Fantastic interview from CBC/The Current --Robert Fisk 11/29

Fisk said he's thinking of leaving Iraq because it is getting so dangerous. He talked about how the reporters are getting info via cell phone and how nothing can be confirmed...and the problem is, that isn't stated on the air, when reports of "100 insurgents killed" are aired...civilians are undoubtedly being killed.

He said the Admin. tough line against Iran and Syria will begin to soften as it becomes apparent they are needed to help as we exit Iraq (sounds like he's channeling Wes Clark).

He said the Iraq elections aren't the important news on 12/15...the report on the Hafari assasination is due then, and that's the important thing to watch...who's implicated....Asad's relation or Lahoud in Lebanon....

The Current: Part 3


Robert Fisk

There is still no word on the fate of the two Canadians who were taken hostage in Iraq over the weekend. They were with a group of four others who were reportedly kidnapped from a dangerous neighbourhood in Baghdad. We can't tell you who they were, but we do know that they're with a humanitarian aid group called, Christian Peacemaker Teams.

We can't say how the Canadian government's working to release them---for fear more foreigners would be vulnerable to similar attacks. But we do know one person with intimate knowledge of how things work in the region. Or more importantly how they often don't work, and why.

Robert Fisk has been an eye-witness to many of the major conflicts of the late 20th century --- Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and the Middle East. Based in Beirut, Lebanon, he's lived in the region for 29 years reporting first-hand on the political seismic shifts on his own doorstep for Britain's The Independent newspaper.

But he is far from being a dispassionate observer. Instead, he provides analysis and more than a little opinion on civil wars stained in blood, military invasions and numerous occupations. In his new book The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East, he argues that to understand what's going on today, you have to look at the past. Robert Fisk joined us in Toronto but he's based in Beirut.


http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/media/200511/20051129thecurrent_sec3.ram