Even though Bob Woodward has some pretty severe credibiity problems, it is never good when he writes a book unfavorable to you.
After the New York Times managed to buy an early copy of “State of Denial” and reported on it on yesterday’s front page, Bush aides frantically called Woodward and asked for copies, which he sent over. A squadron of White House aides then spent hours tearing through the book and doing quick research to try to undercut its more damaging elements. They settled on a strategy of disputing certain conclusions while broadly dismissing it as old news.
“In a lot of ways, the book is sort of like cotton candy — it kind of melts on contact,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said at a briefing dominated by the topic. “We’ve read this book before. This tends to repeat what we’ve seen in a number of other books that have been out this year where people are ventilating old disputes over troop levels.” Snow said it was well known that events in Iraq have been difficult and that officials have debated the right approach. “Rather than a state of denial,” he said, “it’s a state of the obvious.”
It’s so obvious that Donald Rumsfeld should be fired that even Laura Bush is confused.
Even first lady Laura Bush reportedly told Card that she agreed Rumsfeld had become a liability for her husband, although she noted that the president did not agree. “I don’t know why he’s not upset with this,” she told Card, according to the book. But Vice President Cheney and senior Bush adviser Karl Rove argued against dumping Rumsfeld, and Bush agreed.
It’s obvious that the keys to the ship of state should be taken away from a totally delusional Dick Cheney. He can’t get anything right. It’s also obvious that Condi Rice is a Liar.
The book also reports that then-CIA Director George J. Tenet and his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, grew so concerned in the summer of 2001 about a possible al-Qaeda attack that they drove straight to the White House to get high-level attention.
Tenet called Rice, then the national security adviser, from his car to ask to see her, in hopes that the surprise appearance would make an impression. But the meeting on July 10, 2001, left Tenet and Black frustrated and feeling brushed off, Woodward reported. Rice, they thought, did not seem to feel the same sense of urgency about the threat and was content to wait for an ongoing policy review.
I’ll have more on the significance of this July 10 date later. Suffice to say, I agree with Tony Snow. Woodward’s book is old news and merely rehashes the obvious…the obvious incompetence of the Bush administration.
So Tenet and Black show up for an emergency meeting to warn Rice in July 2001 of an impending terrorist attack and she did essentially nothing about it??? And NO ONE told the 9/11 commission about the meeting???
Looks like this July 10th meeting should be huge!! I’ll be anxious to read more about it. The State Dept. isn’t denying that the meeting took place and is also not denying the content of the meeting. They’re just denying that they knew anything about Tenet and Black being frustrated at Rice’s response.
Woodward calls them incompetents and liars and the only response they can manage is that that’s “old news”?
Woodward was so much in their backpockets it begs the question (for me at any rate) as to what, exactly, kind of funky koolaid did they acidentally let Bob drink?
from war and piece
Is another good resourse for the facts too. Great work Susan.
From the Washington Post:
[Woodward’s] book also reports that then-CIA Director George J. Tenet and his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, grew so concerned in the summer of 2001 about a possible al-Qaeda attack that they drove straight to the White House to get high-level attention.
Tenet called Rice, then the national security adviser, from his car to ask to see her, in hopes that the surprise appearance would make an impression. But the meeting on July 10, 2001, left Tenet and Black frustrated and feeling brushed off, Woodward reported. Rice, they said, did not seem to feel the same sense of urgency about the threat and was content to wait for an ongoing policy review.
The report of such a meeting takes on heightened importance after former president Bill Clinton said this week that the Bush team did not do enough to try to kill Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said her husband would have paid more attention to warnings of a possible attack than Bush did. Rice fired back on behalf of the current president, saying the Bush administration “was at least as aggressive” in eight months as President Clinton had been in eight years.
The July 10 meeting of Rice, Tenet and Black went unmentioned in various investigations into the Sept. 11 attacks, and Woodward wrote that Black “felt there were things the commissions wanted to know about and things they didn’t want to know about.”
Jamie S. Gorelick, a member of the Sept. 11 commission, said she checked with commission staff members who told her investigators were never told about a July 10 meeting. “We didn’t know about the meeting itself,” she said. “I can assure you it would have been in our report if we had known to ask about it.”
White House and State Department officials yesterday confirmed that the July 10 meeting took place, although they took issue with Woodward’s portrayal of its results. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, responding on behalf of Rice, said Tenet and Black had never publicly expressed any frustration with her response.
Posted by Laura at 12:15 AM
This is definate impeachment material. I htink it is time to call it as it is! We as Americans have to finally gather some guts to thsi matter. PPL’s lives depend on it. I am listening to the senate hearing of the three gens testimony on Iraq. All of this is just added ammo to stop this maddness NOW!
What with all the new books out now that is written an dallthe evidence that is given to the common ordinary American, we can now go on with our determination that this has all be a sham, fraud against America. This is that is known as being a traitor. This whole administration is guilty…we have known this for sometime, but just did not have the evidence. It is open evidence now.
PS: I meant to pull together the dates…prez’s PDB [August 2001] and 10 July, 2001. Case closed. They knew ahead of time about 911 and they let it happen…Period..nothing left to say as far as I am concerned.