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INSPECTOR O'NEILL: THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF WMD
Drudge Report ^ | Jan. 11, 2004 | Drudge

Posted on 01/11/2004 6:10:06 AM PST by zook

INSPECTOR O'NEILL: THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF WMD Sun Jan 11 2004 08:46:45 ET

New York – Discussing the case for the Iraq war in an interview with TIME’s White House correspondent John Dickerson, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who sat on the National Security Council, says the focus was on Saddam from the early days of the Administration. He offers the most skeptical view of the case for war ever put forward by a top Administration official. "In the 23 months I was there, I never saw anything that I would characterize as evidence of weapons of mass destruction," he told TIME. "There were allegations and assertions by people. But I’ve been around a hell of a long time, and I know the difference between evidence and assertions and illusions or allusions and conclusions that one could draw from a set of assumptions. To me there is a difference between real evidence and everything else. And I never saw anything in the intelligence that I would characterize as real evidence." TIME’s new issue will be on newsstands Monday, Jan. 12th.

O’Neill spoke with TIME on the eve of publication of a new book, The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, The White House and the Education of Paul O’Neill, written by Pulitzer prizewinning journalist Ron Suskind which traces the former Alcoa CEO’s rise and fall through the Administration: from his return to Washington to work for his third President, whom he believed would govern from the sensible center, through O’Neill’s disillusionment, to his firing, executed in a surreal conversation with Vice President Dick Cheney, a man he once considered a fellow traveler.

In Suskind’s book, O’Neill’s assessment of Bush’s executive style is a harsh one: it is portrayed as a failure of leadership. Aides were left to play "blind man’s bluff," trying to divine Bush’s views on issues like tax policy, global warming and North Korea. Sometimes, O’Neill says, they had to float an idea in the press just to scare a reaction out of him. This led to public humiliation when the President contradicted his top officials, as he did with Secretary of State Colin Powell on North Korea and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman on global warming. O’Neill came to believe that this gang of three beleaguered souls—only Powell remains—who shared a more nonideological approach were used for window dressing. We "may have been there, in large part as cover," he tells Suskind.

When the corporate scandals rocked Wall Street O’Neill and Alan Greenspan devised a plan to make CEOs accountable. Bush went with a more modest plan because "the corporate crowd," as O’Neill calls it in the book, complained loudly and Bush could not buck that constituency. "The biggest difference between then and now," O’Neill tells Suskind about his two previous tours in Washington, "is that our group was mostly about evidence and analysis, and Karl [Rove], Dick [Cheney], Karen [Hughes] and the gang seemed to be mostly about politics. It’s a huge distinction."

On the eve of the Iraq war, O’Neill tells Suskind that he marvels at the President’s conviction in light of what he considers paltry evidence. "With his level of experience, I would not be able to support his level of conviction." That conviction, he tells the book's author seemed to be present in the administration from the start: "From the start, we were building the case against Hussein and looking at how we could take him out and change Iraq into a new country," he tells Suskind. "And, if we did that, it would solve everything. It was about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The President saying, ‘Fine. Go find me a way to do this.'"

Developing...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: pauloneill
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I searched for another thread on this latest bit of nonsense and couldn't find one.

Let's see: Who do I trust? Colin Powell? Paul O'Neill? Colin Powell? Paul O'Neill? Gosh, that's a toughie! (Sarcasm off)

1 posted on 01/11/2004 6:10:07 AM PST by zook
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To: zook
"Inspector O'Neill"

LOL!
2 posted on 01/11/2004 6:10:59 AM PST by RandallFlagg ("There are worse things than crucifixion...There are teeth.")
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To: zook
The backstory behind how this book came to be written and published (by Simon & Shyster interestingly enough) ought to be checked out.
3 posted on 01/11/2004 6:11:42 AM PST by mewzilla
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To: All
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Move your locale up the leaderboard!

4 posted on 01/11/2004 6:12:02 AM PST by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: RandallFlagg
O'Neill just can't seem to stop buying more rope.
5 posted on 01/11/2004 6:12:33 AM PST by zook
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To: mewzilla
Maybe James Carville promised to be his friend.
6 posted on 01/11/2004 6:13:35 AM PST by zook
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To: zook
How well does Suskind know Hilliary? Click here to see why I ask.
7 posted on 01/11/2004 6:14:59 AM PST by mewzilla
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To: zook
Gotta love his timing, though.

He must not have gotten the memo about the blister agents found yesterday.

That's almost as bad as Gore endorsing Dean four days before Saddam's capture.

I can picture it now:

"Well, we haven't found any evidence that Saddam had ANYTHING that would constitute a WMD."
"But what about the blister agents found yesterday?"
"Wh-What??"
*thud*
8 posted on 01/11/2004 6:16:07 AM PST by RandallFlagg ("There are worse things than crucifixion...There are teeth.")
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To: zook
I've said it before and I'll say it again.........


Paul O'Neill was and is irrelevant. Only the most angry of the RATS will find anything interesting in this.

We should not give O'Neill any attention in order to sink his book and his platform.

9 posted on 01/11/2004 6:17:54 AM PST by Erik Latranyi
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To: zook
Teel that to the Kurds.
10 posted on 01/11/2004 6:18:34 AM PST by Thom Pain
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To: zook
Maybe O'Neill is trying to position himself to be Clark's Sec of Treas, if Clark gets the nomination.

O'Neill's spew doesn't seem much different from Clark's.
11 posted on 01/11/2004 6:18:40 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: Erik Latranyi
Oh, I think we should give O'Neill plenty of attention. And Suskind. And Simon & Shyster. The more light the better.
12 posted on 01/11/2004 6:18:48 AM PST by mewzilla
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To: zook
Shut the f up O'Neill you do not have a credible opinion.
13 posted on 01/11/2004 6:19:39 AM PST by DooDahhhh
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To: Thom Pain
Teel = Tell

ooops...

14 posted on 01/11/2004 6:19:40 AM PST by Thom Pain (need more coffee, I guess.)
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To: zook
INSPECTOR O'NEILLheh-heh

How can they disrespect someone with a Smart Alec name who has the experience of inspecting the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa with one of the most distinguished rock stars of our time?

O'Neill/Bono Africa Tour

15 posted on 01/11/2004 6:22:24 AM PST by putupon (Bad names and dirty words per CFR, Socialized Medications, and Amnesty for Illegals.)
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To: zook
There was an earlier thread when this was 'developing'.. don't know if what O'Neill says is true or not.. but I do know that Clinton was lobbied to attack Iraq in '98..
16 posted on 01/11/2004 6:22:36 AM PST by Zipporah (Write inTancredo in 2004)
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: Zipporah
Of course! As I put it in the other thread, who should we believe? Colin Powell? or Paul "Senile" O'Neill?
18 posted on 01/11/2004 6:25:11 AM PST by zook
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To: zook
I know nothing of O'Neill.. other than what I've read in the last day or so...
19 posted on 01/11/2004 6:26:11 AM PST by Zipporah (Write inTancredo in 2004)
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To: zook
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/830817/posts

Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 - Full Text, Sense of Congress - Remove Saddam

SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS REGARDING UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD IRAQ.

It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.

20 posted on 01/11/2004 6:29:18 AM PST by OXENinFLA
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