And, having said that, I clearly stated that regardless of whether Zinni uttered the words ... the statement itself I believe to be true. Arafat is untrustworthy, he is a terrorist that we should not be negotiating with, and Israel should handle him and those terrorist groups assaulting them in the same way we are going after the Taliban and bib Laden.
The assumption here is that the mission is to broker a deal between Sharon and Arafat. More than one commentator is speculating that the mission is: to get Arafat into the old folks home and deal with someone else. IF that is the case, Zinni COULD have said this under "deniability" just to MOVE THE MISSION ALONG.