People in the News Quiz, 2004
Which of the following individuals does NOT qualify as a whistleblower?
- Eliot Spitzer, New York State's attorney general, is a vigorous prosecutor rather than a whistleblower. James Darby was the military police officer who turned over the notorious photos that depicted the horrific abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison. Katharine Gunn, a British intelligence translator, was arrested in 2003 for exposing a request by American spies asking the British to tap the phones of UN Security Council members voting on the war in Iraq. Britain declined to prosecute Gunn in March 2004.
Which of these sports figures was NOT involved in a major controversy this year?
- Cancer survivor Lance Armstrong won his sixth straight Tour de France in 2004. The others had little to be proud of: hockey player Todd Bertucci brutally beat up an opponent, breaking his neck. Kobe Bryant was involved in a highly publicized rape trial that was later dismissed.
Which of the following leaders was NOT victim to a coup attempt, successful or unsuccessful, in 2004?
- No coups were attempted against President Gloria Arroyo this year. Last year, however, she survived a short-lived mutiny, when dozens of soldiers took over a Manila shopping complex, protesting low pay and demanding her resignation. In 2004, a plot by about 60 foreign white mercenaries to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's dictator, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, was thwarted when their plane made a stop in Zimbabwe. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's son has been implicated in the aborted coup. Haiti's Jean Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in February by armed rebels.
Which of these business leaders was not indicted or convicted of scurrilous behavior?
- Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of the phenomenally popular search engine Google, went public this year, and were generally embraced as the scruffy and unorthodox darlings of the business world. Conrad Black, on the other hand, was accused of stealing more than $400 million from his media empire, Hollinger International. Martha Stewart went to prison for five months after being convicted on four counts of obstruction of justice and lying to federal investigators.
Which of the following officials did not spearhead a major national investigation in 2004?
- Rod Paige served as Secretary of Education for the first Bush administration. Gen Antonio Taguba produced the first investigation into the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton were chairman and vice chairman of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The 9/11 Commission Report was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Which fabulously wealthy tycoon gave $42 million this year to aid malaria research?
- Bill Gates gave millions to a non-profit drug company that is developing a low-cost malaria drug. George Soros donated large sums of money in 2004 to liberal and Democratic party causes, and Donald Trump was busy starring in his TV show.
Which of the following presidential candidates was neither poisoned nor the victim of an assassination attempt during their 2004 election campaign?
- The day before March elections, President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu of Taiwan survived an assassination attempt. Viktor Yushchenko was almost fatally poisoned with dioxin in September and had to be hospitalized for several weeks before the Ukrainian election. John Kufuor of Ghana was reelected without a hitch.
Which of the following individuals was NOT arrested by the U.S. this year on charges related to terrorism?
- Lebanese-born U.S. Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun was declared missing from his unit in Iraq in June. At first he was thought to have been kidnapped and beheaded by terrorists, but when he showed up three weeks later in Beirut, desertion was suspected. His case is currently being prosecuted. Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield was arrested in May in connection with the terrorist train bombing in Madrid in March. The FBI released him when it was revealed that in their zeal they had falsely identified his fingerprints as those of one of the Madrid bombers. James Yee, Muslim U.S. Army chaplain at Guant?namo Bay prison, was arrested on suspicion of espionage, mutiny, and sedition and spent 76 days in solitary confinement. He was later cleared of all charges and will receive an honorable discharge in 2005.
Which of these figures did NOT receive an official reprimand in 2004?
- Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), House majority leader, was rebuked three times in the course of two weeks by the House Ethics Committee. TV journalist and anchor Dan Rather publicly apologized when it was revealed he could not prove the authenticity of documents used in a 60 Minutes segment on President Bush's National Guard service. U.S. Army general William Boykin was reprimanded for speaking in uniform at churches and before religious groups, portraying the war on terror in religious terms and denigrating Islam. Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke, BBC executives, resigned after a British judge concluded that British prime minister Tony Blair had not intentionally "sexed-up" the intelligence dossier about Iraq's weapons capabilities to justify war in Iraq, as reported by the BBC in May 2003. Test pilot Mike Melvill, on the other hand, performed admirably on Earth and in space. In June, he became the first civilian launched into space. Melvill guided SpaceShipOne 62 miles above California in his 90 minute flight that left the Earth's atmosphere.
Which of the following individuals was NOT outspoken about stem-cell research in 2004?
- Ron Reagan, son of the 40th president, spoke passionately in favor of stem-cell research and Senator Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) spoke passionately against it in 2004. Singer Linda Ronstadt spoke passionately about Michael Moore's film, Fahrenheit 9/11, at a Las Vegas performance, which resulted in boos from the audience and the casino president removing her from the premises.
