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I still wonder if the United States realizes how much planning went into this. When we talk about mindless terrorists, we are lying to ourselves.

Robert Fisk

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Robert Fisk
Age: 74 †
Born: 1946
Born: July 12
Died: 2020
Died: October 30
Historian
Journalist
War Correspondent
Writer
Went
Wonder
Talk
Realizes
Lying
Mindless
United
Terrorists
Still
Terrorist
States
Planning
Much
Realizing

More quotes by Robert Fisk

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War is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death. It represents the total failure of the human spirit.
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In Palestine, the Israelis claim they found a land without people,' a Syrian officer explained to us. 'Now they will take southern Lebanon and claim they have found another land without people if these refugees do not return.
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Bin Laden was constantly revolving in his mind the fact that he had got rid of the Russians therefore, the Americans can be got rid of, too. And where better than in the country where he knows how to fight?
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In just one year in Bosnia, thirty of my colleagues died. There is a little Somme waiting for all innocent journalists.
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I do not make stories up, full stop.
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U.S. journalists I don't think are very courageous. They tend to go along with the government's policy domestically and internationally. To question is seen as being unpatriotic, or potentially subversive.
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Colleagues will malign you if you're a moderately successful journalist.
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And history`s fingers never relax their grip, never leave us unmolested, can touch us even when we would never imagine their presence.
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Everyone outside the Roman Empire was called a barbarian. Everyone outside Obama’s empire is called a terrorist.
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A businessman admits that he 'let go' an employee because he was a Sunni Muslim. You simply have to look after yourself, he explains. I am shocked, like a good Westerner should be.
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The word 'democracy' and the name of Assad do not blend very well in much of Syria.
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At Baalbek Nuts I bought pistachios from the Lebanese owners, who answered my request for their thoughts on the war with the typically Lebanese response of no problem. It's a lie, as we all knew.
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Bin Laden is not well read and he's not sophisticated, but he will have worked out very coldly what America would do.
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Bin Laden was very keen to point out to me that his forces had fought the Americans in Somalia. He also wanted to talk about how many mullahs in Pakistan were putting up posters saying, We follow bin Laden. He even produced a sort of Kodak set of snapshots of graffiti supporting him.
Robert Fisk
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Some of the guys in the Northern Alliance are war criminals. One of the Northern Alliance commanders ran a slave girl network in Kabul in 1994. Remember that there was a period when every woman on the streets was at risk of being raped. This was the Northern Alliance period of glory.
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Osama Bin Laden is not well read and he's not sophisticated, but he will have worked out very coldly what America would do in response to this attack 9/11. I'm sure he wanted America to attack Afghanistan. Once you do what your enemy wants, you are walking into a trap, whether you think it's the right thing to do or not.
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And it's true, you hear things in Damascus and, after a few hours, the human double-take stops operating.
Robert Fisk
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People turn to violence, because they have no other avenue left.
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At the end of the day, bin Laden's interest is not Washington and New York, it's the Middle East. He wants Saudi Arabia. He wants to get rid of the House of Saud.
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Individuals in various countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia listen to the tapes of bin Laden. They gather in groups of four or five. They feel they want to do something to express their support for what they've heard. The idea that they were taking orders is a particularly Western idea.
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