"BLITZER: The relationship that you describe between the president and the vice president is pretty dramatic. ... But you write this: 'In the spring of 2002 Bush asked Cheney to pull back a little at big meetings to give the president more room to move, to take charge. Bush asked -- Bush asked Cheney not to offer him advice in crowded rooms. Do that privately.' "I'm not sure what the advantage of this would be - no sentient life form thinks that Bush is a neurologically-independent entity from the Cheney Mass. Still, it says something about Bush, who we know has more than a few issues with older authority figures.
"BLITZER: You're saying the CIA formally concluded that bin Laden wanted Bush re-elected.So yes, bin Laden feared a Kerry presidency. Of course. What reason has Bush given to fear him? "Attack America, kill 3,000 people, and I'll go get 2,500 soldiers killed of my own accord in a war to make you a new Afghanistan in Arabia?"
"SUSKIND: Well, look -- absolutely true . . . the analysis flowed essentially along those lines.
"BLITZER: One of the other explosive charges you have in the book is that the U.S. deliberately bombed the Al Jazeera offices in Kabul to make a point. You write this: 'On November 13, a hectic day when Kabul fell to the Northern Alliance and there were celebrations in the streets of the city, a U.S. missile obliterated Al Jazeera's office. Inside the CIA and White House there was satisfaction that a message had been sent to Al Jazeera.'
"Are you suggesting that someone in the U.S. government made a deliberate decision to take out the Al Jazeera office in Kabul?
"SUSKIND: My sources are clear that that was done on purpose, precisely to send a message to Al Jazeera, and essentially a message was sent."
And attacking Al-Jazeera has certainly helped America's image in the world, hasn't it?
I don't remember who said it first, but America is going to need a truth and reconciliation committee after Bush is impeached.
1 comment:
Of course Bush helps bin Laden -- just as bin Laden helps Bush. They're both radicalizing elements whose existence seems to justify the other's extreme view.
There's a three-part BBC documentary called "The Power of Nightmares" available on Google Video that traces the parallel development of neoconservatism and Islamic fundamentalism that's quite illuminating.
Both parties depend on the existence of a terrifying, foreign evil to make their policies seem like the "only" solution. If Bush, who has become such a great symbol of violent American imperialism, lost power it would weaken bin Laden's case.
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