Liar & Criminals

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Qbone
@Qbone
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House denied a New York Times report that
President George W. Bush was determined to invade
Iraq by late January 2003, two months before he did so.


Bush told British Prime Minister
Tony Blair on January 31, 2003 that he was determined to invade Iraq without a second UN resolution and even if UN arms inspectors failed to find weapons of mass destruction in the country, according to the Times report.

It cited a top secret memo about the private White House meeting by David Manning, Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time.

Asked Monday if the memo showed Bush was determined to go to war, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "that's not an accurate assessment," although he did not deny the existence of the memo.

"The use of force was the last option," said McClellan, adding that the option had to be planned for.

In his memo, Manning paraphrased Bush as saying "'The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March,'" according to the Times report. 'This was when the bombing would begin'."

"We were continuing to pursue a diplomatic solution, but we recognized that is was necessary to prepare and plan accordingly in the event we would need to use force," McClellan said.

"The president pursed a diplomatic solution, that's why we went to the United Nation, that's why we passed a 17th resolution that called on the regime to disclose or face serious consequences," he said.

Asked about the contradiction between his statements and the memo cited by the Times, McClellan said: "I think that our public and private comments are fully consistent."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060327/pl_afp/usbritainbushiraq