KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST: Which of
these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?
Can‘t blame this on “Newsweek.” Muslims protest in at least five countries
after U.S. military admits to mishandling the Qu‘ran at Guantanamo Bay.
On the other hand, this sign at a North Carolina church has come down.
Fifty would-be suicide bombers headed for Israel under the age of 18, half
a dozen under the age of 16. Tonight, news that some families in the West
Bank are fighting back against terrorist recruiters.
Yes, yes. You‘ve already heard the “Stop it or... jokes“. Thirty-eight
reports of Viagra users going blind, four of Cialis users going blind. But
were those men‘s odds of going blind just as good, whether or not they
used the drugs?
And I do my little turn on the catwalk. Yes, on the catwalk. The horse who
apparently has had enough of the dog-eat-dog world of modeling.
All that and more, now on COUNTDOWN.
Good evening.
We can‘t say we didn‘t warn us. Within 24 hours of the Pentagon‘s
admission that there were probably three intentional mishandlings of
copies of the Qu‘ran at Guantanamo Bay, and probably two more accidental
ones, anti-American protests, including flag and effigy burning, broke out
in at least six Muslim nations today.
Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN, plenty of words, plenty of smoke, plenty
of chanting. No deaths reported. And the largest individual rally appears
to have been in Alexandria, Egypt, with about 12,000 on hand.
These protests, just like the ones after the “Newsweek” story, had
actually been previously planned, in this case, planned a week ago. But
with the Pentagon‘s admission, the timing now auspicious. Effigies of
President Bush both burned and beaten, other protesters holding
anti-American signs aloft to voice their anger over the acknowledged
mishandling of the Qu‘ran.
Meanwhile, protests of another sort here in the U.S. The secretary of
state, Condoleezza Rice, interrupted during a speech in San Francisco this
afternoon by hecklers wearing black hoods just like the ones worn by at
least one Abu Ghraib inmate. The crowd applauding as they were escorted
from the hall. Madame Secretary seemingly undisturbed by the interruption,
telling the audience that freedom of speech is a good thing.
If by this point you‘re confused about what has been done to the Qu‘ran,
by whom, when it was done, and which reports of alleged abuse are actually
accurate, that may, in fact, be the intended goal of the entire exercise.
Our goal tonight, to clear up any confusion as best we can.
In a moment, the guidance regarding that from Raghida Dergham.
First, a quick recap. The Pentagon confirming that it has identified five
incidents of Qu‘ran mishandling at the U.S. detention facility in
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Out of 13 allegations it has investigated, of those, officials
characterizing two as likely to have been accidents, downplaying all as
infrequent relics of the detention center‘s first days—that would be in
early 2002 -- and taking pains to stress that Islam‘s holy book was never
flushed down a toilet. That claim made by “Newsweek” in its now-retracted
report.
Of note, it appears that neither the retraction nor the apology that
preceded it ever made it into the magazine‘s Arabic edition.
As mentioned, we‘re joined now by Raghida Dergham, the senior diplomatic
correspondent for the newspaper “Al Hayat” and an MSNBC analyst.
Raghida, good evening.
RAGHIDA DERGHAM, SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT, “AL HAYAT”:
DERGHAM: Good evening to you, Keith.
OLBERMANN: These protesters look at the Pentagon statement and presumably
say, The U.S. is disrespectful and dishonest. And many in this country
would probably look at the protesters and say, The U.S. is forthright and
trying to correct a problem.
Why can‘t we please anybody? Is either version of reality correct here?
DERGHAM: Well, what‘s clear is that there was a mishandling by the
Pentagon of the whole story to begin with. From the very beginning, I
think, they should have simply said, We are outraged if any such thing has
happened, and we will investigate it fully, and we‘ll put the
investigation up front.
Instead, they were outraged by “Newsweek” and its report, and they turned
this whole episode to attack the media and to have more control of the
media and to spin. That is one of the problems. The effect is that there
was a disbelief that “Newsweek” acted on its own when it apologized or
retracted its story, and then now we hear of mishandling.
And the word “mishandling” of the Qu‘ran by itself leaves a terrible
impact on those people who already have recalled the visions of what
happened in the prison of Abu Ghraib and in Guantanamo Bay, the Guantanamo
prison, which really a lot of people are saying, Shut it down. And I think
it should be. By now, it‘s become a stigma for the United States.
OLBERMANN: Another measure of the cultural gap here, are there considered
to be degrees of desecration regarding the Qu‘ran? Would the protests
today have been the same if the allegation were thrown in a toilet or
thrown on the floor, or anything else?
DERGHAM: Well, Keith, of course, you know anything, when you take a holy
book and you bring -- (INAUDIBLE) show of throwing a holy book in the
toilet, that, of course, is more instant outrage than, say, the holy book
on the floor.
The fact of the matter is, this is the Word of God for the Muslims. And it
is offensive to use it for interrogation or for—in a way that it‘s
desecrating the Holy Qu‘ran.
I noticed the women, I think they were in India, the Muslim women, when
they were demonstrating, I saw that they were burning the Constitution of
the United States. In effect, this is their saying, Well, this is our
revenge. But we will not go as far as burning the Book of God, the Holy
Bible.
So I—you know, I think—of course there was total outrage at the reports of
the toilet, but I think any mishandling of the Qu‘ran is offensive to
Muslims.
OLBERMANN: This news tonight about the “Newsweek” retraction and the
apology not getting printed in the Arabic edition of the magazine, nor
posted on the Arabic Web site of the magazine, is that as important as it
would seem at first blush, or with the Internet now and translations in
and out of English as readily as it happens, does that not really make a
difference?
DERGHAM: Well, you said it. It actually has been covered throughout the
Arab media in reports about what “Newsweek” did first in apologizing and
secondly in retracting the story. I don‘t understand why the Arab
“Newsweek” did not publish fully its apology or its retraction. I think
they should have, if they didn‘t. But I think it was well covered
throughout the Arab media in as far as the “Newsweek” angle of it.
The Arab media was, of course, trying to also focus on what happened to
the responsibility of the media altogether, American media, and that it
was questioning what—how come there was no accountability and transparency
when the American media really got it totally wrong on the weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq as a justification for going to war? And a war later
in the Arab -- (INAUDIBLE) the American media really did not apologize or
did not really take itself, you know, to task seriously.
So “Newsweek” should be, of course, if they had been wrong, and they said
they were wrong, they apologized as they should have. But I think we
should take a deeper look at what the responsibility of the media here
altogether.
OLBERMANN: Lastly, big picture. There‘s so much conflict and so much in
conflict between these two cultures. Does it surprise you that what seem
like the easier things aren‘t being handled smoothly by the U.S. military?
Or, in at least one case, the U.S. media?
DERGHAM: But isn‘t this where it matters, Keith? Normally it‘s what we
think is the easier thing, and the fact of the matter, it is the culture
of secrecy, the culture of everything is justifiable in the name of the
war on terror. And that is wrong.
I think the bottom line is that we are doing something totally wrong in
not letting the International Red Cross, the humanitarian—you know, that
we need to be more (INAUDIBLE). Guantanamo must be put under international
jurisdiction. Otherwise, just shut it down. It‘s become harmful to the
United States.
OLBERMANN: Raghida Dergham of “Al Hayat” and MSNBC. As always, great
thanks.
DERGHAM: I thank you, Keith.
OLBERMANN: There is tonight one small step forwards towards understanding
on this front. The Reverend Creighton Lovelace has gone from defending the
sign in front of his church 60 miles west of Charlotte, North Carolina, to
apologizing for it. Lovelace has removed the message that read, “The
Qu‘ran Needs to Be Flushed!” exclamation point.
Four officials of the Southern Baptist Convention contacted him and
suggested that the sign by itself might be putting missionaries overseas
in danger. The Reverend Lovelace, who appeared as a guest on this program
Tuesday night, adding in a statement, quote, “I apologize for posting that
message and deeply regret that it has offended so many in the Muslim
community.”
Further turmoil in the Middle East tonight because of reports concerning
the deteriorating health of a Saudi monarch. King Fahd taken to a Riyadh
hospital today, apparently because he‘s suffering from pneumonia, the
official news release saying only that the 82-year-old Fahd had been
admitted for unspecified medical tests and was doing well.
But Saudi princes have reportedly begun arriving in Riyadh, raising alarm
bells, and an Arab official telling the Associated Press that the
government has put the kingdom on a state of alert, canceling all military
leaves as a precaution, that report being denied by the Saudi government.
As analogies go, putting the nomination of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador
on a state of alert would be an obvious exaggeration. Nevertheless, it‘s
back in limbo tonight, banished there at this time last night by Senate
Democrats staging a procedural attack as successful as it was surprising.
The no-cloture vote, better known as a filibuster, catching everyone,
nearly, off-guard, no one more so than the Republican majority.
In name, the move against Bolton in no way linked to Monday‘s deal, the
one that sidestepped a showdown over the right to filibuster judicial
candidates. Bolton is an executive branch nominee, not a judicial one, and
the Democrats claiming they are not trying to block the vote, merely to
force the administration to cough up information about Bolton.
Nevertheless, Republicans are trying to wrap it all up into one
donkey-embossed image, the White House press secretary saying today, “Just
72 hours after all the goodwill and bipartisanship, it is a shame to see
the Democratic Senate leadership resort back to such a partisan approach.
This is a nominee that enjoys majority support.”
I‘m joined now by Chuck Todd, editor of “The Hotline,” the “National
Journal”‘s daily political briefing.
Chuck, thanks for your time tonight.
CHUCK TODD, EDITOR, “THE HOTLINE”: You got it.
OLBERMANN: Senator DeWine of Ohio, “It is unfortunate, it is too bad, but
the deal was on judges, not on anything else.” Who are the Senate
Republicans madder at, themselves or the Democrats?
TODD: Oh, I think they‘re angry at the Democrats. I do think they thought
they would get goodwill when it comes to the John Bolton nomination. But
at the same time, you know, this shouldn‘t come as a surprise. Harry Reid
first threatened a filibuster on John Bolton six weeks ago. So the fact
they were caught off-guard here shows an inept leadership more than
anything else.
And I think that that—this is where this story sort of is interesting to
people that are watching Congress. It‘s the fact that it seems that if the
Senate Republican leadership was somehow caught off-guard, that‘s not a
very good defense, considering they didn‘t have a good week as it is, when
it comes to whether—how much they really knew about the judges‘ deal and
all this stuff.
OLBERMANN: There are a couple of ways of projecting what‘s going to happen
now, one of them being that in a perverse way, this could all help
guarantee Bolton‘s approval, in the sense that unless the documents on him
that the Democrats want to see get released, and they show him to have
caused, you know, flu epidemics or something, that there‘s no way now that
a Republican other than George Voinovich could vote against him. Is that
the line of thinking, or is it the other way?
TODD: I‘m—look, I think it‘s the other way. This feels like, the longer
this drags out, the more likely his nomination is in trouble. You know,
through the grapevine this week, you know, a source tells a source tells a
source of (INAUDIBLE), you know, supposedly when John Bolton found out
that Voinovich wasn‘t just going to just make a speech coming out against
his appointment to the United Nations, but he was actually going to start
lobbying other senators, that that‘s when Bolton started wondering, Jeez,
I think my nomination‘s in trouble.
You know, I think the—Voinovich seems like he‘s pretty passionate about
this. Look, there were plenty of Republicans who seem uncomfortable about
having to toe the line on Bolton. They were getting a lot of pressure from
the base. Some of these interest groups bought radio ads, did phone calls,
did a lot of phone banking.
Now, though, that the longer you drag it out, the less intensity there is,
and the less intensity, the easier it may be for some of these Republicans
to say, You know what? I just don‘t like this guy. I‘m not voting for him.
OLBERMANN: Now the other question is, is the there going to be a long-term
impact on that judicial filibuster compromise? Could the Republicans now
be so ticked off at what happened regarding Bolton that they now back out
of that deal at some point?
TODD: Well, I‘ll tell you, I think secretly Bill Frist would love nothing
more than to trigger this nuclear option. He needs to desperately prove to
the Republican base that he has the guts to do this, and he‘s going to
stand up to the—stand up for conservatives. I think his presidential hopes
took a big hit this week, because the base is very unhappy that he cut any
deal.
That said, I think these guys are exhausted, number one, in the Senate.
You know, this is hard work when they have to work every day of a five-day
week, really tough for them.
But number two, I think they all realize, Let‘s see what happens. The
Supreme Court is going—we‘re going to get some announcements from members
of the Supreme Court, probably in the next three or four weeks. And I
think everybody‘s realizing, let‘s keep the powder dry till the Fourth of
July, and then see what happens.
OLBERMANN: Yes, those cots that they brought in for the supposed
filibuster, those are there every day. People don‘t realize that.
TODD: Yes, well, that‘s because, as Fritz Hollings said, it‘s the best
nursing home in America.
OLBERMANN: Chuck Todd, editor of “The Hotline,” thanks for starting your
holiday weekend with us.
TODD: You got it, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Also tonight, the battle to keep teenage boys from becoming
Palestinian suicide bombers. One family there fighting back.
And big concerns tonight over impotency drugs. Did Viagra cause 38 out of
its 23 million users to go blind? Or is that just the number that you
would expect would go blind out of any group of 23 million people?
You are watching COUNTDOWN on MSNBC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: Whether it would significantly impact the insurgency in Iraq
seems to be as debated as whether or not Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is actually
dead, or actually seriously wounded, or neither.
Our fourth story in the COUNTDOWN tonight, those who traffic in suicide
bombs, from the self-described masterminds to the manipulators of teenage
boys to whom the devices are strapped.
Zarqawi first. The new Internet statement, reportedly from Zarqawi‘s chief
spokesman, says the terrorist leader is in, quote, “good health” and still
in charge of his group, Al Qaeda in Iraq. The last such statement
attributed to the same spokesman said he was badly wounded, an assessment
that has been endorsed by the Iraqi minister of the interior, although
that official would not say how he is supposed to have known that.
The insurgency in Iraq uncharacteristically quiet today, but not so in
Islamabad in Pakistan. A suicide bomber there blew himself up in the
middle of a group of Shi‘ite worshipers, at least 20 killed, 150 wounded.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but sectarian violence
between the Sunnis and the Shi‘ites flares up periodically in that country
as well as in Iraq.
Of all things, that leads us to the controversy over the opening of the
Broadway musical “South Pacific” in the spring of 1949. At the last
minute, the backers of that production tried to kill one of the songs,
“You‘ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” which argued, maybe for the first
time in this country, that racial, ethnic, and religious prejudice was not
natural, but had to be deliberately created in kids by adults.
Seemingly, it‘s a long way from that song echoing in the Majestic Theater
in New York to this report from our correspondent Martin Fletcher among
the would-be suicide bombers of the West Bank. But as you will discern
presently, it is pretty much all the same place.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN FLETCHER, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mohammed, a 15-year-old
schoolboy with murder on his mind. “I came to kill the Jews,” he says.
On Sunday, Israeli soldiers thought he looked suspicious at this West Bank
roadblock. They found a bomb strapped to his chest, but detonated it
safely.
Already this year, 50 Palestinian boys under the age of 18, five under 16,
have been found trying to carry bombs into Israel.
At Mohammed‘s home in the Nablus refugee camp, his parents were
devastated, and furious—surprisingly, not with Israel, but with the
Palestinian militants who they say brainwashed their son.
Delal (ph), Mohammed‘s mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They are criminals, these people
who send children. God will punish them.
FLETCHER: So who are they? She had no doubt. The Al Aqsa Brigade, the
militia that‘s carried out dozens of suicide attacks against Israel that
are financed by the Palestinian government.
(on camera): So now we‘re walking through the Nablus refugee camp looking
for Al Aqsa leaders. (INAUDIBLE) they usually do.
(voice-over): Yesterday we found the Al Aqsa leader. Since the truce with
Israel, Naser Ab-Waziz (ph) can walk more freely. He himself was jailed at
the age of 13 for attacking Israeli soldiers, but he swore he would never
send a child to his death, never.
(on camera): You‘re the head of Al Aqsa in Nablus. How is it possible that
you don‘t know who did it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Maybe it was the Israelis. We told
them (INAUDIBLE) Palestinian president we will investigate. But Al Aqsa
would not do this.
FLETCHER (voice-over): And today, we found Mohammed. He‘s being
interrogated by the Israeli secret services.
(on camera): This is a message to you from your mother. She asked me to
tell you this, that you should depend on God and confess. Boy, please,
tell the Israelis everything, tell them who sent you.
(voice-over): And we asked him...
(on camera): Who gave you the bombs?
(voice-over): At first he wouldn‘t say. Then...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Al Aqsa. They came to get me five
times. In the beginning, I refused. Then they kept talking and talking to
me, and in the end, I agreed.
FLETCHER: Delal took us to her son‘s school and found his classmates.
They too were angry at Al Aqsa.
“It‘s quiet now,” Mustafa says. “It‘s safe. Why send Mohammed with a bomb
to destroy everything?”
And the loud cry to the children, Don‘t let anyone brainwash you.
Your mothers need you, like I need my son.
Mohammed says Al Aqsa promised him he will be a martyr, and God would
forgive him. Instead, tonight, he is lost and alone.
Martin Fletcher, NBC News, Nablus, on the West Bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OLBERMANN: Also tonight, what happens when the worlds of beauty and beast
collide?
I‘m getting out of here, Wilbur. Nobody told me there‘d be cameras.
And we‘re now past the 51-hour mark, the standoff with a murder suspect
continues high above Atlanta. Is there anything for authorities to do
besides keep waiting?
Stand by indeed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: As we resume COUNTDOWN, we swerve to a grinding halt to offer
up our regular segment full of rampaging horses, rampaging elephants, and,
of course, rampaging egos.
Let‘s play Oddball.
We begin in Lima, Peru, at a particularly ambitious fashion show. It was
not enough to just showcase the former Miss Peru, Ms. Frida Jimena Joler
(ph), wearing a wedding dress. No, no, no, no. She had to be on a white
steed too.
Big horse, big dress, big crowd, itty-bitty little catwalk. When the
unfortunate model tried to turn her ride around. Down goes Frida! Down
goes Frida!
Notice how the fashion crowd rushed up to help the horse get back up.
But it‘s all in vain. The steed promptly follows the supermodel off the
stage. Neither beast nor beauty was hurt in the making of this debacle,
although there was copious weeping in the audience, in the vow that the
designer made, that, That horse will never work in this town again.
From new runways—or new runaways on the runway to old runaways on the
menu. Seoul, South Korea. You‘ll remember two months ago the three rogue
elephants who decided they wanted takeout service at the local barbecue
joint. They made a mess, but the owner has now made a profit.
She has renamed the place, choosing the singularly creative title
Restaurant Where Elephants Have Been. She‘s also changed the bill of fare.
She is now offering elephant-themed meals, like the Elephant Set,
consisting of seven vegetable dishes, because, she says, elephants like to
eat vegetables.
Finally, the doors reopened, and presto, locals and tourists alike
flocking in to chow down. You know, we never did find out what happened to
those elephants who broke into the place. But, say, waiter, what‘s this
particularly pungent flavor in the secret sauce, hmmm? Hmmm?
Fort Hood, Texas. (INAUDIBLE)! It‘s the newest edition to the Fourth
Infantry Division Museum there, Saddam Hussein. You couldn‘t tell? This is
a lifesized latex mannequin of the former Butcher of Baghdad, modeled on
what he looked like when the Fourth ID pulled him out of his spider hole
in December 2003.
It cost the taxpayers $7,500, and a rush order was made so they could get
in it place by Memorial Day. Before you begin asking if it was worth it,
just remember, it could have been worse. It could have been modeled after
that photo of him last week in his underwear.
Luckily, that image did not blind us. But now there are concerns that
Viagra might have the capacity to do that. The FDA launching an
investigation. But could it be that the drugs did not have anything to do
with the reports of blindness?
And more outrage for Australians in Indonesia. First it was a short
sentence for a Muslim cleric convicted in the Bali bombing which killed so
many Australians. Now it‘s an incredibly long sentence for an Australian
woman convicted of marijuana possession.
These stories ahead.
But now, here are COUNTDOWN‘s top three newsmakers of this day.
Number three, an unnamed woodpecker in Sullivan, New York, near Syracuse.
He‘s convinced that every other woodpecker he sees, especially the ones
near automobiles, are his mortal enemies, so he tries to smash them head
first, fly right into them. Of course, the other woodpeckers he‘s seeing
are actually just his own reflections in car mirrors. He broke at least 30
car mirrors last year, just got his 17th and 18th of this year on the
passenger‘s and driver‘s sides of the same Chevy Malibu.
Number two, the National Counter-Corruption Commission of Thailand. It‘s
rooting out a very serious problem in that nation. It just caught nine
government officials who had each padded their salaries by about 1,500
bucks a month. The nine officials were the members of the National
Counter-Corruption Commission. Oops!
And number one, Northwest Airlines. In February, it eliminated free meals
for passengers, substituting a free bag of pretzels. In April, they
eliminated the free pillows. As of two weeks from now, the free pretzels
will cost 3 bucks.
Next year? No wings!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: George Carlin once asked how anybody could wonder why drugs
were a problem in this country when in every city on every other street
corner, there was a big neon sign reading, “Drugs.” Our third story on the
COUNTDOWN: Plenty of trouble with drugs tonight of all different kinds,
starting with a surprise that leads the a very obvious, and in this case,
very tasteless joke. Three of the—all three of the leading male impotence
drugs have been—may have caused a few dozen cases of blindness in its
users. The FDA is investigating 43 such reports now: 38 among users of
Viagra, four among users of Cialis, 1 among users of the third drug,
Levitra.
A spokesman for Pfizer, which makes Viagra, acknowledges that the company
has discussed, in addition to the warning label, they would say that in
rare cases, men taking Viagra had developed blindness. But he points out
that the two things may not be linked. The vision loss is a specific kind
called NAION, sudden vision loss when blood flow to the optic nerve is
blocked. There are anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 cases in this country per
year, and the risk factors include diabetes, high blood pressure, heart
disease and high cholesterol.
I‘m joined now by urologist and sexual dysfunction expert Dr. Jennifer
Berman. Dr. Berman, thank you for your time tonight.
DR. JENNIFER BERMAN, SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION EXPERT: Thank you.
OLBERMANN: So Pfizer‘s argument is, if out of the 23 million men who have
ever used Viagra, 38 of them really did go blind with NAION, the odds are
those 38 guys would have gone blind from NAION, even if they‘d never used
Viagra. Is that the gist of it?
BERMAN: Well, clearly, a causal relationship cannot be established at this
time based on the data that we have. Certainly, there may be an
association, but as you mentioned, these were patients that were at risk
for that happening anyway. High blood pressure, high cholesterol and
diabetes are all associated with that disease. So we don‘t have an animal
model, and we don‘t have a pre-clinical explanation for why or how it‘s
happening. And certainly, it‘s premature to say that Viagra or any of the
other drugs is actually causing it.
OLBERMANN: There‘s also no information, I assume, on how many of those 38
guys shouldn‘t have been using the drug in the first place, right, I mean,
whose doctors didn‘t know or didn‘t understand the risks, or people who
took it without a prescription or who took it even if they were told not
to.
BERMAN: Well, that‘s a good point. I think the message from all of this
should be that patients that are at risk for that condition should be
screened appropriately with an ophthalmological exam and should be
informed about the potential risk. That‘s really as far as we can take
this. Certainly, it‘s not—you know, all men taking Viagra are not at risk
of becoming blind.
OLBERMANN: All that having been said, because the best known side effect
of that drug is the famous blue tint to your vision, because this was the
lead story on two of the three network news broadcasts tonight, isn‘t this
still likely to cause a panic among Viagra users and the people who love
them?
BERMAN: I mean, it‘s too early to panic. What we should gain from this is
that patients at risk for this condition—high blood pressure, diabetes,
heart disease—should be aware that there is a potential risk to their
eyes, and they should be screened appropriately. As a clinician, and for
my patients, that‘s really what I would gain. But certainly, it is way
premature to say that that‘s exactly what‘s causing it. Viagra actually
increases blood flow, and what we‘re talking about is a condition of
ischemia or decreased blood flow. So we certainly don‘t have an
explanation for how or why it‘s even happening.
OLBERMANN: So sum this up for us medically and psychologically. What would
you recommend a Viagra or Cialis or Levitra user to do? Do you throw the
stuff out the window? Do you go and have your doctor doublecheck your risk
factors, even if you don‘t have any risk factors? What would you do to
reassure yourself that you‘re not leading to blindness in some way?
BERMAN: Be aware of the risk factors, speak to your doctor about it,
undergo a full ophthalmological exam to determine if you do have the
pre-determining risk factors for that condition, and don‘t take it if you
do. Not all patients do. I mean, 38 out of 23 million is really not a
significant number. But just be aware. The blue vision is a completely
different mechanism. This is something new. It‘s something different. It‘s
something that we need to be aware of. But I don‘t think that it‘s going
to be a condition that affects all patients.
OLBERMANN: Yes, 38 cases out of 23 million would not sound like many,
except if you were looking at the media coverage of this story today. Dr.
Jennifer Berman, director of urology at the Rodeo Drive Women‘s Health
Center in southern California, great. Thanks for your time tonight.
BERMAN: Thank you.
OLBERMANN: Then there‘s drug smuggling or having drugs planted on you in a
foreign country. One of those two things has happened to an Australian
woman on the Indonesian island of Bali. And this kind of Bali high is so
charged with emotion that it‘s now threatening the diplomatic relations
between those two countries. Our report is from correspondent Paul Davis
of our affiliated British network, ITV.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL DAVIS, ITV (voice-over): The trial had attracted massive attention in
Indonesia and in the native Australia, but now it was over and Schapelle
Corby was ushered into the Bali courtroom to hear its verdict.
Schapelle, a 27-year-old beauty therapist, was arrested when nine pound of
cannabis was found in her surfing bag when she arrived in Bali on holiday.
Among those cramming into the court to hear her fate were her parents,
who‘ve consistently claimed the drugs were planted in her luggage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, she‘s innocent, so she will be coming home.
DAVIS: The judges had the power to impose a death sentence. But
Schapelle‘s lawyers had told here they were confident they‘d done enough
to prove her innocence. They were wrong. The verdict was guilty as
charged.
At first, Schapelle didn‘t realize she‘d been sentenced to 20 years in
prison. But when the judges‘ decision was translated for her, she broke
down. Schapelle‘s family berated the judges, and for a few minutes, there
was pandemonium in the courtroom, the young Australian woman pushing
through, police and court officials to reach her family. The angry scenes
and protests continued outside the court as Schappelle‘s family were
forcibly removed from the building.
GLEN JEFFER, CORBY‘S FRIEND: All Australia asks is that you give
Schappelle back to us. Schappelle is innocent!
DAVIS: Flanked by police officers, Schapelle Corby was taken back to
prison. Her lawyers say they‘ll appeal, and the Australian government has
offered its own legal team to assist them. Paul Davis, ITV News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OLBERMANN: For the record, in 2002, an al Qaeda attack in Bali killed 202
people, 88 of them Australian. It‘s a popular tourist location for
Australians. That same court that gave Ms. Corby 20 years found a Muslim
cleric guilty of involvement in the bombing -- 30 months.
Meantime, not in any dispute, the ambitious smuggling plan by somebody in
Ecuador, who managed to send 750 pounds of cocaine to Miami in fake
plantains. A customs agent noticed some of the plantains seemed unusually
stiff, so he cut a few open and found out they were not the green bananas,
they were glass fiber vessels painted and filled with coke. But the phony
fruit was mixed in among 1,080 boxes of real plantains, so DEA agents are
still sifting the drugs from the fruit. They figure the smugglers had a
simpler plan. They were just going to let the shipment rot, leave the real
rotten ones and keep the fakes.
It feels like an entire crop could have rotted in the time this murder
suspect has sat perched atop a crane in Atlanta. We enter the third night
of the stand-off. He‘s still there. When will police patience wear thin,
and what happens then?
If he was waiting for the testimony in the Jackson trial to end, you can
come down, buddy! It‘s a wrap!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: He is still up there, high above the city of Atlanta, atop a
25-story crane, clearly in no hurry to go anywhere. More than 50 hours
have passed. He‘s been without food, without water, apparently without
sleep for the duration, as authorities do their best to keep him
comfortable, awake, and most importantly, aloft.
Our number two story in the COUNTDOWN tonight: The sky-high stand-off of
the Florida murder suspect, Carl Edward Roland, continues. There are two
kinds of observers here, the professional, police, negotiators,
psychologists. Then of course, there are the casual observers, residents
of and maybe even employees of businesses in the Buckhead area of Atlanta,
some of whom are not subscribing to the police theory here, wait Roland
out. They‘re the ones standing along Peachtree Street holding up signs
encouraging him to jump.
It‘s not the most important case we‘ve ever asked him about, but
nonetheless, former FBI profiler and hostage negotiator Clint Van Zandt
joins us. Thanks for your time, Clint.
CLINT VAN ZANDT, FORMER FBI HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: Hi, Keith. How‘re you
doing?
OLBERMANN: Well, what do you do about this guy?
VAN ZANDT: Well, you know, number one, you don‘t ask him to jump. Number
two, if it was Keith and Clint in charge, at this point, we‘re 50 hours
into it, I‘d say, Hey, let‘s pull everybody back. Let‘s get the TV cameras
out of here. Let‘s end the circus environment. Let‘s take away his
platform. And tell the guy, You‘ve got until Tuesday morning to come down,
and here‘s the ladder, and otherwise, we‘re out of here.
I mean, you know, you can‘t run out and tackle him. There are people that
are saying, why don‘t you shoot him with an animal dart and anesthetize
him and take him down? Why don‘t you give him, you know, food that‘s been
contaminated so he gets sick and he needs—it‘s like a diuretic. I mean,
it‘s amazing, the responses you get to this. But the bottom line is,
you‘ve got to—at this point, you‘ve got to wait him out. It‘s his choice.
It‘s his call. He wants to be as big a victim as the woman he allegedly
killed is. Well, let‘s just take away the platform.
OLBERMANN: Yes. Everybody who suggests one of those things needs to
remember the second part of that, of their idea is, he could fall off
then.
VAN ZANDT: Absolutely.
OLBERMANN: Can you assess, at this point, if there‘s any real suicidal
intent here, or is he now just thinking if he inconveniences everybody
long enough, they‘ll all go away and he can escape somehow?
VAN ZANDT: I—you know, he—could he jump at any second? Sure, he could. But
if there was any real intent—I mean, this guy‘s had 50 hours to do a
header and have people stand below, hold up signs that say 6.5, 8.3 as he
came down. Now, that hasn‘t taken place so far. She he‘s worked through
it. You know, he‘s already confessed to one worker that he did something
terrible. We know he‘s alleged to have beaten this poor woman to death. So
at this point, he just has to make a decision when is it time to come
down, and the authorities are going to let him do that. They‘re going to
let him make up his mind. They‘ve carried him through Friday. There‘s no
rush until Tuesday now.
OLBERMANN: This is not, by the way, for those who don‘t know the area,
some out-of-the way construction site.
VAN ZANDT: No.
OLBERMANN: They had to close a couple of blocks of Peachtree Street, which
is one of the main drags in Atlanta. The businesses are reported losing
money. The town‘s nightmare traffic, at all times of the day and night, is
now worse, if that‘s possible. Is the city going through this and the
people who are handling this going through this right now, basically, to
avoid him falling on somebody or keeping him from taking a would-be
rescuer with him? Are those the motivations, at this point?
VAN ZANDT: Well, these are tough situations, Keith. Unfortunately, this
guy‘s in control at this point. He‘s in control because law enforcement
doesn‘t want to do anything that facilitate his death. I mean, here you
have this potential brutal murderer, and we‘re doing—sociologically and
law enforcement-wise—what we should do. We‘re trying to save the guy‘s
life.
But again, you know, there‘s a lot of people being inconvenienced right
now. You know, I‘ll take you back two years ago in Washington, D.C. A guy
was threatening to jump off a bridge at rush hour time. Traffic was
stopped up. The good citizens of Washington—right behind me, you can see
it—were saying, Either jump or tell the cops to shoot him, one or the
other, but we got to get home. It‘s rush hour time. We‘re a very
empathetic people.
OLBERMANN: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
OLBERMANN: MSNBC analyst, former FBI profiler and negotiator Clint Van
Zandt. We always learn something new from you, sir. Many thanks.
VAN ZANDT: Thanks, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Well, over we go to the more traditional entertainment news.
Leading our segment, “Keeping Tabs,” tonight, Angelina Jolie has once
again denied ever having had a romantic relationship with Brad Pitt. Of
course, other not so famous guys? Sure. “We got on great,” she has told
the magazine “Marie Claire” about working with Pitt on “Mrs. and Mrs.
Smith.” But as to anything more than friendship, quote, “absolutely not.”
She continued, “To be intimate with a married man, when my own father
cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look
at myself in the morning if I did that.” The father she‘s referring to,
the actor John Voight. But Jolie did say she has had, quote, “intimate
friendships,” unquote, in the interim. She‘s calling them “maintenance
men.” Yes, I‘m here about the plumbing?
And it‘s all over but the closing arguments, your entertainment and tax
dollars in action, day 557 of the Michael Jackson investigations. Today
the prosecution wrapping up its rebuttal case by playing a tape of the
accuser‘s original interview with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff‘s
Department. And in what is being described as a stunning turn of events in
a case where the phasers have always been set for stun, the defense chose
not to mount a rebuttal of its own. It rested. They originally planned on
recalling the accuser, his mother, as well as two other witnesses to rebut
the playing of that taped interview but chose not to. In it, the boy
essentially telling a story similar to the one he gave on the witness
stand. Michael Jackson allegedly grabbed him in his, quote, “private
area,” with as many as five incidents occurring before the family left
Neverland ranch.
Closing arguments could now begin as early as Wednesday of next week, with
the jury getting the case by Friday.
And one of the most enduring and versatile of American actors has died. He
appeared in everything from a trapeze act to the very first private test
broadcast of NBC television, yet he will doubtless be longest remembered
for just one role, Oliver Douglas on “Green Acres.” The series lasted just
six years on CBS, and often all around him seemed hell-bent on looking as
ridiculous as possible. But Eddie Albert always brought a kind of
frustrated dignity to that program, as did he in movies like “Roman
Holiday” and “The Heartbreak Kid,” for each of which he received an
Academy Award nomination.
His acting career began with that NBC test broadcast in 1936 and continued
through 1995. A family friend says he stayed vital until the end, even
playing basketball from his wheelchair with his granddaughter just three
days ago. There is some dispute over his exact age, but Eddie Albert has
died of pneumonia at either 97 or 99 years old.
Also tonight, a few friends crawling over for one of your fabled holiday
picnics? Begin your holiday weekend with stories with which you can regale
them, the COUNTDOWN favorite five of the week.
Hurray, I said it right. Stand by.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: Well, we had some doozies in this 21st week of 2005, more
examples what the late, great Jean Shepherd used to call “creeping
meatballism.” Our number one story on the COUNTDOWN: our top five stories
of the week. And when we say “favorite,” of course, we mean “dumbest.”
We first need to acknowledge some of the honorable mentions here: the
24-hour suicide prevention hotline in the tiny Canadian providence of
Prince Edward Island, which is cutting back its hours to 9:00 AM to 5:00
PM -- 24 hours, yes, but not in a row. Then there‘s the guy in Arkansas so
drunk that when his cigarette blew out through the open car window, he
dived after it, forgetting for the moment that the car he was in was going
60 miles per hour at the time, the Tennessee bureaucrat who got stuck in
an elevator for 13 hours overnight on a weekend because his own office
forgot to pay the bill for the emergency phone in there.
Yes, it‘s been a rich and rewarding week. But only these are COUNTDOWN‘s
five favorites.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Number five, this is Romeo. In case you can‘t tell, he‘s a
cat, a 33-pounder. A loving and apparently rich Sacramento family just
adopted him. They hope to diet him down to 20 pounds. How? Subway
sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Number four, attention residents of Australia. Now would be the time to
flee. The spider crabs are coming, more than 50,000 of them just off
shore. There‘s no telling what they‘re planning, although Rupert Murdoch
is said to be heading for higher ground.
Number three, meet Tim Pruitt of Alton, Illinois, and the 124-pound
catfish he fetched on the Mississippi River. It‘s a world-record catch
that fought him for half an hour before Pruitt got him in the boat. The
fish eventually died, but as they say, you should see the other guy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM PRUITT, CAUGHT 124-POUND CATFISH: About 10 minutes later, I got a
little bite, and I thought, OK.
KATIE COURIC, CO-HOST, “TODAY” SHOW: Wow. Well, that‘s quite a fish story.
And when you say, I caught one that big, you can actually mean it, right,
Tim?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: That‘s right, Katie. If I could only move my arm!
Number two: Hey, check out the cool prize in the Wal-Mart claw machine.
Why it‘s 3-year-old James Manges of Elkhart, Indiana. Mom says he climbed
up through the prize chute when the two were shopping just after 3:00 in
the morning. Yes, you heard right, 3:00 in the morning. It took
firefighters more than an hour and almost $11 in quarters to get little
Jimmy out of there.
And number one, a notice to airmen who like to paint scary faces on the
front of their planes. The planes may become aggressive and attempt to
mount smaller aircraft. No one injured in this Louisiana crash. The yellow
plane actually landed on the white one. It‘ll remain on the airfield like
this until the FAA has completed its investigation—not into the crash, but
rather into how airplanes get it on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Meaning how airplanes get that paint on, how they get it on.
All right, let‘s take another shot of Atlanta, sunset at Buckhead. Carl
“Sugarfoot” Roland is now standing up. Alert the media, break into
programming. He‘s standing up.
I‘m Keith Olbermann. Keep your knees loose. Good night, happy holiday, and
good luck.
END
