USAToday's Keen says WH refutes idea that $700m was restricted to Afghan

[papau]

Credibility and competence and ta President that has neither.

USAToday's Keen via a "a high-ranking Bush adviser" says Woodward book debunks idea that Cheney and Pentagon officials concocted and exaggerated intelligence, and refutes a portion of Woodward's book.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-woodward-book_x.htm

• Military funding approved by Congress after 9/11 put no restrictions on how it could be spent, and Congress was aware of changes, one of the administration officials said. Woodward says that in July 2002, Bush allowed Army Gen. Tommy Franks to use $700 million that had been authorized for military use in Afghanistan for Iraq-related expenses instead. "Congress was totally in the dark on this," Woodward told CBS.


Meanwhile the WSJ's Greenberger and Rogers are worried that Woodward has shown that Mr. Bush "misleads his secretary of state about his own planning for a war."

And this Morning on the Today show we discussed the top White House official who defended the $700 million diversion of funds from Afghanistan to Iraq by saying the White House didn't want to disrupt "the karma of Congress." Woodward was asked if Gen. Tommy Franks' public denial that he was not planning war was a lie, and said "Well, it wasn't the truth."

[w13rd0]

1. Unfiltered is using the *I* word...

...yeah, I know, it's AAR, but it's quickly becoming acceptable, as is discussion of LIHOP, since the damned facts seem to be making the case on both...

[apnu]

2. don't forget in the 60 minutes interview...

... they showed footage of Gen. Franks on this issue... seems to me, regardless of AAR slant, that this is open an shut case based off that testimony (and probably an avalanche of other media footage in storage somewhere), the fact that 60 minutes publicly verified Woodward's data, and the truth Woodward's data.

Anyone who says tht Woodward's book is a partisan attack is flat out lying and a cry baby, IMO. Woodward has always been true and pure to the ideals of journalism, and that's made him an extreme rarity in the feild of journalism for the past 30 years.