According to Prince Bandar, the Saudis hoped to fine-tune oil prices over 10 months to prime the economy for 2004. What was key, Bandar knew, were the economic conditions before a presidential election, not at the moment of the election. |
And that's the key element. |
Clinton said no president ever who served would talk like that, as if it is out of his hand, |
Clinton said no president ever who served would talk like that, as if it is out of his hand. Then I realized, that oh, yes, Bush is a fatalist. That you do the best you can and then leave it to the fates, or to God in Bush's case. |
everyone would raise their hand. |
Given Cheney's background on national security going back to the Ford years, his time on the House Intelligence Committee, and as secretary of defense, Bush said at the top of his list of things he wanted Cheney to do was intelligence. In the first months of the new administration, Cheney made the rounds of the intelligence agencies - the CIA, the National Security Agency, which intercepted communications, and the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency. |
He has nothing to say at this time. |
He has to operate under the rules that govern the rest of the staff -- even if he's rich and famous, |
He made the point, which is right: I should tell him more. More is better. Sooner is better. |
He told me 'I believe we have a duty to free the people, to liberate the people,' ... And I believe duty is the biggest word for a president. |
He was one tough SOB. He was somebody who really wouldn't answer a lot of questions. He was in control and now in this phase of his life he is not. |
He's a man of conscience, and I'm sure he's been interviewed endlessly about why he did it, |
He's ducking the question but he's also right. You don't know what the judgment of history is going to be 10, 20 or 50 years out. It may be very different than it is now. |
He's happy. He has his attorney writing a book due out later this year. It was an easy secret to keep. In essence, it helped me in my work. |
Hopefully, this isn't going to be 33 years until we find out exactly what happened, |