Woodward's book excerpt: Impeachable offense?

[kstewart33]

From CBS.com (60 Minutes):

Journalist Shares War Secrets

Woodward: War On Iraq


Bob Woodward reveals secret details of the White House’s plans to attack Iraq in an exclusive interview with Mike Wallace. (Photo: CBS)

(snip)

In the interview, Woodward talked about how the administration was able to finance secret preparations for the Iraq war.

"President Bush, after a National Security Council meeting, takes Don Rumsfeld aside, collars him physically and takes him into a little cubbyhole room and closes the door and says, 'What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq?' What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret," says Woodward.

"...The end of July 2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan War, which Congress has approved. ...Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the dark on this."


Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml

[central scrutinizer]

1. sounds a lot like Iran-Contra

where the Boland Amendment forbade Reagan from funding the Contras, but they went ahead and did it anyway with some laundered money.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Sadly one of many

[Cocoa]

3. special prosecutor

now!

[Just Me]

4. Isn't it crazy that "conservatives" can convict and "liberals" resist.

Maybe THAT is our weakness. We have got to go for the throat, as conservatives are eager to do. We have got to throw "understanding" aside long enough to equate those self-righteous (and proven sinners and evil-doers) to the rest of humanity.

In other words, we have to play their self-righteous game. SCREW understanding or problem solving or "thinking"!!!! Let us focus on their easily evident pursuits for themselves. Geez, we have the "TRUTH" as a weapon,....demonstrating that this administration's policies SERVE the elite,...not "the people".

<on edit - let us show how STINGY and GREEDY and SELF-SERVING "they" are and have been and always will be,...those freakin' corporatists who FAIL the republican party>

[Old and In the Way]

5. Has Bob stopped drinking the kool-aid?

I believe it was in August that Card mentioned that it was too soon to start marketing the Iraq War. Not to soon to start the planning, though.

[acmavm]

6. This is a criminal conspiracy by the bush* administration and we now

know that the pResident and Rummy are guilty of stealing funds from the people of the United States. They have had to go before Congress to ask for all the other money that they wanted for Iraq, so they knew that this was wrong. They were keeping it secret, so again they knew that this was wrong. So here you have mens rea and actus rea.

I say send them to a cell somewhere in a federal penitentiary. And if Kerry doesn't say something about this, I will absolutely freak. I know Clark will, he's the one with the balls. But Kerry is too damn afraid to appear 'ungentlemanly' to hit these guys with all the ammo they are giving him.

Don't get me wrong here, I was for Kerry before Clark got into the race, and then I was Clark all the way. But when Clark got out, I was still satisfied with the democratic nominee. But now I'm getting really pissed off. Like the dude who wrote the book "House of Bush, House of Saud" said, he's not sure if Kerry has what it takes to fight for the presidency. Unless he takes off the kid gloves and starts swinging, I'm afraid that he may not be able to make his case to the American people that he's the person we need to elect.

[progressivebydesign]

8. Where's Howard Dean when we need him? N/T

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. This is a MAJOR smokescreen!! Read my comments from earlier today....

...here's the link:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=489774#489889>

[Daisey Mae]

9. Sounds interesting...I can't wait to read it...

Bob Woodward has a little history as an investigative reporter...Nixon's Downfall.... I am glad Bob is telling the truth and it feels like hell...to the Bush boy......

[calimary]

10. Guys! I know I sound like a broken record. But, PLEASE!! This is

a PRIMO reason to contact your reps, AND SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, in the media! HERE'S HOW:

Please note, here, The World's Greatest Lists of Media Contacts – updated April 14, 2004 – in the following thread:

LINK:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1413842#

IF THEY THINK WE DON’T CARE, THEY WON’T, EITHER!

[Whoa_Nelly]

11. Time for resignations to be handed in

Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz...
Or time to begin real impeachement proceedings against the POTUS.
<sarcasm>What?!?!? We're in a war and it wouldn't be "prudent"?</sarcasm>

Before more troops are killed, before more innocents die, these venal and horrible people need to be stopped.

[Yavin4]

12. Only Oral Sex Is An Impeachable Offense to Republicans

Stealing money from the treasury, planning an illegal war, causing the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqis, etc., etc. As long as Bush did these things without gettin sexual favors, then it's A.OK to the Congressional Republicans.

[Snellius]

13. Woodward's book is incredibly damning

Until now Bush could always fall back on the argument that to the best of his knowledge, it was fair to assume, right or not, that Saddam had WMDs. What's especially shocking about Woodward's book is that it proves that Bush knew all along that the evidence was filmsy at best. Woodward has Bush actually admitting that there was no solid justification. Bush's war was a conclusion in search of a cause.

[wellst0nev0ter]

14. I Didn't Like How The Story Seemed To Pin All The Intelligence Failures

On Tenet and the CIA. The quoted the excerpt of the book presented us with a surprisingly skeptical Bush and with a George Tenet who said that the intelligence supporting the conspiracy theory that Saddam Hussein had weaponsofmassdestruction was a "slam dunk."

I'd like to see what Woodword wroteon the OSP and how they influenced intelligence gathering, and Mylrorie's (sp) book "Bush Agaist The Beltway" which portrayed the intelligence community as hindering the warmongerers march to war.

[Nordic65]

15. How bad is it?

What are the ramifications here and why?
Is there any precedence?

Or is this comparable to the black budgets of the Cold War era?

[Moderator]

16. Please update this story here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=489774&mesg_id=489774