Comment #32541 by AE on 10/23 at 6:58 am

Has anyone been able to find an Arabic transcript of the interview? I tracked down some Arabic-language news articles, and I think the words he used (and I apologize for the transliteration) were “ghatrisa” and “ghaba’.”
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Yes, I found both the Arabic transcript of the interview and a voice clip;in both Fernandez uses the words “ghatrasa” and “ghaba’”; the first means “arrogance” and the second means “Stupidity”. Go to the Arabic Al-Jazeera-Al-Fada’yya under “Hiwar Maftuh” (i.e. Open Dialogue hosted by Ghassan Bin Jiddu).

Good onya for serving, AE, and thanks for the translation. I’m glad al-Jaz is talking to you. But if you’re an expert on insurgency, what I really hope is that the PENTAGON is taking advantage of your knowledge…

It looks like a Fernandez-ian (Fruedian) slip to me. He probably just didn’t want to be thought of as an idiot, as every thinking person knows the truth of his (career limiting) statement.

Response to comment #32541 by AE

Yes the words “ghatrasa” and “ghaba’” mean “arrogance” and “stupidity.”

Has anyone been able to find an Arabic transcript of the interview? I tracked down some Arabic-language news articles, and I think the words he used (and I apologize for the transliteration) were “ghatrisa” and “ghaba’.”

P.S. Bukko, I served with the U.S. Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan (twice in the latter) and now study insurgencies in the Middle East for a DC think tank. So Al-Jazeera has interviewed me a few times regarding the combat in both countries. I don’t watch *any* television news, but I find the Al-Jazeera websites (English and Arabic) pretty useful if you’re studying current affairs in the Middle East.

Comment #31950 by AE, is half correct and half incorrect. The US has been unbelievably stupid & arrogant in Washington but, yes, it has, as proven by the most recent FrontLine aired by PBS here in the US last week, embarassingly stupid in Iraq, most importantly Paul Bremer’s driving the Baathists underground, and, some say, including me, driving them to start the quote insurgency unquote.

Bremer, who, by the way, was trained by Kissinger (a man who ought be serving time in a Hague prison for his crimes against humanity, and for which I am stunned, just stunned, that Kissinger is able to still freely walk the streets without being tomatoed & jeered, but actually receives access to leaders) may go down in history as the dumbest person in all of the Iraqi fiasco just behind, and, in this order, Dubya, Cheney, Rummy, Wolfowitz, Condi.

Pity—a diplomat who spoke the truth will have to suffer for it, whilst those who lied go on unscathed.

So AE, how did you come to be on-amera with al-J? I don’t know much about the network other than what I saw in “Control Room.” They’re baised, but so is all media, including America’s. I don’t agree with all of what they say, but I will blog-whinge to the death to defend their right to say it.

As the lawyers say, “the record speaks for itself”. The BBC story is at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6074182.stm, and the important passage is: “The BBC Monitoring Service has confirmed that Mr Fernandez did use the words “arrogance and stupidity” in his interview.”
The BBC Monitoring Service has a very good reputation (still) for its impartiality.
So, unless Mr Fernandez claims that al-Jazeera falsified the recording, he’s on record as having said what he said.

Waw! What an interesting new revelation that the world did not know about! As if we needed a Hispanic State Department official, speaking Arabic, to tell us the obvious about how stupid and arrogant this American administration is. In fact, this is an understatement, and the right phrase to describe this administration is “pure evil.”

If it turned out that Mr. Fernandez really said these words, I am sure he will lose his job as we speak. Mr. Fernandez still thought we live in a democratic country, with free speech as a sacred right. However, he forgot that we live now in a police state, where the drunk behind the wheel, Bush, is also the chief of the police!

The failure of the USA is a disaster for the region?  Nonsense.  It’s a blessing and will prove to be life-saving.  Besides, our president couldn’t care less because if he really did care, he’d never have got us into this war.  How to stop the bloodshed?  We win the mid-term election, that’s how, and then force our government to bring the troops home now..

If “arrogance and stupidity” are measured by the outcome of this war to this date, then the words are correct description.

I feel sorry for Mr. Fernandez. I did an interview with Al-Jazeera the other day, and right before I went on the air, they asked me (in Arabic) if I wanted to do the interview in English or Arabic. I hesitated but then answered: “English.” It’s just so much easier to speak carefully and intelligently in your native language, and though I am sure Mr. Fernandez’s Arabic is far better than mine, I can understand how he could have slipped up and used whatever Arabic adjective was in his head—even if it didn’t convey *exactly* what he meant to say. That said, the U.S. hasn’t been arrogant and stupid in Iraq—it’s been arrogant and stupid in Washington, DC. The soldiers in Iraq have, all things considered, gotten better and better as this war’s gone on. The decision-makers here in DC are the ones without a clue.

Gee…  I wonder who I should believe, Mr. Fernandez - the guy who actually spoke the words, or the BBC and al-Jazerra.

Funny.