BobfromMichigan2
Chris Floyd cannot be trusted, re SPIN = LIE
Fri Jul 4 03:56:46 2003
64.12.96.103

Editor, http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/07/04/009.html


There is an important misstatement in Chris Floyd's column.

Floyd writes: "Here are Bush's exact words, quoted by Haaretz: 'God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.'"

This implies that the transcript was of Bush making the quoted statement. However, as the article points out, the transcript was of "a negotiating session between Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and faction leaders from Hamas and other militant groups." In other words, Bush was not at the meeting that is the subject of the transcript. It must have been Abbas speaking, giving his version of what he remembers of what Bush told him earlier. It was not a direct quote from Bush.

This is sloppy journalism. I am not a Bush apologist, and am inclined to believe he said something like this, but we really don't know for sure what he said, only that Abbas told the Palestinian groups what he remembered Bush saying.

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