Oakland Trib: "Woodward: Bush planned Iraq war amid diplomacy"

[gristy]

I typed into news.google 4 words: $700 bush iraq afghanistan, and got just 23 hits. I dunno, this misappropriated $700 million seems like a big deal to me...

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2090604,00.html

<snip>
In the summer of 2002, Bush approved $700 million worth of "preparatory tasks" in the Persian Gulf region such as upgrading airfields, bases, fuel pipelines and munitions storage depots to accommodate a massive U.S. troop deployment. The Bush administration funded the projects from a supplemental appropriations bill for the war in Afghanistan and old appropriations, keeping Congress unaware of the reprogramming of money and the eventual cost.

MORE

[fedupwithbush]

1. I thought so too!

I was surprised to only see it in GD earlier. I've already started e-mailing the other news shows. Do you remember Iran Contra? Man, I hope so. But they didn't get Reagan for it. Here's hoping Kerry does the right thing when he gets in. NO PARDONS! How many laws do these people have to break before even their own party turns on them!!!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. But the planning for the invasion of Iraq took place long before...

...the summer of 2002. The notes from Cheney's "energy meetings" hold the key, and that's why the NeoCons are fighting so hard to keep anyone else from seeing them.

[PA Democrat]

4. We should work with moveon.org

to organize a write, call, fax your member of congress day to DEMAND access to those secret energy meetings. I agree, those meetings were all about carving up the "spoils of war" from Iraq.

Demand that fat Tony Scalia recuse himself from the case.

Demand a truly independent inquiry into the Iraq invasion.

DEMAND impeachment. Even though we know the republican House will never allow articles of impeachment to come up for a vote, we need to make as MUCH NOISE as possible. Wake up the press, wake up the American public.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Woodward indicates it's unconstitutional, in the "60 Minutes"...

interview which will air tomorrow night, and this is reported apparently only on the CBS website. Some of us are hoping its significance will be understood after the interview airs. One would have thought the press would have seized on it already, as you did, but today's working press may not know the meaning of the word "unconstitutional."

From CBS:

In the interview, Woodward talked about how the administration was able to finance secret preparations for the Iraq war.

"President Bush, after a National Security Council meeting, takes Don Rumsfeld aside, collars him physically and takes him into a little cubbyhole room and closes the door and says, 'What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq?' What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret," says Woodward.

"...The end of July 2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan War, which Congress has approved. ...SOME PEOPLE ARE GONNA LOOK AT A DOCUMENT CALLED THE CONSTITUTION WHICH SAYS THAT NO MONEY WILL BE DRAWN FROM THE TREASURY UNLESS APPROPRIATED BY CONGRESS. CONGRESS WAS TOTALLY IN THE DARK ON THIS."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml

[madaboutharry]

5. Perhaps Woodward is going to secure his

place in history as having a hand in bringing down TWO Amercan presidents. Sooner or later, Bush isn't going to get a pass.

[RetroLounge]

6. I vote for sooner...

eom

[librechik]

7. So Bush lied about "Last resort"

Surely the RWers will admit this lie. But they've already got their rebuttal going: "Of course our great President had to have contingency plans"

I think we'll get more traction out of the way he's mismanaged this voluntary war that he dragged us into. Funny how he's stealing Kerry's ideas and c;aiming them as his own. I though Kerry was weak in that area, according to them.