Transcript: President Bush, Part 2

Couric's Interview With President Bush

(CBS) 
COURIC: Does it matter?

BUSH: Yeah, it does matter. Of course. It matters. He's – he's the head of al-Qaeda. And– but one thing is for certain, though, he's – he's not moving like he used to. Another thing is his – he's, you know, not communicating like he used to. And– and we'll get him. It's just a matter of time. We've got a unit in the CIA who is spending a lot of time thinking about these high value targets.

It's not just Osama bin Laden. It's his– number two man, Zawahiri, and there are others. The good news for the American people is that we're – we made a lot of progress in dismantling al-Qaeda. The al-Qaeda some command structure – ordered the attacks not only on the USS Cole and our embassies but on – on 9/11.

COURIC: Is this a civil war, Mr. President?

BUSH: In Iraq? No, I don't think so.

COURIC: What would constitute a – I'm sorry.

BUSH: – diplomats and – and our military don't think so either, nor do the Iraqi government. And – and the reason why is the army has stayed intact, the unity government is still functioning. There is no question that part of the strategy of – of the extremists and the radicals is to create sectarian tension. No question about it.

And no question that we have gotta work hard to prevent a civil war. But it's – it's important for people to remember that 12 million people said, "We want a government." So the people have expressed themselves. And – and now it's up to the Maliki government to do the things necessary to make sure that the country doesn't dissolve into civil war. But I – I don't believe it is now, nor do the people who are there on the ground.

COURIC: What is the significance, Mr. President, of – of your announcement regarding – the masterminds between 9/11? Can you explain that?

BUSH: Yeah, I will. Thanks. Your – your – we're talking right before I go – about to go into the East Room and give a speech, explaining to the American people that we've had a – that we've got Guantanamo Bay there to take people off the battlefield, people who are dangerous. And we're trying to get them back to their countries and/or give them a way forward in the justice system.

Secondly, I will be announcing that we have had a – CIA interrogation program. Everybody knows that, but I'm now formally announcing it. And that we've moved the people in the program, all the people in the program, to Guantanamo Bay. And the reason why we're moving them there is because we want them to go through – a military tribunal. We want them to perceive the justice that they denied other people.

Now, I'm also speaking this 'cause I want Congress to pass a bill that enables us to have military tribunals. The Supreme Court said you can have them but you must work with Congress to develop a way forward. And so that's part of my call is legislation. But the other thing is that now we gotta make sure that we have the capacity to interrogate, not torture but interrogate people to learn information. And one of the interesting things I think people will find in this speech is I'm going to reveal the data we have learned from interrogating people like Kalid Sheik Mohammad (PH) or Ramzi Ben Oshi (PH) or Abu Zabeda (PH) – these are all three cold-blooded killers that ordered the attack on the American people – about how that information has enabled us to protect the country better.

COURIC: Can you give us any indication about what kind of information you were able to glean from these, quote-unquote, high value targets?

[wissam4]

I always dreamed of studying in the USA, I even applied for this year's Medical program; but I'm not sure if I'll ever go there, to a country that doesn't respect me, my people and our freedom, freewill and independence.
Mr. Bush, Blair and Ms. EuroRussia, the MidEast problems can be resolved easily by making an independent state of Palestine according to the UN resolutions (the borders of 1967), return the millions of Palestinian refugees home, COMPLETE nuclear and mass destruction weapon removal of the region. These are the main points, and once there is peace there would be no need for extremism (historically proven) and about oil don't worry it'll finish in the next 100 years at max so spend the US citizen much earned money on altrenative energy resources rather than...
Ooops, I forgot that you don't want peace in our region, as this would compromise your occupation and makes you consider us as people.
(comment ends)

[wissam4]

2. When talking about Islam extremism, he must remember that americans made these groups in Afghanistan and asked their "moderate Islamic" ally which is Saudi Arabia to give the power, money and weapon to fight soviets in Afghanistan. Contrary to what Bush said that extremists are a minority in the Middle East it's not the case anymore, they are increasing in popularity day after day in the Sunni communities because they represent the only hope left for a "dignified" life as the "moderate" regimes in KSA, Jordan, Egypt,... are oppressing their people with US approval. I'm a Lebanese Christian so I'm afraid that this "war on terrorism" is like another crusade, afterwhich Eastern Christians will lose and the bed of christianity would have no more christians in it (israel is making for instance a cleansing of christians off Jerusalem whose number now barely flares the 2000 from a 70% at the beginning of the past century).
3. When talking about Iran's goal to acquire nuclear energy, Bush tells us a fairy tail about pure good and pure evil. Why does he allow israel to have not simply nuclear power but a full range nuclear weapons? Isn't israel a state just like Iran built on a fanatic religious idea? Doesn't it treat Arabs in it as second degree citizens? But that's a democratic state, it's all virtuous even if crimes against humanity are made everyday, Bush would say that it's for the greater good. When was the first instance of evil breeding good?!
(Part 2 ends, to be continued)

[wissam4]

I'm from Lebanon the MidEast and when I read the interview with George Bush, I saw the same erroneous look at the region and its people. I'm not saying that the American administration doesn't know the reality but it simply changes it to its own goals which are far from fighting extremism and closer to breeding some. I'm going to give a few representative points that show how the American administration breeds terrorism and extremism in our region:
1. History and historical events don't account for the american analyses. For example, when talking about israel nobody mentions that its rise (by european Jewish settlers killing and displacing Palestinians from their homes in 1948 and subsequent aggressive actions and "ideology" - simply review the Talmud that mentions israel must extend from the Euphrates to the Nile) and continuous aggression on neighboring countries is the major cause of instability. When Bush said "And I wanna remind people that it was an unprovoked terrorist attack on that democracy [israel]", he simply forgot that israel was breaching the Lebanese borders every day of every year by sea and by air, it still holds Lebanese prisoners, it infiltrated repeatedly commando and spy forces... and Lebanon is a democracy from 1920 by the way.
(part 1 ends, to be continued)

[deeeeekay]

Favourite line: when Bush says "one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." !!!!

Yes, George, that's why we didn't want you going into Iraq in the first place!!!! There was no connection, and still isn't, unless you want to consider the insurgency and civil war there as "terrorism". But hey, even if you could twist them into the definition of "terrorism" (which you can't), then wouldn't you have created terrorism yourself in order to now justify occupying the country to fight it?

[artm72]

President Bush took the oath to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" not "the people of the United States". President Bush consistantly fails to recognize this.

The people of the United States, our country and our way of life are far better protected by the Constitution than by any man or his appointed cabal. That is why our Constitution has facilitated the development of a great nation and that is why our President should be made to obey it or face impeachment.