There might be TAPE RECORDINGS?

[Stephanie]

It is getting more and more bizarre.






EDIT - TRANSCRIPT:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0404/19/lkl.00.html

KING: Do you want President Bush to be reelected?

BIN SULTAN: We always want any president who is in office to be reelected, Larry, but that is the American choice. This is not our call. This is the American people's call.

KING: OK, I think we've cleared up... WOODWARD: Could I just, I'm sorry to go back on this, but Prince Bandar, why would the president tell me on the record two days later that he called Colin Powell in and said he had decided on war? This was a 12-minute meeting. I went through this for some time with the president, and then the president would ask Powell, "will you be with me?" And Powell said, "I will be with you. I will support a war," and then the president said to former General Powell, now Secretary of State Powell, "time to put your war uniform on."

I know that Powell left that meeting saying, he's going to do it. He had made that decision, and you look at what Rumsfeld has said and others, and as you may be aware, there might be tape recordings that would show that the version I have is the accurate one. What's going on here?

BIN SULTAN: Bob, I believe Secretary Powell/General Powell's response does not surprise me. He's a very loyal soldier and a statesman. And I believe he puts a lot of weight on loyalty, and he disdains disloyalty. Therefore, I believe if your account is accurate, which I have no reason to discount it, that general -- Secretary Powell told the president his views. Once the commander in chief made his mind up, General Powell -- Secretary Powell decided it's right to support the commander-in-chief.

KING: I got to get a break.

BIN SULTAN: That is the only thing I can say about this.

[bacchant]

1. Um... of what?

[Stephanie]

4. Woodward just said (rerun) to Prince Bandar on Larry King

"and as you know, there might be tape recordings."

Because Bandar is trying to spin the story of when the Iraq decision was made more favorably to Bush, and Woodward has proof from many sources.

[Wonk]

11. mp3 here

Of Woodward on Larry King Live, that is...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=109x7977

[ochazuke]

12. CBS has verified things

If you saw 60 MINUTES last Sunday, you'll remember that they were shown the full transcripts of conversations and allowed to contact certain sources to verify what was reported in Woodward's book.

So, when Powell, Rice, et. al. dispute what's in the book.... Well, I guess Woodward, CBS and the Eastern Liberal Media Elite are all out to get Bush. WHATEVER.

[Stephanie]

14. Woodward is not talking about HIS recordings. Because he says

"as you know, there might be tape recordings."

[maddezmom]

26. perhaps the recording Tenet refers to at the 9/11 hearings

[Occulus]

6. She's referencing Woodward here n/t

[One Taste]

2. of...?

[jjs]

3. She's peaked my interest.

[Stephanie]

23. Mine's peaked too!

I think this is a story.

Welcome to DU, jjs!

[City Lights]

5. I think she means of Woodward's conversations

with shrub officials.

[Stephanie]

10. No, I think he meant recordings of Oval Office meetings

He was talking to Bandar, and it was a real lesson in diplomatic double-speak. Bandar started by saying that Woodward is a great reporter and everything in the book is true. Then he starts spinning that Bush JR. didn't really make up his mind about Iraq when Woodward says he did. And it really felt like watching history when LK tried to take a break and Woodward held up his hand and said, I have another question. And he enumerates the many people who told him bush already had his mind made up. And then he says, "and as you know, there might be tapes."

This is just too freaking good to be real.

[City Lights]

13. Duh.

Thanks, Stephanie. I was talking on the phone when I was typing.

:spank:

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

7. This looks like a great place to admit my secret fantasy....

...I've had it for about the last two years or so.

Ok here goes: secret fantasy---bush in his arrogance decides it's a good idea to tape record his conversations with Rove, Cheney, et al and someone gets one of those tapes and smuggles it out of the WH and leaks it to the press.....they do voice identification on it and verify it is really bush, cheney, rove, wolfowitz, et al and they are heard saying the most HORRID things about their supporters, uttering racial epithets about everyone who isn't white (especially people from the Middle East--not a stretch since we've heard him say "brown-skinned people"), etc. Disgusting, lewd stuff about women, joking about the deaths in Iraq and how the American people are just suckers, etc.

Now I know there is a certain sick contingent who wouldn't give a rip, they'd go right on supporting him, but it SURE would change the vote of a lot of supporters of his I know of who are sitting on the fence right now, about to drop off into the abstaining or Kerry side.

Yee-ha.

Edited to fix a spelling error.

[MnFats]

8. wouldn't that just be tooo precious?

a fight for tapes of oval office conversations.....that would be just too much.
"edited transcripts" shown to be filled with errors, omissions, deletions.

maybe even an 18 1/2 minute gap!



(ok, ok, the reference was probably only to Woodward's tape. But Bush reminds me of nothing more than a stupid, gangsterish Nixon)

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Watergate ALL OVER AGAIN, with Iran Contra too

This is getting so Deja Vu

[napi21]

15. Anybody know if ALL meetings in WH are taped?

I know this is what got Nixon in trouble, but I don't remember if there was a change in policy. Lots of Presidents want their stuff recorded for history.

[0007]

16. 'Ya don't think Bob would leave himself open do ya?

....and CBS isn't gonna back someone just on their word. Mike Wallace has heard most of the tapes.

[Stephanie]

18. Not WOODWARD's tapes. Oval Office tapes that back up Powells' version

He says there MIGHT be tapes - so he's not talking about his own, which he knows he has.

[0007]

20. That's more than beautiful, 'eh Stephanie. Thanks for the heads up.

[Stephanie]

21. Yes! But how can we get the tapes? Maybe when they investigate the $700 MM

they can demand the tapes?

[ngGale]

17. Woodward always a tape back up...

His whole book is on tape, all the interviews. He learned that during 'Watergate.'

[Stephanie]

19. NOT WOODWARD. He is saying BUSH made tapes

He is saying there might be Oval Office recordings of Bush & Rummy & Powell meeting about Iraq and agreeing to do it months before they admit to having decided.

[ConsAreLiars]

22. Clarke also referenced tapes

in his 911 testimony - I think in reference to NSC meetings. There may not be tapes of everything, but enough to corroborate Woodward's reporting.

[Stephanie]

24. So is there a crime in that? They are lying about when theydecided on Iraq

Combined with the pilfering $700 from Afghanistan to put toward planning Iraq, is that a crime? Sounds sort of Enronesque.

[ConsAreLiars]

25. "Crime" definition depends on prosecutors, if any, But tapes exist.

Here's Tenet:
From: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04085/290935.stm
-------------------------------------------------------
ROEMER: So you're saying it's them, not the CIA, that should have been attentive to this?

TENET: Well, the CIA is in the CSG meeting as well. I mean, everybody's at the table. The FBI is there, the NCS is there, CIA is there, domestic agencies are there.

Throughout this time period -- I don't have access to the minutes and recordings of what happened -- what actions were they tasking, how were they thinking about this?
-------------------------------------------------------

(Clarke's reference to tapes in his testimony was actually re: the background press PR he did that the Cons tried to spin.)

[Stephanie]

31. I think this is different - these are tapes of individuals meeting with

meeting with bush. Powell, Rummy, secretly agreeing to Iraq invasion months before the decision was supposedly made. WH sends Bandar out to spin the timeline. Woodward says, well, I got the timeline from several different sources (i.e. Powell) and as you know there might be tapes. So saying that private, secret meetings among principles in the WH might be recorded. THAT is Nixonian. It's getting eery.

edit - I mean that is very different than a meeting of whole contingents of people, when a tape recording would be almost expected.

[maddezmom]

27. Tenet refers to tapes during his testimony at the 9/11 commission n/t

[dusty64]

28. If so, I

hope they are released.

[Killarney]

29. How would we get the tapes?

Could any congressman request them or does it need to be requested by a commission or grand jury?

Oh, this could get good.

[Stephanie]

30. I would think they would have to be requested as evidence in a trial

If they are related to a crime. And Lord knows we have plenty of crimes to choose from.

[Tracer]

32. I laughed out loud ...

... Bandar tried to explain that whatever was said in the war meeting wasn't reallllllly a decision to go to war because before the meeting, he was told that it was just a contingency plan.

Woodward then said something like "that explanation would win a prize for the biggest fish story I've ever heard!"

P.S. the Spelling Police would like to inform you that it isn't 'peaked', but 'piqued'.

[Stephanie]

33. the Spelling Police are an essential component of our DU Security

Thank you for your service to our board.

I am looking for the timeline here: Woodward is saying the decision was made in January '03, and BushCO is maintaining it was made in March, after the UN? And then Woodward is saying that there are tapes which prove his version. And Bandar is spinning so deliberately transparently that you really wonder whose side he is on.

[Catherine Vincent]

34. Woodward, imo, is helping Bush and his cronies.

We all know the Bush cabal planned on invading Iraq and ousting Saddam back in 2000.

[Stephanie]

35. True - but this is saying when he officially gave the order

to the insiders, months before he pretended to have made it. It shows him lying, even if it doesn't show the full extent of the lie.

[Catherine Vincent]

36. Oh sure, Bush is a proven liar.

But it wasn't about sex and he was not under oath. So it's okay according to hypocrite republicans.

[Stephanie]

37. Woodward is a very sly character

He would NOT make a statement like "as you know, there might be tapes" without considering the FULL ramifications of his statement. We never HEARD of WH tapes before Woodward!

That was a very revealing interview.