[tw]

[continued discussion on why George Jr apparently does not read much]

A year or so back, after the global warming memo to Bush ended up in Paul Gigot's Wall Street Journal column, O'Neill had ranted to Michele Davis, "I'll be goddamned if I'm going to stop writing memos to the President because some bastard at the White House is trying to leak me into extinction." So he kept writing them. The President might not read what he sent, but, O'Neill felt, "he should have the opportunity to see coherent thoughts on paper."

When I say "without mentioning the 6 Aug 2001 briefing that George Jr apparently did not even read.", then the statement comes from signifcant background on this president. I said "apparently did not even read". We can never know for certain if he read beyond the title of that memo. But then we have something curious. Just after that memo, the President asked Condi Rice about this Al Qaeda threat he had been hearing about. So he asked Condi Rice to find out more about it. As a result, Richard Clarke writes this in his book on page 237:

On September 4 2001, the Principals Committee meeting on al Qaeda that I had called for "urgently" on January 25 finally met. In preparation for that meeting, I urged Condi Rice to see the issue cleanly. ... The Principals meeting, when it finally took place, was largely a nonevent. Tenent and I spoke passionately about the urgency and seriousness of the al Qaeda threat. No one disagreed. ...
Rumsfeld, who looked distracted throughout the session, took the Wolfowitz line that there were other terrorist concerns, like Iraq, and whatever we did on this al Qaeda business, we had to deal with the other sources of terrorism.

Of course we have since learned that those other sources of terror did not exist.

After that 4 September meeting, nothing more happened to thwart real world terrorism. Plans for the invasion of Iraq had been ongoing for at least six months. Was George Jr aware of the seriousness of hijacked planes and threats to NYC buildings? When the first plane crashed into the WTC, George Jr was in an elementary school. They told him a small plane had crashed into the WTC. Apparently information in the August 6 PDB was not in his head. He asked nothing about the event or even asked who was taking charge. Chaos reigned at the highest levels as no one even gave the pilots authorization to shoot down airliners nor told those pilots where to go. The pilot that was suppose to be over Washington was 150 miles at sea to defend against cruise missiles. Rumsfeld could not be found because he decided to push stretchers in the Pentagon parking lot. An informed George Jr would have instead asked questions, discovered chaos, and taken charge.

Again, Geroge Jr had ignored sharp warnings from President Clinton, had ignored and done nothing about 36 references to Al Qaeda attacks (whereas Clinton was very actively trying to destroy Al Qaeda), and Geroge Jr even took his briefings verbally (not in writing). Briefings where even the senior staff was told in advance what they should tell the president!

Those involved in counterterrorism were quite alarmed by the summer of 2001 as noted in Richard Clark's book page 235

By late June, Tenet and I were convinced that a major series of attacks was abut to come. "It's my sixth sense, but I feel it coming. This is going to be the big one," Tenet told me. No one could have been more concerned about the al Qaeda threat than George, but he had been unable over several years to get his agency to find a way to go after the heart of al Qaeda inside Afghanistan.

In the meantime, where is all this written material about the impending terrorism attacks? If it was not a threat from Saddam, then was it being censored? But even Tenent was giving the President written daily briefings. Did George Jr ever read these? Apparently he did not because he called them only historical. He called them historical because he failed to read the details.

Not only do I believe George Jr reads little. I also believe he is told what to decide by his political advisors. Not his technical staff - the cabinet and other key Directors. A political staff decides based upon ideology.

It is well known from many sources that George Jr did not have knowledge of any other nation but Mexico. His entire knowledge of the world comes from an intense 1.5 year training course that started in 1998 when his father introduced him to Condi Rice in Kennebunkport. A team of Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, and other members of the vulcans (neoconservatives) taught George Jr about the world. How can one be that naive? First one must not read very much. *Apparently* he also does not read other information sources.

When I said George Jr apparently did not read that briefing, well yes, it is an opinion. An opinion substantiated by a significant reading and numerous details. Notice over the years how my opinions have changed from saying Bush Jr may be a compassionate conservative to eventually believing this president is as bad a Nixon. It started when the foreign minister of Norway predicted that George Jr would destroy the Oslo Accords AND when the first foreign leader to visit George Jr, the Chancellor of Germany, was all but insulted by George Jr. Did you know about those events? If not, then how informative is your reading? Since then, this president has output a chain of ideological half truths - better known as lies. This post is but a very short example of how much I have read about this president. Enough that when I say this president "apparently did not read" the breifing, then it comes from his long history of not reading AND of using ideology as a replacement for hard fact analysis.

My statement stands based upon extensive reading of how George Jr operates, is manipulated, and lies. I did not contradict myself. My adversion to George Jr is based upon his history and just too much published details of what has been ongoing in this White House. This includes an outright denial that Al Qaeda was a threat AND attempts to blame 9/11 on Saddam Hussien. This sort of leadership is classic ideological thinking - reality be damned.

One cannot say enough bad things about a president who so openly lies as to even claim alunimum tubes were for WMD - when written reports from three advance physics labs contradicted that claim. Did he bother to read those reports also? *Apparrently* not which is why even on The Cellar, some foolishly were convinced those aluminim tubes were for nuclear weapons development. Notice I had read about those physics labs reports that George Jr *apparently* did not read when he lied about WMD. *Apparently* I do read some things. And having done this little bit of reading, I further believe this president does very little reading before he 'makes' a decision. He has a political staff headed by Karl Rove and Dick Cheney to do all the reading for him. No wonder this president could not testify before the 9/11 Commission without Cheney's help. Somebody who reads had to be there.