Bush looking forward to the ‘true facts’ on torture tapes

December 11, 2007

When it comes to the CIA’s destruction of video footage of U.S. torture of detainees, the White House, on the advice of counsel, has stopped commenting. At yesterday’s press briefing, Dana Perino wouldn’t budge.

The president, however, is in charge, and can comment on anything he wants to comment on. ABC News asked Bush a few questions about the controversy.

ABC News’ Martha Raddatz Reports: In an exclusive interview with ABC News President Bush said Tuesday he did not know about the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations.

The President said he was told just a few days ago.

“My first recollection of whether the tapes existed or whether they were destroyed was when [CIA Director] Michael Hayden briefed me,” Bush said.

“There’s a preliminary inquiry going on and I think you’ll find that a lot more data, facts will be coming out,” he said, “that’s good. It will be interesting to know what the true facts are.”

Regrettably, I think it’s fair to say we’ve reached a point in which most of Bush’s comments should reflexively be perceived as false, particularly when it comes to controversies that are currently under investigation, as this one is.

But even beyond the simplistic “Bush is dishonest” tack, there’s ample reason for skepticism here.

For one thing, Bush may claim to have just learned about the existence of the torture tapes, but his White House — and his White House counsel — has been aware of them for years.

Indeed, the Bush gang was integrally involved in this process.

Lauer asked Kiriakou where the permission was given to carry out torture. “Was the White House involved in that decision?” Lauer asked. “Absolutely,” Kiriakou said, adding:

“This isn’t something done willy nilly. It’s not something that an agency officer just wakes up in the morning and decides he’s going to carry out an enhanced technique on a prisoner. This was a policy made at the White House, with concurrence from the National Security Council and Justice Department.”

Now, I suspect most reasonable people can agree that Bush is probably not much of a micro-manager. Just because his senior aides and top intelligence officials knew about the torture and the torture tapes doesn’t necessarily mean the president knew anything about them. (Even if he was told, he likely would have said, “All right, you’ve covered your ass now….”)

Having said that, Bush was briefed extensively on the Zubaydah interrogation (featured on one of the destroyed videos), and it’s hardly a stretch to think one of those briefings might have mentioned that the interrogation was captured on film.

I suppose the “true facts” are dependent on just how clueless the president is about events going on around him.

I really wish all adminstrations would quit lying about why they aren’t talking.

Reagan couldn’t talk about Iran-Contra
Bush can’t talk about Plamegate

  • We have to get impeachment on the table. Nobody believes a word he says anymore – he’s not a leader. He’s a mistake. There have to be consequences.

    If the former governor of Texas had ever in his sorry life experienced a consequence, maybe we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in now. That, of course, is past history. But if the men in the GOP backroom think they can get away with this kind of destructive misbehavior, they’ll try it again.

    Impeach the little rooster and his vice-rooster.

  • Does this president say anything true these days?

    It’s utterly implausible that he first learned of this last week.

  • Yeah, he’ll look at those “true facts” (as opposed to false facts) on those tapes, right after he tracks down and fires whoever leaked Plame’s identity.

  • Oh, for the love of God – does this man know anything? At all? Ever?

    How much longer can we be expected to suspend all belief and accept that the man who purports to be on the front lines of the war on terror, is supposed to be leading the charge for a safe and secure America, the only one we should trust the security of the nation to…is completely in the dark on these critical issues?

    Doesn’t know nothin’ about anything, ever.

    Valerie Plame? Nothing.

    US Attorneys? Nada

    NIE? Zilch

    Torture tapes? The Big Doughnut Hole.

    If it looks bad, smells bad and is possibly criminal – don’t ask Bush about it – he doesn’t know anything. And he doesn’t even remember if he was ever told about it.

    Of course, if you don’t know, you can’t be held accountable, can you?

    And by the way, what the hell are “true facts?” Are there false facts? Oh, right, Bush probably doesn’t remember being taught grammar and usage.

    Grrrr…

  • I feel certain that he not only knew about the tapes being destroyed, he has watched them..and probably many others.

  • “My first recollection of whether the tapes existed or whether they were destroyed was when [CIA Director] Michael Hayden briefed me,”

    Now i know this is Bush speak, but he seems to have learned a bit, perhaps from Alberto Gonzales. What he’s saying he first remembered that the tapes were destroyed when the director briefed him. It’s his first recollection of what he knew all along. He knew it, therefore he never had to recollect it until someone mentioned it to him. It’s like carrying a piece of gum in your pocket, you don’t remember you have it until someone asks for a piece. Then you recollect it.

    Yet, at a press conference such drivel can pass so quickly without question. Then it passes into the mouths of anchors and troddles across the screen crawlers, a meaning is formed and is now being passed off and discussed as fact, that the president’s statement is that he did not find out about the tapes until the briefing.

    The meaning of is, is becoming more and more clear. Yet we still hear it pounded into the air each day that Clinton was the master parser and Bush, the plain speaker. It’s never what we see and hear that endures, it’s the stench of myth, the stamp of the lone gunman, the tidy little story.

  • “If it looks bad, smells bad and is possibly criminal – don’t ask Bush about it – he doesn’t know anything. And he doesn’t even remember if he was ever told about it.”

    Kinda makes you wonder how a kid with such a severe case of Attention Deficit Disorder managed to get through Yale and Harvard Business School.

    You don’t suppose somebody took his exams for him? Or his family put the squeeze on the two universities to pass George or else? Only asking.

  • Actually NYC, private unis are well known for having “flexible” admissions if they think (or know) mummy and daddy will cough up a huge donation. Once you’re admitted to one, especially of higher standing they hate to kick anyone out because high attrition rates affect their ranking. When I was in college students who dropped out or were asked to get out for extended periods of time were always listed as being on a Leave of Absence.

  • Satan called Mr. President, he’s asking you to quit creating ever lower levels of hell to descend into. You’ve sunk far enough.

  • “It would be interesting to know what the true facts are” – a statement utterly lacking in the swagger Bush demonstrates when he believes his own words.

  • I think even the people questioning Bush expect him to lie now, and the regular followers of this forum knew he had a serious truth allergy a long time ago. He’s just going through the motions, coasting his way out of office and perhaps hoping he doesn’t step in anything nasty on the way out. He’s looking forward to the true facts, all right – as long as he and his cronies know before everybody else, so they can bury them until he’s safely untouchable. Isn’t it time for new evidence in the Natalee Holloway case to come up, something to distract the American people so they can forget this unpleasant business?

  • Ever get the feeling a memo went out in 2000 that stated:
    “Do not talk to the President about anything of any importance.”
    “Never tell the President about anything illegal (the real definition).”
    “If you break any of the above rules, please act like it never happened, the President will.”

    Let’s call it the bubble within the bubble, for one.

  • I’ve a very sneaking suspicion—given all the hop-scotching around this, and other “forever war” issues—that this little “problem” that Bu$h has going on right now will eventually lead back to Gonzo’s “pre-AG-AG days….”

  • I can’t shake the feeling that “true facts” is newspeak, a la George Orwell, for “whatever I say the facts are.”

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