| ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann’ for Oct. 23 |
| Read the complete transcript to Thursday’s show |
| Guests: Mark Fainaru-Wada, Michael Musto, John Loftus (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST (voice-over): Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? Abdurahman Alamoudi, tonight the man who helped set up the Muslim Chaplain Program, who met presidents Clinton and Bush, who tried to run $340,000 into Syria, is connected to Osama bin Laden’s nephew. The Rumsfeld leak: He is appalled, but he is elaborating. When is a leak a leak? When is it an accident? When is it a trial balloon? Niagara Falls: The really, really, really, really high diver, still says he did it because he’s depressed, but another resident of the psych ward said she hear him negotiating a movie deal. “The Lion Sleeps Tonight?” “Who Let Dogs Out?” “Baby back, baby back, ribs.” If you ever heard these musical phrases repeat uncontrollably in your head, good news. You’re not nuts. You’ve got an ear worm. And please say “Hello” to Sparky the beer drinking pony. Don’t mind my friend here, he’s just a little horse. Wonder if that’s Colt 45 that he’s drinking. All that and more now, on COUNTDOWN. (END VIDEOTAPE) OLBERMANN: Good evening. He met with George W. Bush before Mr. Bush became president. He appears, smiling, in a photo op with the former president, Mr. Clinton. So, how is it that a man who has traveled in the highest of American political circles is also now suspected of secretly funding al-Qaeda and Hamas? And tonight, the dots are being connected and he appears to be tied also to the nephew of Osama bin Laden. Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN: An indictment handed down against the man our military once turned to for Muslim chaplains. For the latest details on the case of Abdurahman Alamoudi, here’s NBC’s Lisa Myers. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LISA MYERS, NBC CORRESPONDENT: Keith, tonight federal prosecutors have indicted the founder of the Chaplain Program on charge that he illegally dealt with Libya and laundered money. But, there are even more serious allegations about him in some new documents. MYERS (voice-over): Abdurahman Alamoudi, a consultant to the Pentagon on the Chaplain Program for more than a decade, now accused of helping Osama bin Laden and Hamas. Court documents filed late last night, claim Alamoudi has provided “financial support to Hamas” and “financial support to fronts for al-Qaeda.” One of the groups allegedly tied to Alamoudi is a charity which gave this Virginia post office as its address. Alamoudi was vice president. Who founded it? Abdullah bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s nephew. Also ringing alarms, Alamoudi’s palm pilot which the government claims included the names and numbers of six designated global terrorists. STEVE EMERSON, TERRORISM EXPERT: The public face of Mr. Alamoudi was 180 degrees different from the private face. And, the private face clearly showed that he was involved or directing fundraising for Hamas, fundraising for other terrorist groups. MYERS: The government also alleges Alamoudi had a Swiss bank account and $2.2 million in unreported income on which he failed to pay taxes. Today, Alamoudi’s lawyer says he never supported any terrorist group. And that Osama bin Laden has dozens of nephews who have nothing to do with al-Qaeda. Yet, in an audiotape of a conversation obtain by NBC News, he seems to embrace violence, suggest al-Qaeda should choose better targets. ABDURAHMAN ALAMOUDI, ALLEGEDLY CONNECTED TO AL QAEDA (through translator): I prefer to hit a Zionist target in America or Europe or elsewhere. MYERS: Alamoudi’s lawyer says her client doesn’t remember saying such a thing and questions the tapes authenticity. Over the year, Alamoudi has been a familiar face in Washington. The Pentagon chose him to help select Muslim chaplains. He met with President Clinton, made six trips to Muslim nations as a goodwill ambassador for the State Department, met with candidate George Bush. Last year FBI director Rob Mueller even spoke to an organization founded by Alamoudi over the objections of some agents. EMERSON: Alamoudi, himself, was not only able to insinuate himself, but he put others in place. MYERS (on camera): Now, these new allegations are contained in court documents arguing that Alamoudi should be held without bond until he go on trial-Keith. (END VIDEOTAPE) OLBERMANN: NBC’s Lisa Myers on this extraordinary story in Washington. Joining us now, with more on the purported double life of this prominent Muslim-American is John Loftus, host of “The Loftus Report” and frequent quest on this show. John, good evening. JOHN LOFTUS, HOST, “THE LOFTUS REPORT”: Good evening, Keith. OLBERMANN: Well, they sure vetted this guy. How-what happened here? LOFTUS: Well, you know, it’s a funny story. About a year-and-a-half ago, people in the intelligence community came and said-guys like Alamoudi and Sami al-Arian and other terrorists weren’t being touched because they’d been ordered not to investigate the cases, not to prosecute them, because there were being funded by the Saudis and a political decision was being made at the highest levels, don’t do anything that would embarrass the Saudi government. So, of course I immediately volunteered to do it and I filed a lawsuit, against al-Arian charging him with being a major terrorist for Islamic Jihad, most of his money came from Saudi charities in Virginia. Now, Alamoudi’s headquarters were in the same place, he was raided the same day, on March 20. An hour after I filed my lawsuit, the U.S. government finally got off its butt and they raided these offices. And, the stuff that they’re taking out of there now is absolutely horrendous. Al-Arian has now, finally been indicted, an along with Alamoudi, today. But, who was it that fixed the cases? How could these guys operate for more than a decade immune from prosecution? And, the answer is coming out in a very strange place. What Alamoudi and al-Arian have in common is a guy named Grover Norquist. He’s the super lobbyist. Newt Gingrich’s guy, the one the NRA calls on, head of American taxpayers. He is the guy that was hired by Alamoudi to head up the Islamic institute and he’s the registered agent for Alamoudi, personally, and for the Islamic Institute. Grover Norquist’s best friend is Karl Rove, the White House chief of staff, and apparently Norquist was able to fix things. He got extreme right wing Muslim people to be the gatekeepers in the White House. That’s why moderate Americans couldn’t speak out after 9/11. Moderate Muslims couldn’t get into the White House because Norquist’s friends were blocking their access. OLBERMANN: How does this tie back into the thing that apparently pulled the stopper out of the drain, if you will-The developers at Guantanamo bay? How rotten is the system of the interpreters and the chaplains-the Muslim Chaplains that Alamoudi was involved in setting up? LOFTUS: It’s as rotten as it gets. Think of the Muslim chaplain’s program that he set up as a spy service for al-Qaeda. The damage that’s been done is extreme. It wasn’t just sending home mom and dad messages from the prisoners. These guys, this network in Guantanamo, stole the CIA’s briefing books. Everything that the CIA knew about al-Qaeda is now back in al-Qaeda hands. That’s about as bad an intelligence setback as you can get. OLBERMANN: John, how does this end up? How far will the investigation into this necessarily have to go to get to the bottom of it? LOFTUS: There’s a lot more to go. Norquist had a lot of other clients. There’s a whole alphabet soup of Saudi agencies that funded terrorism in this country. They had an awful lot of protection. And, one of the things we may find about 9/11 is that people out in the field weren’t allowed to connect the dots and questions will be asked weather guys like Grover Norquist were part of the problem? OLBERMANN: I got chills down my spine. The former Justice Department official, John Loftus of radio’s “Loftus Report.” As always John, many thanks. LOFTUS: You’re welcome. OLBERMANN: The COUNTDOWN, the five stories we think you’ll be talking about tomorrow, plus all the rest of the news, just in case we thought wrong. It is underway. Your preview of our No. 4 story: Well, if everybody jumped off Niagara Falls, does that mean you would jump off Niagara Falls? First, we’ll pause the COUNTDOWN to clean up the national news file. The president, wrapping up his whirlwind tour of the Pacific Rim. For six days, he eluded protestor on the streets of Southeast Asia, only to finally be cornered by them today, inside the Australian Parliament. This is probably less impactful than it would seem. One of the same Aussie legislators you’ll hear yelling, also heckled President Clinton in 1996. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our nations are now working to complete a U.S.-Australia free trade agreement that will add momentum to the free trade throughout the Asian Pacific region while producing jobs in our own countries. We must... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Sergeant, remove Senator Nettle. Senator Nettle will resume her seat, the president has the call. Senator Nettle is warned. Sergeant will remove Senator Nettle. The president... BUSH: I love free speech. (APPLAUSE) (END VIDEO CLIP) OLBERMANN: Several other members of Australia’s Parliament took a quieter approach to protest, wearing white armbands, opposing the war in Iraq. As for the noisy ones, they were censured for their outbursts and banned from Parliament for 24 hour. Protests notwithstanding, the Australians may be ahead of the U.S. on terror intelligence. The government at Canberra warned today, that another terrorist attack is expected in Saudi Arabia. Bombings at three Western housing compounds in Riyadh on May 12 killed 26 people, plus the nine murderers. Now the Australians are urging their nationals to avoid the kingdom or get out of there. There is new information suggesting that further terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia may be in the final stages of planning, they report. And two incidents in this country have heads being scratched. One certainly appears to be more extortion than terror. The other, they’re not certain about. Somebody sent a letter intercepted at an airport postal facility in Greenville, South Carolina. It contained traces of the deadly toxin Rican, but with it came an unsigned letter demanding that action be taken and expressing anger about legislation that regulates the trucking industry. No one reported ill, no cross contamination. The Rican was inside a small metal container inside the envelope. And an inspector pulled the letter out of the mail pile because markings on the envelope seemed suspicious. Good work, sir. Why somebody pulled 13 of the anchorage bolts from the legs of an electrical transmission tower outside Sacramento, though, is far from clear. Three electrical engineers driving past the tower on Interstate 5 at Anderson, California, saw a heavy-set bearded white man in his 60’s crouched beside it. This being their thing, the engineers doubled back on the highway. They confirm what they saw whereupon the saboteur saw them and fled. About half the bolts on the four legs of the tower had been removed. If he had gotten all of them, authorities say, a good wind could have knocked that tower over. Police say those engineers saw the suspect drive off in a silver Toyota pickup with plates from the state of Washington. They’ve match the license plate, the truck is registered to a Michael Poolen Spokane, but it has a felony vehicle warning on it, meaning it may have been stolen or it had already been sought by authorities. Still ahead of us here, on COUNTDOWN: He says he went over Niagara Falls because he was depressed. That’s not what his bunk mate in the psych ward says. College football: It is a new lie and low. Your team wins? Of course you should burn down your hometown. And, surfing the help wanted ads: Not enough for many to land a job. We will meet a man who thought outside the box and outside the bus. Those stories ahead, first COUNTDOWN “Top 3 Newsmakers” of this day: No. 3, Chris Daly appointed acing mayor of San Francisco just for the day, yesterday, while Willie Brown was out of town, he asked to be the emergency back-up, if you will. Mr. Daly promptly appointed two of his friends to the city’s Public Utilities Commission. Daly’s tenure as acting mayor, therefore, lasted exactly 20 minutes. No. 2, Oswaldo Valenciano of Salem, Oregon. He is in jail, now, after firing a gun, ramming his vehicle into a car, and then trying to carjack a driver. Nothing unusual there, except that as he did all this, Mr. Valenciano was on a tricycle. And No. 1, Croatian youngster Frane Simic, he’s OK, say doctors after the 13 other babies in his nursery all suddenly attacked him. Frane was bitten 30 times. John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Roger Corman are not recorded to be bidding for the film rights for Frane’s upcoming childhood. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) OLBERMANN: Coming up: Mischievous kids, a handful of Viagra, a lunchtime dare, you do the math. And if you can’t get an annoying song out of your head, don’t worry, you’re not alone, you’ve got worms-ear worms. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) OLBERMANN: Bach with the COUNTDOWN and our fourth story: Rocket scientists living among us. First the continuing saga of the guy who went over Niagara Falls in an ego. The “Buffalo News” has interviewed a woman who was in the local Canadian psych ward along side Kirk Jones. She says she heard his end of a phone call in which he appeared to be negotiating a media deal. “I heard him saying, ‘There’s got to be more money than that,’” the paper quotes the woman who identified herself only as “Joann,” is saying. She then said that Jones also asked, “Is there a movie?” A Canadian judge ordered Jones released today and ordered him to stay out of their country. And, Jones has now spoken to the media. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KIRK JONES, SURVIVED NIAGARA FALLS JUMP: Well, it’s an embarrassing thing to say now, but depression caused me to do what, I think, untold number have done in Niagara Falls. And, I can’t ask you why, that God saw me fit to live at this time. But, I am happy to be alive. QUESTION: Describe the feeling for me. You’re going over the falls with nothing, but the shirt on your back. JONES: Well, I’ll tell you, as a bubbling caldron of hell that I advise upon no human being on the face of the earth, you will die if you go over those falls and it is hell on earth, I assure you. QUESTION: How powerful were those rapids when you got to the bottom? JONES: I’ll put it this way, you fight for every inch of air and survival you ever have in your life and those protections they put on there, and these policemen-why I’m arrested, are there for that reason. QUESTION: What would you say to anybody else thinking of doing something like this? JONES: For God’s sake, don’t do it. There are ways to seek help for your depression and if you’re thinking of doing it for a stunt, you will for surely die. That is for sure. On that day, Monday, October 20, I reached out and touched the face of God. And he smiled. Thank you. (END VIDEO CLIP) OLBERMANN: God spoke to him. Uh-huh. Have a nice trip, see you next falls. Continuing with really stupid stunts, first Niagara and now Viagra. Six 13-year-old school boys from Winnersh in England were hospitalized briefly after they popped the little blue pills at lunch. Now, to quote actual news releases issued by the school board, “By the time the afternoon lessons began, there was no hiding what they had done.” The pills were apparently brought to the school by one of the six who then distributed them among his friends. Paramedics carted them off to a nearby clinic where they were monitored until the effects wore off. The most serious side effect appeared to be again quoting the school, “squirminess.” The school is promising suspensions which does kind of seem like stiff punishment. More geniuses in Morgantown, West Virginia, even by the low standards of college football, the behavior of the fans of West Virginia University, last night, was astonishing. After their favorites upset the team from Virginia Tech, West Virginia’s fans promptly tried to burn their own town down. 90 — nine oh, fires were set around Morgantown. 12 described by officials as sizable. They threatened overhead electrical lines. Things got so out of hand, that the county considered shutting off the power to an area where many students lived. Incidents at the game were too numerous to count. Fans threw rocks, bottles, and debris at police. This is after their team won. Police used pepper spray on fans. “We can’t breathe,” said one fan Brad Anderson, “we’re hacking up our lungs, but it was worth it.” College football, it’s America’s game. Having just lately succeeded the California recall as America’s game. That experience has apparently given the bug to one of those candidates, unsuccessful in the bid to succeed Gray Davis. Adult actress Mary Carey who actually finished 10th in the balloting, tells Florida’s “New Times” that she wants to again run for office. “Mayor, governor, I don’t know,” it quotes her as saying, “mayor of Los Angeles. I’d like that. I got to wait 12 years before I can run for president.” Well, of course, that’s assuming that Hillary Clinton would preempt a Cary candidacy in 2012. Through two items on the COUNTDOWN, we bring you all of the day’s news in our one hour together. Highlighting the top five stories we think you will be talking about tomorrow. And, we will resume with story No. 3, shortly. First continuing on the theme, the aftermath to the rocket scientists among us, and David Blaine is back on solid food. After allegedly losing 40 pounds, though nobody can see where, while suspend in the his plastic box for 44 days above London’s River Themes, the illusionist has eaten for the first time. A spokesman at London’s Independent Hospital said, quote, “David Blaine broke his fast last night with a small handful of potato crisps.” We will bring you live updates right through to the moment he orders a hamburger. Still ahead of us here, tonight: Prosecutors say Kobe Bryant’s defense team is breaking the rules. And the new judge in the case has been named. Liza can take a hint after banner headlines saying she beat her husband, she sure did beat him-to the punch, in filing for divorce. And the changing of the guard in California: “Terminator” meet terminated. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) OLBERMANN: This is COUNTDOWN, the premise: The top five stories we think you’ll be talking about tomorrow. Your preview of No. 3: Leak looking. But, as we usually do right now, we want to step away for a second and update you on some of the stories which did receive numbers on previous editions of this news hour. Two substantial developments out of the Kobe Bryant case. The Colorado court administrator has selected the trial judge. He’ll be Judged Terry Ruckriegel, and he his selection breaks a pattern, he was not the judge next in line for a so-called district case. He is a chief judge and he will supersede the regular judge pecking order. Meanwhile, the prosecution today, asked the current judge to conduct a hearing into what it calls a “defense campaign to leak sealed details of the woman’s sexual history to the media.” Eagle County district attorney, Mark Hurlbert, especially accused the defense attorney, Hal Haddon, of to passing secret information to a retired state judge who in turn passed it on to the “New York Daily News.” That news paper had quoted the judge by name in an article 12 days ago. Hurlbert asked the Judge Frederick Gannett to conduct his own investigation and if appropriate, to punish Bryant’s attorneys. No comment from those attorneys. Four days into the D.C. sniper trial, and we have now had three lawyers fired and a power outage. Testimony was canceled shortly before it was to begin in the case against John Allen Mohammed, today. It was a blown transformer. They will be back in court tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. If you heard it here, could you never forget the horror story of the homeless man who was hit by a car outside Dallas two years ago. Still alive, Gregory Biggs was stuck in the driver’s windshield, which is where Chante Mallard left him. She is going to jail. And thanks to people already in jail, in the oddest of twists, the victim’s son is going to go to college. This is the latest Mr. Biggs, his son Brandon is now 20 years old. Brandon was at the trial, accepted the driver’s apology, now he will get a $10,000 college scholarship from a group of death row inmates which regularly raises such educational funds for the relatives of murder victim. And when your husband sues you, accuses you of throwing hotel table lamps across the room at him and says you gained super human strength when you drink alcohol-the bloom is definitely off the rose. Liza Minelli has file for divorce. That’s Liza with a “Z” and divorce with a “D.” (UNINTELLIGIBLE) David Gest’s allegation that Ms. Minelli regularly beat the shine-ola out of him for a part of the $10 million lawsuit he filed against her. Late yesterday she filed against him in divorce court. Gest’s lawyer, Raul Felder, says he will now file a countersuit. “I have enough grounds for 14 divorces here,” he told the “New York Post,” “we could divorce the entire Yankee team, including the bullpen.” Maybe they can get a reality TV series out of this. And a little more on the unhappiest Cubs fan. It’s been nine days now, since Steve Bartman became a most reluctant celebrity. He was the spectator who happened to make contact with the foul ball that might have instead been caught by Chicago leftfielder, Moises Alou, during game six of baseball’s National League Championship Series. The Cubs were ahead three nothing, at that time, they needed five outs to reach their first World Series in 58 years, the next thing you knew, they trailed eight to three. Now reports the “Chicago Sun-Time,” Bartman, yesterday, received a phone call of support from baseball’s commissioner Bud Selig. As if Bartman hadn’t had enough month already. Sorry, Bud. Still ahead on the COUNTDOWN, our three, two, and one story picks for the day. Including the Rumsfeld memo-was it a leak or a leak? The politics of leakage, coming up. The politics of going negative: Howard Dean taking hits for taking on so-called Washington political insiders. And, can’t shake that song out of your head? You’ve got an ear worm. And, we’ll have the cure. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) head, the butler Paul Burrell. Today’s book publicity stunt brings embarrassment directly to the Spencer family, parts of a private letter written by her brother published today. In it, he criticizes the princess for her-quote-”fickle friendship” and expressed his plea that she get help for mental problems. Earl Charles Spencer confirmed to NBC News the authenticity of his letter, says it was a genuine move to try to help the princess. Spencer says that Burrell’s book overlooks all the loving letters he sent, because that would not make Paul Burrell any money. Spencer also discounted the conspiracy theory surrounding the car crash, saying there is no evidence whatsoever to support them. Still ahead of us here tonight: COUNTDOWN’s top three stories of the day, including a designer steroid scandal. It could rock the world of sports. Just how widespread will it get? A question of patient consent, the right-to-die controversy in Florida, and the other end of the spectrum drawing headlines in Colorado. Stand by. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) OLBERMANN: It is 70 years ago now, but the story is still the stuff of creative legend. Unable to successfully prosecute the gangster Al Capone for any of his more obvious and more bloody crimes, the government finally got him only after a light bulb with a dollar sign went off over some accountant’s head. Capone had not reported his ill-gotten gains on his income tax returns. Our third story on tonight’s COUNTDOWN, how could you crack down on athletes who use banned, in some case illegal and even dangerous steroids and other bodybuilding supplements and drugs if, medically, those substances are still largely undetectable? Get the sales records of the companies that supplied them? And there begins a tale that could, in the estimation of one sports columnist, lead to the epicenter of a sport’s seminal moment and involve the superstars of baseball, football, and track. To begin the telling of that tale, here’s NBC’s James Hattori. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAMES HATTORI, NBC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New York Yankee Jason Giambi, playing in the World Series tonight in Miami, the latest sports star subpoenaed in a growing federal investigation into a San Francisco area company and a newly discovered designer steroid. BALCO labs and owner Victor Conte were named by an unidentified track coach as the source of THG, a substance similar to two steroids banned by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which tests Olympic athletes. Other superstars subpoenaed include clients of Victor Conte, who denies he and BALCO are the source of THG or any banned substance. BRIAN CAZENEUVE, “SPORTS ILLUSTRATED”: The question is, to what degree has he helped them? Has he helped them with things that are illegal? HATTORI (on camera): Because grand juries are convened behind closed doors, officials are not saying much about the investigation. But in e-mails to the media, Victor Conte says he knows of as many as 40 athletes who will be called to testify. The controversy has prompted the NFL to soon begin screening for THG. The NBA also bans steroids, but Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League have no such policies. And now a federal investigation may give a clearer glimpse of suspected steroid abuse among athletes. James Hattori, NBC News, San Francisco. (END VIDEOTAPE) OLBERMANN: And Mark Fainaru-Wada basically broke the gigantic story inside the pages of “The San Francisco Chronicle.” And he joins us now. Thank you for your time, sir. MARK FAINARU-WADA, “THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE”: My pleasure. OLBERMANN: Obviously, this investigation is not of the athletes, but of the company BALCO and its owner, Mr. Conte. But that having been said, with names like Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds and the track star Kelli White being included on that subpoena list, or reports of that subpoena list, is there any sense of just how big, how broad a scandal this could wind up being? FAINARU-WADA: Well, I don’t think there is any sense yet, Keith. I don’t want to give people the impression also that we broke this story. We broke several aspects of this story, but I think we’re really yet to figure out exactly how extensive this is going to be, whether athletes are going to be implicated with actually using the drugs or whether they are going to actually just be providing information about exactly what services BALCO provided for them and what-how much they paid for it. That’s what the feds are really mostly interested in, is finding out exactly what BALCO provided and how much the athletes paid. OLBERMANN: In the sports world and particularly in track and in baseball, there have been stories of an undetectable synthetic version of human growth hormone that date back to 1987 or 1988 at least. What was the breakthrough here? How did this get out, if you will? FAINARU-WADA: The breakthrough was USADA, which is the U.S. Olympic doping folks, the local anti-doping agency. They got a tip from a high-profile coach, or a guy who identified himself as a high-profile coach. And he said he had evidence of several athletes who had tested-or who were using this designer steroid, track and field athletes. And he also said he had a syringe. And USADA asked them to overnight the syringe. And they did some sort of complicated reverse-engineering to determine if the designer steroid existed. And they forwarded the information that they found to the Department of Justice, which sort of sparked the investigation. But it should be clear that there is more to the investigation than just this THG. We had reported in Sunday papers that, among the items that were found during the raids back in September of BALCO were vials that were labeled human growth hormone, anabolic steroids and testosterone. And I think the investigation is far more widespread than just THG. OLBERMANN: Mark Fainaru-Wada of “The San Francisco Chronicle,” great work on the story. And many thanks for joining us. FAINARU-WADA: My pleasure. OLBERMANN: Past the midpoint on COUNTDOWN. Your preview of our upcoming No. 2 story, the rush to keep one vegetative patient alive, the rush to let another one die. First, to again pause the COUNTDOWN briefly, this has been a grim 39 minutes thus far. And to remedy that, two less serious crime stories. A car thief in Santa Cruz, California, had just crashed the stolen vehicle and had been arrested and cuffed when he slipped away from the officer and stole the squad car. Police say 50-year-old John Vincent Smith drove the black-and-white for about two miles before abandoning it, where upon, as they say, the perpetrator alighted from the car. He did not take the shotgun or another rifle that had been in the police car. Police say the officer was tending to other duties outside the car at the time Smith stole it. They do not say what those duties were, nor why the officer had left his squad car running, with the keys the ignition. And time for the weekly coming true of another sketch from great comedians Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding. “I’m a cat burglar,” their interviewee tells the dim-witted interviewer. “You only steal cats?” the interviewer replies. Sure enough, police in Hummels Wharf, Pennsylvania, are now seeking a man who has stolen seven cats from a shelter there. They also suspect he may be who let the dogs out. Still ahead on COUNTDOWN, while the Terri Schiavo case continues in Florida, a mirror-image case in Colorado testing the right not to die, but the right, so to speak, to live on. And the shocking headlines everywhere in New York City. “Liza Beat Me”-not me, David Gest, her husband. He’s suing. Before the details on that, COUNTDOWN’s list of the top three witnesses who could be called if David Gest’s suit against his wife, Liza Minelli, does get to trial. No. 3, former flame Mikhail Baryshnikov. No. 2, good friend and wedding guest Liz Taylor. And No. 1, one of her closest pals, Michael Jackson, who, even under oath, would not sing “Beat It.” (COMMERCIAL BREAK) OLBERMANN: Three down, two to go on COUNTDOWN. Coming up: the right to die and the right to live in two very different coma cases; and the inside story on the breakup of Liza and David-emphasis on the word “break,” evidently. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) OLBERMANN: Back with our No. 2 story on the COUNTDOWN. After the flurry of legal and political action yesterday that forced doctors to restore the feeding tube to the comatose Florida woman Terri Schiavo, this was a day of comparative calm in the case. Michael Schiavo’s attorneys not only said they would continue their effort to overturn the Florida legislature’s vote to empower Governor Jeb Bush to replace the tube, but Terri Schiavo’s family says it has not been permitted to see her for the last 24 hours and that now, on her husband’s instructions, she is being moved from a hospital in Clearwater back to the hospice where she had been. The husband now says her family can visit her there. Meantime, an almost exact reverse image of the Schiavo case has played out in Colorado. There’s been no reluctance to unplug Joshua Garvin’s ventilator. But, as Dr. Stephanie Clements of our NBC-affiliated station in Denver, KUSA, reports, there was reluctance to honor a last request from Garvin’s wife, Amanda. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) STEPHANIE CLEMENTS, KUSA REPORTER (voice-over): It’s one of those rare love story that started in junior high. AMANDA GARVIN, WIFE OF JOSHUA GARVIN: I was in seventh grade and he was in ninth grade. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two years ago, we had a beautiful wedding for the two of them. And we are just so sad. It’s just-we can’t let it end here. CLEMENTS: But a week ago, a fluke motorcycle accident ended dreams that were just beginning. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He just isn’t going to wake up. And it’s tragic. He’s 24. She’s 22. And they had their whole lives together. CLEMENTS: A brain injury will take Josh Garvin’s life. He’s on life support now. GARVIN: We were that perfect couple. I had everything with him. CLEMENTS: In the emergency room, before his coma, he asked his wife a special favor. GARVIN: He said, “You need to do what you need do, babe. Make this possible, because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.” CLEMENTS: They’ve been trying to have a baby for more than a year. GARVIN: He was a wonderful human being. And I just wanted him to be a daddy. That’s all I wanted from him. CLEMENTS: Even at the end, he wanted it, too. Josh asked Mandi (ph) to harvest his sperm and start a new life without him, a request that’s been unprecedented, one that the Garvins could not find anyone to fulfill. Through days of hundreds of phone calls, they discovered the law does not allow for sperm harvest from a person who can’t give consent. GARVIN: I can sign the paper to say, yes, my husband is an organ donor. Take his organs and give them to somebody who needs them. I’m in need, too. CLEMENTS (on camera): The law allows family to sign off on emergency or life-saving procedures, but sperm retrieval is an elective procedure, requiring mutual consent. Both Mandi and Joshua would have had to sign those papers. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We’re just at the mercy now of some wonderful doctor that could maybe come in and find it in his heart to help us out, because we’re running out of time. CLEMENTS (voice-over): But during our interview, we’re interrupted with some news. Swedish Medical Center staff need to talk to Mandi. GARVIN: We just got some news that there might be two doctors that will do it for me. CLEMENTS: Doctors who found a way to consider the sperm retrieval as an extension of organ donation. GARVIN: It’s really important that I get this done, because my husband was my world. CLEMENTS: She isn’t ready for her family to end. But, in fact, it may be headed for a very new beginning. In Denver, Dr. Stephanie Clements, NBC News. (END VIDEOTAPE) OLBERMANN: The harvesting took place last night at that medical center. And a California facility has agreed to store the sample. But a final note to this. Mrs. Garvin says she wants to have a child as soon as possible. The director of the California bank says it has enacted this procedure on 30 dead or dying men in the last quarter century. And the number of wives or girlfriends who have actually attempted to become pregnant is one. We’re nearly complete on this edition of COUNTDOWN, from Columbine, to Muslim chaplains, to the start of a sports mega-scandal, to life and death and more life. That leaves only our No. 1 story left. But before we reveal that, here are COUNTDOWN’s top three sound bites of this day. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MINORITY LEADER: They acknowledge that they have not succeeded to date. I think what we all need, though, is a good yardstick, a measure by which we can judge progress and ultimately our success. JENNIFER MURRAY, HELICOPTER PILOT: We’re going over the most hostile waters on Earth. And the air is pretty hostile up above, too. If the wind can change, we can get incredibly strong headwinds. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She shushes. Librarians really do change people’s lives through the good work that we do. (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) OLBERMANN: And, finally, to the top of our COUNTDOWN. And domestic violence, especially violence within a marriage, is always a nightmare and never the least bit funny-unless, that is, we are talking about the Liz Minnelli and the future ex-Mr. Liza Minnelli, David Gest, marriage. As phrased in the headlines of both of today’s New York tabloids-quote-”Liza Beat Me!” Excuse me, Liza with a Z beat me. You got it, celebrity boxing. This all-star quality bizarre match was troubled from the first. It was essentially a prop for a reality TV show that never got off the ground. In a $10 million lawsuit, now Gest says Liza made much get off the ground in his direction, like a table lamp she threw at him in a London hotel suite. Mostly, though, Gest claims that Ms. Minnelli simply used to get drunk, gain-quote-”incredible strength from the alcohol”-unquote - ” and then would beat him up, biting him on the chest, pounding him in the head in their apartment, pounding him in the head in a hotel, pounding him in the head in a limousine on her way to rehab. She allegedly nearly strangled her production manager, too. Gest also claims he had to undergo multiple hospitalizations, that he now takes 11 prescription medicines a day to treat injuries. His attorney, Raoul Felder, told “The New York Daily News” that, just yesterday, as part of his treatment, Gest received 40 — 4-0 — injections in his head, which, if the rest of his story is to be believed, is a lot fewer shots to the head than he used to get every day from Liza. Liza Minnelli’s response tonight through her attorney-quote-”I hoped very much that the end of my marriage would be handled with mutual respect and dignity. The allegations in this lawsuit are hurtful and without merit.” Some of us will simply guffaw at this story. Others recoil. And some will even see the pathos in the fall of a woman who was one was once one of the world’s most charismatic performers. And then there is my next guest, for whom this is a cornucopia, a pinata and the 12 days of Christmas wrapped up in one, columnist Michael Musto of “The Village Voice.” Michael, thanks for some of your time tonight. MICHAEL MUSTO, “THE VILLAGE VOICE”: Sure. (CROSSTALK) MUSTO: By the way, I don’t think it is the first time that David Gest has had injections in his face. Look at him. OLBERMANN: Yes. And perhaps that was what she was doing. She was just testing to see if he would break. But where do we start with this? MUSTO: Well, “The New York Post” called it, “Life is a cabernet.” (LAUGHTER) MUSTO: I don’t know. I just don’t see petite little Liza, who’s been through like 90 hip replacements and encephalitis, battling this formidable husband. And why didn’t he ever call the police or fight back? His lawyer says, well, David is a real man and real men don’t fight back. There is a joke in there somewhere. OLBERMANN: Yes. MUSTO: I just don’t understand this. But not to totally miss David’s allegations, because I always felt there has been some dark side to Liza that she is not showing. She is always sparkling and wearing sequins and doing arm gestures. And I know that, deep down, she is burying some kind of dark feelings. I just don’t know if I buy his entire story, though. OLBERMANN: Yes. We have got bottles of vodkas in limos on the way to alcohol rehab. We’ve got flying table lamps. We’ve got this depiction of Liza Minnelli as kind of amazing hulk, drawing inhuman strength from alcohol. But my favorite part of this whole thing consists of five words that are buried deep in “The New York Daily News”’ version of this story-quote- “Neither has filed for divorce.” We are not seeing a reconciliation coming here, are we? MUSTO: No, absolutely not. This is not any kind of amicable parting of the ways. OLBERMANN: Yes. MUSTO: In fact, I hear that this might be a prelude to David writing a tell-all book, in which things are really going to get ugly. And let’s not forget, David is a suer. I don’t mean like a sewer mouth. He likes to sue. OLBERMANN: Yes. MUSTO: He and Liza sued VH-1 when their reality show fell apart. And that was supposedly because David was so demanding that VH-1 could not deal with him anymore. And he sued for the same exact amount, $10 million. You know what? Keith, I stood across the street from this wedding when it happened, practically throwing things and screaming, everybody stop enabling this. This is a future chapter of Hollywood Babylon in the making. When Dominique Dunne showed up, I knew it was a crime scene. This was just doomed from day one, because David was never a lover. This was more of a Michael Jackson-Lisa Marie thing. He was more of a manager who wanted Liza to get up on her feet and sparkle, presumably to grease his own coffers and make him into a famous Svengali. OLBERMANN: All right, we’ve both had the chance to vent on this. Much more seriously, what in God’s named happened to Liza Minnelli? MUSTO: Well, it’s sad that she seems to be repeating all of mama’s patterns. OLBERMANN: Exactly. MUSTO: In case people don’t know that, mama was Judy Garland. And mama had-she married some ambiguously sexual men. Let’s not forget, Liza is the woman who thought Peter Allen was straight. Mama had acrimonious divorces. And mama hit the bottle and pills and had a sad life. Liza is already older than mama ever got to be. And I would hope that, by now, she would get things together. Maybe a part of David Gest was trying to help her, not just help himself through her. And I hope somebody sincerely helps her for her, not for themselves. OLBERMANN: Yes, but the point about recreating the life of her mother is so apropos. She could not have done it more closely if she had been working from a script. But at least there’s this, Michael. At least Liza has shown us that she is still strong. So... MUSTO: And at least David says he’s afraid of telephones now, so he is not going to call me. OLBERMANN: There you go. Some good comes out of every bad story. Michael Musto of “The Village Voice,” always a pleasure, sir, even if it is mixed with some sadness here. MUSTO: Thank you. OLBERMANN: Thank you. To recap tonight’s COUNTDOWN, five, the Columbine practice tape, police releasing pictures of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold with friends going on a forest shooting spree with their assault weapons six weeks before the attack on their schoolmates in which a dozen died. Four, the Muslim Army chaplain controversy. The former consultant at the founding of the program in the U.S. military is caught on tape criticizing Osama bin Laden for not having killed more Americans and caught trying to leave with more than $300,000 in a suitcase. No. 3, the designer steroid investigation. A federal probe is under way. It could have far-reaching implications for professional sports, even if not one athlete is indicted. No. 2, life-or-death struggles, a young bride in Colorado winning her right and her fight to save her comatose husband’s sperm after a motorcycle accident. No. 1, splitsville for Liza and David. Liza beat him up. That’s COUNTDOWN. Thanks for being a part of it. “THE ABRAMS REPORT” is up next here on MSNBC. I’m Keith Olbermann. Good night and good luck. END Copy: Content and programming copyright 2003 MSNBC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2003 FDCH e-Media, Inc. (f/k/a/ Federal Document Clearing House, Inc, eMediaMillWorks, Inc.) 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