Monday, Jun. 07, 2004

Verbatim

"We will continue to chase this deviant group until we eradicate them." CROWN PRINCE ABDULLAH, Saudia Arabia's de facto ruler, following an assault by Saudi forces on a housing complex in Khobar, where Islamic extremists killed Saudi and foreign oil workers and took many hostages

"In the lead-up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility; at the worst, lying, incompetence and corruption." RETIRED GENERAL ANTHONY ZINNI, former head of U.S. Central Command, in a new book, Battle Ready, about his military career, written in collaboration with Tom Clancy

"Can we tell them no? When I talked to the President, he was loaded." HENRY KISSINGER, former Secretary of State, in an Oct. 11, 1973, conversation with an aide asking whether President Nixon would take a call from the British Prime Minister, according to just released phone transcripts

"This investigation in no way diminished the bravery and sacrifice displayed by Corporal Tillman." LIEUT. GENERAL PHILIP KENSINGER JR., announcing that Pat Tillman, the football star who gave up a $3.6 million contract to join the Army, was probably killed by so-called friendly fire in Afghanistan last month

"The mistake I made was in not clarifying that I wasn't talking about 'all' ... There are people who are striving and working." BILL COSBY, entertainer, trying to quell an uproar over his remarks a week earlier in which he decried the high dropout rate among inner-city blacks and criticized families for "not parenting"

"It's ridiculous that it's easier for 16-year-olds to visit prostitutes than it is to get chewing gum." FAYEN WONG, college student in Singapore, where gum is now legal after a 12-year ban, although citizens who want to chew must submit their names and ID cards to the government

"I've never been to rehab. I've never been to jail. Never been arrested. All the child-star cliches." MACAULAY CULKIN, Home Alone star, now 23

Sources: Washington Post; Battle Ready; Washington Post; AP; PBS; AP; CNN