BUSH-SHOCKED-To Learn Iraq War Strapped CIA's Ability To Focus On bin Laden

[kpete]

Bush shocked by few resources dedicated to bin Laden. In this week’s Newsweek, reporter Evan Thomas provides an update on the hunt for bin Laden. Thomas writes that during a 2005 CIA briefing at the White House, Bush was shocked to learn that the Iraq war had so strapped the agency’s ability to focus on the man responsible for 9/11:

The Iraq War, meanwhile, has proved to be a black hole for the Americans, devouring men and matériel and absorbing the attention of the brass in Washington. In 2005, the CIA gave President Bush a secret slide show on the hunt for bin Laden. The president was taken aback by the small number of CIA case officers posted to Afghanistan and Pakistan. “Is that all there are?” the president asked, according to a former intelligence official, who declined to be identified discussing White House meetings. The CIA had already embarked on a “surge” of sorts, and doubled the number of officers in the field. But many were inexperienced and raw recruits, and they produced little improvement in “actionable” intelligence.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/27/bush-shocked-by-few-resources-dedicated-to-bin-laden/

[Kagemusha]

1. Yes. Shocked - shocked! - that so few people were looking for an unimportant man.

If the President thought it was important, he'd have done something about it.

Edit: And this report can be literally true and it doesn't make Bush one bit less guilty of horrible management.

[graywarrior]

2. I'm shocked that I'm not shocked that the president is an idiot.

[tularetom]

3. Knowing that evan thomas jerk, this was probably a defense of bush

"It wasn't bush's fault because he didn't know about it. Once again his staff has let him down."

Instead of approaching it from the standpoint of "WTF kind of president would NOT already know this? Who would wait this long to ask why bin laden hadn't already been captured?"

He wasn't shocked but thomas must think it makes bush look better to say he was....