O'Neill: Bush Entered Office Intent On Invading Iraq

[Jhhnn]

I suspect that the Bushies have been stonewalling the 9/11 commission and groups seeking Cheney's energy policy meeting notes precisely because those documents would corroborate O'Neill's story...

Vindictive as they are, the Admin will obviously try to put the hurt to O"Neill, but I doubt it will work. He's too smart to not have consulted attorneys prior to publication, and he's wealthy enough to have really, really good attorneys... Not to mention they'll play hell finding a jury that would convict him of anything, and that they certainly won't want to produce the paperwork any good attorney would demand in the discovery process...

O'Neill's pretty bulletproof, considering that he's probably protected by whistleblower statutes, as well... unless they ship him to Gitmo, which would be a little too obvious...

 

[Gaard]

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
I suspect that the Bushies have been stonewalling the 9/11 commission and groups seeking Cheney's energy policy meeting notes precisely because those documents would corroborate O'Neill's story...

Vindictive as they are, the Admin will obviously try to put the hurt to O"Neill, but I doubt it will work. He's too smart to not have consulted attorneys prior to publication, and he's wealthy enough to have really, really good attorneys... Not to mention they'll play hell finding a jury that would convict him of anything, and that they certainly won't want to produce the paperwork any good attorney would demand in the discovery process...

O'Neill's pretty bulletproof, considering that he's probably protected by whistleblower statutes, as well... unless they ship him to Gitmo, which would be a little too obvious...

I think they're already trying to put the hurt on him. They've opened an investigation concerning the 'cover letter' shown on 60 Minutes Sunday. Apparently, this 'cover letter' had the word classified on it.

Wow. A matter of hours and they launch an investigation over a 'cover letter' shown on TV, but expose an undercover CIA agent...who cares, we'll get to it when we get to it.

 

[FrodoB]

Originally posted by: MonstaThrilla
Reuters Article

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

[...]

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein 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 document entitled "Foreign suitors for Iraqi Oil Field Contracts" talks about contractors from 40 countries and which ones have interest in Iraq, Suskind said.

[...]

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 that 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."'

[...]

He's bitter because he got the axe. But there is more than likely some truth in the fact that they wanted to go to war with Iraq for a very long time. It's the first step in bringing the Middle East into the 21st Century. The question whether it was right or wrong for us to be the liberators is not something we can answer. The only people that can answer that question is the Iraqi people themselves. Personally I'm sure that most of their people desired it to happen. But of course there are some people in this country that disagree with the government's wmd reason.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: Gaard

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
I suspect that the Bushies have been stonewalling the 9/11 commission and groups seeking Cheney's energy policy meeting notes precisely because those documents would corroborate O'Neill's story...

Vindictive as they are, the Admin will obviously try to put the hurt to O"Neill, but I doubt it will work. He's too smart to not have consulted attorneys prior to publication, and he's wealthy enough to have really, really good attorneys... Not to mention they'll play hell finding a jury that would convict him of anything, and that they certainly won't want to produce the paperwork any good attorney would demand in the discovery process...

O'Neill's pretty bulletproof, considering that he's probably protected by whistleblower statutes, as well... unless they ship him to Gitmo, which would be a little too obvious...

I think they're already trying to put the hurt on him. They've opened an investigation concerning the 'cover letter' shown on 60 Minutes Sunday. Apparently, this 'cover letter' had the word classified on it.

Wow. A matter of hours and they launch an investigation over a 'cover letter' shown on TV, but expose an undercover CIA agent...who cares, we'll get to it when we get to it.

It wasn't marked "classified", it was marked SECRET, which is one of three classification markings for classified material within the Department of Defense (the other two being CONFIDENTAL and TOP SECRET). SECRET material is defined as that which, if compromised, could pose a grave threat to national security. However, like most liberals, you probably don't "believe" in national security -- just some wacky "neocon" idea, like actually fighting terrorism.

 

[SteelCityFan]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc

3) Tax cut for people making more than 85k

LMAO

I don't make near that, and my taxes were reduced by 35%.... nearly a $1200 savings.

 

[SteelCityFan]

Funny, I don't see anything about Clinton's bombing etc of Iraq, and him saying something would have to be done. He was saying the same exact thing Bush was - because he was looking at the same intelligence.

I also bet there were plans all over the place for Russia invasions during the cold war - did one ever occur? No. Fault him for being prepared?

...and just because they have not found WMD yet does not mean it isn't there. We are talking about a desert the size of California, and a guy who has many ways to hide and/or transport it to places like Syria.

 

[Bitek]

However, like most liberals, you probably don't "believe" in national security -- just some wacky "neocon" idea, like actually fighting terrorism.

Seems the other way around to me. Petty, vindictive neocons, trying to cover their asses, blow a secret agent's cover compromising national security (far worse than showing a cover letter! not that was a smart thing to do...) as revenge for criticism and exposing thier lies about an ill-concieved war that only distracted us from the real terrorists, and severly degrading our military's ability to fight such war. All at tremendous expense to American lives and taxpayer dollars.
Gee, glad to know who are the real patriots.



:disgust:

 

[CaptnKirk]

Even The FOX get's into it

So let me get this straight - the network embelishes their tTV presentation by using an image of a 'Cover Letter'
with the word 'SECRET' on it as eye-candy to entice their viewers as to it's alledged importance.

That by itself does not make that document a designated 'Secret' document.

Next the White House decides to launch a probe to see if there was in fact a secret document shown on TV,
with the sole purpose of discrediting someone who let their version of truth br known to the world.
O'Neill was a respeected member of a previous adminiatration, who knew how the Executive Branch
was supposed to work - ethically from within, by his past service, and suddenly he's 'Persona non-Grata'

How long will it take for this Administration to find a way to quash this data release, either by elevating it to
thier buddy Ashcroft for collection of all data for re-clasification as secret, or using the 'Patriot Act' as a
method to declare this information as sensitive to National Security.

Follow in your book and repeate after me, "Crooks, Liars, and Cheats - Oh my, Lions and Tigers, and Bears."

 

[chess9]

Capt:

Bwuahahaha!

-Robert

 

[drewshin]

supertool, i did a search on google and cnn did change it. google's cache of it has your statement, however when following the link to cnn they have cut off the last part of it.

news.google.com


also, o'neill would have been privy to information about WMD's, he had a seat on the national security council.

by dari:

It's almost as silly as saying we are going to nuke Russia just because we have written plans to do so.

silly comment, didn't bush say saddam needed to be taken out because he wanted to do so? so i guess since we have written plans to nuke russia, we must be planning to actually do it sometime in the near future, so i guess your line of reasoning is not so silly after all, LOL.

 

[SteelCityFan]

From the AP...

Asked if he plans to vote for Bush in November's presidential election, O'Neill said he "probably" would. "I don't see anyone who is better prepared or more capable," he told NBC.

 

[SuperTool]

Originally posted by: drewshin
supertool, i did a search on google and cnn did change it. google's cache of it has your statement, however when following the link to cnn they have cut off the last part of it.

news.google.com


also, o'neill would have been privy to information about WMD's, he had a seat on the national security council.

by dari:

It's almost as silly as saying we are going to nuke Russia just because we have written plans to do so.

silly comment, didn't bush say saddam needed to be taken out because he wanted to do so? so i guess since we have written plans to nuke russia, we must be planning to actually do it sometime in the near future, so i guess your line of reasoning is not so silly after all, LOL.

What statement?

 

[Gaard]

Originally posted by: AndrewR

Originally posted by: Gaard

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
I suspect that the Bushies have been stonewalling the 9/11 commission and groups seeking Cheney's energy policy meeting notes precisely because those documents would corroborate O'Neill's story...

Vindictive as they are, the Admin will obviously try to put the hurt to O"Neill, but I doubt it will work. He's too smart to not have consulted attorneys prior to publication, and he's wealthy enough to have really, really good attorneys... Not to mention they'll play hell finding a jury that would convict him of anything, and that they certainly won't want to produce the paperwork any good attorney would demand in the discovery process...

O'Neill's pretty bulletproof, considering that he's probably protected by whistleblower statutes, as well... unless they ship him to Gitmo, which would be a little too obvious...

I think they're already trying to put the hurt on him. They've opened an investigation concerning the 'cover letter' shown on 60 Minutes Sunday. Apparently, this 'cover letter' had the word classified on it.

Wow. A matter of hours and they launch an investigation over a 'cover letter' shown on TV, but expose an undercover CIA agent...who cares, we'll get to it when we get to it.

It wasn't marked "classified", it was marked SECRET, which is one of three classification markings for classified material within the Department of Defense (the other two being CONFIDENTAL and TOP SECRET). SECRET material is defined as that which, if compromised, could pose a grave threat to national security. However, like most liberals, you probably don't "believe" in national security -- just some wacky "neocon" idea, like actually fighting terrorism.

It was a cover letter Andy.

 

[Gaard]

Number of days between Novak column outing Valerie Plame and announcement of investigation: 74 days.

Number of days between O'Neill 60 Minutes interview and announcement of investigation: 1 day.

Having the administration reveal itself as a gaggle of hypocritical goons ... priceless.

-- Josh Marshall

 

[SuperTool]

They are just putting the screws on O'Neill to get him to backtrack.

 

[Ldir]

Originally posted by: Gaard
Number of days between Novak column outing Valerie Plame and announcement of investigation: 74 days.

Number of days between O'Neill 60 Minutes interview and announcement of investigation: 1 day.

Having the administration reveal itself as a gaggle of hypocritical goons ... priceless.

-- Josh Marshall

 

[digitalsm]

Ummm it appears, atleast according to O'neill there have been the use of selective qoutes. When the media says the books said "Bush entered office with the intent of invading Iraq", theres also mention of it being a continuation of Clinton admin policy. O'neills book isnt as a scathing as the media makes it out to be. All though I think O'neill is either a liar, or he got screwed by the writer of the book.

 

[UltraQuiet]

O'Neil clarifies:

O'Neil

So, do all you Bush bashers still believe him?

 

[Gaard]

Originally posted by: Ultra Quiet
O'Neil clarifies:

O'Neil

So, do all you Bush bashers still believe him?

About what?

 

[Gaard]

I know this will probably be classified as 'tin hat' worthy, but I just wanted to point out the words under the picture of the author here.

Former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind says he interviewed hundreds of people for the book ? including several cabinet members.

Now, AFAIK, O'Neill is the only cabinet member (albeit ex) to 'show his face' so to speak. Probably because he's not currently on the government payroll and doesn't have to risk losing his job. When the others no longer have this risk, it'll be interesting to see if more mouths open.

 

[glenn1]

O'Neill: Bush Entered Office Intent On Invading Iraq

So? Regime change has been the stated policy goal by law of the U.S. since 1998, when President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act.

 

[Gaard]

Originally posted by: glenn1

O'Neill: Bush Entered Office Intent On Invading Iraq

So? Regime change has been the stated policy goal by law of the U.S. since 1998, when President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act.

But wasn't one of Bush's campaign promises 'no nation building'? And weren't we told that the 'no nation building' concept was changed due to 9/11?

 

[b0mbrman]

I think anyone with half a brain knew that toppling Iraq was one of the administration's goals all along--even during the pre-war WMD talks with the constant references to Al Qaeda.

Was deposing Saddam Hussein something that should have been and are the people of the world and Iraq better off without him in power? Most likely...but using weapons that might not exist and Iraq's weak connection to terrorism as reasons was the dumbest thing Bush's circle has done.

For goodness sake. He's Saddam Hussein. It's not like you have to make stuff up to prove he's a bad guy.

And that's all I have to say about that

Peace out y'all!

 

[phillyTIM]

History will be brutal to the George W. Bush Regime, when others start talking too - just as O'Neill has done.

 

[preslove]

Different branches of the governmentn generate massive quantities of what if scenarios. This way when a situation happens, they have a skeleton of planning to respond with.

You, sir have no idea what you are talking about. Contingency plans are generally drawn up by LIEUTENANT COLONEL'S and filed away, literally put on a shelf, only to be uncovered if that contingency arises. A document NEVER comes before a sitting president unless someone is actively advocating a policy. My grandfather as a lieutenant colonel created a contingency plan for the invasion of Saudi Arabia in the 1950's, but that document never reached the desk President of United States. Why? Because no one in the white house or the pentagon was preparing/planning to invade the Saudi peninsula.

The Neocons (Wolfowitz) had been advocating going back into Iraq since 1993! In 1998 Wolfowitz and other beltway pseudo scholars called on Clinton to invade. These guys came into power in an administration whose head has the intellectual depth of a kiddy pool, and a shadowy leader (cheney) for whom mendacity is a defining characteristic. They simply put into action a policy that had been advocated (and scorned by the sane foreign policy establishment) for over 7 years in the corporate funded think tank Wonderland (a magical place where peer review and intensely scrutinized methodologies are replaced with fantastic fits of conservative reveries). 9/11 merely created a nice little false justification to dupe the fools who consider Fox News 'fair and balanced.'