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WoodwardRevelations * KerryPress * BushOil


22 April 2004

"When the people fear the ‘government,' that is tyranny.
When the ‘government' fears the people, that is liberty."

- Thomas Jefferson

1) Woodward Shares War Secrets
2) Kerry and Meet the Press
3) Bush Secret Oil Deal With Saudis

- - Mordechai Vanunu released from prison after serving 18 years
4) Senator backs Draft to boost Iraq and Pandemonium
- - Privatization in Iraq: ‘Contractors' With Guns
- - 'Unprecedented Hatred' for US
- - Time Line Path to Pandemonium

"History, we don't know.

We'll all be dead."

– George W. Bush

[For quote source and background, see item 1.]


Editor's Notes:

Item 1 is from the transcript of "Sixty Minutes" of an interview with Bob Woodward about his book, "Plan of Attack". The revelations in this item are absolutely scary, a holier-than-thou oil-driven warrior, and dim viewpoint for a future. Item 2 is another look at the political dual-purpose candidate, John Kerry, and you can link to the entire NBC "Meet the Press" transcript. Kerry is as scary as Clinton, but not like Bush, our Armageddon-commander-in-chief. Items 3 and 4 contain articles and other resources. Please take action, check for petitions and campaigns at FlybyNews.com.


"You Cannot Break the Human Spirit"

– Mordechai Vanunu

Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower
Free from Prison After 18 Years



1) Woodward Shares War Secrets

From: CBS News - "Sixty Minutes
Woodward Shares War Secrets
April 18, 2004

[Excerpts]

Journalist Bob Woodward calls his new book, "Plan of Attack," the first detailed, behind-the-scenes account of how and why the president decided to wage war in Iraq.

It's an insider's account written after Woodward spoke with 75 of the key decision makers, including President Bush himself.

The president permitted Woodward to quote him directly. Others spoke on the condition that Woodward not identify them as sources.

Woodward discusses the secret details of the White House's plans to attack Iraq for the first time on television with Correspondent Mike Wallace..

Woodward reports that just five days after Sept. 11, President Bush indicated to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that while he had to do Afghanistan first, he was also determined to do something about Saddam Hussein.

.."And there's this low boil on Iraq until the day before Thanksgiving, Nov. 21, 2001. This is 72 days after 9/11. This is part of this secret history. 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.'"

Woodward says immediately after that, Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to develop a war plan to invade Iraq and remove Saddam - and that Rumsfeld gave Franks a blank check.

"Rumsfeld and Franks work out a deal essentially where Franks can spend any money he needs. And so he starts building runways and pipelines and doing all the preparations in Kuwait, specifically to make war possible," says Woodward.

"Gets to a point where in July, 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."

Woodward says there was a lot happening that only key Bush people knew about.

"A year before the war started, three things are going on. Franks is secretly developing this war plan that he's briefing the president in detail on," says Woodward. "Franks simultaneously is publicly denying that he's ever been asked to do any plan."

For example, here's Gen. Franks' response to a question about invading Iraq, in May 2002, after he's been working on war plans for five months: "That's a great question and one for which I don't have an answer, because my boss has not yet asked me to put together a plan to do that."

But according to Woodward, the general had been perfecting his war plan, and Vice President Dick Cheney knew all about it. Woodward reports that Cheney was the driving force in the White House to get Saddam. Cheney had been Secretary of Defense during the first Gulf War, and to him, Saddam was unfinished business – and a threat to the United States.

In his book, Woodward describes Cheney as a "powerful, steamrolling force obsessed with Saddam and taking him out."..

..Three months later, on Dec. 21, 2002, Woodward says CIA Director George Tenet brought his deputy, John McLaughlin, to the oval office to show the president and the vice president their best evidence that Saddam really had weapons of mass destruction.

"McLaughlin has access to all the satellite photos, and he goes in and he has flip charts in the oval office. The president listens to all of this and McLaughlin's done. And, and the president kind of, as he's inclined to do, says ‘Nice try, but that isn't gonna sell Joe Public. That isn't gonna convince Joe Public,'" says Woodward.

In his book, Woodward writes: "The presentation was a flop. The photos were not gripping. The intercepts were less than compelling. And then George Bush turns to George Tenet and says, 'This is the best we've got?'"

Says Woodward: "George Tenet's sitting on the couch, stands up, and says, ‘Don't worry, it's a slam dunk case.'" And the president challenges him again and Tenet says, ‘The case, it's a slam dunk.' ...I asked the president about this and he said it was very important to have the CIA director – ‘Slam-dunk is as I interpreted is a sure thing, guaranteed. No possibility it won't go through the hoop.' Others present, Cheney, very impressed."

What did Woodward think of Tenet's statement? "It's a mistake," he says. "Now the significance of that mistake - that was the key rationale for war."

It was just two weeks later when the president decided to go to war.

..Woodward says he described Powell as semi-despondent "because he knew that this was a war that might have been avoided. That's why he spent so much time at the United Nations."

But, it turns out, two days before the president told Powell, Cheney and Rumsfeld had already briefed Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador.

"Saturday, Jan. 11, with the president's permission, Cheney and Rumsfeld call Bandar to Cheney's West Wing office, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Myers, is there with a top-secret map of the war plan. And it says, ‘Top secret. No foreign.' No foreign means no foreigners are supposed to see this," says Woodward.

"They describe in detail the war plan for Bandar. And so Bandar, who's skeptical because he knows in the first Gulf War we didn't get Saddam out, so he says to Cheney and Rumsfeld, ‘So Saddam this time is gonna be out, period?' And Cheney - who has said nothing - says the following: ‘Prince Bandar, once we start, Saddam is toast.'"

After Bandar left, according to Woodward, Cheney said, "I wanted him to know that this is for real. We're really doing it."

But this wasn't enough for Prince Bandar, who Woodward says wanted confirmation from the president. "Then, two days later, Bandar is called to meet with the president and the president says, ‘Their message is my message,'" says Woodward.

Prince Bandar enjoys easy access to the Oval Office. His family and the Bush family are close. And Woodward told 60 Minutes that Bandar has promised the president that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election - to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day.

Woodward says that Bandar understood that economic conditions were key before a presidential election: "They're [oil prices] 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."

For his book, Woodward interviewed 75 top military and Bush administration officials, including two long interviews with the president himself. Mr. Bush spoke on the record, but others talked to Woodward on condition that he not reveal their identities.

60 Minutes won't name those Woodward interviewed, but we've listened to the tapes and read the transcripts of his key interviews to verify that his accounts are based on recollections from people who took part in the meetings he describes, including a historic meeting on March 19, when Bush gives the order to go to war.

He's with the National Security Council, in the situation room. Says Woodward: "They have all these TV monitors. Gen. Franks, the commander, is up on one of them. And all nine commanders, and the president asks each one of them, ‘Are you ready? Do you have what you need? Are you satisfied?' And they all say, ‘Yes, sir.' and ‘We're ready.'"

Then the president saluted and he rose suddenly from his chair. "People who were there said there were tears in his eyes, not coming down his cheeks but in his eyes," says Woodward. "And just kind of marched out of the room."

Having given the order, the president walked alone around the circle behind the White House. Months later, he told Woodward: "As I walked around the circle, I prayed that our troops be safe, be protected by the Almighty. Going into this period, I was praying for strength to do the Lord's will. I'm surely not going to justify war based upon God. Understand that. Nevertheless, in my case, I pray that I be as good a messenger of his will as possible. And then, of course, I pray for forgiveness."

Did Mr. Bush ask his father for any advice? "I asked the president about this. And President Bush said, ‘Well, no,' and then he got defensive about it," says Woodward. "Then he said something that really struck me. He said of his father, ‘He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength.' And then he said, ‘There's a higher Father that I appeal to.'"

Beyond not asking his father about going to war, Woodward was startled to learn that the president did not ask key cabinet members either.

"The president, in making the decision to go to war, did not ask his secretary of defense for an overall recommendation, did not ask his secretary of state, Colin Powell, for his recommendation," says Woodward..

..Today, while most doubt that Saddam still possessed any weapons of mass destruction, the president told Woodward he has no doubts at all about going to war.

"The president still believes with some conviction, that this was absolutely the right thing, that he has the duty to free people, to liberate people. And this was his moment," says Woodward.

But who gave President Bush the duty to free people around the world? "That's a really good question. The Constitution doesn't say that's part of the commander in chief's duties," says Woodward. "That's his stated purpose. It is far-reaching, and ambitious, and I think will cause many people to tremble."

..How does the president think history will judge him for going to war in Iraq?

"After the second interview with him on Dec. 11, we got up and walked over to one of the doors. There are all of these doors in the Oval Office that lead outside. And he had his hands in his pocket, and I just asked, ‘Well, how is history likely to judge your Iraq war,'" says Woodward.

"And he said, ‘History,' and then he took his hands out of his pocket and kind of shrugged and extended his hands as if this is a way off. And then he said, ‘History, we don't know. We'll all be dead.'"

For the complete transcript of this "Sixty Minutes" CBS News program, see:
cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml



2) Kerry and Meet the Press

Transcript for Meet the Press TV program
Guest: Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, presidential candidate
Meet the Press (NBC News) - Sunday, April 18, 2004
with moderator, Tim Russert.

[Excerpt]

MR. RUSSERT: ..Do you believe the war in Iraq was a mistake?

SEN. KERRY: I think the way the president went to war is a mistake.

MR. RUSSERT: But do you have a plan to deal with Iraq? This is what you...

SEN. KERRY: Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: This is what you wrote in The Washington Post last Tuesday: "Our country has committed to help the Iraqis build a stable, peaceful and pluralistic society. No matter who is elected president in November, we will persevere in that mission."

SEN. KERRY: Yes, we will.

MR. RUSSERT: That sounds exactly like George Bush.

.KERRY: It's different. Let me explain the difference. You know, last night I got a phone call, Tim, from a great friend of mine from Vietnam, and he was agonized, as I think a lot of veterans are, as they see our young men and women over there trying to distinguish between friend and foe, being ambushed in convoys, not even safe on the airport road, from the airport to Baghdad. I mean, this is extraordinary where we find ourselves. This administration misled America. Nothing is more important than how a president takes a nation to war, how a president decides to put young men and women at risk for our nation. I believe this president broke faith with the rules of how a president does that. He even broke faith with his own promises to the country. He...

MR. RUSSERT: But what can you do now, Senator?

SEN. KERRY: I'll tell you exactly, but it's important to understand why so many countries are unwilling to come to the table now. It may well be that we need a new president, a breath of fresh air, to re-establish credibility with the rest of the world so that we can have a believable administration as to how we proceed. But here is the bottom line: Number one, you cannot bring other nations to the table through the back door. You cannot have America run the occupation, make all the reconstruction decisions, make the decisions of the kind of government that will emerge, and pretend to bring other nations to the table.

Now, finally, George Bush is doing what I and others have recommended for some period of time. Ambassador Brahimi is there. George Bush, astonishingly, said at his press conference the other day, "Brahimi will tell us who we'll turn the government over to." So, in effect, he's transferred to the U.N. now just the decision about what government we'll turn it over to, but he won't transfer to the U.N. the real authority for determining how the government emerges, how we will do the reconstruction of Iraq. I think that's a prerequisite to bringing other countries to the table. That simple. It's that simple.

MR. RUSSERT: Should George Bush convene a summit at Camp David with the head of the U.N., the Germans, the French, the Russians, the British?

SEN. KERRY: I think it takes more than a summit. I think this administration has proven, frankly stunningly, ineffective in diplomacy. Just even in the announcement in the last few days, I think there were Arab leaders who were taken by surprise by this announcement. I don't think that surprise evidences the kind of groundwork of diplomacy necessary.

Now, here's what I'll do. If I'm president, I will not only personally go to the U.N., I will go to other capitals and I will have my secretary of state legitimately empowered to be able to be a full secretary of state, speaking for the administration, which we now know from Bob Woodward's book is not the case. The war within this administration over who's in charge of what and whose voice is being listened to is unlike anything I've seen in modern days.

MR. RUSSERT: If you were elected one year from now, will there be 100,000 American troops in Iraq?

SEN. KERRY: It depends on what the situation is you find on the ground on January 20th of 2005. I will tell you this, Tim. I will immediately reach out to other nations in a very different way from this administration. Within weeks of being inaugurated, I will return to the U.N. and I will literally, formally rejoin the community of nations and turn over a proud new chapter in America's relationship with the world, which will do a number of things. Number one, change how we're approaching North Korea. Number two, change how we're dealing with AIDS globally. Number three, change how we're doing with proliferation with Russia and other countries. Number four, change our approach to global warming and the effort of 160 nations. And that will take some of the poison out of the well that this administration has put there.

MR. RUSSERT: You do not believe the war on terror is primarily a military operation, not a law enfor...

SEN. KERRY: No...

MR. RUSSERT: You don't.

SEN. KERRY: ...not primarily.

MR. RUSSERT: You do not.

SEN. KERRY: Not primarily. Tim, Iraq had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. America really needs to stop and focus on the truth again. This administration--and we now know it from Bob Woodward's book. I mean, you can go through the series of events in August when the president was at the ranch taking the longest vacation in presidential history. During that time, the president was talking about Iraq more than he was talking about al-Qaeda. Andy Card came back and made an announcement that they didn't introduce a new product in August because that's not what you do in August. They introduced it in September. They came back and started down the Iraq road. They kept looking for a connection. George Tenet kept saying no connection. The intelligence people said no connection.

MR. RUSSERT: This is the war on terror, Senator.

SEN. KERRY: But let me just finish.

MR. RUSSERT: The war on terror is a law enforcement, not military...

SEN. KERRY: No. I said "primarily." And here's why. If you don't know--if you're going to fight an intelligent war on terror, you don't want to fight it here in America. You do want to fight it abroad. You want to fight it where the cells are originating. And in order to know who they are, where they are, what they're planning and be able to go get them before they get us, you need the best intelligence, best law enforcement cooperation in the world. Now, I've always said once you know where they are, will you use the Delta Force or SEALs or Rangers or Special Forces of some kind? Absolutely. And I will not hesitate to use those forces effectively.

In fact, this administration--I was the one who pointed out they failed to use our forces effectively in Afghanistan. We had Osama bin Laden cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora. Rather than deploy the 10th Mountain Division or the 101st Airborne or the Marines, rather than use the best military in the world to go kill the world's number-one terrorist, what did we do? This administration held them back. They sent the Afghans up into the mountains who a week earlier had been on the other side, and they let him escape.

I think that I can fight a far more effective war on terror. I will build alliances and cooperation. I will make America safer. But I will use our military when necessary, but it is not primarily a military operation. It's an intelligence gathering, law enforcement, public diplomacy effort, and we're putting far more money into the war on the battlefield than we are into the war of ideas. We need to get it straight.

MR. RUSSERT: Before we leave, this was John Kerry on March 10:

(Videotape, March 10, 2004):

SEN. KERRY: We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you. Just beginning to fight, here. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group that I've ever seen.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Who's crooked and lying? The president?

SEN. KERRY: I was talking about the attack machine. If you get on the Internet today, Tim, if you listen to what's on talk radio, and go out there and see the concerted, coordinated Republican attack machine, you will see an extraordinary level that demeans American politics. And I think most Americans--you know what Americans want, Tim? They want the truth. They want an honest vision for our country. I'm going to offer a real economic plan, unlike George Bush who's gone back on his promises on the war, back on his promises on children, broken his promises on the environment, broken his promises on job creation, broken his promises on health care, has no plan at all. I have a plan on each and every one of those. We're going to make this country stronger and safer, and we're going to take us to a better place.

MR. RUSSERT: Before we go, you and George Bush were both members of Skull & Bones, the secret society at Yale. The rule is, if someone mentions Skull & Bones, you walk out of the room. If you're both in a...

SEN. KERRY: You trying to get rid of me here?

MR. RUSSERT: You're both in a presidential debate and the moderator says "Skull & Bones," you both leave the podiums?


SEN. KERRY: I doubt it.

MR. RUSSERT: You'll hang in there.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator John Kerry, thank you for your views.

SEN. KERRY: Thank you.

For the complete transcript, see:
msnbc.msn.com/ID/4772030/



3) Bush Secret Oil Deal With Saudis

- - Mordechai Vanunu released from prison after serving 18 years

The following is from Democracy Now!

- - Did Bush Cut Secret Oil Deal With Saudis Ahead of 2004 Election? *

The White House and a top Saudi official are denying allegations that before the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration made a secret deal with Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan involving oil price fixing ahead of the November presidential elections.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, I'm Amy Goodman. As we continue our "Exception to the Rulers" tour, broadcasting from Los Angeles. Now we are speaking with Jim Paul, back in our studio in New York. He is Director of Global Policy Forum. As we take on the explosive allegations of journalist Bob Woodward made on "60 Minutes" and in his book, "Plan of Attack." Jim Paul, I want to go to the point that you're making that he's not challenging the fundamental issues of oil companies, and their role in Iraq. Can you expand on that, please?

JIM PAUL: Sure, Amy. The oil companies were kicked out of Iraq, the big Western oil companies kicked out of Iraq in the nationalizations in 1972. Iraq's oil reserves are maybe the greatest in the world, or possibly the second greatest, somewhere around 400 billion barrels of oil there. There's an incredible amount of potential profits for the big companies. If you multiply 30, the price of oil approximately today, times 400 billion, you get something like $12 trillion worth of profits possible there. It's quite clear that those companies they're very keen to get back into a denationalized Iraqi oil scene. There was a tremendous conflict between the French companies, the Japanese and Chinese companies, the Russian companies. The war, if you look carefully at how the war developed, and the U.N. sanctions that preceded it, it was a battle over who was going to get into Iraq and who was going to exploit Iraqi oil. This is the eighth war now, the counter-insurgency that's going on now, the eighth war in Iraq since 1914. Imagine that, a war every decade and -- every one of those wars to one extent or another has been centered on the question of control of Iraq's oil reserves.

Listen/Watch/Read
democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/20/1410236

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- - Mordechai Vanunu released from prison after serving 18 years

Wednesday, April 21st, 2004
On the morning that Mordechai Vanunu is released from prison after serving 18 years for revealing to the world that Israel had a nuclear arsenal, we go to Ashkelon to speak with his adoptive parents and a coordinator of the US Campaign to Free Mordecai Vanunu.
democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/21/1538214



4) Senator backs Draft to boost Iraq and Pandemonium

- - Privatization in Iraq: ‘Contractors' With Guns
- - 'Unprecedented Hatred' for US
- - Time Line Path to Pandemonium

- - Senator backs Military Draft to boost Iraq force

Senator says US may need compulsory service to boost Iraq force
Tue Apr 20, 1:24 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A senior Republican lawmaker said that deteriorating security in Iraq may force the United States to reintroduce the military draft.

"There's not an American ... that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future," Senator Chuck Hagel told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq.

"Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, arguing that restoring compulsory military service would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face."

For the complete article, see:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1506&e=1&u=/afp/us_iraq_military_draft

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- - Privatization in Iraq: ‘Contractors' With Guns

American news organizations are not doing the truth a favor when they call these hired guns "U.S. military contractors." Let's call these people what they are, even though Americans have yet to feel completely comfortable with the idea of killing for money.

For this article, see:
informationclearinghouse.info/article6069.htm

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- - 'Unprecedented Hatred' for US
Published Wednesday, April 21, 2004 by the Guardian/UK

Arab Ally Snubs Bush Amid
'Unprecedented Hatred' for US
by Ewen MacAskill in Jerusalem and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

A growing rift between America and the Arab world was exposed yesterday when two Middle Eastern allies delivered damaging rebuffs to President George Bush's policies in the region.

King Abdullah of Jordan flew home from the US after abruptly canceling a meeting planned for today with the president in Washington. The king's move came as the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, said there was more hatred of Americans in the Arab world today than ever before.

King Abdullah and Mr Mubarak are two of the most moderate leaders in the Middle East and the two normally closest to the US.

King Abdullah's cancellation was in retaliation for Mr Bush's support last week for a plan by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, in which he offered to pull out of Gaza in return for US recognition of illegal settlements on the West Bank and an end of the right of 3.6 million Palestinians to return to Israel.

Mr Mubarak cited as reasons for the increased hatred Israel and the US occupation of Iraq. In an interview with Le Monde published yesterday, he said : "After what has happened in Iraq, there is an unprecedented hatred. What's more - they [Arabs] see Sharon act as he wants, without the Americans saying anything"..

For the complete posting of this article, see:
commondreams.org/headlines04/0421-02.htm

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- - Time Line Path to Pandemonium

From The Wilderness Publications - Newest Feature Story:
April 20, 2004
TIME LINE: PATH TO PANDEMONIUM by Stan Goff

- The waste of life and limb in America's latest Iraq War has been escalating wildly under Paul Bremer's watch. A few minutes with any text of Roman history makes it all too clear that the job of a proconsul is to keep his assigned imperial province quiet ­ but don't look to the Bush people for historical perspective. In this hard hitting and moving piece, Stan Goff, FTW Military and Veteran's Affairs Editor, reminds us that:"It is always important to ask why we start history when." When we do, "things take on a brand new aspect."

This is a chilling free story. Read now at:
fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042004_goff_timeline.html


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