aluminum tubes
Guessing Game Results: Anonymous Ex Post Facto Buck-Passing? Could Be Anyone
“Presidential knowledge was the ball game,” says a former senior government official outside the White House who was personally familiar with the damage-control effort. “The mission was to insulate the president. It was about making it appear that he wasn’t in the know. You could do that on Niger. You couldn’t do that with the tubes.” A Republican political appointee involved in the process, who thought the Bush administration had a constitutional obligation to be more open with Congress, said: “This was about getting past the election.”
Your answers? Well, there weren’t many. As to the first, the commenterariat immediately named our first guess: George Tenet.
The only remotately credible/readable email we got on the subject named Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief-of-staff — the emailer cited Wilkerson’s access to the intel and “military-esque” language.
As for the second: One vote for Powell himself, which makes as much sense as anything. And nothing else. We’re still curious, so if you have a better idea, feel free drop us a line.
Earlier: Senior Administration Official Guessing Game: Damage Control
READ MORE: aluminum tubes, anonymous sources, colin powell, george tenet, guessing game, intelligence, larry wilkerson, war
Senior Administration Official Guessing Game: Damage Control
Which of this week’s totally shocking surprising Earth-shattering unexpected new reveals did you like more: the memos that showed Bush was set on war in January ‘03 (WHAT?!?) or this here that shows everyone knew the aluminum tubes were bullshit long before they used them in the SOTU and pinned a rationale on ‘em (NO WAY!)?
Being generally unshockable types, we’re more intested in the identities of these two:
“Presidential knowledge was the ball game,” says a former senior government official outside the White House who was personally familiar with the damage-control effort. “The mission was to insulate the president. It was about making it appear that he wasn’t in the know. You could do that on Niger. You couldn’t do that with the tubes.” A Republican political appointee involved in the process, who thought the Bush administration had a constitutional obligation to be more open with Congress, said: “This was about getting past the election.”
So — we have a couple ideas, but we’d like to hear yours. If you can divine any clues from those descriptions, let us know who you’re thinking and why.
Insulating Bush [National Journal]
READ MORE: aluminum tubes, guessing game, iraq, political appointees, senior government officials, war