Biden Wanted Cheney Out Too

Said On Face The Nation 'Not One Piece Of Advice' On Iraq Was Right

(CBS)  "We were very surprised to see the account in this book, because it really didn't match Secretary Rice's recollection of the meeting at all," Bartlett said. "She said there were ongoing conversations about general threat levels, as we've testified to the 9/11 Commission about. We were taking actions to do everything we could to protect the country."

Bartlett said he was "pretty sure" that the 9/11 Commission knew about the all the conversations Rice had.

"She does remember meeting, this meeting and other meetings that they had where they were talking generalized about the threats and about what we're doing," he said. "But the suggestion in this is that they asked for a very specific plan to go after bin Laden. We knew an attack to America was going to happen. That is just not how she recalls it whatsoever. And none of the evidence as shown in the 9/11 Commission book says otherwise."

Biden said that, if Woodward's account is correct, "then Dr. Rice, Secretary of State Rice, did not meet her obligation to the 9/11 Commission, and George Tenet did not meet his obligation."

Woodward writes in 'State of Denial' that throughout the war in Iraq, the White House has received reports which said very different things than the President told the public.

For example, On March 16, 2003, Vice President Cheney told host of NBC's "Meet the Press" Tim Russert, "To suggest we need several hundred thousand troops there after military operations cease, I don't think is accurate. I think that's overstatement."

But a month earlier, CentCom estimated that it would take 450,000 U.S. troops to occupy Iraq based on the experience in Bosnia, according to the Washington Post.

"The president's always said, I depend on my military commanders. If he tells me we need more people, we send them. Well, that seems to be what they were telling him. And yet the administration was saying we don't need all those people," Scheiffer said.

"At every step of the way, the president has given the commanders what they wanted," Bartlett said. "Quite frankly, the politically expedient thing to do these days, in the last two years, has been to draw down the troops. That's what, apparently, so many critics here in Washington have claimed we should do."

Bartlett said that the president has a better understanding of the situation on the ground in Iraq than almost anyone. He is listening to military advisers and strengthening the forces there.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell also released a book this week in which he writes that he tried to warn him about what was ahead in Iraq but the president didn't understand what he was saying.

"Everyday, the president gets the full story about what's happening in Iraq," Bartlett said.

[hamiltongrad]

Say Fud - your last line indicates that America is responsible for the attack of 9 11 killing over 3000 of our own, and nearly crippling NYC . You have to be a nut case to believe that.And may I add a "how dare you!"

Flight 767 Egytp Air - The piolet brings down his plane by all evidence killing hundreds. Since "face" is so important in the Arab world, and since they blame Isreal for everything, I suppose you deny any Arab responsibility for that too. That is pathetic. In this modern civilizations the truth is important. The backwardness of some cultures is truly amazing.

[trueprogress]

You need to look at where we were. 1. We removed a brutal dictator, and freed the millions of people of Iraq. 2. Iraq had been a miliary threat to Saudia Arabia, and Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, and now no longer is. 3. We have tapes of Saddam planning to use chemical and biologic weapons in NYC. He would have had he been in power. 4. There is good evidence that Saddam was behind the OK Fed building bombing, and he would have done more. 5. We now have a strong miliary experienced in combat. 6. Librya stood down, without a shot. 7. And most importantly we have planted the seed for free press, democracy in other countries of the Middle East, such as Syria and Iran. Long term , this may be most important. 8. We are killing Al Quaida operatives, and leaders almost daily. Best source for this is not US press by Al Jazerra. We are clobbering them in so many ways, but the main stream press is not reporting ? biased. We have brought the fight to them and have gained tremendous information on their operations, already disrupting attacks here on the homeland.
Remember, more Democrats voted to liberate Iraq than not.
The problem is, Americans, esp. Liberals do not like to confront evil. It was beyound our understanding to plan for passengers slitting the throats of sterwardess, so too that Arabs and now blowing up other Arabs, children and women targets, is also beyound our world. But, it is not our doing.

[sayfud-deen]

let me understand you correctly trueprogress. what you seem to be saying is that it is ok to totally destroy a people and their way of life when they had absolutly nothing to do with 9/11. in other words you believe that it is ok to kill some common people because they have the same religious or ethnic background as some othe people that may have(notice i said may have)had something to do with 9/11? this has nothing to do with emotions. it has everything to do with rational thinking. it has already been proven six ways from sunday that iraq under saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. if your neighbor for example,punched someone in the face,would you like it if the person punched came back and shot you? would not like that policy would you? yet, this is exactly what you have stated to me. unless iam missing something,please explain to me how illegally invading a country,killing innocent women and children,destroying the social,economic,and ethnic fiber of the country,having your own countries soldiers killed and maimed,abusing alcohol and drugs because of too many tours and combat stress, and spending 5 billion dollars a month of tax payers money to fund this war,has advanced the policies of the u.s. citizens in this country? in fact, it has done little to help our policies in the world! as far as 9/11 goes there is more evidence coming out weekly that strongly suggest that this goverment and mossad had quite abit to do with 9/11!

[trueprogress]

SAY FUD - With all due respect, you are guided by your "feelings" and that is no way to make policy decisions. How do you think the people in the WTC "felt" jumping out of those sky high buildings ?

[sayfud-deen]

unfortunatly, i don't have the room to say all that i would like to say so i will make this short. i got an idea, for all of you that like the idea that the illegal invasion of iraq is good. why don't we give you an m-16,shells,and a helmet,and send you over to iraq or afganistan! for those of you that think that the iraqi's are happy to be living in constant fear with no clean drinking water,little or no electricity, little or no food,scarce medical treatment,and the possibilty that at any moment their door could be kicked in by troops or the militia, you need your head examined. for those of you that don't see a double standard with bush's policies,please read the laws. international,humanitarian,geneva,and the latest two the patiot act and imigration law. it's not just for aliens anymore. bush and his gang now have the authority to tag any u.s.citizen as an enemy combatant if you are a dissendent of this goverment,if you speak out,in general it can be anyone they don't particularly feel comfortable with. yes! the bill was passed so fast that if you blink you would miss it! wake up america!

[indvoter]

"Cut and run" Ooooohhh...original! Good parroting your party's talking points, using simplistic monosyllablic words for quick sound-bite digestion. So in fairness, let's use the same standard for all our Iraq options:

Let's see, the Bush plan would be "stay and lose", that is, lose more lives, more hundreds of billions of dollars (borrowed from the Chinese and Japanse against our grandchildren's economic futures), and more credibility--if we have any left.

Of course there is a third option: "Draft and crush". Triple the numbers of boots on the ground to 450,000 (as originally advised from the generals in the field) and impose brutual martial law, indefinitely.

But only if the U.S. public will support the military draft and the tax increases required to escalate the war. No passing the buck to unborn generations and to the predominantly lower-middle class military recruits.

Any bets on how well that solution would poll?

[trueprogress]

I agree 100 % with Hamiltongrad. We must stand together .

[marinemom05]

Were any of these people, including Rice, under oath when they testified? If not then it would be very convenient now for her to state that she has no memory of a meeting regarding this warning taking place. They have lied about everything else, what's one more. Also, if she does not recall this "warning" about an imminent attack, one has to wonder do they remember the PDB "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside The United States"? Doesn't that constitute a warning?

[rayhc]

My full name: Raymond Howard Carlson

My E-Mail: [e-mail]

Message:

Please get ALL the books by Joel C. Rosenberg and read them! Get a copy of the video and book entitled %u201CTHE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH%u201D by Hal Lindsey! Get a copy of the video of the controversial documentary film by Michael Moore that attacked the Bush Administration! Michael Moore%u2019s film was out in theaters about a year ago. Next, get a copy of a BIBLE (King James or New King James Versions)!

Unfortunately, more troops is better to secure IRAQ. Bottom line, we should NOT have invaded IRAQ. IRAQ never had weapons of mass-destruction!

CONTACT ME! Thank You.

[hamiltongrad]

What Senator Biden forgets, is that more Democrats voted for the liberation of Iraq than against it. The UN voted to back it.
As Americans we have trouble understanding true evil. We should not blame Clinton and his team for not anticipating the evil of Al Quida - cutting throats for Allah, tarketing women for death, submit or die,torture- and we should not blame President Bush either, because he brought liberation, Democracy, voting , power to the people to Iraq ! The terrible abuse of women and children under Saddam ended ! JFK would have approved . What Bush et al could not anticipate in Iraq- is the gross evil that exists in that part of the world. It is outside of our experience or comprehension. Who would have thought that liberation would result in Arab killing Arab, targeted child killing, women slaughter, putting ball bearings in bombs to put out eyes, and paralyze and much worse. This is violence their own people to cause terror and disrupt any freedom and democracy. Remember just after liberation the explosion of new newspapers, freee speech, and commerce ? That was too much for the evil enemy to tolerate.
Are we better off now ?
YES ! If we recognise this face of evil, and not turn away, deal with it, confront it, defeat it. Be stronger for knowing it.
Republicans and Democrats should unite to do so. Evil is the enemy. And the enemy is Radical Islam. Not ourselves. God Bless President Clinton and President Bush.

[drgoodwin12]

To mh4cbs1 you obviously have not been following Biden he has been a strong vocal opponet of Bush's handling of the war for some time.And it is a impossible job to try and get an investigation into all the numerous allegations let alone impeachemnt when your party does not control one of the houses and the media is soft on coverage.Had the media latch on to Clarkes book or O'Neils and follow through then G.W. would not be sitting in the oval office right now and you would not have a one party goverment.Read do your research before you speak.

[godfather052]

Dan Bartlett is just like the other Republicans. Tell a lie first, when that does not stick, blame it on Clinton, when that does not stick blame it on the so called liberal media. For the second time in history less than 30% of Americans and less than 20% of the world trust this administration or this Republican led Congress. They have absolutely no credibility what so ever. This is the most corrupt Administration and Congress in the history of America. Period

[mjv2944]

Biden is just another of the "do nothing" congress that we are saddled with. None of them deserve to be there. VOTE OUT all the incumbents. They are all hacks.

[drgoodwin12]

to mh4cbs1 I agree 100% with impeachment,however get your facts straight on Biden he has been challenging Bush from the begining.Now how about some hardcore reporting and a independent investigation into Bush and the Rovettes.

[cincigal74]

The main problem with these so called news anchors is that when they interview one of these high ranking Republicans,and they make blatantly false statement the news man just lets it go by without correcting them.Case in point;on FTN today McCain sated that " President had never said that the war in Iraq has made the US safer."Now I dont know where Bob scheifer has been for the past three years,but President Bush makes this statement in every speech he gives.Sometimes multipule times.For him to just ignore a statement like that is to deliberately aid and abet this administration in their lies and deciet.

[emhawks]

To mh4cbs1:
I completely agree! I would add to that, a request that people use the Internet to look-up & read about The Carlyle Group, Halliburton, Project for the New American Century, Scholars for 9-11 Truth & PatriotsQuestion911.com.
Do the research, get the information & form your own opinion.

[mh4cbs1]

Biden, if he had any spine, would be calling on the House of Representatives for the Impeachment of Cheney and Bush. Can anyone imagine a higher "high crime or misdomeanor" than taking a country to War on false pretenses? There is plenty of evidence that would warrent an impeachment (which is, after all a trial in the House). Downing Street Memos, Richard Clark, Tres. Sec O'Neil, CIA chief of operations in Europe Tyler Drumheller, the "intelligence" supplied by Rumsfled's 'Office of Strategic Plans' to Cheney, and the list goes on and on and on. Put them on all under oath and call other witnesses for a real investigation and the truth will come out.

Why doesn't CBS publicize this information? Why do the American Sheeple know all about Paris Hilton, and nothing about the behind the scenes Office of the Vice President. I do give credit for CBS 60 minutes interview with Drumheller, but there was no follow up by the rest of their news departmments.

Katie, want ratings? You will never compete by trying to out-fox FOX (they already have the mindless authority seekers) or by trying to imitate the celebrity shows with cute infotainment. Just tell the full story about what is going on with our governement. Report on things that matter to ordinary citizens. You will see see a strong response, as most people have given up on the networks, and turned to the internet and books as the only source of in-depth information on serious topics. provide the information and the audience will return.

[drgoodwin12]

Does anybody rememberthe first time Tenet testified before congeress about Iraq prior to the invasion?He stated then that "Iraq poses no credible threat to the United States and has no known affilation with Al Queda".This does not sound like a rat jumping ship.Everytime someone reveals something that condradicts Bush,Cheney or Rumsfield out come the rovettes to distract,misinform and manipulate the public.Clarke,O'Neil both wrote books that no one rebuked.That is only time the Rovettes shut up,they had no defense to the charges.Unfortunately the media practically ignored them instead of following through.Let us hope the media does not get soft this time around and keeps pushing,digging for information to support the claims being made.I noticed that General Abizad or Laura have not rebuked Woodward.

[roach9703]

Dear Folks:

With all this talk from Woodruff, Biden, Bartlett,
etc. , it looks to me that all are running for the exits from this sinking Bush Administration.
It is important to note the self interests of all the parties from Woodruff trying to sell a book that in part sounds like the National Inquirer, to the brillant advocacy of Mr. Bartlett.
The fact that Clinton's CIA director, George Tenant, is now only stating to Woodruff that he had this emergency meeting of July 10,2001, and not stating this in testimony to the 911 commission, could in explained the shift of the balance of power between Bush and his adversaries.
Remember all the rats run of the ship when it is sinking.

Peter Roach