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KPFK Fund Drive Day 3
The Israeli Air Force carried out two air strikes in Gaza this morning injuring several Palestinians. The Jewish Telegraph Agency claims that one of the targets was a “Hamas terror training camp.” Hamas has long been labeled a terrorist organization even though it has toned down its official position toward Israel considerably and was elected in a majority in free and fair election in the Palestinian territories. US President Obama has sponsored so-called peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority which have stalled due to the Israeli resumption of settlement building. Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has called on the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to quit the talks saying, “To negotiate without a position of strength is absurd.”

Meshaal is one of several prominent figures in the Middle East interviewed by US based journalist Reese Erlich and is featured in his brand new book Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence, and Empire. In addition to Meshaal, Erlich explores the politics of the Middle East and Muslim world through figures like the Zionist leader Geula Cohen, the Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, the late Grand Ayatollah of Lebanon Mohammad Fadlallah, a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard-turned democracy activist Mohsen Sazegara, and a top Taliban leader now working with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Mohammad Nizami. Through his extensive research, first-hand interviews, and years of experience reporting from the Middle East, Reese Erlich brings us views from a region we are constantly at war with but know little about. With a foreword by former CIA field officer Robert Baer, and an afterword by Noam Chomsky, Reese Erlich’s book Conversations with Terrorists is, as Medea Benjamin says “a fascinating journey inside the heads and homes of those we are taught to hate and fear… Erlich’s book is a must-read for all who want to live in a world where we rely on diplomacy, not war, to resolve our differences.”

Reese Erlich will be speaking at the Levantine Cultural Center (5998 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90035-2657) this evening at 7:30 pm. Find out more at levantinecenter.org. Find out more about Reese Erlich on his website at www.reeseerlich.com.

Earlier this week, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a British diplomat’s car in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. Officials suspect the attack was orchestrated by Al Qaeda, who in April attempted to kill the British Ambassador to Yemen by a suicide bomber. The government of Yemen has declared war on Al Qaeda with the backing of the United States. But it also home to a top Al Qaeda leader, the former “Emir of Hospitality,” Abu Jandal, who is also the brother-in-law of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s personal driver who was captured shortly after the U.S. invasion in 2001 and imprisoned in Guantanamo. In a documentary released earlier this year by acclaimed film maker Laura Poitras, we become intimately acquainted with Abu Jandal, a man who once screened new jihadis for bin Laden and now regales young Muslim men in his living room with stories of his days in Al Qaeda. Living in his homeland of Yemen, Abu Jandal is a “graduate” of The Dialogue, the Yemeni government’s re-education camp for imprisoned jihadis. Abu Jandal is man caught between two oaths: the oath to Al Qaeda and the oath he pledged to the Yemeni government not to wage jihad after his release from jail. Abu Jandal walks a balancing act between his new life as a father and taxi driver, and a practiced vetter of young Muslims willing to wage jihad. The Oath, by Laura Poitras was just released on DVD and its our thank you gift to you today. Laura Poitras is the acclaimed director of My Country My Country which was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary and called by the Village Voice as “the definitive non-fiction film about the occupation of Iraq.”

Find out more at www.theoathmovie.com.

Thank you Gifts:

Who is a Terrorist? Dollar-a-Day Pack – $365

• Interviews with Laura Poitras and Reese Erlich – CD (individually $30)
• Reese Erlich Speech – CD (individually $45)
• Reese Erlich Speech – DVD (individually $75)
• Conversations with Terrorists by Reese Erlich – book (individually $75)
• The Oath – DVD (individually $120)
• Mother Jones Magazine Subscription for a year
• Pair of Passes to the Laemmle Theaters

Call 818-985-5735 or go to www.kpfk.org to make a pledge.