The interview with B Woodward on Bush. Read the excerpts and visit the link_ Here is a man disconnected from reality.
CBS- 60 Minutes- âPlan of Attack,â ( http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml )
the first detailed, behind-the-scenes account of how and why the president decided to wage war in Iraq.
Woodward permitted 60 Minutes to listen to tapes he recorded of his most important interviews, to read the transcripts, and to verify that the quotes he uses are based on recollections from participants in the key meetings. Both CBS News and Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Woodward's book, are units of Viacom.
Woodward says that many of the quotes came directly from the president: âWhen I interviewed him for the first time several months ago up in the residence of the White House, he just kind of out of the blue said, âIt's the story of the 21st Century,â his decision to undertake this war and start a preemptive attack on another country."
Another EXcerpt:
Woodward reports that just five days after Sept. 11, President Bush indicated to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that while he had to do Afghanistan first, he was also determined to do something about Saddam Hussein.
âThere's some pressure to go after Saddam Hussein. Don Rumsfeld has said, âThis is an opportunity to take out Saddam Hussein, perhaps. We should consider it.â And the president says to Condi Rice meeting head to head, âWe won't do Iraq now.â But it is a question we're gonna have to return to,ââ says Woodward.
âAnd there's this low boil on Iraq until the day before Thanksgiving, Nov. 21, 2001. This is 72 days after 9/11. This is part of this secret history. President Bush, after a National Security Council meeting, takes Don Rumsfeld aside, collars him physically, and takes him into a little cubbyhole room and closes the door and says, âWhat have yo!
u got in terms of plans for Iraq? What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret.â"
Woodward says immediately after that, Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to develop a war plan to invade Iraq and remove Saddam -- and that Rumsfeld gave Franks a blank check.
âRumsfeld and Franks work out a deal essentially where Franks can spend any money he needs. And so he starts building runways and pipelines and doing all the preparations in Kuwait, specifically to make war possible,â says Woodward.
âGets to a point where in July, the end of July 2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan War, which Congress has approved. â¦Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the dark on this."
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Woodward says there was a lot happening that only key Bush people knew about.
âA year before the war started, three things are going on. Franks is secretly developing this war plan that he's briefing the president in detail on,â says Woodward. âFranks simultaneously is publicly denying that he's ever been asked to do any plan.â
Another Excerpt:
âThat decision was first conveyed to Condi Rice in early January 2003 when he said, âWe're gonna have to go. It's war.â He was frustrated with the weapons inspections. He had promised the United Nations and the world and the country that either the UN would disarm Saddam or he, George Bush, would do it and do it alone if necessary,â says Woodward. âSo he told Condi Rice. He told Rumsfeld. He knew Cheney wanted to do this. And they realized they havenât told Colin Powell, the secretary of state.â
Excerpt on Saudi Amb!
assador Prince Bandar:
But, it turns out, two days before the president told Powell, Cheney and Rumsfeld had already briefed Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador.
âSaturday, Jan. 11, with the president's permission, Cheney and Rumsfeld call Bandar to Cheney's West Wing office, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Myers, is there with a top-secret map of the war plan. And it says, âTop secret. No foreign.â No foreign means no foreigners are supposed to see this,â says Woodward.
Excerpt on Saudi Oil & Bush Election:
Prince Bandar enjoys easy access to the Oval Office. His family and the Bush family are close. And Woodward told 60 Minutes that Bandar has promised the president that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election -- to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day.
Woodward says that Bandar understood that economic conditions were key before a presidential election: âTheyâre [oil prices] high. And they could go down very quickly. That's the Saudi pledge. Certainly over the summer, or as we get closer to the election, they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly.â
Last Excerpt---Chilling
The president still believes with some conviction, that this was absolutely the right thing, that he has the duty to free people, to liberate people. And this was his moment,â says Woodward.
But who gave President Bush the duty to free people around the world? âThat's a really good question. The Constitution doesn't say that's part of the commander in chief's duties,â says Woodward. âThatâs his stated purpose. It is far reaching, and ambitious, and I think will cause many people to tremble.â
How deep a man is President George W. Bush? âHeâs not an intellectual. He is not what I guess would be called a deep thinker,â says Woodward. âHe chastised me at one point because I said people were concerned about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. And he said,
Well you travel in elite circles.â I think he feels there is an intellectual world and he's indicated he's not a part of it ⦠the fancy pants intellectual world. What he calls the elite.â
How does the president think history will judge him for going to war in Iraq?
âAfter the second interview with him on Dec. 11, we got up and walked over to one of the doors. There are all of these doors in the Oval Office that lead outside. And he had his hands in his pocket, and I just asked, âWell, how is history likely to judge your Iraq war,ââ says Woodward.
âAnd he said, âHistory,â and then he took his hands out of his pocket and kind of shrugged and extended his hands as if this is a way off. And then he said, âHistory, we donât know. Weâll all be dead.ââ
