Posted on 12/04/2004 11:39:17 AM PST by ApesForEvolution
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) expressed no alarm Saturday about a warning from his outgoing top health official that the U.S. food supply is vulnerable to terror attacks but would not deny the assessment and assert that the nation's food is safe.
Reuters Photo
Thompson Resigns From Cabinet Post (AP Video)
Bush was questioned, after an Oval Office meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, about comments by Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson about the vulnerability of the U.S. food supply. Thompson spoke Friday as he announced his coming departure from the Bush administration.
"We're a large country with all kinds of avenues where somebody can inflict harm," Bush said. "We're doing everything we can to protect the American people. There's a lot of work to be done."
Thompson had said he worries "every single night" about a possible terror attack on the food supply, and despite dramatic increases in inspections of food imports, only "a very minute amount" of food is tested at ports and airports.
"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," Thompson said. "We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that."
Thompson was the latest of eight members to quit Bush's 15-member Cabinet as the president moves into a second term.
Bush himself decided that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would not go, ignoring criticism about Rumsfeld's handling of Iraq (news - web sites) and giving the secretary a strong vote of confidence to remain at the Pentagon (news - web sites). That decision, sealed Monday in an Oval Office meeting with Bush but not announced until Friday, settles one of the last major questions about who in the Cabinet goes and who stays.
Besides the eight members whose departure has been announced, Treasury Secretary John Snow has not received a public endorsement of continued service, even though White House officials have described him as a valuable member of the president's economic team.
Snow, who has been in the job less than two years, declined in an appearance Friday on CNBC to reveal whether he has submitted or offered to submit his resignation.
Rumsfeld's tenure has been marked by unanticipated postwar violence in Iraq and more than 1,250 U.S. deaths, as well as enormous increases in spending on the military after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Despite controversies, the hawkish, sometimes acid-tongued Rumsfeld has kept Bush's confidence.
Rumsfeld also has a long history of influential support from Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) from their days together in the Ford administration in the mid-1970s.
Rumsfeld has a full plate: continuing military operations in Iraq, focused now on securing the country ahead of January elections; the ongoing effort in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and a plan to modernize the military.
Bush believes Rumsfeld is "the right person at this moment in our history in fighting the war on terror to lead our armed forces," a senior administration official said in describing the president's decision.
The secretary's future had been the subject of much speculation, after revelations about abuses at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq. Though Bush steadfastly backed his defense chief — one of the more hawkish members of his administration — Rumsfeld had many detractors in Congress and the military.
It had been widely believed at the Pentagon that Rumsfeld wanted to stay on, at least for a time, in order to oversee the continuing transition in Iraq and shepherd his plan for a fundamental transformation and modernization of the U.S. military.
Rumsfeld, 72, is the oldest person to serve as secretary of defense. He also was the youngest when he ran the Pentagon for President Ford.
Rumsfeld took intense criticism from members of Congress last spring when the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal became public. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) that he would quit if he thought that would help, but not simply to satisfy the administration's political enemies.
Rumsfeld said he would take the blame for the scandal. After the completion and publication of several in-depth investigations, the pressure for him to resign abated during the summer.
In recent interviews, Rumsfeld had refused to talk about his future, except to say he remained committed to transforming the military to make it more capable of fighting wars of the 21st century.
Many have criticized him for failing to foresee the insurgency that has taken thousands of Iraqi lives and killed hundreds of American troops since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime was toppled in April 2003.
Rumsfeld has acknowledged that the strength and resilience of the insurgency was underestimated.
It was not clear how long Rumsfeld's top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, and chief policy adviser, Douglas Feith, would remain. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Friday that Feith told his staff he intended to stay for a while.
I don't know those answers.
I do know that Rove coordinates the President's Secretaries' public comments...
Carolyn
How do we know he didn't?
Carolyn
A statement such as this coming hand in hand with a resignation makes me wonder.
Combine that with our new official Mexiamerican borderless Homeland 'Security', it gives one pause. At the very least.
Borders and ports are Hillary's domestic centerpiece now...
This is typical of second-term administrations. Gigantic cabinet turnover. Go ahead, though, have at trying to make it seem sinister or suspicious.....LOL.
I'm going to start a garden...lol
God help us all! Can you imagine her as president? It's positively frightening.
Carolyn
What about the outgoing HHS Sec.'s terror warning?
Huh when did Bernard Kirek become Hispanic?
Dude, JMO, you should lay of the czervacia on Saturday afternoons.
I can imagine it, but it's not pleasant.
I recall vividly how her husband (ex-TRIMPOTUS) used the IRS to persecute Conservatives and Christians...
Can you imagine Hitlery's concept of Big Brother Homeland Security?
I think the Conservatives/GOP (?) can do better personally...
GREAT!
Can you give me some pointers as to how I can cultivate and grow my own "Porterhouse" and "pork loin"? ; )
"Damfool comment from Thompson. "
Yes, well, the truth hurts. Maybe Thompson's final shot was the only time he could express it. A few days ago, this administration opened up more imports of Avacados from Mexico, which will destroy the California growers. Mexico uses pesticides, fertilizers that have long been banned in the US as HARMFUL, as they do on all that food brought in from there. We don't need someone to intentionally poison food imports, they come that way.
WTH are you talking about?
I support Bernie for DHS and did so before anyone else in this forum.
I'm referencing our 1st Mexican POTUS' inability to understand that OUR Homeland Security is far more important than making sure illegals can make at least $5/hour in "America's interior" while millions disregard our laws, sovereignty and borders...
LOLOL!!
How many have you had so far today, 'dude'?
Are you a pothead?
I just hope you won't be LOLing on the other side of your face one day.
Terence Hunt appears to be another of the many GIM reporters working for the AP writing articles bashing GW, Christians and pushing the gay agenda.
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=Terence%20Hunt%20gay
One wonders if he is an evil spawn of Al Hunt and Judy WoofWoof.
Huh does Mexico have their own brand of ALF(Animal Liberation Front) or ELF(Enviroment Libertation Front) terrorists.
BTW, AuntB, I surmise you don't know that Califronia and other US growers use PESTICIDES also.
The only thing I can think of is that Tommy must have felt burned by Bush. This was his parting shot. Comments like his, along with "investigative reports" that show our vulnerability, i.e., lax security at nuclear plants, ease with which the water can be poisoned, etc., infuriate me.
Can you imagine a cabinet member announcing the world our vulnerability during WWII?
When WWII began, the US military was a mess. Our guys practiced grenade throwing by using soup cans. Yet, not a word of this weakness was reported by the press.
People in this country just don't get it yet. We are at war and our enemies watch cable TV and read the internet.
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