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twotap
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Obama chooses Arab network for first TV interview
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Jan 27, 7:01 AM (ET)
By PAUL SCHEMM
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday chose an Arabic satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, delivering a message to the Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy."
The interview underscored Obama's commitment to repair relations with the Muslim world that have suffered under the previous administration.
The president expressed an intention to engage the Middle East immediately and his new envoy to the region, former Sen. George J. Mitchell, was expected to arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for a visit that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy," Obama told the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel.
Obama said the U.S. had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."
During his presidency, former President George W. Bush gave several interviews to Al-Arabiya but the wars he launched in Iraq and Afghanistan prompted a massive backlash against the U.S. in the Muslim world.
Al-Arabiya has scored interviews with top U.S. officials in the past, including Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The Saudi-owned channel is seen by some in Washington as more balanced in its coverage than its Qatar-funded rival Al-Jazeera, which the previous White House administration complained had an anti-American bias.
Obama called for a new partnership with the Muslim world "based on mutual respect and mutual interest." He talked about growing up in Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous nation, and noted that he has Muslim relatives.
The new president said he felt it was important to "get engaged right away" in the Middle East and had directed Mitchell to talk to "all the major parties involved." His administration would craft an approach after that, he said in the interview.
"What I told him is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating," Obama told the interviewer.
The president reiterated the U.S. commitment to Israel as an ally and to its right to defend itself. But he suggested that both Israel and the Palestinians have hard choices to make.
"I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people," he said, calling for a Palestinian state that is contiguous with internal freedom of movement and can trade with neighboring countries.
Obama also said that recent statements and messages issued by the al-Qaida terror network suggest they do not know how to deal with his new approach.
"They seem nervous," he told the interviewer. "What that tells me is that their ideas are bankrupt."
In his latest message on Jan. 14, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden said Obama had been left with a "heavy inheritance" of Bush's wars.
Shortly after the election, the network's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri used a demeaning racial term for a black American who does the bidding of whites to describe Obama.
The message suggested the terror network was worried Obama could undermine its rallying cry that the U.S. is an enemy oppressor.
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Yup that little thing that happened to the world trade center we probably had coming after all Obamas preacher said as much. In fact its all Bushs fault. Wow who could have predicated this??
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:17 pm |
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ManinthePinStripeSuit
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If any blame should be placed on someone I would place
it on ALL the past Presidents (Maybe Excluding) Bill Clinton.
However, AS a Muslim myself I suppose the President for
trying to heal the wounded global wise. Whatever happened
here in American might have been because of our Government
attitude, or the harm that we have caused other countries.
I believe that the American people should support the true
efforts to make things right, and if the blame should be placed
on Bush so be it. I also believe that the move that Bush made
to take Saddam down was wrong, and why haven't Bin Liden
been taken down? Wasn't he the one who everyone is blaming
for 911?, and what did the way Saddam ran his country have to
do with 911?
Bush had the power to get revenge for what Saddam did to
his Father during Desert Storm, and he used that power to
take the wrong person down. So now WE have a President
who is trying to make friends around the globe, and just
because he made a choice to use a Arab Network people
are uptight about that.
Most of US voted Obama into the Oval room, due to the
fact that we have trust in him, and like I said a few days
ago in one of my posts was Obama voted into office so
that the America poor economic problems be placed on his
shoulders? The man is to smart to be used as an escapegoat. |
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WilliamX
MIB Doom Squad |
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Tue Jan 27, 2009 3:15 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
(Maybe Excluding) Bill Clinton.
Ya right the guy that had bin laden handed to him several times and let him go. Yup its our fault like you as a Muslim stated. By the way when is it ever wrong to take down an evil dictator who slaughtered thousands of humans. And of course I noticed no mention of blame attributed to your "peace loving" religion. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:52 pm |
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ManinthePinStripeSuit
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
twotap schreef:
quote:
(Maybe Excluding) Bill Clinton.
Ya right the guy that had bin laden handed to him several times and let him go. Yup its our fault like you as a Muslim stated. By the way when is it ever wrong to take down an evil dictator who slaughtered thousands of humans. And of course I noticed no mention of blame attributed to your "peace loving" religion.
Twotap, wrong is wrong Buddy. However my religion has nothing to
do with the bs that Daddy Bush & Son did. So STOP trying to combine
Religion with the damage that your former President did. After 911
American showed its hate towards ALL Muslims, not realizing that not
ALL Muslims agreed with 911 happening, and not ALL Muslims was
responsibile for 911. Suppose if America was to bash your Catholic
faith for having Gay/ Homosexual Freaks who call themselves Preists
would that involve you?
Sure, What Saddam did was wrong, but was Bush his Judge and
his Jury? (if so who made Bush GOD)? Again, Why Bush did not,
and have captured Bin Liden? Two, I like communicating with you
Republicians, due to the fact that everyone is wrong except your
political party members.
In closing, If your political party was so great why did it allow
Wall Street and the Big 3 to ask for Tax Payers dollars? So
lets stay focus on things that we need to stay focus on my
Flint Talk Bubby.  |
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WilliamX
MIB Doom Squad |
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Tue Jan 27, 2009 7:07 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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| Who said my political party was great??? They have turned into a bunch of gutless wishy washy wimps who wont take a stand for the people who elect them. Is it any wonder that Baracko won???? |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:04 pm |
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back again
F L I N T O I D
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well.....all i will say is it makes sense to attempt a calmer friendlier planet.
of course, president obama is no fool. if america gets "jacked" again, look out mofos, here we come!!!  |
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Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:10 pm |
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Adam
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quote:
twotap schreef:
By the way when is it ever wrong to take down an evil dictator who slaughtered thousands of humans.
Well in our case I guess it's when they're no longer useful like with Osama and Saddam both of whom the U.S. originally supported in the war on communism and the war with Iran respectively. |
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Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:43 am |
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twotap
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Here"s a great analysis of those peace loving followers of Islam.
This is by far the best explanation of the Muslim terrorist situation I have ever read. His references to past history are accurate and clear.
Not long, easy to understand, and well worth the read. The author of this email is Dr. Emanuel Tanay, a well known and well respected psychiatrist.
A German's View on Islam:
A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything.
I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.
We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.
The hard quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
China 's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel and bayonet.
And, who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.
As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world wide, read this and think about it, and send it on before it's too late.
Emanuel Tanay, M.D.
2980 Provincial St. Ann Arbor , MI 48104
734-997-0256 |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:01 am |
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ManinthePinStripeSuit
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quote:
twotap schreef:
Who said my political party was great??? They have turned into a bunch of gutless wishy washy wimps who wont take a stand for the people who elect them. Is it any wonder that Baracko won????
 2Tap, What you Posted is the reason why Obama won, |
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WilliamX
MIB Doom Squad |
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Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:30 pm |
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