[...]
Chomsky replied that it is clear that Obama would accept former president George Bush's doctrine of freely bombing Pakistan. He noted that there has already been serious fighting in the province of Peshawar in Pakistan that tribal leaders trace back to a US bombing of a madrassa that killed 80 people - the news of which was published in the Pakistani media but was never publicly reported in western media.
Chomsky also said that the message of both Afghanistan and Pakistan for the new US administration was to stop the bombing and killing of civilians and come up with a troop withdrawal timetable which the US has ignored.
Rattansi inquired about Obama's appointment of two US foreign envoys, George Mitchell and Richard Holbrooke.
Chomsky replied that Holbrooke has an awful record and he cited his role in Indonesia's atrocities in East Timor, when he served as undersecretary of state for Asian affairs during the Carter administration (1977-1981). He added that Holbrooke had also played an active part in the Bosnian massacre of the mid-90s during the Clinton years.
[...]