Rumsfeld getting heat from Bush

[Jobber of the Week 0]

President Bush on Wednesday chastised his defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, for Mr. Rumsfeld's handling of a scandal over the American abuse of Iraqis held at a notorious prison in Baghdad, White House officials said.

 

The disclosures by the White House officials, under authorization from Mr. Bush, were an extraordinary display of finger-pointing in an administration led by a man who puts a high premium on order and loyalty. The officials said the president had expressed his displeasure to Mr. Rumsfeld in an Oval Office meeting because of Mr. Rumsfeld's failure to tell Mr. Bush about photographs of the abuse, which have enraged the Arab world.

 

In his interviews on Wednesday with Arab television networks, Mr. Bush said that he learned the graphic details of the abuse case only when they were broadcast last Wednesday on the CBS program "60 Minutes II." It was then, one White House official said, that Mr. Bush also saw the photographs documenting the abuse. "When you see the pictures," the official said, "it takes on a proportion of gravity that would require a much more extreme response than the way it was being handled."

 

Another White House official said, "The president was not satisfied or happy about the way he was informed about the pictures, and he did talk to Secretary Rumsfeld about it."

 

The disclosure of the dressing-down of the combative Mr. Rumsfeld was the first time that Mr. Bush has allowed his displeasure with a senior member of his administration to be made public. It also exposed the fault lines in Mr. Bush's inner circle that have deepened with the violence and political chaos in American-occupied Iraq.

 

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who has often been at odds with Mr. Rumsfeld, went so far on Tuesday night as to talk about the prison abuse scandal in the context of the My Lai massacre of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese men, women and children by American troops, a historical reference that was not in the White House talking points that sought to stem the damage from the scandal.

 

Mr. Powell, in an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," brought up My Lai without prompting, saying that he served in Vietnam "after My Lai happened" and that "in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they're still to be deplored."

 

The scandal comes at a particularly difficult time for the White House, which is struggling for an orderly transfer of power to the Iraqis on June 30 and also engaged in a tight and expensive presidential re-election campaign against Senator John Kerry.

 

Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, has told one Bush adviser that he believes that it will take a generation for the United States to live this scandal down in the Arab world, and that one of the dangers of basing a campaign on national security and foreign policy is that events can be beyond the president's control.

 

Despite the behind-the-scenes criticism of Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Bush insisted that the defense secretary still had his full support. "Of course I've got confidence in the secretary of defense," Mr. Bush said in an interview with Al Hurra, an Arab television network.

 

Republicans noted a strong public relations aspect to the disclosures about the Oval Office scolding, which made Mr. Rumsfeld the scapegoat in the scandal.

 

On Monday, Mr. Bush is scheduled to make a rare visit to the Pentagon, where he will meet with Mr. Rumsfeld on the defense secretary's turf, receive a briefing on Iraq and make a public statement.

 

White House officials said that the visit had been planned before the abuse scandal erupted, but they acknowledged that its timing was opportune for Mr. Bush to make a public show of support for Mr. Rumsfeld after the messy events of Wednesday.

 

Still, Mr. Rumsfeld faced increasingly restive Republicans on Capitol Hill, who were angry that the defense secretary told them nothing about the photographs, which showed Iraqis stripped of their clothes, piled on top of one another and in positions that appeared to simulate sexual acts, when he briefed them last Wednesday, the same day that "60 Minutes II" broadcast its story.

 

"No member of the Senate had any clue," said Senator Richard G. Lugar, the Indiana Republican who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. "This is entirely unacceptable. I think it's a total washout as far as communications, and it has to be rectified."

 

Democrats were even more caustic. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, stopped just short of calling for Mr. Rumsfeld's resignation, saying that if the blame went all the way to Mr. Rumsfeld's office, he should step down. "This is a disaster of significant proportions," Mr. Biden said. "It calls for accountability and quickly."

 

It was unclear Wednesday from interviews with Pentagon officials exactly how much Mr. Rumsfeld knew about the scandal and when.

 

Pentagon officials said that Mr. Rumsfeld was first notified about the pictures in mid-January, after a soldier turned them over to Army officials, prompting the opening of an investigation. A senior Pentagon official said that Mr. Rumsfeld was told of the allegations of abuse and given a general description of the photographs.

 

Within weeks, the Pentagon official said, Mr. Rumsfeld told the president about the case. But it is not clear, the official said, whether Mr. Rumsfeld mentioned the photographs or their basic content to Mr. Bush at that point.

 

Mr. Bush first mentioned the abuse scandal publicly last Friday in the Rose Garden, when he said he shared "deep disgust" about the photographs. That evening, he went to a party at Mr. Rumsfeld's house in the Kalorama section of Washington, where it is not known whether he and his defense secretary talked about the pictures.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/politics/06CABI.html

 

To ape a wrestling line: Is their strife inside the n-Dubya-o? TUNE INTO FOXNEWSLOL TO FIND OUT!

 

Personally, although I seriously doubt Rumsfeld will go anywhere for this immediately, I always suspected Cheney would become Seceretary of Defense in the event of a second term, and the more Republicans change their mind about Rumsfeld, the more it might happen. It'd also put Dick on familiar ground and he's clearly the brains of the whole war on terror anyway (and no, I'm not saying it has anything to do with That Company which starts with H), and put to rest fears that a guy with a known heart condition could possibly become President.

[Guest hunger4unger]

This is just a story to clear Bush's back. With Bush claiming he didn't know the torture was going on until he saw it on TV, he can't be accused of turning a blind eye to it.

[Guest Cerebus]

Is their strife inside the n-Dubya-o? TUNE INTO FOXNEWSLOL TO FIND OUT!

[Guest BDC]

This is just a story to clear Bush's back. With Bush claiming he didn't know the torture was going on until he saw it on TV, he can't be accused of turning a blind eye to it.

So combine this with the thread you started that Mr. President failed to apologize and put Occum's Razor to it: HE DIDN'T KNOW.

 

Make up your mind, is our President an idiot or capable of these conspiracies? Sometimes I wonder why you haven't been hit for flamebaiting.

[Slayer 0]

This is just a story to clear Bush's back. With Bush claiming he didn't know the torture was going on until he saw it on TV, he can't be accused of turning a blind eye to it.

So combine this with the thread you started that Mr. President failed to apologize and put Occum's Razor to it: HE DIDN'T KNOW.

 

Make up your mind, is our President an idiot or capable of these conspiracies? Sometimes I wonder why you haven't been hit for flamebaiting.

Because the bouncing boobies in his avatar are meant to distract people from his horrid posts

[Guest Cerebus]

This is just a story to clear Bush's back. With Bush claiming he didn't know the torture was going on until he saw it on TV, he can't be accused of turning a blind eye to it.

So combine this with the thread you started that Mr. President failed to apologize and put Occum's Razor to it: HE DIDN'T KNOW.

 

Make up your mind, is our President an idiot or capable of these conspiracies? Sometimes I wonder why you haven't been hit for flamebaiting.

Because the bouncing boobies in his avatar are meant to distract people from his horrid posts

They're certainly far more enjoyable to look at.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Make up your mind, is our President an idiot or capable of these conspiracies? Sometimes I wonder why you haven't been hit for flamebaiting.

 

It's much more interesting to see someone's opinions get shredded for being unsubstantiated or downright goofy than it is to bitch at them for "Flamebait."

[Vyce 0]

I always suspected Cheney would become Seceretary of Defense in the event of a second term

You know who also thinks that Cheney will be "stepping down" as Vice President to just take a cabinet position? Dick Morris.

 

Of course, he still swears that Hillary is going to enter the race.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Well, can't you just picture him onstage doing the Hogan air guitar?

 

Vyce sez:

You know who also thinks that Cheney will be "stepping down" as Vice President to just take a cabinet position? Dick Morris.

 

Really? I recognize the guy's name, but can't place it with a face. Is he a regular on the talking head circuit or something?

[Guest MikeSC]

Well, can't you just picture him onstage doing the Hogan air guitar?

 

Vyce sez:

You know who also thinks that Cheney will be "stepping down" as Vice President to just take a cabinet position? Dick Morris.

 

Really? I recognize the guy's name, but can't place it with a face. Is he a regular on the talking head circuit or something?

Clinton's former campaign manager and, well, quite the media whore. If you haven't seen him on TV, wait 5 minutes --- he'll appear somewhere.

This is just a story to clear Bush's back. With Bush claiming he didn't know the torture was going on until he saw it on TV, he can't be accused of turning a blind eye to it.

So, this dumb guy has the ability to confuse the world with his diabolical conspiracies? Amazing.

 

Funny, because nobody in Washington seems capable of keeping a secret (including this one, mind you), so this conspiracy theory seems a bit lacking.

 

*Sees post is from hunger4unger*

 

Oh, that explains it.

-=Mike