Following are excerpts from an interview with Osama Gheith deputy editor-in-chief of the Al-Ahram Egyptian government daily, which aired on Al-Rafidein TV on January 6, 2011:

Osama Gheith: US President Barack Obama has declared that he respects the rights of the Tunisian people. Since when has he respected the rights of any people – Arab or non-Arab? Since when has he attributed any value to humanity? Since when has American conduct abroad demonstrated respect for human dignity? I invite all citizens to watch the video-clip published on the Wikileaks website. In the video, you see a group of American mercenaries, opening fire from a helicopter on a group of civilians, including journalists...

Interviewer: In Iraq?

Osama Gheith: Yes. And then they began saying despicable things, using street language, because of the pleasure they got from the killing. We need to understand that the army of this country, which talks about culture and about the rights of the peoples, is not really an army, and it has no combat doctrine. No combat doctrine in the world is based on the killing of civilians. This is a doctrine that derives pleasure from killing, a doctrine of murders, of thieves, and of the mafia. Therefore, their official declarations make a mockery of us. I don't pay much attention to them.

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Does this change the fact that America, with all its agents, and all its fifth column within Tunisia... The people who robbed Tunisia plundered its secrets and its resources, and infiltrated its culture for the sake of the Western conspiracy. It's just like what happened in Iraq.

Now they call these people "thieves." [The Americans] are not so stupid that they would [give the rule] to thieves. They are the ones who elected those thieves to be presidents and leaders in every country. They placed them there because they executed the conspiracy in a skillful manner. They harm the unity of the Iraqi people, disintegrate its unity, sowing sectarian strife and inciting racial conflict among the Iraqis. Thus, the eastern gate to the Arab homeland is disintegrating. The Arab force that would counter-balance all the conspiracies is collapsing.

So don't be surprised if a thief, a liar, or a fraud becomes a prime minister or president. You should know that this is the ultimate model sought by the Western conspiracy for any Arab or developing country, in order to plunder its resources and take control of it. In Tunisia...

Interviewer: And when the people rebel, they abandon that leader. I think you...

Osama Gheith: Let me say one thing. I fear for the fate of the Tunisians, because of that fifth column, which is trying to "steal" the revolution. I fear that with the help of those international agencies, the CIA, and the Mossad, with which it has always collaborated, the fifth column will succeed in stealing that Arab dream.

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