Baba Waawaa Regrets Sucking Up to Dictators

After he's become unpopular: Barbara Walters apologises over links to Syrian aide of Bashar al-Assad

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Emails seen by The Daily Telegraph show that Walters tried to help Sheherazad Jaafari, the daughter of Syria's UN ambassador, secure a place at an Ivy League university and an internship with Piers Morgan's CNN programme.

When confronted with the emails, which were obtained by a Syrian opposition group, the 82-year-old ABC broadcaster admitted a conflict of interest and expressed "regret" for her actions.

Miss Jaafari, 22, was a close adviser to Mr Assad and was at his side as Syrian troops stepped up their campaign of killing and repression. She would speak to him several times a day, sometimes calling him "the Dude" in her adopted American accent, and was sometimes the only official in the room when he did interviews with Western journalists.

Miss Jaafari, whose father Bashar Jaafari has known Walters for around seven years, began dealing with the broadcaster late last year as ABC News lobbied for an interview with Mr Assad.

A 22 year old "close advisor"?  Yeah, I'm guessing she was really close.  Right next to the skin.  After all, what good is being a dictator if you don't get to sample the dictated?  I hope Asma is green with jealousy.

But she's a hot one, and I wouldn't want to to see her killed in the mess that's coming in Syria.  Maybe we can find a place for her in the EPA; she seems to have the stomach for it.  She could pick out the first five guys from the village and crucify them, no problem.

As for Baba Waawaa?  I didn't know she was still around.  How did that happen?