This Week's 'The List' -- Storm and Saddam
Sept. 21 -- — A weekly feature on This Week.
Voices
Saddam Hussein's voice is believed to be on an audiocassette broadcast on the al Jazeera news channel last week: "You, mujahideen, and Iraqi men and women, must tighten the loop and step up your strikes against your enemies. … To the American president, I say on behalf of the great people of Iraq, 'You lied to yourself, your people and people everywhere.' "
According to a Sept. 6 Washington Post poll, 69 percent of Americans believe Saddam Hussein was likely personally involved in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. President Bush and his administration spent the week responding to criticism that it was their language that misled the American people. In order to clarify, President Bush said, "No, we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th."
Attorney General John Ashcroft staunchly defended the Patriot Act, which critics charge infringes on civil rights: "Not a single court in America has validated any of the … charges of violations of constitutional rights in connection with the Patriot Act. And so the charges, the hysteria, are revealed for what they are — castles in the air built on misrepresentation, supported by unfounded fear, held aloft by hysteria itself."
Richard Grasso resigned this week as the head of the New York Stock Exchange. On Sept. 9, he defended his compensation, which generated criticism and led him to resign: "I'm very proud to say that I've been very well compensated."
Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, appeared on the Oprah show this week. Schwarzenegger tried to explain his interviews with magazine reporters in the 1970s: "These were the times where I was saying things, like, you know, 'A pump is better than coming,' and those kinds of things [in order to make headlines]." His wife covered her mouth in shock and said, "My mother is watching!"
Pop singer Madonna released a series of children's books this week. It's a far cry from her first stint as an author — a book was entitled Sex. Last week, she marked the release of the books by reading to a room of children: "Do you want me to read from the book? 'The problem with The English Roses was the little girl and the children who were jealous. Her name was Bena.' "
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