Wolfowitz Denies Woodward Report

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28864-2004Apr20.html
Wolfowitz Denies Woodward Report

By Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 21, 2004; Page A05


Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz yesterday denied a report in a new book that the Pentagon in 2002 secretly diverted $700 million to a covert military construction program in Kuwait linked to a future war with Iraq without adequately informing Congress.


The book describes a $700 million plan, approved by President Bush, to use money that Congress had approved for the war in Afghanistan and the general war on terrorism to finance airfields and pipelines in Kuwait, setting the stage for a "giant invasion." Congress, Woodward wrote, "had no real knowledge or involvement."

In testimony yesterday, Wolfowitz said that the U.S. Central Command had prepared a $750 million contingency plan for Iraq by July 2002. He said that the Pentagon had earmarked $241 million of the total before Congress voted for an Iraq war resolution in October 2002. But the money, he said, went only "to strengthen our capabilities in the region," and "no funding was made available for those things that had Iraq as the exclusive purpose."

But Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) said late yesterday that the Wolfowitz testimony and Pentagon briefings had assuaged his concerns. "At this point I think the matter has been fully responded to," he said.


For example, a quarterly report to Congress detailing Pentagon expenditures from Sept. 18, 2001, to June 30, 2002, contained line items such as "increased situational awareness," $5.1 billion; "enhanced force protection," $1.5 billion; and "increased worldwide posture," $4.8 billion.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I think Wolfowitz

also said that he hadn't been planning a war in Iraq before 911...isn't that the cornerstone of the plans put out by PNAC in '98?

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2. Amazing how a seasoned reporter could get it all so wrong