Mr. Bush’s Friend, Prince Bandar & How the Administration Played You-Scratch-My-Back-and-I’ll-Scratch-Yours for a 2004 Election Payback…

At the bookstore late yesterday, I sat down with Bob Woodward’s Plan of Attack and a cup of coffee, and took some notes (it must also be getting expensive for the Bush Administration to buy all the books coming out, especially since each one rips the heart out of their once insurmountable lead – but $200 million goes a long ways, so don’t feel too sorry for them).

On pages 263-264, Woodward reports that Vice President Cheney invited Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar to the West Wing, Jan 11, 2003, before the Iraq war began (see Carla's comment on yesterday's blog). Donald Rumsfeld and JCS Chairman Gen Myers were there also. The administration needed access to Iraq through the 500-mile Saudi-Iraq border.

Then Gen Myers committed what would be a court martial offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for any other officer or enlisted person in the military:

Sitting on the edge of the table, Myers took out a classified large map clearly stamped not to be seen by any foreign national.

Myers then proceeded to brief Bandar on the U.S. war plan for Iraq. Bandar asked if he could have a copy of the map.

They were our allies, you say – what’s the big deal? Very big deal considering where 15 of 19 9/11 terrorists came from - and given how our Saudi “friends” have treated this country and bought off our leaders (see blog post for Mon Apr 5, in the archives).

Rumsfeld said that Bandar could look at the map and take notes only.

Bandar said: “No, no, it’s not important. Just let me look at it.”

In his car, Bandar scribbled out details from what he had seen on the map. When he got home, he took out a large blank map of the region that had been supplied by the CIA and began reconstructing the plan piece-by-piece.

In other words, the Saudis, of all people, were now in possession of our classified war plan, potentially jeopardizing the safety of our troops.

Later in the book, Woodward notes that Bandar, in typical Middle Eastern fashion, promised, in return, to help George Bush in the 2004 election – p.324:

According to Prince Bandar, the Saudis hoped to fine-tune oil prices over 10 months 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.

Hey, Prince Bandar - I’ll bet George Bush wonders why his Saudi “friends” have abandoned him again. The price of unleaded gas here this morning is $2.03 a gallon and going up. Maybe it’s time for the president to read up on his Saudi benefactors.

No. Scratch that idea, unless the PDB can be written at a 3rd grade level or made into a DVD.