Musharraf Book Pimping And More Pope Bashing (Friday's Show)

Hey everybody. It's the weekend! Tonight we begin with Bush and Musharraf's weird little press conference in which they try to sell a book. A piece from Suzanne Malveaux lays it out for us. In an interview that is to air on 60 Minutes this Sunday, Musharraf reveals that after 9-11 Richard Armitage of the State Department told him that if he didn't cooperate with the US on terrorism Pakistan would be bombed back to the stone age. Armitage denies the claim. During the joint press conference Musharraf is asked about what he said and he basically tells everyone his book drops the 25th and they should check it out. WTF? Suzanne then joins us live and explains that both leaders are under pressure at home, but they need each other too.

Next up we have a Brian Todd piece which is basically tribal leader deal redux. Pakistan struck a deal with tribal leaders and now Taliban leaders have actually been launching more raids. Brian reports that part of the reason this deal was struck is because when the Pakistanis battled the Taliban the Pakistanis would get their "head handed to them." Maybe the Taliban wouldn't be so strong now if we would have kept the focus on them instead of going to Iraq. Anybody else feel like banging their head against a wall?

In the studio now we have Gary Berntsen, author of "Jawbreaker" and he explains that how likely we are to launch an attack against Bin Laden inside Pakistan depends on how close he is to the border. He says that the tribal deal is about domestic politics for Musharraf and the only thing worse for the US than letting Bin Laden go would be to loose Musharraf. Also noted is that Bin Laden is able to hide so well because he is extremely low tech. Or maybe he's dead. That would be really low tech. Anderson then lets us know the rewards for some of these guy's captures. Taliban leader Mullah Omar can net up to $10 million and he's thought to be in Quetta, so Anderson says, "If you happen to go to Quetta and you see him--$10 million." What a coincidence. I was just planning my next vacation for Quetta. I hear it's very jihadi this time of year.

We transition now to a Brent Sadler piece on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's first public appearance since the Lebanon war. And what an appearance it was. Hundreds of thousands filled the streets to hear him speak about, among other things, the 20,000 rockets he says he still has. The Israelis on the other hand think Hezbollah is weakened. Well I hope they're right, but thinking/wishing it doesn't make is so.

To talk about this, we have Lebanese journalist Hisham Melhem joining us live. I think he was on before, but I wasn't able to get his name down. Anyway, Anderson and Hisham talk about how there is basically a battle for Lebanon going on between the followers of Hezbollah and the cosmopolitan Beirut of old. It is noted that Nasrallah likes to talk about unity government, but he does all he can to get rid of his critics. They also talk about how Israel is claiming this as a victory, but Anderson points out that the soldiers aren't free and no one is even talking about dismantling Hezbollah anymore. As we run out of time Anderson turns all problem solver and talks about how we need to figure out to support the Lebanon moderates more. I agree.

Next they run a little bit of the Ahmadinejad interview. Again. They're gonna pimp this for all it's worth. The clip shown includes Anderson's zinger about how we have a free press-unlike Iran. Me thinks Anderson is proud of that comment. Anyway, on now to a Delia Gallagher piece with more Pope details. The faith and values correspondant is getting a workout this week, people. We usually hardly ever see her and now she's on every day. The latest developments included hundreds of people marching through Kashmir due to anger about the Pope's comments. One leader wants the Pope to take the comments back. In reply the Pope issued a statement that said, "I know you are, but what am I?" Okay, I might have made that part up. I have to say I think I'm getting a little Pope fatigue. I think it's time for them to move this story to just headlines unless something major happens. Of note is that some moderate leaders think in the end the comments might be a good thing because they will open a dialogue. I guess we'll see. People will probably have to stop calling the Pope 'Satan' first though.

With us live now we have Fewaz Gerges, the lover of Anderson's name. Last time Fewaz joined us he couldn't stop saying it. This time he holds back a little. Fewaz thinks great damage has been done by the Pope's comments and he and Muslim leaders must repair it. He says no one is suggesting Muslims should not be criticized, but why insult them at their deepest core? Also, every speaker he has seen has called for peaceful resistance. Anderson then reads him a quote from Charles Krauthammer on the subject and I really wish he would have chosen someone else to quote because I don't think anyone actively advocating war with Iran is really all that credible. But I guess that's neither here nor there. Anyway, Anderson asks if there can be open discussion about Islam without mobs and death threats. Fawaz then goes on this long spiel about how the countries we are see the riots in are filled with political and economic oppression and therefore people turn to religion . Okay, I can agree with that, but it didn't really answer the question.

Up next we have a preview of Christiane Amanpour's special "Where Have All The Parents Gone?" The special deals with AIDS in Africa and how it's leaving many children parentless. In the preview we follow a little boy in Kenya whose parents are infected. The special airs this weekend. Watch it.

Our final piece tonight is from Dan Simon who informs us that someone is plastering stickers that say "BNE" all over San Francisco. There's plenty of speculation about what they stand for with one guess being, "Bush Not Elected." I like that guess. The stickers are hard to get off and are costing the city a lot of money, so the cops are on the case. And that's about it. Not much point to this piece, but it was kind of funny and only took up three minutes, so I'm not complaining. That's it for tonight because next hour is a taped special. B
Happy Rosh Hashanah to those who celebrate.

Screencaps by stormi0611.