Treason?

[gldstwmn]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N18658977.htm

18 Apr 2004 23:00:44 GMT
Saudis learned of war plan before Powell - Woodward

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell learned about President George W. Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq after Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States had already been informed, journalist Bob Woodward said on Sunday.

Woodward, author of a new book entitled, "Plan of Attack," said in a CBS' "60 Minutes" interview that Bush told national security leader Condoleezza Rice, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld first about his decision to go to war in January 2003.

"He told Condi Rice. He told Rumsfeld. He knew Cheney wanted to do this. And they realized they haven't told Colin Powell," said Woodward, who described Powell as being opposed to the war.

But before Bush called Powell to the Oval Office, he gave Cheney and Rumsfeld permission to inform Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan about his decision for war. They even showed him a top-secret map of the war plan, Woodward said.

"They describe in detail the war plan for Bandar," he told "60 Minutes" reporter Mike Wallace.

Bandar "says to Cheney and Rumsfeld, 'So Saddam this time is going to be out, period?' And Cheney, who has said nothing, says the following: 'Prince Bandar, once we start, Saddam is toast'."

Bush later confirmed to Bandar what Rumsfeld and Cheney had said, telling the Saudi royal: "Their message is my message."

Rice denied Powell learned about Bush's decision for war after the Saudi ambassador, telling CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday the secretary of state was called to the White House to learn Bush's feeling that diplomacy was not working.

"I just can't let this impression stand. The secretary of state was privy to all of the conversations with the president, all of the briefings for the president," she said.

But Woodward, who first earned fame in the early 1970s by helping to break open the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation, presented details of the meeting between the president and his secretary of state.

"Powell says to him somewhat in a chilly way, 'Are you aware of the consequences?' because he'd been pounding for months on the president, on everyone -- and Powell directly says, 'You know you're going to be owning this place.'

And the president says, 'I understand that'."

In the end, Powell agreed to support the president's decision for war. "And then the president says, 'time to put your war uniform on'," Woodward related.

His book, which follows embarrassing insider accounts of the Bush White House by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, was based on interviews with 75 people, including Bush.

Like O'Neill and Clarke, Woodward says in his book that Bush showed an early interest in taking the United States to war with Iraq -- in this case, telling Rumsfeld in November 2001 to draw up a fresh war plan for Saddam Hussein's ouster.

The president gave the order for the war to begin on March 19, 2003.

[gldstwmn]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...audi_bush_dc_2

Saudis Pledged Oil Price Cut Before U.S. Vote -Report
Sun Apr 18, 4:39 PM ET Add Politics to My Yahoo!



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before November to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day, journalist Bob Woodward said in a television interview on Sunday.



In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" about his new book "Plan of Attack" on the Bush administration's preparations for the Iraq war, Woodward, a senior editor at the Washington Post, said Prince Bandar pledged the Saudi's would try to fine-tune oil prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election -- a move they understood would favor Bush's re-election.


Questioned about his assertion at a time when oil prices are nearing a 13-year high, Woodward responded:


"They're high. And they could go down very quickly. That's the Saudi pledge. Certainly over the summer or as we get closer to the election they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly."


It was not clear from the interview precisely when Prince Bandar's pledge was allegedly made.


Bush has been under attack from Democrats in recent weeks for failing to halt rising domestic gasoline prices which have hit a record of $1.80 per gallon, according to the U.S. motorists group AAA.


The spike in gasoline prices resulted from a sharp cut in crude oil production this month by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Oil futures in New York closed on Friday at $37.74 a barrel for U.S. light crude.


Prince Bandar has been the Saudi envoy to the United States for 20 years and is part of the Saudi royal family, which has had a close relationship with the Bush family for years.


Earlier this month Bandar reassured Bush that the kingdom would not allow oil shortages to hurt world economic growth after Saudi Arabia led a push by OPEC to cut output by 1 million barrels a day from April.


"Saudi Arabia's policy is consistent. Number one: we will not allow any shortages in the market," Bandar told reporters on April 1 after delivering his message to Bush from Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah.


Rising oil prices have threatened to revive tensions between the United States and Saudi Arabia, despite decades of close ties which were severely strained by the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were Saudis.

[gldstwmn]

Kick.

[dissention]

I am salivating for this book. This is more explosive than the Clarke book, Goldie.

[DeeGeMe]

Well if that's not enough for treason--what about this:

White House reviews Iraq funding after charge of mispending
Mon Apr 19, 2004 01:03 PM ET
WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - The White House denied any wrongdoing on Monday in the use of funding to prepare for the war in Iraq after a book alleged the money was diverted from operations in Afghanistan without Congress' knowledge.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan insisted that Congress was "fully informed" of how the money was spent.

He said emergency spending legislation after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks gave the administration "broad discretion" on how the funding could be used.

In "Plan of Attack," author Bob Woodward says President George W. Bush began preparing for war with Iraq within weeks of the Sept. 11 attack.

To further guard the secrecy, Bush funded the war preparations with $700 million that was earmarked for Afghanistan and old appropriations.

"Congress was totally in the dark on this," Woodward told CBS "60 Minutes" of the shift in funding in July 2002.

McClellan said the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Pentagon were "reviewing this," but added, "At this time we are confident that Congress was kept fully informed of all expenditures."

"We're gathering all those facts," McClellan said. "In emergency spending, there is broad discretion in how those funds could be used in the war on terrorism. Iraq is a part of the war on terrorism."

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by dissention

I am salivating for this book. This is more explosive than the Clarke book, Goldie.

I think it's bigger than Watergate.

[DeeGeMe]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

I think it's bigger than Watergate.

Speaking of which--be sure to read John Dean's new book, "Worse than Watergate"--talk about an eye-opener! And is it just me or have the Republican Ledgies been oddly absent from this thread?

[4Buck]

I'm a republican, but I choose not to get involved.

I have to say one thing, though:

John F'ing Kerry is a gigolo!

[dissention]

Originally Posted by DeeGeMe

Speaking of which--be sure to read John Dean's new book, "Worse than Watergate"--talk about an eye-opener! And is it just me or have the Republican Ledgies been oddly absent from this thread?

Finished it last night and I can't get it outta my head. When you're being called out by John Dean, you know something ain't right.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by 4Buck

I'm a republican, but I choose not to get involved.

I have to say one thing, though:

John F'ing Kerry is a gigolo!

Typical GOP ****. Knock someone down without giving any reasoning behind it.

Gimme an f'in break.

[gldstwmn]

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0404/19/lkl.00.html

(from last night's Larry King Live with Bob Woodward

KING: Do you want President Bush to be reelected?

BIN SULTAN: We always want any president who is in office to be reelected, Larry, but that is the American choice. This is not our call. This is the American people's call.

KING: OK, I think we've cleared up... WOODWARD: Could I just, I'm sorry to go back on this, but Prince Bandar, why would the president tell me on the record two days later that he called Colin Powell in and said he had decided on war? This was a 12-minute meeting. I went through this for some time with the president, and then the president would ask Powell, "will you be with me?" And Powell said, "I will be with you. I will support a war," and then the president said to former General Powell, now Secretary of State Powell, "time to put your war uniform on."

I know that Powell left that meeting saying, he's going to do it. He had made that decision, and you look at what Rumsfeld has said and others, and as you may be aware, there might be tape recordings that would show that the version I have is the accurate one. What's going on here?

BIN SULTAN: Bob, I believe Secretary Powell/General Powell's response does not surprise me. He's a very loyal soldier and a statesman. And I believe he puts a lot of weight on loyalty, and he disdains disloyalty. Therefore, I believe if your account is accurate, which I have no reason to discount it, that general -- Secretary Powell told the president his views. Once the commander in chief made his mind up, General Powell -- Secretary Powell decided it's right to support the commander-in-chief.

KING: I got to get a break.

BIN SULTAN: That is the only thing I can say about this.

[dissention]

Get Powell's ****ty book and look up the "Powell Doctrine" in it.