George W. Bush, In Full George W. Bush The United States (2001 . - AUSA

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaBush’s domestic initiatives encountered signi cantresistance in the Senate.In a report issued in May 2001, the National Energy PolicyDevelopment Group, a task force headed by Vice Pres. DickCheney, called for increasing the production of fossil fuelsand nuclear power in the country by opening more federallands to mining and oil and gas exploration, extending taxcredits and other subsidies to energy companies, andeasing environmental regulations. In July a coalition ofnonpro t organizations led suit to make public the secretdeliberations of the task force and the identities of thegroups it met with. (The case was decided in theadministration’s favour by the Supreme Court in June 2004.)In foreign affairs, the Bush administration announced thatthe United States would not abide by the Kyoto Protocol onreducing the emission of gases responsible for globalwarming, which the United States had signed in the lastdays of the Bill Clinton administration, because theagreement did not impose emission limits on developingcountries and because it could harm the U.S. economy. Theadministration also withdrew from the 1972 Anti-BallisticMissile Treaty and attempted to secure commitments fromvarious governments not to extradite U.S. citizens to thenew International Criminal Court, whose jurisdiction e/8611212/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaTHE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKSOn September 11, 2001,Bush faced a crisis thatwould transform hispresidency. Thatmorning, four Americancommercial airplaneswere hijacked byIslamist terrorists. Twoof the planes weredeliberately crashedinto the twin towers ofHijacked airliner approaching the southtower of the World Trade Center.Carmen Taylor/APthe World Trade Centerin New York City,destroying both towersand collapsing ordamaging manysurrounding buildings, and a third was used to destroy partof the Pentagon building outside Washington, D.C.; thefourth plane crashed outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, afterpassengers apparently attempted to retake it (seeSeptember 11 attacks). The crashes—the worst terroristincident on U.S. soil—killed some 3,000 people.The Bush administration accused radical Islamist Osamabin Laden and his terrorist network, al-Qaeda (Arabic: 1213/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaBase”), of responsibilityfor the attacks andcharged the Talibangovernment ofAfghanistan withharbouring bin Ladenand his followers (in avideotape in 2004, binLaden acknowledgedthat he wasresponsible). Afterassembling aninternational militarycoalition, Bush ordereda massive bombingU.S. President George W. Bush in Sarasota,Florida, being notified of multiple terroristattacks on Doug Mills/APcampaign againstAfghanistan, whichbegan on October 7,2001. U.S.-led forcesquickly toppled theTaliban governmentand routed al-Qaedaghters, though binLaden himselfremained elusive (hewas eventually killed /46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaGeorge W. Bush (seated) talking on thephone as advisers watch a television reportabout the World Eric Draper—White House photoa raid by U.S. forces inPakistan in 2011). In thewake of the September11 attacks and duringthe war in Afghanistan,Bush’s public-approvalratings were thehighest of hispresidency, reaching 90percent in some polls.U.S. Pres. George W. Bush conferring withhis chief of staff aboard Air Force One,September 11, Eric Draper/The White HouseDOMESTICMEASURESImmediately after theSeptember 11 attacks,domestic security andthe threat of terrorismbecame the chief focusof the Bushadministration and thetop priority ofgovernment at every(From left to right) Donald Rumsfeld, Colinlevel. Declaring a globalPowell, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney“war on terrorism,” Bushat a National unced that the15/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaCourtesy of the George W. BushPresidential Library & Museum/NARAcountry would not restuntil “every terroristgroup of global reachhas been found,stopped, and defeated.”To coordinate thegovernment’s domesticresponse, theadministration formedGeorge W. Bush addressing reporters in theOval Office of the White House, September13, 2001.Courtesy of the George W. BushPresidential Library & Museum/NARAa cabinet-levelDepartment ofHomeland Security,which began operatingon January 24, 2003.In October 2001 theBush administrationintroduced, andCongress quicklypassed, the Uniting andStrengthening Americaby ProvidingU.S. president George W. Bush on Air ForceOne, Sept. 11, 2001.Eric Draper/The White HouseAppropriate ToolsRequired to Interceptand Obstruct TerrorismAct (the USA 11216/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaAct), which signi cantlybut temporarilyexpanded the searchand surveillance powersof the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation and otherlaw-enforcementagencies. (Most of thelaw’s provisions weremade permanent in2006 by the USAPATRIOT Improvementand ReauthorizationU.S. Pres. George W. Bush addressing thecountry from the Oval Office on September11, 2001.Eric Draper/The White HouseAct.)In January 2002 Bushsecretly authorized theNational SecurityAgency (NSA) tomonitor theinternational telephonecalls and e-mailmessages of Americancitizens and others inthe United StatesPres. George W. Bush addressing a crowdas he stands on rubble at the World 2without rst obtaining17/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaCenter site in Eric Draper/The White Housean order from theForeign IntelligenceSurveillance Court, asrequired by the ForeignIntelligenceSurveillance Act of 1978.When the program wasrevealed in newsreports in DecemberPres. George W. Bush signing the USAPATRIOT Act in the East Room of the WhiteHouse, Washington, George W. Bush Library/NARA2005, theadministration insistedthat it was justi ed by aSeptember 2001 jointCongressionalresolution that authorized the president to use “allnecessary and appropriate force” against those responsiblefor the September 11 attacks. Subsequent efforts inCongress to provide a legal basis for the spying becamemired in debate over whether telecommunicationscompanies that cooperated with the NSA should begranted retroactive immunity against numerous civillawsuits. Legislation granting immunity and expanding theNSA’s surveillance powers was nally passed by Congressand signed by Bush in July 2008.TREATMENT OF 8611218/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaIn January 2002, as the paci cation of Afghanistancontinued, the United States began transferring capturedTaliban ghters and suspected al-Qaeda members fromAfghanistan to a special prison at the country’s permanentnaval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Eventually hundredsof prisoners were held at the facility without charge andwithout the legal means to challenge their detentions (seehabeas corpus). The administration argued that it was notobliged to grant basic constitutional protections to theprisoners, because the base was outside U.S. territory; norwas it required to observe the Geneva Conventionsregarding the treatment of prisoners of war and civiliansduring wartime, because the conventions did not apply to“unlawful enemy combatants.” It further maintained thatthe president had the authority to place any individual,including an American citizen, in inde nite military custodywithout charge by declaring him an enemy combatant.The prison atGuantánamo becamethe focus ofinternationalcontroversy in JuneThe entrance to an internment facility atCamp Delta, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.2004, after acon dential report bythe cle/8611219/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaKathleen T. Rhem/U.S. Department ofDefenseCommittee of the RedCross found thatsigni cant numbers ofprisoners had been interrogated by means of techniquesthat were “tantamount to torture.” (The Bush administrationhad frequently and vigorously denied that the United Statespracticed torture.)The leak of the reportcame just two monthsafter the publication ofphotographs of abusivetreatment of prisonersby American soldiers atthe Abu Ghraib prisonScene from Errol Morris’s documentaryin Iraq (see below IraqStandard Operating Procedure (2008), War). In response to the Nubar Alexanian—Participant Media, LLCAbu Ghraib revelations,Congress eventuallypassed the Detainee Treatment Act, which banned the“cruel, inhuman, or degrading” treatment of prisoners inU.S. military custody. Although the measure became lawwith Bush’s signature in December 2005, he added a“signing statement” in which he reserved the right to setaside the law’s restrictions if he deemed them inconsistentwith his constitutional powers as commander in 1220/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaIn June 2006 the U.S. Supreme Court, in Hamdan v.Rumsfeld, declared that the system of military commissionsthat the administration had intended to use to try selectedprisoners at Guantánamo on charges of war crimes was inviolation of the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Codeof Military Justice, which governs American rules of courtsmartial. Later that year, Congress passed the MilitaryCommissions Act, which gave the commissions the expressstatutory basis that the court had found lacking; the lawalso prevented enemy combatants who were not Americancitizens from challenging their detention in the federalcourts.In separate programs run by the Central IntelligenceAgency (CIA), dozens of individuals suspected ofinvolvement in terrorism were abducted outside the UnitedStates and held in secret prisons in eastern Europe andelsewhere or transferred for interrogation to countries thatroutinely practiced torture. Although such extrajudicialtransfers, or “extraordinary renditions,” had taken placeduring the Clinton administration, the Bush administrationgreatly expanded the practice after the September 11attacks. Press reports of the renditions in 2005 sparkedcontroversy in Europe and led to of cial investigations intowhether some European governments had knowinglypermitted rendition ights through their le/8611221/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online Encyclopediaterritories, an apparent violation of the human rights law ofthe European Union (see also European law).In February 2005 the CIA con rmed that some individualsin its custody had been subjected to “enhancedinterrogation techniques,” including waterboarding(interrupted or controlled drowning, often called simulateddrowning), which was generally regarded as a form oftorture under international law. The CIA’s position thatwaterboarding did not constitute torture had been basedon the legal opinions of the Justice Department andspeci cally on a secret memo issued in 2002 that adoptedan unconventionally narrow and legally questionablede nition of torture. After the memo was leaked to thepress in June 2004, the Justice Department rescinded itsopinion. In 2005, however, the department issued newsecret memos declaring the legality of enhancedinterrogation techniques, including waterboarding. The newmemos were revealed in news reports in 2007, promptingoutrage from critics of the administration. In July 2007 Bushissued an executive order that prohibited the CIA fromusing torture or acts of cruel, inhuman, or degradingtreatment, though the speci c interrogation techniques itwas allowed to use remained classi ed. In March 2008 Bushvetoed a bill directed speci cally at the CIA that would haveprevented the agency from using any cle/8611222/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online Encyclopediatechnique, such as waterboarding, that was not included inthe U.S. Army’s eld manual on interrogation.THE IRAQ WARROAD TO WARIn September 2002 the administration announced a newNational Security Strategy of the United States of America. Itwas notable for its declaration that the United States wouldact “preemptively,” using military force if necessary, toforestall or prevent threats to its security by terrorists or“rogue states” possessing biological, chemical, or nuclearweapons—so-called weapons of mass destruction.At the same time, Bush and other high administrationof cials began to draw worldwide attention to Iraqi Pres.Ṣaddām Ḥussein and to suspicions that Iraq possessed orwas attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction inviolation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. InNovember 2002 the Bush administration successfullylobbied for a new Security Council resolution providing forthe return of weapons inspectors to Iraq. Soon afterwardBush declared that Iraq had failed to comply fully with thenew resolution and that the country continued to possessweapons of mass destruction. For several weeks, the UnitedStates and Britain tried to secure support from 223/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaSecurity Council members for a second resolution explicitlyauthorizing the use of force against Iraq (thoughadministration of cials insisted that earlier resolutionsprovided suf cient legal justi cation for military action). Inresponse, France and Russia, while agreeing that Iraq hadfailed to cooperate fully with weapons inspectors, arguedthat the inspections regime should be continued andstrengthened.As part of the administration’s diplomatic campaign, Bushand other of cials frequently warned that Iraq possessedweapons of mass destruction, that it was attempting toacquire nuclear weapons, and that it had long-standing tiesto al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. In his State ofthe Union address in January 2003, Bush announced thatIraq had attempted to purchase enriched uranium fromNiger for use in nuclear weapons. The subsequentdetermination that some intelligence reports of thepurchase had relied on forged documents complicated theadministration’s diplomatic efforts in the United Nations.Meanwhile, massive peace demonstrations took place inseveral major cities around the world.OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOMFinally, Bush announced the end of U.S. diplomacy. OnMarch 17 he issued an ultimatum to Ṣaddām, giving 4/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online Encyclopediaand his immediate family 48 hours to leave Iraq or faceremoval by force. Bush also indicated that, even if Ṣaddāmrelinquished power, U.S. military forces would enter thecountry to search for weapons of mass destruction and tostabilize the new government.After Ṣaddām’s publicrefusal to leave and asthe 48-hour deadlineapproached, Bushordered the invasion ofIraq, called OperationIraqi Freedom, to beginExplosions illuminating the skies of Baghdadduring the U.S.-led air bombardment of thecity, March Ramzi Haidar—AFP/Getty Imageson March 20 (localtime). In the groundphase of the Iraq War,U.S. and British forcesquickly overwhelmedthe Iraqi army and irregular Iraqi ghters, and by mid-Aprilthey had entered Baghdad and all other major Iraqi citiesand forced Ṣaddām’s regime from power.In the wake of theinvasion, hundreds ofsites suspected ofproducing or housingweapons of 25/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online EncyclopediaU.S. President George W. Bush greetingmembers of the U.S. military at a camp nearDoha, Qatar, in APdestruction within Iraqwere investigated. Asthe search continuedwithout success intothe following year,Bush’s critics accused the administration of having misledthe country into war by exaggerating the threat posed byIraq. In 2004 the Iraq Survey Group, a fact- nding missioncomprising American and British experts, concluded thatIraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction or thecapacity to produce them at the time of the invasion,though it found evidence that Ṣaddām had planned toreconstitute programs for producing such weapons onceUN sanctions were lifted. In the same year, the bipartisan 911 Commission (the National Commission on TerroristAttacks Upon the United States) reported that there was noevidence of a “collaborative operational relationship”between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Ṣaddām, who went into hidingduring the invasion, was captured by U.S. forces inDecember 2003 and was executed by the new Iraqigovernment three years later.OCCUPATION AND INSURGENCYAlthough the Bush administration had planned for a shortwar, stabilizing the country after the invasion 1226/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online Encyclopediadif cult. From May 1,when Bush declared anend to major combat inIraq, to the end ofDecember 2003, morethan 200 U.S. soldierswere killed as a result ofPres. George W. Bush with sailors aboardthe USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003.Tyler J. Clements/U.S. Navyattacks by Iraqis. Duringthe next four years thenumber of U.S.casualties increaseddramatically, reaching more than 900 in 2007 alone. (Thenumber of Iraqis who died during the invasion andinsurgency is uncertain.) Widespread sectarian violence,accompanied by regular and increasingly deadly attacks onmilitary, police, and civilian targets by militias and terroristorganizations, made large parts of the country virtuallyungovernable. The increasing numbers of U.S. dead andwounded, the failure to uncover weapons of massdestruction, and the enormous cost to U.S. taxpayers(approximately 10 billion per month through 2007)gradually eroded public support for the war; by 2005 a clearmajority of Americans believed that it had been a mistake.By the fth anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom inMarch 2008, some 4,000 U.S. soldiers had been killed. As 7/46

11/29/2017George W. Bush -- Britannica Online Encyclopediadeath toll mounted, Bush’s public-approval ratings dropped,falling below 30 percent in many polls.While acknowledgingthat it hadunderestimated thetenacity of the Iraqiresistance, the Bushadministrationmaintained that part ofU.S. Army soldiers surveying the scenethe blame for thewhere a car bomb exploded in front of acontinuing violence layhotel

11/29/2017 George W. Bush -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia . shown sitting on the National Archives, Washington, D.C. despite having lost the nationwide popular vote. Before his election as president, Bush was a businessman and served as governor of Texas (1995-2000). (For a discussion of the . teacher and librarian, in Midland in .