george bush instead of barbara bush. she had not had any really significant accomplishments on her own, and that they had been taught to do something quite the opposite. mrs. bush reacted with, really, you know, very good humor. she said, well, even i was 21 once. they are looking at things a certain way, and i am looking at them another. there are some historians to feel that maybe this reaction cal flies to irritation, but i did not get that sense at all when i interviewed mrs. bush. mrs. bush also said to me, when this whole above occurred there were many wealthy graduates who said they would never again give money to the college. she said weaver hundreds of letters saying please tell stop giving. this is just the opinion of some. in fact, over time as the issue was discussed things began to turn. i just want to quickly share with you a "from paramount bought back from that time who wrote a very serious, about the speech. she wrote, if the wealthy students cannot imagine what barbara bush could contribute to their edu

bush. mrs. bush also said to me when this whole hubbub occurred, there were many wealthy graduates who said they would never again give money to the college. and she said we wrote hundreds of letters saying please, don't stop giving. unit, this is just the opinion of some. in fact, overtime as the issue was discussed, things began to turn, and i just want to quickly share with you a quote from parma bomb back from that time, the humor columnist, who wrote a very serious column about the wealthiest -- wellesley speech. and she wrote if they can imagine what barbara bush could contribute to the education, imagined her own mother. to deny them a voice is to suggest have not achieved anything of any importance. they gave you a voice and a seat at the commencement. how important is that? so slowly things turned around. the young woman who had opposed her began to recognize that maybe she had something to tell them. and i time she flew up to wellesley on the day of the commencement address, they were

bush bush could become the superhero if bush only authorized a police action he'd miss a golden opportunity to position himself as the commander in the war against evil incarnate and so the white house began building the myth osama is the evil genius osama is the worldwide mastermind even osama is the anti-christ and we responded to this criminal act by launching a war in afghanistan going after the very same guy miller omar had agreed to arrest right after nine eleven but once the mythology took hold in america once bin ladin became our official bogeyman bush could care less what happened in la in fact at that point the longer bin laden was alive the easier to keep the american people behind bushes superhero war campaign all around the world that made us friends so rich but bush even admitted so much back in two thousand and six the idea of focusing on one person is. really in the case to me if you don't understand the scope of the mission. terrorist bigger than one person so i don't know where he is nor do you know i just don't spend much time on him at least be honest with you that i'm a

did the taliban offer to turn the loddon over to the bush administration i think there's no question that they did they were already trying to get some way of getting rid of bin laden even before nine eleven but it was a very complicated matter for one thing it was difficult to find countries like saudi arabia who would take them and i think once nine eleven happened it's very clear that they began to be more intensely interested in trying to make a deal to get rid of bin laden and what happened then after the americans began the bombing of afghanistan on october seventh two thousand and one they changed their policy previously they demanded proof from the united states that bin laden was involved in nine eleven they dropped that condition and they offered to have the organization of islamic conference the oh i see which is a moderate international organization representing all islamic countries based in saudi arabia to take bin laden have him be tried for the nine eleven terror attacks which would have been in many ways much better for than the united states getting bin laden trying

bush in an interview that year with sixty minutes o'neill with the cat out of the bag on what bush was most interested in on day one after his appointment by the supreme court as president take a look. in the very beginning there was a conviction that saddam hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go he says that going after saddam hussein was topic eight ten days after the inauguration eight months before september eleventh . again this was just after he was sworn into office and long before nine eleven which was telling his people to start drawing up plans to invade iraq around the same time a trial was unfolding in new york city against four men who were accused of blowing up the kenyan and tanzanian embassies back into gaza eight the f.b.i. wasn't as interested in the operatives on trial in one of the big fish they want to put osama bin laden himself on trial for the bombings too but in order to do that in order to get a conviction against bin ladin f.b.i. had to prove that the four men in the court room alone through a vast terrorist network that bin laden was at the top of

bush set us up for. alexander hamilton seven hundred ninety three this is the guy who wrote after the federalist papers it was the the secretary of treasury in the george washington ministration alexander hamilton seven hundred ninety three it is the providence and judy of the executive to preserve to the nation the blessings of peace executive course being the president the legislature alone can interrupt those blessings in other words have a war by placing the nation in a state of war james madison wrote a letter to his mentor thomas jefferson in seven hundred ninety eight james madison was saying if the constitution supposes what the history of all governments demonstrates that the executive the president is the branch of power most interested in war are most proud through it and it has accordingly we studied care best of the question of war in the legislature who was going to put this in the legislature where it can't be you know it you it we takes a declaration of war and george orwell of course sai

bush but there's a bigger picture here and that's focused on the war itself. bin laden is dead today not because of a war but because of a covert intelligence operation a police operation if you will president obama didn't need to invade pakistan on sunday to kill bin lot as for a military invasion is afghanistan and iraq every accomplishment are we any closer to realizing bush's dream of a world without islamic extremism actually no we're not if anything it's the opposite which means the question must be raised does war work or just peace work we've seen peaceful efforts throughout history even right here in america civil rights and right on the middle east in tunisia in egypt achieve far more than work ever hope to do so so the time to put our war machines in the closet for good joining me now to offer some insight in this issue is joe madison goes to the joe madison show on sirius x.m. satellite radio appears weekdays six to ten am eastern time on channel nine sixty nine joe welcome to some degree one twenty eight soon to be one twenty that's right nice big

death of osama bin laden a result of war tonight a daily take on why war is not the answer and why bush and a lot of the same field strategy plus there's a new rumor that's brewing in the bin laden mission was a fake and i just like the president's birth certificate so what's going to take to shut these deaths it's awful. it's not only the oil corporations that are rolling in dough after the first quarter of this year it's also the for profit health insurance corporations yet health care for example when i was there made nearly two billion dollars in profit so far this year which prompted investors to throw boatloads of cash and other health insurance. corporations like aetna cigna and humana expecting that they also they too will post big profits and health care c.e.o. stephen j. hensley who happens to be the highest paid c.e.o. in the nation making over one hundred million dollars last year is said to be sitting pretty on a stock portfolio of well over a billion dollars so how is all this money flowing into the health insurance companies coffers is what we all expect but they're using

blame bush, blame bush, blame bush, one time they can blame bush -- be >> he invited him to be with him, they like -- the left like's obama's rendition of rendition but they don't like bush's rendition of rendition. at the end of the day this is what the american people were looking for. they were looking for pragmatism over ideology. this was his triangulation. this was his dick morris moment where he took bush's holies and implemented them. the american people were looking for him not to be political -- the political animal that he has been for the last two years. and was a great moment for him. >> are we going to continue rendition go back to enhanced interrogation techniques? >> that's the confusion, it worked. acknowledge what worked acknowledge you have made mistakes in the past. right now the american people are rewarding you for doing the right thing. >> sean: this is the same white house that wants to mirandize enemy combatants on the battlefield. >> here is a thing i want to throw out here. >> blaming bush or blaming obama. i want to suggest that maybe we blame pakistan. this

is that there are a lot of what bush. did was to intensify the hatred of america in that part of the world is really no denying this the polls are quite clear no one can argue about why the us went into iraq and i don't think it was something that bush was doing to get us to solve those curity or something i do think it was something that he had in mind if it were followed in the muslim world though i don't think that's the exactly the case i don't think that's why i think the saturation level of hate for bush came in what it was was there i don't think bush. created this hate that didn't exist before it's really intensified the polls are quite cool sometimes live with laughter and he joins you can mean how do you know that we're if you're if you're from going to eastern referring to invading afghanistan i'm talking about iraq five million refugees with two and a half million internally to happen the next to refugees in iraq and if your brother or sister had been killed i was going to feel your brother and sister was work

bush ten years ago his body has been kept frozen so now as to why bush would kill for have this political pros present for president obama you got me but it's all over the internet i guess it's not supposed to make sense between the crazies and the internet the stories only get one more bizarre. coming up the muslim community in america continued to endure racial profiling government policy analyst for muslim public affairs council one hundred battell discusses this matter a half. into the only new treatment in isms do not come to bring justice or accountability. i have a right to know what my government's through if you want to know why i pay taxes. well i would characterize obama as the charismatic version of american exceptionalism. in the decade since nine eleven muslims in america have had the toughest adjusting to life and that or that the so-called war on terror in recent years the nation has developed an acute case of islamophobia inexplicably trying to ban shari'a law in places where it's never even been mentioned preventing mosques from being built and borrowing an idea from joe

were not true that he went to florida i was very high richard clarke he said that once bush came into office there's nothing actually he could have done to put in place to probably stop the terrorist action from happening as he spoke for congress but my point is that what he wanted to pakistan that was actually a very bush might like move didn't notify the pakistanis it took a unilateral action to go in there and that's why i for eyes yes you are depleted uranium on the ground he leave and he denies that he indeed has the u.n. he didn't ask nato he wanted it good for obama he deserves credit for that courageous but you know what kind of is a what you not something you would think he would have but now when it continues to threaten the bush administration's policy so absolutely everybody gets credit ok well why not you know because the argument he has such because he. wasn't eligible to run because relaxing. even he couldn't you know he came out here there's no give a speech he said i don't know where he is i don't care and frankly care and in two thousand and five he disbanded the bin

bush to attend the ceremony, but president bush declined the invitation. his spokesperson said, he appreciated the invite, but has chosen in his post presidency to remain largely out of the spotlight. white house press secretary jay carney said the invitation was extended in the spirit of post 9/11 unity. >> this was a moment of unity for americans. and a moment to recall the unity that existed in this country in the wake of the attacks on 9/11 and he wanted to -- he invited president bush because he had hoped that if president bush were able to come, that he would join the president in visiting the world trade center site. we completely understand that he's not able to come. >> joining me now is howard fineman mbz analyst and fineman msnbc analyst and editorial director of "the huffington post." >> hi lawrence. >> you know george w. bush as well as any journalist could possibly know him. what do you make of him declining the invitation to come to ground zero? >> first of all on a personal basis, i think it's true. he's largely stayed out of the political

bush.a joke. so let's straighten out the record once and for all. here's what house majority leader eric cantor said. "i commend president obama, who has followed the vigilance of president bush in bringing bin laden to justice." or taken a listen to karl rove. >> the tools that president bush put into place, gitmo, rendition, enhanced interrogation, the vast effort to collect and collate this information, put it in a usable form, obviously served his successor quite well. >> see it is all thanks to bush. former bush white house chief of staff andrew card is making the same claim. >> he made sure that everything was in place so that president obama could have an opportunity to get osama bin laden. >> and that's just a few of the republicans pushing the same idea. but here's the reality. george bush deer is was zero credit for killing bin laden. first of all, as crazy as it sounds, bush, himself, said he wasn't focused on osama bin laden at all. here's what he said in 2002. >> i don't know w

bush who's been sitting on his butt in a gated community in texas for two years check out what sarah palin had to say yesterday at a rally in colorado. yet can't. get and. you have me. and he gave me. where i am. now one single word acknowledging it was president obama she wouldn't mention his name yet he ordered this thing he put it together he couldn't he asked leon panetta to come up with four options he chose the one you know he demanded the back up bill a copter was returned out was needed so much better former president sitting on their butt watching television a former president going around the world coddling dictators like jimmy carter but you're too sure absolutely he was just in north korea this wrote an op ed praising hamas and this is this is his m.o. but this is no it was exactly the point i think i first of all i very happy to praise president obama to see what he did was a very risky call high risk high reward and he should be rewarded for taking out a merican enemy number one would have very dangerous and risky operation however bush doesn't deserve no good no credit

president obama inviting president bush to ground zero. president bush dechaining. senator mccain praising the president. no ifs, ands or buts around it. we haven't seen this moment before in the obama presidency? >> not really. he hit a grand slam. the entire military intelligence community did. to give credit, this is an operation preceded barack obama's entry to office. under the bush years they were working on finding the couriers and tracking them down. we have the debate over water boarding. regardless of that, it preceded barack obama. i thought it was a generous move on his part to invite george w. bush. maybe it's a generous move on his part to say i would literally be the third wheel there. thank you very much, i'll see you in september. >> the white house, the stakes for the white house could not have been higher. we can all imagine what would have occurred if that helicopter went down. it couldn't be recovered and then perhaps another one did. and the mission went awry. this would have been one of those jimmy carter moments that probably would have been

bush and not necessarily against more. to cross talk of the anti-war movement has vanished i'm joined by angela keaton in los angeles she is antiwar dot com development director and anti-war radio producer also in los angeles we have various russell he's a historian and author of a renegade history of the united states and in ann arbor we cross to michael heaney he's assistant professor of organizational studies and political science at the university of michigan ok cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's have a look at the anti-war movement then and now. what happened so the answer will movement just drive to war in iraq mass demonstrations in the straits city squares and in front of the white house where they break fires . at city adamantly opposed to military interventions have always sleights a reflect public opinion and. makers how much has changed the answer the movement in major impacts one hundred sixty eight based widespread public opposition to the war in troubling p

when the bush administration said "why don't you shoot him here?" (laughter) eleven bush administration officials fought to be in their last throes came out of their hidy holes and shook back with overwhelming force. but the obama administration was ready firing back with national security advisor tom donilon on "meet the press" and national security advisor tom donilon on cnn. and he was on fox news sunday and the same guy on "this week" request w christiane amanpour. one guy. (laughter) bush administration hits them with shock and awe and you've got one guy-- no one's ever heard of. this guy better be rambo. >> it's a very important point for your viewers and americans generally to understand. this was an effort across two administrations. indeed, many of the same professionals who worked for president bush on this project work with us today. so it is not a matter of partisanship. >> jon: (whispering) what are you doing? (laughter) whatever happened to those guy's sucked in? this shows we can accomplish our goals without waging regime change war o

bush and something very powerful. well card they still play because you have to admit if you like the man or not he is at least eloquent in some of the things he about his liberal. intervention humanitarian intervention which is really hogwash if you really look at it carefully if you watched antiwar dot com there you would have known that but how do we get away from that i just really addressing michael's question well it's really hard to know what you can do to oppose somebody like obama in a very direct way because i think the left is very confused about what to do with right now and so really i think that you know the opposition to obama on his war policies if it comes both from the left and from the right that may be the most effective way of dealing with the issues so you may see that the left doesn't come out in full force against obama's war policies but if the some of the more reasonable elements of the right also do then there will be a general rosen of support and as obama looks forward to two thousand and

bush for torturing people so that really what we should be doing right now bush's own national security adviser john brennan said torture did not lead to finding bin laden dianne feinstein chair the senate intelligence committee also says that torture now play a role so why are republicans obsessing over war crimes. so thoughts well i think george w. bush did do a great job in starting the process that led to the capture and killing of osama bin laden oh well first of all i'm going to anymore he doesn't invading afghanistan this mission was launched from afghanistan. and starting guantanamo bay going tony mowbray if the president had his way president obama had his way you wouldn't shut it down preemptively and we didn't get a say in the intelligence that we got other got a grant of a bit in the last two years and the fact that we have military bases in afghanistan but it possible for us to go to pakistan and i thought we had gone into pakistan from a base in germany we had to you know you can't take away from the fact that president bush helped start the process that president obama fi

. >>> president bush had 2,686 days to catch osama bin laden. president obama got that job done in 831 days. >> what i believe was one of the most gutsiest calls of any president in recent memory. >> it was a gutsy decision by the president. >> it is a better place because of the death of osama bin laden. >> president obama makes the call and the mission is a success. >> we can report the president will announce that osama bin laden is in fact, dead. >> we continue to learn new details about how it all unfolded. >> good evening, from washington, i'm david gregory. >> justice has been done. >> a cia operation -- can i say overseas? can i say it has something to do with something overseas? yes. >> today, at my direction, the small team of americans carried out the operation -- >> when that helicopter was seen to be unable to move, all of a sudden you had to go into plan b. and they did it flawlessly. >> i'm fascinated by the fact that there was a neighbor next to this compound tweeting -- live tweeting during the raid. go away, helicopter before i

that became the bush administration position. the bush administration had clearly made the political and tactical decision that they could not allow the perception of their success in their war on terror to turn on the capture of one person. a person they did not know how to find. and so wanted dead or alive became not that concerned. in 2005 the bush cia actually closed its unit whose mission had been to hunt osama bin laden and his top lieutenants. we don't know where osama bin laden was until 2005. but we do know that the home that he was found in was built in for -- for him in 2005 that same year that the cia closed the unit that was hunting bin laden. somehow that year bin laden got the feeling that he could settle down comfortably in a walled fortress in a pakistan suburb. but someone -- someone was still thinking about bin laden in a lethal way. >> if we have osama bin laden in our sights, and the pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then i think that we have to act. and we will take them out. we w

bush to join him tomorrow at ground zero in new york. president bush declined. the current president will lay a wreath at the ground zero memorial and pay tribute to the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks. he will also meet with family members of the people who were killed and also the great first responders of that great performance that day. bush is planning to attend the ten-year anniversary ceremony at ground zero this september, so he'll be up there at the end of the summer. we will be right back. >>> the killing of bin laden has unleashed a fierce debate in this country over whether torture actually worked in extracting the necessary intel that led us to his compound. some republicans and bush officials are claiming vindication for the torture methods. >> so for those who say that waterboarding doesn't work to say that it should be stopped and never used again, we got vital information which directly led us to bin laden. it was during the interrogation of khalid shaikh mohammed through water boarding that this of khalid sheikh moh

bush because deserves credit too i think george w. bush put the strategy in place to help find bin osama bin ladin but president obama was used cause i had the right tactic in order to actually catch him so i think they both deserve credit for what obama did was fundamentally a police action it's what bill clinton did after the. mcveigh blew up the building and what george bush did was a war action and i don't see how that led to twenty two twenty four guys going into a comma you have to remember that osama bin ladin was in afghanistan he had safe haven with the taliban and because they are added to it as well not to us but to a third country well you know that was before before during the bush era to know you're going to play know right after nine eleven mullah omar said if you can prove if you can give us any evidence that this guy is involved we will arrest him and send him over to a third party then when bush started dropping bombs on afghanistan but no more held another press conference and said we don't even need the evidence an

bush gets credit for this? for sober reflection in this country, now about the who gets credit, who won. it's about the staggering costs of these last ten years, 46,000 soldiers maimed and wounded, hundreds of thousands of civilians, pakistani, iraqi killed afghan, and the loss of our moorings as a nation. what made lead this country in a new national security direction is an awakening, okay, bin laden is dead and now we have no pretext for the mindless, senseless land wars that are not making us more secure. to step back, with bush, i mean, the exploitation of fear in this country did so much damage to our values, to our principles, to have this discussion about who won, who lost, who should take credit is almost an object senity. >> the problem here, jonathan, is that the republicans jump all over this stuff every single time. so if you don't oppose them, they come in and say, well, on 9/11, later we found out that bush set, it's just swatting flies, i don't want to deal with it, he told the guy giving the br

george bush's approval rating was going around fifty percent within twenty four hours he sharply ninety percent so watch for obama to come from this and now of course an opening has been made for the new face of evil first it was a sock and was with the russian federation in the summer been larger than saddam hussein and these days of course. the. next one will come we're certain whenever rises. that was our tease in the finale now we spending the majority of our show tonight talking about the implications of osama bin laden's death for the world for the u.s. why ask if justice has been served if the war on terror is any closer to being over and at the end of the day if you look at the wars that were involved in the policies of torture or throwing out due process indefinite detention the u.s. spying on its own citizens we have to ask if osama bin laden got exactly what it is that he wanted joining me to discuss and we have lawrence wilkerson a retired u.s. army colonel and former chief of staff to colin powell matthew just political policy analyst and director of middle east progress at

and this was pursued during the bush years. the courier's name was found, he was identified and through eavesdropping, we were able to locate him and then locate osama bin laden. but that brings up the issue of black sites, enhanced bergs, rendition, we would not have had this success. these are the very policies -- i praised the president, i think it was a gutsy move to go in and get him to have identification. but if he had had his way, we wouldn't have had this intelligence. >> you are right. i agree that he made the right decision. rather than using cruise missiles or drones to attack the facility, i think using the seal teams and going in and getting him physically, identifying him, knowing that that is what's happened and being certain was exactly the right call. i am told there was some confusion today on some programs, each one on fox, i think, suggesting that i indicated that no one who was water boarded at guantanamo provided any inform on this, that's not true. i said no one was water boarded at guantanamo by the u.s