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."

[Zipporah]

Well what Kristol says is true.. sort of.. Kristol and Wolfowitz (plus others)wrote the letter to Clinton lobbying FOR the attack on Saddam and asking for a 'regime change' in '98.

[GailA]

btt

[Voteamerica]

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

I agree with much of what you say, but Novak broke that story when he published it in his own column. It didn't take another reporter to release it.

[Voteamerica]

This story has no legs, none at all. The administration is playing it cool, which is perfect and the Rats are cannibalizing in Iowa.

Not to worry.

[GOPJ]

bump

[thesummerwind]

I worry.........sorry.

[lepton]

Can anyone explain why O'Neill went Southside Johnny? Is it really just about being a crybaby sore loser? Or is there something else that spawned this attack on the President?

He was a Nixon/Ford Republican who went off and became a CEO - hence he never continued his intellectual development and grew used to being the big boss.

[lepton]

and what kind of a jerk releases a book like that when our soldiers are at war?

To be fair, O'Niell didn't appear to understand why anyone would be upset about what he said to the author.

[lepton]

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

Oooooh. Zing! :)

[Cinnamon Girl]

Michael Medved said today that O'Neill isn't making money from the book. Only Suskind.