Western Resistance

Mr. Hooper (pictured right) was yesterday on "The Situation with Tucker Calrson", a show on Cable News Channel MSNBC. (The full transcript of the show is here, it will be available for seven days.) But I want to do something different, even if it takes some time. I want to fisk the interview (my comments outsite the quote, in bold):

CARLSON: Welcome back. A print advertisement for the Osprey helicopters placed by Boeing and its partner Bell Helicopters in the "Armed Services Journal" making some Muslims in America angry. It shows a helicopters dropping soldiers over a mosque. It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell. Boeing has pulled the ad and apologized for publishing it. But that is not enough for our next guest. He is Ibrahim Hooper. He is spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations. He joins us now from Washington. Ibrahim, thanks for coming on. What else do you want them to do? They pulled the ad. What can they do now?

IBRAHIM HOOPER, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS: We are working with Boeing. We're working with Bell Helicopter to see how the ad was placed, the process that was faulty to have it placed in several national journals.

CARLSON: What does that mean, you're working with them?

Tucker Carlson is asking him whether he is shaking down Boeing and Bell for money. This technique has been perfected by 'Reverend' Jesse Jackson; companies usually cave in to the threat of vicious slander.

HOOPER: We're meeting with them. We are discussing how this incident happened. Obviously, any time you have American troops attacking a house of worship, particularly a mosque, as we are trying to boost our image in the Muslim world. It's problematic.

"We are trying to shake them down, but we are not going to tell you."

CARLSON: A house of worship, mosques are used to store weapons as meeting places for insurgent, not to mention the fact that mosques are often sort of the locus of extremism because the imams there preach hatred, as you know. And you probably also know the Geneva Convention says if a religious site is used for military operations, it loses its status. And the people who operate out of a mosque are officially war criminals.

HOOPER: I don't think we want to take the position that any mosque anywhere in the world is fair game for American military forces.

CARLSON: Nobody is taking that position.

Exactly right; Ibrahim Hooper is raising a strawman.

HOOPER: This mosque was not labeled as an Iraqi mosque, it was labeled as Mohammed's Mosque. It said in Arabic Jamiya Mohammed (ph) on it, which means Mohammed Mosque. And there was no indication it was in Iraq and no indication it was being used for any other purpose than a house of worship.

CARLSON: Doesn't need to be in Iraq. In Palestine, it was common for hey tread to be preached out of a mosque as it is common in Great Britain and throughout Europe. But also .

HOOPER: So your position is that any mosque anywhere in the world is fair game.

CARLSON: No. That is not all my position. My position is clearly and simply, when a mosque is used for military purposes, it becomes a fair military target.

And there are plenty of those, I might add.

HOOPER: There was no indication in this ad that was the case. Boeing, Bell, all agreed it was inappropriate and offensive and did the right thing and pulled it.

Boing and Bell 'agreed' it was 'inappropriate and offensive' after you threathened them.

CARLSON: Wait a second. Inappropriate and offensive? Which do you think is more inappropriate, this ad running about a mosque that doesn't exist, by the way, they're not suggesting bombing a certain mosque. That ad or the practice, widespread and you have not contested that of using mosques in Iraq as military bases. Which is more offensive?

HOOPER: Well, I would contest that we have seen several instances where there have been attacks on mosques in Iraq. And the claim is always that they're storehouses for weapons. And I haven't seen a tremendous amount of evidence for that.

And with that, Mr. Hooper joins the ranks of the deranged: if you don't see the evidence, because you don't want to see it, it is your fault.

CARLSON: January 2, U.S. soldiers raided the Sunni al Tabul Mosque (ph) in southwestern Baghdad and found three packages of TNT, a 60 mm mortar tube, eight improvised grenades and bomb making equipment, two bags of gunpowder. Are they making that up?

HOOPER: Again, if that is your premise, then what your are saying is any mosque anywhere in the world is open for attack.

CALRSON: You're playing semantic games there, Ibrahim. That is not my premise at all. I am merely reporting what the U.S. Army has reported and challenging you to tell me whether you think it is a lie or not. Because if it's true that this mosque or any other mosque is being used as a repository for weapons, isn't fair to consider them as military installations because that's what they are?

HOOPER: No, I don't think it's fair to consider all mosques military installations if one or two mosques in a combat zone .

CALRSON: Nobody is suggesting-you are redefining what I'm saying.

That last sentence by Tucker Calrson is a polite way of saying 'you are a rotten liar.'

HOOPER: Again, there was no indication in this ad this was Iraq. There is no indications are weapons there or no indications other than it was a mosque and American troops were attacking it. And the people who put the ad in agree that it was offensive and pulled it.

Why does it has to be in Iraq? A Mosque, anywhere, used as a military base ought to be fair game.

CARLSON: I'm merely asking you if you think it's more offensive, and mosques - and clearly most mosques have nothing to do were war. Most Muslims find terrorism abhorrent, of course. But the small percentage of mosques that are used by terrorists, isn't that more offensive than anything Boeing or Bell could have done.

HOOPER: Obviously we believe any house of worship, mosque included, should not be used as a base to store weapons, should not be used as a base to attack anyone. And we would encourage anyone who is doing that to stop doing that and that doesn't mean you should show American troops attacking mosques in an ad for an airplane.

CALRSON: I hope the next time that U.S. military announces it found weapons in a mosque you will issue an outraged press release calling . Because it would be the right thing to do, don't you think?

HOOPER: Well, I think we have a lot more problems in Iraq than that. The entire premise of the war has to be questioned along with the practices of all sides.

Yeah, Hoop, how about answering the dammed question.

CALRSON: I can say as an opponent of this war I think it's important to treat both sides equally. When the terrorists do something bad, I think it's your position to say so and not be shy about saying so.

HOOPER: We say it quite often.

Such as?

CARLSON: All right. Ibrahim Hooper joining us. Thanks.

HOOPERS: Yes.

Thanks for nothing Hoop.