“This alleged action is repugnant to our common values, is contrary to our command’s approved tactical operating procedures, and is not sanctioned by this command.”

— Army Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, top U.S. tactical commander in Afghanistan, following reports that U.S. soldiers burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters in a way meant to desecrate Muslim beliefs and taunt enemy combatants.

“He was such a champion for the rights of the breathing public.”

— Clean-air activist Patti Gora of Pullman, describing Eric Skelton, who recently quit as executive director of the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority and has taken a job at a New England agency dealing with air-quality issues.

“If we shut down all the food-service people at the mall it would just be a disaster.”

— Spokane Valley City Councilman Gary Schimmels, speculating about the disruption that could have occurred if the E. coli report that caused a boil order in the Greenacres area had affected the Valley Mall.

“She doesn’t like taking her medication.”

— 16-year-old Britney Fitzpatrick, sister of Lashaun Harris, the schizophrenic San Francisco woman who allegedly threw her three sons — 6, 2 and 16 months — off the Golden Gate Bridge.

“It’s a big one.”

— Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, describing the chapter in which his new book on leadership describes the nail-biter contest he lost to Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire last fall.

“If we’re looking at having the best educational system in the world, we can’t do it if the library is closed.”

— Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire after a conversation with Nobel chemistry laureate Irwin Rose, a Lewis and Clark High School graduate, who protested cuts in the Spokane library system he frequented as a boy.

“If you are Iraqi, you know who I am … and you know that I do not tire.”

— Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, to the judge who was trying to get him to state his name at the beginning of Saddam’s trial on charges of murder and torture.

“Houston, we have a series, and you’re going to love it.”

— Houston Astros Manager Phil Garner, after his team won the National League pennant and earned a spot in the World Series for the first time in the franchise’s 44-year history.