Person of the Week

3 minute read
TIME

Person of the Week
In the end, the 21-year-old kid with the close-cropped hair bore little resemblance to the wild-eyed, unkempt American Taliban captured by U.S. forces in Qala-i-Jangi, Afghanistan. JOHN WALKER LINDH pleaded guilty to aiding the enemy-the Taliban-and got 20 years in prison, killing what might have been the first major trial in the war on terror

Verbatim
“We shall see who will die first, either I or the authorities who have arranged the death sentence for me.”
AHMED OMAR SAEED SHEIKH,
Islamic militant convicted of the kidnap and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl, in a message to the court after he was sentenced to death

“I find that, all of a sudden, I am a member of a class-CEOS-that is held in lower repute than priests.”
ED SCHMIDT JR.,
chief executive of the Internet search engine Google Inc., on the declining status of business leaders

“I saw the terrorist shooting. I saw him pull the trigger-now I also know who put the bullet in the gun barrel.”
ANAT HARARI,
Israeli who was wounded in an April Palestinian terror attack in Adora, reacting to accusations that Jewish settlers stole army ammunition and sold it to Palestinian militants

Winners
GLORIA TREVI
Mexican pop queen and jailhouse mom could be released from Brazilian prison. Clearly the world has its next celebrity reality show
PENELOPE CRUZ
Actress plans launch of U.S. branch of Indian charity. She’ll be distributing food, medicine and Tom Cruise’s discarded dental braces
RIO FERDINAND
English defender is looking to switch teams if some club meets Leeds’ $50 million asking price. Or they could sign Jeff Agoos 183 times
Losers
NOELLE BUSH
President’s niece jailed after violating court-ordered rehab. Once again, Bush family values are taken with a grain of something or other
AL UNSER JR.
Indy-car driver signs up for alcohol rehab after allegedly roughing up girlfriend. Life’s tricky third turn seems to have gotten to him
RUDOLF SCHARPING
German Defense Minister gets sacked for shady fees and high-profile romancing. But ends up with a fine resume for the arms-sales trade

Numbers
25 is the number of jobs oil company ChevronTexaco agreed to create for Nigerian villagers to end a standoff by local mothers demanding more posts for their sons
$1 million is how much more the average U.S. college grad will earn in his lifetime compared to someone who only finishes high school, according to the Census Bureau
3 million teens seriously thought about or attempted suicide in 2000, says a survey by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, and only 36% received counseling
$17.3 billion is the amount of money spent by the Federal Government in its 2001 budget that is completely unaccounted for, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office
50 hours of community service were assigned as sole punishment by a Thai court to a man who confessed to beating his wife to death with a golf club
1,500 people bought tickets to a Janet Reno nightclub fund-raiser for her Florida campaign for governor, where she broke through a fake brick wall and shouted, “It’s Reno time!”

Omen
Hong Kong’s public-hygiene inspectors are taking free aikido classes intended to help them enforce new laws against spitting and littering, after several officers were injured while fining angry offenders

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com