Download the AOL News Toolbar
Our new toolbar integrates latest news into your Web browser and installs in seconds. Download it now!
Send Us Feedback
News Video

Find, view and share videos about news and entertainment from around the Web.
See Videos »

News Alerts

The latest updates sent straight to your inbox.

Get AOL News Alerts »

Pentagon Briefings Carried Bible Verses

AOL
posted: 5 HOURS 37 MINUTES AGO
comments: 1038
filed under: National News
Text SizeAAA
(May 18) -- In the early days of the Iraq war, daily intelligence briefings from the Pentagon were published with cover sheets that juxtaposed war photos with Bible quotations, according to an article in GQ magazine.
The article, by Robert Draper, focuses on Donald Rumsfeld's tenure as defense secretary in the Bush administration, focusing on complaints from ex-colleagues that in some cases, Rumsfeld's flawed decision-making sometimes damaged the Bush presidency and American interests.
GQ has an exclusive slideshow of some of the images here. The magazine shared a smaller selection with AOL News. You can see them in the gallery below.
Skip over this content
Skip over this content


Skip over this content


Draper wrote that he received the 6-year-old papers from a "government official [who] was disturbed enough by these biblically seasoned sheets to hold on to copies."
The cover sheets from the briefings, titled 'Worldwide Intelligence Update,' were controversial at the Pentagon, and some officials worried that if they became public, it would suggest that the invasion of Iraq was shaped by religion, the article said.
"At least one Muslim analyst in the building had been greatly offended; others privately worried that if these covers were leaked during a war conducted in an Islamic nation, the fallout—as one Pentagon staffer would later say— 'would be as bad as Abu Ghraib,'" Draper wrote.
The article attributed the idea for using Bible verses on the cover sheets to Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, an intelligence director at the Pentagon. Though Rumsfeld didn't have a reputation for promoting his own religious views, the article suggested that he saw the cover sheets as a way of making inroads with Bush.
In a story for Monday's editions, The New York Times cast doubt on some elements of the GQ article. The newspaper suggested that Bush may not have seen the briefing on a regular basis because it was less complete than his personal daily intelligence brief.
The Times interviewed Lawrence De Rita, the Pentagon spokesman during Rumsfeld's tenure. He said he had no memory of seeing the cover sheets and doubts that Rumsfeld would have put up with them.
"The suggestion that Rumsfeld would have used these reports to somehow curry favor over at the White House is pretty laughable," Di Rita told the newspaper. "He bristled anytime people put quotes or something extraneous on the reports he wanted to read."
Skip over this content
2009 AOL LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2009-05-18 12:46:54
GOOD READ?
52 votes

Related Articles

  1. See More Related Articles and Blog Posts
(1038)
Sort by:

1 - 10

Katydid579

08:55 PMMay 19 2009

"The Crusades were a series of religion-driven military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe against external and internal opponents. They were fought mainly against Muslims, though campaigns were also directed against pagan Slavs, Jews, Russian and Greek Orthodox Christians, Mongols, Cathars, Hussites, Waldensians, Old Prussians, and political enemies of the popes.[1] Crusaders took vows and were granted an indulgence for past sins."

AVG RATING:
(0)

AmericanOutlaw57

08:52 PMMay 19 2009

Cgllaernk I think it would be really hard to find vary many of any other religion in the Republican party because they have something against just about every other religion on earth. They will support the Jews if they think it gives them the right to support the murder of some people with skin darker then there's.

AVG RATING:
(2)

Mkjweiss

08:52 PMMay 19 2009

Surely folks aren't trying to suggest CHRISTIANS are reponsible for wars based on lies.

AVG RATING:
(1)

Bpers2001

08:51 PMMay 19 2009

ADavis152708:31 PMMay 19 2009Why do you liberals insist on worrying about a God you say you do not think exists?*********************You know, Christ was a Liberal, in His day. He certainly was not a conservative. Kind of blows a hole in your argument that Liberals are not Christians.

AVG RATING:
(2)

Mkjweiss

08:49 PMMay 19 2009

ADAVIS? REAL Christians are liberal. Says so in 1 Corinthians 13.

AVG RATING:
(2)

ADavis1527

08:44 PMMay 19 2009

Do you people like being liberals and having Lawyer tell you what to do all the time. YOU see, the lawyer thing is what runs this party. Its staffed and funded by lawyers for the profit of lawyers. It always litigates everything as its HOLY GRAIL. This is a culture of the vascilators. They have no solid values and are arrogantly impressed with their Lack of logic as they think ti doesn't make any difference if you support the honest of the dishonest litigant as long as you get paid. Do you think that people with this lack of morals are the kind of people to whom you want to turn over your life. If you do thia, you to abdocate hour responsibility to spend time trying to find the correct solution. YOU conveniently do what they do. Become an OPPROTUNITS for $$$ or convenience. Bad Ideas for those who you are willing to let run your life.

AVG RATING:
(0)

AmericanOutlaw57

08:43 PMMay 19 2009

ADavis1527 I think CHZ28 understand truth, you on the other hand have no ideal what the truth is. Clue for you a clump of cells is not a life, look it up. To murder a rapist or even a murder is wrong to every god out there look it up. And if you want to go back to the old Testament to justify it look up having more then one wife and a lot of other things you won't like.

AVG RATING:
(0)

BirchibaldBarlow

08:40 PMMay 19 2009

***Do you believe in Radio Waves? you can't see them can you.*** I would wager that I could locate and decipher radio waves before you can demonstrate the invisible hand of "god". So far, the closest anyone has come was a guy who looked like George Burns. I always found it odd that Christians didn't get upset when George Burns was "god", but they protested when someone made a less-than-flattering movie about tempting Jesus.

AVG RATING:
(3)

Katydid579

08:38 PMMay 19 2009

It seems the proof that God exists would be in the exhibition of the people who believe in her. I'm seeing far fewer people in America acting in a godly way. God may or may not exist, but in America it is becoming far less likely.

AVG RATING:
(2)

BirchibaldBarlow

08:36 PMMay 19 2009

****of a Murderer who has raped a child or a woman or killed a parent and who is non repentant?**** Of course, you ASSUME that someone on Death Row is guilty. As we now know, a sad number of inmates on DR are not guilty, but that is a technicality to some. The "well, he probably did something ELSE to deserve it" crowd. Makes you wonder how many were put to death before DNA testing was ever known about.

AVG RATING:
(1)

1 - 10 of 1038

{ JOIN the CONVERSATION }

YOU'LL BE ASKED TO REGISTER OR LOGIN BEFORE POSTING A COMMENT.

News Makers

NewsmakersScore one for the nebbish. Woody Allen wins $5 million in a settlement.1 of 6

News Makers

All Good News, All The Time

GNN


* Want the latest Hot Seat polls delivered to your Vista desktop? Hot Seat Vista Gadget »

Politics Daily

Sports

Money

Technology

Health

Entertainment