Weekend Must Listen!
Stop what you're doing! Your ass is mine for the next hour. You're only excused if you have to go pee or get a cup of coffee; otherwise, dump your rump in that chair and turn up the volume on your comp.
I don't care if you are a liberal or a conservative; this goes beyond partisanship. Click here. Mike, if you can't podcast it while you're sunbathing out at the beach, print out the interview transcript, and don't confuse it for a sunscreen.
Lawrence Wright has the most comprehensive book, "The Looming Tower", on al-Qaeda, its roots, and the events that led up to 9/11. Seriously, this is most riveting thing you will do all weekend long, other than watch 60 Minutes sunday (I believe the LA Times mentions Musharraf will be on there)...and maybe Clinton's interview on Fox News Sunday (Think Progress has the rough-and-ready transcript).
I first heard the author on Dennis Prager, right before the 5th anniversary of 9/11. Here's the show, which also included Richard Miniter. And I recall that on 9/11, Hugh Hewitt was blogging about how much he was riveted to Lawrence Wright's book.
Here's an account of John O'Neill in the New Yorker, written by Lawrence Wright, for those interested, further.
UPDATE: An interesting read from Born Again Redneck: "Freedom and Justice in Islam", featuring an article by Bernard Lewis.
I don't care if you are a liberal or a conservative; this goes beyond partisanship. Click here. Mike, if you can't podcast it while you're sunbathing out at the beach, print out the interview transcript, and don't confuse it for a sunscreen.
Lawrence Wright has the most comprehensive book, "The Looming Tower", on al-Qaeda, its roots, and the events that led up to 9/11. Seriously, this is most riveting thing you will do all weekend long, other than watch 60 Minutes sunday (I believe the LA Times mentions Musharraf will be on there)...and maybe Clinton's interview on Fox News Sunday (Think Progress has the rough-and-ready transcript).
I first heard the author on Dennis Prager, right before the 5th anniversary of 9/11. Here's the show, which also included Richard Miniter. And I recall that on 9/11, Hugh Hewitt was blogging about how much he was riveted to Lawrence Wright's book.
Here's an account of John O'Neill in the New Yorker, written by Lawrence Wright, for those interested, further.
UPDATE: An interesting read from Born Again Redneck: "Freedom and Justice in Islam", featuring an article by Bernard Lewis.
Labels: 9/11, al-Qaeda, Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, terrorism
posted by The WordSmith from Nantucket at 9/23/2006 06:48:00 AM
7 Comments:
Dang that was lonnnnnnnnng! But at least I was able to listen to it. Thanks, Wordsmith. I really want to buy the book after listening to the interview. It's truly informative; chock full of information we have not gotten, and will not get, from the MSM and probably not from anywhere else. This book is a must read!
I disagree with Jen. I believe his personal life has nothing to do with how efficient he was in his duties as the national coordinator for counter-terrorism, which is what the article you linked to is about. I don't like prying into people's private lives, and I believe that until you walk in another's shoes you shouldn't throw stones. We don't know what his reasons were for lying to higher-ups while in the FBI. As far as his reasons for the girlfriends, I would say that is only his wife's business, because he is now dead. If he were alive and the president of the United States, that would be a different matter entirely.
I can see where you are both coming from. John O'Neill is one of those heroes, flawed and magnficently larger-than-life at the same time. It is always a bit disappointing to learn about the personal character weaknesses, flaws, failings- whatever you wish to call them, when in their professional lives they are role models to inspire. It just goes to humanize our heroes as imperfect and struggling like the rest of us. A mixture of good and bad.
Gayle, I am so glad that you took the time to listen to the program. Thank you for doing that! I know we have to make choices on how to ration out our time and energy with so much to read out there in the blogosphere, and to watch/listen to.
When you get your high-speed connection, I hope the Sheehan vid at the top of my blog is one of the first things you finally watch.
A friend of mine has the book and promised to loan it to me when he's done... hopefully I'll get to it along with the monstrous stack I already have.
Sigh. So many to read!
OK... I'm taking the transcript to the beach.
It's SIXTEEN pages long! I'll never finish my summer beach book at this rate.
OK... I did my homework and I want a gold star on my report card. A few thoughts:
-I agree with Wright that we STILL don't have enough native Arabic speakers who know the languages and culture from experience. Good point about all the Irish Catholics working on counter-terrorism at the FBI.
-Sad story about the 12 year old boys "recruited" and wickedly used by Egyptian intelligence to spy on Al Queda #2 Zawahiri. Even worse that Zawahiri executed the boys and FILMED it for propaganda.
-And the incident where bin Laden and friends hack up and entire garrison of Afghan troops after the Soviet occupation was a grim reminder of what may be in store for all those who fail to submit to Islamic fascists demands.
-The bit about bin Laden's height and the other myths about him and the active "misinformation" should sound a cautionary note to those who want to celebrate the latest annoucement of his death.
-The warning about the US taking on Iran and Syria... Good point. Not sure if Wright's hope for the best and negotiate strategy is better.
-Anwar Sadat, himself a devout Muslim, thought he could make peace with the Egyptian radicals. He paid with his life. A lesson for all those who think we can appease this enemy.
- Sudan and the offer to hand bin Laden over to Clinton.... Too bad Chris Wallace didn't ask Sick Willy about that one.
-Wright is all for our democracy in the Middle East policy. He sees it as the best of many bad options. Absolutely agree.
---***The warning about the final battle set for 2020 is a corroborated by this:
http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/2006/02/radical-islams-20-year-plan-to.html
Mike,
I saw your comment at Flopping Aces, reminding me to give you a gold star.
So you got it! Thanks for giving me your analysis. Hope you enjoyed your time at the beach, too.
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