Keith Urbahn, a spokesman for former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, e-mails a statement denying that Rumsfeld had anything to do with the Christianization of those World Intelligence Update cover slides.
The slides in the "World Intelligence Update" were prepared on a daily basis by military personnel serving on the Joint Staff, which reported to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, not the Secretary of Defense. The report was briefed regularly to senior military officials in the Pentagon - only occasionally to the Secretary of Defense and not to the President of the United States.
Rumsfeld was fully aware that words and actions could be harmful and counterproductive to the war effort. It's safe to say that some of these cover slides could be considered in that category. The suggestion that Rumsfeld would have composed, approved of, or personally shown the slides to President Bush is flat wrong. It did not happen.
Given that Draper used anonymous sources for this charge as well as for the rest of the innuendo in his piece, one would think he might have at least done a cursory review of the facts. He might then have avoided being taken by people with an axe to grind. When Draper goes back and checks reality against his reporting, he might also check whether GQ is in need of a new gossip columnist.
"When Draper goes back and checks reality against his reporting, he might also check whether GQ is in need of a new gossip columnist."
Is it really a good idea to refute accusations of dickishness with a dickish comment?
This response seems to say the slides existed. Did they make it to the president by someone else's hand. Did Rumsfeld rip them off and tell them to stop it? We have been painted a picture of how the "don" operated, and I have personally seen him operate in press conferences. If something goes wrong he says everything he did was backed up by senior military personnel. For example troop numbers. this is a very vague and quite honestly weak defense statement. I would expect nothing less from a stooge of Rumsfeld. He will probably distance himself from this Keith Urban guy if this statement does not convince anyone.
Quibbling over who actually designed and added the Biblical cover sheets on the reports is only mildly relevant. What is critical is that the reports were seen by a limited number of fairly high level administration personnel, including the president, and it didn't occur to them that it was a really bad idea that should be stopped. Ideology trumps common sense.
If I read Rumsfeld's response it appears that they were NOT briefed to the President. A minor point, but one worth noting for sense of clarity.
Having observed how some of these things work in the military, my guess is that someone added a religous quote on a whim, someone made a comment about it, and it became a regular item from there after.
Why doesn't anybody blame George Bush for this?