Bill Delahunt: “If I can, because the reality is that long before September 11, this White House, this President, this Vice President…”

“If I can, because the reality is that long before September 11, this White House, this President, this Vice President, whose picture was on the November 2003 edition of Newsweek, had an obsession with Iraq, and I would submit that the best evidence of that obsession is revealed in a book by a noted journalist by the name of Ron Suskind, who sat down with the former Secretary of Treasury, Paul O'Neill, and did, if you will, an overview of Secretary O'Neill's experience in the Bush-Cheney White House. As Secretary O'Neill indicated, he was taken aback by the first National Security Council meeting, and he attended those in his capacity as the Secretary of Treasury, that was held one week after the President was inaugurated, and it quickly turned to the issue of Iraq. There were no threats emanating from Iraq. There were no statements emanating from the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein relative to an attack on the United States or any of our allies. In fact, if you remember, the Secretary of State himself, Colin Powell, later on some time in February described the Iraqi military in terms that turned out to be absolutely accurate, they were forthright, they had been significantly degraded, but one week after the President was sworn in the dominating subject of the first National Security Council meeting was Iraq.”