Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's assertions have stung the White House, but no one there says he's lying.
To understand the predicament faced by the Bush administration in confronting its former treasury secretary, all anyone needs to do is read the "Author's Note" at the beginning of "The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill." In the course of discussing sources and making acknowledgments, Ron Suskind reveals that O'Neill turned over a pair of CD-ROMs that contain, in digital form, a copy of "every document that had crossed his desk" during nearly two years in Washington. That amounts to roughly 19,000 documents, including many that concerned O'Neill's role as a principal of the National Security Council, plus O'Neill's detailed daily schedules and voluminous handwritten notes.
So Suskind is likely to have written proof of O'Neill's assertions about Iraq and many other subjects. That may be why nobody in the White House, where O'Neill is being called many things, has dared to publicly call him a liar.
(snip)
O'Neill also reveals why the administration decided to invade Iraq after 9/11, despite the continuing dearth of any proof that Saddam possessed or produced weapons of mass destruction.
At a Camp David meeting following the terrorist attacks, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz warned that while Afghanistan could turn into a mess, the Iraqi regime was ripe for an easy overthrow.Iraq might not have been much of a threat, but Iraq was certainly "doable."
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http://salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/01/13/oneill/index.html