Clarke says Bush demanded 9-11 Iraq Connection

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml

<snip>

Clarke then tells Stahl of being pressured by Mr. Bush.

"The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this.

"I said, 'Mr. President. We've done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There's no connection.'

"He came back at me and said, "Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection.' And in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report."

Clarke continued, "It was a serious look. We got together all the FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report. We sent the report out to CIA and found FBI and said, 'Will you sign this report?' They all cleared the report. And we sent it up to the president and it got bounced by the National Security Advisor or Deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, 'Wrong answer. ... Do it again.'

BTW, I think this is new info and whomever is the moderator over in LBN is being overzealous tonight locking threads. I wouldn't mind if they pointed to the newer sources of info - but they keep linking to please discuss here which is the older Drudge thread which has no where near the info of this new article from CBS which will be the source of the interview tomorrow night on CBS. Moderators ought to have open PM inboxes. Hoping this thread has better luck here in GD. Damn - this story is IMPORTANT.

[sadiesworld]

1. Yes, I believe it is new...and quite damning!

[Kadie]

2. 'Wrong answer. ... Do it again.'

Man. Maybe they should have just written the report the way they wanted and then found someone to sign it. Unbelievable. Well, I guess not too unbelievable anymore.

[kentuck]

3. Yes, this is very important....

The media has absolutely got to give this story the attention it deserves. They must.

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. I've seen alot of this type of thread-locking too, more than ever

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Last night the mod locked an active thread, and made the posters go back to a thread that hadn't been posted to for over 5 hours - they both died - -

Sometimes I just get off of DU or hide in the Lounge when they try to consolidate old threads to new ones, - Especially LBN - updates should be allowed as new threads

NOT made into 50 -100+ long threads that us dial-up people just won't be bothered with -

and yeah - I've chased this sort of topic all over the place too -

As far as I'm concerned, if it's a new article, with new info on an incident, then it should survive

or heck - we'll just have a thread "Loud blast heard in Baghdad" that takes 25 minutes to load. Heck even from a bandwidth perspective the shorter threads should be encouraged?

Anyhoo

I share your pain

[kentuck]

5. I agree...they should not be so obsessed whether or not it is a dupe....

But we are all human and we will hope everyone does better in the future. Some issues are so important that they deserve to have two or three topics on their own. It's not a big deal. Better to have too much discussion on important topics than to stop all discussion because, God forbid, it is a dupe...

[rumguy]

8. I think the new mods feel they have to prove their worth

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. ssshhhh - we'll get spanked !

[rumguy]

6. "And in a very intimidating way"

These bushistas are like the fucking mafia - but they're spending our money!

[arewethereyet]

7. first it was phone calls now its face to face ?

how many lies can Clerk make up about this ?

[rumguy]

10. lies? Clerk? - huh?

[arewethereyet]

15. you dont recall his earlier incident ?

or perhaps you're casting a little gest my way

[rumguy]

16. still confused

[berry]

18. I think he's confusing this Clarke with the General Clark who ran for

President and had his comments about 9-11 twisted by the RW spin machine. Gen Clark was an advisor for MSNBC (I think, or maybe CNN?) and got some message from someone at the WH to link 9-11 to Iraq??? I don't remember the exact way his words were taken out of context, but I'm certain that the reporting on it played it to Clark's disadvantage.

THIS Clarke has also been on TV commenting on the terror issue--I recognize him from the picture at the CBS site. But clearly, he was on the inside, watching as this played out. This is valuable testimony because he was an eye-witness. And he worked for all the presidents from Reagan on--hard to discredit him (though of course they will try).

[arewethereyet]

19. perhaps you really don't recall the first incident then

The General made the comment that the White House had called him asking him to validate the notion that Hussein and AlQueda were linked. The press started poking and then the story became from all around the WHite House and eventually deteriorated to being some think tank in Montreal and even they denied it.

Sometimes Clark likes to feel important.

[ConcernedCanuk]

9. They created a secret group - hardly ever hear of it

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But it was created just for that purpose - to "sell" the war to the American people, and their allies.

I am surprised to see no mention of WHIG, the group created as sort of a "sales team" to sell the Iraq war. The White House Iraq Group seems to have slipped under the radar of most media - I have no idea how I stumbled across it.

Educating the Public

Systematic coordination began in August, when Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. formed the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, to set strategy for each stage of the confrontation with Baghdad. A senior official who participated in its work called it "an internal working group, like many formed for priority issues, to make sure each part of the White House was fulfilling its responsibilities."

In an interview with the New York Times published Sept. 6, Card did not mention the WHIG but hinted at its mission. "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August," he said.

The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy advisers led by Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, along with I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

The first days of September would bring some of the most important decisions of the prewar period: what to demand of the United Nations in the president's Sept. 12 address to the General Assembly, when to take the issue to Congress, and how to frame the conflict with Iraq in the midterm election campaign that began in earnest after Labor Day.

A "strategic communications" task force under the WHIG began to plan speeches and white papers. There were many themes in the coming weeks, but Iraq's nuclear menace was among the most prominent.
__________________________________________________________________

OH, and the inferences of that particular name for the "group" creating the acronym "whig" didn't escape me

BUT, I don't think that they checked the dictionary for the definition before they did so. I did, and one of the definitions is dead-on accurate in describing the Republican Party as it exists today, especially the last 5 words.

WHIG: A 19th-century American political party formed to oppose the Democratic Party and favoring high tariffs and a loose interpretation of the Constitution.

NO surprise here!

[LividLiberal]

11. Will this get any media attention from the mainstream media though?

I hope so. Bush credibility still could use chipping away at.

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. well actually, I'm watching the UN Ambassador slammin' the US right now !

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Paul Heinbecker, Canada's former Ambassador to the UN

but that's up here in Canukville, CBC NewsWorld

REAL NEWS

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

14. Holy shit...

.....this is pretty bad, isnt it?


I've bee in situations like this with my management. I know exactely what is going on here.

You will get the shills & wingnuts & freepers saying,. all shocked and innocent-like..."but Bush didnt say to make it up!"

But this just too damn familiar to me. Gosh I do despise Bush after reading this.

[berry]

17. AND Clarke has a book coming out about this

so, with luck, he will be appearing on lots of programs to discuss it. And maybe doing a big book tour?

Thanks for the heads up--I often forget to tune in to 60 Minutes, but I won't this week!

[Moderator]

20. Locking......

Public criticism of the moderators is a rule violation.

If you have a complaint about a moderator, please
contact Admin privately. Please feel free to repost
this thread without the last paragraph.

Thank you.

DU Moderator