Zinni's Zinger?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Former Clinton CENTCOM commander, Anthony Zinni — the most prominent of the retired generals attacking Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — now says that, in the run-up to the war in Iraq, "What bothered me ... [was that] I was hearing a depiction of the intelligence that didn't fit what I knew. There was no solid proof, that I ever saw, that Saddam had WMD."
But in early 2000, Zinni told Congress "Iraq remains the most significant near-term threat to U.S. interests in the Arabian Gulf region," adding, "Iraq probably is continuing clandestine nuclear research, [and] retains stocks of chemical and biological munitions ... Even if Baghdad reversed its course and surrendered all WMD capabilities, it retains scientific, technical, and industrial infrastructure to replace agents and munitions within weeks or months."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Iran Elected to U.N. Commission
Iran, which is threatening the United States if it tries to block Iran's nuclear ambitions, has now been elected to — of all things — the leadership of United Nations' Disarmament Commission, which oversees international disarmament and security. At its annual meeting in New York, the Commission on Disarmament — part of the U.N.'s General Assembly — voted to make Iran a vice-chair of the commission, along with Uruguay and Chile.
This comes as Iranian officials boast that they have successfully enriched uranium, and insist the U.S. won't try to stop them since "the consequences would be too dangerous."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Professor Participation?
Police and officials at Northern Kentucky University are investigating whether a professor broke the law when she told students they could vandalize an anti-abortion display on campus, which is legal on public university campuses.
A student Right to Life group had obtained permission from school officials to set up hundreds of crosses near the student center, symbolizing a cemetery of aborted fetuses. But literature and language professor Sally Jacobsen says she found the display to be intimidating and a "slap in the face" to some women. So, she says, during a class break she "invite[d] students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
As for whether she participated, she refused to say. But a picture in a school newspaper shows her tearing up part of the display.
She Has ‘Too Much Baggage’?
Jane Fonda says that despite urgings from anti-war activists and despite her own wishes, she will not tour the country to speak out against the war in Iraq, since, as she said, "I carry too much baggage" from the Vietnam era.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
But, Fonda insists there is someone to take her place: Cindy Sheehan. Fonda says Sheehan "filled the gap, and she is better at this than I am." On a personal note, Fonda said that billionaire Ted Turner is "my favorite ex-husband." He was her third.
— FOX News' Aaron Bruns contributed to this report.