Le Show; 2006-07-16

This is Capitol Radio in London, Wednesday's show originates in one minute from October. You From deep inside your radio, and from high a top lester square in London, well,

second story, ladies and gentlemen, but you know, I wouldn't jump it. This is I'm I'm going to say goodbye at the outset to our good friends. It was constant public radio who jumped off the network to replace this broadcast with another hour of the BBC. It's ironic. We're in London. But they were displeased with the political content of the broadcast. Don't you know? What a what a nutty week for them to decide that. It is a week, ladies and gentlemen, when we are finally getting the answer to the long posed musical question, what's so funny about peace, love and understanding. But there is a memory hole to be dug into, and this might be the right time to do it.

Here's Colin Powell talking. I mean, I'm going to be reading him. He's not actually talking. So don't look for me to be doing Colin Powell. Here's Colin Powell at a press briefing in 1992, ladies and gentlemen, quote, Saddam Hussein is a terrible person. He's a threat to his own people. I think his people would be better off with a different leader. But there is this sort of romantic notion that if Saddam Hussein got hit by a bus tomorrow, some Jeffersonian Democrat is waiting in the wings to hold popular elections. You're going to get guess what? Probably another Saddam Hussein. It will take a little while for them to paint the pictures all over the walls again. At which time he gets a laugh, according to the transcript. But there should be no illusions about the nature of that country or its society. And the American people and all of the people who second guess us now in 1992 would have been outraged if we'd gone on to Baghdad and we found ourselves in Baghdad with American soldiers patrolling the streets two years later, still looking for Jefferson. Colin Powell, 1992.

Here is Daniel Pipes, who most recently, he's the director of the Middle East Forum, and most recently has been a supporter of the Iraq War. But here he is in 1991. Iraqis, their neighbors in the outside world, have all been served reasonably well by the delicate balance of power, which leaves Iraq neither too strong nor too weak. Yet this balance is a one-time thing, when undone, it is permanently gone. Getting rid of Saddam increases the prospect of Iraqi civil war, Iranian and Syrian expansionism. Hello, hello, doctor. Kurdish irredentism and Turkish instability. Do we really want to open these cans of worms? The only way to avoid these consequences of toppling Iraq? A toppling who's saying, according to Pipes, was, quote, a very intrusive and protracted US military presence in Iraq, Daniel Pipes, 1991, and from the telegraph British newspaper in 1993, sorry, 2003, not just near the top of the memory hole, but just before the war begins.

War with Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq is the telegraph is a pro- Iraq war newspaper ladies and gentlemen editorially speaking and was in 2003 in March when this was written. But this isn't an editorial, this is a news analysis. War with Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq is the centerpiece of a grand American strategy to transform the Middle East that is as ambitious and idealistic as it is fraught with pitfalls. Quote, people who think like me get accused of having messianic views on the subject. Unquote, according to a senior Bush administration official, seen as one of the principal intellectual forces behind the Iraq policy of regime change. Quoting again, the same official. The truth of the matter is it starts from a view that real stability doesn't come from blocking people's hopes and aspirations. Instead, he said America should create the conditions for democracy to flourish. This tentative domino theory of democratic change in the Middle East is one of the main reasons it is spoken of. So rarely as the reason for the Iraq war.

But the momentum toward the drive behind the drive towards topping Saddam has been provided by men who identify them as a danger nearly 25 years ago and who believe that regime change could help bring about a transformation of the whole region. These include Paul Wolfowitz, a Pentagon official who was the US defense deputy secretary. He was the author of a June 1979 paper that highlighted the growing military threat to the Gulf region post by Saddam. Inocuously titled capabilities for limited contingencies in the Persian Gulf, the paper remains classified to this day. Five years before the war began, Wolfowitz, Zalmek Halilzad, now our ambassador to Iraq and 16 others including Donald Rumsfeld, penned a letter to president then president Bill Clinton. It stated that failing to move towards the removal of Saddam Hussein regime would quote have a seriously destabilizing effect on the entire Middle East. Ladies and gentlemen, unquote.

It all sounds so nostalgic, doesn't it? Anyway, as I say, we're in London and it's ironic that they left us in Wisconsin because we're so like the BBC right now. As a matter of fact, although we're in the studios of capital radio, we're going to cross over to our BBC announcer right now, Roger. This is London. The show will service. I'm Roger Pink at the show house. And now, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show. Tell me why, tell me why, tell me why.

Why can't we live together? Everybody wants to live together, why can't we live together? Everybody wants to live together, why can't we live together? Why can't we live together? Everybody wants to live together, why can't we live together?

Everybody wants to live together, why can't we live together? Get scary down in that memory. Hold on, ladies and gentlemen.

From Lester Square in London, I'm Harry Shira, welcome you to this edition of the show and now time for the Apologies and semi-apologies of the week. Starting with an almost apology from Gail Collins, editorial page editor of The New York Times in Editor and Publisher Magazine. If I had to do it all over again, I would have paid a lot more attention to the people on the editorial board who had doubts about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Collins said this week, I thought there were weapons of mass destruction and most of the board members did. Frankly, we did not spend enough time debating the issue. He said that she said, excuse me, excuse me Gail, she said that led to early editorials that proclaimed the existence as a matter of fact rather than a questionable assertion. We should have argued among ourselves more, she stressed, given our readers some of a sense that there was an argument about it. We tended to take it for granted.

Deadline Los Angeles Sony Corporation this week said it has pulled a Dutch Billboard advertising campaign for the new white version of its PlayStation portable video game player and apologized by anyone to anyone offended by the ad which critics dubbed racist. The Billboard ad in the campaign which Sony said was launched in the first week of June, created exclusively for the Dutch market, portrayed a white woman aggressively grabbing the face of a black woman and read, quote, PlayStation portable white is coming. Sony said in a statement that the Netherlands campaign intended to highlight the color contrast between the existing black PlayStation player and the new ceramic white PlayStation player. Quote, we recognize the subject matter of one specific image may have caused concern in some countries not directly affected by the advertising as a result. We have now withdrawn the campaigns of the company which also apologized to those offended by the ad. By the way, hats off to the European community court which told Sony and BMG, no, you can't merge. What a nutty thing to do.

Deadline Jacksonville, Florida, former corrections department secretary James Crosby, Jr. pleaded guilty this week to taking thousands of dollars and kickbacks from a prison contractor blaming some of his actions on alcohol abuse. Oh, right then. After ending his guilty plea, Crosby told reporters he was ashamed. I apologize to everyone. What I did was wrong. Crosby said, I wish I could take it back by which I guess he means give the money back. You know, this Deadline Paris French soccer star is into Dean Zadan, apologize for headbutting an Italian opponent during the World Cup. Final saying he was provoked by harsh insults about his mother and sister. So next time you don't want to be headbutted and sold his brother. From the international Harold Tribune, the obituary of a former Irish prime minister, Charles Hoey, on June 14, quoted one of his former cabinet ministers. Mayor Gehogeek, Eugen Quinn in the same paragraph as a mention of his long standing mistress.

The mistress whose name was not given in the article was Terry Keen. We apologize for any implication that it might have been Eugen Quinn. And I apologize for mispronouncing your name. Deadline Denver beer magnet. Ooh, wouldn't you love to be a beer magnet? No, you know what I mean. Beer air. Wouldn't you love to have beer hair? Look, let me just finish, will you? Former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Pete Cours. You see what I'm saying? Was arrested on a drunk and driving charge in his due to appear in court next week? Pears ran a stop sign around the corner from his home around 11, 25 p.m. Cours stopped his 2004 green Jaguar and his driveway. The trooper smelled alcohol. Cours was released from jail. Said he was headed home from a waiting reception. I should have planned ahead for a ride. Cours said in a written statement for years. I've advocated the responsible use of our company's products. That's still my message and our company's message. I am sorry that I didn't follow it myself.

You know, read the copy. Not on the prompter, just actually read it to yourself silently. Deadline Selena's California Senator Abel Maldenado, Republican of Santa Maria. Yes, you recognize the name of Santa Maria. It's where the Jackson trial was last year. He apologizes for comments he made in a Los Angeles dog trainer article questioning Governor Schwarzenegger's commitment to the state's Latino community. Schwarzenegger made a campaign stop in Southern California Tuesday to renew his support for the civilian minute-man border patrols and to showcase his Latino supporters. Look, my Latino supporters. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, not long after Schwarzenegger's appearance at a Mexican restaurant in Lindwood, Maldenado, who is the state's highest-ranking Latino Republican, questioned the governor's loyalty to Latinos, saying, quote, when he needs Latinos, Latinos are always there for him. When Latinos need him, the answer's been no. Maldenado later apologized for his remarks. I wonder.

I wonder how many phone calls that took. Quote, I apologize to Governor Schwarzenegger for my public comments to the Los Angeles Times. The governor and I have worked together for the past. I continue to support the governor in his efforts to strengthen California. Okay. Job well done. Dayline, York, Pennsylvania, the county sheriff has apologized for what he called an embarrassing and egregious security breakdown after court security workers missed a knife later allegedly thrown at a judge in a courtroom. That's a knife you want to catch. Terry Lee Raim was arrested Thursday after authority said he threw a 13-inch butcher knife at Judge Michael J. Brillhardt, who was seated on the bench. The knife went over the heads of several and county employees and a defendant and sank into a wall to the judge's left. No one was injured. Also found on Raim after it was taken into custody, were a four-inch knife, a three-pound handheld sledgehammer, and a utility knife with a blade. York Sheriff Bill Hose said his deputy should have taken further steps after the man handed them a barbecue fork at the county courthouse rather than letting him pass inside.

Simply put, said Hose, we screwed up. The deputy became transfixed or mesmerized on the one item as he had tunnel vision. There is absolutely no excuse other than human failure. So the guy handed him a barbecue fork and got in with a sledgehammer and a butcher knife. He must have been planning dinner. Action superstar Jackie Chan has apologized and asked for forgiveness after getting drunk and jumping on stage at a concert. Last week, Chan was attending a performance by Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jonathan Lee. When he unexpectedly took to the stage, started swearing and hassling the band and Lee. Chan's pop star son, JC Chan, who knew? Counts Lee as a musical inspiration has also repeatedly apologized for his father's bizarre behavior, saying, but Chan was drunk when he got on stage and he forgot there were so many people watching. He also said it was his first time.

Dayline Washington DC, a DC police investigator was apologized for making a racially insensitive remark at a community meeting to address last week's killing of a British citizen in Washington. At Monday's meeting, Andy Solberg urged residents to report suspicious activity. He said, quote, this is not a racial thing to say that black people are unusual in Georgetown. This is a fact of life. At a news conference, Solberg apologized for their mark and asked for forgiveness. He said his remark was, in artful. Yes, there's not enough art in the remarks by police officials these days. Ladies and gentlemen, don't you think? And he said it wasn't meant to be mean, malicious or divisive. Solberg's remark prompted police chief Charles Ramsey to temporarily reassign Solberg to the art department. Dayline bagged at the United States ambassador and the top American military commander have together issued an unusual apology for the rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman and the killing of her family, saying that the crime in which at least four soldiers are suspect

had injured the Iraqi people as a whole with the W. The apologies of the week, ladies and gentlemen copyrighted feature of this broadcast. You know, the United States is, I'm here outside the bubble for six weeks and it's no news to many Americans that we're not exactly making the largest number of friends around the world right now. You know? And I'm not here to do that. Don't get me wrong. I'm not here on a goodwill visit. Take it from me. You know me better than that. But I'm just pointing out that this next story really, really isn't necessary. We don't really need to go out of our way and have people like NBC sports president Dick Ebersol. I think he's chairman now. Make people more ticked off at us than they already are. This is from the name of this rag.

I don't put the name on every page of the paper. I think it's the, they're all tabloids these days in Britain, so I can't tell. I think it's the independent British sports fans. No, it's a telegraph British sports fans will have to get up at three a.m. to see some of the biggest events at the next Olympic Games in Beijing because the starting times are being changed to suit American television. See? See what I'm saying? Showpiece finals in swimming. I've been moved from their traditional evening slots to the morning to please NBC, which is a key sponsor of the Olympic movement. Yes, it's a movement. The finals of some athletic of it's not a business. It's a movement. The finals of some athletics events such as the men's 100 meter, the gymnastics and men's basketball tournament may also be moved for the same reason. The International Olympic Committee, which run the Olympics, has sparked a global row with broadcasters in Europe and Asia, including the BBC, which accused it of pandering to American pressure and penalizing audiences in the rest of the world. Senior BBC executive said, quote, if the swimming finals had been held as usual in the early evening in China, then people in Britain would have been able to watch them live around lunchtime.

The BBC seems to have agreed to NBC's request to the morning, which will force anyone who's keen to see them to get up at 3 a.m. or stay up late. We'll get low audiences. People have to get to work or won't stay up. It's crazy. Still quoting the British executive. The whole thing about the Olympics is our audiences around the world are on the edge of their seats waiting. Watch to watch big sports live and that's what creates the drama. That will be lost in 2008. Unquote, the executive said NBC had also asked for some of the other glamorous finals in the Olympics timetable, including track and field gymnastics and basketball. All of which are popular in the United States to be moved. Making friends wherever we go ladies and gentlemen doing whatever we can because we can. Now, there's a war on terror we are told. So we were very, you know, it's almost five years since the war on terror was declared.

We, we must be pretty darn serious about it. Now, don't you think? No, I'm serious. I mean, we've had almost five years to get good at it. We, we probably are pretty good at it. So let's just take a quick survey around the news of the week and see just how good we are at the war on terror from the Washington Post today. The US government has made limited headway in identifying and securing the domestic targets whose destruction would pose the greatest threat to American lives and national defense according to experts and former government officials. The Department of Homeland Securities Inspector General reported that a department target list has grown exponentially from 160 three years ago to 77,000 today. But it is filled with bean festivals, car dealerships, small town parades and check cashing stores as terrorist targets. That's a good list. The controversy highlights the latest government's latest struggle toward accomplishing the fundamental tasks of identifying targets most vital to the nation's health economy and security, ranking them and deciding how to secure them using scarce tax dollars. President Clinton signed a directive in 1998 that called for the country to come up with a plan to defend its vital infrastructure by 2003.

President Bush called again for national plan in December of 2003. Despite $18 billion a year in government spending, it appears. It says the Congressional Research Service that the Department of Homeland Security is not yet able to base its critical infrastructure resource allocations on risk, analyzed in a systematic manner. Homeland Security officials largely blended the lay on the profound challenge of terrorism. Department officials defend the database, which includes petting zoos, donut shops, popcorn stands and ice cream parlors. Reviews have been done for about 40 nuclear plants and chemical facilities around Detroit. Plan should be done for Chicago and Los Angeles by December. All right then, and Houston, Northern New Jersey and lower Delaware River next year. The Department will then turn, this will be in 2006, to liquefied natural gas facilities, oil refineries, pipelines, dams and mass transit. Because we care so very much.

From the Baltimore Sun this week, for eight months, a quiet battle is raised between two federal agencies that piece together clues of potential terror threats. The feud has left officials without information about potential dangers, and it has persisted. Despite a White House deadline, which passed last month to reach a resolution. The dispute is not about the clues of potential terror threats, but what to call them with more than 100 labels and use among various federal agencies to identify types of unclassified but sensitive information and who accesses it. The Justice and Homeland Security Departments were assigned last year to consolidate the list to just a few labels that would be shared by all agencies. Some within those agencies have been reluctant to give up the labels they're familiar with, but control over who gets information. Stalled by turf wars and unclear lines of authority and control. Says an official, according to reporting on this initiative to unify the labels of terror clues. The added the report is also expected to target a lack of presidential leadership on the issue.

I wonder who they're talking about there. The labels have become an excuse not to share information. The Congressional Research Service says the pseudo classification markings have in some instances had the effect of deterring information sharing for Homeland Security purposes. Even when the information does filter down to the state or local level, officials have found themselves at the state or local level be funneled by the bureaucratic jargon, wondering how important the information is, much less how they should handle it and who else can see it. The term for official use only, for instance, is used by 13 federal agencies and there are at least five different definitions of it. A group of state officials proposed a new system with three designations. Law enforcement sensitive, Homeland Security sensitive and for official use only. Homeland and Justice officials said it was not viable. Says Colonel Ken Busch, who led the effort, we really don't understand why. We're frustrated and we really need this resolved he adds. Because we care so much about Homeland Security.

And finally, the government accountability office has criticized the Defense Department for sloppy management of its security classification system, including marking confidential or secret material that Pentagon officials acknowledged was unclassified information. The GAO says one of the major questions raised by its study was whether all the information marked as classified met established criteria for classification. Because ladies and gentlemen, we really care. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security.

We really care so much about Homeland Security. We really care so much about Homeland Security. Copyrighted feature of this broadcast. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine of global warming.

In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine of global warming. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine.

In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine.

In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine.

In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine.

In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine.

In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine.

In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine.

In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine.

In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine.

In the Arctic ecosystem is a canary in the coal mine. Thanks for the baby wipe. Don't you stray away to belong to me.

Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream.

Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream.

Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream.

Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream.

Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream.

Be all the things you see in my dream. Be all the things you see in my dream.