Meet The (White) Man Who Inspired Wright's Controversial Sermon

Meet the man who inspired Reverend Jeremiah Wright's now famous tirade about America's foreign policy inciting the terrorist attacks of September 11.

His name is Ambassador Edward Peck. And he is a retired, white, career U.S. diplomat who served 32-years in the U.S. Foreign Service and was chief of the U.S. mission to Iraq under Jimmy Carter -- hardly the black-rage image with which Wright has been stigmatized.

In fact, when Wright took the pulpit to give his post-9/11 address -- which has since become boiled down to a five second sound bite about "America's chickens coming home to roost" -- he prefaced his remarks as a "faith footnote," an indication that he was deviating from his sermon.

"I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday," Wright declared. "He was on Fox News. This is a white man and he was upsetting the Fox News commentators to no end. He pointed out, a white man, an ambassador, that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Muhammad was in fact true: America's chickens are coming home to roost."

Wright then went on to list more than a few U.S. foreign policy endeavors that, by the tone of his voice and manner of his expression, he viewed as more or less deplorable. This included, as has been demonstrated in the endless loop of clips from his sermon, bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki and nuking "far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye."

"Violence begets violence," Wright said, "hatred begets hatred, and terrorism begets terrorism."

And then he concluded by putting the comments on Peck's shoulders: "A white ambassador said that yall, not a black militant, not a reverend who preaches about racism, an ambassador whose eyes are wide open and is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice... the ambassador said that the people we have wounded don't have the military capability we have, but they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them... let me stop my faith footnote right there."

Watch the video (the relevant material starts around the 3:00 mark):

Story continues below

So it seems that while Wright did believe American held some responsibility for 9/11, his views, which have been described as radically outside the political mainstream, were actually influenced by a career foreign policy official.

Who is Peck? The ambassador, who has offered controversial criticism of Israeli policy in the West Bank but also warned against the Iraq War, was lecturing on a cruise ship and was unavailable for comment. But officials at Peck's former organization, the Council for the National Interest, a non-profit group that advocates reducing Israel's influence on U.S. Middle East policy, offered descriptions of the man.

"Peck is very outspoken," said Eugene Bird, who now heads CNI. "He is also very good at making phrases that have a resonance with the American people. When he came off of that Fox News, a few days later he said they would never invite me back again."

And what, exactly, did Peck say in that Fox News interview that inspired Wright's words?

Here are some quotes from an appearance the Ambassador made on the network on October 11, 2001, which may or may not have been the segment Wright was referring to. On the show, Peck said he thought it was illogical to tie Saddam Hussein to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and that while the then-Iraqi leader had "some very sound and logical reasons not to like [the United States]," he and Osama bin Laden had no other ties.

From there, Peck went on to ascribe motives for what prompted the 9/11 attacks. "Stopping the economic embargo and bombings of Iraq," he said, "things to which Osama bin Laden has alluded as the kinds of things he doesn't like. He doesn't think it's appropriate for the United States to be doing, from his perspective, all the terrible things that he sees us as having been doing, the same way Saddam Hussein feels. So from that perspective, they have a commonality of interests. But they also have a deeply divergent view of the role of Islam in government, which would be a problem."

Comments

[amazedandoutraged]

I've watched a few of Rev Wright's video's on Utube. He's pretty entertaining. A good speaker. Keeps your attention. I believe he was active in community uplifting, as was Barack. Was this his wife's church? Wright appears to have quite a following.

Would I, while sharing important community work, residing in a church community of my wife's, while being inspired, instructed and befriended by this pastor, presume to tell him what to preach? Is that my function? My place? Or do I accept all the good of this congregation, along with some of the gulps?

I think the Rev had many good points. He wasn't advocating war, but unity, self-reflection--you know things that are poisonous to the admin and Fox. And yes, our American history is not all that pretty--what we did to the Indians, the blacks, our bullying throughout the world. I'm not all that proud of America, either. So intimate I should also be considered for a lynching....

Barack is inspiring. He reminds us that there is also good, & potential for better, in this country.

[JohnCochtosten]

After watching this video, I am completely disgusted that not a single major media source decided to sit down and show the entire sermon. This is outrageous. What the man says is actually profound and above all, Christianity at its essence.

[bluevillage]

Could you find and post the original Fox news appearance of Adm. Peck?

[bdd]

How do we get this great reporting out to the msm?

[janay6]

There is another video shedding more light on this matter. There is also a picture of the pastor helping with the surgery of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Here is the link

http://truthabouttrinity.blogspot.com/

[degjack]

Fascinating. Thank you so much for revealing the full context of the Reverend's words.

Why didn't Obama himself do this???

[nomobull]

he kept saying that was not the man he knew. and they were part of a sermon he was not there to hear all he had was the clips . good thing he drew the line at renouncing the man.now we know why the same clip over and over. that was all they had.

[MinneapolisBob]

Obama didn't do it because he either did not see the video in its full content, or he was not present to see the sermon. His organization dropped the ball. They should have watched the entire video.

[lynellep]

we have got to get this word out. Send it to everyone you know including media outlets. I just watched Lou Dobbs on CNN continue to rehash this. And the fact that Wright was at the white house, not once but twice and was also seated next to Hillary at their table let's you know he is very well respected. That one breakfast was by invitation only.

We must push the truth

[MarineBugler]

Wow! Wow! Wow!

We ALL should be ashamed of ourselves!!!!!

HE has more sense than anyone in our current administration now!

Wow!

Obama '08!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[simplify]

Hello!!! Wright 's words were a direct quote from Peck

[kalimuzo]

Thank you Sam. I have been begging people for the text. How can we get this video on the news. I am boiling, I mean think of what that church ahs gone through. I mean this is soooo wrong that they put America through this and all the things that have been said about the Rev. I am fuming at the media right now. But please put this out there someone for the MSM to report on. I

[partisanpolitico]

Sam Stein, that is real researched journalism. Thank you for doing this. In this sound-bite, sportscenter information age the entire text is rare. People taking the time to read it rarer still. Thank you again. [However, I do love me that Sportscenter]

[GLBorchert]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've been hoping someone on HuffPost would post this video.

Fox News lied, as if that should come as a surprise. I think the whole country owes Rev. Wright and Barack Obama an apology.

[criscokid]

Sorry, meant to say the 9/11 Commission's report was NOT thorough enough.

[changeishere08]

Sam, thank you for posting this. You are one of the last objective and credible journalists out there. The very fact that the MSM and FIx Noise played this over and over again without citing that it was Edward Peck who said those words on FOX....well I am truly disgusted

The media lyching of Rev. Wright will never be forgiven and i will never trust MSM again. Fix Noise, well it's not even newsworthy.

I am awaiting the faux righteous posters who said nasty things about Wright and Obama.

I'm sure it will snow in hell before they ever admit their wrong. This is how people stay ignorant.

GOBAMA. Army vet for Obama!

[estreya]

And yay, you! Thank you for your service to our nation.

[thinkb4uleap]

I had to meditate before I wrote this post. I am sooo ANGRY right now because I knew in my heart that this entire issue was what it is now proving to be... a non-issue. Unlike many here, I am familiar with Pastor Jeremiah Wright and knew that his words were likely being distorted and misused. As can be clearly seen in this video, Pastor Wright is a gifted preacher and not the hate-monger he has been portrayed to be.

I encourage every clear thinking person reading this to bombard the corporate media outlets with email, phone calls, etc to bring their attention to this video and chastise them for their deliberate neglect for the truth. Let's call the Wolf Blitzer's, Chris Matthews' and the like to account for their intellectual laziness and dishonesty.