Ilhan Omar

Current Affairs

Comedy, Government, News, Culture, Politics

4.4 • 645 Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2020

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Current Affairs interviewer-in-chief Eli Massey speaks to Ilhan Omar, Congresswoman for Minnesota's 5th district. Together, they discuss her new book, This Is What America Looks Like, as well as foreign policy, Israel, drone strikes, Margaret Thatcher, Prince, and more. The book: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062954213/this-is-what-america-looks-like/ Ilhan Omar's Twitter: https://twitter.com/IlhanMN Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RepIlhan/ Show notes: AIPAC-backed letter calling for an arms embargo on Iran, which Ilhan Omar signed onto https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/05/ilhan-omar-aipac-letter-trump-iran-israel-lobbying.html Amnesty International calling for an arms embargo on Israel https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/04/israel-arms-embargo-needed-as-military-unlawfully-kills-and-maims-gaza-protesters/ Ilhan Omar's Pathway to Peace bills https://omar.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-omar-introduces-pathway-peace-bold-foreign-policy-vision-united-states AOC interviewed by Glenn Greenwald in 2018, saying “I think we need new leadership.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuoKLLLpiuE&feature=youtu.be&t=1589 Ilhan Omar's favorite Prince songs: "When Doves Cry" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUc0R8bbWQE "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFtfrd8_K9k Ilhan Omar calls for more transparency around drone strikes https://www.thedailybeast.com/ilhan-omar-demands-answers-on-civilian-deaths-in-somalia?ref=author&fbclid=IwAR0-2XTSM7IxKbRtaH-YgsxMDgaaGO831ht8NR-aIvMN3rFCWF-r9Y55czU The Ilhan Omar/Obama Politico controversy recounted https://www.mediaite.com/online/politico-reporter-fires-back-after-rep-ilhan-omar-claims-obama-comments-distorted/ Obama has deported more people than Trump https://thehill.com/latino/470900-deportations-lower-under-trump-than-obama-report Immigrant children were forcibly injected with drugs at concentration camps under the Obama administration (see dates mentioned in the lawsuit) https://www.revealnews.org/blog/immigrant-children-forcibly-injected-with-drugs-lawsuit-claims/ Chip Gibbons' article which found that that the FBI opened terrorism investigations into a non-violent solidarity organization because they sympathize with Palestinians and are anti-capitalist. https://theintercept.com/2020/04/05/israel-palestine-fbi-terrorism-investigation/?fbclid=IwAR37_c828nANlo5uFg4-jAK8FY7V5shpbcx7vvPQUDh2EozduDBPVPdB_Y0 The FBI has labeled people involved with the Black Lives Matter movement as "Black Identity Extremists" https://theintercept.com/2019/10/29/fbi-surveillance-black-activists/ The FBI and Chicago Police Department murdered Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/05/the-chicago-police-department-tortured-people Nancy Pelosi's record https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/11/pelosi-must-go-2/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, current affairs listeners. This is contributing editor Eli Massey, and we have a very special guest, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
0:06.9	Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Eli, for having me.
0:09.9	You have a new memoir out, which is called This is What America Looks Like. In the book, you describe how you fled civil war while you were a child in Somalia and were a refugee for a bit.
0:20.0	How did these experiences inform your current perspective on American foreign policy and war?
0:25.6	And I should mention that the United States has a long history of meddling in Somalia,
0:30.6	stuff like backing a brutal Somali dictator for many years,
0:34.6	to drone bombing the country, which we're doing right now. And obviously,
0:38.1	most Americans have no idea we're killing people in Somalia, let alone why. It shapes it greatly.
0:44.3	You know, my experience is surviving war as a young child. It sort of gives me a lint to the
0:53.1	understanding on how war destroys and robs, and it never
0:57.4	really restores or create hope. Because for, you know, children like myself, their home is
1:05.4	wrapped from them. Their, their futures, their dreams, any sort of normality is robbed from them.
1:12.2	And I think oftentimes we forget that, you know, there are decisions that are made
1:18.3	that ultimately lead to those kind of catastrophes taking place.
1:23.3	I also think, you know, when we're having a conversation about foreign policy, we can't
1:29.2	separate it from immigration.
1:31.9	And in our country, as we are right now grappling with what's happening with the southern
1:37.7	border, with our refugee settlement programs, with what it means to have folks who are looking for an opportunity to start an
1:48.2	new. It allows me to utilize my perspective in advocating for a humane immigration policy and really
1:57.5	giving voice to the people on the other side of the vent.
2:04.3	As I labeled one of the chapters, sometimes the mouth of the shark is safer than home,
2:10.8	that comes from a poem that a Somali poet wrote,
	...

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