UNANSWERED -- DID THE WHITE HOUSE VIOLATE THE LAW?: Woodward reveals that in
July 2002, Bush secretly approved diverting $700 million
(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/...in612067.shtml)
meant for operations in Afghanistan into war planning for Iraq. Bush kept
Congress "totally in the dark on this," which raises serious legal questions
reminiscent of Iran-Contra: Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of the U.S.
Constitution (http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html) vests
the power of the purse with Congress, and statutes bar the executive from
unilaterally moving money out of areas explicitly mandated by spending
bills. On CBS's Face the Nation
(http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/face_041804.pdf) , Rice tried to defend
the move, claiming "resources were not taken from Afghanistan." Not only did
this response contradict the fact that special forces were pulled out of
Afghanistan
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...p-shifts_x.htm) in 2002
and moved to Iraq, but it did not address legal questions. As CBS anchor Bob
Schieffer said, "Dr. Rice, you cannot take money that Congress has
appropriated for one purpose and spend it on something else. That's against
the law." One other note: In the same supplemental bill, Bush further
ignored the will of Congress
(http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0802/081502cd1.htm) , blocking a
bipartisan, House- and Senate-passed homeland security funding package.