This Week's 'The List' -- Stone vs. Castro

April 11, 2004 -- — A weekly feature on This Week.

Voices

Oliver Stone is courting controversy again, this time with a documentary on Fidel Castro that HBO is airing on Wednesday night. In a sneak preview, Stone confronts Castro on human rights.

Oliver Stone: "Government political opponents were targeted in countries including Cuba and Haiti."

Fidel Castro: "Since we are talking seriously here: Prisoners of conscience, it is a lie, it is a lie, simply a lie — government political opponents as targets of harassment. Maybe there is a single case, but I can assure you that it is not government policy, and it is absolutely prohibited to harass anyone here."

Stone: "You mentioned that you were being threatened. In addition to criticizing you publicly, how have you been threatened?"

Osvaldo Paya, Cuban human rights activist: Look, for months I received, at any time, threatening and offensive phone calls. My house has red paint on the front door to make it look like a puddle of blood. Big signs that everyone knows the state security put up that read, 'Death to Paya!' [and] 'Down with the traitor.'"

Stone: "If you suddenly pardoned the dissidents, don't you realize that by doing that you would trump Bush?"

Castro: "We have been pardoning for 44 years, and the United States has never pardoned anyone."

Last week, U.N. officials accused Arab militias in the Sudan of conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign against an African minority. In a speech marking the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warned Wednesday that another genocide might be in the making.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power urges the world not to ignore Africa again.

Samantha Power: "Sudan matters because of the moral stakes of the carnage. People are being killed not because of anything they've done but simply because of who they are — simply because they are African Muslims and not Arab Muslims. This is the kind of killing that we have long committed ourselves to being revolted by and to intending to do something about. I think we've also learned a grim lesson over the course of the last decade, which is that the way a regime treats its own people is a very good indicator of the kind of partner that regime will be in the war on terrorism or in advancing U.S. security interests. So for moral reasons — especially on the anniversary of the Rwandan genocide — this is the kind of issue the United States simply has to take a stand on."

Funnies

In the Sunday "Funnies," the late night comics tuned in to one of the week's biggest stories — Dr. Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the 9/11 commission.

Saturday Night Live

Condoleezza Rice (portrayed by Janet Jackson): "Sir, with all due respect, I'm still not certain how to address some of these facts."

Dick Cheney (portrayed by Darrell Hammond): "Two words — IT'S CLASSIFIED. The important thing is to get through it and get back on message: Dick Clarke does heroin."

Jackson: "What?"

Hammond: "Yeah, big time junkie. Popular guy in Thailand."

Jackson: "And we can prove this?"

Hammond: "I'd love to, but IT'S CLASSIFIED."

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Leno: "You know, this is supposed to be a bipartisan committee. Did you see the Democrats going after Condoleezza today? Like Bob Kerry kept calling her "Dr. Clarke." Five times he called Condoleezza Rice "Dr. Clarke," until she finally corrected him and everybody laughed. I mean, he is on her case for not remembering little details from meetings three years ago and he can't remember her name.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien

O'Brien: I don't know about you, but I was really surprised. It was a tense environment during the testimony, and one of the people there really let her have it. And I thought that was awkward. Take a look:

Rice [tape of testimony]: "And I remember very well the director saying to President Bush, 'Well it would help, but it would not stop attacks by Al Qaeda nor destroy the network.'"

Donald Trump [separate tape]: "It was a long, boring explanation, and I didn't buy it. Do you have anything else to say? Do you have anything else to say? Somebody has to go; somebody has to go, right now. In this event you wouldn't step up as a leader, and you barely contributed as a follower. You're fired."