Update 4/27: Listen to the complete full sermon of Jeremiah Wright’s 9/11 sermon, “The Day of Jerusalem’s Fall” here.
Update 4/26: See Bill Moyer’s full-length interview with Rev. Jeremiah Wright about the Barack Obama campaign here.
Update: I said in an earlier version of this post that this sermon was a few weeks after September 11. My mistake. It was actually right after September 11? My bad.
(h/t TrinityChgo)
Here’s a longer version of Rev. Wright’s remarks the Sunday after September 11? Read more coverage of the Jeremiah Wright story here.
Here is the transcript of the Fox News interview with former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Edward Peck, that relates to Rev. Wright’s comments. This interview was on October 10, 2001. I haven’t found one before that even though this speech supposedly happened the Sunday right after 9/11? If anyone can find Peck’s comments on Fox News before that, let me know.
VESTER: Welcome back to “The War on Terror.” I’m Linda Vester.
That was the U.N.’s former chief weapons inspector on bioterror weapons in Iraq.
This week the Bush administration warned Saddam’s representatives here in the U.S. that he will be very sorry if he tries to pull something while the U.S. is preoccupied with Afghanistan.
I’m joined once again by Ambassador Ravan Farhadi. He is the permanent representative of the Islamic state of Afghanistan to the United Nations. Also joining us from Washington is the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Edward Peck.
Gentlemen, first question is the obvious. Ambassador Farhadi, let me first ask you very simply, do you think Iraq has been helping al-Qaeda and bin Laden?
FARHADI: I do not think because, in spite of they may have some goals in common, but I think that the Ba’ath Party and the belief of the — Saddam is quite secular. And I think that they don’t suit each other, and then so therefore bin Laden is making his own way independently.
VESTER: Ambassador Peck, what do you think?
EDWARD PECK, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: I think the ambassador is right, to a very large degree, except that, as we learn — as we’re learning now, politics makes strange bedfellows, so that we are, you know, siding up with the Russians now kind of against the Chechens, after having for years said that that wasn’t the way to do it. And they do have some goals in common. And it’s worthwhile noting that…
VESTER: Like getting American troops off of Arab soil…
VESTER: … for starters.
PECK: And/or — and stopping the economic embargo and bombings of Iraq, things to which Osama bin Laden has alluded as the kinds of things he doesn’t like. He doesn’t think it’s appropriate for the United States to be doing, from his perspective, all the terrible things that he sees us as having been doing, the same way Saddam Hussein feels. So from that perspective, they have a commonality of interests. But they also have a deeply divergent view of the role of Islam in government, which would be a problem.
VESTER: Right. OK, Ambassador Peck, though, a question. Czech officials say that Mohammed Atta, one of the ringleaders of the September 11th attack, met with an Iraqi former consul, who is actually stationed in Prague and met him before he traveled to the U.S. in June of 2000. That doesn’t give you any evidence of a link to — between Iraq and bin Laden?
PECK: No, not that. I’m sure he met with a lot of other people. He may even have had, you know, dinner with a couple of American businessmen who didn’t know who he was. So the fact that he met somebody is certainly not evidence of anything. I’m not even sure it’s grounds for an allegation.
VESTER: OK. Well, what about this. Laurie Mylroie, you know, is a reporter and author and does a lot on Iraq. She says Ramzi Yousef, who was the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, traveled here to the United States on an Iraqi passport. She even goes so far as to say that he was an Iraqi agent. Doesn’t that give you more of a link?
PECK: Well, I have a — I have a problem, which may be shared by a few people. And that is that Saddam Hussein is blamed for everything. You know, he — I feel kind of sorry for him because now Osama bin Laden has taken the number one slot on the list of the people we love to hate. But we blame Saddam Hussein for almost anything.
And I guess one of the questions that troubles me, as an individual who was supposed to have been trained to be able to interpret other people’s views, is I think that Saddam Hussein, from his perspective, has some very sound and logical reasons not to like us. And it’s important to remember in this connection that he was at one time our friend, our guy, just as the Mujahadeen in…
VESTER: Right.
VESTER: They were ours.
PECK: But these things change.
VESTER: Right. Yeah. Well, these things change, and then they come back to bite us. Ambassador Farhadi, what if the United States finds some evidence to strike Iraq in this war on terror? Will it be destabilizing?
FARHADI: I think that this is — this is not a sound idea because then the Islamic community in the world would fail to understand that there is any link between bin Laden and Saddam. And this is very important. I think that the — my feeling, as far as I am continuing to study what’s happening in all Islamic countries, I think that it wouldn’t be wise to have the kind of engagement for…
VESTER: Right.
FARHADI: … for hurting Iraq…
VESTER: I want to come back around to this. Ambassador Peck, I got to — I just got to come back to this. How can you feel sorry for Saddam Hussein? I’ve been in Iraq. I know what he does to his people.
PECK: Well, you know, I said sorry in a somewhat sarcastic way because I was making a reference to fact that he used to be at the very top of the list of the people that we hated. Now he’s…
VESTER: OK. Just making sure.
PECK: … number two. But you know, the thing about Saddam Hussein – - you’ve been to Iraq. I lived there. It’s been a couple of years. The people of Iraq had very few political freedoms. They probably have fewer now. But the Ba’ath Party, which is socialist and it’s secular, as Ambassador Farhadi said, did everything for the Iraqi people — schools, churches, electrification…
VESTER: Wow. But they…
PECK: … water purification, roads…
VESTER: … are miserable! I mean, you look in their eyes. I’ve seen that look, and it’s — they’re just miserable beyond words!
PECK: Does it have — does it have anything to do with the 11 years of economic embargo that we’ve imposed?
VESTER: Does it have anything to do with the total fear that if they say anything against the government, they’ll be dragged out of their houses and put in prison for a month?
VESTER: In a room that’s five by five with 50 other men and their family has no idea what happened to them?
PECK: Just in this country not too long ago, a key spokesman at the White House said “You better watch you say.” You remember that? See, people get uptight when the situation is difficult. And the[tilde] White House press spokesman cautioned everybody to be careful what they say at a time of national stress. Now, in Iraq, no opposition to the government is tolerated. But — and I say this, understand me now, what the situation is — if you don’t bother the government, it has no reason to bother you.
VESTER: Oh, boy, I…
VESTER: Ambassador Peck, I got to take issue with that. I’m also getting — you and I may have to have a discussion for another day, but I’m getting a cue from my producer that we’ve got to — we’ve got to cut it there.
Ambassador Ravan Farhadi, Ambassador Ed Peck, thanks to you both. We appreciate it.
And Fox News brought Ambassador Peck back on the next day, October 11, 2001.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: There’s no question that the leader of Iraq is an evil man. After all, he gassed his own people. We know he’s been developing weapons of mass destruction. And I think it’s in his advantage to allow inspectors back in his country to make sure that he’s conforming to the agreement he made after he was soundly trounced in the Gulf war. And so we’re watching him very carefully.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VESTER: Welcome back to “The War on Terror.”
Last night on this show, you saw a discussion between myself and Edward Peck, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Here’s just a little clip.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PECK: I have a problem, which may be shared by a few people. And that is that Saddam Hussein is blamed for everything. You know, he — I feel kind of sorry for him because now Osama bin Laden has taken the number one slot on the list of the people we love to hate. But we blame Saddam Hussein for almost anything.
And I guess one of the questions that troubles me, as an individual who was supposed to have been trained to be able to interpret other people’s views, is I think that Saddam Hussein, from his perspective, has some very sound and logical reasons not to like us.
VESTER: How can you feel sorry for Saddam Hussein? I’ve been in Iraq. I know what he does to his people.
PECK: Well, you know, I said sorry in a somewhat sarcastic way because I was making a reference to the fact that he used to be at the very top of the list of the people that we hated. Now he’s…
VESTER: OK, just making sure.
PECK: … at number two. But you know, the thing about Saddam Hussein — you’ve been to Iraq. I lived there. It’s been a couple of years. The people of Iraq had very few political freedoms. They probably have fewer now. But the Ba’ath Party, which is socialist and it’s secular, as Ambassador Farhadi said, did everything for the Iraqi people — schools, churches…
VESTER: Wow, but they are miserable. Seen that look. They’re just miserable beyond words.
PECK: Does that have anything to do with the 11 years of economic embargo that we’ve imposed?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VESTER: Well, we couldn’t let that go, so Ambassador Ed Peck is here once again.
PECK: Well, I hope it’s going to be pleasant.
VESTER: Well, it’ll at least be lively! You heard Dr. Kissinger say earlier that on the sanctions, the Iraqis want to keep them there. Saddam Hussein wants those sanctions there.
VESTER: He has a thriving black market…
VESTER: … on oil, and he’s — and he makes at least — at least a billion dollars last year in black-market oil.
PECK: A billion dollars to feed 23 million people. Now, what does that work out to…
VESTER: The thing is…
VESTER: … Mr. Ambassador, he didn’t use it to feed people.
PECK: Well, stand by. You see…
VESTER: Since the war, he has built…
PECK: Hey, hold it. Whoa! Whoa!
VESTER: … built 48 new palaces…
PECK: Wait a minute! Wait a minute!
VESTER: … and refurbished others to the tune of $1.5 billion![tilde]
PECK: Well, you don’t know that, either. But the thing…
VESTER: I do!
VESTER: And you know who that comes from?
VESTER: Madeleine Albright.
VESTER: It comes from the State Department!
PECK: Oh, my goodness gracious. You’ve invited me here to tell you what I think, so give me a chance now.
VESTER: OK.
PECK: OK. Dr. Kissinger sat there, with you in the room. I don’t have a chance to see you. You see me, but I’m in a dark room. He said that Saddam Hussein gets all this money from oil. Now, Henry Kissinger is smart enough to know, and so are you, that none of the money from the “oil for peace” goes to Iraq. They don’t get a dime from the sale of that “oil for food” money. It all goes to the United Nations, which doles it out, what’s left after reparations and so forth, under the aegis…
VESTER: I understand, but we’re talking about the black market. And I think that’s what the doctor’s talking about, as well.
VESTER: Richard Butler from the United Nations also confirmed this to me. And he actually said the number — the amount of money that Iraq is getting from its black market sales of oil is much higher. It’s several billion dollars.
VESTER: I have a — I have a chapter and verse from…
VESTER: … from the U.S. commander of the 5th fleet in Bahrain…
VESTER: … explaining his own patrolling of this. He sees the pattern…
VESTER: Yes.
PECK: Now, if you’re going to take the U.N. figures that you just stated, why do you choose to ignore the ones about the deaths of children as a result of the embargo?
VESTER: Well, why do you choose to ignore the fact that Saddam Hussein gassed his own people!
PECK: Now, wait a minute! You have to understand — when did that happen? Do you remember?
VESTER: Yeah, during the Iran-Iraq war.
PECK: Well, what year was that?
VESTER: Many years ago.
PECK: Yeah, OK. What was the United States government’s position on that at the time?
VESTER: You know what? It doesn’t matter!
VESTER: He killed his own people!
PECK: It does matter. It does matter because…
VESTER: Why? I mean, murder is murder!
PECK: We didn’t think it was a problem at the time. It didn’t become a problem until after 1990. Saddam Hussein is not a nice guy. Don’t push me into defending him! My interest, my only interest — and it should be yours — is how do we advance America’s interests in that part of the world? And we do not do it after 11 years of a strangling embargo and bombing Iraq whenever we feel like it.
VESTER: They get plenty of money to feed their people! You know they do.
PECK: They do not, and I do not know it, and I don’t think that you do, either, as a matter of fact. Two United Nations humanitarian directors have resigned in protest, one after the other, one a Brit, one a German.
VESTER: All right…
PECK: They said, “Hey, I cannot be associated with this.” Now, my point…
PECK: I don’t think…
VESTER: Yes. Very quickly.
PECK: Yeah. You know, I don’t support Saddam Hussein. My job is to think about what’s good for the United States.
VESTER: All right, I’m sorry to cut you off…
PECK: And doing what we’re doing — yeah, you did it again.
VESTER: … but perhaps we’ll have another — no, we’ll have another night together. Maybe we’ll go to Baghdad.
March 20, 2008 at 7:53 pm
The real story behind Wright and Hillary:
http://incogman.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/reality-check-the-real-reverend-wright-business/#more-504
March 21, 2008 at 7:40 am
Well, I believe that I have this correctly now, they (whoever “they” are) pulled a quick excerpt from Pastor Wright commenting on statements made by Fox News and Ambassador Peck.
As I had suspected, there is no way in the world to understand Pastor Wright’s seemingly outrageous outburst unless it is heard in context. Thank you for the context.
March 21, 2008 at 9:25 am
If you want to hear the REAL Rev. Wright sermon, not the sound bites played over and over on FOX and other media channels….have a listen and then make your own opinion.
March 21, 2008 at 10:46 am
Yup, that’s the one. Listening to the whole, in context, I can’t find anything to be upset about. Pastor Wright seems to be a most inspirational speaker.
I listened to his sermon containing God D**n America, and have no problem understanding where he came from with that, either.
March 21, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Hey, Mary. I put the whole Sermon Vid as my “Video of the Week,” thanks. Oh yeah, STICK IT TO THE MAN! How’s that sound?
March 21, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Roland Martin is saying that the sermon was given on the sunday following 9/11, and that blog entry can be found on CNN. Your transcript says the interview with ambassador peck happened on 10/10 of that year. But the sermon couldnt have been quoting an interview that hadn’t happened yet. Is Roland Martin off in his dates? Is there an interview with the ambassador regarding blowback prior to 10/10/01? And can you provide a source for the transcript so it can be linked to and sourced by others?
Im inclined to think your blog post is accurate, but so far none of the dates and sourcing seem to match.
thanks.
March 21, 2008 at 4:06 pm
David E.
If you actually look at the full sermon video, Rev. Wright states that he is quoting Amb. Peck as heard on a Fox News interview. I believe anytime after 10/10 will qualify as after 9/11 as well. It is absolutely obvious that the sermon occured after listening to Peck. Period .
March 21, 2008 at 4:07 pm
David E,
You raise a good point. Most of the media seem to have gotten the timing of these sermons really mixed up. The sermon with the “God Damn America” comment was not after September 11, it was in 2003. Brian Ross mentions that date in his ABC News piece.
The sermon above about “chickens coming home to roost” (which was not the same sermon as the “God Damn America” comment) could not have been the Sunday right after September 11 because:
1) In the full clip, Wright reflects back on all the people who had shown up in churches and on “the week of the hijackings.”
2) In his original piece, Brian Ross said this was Wright’s “first sermon after September 11.” That doesn’t mean it was the Sunday after 9/11 because Trinity has a whole staff of pastors who could preach in the interim.
3) If you look at the audience, their demeanor is not the demeanor of people showing up at church the Sunday after 9/11.
The source for the piece above is Fox News Transcripts. I don’t know of a public online link, but there may be one out there.
I think the bottom line though is that the mainstream media have really butchered this story.
Update: This comment is completely wrong. The sermon was indeed right after 9/11. My bad.
March 21, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Thanks sagereader.
I haven’t been able to find a definite date, but it helps to have one for those who think this sermon was all about hating America. They pick small things apart and try to use them as evidence against the entirety of what was said.
I’ve also read many comments how Roland Martin, in his piece, didn’t provide any actual quotes or source the comments made by Edward Peck. This is the only place I’ve found a copy of what was said, and hopefully someone has video footage of the interview somewhere and can post it. Online, Fox only shows archives going back to 2006– Im not sure where to find transcripts going back further.
To be sure, I agree that this sounds like a lot of people are intimidated and frightened by any Black man preaching in this manner (Ive read comments that criticize the nature of Wright’s delivery) in some latent, and sometimes blatant, racist fear. And I keep hearing folks complain about reverse racism but I haven’t seen much, if any, of it.
I’m just trying to make sure the story is bullet proof. Some folks won’t believe anything, but some folks are open– and unless there is sourcing and explanation they’re more likely to believe the first thing heard, even if it isn’t the truth they hear.
Thanks again.
kb,
I wasn’t doubting that the sermon was delivered after 9/11. I was trying to rectify the apparent confusion in dates– Roland Martin said it was delivered on 9/16/01, yet the interview transcript was from 10/10-10/11/01. Small mix ups and meaningless mistakes hold a lot of water to folks who simply want to criticize this man and the candidate he supports. They see it as someone might a lawyer with unkempt hair, crooked glasses, a loose tie, papers flowing from the inside of a closed briefcase… Not someone you’d want to defend you, though they may be brilliant.
When I tell someone what this was about, they usually ask questions about small details in order to try to belittle and defeat my argument. I just want to make sure I have my facts, all of them, straight. Nothing wrong with seeing both the forest and the trees, right?
March 21, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Re the timing: The sermon refers to the US considering “payback”. When did Bush start talking about going into Afghanistan and then Iraq?
March 21, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Wright cannot quote from an interview that had not happened. So surely, he was quoting from some interview. Fox files don’t seem to go back that far. What I am sure about is that Wright was quoting. He was not speaking expecting it to be dissected by the media years in the future. Also, the church was not archiving expecting the date to be the subject of this kind of study.
But the mere fact that the media did not show us the context and only chose a soundbite that is obviously now a quote from something else he heard.
March 21, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Oops I touched the “submit” button too soon. Cont’d
……..tells us that the media did a real deliberate dirty.
March 21, 2008 at 11:03 pm
[...] UPDATE: Check this link for more context on the ‘Roost’ video! [...]
March 22, 2008 at 5:58 am
The most disturbing part about this entire episode regarding Obama’s minister is the background which follows; First, Obama is not black enough, then he is unAmerican, unpatriotic, then he is Muslim and the list goes on…The media pounces on every word and basically dimisses him as a rock star with no real value to the political process and where did he come from?
These media types claim that they are so concerned with finding out the truth for us so we can make the right decisions. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews claims to care so much about us, the American people, or so the promos claim for Election 2008. I say bologne!
Our nation is in real trouble. Our nation has been in a complete state of denial on so many levels that I hardly know where to begin. During the early Clinton years the FOXNews conglomerate of Rupert Murdoch came into more prominence to promote and maintain GOP agenda and corporate American interests; from Wall Street to Oil Interests, Pharmaceutical Companies and Defense Contractors. Their goal was to bring business sensibility to the government way of doing business. Remember, before they came into power, government was ‘obscenely wasteful’ with $600 toilet seats and all. They were supposed to be the people that cleaned up government.
Well, they figured out that it was not enough to simply manipulate the news to the American public, they figured out that the Pharmaceutical companies could assist in the lulling of America. Maybe someone in the readership could help me out on this next statement, but approximately 5 years ago, the NIH put out statistics that said that approximately 68 percent of Americans were being medicated for depression. Since that time, I no longer ask myself why are people not more angry or sad about anything our country does that is wrong, both here or abroad?
During the past 40 years we have grown lazy, selfish and spoiled. We must always be happy, calm and never feel guilty about anything. During the wonderful economy of the Clinton years, we all decided that hard and honest work was for illegal immigrants and we could take every shortcut and cut any corner whenever possible. Lobbyists and public servants got real cozy and as a result our politicians started to think that they were royalty and we hardly ever saw them, unless we were the really big donors. After a while, we all started to believe the lie and for a while we forgot that we were their bosses.
Political campaigns got more and more expensive and the media figured out that if they got cozy with the politicos and corporate interests, they could make some big money. So the unholy alliances began. Media began to tailor and select the news to us and our biases, hence the Fox Network and others. Even the serious news venues got saavy to the system and now we have what we have and nobody likes to look at the truth anymore, and now we have revisionist history lessons.
Our government has raped and pillaged the American indian from time memorial. Our government refused to acknowledge the rights of Mexican Americans under the Hidalgo treaty and many other treastices. Our government was responsible for the Tuskegee Experiment. Our government intered Japanese Americans after WWII and the list could go on just here in America. We haven’t even talked about the wrongs outside the US.
We have become a nation that hates to see truth. Is it any wonder that brown, black, red and yellow don’t trust the goverment? Is it any wonder that there is every reason to discuss conspiracies? Distrust and dissent with our government does not mean hatred. Anger, frustration and bitterness for our government, yes. Here is the great distinction; government and country are not the same things. We love our country, but sometimes we hate our government.
The GOP can no longer claim ownership of Moral and Ethical Authority. They can’t claim ownership of Fiscal Responsibility and Small Government. They can’t claim ownership of Christian Principles and Fairness very convincingly anymore either. From all accounts, they never intended to ever have to share power with the other side. That is why they have changed the rules, changed game. They simply have no honor and good conservatives are sad and embarrassed at what their party has done to America.
So the real challenge for us is to accept some more hard realities. The media has sold out and now they are trying to convince Americans that they are the only true sources of hard news. Their job is to keep us a divided nation. Ratings go up, advertisers keep paying and the culture of corruption continues unabated. This is the moment in our nation to rise to the urgency of now. It may be the last opportunity we have to regain our country. McCain represents a never ending war with no real plan for America’s working class, no plan for the uninsured and a continuation of status quo. Clinton represents the ugliness and divisiveness of yesteryear and a continuation of the pig trough. The winning ticket for uniting America’s white, brown, black, red and yellow is an Obama/Edwards ticket with Richardson as Secretary of State and Joseph Biden and Christopher Dodd somewhere in the cabinet or maybe they continue in their roles to ensure that the Congress can actually get things done.
The Republicans have pretty much had their way for the majority of the last 40 years. How’s it working for us? Not very well. Maybe we can save our nation by being loyal to our nation and each other first and our political affiliations second.
Too much to say and too tired to continue ranting, but grateful for the venue.
Hope springs eternal and he who has hope has everything.
March 22, 2008 at 8:15 am
I just wish the American people can smarten up!!! Listen to Rev Wright’s sermon in it’s entirety, you probably would go there too, I know I would. These conservative talk show host continually divide americans by not reporting facts, either stop believing everything you here or start doing independent research. We were/are all ready to throw Obama under the bus, but in reality this man is the best thing to ever happen to America. He is a “typical black person” just as much as he is a “typical white person”. He is for the people and he actually talks to us like adults instead of a bunch of five year olds. If so many people want change, why do they continually support the status-quo??? Why do the continually vote for presidents and vp’s that give you answers like “SO”. We as Americans control our destiny, so after this election and in the coming years our lives are upside down, I don’t want to hear any whining, DEAL WITH IT, you make your bed. sleep in it.
March 22, 2008 at 8:19 am
Look, it’s obvious that he (Wright) took some serious rope that is now being used to try to hang him with his “quotes” from the “white ambassador”. My issues with Rev. White and his rhetoric is in his horrid slamming rant over Hillary Clinton. She and her husband worked very hard for eight years to have a minority friendly White House. Now he says she is the status quo. How did being the FIRST woman to run for President become part of the status quo or “fitting the mold”. I believe the “mold” is wealthy, white men. If that is the status quo, they both have 2 similarities. Obama is wealthy and a man, Clinton is wealthy and white. I don’t think either one of them “fits the mold”. I also resent him saying that Hillary doesn’t understand having to work twice as hard in order to make it, because she isn’t black. OK!!!! If we use that philosohpy, Barack Obama can’t understand what it’s like to do the same job for less pay, or what it’s like to have to deal with sexual harrassment, or to have to work 40+ hours per week then come home. At home, a woman’s job doesn’t end. A woman still has to fix supper, help with homework, do the laundry, the dishes, and the floors, take care of baths, and bedtime routines, and still have the time and energy to talk to their husbands, pay the bills, balance the checkbook, and watch the news. Our spiritual advisors are supposed to be our examples. They are supposed to lead us where we SHOULD walk, whether we choose to walk there or not. I am tired of preachers, evangelists, pastors, and priests who are more than willing to talk the talk, but won’t walk the walk… This one seems less and less inclined to talk the talk.
I’m Hispanic, and if my church’s listed doctrine said that it was to promote the HISPANIC ethics, ideals, homes, morals, traditions, etc. I would have no difficulty in seeing this as racist. Even if the doctrine said for Hispanics to help themselves, I would be capable of understanding that this is racism. It is just as racist as when the South had separate but equal. The blacks went to black schools, they lived in black neighborhoods, they had their own water fountains and bathrooms. That was wrong… fundamentally wrong… but so is this.
March 22, 2008 at 9:20 am
Lynn,
How is it racist to seek to help your own people? Does the doctrine denigrate whites? No. it simply reflects a long standing belief in the African American community that they must be able to help themselves because no one else will. It has a long tradition. Look at Booker T Washington. That was his whole philosophy. Where is the racism?
And Hillary Clinton is in no way a typical white woman. You are putting more into what Wright said than is there.
The Clinton adminstration may have been minority friendly, but it also had no problem passing a welfare bill that has had a far reaching and subtly devastating impact on working mothers and others in the African American community.
One of the issues that you, Lynn, and others seem to be missing is that claiming ones status as a victim is as bad or worse than anothers is to do exactly what the dominant culture expects, because it allows a divide and conquer mentality. Look at second wave feminism and the racism that was such a big part of that movement.
You are generalizing about ‘a woman’s job’ never ending as well. If you believe that all of that is a woman’s job, then perhaps you are stuck in the past, much like the good Rev Wright may be stuck in the past. You are fighting the battles of the 20th century in the 21st century. Just as Rev Wright is wrong to suggest things have not improved (though it could be argued that he in fact does see progress), YOU are mistaken in seeing nothing changed. Racism and Sexism are not what they used to be in this country.
March 22, 2008 at 9:57 am
I believe most who are upset with the Reverends comments should take a few minutes-more like a few days-and read the Old Testament….jeez Louise,theres some real blood lust in there.
I have a friend who was born in an interment camp-his Japanese parents had everything taken from them by the USA…his parents were born in America-we are so guilty as a nation,just as the writer says-we stole Americans,the Original Americans…the Original Native People,yet we (speaking as a nation) are so blind to our own terrorism. My friend grew up to be a Viet Nam troop who earned the Bronze Star. He thinks its junk-I tend to agree.
What and whom we ought to be afraid of is -CHENEY!!! the self appointented president-probrebly the real one (the other guy is too stupid to stack rocks) and these men-that man,is just as christian as Adolf Hitler was…and Hitler thought removing the Jews was a Godly thing to do.
Just think of it-the King who wrote the Psalms was an adulterer and a murderer-yet we (as a people ) judge a mans comments by ‘air’ scripture and guessing that he is out of the pages of the Bible when in reality what the man is preaching is seriously scriptural.
We just crossed another line-defending the twin towers has cost more money and more lives then the incident itself.
We are as guilty as we want Reverend Wright to be…
March 22, 2008 at 11:26 am
Fox News is a White House propaganda machine. It is the only cable permitted on White House TV screens. Murdock and the Bushes are joined at the hip. I will not allow Fox propaganda to enter my home, no different than I would allow porn shows to enter my home. Fox and Clear Channel radio are responsible for dividing this nation. Worse than that are the Americans who watch and listen to these outlets resulting in thorough bainwashings and rendering them incapable of having any original thoughts of their own. Enough said.
March 22, 2008 at 2:32 pm
REV WRIGHT IS NOT QUOTING THE AMBASSADOR. Per the story, this is the man that “inspired” his sermon but they were Wright’s words and interpretations.. DO NOT PASS THIS AROUND> YOU’LL JUST KEEP HURTING OBAMA. Read the Article if you don’t believe me. Don’t you think if the Ambassador had really said this, we wouldn’t have known it years ago?
Isn’t jumping the gun and believing all you hear what got our guy in trouble in the 1st place?
This is only one speech. If they dig, never know what will come up and will be defending him again.
Really want to direct attention back to it? DON’T DRAW ATTENTION BACK TO IT, PLEASE.
Also how could he have been referring to an INTERVIEW THAT HADN’T HAPPENED YET?
March 22, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Roland Martin, is a joke. CNN contributor, my butt. He may as well be wearing “I’m in the Tank for Obama.” or “Yep, I drank the koolaid.”
He can be for whomever he wants but he’ s getting Obama in more hot water by getting everyone to buy into that the Reverend was quoting an Ambassador.
Interpreting what someone said is different and he knows better.
Obama wants this all to go away. Keeping up these insinuations will just keep it in teh forefront and hurt Obama.
So, I guess if you want Hillary as the nominee, go for it.
Roland Martin has the dates wrong. This cannot be based on an interview that hadn’t happened yet.
March 22, 2008 at 3:32 pm
You are hypocrits, doing the same that you are accusing the media of doing.
You shouldn’t go slandering the name of a great patriot such as Ambassador Peck unless you know for certain.
DON’T YOU THINK IF AN AMBASSADOR, OUR AMBASSADOR, SAID THIS AFTER 9/11 THAT WE and THE WORLD WOULD HAVE HEARD ABOUT IT.
Interpreting is not the same as QUOTING anyway, a far cry.
March 22, 2008 at 4:48 pm
This guy has the soul of a black Ward Churchill.
March 22, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Here’s a transcript of the longer, fuller Wright version: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/03/the-wright-post.html
March 23, 2008 at 12:32 am
I,m so glad you smart guys are out there telling us the truth. You certainly can,t get it from the Fox News! I agree with Just Another Fellow American. I will not have Fox News on in my house. I,m a white mother of 6 children, and I,m just sick of how the media is treating Rev wright and Obama. I have in the past voted as an Independent leaning to the Rep. Not this time, if Obama hopefully is Dem. runner (not Clinton, that is another story) he is the one for me.
March 23, 2008 at 2:13 am
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/07/27/video-former-ambassador-ed-peck-defends-hezbollah/
Above is a link to the 1st interview of Edward Peck, for anyone interested.
I am greatly disturbed, but not surprized at the reporting of ALL the mainstream media. What else is to be expected from self-called journalist
that do no research, only report (read) what they are ordered to, and have no problem with a lead story (breaking news) that is about who is wearing panties, who is in rehab ect. As our poor excuse for leadership
is sending our soldiers to risk their lives for oil fields (the truth) that are controlled by a select few….the mainstream media with much consideration and research airs BS.
And Lynn, bless your heart. If you belive for a second that Hillary has a clue as to what a normal working mom has to go through, you need to wake up. Do you really belive that SHE went to work, then came home to do all the housework? She is a disgrace to ALL women! There are millions of women that are married to men that cheat on them, and abuse them. Alot of these women feel they have no choice but to stay with that man due to not having an education, and fear of not being able to care for their children. Hillary could have and should have left Bill. My opinion is that she stayed, not for the sake of love, but career. She will be no different then GWB. Listen to her words. She will say what she believes people want to hear to get what she wants. Listen to her tear down Obama. She speaks highly of Killer McBush, and tears down her own party. What makes anyone think she will be loyal to the working class person?
As for Rev. Wright. I would be proud to go to the church he teaches at to hear him. We need more ministers that are brave enough to speak the truth. Speaking the truth does not mean one is pulling out enough rope to hang ones self. The only people with ropes in hand to hang the one who dares to speak the truth…..are those who fear the truth.
BTW, I am white (not that there’s anything wrong with that)
March 23, 2008 at 11:59 am
[...] over the years. Right after 9/11 plenty of people said it, including Rev. Wright in his “Chickens Come Home to Roost” sermon. Many of the United States problems in the Middle East are a direct result of our [...]
March 23, 2008 at 10:01 pm
[...] http://thinkonthesethings.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/video-jeremiah-wright-chickens-coming-home-to-roo... [...]
March 24, 2008 at 8:58 am
after seeing the clips of jerimah wright i hated every thing that both him and obama stand for but then i got the full version of what was really said and oh my god how wrong i was about rev wright my god the man is telling a story what did he say wrong? i am so happy that youtube gave me the oppertunity to open my eyes thank you very much now i am very clear on the real facts and will no longer based any of my views on the ignorant stupid media houses and their uneducated moderators and panels they can all go to hell in a barrel.
March 24, 2008 at 9:49 am
i am in agreement w/most of the postings here. the problem i continue to have is the ongoing apathy of americans. it appears to me that there are only a miniscule number of americans who really conduct their own research to find out the truth of the matter. usually is a combination of both sides and you have to determine what you think after reading both sides. now, where does this apathetic condition takes us. continued control of the elitis, whether it be liberals or conservatives, democrats or republicans. is there a possibility that anyone can really be allowed to lead based on their vision and values? that is the real concern that i have. i think that the answer is no.
check out this website:
http://www.converge.org.nz/pirm/index.htm#The State of the World
there are a small number of people who seems to have this country by the juggler and will not let go, even if it means destroying someone’s character to ensure that they do not get elected into the most powerful (so-called) position in the world. i actually am concerned if barack obama is elected because he is too invidualistic and different from the status quo. i don’t believe that he will be allowed to first of all make it to the whitehouse and secondly, lead.
March 24, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Yeah, that’s basically what I’m saying alberta in my post:
http://incogman.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/reality-check-the-real-reverend-wright-business/#more-504
March 26, 2008 at 1:12 pm
LISTEN UP AMERICA!!!! This country that claims to be so God fearing. Does God damn the liar and prefers those speak the true.???? Now, be careful America that Rev. Wright has not given America a “Prophetic Word”, and you hear it not, because America, you did not listen. How many times in the old Teatament did God send Prophets to deliever a “Prophetic Word” to Isarel? How many time did Isarel not listen and what was the end result of Isarel not hearing the “Prophetic Word”? Most Church going people will know, neither did the Prophets of the Old Teatament tell the people of Isarel what they wanted to hear or say the true the way they wanted to hear it, the truth is still the truth and ain’t that the truth. Now, America particularly you God fearing Americans, what did the people of Isarel do to God’s prophets?
Finally, why do some of you even begin to think you can critique the “Black Worship Experience”, the worship that teaches us to hate the sin and not the sinner, the worship that teaches us to turn the other cheek (which we have done so many times in America), a worship that teaches us to accept people for who they are (when others in America find if difficult to do for us). You see when America refused to give Black American little to Hope for, it was the “Black Worship Experience”, that nurtured our Faith, Hope and Belief for it was well grounded in what it means to be Christians. It was that same worship experince that taught us, we could help America be the American penned in it all its great documents.
March 26, 2008 at 3:53 pm
I’m a white guy whom many blacks would think as racist. However, I’m not. I only look for my own people and stand up and fight back against attacks on us.
That being said, I know full well that much of the Rev. Wright’s message is very true. He may not say it, but the Zionist is behind what America is doing. The sooner whites and blacks realize that, the better. These are evil, manipulative people who profit greatly thru the media in destroying our morality.
Plus, their hatred of the Muslim is making this country do those kinds of things in the world. It IS THE JEW.
March 26, 2008 at 9:05 pm
[...] interview that inspired Wright’s words? Here are some quotes from an appearance the Ambassador made on the network on October 11, 2001, which may or may not have been the segment Wright was referring to. On the [...]
March 29, 2008 at 1:12 am
[...] talking heads like to call “collateral damage.” And he’s actually referencing this interview with Ambassador Peck regarding America’s intervention overseas and then quoting Malcom X when he says “America’s chickens are coming home to [...]
March 30, 2008 at 10:48 am
I’m confused on the timeline. After I listened to Wright’s entire sermon on vodcast.com/?p=55323 yesterday, I thought it had been delivered on Sunday, September 16, 2001. Is this not correct? I ask because some posts say that the Peck interview did not occur until October 10 or 11. So obviously Wright couldn’t have quoted it on September 16. Does anybody have a reliable timeline? It makes a difference to whether I can believe Fox, or whether the “context” watchers are correct.
March 31, 2008 at 2:26 am
did anybody in the world trade center deserve the rotten scum flying air planes into buildings. Or as Wright, OBama and Malcolm X would say the chickens are coming home to roost.
April 4, 2008 at 9:26 am
[...] civil rights leaders who have death threats placed on them and their congregations because they dare to ask our nation to our examine ourselves, what have we really [...]
April 10, 2008 at 10:14 am
THE MEDIA HAS A WAY OF FORMING AND SHAPING ONES OPINION IN THE DERECTION AND BELIEF SYSTEMS THEY WOULD HAVE YOU TO BELIEVE. THEY PUT THE STORY OUT ABOUT REV WRIGHT, AND THE WHOLE COUNTRY WAS APPALED BY HIS REMARKS DUE TO THE WAY THE NEWS MEDIA PRESENTED IT AND WOULD HAVE YOU TO INTERPET IT. NO WHERE WHEN THEY WHERE DICUSSING THE REVS STORY AS THEY RELATED IT TO OBAMA WAS EDWARD PECKS NAME MENTION. IT CLEARLY SHOW WHEN I WATCHED THE VIDEO IN ITS ENTIRE COMPLEX DID I UNDERSTAND WHAT BROUGHT THIS ON. THE MEDIA HAS COVERAGE ON CNN, HANNITY AND COMBS, GLEN BECK, FOX NEWS, ANDERSON COOPER AND MANY MANY MORE AND NOT ONE OF THESE SHOWS TRULY GOT THE REAL STORY BEHIND WHAT WAS BEING SAID IN FUL CONTEX. IT WAS ALL ABOUT THEM MAKING PROFITS REGARDLESS TO THE RIGHT FOR THE PUBLIC TO NO THE FULL TRUTH. I AM TRULY SADDEN AT HOW THE PUBLIC NEWS CHANNELS SPINN THE NEWS INSTEAD OF TAKING AS CHANCE WITH THE TRUTH AND LETTING ITS VIEWERS AND LISTNERS COME TO TERMS WITH THEIR OWN BELIEFS, THIS IS A SAD SAD SITUATIONS WHEN MONEY BECOMES MORE IMPORTANT THAN INTEGRETY. I TAKE IT AS THOUGH THEY MUST FEEL WE ARE NOT THINKING BEINGS AND THEY FEEL THEY NEED TO GIVE US AN OPINION ANDD MAKE US ACCEPT IT. SHAME ON YOU NETWORKS THAT FUEL HATRED AND DIVISION. AND THIS IS MY OPINION.
April 12, 2008 at 12:39 pm
It’s the Jews, people. Figure it out. If Obama gets the Dem Nomination, you’ll see all kinds of stuff coming out on him, courtesy of the Zionists who want McCain. You watch. The Jew is concerned about Obama — that’s why he’s doing whatever he can now to get them to back off. Like setting-up a HEBREW blog. The Jews are now saying that to be president of this country you have to go thru Tel Aviv.
Ain’t that some shit?
http://incogman.wordpress.com/
April 24, 2008 at 11:27 pm
can some one put the whole sermon on youtube. please
April 25, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I have it on my blog. I see a lot of hits coming from this blog. Don’t be shy, now and leave a message. I know I’m a evil whitey man and all. So what?
http://incogman.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/reality-check-the-real-reverend-wright-business/
April 27, 2008 at 12:43 am
I used Lexis-Nexis (transcripts) to search for Peck on FOX, from 9-10-01 to 9-20-10, and came up empty.
April 27, 2008 at 8:55 am
^^It’s weird. Something about the timing still doesn’t add up.
April 27, 2008 at 9:13 am
To find reference of Ambassador Peck statement I typed in the SEARCH box: 2001 Ambassador Peck’s statement
Find the listing: http://www.democrats.org
for the information quoted by Rev. Wright.
The web site description includes the wording as follows:
“His statement about the U.S. bringing on 9/11 was actually a quote from Ambassador Edward Peck, former Chief of Mission in Iraq and former … ”
Found in the next to the last paragraph of the article is the information quoted in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermon. Rev. Wright used it as part of the September 16 sermon, “The Day of Jerusalem’s Fall.” Moreover, Ambassador Peck was stating the truth as well as giving a historical list occasions that our government has used as excuses to go to war in the past and continues to do so today.
Because of the different clothing that Rev. Wright was wearing in the sound bites, I quickly realized that the clips were taken from a number of sermons the first being Sept. 16, 2001 and another on April 13, 2003,“Confusing God and Government,” more recently referred to as the “God Damn America” sermon. Note that we should know that “damn” is a term for condemn.
To find a number of Rev. Wright’s sermon SEARCH:
REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT FULL STORY BEHIND 9/11
http://www.dailyvodcasts.com
I don’t think Barack Obama had access to the full sermon before he made his speech, ‘A More Perfect Union’ on March 18. I was not able to find the sermon until the March 20 program CNNs Anderson Cooper 360 announced that it would be on the web. I didn’t find it until March 21. In the meantime, the newsmen and women, commentators, and opinionators have offered their own opinions about the clips and Barack Obama’s relationship with this kind of Pastor for 20 years. I believe that even now most of them have NOT taken the time to listen to the entire sermons. If they had they would realize the importance of what Rev. Wright was really saying in any and all of his sermons.
When ABC first aired the sound clips, they conveniently neglected to Rev. Wright’s referrence to the Ambassador Peck quote as part of the sermon. The other networks were wrong in not investigating the sound bites before airing them as well. The networks have failed terribly in their duty to provide the American people with the correct information about Rev. Wright’s sermons that were used as quick sound bites to misrepresent Rev. Wright. In so doing, they contiually and intentionally misrepresented Barack Obama. We deserve better and need to write to all the networks who continue to air these clips since approximately March 11. I have written to many of the network producers as well as to the individual shows that continually air these sound bites.
Please share with your friends this piece about how rumors get started and are perpetuated by people who do not take the time to question the source or authenticity of a report. In other words, it’s called PROPAGANDA! How often do we fall prey to the media, whether televised or printed in the news, not taking the time ourselves to question the what and why of what we hear?
You owe it to yourself to question the motives of any information from unnamed sources and that which provides merely excerpts from a document without receiving information on how to see the entire document.
Written by an elderly white female who believes in the freedom of the media as long as it is the truth.
God, don’t damn America, but forgive Americans for our arrogance, our ignorance, and our prejudices.
April 28, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Rev.Wright is justified in every way. The media needs to stop trying to control the people of this nation with thier own slanted bias toward race and report the news. Your enjoyment to talk is out of line with the truth. And you are over zealous in your effort to suggest that sound bites are supposed to be embraced as the truth as opposed to the real truth that DR WRIGHT have very acurately spoken in the pulpit. Is’nt high-tech lynching kinda old anyway. It didnt work with the supreme court Thomas. You all need to for a change, really try to be original. Not a panal full of copycats……..
April 28, 2008 at 10:31 pm
ABC is one of the biggest propaganda news media out there. I’ve caught many lies and half-truths out of them before. The Jew-Controlled media is giving you a big dose right now. But it’s going up against White liberalism created by the Jew in the first place. It’s a perfect storm of bull.
http://incogman.wordpress.com/
April 29, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Linda Vester should be ashamed of herself. Nice journalism.
April 30, 2008 at 8:40 am
To everything there is a season and reason. I don’t understand all the string-pulling behind the scenes to orchestrate the distractions (yes, even possible truths can become distractions when out of place) but then MLK did say that it’s always to right time to do what is right and maybe something is going on that is bigger than all the players (Obama, Clinton, McCain, Wright…).
We do know that Australia just this year acknowledged and apologized for forcefully taking native children from their parents to assimilate them into Aussie-Euro-ways. For some people, the “adult food” of this truth is too heavy and “divisive”. For others, their minds are able to process and digest the adult food and understand without being distracted. The same goes for the US government’s experiments of the past. If a government can use scientists to create concoctions of chemicals which can kill human life many times over, can’t it do just about anything? If a government can arm others and support them in killing while hiding its hand in the matters, can’t it do many other things? If the wealthiest government on earth can allow greedy bankers and lenders to lie and trick people into predatory loans or to allow gross and extreme disparities can’t it give a wink or a nod at many things? What about the torture, and attempted extra-judicial (outside of the law) CIA (government) flights and jails of suspected – but not proven in courts of law – terrorists; including some who might be innocent?
These are all very close to documented truth (adult food vs. baby food). The fact that we do not at this time nor did we in the past have transparent government keeps some of these things in the dark. Devious people who have access to the information can hide it then whip you on the head for speculating on the system and motives of what happened in the past or what continues to happen. The citizen populations are made uninformed, the exact opposite of what a number of the founding fathers ideally hoped for this country. This is wrong.
So understand the rope-a-dope machine and the rope-a-dope game that is being played. Adult-up and start being less scared of the possible truths. Believe me, they will use suspicion and hear-say on you, me, Obama at the drop of a hat if it means discrediting us, confusing us or them winning and “keeping on” what they’ve got “going on”.
May 4, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Sean Hannity aired the Amabassador Peck Interview from its file footage. It was dates as September 5, 2001
May 6, 2008 at 7:55 pm
INCOGMAN should know that MOST American Jews are opposed to the War on Iraq, and MOST (over 50%) are either opposed to Zionism or don’t care much about Israel.
Lenni Brenner, anti-Zionist Jew, explained these statistics.
Furthermore, the Neo-Conservatives aligned with Bush are rooted through Commentary magazine and other liberal-ish NY media, and back through the American Jewish Congress (?) which actually BLOCKED emigration of Jewish refugees to America, on the basis that Israel needed a blood sacrifice to establish the State, and these other unlucky, poor, religious Jews would provide the blood sacrifice, and should not be permitted to escape.
Other Jewish anti-Zionist orgs have published such stories.
Zionist Ben Hecht, who wrote Perfidy, described the same thing. His book is of course unavailable.
RACE is the wrong math.
May 7, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Looks like Gary the Jew did a copy and paste job on you folks, here. He posted this virtually same comment on my blog BUT added the fact that he’s really a Jew. He calls himself a “self-hating” Jew anti-Zionist and liberal yet uses Jew tactics like we see here.
My reply to him is here:
http://incogman.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/what-some-may-call-the-jewish-conspiracy/#comment-1409
Note the huge act of disingeniuty going on above in the 3rd paragraph. He talks about Bush and the neocons and then about the AJC blocking immigration of Jews. But this just happened to occur back before WW II, when the Zionists were trying to get Eastern European Jews to immigrate to Palestine and using Hitler to scare them into doing so. He’s going on about something 65 years ago!
Hitler actually was going along with getting the Jews into Palestine. But the rich Jews got away, leaving the poorer ones behind which the AJC turned their back on them. Later, these same Jews used the Holocaust as propaganda on the West and we’ve been paying for it thru the nose every since! All of us — including blacks!
And then our Jew Gary, appeals to you by saying RACE is the wrong math. Here’s the deal people. RACE for anyone else is bad — but for Jews not a problem. Israel is now in the middle of throwing out 7500 Darfur BLACK refugees who escaped to Israel.
Jews are the world’s biggest hypocrites, bar none! Rev. Wright knows all this. The Jews don’t want you to.
Sorry, Gary the Jew.
May 24, 2008 at 10:15 am
[...] Bobby Kennedy sinks her, there would be a real sense of schadenfreud, reap-what-you-sow and (to borrow a phrase from Wright) chickens coming home to [...]
August 2, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Tahnks for posting
September 21, 2008 at 12:30 pm
OBAMA = BETRAYAL
Obama supporters are foolish to think that he will never betray them.
Obama was a close friend of Pastor Wright for TWENTY YEARS.
Obama threw Wright under the bus for personal ambition.
McCain would not betray his country even after 5 years of torture.
You can put lipstick on a traitor, but he’s still a traitor.
November 9, 2008 at 9:05 am
Rev. Wright,
Things you said are said by many preachers who recognize America’s leaders have forsaken the ways of God for materialistic gains. I am a “senior”, white Southerner who knew nothing about God or the Bible as I pursued studies in engineering. God asked me to work for him and I soon found people, who said they believed and practiced the principles of God found in the Bible, had some exceptions. Calling attention to the Bible’s statements about equality caused me to be attacked twice by white church people. This was before the days of MLK. I was not promoting equality, I was simply reminding the people what God said about equality. Mr. Obama will need advice from people without personal agendas, who are experienced in the principles of right and wrong. For God and country I offer my services to him. I’m telling you so you can relay the message to him.
Best wishes to you and yours,
Kris Doulos