Posted on 08/27/2004 11:18:36 AM PDT by CheezyD
Has anyone found a transcript of the O'Neill - Nixon tape that contains the sentence after CNN conveniently cut it off?
This is from John O'Neill's on line at WaPo
Dayton, Ohio: Mr. O'Neill, I recently heard a portion of the White House audio tape of your meeting with President Nixon. I heard you tell President Nixon that you had gone to Cambodia on your swift boat.
I also heard you tell a reporter recently(on tape) that you had never been in Cambodia.
Did you lie to President Nixon or did you lie to the reporter?
Have you ever been in Cambodia, and if so, when did you go and did you go more than once?
If you have never been in Cambodia, how close did you ever get to the Cambodian border (in feet or miles)?
John E. O'Neill: I lied to no one. You quote the first half of the statement but ignore the following sentence. I clearly said that I was on the Cambodian border. I was on a canal system known as Bernique's Creek located about 100 yards south of the Cambodian border from which it would have been very difficult to get into Cambodia at least from a boat.
I never went to Cambodia. Unlike the Kerry story you are defensive about I don't believe I can ever fairly be interpreted as saying anything different. John Kerry on many different occasions said that the turning point of his life was being in Cambodia illegally for Christmas Eve and Christmas in 1968. This was in a different area than I was in and close approach to Cambodia was not possible for him in that area. In fact he was more than 50 miles away. How many people invent the turning point of their life and repeat it on the senate floor, in articles and more than 50 times in 35 years?
Actually, I thought the entire quote was pretty damaging to O'Neill. CNN was pretty stupid to cut it off like that. They pretty much fell right into O'Neill's interpretation.
What was the entire quote? Can you post it?
From what I've read, I think this is one that needs to be heard to understand the meaning. I suspect the first part of his statement, "I've been in Cambodia," was corrected with the second part, "I was on the border . . . " That won't be clear by reading the transcript, but might be very clear by listening to the tape itself.
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