13 Questions for Bush

By: John Doble A formal press conference involving President Bush is clearly a major (almost anomalous) event -- the last one was Dec. 15, 2003 -- and given the media's recent track record for acting starstruck in the spotlight, I thought I would try to help by providing a few questions in advance:

On Sunday, April 11, when asked by Tim Russert which Iraqi leaders the U.S. planned to turn the government over to on June 30, Paul Bremer said, "That's a good question." What is your answer to that question?

Harry S. Truman said, "The buck stops here," at the president's desk. Do you feel that when it comes to taking responsibility for 9/11, the buck stops with you or that the buck stops at the desks of the directors of the CIA and FBI?

What do you say to the families of victims of 9/11 who wonder why not a single official has been fired or publicly reprimanded for any failures regarding 9/11?

What did you think of Richard Clarke's apology at the outset of his testimony to the 9/11 Commission?

Have you read Richard Clarke's book or do you plan to do so?

Do you agree with your national security adviser, Condoleeza Rice, that the Aug. 6 PDB, entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Within the U.S.," is merely a "historical" document?

Why did you not make the August 6 P.D.B. available to Attorney General John Ashcroft? Do you believe, in retrospect, that this was a mistake?

After reading the Aug. 6 PDB -- and learning of other intelligence "chatter" suggesting a terrorist plot in the works -- why didn't you convene an emergency cabinet meeting?

Now that you've ordered more troops to Iraq, do you wish you had listened to Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki last year when he argued that troops levels were far too low there? Has anyone in the Pentagon or within your administration, such as Paul Wolfowitz, been reprimanded for mocking his suggestion?

Before the war, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld said the U.S. knew exactly where Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were. Your chief weapons inspector David Kay now says "we were all wrong." Are you willing to say now that you were wrong? If so, can you explain why you were wrong?

Given that finding no WMDs in Iraq represents an intelligence failure of the greatest magnitude, why was no one dismissed?

Do think it was wise for the U.S. commander in Iraq to vow on Monday to "kill or capture" Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, since the shutting down of the newspaper that supports him precipitated the recent uprising in Iraq?

With commanders in Iraq now saying that U.S. troops may have to "re-take," over and over, some of the cities conquered last spring, what do you say to the families of the more than 600 Americans killed and 3,000 wounded in Iraq since then?