'Iraq was Clinton's idea'

2004-01-13 07:54

Monterrey, Mexico - US President George W Bush refrained on Monday from criticising former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill who had accused him of starting to plan an invasion of Iraq within days of his inauguration.

"I appreciate former Secretary O'Neill's service to our country," Bush said, explaining that he inherited a policy of regime change in Iraq from the prior administration of Bill Clinton.

"Like the previous regime, we were for regime change ... We were fashioning policy along those lines and then all of a sudden September 11 hit," Bush said at the Summit of the Americas here, also steering clear of a question as to whether he felt betrayed.

Meanwhile the Treasury Department asked on Monday for an investigation to determine if O'Neill improperly disclosed one or more secret documents for his new book.

Treasury spokesperson Rob Nichols told reporters the agency asked its internal investigative office to review whether any disclosure laws had been violated.

After O'Neill's book and related documents were featured on a CBS 60 Minutes; programme, Nichols said, "we referred this today to the Office of the Inspector General".

Security of the American people

Bush argued that "as president of the United States my most solemn obligation is to protect the security of the American people. And I took that duty very seriously.

"Working through the United Nations and working through the international community we made it clear that Saddam Hussein should disarm. And like he had done with a lot of previous resolutions, he ignored the world's demands. And now he's not in power, and the world is better for it," Bush said.

The White House also fended off criticism from O'Neill that Bush was not engaged in cabinet meetings.

Tough questions

"The president is a strong leader. The president asks tough questions and makes tough decisions. But we appreciate O'Neill's service," spokesperson Scott McClellan said.

People have the right to express their views," McClellan added. "Bush will be forward looking."

O'Neill said Bush was intent on ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein long before the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go," O'Neill told the CBS television program 60 Minutes in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Bush fired O'Neill - a former CEO of aluminium giant Alcoa known for his blunt talk - in December 2002 for publicly doubting the need for the president's sweeping tax cut plans.

The interview came after O'Neill served as the main source for an upcoming book, The Price of Loyalty, which paints an insider's view of the Bush administration.

- AFP