Friday, January 20, 2006

Keith Olbermann Interviews William Blum

MSNBC “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann interviewed author William Blum tonight about Osama bin Laden purportedly recommending that Americans read Blum’s book Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower. Below is the interview transcript.

Olberman: Just 24 hours after bin Laden’s statement, the book jumps over 209,500 places on the Amazon bestseller list. Obviously, any author would like that kind of leap. But how do you feel about the fact that it’s the result of a recommendation of a mass murderer?

Blum: That doesn’t bother me. If he and I share a deep resentment of certain aspects of U.S. foreign policy, as my book does, and he shares those views, that taken by itself doesn’t bother me. The book stands on its own legs. People who read the book, they will either find it credible or they will not find it credible. And it doesn’t matter who recommended or not, the book stands by itself. And I’m very anxious to have as many people read it as can be. If his endorsement—if that’s the word to use—gets it to many more people then I’m glad.

Olbermann: It seems almost facile to point this out, but you did not obviously ask for that to happen. But it has happened. And inadvertently this leads to financial reward. Do you have a plan for the additional profit here?

Blum: I have no idea whatsoever how much money is involved. Those rankings are not the same as sales. We’re not talking about large numbers. This edition of my book, only about 2,000 copies were printed. So, there can’t be too much of a sale.

Olbermann: In the audio message, bin Laden specifically referenced the introduction to your book, saying that you had said, let me quote it exactly, “if I were a president, I would halt the operations against the United States. First, I will extend my apologies to the widows, orphans and the persons who were tortured. Afterwards, I will announce that the U.S. interference in the world countries has ended forever,” ending the quote from bin Laden. Am I right that’s not even from your book, “Rogue State”?

Blum: No, it’s not. It’s taken from something I wrote which appears in one of my other books. It probably also appears all over the Internet because I’ve used it in various speeches I’ve given and the writings of mine. So it’s very easy to find that paragraph on the Internet. And what he quotes there is just a small portion only of that paragraph.

Olbermann: There’s a certain irony to that too. Given the fact that the book is meant to explain what people like bin Laden would list as their reasons for enmity towards the U.S., I guess this is understating this. You’ve probably gotten a lot of blowback from people here who do not want to hear that, who do not want to believe there’s a rationale, even if it’s flawed or prismed in a bad way, or something like that. But can somebody—I’m not trying to be patronizing here—but can somebody read your book without, as I heard it phrased on this network last night, being in bed with Osama bin Laden?

Blum: Yes. When I wrote the book I was not in bed with him. I hadn’t even heard of him. The first edition of it was written before 9/11 even. The book, it stands quite independent of any Islamic fundamentalist or any terrorist movement. It attempts to explain the motivations and the minds of terrorists. Now the people who think that the anti-American terrorists are just mindless, irrational beasts with no good reason for doing what they do. But in the minds of these terrorists, there is a rational motivation and I attempt to explain that. And I think it’s important for Americans to understand that these people in their own minds have a very clear and good motivation.

Olbermann: It is amazing to think that the people who are most virulently opposed to the Osama bin Ladens of this world, with good reason, often don’t want to hear any of the logic behind the behavior behind Osama bin Laden and the others when, at minimum, you could use whatever knowledge you gain of that against people like Osama bin Laden.

Blum: Well, what I suggest is that you use that knowledge to rectify the situation because basically it’s U.S. foreign policy which creates anti-American terrorists. It’s the things we do to the world. It’s not, as the White House tells us, that they hate our freedom and democracy. That’s just propaganda. They hate our foreign policy. They hate what we do to them. The bombings and the invasions and the occupations and the torture and a whole bunch of other things. And if what I have in my book can lead to changes in our foreign policy, that would be the purpose I’m looking for.

Olbermann: Bill Blum, the author of “Rogue State,” the book, inadvertently perhaps, mentioned in the Osama bin Laden tape yesterday and somewhat erroneously mentioned, great, thanks for your time tonight sir.

Blum: Thank you very much.

Comments (3)

Printer Friendly Format | Tell-a-Friend

Next: Wikipedia's Accountability Problem -->

<-- Previous: Press Action Hero of the Week: EAMON JAVERS

Support Press Action