In his answers during a September 26 joint press conference with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, President Bush described Americans who think the Iraq war has made the country less safe as "naïve" and rebutted claims that the conflict has contributed to the growing terrorist threat by repeating his illogical argument that "(w)e weren't in Iraq when we got attacked on September the 11th." But not only did the White House press corps once again fail to challenge Bush's non-responsive remarks during the press conference, several print outlets -- including the Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Washington Post -- uncritically reported them shortly thereafter.
The format of the September 26 press conference allowed for two questions from the U.S. press and two questions from the international and Afghan press accompanying Karzai on his visit. The first question came from Associated Press staff writer Jennifer Loven, who brought up the recently leaked conclusion of an April National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) (declassified after the press conference) that the Iraq war has led to an increase in global terrorism. Loven asked Bush, "Even after hearing that one of the major conclusions of the NIE in April was that the Iraq war has fueled terror growth around the world, why have you continued to say that the Iraq war has made this country safer?" Bush responded by describing those who think the Iraq war "makes us less safe" as "naïve."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200609260011