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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (16728)	10/15/2007 1:59:02 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224680

Woodward: Tenet told Bush WMD case a 'slam dunk' Says Bush didn't solicit Rumsfeld, Powell on going to war Monday, April 19, 2004 Posted: 9:34 AM EDT (1334 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- About two weeks before deciding to invade Iraq, President Bush was told by CIA Director George Tenet there was a "slam dunk case" that dictator Saddam Hussein had unconventional weapons, according to a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward. That declaration was "very important" in his decision making, according to "Plan of Attack," which is being excerpted this week in The Post. Bush also made his decision to go to war without consulting Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld or Secretary of State Colin Powell, Woodward's book says. Powell was not even told until after the Saudi ambassador was allowed to review top-secret war plans in an effort to enlist his country's support for the invasion, according to Woodward, who has written or co-written several best-selling books on Washington politics, including "All the President's Men" with Carl Bernstein. The book also reports that in the summer of 2002, $700 million was diverted from a congressional appropriation for the war in Afghanistan to develop a war plan for Iraq. Woodward suggests the diversion may have been illegal, and that Congress was deliberately kept in the dark about what had been done. Woodward talked about his book Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes." The book is based on interviews with 75 people involved in planning for the war, including Bush, the only source who spoke for attribution. Woodward quotes Bush as saying he did not feel the need to ask his principal advisers, including Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell, whether they thought he ought to go to war because "I could tell what they thought." But he said he did discuss his thinking with Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser. "I didn't need to ask them their opinion about Saddam Hussein. If you were sitting where I sit, you could be pretty clear. I think we've got an environment where people feel free to express themselves," Bush is quoted as saying. In the book, Woodward reports that on November 21, 2001 -- about three months after the September 11 attacks and shortly after the Taliban regime crumbled in Afghanistan -- Bush took Rumsfeld aside, ordered him to develop a war plan for Iraq and told him to keep it secret. 'The best we've got?' As the war planning progressed, on December 21, 2002, Tenet and his top deputy, John McLaughlin, went to the White House to brief Bush and Cheney on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Woodward reports. The president, unimpressed by the presentation of satellite photographs and intercepts, pressed Tenet and McLaughlin, saying their information would not "convince Joe Public" and asking Tenet, "This is the best we've got?" Woodward reports. According to Woodward, Tenet reassured the president that "it's a slam dunk case" that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. In his CBS interview, Woodward said he "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." ......................... cnn.com