NewsMax.com
Monday, Jan. 12, 2004

O’Neill and documents he provided where the main source for "The Price of Loyalty," being published by Simon and Schuster and written by Ron Suskind, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He spoke about his conclusions as an administration insider with CBS on "60 Minutes."

"What Paul O'Neill says ... is what a lot of other people are beginning to conclude - that there was an overstatement by the Bush administration of the weapons of mass destruction part of the argument for going to war against Saddam Hussein," presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. told Fox News Sunday.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Scott McClellan -- who explained that he wasn’t in the business of reviewing books -- would not confirm or deny that the White House began Iraq war planning early in Bush's term. He did comment briefly, however, that Saddam "was a threat to peace and stability before September 11th, and even more of a threat after September 11."

"It appears that the world according to Mr. O'Neill is more about trying to justify his own opinions than looking at the reality of the results we are achieving on behalf of the American people," McClellan said.

"The president is someone that leads and acts decisively on our biggest priorities and that is exactly what he'll continue to do," McClellan added, responding to another O’Neill charge that Bush’s decision-making process was, in his opinion, flawed from the get-go.

Published reports are now suggesting that the administration indeed began sending signals about a possible confrontation with Iraq -- before Sept. 11, 2001.

In July 2001, for instance, after an Iraqi surface-to-air missile was launched at an American surveillance plane, Bush's national security adviser, Condoleeza Rice, announced, "Saddam Hussein is on the radar screen for the administration."

But Secretary of State Colin Powell said in December 2001 that he was unfamiliar with any early administration targeting of Iraq: “With respect to what is sometimes characterized as taking out Saddam, I never saw a plan that was going to take him out."

Commerce Secretary Don Evans immediately debated O’Neill’s opinion about the presidential leadership:

"I know how he leads, I know how he manages ... He drives the meetings, tough questions, he likes dissent, he likes to see debate," Evans told CNN's Late Edition.

Republican Representative Mark Foley of Florida was less generous in a press release, suggesting that O’Neill had sold out to advance his career and his book sales: “Not since Julius Caesar have I seen such a blatant stab in the back. Et tu, Mr O'Neill?"

"The American public doesn't buy O'Neill's petty one-liners, but maybe Bono will include them on his next single," Foley added.

Editor's note:
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