joining me to talk about this from washington, john mclaughlin, the former deputy director of the cia. from berkeley, california, robert barrett, a former case officer for the cia, and from prague, john o'sullivan, the executive editor of radio for europe. the charge is directed at people like you who are broadcasting from outside iran, beaming it into iran, and there are many. what are you doing that is getting iranian government so rild up? >> i think what we're doing is reporting news that they would prefer the people not know. and we are acting in a way like domestic broadcaster for the iranian people. although i'm the executive editor for the entire organization, our iranian service is staffed entirely by iranian journalists, and they are doing what afternon iranian journalist would be doing if you had free television or free newspapers in iran. that's what annoys the government and it's nothing to do whatever with espionage. we don't send out coded messages or anything like that, we simply report the news and we provide a forum for debate among iranians. on both those counts, fr

joining me to talk about this from washington, john mclaughlin, the former deputy director of the cia. from berkeley, california, robert barrett, a former case officer for the cia, and from prague, john o'sullivan, the executive editor of radio for europe. welcome, gentlemen. john o'sullivan, the charge is really centrally directed at people like you, who are broadcasting stuff from outside iran, beaming it into iran and a it's principally voice of america and the bbc, though there are many others. what are you doing that is getting the iranian government so riled up? >> i think what we're doing is reporting news that they would prefer the people not know. we are acting in a way like a domestic broadcaster for the iranian people. although, i'm the executive editor of the entire organization, radio fattah, our iranian service is staffed entirely by iranian journalists, and they are doing what an iranian journalist would be doing if you had free television or free newspapers in iran. that's what annoys the government, and it's nothing to do whatever with espionage. we don't send out cod

ii will use verizon as an exampe and i get all of john mclaughlin's phone bills. i can see all the calls you made, when you made them and to whom. >> are there more adulterous men or women. >> i think there is more men. i think the women are fast on the rise. they are coming out of the closet. this whole desperate housewife type of mentality. women commit adultery. women have affairs. no doubt about it. >> thanks so much for being my guest. >> thank you for having me. >> be well. >> and you.

how would you like to express your feelings about john mclaughlin?w to loathed john mclaughlin. i was president when the group was getting started. the whole idea of the group is an amazing thing. no experience at all in television, very little in journalism. he was a movie reviewer for a jesuit publication, and he had been a priest, as you know. so i was there at the beginning, and as he grew and the fate of the program grew, in hot tours and dominance over everything, our relationship deteriorated. he would not talk to me, and i decided i had to leave. i left after several years to start with cnn. >> you talked about going to a city where you would get paid $2,500 to be on a panel, he would get $10,000. >> sometimes he would be picked up by an limo and we would be picked up with a van. until i finally broke with him, i did not want to completely break, so i said, i could use the $2,500. >> what was capital gang about? >> pat buchanan started it, and he was with mark shields and al hunt, and i had selected him. everyone got along really well, and pa

how would you like to express your feelings about john mclaughlin? >> guest: i really grew to love jon laughlin. i was president at the creation of the mccaul clan group when he was getting started. the whole idea of the mclaughlin group was an amazing thing. no experience at all in a television, very little in journalism. he worked for a -- he was a movie reviewer for a jset publication. he had been a priest, as you know. and so i was there at the beginning. and as john grew as the fame of the program grew and john breaux and dominance over everything, our relationship deteriorated. we had a blowup over really nothing, on the set. he wouldn't talk to me afterwards. and i decided i had to leave it, and that's when i left him after several years and started the capital gang with cnn. cspan: but you would talk about going to a city where you would all get paid $2,500 to be on a panel. he would get 10,000. he would stay a luxury hotel and you would stay at regular hartel. >> guest: sometimes he would get picked up by a limo and we would get picked up by

there no discussion in those meetings, the discussion on the margins -- one in that meeting was john mclaughlinsm center. the only discussions i recalled was on the margins of that, there was concern if the republicans supported raising the threat level it might be down to the detriment of president bush because people might see it as being political. in the end, people have to remember, you want the cabinet members who disagree to have a healthy debate. this is where it came out in the right place. the threat level was not raised and no reason to suspect that the discussion would have had any impact on the election whatsoever. >> one of the other things that people are asking about is, you know, when we talk about whether or not politics played in to any of this equation, a lot of people say there were political ambitions on the part of tom ridge and that he wants to perhaps separate himself from the bush administration in some ways moving forward. do you think that what he wrote or what he's alleging here perhaps has a political motivation? >> i've got to believe it does, kiran. i'm sorry to