Bush Told of Iraq Transfer in Hand-Written Note

Reuters ^ | June 28, 2004

[cyncooper]

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice Monday informed President Bush in a handwritten note of the transfer of authority in Baghdad, prompting Bush to scribble back: "Let freedom reign."

"Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter was passed from (U.S. administrator Paul) Bremer at 10:26 a.m. Iraq time -- Condi," she wrote, according to copies of the note distributed by the White House.

The note exchange took place during a meeting of NATO leaders in Istanbul. She handed the note to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who passed it along to Bush.

[cyncooper]

MSNBC showed the video of the NATO meeting as GWB was handed the note.

He was sitting next to Blair and put his hand kind of over his mouth and spoke to Tony Blair. Both men looked very happy and shook hands.

MSNBC showed a picture of the note with GWB's "Let freedom reign" notation written on it.

[cyncooper]

PING

[Lunatic Fringe]

Liberals the world over are saddened...

[Sacajaweau]

Very Cool!

[EllaMinnow]

Wonderful!

[AmishDude]

Michael Moore's next movie will detail how the Bush administration was neglegent by not having this exchange done by email.

[RightWhale]

Both men looked very happy and shook hands.

This is likely to be the high point of both their political careers.

[Salvation]

**"Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter was passed from (U.S. administrator Paul) Bremer at 10:26 a.m. Iraq time -- Condi," she wrote, according to copies of the note distributed by the White House.**

**"Let freedom reign." ~Bush**

Think about seeing this note in the Smithsonian! Wow!

[cyncooper]

Tagline change inspired once again by President Bush.

[OldFriend]

I was listening to the report of this in my car and I had to just sit there and absorb the import of it all.

G-d bless you, Mr. President.

[capydick]

I saw that on Fox this morning and it was a wonderful moment, especially the smiles on the faces of President Bush and Rummy. You just know that it was also a poke in the eye from Rummy to the RATmedia.

The clip looked as though Colin Powell may not have been on the loop in this, although I find that hard to believe.

[woodyinscc]

This is likely to be the high point of both their political careers.

This statement points out your thought process, or lack thereof.

[b4its2late]

Pretty darn cool if you ask me.

[cyncooper]

Pictures of the moment I described between Bush and Blair were posted by Howlin here (I'm slogging through that thread and just happened on the pics after posting this thread!):

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1161463/posts?page=746#746

Howlin, now we know what the note said. MSNBC showed a picture of the actual note.

[bigghurtt]

**"Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter was passed from (U.S. administrator Paul) Bremer at 10:26 a.m. Iraq time -- Condi," she wrote, according to copies of the note distributed by the White House.** **"Let freedom reign." ~Bush**

if it had been klintoon, the reply would have been "did you see the knockers on that chick from cameroon?"

[cyncooper]

if it had been klintoon, the reply would have been "did you see the knockers on that chick from cameroon?"

The one hand-written notation I recall from the Big Creep was on that fundraising memo: "Start overnights right away".

Compare and contrast...

[Cobra64]

Where's the obligatory photo of Daschle deeply saddened, sitting in a chair by himself?

[ICX]

LMAO!

[Howlin]

[ruiner]

"Let Freedom Rain" -President Bush <> "CRAP!!!" Whew, we'd never hear the end of that one. BTW George Bush rocks, I voted for his as prez and governor. Just heckling a little.

[Howlin]

Out of order:

Rumsfeld hands Condi's note to Bush:

[Howlin]

[tiamat]

Two questions:



WHERE are you getting all of the good pics?

Do you EVER sleep? LOL!

[Howlin]

Somebody is on Fox right this minute whining because HE wasn't there when this happened!

Feisal Istrabadi, Legal Advisor to Member of Iraqi Governing Council.

[mewzilla]

These pics are awesome! Thanks! Wonder where that note will end up?

[gilliam]

Excellent beginning: keep the lawyers out of the loop!

[Howlin]

Yes, I do! I slept from about 7:30 until almost 1......a wasted day, for sure!!!

The pictures are on Yahoo!

http://news.yahoo.com/

Just click on News Photos in the drop down box at the top right!

[Howlin]

That's what I'm thinking!

[nuconvert]

Guess I wasn't the only one with that tagline idea.......lol.

[rabidralph]

I'm sure he meant to say Let freedom ring, and give a bump to Sean Hannity.

[nuconvert]

WoW! Great pics! Thanks!

PONG!

[Wolfstar]

The note exchange took place during a meeting of NATO leaders in Istanbul.

Yeah — and the Leftists, led by Michael Moore, are probably already bitching that GWB only responded with three handwritten words instead of jumping up and racing out the NATO meeting to personally inform Chirac.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[EQAndyBuzz]

The note ended up as my desktop theme on my puter. And I must say it looks great!!!!

[tiamat]

Oh, good! At least you got a little!

Thanks for the link!

[nuconvert]

Let Freedom Reign, PONG!

[OXENinFLA]

NOW THAT'S A KEEPER!!!

[mewzilla]

Or he may have been quoting Nelson Mandela.

[Howlin]

If you can catch the video on Fox, you will see two guys sitting there looking like they want to jump up and High 5.

[An.American.Expatriate]

I hate Reuters!!!

They couldn't even report THIS without a bit of negative spin . . .

"Bush Told of Iraq Transfer in Hand-Written Note"

..."White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice Monday informed President Bush ..."

In both the headline and the lead-in, the reader is left with impression that the President knew nothiong of this beforehand.

An honest report would have been:

Bush Receives Confirmation of Iraq Transfer in Hand-Written Note

"...White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice Monday confirmed to President Bush in a handwritten note that the transfer of authority in Baghdad was completed, ..."

Notwithstanding the above . . .

"Let freedom reign."

[swheats]

That was cool that PM Blair and President Bush were together when the news came. Good timing.

[nuconvert]

How many newspapers will put that note on their frontpages in the morning?

[Mo1]

Watch the left claim he didn't know it was happening and had to be given a note

There was some left hack from Harpers Mag on Fox News earlier claiming the only reason we did the transfer earlier was to hide the news of a US Marine being kidnapped

The Left are in a COMPLETE melt down

[AmericanInTokyo]

The liberals will finds SOMETHING to piss about over this.

They'll say Bush is stupid and could spell "ring" correctly. Or some other such nonsense. Guaran damn teed.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Passing notes in class. Tsk, tsk.

[Howlin]

Zero.

[Howlin]

Zero.

[gipper81]

The one hand-written notation I recall from the Big Creep was on that fundraising memo: "Start overnights right away".

Classic!

[nuconvert]

I just saw it before seeing your pics. Great!
I'm sure there have been conference calls and meetings all over Washington trying to figure out how to respond to this. LOL!
What's Kerry got left to harp on? LoL.

On To Iran, Mr. President!

[OXENinFLA]

I read over in the John Kerry forum that this was done to take news away from F9/11's "success".