One of the flip-flops that TK listed and Kos
posted has these two quotes:
- Bush-"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. Bush-"I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I really don't care.
I saw this repeated on tacitus recently, and someone else called bullshit on the quotes. I thought I'd substantiate the quotes, but my Google-monkeying came up dry: there are lots of hits, but they're all echoes of the flip-flop story.
I couldn't find a source for the second quote, but it's in line with Bush's statements of March 13, 2002 ("I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you.").
I couldn't find a source for the second quote. More importantly, it's strongly at odds with thing Bush did say after 9/11. The quote is allegedly from 9/13/01, but the only time Bush mentioned OBL in public on that day was in this Q&A:
Q Mr. President, how confident are you that Osama bin Laden is behind these attacks? Do you know what his whereabouts are? And, secondly, what kind of support are you looking for from Congress, in terms of your willingness to act?
THE PRESIDENT: We are -- we will not discuss intelligence matters, how we gather intelligence and what we know -- about anybody. When our government acts, you'll be informed.
One might be tempted to cite the `Wanted, Dead or Alive' comments from 9/17. But even then, Bush was explicitly looking past OBL:
Q Do you want bin Laden dead?
THE PRESIDENT: I want justice. There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, "Wanted: Dead or Alive."
But if you look at the context of the quote, it's completely opposite of the `flip-flop' quote:
(THE PRESIDENT:) But as the Vice President said, you know, Osama bin Laden is just one person. He is representative of networks of people who absolutely have made their cause to defeat the freedoms that we take -- that we understand. And we will not allow them to do so.
Q Do you want bin Laden dead?
THE PRESIDENT: I want justice. There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, "Wanted: Dead or Alive."
Q Do you see this being long-term? You were saying it's long-term, do you see an end, at all?
THE PRESIDENT: I think that this is a long-term battle, war. There will be battles. But this is long-term. After all, our mission is not just Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda organization. Our mission is to battle terrorism and to join with freedom loving people.