USA/SAUDI ARABIA

Forbes: Saudis pledged oil price cut before US vote-report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before November to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day, journalist Bob Woodward said in a television interview Sunday.

In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" about his new book "Plan of Attack" on the Bush administration's preparations for the Iraq war, Woodward, a senior editor at the Washington Post, said Prince Bandar pledged the Saudi's would try to fine-tune oil prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election -- a move they understood would favor Bush's re-election.


Washingtondispatch: Deal made with Saudis to Influence November Election
an underplayed interview on 60 Minutes Sunday night, Bob Woodward revealed some shocking accounts within his new book, Plan of Attack. Woodward's book unveils the plans for the march to Baghdad which secretly began long before President Bush admitted it to the public.

Most interesting was the revelation by Woodward that George W. Bush made a deal with Saudi Arabia to lower fuel prices before the coming November election. The lowered prices would give the appearance of a strong economy in contrast to the current, record high prices.

In addition to the above, the interview painted a picture of the president as a stubborn man influenced greatly by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. His disdain for the intellectual "elite" is equaled by a carelessness for how history will judge his actions. According to Woodward, when asked how history will judge his war, the president raised his arms, shrugged his shoulders and said, "History? We don't know. We'll all be dead."

Bob Woodward: With CIA Push, Movement to War Accelerated
This is the second of five articles adapted from "Plan of Attack," a book by Bob Woodward that is a behind-the-scenes account of how and why President Bush decided to go to war against Iraq. Simon & Schuster. © 2004.

On Jan. 2, 2002, CIA Director George J. Tenet met with Vice President Cheney -- at Cheney's request -- to brief him on what the agency could do in Iraq.

In the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Iraq was much less of a priority than terrorism for Tenet, but not for one of the agency officials who accompanied him to the meeting, the chief of the Iraqi Operations Group, a former covert operations officer who can be identified only by his nickname, Saul.

Within the CIA's Near East Division, which handled some of the hardest, most violent countries, the Iraqi Operations Group was referred to as "The House of Broken Toys." It was largely populated with new, green officers and problem officers, or old boys waiting for retirement. After taking it over in August 2001, Saul had begun a full review of where the CIA stood with Iraq.

VIDEO: Bob Woodward: 60 Minutes Interview.