Kristol: O'Neill War Memo Came from Clinton

NewsMax ^ | 1/11/04 | Limbacher

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

A controversial White House memo outlining plans for a post-war Iraq that was drafted well before the 9/11 attacks had its origins in the Clinton administration, former Bush 41 White House official Bill Kristol said Sunday.

In an interview set for broadcast Sunday night, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill tells CBS's "60 Minutes" that "from the very beginning, there was a conviction [in the Bush White House] that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go."

Of White House deliberations on the decision to invade Iraq, O'Neill claims, "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying, 'Go find me a way to do this.'"

O'Neill's comments are bolstered by memos he supplied to author Ronald Suskind, whose new book "The Price of Loyalty" is based on his story.

But former White House official Bill Kristol, who now publishes the Weekly Standard, says that a key memo cited by the author that outlines U.S. contingency plans to topple Saddam Hussein goes back to the Clinton administration.

"[Suskind] quotes this secret memo: 'Plan for post-Saddam Iraq,' that apparently the Bush administration had in it's first few months," Kristol told "Fox News Sunday."

"I'm sure that was left over from the Clinton administration. Of course [the Bush White House] had a plan for post-Saddam Iraq - it's been our policy to have regime change there for three years before the Bush administration."

Kristol, who served as chief of staff for former Vice President Dan Quayle, also questioned O'Neill's recollections of Bush's comments, which Suskind claimed are based on "nearly verbatim" transcripts of White House meetings.

"I've been in White House meetings. There's no verbatim transcript of such meetings," he told "Fox News Sunday." "People take notes, obviously, for their use later on. [But] I'd like to know, I'd like to see this nearly verbatim transcript of the meeting."

[freeangel]

Ahh, c'mon. Surely one has to feel badly that paul was forced to work for the Bush administration at the taxpayers expense all that time, knowing that he would be fed to a paper shredder if he tried to quit because he had such divergent views from the President.

[Alberta's Child]

Funny you should mention that!

O'Neill's current employer, The Blackstone Group, was founded by David Stockman after he left the White House in the mid-1980s.

[VOA]

Clinton tried to get to Iraq by sending Cohen and Abright on speaking tours to campuses for debate.

IIRC, there was one big shindig featuring Sandy Berger, Cohen and Albright
explaining why Saddam needed to be kept in check.

I've never given a second's thought to "Jewish Conspiracy", but I did think to myself
"...hmmm...three appointees of Jewish descent/ethnicity telling us
why we should keep a Muslim/Arab dicatator in check...maybe this isn't the
best publicity move ever done..."

[bert]

He's not a liar.

He's telling what he saw. I think everyone wanted an invasion of Iraq, including many of the leftists who railed for years about 41's failure to go toBagdad when he had the means available.

His opinions are muddled, especially the one involving blind and deaf people. As a representative of the deaf, he apparently didn't pay attention to written instructions that he should have been clearly able to see..

[txrangerette]

My point was never to defend the
O'Neill appt. - it stunk.

Read the threads on this. Do a
search. Cheney worked with O'Neill
years ago under Nixon & kept up
the connection. O'Neill & wife are
known as close friends of the Fed
chairman, socially. Cheney wanted
someone Greenspan liked.

Say, do you assume I make it up
as I go along? This was accepted
as true when W selected O'Neill.
Many posters are going back to
remind others of it, b/c people
are asking WHO goofed up here.

[txrangerette]

Of course - happens to the best,
which Dick Cheney is, IMO.

[Plutarch]

...a key memo cited by the author that outlines U.S. contingency plans to topple Saddam Hussein goes back to the Clinton administration.

Well, a memo drafted by the Clinton Administration hardly counts, as everyone knew that Clinton was all bluster and would never actually do anything. It is positively sinister, however, that Bush was reading the memo.

[evad]

Must have been an appointed in line with "the new tone" & the retaining of all of those Clinton appointed hold overs.

Exactly...and he never forgot being "publicly" dismissed. He lost a lot of credibility on that one.

This is pure 'payback time'.

[CyberAnt]

Geeeee! Ya think! This is more than sour grapes .. this is a direct hit against the President. Maybe somebody should check O'Neill's bank accounts.

This book coming out now when the President seems to be gaining in the polls .. points me directly to Hillary!!

[Strider]

Can anyone explain why O'Neill went Southside Johnny?

If I had to guess, I'd say he is trying to sell books. I think he is doing it for the money.

[Eva]

I suspect that O'Neil's book is worse than that, more along the lines of the Franken book, a collaboration with the leftist anti-Bush cohorts.

[terilyn]

I had a friend tell me something interesting last night. Chew on this...

Paul O'Neil had an axe to grind.

Paul O'Neil is a good friend of Alan Greenspan.

Alan Greenspan is married to Andrea Mitchell.

Andrea Mitchell broke the, 'Someone at the White House leaked the name of a CIA operative', story.

I'm having a hard time believing in that many coincidences...

[CFC__VRWC]

It is positively sinister, however, that Bush was reading the memo.

If the memos was drafted by Clinton's toadies, maybe President Bush was reading it for some laughs, or for instruction on how not to conduct an invasion of Iraq. A Clinton administration plan for invading Iraq would be good for only one thing - getting soldiers killed needlessly while hamstringing the military so the conflict would be unwinnable.

[pgkdan]

I never liked O'Neill, but I never took him for such a dirtbag whiney loser either. Sheesh! What a creep!

[pgkdan]

Let's hope Bush is over his Ted Kennedy hugging foolishness.

Amen to that brother!

[thesummerwind]

Wolfie on CNN is just going nuts over this book right now....the media is so sickening.

This will be a huge story for weeks, maybe months, because of the lamestream media, America's most potent, and destructive enemy!

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Wow, what a blast from the past. I remember reading and seeing footage of those raucus college visits now that you mention it.