Imus corrected Dietl's slur against Arabs: “It's, uh, 'camel humpers' ”
Written by Andrew Walzer
Published
On Imus in the Morning, Richard “Bo” Dietl asked: “Why doesn't Fredo [President Bush] get on his Air Force One, fly over to Riyadh, get those little hamel humpers over there, sit 'em down, and say, 'Look, we got our F-16s --' ” Don Imus interrupted Dietl and said: “It's, uh, 'camel humpers.' ”
While discussing the rising price of gasoline on the May 12 edition of ABC Radio Networks' Imus in the Morning, frequent guest of the show Richard “Bo” Dietl said that “there should be a congressional investigation ... into all these former presidents,” before asking: “What kind of money is being influxitated [sic] into their libaries [sic]? I'm talking about this guy sitting across from me, Bill Clinton. They have hundreds of millions of dollars that were pumped in there from these Aba Daba Doos over there in the Middle East, controlling the oil. Right now in the Middle East, you've got Saudi Arabia, who's got their finger. Why doesn't Fredo [President Bush] get on his Air Force One, fly over to Riyadh, get those little hamel humpers over there, sit 'em down, and say, 'Look, we got our F-16s --' ” Host Don Imus interrupted Dietl and said: “It's, uh, 'camel humpers.' ”
As Media Matters for America noted, on the February 11 edition of Imus in the Morning, Dietl said he was “pissed off” because the FBI is expending too many resources prosecuting mob criminals while ignoring the northern border of the United States and then stated: “Now, what bothers me is our borders up near Canada are opened up. It looks like the pilgrimage in to Mecca, the amount of 'Aba Dabba Doos' that are coming in from Canada in to the United States.” On the August 7, 2007, edition of Fox News' Your World With Neil Cavuto, Dietl stated: "[I]f I see two guys that look like Aba Daba Doo and Aba Daba Dah, I'm gonna pull 'em over, and I wanna find out what you're doing." Dietl and host Neil Cavuto were discussing the arrest of two college students from Kuwait and Egypt who were allegedly found with pipe bombs in their car near a Navy base in South Carolina. On the March 14, 2007, edition of Your World, Dietl stated that instead of flying, six Muslim imams who were removed from a US Airways flight at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2006 should “call their cousin up there, Ali Baba Boo, and go by cab.”
From the May 12 edition of ABC Radio Networks' Imus in the Morning:
DIETL: Well, I got real a problem with the president, the former president. You know, this weekend, I go to gas up my car, my M6, the BMW. Uses a lot of gas, we all agree with that. It's 510 horsepower.
IMUS: Sure.
DIETL: Four dollars and fifty cents for the high test now. Now, I did a little investigation through the whole -- you know, through the whole weekend there to find out really where it lies. And I got a problem with President Bush the father, my friend. I got a problem with this guy sitting across from me, Bill Clinton, and Fredo over here. We all -- Fredo, the president, the current, sitting president, with those stupid faces that he makes. There was tornadoes in the Midwest, and he's making a press conference with his wife sitting there. He's making these stupid --
IMUS: This is your guy.
DIETL: He's -- nobody's my guy.
IMUS: No, he was your guy --
DIETL: Nobody's my guy.
IMUS: No, no. He was your guy when he ran.
DIETL: Here's what I call out to the Senate majority --
IMUS: I did not vote for him. You did.
DIETL: Senate majority --
IMUS: Did you vote for him? Did you vote for him?
DIETL: Yes. Yes, I did.
IMUS: OK.
DIETL: People make mistakes.
IMUS: Well, yeah. You made a big mistake. You voted for him twice.
DIETL: Well, I made a few big mistakes when I didn't invest my money into oil and gold.
IMUS: True.
DIETL: OK. But my point is, there should be a congressional investigation. One, into all these former presidents. What kind of money is being influxitated [sic] into their libaries [sic]? I'm talking about this guy sitting across from me, Bill Clinton. They have hundreds of millions of dollars that were pumped in there from these Aba Daba Doos over there in the Middle East, controlling the oil. Right now in the Middle East, you've got Saudi Arabia, who's got their finger. Why doesn't Fredo get on his Air Force One, fly over to Riyadh, get those little hamel [sic] humpers over there, sit 'em down, and say, “Look, we got our F-16s --”
IMUS: It's, uh, “camel humpers.”
DIETL: “We got our F-16s guarding you against Iran. We saved you from Saddam Hussein. We're going to move all our troops out of here and leave you to defend your own country.” 'Cause you know what? They couldn't do it. 'Cause all they do is pick their nose and eat their boogies, and that's the end of it. That's all they do.
BERNARD McGUIRK (executive producer): Hey, oh.
DIETL: I've been there.
IMUS: Hey, calm down here a minute. We're trying to have breakfast.
DIETL: All right. 'Cause this aggravates me. We protect Saudi Arabia.
IMUS: [unintelligible] to be eating your boogers. [unintelligible]
DIETL: Saudi Arabia controls the oil flow.
IMUS: That is disgusting.
DIETL: And right now, people are starving.
IMUS: Why are you hollering?
DIETL: Families can't put their kids into their SUVs and take them to school because the gas is so expensive.
IMUS: Here's what's happening now. People's houses are being foreclosed on.
DIETL: Right.
IMUS: So they put their furniture in storage. Then they can't pay the storage bill, so they're losing that.
DIETL: Right. Now, America that listens to you, Don, and everyone's ears are out there today. I want people to realize and understand, these former presidents and the current president now have a relationship with Saudi Arabia that they should go over there to -- President Bush, my friend there, the cowboy, should hop on his plane and go over there, sit down with the ministers and say, “Here's the way it's going to be. We're pulling out all our men over there protecting you.”
You go now -- you go to the next stop, Dubai. Do you know what's going on in Dubai now? Twenty-five percent of the cranes in the world are in Dubai. You got Philippine workers dying two a day, construction workers are dying two a day. They can't put up a building fast enough. They got three buildings programmed that'll be double the size of the former World Trade Center. They're building islands. They're building man-made islands.
You know what is there? I'll tell you what's there. A bunch of hookers from Russia and all over there.
IMUS: Yeah, well --
DIETL: It's a playground for --
IMUS: I wouldn't bring that up if I were you.
DIETL: It's a playground for all these people who are pumping all the oil out of the ground, making all this money. Our Americans dying defending them over in Iraq, and they stand around there [imitates ululation]. They go running around, hopping on their private planes, hopping on their camels.
The Congress should be getting involved with this. Where is the senators and where is the congressmen to step up and step on Saudi Arabia and stop with my fuel pump? 'Cause I got people that can't drive their cars.
And I ran for Congress back in '86. I wish I would've won. 'Cause I would be there in Congress slapping people around, saying, “How much money? You want to take a trip over to Saudi Arabia?”
IMUS: You would've made -- you'd have made Vito -- what's that guy's name, Bernie?
DIETL: I like Vito Fossella.
McGUIRK: Fossella.
IMUS: You would've made Vito Fossella look like a Boy Scout.
DIETL: Guy made a little mistake. Guy made a little mistake. We all make little mistakes in our lives.