Ross Verifies What Jennings Mocked: Scientists Face Death -- 02/11/2003 CyberAlert

1. Ross Verifies What Jennings Mocked: Scientists Face Death
Less than three weeks after ABC anchor Peter Jennings scolded Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz for asserting, without providing proof, that Saddam Hussein has ordered that any scientist who talks to UN inspectors be killed along with his family, ABC News reporter Brian Ross found an escaped scientist who confirmed the diabolical threat. Back on January 23 Jennings asserted "there is no way to know how the administration verifies" what he described as "a very inflammatory charge."

2. 66% Favor Military Action, But Jennings Finds "No Consensus"
Though Peter Jennings noted how a new ABC News poll found solid support for President Bush's Iraq policy, with two-thirds backing military action to oust Saddam Hussein, anchoring from Portland he focused on how in Oregon "there is no consensus about war." Actually, just no consensus amongst a panel at a town meeting which Jennings hosted on the Portland ABC affiliate, at least judging by the anti-war views of those Jennings chose to highlight.

3. ABC's Sawyer Prods Blix to Say "This War is Not Justified"
ABC's Diane Sawyer tried to prod UN weapons inspector Hans Blix to decide that Iraq is "cooperating enough" so "I'm going to...say" that "this war is not justified." Sawyer also walked the streets of Baghdad relaying propaganda. She came across some children who called America "bad" and she sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to them. In return, "I got a song back. It is a song about Saddam Hussein, his strength and their desire to protect him." She moved on to show how supposedly typical Iraqis have supplies in their homes, "enough to stay in the house for a year if they had to -- and a gun" with which to "repel" Americans.

4. Reporters Warn Against "Going It Alone" & "Unilateral Force"
Despite the fact that 18 European nations are part of the U.S. coalition against Iraq, as well as Australia, on Sunday night NBC News reporters stated that the Senator Carl Levin "warned the White House it would be foolish right now to threaten to go it alone" and Russia's "President Putin declared unilateral force would result in the sufferings of millions of people."

5. Turner Compares U.S. War on Iraq with Using Nuke to Get Sniper
Ted Turner: U.S. plans for Iraq which would "kill tens of thousands of people" just to get one man would be just like, Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper summarized, "dropping a nuclear bomb on Washington in an effort to neutralize the two snipers." And on Monday's Today Turner hewed to the liberal mantra about how poverty fuels terrorism as he told Matt Lauer that "trying to make it a better world is my top priority. A more equitable world, that's really the best way to combat terrorism is to, is to build a world where nobody's angry enough to want to be a terrorist."

6. Actor Richard Gere Sees Nefarious Motive for Bush...
Actor Richard Gere thinks there's a nefarious motive behind President Bush's effort to oust Saddam Hussein, telling reporters at a Berlin film festival: "I have a feeling something hidden is at work here that will someday see the light of day." He also displayed disdain for the U.S. as he claimed that "America has never paid any attention to other people, so it's absurd for Bush to say that it's all in the best interests of the Iraqi people."

7. But Actor Ron Silver Stands Up for American Values & Bush
Not all Hollywood celebrities are ungrateful, anti-American lefties. On FNC's Beltway Boys actor Ron Silver recounted his negative reaction to anti-Americanism in Europe and rejected the idea that it's Bush's fault. He even suggested that imposing U.S. values on the world isn't "a bad idea by the way, I kind of think our values are fairy universal and might be helpful."

Ross Verifies What Jennings Mocked:
Scientists Face Death

Less than three weeks after ABC anchor Peter Jennings scolded Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz for asserting, without providing proof, that Saddam Hussein has ordered that any scientist who talks to UN inspectors be killed along with his family, ABC News reporter Brian Ross found an escaped scientist who confirmed the diabolical threat.

On the January 23 World News Tonight Jennings had chided Wolfowitz: "There is no way to know how the administration verifies that Iraqi scientists were threatened with their lives if they talked to the UN inspectors. It is a very inflammatory charge at a very tense time."

Fast forward to February 10 and ABC's Ross found support for the situation Jennings had mocked. Jennings set up the new story, as taken down by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth:
"Well, the UN weapons inspectors said today that they had sought two more private interviews with Iraqi scientists over the weekend. Both of them came to meet the inspectors but ultimately refused to be interviewed. There is a lot of pressure on the scientists to be forthcoming. Some of them may simply not wish to talk to people they regard as the enemies of their country. Others may be downright afraid. ABC News has had unusual access to what some of the scientists think and fear. And with an exclusive report on this tonight, our investigative reporter Brian Ross."

Ross relayed what he was told: "Peter, in the last ten days, UN inspectors have been given what is described as 'important, new and credible information' about the intimidation of Iraqi scientists. The information comes from a recent defector who also has told his story to ABC News. Among the defector's details, the location in a downtown Baghdad neighborhood near the Tigris River where the defector says key scientists are secretly housed with their families....The defector, interviewed by ABC News in a European country, is an engineer described as close to several of the weapons scientists who he says live in fear."
Defector, in shadow and through an interpreter: "A large number of scientists and researchers would like to cooperate with the inspectors."
Ross: "But he says a group of them were removed from the compound to a secret location last October when the UN first talked of sending inspectors."
Defector: "A group made up of between seven and ten scientists whose loyalty to the Iraqi regime was doubted, and the point was to scare them."
Ross: "The defector also says the Iraqi scientists being interviewed by the UN have been required to sign two written documents -- one public, pledging to cooperate with the UN. A second one, he says, is secret, holding the scientists responsible if the security of Iraq is harmed."
Defector: "The words 'being held responsible for harming the country's security' are well known for Iraqis. The penalty: killing and torture and going after the family."
Ross: "American intelligence sources say the defector's information was included in Secretary of State Powell's UN speech last week."
Colin Powell, Secretary of State: "Other sources are people who have risked their lives to let the world know what Saddam Hussein is really up to."
Ross: "UN sources tell ABC News the defector's information is being pursued this week in Baghdad, including the recent suspicious death of one scientist whose loyalty was in doubt. Was it an accident or was it the message of the kind the regime there has used many times before?"

For the online version of the Ross story co-written with Christopher Isham:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/World/iraq_scientists030210.html

For a bio of Ross with a photo of him:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/2020/ross_brian_bio.html

66% Favor Military Action, But Jennings Finds
"No Consensus"

Though Peter Jennings noted how a new ABC News poll found solid support for President Bush's Iraq policy, with two-thirds backing military action to oust Saddam Hussein, anchoring from Portland he focused on how in Oregon "there is no consensus about war." Actually, just no consensus amongst a panel at a town meeting which Jennings hosted on the Portland ABC affiliate, at least judging by the anti-liberation of Iraq views of those Jennings chose to highlight.

Jennings segued from the war to the awful decision of Oregon voters to reject an income tax hike. Jennings rued: "The consequences were immediate. The county jail has given up 100 spaces. The state police fired 25 percent of the force. The safety net for health and human services has been badly damaged." And with "everything from staff to after school sports" being cut back, "some of the students feel that suddenly their future is more uncertain."

Naturally, Jennings did not note by how much faster than inflation Oregon's spending rose in the 1990s, but if Oregon is like most states it did by a healthy margin.

Early on the February 10 World News Tonight Jennings relayed the latest poll numbers: "A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that most Americans support attacking Iraq even if the United Nations opposes it. Two-thirds of Americans say they favor military action to remove Saddam Hussein. That number drops to 50 percent if there is United Nations opposition, but it rises to 57 percent if there is support from some U.S. allies even if the United Nations Security Council remains opposed."

(Online, ABC's Gary Langer pointed out that "'strong' support for attacking Iraq outstrips 'strong' opposition by nearly 3-1." http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/World/attack_poll020310.html)

Jennings had teased at the top of the program: "On the road in America, listening to Oregon. There is no consensus about war." In fact, as he soon conceded, "the state as a whole supports the President." His prism came through a gathering in liberal Portland.

Jennings got to the Oregon opinions at the end of the broadcast:
"Finally this evening, on the road in the country listening to what people have to say about the possibility of war. Tonight we check in briefly on this particular corner of the Northwest. Oregon's Mount Hood stood dramatically alone as we arrived. That's Portland down there under the clouds, the largest city in the state. War with Iraq has been actively debated here for many months. There is a lot of anti-war sentiment in the city. In January 25,000 people demonstrated against going to war. As of this week, the state as a whole supports the President. Last night at a town hall meeting, there was no consensus."
Unidentified man #1 in audience: "I support going to war. I think Saddam needs to be stopped."
Unidentified man #2 in audience: "I must say that I have never heard a weaker argument for the fact of going to war."
Steven Engelberg, Managing Editor of The Oregonian, on the panel: "If Saddam Hussein has those weapons and he has contacts with terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, the risk that he will give those weapons to one of those groups and thus use it against us, is foreseeable."
Dr. Catherine Thomasson, Physicians for Social Responsibility, on the panel: "We have to prove imminent threat or we have to prove global security risk. It hasn't been made. The case has not been made."
Jennings transitioned to a wider point: "The differences about war and the uncertainty about its impact are part of a greater concern here about Oregon's future. These are not happy times. The state budget is $2 billion in the red, and two weeks ago, voters rejected a measure to raise income taxes. The consequences were immediate. The county jail has given up 100 spaces. The state police fired 25 percent of the force. The safety net for health and human services has been badly damaged. At Roosevelt High School in a working class neighborhood, the principal, Andy Kelly, tells us that budget cuts mean five fewer weeks of school this year. And everything from staff to after school sports will be cut back. Some of the students feel that suddenly their future is more uncertain."
Unidentified student #1: "We're already a month out of school early. I mean, that's, we're the future of the country, and we're not getting an education."
Unidentified student #2: "And so we're not going to have enough knowledge to get what we need, and it's bad for teachers, too."
Unidentified student #3: "It's really like they're taking away a lot from us, and they don't realize that."
Unidentified student #4: "I just think it's a mess, and I think that somebody seriously needs to step up to the plate and take some initiative here."
Jennings: "They talk a lot about the war, they say. They were all, including Omar, uncertain about its consequences."
Omar, in audience at town meeting: "And people think America is, like, you know, a leader, and you need to be able to use that leadership and, you know, be able to reach a compromise."
Jennings ended on a liberal note: "At the town hall meeting last night, this question:"
Prof. Elizabeth Furse, Portland State University: "Do you wake up every morning and worry that Saddam Hussein is coming through the back door, or do you worry that you're gonna get a job, that there'll be a school that will be decent?"
Jennings concluded: "Yes, uncertainty is an issue here. And the consequences of war are very much part of it."

The Sunday night town meeting, aired live at 6pm on KATU-TV channel 2. The station has posted video and text of an interview one of its staffers conducted beforehand with Jennings: http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=54468

Next stop for Jennings: Tuesday in Phoenix at KNXV-TV, "ABC-15." Web site: http://www.knxv.com/

Bottom line: Even when polls show overwhelming support for Bush's Iraq policy, Jennings manages to dig out dissent and showcase it.

Last October 14 World News Tonight devoted a one-sided story to proving how "there are growing concerns" across the country about Bush's plans to attack Iraq. The "A Closer Look" segment highlighted the opposition of nine people. Bill Redeker painted opponents as sharing Bush's concern, but just differing on the remedy, as he insisted they are "not so much against getting rid of Saddam Hussein but how, when and at what cost." But at that moment ABC was showing video of some very much out of the mainstream protesters carrying signs proclaiming things such as, "No Blood for Oil" and "Bombing = Terrorism."

After the story, Jennings promised: "On this broadcast in the days ahead, other voices."

Four months later and we're still waiting for an equally reverential and one-sided treatment of those in favor of addressing the threat from Iraq. For more on the October 14 piece:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20021015.asp#1

ABC's Sawyer Prods Blix to Say
"This War is Not Justified"

ABC's Diane Sawyer on Monday morning tried to prod UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to "step out of his role" and "say something personal," such as that Iraq is "cooperating enough" so "I'm going to...say" that "this war is not justified." Blix didn't fall for Sawyer's advocacy.

For Good Morning America, Sawyer also walked the streets of Baghdad relaying Iraqi propaganda. She came across some children who called America "bad" and she sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to them. In return, "I got a song back. It is a song about Saddam Hussein, his strength and their desire to protect him." She moved on to show how supposedly typical Iraqis have supplies in their homes, "enough to stay in the house for a year if they had to -- and a gun" with which the resident "says he's ready to repel anybody, Americans or any other soldiers."

Earlier stories from Baghdad, including ones I recall seeing on ABC, worried about how Iraqis barely subsist on food day to day. Sawyer stumbled upon a miracle family.

MRC analyst Jessica Anderson caught Sawyer's instances of liberal advocacy and gullibility, starting with this exchange on the February 10 show with Blix:

Sawyer: "So I wondered, what if the chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, had a trump card in his pocket, namely to step out of his role, his public role as chief inspector and say something personal, since he always seemed to be trying to be put brakes on war. Would he ever do that?
Sawyer to Blix: "Can you imagine a point at which you would say, 'They are cooperating enough that I'm going to step out of my role and say, personally, this war is not justified'?"
Blix: "No, I am the servant of the Security Council and I'm not going to talk about my personal feelings. I feel it's the Council and its members that understand Iraq that have the responsibility."

If only Sawyer had as much integrity and kept her personal feelings to herself.

At another point on Monday's Good Morning America, Sawyer related how "here in Baghdad we have heard that Iraqis are stockpiling food and weapons, so we asked the Iraqi minders to take us out to see it. They did, but of course we also saw something else: the children.
"Walk through a back street in Baghdad and the children shout out in English, 'how are you?' 'hello,' 'good morning!' A little one sings. And when I stopped to ask them more about America, they said they'd heard of war and America, is it nice?
To the children: "America, nice?"
Translator, after the children speak: "It's bad."
Sawyer: "It's bad. But when I said I was American, there were only smiles and curiosity."
Sawyer then sang a badly muddled version of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to the children.
Sawyer: "After singing a song to them, I got a song back. It is a song about Saddam Hussein, his strength and their desire to protect him."

Moving on, Sawyer entered a home: "This is the house selected for us by our Iraqi minder. We went inside, a cordial welcome, the ritual picture of Saddam Hussein. And upstairs, through the house, up under the bed? Supplies, lots of them -- they told us enough to stay in the house for a year if they had to -- and a gun.
Sawyer to the man who lives there: "Is he afraid that Americans will attack him?...He says he's ready to repel anybody, Americans or any other soldiers. And even though this house was preselected by the Iraqis, this we heard from others, too. They'll have guns and defend their homes. But in that strange contradiction on the way out, an American gets offered homemade pastries, made by her just this morning.
"We bid our farewells. Back on the street, the children again, who told me that Saddam Hussein would protect them, they didn't have to worry, and then shouted out once more, 'Good morning' and 'bye-bye.'"

The Hussein regime will be sorry to see Sawyer go.

Reporters Warn Against "Going It Alone" &
"Unilateral Force"

Despite the fact that 18 European nations are part of the U.S. coalition against Iraq and that on Monday afternoon President Bush was going to meet with another backer, the Prime Minister of Australia, on Sunday night NBC News reporters stated that the Senator Carl Levin "warned the White House it would be foolish right now to threaten to go it alone" and Russia's "President Putin declared unilateral force would result in the sufferings of millions of people."

MRC analyst Ken Shepherd observed the misuse of the two terms by reporters on the February 9 NBC Nightly News.

From the White House, Rosalind Jordan asserted: "Later, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer dismissed calls from the chief UN weapons inspector to let the inspections continue regardless of Iraq's level of compliance. Quote, 'The President has said, given the facts that Saddam Hussein is not disarming, time is running out.' But the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee warned the White House it would be foolish right now to threaten to go it alone."

From Moscow, Dana Lewis relayed: "In Germany tonight, more unyielding opposition to American war plans. After meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his country now stands with Germany, France, and China against military action. President Putin declared unilateral force would result in the sufferings of millions of people. Schroeder also called for a peaceful disarmament."

Turner Compares U.S. War on Iraq with Using
Nuke to Get Sniper

Ted Turner: U.S. plans for Iraq which would "kill tens of thousands of people" just to get one man would be just like, Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper summarized, "dropping a nuclear bomb on Washington in an effort to neutralize the two snipers who terrorized the U.S. capital region last fall."

Turner made his comments during Sunday press interviews in Washington, DC to promote the new movie he funded about the Civil War or, as he would put it, the War of Northern Aggression, Gods and Generals.

The Drudge Report (www.drudgereport.com) linked on Monday to a story about Turner's comments carried in the Globe and Mail, a national newspaper in Canada. Though I heard a matching soundbite from Turner during a newscast Monday on Washington, DC radio station WMAL, I have not been able find any other story quoting Turner comparing Iraq with the sniper case.

Monday morning on Today, however, Turner maintained that Iraq is "too small to pose a threat" to the U.S. and kept up the usual liberal mantra about how poverty fuels terrorism as he told Matt Lauer that "trying to make it a better world is my top priority. A more equitable world, that's really the best way to combat terrorism is to, is to build a world where nobody's angry enough to want to be a terrorist."

Now that's a dream world.

An excerpt from a February 10 Globe and Mail story, "Media mogul Turner derides attack on Iraq," by Washington, DC-based reporter Simon Houpt:

WASHINGTON -- Former AOL Time Warner vice-chairman Ted Turner, once known as the Mouth of the South, unleashed his famous tongue again yesterday, criticizing the growing likelihood of a U.S. attack on Baghdad and suggesting that military action is a ridiculous way to bring down Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"We got all the bombs and they don't have very much but a few guns. It's the high-tech wealthy Western nation against the Third World country; it's kind of a foregone conclusion that we'll win. It's a question of how many civilians get killed over there -- that's what worries me," Mr. Turner said. "We're trying to get one man, right? And we're going to kill tens of thousands of people to get him. It seems like a pretty inefficient way to do things."

Mr. Turner compared the heavy-handed approach to dropping a nuclear bomb on Washington in an effort to neutralize the two snipers who terrorized the U.S. capital region last fall.

He made his comments during an interview to promote Gods and Generals, a rambling and often incoherent 229-minute U.S. Civil War drama that is sympathetic to the pro-secession rebellion and makes heroes out of Confederate leaders General Robert E. Lee and Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson....

END of Excerpt

Turner did display some TV programming sense: "'Connie Chung's just awful,' he said, referring to the high-priced star CNN hired last spring."

For the Globe and Mail story in full:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20030210
/UTURNN/International/international/international_temp/3/3/21/

The site for the movie which Turner fully financed:
http://www.godsandgenerals.com/

Monday's Today featured a taped interview with Turner. MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens passed along this portion in which Turner and Matt Lauer discussed Iraq and terrorism:

Lauer: "What drives you? What do you look forward to when you get out of bed in the morning?"
Turner: "Well I'm trying, I'm, I'm, well I, I live a very varied and interesting life. I'm working on the things that I can have some control over and, and, and trying to make it a better world is my top priority. A more equitable world that's really the best way to combat terrorism is to, is to build a world where nobody's angry enough to want to be a terrorist."
Lauer: "I read something where you said when you were younger you wanted to be a war hero and now as you get older and more mature you'd like to be a peace hero."
Turner: "Absolutely."
Lauer: "We're at a very difficult time in this country right now."
Turner: "Very much.
Lauer: "It looks like we are on the verge of war with Iraq. What are your thoughts on that?"
Turner: "I, I think that, first of all, I want to commend President Bush, and, and the administration and Secretary of State Colin Powell for engaging the UN and getting the resolution that they did and I would be most hopeful that, that we would, let the Security Council vote again and get their support."
Lauer: "Why do we need to vote again? We voted on 1441, we said there will be severe consequences."
Turner: "Because it's not, it's not absolutely clear that we have an absolutely clear mandate to go in there. I question that. Why not put it up to a vote again? Why not? I mean Iraq doesn't pose any immediate threat to the United States. In my opinion they don't pose any long term threat to the United States. They're too small to pose a threat to the world's superpower."
Lauer: "But you're a guy who is so concerned about weapons of mass destruction. What if they do have these chemical and biological weapons?"
Turner: "Well everybody's got chemical and biological weapons."
Lauer: "But would Iraq not be more likely to export it to terrorist groups?"
Turner: "Than Iran or, or North Korea? I mean what are we gonna do? Go around or, or anybody can, can do it. Anybody can, can make biological weapons. I mean they're easy to make. And chemical weapons all you gotta do is stir something up."

Quite a feat. Turner managed to get to the left of Lauer.

Actor Richard Gere Sees Nefarious Motive
for Bush...

Actor Richard Gere thinks there's a nefarious motive behind President Bush's effort to oust Saddam Hussein, telling reporters at a Berlin film festival: "I have a feeling something hidden is at work here that will someday see the light of day." He also displayed disdain for the U.S. as he claimed that "America has never paid any attention to other people, so it's absurd for Bush to say that it's all in the best interests of the Iraqi people."

Gere's leftist rants occurred a few days after Dustin Hoffman, at a film awards event in London, accused the Bush administration of "manipulating the grief of the country" after the events of September 11 and charged that "this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil." For details:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030210.asp#5

An excerpt from a February 10 story in Ananova, a British news service geared toward mobile phone users:

Richard Gere has slammed George W. Bush and spoken out against possible war with Iraq at the 53rd Berlin Film Festival....

The 53-year-old said: "Bush's plans for war are a bizarre bad dream. There doesn't appear to be any sort of basis for any of this.

"I have a feeling something hidden is at work here that will someday see the light of day.

"I keep asking myself where all this personal enmity between George Bush and Saddam Hussein comes from. It's like the story of Captain Ahab and the great white whale from Moby Dick."

Gere, a Buddhist, added: "We have to say 'stop', there's no reason for a war. At the moment Hussein is not threatening anybody.

"It'd be different if he was staring somebody down with a loaded gun in his hand. But there doesn't seem to be any indications whatsoever that this man poses an immediate threat to anybody.

"America has never paid any attention to other people, so it's absurd for Bush to say that it's all in the best interests of the Iraqi people.

"If the United States marches into Iraq without the backing of the United Nations, that will be done entirely without the backing of the American people."

END of Excerpt

The story is online at: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_749299.html

For a picture of Gere and a bio, check the Internet Movie Database's page for him: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Gere,+Richard

For the MRC's collection of anti-war ravings from celebrities:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/mrcspotlight/war/welcome.asp

But Actor Ron Silver Stands Up for American
Values & Bush

Not all Hollywood celebrities are ungrateful, anti-American lefties. Prompted by a Wall Street Journal mention a couple of weeks ago about how actor Ron Silver denounced the head of the European parliament for his anti-American attitude, FNC's Beltway Boys brought Silver aboard their Saturday show.

Silver, who plays liberal campaign strategist "Bruno Gianelli" on NBC's The West Wing, made clear he does not agree with the politics of the show's "President Bartlet," Martin Sheen. Silver told Beltway Boys co-hosts Fred Barnes and Morton Kondracke that Europeans "criticisms are logically incoherent...they hold inconsistent views that we're utterly materialistic, and then we're insufferably religious. We're boring conformists, and then we're reckless individualists. We're racists, but then we're too politically correct." When Kondracke suggested it's a problem caused by George W. Bush since Europeans liked Bill Clinton, Silver refused to accept the premise.

MRC analyst Patrick Gregory noticed the interview segment on the February 8 program and checked the tape against the transcript.

Barnes segued into a discussion with Silver about anti-Americanism by recalling how last month in "Switzerland, for the International Economic Conference there, you had a run in with the head of the European parliament who accused or at least suggested that the U.S. has become an imperialist power in the world, and you responded rather aggressively to him. Tell us about that incident, and also about the level of anti-Americanism that you discovered there."
Silver recounted: "Yeah, that dinner was a culmination of events over the past several days where the subtext of almost every fora was anti-Americanism. It was very visceral, it was very intense, and to my way of thinking and some other people, it was very incoherent logically, and I'll get to that in a moment. But at that dinner, the EU had a dinner that night about the 'new Europe,' and they were being very self-congratulatory about their values, and implicitly they were suggesting that America was an imperial country, trying to impose their values on the rest of the world, which I don't think is a bad idea by the way, I kind of think our values are fairy universal and might be helpful. But we got, it was a question and answer period, and I think it was with Pat Cox, who was the President of the European parliament, and I asked him a question, and it got a little heated. What the Journal article left out is after that dinner, Pat and I went out and we had a jolly time drinking the night away."

Kondracke soon pressed Silver: "I take it though that you judge from the entire experience that elite opinion in Europe is hostile to the United States. And I just wonder whether there is something that George Bush could have done coming on as President, because Bill Clinton didn't seem to have this problem."
Silver disagreed: "No, I don't think George Bush could have done anything. I think he's doing exactly the right thing, and I think it's genetic. It's written into the genetic code, the hostility toward America. I'm not an analyst, and perhaps a therapist would be better equipped to talk about it. But it's something going on that is so interesting, because their criticisms are logically incoherent, and they're very self-defeating, and I think it provides some sort of psychological comfort for them. But they hold inconsistent views that we're utterly materialistic, and then we're insufferably religious. We're boring conformists, and then we're reckless individualists. We're racists, but then we're too politically correct. It goes on and on and on."

Silver added: "I kind of link Rumsfeld's 'old Europe versus the new Europe,' and we saw it in the last two weeks, with France and Germany, who were not with us on June 6, 1944, I don't know why we expect them to be with us today."
Barnes: "Well they aren't."
Silver: "But a lot of other European unions you know, signed that letter and have come on board."

Asked why Hollywood is so anti-war, Silver suggested: "My opinion is that the entertainment community along with other advocates -- human rights organizations, religious organizations, are always on the front lines to protest repression, but they're always usually the first ones to oppose any use of force to take care of these horrors that they catalogue repeatedly, and I find that inconsistent as well."
Kondracke: "So was there, what was the tension like on the set of The West Wing, you and Martin J. Sheen?"
Silver: "Well we've kind of avoided politics, I mean Marty has his politics, I have my politics. I do like the fact that he is committed, I disagree strongly and vehemently with his views about most things. But I like the involvement, I think it's a civic duty to be involved and I'm glad he raises his voice."

For a transcript of the interview, with a photo of Silver:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,78141,00.html

For Silver's Internet Movie Database page, sans a head shot:
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Silver,+Ron

> Ripped from the headlines. The plot of tonight's JAG on CBS, at 8pm EST/PST, 7pm CST/MST, as listed in the Washington Post: "Harm hears the case of a pilot involved in the accidental bombing of British troops in Afghanistan."

It looks like all they did was change Canadian to British. -- Brent Baker