4.09.2005
Buck Doesn't Stop at This President's Desk (SeattlePI.nwsource.com)
By HELEN THOMAS
HEARST NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan says President Bush was "pleased" with the latest investigation that blames CIA analysts for the false information that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
That's the reason Bush invaded Iraq, remember? Once again it's those low-level bureaucrats who took us into war. And once again a panel of "don't rock the boat" establishment figures has let the commander in chief off the hook.
I asked McClellan if the president was upset to be so misguided and at such a human cost. Well, you had to be there.
He danced around on the subject, talked about "a culture in the intelligence community that had not adapted to meet the threats that we face today." But he could not be pinned down on how the president personally felt about making war on the basis of bum information.
Any other president would have blown his stack. Instead, Bush honored former CIA Director George Tenet with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The commission assigned to inquire into the intelligence failures was headed by Laurence Silberman, a conservative Republican and retired member of the D.C. U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with former Democratic Sen. Charles Robb as co-chairman.
(More ... Buck doesn't stop at this president's desk) ¶ 19:55
HEARST NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan says President Bush was "pleased" with the latest investigation that blames CIA analysts for the false information that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
That's the reason Bush invaded Iraq, remember? Once again it's those low-level bureaucrats who took us into war. And once again a panel of "don't rock the boat" establishment figures has let the commander in chief off the hook.
I asked McClellan if the president was upset to be so misguided and at such a human cost. Well, you had to be there.
He danced around on the subject, talked about "a culture in the intelligence community that had not adapted to meet the threats that we face today." But he could not be pinned down on how the president personally felt about making war on the basis of bum information.
Any other president would have blown his stack. Instead, Bush honored former CIA Director George Tenet with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The commission assigned to inquire into the intelligence failures was headed by Laurence Silberman, a conservative Republican and retired member of the D.C. U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with former Democratic Sen. Charles Robb as co-chairman.
(More ... Buck doesn't stop at this president's desk) ¶ 19:55
