Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged

[bevin]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051013/ap_o...HNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Quote:

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WASHINGTON - It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution.

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Otherwise he would be asked really emabarrassing questions that he has no answer to...

/Bevin

[bevin]

Of course this administration has been repeatedly caught doing this... lying is a standard tool of politics for the Bush administration.

/Bevin

[Dr. Shane]

Screening questions is hardly considered "lying". With so many people holding "strong, negative" emotions toward the President, he would be a fool to let questioning become a free-for-all.

I remember a story about some sailors getting in trouble when President Clinton toured a ship and they made snide comments about him being a draft-dodger after he passed them. Members of the Armed Forces need to respect their Commander in Cheif no matter who he (or she) is.

[Amelia]

All politicians stage alot of photo/audio ops.

[Derrell M]

I fail to see how choosing one's questions qualifies as lying.

[Dr. Shane]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

All politicians stage alot of photo/audio ops.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

It is all politics. When Clinton did it the conservatives would point it out and call him a fake. Now when Bush does it, Liberals point it out and call him a liar.

[Dr. Shane]

It is no wonder Democrats want to call Bush a liar. Anyone remember this open letter sent by Retired Lt. Col. Eric Jowers to President Clinton in 1998?

[:"blue"] Dear Mr. President:

It’s not about sex. If it were, you would be gone.

Like a principal or teacher who had sex with a student teacher half his age at his desk during school hours, you would be long gone. Or, just like Army Sergeant Major Gene McKinney, while found not guilty, was forced to resign amid accusations of sexual abuse.

Remember the Air Force general you refused to nominate as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff because he admitted an affair 15 years before while separated from his wife? Unlike you, he wasn’t accused of having a starry-eyed intern my daughter’s age perform oral sex on him while on the phone and with his wife and daughter upstairs.

If it were about sex, you should be subjected to the same horrible hearings Clarence Thomas was because of Anita Hill’s accusations. He was accused of only talking dirty to her. He didn’t leave semen stains on her dress.

No, it isn’t about sex. It’s about character, lying, arrogance and abuse of power.

It’s about dodging the draft. When it came up in the campaign, you concocted a story nobody believed, but we excused you and looked away.

It’s about smoking dope. “I didn’t inhale,” you said. Sure, and when I was 15 my buddies and I swiped some beer from an unwatched refrigerator. We drank it but didn’t swallow. “I broke no laws of the United States,” you said. Right. I guess you smoked it overseas where you were demonstrating against the USA. Nobody believed you, but we excused it and looked away.

It’s about selling overnight stays in the White House to any contributor with untraceable cash.

It’s about Whitewater, Jim and Susan McDougal, Arkansas former-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, Vince Foster, Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and countless others. It’s about removing records from Foster’s office while his body was still warm and “not noticing them” in your bedroom for two years.

It’s about illegal political contributions. It’s about soliciting contributions and selling influence at Buddhist temples and in the same White House where Lincoln and FDR led their country through the dark days of wars that threatened our nation. But we excused you and looked away.

It’s about hiding evidence from Ken Starr, refusing to testify, filing legal motions, coaching witnesses, obstructing justice and delaying Judge Starr’s inquiry for months and years, then complaining that it has gone on too long. Thank goodness, Starr didn’t excuse you or look away. He held on like a tenacious bulldog.

Your supporters say you’ve confessed and asked forgiveness. A confession in the face of overwhelming evidence isn’t a confession at all. And you certainly didn’t apologize. Not that it would matter. A confessed murderer is still a murderer. When your “confession” didn’t sell, even to your friends, you became more forthcoming, but you’ve misled us too much already. Voters can’t believe what you say, and neither can your cabinet, Congress or world leaders.

When a leader’s actions defame and emasculate our country as profoundly as yours have, it is no longer a personal matter among you, your family and your God.

I don’t believe Hillary was unaware of your sexual misadventures, abuses of power and pattern of lying. I believe she has been a party to your wrongdoings since long before Whitewater and Gennifer Flowers. Why? So she could share in the raw power your office carries. You two probably lied to Chelsea, but that is a matter among you, your family and God.

Remember the sign on James Carville's desk in the 1992 campaign? It said, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Put this sign over your desk: “It’s about character, stupid!”

No, it’s not about sex. It’s about character.

But we must live with your lies and arrogance a while longer. Your amorality and lack of character have been as pervasive as they have been despicable, and we have no reason to believe you’ll resign and go away. You’ll count on half-truths, attack dogs and spin doctors to see you through, the country be damned. You think we’ll excuse you and look the other way.

No more. We’ve had enough.

When every parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, teacher, minister, elected official and diplomat has to apologize for your actions, you’ve lost all moral authority and the right to lead.

Now go away and let us show everybody that our country was not without morals; only you were. Let us show them America wasn’t the problem; William Jefferson Clinton was.

Go away, Mr. President. Leave us alone.

And when you leave, know that your legacy to the USA will be a stain on the office of president that is as filthy as that on Monica’s dress. It will take a lot of scrubbing to make it clean again, and you’re not qualified for the job. [/]

Many Democrats want to paint President Bush as a liar like so many Republicans did to President Clinton.

[Derrell M]

Quote:

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lying is a standard tool of politics for the Bush administration.

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Businesses engage in trade, men ogle women, and government administrations lie. Those are common facts of life that are known to pretty much everyone. That aside, if not asking a question when you don't care to hear the answer qualifies as lying then here is one that has caused me to lie all to often: "Should I ask her out to dinner? No, she's too pretty. She'll just say no. But, what if she does say yes? Yeah, but if she says no... Oh man!"

[Bravus]

I'm not sure why lying is relevant: Bush has not faced a hard question in a very long time. All his events are carefully stage-managed, and audiences screened, so that he hears only from supporters. That, I'm sure, is a huge part of the problem.

[bevin]

Choosing your questions is not lying.

Misrepresenting the event is.

/Bevin

[Derrell M]

How was the event misrepresented?

[Stan]

Whether you like Bush or not, these things get rehearsed. By all major CEO's. No media outlet ever wants to risk long dead time, or surprises that will create a zillion phone calls, If they do not have some kind of plan they may not even be picked up by networks.

Think Janet Jackson. Networks detest those incidents.

[cricket]

I thought Janet Jackson's SuperBowl "accident" was rehearsed!

[Tom Wetmore]

It was billed as a "conversation". It was an entirely scripted and carefully staged event between a carefully message point scripted president and a group of very loyal hand-picked and very clearly rehearsed soldiers. That is hardly a "conversation".

Giving interviewees an idea about topics which they may be asked questions is not unusual, but these soldiers were carefully coached, prepped and rehearsed on "their" answers - what to say and how to respond to appear spontaneous and natural. There was even a prepared plan in the event that the president went off the script and actually thought up his own question. The ranking officer was to take the mike and do his best to give the expected party line.

Yes, politicians routinely stage PR events to get their messages out. Even the supposed pre-election debates and "town hall meetings" had no real surprises and only provided a carefully rehearsed opportunity to appear spontaneous and responsive to voter concerns. But they were just stump speeches in a Q&A format.

But the real story here was that the major news outlets only covered the rehearsal story for this event. The media has been long aware of the reality of these scripted events, but this time decided to not ignore the man behind the curtain creating the wizardly illusion. They are no longer going to make even a pretense of glossing the carefully crafted image of Dubbya and playing along with this administration's paraded charaded spin on reality. No more for Dubbya's desire that everyone about his agenda.

Tom

[Amelia]

Pentagon Denies Talk With Troops Was Staged

Friday, October 14, 2005

WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials are denying that a live video conference between President Bush (search) and U.S. troops in Iraq was staged.

"On behalf of these fine young men and women, we certainly regret any perception that they were told what to say. It is not the case," said Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita.

A live feed of troops from the Army's 42nd Infantry Division and an Iraqi soldier was beamed into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington from Tikrit Thursday to discuss the situation in Iraq with the president.

But some critics said the video conference was staged, referring to an on-camera shot of a Pentagon official shown coaching the soldiers.

"The soldiers were advised as to the issues they should expect to discuss, and decided among themselves who would speak to each issue as it may arise," Di Rita maintained.

The event posed technological challenges, which required preparations such as advisements to soldiers on which subjects they could expect to be asked about, Di Rita said.

Some senior Pentagon officials told FOX News that they are angry that soldiers were coached at all before the video conference went live.

The White House defended the video conference on Thursday, saying that the soldiers were expressing their own thoughts.

"I think all they were doing was talking to the troops and letting them know what to expect," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, adding that the president wanted to talk with troops on the ground who have firsthand knowledge about the situation.

The questions pitched to the troops by Bush were choreographed on the president's goals for the war in Iraq and the upcoming vote this weekend on a new Iraqi constitution.

Privately, at least one senior military commander told FOX News that he's outraged by the way the young soldiers were coached.

Others pointed out that despite efforts behind closed doors at the Pentagon to spin what happened, the tape of the event tells the story of soldiers who were being 'scripted' and given answers that had been 'drilled through' — in the words used by Deputy Secretary of Defense for Internal Communications Allison Barber on a tape that captured her 45-minute practice run of the event.

Barber told the soldiers on camera shots before the video conference went live that the president was interested in three topics, including the overall security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the vote and training for Iraqi troops.

"This is an important time," Barber said to the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."

Barber continued to talk to the troops before the event went live.

"I'm going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," Barber said.

Then Barber took the troops through a brief rehearsal.

"OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"

"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.

"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.

"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.

And so it went.

"If the question comes up about partnering — how often do we train with the Iraqi military — who does he go to?" Barber asked.

"That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.

"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit — the hometown — and how they're handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked.

Bush opened the video conference thanking the troops for their service and vowed to stay in Iraq until the mission was complete.

"So long as I'm the president, we're never going to back down, we're never going to give in, we'll never accept anything less than total victory," Bush said.

Bush received positive feedback about the situation in Iraq from the troops.

An Iraqi soldier told the president "thank you very much for everything," adding that "I like you."

On preparations for the vote, 1st Lt. Gregg Murphy of Tennessee said: "Sir, we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make this thing a success. ... Back in January, when we were preparing for that election, we had to lead the way. We set up the coordination, we made the plan. We're really happy to see, during the preparation for this one, sir, they're doing everything."

On the training of Iraqi security forces, Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo from Scotia, N.Y., said to Bush: "I can tell you over the past 10 months, we've seen a tremendous increase in the capabilities and the confidences of our Iraqi security force partners. ... Over the next month, we anticipate seeing at least one-third of those Iraqi forces conducting independent operations."

Lombardo told the president that she was in New York City on Nov. 11, 2001, when Bush attended an event recognizing soldiers for their recovery and rescue efforts at Ground Zero. She said the troops began the fight against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and were proud to continue it in Iraq.

"I thought you looked familiar," Bush said, and then joked: "I probably look familiar to you, too."

Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt." Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said.

"If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a nationally televised teleconference," Rieckhoff said. "He needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."

FOX News' Bret Baier and Nick Simeone and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

[:"blue"]* I find this very interesting because on last nights national news there was a report from a gal who was there for the rehersal and the actual event. They had tape on both. The rehersal was not conducted with Dubya but with an aide acting in his place. But she went over the soldiers replies and gave them tips and replacement words etc. [/]

[Dr. Shane]

What we have is a bunch of liberal-leaning people trying to make political hay out of this when there is nothing to it. Conservative-leaning people did the very same thing during the Clinton years. Today I caught a few minutes of Rush Limbaugh playing back accounts of when he exposed Clinton for doing simular things.

Well now the shoe is on the other foot. It wasn't a big deal when Clinton did it and it isn't a big deal when Bush does it. Clinton had many critics that were not fair to him (as I have given one example in this thread) and Bush has many critics that are not fair to him.

[lazarus]

This is another example of how badly things are going for this admin. Even the things that are meant to be a plus turn out to be a negative. The Bush admin is now reaping some of what it has sown.

[Dr. Shane]

Or it is an example of the double standard in the mainstream press. When President Clinton did simular things, only the right-wing comentators pointed it out. When President Bush does it, the mainstream press tries to paint him as a liar over it.

[jasd]

QR window:

Row vs Wade:

“… public event on Gore’s schedule was an environmental photo-op. Those were Gore’s “earth tone” days and he wanted to showcase his new, casual wardrobe in a carefully staged canoe ride down the Connecticut River. …

In addition to the other reporters, who were bringing up the rear, there were state officials from both Vermont and New Hampshire. …

… As we disembarked and started walking up the bank to the vice presidential motorcade, a man named John Kassel, director of the Vermont Division of Natural Resources, sidled up alongside me and struck up a conversation. “They won’t release the water for the fish when we ask them to, but somehow they find themselves able to release it for a politician,” Kassel groused. “The only reason they did this was to make sure the vice president’s canoe didn’t get stuck.”

When I expressed bewilderment, Kassel explained: The drought that had been plaguing New England all summer had slowed the Connecticut River to a trickle. Gore’s advance team and the local environmentalists who organized the photo-op had fretted that there wouldn’t be enough water to float the vice presidential canoe. So Pacific Gas & Electric was instructed to open the floodgates of its dam upriver at dawn that morning. By the time Gore got into his canoe, the river was plenty deep enough for the trip downstream.

“There are people on the phone right now telling them to shut it off,” Kassel assured me.

… At length I reached a senior PG&E official who confirmed Kassel’s account. I even tracked down the dam operator who had pushed the button that morning to open the floodgates.

Their story was nothing short of amazing. The drought was so severe that New Hampshire residents were forbidden from watering their lawns or washing their cars. And yet more than half a billion gallons of water had been released from a dam in order to accommodate Al Gore’s environmental photo-op.

… Shaheen, who acknowledged the river receded to its low level within hours after Gore’s departure.

… Someone even filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, charging that the release of water had amounted to an illegal campaign contribution. …” [ed] --Bill Sammon At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election

Now, c’mon, ‘fess up, was there [really] a thread on these boards about the infamous Row vs Wade incident and a general condemnation of the practice of such deception? Uhh, never mind,

the publicity scam is an ancient and honored tradition… (or from where I hail, "blowin' smoke")

“Say cheese!”

[lazarus]

I have to confess to a bit of schadenfreude over this whole incident

[jasd]

Why do I not disbelieve you?

[Neil D]

Ok, so let me mirror this back to some of you....

For those of you who think it no big deal, the Bush's stage event was a non-brainer, non political, scenerio that should not cause much of a stir....

For those of you who are troubled with this "staged" event, you feel somewhat betrayed or lied to...right?

To me, it goes to character again....Saying one it is one thing, when it is truely another, goes to the character of lying...manipulation for profitable gain....

Oh, well...Another stain on the character of G. Bush.....

[lazarus]

Politicians will never learn!

John Major (ex UK Prime Minister) had a "back to basics" campaign. He wanted the country to get back to the basics of good moral standards. In the miidle of the campaign on of his cabinet ministers or MP's ended up being photographed with his mistress. Years later it was revealed that he had an affair with one of his cabinet colleagues (a woman)

The true character of the Bush admin will soon become very obvious!

[Dr. Shane]

If I am trying to sell a product and I bring out 10 sastisfied customers and make a commercial, would I be lying? No, each would have been legitamately sastisfied with my product. Do I have the obligation to bring out 10 customers that were not sastisfied with my product? No. As long as I do not misrepresent my product, there is not ethical issue.

So it is with politicians and the programs they wish to sell us. If President Bush brought out soldiers that lied by saying things like "conditions are great" "everyone is happy here" "no one is afraid" "No one is dying" etc. Then there would be an ethical issue. President Bush selectively choosing soldiers to interview that support the war is not unethical. The media is free to seek out the many that disagree. Politicians do this all the time. This is not news.

[Neil D]

Quote:

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If I am trying to sell a product...

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And there's the problem, Shane....We , the American people, have already been sold one bill of goods regarding the Iraqi war when Bush said "We KNOW where the WMDs are. They're around Baghdad.". And our armed forces found nothing when they invaded. So, as I have said, as a salesman, he's good at it...but like a salesman, it doesn't mean that I have buy his snakeoil...