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January 13, 2004
Not What He Meant At All
Paul O'Neill has 'clarified' his remarks about the President.
He described the reaction to Suskind's book as a "red meat frenzy" and said people should read his comments in context, particularly about the Iraq war.
"People are trying to say that I said the president was planning war in Iraq early in the administration. Actually there was a continuation of work that had been going on in the Clinton administration with the notion that there needed to be a regime change in Iraq."
What surprised him, said O'Neill, was how much priority was given to Iraq by the president.
He was surprised apparently because he'd seen no "concrete evidence" of WMD's. (Like a lot of you, I've been wondering why the Treasury Secretary would have access to that kind of information anyway) At any rate, Mr. O'Neill is now saying the lack of evidence of WMD's now only means they prolly weren't there, not that the Iraq war was wrong.
"I think the fact that we have not found them makes the point. But that doesn't make the point that we should not have got rid of Saddam Hussein."
So were his statements in the book misconstrued or is he engaging in a little CYA P.R.?
My jury's still out on that one.
Posted by Rita at January 13, 2004 09:28 AM