With the recent NIE coming out basically indicating that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program back in 2003, some question has arisen about when Bush first learned this. Here's what Bush had to say on this topic:
That led to this exchange:
You can watch it and read more about that here:
Consider this for a moment. You're the president of the United States. You're concerned about the safety of the country generally, and about Iran specifically. The Director of National Intelligence comes to you and says "we have some new information" but doesn't tell you what the information is. You ask no follow up questions. He walks away.
Jesus Harold Christ in a chicken basket. Imagine doing that at your job. You're overseeing a project, and one of your underlings comes to you and says, "Hey, we've found out something new relevant to this project." Think you might, oh, I don't know, ask what this new information is? Even if it were something like, "Look, I understand you're still learning the details, but can you give me a preview?" Or "Is it possible that this information could affect what I'm doing now?" What if you were the person reporting a change in circumstances to your superior. Would you think it was odd if they didn't ask for a little more detail?
Of course, this is ridiculous. If it did happen that way, Bush is a bigger moron and worse leader than any of us ever dreamed. More likely, though, is that Bush did know that there were serious issues with the claims he was making about Iran and made them anyway. Either way, we're completely fucked until his ass is shown the door. Unreal...
BUSH: I was made aware of the NIE last week. In August, I think it was John — Mike McConnell came in and said, We have some new information. He didn’t tell me what the information was. He did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze.
REPORTER: Are you saying at no point while the rhetoric was escalating, as World War III was making it into conversation — at no point, nobody from your intelligence team or your administration was saying, Maybe you want to back it down a little bit?
BUSH: No — I’ve never — nobody ever told me that.
BUSH: No — I’ve never — nobody ever told me that.
Consider this for a moment. You're the president of the United States. You're concerned about the safety of the country generally, and about Iran specifically. The Director of National Intelligence comes to you and says "we have some new information" but doesn't tell you what the information is. You ask no follow up questions. He walks away.
Jesus Harold Christ in a chicken basket. Imagine doing that at your job. You're overseeing a project, and one of your underlings comes to you and says, "Hey, we've found out something new relevant to this project." Think you might, oh, I don't know, ask what this new information is? Even if it were something like, "Look, I understand you're still learning the details, but can you give me a preview?" Or "Is it possible that this information could affect what I'm doing now?" What if you were the person reporting a change in circumstances to your superior. Would you think it was odd if they didn't ask for a little more detail?
Of course, this is ridiculous. If it did happen that way, Bush is a bigger moron and worse leader than any of us ever dreamed. More likely, though, is that Bush did know that there were serious issues with the claims he was making about Iran and made them anyway. Either way, we're completely fucked until his ass is shown the door. Unreal...
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