Former cabinet sec'ty: Bush 'plotted Iraq war from start'

Many people suspected as much, but this was still a bombshell. Conservative spin has already started.

BBC News, 12 Jan 04

Bush 'plotted Iraq war from start'

A top official sacked from the US Government has accused President Bush of planning for an invasion of Iraq within days of coming to office.

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said Mr Bush was looking for an excuse to oust Saddam Hussein.

As a member of the president's National Security team he said he never saw any evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Mr O'Neill also portrayed the president as unwilling to engage in debate -- a charge rejected by Bush officials.

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction Saddam Hussein was a bad person and he needed to go," the former treasury secretary said in an interview broadcast by CBS News on Sunday.

... In a separate interview for Time magazine, Mr O'Neill said he had never come across any evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) during his period in office. "In the 23 months I was there, I never saw anything that I would characterise as evidence of weapons of mass destruction," the former member of the president's national security team said. "To me there is a difference between real evidence and everything else."

Other links:
CNN, 9 Jan 04: Bush 'like a blind man in a roof full of deaf people'
BBC, 12 Jan 04: Treasury Dept. begins investigating O'Neill. Payback?