Journalist Shares War Secrets
April 16, 2004
Woodward's War Book
Bob Woodward reveals secret details of the White House’s plans to attack Iraq in an exclusive interview with Mike Wallace. (Photo: CBS)
In his new book, Woodward interviewed 75 people, including the president, who helped prepare for the attack on Iraq. (Photo: CBS)
(CBS) Legendary journalist Bob Woodward discusses his new book, which reveals secret details of the White House’s plans to attack Iraq, for the first time on television in an interview with correspondent Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, Sunday, April 18, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Woodward interviewed 75 of the people who helped prepare for the war, including President Bush – the only source who speaks for attribution -- in the upcoming book, “Plan of Attack,” published by Simon & Schuster. Both CBSNews.com and Simon & Schuster are units of Viacom.
In the interview, Woodward talked about how the administration was able to finance secret preparations for the Iraq war.
"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, 'What have you 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," says Woodward.
"... 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. ... 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."
In a preview of Sunday's piece, Wallace described a conversation between Mr. Bush and CIA director George Tenet in which Tenet assured Mr. Bush that finding weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk."
Woodward writes of a White House meeting on Dec. 21, 2002, attended by CIA Director George Tenet and his top deputy John McLaughlin, who briefed the president and the vice president assuring them that Saddam Hussein definitely possessed weapons of mass destruction.
"McLaughlin has access to all the satellite photos, and he goes in and he has flip charts in the Oval Office," Woodward tells Wallace. "The president listens to all of this and McLaughlin's done. And and the president kind of, as he's inclined to do, says, 'Nice try,' but that isn't going to sell Joe Public. That isn't going to convince Joe Public."
Woodward writes in his book, "The presentation was a flop. The photos were not gripping. The intercepts were less than compelling. And then George Bush turns to George Tenet and says, 'this is the best we've got?'"
Says Woodward: "George Tenet's sitting on the couch, stands up, and says, 'Don't worry, it's a slam dunk case." And the president challenges him again and Tenet says, 'the case it's a slam dunk.'"
And that reassured the president?
"I asked the president about this and he said it was very important to have the CIA director, 'slam-dunk' is as I interpreted it, a sure thing, guaranteed."
Wallace tells Woodward this is an extraordinary statement to come from Tenet.
"It's a mistake," says Woodward. "Now the significance of that mistake, that was the key rationale for war."
Woodward will answer the following questions, among others, in the interview with Wallace Sunday night:
# How early did President Bush begin planning the war on Iraq?
# In the war’s wake, which top administration officials now barely speak to each other?
# What did the CIA say to President Bush to convince him that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction?
# Which foreign dignitary was told of the plans to attack Iraq days before even key cabinet members were briefed?
# Which key advisers did President Bush ask – and not ask – about whether he should go to war with Iraq?
# Why did the CIA think Saddam had been killed before the ground war even began?
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