CBS’ Wallace interviews Ahmadinejad

[Exeter]

I do not recall any journalist who have done such a poor job in an interview. I feel sorry for Wallace, who talked more like a messenger than an interviewer. What did he expect to hear? He is not used to interview people who are as direct as the Iranian President. I felt that during the whole interview, Wallace talked from an American (the administration) point of view and not as an objective journalist who would like to learn something about the President of another country. Ahmadinejad was simply too clever for him.

You should also hear the comments American viewers gave, most of whom felt that Wallace spoke in a condescending way to the President of Iran.

I like Wallace and 60 minutes, but he really was disrespectful, I think mostly because he was lost and thought he has no other choice, as he is not just a journalist. He is an American journalist. The US administration does not want relations on equal terms with a country they have once raped (factors involved in the overthrow of Mossadeq and so forth). The problem is that Iran is not a modern state which is created 50 or 100 years ago. It is an old civilisation and I doubt that the American approach will succeed, in the long run.

Speaking of Ahmadinejad Wallace said: "He’s an impressive fellow, this guy. He really is. He’s obviously smart as hell." Sadly, one could not say the same about the American President. But I think Ahmadinjead is like any other person in terms of intelligence. He just say what many people around the world feel at the moment.

I wonder if Ahmadinejad is told to say these things or if he is for real. I personally think think he is real and only a bit naive. He is from a simple background. I believe he worked himself up. I think many European nationalists (if they are as knowledgeable!) would want to say the same things he said in the interview. He is for sure not an ordinary politician. He talk like ordinary people would do about world politics in their sitting rooms. He is an interesting character but his words are probably empty. I do not think he can do anything against the people he call Zionists (many people do not know that it was Cyrus the great who freed the Jews/Israelites from their many years of slavery in Babylon), in Israel, USA or elsewhere. Neither do I think he is dangerous.

I do think he may open the eyes of ordinary people in USA though. I also understood from some of the comments that many Americans feel ashamed of the current administration. After all, I know many Americans say they are Canadian when they travel around in Europe.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...867.shtml#ccmm

See the full unedited interview http://www.informationclearinghouse....ticle14547.htm

What do you think after you have watched the interview yourself?

[Gil]

OK.
First of all, I don't really appreciate wise-cracking, arrogant reporters and interviewers, regardless of their nationality.
Having said that, Ahmadinejad's way of talking becomes truly boring to the casual listener because, like all public speakers, his ideological standings and descriptions tend to be long, something that, like the interviewer showed, isn't what the Western audience is looking for in a debate; most people just want reply after reply after reply.
The UNSC bit was absolutely fantastic, it just said what we all now and no politician is brave enough to say out loud: the UK and the US control the UN and the UNSC and drag all the other (namely european) nations behind them under the guise of "liberators" or, to be more precise, always the never said but very explicit threat of sanctions.
Ahmadinejad is, of course, a product of a certain school of thought that doesn't elaborate alot about foreign policy and global politics but let's face it, what is more important, to have those around you living well and your nation prospering and your people thriving or to slowly try to gain more and more control of the world's economical resources?
I don't hate americans but I hate the US government and their foreign policies. They can do whatever they want in their nation but keep their greedy fingers out of the rest of the world. If indeed they are to be the "land of the free and home of the brave" they should keep their nose clean first...