We now know Bush asked Rumsfeld to ask Tommy Franks to draft a "secret war plan" while Osama bin Laden was getting away in Afghanistan, a plan that Franks baldly lied to the public about in May 2002 -- "My boss has not yet asked me to put together a plan to do that" -- as 60 Minutes pointed out last night. Bob Woodward also reveals that Rumsfeld handed Franks a blank check to pay for his secret war plan, a check signed by an unsuspecting, in-the-dark Congress, which thought the money, $700 million in supplemental appropriations for the Afghan War, was actually funding the Afghan War.
As Woodward said last night: "Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the Treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the dark on this."
Today, Woodward appeared on the Today show as part of his book publicity blitz, and offers this explanation: "As one of the top White House people involved in this said to me, 'We didn't want to disturb the karma of Congress.' Congress got had." Constitution, schmonstitution. Talk about bad karma.
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