Author's sales jump after Osama mentions book

Reuters & Yahoo News ^ | January 20, 2006

[presidio9]

An unexpected endorsement from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has resulted in a huge jump in sales for a book by a critic of U.S. foreign policy.

William Blum's "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower" was ranked 209,000 on Amazon.com's sales list before bin Laden mentioned it in an audiotape released on Thursday. By Friday, the book was No. 30 on the Amazon.com list.

Bin Laden said al Qaeda group was preparing more attacks in the United States but also told Americans, "It is useful for you to read the book 'The Rogue State.'"

"I was quite surprised and even shocked and amused when I found out what he'd said," Blum said on Friday in an interview with Reuters Television in his Washington apartment.

"I was glad. I knew it would help the book's sales and I was not bothered by who it was coming from.

"If he shares with me a deep dislike for the certain aspects of U.S. foreign policy, then I'm not going to spurn any endorsement of the book by him. I think it's good that he shares those views and I'm not turned off by that."

Blum said some friends and family members were afraid the bin Laden endorsement might endanger him but he said there had been no threats and he was not concerned.

Blum's 320-page book, which was published in 2000, begins with a chapter titled "Why Do Terrorists Keep Picking on the United States." The first sentence says, "Washington's war on terrorism is as doomed to failure as its war on drugs has been."

Other chapters in "The Rogue State" are titled "America's Gift to the World -- the Afghan Terrorist Alumni," "The U.S. Versus the World at the United Nations" and "How the CIA Sent Nelson Mandela to Prison for 28 Years."

Blum's other books include "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II," "Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire" and "West Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Political Memoir."

[TankerKC]

"I was quite surprised and even shocked and amused when I found out what he'd said," Blum said on Friday in an interview with Reuters Television in his Washington apartment.

It seems that he needs to add "honored" to his list. Sicko.

[presidio9]

actually if you spoke arrabic you could make quite a carrier at the moment... the forces, CIA and NSA are hireing.

Welcome Newbie. Sorry you won't be staying.

[cricket]

Hmmm, as far as I know Osama does not read or speak english.

He was educated to the english language when he was in school.

[The Duke]

Actually, if we cranked up the CIA to where it was in the good ol' days we'd be in a *LOT* less danger. Muslim fanatics can't turn their weapons outward if they're shooting each other.

[connectthedots]

Oh looky here Osama has a rat book club.

How long before Ophra recommends this book?

[daybreakcoming]

I think with this, I cease to be surprised at anything nowadays in the good ol USofA. A US citizen who is publicly happy about an endorsement from our mortal enemy who has killed thousands of Americans.

[daybreakcoming]

"Blum describes himself as a socialist and has supported Ralph Nader's presidential campaigns." nuff said

[goldstategop]

Liberals and Bin Laden agree everything that's happened after 9/11 is ALL PRESIDENT BUSH'S FAULT!

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Beckwith]

William Blum became an enemy of the United States after he left the U.S. State Department in 1967, abandoning his aspiration of becoming a Foreign Service Officer because of his opposition to what the United States was doing in Vietnam. He then became one of the founders and editors of the Washington Free Press, the first "alternative" newspaper in the capital.

Blum has been a freelance journalist in the United States, Europe and South America. His stay in Chile in 1972-3, writing about the Allende government's "socialist experiment," and then its tragic overthrow in a CIA-designed coup, instilled in him a personal involvement and an even more heightened interest in what his government was doing in various parts of the world.

In the mid-1970s, he worked in London with former CIA officer Philip Agee and his associates on their project of exposing CIA personnel and their misdeeds.

His book on U.S. foreign policy, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, first published in 1995 and updated since, has received international acclaim. Noam Chomsky called it "Far and away the best book on the topic."

In 1999, Blum was one of the recipients of Project Censored's awards for "exemplary journalism" for writing one of the top ten censored stories of 1998, an article on how, in the 1980s, the United States gave Iraq the material to develop a chemical and biological warfare capability.

Blum's book Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, was published in 2000. It was written in reaction to the bombing of Yugoslavia, which, we were told, was done for humanitarian purposes. The book is in effect a mini-encyclopedia of all the un-humanitarian actions of the US government during the past half century. It has been translated into a dozen languages.



If Osama thinks Blum is required reading he's really screwed!

[GOPJ]

I cease to be surprised at anything nowadays in the good ol USofA. A US citizen who is publicly happy about an endorsement from our mortal enemy who has killed thousands of Americans.

Every totalitarian has an excuse. Hitler didn't think he was a bad man - either did Stalin. They both had "reasons" in their own mind that excused the evil they were doing. Osama's no different. He murdered thousands of innocent Americans. But he has his "reasons". Liberals forget evil wears a mask...

The other thing liberals forget is what it would be like to live in a world where Osama's ideas ruled -- a world without human rights - a world where women and children are property that can be murdered when the "honor" of the father has been slighted. In Osama's home country, there are no bathrooms for women in government buildings... What would a woman be doing in a government building? She should be home - making dinner. Osama's problem with the Saudis is he thinks they're too liberal. Too liberal. Think about that one dems...

[sharkhawk]

Everyone's missing the fact that this book was published in 2000. The DUmmies praising the book don't realize it is about Clinton's foreign policy. Our side should be questioning why give praise to a 5 year old book? There are many recent additions to the anti american genre. IMHO, He's dead Jim.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Can you do a parody of Oprah's Book Club? Osama's Book Club?
That would be a hoot.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Bin Laden is just using the RAT playbook.

[CJ Wolf]

Ossama bin Winfrey book club.