You may remember that Bob Woodward took a great deal of heat in 2002 for writing what was essentially thought of as a puff piece on Bush, "Bush at War." The White House gave Woodward unprecedented access to PDB's(Presidential Daily Briefings), as well as lots of private interviews with the president. Well, we all know that they gave Woodward the access because they knew he was writing a puff piece. However, now the access they gave Woodward may be coming back to haunt them.
The lede on an Associated Press story reads:
"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."
This, of course, is the third book that makes the assertion that Bush was bound and determined to go to war with Iraq. The first book, "The Price of Loyalty" by Ron Suskind, stated that Bush's Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, was stunned to hear people discussing war with Iraq in cabinet meetings in early 2001. The second book was the recent "Against All Enemies" by Richard Clarke, which asserted, among other things, that the president pushed Clarke to find a connection between Saddam and Bin Laden.
However, the Woodward book seems all the more damning. For one reason, books by respectable people just seem to keep popping up making the same accusations. The administration just looks foolish calling claim after claim untrue. It just happens to them too often over the same issues. Secondly, because the book really pushes forward the idea that Bush was strangely secretive about making up plans for going to war, even with the people closest to him. According to the AP article:
"Woodward says Bush pulled Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld aside November 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 When Rumsfeld said it was outdated, Bush told him to get started on a fresh one.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."
Never before have we heard anyone claim that Bush was pulling the strings in the process leading up to war. Somehow or another he has always been able to pass the buck. It looks like Woodward might have found a way to paint Bush into a corner.
It is not surprising that Woodward will be on "60 Minutes" this Sunday. I wonder how far the adminitration will go to crucify him. I guess we'll just have to wait until Sunday to find out.
Good News. As of Friday night, Woodward's "Plan of Attack" was #1 on Amazon.com's sales rankings.
Posted by Paul Hina at April 17, 2004 12:18 AM