Clarke says Bush demanded 9-11 connection

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml

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Clarke then tells Stahl of being pressured by Mr. Bush.

"The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this.

"I said, 'Mr. President. We've done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There's no connection.'

"He came back at me and said, "Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection.' And in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report."

Clarke continued, "It was a serious look. We got together all the FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report. We sent the report out to CIA and found FBI and said, 'Will you sign this report?' They all cleared the report. And we sent it up to the president and it got bounced by the National Security Advisor or Deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, 'Wrong answer. ... Do it again.'

It got bounced and sent back saying, 'Wrong answer. ... Do it again.'

or they were praying for their Pearl Harbor.

Clarke relates, "I began saying, 'We have to deal with bin Laden; we have to deal with al Qaeda.' Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, said, 'No, no, no. We don't have to deal with al Qaeda. Why are we talking about that little guy? We have to talk about Iraqi terrorism against the United States.'

"And I said, 'Paul, there hasn't been any Iraqi terrorism against the United States in eight years!' And I turned to the deputy director of the CIA and said, 'Isn't that right?' And he said, 'Yeah, that's right. There is no Iraqi terrorism against the United States."

Clarke went on to add, "There's absolutely no evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda, ever."

Did they actually launch a terrorist attack against us?

When ? What was it?

And all their denials are starting to ring very hollow. We cannot point this out enough. Since they want to run for the White House on a lie, we have a duty to point out that lie at every opporunity.

There is an account of an NSC meeting which implys this was preplanned, too...so....

regarding the word at the Pentagon that Iraq would pay for 9/11 whether they did it or not.

Just so some understand, this is Clarke (with an e) not General Wes Clark.

...biggest audience ever tomorrow night. Although we know that one bozo won't be watching.

.....this is pretty bad, isnt it?

I've been in situations like this with my management. I know exactely what is going on here.

You will get the shills & wingnuts & freepers saying,. all shocked and innocent-like..."but Bush didnt say to make it up!"

Gosh I do despise Bush after reading this.  And Im going to just vomit at the right wing spin we can expect.

This could be the nail in the coffin of the Bush administration. I would urge everyone with any power to run with this information.

translates to another point Bush* loses in the polls. Hey, he ain't got many points to lose, either! Woo Hoo!

won't follow-up on this story, even with next weeks testimony?

I don't know if he is a paid consultant. Maybe they will cover. ABC does have a story on their website about this.

NYT also has a story about Clinton officials testifying next week about how they warned the Bushies.

"He came back at me and said, "Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection.' And in a very intimidating way.

This is also looking worse and worse for Condi Rice.

:nopity: she has an oil tanker named after her. This is sort of telling as to her (their) real loyalties, isn't it?

..seems like Condi is either "out of the loop", or was a real player in this.

"This is it, he is going down" The "media" just pretends nothing happened. I keep remembering the Sunday morning when Wolf Blitzer was standing outside on the White House lawn saying that there is discussion going on about "resignation" over some evidence (read: Blue Dress) concerning the Lewinsky scandal. The double standard is incredible. I almost believe that if a tape turns up with Bush admitting the unthinkable, the press would ignore it.