Well, that Paul O’Neill certainly is a wealth of information.
Everyone had some fun on Friday when we learned that O’Neill, Bush’s Treasury Secretary for two years, described the president as a “blind man in a roomful of deaf people,” while characterizing Bush as a disengaged man who discouraged and avoided substantive discussions. But it turns out that was just the tip of the O’Neill iceberg.
O’Neill, who also served on Bush’s National Security Council, has explained that the Bush administration began plotting a war against Iraq almost immediately after taking office in 2001, debunking the president’s assertion that the war was necessary as a response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. O’Neill characterized the administration as looking for an excuse to justify an invasion.
“From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein is a bad person and that he needed to go,” O’Neill told 60 Minutes. “From the very first instance, it was about Iraq. It was about what we can do to change this regime.” O’Neill added, “It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying, ‘Go find me a way to do this.'”
O’Neill also said he, as an NSC member, never saw any proof to bolster Bush’s claims about Iraqi WMD. O’Neill told Time, “In the 23 months I was there, I never saw anything that I would characterize as evidence of weapons of mass destruction…. I never saw anything in the intelligence that I would characterize as real evidence.”
O’Neill spoke at great length with Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind to provide material for a new book, “The Price of Loyalty.” In the book, Suskind reportedly explains that the Bush administration, long before 9/11, was already making plans for war crime tribunals in Iraq, even discussing how best to divide up Iraq’s oil.
“There are memos,” Suskind told CBS. “One of them marked ‘secret’ says ‘Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq.” Another Pentagon document entitled “Foreign suitors for Iraqi Oil Field Contracts” talks about contractors from 40 countries and which ones have interest in Iraq.
Naturally, the White House is painting O’Neill as a bitter ex-employee. Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, “While we’re not in the business of doing book reviews, 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.”
You know what’s funny about that response? It’s not really a denial. Hmm.
It’s hard to understate the significance of O’Neill’s remarks. This was a Treasury Secretary who was well known for his straight talk. Indeed, O’Neill was widely derided for being too honest — saying whatever came to his mind without thinking about the consequences.
With this in mind, having O’Neill come out now — in an election year — and share his first-hand experiences with the Bush administration’s deceptions is huge. We now have a conservative Republican ideologue bolstering the fears of Bush’s biggest critics.
No wonder Suskind’s book is already a number one bestseller.