See? He had nothing to do with this. His handlers did. /liberal spin
I think the decision to make the early handover was made several days ago in a phone call between GWB and Allawi.
Look in this posting:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1158806/posts
“President Bush called Allawi to ‘reiterate his commitment to the Iraqi people,’ said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. During the call, which was scheduled before the al-Zarqawi statement, Allawi raised the topic of the assassination threat, McClellan said. “
“McClellan did not provide Bush's response but said Allawi ‘is determined to confront these terrorist threats.’”
At the time the report kind of jumped out at me, but I would never have guessed an early turnover to throw off the terrorists would have been part of the discussion. I think it was, and I think the suggestion came from GWB.