News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinewar-on-terroriraqpretext — Viewing Item


Rumsfeld told saudi bandar sadam is toast

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4773699/

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4773699/

Woodward defends book about Bush war strategy
Powell, others challenge his account of events before Iraq war

NBC News and news services
Updated: 9:22 a.m. ET April 20, 2004NEW YORK - Journalist Bob Woodward was on the defensive Tuesday, rebutting denials by Bush administration officials and the Saudi ambassador about who knew what and when they knew it when it came to planning the war against Saddam Hussein.

Woodward sparked the controversy in his book "Plan of Attack," in which he claims that Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was said to be cool to the idea of war, was left out of the loop when President Bush made the decision to invade Iraq. Woodward writes that the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, was told of the plan two days before Powell ever was.

The Washington Post journalist claims that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice-President Dick Cheney told Bandar of the decision in a meeting on Jan. 11, 2003, using phrases such as "you can take it to the bank ... this is going to happen" and "He (Saddam) is toast."

Appearing on NBC's "Today" show for a second day, Woodward said "people do not want to acknowledge" that the president told some about the war ahead of others. "Now people are changing their story or giving it a different emphasis," he added.

Woodward himself got testy, telling "Today" host Matt Lauer "wait just a second, calm down please," when Lauer reiterated reaction that Woodward's book left the impression Powell was "frozen out of the war plan."

"I never said that," Woodward responded, adding that Powell for one "is disputing things that I don't say."

During an interview with the Associated Press, Powell had acknowledged for the first time that he and others had talked to Woodward as "part of our instructions from the White House."

"It was an opportunity to help him write a history, a contemporary history of this period," he said. "It was no secret that all of us were encouraged to talk to Mr. Woodward. In my case, it was just a couple of phone calls."

However, Woodward told the "Today" show that he spoke with Powell on six occasions and provided dates of the telephone interviews.

President Bush also spoke with Woodward for more than three hours and instructed his top advisers to cooperate, but the final product was not something everyone agrees on. Below are responses to some of the assertions in the book.

Colin Powell
"The question that has arisen seems to be that Prince Bandar received a briefing on the plan, with some suggestion that I hadn’t," Powell told NBC's Andrea Mitchell. "Of course I had. I was intimately familiar with the plan and I was aware that Prince Bandar was being briefed on the plan."

But Woodward said Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live" that while Powell might have known of the plan, he was not told of the decision to implement it until after the Jan. 11 meeting with Bandar.

Powell, in radio comments Monday, also said he knew he would support a war if he failed to find a diplomatic solution at the United Nations. "I knew that it might happen, and I knew that when he (Bush) took that second road, I’d be with him for the whole way. I don’t quit on long patrols," Powell said.

"I believe it was the right decision at the time (to go to war), and I believe it is the right decision now," he added.

Related story
Powell discusses book in an NBC interview





Ambassador Bandar
The Saudi envoy called in to "Larry King Live" on Monday to take issue with Woodward, saying Cheney and Rumsfeld had told him only that war was possible.

"What he (Woodward) said is accurate. However there was one sentence that was left out," Bandar said. "Most of it was accurate except that I was informed that the president had not made a decision yet."

After Bandar’s phone call, Woodward commented: "Going back to Nixon, I’ve heard all of them... This goes in the hall of fame of dodges and fishy explanations, I think it should get an academy award ... Congratulations, Bandar."

Woodward on "Today" described Bandar as having acknowledged that Woodward's account is "fully accurate."

Bandar also said he made no pledge that Saudi Arabia would try to increase crude production before the U.S. presidential election in an effort to curb rising gasoline prices. He suggested any conversations he had about oil prices with Bush were similar to discussions he had had with past U.S. presidents.

"Oil prices and Saudi Arabia and American politics are intertwined. I wish we can influence the oil price situation, but we can not," said Bandar, who has been the Saudi envoy to the United States for 20 years and is part of the Saudi royal family, which has had a close relationship with the Bush family for years.

The Saudi Arabian government echoed that on Tuesday. "The allegation that the kingdom is manipulating the price of oil for political purposes or to affect elections is erroneous and has no basis in fact," said a statement issued in Riyadh by top Saudi foreign policy adviser Adel al-Jubeir.

Related news
Full coverage of the Iraq conflict



"Over the past 30 years, the kingdom has sought to ensure adequate supplies of crude at moderate price levels that are acceptable to both producers and consumers. This policy is consistent, and independent of who is in power within consuming countries, including the U.S.," al-Jubeir added.

Woodward on "Today" emphasized that "no such assertion is made that there was a deal" and suggested he thought reaction to that excerpt was overblown.


Condoleezza Rice
The president's national security advisor disputed the assertion in Woodward's book that the president decided in early January 2003 to invade Iraq, three months before official accounts say the decision was made.

The statement is "simply not, not right," Rice said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Rice did not deny the private conversation between her and Bush just after New Year’s Day in which Woodward said the decision was made, but she said Woodward had misinterpreted what was said.

In such sessions, she said, Bush "kind of thinks out loud."

"He said, ‘No, I think we probably are going to have to go to war. We’re going to have to go to war.’ And it was not a decision to go to war," Rice said. "That decision he made in March, when he finally decided to do that."

She said Woodward also misread another comment attributed to her, that since Rumsfeld knew of the "go" decision and Powell did not, perhaps Bush should tell Powell.

She said the Powell misunderstanding grew from her comment to Bush that "If you’re beginning to think that the diplomacy is not working, it’s probably time to have a conversation with the secretary of state. I’m sure he would have, in any case."

Rice said she meant that Bush should ask Powell "his sense of how the diplomacy was going" and that Bush had thought diplomacy would not succeed.

Kerry weighs in
Woodward's book has also become election fodder.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry referred to the allegations on oil production on Monday. "If it is true that gas supplies and prices in America are tied to the American election, tied to a secret White House deal, that is outrageous and unacceptable to the American people," Kerry said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan would not respond to the book, but said Bandar has always reflected Saudi policy of trying to keep world oil prices stable so as not to affect economic growth. At recent talks at the White House, McClellan said, Bandar "committed to making sure prices remained in a range of, I believe, $22 to $28 per barrel of oil, and that they don't want to do anything that would harm our consumers or harm our economy."

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, asked Bush on Monday to send Bandar home. "I urge you to take immediate action to safeguard the integrity of the American electoral process by deporting Prince Bandar and canceling his diplomatic visa," Schumer said in a letter to Bush.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.



alqaeda
british
david-kelly
doubts
false-intelligence
inquiry
investigation
iraq-denies
israel
leak-osama-link
wmd
2002 dia report questions intelligence for war { November 6 2005 }
Administration manifactured and manipulated intelligence
Broke missile limits { February 13 2003 }
Bureau of intelligence and research got it wrong { July 19 2004 }
Bush and blair plot pretext to attack iraq
Bush warns on iraq { October 6 2002 }
Chemical attack 45min
Cheney passed intelligence from iraqi national congress
Cheneys war by fraud exposed
Could plant weapons
Distortions of intelligence on iraq { August 1 2003 }
Drone weapon { March 13 2003 }
Drones target cities { February 24 2003 }
Fabricating pretext war
Found road
German embassy siezed by anti hussein iraqis { August 21 2002 }
German embassy siezed by iraqi dissidents { August 20 2002 }
Iraq china chemical
Iraq not violating fly zones { November 19 2002 }
Iraq nukes soon { September 16 2002 }
Iraq report claims no arms { September 17 2004 }
Iraq report falls short { December 20 2002 }
Iraqi speakers found { August 26 2002 }
Nonexistent biolab trailers carried case for war { April 12 2006 }
Nsa has evidence
Oil contracts planned pre 911
Pilot behind enemy lines
Powell testiomy based on flawed intelligence { February 5 2003 }
Report criticizes administration assessments of iraq dangers
Report says iraq bigger threat if defeated { July 21 2003 }
Reporter apologizes for iraq coverage { March 29 2004 }
Rumsfeld draws blank on blairs 45 minute iraq claim { February 11 2004 }
Rumsfeld told saudi bandar sadam is toast
Stovepipe seymour hersh { September 11 2001 }
Tape deceiving inspectors { February 3 2003 }
Tenet denied influence from osp { February 6 2004 }
Tenet denies pressure to torque iraq intelligence
Tenet says saddam wasnt threat
Un finds empty warheads
Us backed iraqis provided questionable info
Whats he have
White house embraced disputed intelligence { October 3 2004 }
Wolfowitz says war about oil

Files Listed: 43



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple