Jennings Put Ex-Gal Pal on Air to Bash U.S.

Those who caught Palestinian mouthpiece Hanan Ashrawi telling ABC anchorman Peter Jennings last Thursday that the U.S.'s alliance with Israel was to blame for the Twin Tower attacks were kept in the dark about an important detail.

Ashrawi happens to be the dapper newsman's ex-girlfriend, according to the Washington Post's Tom Shales - who says that's why Jennings indulged her anti-U.S. tirade as thousands of Americans wondered whether they'd lost a loved one in the Twin Tower attack.

"Jennings and Ashrawi greeted each other like old pals, with broad smiles and warm greetings," Shales said. "Jennings deferred to Ashrawi, as usual, and let her filibuster."

In the early 1970s, when he was single and head of the ABC bureau in Beirut, Jennings dated Ashrawi, who later became a Palestinian legislator. On Wednesday the New York Post cited another report suggesting that Jennings "courted a long succession of Palestinian lovelies."

None of which Jennings mentioned as his ex-squeeze continued to torment viewers with her America bashing.

ABC News Vice President Jeffrey Schneider said the fact that the Canadian emigre and Ashrawi once were lovers had nothing to do with the decision to let her rant and rave.

"The inference of your story is contemptible and barely merits a response," he told the Post's Page Six. "It's incredible that even in this time of crisis ... Page Six can't come up with a better story," he complained.

Not as incredible as Jennings giving his ex free rein on ABC's airwaves to criticize the U.S. as thousands of Americans lay dying.