What Bush and Blair Told the Press After Key 2003 Meeting on Iraq

[kpete]

What Bush and Blair Told the Press After Key 2003 Meeting on Iraq

By Greg Mitchell

Published: March 27, 2006 10:55 AM ET

NEW YORK A front-page New York Times article this morning about a meeting between President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Jan 31, 2003, is receiving substantial international attention. It gets even more interesting when contrasted with what the two men told the press when they emerged from the closed-door session.
.........................

The memo, written by Blair's top foreign policy adviser David Manning, declares that the two leader believed that "diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning.” Among other things, the two leaders predicted a quick war and “manageable” aftermath. Bush predicted that it was "unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups," and Blair agreed.

“The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq,” The Times relates. “Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein.”

.........................

So: What did the two leaders say when they completed their meeting and went out to meet the press that day?

What follows are excerpts from the transcript of their brief press conference:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002236591

[rodeodance]

1. dipstick. and some wonder why we can not trust the silly boy

[Catchawave]

2. Proof he lied to us? Again?

Probably why the BIG ANDREW CARD story today :rofl: Rove and Hughes are getting so predictable now.