[Editor's note: Lester Kinsolving is a radio talk show host in Baltimore who was a practicing Episcopalian minister and a columnist on religious affairs; his essays were published regularly in hundreds of newspapers and won him two Pulitzer Prize nominations. He is now also White House correspondent for WorldNet Daily and his dialogues with the President and more often, his spokesman, Ari Fleischer (and which are posted on the WorldNet Daily site), are a pleasure to read. We encourage Outpost readers to send their toughest questions to Kinsolving at WorldNetDaily's interactive forum MR. PRESIDENT! He will use the best questions -- and you can read how the White House responds on the website.]
MAY 6:
KINSOLVING: Ari, President Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America has sent a message to the president noting that in the Palestinian Authority prime minister's first speech, he said to Yasser Arafat --this is a quote -- "This government, Mr. President, is your government." And he also demanded that Israel release all of its imprisoned Palestinians. And my question, this is part one: Does this in any way surprise President Bush knowing that Abu Mazen was Arafat's top deputy for nearly 40 years, having written a book denying the Holocaust?
FLEISCHER: Lester, there are a lot of important changes underway in the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. There are a number of reformers, and the President counts Abu Mazen as one of them. And there are some interesting issues underway involving the different people in the Palestinian Authority. This is healthy; this is good that people are looking to lead the Palestinian Authority in a different direction than Yasser Arafat did. And this will be an ongoing process, and I think you'll continue to hear different things and different statements made by different Palestinians. We will continue to find the reformers and work with them.
KINSOLVING: President Bush has repeatedly said that the Palestinian Authority must actively combat terrorist groups. And my question is, can you cite any evidence at all that this Palestinian Authority prime minister has taken any such action at all against Hamas, which has rejected President Bush's "road map"?
FLEISCHER: Well, it is important for the Palestinian Authority to crack down on terrorists.
KINSOLVING: Has he done it?
FLEISCHER: It will be very difficult to make certain that a security environment is created so that Israel knows it can live in peace and security, side by side.
KINSOLVING: But has he done it?
FLEISCHER: I would refer you to the fact that he has already made one appointment on the security front, his minister who will be in charge of security. That is a helpful appointment. And this will be an important test of the new Palestinian leadership.
APRIL 22:
KINSOLVING: Palestinian Authority's Minister Saeb Erekat has said that the PA wants Abu Abbas released and not punished for the murder of American Leon Klinghoffer. And my question: Does the president still support the creation of a Palestinian state for people who want to let Abbas off the hook? And if so, how does that fit in with his war on terrorism?
FLEISCHER: The president is well-known and on the record for what he believes will create the environment for a more peaceful Middle East, and that includes the creation of a Palestinian state. And that needs to be a state led by reformers and that will allow Israel to live side-by-side with the state of Palestine in peace and security. That has not changed.
It could be wartime that makes one nostalgic for the songs of yesteryear, but clearly the affections of three highly visible anti-war protesters were just plain for sale.
According to a report by NewsMax.Com, Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA), who traveled to Baghdad last fall and declared that our President was a liar, got a cash gift for his efforts from the same Detroit Iraqi-American businessman with ties to Saddam who paid Scott Ritter $400,000. You remember Ritter. When he was not soliciting illicit sex with a juvenile, he was the former U.N. weapons inspector who opposed the war on the grounds that Saddam was a good guy. McDermott got a weasel's cut of $5,000 for his affections.
Another poster-boy of the antiwar protests, almost as photogenic and popular with American newscasters as Dominique de Villepin, was the Scottish MP George Galloway. Remember him? He's a far left member of the British Parliament who was passionate in his defense of Saddam. London's Daily Telegraph, citing documents found in Baghdad, reported that Galloway
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Outpost - 10 - June 2003