Bush first briefed on Haditha:"When a Time reporter first made the call"

[dajoki]

ABC
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2022896&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

WASHINGTON May 31, 2006 (AP)— President Bush learned of reports that U.S. Marines killed two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians only after reporters began asking questions, the White House said Tuesday.

Asked when Bush was first briefed about the events in Haditha, an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq, White House press secretary Tony Snow replied Tuesday: "When a Time reporter first made the call."

Time magazine was first to report, in March, that the U.S. military was investigating a dozen Marines for possible war crimes in the November incident. The killings, which included women and children, came after a bomb rocked a military convoy on Nov. 19, killing a Marine.

[tridim]

1. Bush is a gawd damned liar n/t

[C_U_L8R]

2. ummm... isn't he Commander in Chief ?

then how come he plays stupid

[Kagemusha]

3. The chain of command covered it up at lower levels though.

This is a bottom-up scandal, not the sort that is well known at the top and lower people take the fall (oh, like that whole Plame thing). There's no special reason to assume Bush had any idea that this had happened or was any different than lots of other 'justified' killings.

[C_U_L8R]

7. i guess the buck doesn't stop there

any more

[lwcon]

8. Are you kidding?

There were many eyewitness reports that described a thoroughly explosive situation -- Marines executing innocent families in their homes, including children as young as three.

If his military doesn't know to escalate something that's guaranteed to lose a commodity even more valuable than Iraqi oil -- the hearts and minds of Iraqi citizens -- then he is not fit for the job. Or just as likely, they're covering up, which they do so reflexively.

Two profane cents about this: http://vastleft.blogspot.com/2006/05/it-is-hard-to-be-decider.html

[Kagemusha]

10. Why would Bush want "unconfirmed" reports of massacres told to him?

I mean, the military SAID it wasn't a massacre, so why should he have his aides bring to him news reports of a massacre his own US Army says doesn't exist? Why would he want his valuable time wasted so?

Sure, he has ultimate command responsibility. I am a firm backer of that concept and am disgusted with this entire incident.

But I simply do not believe that Bush made a mere killing of 24 people which the military said was 15 and was related directly to insurgent activity his personal business, or that his aides, fearing his wrath, made it his personal business.

[lwcon]

11. According to Murtha...

... almost immediately after the massacre last November, there were credible reports that this was a covered-up, My Lai-like atrocity.

Inept and insensitive handling of something like this endangers countless American lives, as did Abu Ghraib. It is of vital national importance that the U.S. be seen as beyond reproach in handling such abuses when they occur in a country we're occupying under dubious reasons and in an unimaginably volatile region.

How many more soldiers will be killed by IEDs because we're understood to be lawless, heartless, and untrustworthy? How many new terrorist recruits will our lack of diligence about this inspire? Probably, quite a few.

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[Kagemusha]

13. I'm sure the reports were quite credible to Murtha.

And hey, they were credible to me, too, while Murtha was getting killed in the media for talking about it. But that doesn't mean that Bush's information apparatus saw it as *officially* credible, and Bush gets *official* news. That's all I'm saying.

What I'm saying is backing up your criticisms of inept and insensitive handling 100%, too. I'm just trying to be accurate. Bush did, however, set the tone by broadasting to the media and I imagine, through the chain of command that it is the announcement and reporting of war crimes, not the commission of them, that damages US interests.

[dajoki]

6. He doesn't have to play n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Oh, he doesn't have to *play* stupid.

He's a natural at it.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. How's life in the sterilized bubble, Mr. Commander-in Chief?

Are they still sanitizing the news for you? Is Big Dick shielding you from the real world?

What a pathetic loser...............

[Contrary1]

5. I would bet that

Rummy and The Dick knew about it early on.

[Mz Pip]

9. I doubt Bush knew

Why bother telling him? He was probably on vacation or out stumping against gay marriage or for tax cuts.

I doubt the Cheney/Rummy crew bother telling the boy king much of anything. And I mean this in all seriousness. Bush truly is a puppet. H'es only useful when he can go out there with his down home swagger and disingenuous smile and make people believe there is a human in charge. Hah.

Bush is the poster child for plausible deniability. THe less he knows the better as far as the Cheney gang is concerned.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[truth2power]

14. He's full of crap!! Any CEO

that stupid or clueless would be fired, forthwith.

Unless it's "Kenny Boy" Lay, of course.

[peacetheonlyway]

15. The Only reason Bush Cites being briefed by Time Reporters

is that there are SO MANY REPORTS OF THIS KIND coming out of Iraq, it is no longer news to Bush.

and/or Bush is lying and he felt it was BUSINESS AS USUAL, so we have some collateral damage, his idea is 'war is uncomfortable for people'

it sure is Bushie..

but I wholeheartedly believe in Iraq and Afghanistan, the instance of military personnel cracking from the internal soul level understanding that what they are doing and why they are there is WRONG AND A LIE manifests in violence toward others when they see their own get killed it finally hits them how stupid this war is an they go on a revenge rampage..

huh, revenge rampage. hasn't America been on a revenge rampage (including Bush) since 9/11?

Are hundreds of thousands of innocent iraqi and afghanistani civilian deaths and American soldier deaths enough payback for the almost 3,000 lost in the World Trade Center..

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!