Bin Laden boosts anti-Bush book

[the caracal kid]

Bin Laden boosts anti-Bush book


Sunday 22 January 2006, 2:25 Makka Time, 23:25 GMT


Bin Laden says it will be useful to read Rogue State



Related:
Bin Laden offers Americans truce



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Osama bin Laden has unwittingly shot an obscure book by a Washington historian into one of the nation's bestseller lists by recommending it in his latest verbal attack on the United States.



Since the al-Qaida leader mentioned Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower in his tape on Thursday, William Blum's book has gone from 205,763 on the Amazon.com list of bestsellers to number 27 on Saturday.

As he fought off media attention, Blum, 72, who lives in a one-room apartment in the US capital, told US media he had no regrets about the boost from bin Laden and had not received any threats.

"This is almost as good as being an Oprah book," he told The Washington Post, referring to the successful book club run by American television media celebrity Oprah Winfrey.

"I was not turned off by the endorsement," he told a New York radio station. "I am not repulsed and I am not going to pretend I am."

Reading list

Terrorism and political experts started scrambling for reference books after bin Laden said in his message: "If Bush carries on with his lies and oppression, it would be useful for you to read Rogue State."

Bin Laden then went on to quote from Blum's book which says that if the writer were the US president, he would "give an apology to all the widows and orphans and all those who were tortured. Then I would announce that American interference in the nations of the world has ended once and for all."

"I am not repulsed and I am not going to pretend I am"

William Blum,
author

Blum said that up to Thursday Rogue State and his other book Killing Hope had sold about 150,000 copies in English and other languages.

His publisher, Common Courage Press, could not give an estimate of the boost given by bin Laden's reference.

Foreign policy problems

Blum has made it clear that there was no justification for the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, but that they were "an understandable retaliation against US foreign policy".

The son of Polish immigrants, Blum worked at the State Department in the 1960s, but the Vietnam war turned him against US foreign policy, and he quit to help found an underground newspaper, the Washington Free Press.

Though Rogue State may not be to the taste of President George Bush's administration, it has many fans in academia.

Peter Dale Scott, an author and former professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said: "Critics will call this a one-sided book. But it is an invaluable corrective to the establishment portrait of America as the world's greatest force for peace."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0BA8F79A-B5DB-4A69-B983-A30CBBE087D8.htm

 

[Jay]

Maybe we can hand deliver an autographed copy of it to him....

 

[Colpy]

Bin Laden boosts anti-Bush book


Sunday 22 January 2006, 2:25 Makka Time, 23:25 GMT


Bin Laden says it will be useful to read Rogue State



Related:
Bin Laden offers Americans truce



Tools:
Email Article
Print Article
Send Your Feedback




Osama bin Laden has unwittingly shot an obscure book by a Washington historian into one of the nation's bestseller lists by recommending it in his latest verbal attack on the United States.



Since the al-Qaida leader mentioned Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower in his tape on Thursday, William Blum's book has gone from 205,763 on the Amazon.com list of bestsellers to number 27 on Saturday.

As he fought off media attention, Blum, 72, who lives in a one-room apartment in the US capital, told US media he had no regrets about the boost from bin Laden and had not received any threats.

"This is almost as good as being an Oprah book," he told The Washington Post, referring to the successful book club run by American television media celebrity Oprah Winfrey.

"I was not turned off by the endorsement," he told a New York radio station. "I am not repulsed and I am not going to pretend I am."

Reading list

Terrorism and political experts started scrambling for reference books after bin Laden said in his message: "If Bush carries on with his lies and oppression, it would be useful for you to read Rogue State."

Bin Laden then went on to quote from Blum's book which says that if the writer were the US president, he would "give an apology to all the widows and orphans and all those who were tortured. Then I would announce that American interference in the nations of the world has ended once and for all."

"I am not repulsed and I am not going to pretend I am"

William Blum,
author

Blum said that up to Thursday Rogue State and his other book Killing Hope had sold about 150,000 copies in English and other languages.

His publisher, Common Courage Press, could not give an estimate of the boost given by bin Laden's reference.

Foreign policy problems

Blum has made it clear that there was no justification for the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, but that they were "an understandable retaliation against US foreign policy".

The son of Polish immigrants, Blum worked at the State Department in the 1960s, but the Vietnam war turned him against US foreign policy, and he quit to help found an underground newspaper, the Washington Free Press.

Though Rogue State may not be to the taste of President George Bush's administration, it has many fans in academia.

Peter Dale Scott, an author and former professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said: "Critics will call this a one-sided book. But it is an invaluable corrective to the establishment portrait of America as the world's greatest force for peace."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0BA8F79A-B5DB-4A69-B983-A30CBBE087D8.htm

No big deal.

This guy is simply an isolationist, he believes the USA should never become involved in the affairs or wars of the world outside of its own borders.

This is certainly a respectable view, and one with a long history, straight back to the American Revolution.

It is, unfortunately, wrong, and behind the times. But you've a right to be wrong.

 

[Curiosity]

I guess it will be okay to post this here.... I couldn't find any applicable topic threads:

Essay posted on the internet .... author only identified as an Australian

To Kill an American

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)

"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan. "

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.

The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

I add binLaden to that last paragraph of blood thirsty tyrants who have...

 

[Jay]

Thats a great editorial, thanks WC.

 

[the caracal kid]

and while adding OBL,don't forget to add who made him...

things are not so different, all rhetoric aside.

 

[pastafarian]

This guy is simply an isolationist, he believes the USA should never become involved in the affairs or wars of the world outside of its own borders.

Wrong. I think you're confusing him with Pat Buchanan. :roll:

I've read Blum's work.

He believes that the US government should stop arming, training and giving troops to brutal dictators who torture and kill innocents to prevent democratically elected governments from helping their people or from getting elected ion the first place. (Calling them "Communists" was a favourite trick, though "terrorist" is the current favourite smear).

He thinks that the US, which has toppled more democratically-elected governments than any other country, is a hypocritical state that serves only corporate interests. He is in favour of humanitarian interventions, but sees that these are of no interest to US governments, despite the daily brainwashing to the contrary that Americans are exposed to from birth.

 

[Curiosity]

A correction to my Kill An American post

Snopes has another angle and apparently the article was not written as publicized....I'll print out the change for the readers and my apologies:
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/america2.htm

Origins: As the reaction to pieces from a Canadian broadcaster and a Romanian journalist demonstrate, Americans take great delight in encomiums to America and Americans authored by citizens of other nations.

This piece isn't such a case. The "What is an American?" article quoted above was not penned by an Australian (or a dentist), but by Peter Ferrara, an associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law in Northern Virginia. Mr. Ferrara's commentary was originally published in the National Review on 25 September 2001.

(Text enclosed in brackets was not part of Mr. Ferrara's piece as published, but was added by someone else.)

Last updated: 29 March 2002

 

[missile]

What will the next Pick of The Month be for the Bin Laden Book Club? First Oprah and now this :twisted:

 

[Hank C]

That was a great post Wednesday's Child..thanks

 

[Curiosity]

Hank

Thank you and sorry about the origin of the piece. I should know better than lift something from the internet without checking but the writing was worth a read to me....regardless of the author.

CaracalKid...

Who made binLaden? The madrassas of Pakistan and the Mullahs who set him up to believe the U.S. was satan on earth. When Gulf One utilized Saudi air and land space he went ballistic which set him on his path which we now witness. In addition, he was outcast from his family for his views and their cooperation with the coalition forces in Gulf One.

A reminder to western democracies.... the world does not always agree with peace. Money can purchase hate, violence and terrorist acts too.