On Bob and Bandar

How does Woodward get the top people in Washington D.C. to spill the beans? The technique apparently is the line 'get your story out first'--a deal offered by Woodward to the power players to tell their 'side' of the story before their adversaries do, and so come out on top in the political spin narratives. In return Bob pledges to tell the story exactly as given to him by the interviewee/s. It is a technique which preys upon political greed and amibition, and succeeds. "He is terrific. He's a great journalist. He's fantastic," gushed Condi Rice, the national security chief, before even reading the book. Where she is described by Bush as being "territorial... she's a woman." (Bush should know--Rice recently made a Freudian slip and called him "my husband..." but then quickly corrected herself).

Plan Of Attack makes clear that the present occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue lied to his nation and the world about the invasion of Iraq. Bush and his team came to the White House with their minds made up about invading Iraq. Even before the inauguration, Cheney decided that "topic A" of the new president's first national security briefing should be Iraq. On Day 17 of the new administration, the "principals" met to discuss ... Iraq." As early as November 2001 Bush took Rumsfield aside and asked him to prepare a war plan for Iraq. In September 2002, during a meeting about possible targets, General Tommy Franks told Bush the truth about the fabled Weapons of Mass Destruction: "Mr President, we've been looking for Scud missiles and other weapons of mass destruction for 10 years and haven't found any yet." The British also lied. The head of the CIA told British intelligence that Saddam's capability to launch rockets in 45 minutes as "shit". Yet the Brits claimed the opposite in their 'intelligence dossier,' subsequently used to justify the war.

To me the most fascinating parts concerned the long-time Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar--'Mr Smoothie' of Washington D.C. Prince Bandar, born to Prince Sultan bin Abdulsziz Al-Sauda (currently the Saudi defence minister) and a concubine, lived as a pariah with his mother until he was eleven. "It taught me patience, and a defense mechanism, if you want, to not expect anything," he says of his father, who later brought him and his mother to live in the palace. Famous for vodka-and-gin bashes at his palatial home on the banks of Potomac, shared by his wife Princess Haifa, daughter of King Faisal, the royal couple lead a champagne life, courted by the gilded in Washington.

Bandar seems to have extraordinary access to Bush, coming and going to the Oval Office more or less at will. In contrast to very negative portrayals of the kingdom in American media, Saudi Arabia is shown to actually have a special relationship with the United States. Why? Woodward gives us an answer: "The Saudis hoped to fine-tune oil prices ... to prime the economy for 2004. What was key, Bandar knew, were the economic conditions before a presidential election, not at the moment of the election." According to Bob's take, Bandar is rooting for Bush, planning to turn on the taps near the US elections sending the gas prices down and Bush's popularity up!

Yet, despite all this access and influence, in the book there is no evidence that Prince Bandar attempted to change American minds over the invasion, or that he protested to the top policymakers about the potential loss of innocent Iraqi lives. His loyalty is solely to the Saudi royal house, whose preservation alone seems to be of importance.

Prince Bandar is notified about plans to invade Iraq as early as January 2003, before either Powell or Blair. Bandar tried to downplay this fact to Woodward, who writes "For some reason, Bandar wants to fuzz this up." The Saudi ambassador wakes up Woodward in the middle of the night to say "Wink, wink"! What's going on? Why did the Saudi ambassador play Wee Willie Winkie to the sleeping Woodward? "I think when you wake up somebody at midnight they might hear things or see things," said the prince, hinting that Woodward is hallucinating! Bob says Bandar's nocturnal phone call basically was to say that the writer was correct (that Bandar was informed before Blair or Powell) but his raffish 'wink, wink' implied that Bob should let the matter go.

Colin Powell and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are the two characters in the book who come off the weakest, with hardly any say or influence. Colin Powell, the least hawkish of Bush's top-level aides, was put "in the fridge," literally banned from the inner policymaking group on Iraq. Powell in turn tells Woodward about Cheney's "fever" to invade Iraq, the fact that Cheney was "terrified" that going to the United Nations would actually work and prevent war. Tony Blair, too, is a minor figure, not at all the major ally standing in the Rose Garden beside Bush. Apart from supporting Powell on the need to go to the UN, Woodward's account shows Blair as 'the poodle' being wined and dined in Washington, but not being listened to in any serious way.

In the final analysis, of course, nowhere in the book does Woodward directly touch upon the topic of the immense Israeli/Jewish hold on the White House. Which is why it seems that the real story behind the plan of attack remains to be told.

Below are some nuggets. Enjoy.

*Bush, at a Pentagon briefing in January 2001, scarfs down the peppermint on the table in front of him, then begins to eye Bill Cohen's treat, which the former defense secretary gladly relinquishes. Gen. Hugh Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, "noticed Bush eyeing his mint, so he passed it over."

*Aide Nick Calio declares his intention to "vitiate" congressional filibuster. Bush replies, "Nicky, what the f... are you talking about, 'vitiate'?"

*Vice President Dick Cheney dozing off during a security briefing.

*Secretary of State Colin Powell venting his anger at being left out of the loop: "What the hell! What are these guys thinking about? Can't you get these guys back in the box?"

*Gen.Tommy Franks telling his commanders, "This is @*# serious. You know, if you guys think this is not going to happen, you're wrong. You need to get off your ass" and using four-letter words at his joint chiefs, part of the Pentagon's machismo culture.

*Pentagon's undersecretary for policy saying "I have to deal with the @*# stupidest guy on the face of the earth almost every day!"

*Deputy Secretary of State Armitage worrying about Powell's media image because the "two are best friends, they talk on the phone so many times each day that aides think of them as teenagers joined at the hip, committed to sharing absolutely everything."

*Lynne Cheney, on a Middle-East trip lunching with an emir's wife. "When do the children here in Bahrain begin school? she asks. The emir's wife reminds the second lady that she's in Qatar."

*Powell revealing that he detests Rumsfeld's circuitous manner of speaking"One would think ..."; "Some would say ..."--which he dubs "third-person passive once removed."

Anjum Niaz is a reporter for Dawn in the United States.