Another Bush Lie

By now everyone knows the name Ahmed Chalabi.  I will not take time to re-hash Chalabi's background here -- go to your favorite search engine and search on "Ahmed Chalabi" -- it's a real education.

George Bush has lied large about his relationship with Ahmed Chalabi.

At a news conference in the White House Rose Garden on 2 June 2004, this exchange took place between President Bush and a reporter.

Q:   Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Chalabi is an Iraqi leader that's fallen out of favor within your administration. I'm wondering if you feel that he provided any false information, or are you particularly --

THE PRESIDENT: Chalabi?

Q:   Yes, with Chalabi.

THE PRESIDENT: My meetings with him were very brief. I mean, I think I met with him at the State of the Union and just kind of working through the rope line, and he might have come with a group of leaders. But I haven't had any extensive conversations with him.
...

Q:  I guess I'm asking, do you feel like he misled your administration, in terms of what the expectations were going to be going into Iraq?

THE PRESIDENT: I don't remember anybody walking into my office saying, Chalabi says this is the way it's going to be in Iraq.

Got that?  Read it again.  The President says, Chalabi?  Who's he?

Now, read this exchange between President Bush and Tim Russert on Meet the Press, February 2004.

Russert: If the Iraqis choose, however, an Islamic extremist regime, would you accept that, and would that be better for the United States than Saddam Hussein?

President Bush: They're not going to develop that. And the reason I can say that is because I'm very aware of this basic law they're writing. They're not going to develop that because right here in the Oval Office I sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al-Hakim, people from different parts of the country that have made the firm commitment, that they want a constitution eventually written that recognizes minority rights and freedom of religion.

Got that?  Read it again. So, President Bush tells us on 2 June that he had only minimal contact with Chalabi and he does not remember Chalabi walking into his office.  But, only a few months before, he described how he sat down with Chalabi IN THE OVAL OFFICE and discussed the future of Iraq.

And, by the way, here is a very inconvenient photo taken at the White House, Thanksgiving Day, 2003:

That's Chalabi on the right in the puke green jacket and yellow shirt.  You know who that is in the center wearing the blue shirt with sweat stains under the armpits.

Has George W. Bush ever told the truth about anything?