Scotty's book.
● In What Happened, Scott McClellan offers withering portraits of George Bush and Karl Rove, confirms we went to war in Iraq under false pretenses, and that we were serially lied to about the outing of Valerie Plame.
● Video McClellan on 'Today': CIA leak case a 'turning point'
● Dem congressman calls on McClellan to testify about book's revelations
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● On Wednesday night, CNN's Jessica Yellin talked to Anderson Cooper about Scott McClellan's tell-all memoir and agreed with the former press secretary that White House reporters "dropped the ball" during the run-up to war. But Yellin went much further, revealing that news executives--presumably at ABC News, where she'd worked from July 2003 to August 2007--actively pushed her not do hard-hitting pieces on the Bush administration.
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Israel Bars One of its Most Prominent Critics, Norman Finkelstein, for 10 Years
Norman Finkelstein was arrested and deported from Israel last week and told he’s barred for ten years. Finkelstein is known one of the most prominent academic critics of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We speak to Finkelstein and the human rights worker he was on his way to visit, Musa Abu Hashhash.
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz has published an editorial criticizing the Israeli government’s decision to ban American academic Norman Finkelstein from entering the country. Last Friday, Finkelstein was arrested at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv and questioned by the Shin Bet security service for several hours. It later became known that he had been banned from entering Israel for 10 years, for so-called “security reasons.”
Finkelstein is known one of the most prominent academic critics of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The Ha’aretz editorial reads in part: “Considering his unusual and extremely critical views, one cannot avoid the suspicion that refusing to allow him to enter Israel was a punishment rather than a precaution….The right to enter Israel is not guaranteed to noncitizens, but the right of Israeli citizens to hear unusual views is one that should be fought for. It is not for the government to decide which views should be heard here and which ones should not. The decision to ban Finkelstein hurts us more than it hurts him.”
Norman Finkelstein joins me now in the firehouse studio. We are also joined on the telephone from Hebron by Musa Abu Hashhash, Professor Finkelstein’s friend whom Norman had intended to visit. We called the Israeli embassy and New York consulate to invite them on the program but they declined our requests.
● DN! Video of Finkelstein Interview
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