What We've Lost by Graydon Carter: excerpt

Bush by the Numbers

GEORGE BUSH: SCOURGE OF TERRORISTS EVERYWHERE

• 1: Number of Bush administration public statements on national security and defense issued between January 20, 2001, and September 10, 2001, that mentioned Al Qaeda.
• 104: Number of Bush administration public statements on national security and defense in the same period that mentioned Iraq or Saddam Hussein.
• 101: Number of Bush administration public statements on national security and defense in the same period that mentioned missile defense.
• 65: Number of Bush administration public statements on national security and defense in the same period that mentioned weapons of mass destruction.
• 0: Number of times Bush mentioned Osama bin Laden in his three State of the Union addresses.
• 73: Number of times Bush mentioned terrorism or terrorists in his three State of the Union addresses.
• 99: Number of times Bush mentioned Saddam, Iraq, or regime (as in change) in his three State of the Union addresses.
• $1 million: Estimated value of a painting the Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, received from Prince Bandar, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States and Bush family friend.
• 1,700%: Percent increase between 2001 and 2002 of Saudi Arabian spending on public relations in the United States.
• 79%: Percent of the September 11 hijackers who came from Saudi Arabia.
• 0: Number of times Bush mentioned Saudi Arabia in his three State of the Union addresses.
• 3: Number of the September 11 hijackers whose entry visas came through a special United States, Saudi Arabia “Visa Express” program.
• 140: Number of Saikhs, including members of the bin Laden family, evacuated from the United States almost immediately after September 11.
• 14: Number of immigration and Naturalization Service agents assigned to track down 1,200 known illegal immigrants in the United States from countries where Al Qaeda is active.
• $0: Amount approved by Bush to hire more of these special agents.
• $10 million: Amount Bush cut from the INS’s existing terrorism budget.
• $690 million: Amount the Pentagon spent bringing oil into Iraq in just 2003.
• 4: Number of treasury agents investigating Osama bin Laden’s and Saddam Hussein’s money.
• 21: Number of treasury agents investigating Cuban embargo violations.
• 7: Number of Arabic linguists fired by the U.S. Army between mid-August and mid-October 2002 for being gay.
• $3 million: Amount the White House was willing to grant the 9/11 commission to investigate the September 11 attacks.
• $5 million: Amount a 1996 federal commission was given to study legalized gambling.
• $50 million: Amount granted the commission that looked into the Columbia shuttle crash.
• 69: Number of documents, many of which included references to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, the White House attempted to withhold from the 9/11 commission.

The figures listed in "Bush by the Numbers" all came from multiple reliable sources, including the following: American Civil Liberties Union, Associated Press, Center for American Progress, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Responsive Politics, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Children’s Defense Fund, Council on American-Islamic Relations, The Economist. Federal Election Commission, The Cuardian, Harper’s, Hasbro, The Independent, Information Security Oversight: Office, International Institute for Strategic Studies, iraqbody-count.net, LA Weekly, Mother Jones, National Geographic-Roper Survey, Natural Resources Defense Council, The New Republic, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Office of Management and Budget, Pew Global Altitudes Project Survey, Physicians for a National Health Program, Project on Managing the Atom (Harvard University), Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Salem, Service members Legal Defense Network, Sierra Club, Tax Foundation (Washington), Time, Tom Matzzie on TomPaine.com, U.S. Army War College, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Washington Post, The Week, World Health Organization.