Bush Learned of Haditha Deaths From Press

[DoYouEverWonder]

May 30, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush learned of reports that U.S. Marines killed two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians only after reporters began asking questions, the White House said Tuesday.

Asked when Bush was first briefed about the events in Haditha, an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq, White House press secretary Tony Snow replied Tuesday: "When a Time reporter first made the call."

Time magazine was first to report, in March, that the U.S. military was investigating a dozen Marines for possible war crimes in the November incident. The killings, which included women and children, came after a bomb rocked a military convoy on Nov. 19, killing a Marine.

Marines then shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi at the scene and went into homes and shot other people, according to Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated Marine war veteran and prominent critic of Iraq policy who has talked with military officials.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-bush-iraqi-civilians,0,7174962.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines


Why do we bother with daily briefs, National Security Advisors, the CIA, the FBI or any of the rest, when this jackass can't even be bothered to pay attention?

[sutz12]

1. I thought he didn't read the papers.

:evilgrin:

[maseman]

2. He doesn't...

Someone in the press asked him a question about it and he wasn't aware of it. The dumb-ass can't read.

By the way...they did know about it. But if they plead ignorant they can play the "We didn't know about it game."

[UpInArms]

18. didn't I hear that Pickles read the headlines to Dimson somewhere? n/t

[maxrandb]

50. Yes, but since their marriage is a sham

according to the Globe, they probably aren't on speaking terms.

Still waiting for the 2,200 word, above the fold, front page story in the New York Times concerning the sham marriage of Bush. Since they devoted so much time, space and energy to the Clinton marriage recently based on a Globe report, I'm sure it's just a matter of days until we get the same coverage on the Bush marriage. I mean it would only be "fair and balanced"...wouldn't it?

[WhiteTara]

56. they must have worked out some of their

differences...Bush heard a headline...Pickles must be feeling sorry for the rest of world and has compassionately (in a conservative sort of way) read him some of the top stories. She didn't want to upset him too much, so she didn't read the headline about Kenny Boy.

[sutz12]

41. Geez, maybe I should have used:

:sarcasm: instead of :evilgrin:

:rofl:

[Waya]

3. He doesn't want to waste.....

..his beautiful mind on this ugliness.....it distracts from mountain biking, brush cutting, etc, etc. Easier to keep ones head up ones ass.....much more pleasant....
Must annoy him to no end that these atrocities keep happening....

[msanger]

4. These "atrocities" or these "articles?"

Funny (actually not so funny, but strange) that I read your last sentence as "Must annoy him to no end that these articles keep happening." Because to * it isn't the actual atrocities that matter - it is the news articles he has to respond to.

I guess that it one of the benefits of not living in a reality based universe. The new articles are more important than the actual atrocities.

[Supersedeas]

53. it's hard werk to be preoccupied with one's self

[MindPilot]

5. Same way he learned about Katrina?

OK, "learned" probably isn't exactly the right word.

It just says so much about this administration. It another world an evil administration would be scrambling to cover up such an event, but these dipwads aren't smart enough to be evil.

I'll bet Dimson's response after he'd heard about the massacre was "how can we make sure the press doesn't find out?"

[Supersedeas]

57. another dvd summary of the 'news'

[Botany]

6. Cheney & Rummy knew why bother telling the boy king?

[Canuckistanian]

24. It's strictly on a "need-to-know" basis

Besides, they don't want Shrub to actually comment on something before they've had a chance to spin the response properly, do they?

[Cha]

25. Is that picture

photoshopped?

[Botany]

31. Sadly no.

It was Feb. or march this year when they let him take questions from
a few real people. That project of getting * out to meet w/ the public
pretty much ended ended then. I think it was taken in Cleveland, OH
It might also have been in N.J. or a retirement home where a person who
wrote the A.B.M. treaty in 1970 questioned why bush was trashing it.
After that he was given a bussed in crowd of born again believers to do the
Q & A. in Parkersburgh, W.V..

[Cha]

32. Oh Gawd! If I read this

in a fiction story..I would think it was gross exaggeration!

Thanks, that picture is classic bush..one for his peanut gallery.

[Botany]

33. If you can stomach it ....

.... when bush does the public speaking just read the stage props and
signs behind him. Just assume 180 degree opposite thought and you
will be right.

Plan for Victory = We don't have a plan
A stronger social security = give all that cash to bush's rich investment buddies

[Canuck55]

35. That is from this year?

WTF is that below his left eye? I would swear it is a scar from the 'pretzel incident', was it like 1st degree carpet burn?

[Kailassa]

40. That's where Laura roundhouse kicks him

when she finds he's snorted her share of the coke.

[bdamomma]

48. what a worthless piece of nothing he is in that picture

he is absolutely disgusting and shameful.

[superconnected]

7. still failing at doing his job...

Like when he failed to read the file for a big terrorists attack, thus allowing sept 11, to happen.

Wonder how he'll blame clinton for Haditha.

[superconnected]

8. I'm sure our brilliant gestapo are going to come out with press releases

that the people deserved it, had terrorists ties, and they totally defend and support the soldiers and their processes.

Just like they did with torture...

Heck, they'll try to make this legal!

[MichiganVote]

9. What utter BS. Snow from Snow....

[bullimiami]

10. who here actually believes this? im going to make a poll.

a few minutes later..

ok done.

[MidwestMomma]

12. I don't!

He's just trying to cover his ass...he's the Commander in Chief. The buck stops there.

[MadMaddie]

11. I am waiting for the "Who would have thought our young

soldiers could lose their minds in an impossible war, who would think that day in and day out after seeing their buddies blown up...are you ready? Because you know it's coming.....

A complete breakdown in communications....if the administration can't get this type of information.....even from their own CIA and FBI....how in the world can they be relied on to find terrorist....

[Rose Siding]

13. Just as I suspected

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1299445

The callow boy, not liking bad news, has trained his courtiers not to bring him any.

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. You've got his number

Another heck of a job moment.

[Cha]

26. Zing! Good one,

Rose. bush needs to keep up..ha! like that's gonna happen.

[bklyncowgirl]

45. Remember when they had to show him Hurricane Katrina on a DVD?

In Bush's mind the only problem with Iraq is that those pesky reporters keep showing bad news on their TVs--that is when they're not being blown to smithereens by roadside bombs while trying to show the "good" news.

He doesn't want to know the bad news. He has people for that. People who know how to bury things nice and deep so that they're never found. Except of course if the dirty little secrets do get out, the ability to claim ignorance is very, very useful to a commander in chief.

[grytpype]

14. Well, you know how he hates to get bad news.

It wouldn't just come up in the normal course of business at the White House.

[bdamomma]

49. he hates bad news

and do you think he really cares about the "brown people". NO

[Marie26]

15. He's kept in a bubble

Makes you wonder who's really running things. *cough*Cheney*cough*

[JohnnyLib]

16. Embarrassing, weak, implausible,

and appalling are some words that come to mind about this explanation.

Yet, it is utterly consistent with this failed administration's track record. Can we start the countdown of days until this bunch moves on?

[Drum]

17. Appalling!

The man is simply incapable of learning!

[CoffeeCat]

19. More proof that Junior isn't running the show...

The big boys don't invite Junior to the meetings. He probably wouldn't understand the big words anyway.

He's not even in the loop, folks.

Cheney, Baker, George Schultz and other PNAC heavy hitters are running the show. Junior is out front--giving canned speeches at holidays, throwing out pitches and performing at a few staged press conferences.

He isn't in the inner circle.

This is really perverse. It's just rotten as hell. It's not that I want him in the inner circle. I don't. However, it really stinks that these PNAC scum thugs are running the show--tilting us into fascism.

[C_U_L8R]

21. Some commander in chief ... bah

Irresponsibly out of control....
and criminally incompetent

[journalist3072]

22. He also used the same excuse regarding the re-entry plan he signed

So, this is not the first time that Bush claimed he first learned about a critical matter of state, from the newspapers.

Last year, he expressed surprise of a re-entry plan THAT HE SIGNED INTO LAW, that requires American, Mexican and Canadian citizens to show a passport when entering the United States.

Even though he signed the bill into law, he said he first learned about the passport requirement from the newspapers.

He said "When I first read that in the newspaper, about the need to have passports, for particularly the day crossings that take place — about a million, for example in the state of Texas — I said, 'What's going on here?"'

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002242023_passports15.html

[Cha]

23. Why keep monkeypuppet

in the loop? bush says, "I'm the decider" but is he really?

[JNelson6563]

27. They don't tell him bad news

Because he doesn't want to hear it. They are courtiers there for the king's amusement.

Julie

[Jack113]

28. Another massive Bush failure

In the deadliest blast, 25 people were killed and 65 wounded when a car bomb ripped through a busy marketplace north-east of the capital Baghdad.

http://www.bbc.co.uk

Looks like the only think Bush can protect is that sea of oil.

[struggle4progress]

29. This must be why Gonzales wants to wiretap those damn reporters.

[Gman]

30. All part of a very carefully executed plan to keep him from standing trial

for war crimes.

[WindRavenX]

34. there are no words.

none...none at all.

[LibertyorDeath]

36. Bush is a Fucking Idiot !

[treestar]

37. And yet he is the commander-in-chief and in charge of the whole

operation.

:sarcasm:

[HuffleClaw]

38. utter and complete bullshit of course

but a cute little morsel of 'plausible deniability'

[Rex]

39. So he didn't hear about an obvious war crime for 5 months!?!?

Wow, how fubar is that?

[habitual]

42. As Soon As They Hear People Saying

that this issue goes right up through the ranks, their immediate response is always the same, they've played this card before.

The response is always 'He just found out through the media' implying that it can't go to the top cuz the top didn't know. The obvious next question is never asked then by our lovely media: Why doesn't he know very important things?

[dmoded]

43. must have been traumatic..

putting down the latest "archie and jughead" comic book to read about current events.

[rodeodance]

44. So, once the incident became puplic knowlege, The WH staff thought

it prudent to tell Bush also. OK>

...Asked when Bush was first briefed about the events in Haditha, an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq, White House press secretary Tony Snow replied Tuesday: "When a Time reporter first made the call."

[susu369]

46. "We'll have a picture of what happened," Snow said.

Snow said that he has been assured by the Pentagon that "all the details" will be given to the public once the investigation is over.

==

Excuse me, we already have lots of pictures - literally.

[Ilsa]

47. Is this what they call "Pausible Deniability"?

He'll always claim he wasn't informed so the investigation will never go to the top, whether it is this or Abu Ghraib.

[lonestarnot]

51. Dee Dee Dee....dertader!

[Az_lefty]

52. that moran lives in a bubble...

:puke:

[VegasWolf]

54. Yes, and pigs can fly too. Lying a**hole!! nt

[zreosumgame]

55. Was it Gannon on a 'house call' who told him?

nt

[Vidar]

58. Maybe his newsreader told him while his food taster cut his meat.

[NightOwwl]

59. Pay attention?

Puleeze....he can't even be bothered to put down his fascinating book, "My Pet Goat," when America is under attack.

This latest atrocity isn't even a tiny speck of fly shit on his radar.