To be totally honest, I have trouble remembering very much about the first years of World Affairs Monthly. In fact, this memory black hole goes back into the 1990s, so I can say for example that much of the late 1990s is just missing. Totally gone. If I had a psychotherapist – and I have never needed or wanted one – this person would undoubtedly implicate the trauma I experienced in these years. I was married, and I am still married to the same woman, the woman I met in 1987. I have never been depressed, I have never really been manic or irrational, I have never been emotionally disturbed to any significant degree. I am 65 now, and I am really quite strong – I have always been strong.

You cannot do this work I do unless you are strong. You are confronted with an immense amount of human suffering. I always knew I had a privileged life, of course, but it never really was an easy matter to dismiss the stories I heard from friends of mine – and yes they were friends, a journalist makes friends with his intellectual targets. Who are these people? They are intellectual targets, in a sense. You must absorb their emotion, their anguish, their experiences. It is not a question of agreeing or disagreeing with them, it is simply a matter of zeroing in on the truth. Yes, it is the truth that you are after, this is the target. And it is obviously somewhat intellectual – because it is not easy to tell [the truth] and so it requires a lot of skill, intellectual skills. Many skills, in fact.

You must have a lot of knowledge. For instance, the other day I did an interview with Rashid Khalidi, he's a formidable scholar and historian. I knew that the Ottoman Empire defaulted in 1880 or so, and so I asserted that fact in the beginning of the interview. I could tell he was a little startled and also impressed. He corrected me and said it was in fact 1877 or 1875. Sure, he is probably correct, but the message was sent out very loudly. The Ottoman Empire was “decrepit” – that's the word I used – and this excited the British to do what they did which was to initiate the colonial enterprise called Zionism and get rid of the unwanted and undesirable Ashkenazi Jews at the same time. Perfect! Actually, I read once that the first Ottoman debt default – their external debt of course – was in 1880. The British continued loaning money to the Turks up until World War I. It is hilarious, very much so. Right?

Hardly anyone in Washington is going to compete with me. In fact, hardly anyone in the world, the entire world, is going to compete with me. And no one does. Vladimir Putin knows this, also Xi Jinping. So I rule over the entire world – alone. Really the only problem I have is the Ashkenazi Jews, they are criminals and therefore they do not know what to do when faced with competing with me. They have managed to take over the United States and impose their bullshit and madness on everyone in the United States – and yes also around the world. Talking to them is like talking to children. Deceit reigns supreme but they are sort of unaware of the fact that you do not fall for their nonsense and deceit. So the pretense builds up.

Then the pretense breaks down, and I mean really breaks down. Like it is now. It was amazing talking to Ismail Abu Shanab. Great guy, super intelligent, and very up to speed on the need for economic development. This was 20 years ago. Co-founder of Hamas. Brilliant man, to be sure. Not surprising they assassinated him. They would assume I was going to do a lot of recorded interviews with him. Also with Abdel Al-Rantisi. When the Israeli government assassinated Al-Rantisi, we were working on setting up an interview with Ahmed Yassin. He spoke only Arabic, so we would have to do a translation – not after the fact but during the actual interview.

I am doing my job, which is to describe what is going on in the world. Hear what people say, what they are doing, what they want, what they aspire to, their hopes and dreams. I have no political agenda, I just hear what people say, and report this to the world. And the world wants to hear what they say. It is the information business. The truth is very powerful, it is the most powerful force in the world. What is also very powerful is the human mammal brain, the cerebrum. So you can appreciate why I am also a neuroscientist. It is a very intricate but powerful mix of journalism and neuroscience and diplomacy.

I will republish the audio recording of this February 2003 interview with Ismail Abu Shanab – co-founder of Hamas – as soon as possible. If I remember correctly, and I think I do, his thoughts were really focused one thing – being productive, working, and having a life. Not being subjugated, not being deprived of his property, not being killed or imprisoned. Israel is going to be destroyed, also perhaps the United States. The human mammal brain will surpass all our expectations. This is the development of the human mammal brain. Nothing is going to stop us, and nothing is going to stop the human mammals who are called Palestinians.