Interpreter: Bush likely used hidden earpiece

[quaoar]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49449-2004Dec8.html

Interpreter Says No to Secrecy
Indonesian Specialist Resigns to Protest Nondisclosure Rule

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 9, 2004; Page A31

Interpreters have long been the cogs in the wheel of international diplomacy. They make headlines only when they mess up, as when President Jimmy Carter's interpreter spoke of the Polish people's "lusts for the future" instead of their "desires" for the future. And even then, convention demands that interpreters remain in the background, refraining from public comment.

This tradition does not sit well with Indonesian specialist Fred Burks, who is making a noisy exit from government service after 18 years of interpreting for top U.S. officials, including President Bush and former president Bill Clinton. Burks resigned last month in protest against what he sees as excessive government secrecy, and since then has been treating anybody who will listen with insider stories about private meetings he attended.

These included high-level negotiations with Indonesia over U.S. attempts to secure the handover of a radical Muslim cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, suspected by the Bush administration of connections to the terrorist group al Qaeda. According to Burks, the Indonesians resisted heavy White House and CIA pressure to transfer Bashir to U.S. custody.

Burks interpreted for Bush at an Oval Office meeting with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in September 2001, eight days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He says Bush displayed such a detailed grasp of Indonesian issues at the meeting that he came away thinking the president must have been fed information through a hidden earpiece.

[eleonora]

1. Bush is a robot

:tinfoilhat:

[propagandafreegal]

8. No, he is a clone... I read it on the 'internets'. nm

[bullimiami]

2. no shit?

any fool knows they were lying.

[wurzel]

3. Bush got away with it during the "debates". So why not?

[theangrydem]

10. No balls

Dems didn't have the b*lls to make it an issue....they should have pressed the issue instead of letting become the butt of late night jokes.

[mattclearing]

12. Can you imagine if Kerry had challenged him to take off his jacket?

He could have exposed Bush as a fraud then.

[ShaneGR]

4. What if Bush did have a detailed grasp on Indonesian issues...

Maybe he was briefed extensively before the meeting. I swear, the biggest mistake we make with W is calling the man stupid. He's not stupid. He's smart enough to play one on TV though, because he knows more than half of this country LIKES that persona.

Here's what I would recommend. Go to c-span.com and look up one of the old debate videos of Bush vs. Richards in Texas. He CLEARLY speaks IN-DEPTH about some issues he would NEVER talk of the same way he does now.

Why? He learned the method as a counter to Al Gore's style of extremely detailed robot-speak.

[quaoar]

6. Bush can't have a detailed grasp of Indonesian issues

That would require him to read up on it.

[Anakin Skywalker]

5. Hidden Earpiece?

Heh. Does not surprise me. All the fundy televangelist preachers use them. These preachers and their cattles make up the Bush Base, no? So Bush is/was just leading by being a fine example. A "true leader", as any of the Bushite will say.

[KoKo]

7. The "Hunchback of Midland" with the "poor tailor" REIGNS!!!!!

He can even speak Indonesian!

[robbedvoter]

9. To bad Indonesian questions didn't come up on the debates!

Not that it matters. We saw the emperor naked - he is crowned anyway....

[DeepModem Mom]

11. kick

[laheina]

13. Truth be told: he's just a puppet.

And you know where Chaney's hand goes.

[Stephanie]

14. He uses it every day - watch the way he talks

He speaks, pauses, scrunches his face and shakes his head to appear as if he's thinking, then sputters out the line. Rinse. Repeat.

[bobthedrummer]

15. He is probably wired-he joked about waiting for the words to "pop into"

his loathsome head during debates.