McGovern Interview re:DSM w/PBS News tonight

[linazelle]

Rough transcript but accurate.


Said Bush was considering war 9 months before invasion.
Said 7 more documents have come forward from Sir David Manning showing planning was well under way--that Condoleeza rice was involved.
Also added memos appeared at odds with public statements made by ** that the final decision was not made until 2003.

Showed clip from Newshour w/Gwen Ifill asking Blair who says they went through an open process with the UN and had to enforce actions against countries proliferating WMD. They show ** clip saying he did not make up his mind in advance: “Nothing further form the truth, my question was how can we do this peacefully,” said **. Showed McClellan saying they will not respond because they are not interested in rehashing old debates.

They interviewed two former CIA officials. Ray McGovern and Ruele Geret, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. McGovern was asked to “make your case” --how does this prove ** was determined to go to war. McGovern started by saying he’s not out to “make a case” he goes where facts lead him.

McGovern said in July 2002 there had been major change and war was seen as inevitable. ** was determined to remove Hussein by force and this was to be justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. He added Jack Straw, foreign minister, said the evidence on WMD was thin and intelligence people told him no problem the facts are being fixed around the policy. We have something equivalent to the Nixon tapes on Watergate, said McGovern.

Geret refuted McGovern by saying we do know that ** had not tried to distort intel or manhandle CIA and added they should have challenged the CIA more rigorously. “A lot of people had a great deal of hesitation that the US was going to war…the suggestion that everything is a foregone conclusion is contentious and not historically credible.”

Inteviewer said the minutes are based on conversations with Tenet and asked if it is not possible that Tenet was wrong. McGovern said who would know better than the head of the CIA whether facts were being fixed. McGoven added the British were being forced to go along and allow us to use two bases in Cypress and Diego Garcia and their Atty. General kept saying regime change was no basis for war. McGovern says they then proposed weapons inspections thinking they would get justification, but Hussein complied. The inspections were working, US policy was set and it was set before July 2002. McGovern added the minutes were sent to all 13 of the people who were there and Tony Blair vouched for them. McGovern mentioned the hearings saying the democrats who were confined to a basement room in the Capitol today.

Reuel Geret said he hopes they wanted to remove Hussein and that if you weigh the one question of fixing the facts against the exhaustive Robb Silverman report, the report wins hands down. Geret said the question of fixing should be presented directly.

Interviewer asked what about Jack Straw saying that Hussein’s weapons capability is less that Iran, Syria or other.

Geret said this only proves Blair is a great man because everybody was against war and Blair went ahead anyway.

Interviewer said at a dinner with Rice in March, the minutes state Condi’s enthusiasm for regime change is undimmed but there are misgivings about political risks and the belief is that ** wants to hear from Blair before making a final decision—a final decision in March.

McGovern said he’s not surprised but added that on September 20th 2001, ** and Blair attended a state dinner and Bush was witnessed by UK ambassador Chris Meyer saying to Blair that we are going to Afghanistan, that won’t take long, just a week or two and right after that we are going into Iraq—Tony are you with me? Blair said yes.

[linazelle]

1. ?

[wookie294]

2. Nice summary, thanks !! eom