in murder, the latter already convicted and about to be executed, going as far as giving the US audience a homework: Google search Sakineh Mohammadi-Astiani (the Iranian woman) and Teresa Lewis (the american woman), and see who's coming up more often.

* Ahmadinejad posing another rhetorical question: what's more out of place? The Iranian military on the Iraqi border (Iran shares a border w/ Iraq), or the US military on both borders?

* CR matter-of-factly stating that Abbas "represents the Palestinians", and Ahmadinejad giving him a lecture on democracy (imagine that): Abbas, the leader of Fatah, which lost the election, doesn't represent anybody, since Hamas was democratically elected in an internationally monitored fair election, but the US, didn't like the outcome, with Europe going along.

* CR claiming that the worries about Iran nuclear program go beyond the US, citing none other than Tony Blair, and Ahmadinejad giving him another lesson, stating rightly that Blair should be facing a court of law as a war criminal, and not giving sermons on international affairs.

Again, this tells very little about the Iranian regime, which is pretty ugly, but it says loads about ours, and the fact that our closet is so overflowing w/ skeletons that before even thinking about pointing fingers we have so much cleaning up to do.

doodah  09/22/2010 06:33 AM Report

Mahmoud is the new Fidel (as in Castro) of the new millennium. Ping Pong Pang of N. Korea, I guess, would be, Kahdoffy.

I wish they would get that laser-beam built so we (Americans) can rid the world of those types. When that day comes, the world will be a safer place.

doodah  09/22/2010 06:09 AM Report

Charlie, ask him what he thinks about 'the Industrial Revolution'. If he is for it; then ask him, what was or has been Muslim's contributions. If he is against it; then ask him if he travels in cars and planes? .. he's a loser either way.

doodah  09/22/2010 05:59 AM Report

Mahmoud the dood is kinda like a 'troll' :-)

doodah  09/22/2010 05:48 AM Report

Ah! Let's see, what mahmood is Mahmoud in today? Sounds like he's having a grand all time visiting the 'evil' capitalist country of infidels. Are they providing him with nice clean sheets in Jew York city? .. perhaps he should take in a rodeo down in Texas?.

shknfth  09/22/2010 02:10 AM Report

I am in agreement with many previous commentators that Charlie received a serious verbal spanking. I do not agree with some individuals that he should not have granted Mr. Ahmadinejad this interview. I also sadly admit that Mr. Ahmadinejad made some disturbingly lucid points and provided evidence which Charlie was unable to match. Obviously, Mr. Ahmadinejad is a powerful persuasive speaker with an INCREDIBLE ability to return to his core message (i did my best not to let this influence me). His core message seems to be that the American government is a bunch of self-serving hypocrites.

I will address a few of my concerns.

First, Mr. Ahmadinejad's claim that the stock market in Iran has risen since the inception of sanctions appears to be correct, at least according to Reuter's. I have also seen compelling commentary by experts, within America, on the Iranian people claiming that the sanctions will not weaken the ideological foundation of the Iranian leadership. Thus precluding our desired result.

Second, America is supporting a leader in Palestine that has lost in the popular elections. I am not in support of the actions of Hamas, but what do you do when an entire nation of people support a leadership that engages in questionable behavior?

This last question applies in a disturbing way to our own nation. It now appears obvious that the war in Iraq was founded on intelligence, which if not an outright lie constitutes a failure of American government systems on a scale with which all citizens should be deeply concerned. How now do we justify the deaths of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens? What price should we in America and our leadership pay?

It does appear that the world operates within a double standard.

A previous commentator points out that Mr. Ahmadinejad skirted Charlie's question of providing a logical way forward. I believe that he provided this numerous times in his appeals to begin a dialogue with President Obama and the United States government.

To this end I believe that it is the responsibility of the American leadership to converse with both the Iranian leadership and at the very least the Iranian media. I do not believe that this conversation would in any way indicate our approval of dubious Iranian behaviors. I agree with Mr. Ahmadinejad that our refusal of this right is extremely disrespectful on the part of the American government towards the Iranian people and not in the best interests of transparency and our global future.

It seems that Charlie is unable to make the case of legitimate claims against Iranians on behalf of the American government. Perhaps the government should do it for themselves.

I would love to invite refutation of my comments and the provision of evidence to the contrary. The above ideas are not sentiments that I would like to believe. America is my home and I am trying my best to perceive the ways that it has the best interests of not only American's, but the global community at heart.

DavLev  09/21/2010 11:05 PM Report

One comments, "Why did you do it Charlie?" My sentiments axactly. For that matter, interviewing Bin Ladin would have garnered a larger audience. You dont need the ratings. Look, Iran, no matter what Ahmad said, has violated 4 UNSC resolutions. Does anyone believe that they were pressured?

Ahmad is not as smart, or as cute or as slick as he thinks. His answers begged the questions asked by Charlie, who he totally intimdated. Yes Charlie, this was a hard interview, when your responses are weak, and somewhat guarded. Be open Charlie, be yourself. He agreed to be interviewed, for his benefit, not yours. Hillary a mouthpiece for Obama? I mean come on. She was appointed by him. The Sec of State/President, must be on the same page and he knows it.

The USA does make mistakes..but our people are not tortured behind prison walls for speaking. Your Rev Guards just took over the hq of two protest leaders. Thousands were beaten when they peacefully protested. Sure, some of your hired goon cops were harassed. I saw the pictures, which you later thwarted. Your definition of Israel as a Zionist racist state, is absurd. That tiny country ( never in a war with you), gives it minority populaton more freedoms than any Muslim country. They are in the Israeli legislature, and often side openly with Israel's enemies. No country would allow that. 1.4m refugees if peace talks continue? Where do you get that figure. You blame Israel for all the worlds ills..a country which has fought 8 wars for its survival ( created by the UN along with an Arab state). You

say your stock market has risen since the sanctions. Id say you have a lot of dupes. Your alluding to our list of female prisoners begs the question of your treatment (judiciary) of people convicted. Stoning went out with Jacob, Isaac and Joseph. You are concerned about killing a fly, yet know that 11m people were brutally murdered during WW2. There were trials you know, with evidence.

You say you only arm Hez and Hamas in their own territory.

Tell that to the residents of Sderot and Ashdod..and northern Israel/Lebanon. Why are you arming, in defiance of UN 1701 Hezbollah?

You dismiss the UN as trivial..the same group that is allowing you to speak in New York City, the home of many of the Zionists you want destroyed, and would, if you could.

What is this leading to I ask, the death of 35m Iranians in a full fledged war? Think about that my friend.

Charlie, I watch your show often..expecially the brain series. I enjoyed the interview with the Supreme Ct Judge and others. Dont give this thug and liar a forum, please.

CarolJ  09/21/2010 10:47 PM Report

Charlie, why do you do it? I don't think you are desperate for guests to come on your show! Do you like being his straight man? Once was once too many, now it has been 5 times.Ugh!

Sentient  09/21/2010 07:53 PM Report

Concerning International matters involving Iran, Charlie again tried hard to make unsupportable accusations stick by the way he asks questions: full of innuendo and wrong assumptions. It's obvious to me Charlie does the bidding of Israel and other dangerous right wing groups, and as a result, is no match for the truth, which Ahmadinejad wields like a scimitar. Thus Charlie comes out the fool. At a highlight, Ahmadinejad asked Charlie just what Iran has done wrong, and the first thing Charlie says is, "The US believes Iran is working on a nuclear bomb." What a load of crap. In the end, Charlie indeed deserves the beating he experienced, and it was pitiful, as if he stepped in the ring with a heavyweight champion. Concerning matters inside Iran, it's very unfortunate that Charlie was so unorganized and unprepared to present a serious line of questioning, and in this regard, he let down all those people in Iran suffering under Iran's repressive regime. Charlie, I think you should stick to other topics; let someone else do Israel's hateful bidding, and without such a corrupt agenda, they might be a better match for Ahmadinejad.

robdverity  09/21/2010 06:35 PM Report

Given our penchant for preemptive war, mayhem and destruction we will willingly let ourselves be coaxed into a precipitous move re Iran, with the Israeli's pulling our chain all the way into the abyss. Which along with sky high oil prices and world wide economic collapse, it will validate the weight of nukes and their influence - spreading proliferation even more long term.

OldPatriot  09/21/2010 05:20 PM Report

First: I do not understand much about the politics of the Far East.

It seemed to me that Iran’s president is an interesting contradiction, in that, because you can seldom see his eyes, he presents himself physically as a warm friendly person. The translator certainly helps with her intonation. But as I listened, not an easy task, he was extremely skillful in his ability to appear to answer questions when he really did not. He was able to turn them back on Charlie by twisting them – he is brilliant in his ability to evade and twist. When you really listen, it is surprising how skilfull he is.

I was smart move of Charlie to let him ramble on and hang himself. To have actually argued with him would have disguised how well he twists what is said to him and presents himself so well. He never answered what he wanted President Obama to say or do – he simply does not like what Clinton is doing. In fact, he never really came out and clearly stated what he means, expects, or wants - except to get rid of Ms. Clinton.

It surprises me that the comments received up to now seemed to fall for this kind of longwinded rhetoric. It is frightening that so many are not listening closely and are therefore fooled by this kind of blather. He never gave Charlie an opportunity to speak fully, and in many cases attacked. But he did it so well. It is frightening.

anne4444  09/21/2010 05:16 PM Report

Wow… another great interview. Thank you.

Differences, disagreements and criticisms are one step before the perfection. I felt my mind was opened up by Charlie Rose shows.

anne4444  09/21/2010 05:15 PM Report

Wow… another great interview. Thank you.

Differences, disagreements and criticisms are one step before the perfection. I felt my mind was opened up by Charlie Rose shows.

robdverity  09/21/2010 04:50 PM Report

Overall - it seemed to me that Charlie got a good ole bare-assed spanking.

Gustav  09/21/2010 04:49 PM Report

He might be a liar, but his lies are pretty good if that's the case.

And Everyone lies. Israel seems to be a mess we created, that's all I can say since I am not so educated about its history.

The west truely has been acting in self interest, or at least that's what we have tried to. We should investigate how the situation in Iran is, but we need evidence and can't treat them with such discrimination.

I am so relieved Charlie Rose didnt act as if on a high horse, he really tries to put america and iran at the same level. And I am truely(!) relieved Charlie doesnt mention Isreal as such a great democracy:S geez...

He seems like a big bastard though...

slightly_optimistic  09/21/2010 04:17 PM Report

The president made serious accusations of misinformation and double standards. But he also touched on a point that the US National Intelligence Council and the EU Institute for Security Studies together reported on this week. Multilateral support is necessary to provide global public goods; the necessary support for interventions won't be forthcoming until we have a full accounting for the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

REMant  09/21/2010 03:15 PM Report

These conversations always seem to have the same tenor. Charlie tries to catch Mr Ahmadinejad out, and he counters by pointing out American hypocrisy. And if he doesn't always tell the truth, at least he does tell some highly intelligent falsehoods. David Ignatius wrote recently (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/16/AR2010091606067.html) that the administration wants Iranian help re Afghanistan, which they have offered, but since that conflicts with our position on the nuclear issue, we have been reluctant to take them up on it. The same thing happened in 2006, and I think we can chalk it up to Israeli influence, or more likely, threats. Kuwait, however, just announced that it would in the next decade build four nuclear plants. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have similar plans. Has anyone complained about them? But of course we backed Sadaam because of the Iranian revolution, which resulted in holding the US embassy hostage, not nuclear weapons. If the Iranian govt wants better relations, it should get their zealots under better control. The verbiage tho should be seen as the posturing it is. Like it or not, we have to treat them as we would expect to be treated, or more precisely, since there are cultural diffs, as THEY expect to be treated. However, I'm sure that if they attack someone, they expect retaliation. Isn't that good enough for us? My attitude remains the same: sanctions etc, are counterproductive, and a preemptive strike would not only be useless, but foolhardy. It might ease tensions considerably if we told the world we would consider an unprovoked attack by Israel (or Tony Blair) on Iran as the same as on the US.

ShalomFreedman  09/21/2010 02:31 PM Report

Ahmadinejad is a smiling hypocritical lying scum. His every answer is evasive. He is evil and a person who may be responsible for a tremendously destructive war. His regime continues to defy the world, and lie to it in regard to its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Should it attain those weapons the whole global strategic balance will change.

He is also the would - be- destroyer of Israel, and the

would be destroyer of 'the capitalist system'. He believes that a new world order is coming in which Iran will be the central power and the United States defeated.

His regime is a supporter of terror throughout the Middle East. He is a major funder and supplier of weapons to Hizbollah and Hamas.

Charlie Rose was somewhat better I think in this interview than in previous ones with Ahmadinejad. There wasn't the same degree of flattery. There were reasonable lead- off questions but no real follow - up and no contradicting of Ahmadinejad in depth except perhaps on the human - rights question. It would have been deeply appreciated had Charlie Rose actually defended first the United States and then the one regime in the Middle East which is a true democracy, Israel.

Ahamadinejad is no fool. He is extremely dangerous. And he should be stopped immediately.

I am not sure how wise it is to repeatedly give him opportunity to repeat his lies and propaganda effort. Perhaps Charlie Rose would have done more of a public service had he given a full show or perhaps even five to the Iranian dissidents and opponents of the regime. We certainly would have learned more from them about the true Iran than we did from this sickening repetition of disgusting drivel.

Wakeup2  09/21/2010 02:13 PM Report

President Ahmadinejad is absolutely right Hillery Clinton acting is belligerent and arrogant and basically a bully in regard to Iranian issues and that is not in American national interest she should resign ! She create more tension between the two countries and that is dangerous and America does not need another war! someone in the administration need to talk to her,Iran is a respected old civilization and talking politely and respectably goes long way !