Britain to Give New York's Giuliani a Knighthood
LONDON (Reuters) - New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites) is to receive an honorary knighthood from Britain, official sources told Reuters Sunday.
The sources said Giuliani had been recommended to Britain's Queen Elizabeth for the award -- the highest honor the sovereign can bestow on a foreign citizen. dailynews.yahoo.com
Kudos to Mayor Rudy Giuliani for knighthood and for rejecting money from this Prince, after the Prince said the WTC attack was the US’s fault. And Kudos to David Faber for revealing him for the ignorant liar that he is. Faber asked him tough questions, which he ignored or dismissed. Hope CNBC refuses to invite him back and that many learn from this.
Giuliani criticized the prince's statements, saying "There is no moral equivalent to this attack. There is no justification for it... To suggest that there is any justification for it only invites this happening in the future. Not only are those statements wrong, they're part of the problem.''
"To suggest that there's a justification for [the attacks] only invites this happening in the future. It is highly irresponsible and very, very dangerous. And one of the reasons I think this happened is because people were engaged in moral equivalency in not understanding the difference between liberal democracies like the United States, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism.”
Here’s a transcript of Faber’s interview on CNBC, excuse any omissions or mistakes.
Saudi Prince:”I was the first to come on CNBC and condemn this criminal act (wow) that took place in New York and to give my condolences and we were in touch with the Mayor’s office to arrange for a contribution . After we arrived in New York and gave him the contribution, we had some discussions with the press and media people and the discussion centered around the remedies and the issues that could be tackled whereby this criminal act could never happen again. I still believe that after the US finishes its retaliation process, which it has all the rights to do, it has to tackle the roots and motives behind this criminal act. With all due respect to Mayor Giuliani, the moral equivalence is not applicable in this case. I agree the crime has no justification BUT….
David Faber: ”Can you understand your highness why some in the US might be offended about the apparent connection between your statement and such a generous gift? Perhaps you might have made the statement sometime in the future….
Saudi Prince: “No, I regret the mayor misunderstood the whole thing. There is no connection between the two. If US is going to extract the roots of terrorism it has to look at the roots of the cause…. With all respect, he gave a wrong comparison to linking my contribution to my request to America. I like NY. I pay my taxes (then you are a target of Bin Laden). I am an investor, I am almost a citizen of New York. Mr. Giuliani misunderstood the whole thing…
David Faber: : You may say there is no connection but you did issue the statement at the same time you gave the gift. Many people will imagine there is a connection.
Saudi Prince: “I still believe that if the US really wants to resolve this problem, exactly like I do, like my country wants, like the Arab world wants; like the Islamic world wants; for the United States to make sure this ridiculous crime never appears again – you have to look at the roots inevitably and frankly speaking I am going to have to “delink (unintelligible) New York from Washington. Maybe Mayor Guilliani is under tremendous pressure because of the internal politics of New York City or maybe it is the tremendous stress he is going through personally or professionally because the crime that took place is tremendous. He was under so much pressure he could not see the whole picture. . However in Washington you see there very strong indications from Bush himself, the President of the US is the first President to begin saying publicly we are for a Palestinian state in Palestine Maybe when the Palestinians go back to their roots and begin having a state and we will begin defusing all the violence that is taking place.
David Faber: Your Highness, in fact a little over a year ago there was a significant effort to create essentially such a state under a different administration and your friend Yasser Arafat was a frequent visitor to the White House, perhaps the most frequent visitor. There was an agreement put on the table which was in fact rejected by Mr. Arafat; in which 98% of the West Bank would have gone to Palestinians, where control of East Jerusalem would have been in the hands of the Palestinian Authority..
David Faber: “So do you feel that is adequately understood in the Arab world that in fact a great deal of progress was made not that long ago and in fact the idea of a Palestinian state was front and center.
Saudi Prince: I am very privy to these discussions because Arafat is in constant contact with me and he briefs me about what is going on. What Arafat is asking for, and what the Palestinians and the Islam world is asking for is not to talk about 98% or 99% or 99 ½% but the implementation of two UN resolutions which say the West bank and Gaza goes back to Palestinians and Jerusalem goes back to them and the issue of refugees is looked at very seriously. I mean, would you accept to have 99% of the US and the other 1% goes somewhere – to Cuba for example?
David Faber: We could discuss the issues relating to the Arab_Israeli conflict for years but I can tell you that the idea that the Israelis would ever return all of Jerusalem is probably very far fetched.
David Faber: To what extent do you believe that the rise of this extremist form of Islamic fundamentalism is due to a lack of democracy in Arab states; the lack of economic development and growth in many of the Arab States; and the concentration of wealth in the hands of very few people, like yourself.
Saudi Prince: I don’t believe that at all because if you look at a concentration of wealth, that is applicable only to the United states; because the United states is an extreme case. But in any case lets talk about the Arab world…... the people in the Arab world believe the US is letting them down; the US always backs Israel; Why would we call the Palestinians terrorists when they just trying to have their country go back to them, what do you call Israelis when the Israeli tanks go to Gaza and the West bank and kill the children and the ladies.”
(On Lou Dobbs, the prince said: “America's blind alliance and favoritism to Israel is not helping a lot, because you have to understand that those Arab people watch Palestinians every day being slaughtered in the tents.)
lying sob
Saudi Prince: ”The United States is under this media blindness that has to be eradicated.”
(hmmm is that why the media is the target of the anthrax attacks..????)
David Faber: We do talk about those things and I think the media does a very good job of showing some of the things you are discussing. Israel of course is a democracy, Saudi Arabia and many other Arab countries are not; they have not had any change in administration for years, decades in fact
David Faber: Again, what do you think it is going to take to root out this form of Islam that is threatening the US and that wants to see the United States destroyed?
Saudi Prince: (stuttering)…..what is…what is ..…who needs to be destroyed?
David Faber: What do you do we need to do with those who want to destroy the United States and for that matter people like yourself in Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Prince: Saudi Arabia was also under attack by Bin Laden. We are in this together. The Arab world has to believe the US is working aggressively to resolve this problem. … The US tried its best under Clinton at Camp David but it was unfortunate, it was not conclusive…. Bush is beginning to do good - the Mitchell report – should be implemented, the Arab world has to believe the US is working aggressively to will resolve all this and we can do good things in the Middle east, whereby this issue of radicalism and extremism in the Middle east and in Islamic countries will diminish substantially….(what a crock)
Faber changed topics and asked if he was buying stocks… Personally, I thought the way he seemed so sure there would be more terrorist acts against us for a long time implied he may know some details…The FBI should ask him the prince what he knows, he seems to be know more….but not surprisingly the Saudis are not helping the US.
“Saudi Aid to War on Terror Is Criticized”Investigation: Former CIA officer calls the country 'completely unsupportive' of America's efforts. latimes.com
Unfortunately, a Newsweek poll released this week found that 58 percent of Americans — down from 68 percent a month ago — believe the U.S.’s ties to Israel and U.S. policies towards Palestinians are major reasons for the terrorist attacks against the U.S. “Just as Joseph P. Kennedy was convinced that the Jews were pushing the Roosevelt administration into World War II, there are too may Americans today, (including the Bush administration) who believe Islamic terrorists attacked the U.S. because of its support for Israel, according to a biographer of the Kennedy family. “
These Muslim extremists want to destroy the West, especially the Great Satan –the United States, they don’t want to co-exist. Bin Laden never cared about the Palestinians but he needs the violence to continue to recruit more followers. Bin Laden wants to take control of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt.. The Arabs have their own reasons for not wanting peace in the Mideast.
Tom Frieden was on Tim Russert tonight. A friend of his also told him that there must be peace in the Mideast first to end terrorism against us. Frieden disagreed and said the Israeli Palestinian conflict is not the cause of Islamic extremism. Frieden believes the root of terrorism is not religious but secular; it is the result of failing states that have not created social and economic opportunity for their youth (just like Faber said.) They have not created employment, education, opportunity to advance, freedom of expression.
Frieden says the rage that these Islamic extremists have against the outside world does not come when there is a healthy society. It comes from failing states whose leaders are trying to blame others for their failures and are trying to deflect responsibility to others; to avoid being attacked by their own citizens. The last thing Bin Laden wants is peace in the Mideast. Ditto for the Prince.
Frieden says these Arabs are trying to make us forget the recent Camp David accord which Arafat rejected, because they don’t want peace..
Prince Saudi should use his billions to take care of Saudis and stop blaming the US.
And this administration should stop pressuring Israel to restrain themselves from retaliating against terrorists while they do. They should not pressure Israel to return to the peace talks and to negotiate, just like they refuse to negotiate with the Taliban.
Frieden does think that the Bush coalition needs to give an appearance of progress in the mideast just to maintain the support of the Arab states, at least in the first or second part of the campaign.
I don't believe that is the reason this administration seems to justify some kinds of terrorism, by calling the Palestinian terrorism a conflict with issues. Terrorism is terrorism. None is acceptable or justifiable. It is not morally acceptable to slaughter 5000 innocent civilians and it is not morally acceptable to massacre 21 15-16 year old teens at a Tel Aviv disco; or 15 Israelis including 6 babies at a Sbarro Pizzeria in Jerusalem.
Israelis are subject to daily terrorist attacks from some of the same terrorist groups that are now part of Al-queda.
Hezbollah led by Imad Mughniyeh and the Egyptian Hihad Islami, led by doctor Al Zawahari merged with Al-Queda several years ago. Zawahari is now Bin Laden’s chief deputy. These two master terrorists are on the FBI’s new list of 22 terrorists. These same terrorist groups have been attacking Israel for years. And they inflict more violent attacks whenever peace talks get serious. Yet Bush and Powell urge restraint from Israel, while they retaliate against the terrorists that attacked us.
It is too bad Colon Powwow is on board a new Bush administration, appeasing the Arabs again, influencing a new Bush leader. Learn from Giuliani and do the right thing. |
