Bush administration backpedals from absurd lie

I still cant really grasp the idea of sending 84 billion dollars to iraq..its insane


"Andrew S. Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said earlier this year that U.S. taxpayers would not have to pay more than $1.7 billion to reconstruct Iraq - which turned out to be a gross understatement of the tens of billions of dollars the government now expects to spend. Recently, however, the government has purged the offending comments by Natsios from the agency's Web site... For months after the April 23 Natsios interview on ABC's Nightline, USAID.gov displayed the transcript. 'You're not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is going to be done for $1.7 billion?' an incredulous Ted Koppel asked Natsios. 'Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution, I do,' Natsios said. 'This is it for the U.S. The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries who have already made pledges, Britain, Germany, Norway, Japan, Canada and Iraqi oil revenues... But the American part of this will be $1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this.'"


www.washingtonpost.com...

I thought this was funny too..


This is not the first time the administration has done some creative editing of government Web sites. After the insurrection in Iraq proved more stubborn than expected, the White House edited the original headline on its Web site of President Bush's May 1 speech, "President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended," to insert the word "Major" before combat.

yeah, i need Bush's PR team, man. they're GOOD. if paid enough, they can make a model fall in love with a fat and hairy hick; i love it!!!

i noticed that literary change, too. lots of people were saying "announces end of combat"... but now months later its "end of major combat"

prolly a few months more and they'll change it again to "announces end of some combat"

if the American people can still back bush i think pete rose has a future career in politics....how many lies do they think we will swallow....unfortunatly with so many people now willing to accept what the talking heads say without question, the government will continue getting away with half truths and outright lies

But apologists are nothing new...what stikes me as scary are those that not only don't care, but BASH the watchdog role of the press.

In fact, PUNISH it for dissent. Nixon was ahead of his time. He'd be more popular than Reagen in this environment.