Woodward: Bush's secret war plan...
 

Many, myself included, have thought President Bush had a preoccupation with Iraq. In a new book by Bob Woodward (of Watergate fame), The President apparantely talked with the author about keeping plans secret, even from his National Security Staff. Vice President Cheny was also a big player according to Woodward.

WASHINGTON (April 16) -- President Bush secretly ordered a war plan drawn up against Iraq less than two months after U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan and was so worried the decision would cause a furor he did not tell everyone on his national security team, says a new book on his Iraq policy.

Bush feared that if news got out about the Iraq plan as U.S. forces were fighting another conflict, people would think he was too eager for war, journalist Bob Woodward writes in ''Plan of Attack,'' a behind-the-scenes account of the 16 months leading to the Iraq invasion.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book, which will be available in book stores next week.

''I knew what would happen if people thought we were developing a potential war plan for Iraq,'' Bush is quoted as telling Woodward. ''It was such a high-stakes moment and ... it would look like that I was anxious to go to war. And I'm not anxious to go to war.''

Bush and his aides have denied accusations they were preoccupied with Iraq at the cost of paying attention to the al-Qaida terrorist threat before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A commission investigating the attacks just concluded several weeks of extraordinary public testimony from high-ranking government officials. One of them, former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, charged the Bush administration's determination to invade Iraq undermined the war on terror.

Woodward's account fleshes out the degree to which some members of the administration, particularly Vice President Dick Cheney, were focused on Saddam Hussein from the onset of Bush's presidency and even after the terrorist attacks made the destruction of al-Qaida the top priority.

Woodward says Bush pulled Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld aside Nov. 21, 2001 - when U.S. forces and allies were in control of about half of Afghanistan - and asked him what kind of war plan he had on Iraq. When Rumsfeld said it was outdated, Bush told him to get started on a fresh one.

The book says Bush told Rumsfeld to keep quiet about it and when the defense secretary asked to bring CIA Director George Tenet into the planning at some point, the president said not to do so yet.

Even Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was apparently not fully briefed. Woodward said Bush told her that morning he was having Rumsfeld work on Iraq but did not give details.

In an interview two years later, Bush told Woodward that if the news had leaked, it would have caused ''enormous international angst and domestic speculation.''

The Bush administration's drive toward war with Iraq raised an international furor anyway, alienating long-time allies who did not believe the White House had made a sufficient case against Saddam. Saddam was toppled a year ago and taken into custody last December. But the central figure of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, remains at large and a threat to the west.

The book says Gen. Tommy Franks, who was in charge of the Afghan war as head of Central Command, uttered a string of obscenities when the Pentagon told him to come up with an Iraq war plan in the midst of fighting another conflict.

Woodward, a Washington Post journalist who wrote an earlier book on Bush's anti-terrorism campaign and broke the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein, says Cheney's well-known hawkish attitudes on Iraq were frequently decisive in Bush's decision-making.

Cheney pressed the outgoing Clinton administration to brief Bush on the Iraq threat before he took office, Woodward writes.

In August 2002, when Bush talked publicly of being a patient man who would weigh Iraqi options carefully, the vice president took the administration's Iraq policy on a harder track in a speech declaring the weapons inspections ineffective. Cheney's speech was viewed as the beginning of a campaign to undermine or overthrow Saddam. Woodward said Bush let Cheney make the speech without asking what he would say.

The vice president also figured prominently in a protracted decision March 19, 2003, to strike Iraq before a 48-hour ultimatum for Saddam Hussein to leave the country had expired.

When the CIA and its Iraqi sources reported that Saddam's sons and other family members were at a small palace, and Saddam was on his way to join them, Bush's top advisers debated whether to strike ahead of plan.

Franks was against it, saying it was unfair to move before a deadline announced to the other side, the book says. Rumsfeld and Rice favored the early strike, and Secretary of State Colin Powell leaned that way.

But Bush did not make his decision until he had cleared everyone out of the Oval Office except the vice president. ''I think we ought to go for it,'' Cheney is quoted as saying. Bush did.

U.S. forces unleashed bombs and cruise missiles, blanketing the compound but missing the palace. Tenet called the White House before dawn to say the Iraqi leader had been killed. But his optimism was premature. Saddam was alive.

The 468-page book is published by Simon & Schuster. Woodward will be interviewed on CBS' ''60 Minutes'' Sunday night to promote the book.

hmm...
 

my question is...how does Bob Woodward know all that information, including quotes?

Re: hmm...
 

The real question is why do these people start talking only when there is a book deal in the works?

-Rudey

Re: hmm...
 

From interviews with administration officials and the President himself according to the article and reports on NPR this afternoon.

And, Rudey, you know the answer. Money. Although in this case, it's the second book Woodward has done recently, the first during the early part of the Afghanistan "action."

The President was asked about some dates in question and kind of danced around the questions a little. An administration official later confirmed the information in the book.

Answer: Money
Motivation: Several things.
* Timing in an election year. You think he innocently timed this book? Heck no. Terry MacAuliffe sure has played this to the DNC's advantage. Woodward is their willing tool. Ever heard the expression "people will do anything for money"?
* He heard John Dean was writing a work of fiction and decided that if he threw in a couple of interviews with the President, spun them around, and used the willing press as his tool, he too could re-capture fortune and fame.

Can we say "Press Secretary for the Kerry White House", or an official biographer of same?

Woodward (and that little jerk Dean) have had their 15 minutes. Must be something to fame, if you still lust for it 30 years after it's over.

Now WHY do I think you are a closet Kerry delegate???????;)

Is that the same way you felt after his previous book about Bush about a year or so ago, presenting him as a resolute and strong leader in the Afghanistant conflict? Most people were mad at him for making Bush look so good. Now, conservatives are mad that he didn't remain their shill. So, how do you explain why he would write such a "nice" book about Bush before, given your belief that he is a liberal shill? Let me guess, the liberal conspiracy got him to write a nice book just so that when he wrote a less nice one, people would believe him? :rolleyes:

Her answer of money would provide an answer. You only post on the most interesting of threads. It's cute.

-Rudey

The point, Rudey, since you seemed to have missed it, is that conservatives didn't question Woodward's motivation when he was writing nice things about Bush. When he writes not-so-nice things, the attack machine begins. It's hypocritical.

No actually that's not hypocritical.

-Rudey

What a thrill to be called a shill!

Again, my good man, its called money. Ol Woodward saw a trend coming up in an election year when Dems will do anything and try anything to unseat the man they hate more than any other. The man who upset the conventional applecart wisdom that says nice Republicans will not fight back because it's unseemly and just not done at the country club. Apparently not many Dems go to Texas country clubs...

But I digress. Bob Woodward sold out. And Terry McAwful has delivered a superior book promo package courtesy of his cronies in the press as a payoff.
You read it here first.

LOL. I wonder if this book was about Kerry or Clinton he would be called a hero then?

It's not a question of hero or not hero - it's one of money.

-Rudey

Hopefully
 

Colin Powell was interviewed today, and he just flatly said that Woodward was not accurate or truthful.

In DC, it's known that if you don't cooperate with Woodward, he'll make up something negative about you.

His book is another part of the Democratic attack machine, which includes:

1 - Dick Clark's Book
2 - Woodward's book
3 - the biased 9/11 investigating panel
4 - the network and Cable TV world, and most of the print media

The upcoming parts will probably include:

1 - John Dean's book
2 - something racial

Radio talk show host Sean Hannity wrote an anti-liberal book, that was No. 1 on the NYTimes best sellers list for five weeks. There was never even a book review in the NYTimes, no 60 Minutes profile, and very little national coverage.

Hopefully, George W. will use his funds and his volunteers to get re-elected and get larger majorities in Congress.

Re: Hopefully
 

The 9/11 panel is bi-partisan and was not slected by Democrats.

Conservatives have Fox news which is clearly not fair and balanced.

And I hope with all his money he still falls flat on his face and Democrats take seats back in Congress.