WHITE HOUSE REVENGE PART 2
O'Neill Bows to Oval Office Intimidation Tactics

From CNN:

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said Tuesday his account of the Bush administration's early discussions about a possible invasion of Iraq has been distorted by a "red meat frenzy."

The controversy began last week when excerpts were released from a book on the administration published Tuesday in which O'Neill suggests Iraq was the focus of President Bush's first National Security Council meeting.

That started what O'Neill described to NBC's "Today" show as a "red meat frenzy that's occurred when people didn't have anything except snippets."

"People are trying to make a case that I said the president was planning war in Iraq early in the administration," O'Neill said.

"Actually, there was a continuation of work that had been going on in the Clinton administration with the notion that there needed to be regime change in Iraq."

For more on O'Neill's seeming retraction in the face of a White House investigation of him, click here.

Meanwhile, Bush issues an admisson of sorts:

Bush admits wanting new Iraqi regime before 9/11

From the Houston Chronicle:

President Bush acknowledged Monday that he has been in favor of regime change in Iraq since entering the White House.

But he dodged the question of whether he was plotting direct U.S. military action to take out Saddam Hussein long before Sept. 11, 2001.

"The stated policy of my administration towards Saddam Hussein was very clear. Like the previous administration, we were for regime change," Bush said. "And in the initial stages of the administration, as you might remember, we were dealing with Desert Badger, or fly-overs and fly-betweens and looks, as so we were fashioning policy along those lines. And then, all of a sudden, September the 11th hit."

The remarks were Bush's first response to criticism from former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who contends in a new book that Bush was already planning to oust Saddam within days of taking office.

Click here for more.

Of course, the one thing that I don't hear anyone mentioning now is the pre 9/11 map they showed on 60 Minutes Sunday of the Iraqi oil fields divvied up for plundering by US oil firms. If this whole thing was less about plans for invasion and more about concern for Saddam's WMDs, why the hell were they already trying to figure out how to loot Iraq? Clearly, O'Neill was right the first time and his retraction is because of White House bullying--Bush painting a picture of a simple containment policy doesn't ring true; it's obviously another one of his many lies.

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