Report: Bush Planned Iraqi Invasion Pre-Sept. 11

[thebaghwan]

Now isn't this interesting????

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20040110/ts_nm/people_oneill_dc

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill charges in a new book that President Bush (news - web sites) entered office in January 2001 intent on invading Iraq (news - web sites) and was in search of a way to go about it.

O'Neill, fired in December 2002 as part of a shake-up of Bush's economic team, has become the first major insider of the Bush administration to launch an attack on the president.

He likened Bush at Cabinet meetings to "a blind man in a room full of deaf people," according to excerpts from a CBS interview to promote a book by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind, "The Price of Loyalty."

To go to war, Bush used the argument that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and had to be stopped in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, world. The weapons have never been found.

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was a bad person and that he needed to go," O'Neill said in the "60 Minutes" interview scheduled to air on Sunday. "For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap."

CBS released excerpts from the interview on Friday and Saturday.

The former treasury secretary and other White House insiders gave Suskind documents that in the first three months of 2001 revealed the Bush administration was examining military options for removing Saddam Hussein, CBS said.

"There are memos," Suskind told CBS. "One of them marked 'secret' says 'Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq."'

Another Pentagon (news - web sites) document entitled "Foreign suitors for Iraqi Oil Field Contracts" talks about contractors from 40 countries and which ones have interest in Iraq, Suskind said.

BENT ON WAR

O'Neill was also quoted in the book as saying the president was determined to find a reason to go to war and he was surprised nobody on the National Security Council questioned why Iraq should be invaded.

"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it," said O'Neill. "The president saying 'Go find me a way to do this."'

White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected O'Neill's remarks.

"We appreciate his service. While we're not in the business of doing book reviews, it appears that the world according to Mr. O'Neill is more about trying to justify his own opinions than looking at the reality of the results we are achieving on behalf of the American people," he said on Saturday.

O'Neill also said the president did not ask him a single question during their first one-on-one meeting, which lasted an hour. The president's lack of engagement left his advisers with "little more than hunches about what the president might think," O'Neil told "60 Minutes."

Suskind's book, whose full title is "The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill," uses interviews with O'Neill, dozens of White House insiders and 19,000 documents provided by O'Neill.

O'Neill, who was fired due to disagreements over tax cuts, spent a difficult two years in Washington, joining the Bush administration with a background as a no-nonsense corporate executive.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

1. Isn't it convenient

I love how they're only defense is to call their critics "crazy". Those fucking dicks!

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Anybody who bothered to read PNAC knwos this

but the fact that he has the goods is a good thing

Now lets see if this informaiton sinks in

[AlinPA]

3. Wow! Gadzooks! Yoy! Folks, this is hot stuff.

I always said, Paul Oneill calls it like he sees it. You may disagree with his policies, but the guy is clear about what he says. Plus he backs it up with data. Its about time. How will the media deal with this? A: Just don't say anything about it.

[madaboutharry]

4. The White House has already

tipped its hat as far as the response. They are taking what could be called the "Martha Mitchell" offensive and label him a crazy wacko.

[CalProf]

9. They'll have a little trouble

with that strategy, since apparently Secretary O'Neill took lots and lots of documents with him when he left.

I do think CBS should have issued this stuff on Thursday, instead of Friday afternoon when there is little attention being paid.

[HereSince1628]

10. Yes, but Suskind said there were memos...

with specific titles. I am assuming he wouldn't put that into print without either copies, or a second source to corroborate the first.

But then, the world I learned to know is transformed.

[Occulus]

12. the memos

are on the Judicial Watch website that discusses Cheney's energy task force documents, and shows us a few. The .pdf files (a pair of them) on that page are titled exactly what the memo O'neill referenced was titled.

I think we now have a good idea just what Cheney's task force was about and why he's keeping it so secret. This is a conspiracy, folks- a criminal conspiracy; a textbook example of why and for what crimes conspiracy statues exist. It's a criminal act of beyond colossal proportions.

Oh, and take a look at page 51, paragraph one, of the PNAC document Rebuilding America's Defenses. Pay special attention to the reference to a moder Pearl Harbor.

[Rex]

5. Yer Honor, we have a witness (O'Neill)

NOW may we impeach GW Bush? How bout a trial?

[HereSince1628]

6. The cbs link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml

Well, this will be a test of how good the Dumbya's teflon coating is.
Does this generate the need for RWLIHOP = Ready and Waiting to Let It Happen On Purpose?

[jogi1969]

7. the 60 min

interview will be interesting;
just how much will the CBS overlords
allow trashing of * and his staff?

[barbaraann]

8. Comments are being posted to this story like crazy.

(Post/Read Messages at the bottom of the story.)

Also, don't forget to rate this story!

[missile_bender]

11. I see McClellan did not deny the information

just slammed O'Neil.

[KayLaw]

14. Personally

I could barely understand was McClellan said. It sounded like a bunch of weasly garbage to me.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

13. Every DUer should be on the phone...

on Monday to their representatives demanding an investigation, and calling their media outlets demanding they cover this story.

Good god folks, we have been handed a stick to beat GW with -- we MUST use it, and use it until the guy is bloody.

[Moderator]

15. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=307817&mesg_id=307817