Terry Gross

Former United Nation's Chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter spent seven-years hunting down Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. He has written about his experience in "Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem Once and for All." (Simon and Schuster) He resigned his U.N. post in August 1998 claiming the U.N Security Council and the U.S. Government had fatally undermined his team's ability to do its job. Ritter served as an Intelligence officer in the U.S. Marines for eight-years.

Former hostage Terry Anderson talks about his 100-million dollar lawsuit against the government of Iran. He alleges Iran supported the Islamic extremists who kidnapped him and held him hostage for seven-years. The former Associated Press Middle East correspondent now teaches journalism at Ohio University. The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Washington. The Iranian government denies any role in his captivity. We'll first listen back to an excerpt from Anderson's 1993 (12/28/93) interview with Terry. And then we have their current interview.

We remember jazz singer Joe Williams who died yesterday at the age of 80. Williams begin singing professionally at age 17, influenced by Erskine Tate, Jimmy Noone and Coleman Hawkins. In 1954, he became Count Basie's number one singer and was perhaps the principal reason the band was the dominate big band of the 50s and 60s. His hits include "Every Day (I Have the Blues)" and "All Right, Ok, You Win." He started performing as a soloist in 1961. (REBROADCAST from 6/20/89)