by Peter Baker
79 Bush watched on television: Rice, No Higher Honor, 200.
80 “He persuaded me”: Mary McGrory, “I’m Persuaded,” Washington Post, February 6, 2003, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32573-2003Feb5.html.
81 “we share the position”: Baker and Glasser, Kremlin Rising, 225.
82 “France is clearly trying to”: Donald Rumsfeld to George W. Bush, memo, February 18, 2003. Accessed at http://www.rumsfeld.com.
83 “We need a lot of Powell”: Bryan Burrough, Evgenia Peretz, David Rose, and David Wise, “The Path to War,” Vanity Fair, November 2004, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2004/05/path-to-war200405.
84 “Is France an ally or a foe?”: Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 355.
85 “Are you going to take care”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 251.
86 “could you give us some idea”: Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, February 25, 2003.
87 “Some of the higher-end predictions”: House Budget Committee hearing, February 27, 2003.
88 “My personal view is that it will”: Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, press briefing, February 28, 2003, http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1976.
89 had “been misinterpreted”: Eric Shinseki to Donald Rumsfeld, “End of Tour Memorandum,” June 10, 2003, http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/documents/shinseki.pdf.
90 Neither Rumsfeld nor Wolfowitz ever asked: Graham, By His Own Rules, 412.
91 “I’m against silence”: Elie Wiesel, e-mail exchange with author through spokesperson. See also Fleischer, Taking Heat, 316.
92 “You don’t understand how big”: Dan Bartlett, author interview.
93 “the only regime change”: Campbell, Blair Years, 671.
94 International Atomic Energy Agency concluded: Mohamed ElBaradei, “The Status of Nuclear Inspections in Iraq: An Update,” March 7, 2003, http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/statements/2003/ebsp2003n006.shtml.
95 refused to back off: Eventually, Christopher Meyer, the British ambassador, agreed that “the yellow cake claim later turned out to be false.” See DC Confidential, 259.
96 removing between 1 percent: Frank Miller, author interview.
97 “It’s hard to imagine punishing”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 515–17.
98 Three to five divisions: Rice, No Higher Honor, 194–95.
99 No one at the meeting: Feith, War and Decision, 367–68.
100 “the vice president wants to make”: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 341–42.
101 “Would you like me to come”: Karen Hughes, author interview.
102 “going through motions”: Campbell, Blair Years, 679.
103 “extremely frustrated”: Sammon, Misunderestimated, 178–79.
104 “I am just not going to be”: Tony Blair, Journey, 341.
105 “If another country tried to introduce”: Woodward, Plan of Attack, 358.
106 “It’s an old Texas expression”: George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and other leaders, news conference, March 16, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030316-3.html.
107 “If you win the vote in Parliament”: Campbell, Blair Years, 679.
108 “Do you think the American people”: Dick Cheney, interview with Tim Russert, Meet the Press, NBC, March 16, 2003, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/cheneymeetthepress.htm.
109 “You sure better find these”: Stephen Hadley, author interview.
110 “How are you doing, Gerson?”: Michael Gerson, author interview.
111 “All the decades of deceit”: George W. Bush, address to nation, March 17, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030317-7.html.
112 A team led by Hadley: Hadley interview.
CHAPTER 14: “MAYBE WE’LL GET LUCKY”
1 “I would like to address your team”: Dan Bartlett, author interview. See also George W. Bush, interview with Tom Brokaw of NBC News, April 24, 2003, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=14#axzz1kdCZ5Zoi.
2 “for the peace of the world”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 223–25.
3 Colin Powell wordlessly reached: Purdum, Time of Our Choosing, 106.
4 “you could see the weight”: Eric Draper, author interview.
5 “Dear Dad”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 223–25.
6 “All of that comes home to roost”: Bartlett interview.
7 “Can I come over?”: Bush interview with Brokaw.
8 “too good a scenario to pass up”: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 391–95.
9 “I was hesitant at first”: Bush interview with Brokaw.
10 “How solid are your sources”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 459–60.
11 “Okay, all right”: Sammon, Misunderestimated, 183–85.
12 “Dick, what do you think”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 459–60.
13 “Let’s go,” he said: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 254.
14 moved the Oval Office couches: Joe Hagin, author interview.
15 as overwhelmed as he had been: Pamela Hudson Nelson, author interview.
16 “Maybe we’ll get lucky”: Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush, 160–61.
17 “the only time I can remember”: Gerson interview.
18 thirty-nine Tomahawks: Gordon and Trainor, Cobra II, 172–76. Originally, forty-five Tomahawks were ordered, but an unanticipated problem with the navy’s communications system complicated the strike.
19 “On my orders,” he said: George W. Bush, address to nation, March 19, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030319-17.html.
20 “Whoops,” Laura said: Purdum, Time of Our Choosing, 111.
21 “We tried everything possible”: Fleischer, Taking Heat, 339–40.
22 “It was pretty graphic”: Nelson interview. See also Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush, 160–61.
23 “He is just totally immersed”: Purdum, Time of Our Choosing, 119.
24 Reports to Bush and Cheney: Zenko, “Foregoing Limited Force.”
25 “everything would be on the table”: Joseph, Countering WMD, 5–6.
26 “When Bush has finished with Iraq”: Muammar el-Qaddafi, interview with Le Figaro, March 11, 2003, http://worldpress.org/Europe/989.cfm.
27 “We had a real concern”: Robert Joseph, author interview.
28 “We have got to get moving”: Donald Rumsfeld to George W. Bush, memo, April 1, 2003, http://library.rumsfeld.com/doclib/sp/321/2003-04-01%20to%20President%20Bush%20re%20Iraqi%20Interim%20Authority.pdf#search=“2003-04-01.”
29 Camp Lejeune had sent: CNN, April 4, 2003, http://articles.cnn.com/2003-04-03/politics/sprj.irq.bush_1_war-criminals-finer-sight-upbeat-progress-report?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS.
30 “There’s no finer sight”: George W. Bush, address at Camp Lejeune, April 3, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030403-3.html.
31 “He’s in heaven”: Mike Allen, “Bush Upbeat on War Progress in Visit with Marines,” Washington Post, April 4, 2003. See also Jennifer Loven, “Bush Seeks to Comfort Families of the Fallen,” Associated Press, April 3, 2003.
32 “that wrenching realization”: Ari Fleischer, author interview.
33 “I made the decision”: Woodward, State of Denial, 155.
34 “a useful corrective”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 489–94.
35 “They’re hooking it up”: Bush interview with Brokaw.
36 “overwhelmed with relief and pride”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 256.
37 “A second and a half later”: Draper interview.
38 on average every 7.5 minutes: Peter Maass, ProPublica, December 29, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/user/propublica#p/a/u/0/YDu7bXqx8Ig.
39 “conviction and determination”: George H. W. Bush, All the Best, 661.
40 “Thank you for our liberation”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 400–401.
41 “You did this”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 208.
&n
bsp; 42 “Stuff happens”: Donald Rumsfeld, press briefing with General Richard Myers, April 11, 2003, http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=2367.
43 Iraq would be “a cakewalk”: Kenneth Adelman, “Cakewalk in Iraq,” Washington Post, February 13, 2002.
44 “We were euphoric”: Kenneth Adelman, author interview. See also Woodward, Plan of Attack, 409–12.
45 “seemed too optimistic”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 497–99.
46 “Bringing democracy to Iraq”: Ibid.
47 “Ninety-nine point nine percent”: Sammon, Misunderestimated, 260–66.
48 “You want the jet?”: Ibid.
49 “My fellow Americans”: George W. Bush, address to nation, USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030501-15.html.
50 “Now that the war in Iraq is over”: Bush interview with Brokaw.
51 “Our stagecraft had gone awry”: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 256–57.
CHAPTER 15: “MR. PRESIDENT, I THINK WE’VE GOT A PROBLEM”
1 “We’ll stay until”: Jerry Bremer, author interview. See also Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 11–12.
2 “higher authority”: Ricks, Fiasco, 103–4.
3 “we want people who are”: Colin Powell, author interview.
4 “you are going to need a lot”: Ibid.
5 Scooter Libby contacted Bremer: Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 6–7.
6 “a can-do type person”: George W. Bush, announcement of appointment of L. Paul Bremer III as presidential envoy to Iraq, May 6, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030506-3.html.
7 “I don’t know whether”: Bremer, My Year in Iraq, 12.
8 “POTUS had lunch with him”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 506.
9 “Zal, what the hell happened?”: Zalmay Khalilzad, author interview.
10 he issued Order Number 1: Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 1, “De-Ba’athification of Iraqi Society,” May 16, 2003, http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20030516_CPAORD_1_De-Ba_athification_of_Iraqi_Society_.pdf.
11 Garner and the CIA station chief: Woodward, State of Denial, 193–94.
12 Bremer issued Order Number 2: Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2, “Dissolution of Entities,” May 23, 2003, http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20030823_CPAORD_2_Dissolution_of_Entities_with_Annex_A.pdf.
13 “We would have had a civil war”: Bremer interview.
14 “they were the right decisions”: Ibid.
15 “full sovereignty under an Iraqi”: L. Paul Bremer III, “Facts for Feith,” National Review Online, March 19, 2008, http://www.nationalreview.com/node/223954.
16 “the vice president’s office asked”: Nicholas D. Kristof, “Missing In Action: Truth,” New York Times, May 6, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/06/opinion/missing-in-action-truth.html.
17 congressional investigators: Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, July 9, 2004. Wilson said he may have “misspoken” when he told journalists that he debunked the fraudulent documents and must have gotten confused since the documents had since been exposed by others as fraudulent. The Senate report also concluded that to many, though not all, analysts “information in the report lent more credibility” to the allegation, despite Wilson’s skepticism. Wilson reported that he talked with Niger’s former prime minister Ibrahim Mayaki, who said he knew of no contracts for uranium during his tenure, but he was invited in June 1999 to meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss “expanding commercial relations” between Niger and Iraq, which he interpreted as meaning uranium, the country’s main resource. Nothing ever came of the meeting because of UN sanctions, according to Mayaki. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?browsePath=108/SRPT/%5b300%3b399%5d&granuleId=CRPT-108srpt301&packageId=CRPT-108srpt301.
18 “I think we’ve got a problem”: Dennis Hastert, author interview.
19 push it through the Senate: U.S. Senate roll call record, Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, 51 to 50, May 23, 2003, http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=1&vote=00196.
20 the House approved it: U.S. House Clerk’s Office, 231 to 200, May 23, 2003, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2003/roll225.xml.
21 “It just got to the point”: Christine Todd Whitman, author interview.
22 “A lot of people I’ve talked to”: Ibid.
23 “Hello, George,” she said: Elisabeth Bumiller, “On Gay Marriage, Bush May Have Said All He’s Going To,” New York Times, March 1, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/us/white-house-letter-on-gay-marriage-bush-may-have-said-all-he-s-going-to.html.
24 “What if we don’t find them?”: Condoleezza Rice, author interview.
25 “They went—” Bush said: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, 401.
26 “What the hell is going on, George?”: Dick Cheney, In My Time, 402–6.
27 “It sounded like amateur hour”: Ibid.
28 “sort of an offhand manner”: Scooter Libby, grand jury testimony, March 5, 2004, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB215/govt_ex/GX1.pdf.
29 jotted that down with his blue pen: Scooter Libby’s notes of conversation with Dick Cheney, June 12, 2003, released as part of the investigation and prosecution against Libby, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB215/GX53201.PDF.
30 Pincus’s story on June 12: Walter Pincus, “CIA Did Not Share Doubt on Iraq Data,” Washington Post, June 12, 2003.
31 “Not going home?”: Gordon and Trainor, Endgame, 12.
32 just 37 percent: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 501–2.
33 Rumsfeld had interviewed: Rumsfeld spent thirty-five minutes interviewing Sanchez for his promotion to lieutenant general and assignment as commander of V Corps. Sanchez, Wiser in Battle, 167–68.
34 later said he had nothing to do: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 501–2. “I can only speculate that part of the logic behind an otherwise inexplicable selection was that CENTCOM” thought it could begin drawing down, Rumsfeld wrote.
35 “I just find that really hard”: Richard Myers, author interview. Myers added, “I can’t give you chapter and verse on it, but it would be unlike him on every other thing we did.”
36 “There are some who feel”: George W. Bush, comments to reporters, July 2, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030702-3.html.
37 “can you imagine how that would”: Draper, Dead Certain, 209.
38 one of his biggest gaffes: George W. Bush, Decision Points, 261. The phrase “left a wrong impression,” he wrote, and “I learned from the experience.”
39 Wilson unmasked himself: Joseph C. Wilson 4th, “What I Didn’t Find in Africa,” New York Times, July 6, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/opinion/what-i-didn-t-find-in-africa.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm; Richard Leiby and Walter Pincus, “Retired Envoy: Nuclear Report Ignored,” Washington Post, July 6, 2003; Meet the Press, July 6, 2003, http://justoneminute.typepad.com/footnotes/2004/07/joe_wilson_with.html.
40 “Have they done this sort”: A copy of Wilson’s column with Dick Cheney’s notations was released during the subsequent investigation and prosecution of Scooter Libby. http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/plame/GX40201.pdf.
41 “So it was wrong?”: Ari Fleischer, news briefing, July 7, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030707-5.html.
42 “very keen to get the truth out”: Libby testimony.
43 “just take the issue off”: Rice, No Higher Honor, 223.
44 “expanding commercial relations”: Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, July 9, 2004.
45 “If the CIA, the director”: Condoleezza Rice, press briefing, Air Force One en route to Entebbe, Uganda, July 11, 2003, http://georgew
bush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030711-7.html.
46 “was cleared by the intelligence”: George W. Bush, remarks to reporters, Entebbe, Uganda, July 11, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030711-6.html.
47 “CIA approved the President’s”: George Tenet, statement, July 11, 2003, https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/press-release-archive-2003/pr07112003.html.
48 “You put a bull’s-eye”: Administration official, author interview.
49 Libby later that day: He spoke with Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post, Matthew Cooper of Time, Evan Thomas of Newsweek, and Judith Miller of the New York Times. Libby testified that he talked about Valerie Wilson with Cooper, Miller, and possibly Kessler, but Kessler later said she did not come up in their conversation. See Libby’s testimony, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB215/govt_ex/GX1.pdf.
50 mentioned it during an interview: Novak, Prince of Darkness, 5.
51 also mentioned it to Bob Woodward: Woodward interviewed Richard Armitage on June 13, 2003, as part of research for a book. A transcript and recording of the portion where they talked about the uranium story were later made public during the Scooter Libby investigation and trial. See the transcript at http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/plame/woodward_armitage_interview.pdf and listen to the audio clip at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/audio/2007/02/13/AU2007021300449.html.
52 also spoken with Rove: Cooper’s story carried two other bylines, Massimo Calabresi and John F. Dickerson. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,465270,00.html. Cooper recorded his conversation with Rove in an e-mail to his bureau chief. He spoke with Rove briefly about another topic before asking Rove about the Wilson case. Rove warned him not to “get too far out on Wilson” and said it was not Cheney who sent him to Niger. “It was, KR said, [W]ilson’s wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd issues who authorized the trip,” Cooper wrote. He said Rove argued that “not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report.” The e-mail was first reported by Michael Isikoff, “Matt Cooper’s Source,” Newsweek, July 17, 2005, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2005/07/17/matt-cooper-s-source.html. Cooper later described his experience in “What I Told the Grand Jury,” Time, July 17, 2005, http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1083899,00.html.