Verbatim

"People that had been trained in some instances to disassemble—that means not tell the truth."
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. President, speaking of Guantánamo Bay detainees, at a press conference; presumably he meant to say dissemble

"I think it is the holy souls enshrined at Yasukuni that are experiencing the saddest feelings by seeing this kind of situation."
RYUTARO HASHIMOTO, former Prime Minister of Japan, who along with four other former leaders last week denounced Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's continued visits to the controversial war shrine

"The word reconstruction implies the war is over and you are simply trying to rebuild ... It marginally applies to Afghanistan. But it doesn't apply to Iraq."
PAUL WOLFOWITZ, new World Bank president, who as U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary was a leading proponent of the Iraq invasion, on the challenges of rebuilding the country

"Cheney is hated as the most cruel monster and bloodthirsty beast as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood."
NORTH KOREAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN, in blaming U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney for delaying the resumption of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks

"It strikes me as morally repulsive and intellectually absurd that people die of want in a world of surplus."
SIR BOB GELDOF, Live Aid founder, announcing details of Live 8, a staging of five free concerts to be held simultaneously around the globe on July 2 to raise awareness of poverty in Africa

"The lion on the Serengeti doesn't go after the strongest antelope. The predator goes after the weakest."
RONALD ZONEN, prosecutor in the Michael Jackson trial, in his final summation to the jury deciding whether the pop singer is guilty of child molestation