CBS News has trumpeted something that's already on the public record, and nevertheless sold much of the American media on the notion that they have a great and disturbing revelation. Apparently understanding that the 'previously secret stories' they revealed from Bob Woodward's new book rate a big 'so what?', CBS News needed to sex—up its article with a headline suggesting important news.

The story "Early Iraq Plans Confirmed" leads with:

Investigative reporter Bob Woodward of The Washington Post reveals, in his new book "Plan of Attack," how plans for the Iraq war began, in secret, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. The White House confirms a passage in the book about a meeting in November 2001 between President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld which put the planning in motion, but says that did not mean Mr. Bush was set on a course of attacking Iraq at that point.

Woodward talked exclusively to CBS News' Mike Wallace  for this Sunday's "60 Minutes." [CBS News and Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Woodward's book, are both owned by Viacom.] 

Woodward's account indicates some members of the administration, particularly Vice President Cheney, were focused on Saddam Hussein from the outset of Mr. Bush's presidency and even after the terrorist attacks made the destruction of al Qaeda the top priority.

The Woodward book is packed with previously secret stories out of the mouths of Mr. Bush and his top aides on the year preceding the president's final decision to go to war against Saddam.

The CBS headline or slight variations of it quickly spread through the gullible, uninformed, or anti—Bush news media. Yet, it's not news. Not even close.

In the televised March 25, 2004, Defense Department Operational Briefing, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Joint Chief's Chairman Meyers publicly talked about not only a concern about Iraq, but also the development of invasion plans from virtually the beginning of the Administration.  Yet somehow, this did not receive massive media attention and hand—wringing until it appeared in Woodward's book.  So let's see some of what we had already learned from that March 25 Pentagon press briefing on  the  timing of war plans against Iraq, which has all—of—a—sudden become headline material at CBS.

In response to a question at the briefing, Rumsfeld talked about contingency planning in the event a plane patrolling the Iraqi no—fly zones were to be shot down, and indicated that "...the risk was that one of three things could happen:  They could go down and be killed; they could go down and be not captured yet, and possibly capable of being rescued; or they could be downed alive, captured and taken away and held."  He went on to say that they "spent a lot of time fashioning approaches that we would execute...and pre—cleared them with the president...and we were cocked and ready to do a variety of different things in the event something occurred that fit one of those possible unfortunate possibilities."

In response to a later question as to "when did you begin serious planning for an Iraqi invasion," Secretary Rumsfeld replied that "...I'm going to guess it was probably 12 years ago."  He continued that "The Department of Defense is in the business of planning.  We have contingency plans...that number in the dozens...I wasn't in government, but when I arrived, there had been an Iraq contingency plan on the shelf, and it had been there for years."  He then went on to explain that when he arrived in his job he initiated a process of reviewing and updating all of the war plans.   "And the Iraq plan was one of them.  And needless to say, when I came in, we grabbed the Iraq plan, got briefed on it, along with a lot of other plans, and changed it.  And not just a downed pilot, and not just northern or southern no—fly zone, but we were doing that work, as we should.  That's our job."

In a follow—up question, Rumsfeld was asked whether "your orders to freshen up the stale, off—the—shelf Iraq invasion plan was simply routine and no different, for instance, than the plan —— freshening up the plan for the defense of South Korea and not the reflection of some new impetus to attack Iraq?"  He replied,  "When I did it, the answer is that is correct. There is also —— it would be also correct to add that at some point the president took General Myers and me aside and said, Where are you on that plan; I need to have you look at that because it's something that conceivably would happen.  And then he began this process with General Franks over a sustained period of time ——"

Joint Chief's Chairman General Meyers added "...just to make sure everybody understands, there's a lot of difference between planning and a decision to execute a plan.  They're entirely separate events.... I mean, you would expect, as the secretary said, that this department in fact plans for lots of various contingencies, and we have for a long time.  And the process was changed exactly as the secretary said to make these more viable, fresher; assumptions that are closer to the time a plan is finished; an iterative process...Planning is one thing; the decision to execute is an entirely different process, and I just want to make that clear."

Posted by Michael Nadler  04 22 04