“Among those who have revealed the early planning of the [Iraq] war are Paul O’Neill, President Bush’s first treasury secretary and an official member of the Cheney Energy Task Force. According to O’Neill, regime change in Iraq was the number one item on the agenda at the very first Bush administration National Security Council meeting […]
Category: quotes
1/30/2001
“We were told by the president [Bush] that the war [in Iraq] was his last choice. But it is now clear that it was always his first preference. His former secretary of the Treasury, Paul O’Neill, confirmed that Iraq was ‘topic A’ at the very first meeting of the Bush National Security Council just ten […]
1/30/2001
“On January 30 [2001], [future 9/11 hijacker] Ziad Samir Jarrah, a Lebanese national who had obtained a U.S. visa in Berlin [Germany], was stopped for questioning at Dubai Airport in the United Arab Emirates. The CIA reportedly requested that he be interrogated, but the Agency later denied that.” – Peter Lance, 1000 Years For Revenge, […]
1/30/2001
“U.S. and UAE [United Arab Emirates] officials say [9/11 hijacker Ziad] Jarrah was stopped at the airport in Dubai on January 30, 2001, after the CIA notified UAE officials that he would be arriving from Pakistan on his way back to Europe. UAE sources say the CIA wanted to know where he had been in […]
1/30/2001
In the first meeting of the National Security Council on January 30, 2001, CIA Director George Tenet “mentioned that the CIA had received intelligence assessments that Saddam was paying rewards to the families of some suicide bombers on the West Bank and Gaza. He was also selling underpriced oil to Jordan and Syria, creating a […]
1/30/2001
By the end of the first National Security Council meeting on January 30, 2001, focus had shifted from the Arab-Israeli conflict to Iraq. President “Bush had assignments for everyone. [Secretary of State Colin] Powell and his team would look to draw up a new sanctions regime. [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld and [Joint Chiefs of […]
1/30/2001
Following the first meeting of the National Security Council on January 30, 2001, Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said: ” ‘Getting Hussein was now the [Bush] administration’s focus, that much was already clear.’ ” – Ron Suskind, The Price of Loyalty, Page 75 […]
1/30/2001
On January 30, 2001, “As the [Bush Administration’s first National Security Council] meeting drew to a close, Bush gave out assignments: [Secretary of State Colin] Powell should draw up guidelines for more effective sanctions [against Iraq], [CIA Director George] Tenet should report back on improving intelligence in the country, [Treasury Secretary Paul] O’Neill would investigate […]
1/30/2001
“The primary focus…[of the Bush Administration]–as national security adviser Condoleezza Rice framed it in January [30] 2001 at the first NSC [National Security Council] meeting of the Bush presidency–was on ‘how Iraq is destabilizing the region,’ and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.’ ” – Ron Suskind, The One Percent Doctrine, Page 22 […]
1/30/2001
Despite counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke’s suggestions for combating al Qaeda at the Bush Administration’s first National Security Council meeting on January 30, 2001, President Bush was focused elsewhere. ” ‘We’re going to correct the imbalance of the previous [Clinton] administration on the Mideast conflict,’ Bush announced. ‘We’re going to tilt it back toward Israel.’ Bush […]