Rumsfeld's Biblical message-laden intelligence briefs

ABC News' Jennifer Parker reports: Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld prepared top-secret military intelligence briefs for former President George W. Bush with cover sheets featuring triumphant images from the Iraq war with "Crusades-like" Bible messages, according to an exclusive report in the latest June issue of GQ magazine. The briefs, known as the Worldwide Intelligence Update, were prepared by Rumsfeld and often hand-delivered to Bush, and only circulated among a handful of Pentagon leaders and the president, according to GQ's Robert Draper. A March 31, 2003 brief cover-sheet depicted a U.S. tank roaring through the desert with a biblical quote from Ephesians: "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." An April 7, 2003 cover sheet depicted an image of Saddam Hussein under a quote from the First Epistle of Peter: "It is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men." An April 10, 2003 brief showed the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down, an Iraqi child kissing an American soldier and jubilant Iraqi crowds with a quote from the book of Psalms: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him ... To deliver their soul from death." At least one Muslim analyst in the Pentagon had been offended, GQ reports, and others worried that the biblical passages would inspire Islamic outrage within Muslim nations. The cover sheets were the "brainchild" of Major General Glen Shaffer, a director for intelligence for Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who reportedly told those who complained about the cover pages that "my seniors" appreciated them, including Bush, Rumsfeld, and former Joint Chiefs chairman Richard Myers. GQ obtained the sheets from an unnamed government official who "was disturbed enough by these biblically seasoned sheets to hold on to copies," Draper reports.