1) Richard Clarke & Bio
Bush Attack on Richard Clarke
Quotes:
"Frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe, we'll never know."
"The President dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door and said 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this' (referring to 9-11). The entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this."
"I said, We've done this before and there's no connection between Iraq and 9-11. He came back at me and said 'Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection' in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer in a report."
"We got together with FBI and CIA experts and wrote the report, and it was cleared before being sent to the President. It was sent and was bounced back to us by the National Security Advisor or Deputy saying 'Wrong Answer ... Do it again.'"
2) Paul O'Neill & Bio
Quotes:
"The President was caught in an echo chamber of his own making, cut off from everyone other than a circle around him that's tiny and getting smaller and in concert on everything - a circle that conceals him from public view and keeps him away from the one thing he needs most: honest, disinterested perspectives about what's real and what the hell he might do about it."
"this is the way Dick Cheney likes it"
"What became clear to me at that point is that the presence of me, Colin Powell, and Christie Whitman helped convince people that this would, actually, be an administration that would look hard for best solutions, without regard for which party had claimed an idea first or some passing political calculation."
"politics as it's now played is not about being right. It's about doing whatever's necessary to win. They're not the same"
"Bush demands a standard of loyalty - loyalty to an individual, no matter what"
"That's a false kind of loyalty, loyalty to a person and whatever they say or do, that's the opposite of real loyalty, which is loyalty based on inquiry, and telling someone what you really think and feel - your best estimation of the truth instead of what they want to hear."
"It was clear that Cheney and a handful of others had become a praetorian guard that encircled the President. In terms of bringing new, transforming ideas to the Oval Office, that store is closed."
"Greenspan made the comment "There was too much gaming of the system until it is broke. Capitalism is not working! There has been a corrupting of the system of capitalism." (pg 377)
To read some notes from "The Price of Loyalty" go to this forum:
http://www.itsallpolitics.com/inside-look-at-bush-quotthinking-quot-from-early-days-of-vt15124.html
3) Colin Powell & Bio
Quotes:
"There were some people in the intelligence community who knew at that time that some of these sources were not good, and shouldn't be relied upon, and they didn't speak up. That devastated me."
In reference to the infamous address he presented to the UN tarnishing his reputation, he said "Of course it will. It's a blot. I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and it will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now."
4) John Murtha & Bio
Quotes:
"Our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency. They are united against US forces, and we have become a catalyst for violence. My plan calls for an immediate redeployment of US troops consistent with the safety of US forces."
5) Five Ex-Generals Speak Out - Calling for Bush to Fire Rumsfeld
*Marine General Anthony Zinni
"there is something wrong with military leaders unwilling to risk their careers by speaking up against disastrous ideas that come down from their civilian bosses"
*Marine Lt. Gen. Greg Newbold
*Army Major General Paul Eaton
"Rumsfeld is incompetent and chiefly responsible for the difficulties now facing the US mission in Iraq."
*General Eric K. Shinseki
"opposed Rumsfeld's plan to cut the Army strength by two divisions and the Army National Guard by four divisions in August 2001. Then in Feb 2003 Rumsfeld told a Senator at a hearing he thought it would require "several hundred thousand" American troops to successfully occupy and pacify Iraq. Rumsfeld got even with Shinseki by making him an "un-person" in the Pentagon, and leaked to the press their version of his comments. The Bush administration officials get even with anyone who disagrees with them and/or who speaks up."
*Major General John Batiste
"The Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War violated fundamental military principles including unity of command and unity of effort."
*Army Major General John Riggs
"Reminds me of General Harold Johnson who as furious with LBJ for wanting to fight the Vietnam War on the cheap and on the quiet. I was headed to the White House to resign, but stopped short knowing I would only be replaced by someone much worse."
Later in his life, he said "I count that as the greatest moral failure of my life. I should have resigned and fought the decision."
6) Tyler Drumheller & Bio
Quotes:
"The administration chose to ignore good intelligence"
"Before the US-led attack on Iraq in 2003, the White House ignored crucial information from Iraq's foreign minister that indicated Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction"
"The policy was set. The war in Iraq wsa coming, and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy."
"This was a policy failure, not an intelligence failure. I think, over time people will look back on this and see this is going to be one of the great, I think, policy mistakes of all time."
7) General Karpinski at Abu Ghraib Prison
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19081-2004May11?language=printer
8) General Anthony Zinni
9) Arlen Specter
10) Russ Feingold
11) Iraq - Same Mistakes Made as in Vietnam
12) James E. Hansen& Bio
"In my more than three decades in government, I have never seen anything approaching the degree to which information flow from scientists to the public has been screened and controlled as it is now."
"the administration wants to hear only scientific results that fit predetermined, inflexible positions"
13) John DiIulio & Bio
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