focus interviews assad author of the angry arab news service a popular online blog about politics war the middle east arabic poetry and art and he's a professor and outspoken proponent for one secular state in palestine grew up in beirut lebanon and came to the u s in one thousand nine hundred three where he received his ph d in comparative government from georgetown university he has served as freelance middle east consultant for n b c and a b c news and is now a professor of political science at california state university stanislaus and a visiting professor at u c berkeley in this interview he speaks with us on issues ranging from the heated us elections to the war in iraq i believe the number one factor which explains america's entanglement and heavy involvement in the middle east is a desire to dominate the world and i think the middle east is important because the united this covered before september eleventh but certainly after september eleventh that the arab and muslim public opinion are defined against us will to dominate the world they don't like the united states not for cultural or religious reasons not because of american way of life they have no qualms about barbecues in american going to malls and shopping it's about fundamental political issues that's what dr adams and to proceed to u s political economic interests and of course american support for israel the domination of other countries and wars i mean i know this may hurt america's feelings but arabs do not find the bombs that fall over that has to be enjoyable even if they are with regard to the american population and they don't seem to enjoy american occupation even th americans think that their occupation and colonization of other lands are benign unlike all other occupations and colonization of other lands so one is dominating the world and this is now the conflict with russia how d russia sends troops across their border because they feel their national security is threatened because the united states would never do something like that their american media and the people are aghast how their russia uses the rub of national security in order to send troops across their border i mean imagine that if doing that or even sending troops across what ten thousand miles away to a place like iraq we would never do that the american public would not do that because the two mothers for that second  on of course are in energy resources the united states is very keenly aware that the largest deposits of proven reserves of oil are found in that part of the world and they want to make sure that the supply is uninterrupted there is something celebrated about these war profiteers defense companies are now the pride and glory i guess of people in the our state fourthly i think the gender of the christian right has not gotten much attention because i think in the bush administration a lot of people conservative but we lost sight of a lobby that i think was much more influential on bush's mind if we can use that expression in the case of that person and that is the christian lobby heavy agenda on israel and of course they were supportive of the war in iraq and afghanistan and against any country provided the citizens are muslims preferably we have also considerations that are related to such need to kick some ass i mean this was the language was used in congressional hearings this is a language that was not alien to the u s president of the united states this is why the warden of get the war on afghanistan was supported by ninety three percent of the american population nobody asked questions nobody asked are we punishing the right culprits are we killing the people who really attacked us on september eleventh so all this is totally missing from the picture about what america is doing around the world and i think we can also add the false lessons of the cold war the end of the cold war have said some of the worst instincts in the united states i basically gave some as if a divine reinforcement of the self righteousness of this country as if god decided because god is very involved in various affairs people think that god is even supporting the united states against other teams in the olympics i mean that's the nature of religion here in this country and they believe that the end of the cold war was a vindication of the arrogant self righteous of the united states and we need to act accordingly and this characterizes the clinton recession as well as this administration and unfortunately very likely whatever administration that will come i mean i think with that interesting in watching the american presidential election is the extent to which we have split perceptions about these elections you see how it's covered in the middle east and you see how it's covered here in the united states foreign policy is not big at all in the discourse i mean you watch the silly coverage today and so much about the feud between hillary and between obama in the middle east there is such attention paid to the nuances and the blatant statements that are being made about the a question and foreign policy in general the same is the nature of the coverage in european press and i think there are certain things remain unchanged i mean for people in the middle east they notice that american presidential campaigns always are characterized with stiff competition between the various candidates to prove their own credentials in the pro israeli advocacy today there is a new ad just released by the mccain campaign which basically accuses obama of not being sufficient  sensitive to thirst against israel from iran and of course people in the middle east are baffled about this because they find that both obama and mccain are extremely unconditionally militant in their support and advocacy for israel above all other interests  america may have in the middle east and yet it's not enough i mean one wonders what else do they want you see that john mccain is willing to move america's embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem do they also want to move america's embassies in from cairo and damascus also to jerusalem so i mean there are all these things going on and one also notices the disappointment that people have in the middle east is that you have a rising star in the democratic party somebody who had some progressive background  you talk to people in chicago he was very active in pro palestinian issues in chicago and as you rise up in american politics and this to happen also to hillary clinton your sensitivity to palestinian concerns diminishes because that's part of the price you have to pay in order to rise up in american presidential politics and i think what is also lacking is that the way people talk about iraq and afghanistan only in terms of u s troops i mean there is not attention paid to how is this is affecting the lives of average iraqis and afghans i mean there is not anything is being said about the women of afghanistan because the propaganda was that they were liberated and of course we read about it in the sosa case of european as well as the middle east process crimes against women continue no of can you stand i mean basically what america did replaced a group of misjudging this taliban with a group of warlords and as far as the lives of women afghanistan not much has changed basically the name of their oppressors have changed and of course we have american troops and their allies of supplying these countries you have iraq nobody is talking about the fact that the iraqis are making it very clear in public opinion surveys and even in negotiations with the puppet government that was installed by the united states they don't want american troops to stay of course american troops and their allies lest i forget that now mongolian troops are now up to one hundred up from thirty eight soldiers now they have one hundred some countries have sent like three or two forces for some reason unbeknownst to me so you watch this campaign and you feel that in the next few years america's foreign policy and he security in america are going to be suffering because of the crimes that this administration has done in faraway places and americans always assume that their intervention abroad they call it the policeman of the world to give it the best  cover possible is that intervention they think is always innocent is always well motivated unbeknownst to them america around the world is propping up some of the worst criminals and dictators i mean as far as the wars in afghanistan versus the war in iraq i mean you watch the campaigns and you think that it's rather ironic painfully ironic the way these candidates talk about them so one of the most is surge in iraq and he thinks american foreign policy is going to be served by things another country gets worse and we're going to keep doing that for how long is a timetable for these kind of surges apparently as far as the united states agenda is concerned there is never a u s timetable it is against us prior to have a timetable the united states want to have the right to be in any country anywhere in the world indefinitely and when the iraqis the iraqi puppets that were installed by the united states well politely asking for some time table for a few years the bush administration which in the past you just say we to decrease the amount of casualties for u s troops but what about the larger goals of this administration wasn't this supposedly an exemplary model of democracy that is going to spread all around the muslim world and everybody is going to clamor to demand that they have some copying of the iraqi model in reality there are no takers nobody in the middle east is asking that they have daily car bombs in their lives civilians being shot at an american checkpoints if on a nasty occupation that bombs villages and towns from the air on weekly bases with civilian casualties mounting and nobody's asking what kind of definition of success are we talking about as far as statements on my website regarding sentiment on the palestinians it is rather too sentimental for me to speak about but sometimes i express my views about the fact that even though i am opposed to nationalism and to flags i believe that the palestinians entitled to have what other countries have to celebrate their own nationalism somebody their own state and let me hear i was reading it on the plane quote from the palestinians for most poet mahmoud that we should just passed away recently i read in his book a state of siege he said let us have our state and then let us disagree on everything else even the shape of the flag the nature of the government and i am going to be one of those people once that is the state will join in in criticizing the government the faction the kind of set up that the palestinians will come up with but i think it's fair to say that they are entitled to what other countries and what other peoples h well on the subject of gideon c n n israeli talks united states is not involved at all the united states in fact has been opposed to syrian israeli talks the united states has since this beginning of this administration of the view that the only way to deal with herbs is through force this is the advice they got from their favorite experts bernard lewis and for the show me they told and only then with the understand its force and that's why they have been using it on such massive level and yet it hasn't seemed who argue the only language arabs understand is the language of force because if anything when i look back at the first fifty years of this conflict it is very clear that the one language arabs do not understand is the language of force the masses believe that israel should be allowed to bomb any country at will and israel has bombed palestinian areas syria as well as lebanon in the last few years with very little attention to your united states c m e israel which poses in the campaigns of army was humiliated by a few hundred fighter in south lebanon the syrians and israeli talks are done for domestic reasons and not really it's a sideshow i mean really showing the fact that the israeli prime minister is in disgrace for reasons of corruption that are mounting and he has only a few months in office and he wants to distract from that kind of attention by saying he is trying to pursue peace the bush administration has advised and counsel them against that but he wanted to continue virtue of the saudi israeli american alliance to get any support for leverage in the negotiations but they feel they have to do it to get out of the european isolation and this has paid off since they started these talks this fruitless talks through but it's come to the past any as you can say anything in this country because there's very little known i mean people i point out on my website the new york sun newspaper a few days ago published that hamas is a shiite movement supported by iran and nobody corrected the nobody said anything  mean some people who sent me what they wrote comments on the website and that was it but in print there was no correction i mean so imagine when it comes to the celebrated event of what is called israel is a creation of independence this is shrouded with so many and misconceptions in this country that everything i've seen i mean i came to this country and i realized apparently poor israel was attacked by seven out of armies i mean in reality of course the so called seven out of armies never amounted to more than one third of the entire armed forces of the other side that has as it does today the latest military technology of warfare and of course it's regarded at and of course as if the palestinians were nowhere to be seen they were not part of the picture this is why in not in six or seven what some twenty years later after the you know destruction of palestine the united nations resolution two four to refer to the palestinian refugee problem that they have no political rights just as they were not mention a bill in the balfour declaration in one hundred seventeen but look at the palestinian memory when i teach that i was a question i always tell them this the balfour declaration was proclaimed on november second nineteen seventeen to this very day every year november second palestinian march and demonstrations against the buffer declaration people have forgotten about one for a while not the palestinians young people still know what it means the fact that it gave the birth certificate for the state of israel regarding plans for detention of or internment of americans or muslim americans i mean i think that these are fears that many arabs and muslims in this country have and i think they're very listed fear i mean personally i'm not going if they have them but i will say that after september eleventh more than fifty percent of the american population according to usa today poll believe that american citizens of arab descent people like myself should carry special i d cards i mean in this kind of climate you realize that the government can do a lot to basically intrude on the rights and liberties of americans and of course consequently on the rights of all americans but even people would not see it that way we know that back in the nineteen ninety's there was a immigration plan leaked to the media which basically talked about the emergency internment of our american muslim americans i can tell you traveling around the country speaking meeting a lot of arabs and muslims in the united states as well as in canada the fees are very real and pressing on the minds of ours and muslims in the united states and they believe that if we come to that point and if there is one hopes not any future terror that is linked to arbs or muslims that the united states population would be solidly in favor of doing something of that nature i mean look how the bush administration with the support of democrats that was let's not lose sight of that let's not lose sight the obama campaign is now in favor of wiretapping on citizens which it used to be opposed to and in that climate i think all is possible including then termonde of a decades later there in terms of japanese americans that's the country we live in now well i mean i think on the subject of people's fear and then termination that has been exercised in this country against courageous voices that speak on behalf of the palestinians i think it is basically the perpetuation of intimidation congress do sometimes these you know lowly uncourageous members of congress come to you have to tell you all you know we agree with you but he said it happens so frequently that these members of congress would say something publicly and then in private they would say well you know we agree with you but we can't say this because politically it's very costly on the subject of the discourse we are not alternative media we need to use i really think we have a lot of work to do one of the thing that i find alarming in the middle east as well as here because i am involved in arabic alternative media as well as in american alternative media and i think that sometimes i find the average age of our audiences here and there alarming so i think there is a certain that has troubled me since i came to this country is that why is the tone of alternative media seem to be always dour i mean we have a reputation well deserved for being sometimes boring not able to deliver in that city that people can understand why do you have an image that if you are for peace and for progressive causes you have to be serious all the time and not humorous i mean this is something that i do on my website we have to send a message that i mean the right wing have done that wing have done this invasion of the radio airwaves through the combination of satire and humor in bad taste a lot of times but that's what they do we think that we have to be always self righteous and always straight and always potations that we have earned deservedly and i hope that we can break it we need to connect to young people i mean this is success of daily show for example which is sometimes i think closet progressive and they do a lot of things that the mainstream media do not do and they do it with humor why can't we do that and the third issue is we need to try to this internal ourselves and language from the language of the one nine hundred sixty s we know that young people have their mind we need to be more friendly to issues that may not be big among people of our age or older we need to be more sensitive issues of environment gain lesbian rights i mean a lot of people on the left i think still have problems with that issue we need to address them feminist rights i mean i think we know that a lot of progressive mame still have difficulty in advocating  and we have a lot to learn in that regard i also think that we need to be very aware that the way we present our case is almost as important as the substance of what we are presenting and that don't get me wrong i always tell people i am an advocate of conspiracy theories but proven one sometimes we are associated with loony conspiracy theories that are not in any way proven i mean i think was behind september eleventh it wasn't the cia or the defense department or the mossad we need to really come to grips with some part of reality having said that we need to say of course that our conspiracies and when th we need to point them out and we need to warn against them