Today's Washington Post describes conservative intellectuals as abandoning the President on foreign policy. I inserted some accompanying video to illustrate President Bush's amazing level of understanding regarding North Korea, as well as video illustrating his tough "stop doing this shit" strategy in the War On Terror.
Thanks to the conservatives who put President Bush in office, it's now easy to see that words and the messages they convey aren't exactly the biggest weapon in our nation's arsenal when we need them the most.
Conservative intellectuals and commentators who once lauded Bush for what they saw as a willingness to aggressively confront threats and advance U.S. interests said in interviews that they perceive timidity and confusion about long-standing problems including Iran and North Korea, as well as urgent new ones such as the latest crisis between Israel and Hezbollah.
"It is Topic A of every single conversation," said Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank that has had strong influence in staffing the administration and shaping its ideas. "I don't have a friend in the administration, on Capitol Hill or any part of the conservative foreign policy establishment who is not beside themselves with fury at the administration." [Conservative Anger Grows Over Bush's Foreign Policy - Washington Post - 07-19-06]
Here is a nice clip of President Bush's special way of easing tensions with European allies. Did Putin get a massage, too, or was this one just for the ladies? Creepy.
When President Bush set out to eliminate the gray areas in the war on terror, the option left for ally and foe alike was clear. "You are either with us, or with the terrorists. And if you are with the terrorists, you will face the consequences." The Saudi Royal Family continues to profit from the September 11, 2001 attack on our country by 15 Saudi nationals and continues to stoke the flames of theocratic fascism between the black and white choices in the war on terror.
A 2004 Saudi royal study group recognized the need for reform after finding that the kingdom's religious studies curriculum "encourages violence toward others, and misguides the pupils into believing that in order to safeguard their own religion, they must violently repress and even physically eliminate the 'other.' " Since then, the Saudi government has claimed repeatedly that it has revised its educational texts.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, has worked aggressively to spread this message. "The kingdom has reviewed all of its education practices and materials, and has removed any element that is inconsistent with the needs of a modern education," he said on a recent speaking tour to several U.S. cities. "Not only have we eliminated what might be perceived as intolerance from old textbooks that were in our system, we have implemented a comprehensive internal revision and modernization plan." The Saudi government even took out a full-page ad in the New Republic last December to tout its success at "having modernized our school curricula to better prepare our children for the challenges of tomorrow." A year ago, an embassy spokesman declared: "We have reviewed our educational curriculums. We have removed materials that are inciteful or intolerant towards people of other faiths." The embassy is also distributing a 74-page review on curriculum reform to show that the textbooks have been moderated.
The problem is: These claims are not true.
A review of a sample of official Saudi textbooks for Islamic studies used during the current academic year reveals that, despite the Saudi government's statements to the contrary, an ideology of hatred toward Christians and Jews and Muslims who do not follow Wahhabi doctrine remains in this area of the public school system. The texts teach a dualistic vision, dividing the world into true believers of Islam (the "monotheists") and unbelievers (the "polytheists" and "infidels").
This indoctrination begins in a first-grade text and is reinforced and expanded each year, culminating in a 12th-grade text instructing students that their religious obligation includes waging jihad against the infidel to "spread the faith." [This is a Saudi textbook. (After the intolerance was removed.) - Washington Post - 05-21-06]
The Saudi Royal Family also enjoys not having to live up to President Bush's brilliant proposal to ease the cost of gas prices.
"What I think the president ought to do is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots. One reason why the price is so high is because the price of crude oil has been driven up. OPEC has gotten its supply act together, and it's driving the price, like it did in the past. And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price." [First in the Nation: The New Hampshire Debates -- GOP Presidential Candidates Square off - CNN - 01-26-00]
War in the Middle East is the perfect complication to the Saudi Royal Family's "supply act," and nothing has been more profitable for their empire than the instability inherent in a jihad against western interests in the region.
Minority Believes Bush Is Leading America in the Right Direction
May 12, 2006
These numbers should get a lot better among the President's right-wing base as the Republican controlled Congress and White House address corruption, ethics scandals, record deficit spending, gas prices and the war in Iraq by trying to ban abortion and deny gay families constitutional rights this summer.
President Bush’s job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January. Approval ratings for Congress overall also sank, and now stand at 18%.
Roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults say “things in the country are going in the right direction,” while 69% say “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.” This has been the trend since January, when 33% said the nation was heading in the right direction. Iraq remains a key concern for the general public, as 28% of Americans said they consider Iraq to be one of the top two most important issues the government should address, up from 23% in April. The immigration debate also prompted 16% of Americans to consider it a top issue, down from 19% last month, but still sharply higher from 4% in March. [Bush Dips Into the 20s - Wall Street Journal - 05-11-06]
President Bush asserts that his domestic spy orders are constitutional and only target the enemy and those who support their efforts.
"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," he said. Instead, the NSA's efforts "strictly target al-Qaeda and their known affiliates." [Bush defends NSA data collection program - USAToday - 05-11-06]
The Bush Administration has already lumped political opponents with "the enemy" that President Bush today stated was the target of domestic spying.
Political opponents who dissent are committing treason by providing aid and comfort to the terrorists:
President Bush and leading Republicans are increasingly charging that Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry and others in his party are giving comfort to terrorists and undermining the war in Iraq -- a line of attack that tests the conventional bounds of political rhetoric. [Tying Kerry to Terror Tests Rhetorical Limits - Washington Post - 09-24-04]
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"Those who make such allegations about the revised version of USA Patriot are giving aid and comfort to the enemy and weakening American resolve." [John Ashcroft - 09-18-03]
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"To those who pit Americans against immigrants, citizens against non-citizens, to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve," Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil. [Ashcroft: Critics of new terror measures undermine effort - CNN - 12-07-01]
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"Daschle's three years as Complainer-In-Chief have brought shame to the honor of his office, concern to our men and women in uniform, and comfort to America's enemies." [Republican Party Chairman Randy Frederick - fundraising letter - 09-04]
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"The Democrats are quitting, calling the war unwinnable while we have our men and women and their families sacrificing every day" charged Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Democrats are "basically giving aid and comfort to the enemy," echoed Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas. ['Unwinnable' comment draws GOP fire - CNN - 05-10-04]
The record shows Republicans have no problems associating American dissenters with terrorists. The concern of advocates for the Constitutional rule of law in America is that the Bush Administration has now created the means by which they can act against political opponents without anyone knowing and without any regard to the question of whether the American government has the right to spy on American citizens.
Yet another poll confirms that there are still some Americans that support our President's decision to committ our nation to war in Iraq. One third believe our President is doing an amazing job. They are called Republicans, and they might even live a couple of houses away from you and I.
Personal evaluations of Mr. Bush are the lowest they've ever been during his presidency. On the public's confidence in Bush's ability to handle a crisis, 51% had been the previous low in September 2005. That figure is now at 50%. The President's handling of the Hurricane Katrina crisis is tied to that decrease.
There is also concern that Mr. Bush is spending too much time on foreign policy issues: 55% think so. Also, on the issues that are most important to Americans, Iraq and gas prices, Bush's ratings have dropped.
On handling the issue of rising gas prices, Bush's performance rating dropped four percentage points from what it was a month ago (from 17% to 13%).
With the Iraq war, Bush's approval rating dropped one percentage point (from 30% to 29%) since last month. Similarly, only 30% of poll respondents said they have some degree of confidence Bush will be able to end the war successfully. The poll also reveals that 56% of those polled said that United States should have stayed out of Iraq; this number is the highest it's been since the start of the war. [Poll: Dim View Of Bush, GOP - CBSnews.com - 05-09-06]
If you can't be the head of the CIA under George W. Bush and not be able to do defense deals with friends over poker and hookers, what good is it being a Republican?
"It's all about the Duke Cunningham scandal," a senior law enforcement official told the Daily News in reference to Goss' resignation. Duke, a California Republican, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty in November to taking $2.4 million in homes, yachts and other bribes in exchange for steering government contracts.
Goss' inability to handle the allegations swirling around Foggo prompted John Negroponte, the director of National Intelligence, who oversees all of the nation's spy agencies, to press for the CIA chief's ouster, the senior official said. The official said Goss is not an FBI target but "there is an impending indictment" of Foggo for steering defense contracts to his poker buddies. [CIA boss Goss is cooked - NY Daily News - 05-06-06]
"Enemy at the Gates. Dick Cheney made a Fulton speech in Vilnius," said business daily Kommersant's front page headline.
"Vice President Dick Cheney made a keynote speech on relations between the West and Russia in which he practically established the start of the second Cold War ... The Cold War has restarted, only now the front lines have shifted," it said. [Cheney speech spurs new Cold War: Russian press - Rueters - 05-05-06]
Rewind...
Since the mid-1990s, U.S.and Russian interests have clashed over Iraq. Russia strongly opposed military action against Iraq in connection with the U.N. inspection regime. Virtuallyall segments of the Russian political spectrum protested vehemently against the U.S.-led missile and air strikes against Iraq in December 1998. Russia supported Iraq’s call for an end to economic sanctions and limiting U.N. weapons inspections. It also sought to expand economic relations with Iraq and secure repayment of $7 billion of loans owed from the Soviet period.
After September 11, Moscow moved away from blanket support of Iraq. Some Russian officials suggested that under certain circumstances, U.S. military action against Iraq might not seriously strain U.S.-Russian relations — provided it was not unilateral and Russia’s economic interests in Iraq were protected.
Nevertheless, on August 16, 2002, Iraqi and Russian officials announced a long-term agreement worth $40 billion for Russian firms to modernize Iraq’s oil, electrical, chemical, agricultural, and transport sectors. [Russia - Foreign Affiars, Defense and Trade Division - Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress - Page 17 IB9208901-05-05CRS-14]
INTERVIEWER: [Y]ou come from intelligence. This is what you did, this is what you know.
REP. GOSS: Uh, that was, uh, 35 years ago.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
REP. GOSS: It is true I was in CIA from approximately the late 50's to approximately the early 70's. And it's true I was a case officer, clandestine services office and yes I do understand the core mission of the business. I couldn't get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified. I don't have the language skills. I, you know, my language skills were romance languages and stuff. We're looking for Arabists today. I don't have the cultural background probably. And I certainly don't have the technical skills, uh, as my children remind me every day, "Dad you got to get better on your computer." Uh, so, the things that you need to have, I don't have. [Rep. Porter Goss - 03-03-04 - Washington, DC]
more...
In a rare public appearance Wednesday, CIA Director Porter Goss said he is overwhelmed by the many duties of his job, including devoting five hours out of every day to prepare for and deliver intelligence briefings to President Bush.
"The jobs I'm being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal," Goss said. "I'm a little amazed at the workload." [CIA Director Goss Amazed at His Workload - AP - 03-02-05]
"The president believes Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a very fine job during a challenging period in our nation's history," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said as two more retired generals called for the secretary's resignation Thursday, bringing the number this month to six. [Ex-General: Rumsfeld Deserves Criticism - AP - 04-14-06]
... must be President Bush's Orwellian way of saying "a very fine mess."
"Again, I want to thank you all for -- and, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." [President Arrives in Alabama, Briefed on Hurricane Katrina - White House - 09-02-05]
I think I prefer the straight forward assessments of people who know much better and tell the truth.
One thing you won't find Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) doing this year is siding with recent Pentagon brass calling for Rumsfeld's resignation and a rethinking of our failed strategy in Iraq. In Frist's world view, Tennesseans making the ultimate sacrifice simply don't deserve that kind of leadership.
Enter Harold Ford Jr.
U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., called for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's resignation and urged President Bush to replace him with former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell.
Ford said if he were President Bush, "I would do whatever I could to persuade Powell to take the (position)." [Ford wants Rumsfeld to quit - Leaf-Chronicle - 04-14-06]
The statement from The Ford Report:
“For the sake of our country and the safety of our troops, President Bush should accept the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld has lost the confidence of his peers, subordinates and the thousands of men and women who bravely and selflessly serve this country.” [Ford: Rumsfeld Should Resign - The Ford Report - 04-14-06]
In case Rumsfeld didn't get it in 2002, this is what they meant by "overwhelming force."
Today, Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., who led troops on the ground in Iraq as recently as 2004 as the commander of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, became the fifth retired senior general in recent days to issue a public call for Mr. Rumsfeld's ouster.
"We need to continue to fight the global war on terror and keep it off our shores," General Swannack said in an interview. "But I do not believe Secretary Rumsfeld is the right person to fight that war based on his absolute failures in managing the war against Saddam in Iraq." [Rumsfeld Faces Growing Revolt by Retired Generals - NY Times - 04-13-06]
It's a matter of time before the conservative fringe proclaims those who serve our country to be living in an "Orwellian world," "drinking the kool-aid," or whatever conservatives' latest rhetorical cliche is to explain their drunken defiance of the facts.
The retired commander of key forces in Iraq called yesterday for Donald H. Rumsfeld to step down, joining several other former top military commanders who have harshly criticized the defense secretary's authoritarian style for making the military's job more difficult.
"I think we need a fresh start" at the top of the Pentagon, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-2005, said in an interview. "We need leadership up there that respects the military as they expect the military to respect them. And that leadership needs to understand teamwork."
Batiste noted that many of his peers feel the same way. "It speaks volumes that guys like me are speaking out from retirement about the leadership climate in the Department of Defense," he said earlier yesterday on CNN.
Batiste's comments resonate especially within the Army: It is widely known there that he was offered a promotion to three-star rank to return to Iraq and be the No. 2 U.S. military officer there but he declined because he no longer wished to serve under Rumsfeld. Also, before going to Iraq, he worked at the highest level of the Pentagon, serving as the senior military assistant to Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense. [Rumsfeld Rebuked By Retired Generals - Washington Post - 04-13-06]
Lawrence T. Di Rita, a counselor to the Defense Department, disagreed with the retired generals' characterizations of Rumsfeld's style. "People are entitled to their opinions. What they are not entitled to is their own facts
As Fred Kapln writes in Slate, the officer corps is getting restless. Take a look at the latest admission of regret in the pages of the latest edition of TIME, then ask yourself who you believe: the people who were asked to fight the war in Iraq or the selective reality of drunken, fawning partisans.
I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat—al-Qaeda. … [T]he Pentagon's military leaders … with few exceptions, acted timidly when their voices urgently needed to be heard. When they knew the plan was flawed, saw intelligence distorted to justify a rationale for war, or witnessed arrogant micromanagement that at times crippled the military's effectiveness, many leaders who wore the uniform chose inaction. … It is time for senior military leaders to discard caution in expressing their views and ensure that the President hears them clearly. And that we won't be fooled again.
[Why Iraq Was a Mistake - TIME - 04-17-06]
When it came to intelligence on WMD, newly revealed information shows President Bush preferred his own version of facts and preferred leaking only intelligence that helped him dupe the American people into making the ultimate sacrifice.
On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."
The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.
A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement.
The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert that the trailers were weapons factories. [Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War - Washington Post - 04-12-06]
Why doesn't President Bush declassify the currently classified report "Final Technical Engineering Exploitation Report on Iraqi Suspected Biological Weapons-Associated Trailers?" Why does the President only chose to declassify discredited intelligence that makes his case for war in Iraq while keeping the facts and the truth classified and away from the American people?
"Mistakes" is the conservative theme these days for those brave enough to admit it. Yesterday, at USD, the father of the "Republican Revolution," Newt Gingrich, honored the "father of modern conservatism," Edmund Burke, by echoing the theme.
Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the House, told students and faculty at the University of South Dakota Monday that the United States should pull out of Iraq and leave a small force there, just as it did post-war in Korea and Germany.
"It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy that country after June of 2003," Gingrich said during a question-and-answer session at the school. "We have to pull back, and we have to recognize it."
Gingrich was at USD for the inaugural Edmund Burke Lecture, named after a man who is known as the father of modern conservatism. [Gingrich at USD: Pull out of Iraq - Argus Leader - 04-11-06]
It seems like every time the President tours America making anew the discredited case for justifying war in Iraq, the rhetoric-weary American people place him at all time lows. Maybe, just maybe, it's because the American people are as smart as the very architect of the war in Iraq himself, former Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz.
Wolfowitz: -- there have always been three fundamental concerns. One is weapons of mass destruction, the second is support for terrorism, the third is the criminal treatment of the Iraqi people.
The third one by itself, as I think I said earlier, is a reason to help the Iraqis but it's not a reason to put American kids' lives at risk, certainly not on the scale we did it. [Paul Wolfowitz DoD Press Conference Transcript - 05-09-03]
President Bush's job approval rating is at a career low in this latest ABC News/Washington Post poll amid continued broad public skepticism about the Iraq war.
Just 38 percent of Americans now approve of Bush's overall performance in office; it's the lowest mark of his presidency, albeit by a single point. Sixty percent disapprove of how he's handling his job, matching the highest disapproval of his tenure.
One of the primary drags on the president's job approval rating has been the public's negative assessment of the war in Iraq, and in this poll 58 percent say the war was not worth fighting a majority sentiment for the past 16 months. [Bush Approval Rating at New Career Low - ABC - 04-10-06]
It seems committing American soldiers, their families and the nation to war in Iraq was just a matter of nuance for the Bush Administration. As long as intelligence challenging their discredited case for war was kept from the American people, the American people continued to sacrifice and believe in the cause. Americans no longer believe the President did the right thing for a reason. The American people are weary of hollow rhetoric and are awakening to the facts.
President Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, be the one to disseminate the information, an attorney knowledgeable about the case said Saturday.
Bush merely instructed Cheney to "get it out" and left the details to him, said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House. The vice president chose Libby and communicated the president's wishes to his then-top aide, the lawyer said.
It is not known when the conversation between Bush and Cheney took place. The White House has declined to provide the date when the president used his authority to declassify the portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, a classified document that detailed the intelligence community's conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. [Lawyer: Bush Left Leak Details to Cheney - AP - 04-08-06]
... unless it was authorized by President Bush to smear people telling the truth about the Bush Administration's dishonest mishandling of our nation's intelligence aparatus.
Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide told prosecutors President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case.
Before his indictment, I. Lewis Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the CIA leak that Cheney told him to pass on information and that it was Bush who authorized the disclosure, the court papers say. [Papers: Cheney Aide Says Bush OK'd Leak - AP - 04-06-06]
Disgraceful and dishonest...
"If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.
"I welcome the investigation. I am absolutely confident the Justice Department will do a good job.
"I want to know the truth," the president continued. "Leaks of classified information are bad things." [Bush welcomes probe of CIA leak - CNN - 02-11-04]
Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) has a choice. Sen. Frist can either stand with America's interests and allow the U.S. Senate to vote on the Dubai port deal or stand with corporate interests and buy time for a government-owned Dubai company's attempt to run some of our nation's ports.
In an election-year repudiation of President Bush, a House panel dominated by Republicans voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to block a Dubai-owned firm from taking control of some U.S port operations.
By 62-2, the Appropriations Committee voted to bar DP World, run by the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, from holding leases or contracts at U.S. ports. Bush has promised to veto any such measure passed by Congress, but there is widespread public opposition to the deal and the GOP fears losing its advantage on the issue of national security in this fall's elections.
As the panel acted, Democrats on the other side of the Capitol were clamoring for a vote on the same issue in the GOP-led Senate.
"We believe an overwhelming majority will vote to end the deal," said Democrat Charles Schumer of New York, whose attempt to force the issue to the floor brought the Senate to a late-afternoon standstill.
By its vote, the House committee attached the ports language to a must-pass $91 billion measure financing hurricane recovery and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The full House could consider that measure as early as next week. [House Committee Votes to Block Ports Deal - Washington Post - 03-08-06]
I don't know about you, but when the House passes legislation next week banning a government-owned company in the United Arab Emirates from running our nation's sea ports, I'll be watching my Senator, Bill Frist (R-TN).
I hope Sen. Frist quickly brings the legislation to the floor of the Senate and doesn't stonewall the American people's business or short-change our national security in favor of a business deal with a government-owned multi-national corporation.
Since the Dubai port issue exploded last month, the Bush administration, GOP leaders and DP World officials have tried to defuse the situation and to buy time to let the issue fade.
In a deal brokered by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), DP World resubmitted its acquisition this week to the administration for a 45-day national security investigation. Frist has said he will hold off any legislation in the Senate until that inquiry is completed, a vow meant to give the administration and the company a chance to present their case.
That agreement appears to have quieted calls in the Senate for immediate action against the deal. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), an early critic of the deal, said briefings by port security experts and company officials have eased his concerns. But House Republican aides and Senate Democrats said the Senate will almost certainly have to follow once the House acts. [House Agrees To Vote On Ports - Washington Post - 03-08-06]
President Bush had no idea his own White House leaked the identity of a CIA operative, vowing to fire anyone involved.
President Bush had no idea the Vice President was involved in a shooting.
President Bush had no idea his own Administration cut a secret deal with a country whose choice between being "with us or with the terrorists" required a $6.8 billion deal to control our nation's ports just to think about it.
Unaware President President Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates until the deal already had been approved by his administration, the White House said yesterday.
Defending the deal anew, the administration also said that it should have briefed Congress sooner about the transaction, which has triggered a major political backlash from both Republicans and Democrats. [Bush unaware of port pact - Cape Cod Times - 02-23-06]
$6.8 Billion Insta-Ally The Bush administration secretly required a company in the United Arab Emirates to cooperate with future U.S. investigations before approving its takeover of operations at six American ports, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. It chose not to impose other, routine restrictions.
As part of the $6.8 billion purchase, state-owned Dubai Ports World agreed to reveal records on demand about "foreign operational direction" of its business at U.S. ports, the documents said. Those records broadly include details about the design, maintenance or operation of ports and equipment.
The administration did not require Dubai Ports to keep copies of business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to court orders. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate U.S. government requests. Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries. [Arab Co., White House Had Secret Agreement - AP - 02-22-06]
Action speaks louder than rhetoric when it comes to national security.
America and the world will not be blackmailed. (Applause.) [President George W. Bush - State of the Union - 01-28-03]
What a difference a $6.8 billion deal to cooperate makes.
We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.) [President George W. Bush - Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People - 09-20-01]
While we're focused on how the Vice President operates within the White House, an interesting question arose in an interview between FOX News and the Vice President today. Did the Vice President exercise unilateral power to declassify national intelligence? The Vice President won't tell FOX News.
Question: Let me ask you another question. Is it your view that a vice president has the authority to declassify information?
Cheney: There is an executive order to that effect.
Question: There is.
Cheney: Yes.
Question: Have you done it?
Cheney: Well, I've certainly advocated declassification and participated in declassification decisions. The executive order --
Question: You ever done it unilaterally?
Cheney: I don't want to get into that. There is an executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and obviously focuses first and foremost on the president, but also includes the vice president. [Cheney Interview with FOX News - 02-15-06]
A subject for the federal grand jury, no doubt. But if the Vice President unilaterally declassified national intelligence without telling the President of the United States and authorized Libby to leak the identity of a CIA operative, that might account for why President Bush so eagerly asserted he'd fire anyone who leaked the operative's name.
QUESTION: Given -- given recent developments in the CIA leak case, particularly Vice President Cheney's discussions with the investigators, do you still stand by what you said several months ago, a suggestion that it might be difficult to identify anybody who leaked the agent's name?
THE PRESIDENT: That's up to --
QUESTION: And, and, do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. And that's up to the U.S. Attorney to find the facts. [President Bush Holds Press Conference Following the G8 Summit - White House - 06-10-04]
Ooops. Something happened in the White House between June 2004 and July 2005 that made the President revise his statement. No longer will he fire anyone who merely "leaked" the name. Now he will fire anyone who did it illegally.
"I think it's best if people wait until the investigation is complete before you jump to conclusions," Bush said at a joint news conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"I would like this to end as quickly as possible so we know the facts. And if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration," Bush said. [President vows to fire anyone who committed a crime - CNN - 07-19-05]
Did the Vice President unilaterally declassify intelligence without telling the President of the United States until much later, engaging in a pattern of calling his own shots? Unilateral declassification by the Vice President might explain why the special prosecutor is not pursuing charges in the leaking of the identity of a CIA operative, but it doesn't explain why this administration has not been forth-coming with the American people on how they went about creating legal parameters for smearing people who challenged their misleading use of America's national intelligence to sell the case for war with Iraq.
WALLACE: ... on that, sir? Excuse me. The president, as you say, talks about building democratic institutions. Does he view the U.S. military paying to plant stories in Iraqi newspapers as undermining a free and independent press?
HADLEY: The president was very disturbed about those reports. One of the reasons we are in Iraq is to help the Iraqis establish the institutions of democracy and freedom, and one of those, of course, is a free press and a free media. And so those reports are very troubling.
The Pentagon is looking into them. To the extent that kind of behavior is inconsistent with our policy, it will be stopped. Our policy is support a free media and get out truth, truth to Iraqis, truth to the American people about what is going on in Iraq.
WALLACE: So you're saying that there is going to be no more paying to plant stories in the Iraqi media.
HADLEY: They're investigating it. We need to know the facts. I've talked to Secretary Rumsfeld. He needs to know the facts. We don't at this point, but I think the policy of where we want to go -- the support for a free media, for truth about what's going on in Iraq -- that is the policy.
WALLACE: And does the president view these reports as inconsistent with that policy?
HADLEY: Yes. It's very troubling. And if it turns out to be true, I think you'll find that activity stopped. [Transcript: National Security Adviser Hadley on 'FNS' - FOXnews - 12-04-05]
2008 Presidential
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Wolfowitz: -- there have always been three fundamental concerns. One is weapons of mass destruction, the second is support for terrorism, the third is the criminal treatment of the Iraqi people. 
"If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.
Christian Grantham is an internet and television producer living in Murfreesboro, TN. Grantham has produced liberal and conservative talk radio, was a consultant to the Clinton-Gore White House on domestic policy forums and worked as a blogger for a political campaign for state office.
