McCain's Speech at CPAC

I intend to win the war, and trust in the proven judgment of our commanders there and the courage and selflessness of the Americans they have the honor to command. I share the grief over the terrible losses we have suffered in its prosecution. There is no other candidate for this office who appreciates more than I do just how awful war is. But I know that the costs in lives and treasure we would incur should we fail in Iraq will be far greater than the heartbreaking losses we have suffered to date. And I will not allow that to happen.

The Bush Press Secretary Scott McCellan of 2006 and John W. McCain of 2008 share the same tired old pro war propaganda line we've been hearing for the last 5 years. It assumes a worst case scenario will unfold unless we follow the NeoCon policy prescription of continuing the occupation of Iraq for the foreseeable future.

At least Scott McCellan learned something from having to spout pro war propaganda in the service of George W. Bush.

Apparently John W. McCain wants to extend our disastrous occupation in Iraq indefinitely, and continue the Bush White House propaganda line at home to keep the level of fear elevated in order to justify continuing the occupation.

Now lets go back to that jucy April 10th 2006 breifing by Scott McCellan:

Q Well, Scott, can I go to the war in Iraq? There was a -- Time Magazine is running a piece by Lt. General Gregory Newbold, who is Director of Operations in the Pentagon, which, as you know, is an extremely important position in that building. He said --

MR. McCLELLAN: I will confess I have not read my Time Magazine this week yet.

Q Let me read some of it to you. He said: "The distortion of intelligence in the buildup to the war, McNamara-like micromanagement kept our forces from having enough resources to do the job." He says, "It is my sincere view that the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with the casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions or bury the results." And he's calling for Secretary Rumsfeld to resign. I think this is probably the highest ranking person we've had come out and say these kinds of things about the war. Any reaction to that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Any reaction? Do you have something specific you want to ask me about? I think we've --

Q Yes, I want to -- okay, how about the distortion of intelligence?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- expressed our views on those various issues --

Q He talks about the distortion of intelligence. He was there in the building in the buildup to the war.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, if you want to talk about the intelligence, that's an issue I just brought up. Let's go back and look. There was an independent commission, the Silberman-Robb Commission, that looked at the intelligence relating to Iraq, and they came back and said that there was no evidence of political pressure, that these were errors, serious errors, and they stemmed from poor trade craft and poor management. That's what the Robb-Silberman Commission stated.

The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report said that they did not find any evidence that administration officials attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their judgments. And then there was the British Butler report, as well. So this was intelligence that was shared by countries around the world, with Congress, with the United Nations, and the United States. Now, with that said, we have pointed out that the intelligence was wrong. That's why we have implemented important reforms.

Q Scott, you've got a senior officer here who was there in the buildup to the war, saying it was a mistake, saying this war should never have been fought, resources were taken --

MR. McCLELLAN: The President strongly disagrees. It was the right decision to go into Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power. And let me talk about why. Remember, September 11th changed the President's thinking. He talked about this in his remarks earlier today. We are a nation at war, engaged in a global war on terrorism. And the President made the decision after September 11th that we were going to go on the offensive, that we were going to take the fight to the enemy. And that's exactly what we are doing. And the President talked today in his remarks about what we have accomplished. And he talked about why it was the right decision to go in and remove Saddam Hussein from power. The regime --

(snip this is the excerpt I used in the intro)

Q But, Scott, what he was saying is this wasn't part of the global war on terrorism. In fact, what he said is the actions taken in Iraq were peripheral to the real threat, al Qaeda.

MR. McCLELLAN: Martha, I haven't read the whole article. The President has expressed his views very clearly about how this is part of the broader war on terrorism. He takes a comprehensive approach when it comes to fighting and winning the war on terrorism. And we will prevail. We are leading from a position of confidence and strength, and we will continue to do so going forward.

Q Can I just follow on the NIE?

MR. McCLELLAN: Bill, go ahead.

Q The President made his decision to declassify and release the NIE at a time when he was fighting the perception that the intelligence leading up to the war was wrong, at a time shortly prior to Mr. Libby's identification of the CIA agent as the wife of someone who was sent there in an effort to discredit the value of the trip. Why should we not believe that the timing of the President's decision was connected to the decision only days later to out the CIA agent?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, now you're getting into questions about an ongoing legal proceeding and investigation --

Q No, it's a timing question.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- you know that we've had a policy in place going back to October 2003 that we are not going to comment on it while it's ongoing. It's a very serious matter, and --

Q I'm not asking about the investigation, I'm asking you to talk about the question of the President's timing.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- I would encourage you not to make assumptions that are not based on the facts. I would encourage you to wait for the facts to be known. Mr. Fitzgerald is pursuing this legal proceeding and pursuing the investigation, and we need to let it proceed. We're not going to do anything that would jeopardize an ongoing matter like that.

Q Why did the President choose that particular time to make that intelligence public?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'll go back and reiterate to you what I said on Friday, and let's make clear that there is a distinction between declassifying information that is in the public interest and leaking classified information that could compromise our national security. There was a lot of discussion going on, there were allegations being made against the administration -- I think irresponsible and unfounded accusations -- saying that we had misused or manipulated the intelligence. There's nothing further from the truth. We were basing our decisions based on the intelligence that was provided to members of Congress, that was pulled together --

Q So it sounds like his timing was connected to that.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- by the intelligence community. And I think you've seen numerous people speak out, including major editorial papers speak out and say that it was the right thing to do to provide this information to the public, so that the public could look at the facts and look at the intelligence and see what the statements were based on. And that's what the President talked about earlier today in his remarks.

Q But it was -- the timing was connected to those things which you say were erroneous reports.

MR. McCLELLAN: It was in the public interest because of all the debate that was going on at the time about the intelligence that was used as an underlying basis for going into Iraq.

Q Scott, let me just follow on that point. When the President made the decision to get the NIE out there, to make it public, for the reasons that you stated, was he aware at that point that information would be leaked to a reporter?

MR. McCLELLAN: David, that's getting into this ongoing legal proceeding, and you shouldn't read anything into it one way or the other when I say I just cannot comment on an ongoing legal proceeding. I've seen reports --

Q There's been reports about --

MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on, hang on. I've seen reports, including today, in The New York Times, talking about this very issue that you bring up. I read that story with great interest, just like many of you in this room did. I would say that I cannot speak to whether or not the parts of that National Intelligence Estimate may have been declassified at some point prior to the release of the National Intelligence Estimate that we made on July 18, 2003.

And let me back up. The entire portion of the National Intelligence Estimate that was released on July 18th went through a declassification process. And I spoke to that issue back on July 18, 2003, and I'll stand by the remarks I made at that time. I have had a chance to go back and look further at information from that time period and I will leave it where I did. But again, I cannot speak to whether or not certain parts of it may have been declassified prior to that time.

Q But you're not challenging that report?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I just cannot speak to it because of the ongoing legal proceeding.

Q Let me ask this follow-up question. No matter when the information was released from the NIE, why isn't it a fair charge to make against this President that he, frankly, played politics with declassified intelligence in the run-up to the war to defend his case for war?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think a lot of people have disputed that. If you look at the evidence, the intelligence is in the National Intelligence Estimate. The National Intelligence Estimate is the collective judgment of the intelligence community. And it was, as I said, the underlying basis for how we viewed Saddam Hussein's weapons program -- not just us, but the Congress, foreign governments, the previous administration, the United Nations. So this was intelligence shared by many people. Now, the intelligence was wrong. And that's why we took steps to correct it and make sure that we have better intelligence going forward.

Q But that's not quite my question. The President has been outspoken about how dangerous it is for the country to mishandle, to leak classified information. Yet, in this case, nobody challenges his legal authority to do it, but you could make the charge that this was a rather political move on the part of the President to pick and choose what he'd like to --

MR. McCLELLAN: The declassification of the National Intelligence Estimate?

Q Yes.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, actually because -- go ahead.

Q -- for the purpose of, frankly, defending his own judgment. So somebody who has been so clear about the fact that you should not leak classified information made a kind of cherry-picking decision to let this stuff out.

MR. McCLELLAN: First of all, the President has the authority to declassify information as he chooses. He would never declassify anything if he felt it could compromise our nation's security. The National Intelligence Estimate, back in the summer of 2003, was more of a historical document at that point because it was the intelligence which we used as a basis for making the decision to go into Iraq. It was the collective judgment of the intelligence community. So at that point, it was providing good historical context to the American people when there was a serious debate going on in the public about that intelligence. So it was important for the American people, in the President's view, to be able to look at the underlying intelligence that was used for the statements that were made by the administration, and made by Congress in the lead-up to going to going into Iraq.

Nedra, go ahead.

Q Scott, the President was talking today about how this is an important and serious investigation going on, but there are those who are also saying, these are important allegations against the President, and that he needs to come out and explain himself to the American people, including Senator Specter.

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know that anyone said -- allegations against the President?

Q Well, that he needs to answer about his role in this release. Does he agree with Senator Specter that the American people deserve an explanation?

MR. McCLELLAN: It's not a question of whether or not we would like to talk more about it. The fact of the matter is that this is a legal proceeding and an ongoing investigation involving this administration. It's being headed by a special prosecutor, Mr. Fitzgerald. We don't want to do anything that could jeopardize this ongoing investigation, legal proceeding. We want there to be due process. We want there to be a fair hearing. And that's why we made a policy not to comment on it while it continues.

Q At what point does the President plan to explain himself to the American people then? Is there a point in the investigation -- does the trial have to be completely over?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Mr. Fitzgerald has commented on it some, and you can direct questions to him, but we've made it clear that as long as it's an ongoing legal proceeding and investigation, we are not going to comment further on it.

Q Scott, does the President approve of the way the Vice President handled this information during the declassification process, before and after --

MR. McCLELLAN: Now you're getting into a question that's relating to an ongoing legal proceeding, and I'm just not going to go there, Ed.

This is an extrodinary press breifing by Scott McCellan because it includes a couple of the topics under discussion in today's news regarding his new Book.

The New York Times story they are referring to is HERE

Crossposted at D-Kos