Isaiah Washington Says Racism Was Factor in 'Grey's Anatomy' Departure

NEW YORK — "Grey's Anatomy" star Isaiah Washington said racism was a factor in his firing from the hit ABC series after he twice used an anti-gay slur.

Washington, who initially used the epithet during an onset clash with a co-star, told Newsweek magazine that "someone heard the booming voice of a black man and got really scared and that was the beginning of the end for me."

He tried to make amends by expressing remorse and volunteering to enter a counseling program to understand how the confrontation got out of hand, he told Newsweek.

"My mistake was believing that I would get the support from my network and all of my cast mates across the board. My mistake was believing I could correct a wrong with honesty and sincerity," he said in the interview posted online Thursday.

"My mistake was thinking black people get second chances. I was wrong on all fronts," he said.

His unwillingness to act like a submissive black at work was part of the problem, Washington said.

"Well, it didn't help me on the set that I was a black man who wasn't a mush-mouth Negro walking around with his head in his hands all the time. I didn't speak like I'd just left the plantation and that can be a problem for people sometime," he said.

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You can make this tuff up. We all knew it was coming, it just took awhile for him to say it.

'Chemical Ali' sentenced to hang

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced Saddam Hussein's cousin known as "Chemical Ali" and two other former regime officials to death by hanging for their roles in a 1980s scorched-earth campaign that led to the deaths of 180,000 Kurds.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam's cousin and the former head of the Baath Party's Northern Bureau Command, earned his nickname for his use of chemical weapons against the ethnic minority during efforts to crush a rebellion in the north.

The judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, said al-Majid was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for ordering army and security services to use chemical weapons in a large-scale offensive that killed or maimed thousands.

Former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai also was sent to the gallows after the judge ruled that he had ordered a large-scale attack against civilians and used chemical weapons and deportation against the Kurds.

Al-Tai, who was wearing a traditional Arab robe and a white headdress, stood in silence as the verdict was read but insisted he was innocent afterward.

"I will not say anything new, but I will leave you to God. I'm innocent," al-Tai said as a guard escorted him out of the room after the verdict.

The former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces, Hussein Rashid Mohammed, also was sentenced to death after he was convicted of drawing up military plans and other allegations against the Kurds.

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Report: Journos Contribute More to Dems

BOSTON - A CNN reporter gave $500 to John Kerry's campaign the same month he was embedded with the U.S. Army in Iraq. An assistant managing editor at Forbes magazine not only sent $2,000 to Republicans, but also volunteers as a director of an ExxonMobil-funded group that questions global warming. A junior editor at Dow Jones Newswires gave $1,036 to the liberal group MoveOn.org and keeps a blog listing "people I don't like," starting with George Bush, Pat Robertson, the Christian Coalition, the NRA and corporate America ("these are the people who are really in charge").

Whether you sample your news feed from ABC or CBS (or, yes, even NBC and MSNBC), whether you prefer Fox News Channel or National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal or The New Yorker, some of the journalists feeding you are also feeding cash to politicians, parties or political action committees.

MSNBC.com identified 144 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties.

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The list

Videotape supposedly shows suicide bomber 'graduation'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A videotape supposedly showing a suicide bomber "graduation ceremony" at an al Qaeda-Taliban training camp is part of a propaganda campaign from the terrorist network and the former rulers of Afghanistan, a U.S. counterterrorism official said Monday.

The video was said to have been shot June 9 by a Pakistani journalist who was invited to take pictures as the suicide bombers were supposedly sent off on their missions in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany.

The video was obtained and first aired by ABC News. CNN could not immediately verify the tape's authenticity.

One of the suicide bomber team leaders spoke in English on the tape. The video also included images of Taliban military commander Mansoor Dadullah. His brother, Mullah Dadullah, was a Taliban military commander who was killed last month by U.S. forces.

The U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke with CNN said the tape is "consistent with the more sophisticated propaganda" that these groups have been using, but said it is a "bit of a stretch" to conclude from the tape that people have been sent to carry out attacks.

There is "genuine concern," the official said, whenever threats are made against the West from that part of the world, however, and the training camps present a "real potential source of operatives."

The official said that there have been more such tapes recently, including tapes using multiple languages. The official said the use of multiple languages in the tapes suggests that they are for propaganda purposes.

-from CNN.com-

Fatah militants storm rival-held government buildings

RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- Palestinian gunmen raided parliament buildings controlled by rivals in the West Bank on Saturday as factional fighting continued to spread.

The show of force by the armed wing of Fatah followed rival Hamas' takeover in Gaza.

Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades stormed into the Palestinian Parliament in the West Bank city of Ramallah and other Hamas-controlled government buildings in Nablus on Saturday, witnesses said.

Video footage in Nablus showed the Fatah militants loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas planting their flag on the roof of one building as others fired rifles into the air.

Abbas early Sunday nullified a law requiring the Hamas-majority Palestinian parliament to approve Cabinet appointments, The Associated Press reported.

The move came a day after Hamas -- which won parliamentary elections under Prime Minister Ismail Haniya last year -- overtook the presidential compound in Gaza City and consolidated its control over Gaza after defeating Fatah's forces.

Abbas dissolved the coalition government and said he would create an interim government consisting of members of his own Fatah party.

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Curfew imposed after attack on Sunni shrine

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Attackers bombed a Sunni Muslim shrine Friday near the mostly Shiite city of Basra, two days after blasts destroyed towers at the revered Golden Dome Shiite mosque in Samarra.

As fears rise that Wednesday's Samarra attack might increase deadly sectarian violence, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned Friday's bombing and slapped an indefinite curfew on Basra province that began at 4 p.m.

Curfews were imposed in several Iraqi regions after the Samarra blasts, and authorities told CNN a curfew remains in place Friday in Baghdad.

Friday's bombing of the Sunni Talha Ibn Obeidallah mosque in Zubeir, west of Basra, resulted in the arrest of a number of Iraqi security force members, a Basra security official said.

Two blasts badly damaged the mosque's structure about 6 a.m., according to Iraqi Brig. Gen. Mohammed Hammadi al-Mousawi.

Iraqi soldiers are in charge of protecting holy sites in Zubeir, he said.

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