"My opponent saw the same intelligence I did."

[Jane Austin]

I knew there was something wrong with that statement, and I just realized why.

How 'bout that PDB of August 6, 2001? You know, the one titled "Bin Laden determined to strike inside US",

I don't believe I've heard of any Senators who saw that . . . or any other Presidential daily briefings.

Wish Kerry would challenge him on that.

[pacalo]

1. Why doesn't Kerry mention the unprecedented CIA visits by Cheney to

put pressure on the desk clerks to 'find' WMD evidence? These CYA missions occurred AFTER the coWard-in-chief declared war on Iraq.

[goclark]

2. I agree

That crap needed a response.

IMO,it should not have been possible for Kerry to see the exact same information that Bush saw.

First, Bush doesn't read. So someone on his staff reads parts of information to him. Bush is on record saying that he doesn't like to read the papers.

My belief is that Kerry was reading much more information than Bush. What Kerry was not listening to were a;; the NEOCONS with their made up claims about WMD etc.

So Kerry supported his President.
The mistake he made was that he, Kerry, forgot that he was dealing with a bunch of crooks. Few, at the time, realized that the Weapons of Mass Destruction resided at the WH, DOD and the Cheney's Office.

The NeoCons were also listening to Poppy and Kerry was not privy to those conversations either.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. Or the fact there was a controversy at the CIA about the aluminium tubes

that Condi didn't bother exploring, although she was aware of it.

[mzmolly]

4. "My opponent saw the intelligence I wanted him to see"

is a more accurate statement.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Exactly!

He also didn't know that some of the "evidence" he saw was bogus, but of course {sub]Bush and company did.

He also didn't know that they had been planning to go into Iraq BEFORE September 11th.

[mzmolly]

10. S'actly!

:hi:

[Jane Austin]

23. Good point.

n/t

[Jane Austin]

9. Bingo!

n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

5. kick

[Carla in Ca]

6. And why hasn't Kerry talked about BCCI?

He was fighting terrorists from the Senate while * was still looking for oil in Texas! Is it a trump card?

[evilqueen]

7. Possible

I had to go looking for that BCCI info on my own. I don't remember whether there's much about it on the campaign site at all. There should be and it should be visible, but like I said, I don't remember seeing it there. It's not a secret, though.

Fact of the matter is, the Shrub brothers were involved in quite a bit of shady stuff down in Florida before they got involved in politics.

[John_H]

11. "No Mr. President, I didn't, and you know it. You have access much more

information than any senator has access to. You know the sources. You know the methods. And you know how reliable those sources and methods are. Like so many others, I relied on your word. You broke your word. And now, like you so often do, you're trying to pass the buck that should stop at your desk."

[Jane Austin]

12. Send that to the Kerry campaign!

I'd add the part about the PDB, but send it for sure.

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. That's great!

That is exactly what Kerry should say and right to the wimp chimp's face and in front of the American people and the World. Oh man! The wimp chimp would go beserk bust! :evilgrin: :bounce:

[Riddler]

14. But your opponent never came out and said he knew where they were!

[gcomeau]

15. Kerry quick zinger response...

"Yes.. I just didn't see ALL the same intelligence, did I George? Would you like to explain to the American people why that was?"

And then hammer him on the witholding of the aluminum tube info.

-Grant

[Mountainman]

16. The evidence was cooked up and sent to the Congress by BushCo

[julialnyc]

17. I wish

I wish I heard Kerry say what I heard him say before in the past. That they saw some intelligence, but did not see who the sources were. They were assured it was sound.
Later he found out who some of the sources were......people who should not have been trusted, and people Bush should have known better not to trust.

[crickets]

18. Declassified

Kerry saw the same vetted, declassified intelligence that the rest of Congress saw. The classified stuff the pRresident has access to? Nope.

[Stephanie]

19. I'm sure that statement is true. Kerry saw the same intel that Bush saw

Plus Bush saw a little more. OR, Bush was only given the cooked books, while Cheney, Rummy, et al. saw the full info including the caveats.

[JPZenger]

20. Bob Graham

Former Senator Bob Graham was the most senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee in 2002. He said that he has access to much more intelligence information than most other Senators. He said that he voted against the Iraq resolution because he saw how weak the intelligence on Iraq's threat was, while most other Senators did not have that advantage.

[MasterD]

21. Caveats...

...is the big thing. IIRC, the intelligence reports provided to the Senate did NOT include the caveats and disclaimers that were in the reports Mr. Bush, et al had access to.

Pesky details...

[Stephanie]

22. Welcome to DU, MasterD

Master of what? :)

[DemocracyInaction]

24. Wait a minute--Bush has made exactly the opposite statement many

times. There would be old clips and reports on this. When he was pushed into a corner as more and more evidence emerged that there were no WMDs, etc., Bush repeatedly said that Congressmen and the like did not have all the information he was privy to so that they didn't know what they were talking about, blah, blah. Thus, it why he made his great, bold, terrific decisions. He always used that as a defense. Later when things got real bad, he started to whine he had bad intelligence and the "all the other guys knew what I knew" bullshit. Flip flop flip flop.........DNC, dig up the clips and the news articles on this.

[Jane Austin]

25. Oh, you are SO right!

I'd forgotten all about that.

Good catch.