Torture Is All in the Subtext

Is This OK?

NBC's David Gregory tried repeatedly to get Bush to say how he'd feel if other countries started reinterpreting the Geneva Conventions as well. Bush wouldn't bite.

I wish Gregory had gone one step further, listing the CIA-approved tactics such as induced hypothermia, long standing and sleep deprivation and asking something like this: "You don't have to confirm that your administration has used these tactics -- although it has -- but please state for the record whether you would you be OK with other governments using these tactics on our captured special forces? Yes or no?"

Laugh Lines

Here's what happened when Bush called on Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times:

"Q Hi, Mr. President.

"THE PRESIDENT: Fine. How are you doing?

"Q I'm well today, thank you. (Laughter.)

"THE PRESIDENT: Did you start with, hi, Mr. President?

"Q Hello, Mr. President.

"THE PRESIDENT: Okay, that's fine. Either way, that's always a friendly greeting, thank you.

"Q We're a friendly newspaper.

"THE PRESIDENT: Yes. (Laughter.) Let me just say, I'd hate to see unfriendly. (Laughter.)"

Body Language

Mike Allen blogs for Time that "as he stares down one last campaign, the President suddenly seems to be all adrenaline and testosterone. It shows in his frenetic schedule and in his assertive choice of words but perhaps most especially in his body language as he tries to win over midterm voters by looking and sounding commanding -- he's practically shaking voters by their lapels."

On case in point: Bush's interview with NBC's Matt Lauer on Sept. 8, much of it about torture.

Writes Allen: "Lauer holds his ground on the big rug as the Commander in Chief edges forward, encroaching on his space to the point that Lauer finally puts a hand on Bush's forearm to prevent a collision. When the cameras are turned off, according to a witness, Lauer tells the President, 'Whoa! I thought you were coming after me there.' Aides to both men laugh. The President lightens too, but adds, 'I feel really strongly about this subject.'"

United Nations

Nedra Pickler writes for the Associated Press: "The spotlight returns to Iraq and other problem areas of the Middle East as President Bush heads to the United Nations to address a host of global issues facing his administration."

Kenneth R. Bazinet writes in the New York Daily News: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims he'll dog President Bush this week at the UN to force the U.S. leader into a face to face debate over Iran's nuclear program, but the White House is taking extreme measures to keep that from happening."

The Campaign

Adam Nagourney writes in the New York Times: "From Rhode Island to New Mexico, from Connecticut to Tennessee, President Bush is emerging as the marquee name in this fall's Congressional elections -- courtesy not of his Republican Party but of the Democrats."

Sam Howe Verhovek writes in the Los Angeles Times: "A funny thing happened Friday when Karl Rove, the White House advisor, came to the Seattle suburbs to headline a fundraiser for freshman Republican Rep. Dave Reichert: The congressman did nothing to publicize the visit, and his challenger drew every bit of attention to it she could."

Iran Watch

Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott write for McClatchy Newspapers: "In an echo of the intelligence wars that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a high-stakes struggle is brewing within the Bush administration and in Congress over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program and involvement in terrorism. . . .

"Some officials at the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department said they're concerned that the offices of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney may be receiving a stream of questionable information that originates with Iranian exiles, including a discredited arms dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar, who played a role in the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal. . . .

"Officials at all three agencies said they suspect that the dubious information may include claims that Iran directed Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, to kidnap two Israeli soldiers in July; that Iran's nuclear program is moving faster than generally believed; and that the Iranian people are eager to join foreign efforts to overthrow their theocratic rulers."

Warming to Warming?

Geoffrey Lean writes in the Independent: "President Bush is preparing an astonishing U-turn on global warming, senior Washington sources say.

"After years of trying to sabotage agreements to tackle climate change he is drawing up plans to control emissions of carbon dioxide and rapidly boost the use of renewable energy sources.

"Administration insiders privately refer to the planned volte-face as Mr Bush's 'Nixon goes to China moment', recalling how the former president amazed the world after years of refusing to deal with its Communist regime. Hardline global warming sceptics, however, are already publicly attacking the plans."

Bush Meets With Right-Wing Radio

Tom Baxter and Jim Galloway write for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that right-wing talk-show host Mike Gallagher upstaged Ann Coulter at a Georgia Christian Coalition dinner Saturday night.

"He told the audience he was fresh back from an hour-and-45-minute session which President Bush held in the Oval Office Friday afternoon with him and four other conservative talk show hosts: Atlanta's Neal Boortz, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Michael Medved. Rush Limbaugh couldn't make it, he said.

"Though he said this session was supposed to be off the record, Gallagher described it at some length, including Bush's observation to the right-wing radio jocks that the War on Terror has to be about right versus wrong, 'because if it's about Christianity versus Islam, we'll lose.'"

Rodney Ho writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about how Boortz broke off his vacation for the chance.

"Boortz said that Bush gave them a short tour of his private dining room and showed them the pistol Saddam Hussein had when he was captured."

Boortz himself blogs about it on his Web site.

Froomkin Watch

I'm attending a conference about Iraq and America tomorrow morning, so the column will resume on Wednesday.

Cartoon Watch

David Horsey and Ben Sargent on Bush's new clothes; Tony Auth on stability; Steve Sack on defining torture; Jeff Danzinger on cowards and idiots.

Camera Watch

Al Kamen writes in The Washington Post with an update on that small TV camera in the temporary White House briefing room that CBS reporter Bill Plante spotted panning from one reporter to another as they asked questions last week.

Apparently, it's been refitted with a stationary, wide-angle lens.

Rich's Book

New York Times columnist Frank Rich is out with a new book: "The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth From 9/11 to Katrina."

Ian Buruma reviews it for the Times, and writes that "the point of Rich's fine polemic is that the Bush administration has consistently lied about the reasons for going to war, about the way it was conducted and about the terrible consequences. Whatever the merits of removing a dictator, waging war under false pretenses is highly damaging to a democracy, especially when one of the ostensible aims is to spread democracy to others. If Rich is correct, which I think he is, the Bush administration has given hypocrisy a bad name. . . .

"How could this have happened? How could some of the best, most fact-checked, most reputable news organizations in the English-speaking world have been so gullible? How can one explain the temporary paralysis of skepticism? . . . An air of intimidation, which hung over the United States like a noxious vapor after 9/11, is part of the explanation. . . .

"There may be one other reason for the fumbling: the conventional methods of American journalism, marked by an obsession with access and quotes. A good reporter for an American paper must get sources who sound authoritative and quotes that show both sides of a story. His or her own expertise is almost irrelevant. If the opinions of columnists count for too much in the American press, the intelligence of reporters is institutionally underused. The problem is that there are not always two sides to a story."

Role of the Media

On his CNN show on Sunday, Howard Kurtz talked to Gloria Borger of U.S. News and David Corn of the Nation.

"KURTZ: Gloria Borger, on torture of detainees, on terror on Iraq, have journalists become skeptical, if not hostile, toward President Bush?

"BORGER: Well, I think you're seeing is from the press conference that, clearly, the journalists are becoming more skeptical, but what they're doing is they're really voicing the concerns of some really senior senators in Congress who have voiced those concerns. And so, you know, we live down at the bottom of the food chain. . . .

"CORN: But let me make a suggestion here, too. The president and the vice president had a chance to prove to the public and the world that when they tell us things they basically get it right. But everything they said about the war in Iraq, the connections between Saddam and al Qaeda and Saddam's WMDs proved out to be wrong. Everything that Donald Rumsfeld has said about the war in Iraq in terms of how it would go has proven to be wrong.

"So I think any time they tell us anything, the media is right to say, 'Given your record, prove it. What do you mean?'

"KURTZ: But Gloria . . . isn't it also our job to voice the concerns of politicians who might support the president?

"BORGER: Well, I think it is. And some might say that journalists have been doing that for the last couple of years. But I think, honestly, that now there is a huge controversy, and what we're doing is reflecting that. . . .

"KURTZ: But doesn't that run the risk of making journalists look like they're part of the opposition?"