Obama Gives First Interview to Al-Arabiya

In what is being touted as a "significant" and "symbolic" move, President Obama has given his first TV interview to Al-Arabiya, a station with a large Arab and Muslim audience (Saudi-sponsored, previously criticized by Rumsfeld as "anti-American").



With his characteristic balance, Obama drew a distinction between terrorists and the Muslim world that the previous administration failed to do. He also advocated a diplomatic and, at the same time, "listening" approach.

Among his quotables,

"I think that you're making a very important point. And that is that the language we use matters," he said, according to a transcript provided by the White House. "We cannot paint with a broad brush a faith as a consequence of the violence that is done in that faith's name. I cannot respect terrorist organizations that would kill innocent civilians and we will hunt them down. But to the broader Muslim world what we are going to be offering is a hand of friendship."

UK Jewish MP: Israelis Acting Like Nazis in Gaza

Yes, it is true, and finally someone has the courage to say it: Israelis are doing to Gazans what Nazis did to them, albeit on a smaller scale. They rounded them up, starved them nearly to death, and then proceeded to slaughter the defenseless people. And the reasons are the same, too. It is first, and publicly, for security. It is second, and less publicly, for the benefit of the Chosen, the Superior ethnic group. In short, it is slaughter based on racism and militaristic security-hype.

Inspiration, Moving Mountains, & Barack Obama in Berlin

This is one of those moments that should lift the spirit. Not everyone is ready, or in the mood. But consider this: what US Presidential candidate in the last 40 years has inspired people, I mean inspired people around the world? What is more important, the ability to impress military commanders and people who fear foreigners or the ability to inspire cooperation and a sense of hope? Especially after being raked by fear and run by a gang that invades sovereign nations, tortures, and builds a gulag of prisons, secret and public. Here is more hope than "the man from Hope" ever brought.

New Video of Omar Khadr Interrogation

This is my first uploaded video clip! And it's a blockbuster. According to the Guardian:

At the time the video was produced, February 2003, Khadr was 16. He had been subjected to what guards called the "frequent flyer" programme, in which detainees are deprived of sleep.
In Khadr's case, he was prevented from sleeping for more than three hours at a time for 21 days.
In the footage broadcast yesterday, Khadr's despair at his indefinite confinement is palpable. He strips his orange prison uniform over his head, rocks and holds his face in his hands, weeping and begging for help. "You don't care about me," he tells interrogators.
Commentators described his indistinct moans as Khadr saying: "help me", "kill me", or even calling for his mother in Arabic.
The video, which the Canadian government handed over to Khadr's lawyers on the orders of Canada's supreme court, was the first sight of some seven hours of footage of his interrogation by Canadian agents. The images were recorded by a camera hidden in an air shaft as Khadr was questioned over four days.

Of course, many right-wingers will look for "clues" to "lack of abuse." Followed by doubletalk. But see for yourself.