Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House

by Peter Baker

  20 “There’s a story”: Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, NBC, September 8, 2002, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/meet.htm.

  21 “We don’t want the smoking”: Condoleezza Rice, Late Edition, CNN, September 8, 2002, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/08/le.00.html.

  22 “It was pretty clear that”: Ricks, Fiasco, 60.

  23 It would be the only time: Actually, it would be the only time in eight years of speeches to the General Assembly that Bush would be interrupted by applause.

  24 “Our greatest fear”: George W. Bush, speech to UN General Assembly, September 12, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020912-1.html.

  25 “It’s like speaking”: Fleischer, Taking Heat, 282. It was a line that clearly stuck with Bush when it came to addressing the General Assembly because he used it again as late as 2008 with an aide just before giving his final speech to that group.

  26 could cost $100 billion to $200 billion: Bob Davis, “Bush Economic Aide Says the Cost of Iraq War May Top $100 Billion,” Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2002.

  27 “were furious” that he was so off: Lindsey, What a President Should Know, 36–39.

  28 “So, Lindsey, you’re estimating”: Lawrence Lindsey, unpublished interview with journalist Robert Draper.

  29 “likely very, very high”: “White House Budget Chief Questions War Cost Estimates,” Agence France-Presse, September 18, 2002.

  30 “Mark my words”: White House notes of meeting, September 19, 2002. Reviewed by author. Howard Berman confirmed asking the question in an e-mail exchange with the author.

  31 “champion aspirations for”: National Security Strategy, September 20, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/nsc/nss/2002/.

  32 “I’m gonna make a prediction”: Notes taken by person in room, September 20, 2002. Reviewed by author. See also McClellan, What Happened, 139–40.

  33 “The Senate is more interested”: George W. Bush, speech to Army National Guard Aviation Support Facility, Trenton, N.J., September 23, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020923-2.html.

  34 “outrageous, outrageous”: Tom Daschle, floor speech, September 25, 2002, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/transcripts/daschle.html.

  35 The ad showed pictures: Contrary to enduring misperceptions, the ad did not juxtapose the pictures of Cleland and bin Laden as if to equate the two. It showed the pictures of bin Laden and Hussein to illustrate the threat seen to America and then showed Cleland’s picture while criticizing him for his voting record. But Cleland actually co-sponsored legislation creating a department of homeland security in May 2002 while Bush still opposed it; the ad presented Cleland’s opposition to Republican proposals to strip collective bargaining rights for employees at the new department as a national security threat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?vKFYpd0q9nE. Cleland was devastated by the campaign and afterward sought psychiatric help and returned to Walter Reed, where he was surrounded by wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. “I cried uncontrollably for 2½ years,” he later said. See Melinda Henneberger, Politics Daily, October 6, 2009, http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/10/06/max-cleland-i-cried-uncontrollably-for-2-1-2-years/.

  36 “Now Dick, when I lay all this out”: Dick Armey, author interview. See also Isikoff and Corn, Hubris, 124–25; and Draper, Dead Certain, 178.

  37 “I deserved better than to have been”: Armey interview.

  38 “significant quantities of uranium”: Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government, September 24, 2002, 5, http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/iraqdossier.pdf.

  39 “According to the British”: George W. Bush, remarks with congressional leaders, Rose Garden, September 26, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020926-7.html.

  40 “Saddam Hussein is a terrible guy”: White House notes of meeting, September 26, 2002. Reviewed by author.

  41 “There’s no doubt his hatred”: George W. Bush, remarks, reception for Senator John Cornyn, Houston, September 26, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020926-17.html.

  42 “There is this mythology”: McLaughlin interview.

  43 “overly eager to please”: Isikoff and Corn, Hubris, 4–6.

  44 “Analysts feel more”: Greg Miller and Bob Drogin, “CIA Feels Heat on Iraq Data,” Los Angeles Times, October 11, 2002.

  45 nicknamed the vice president Edgar: Suskind, One Percent Doctrine, 213.

  46 “he’s a pretty intimidating guy”: Cheney aide, author interview.

  47 “significant pressure”: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, July 7, 2004, http://web.mit.edu/simsong/www/iraqreport2-textunder.pdf.

  48 “In the history of writing”: McLaughlin interview.

  49 “The nuance was lost”: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 327.

  50 “Baghdad has chemical and biological”: National Intelligence Estimate, October 1, 2002, http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/iraq-wmd-nie.pdf.

  51 Iraqi defector code-named Curveball: Curveball was the source for more than a hundred reports about Iraqi biological weapons that did not exist, according to Charles Duelfer, who led the search for weapons after the fall of Saddam Hussein. See Duelfer, Hide and Seek, 470–71. For a full account of the Curveball saga, see Drogin, Curveball.

  52 71 senators and 161 House members: Woodward, Plan of Attack, 203.

  53 no more than 6 senators: Dana Priest, “Congressional Oversight of Intelligence Criticized,” Washington Post, April 27, 2004.

  54 even “more assertive”: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 370.

  55 “Saddam Hussein is a bad guy”: Dick Gephardt, author interview.

  56 chances would be “pretty high”: Isikoff and Corn, Hubris, 141.

  57 “I always wondered why”: McLaughlin interview.

  58 issued a “burn notice”: Bonin, Arrows of the Night, 115. Chalabi’s defenders said he was unfairly blamed and that he tried to warn the CIA that its plan had been compromised. Richard Perle, author interview.

  59 “enormously talented”: Perle interview.

  60 “like schoolgirls with their”: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 440.

  61 front pages of newspapers: Judith Miller of the New York Times said in an e-mail to a colleague that Chalabi “has provided most of the front page exclusives on WMD to our paper.” Howard Kurtz, “Intra-Times Battle over Iraqi Weapons,” Washington Post, May 26, 2003.

  62 “our campaign to sell”: McClellan, What Happened, 120.

  63 “a carefully orchestrated”: Ibid., 125.

  64 “We were more focused”: Ibid., 135.

  65 “I don’t know how he gets”: White House notes of meeting, October 1, 2002. Reviewed by author.

  66 “Yeah, that’s right”: Adam Levine, author interview.

  67 “been caught attempting”: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 449–50.

  68 “Steve, take it out”: Ibid.

  69 “be in position to dominate”: George W. Bush, address to nation, Cincinnati, October 7, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html.

  70 voted 296 to 133 to authorize: U.S. House Clerk’s Office. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2002/roll455.xml.

  71 followed suit, 77 to 23: U.S. Senate roll call record, http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237.

  72 aides sent Bush a memo: The memo told Bush that his Iraq resolution won forty-six more votes in the House and twenty-five more in the Senate than the Gulf War resolution did in 1991. Memo to Bush from Jack Howard through Nick Calio, October 11, 2002. Reviewed by author.

  73 “Parade of Horribles”: Donald Rumsfeld, memo, October 15, 2002. Accessed at http://www.rumsfeld.com.

  74 “I loathe Kim Jong Il”: Woodward, Bush at War, 3
40.

  75 “pygmy” and “a spoiled child”: Chafee, Against the Tide, 95.

  76 “We decided to park this problem”: Michael Green, author interview.

  77 “We built a lot of”: Sammon, Misunderestimated, 110–11.

  78 picked up two extra seats: Republicans emerged from the election with a margin of fifty-one to forty-nine in the Senate. http://uspolitics.about.com/od/elections/l/bl_mid_term_election_results.htm.

  79 gained eight seats: Ibid.

  80 It was the first time since: In four other midterm elections after 1934, the president’s party gained in one house, though not both: in 1962, John F. Kennedy’s Democrats picked up three seats in the Senate while losing four in the House; in 1970, Richard M. Nixon’s Republicans picked up two seats in the Senate while losing twelve in the House; in 1982, Ronald Reagan’s Republicans picked up one seat in the Senate while losing twenty-six in the House; and in 1998, Bill Clinton’s Democrats picked up five seats in the House but made no gain or loss in the Senate. The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/mid-term_elections.php. See also http://uspolitics.about.com/od/elections/l/bl_mid_term_election_results.htm.

  81 raised more than $200 million: CNN online coverage, http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/11/06/elec02.bush/.

  82 “Should I decide to run”: George W. Bush, news conference, November 7, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/11/20021107-2.html.

  CHAPTER 13: “YOU COULD HEAR THE HINGE OF HISTORY TURN”

  1 “In this White House”: Carl M. Cannon, “The Point Man,” National Journal, October 11, 2002, http://www3.nationaljournal.com/members/news/2002/10/1011nj1.htm.

  2 “he didn’t want it”: Draper, Dead Certain, 89.

  3 “After 9/11, it was”: Jim Langdon, author interview.

  4 “One of the things”: Ari Fleischer, author interview.

  5 “right-wing nut”: Powell, My American Journey, 526.

  6 considered a fever: Woodward, Plan of Attack, 175.

  7 “pain in the ass”: Neil Patel, author interview.

  8 “The president was never”: White House official, author interview.

  9 “He never came over to me”: Donald Rumsfeld, author interview.

  10 “Don’t Tell Me, I Already Know”: Shelton, Without Hesitation, 403.

  11 use back-channel Pentagon: Frank Miller, author interview.

  12 “Don, where are you going?”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 275. See also Mayer, Dark Side, 188.

  13 “stop giving tasks”: Donald Rumsfeld to Condoleezza Rice, memo, December 1, 2002. Accessed at http://www.rumsfeld.com.

  14 “What’s wrong between us?”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 21.

  15 “It certainly was not meant”: Rumsfeld interview.

  16 “Why doesn’t the president”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 22.

  17 holding Iraq in “material breach”: UN Security Council Resolution 1441, November 8, 2002, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/SC7564.doc.htm.

  18 “I would say all along”: Glenn Hubbard, author interview.

  19 “the economy did not need”: Paul O’Neill, author interview.

  20 “I think they believed it was”: Ibid.

  21 “moving toward a fiscal crisis”: Suskind, Price of Loyalty, 291.

  22 “was designed in the White House”: Aide to Paul O’Neill, author interview.

  23 “The vice president was always”: Hubbard interview.

  24 “When we did it, it revealed”: Michael Gerson, author interview.

  25 “the custodian of compassionate”: Joshua Bolten, author interview.

  26 “What if money were no object?”: Ibid.

  27 “They need the money now”: Tony Fauci, author interview.

  28 “I speak for everyone”: George Klein, author interview.

  29 “were kind of gasping”: Bolten interview.

  30 “Gerson, what do you think?”: Gerson, Heroic Conservatism, 3. Gerson describes this meeting taking place on November 18, 2002, but other participants said it took place in December, and Bush’s office in Dallas confirmed that to the author.

  31 “Look, this is one of those”: Jay Lefkowitz, author interview.

  32 “never clicked”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 85.

  33 “He came in and he talked about”: Bolten interview.

  34 “was not a team player”: O’Neill aide, author interview.

  35 “Paul, the president has decided”: O’Neill interview. See also Suskind, Price of Loyalty, 309–10.

  36 “It wasn’t difficult for me”: O’Neill interview.

  37 “Paul belittled the tax cuts”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 85.

  38 “When the president says”: O’Neill interview.

  39 “The Bush administration turned”: Greenspan, Age of Turbulence, 240–41.

  40 “If the rest of the country”: Thomas B. Edsall, “Lott Decried for Part of Salute to Thurmond,” Washington Post, December 7, 2002.

  41 “People are going to think”: Nick Calio, author interview.

  42 “Any suggestion that”: George W. Bush, speech, Philadelphia, December 12, 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/12/20021212-3.html.

  43 “The president just threw you”: Trent Lott, author interview.

  44 “I never could prove”: Ibid.

  45 “I suggested that he shouldn’t”: Karen Hughes, author interview.

  46 “I was very careful”: John McLaughlin, author interview.

  47 “Nice try,” he told McLaughlin: Ibid. See also Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 360–62; and Woodward, State of Denial, 249–50.

  48 Tenet, however, felt his comment: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 360–62.

  49 “Do you think we should”: Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice, 197–98.

  50 “You’ve got to try everything”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 243.

  51 “People will greet the troops”: Kanan Makiya, e-mail exchange with author. See also Fleischer, Taking Heat, 298–99.

  52 “The president has made”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 450.

  53 “Is Saddam going to”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 396–97.

  54 “This is the first time”: Rumsfeld interview.

  55 “I really think I’m going”: Woodward, Plan of Attack, 269–71. See also De-Young, Soldier, 439.

  56 “nothing today justifies” war: Julia Preston, “An Attack on Iraq Not Yet Justified, France Warns U.S.,” New York Times, January 21, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/21/world/threats-responses-diplomacy-attack-iraq-not-yet-justified-france-warns-us.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.

  57 Powell felt “blindsided”: Powell, It Worked for Me, 7.

  58 “Old Europe” as opposed to: Donald Rumsfeld, news briefing, Foreign Press Center, January 22, 2003, http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1330.

  59 “We’ve really got to make the case”: DeYoung, Soldier, 439.

  60 “You’ve got high poll ratings”: Ibid., 441.

  61 initially wanted their story: Richard W. Stevenson and David E. Sanger, author interviews. Instead, Stevenson and Sanger wrote that Bush made “an unflinching threat of military action against Saddam Hussein.” See Stevenson and Sanger, “Calling Iraq a Serious Threat, Bush Vows That He’ll Disarm It,” New York Times, January 29, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/29/politics/29BUSH.html.

  62 Bush laid out his bill: George W. Bush, State of the Union address, January 28, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html.

  63 “Don Rumsfeld has my full support”: Kori Schake, author interview.

  64 “Title X motherfuckers”: Woodward, Plan of Attack, 118.

  65 “It’s the only time in my life”: Schake interview.

  66 it “would give us international”: David Manning, a foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair, recorded the conversation in a five-page memo, dated the same day, January 31, 2003. The Manning memo was fir
st reported in a book by a British law professor in early 2006. See Sands, Lawless World, 273. Don Van Natta Jr. of the New York Times later reviewed the memo himself and divulged further details from it. See “Bush Was Set on Path to War, British Memo Says,” New York Times, March 27, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/international/europe/27memo.html?pagewanted=all.

  67 “This isn’t going to cut it”: Isikoff and Corn, Hubris, 176–78.

  68 “a disaster” and “incoherent”: Powell, It Worked for Me, 219.

  69 thirty-eight allegations: Isikoff and Corn, Hubris, 179.

  70 finding no evidence: 9/11 Commission Report, 228–29.

  71 “pretty well confirmed”: Dick Cheney, interview, Meet the Press, December 9, 2001, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/cheneytext_120901.html.

  72 “unconfirmed” but still holding: On September 8, 2002, for example, Cheney went back on Meet the Press and raised the Atta meeting without being asked about it. “Mohamed Atta, who was the lead hijacker, did apparently travel to Prague on a number of occasions. And on at least one occasion, we have reporting that places him in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official a few months before the attack on the World Trade Center.” Cheney acknowledged that there was a debate about “was he there or wasn’t he there.” Asked what the CIA said about the report, Cheney said, “It’s credible [but] unconfirmed at this point.” See transcript, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/meet.htm.

  73 “Iraq & al-Qa’ida: Interpreting a Murky”: CIA report, June 21, 2002, http://www.levin.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/supporting/2005/CIAreport.062102.pdf.

  74 Jami Miscik, the deputy director: Suskind, One Percent Doctrine, 190–91. See also Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 349–50.

  75 found no evidence of “command”: CIA report, “Iraqi Support for Terrorism,” January 29, 2003, http://www.levin.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/supporting/2005/CIAreport.012903.pdf.

  76 “We should hit Khurmal”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 446–47.

  77 “This is something Condi has”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 189–90.

  78 “If he had done that to me”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.