FLASHBACK: O'Neill - Bushies: :attack Iraq!" - Clarke corroboration

[swag]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0315-08.htm

"As we now know from former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, among others, the leading figures in this administration arrived in office as radical nationalists in an imagined world of one -- intent on whacking Saddam's Iraq..."


http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/column/guest/69163.php

They came to power with George W Bush, and we now know from Paul O'Neill, Bush's first treasury secretary, that they were planning to attack Iraq from the moment the new administration took office in January 2001. The murderous attacks on September 11, although in no sense a casus belli for war on Iraq, provided an opportunity.


CNN International
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/03/20/clarke.cbs/

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill made similar accusations on "60 Minutes" in January.

[wtmusic]

1. How many people have to say it

before an "accusation" becomes a "revelation"?

[zanana]

5. And how many former Bush administration people

How many former Bushies have to say something until it's taken seriously? Paul O'Neill was supposedly a "disgruntled employee" and they're trying to smear this guy with the same label. The Paul O'Neill thing was relatively ignored after the Bush spin machine went into action. I wonder if the same thing will happen with Clarke?

[wtmusic]

7. Clarke met it head on

with the "I'm sure they'll call their dogs on me" comment, a wonderful tactic worthy of Rove himself.

I love to watch the Thugministration squirm. God willing, in one year they'll all be in jail or on the lecture circuit...Yow!

[soleft]

2. And what about Bob Woodward in his Bush Book

I believe his account was that Rumsfeld was calling on attacking Iraq, Go wide, sweep up everyting, related and not.

[ewagner]

3. Encouraging

Listened to the last few minutes of CSPAN this morning and it seems that people were willing to dismiss O'Neil as a crank but now see Clark's book as confirming what he said.

There's too much "truth" floating around out there. WH claims of political motivation ring hollow. This is going to hurt dubya and company...and that....is encouraging.

[xultar]

4. Remember-----Wesley K. Clark said it also!!! n/t

[EdGy]

6. but Clarke is different

because he was at the center of the regime's terrorism efforts, while O'Neill was marginal to that issue area.

Coming from Clarke this is MUCH more devastating.

They have to get all of this under oath before the 9/11 commission, and DEMAND that Condi and others testify UNDER OATH...

And if they don't agree to that, then hit them over the heads, in very tough tv ads.

[RamboLiberal]

8. Anyone have the O' Neill book handy right now

I'm at work, book is at home. Condi this morning was pooh-poohing that they wanted to go after Iraq right after 9-11. She's saying that at 9/15 meeting at Camp David that Clarke wasn't there and they had a map of Afghanistan on the table.

But O' Neill was at that meeting. I seem to remember that O' Neill said they wanted to go after Iraq at that meeting. Can anyone check in O' Neill's book?

[nodictators]

9. "Holy Joe" Lieberman says, "No."

Here's what the crypto-Bushman said:

Sen. Joe Lieberman, D(?)-Conn., said Sunday he doesn't believe Clarke's charge that Bush _ who defeated him and former Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election _ was focused more on Iraq than al-Qaida during the days after the terror attacks.

"I see no basis for it," Lieberman said on "Fox News Sunday." "I think we've got to be careful to speak facts and not rhetoric."

This is from an AP article (sorry, no link)

Actually, Lieberman and Cheney had a lenthy discussion re Iraq in the VP debate in 2000. What did Holy Joe know then and when did he know.

Also a slug of PNACers, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, wrote to President Clinton in 1998 urging action against Iraq.

[chookie]

14. Uh, Bob Graham knew

Come on Joe -- who the hell do you think you are? Just because you weren't aware of this (don't you read the papers either?), you're using that to protect His Chimperial Highness?

Come on, Joe -- sane Republicans are taking a stand against His Chimperial Highness, based on the facts -- so why do you continue to defend him?

Sorry Joe -- you're not helping the nation-- this is not "bipartisanship" -- this is covering up misdeeds, and you should not be a part of it.

[swag]

10. Pretty good ratings for 60 Mins, according to little Matty

FLASH: CBS '60 MINUTES' TOP-RATED SHOW OF SUNDAY NIGHT WITH 11.9 RATING/19 SHARE... STAHL INTERVIEW WITH CLARKE LIFTS EYE TO WIN IN PRIME, MOST-AUDIENCE, ACCORDING TO OVERNIGHTS...

[tandot]

11. They impeached Clinton for lying about a sexual affair

I can't believe what those lying bastards get away with.

In my eyes they are war criminals and should not only be impeached but put on trial by the international community

[Kimber Scott]

12. Kwiatkowski - O'Neil - Clarke

Line the up and let them speak to America.

[chookie]

13. Don't forget Rummy's 9/11 memo

He made a scrawl in the margins -- saying, to effect: "Look for connections to SH, direct or not."

SH=Saddam Hussein.