I took that as poetic license by the writer, because he was heavily engaged in spinning facts to make his point. The impression he gave was almost of a news conference, and there's no way that's accurate.
It would be nice to get some closure on this, because I'm still scratching my head wondering what was said and in what context. If you hear back from them, please let us know.
I read with interest the article by Eugene Narrett, Ph.D in which he writes (3rd paragraph) "After the meeting, Gen. Zinni told the media, "I have never encountered such lack of trustworthiness in my life... It's a waste of time to try to reach a serious agreement with Arafat."
Many of us on the freerepublic.com website have been in a heated discussion over whether General Zinni actually made such a remark. You can find this discussion here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/588232/posts?page=465
The only news source we have for this story comes from an Israeli radio website called Artuz Sheba which can be found linked at the top of the above link. However, that news source does not say that Gen. Zinni made a public announcement. Dr. Narrett, however, claims that Gen Zinni made the statement to the media.
I wrote to the editor of the Artuz Sheba website and he/she responded but did not clarify the context of the remark other than to say that it appeared in several papers which I could not access or read.
Does Dr. Narrett have any further information regarding this quote? I would much appreciate a reply. I will post your reply on that thread, but as I did for the editor of Arutz Sheba I will redact your name to respect your privacy.