Trigood
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http://www.ket.org/cgi-bin/cheetah/watch_video.pl?nola=kkauf+000902
Kentucky Author Forum Presents a Conversation with Lawrence Wright
Author, screenwriter, and New Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wright discusses his book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Based on five years of research, it chronicles the events leading up to 9/11, including the terrorist planning and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. A 2006 KET production taped at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville. (premiered Nov 5, 2006)
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A fascinating interview. This guy is so knowledgeable. He talks about the early beginnings of radical Islam and how Al-Zwahari (?) hooked up with Bin Laden, basically for his funds. (They both used each other, was the implication.)
One statement he made that stuck out to me was something like (paraphrase), "We wouldn't be having this conversation about Al Qaeda if we hadn't gone into Iraq." He says we got 80% of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan -- in other words, most of AQ except for the leaders. He discusses how Iraq is a great training camps for AQ because they can hone their skills against the best military in the world.
Toward the end, he talks some more about Muslim culture, comparing Europe to the U.S. How we are safer in the U.S. because the Muslims here are richer and less radical. But how most Muslims ultimately see AQ as a death cult that embraces suicide, something expressly forbidden in the Q'uran. How Egypt is "ready for democracy," as he put it.
How do you all see these issues? What should we do now in Iraq?
(Have I opened a huge can of worms with this thread? Maybe I should go hide now....
)
ETA: I sort of wanted to put this in the Conspiracy Theories section, where I normally "hang out," and because this guy's specialized knowledge directly contradicts the woo CTs, but I thought this forum was appropriate, too.
Kentucky Author Forum Presents a Conversation with Lawrence Wright
Author, screenwriter, and New Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wright discusses his book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Based on five years of research, it chronicles the events leading up to 9/11, including the terrorist planning and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. A 2006 KET production taped at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville. (premiered Nov 5, 2006)
---------------------------
A fascinating interview. This guy is so knowledgeable. He talks about the early beginnings of radical Islam and how Al-Zwahari (?) hooked up with Bin Laden, basically for his funds. (They both used each other, was the implication.)
One statement he made that stuck out to me was something like (paraphrase), "We wouldn't be having this conversation about Al Qaeda if we hadn't gone into Iraq." He says we got 80% of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan -- in other words, most of AQ except for the leaders. He discusses how Iraq is a great training camps for AQ because they can hone their skills against the best military in the world.
Toward the end, he talks some more about Muslim culture, comparing Europe to the U.S. How we are safer in the U.S. because the Muslims here are richer and less radical. But how most Muslims ultimately see AQ as a death cult that embraces suicide, something expressly forbidden in the Q'uran. How Egypt is "ready for democracy," as he put it.
How do you all see these issues? What should we do now in Iraq?
(Have I opened a huge can of worms with this thread? Maybe I should go hide now....
)ETA: I sort of wanted to put this in the Conspiracy Theories section, where I normally "hang out," and because this guy's specialized knowledge directly contradicts the woo CTs, but I thought this forum was appropriate, too.
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