You want to read the transcript of Ari getting massacred?

[trumad]

Josh Marshall posted this mornings transcript of Ari getting grilled on the Niger deal... It is truly wonderful to read the right kind of questions finally being asked by the Ho's...

Clink the link for a grand old time: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/july0301.html#0707031206pm

[rock]

1. Yikes!

You'd almost think that Ari was trying to not communicate. Almost.

[Egnever]

2. Hah will ari get out in time to avoid

the falling of this house of cards?

[mhr]

4. Yes

Just in time for him to claim that he does not remember anything under subpoena. How convenient!

[phoebe]

3. this really takes the cake

(sorry - had to..) good info.
thanks.

[spanone]

35. yellow cake

.

[jbfam4]

5. thanks

for the link. I knew, as soon as I read it, that it was David Gregory asking the questions.

[trof]

6. Words (almost) fail.

One of the finest pieces of blumfoonery, obflustication, and barelydetectablecrawfishery that I have seen in all my natchurl born days.
And with an absolutely straight face.
The man is a master.

[ShaneGR]

7. Go Buckeyes!

Down with Ari!!!!

[revcarol]

8. I would rather read

(MOTHER, SLAPPING MY HANDS,)" Don't think nasty thoughts."

[imax2268]

9. you know something...

I have never in my life seen someone so blatantly try to steer around questions in my life...they knew...they lied...people died...!

[Dudley_DUright]

10. The press making

(an albeit rather modest) attempt to actually do their jobs? I think I feel faint. Someone get me some water.

[heidiho]

11. Thanks for making my day!

Nothing like the smell of Ari getting fried in the morning to make a person smile!:9

[RedSox02]

12. The only thing that would make this better.....

Would be to have seen this live, and then seen Les Kinsolving, my buddy and the WorldNetDaily White House correspondent interrupt the proceeding with a few obnoxious insignificant homophobic questions that make a fool out of him before Ari has to go back to explaining how Bush butchered intelligence.

[Brotherjohn]

13. He seems to be flip-flopping between saying the Bush SOTU...

... statement WAS based solely on the alleged Niger deal and that it WAS NOT. This seems to be because he's totally flustered at being actually questioned for once.

When it got past him simply following his instructions (which were obviously to make clear that the Vice president and the WH had NO IDEA that the CIA sent Wilson and that Wilson returned with the conclusion that the story was bunk), he just lost it.

He's trying on the one hand to say that "the President's statement in the State of the Union was much broader than the Niger question", thus implying that it is still accurate. He then verifies this again
("Q: The President's statement was accurate? FLEISCHER: We see nothing that would dissuade us from the President's broader statement."). Then he flip-flops in mid Q&A session ("So, yes, the President' broader statement was based and predicated on the yellow cake from Niger.") and says the statement was INNACCURATE ("Q: The President's statement at the State of the Union was incorrect? FLEISCHER: Because it was based on the yellow cake from Niger."). He then seems to reverse himself yet again saying that the president's statement was based on other evidence as well, but that "the President did not have that information prior to his giving the State of the Union" (then how could it be based on that evidence?). At this point Ari suffers the first symptoms of whiplash.

When outright confronted at the end of the exchange that the claim of ignorance of Wilson and the CIA's conclusion has usually been followed up with statements "that the President's statement was deliberately broader than Niger, it referred to all of Africa. The national intelligence estimate discusses other countries in Africa that there were attempts to purchase yellow cake from, or other sources of uranium -- " he gives up and says, basically "I'll get back to ya".

The WH press corps is trying to ask "If you had other evidence, and the SOTU statement was broader, what was this evidence?" and "If you didn't have other evidence, how could you have screwed up so much? Or, as seems to be more apparent every day, how could the president have lied so blatantly?"

The press corps is on to the following contradiction. On the one hand, the WH is trying to claim that they did not know that the Niger docs were forgeries and therefore were right in using them in the SOTU. On the other hand, they claim that they were not really referring to the Niger docs in the SOTU, but the "larger body of evidence" (which is, as of today, non-existent). If they would just tell us what this "larger body of evidence" was, they'd be in the clear (on this issue). Trouble is, as numerous published reports have already indicated, this "other evidence" consists of other countries' reliance on the same forged documents.

They have yet to give a straight answer as to what the president was referring to because the only things he could have been referring to were A: fake and B: non-existent.

[DrBB]

18. Let's not forget C:

That by saying the report never got to them, they are admitting to gross negligence if not dereliction of duty regarding information about a nuclear threat to the US.

"Ari: aren't you admitting that nearly 2 years after 9/11 you still have severe problems getting vital information about threats to this country through to the *president and his top decision makers? What else has slipped through the cracks? Why has no one been fired?"

[GiovanniC]

14. Nobody Can Convince Me...

That they were not fully aware that the information they presented as fact during the SOTU was complete and utter fiction. They knew. They used it anyway. People died.

They're still dying.

[rasputin1952]

37. Yes, they were fully aware that the report was bogus...

they thought they could get over again, because the press has been so 'nice' to them in the past.

they've gotten a free ride, and they thought it would continue right up to 2004.....but the 4th Estate wakens, although slowly, and will have the head on a pike it so richly deserves.

Bye Ari.....say hello to that other misanthrope, Savage; he's out of a job too.

:bounce:

[IrateCitizen]

15. drip... Drip... DRIP

Cracks are showing through the facade here. The * Administration fucked with the one group in Washington that you don't fuck with -- the intelligence community.

Their arrogance and hubris has gotten the better of them, and it will be their downfall.

[DrBB]

16. The one bit I wish the reporter had stuck on

Q: He's {Wilson is} saying that surely people at the decision-making level within the NSC would have known the information which he -- passed on to both the State Department and the CIA.

FLEISCHER: And the information about the yellow cake and Niger was not specifically known prior to the State of the Union by the White House.

Q: What does that say about communications?

FLEISCHER: We've acknowledged that the information turned out to be bogus involving the report on the yellow cake. That is not new. blah blah blah

I just wish they would nail him on this. "Isn't it an admission of horrendous incompetence on the part of the administration that a report of such significance--the veracity of a nuclear threat to the United States--could simply have gotten lost in the shuffle? Why has no one been fired or disciplined? Why has the president not called for an exhaustive investigation?" Because I think their cover story ("We never got the report") is at least as damning as what they're trying to hide.

And one could certainly wish the reporter had come back to Ari about Cheney not having ordered the inquiry. Wilson says he did. Is he mistaken? How could he be wrong about that?

Still, it's always amusing to watch Wormtongue squirm under the hot spotlights.

[priller]

17. Ari doing some awfully fine "parsing"

The issue now is: when did the Bush admin know the Niger uranium story was phony. Look carefully at was Ari is saying:

1) Cheney's office did not request the trip to Africa.

And thus, it's not necessarily true that Dick would know the results of Wilson's trip. This is tricky. While Cheney's office may not have specifically asked "send that Wilson fella to Africa", they *did* want to know if the Niger story was true. So Ari is artfully dodging here, but he still doesn't negate Wilson's main point: that the CIA investigated the matter at the instigation of the VP's office, so one *must* assume the VP would have got the results.

2) We have admitted the Niger paper was a forgery.

Ah yes, but that's not what Wilson's op-ed was about. He stated he had never seen the phony "official" document, that his investigation was about the possibility that such a sale of uranium had occurred, not whether a document was genuine or not.

You have to give Ari credit for being a slippery little snake.

[Iverson]

39. I agree with you, and ...

... if my students wrote the way that Ari spoke, their essays would get failing grades.

[PurityOfEssence]

19. Ask the CIA point-blank if they passed the information on to Cheney

And follow up with a request for a justification for not questioning the assertion when reviewing text of the SOTU before its delivery.

If they didn't pass this information on to Cheney's office, they're incredibly remiss. If they didn't question the assertion when reviewing text of the SOTU, they were incredibly remiss.

Responsible parties should be identified and compelled to answer questions on this; if these derelictions occurred, people SHOULD BE FIRED.

Let's be serious. Cheney's office knew about it immediately. They knew someone was being sent, and they were breathlessly monitoring the results. Force this point home. This is impeachable, and I'm now of the mind that it should be done.

[Brotherjohn]

21. Right, so why isn't the Bush admin calling for heads at the CIA?

If the CIA was so remiss in not informing the WH about one of their key justifications for war, and as a result they were hung out to dry in front of the whole world in the SOTU and elsewhere, why are they not yelling from the rooftops for heads to roll at the CIA?

Why not? Because it is simply not true.

[Brian Sweat]

20. If I were a reporter

and some piece of shit press secretary tried to play this game with me, I'd have his sorry head on a platter in the next morning's addition.

"White House refuses to answer questions on fake uranium report."

[Brotherjohn]

22. David Gregory; NBC News. Lets see how they follow up on this.

nt

[dmr]

23. Ari, the Fred Astair of tap-dancing bullshit stumbles!

It must be hard to keep the lies and the facts straight. Hopefully all these lies will follow them like an albatross.

RememberJohn did a good analysis, but left out one of BushCo's* tricks - and that is discrediting or trivializing the importance of someone:

FLEISCHER: Well, there is zero, nada, nothing new here. Ambassador Wilson, other than the fact that now people know his name, has said all this before.

Man, I can't stand these White House squatters.

[Cocoa]

24. Is this a first for Ari?

I don't remember him ever actually pretending not to hear the question, in order to buy time to come up with something.

snip:

Q: So you believe the British report that he was trying to obtain uranium from an African nation is true?

FLEISCHER: I'm sorry?

Q: If you're hanging on the British report, you believe that that British report was true, you have no reason to believe --

FLEISCHER: I'm sorry, I see what David is asking. Let me back up on that and explain the President's statement again, or the answer to it.

[Brotherjohn]

25. Yes, Gregory knows they're "hanging on the British report..."

... as evidence that there was "a body of evidence". But the WH knows damn well that the British report was not in fact independent evidence, but was based on the same evidence that the U.S. knew to be forged (and, according to ex-envoy Wilson, they intentionally kept the Brits in the dark about it).

I think Gregory was trying to ask something like the following (my emphasis for my predicted followup; admittedly in my dreams): Q: If you're hanging on the British report, you believe that that British report was true, you have no reason to believe -- that the Niger deal was false, because the British report was based entirely on the alleged Niger deal. You can't be saying now both that you believe the Niger deal is true and false at the same time, yet that appears to be what you are doing."

[julka]

26. Anybody just hear Andrea Mitchell try to explain the admin's side of this?

she was on w/Press, Buchanan, and basically said that the CIA did NOT pass on the information to the WH in their African intelligence estimate, upon which the WH supposedly relied.

she DID say, however, that the state department DID put the caveat in a footnote in the appendix to their report to the WH. Condi Rice said that the info was "buried" there, so they didn't SEE it!

is that like saying the dog peed on that part?

it was amazing to see Mitchell covering for the complete incompetence/disingenuousness on the part of the WH.

Press, that wuss, had nothing to say to Mitchell about the obvious mendacity on the part of the admin.

the media seem resolute in their determination to rationalize, excuse this egregious behavior.

not one thing was said today on Xfire about this, BTW, nor did I see/hear any mention of Ari's amazing performance.

OH YEAH! weirdest thing........I had a DREAM about Ari last night! he was wearing a new toupee; thick, dark, Kennedyesque. He was in a great mood, and made some kind of a joke. that's all I remember. almost vomited when I woke up.

[RainDog]

31. ...and we're supposed to believe this bullshit?

the American people are supposed to believe that a president is going to war based upon lies and the intel community didn't make sure they knew?

...and this after 9-11?

And in order to justify their lies, they are willing to trash the reputation of the CIA.

If I were CIA, I'd want to wring these weasels' necks!!!!!

[Oilwellian]

32. I love watching them squirm over this

Let's see them wiggle out of this statement by Wilson:

"The next morning, I met with Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick at the embassy. For reasons that are understandable, the embassy staff has always kept a close eye on Niger's uranium business. I was not surprised, then, when the ambassador told me that she knew about the allegations of uranium sales to Iraq — and that she felt she had already debunked them in her reports to Washington. Nevertheless, she and I agreed that my time would be best spent interviewing people who had been in government when the deal supposedly took place, which was before her arrival."

Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick will make a great witness! Let's also see them squirm over this comment by Wilson:

"Before I left Niger, I briefed the ambassador on my findings, which were consistent with her own. I also shared my conclusions with members of her staff. In early March, I arrived in Washington and promptly provided a detailed briefing to the C.I.A. I later shared my conclusions with the State Department African Affairs Bureau. There was nothing secret or earth-shattering in my report, just as there was nothing secret about my trip.

Though I did not file a written report, there should be at least four documents in United States government archives confirming my mission. The documents should include the ambassador's report of my debriefing in Niamey, a separate report written by the embassy staff, a C.I.A. report summing up my trip, and a specific answer from the agency to the office of the vice president (this may have been delivered orally). While I have not seen any of these reports, I have spent enough time in government to know that this is standard operating procedure."

Bring em on! Let's see those reports from the Ambassador of Niger! :D

[bpilgrim]

27. "When I refer to YELLOW CAKE I refer to Niger." Ari

FLEISCHER: When I refer to yellow cake I refer to Niger. The question was on the context of Ambassador Wilson's mission.

Q: So are you saying the President's broader reference to Africa, which included other countries that were named in the NIE, were those also incorrect?

let them EAT CAKE!

http://news.globalfreepress.com/wmd - QUOTES

peace

[julka]

28. thanks for those wmd quotes

I forgot about them. bookmarking thread for future use against the Ken Adelmans of the world who can only talk about the mass graves when asked about the justification for invading Iraq.

can you say bait and switch?

haven't read all the way through the quotes, but it would be interesting now to see what place the liberation of Iraqi people had in the justification rationale.

I certainly don't remember much said about that, in comparison to the caterwauling about mushroom clouds over DC.

got anything along those lines?

as I recall, there was mixed support here (and very LITTLE at all in the UK), til they put it in high gear about the danger posed by Saddam's weapons, right? that was the turning point in public opinion, both here and in England.

why isn't there any discussion of this in the mainstream media?

rhetorical question, of course

[bpilgrim]

33. no problem, heres the 'Mushroom Cloud' quote...

"Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

Remarks by the President on Iraq
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html
Cincinnati Museum Center - Cincinnati Union Terminal
Cincinnati, Ohio
8:02 P.M. EDT

[julka]

34. I'm pretty sure that Conrice mentioned mushroom clouds, too

I wonder how many times that particular imagery has been used in the service of keeping the populace in a state of constant fear and ignorance.

everyone knows by now about the polls showing that most people think that Iraqis were on the planes on 911, and that about a third of people think that WMDs WERE found in Iraq, and, what, about 1/5 thought that they were USED by Saddam's forces during the invasion.

[RainDog]

29. Ari's tongue must be still tied in knots after that bit of

incredible non-speak...aka bullshit in real life, as opposed to beltway "deniability."

reminds me of his use of the double negative immediately after 9-11...

that Bush "did not...not" have knowledge of the 9-11 attacks.

Did the meaning of the truth depend on how many of those "nots" count when Ari said that one?

yellow cake nots, Ari?

[Ugnmoose]

30. I don't believe what I am hearing

Did Ari basically go on the record and blame the Intelligence Community for withholding information from the Vice President when it was the Veep who requested it. This is rank insubordination. I would say the gauntlet has been laid down right here and right now. If it can be shown that Dicky Poo initiated this request and that this information was in fact given to his office. He is toast! Caught in a flat out lie. I for one can't wait to see the next round on this one. Holy Shit!

:bounce:

[spanone]

36. The amazing thing is that outside this forum I've heard nothing

about this. I wish they would ask bu$h this question.... Americans deserve to know.

[RainDog]

38. contact national media outlets and ask them to cover this story

is there any story more important right now?

this is about national security, about the reliability of our intelligence services or the Bush administration,

this is about using the "Bush doctrine" of pre-emptive war, and unprecedented move on the part of our country.

this is about a war of aggression, in violation of the Nuremberg Principles,

this is about our very soul as a nation.

This war is a direct repudiation of The Greatest Generation. It's no wonder to me that so many of them have, for A LONG TIME, seen Bush for what he is.

Months ago I remember a man who served in WW 2 who called Bush a fascist. I was stunned...because I agreed with him!

This moment is not simply about Bush's lies. This is about our soul as a nation. Sorry to repeat myself, but this issue is this important to me.

[julka]

41. what's yer problem? you unamerican, or what?

Kobe 'Obrien' got arrested, doncha know?

don't you know have any sense of priority?

they NEED another OJ......very badly

[alaine]

40. that is an awesome link.

I also read the story about Drudge pitting Dean against McCauliffe. Ari Fleischer has a disease. How does he sleep at night. (When he counts sheep they can't just jump over the fence, they have to run around the block three times and stop by the grocery store first.)

[julka]

42. he went on such a high note today

such bull