President Bush this morning took the unusual step of inviting the pool reporters, sans TV cameras, into the Oval Office for a preview of the speech he will give at the Heritage Foundation this afternoon.
The Washington Times was part of the pool and took part.
This was the first time Mr. Bush has invited reporters into the Oval Office for a small pen and pad like this.
The pool was ushered in around 9:35 a.m. Mr. Bush sat behind his desk and leaned back in his chair as he spoke to the six or seven reporters who stood on the other side of his desk.
Mr. Bush started by saying he is "concerned" that some have "lost sight of the fact that we're at war."
The president then called on Congress to pass the defense appropriations bill, the defense supplemental spending bill and the Protect America Act (FISA Reform), as well as confirm his attorney general nominee, Judge Michael Mukasey.
Mr. Bush was particularly exercised about the attorney general. He said that he was "extremely disappointed" in Congress an that Judge Mukasey is "not being treated fairly" and is being asked "unfair" questions about waterboarding.
When asked about waterboarding himself, Mr. Bush said he would not discuss specific interrogation techniques. He did not answer a question about whether there is concern about legal liability in U.S. or foreign courts with regard to the practice.
Mr. Bush said the detainee interrogation program "is important and the techniques used are within the law, and members of the Intelligence committee know what I'm talking about."
Mr. Bush also said that "people who say we are not at war are either disingenous or naive."
"We've got an enemy who says we're going to come and kill you," he said.
— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times
Comments (1)
The problem with the president is that he's a victim of his own success. The more we get away from September 11, 2001, without another attack on our soil, the more people will think we're not at war. We have not been attacked now for over six years and people are being lulled into a false sense of security. Osama bin Laden is still out there and there are plenty of radical Muslim fundamentalists who would like nothing better than to plant a dirty bomb or a nuclear device right here in America. And with people like John Edwards calling the war on terror a "bumper sticker" and John Kerry thinking that the war on terror is only a "law enforcement problem," you see that the Democrats don't take Muslim jihadists seriously either. So we ignore this threat at our own peril and we have to come to grips with the fact that the war against Islamo-Fascism could last even longer than the Cold War. We have to face this reality and, if we don't, we only make ourselves vulnerable to yet another 9/11.
Posted by Libertyship46 | November 1, 2007 5:00 PM