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Tuesday, May 29, 2012
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Ex-Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet's memoir, which made news all last week, was a hot topic on the Sunday morning political talk shows -- and the book is not even being released until today. The Sunday talk show debate was a prelude to Tenet's appearance on 60 Minutes, which began, "The truth of the C.I.A. and al Qaeda starts before 9/11. Two years before the attacks, the C.I.A. had officers on the ground in Afghanistan laying plans to overthrow the Taliban and take out Bin Laden. But Tenet says neither Clinton nor President Bush would give him the go-ahead. Then, by the summer of 2001, Tenet says he was so alarmed by intelligence that an attack was coming, he asked for an immediate meeting to brief then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice. [Tenet]: Essentially, the briefing says, there are going to be multiple spectacular attacks against the United States. We believe these attacks are imminent. Mass casualties are a likelihood. [Pelley]: You're telling Condoleezza Rice in that meeting in the White House in July that we should take offensive action in Afghanistan now, before 9/11. [Tenet]: We need to consider immediate action inside Afghanistan now. We need to... We need to move to the offensive. In his book, Tenet says that, even though he told Rice an attack on Americans was imminent, she took his request to launch pre-emptive action in Afghanistan and delegated it to third-tier officials. You're meeting with the President every morning. Why aren't you telling the President, 'Mr. President, this is terrifying. We have to do this now. Forget about the bureaucracy-- I need this authority this afternoon.' [Tenet]: Right. Because the United States government doesn't work that way. The President is not the action officer. You bring the action to the national security advisor and people who set the table for the President to decide on policies they're going to implement. [Pelley]: You thought you had some time. [Tenet]: Well, you didn't know. Yeah, you thought you might have time. You can second-guess me until the cows come home. That's the way I did my job."
The CBS Evening News led with the story last night, asking, "What did the former CIA director say about the terrorist threat and when did he say it? That's one of the questions at the heart of today's war of words between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" and Tenet. Rice's "diplomatic language didn't disguise the Bush Administration's flat rejection of a series of charges leveled by" Tenet that the "White House went to war in Iraq without a serious debate." CBS's Bob Schieffer: "So you are saying that his charge is not true." Rice: "There was an extended period of time of trying other efforts." NBC Nightly News reported on the "pushback" against Tenet, who, "in his blistering new tell-all," says the Bush Administration "ignored warnings about Iraq and Al Qaeda." Rice "made the rounds of the talk shows, accusing" Tenet of "rewriting history in an explosive new book."
On CBS's Face The Nation, Rice said, "When George said 'slam dunk', everybody understood that he believed that the intelligence was strong." And on CNN's Late Edition, Rice said, "There was certainly a discussion in the administration with the President, with George [Tenet], who saw the President, by the way, almost every day in the Oval Office about what the intelligence was saying about whether the Iraqi threat was getting worse." The New York Times and AP, among other outlets, also survey Rice's statements yesterday.
More stories on the book: In the Washington Post Sunday, former CIA Bin Laden unit head Michael Scheuer wrote, "We shouldn't buy" Tenet's "attempts to let himself off the hook. ... Tenet in effect is saying that he knew all too well why the United States should not invade Iraq, that he told his political masters and that he was ignored. But above all, he's saying that he lacked the moral courage to resign and speak out publicly to try to stop our country from striding into what he knew would be an abyss."
And in the New York Times on Saturday, reviewer Michiko Kakutani declared the book "intermittently fascinating ... 'At the Center of the Storm' is interesting less for any stunning new revelations than for fleshing out a portrait of the Bush White House already sketched by reporters and former administration members. Mr. Tenet depicts an administration riven by factional fighting between the State and Defense Departments, hard-liners and more pragmatic realists, an administration given to out-of-channels policymaking, and ad hoc, improvisatory decision-making."
USA Today, meanwhile, reports, "The spies are coming in from the cold -- and heading straight to Amazon.com. A record number of former CIA officers and officials are stepping from the shadows to publish memoirs, novels, essays, training manuals, legal treatises and op-ed pieces," putting pressure on the agency's Publications Review Board.
The Los Angeles Times reports on its front page this morning that President Bush in all likelihood will veto the Democratic Iraq spending bill including a pullout schedule and Democrats "will protest and then send him the money without binding conditions. That noisy script, however, is just a prelude to a debate -- under conditions likely to be more difficult for Bush -- that could turn into a decisive moment for the course of the war." Bush has asked Gen. David H. Petraeus "to deliver a progress report to the nation in early September." Democratic and Republican "members of Congress already are focusing on September as their next major decision point on the war -- planning hearings to debate Petraeus' findings and, in the Democrats' case, promising new attempts to force Bush to withdraw troops. ... GOP leaders warn that they will need dramatic evidence of progress -- something that has been in short supply in Iraq -- to maintain support for the war." Along similar lines, Roll Call says "cracks are starting to show in the near-monolithic Republican support for the Iraq War, with...Bush's critics hoping that the trickle of opposition will swell into a flood later this year." Rep. Wayne Gilchrest , one of two Republicans to vote for the Democratic measure, "predicted that unless the situation on the ground improves significantly in the next few months, the number of Republicans...willing to stray from the party line will grow significantly. 'They are going to start popping off,' he said. 'I think by midsummer we could see that happening, breaking the logjam.'"
But the Washington Post says Gilchrest "might have expected praise for his votes that would start to bring the troops home." Yet "at town hall meetings on the Eastern Shore, the former Marine and Vietnam combat veteran has been called a coward and a traitor. After Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) voted for a nonbinding resolution opposing...Bush's troop increases, reaction in his district was so furious that local GOP officials all but invited a primary challenge to the reliable conservative. Inglis responded with multiple mailings to his constituents, fence-mending efforts and a video message on his House Web site pleading his case. On subsequent Iraq votes, he has not strayed from the Republican fold." Those "experiences...help explain the remarkable unity that the party has maintained in Washington behind an unpopular president."
Murtha: Bush Impeachment An Option The Politico reports this morning Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha "said Sunday that Democrats in Congress could consider impeachment as a way to pressure...Bush on his handling of the war in Iraq. 'What I'm saying, there's four ways to influence a president. And one of them's impeachment,' Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said on CBS' 'Face the Nation.'" Murtha "said the Democratic-controlled Congress will pass another war funding bill with similar benchmarks for progress in Iraq after...Bush vetoes the legislation, as he has vowed to do. 'If he vetoes this bill, he's cut off the money.'" Murtha, on CBS's Face the Nation also said, "I've visited Ft. Hood, Ft. Bragg and Ft. Stewart. The troops are burned out. They're extending to 15 months? I hear rumors in the Pentagon they're going to extend them to 18 months. They're not going to be able to sustain these deployments. So they're violating every guideline that the military has."
Rice: Bush Will Oppose Benchmarks The AP reports Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice On Sunday issued "a fresh warning to Congress" against challenging Bush on the supplemental or "emergency" spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rice asserted that he "will not sign any war spending bill that penalizes Iraq's government for failing to make progress." In appearances on three weekend talk shows, Rice "sent lawmakers a clear message, saying Bush would not agree to a plan that penalizes the Baghdad for insufficient progress." Rice's remarks are also featured in the Washington Times.
The Christian Science Monitor notes congressional Democrats "could have rushed the emergency war-funding bill" to the President this weekend, but "they're waiting until May 1 the four-year anniversary" of his "'mission accomplished' speech on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln." Meanwhile, Roll Call reports Democrats "plan to meet with Bush at the White House on Wednesday, following an invitation from the president last week."
Clinton Donned Dark Sun Glasses During Petraeus Hearing. Roll Call reports in its "Heard on the Hill" column, "The Blues Brothers. Tom Cruise in 'Risky Business.' Jackie Onassis. To that list of famous sunglasses wearers, we're adding Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)." Clinton "turned some heads during a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill with Army Gen. David Petraeus last week by sporting dark, oversized shades, even though the classified meeting took place very much indoors." Roll Call adds, "According to sources present at the Wednesday briefing, Clinton kept the glasses on for most of the session, which focused on the Iraq War. 'She walked in, sat down, and popped them on,' a source told HOH." Spokesman Philippe Reines "told HOH that the Senator didn't have her regular prescription glasses with her, so during the briefing, she whipped on her sunglasses, which also have prescription lenses."
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Tony Snow is back at the White House this morning. The New York Times notes he "has spent the past five weeks recovering from exploratory surgery in which doctors removed some small tumors and found others. The chemotherapy begins a week from Monday." Snow "said he planned to have intensive treatments for four months, then go on maintenance doses." The AP reports that on Saturday, Snow told "about 600 alumni and family members at a 30-year" Davidson College class reunion Saturday, "To my classmates who think I'm going to lose my great hair, forget about it." During "an impromptu question and answer session," Snow said he has become closer to God and his family because of the cancer. 'I am actually enjoying everything more than I ever have,' he said. 'God hasn't promised us tomorrow, but he has promised us eternity.'" The Washington Post says he "looked thinner and more drawn."
U.S. News and World Report reports this week that "police work is virtually the only protection against shoulder-fired missiles for the country's roughly 450 commercial airports-for now. What comes next is the subject of vigorous debate. The Department of Homeland Security is plodding through tests on technologies designed to deflect missiles away from their targets. As work continues, the airlines and some government officials have questioned whether the threat is large enough to warrant equipping the country's 6,800 commercial planes with defenses costing about $1 million per aircraft to install and $365 per flight to maintain."
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Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton took their battle for the soul of the Democratic party to California this weekend, and while neither flopped, media reports indicate that the enthusiasm of the attendees was clearly behind Obama. The Los Angeles Times reported a "parade of Democratic White House hopefuls," drawn by the state's "new prominence in the nominating process," addressed the California Democratic Party Convention in San Diego on Saturday and Sunday, "skewering President Bush and vowing to end the war in Iraq, as they auditioned before hundreds of the party's most ardent activists." On Saturday, Sen. Hillary Clinton "accused Bush of taking the country to war on trumped-up charges -- 'something that will stand in American history as one of the darkest blots on leadership we've ever had,'" while Sen. Barack Obama "brought state convention delegates to their feet by declaring it 'time to turn the page' and pledging to 'bring our troops home.'" The San Francisco Chronicle reported Clinton and Obama displayed "a clear contrast in style" with their speeches. Clinton's "eloquent speech impressed the convention, but Obama...sent shockwaves of excitement rippling through the hall filled with delegates and volunteers waving 'Obama' placards."
Newsday reported Obama "offered his most stinging criticism" of Clinton's vote to authorize the Iraq invasion, "exhorting California's overwhelmingly anti-war Democratic convention to hold politicians like Clinton accountable for pro-war votes." The San Jose Mercury News reported, "If Clinton's goal was to prove she's gotten the message about the war's unpopularity, particularly among grass-roots activists who attend conventions, Obama's was to spark the crowd with his call for 'a new kind of politics.' In a jab at Clinton's authorization vote, Obama said, 'I'm proud I stood up in 2002, and when it wasn't popular to stand up and urge our leaders not to take us down this dangerous path. And many of you did the same.'" The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Obama said in his speech, "We knew back then this war was a mistake. We knew back then that it was a dangerous diversion from the struggle against the terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11." The Union-Tribune noted, "While Clinton was heckled sporadically yesterday, she was mostly accorded respectful applause and cheers. The decibel level was considerably higher as Obama rocked the convention hall, bringing delegates to their feet several times and ending his remarks with such thunderous passion that delegates danced, sang, whistled and clapped long after he had left the stage."
The Chicago Sun-Times notes that even though Clinton offered more substance and new material, it seemed to matter little to delegates. The Sun-Times says Clinton "gave a news conference and answered questions about local California issues; he didn't. She offered some new thinking in her speech; he gave his usual stump speech and even borrowed lines from his recent talk on foreign policy to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. In fact, Clinton stole a page from Obama's book, segueing into anecdotes from her life, but he received a much warmer response from the crowd, even though he offered no new ground."
The Los Angeles Times reports that Sen. Barack Obama "argued" yesterday, on the 15th anniversary of the LA riots, "that little has been done to fix the social and economic conditions that gave rise to a three-day rampage that killed at least 53 people." Although the "riots occurred in Los Angeles, the conditions that spawned them persist around the U.S., Obama told an overflow crowd at the First AME Church." Obama said, "There wasn't anything going on in Los Angeles that was unique to Los Angeles. If you traveled to Chicago, you would see the same young men on street corners without hope, without prospects and without a sense of any destiny other than ending up in prison or in a casket." Obama, "speaking to an enthusiastic and overflowing crowd, drew a sustained standing ovation when he rebuked the Bush administration for funding the war in Iraq ahead of improving the lives of impoverished Americans -- particularly those in minority neighborhoods."
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The Washington Times reports this morning that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) "refused to accept that Justice Byron White was one of two Supreme Court members who dissented from the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a right to abortion." In last week's Democratic Debate in South Carolina, Richardson "named Justice White as the model of a justice he would appoint to the Supreme Court -- a statement that has upset some Democrats, particularly because of Justice White's dissent on Roe and later abortion decisions. Asked about the choice at a press conference yesterday, Mr. Richardson told a reporter that he had his facts wrong and insisted Justice White served too early to be part of that decision." White "served from 1962 to 1993 and joined Justice William H. Rehnquist in dissenting in the 7-2 Roe decision."
The AP reports Sen. John McCain, "defending his conservative credentials, said Sunday he is resented by some political activists in Washington while well received by Republicans around the country." McCain said, "I'm pleased with the support that I have all over the country from rank-and-file Republicans who are supporting me, who believe in me."
A piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel examines one of the reasons that Washington conservatives dislike McCain. McCain's "signature achievement in the U.S. Senate -- the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law -- is reviled by many of the GOP's most vocal activists and powerful interest groups." Cleta Mitchell, "a lawyer with Foley & Lardner who has battled the law on behalf of the National Rifle Association," said, "You have the key constituencies of the Republican Party, or the conservative wing of the Republican Party, who consider John McCain to be Public Enemy Number One."
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Jay Leno: "Well, according to people who watched" the Democratic debate last Thursday, "the big winner, apparently, was the Republicans."
Jay Leno: "Actually, Joe Biden looked pretty good. He was good. In fact, Joe's popularity has gone from 1% to 2% last week to 3% today. Do you realize at this rate, he could win the nomination by the year 2032?"
Jay Leno: "And...John Edwards apologized for his $400 haircut. He said it was a mistake, especially in the back, where they didn't feather it right."
Jay Leno: "Well, 'The Wall Street Journal,' of course, in a new Harris Poll shows that President Bush's approval rating [is] at an all-time low of just 28%. In fact, it is so bad that Alberto Gonzales said he's thinking about resigning just so he doesn't have to be seen standing with him."
Jay Leno: "Hey, did you hear about this? The government collected a record $48.7 billion in tax receipts in just one day. And that's just back taxes from Wesley Snipes."
David Letterman: "Saddam Hussein would have been 70 years old tomorrow. And if you're looking for a gift, he could really use an air conditioner."
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