- "Having worked directly with President Bush twice
since then, and having additionally talked with many of my fellow interpreters
who have worked directly with him, I am now certain that he could not have
had that much knowledge of Indonesia. He doesn't even read the daily newspaper
to keep up with what's being reported in the press. I am convinced that
he must have been using some sort of earpiece through which someone was
telling him what to say. . . . I just wanted to confirm my own strong belief
that President Bush is often fed what he is supposed to say at important
events."
-
-
- Fred Burks has acted as an interpreter for George W.
Bush. (Note: "translation" is written, "interpretation"
is oral.) Burks wrote the following letter to Bob Fertik of Democrats.com,
who avers that he has verified that Burks did indeed hold down that job:
-
- As a deep insider myself, I have independent confirmation
of President Bush using an earpiece to assist him in communicating intelligently
with others. I've worked as a contract Indonesian language interpreter
with the US State Department for over 18 years. I first started interpreting
at the presidential level in 1995 at a White House meeting for President
Clinton and President Suharto of Indonesia with their top advisors. You
can read a short story of the many small miracles that led me to interpret
for presidents at www.gcforall.org/inspirations (scroll down to Issue #1,
where it is the second story).
-
- On September 19, 2001, just eight days after 9/11, I
was in the White House interpreting for an important 90-minute meeting
between President Bush and President Megawati Soekarnoputri of Indonesia.
This meeting made national news on all the TV networks, as at the time,
the administration wanted to show they were supportive of our Muslim friends.
Indonesia has the largest population of Muslims in the world. Over 80%
of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim.
-
- This was my first time interpreting for Bush. The previous
day, I had been given the 22 points Bush would be covering in this meeting
in order to familiarize myself with the topics to be discussed. About half
of these "talking points" had to do with terrorism, which was
to be fully expected given what had just happened. The other points, however,
involved many details of Indonesian politics which even I would have had
a tough time addressing, let alone Bush, who I assumed had limited knowledge
of Indonesia..
-
- During those 90 minutes, President Bush not only covered
all the points, he covered them quite well and without any notes! Not once
during the entire meeting did he look at any notes or receive cues from
anyone present in discussing the Indonesian political situation with depth
and intelligence. I was astonished! "How could this be?" I asked
myself. It was a huge surprise. I concluded either that Bush was much more
intelligent than we had been led to believe, or that somehow someone was
feeding answers to him through a hidden earpiece. At the time, I really
didn't know which of these was true.
-
- Having worked directly with President Bush twice since
then, and having additionally talked with many of my fellow interpreters
who have worked directly with him, I am now certain that he could not have
had that much knowledge of Indonesia. He doesn't even read the daily newspaper
to keep up with what's being reported in the press. I am convinced that
he must have been using some sort of earpiece through which someone was
telling him what to say.
-
- Having interpreted for media guests touring large TV
studios, I've seen how the news anchors all have hidden earphones, and
how the news producers are feeding them all sorts of information even as
they talk live on TV. "20 seconds to a commercial," "15
seconds of filler here," "wrap it up quick " etc... This
is standard practice for live TV shows. The "let me finish" comment
made by Bush in the debate was only confirmation of something I already
knew.
-
- I will also mention that a number of months ago a colleague
of mine was in the room with President Bush and his advisors when Bush
threw a full blown temper tantrum filled with foul language and all. He
ranted and raved at his advisors for a number of minutes to the shock and
dismay of my colleague who was standing unseen in the refreshment corner.
When he finally finished blowing off steam, Bush turned towards the refreshment
table only to see my colleague standing there. He instantly switched into
his "good ol' boy" friendly demeanor and said, "Hey, how
ya doin' buddy?"
-
- Politics is not a pretty business. I have many stories
from my experiences interpreting at international conferences and secret
meetings attended only our leaders and their interpreters. I have seen
a number of our world's leaders (not just Americans) acting like high school
boys playing power games. But for now, I just wanted to confirm my own
strong belief that President Bush is often fed what he is supposed to say
at important events. Though he can truly be a friendly guy, I have not
found him to be particularly bright or competent. To be fair, I must admit
that I tend to be of a more liberal persuasion, but I thought you all would
appreciate knowing some of what goes on behind the scenes. You take care
and have a great day!
-
- With best wishes,
- Fred
-
- PS - Though I am still on contract with the State Department,
I greatly reduced my work with them two years ago. I saw how important
it was for me to devote my time to getting the word out through the websites
I manage, and through email lists like this. I have done only three weeks'
worth of paid work this year. Thankfully, I am able to draw on money I
had set aside for retirement to support me in focusing full time on this
important work. I want to invite you to look carefully at what you can
do in your life to help build a better world in these important times.
You might start by sharing this email with your friends and colleagues.
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