RAY McGOVERN (27-year CIA analyst on 6/6/05 Lehrer NewsHour): "I would go back to an earlier
conversation, and this happened on the 20th of September 2001, and this
happened nine days after 9/11. This involved Tony Blair, who was in Washington having dinner
with the President. How do we know about this? We know this because Christopher
Meyer, the UK
ambassador was there at that dinner. What does he say? The conversation went
like this. President Bush: 'Uh, Tony. Uh, we're going into Afghanistan in a week or two, but that won't
take long and we get out of there and we're going right into Iraq. Are you
with me, Tony? Are you with me?' And Christopher Meyer says 'My goodness, it
was really, and Tony was really sort of nonplussed, but he said 'Yes sir, I'm
with you Mr. President.' (Margaret Warner tries to interrupt, but Mr. McGovern
continues) So that goes back (a flustered Ms. Margaret Warner) "Mr.
McGovern, speed up!" (Mr. McGovern) "so that
goes back to 2001" (Ms. Warner) "We're almost out of time. Get to the
next part!" (Mr. McGovern) "Okay, that's it." (Ms. Warner,
almost shouting) "So, it's not about Iraq,
it's about Afghanistan!"
(Mr. McGovern) "Well, no. This has to do with Iraq. What the President said to
Tony Blair, on the 20th of September (2001) according to the UK ambassador who was there, is 'We're going
into Afghanistan
in a couple of weeks. It won't take us long there, and we're going right into Iraq right
after that. Are you with me?' And Tony Blair said 'Yes!'"
Over the
years we have received enumerable complaints regarding the Warner
contretemps. Finally, this 9/20/11
report by General Electric NBC Universal’s Brian Williams that Tony
Bennett on, of all programs, Howard Stern’s, said that George W. Bush
admitted that he had made a mistake going into Iraq, that there was no reason,
i.e. NO WMDS.