MIKHAIL GORBACHEV INTERVIEW- Wednesday 26th July, 2006
There
are very few individuals around who deserve an over-the-top description
like this one - "the person who has changed the world more than anybody
else alive". Big call, but that is precisely what it says here about
the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. These days, the man who has
also been described as the worlds first "anti-communist communist" who
16 years ago ended the Cold War and changed the destiny of not just
Russia, but also Europe and arguably the world, is still sought-after
on the international lecture circuit. He is in Australia at the moment
and George Negus caught up with him in Brisbane where, as an
environmental activist these days, he was co-chair of the Earth
Dialogues Forum at the 2006 Brisbane Festival.
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more...
NADIM HOURY INTERVIEW - Wednesday 26th July, 2006
Earlier
today, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed shock at Israel's
"apparently deliberate targeting" of a UN post in Lebanon in which four
UN observers were killed. The Israelis have denied deliberately
targeting the UN, but what does this latest outrage say about the
conflict? Human Rights Watch has a group of dedicated individuals in
both Lebanon and northern Israel documenting the alarming human rights
toll. Do they believe civilians are being targeted? Nadim Houry is the
Human Rights Watch representative in Lebanon and George Negus spoke to
Nadim earlier this evening from Beirut.
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more...
THE WAR ON THE BORDER - Wednesday, 26 July, 2006
To
the consternation of many around the globe, the war in Lebanon and
northern Israel rages while the rest of us gape, unable to do anything
to curb the carnage. What can only be described as mutual madness has
been going on now for two weeks, tearing apart innocents on both sides
with the blame game being played out behind the shelling. We have seen
plenty of images like these of the demolition of Beirut and something
of the Hezbollah bombing of Haifa. But precious little has been seen of
what is happening in the far south of Lebanon on the Israeli border.
As
it turns out, one of Datelines Arabic translators here at SBS has a
brother-in-law living close to the border. Loutfullah Daher also
happens to be a professional cameraman, and since the conflict began,
he has been travelling throughout that part of Lebanon, regularly
coming under fire.
Dateline got in touch with Loutfullah and asked
him to send us some of his footage. A warning is probably apt - some of
what you are about to see and hear is not exactly pleasant.
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PRINCE HASSAN INTERVIEW - Wednesday, 19 July, 2006
Is
that what it's ultimately all about - the annihilation, whatever it
takes, of both Hamas and Hezbollah by the Israelis? For his perspective
on this and any possibility of a cessation in the violence and
fighting, earlier this evening George Negus talked from the Jordanian
capital, Amman, with an old contact on these matters, Crown Prince
Hassan, King Abdullah's uncle.
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DR AMAAL-GHORAYEB - Wednesday, 19 July, 2006
As
if Iraq and Afghanistan weren't enough, now more death and destruction
in the Middle East itself with innocent civilians on both sides,
including kids, bearing the brunt. In this eye-for-an-eye contest,
Israel has sent in the troops and says it will keep up its bombardment
of Lebanon, destroying much of the country in the process, while
Hezbollah is showing no sign of letting up on their rocket attacks into
northern Israel. A short time ago, George Negus spoke with Dr Amaal
Saad-Ghorayeb. A professor at the Lebanese American University, she is
regarded as an expert on Hezbollah. We were to interview her in a
Beirut studio but because of an escalation in the Israeli attacks on
the city, we found ourselves talking by phone as the professor was
watching local television news.
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EFRAIM HALEVY INTERVIEW - Wednesday, 12 July, 2006
For
an Israeli point-of-view earlier this afternoon I spoke with Efriam
Halevy, for 30 years an operative with Israel's intelligence agency,
Mossad, and for five years, up until 2002, he was head of the agency.
Mr Halevy is certainly no dove - he unapologetically defends Israel's
hardline approach to the Palestinian leadership, and under his Mossad
reign Hamas leaders were selectively assassinated and Yasser Arafat,
the former Palestinian leader, was kept under siege in his Ramallah
compound. These days Mr Halevy is head of the influential Center of
Strategic and Policy Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
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more...
Please Note: More interviews will be added as time permits.