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just to be clear, i did not say that ms amanpour herself was complicit. was pointing out that she disingenuously was giving too much credit to journalists as a whole about their integrity and fact-checking abilities and how professional todays journalists are. i call bullsh!t on that one.

Just curious, moderator.
How come Peter from Sunset park gets (rightly) called out for his one comment on Israel--being off topic and misreading the quote, but bruce from nyc can say the most ridiculous allegations against Israel--more than once--and not a peep about being off topic or absurdly wrong.

Brian I am disappointed you didn’t challenge the caller Naim who accused US of interfering in other people’s business. Nobody is interfering in this; the election was conducted, rigged and stolen by the regime itself. The people were not allowed to express and exercise their own rights. The regime has shown the world their true brutal identity. No Naim, nobody was making them kill and repress and brutalize. The regime did it all by itself. Congratulation to the rotten regime!

Hugh, she works for CNN but I never heard her say anything or see her do anything that looked like perpetuating lies or abetting the Bush administration. Certainly there were others at CNN who did, but I like to hold people accountable for their own actions, not the actions of their colleagues.

great interview. keep up the good work!

I grew up in Iran. I think Iran's curse is its oil. Ahmadinejad and his thugs have their hands on the oil spigot and are able to buy everything and everyone, including the support of foreign governments. Secondly, I heard that a plane full of Russian advisors accompanied Ahmadinejad from his trip back from Moscow last week. It seemed the Iranian people are also fighting the Russian intelligence services.

Israel had a long relationship with the Shah in keeping the Iranian people under heel.Again the Savak secret police tortured and killed thousands of Iranians.Savak,trained in methods of torture in Israel.The Israel/Iran connection is historical.Former Israel defence chief was born in Iran,He also advocated Iran attack.One can say Israel helped pave the way for the Islamic takover in Iran,just as Israel's brutal 19 year occupation of Lebanon gave the world suicide bombing and Hizbollah.
IDF killed 20,000 during it's long occupation.Mostly non combattants with illegal use of US cluster bombs.
Real reason for Israel incursions in Lebanon then and now:the waters of the Litani river.
All other Israel reasons are Bogus.
Bruce

To mc from Brooklyn: Amanpour most certainly was part of CNN lies abetting the Bush war crimes.

Re: Lindsay Graham/John McCain:

I voted for Obama reluctantly, actually voted against McCain. If I had it to do again I'd vote for Obama much less reluctance -- Obama's not perfect, but McCain is dangerous. I'm glad I played some small part in saving the country from the Republicans -- always all hat/no cattle.

I agree Jason.

I appreciate the work of C. Amanpour yet .. she buckles often under the weight of her own ego and the patina of the relationships she has formed with 'insider's'.

There is so much truth in that the U.S. doesn't understand Iran, or much of the rest of the world, for that matter. While this is a huge country and there are many millions of people that have genuine knowledge of the greater world's workings (immigrants, internationalists, etc.), there has always been a strong U.S.-centered chauvinism that says that we know how to handle things even though we don't understand the culture, nuances, parties involved, etc.

I do think that since the fallout over our hyper-militarism after 9/11, there has been a reformulation that recognizes both the laudable American idealism and our full-on hubris. Hopefully a more realistic balance will be tempered.

By the way, the Shah hasn't been there for about 30 years and the caller's assertion that Ahmadinejad got 11 million more votes is in question and that's why the people are in the street. Both can be characterized as Iranian government distractions without the transparency to prove otherwise.

I don't think that Amanpour was complicit in the runup to the Iraq war. That sounds like an unfair charge to me.

"Be accurate. Be accurate. Be accurate."

What a crock! CNN was among the leaders -- willing, eager leaders -- in perpetuating Bush lies about Iraq!

Where were CNN reports on Israeli war crimes in Gaza?!

Utter nonsense from Amanpour.

Given that Ms. Amanpour was born in Iran, can she comment personally how that might affect, if at all, her objectivity as a journalist? How does this all make her feel on a personal level?

Standing on the sidelines, however, does not mean you cannot demostrate here in this country in support of the people in Iran. Union Square.

with all due respect to ms amanpour, is she talking about the same "real" journalists that was complicit in the lead up to the second iraq war? what kind of investigative journalism did they do with regards to weapons of mass destruction? i find huffington post bloggers have more credibility than main stream journalists. mainstream journalists serve their corporate owners and advertisers. thats it.

We are in the right posture right now to, stand down, this is not our fight, we need to stay focused on the activities of North Korea and not get distracted.

I agree with Voter and ted, above. Obama's response has been spot on. The US has such a miserable history of medddling in Iranian affairs that we have bought our own position on the sidelines. If we expect to get any moral authority back, we will have to hold back now.

As for support for the Iranian opposition, is there any word on what PMOI/Mujahadeen-e-Khalq wants us to do? Would Ms. Ahmanpour have any contact with those who would know?

I think that we are doing the absolute right thing to remain as observers, we cannot continue to be the defenders of the world to our own detriment. We are so accustomed to "dominating" and intefering in affairs that do not directly effect us until it is hard for the repubs and their supporters to just let these countries work it out on their own. "Stand-by" is the correct posture for the US right now.

Hmmmm disputed election results, that sounds familiar; and who did we finally put in office? With that in mind would Iran really want our opinion?

What was the coverage of the 20th anniversary of Tiannamen Square in Iran? A week after the anniversary the Iranians went to the poles, has this influenced the Iranian reaction to the election fiasco?

BRAVO Amanpour!!!

our politicians in washington are so out of touch with reality. remember they were duped by W and are still clinging to old ways.

she is absolutely correct about our ignorance about iran. the shah, our puppet was ousted and we never recovered.

obama is correct to hold back and our media and congress are absolutely wrong and out of touch. they haven't done their homework and are so clueless. remember how we got stuck in iraq and this economy mess.

ted

Try political protest in NYC. You're herded, then coralled, then locked away for days without charge. And after being treated like cattle who's to say if you broke out and choked the central business area you wouldn't be beaten or even shot!

Ask Amy Goodman about a "free" press and it rights here in the bastion of civil liberties. Where here is the outcry!

I think that Amanpour is a giant among journalists. I watched "Beneath the Veil" about Afghanistan and also a report about the death penalty in the US. She is measured and her moral authority comes from her avoidance of hyperbole and her questioning of authorities. She understands the complexities of Iranian culture much more deeply than most of us can hope to.

Is there a cultural backlash within the reform movement because it is being characterized as a women's movement? Do Iranians view it as a women's movement or is that a western designation?

Why is CNN constantly interviewing Reza Pahlavi??? This obsolete figure has nothing to say for the Iranian people and should not be given air time. Interviewing him on CNN SERIOUSLY confuses the situation for your viewers.

Perhaps Ms. Amanpour can comment on her own unwillingness to challenge Bush nonsense on Iraq or the Middle East generally. She admits that CNN generally failed.

Or perhaps she can comment on her own conflicts in covering the Middle East given that she is married to a former State Department official (and was married to a person with a vested interest in the character of reporting at exactly the time she was reporting).

Maybe she can comment on her role in drumming up support for bombing civilians in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia ten years ago.

The sheer hypocrisy of Americans journalists and politicians is something to behold.

The US has killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq, tens of thousands in Afghanistan, and not one iota of the hand-wringing that we now see over Iranian government atrocities in Tehran.

Moderator,

You are correct, I was reading the transcript from the CNN report and did read it wrong.

Bruce, there is not a shred of evidence that Israel has biological or chemical weapons. Israel probably has nukes, but please, get your facts straight honey bear.

President Obama’s response has been, above all, responsible. The United States meddled in Iranian Politics in the ‘70s and look what it got us.
Senators, member’s of the House, journalist, and talking heads can prattle on irresponsibly demanding consequences and calling for heads to roll but the President of The United States of America cannot. Also, the US has only proxy relations with Iran and we do very little business with Iran, much less than Europe and the rest of the Middle East. We don’t have the power to do anything other than threaten a military response (to the US not getting it’s way in the elections in a sovereign state.) The US barely has a horse in this race aside from Israel’s interest in the Iranian elections and the US/Israeli “special relationship.” This fight is the fight of the Iranian people and, at this point, all the US should do is support the voice of the people (for free and fair elections.)
It looks like it’s a good thing John McCain didn’t get elected, or we’d be engulfed in three wars by now.

Does anyone think this sort of analogous to when the US was so gun-ho about elections in Lebanon, and had egg on their face when Hezbollah won?

I think Obama is once again playing the role of Jedi Master..being very pragmatic..

people, particulary the republicans, fail to give obama credit for what he has already done with his address to the muslim world in cairo.

do they think the timing of the address--just days before the iranian elections--was a coincidence?

it certainly must have influenced many iranians to vote for the candidate who offered even the slightest glimmer of improved relations with the west.

Please let your listeners know about the peaceful vigil tonight to honor those who have lost their lives seeking freedom and justice in Iran.

If you can, please wear black or green and bring a candle with you.

Where Is My Vote-NYC
8:00pm - 10:00pm
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14th Street
New York, NY

Dear Peter,moderator
Israel has been threatning continously to attack Iran!
An Israeli Nuclear attack has been also hinted at.Israel had trained the infamous Savak.That would be the former Shah's secret service.The connection is there.Again the present Israel PM and other Knesset members have been calling for an Iran attack.
Israel is a nuclear armed nation,with plenty of biological and chemical weapons.
Would you ignore these threats??

Bruce

Brian, you unfairly mischaracterized the President's response to Chip Reid. You cut off his cogent explanation of the difference between his job (run the country for the long term) and the job of minority Senators (essentially "get attention").

Shame on you. Play the whole answer!

What Brian will not ask.
Israel PM Bibi Netanyahou's recent visit to the Whitehouse tried Hard to convince Obama to have the US attack Iran or allow Israel with US finance,politcal cover,to do so.
Obama did not bite.
Previous PM Sharon was able to sucker former president Bush into the Iraq disaster.
With the right wing Israeli lobby having so much sway in Washington,that should most certainy not be ignored.

Great show Brian!

Bruce

Brian,

In 2007, Ms. Amanpour said,

“But then you go to Israel-Palestine and you have a group of people, the Palestinians, with a legitimate grievance who are trying to throw off occupation and who are trying to win a state using illegitimate means, which are the suicide bombings.” (Larry King show, CNN, Aug. 20, 2007)

Please ask Ms. Amanpour if she continues to support suicide killings and the blowing up of Jewish women and Jewish children.

[[Moderator writes: Peter, we have not removed your comment, but please note that today's discussion is centered on Iran, not Israel. Also, perhaps you misread the quote you cite above. Mrs. Amanpour calls suicide bombings "illegitimate" - not sure if that can be interpreted as "support." In fact, it sounds like just the opposite.
Best,
-BL Show-]]