White House Criticizes ‘Some Of The Reporting’ On Olmert’s Call To Bush On U.N. Gaza Resolution
White House Criticizes ‘Some Of The Reporting’ On Olmert’s Call To Bush On U.N. Gaza Resolution
Yesterday, reports surfaced that President Bush ordered Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to abstain from voting for a UN ceasefire resolution on Gaza due to pressure from Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert. “I told him the United States could not vote in favor. It cannot vote in favor of such a resolution. He immediately called the secretary of state and told her not to vote in favor,” Olmert said.
An unnamed State Department official was quoted yesterday saying that it was Rice’s “recommendation all along” to abstain from the vote. Yet, ministers from Arab states said Rice had promised the U.S. would support the resolution “but then made an apparent about-face after talking to Bush.”
Now, the White House is disputing the reports, but won’t say what it is disputing. This morning, spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the reports on Olmert’s phone call to Bush “are inaccurate,” but did not specify the inaccuracy. And in the White House press briefing today, deputy press secretary Tony Fratto not only echoed Johndroe, but quickly moved on to another question when a reporter asked him to specify the inaccuracies in Olmert’s account:
FRATTO: Look, I think I’ve seen some of the reporting on this. I want to say that some of what we’ve seen is not accurate. [...]
Q: When you say reporting on this, I mean, these are actually Olmert’s words. I mean, he actually said this.
FRATTO: Yes, there are inaccuracies.
Q: In what Olmert said?
FRATTO: Yes.
Watch it:
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack today avoided specifics all together, saying everything Olmert said isn’t true. Olmert’s comments “are wholly inaccurate as to describing the situation, just 100-percent, totally, completely not true,” he said, adding that “[t]his idea that somehow she was turned around on this issue is 100-percent completely untrue.”
Still, some Arab ministers said they were surprised by Rice’s abstention. “We were told that the Americans were going to vote in favor,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said. “What happened in the last 10 or 15 minutes, what kind of pressure she received, from whom, this is really something that maybe we will know about later.”
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Jerusalem: 3 Oct 2001 (IAP) — According to Israel radio (in Hebrew) Kol Yisrael, [Shimon] Peres warned [Ariel] Sharon Wednesday that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and “turn the US against us.”
At this point, a furious Sharon reportedly turned toward Peres, saying “every time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear, don’t worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it.”
January 13th, 2009 at 6:05 pmThey need to blame their buddy, Ehud Olmert. Tony Blair’s and Rep. Howard Berman’s loose lips aren’t helping either.
Apparently “what’s happens in Israel, doesn’t stay in Israel.” All the slips came from politicians in front of Israeli audiences.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:05 pmFRATTO: Who you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes?
January 13th, 2009 at 6:05 pmDang. They think they’ve gotten to the point when they can just say that the reporting is “inaccurate” without saying what about it is inaccurate, and they can just skate on that.
I’m not sure they’re not right. Certainly they can skate away with the wingnut base, but is the public at large really that dull-witted that they’d fall for this?
January 13th, 2009 at 6:07 pmThis is why the Bush Administration is useless and can’t be believed. They’re just like, “that’s not true.” They won’t say what’s not true or what really happened. They give everybody no reason to believe them whatsoever. So, we don’t. Then they wonder why we don’t believe them.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:14 pmFRATTO: Look, I think I’ve seen some of the reporting on this. I want to say that some of what we’ve seen is not accurate. […]
If you subtract some of what (you think) you’ve seen from some of the reporting, you’re not left with very much, are you Tony?
January 13th, 2009 at 6:17 pmQ: If what Olmert said isn’t true, then my follow up question is, what’s this deal with Olmert going around lying about how the U.S. is his b!tch? You gonna take that?
January 13th, 2009 at 6:18 pmAnd the rest of the world shakes its head, waits longingly for the next seven days to pass without Armaggedon.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:18 pmShorter White House spokesman: You know what you did! I’m not spelling it out for you! **sniff**
January 13th, 2009 at 6:18 pmI am so very sick of these …I can’t think of a word bad enough…
January 13th, 2009 at 6:19 pmSo Rice was telling Arab nations she’d go with it, knowing she wasn’t, then the prezidunce called her to tell her to vote the way she was going to vote anyway.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:20 pmYeah. Right.
Annie, would ratbuckingfastards help?
January 13th, 2009 at 6:21 pmElBruce Says:
Q: If what Olmert said isn’t true, then my follow up question is, what’s this deal with Olmert going around lying about how the U.S. is his b!tch? You gonna take that?
That’s what I’m waiting for. Someone to actually ask that question, using that word, “Who is telling the lie?”
January 13th, 2009 at 6:28 pmAs long as every fraidy-cat news organization minces around actually asking that question, this will go on. Asking if someone is telling a lie is not slander or libel, or even implying such. It is simply asking the question.
Who cares what the Bush White House says or thinks any longer. One week from right now that mistake will be over and we can breathe freely again.
Next news item, please.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:28 pmWell if anyone knows about inaccuracies its fratto and parino
January 13th, 2009 at 6:33 pmsince the only thing that has ever come out their mouthes are inaccuracies………..altho it doesnt sound as good as bullshit
How about a global warming thread? That usually puts a fire under the trolls kettle. Anyone heard any rumblings from the Yellowstone cauldera?
January 13th, 2009 at 6:35 pmAnother Who’s on First and who’s on second moment for the Bush Administration. Look it’s clear Bush is so deep in the crimes with Israel he doesn’t really have a choice and has to do what Israel says. Connie is just doing what she was hired to do take messages and play the piano.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:40 pmLeftside Annie Says:
I am so very sick of these …I can’t think of a word bad enough
Will the word “fu(kwads” do? (TP ate my last comment when I spelled it correctly. Wimps.)
January 13th, 2009 at 6:44 pmThis is how they lie. They skirt the truth, give partial replies and then change the subject.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:51 pm#3 Ralph says “but is the public at large really that dull-witted that they’d fall for this?”
And I think they are.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:53 pmRUCerious Says:
Annie, would ratbuckingfastards help?
Wayne A. Schneider Says:
Will the word “fu(kwads” do?
Absolutely! I knew you boys would come through for me!! ;o)
xoxoxo
~ A
January 13th, 2009 at 6:54 pmDidn’t Rice help draft that resolution? Woulda been nice if she could end her career with at least one win. But nope, she got skunked.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:11 pmCurlew Says:
Who cares what the Bush White House says or thinks any longer. One week from right now that mistake will be over and we can breathe freely again.
Similarly to when your toilet backs up and spills onto the floor, spreads to other rooms, and seeps through the floor, the Stench of Bush will be pervasive for years. The sitting psychopath still has a few days to inflict even more damage.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:14 pmCurious how all of America’s elected officials are remaining silent while Israeli Jews murder hundreds, maybe thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children in their refugee camps.
Very curious….
January 13th, 2009 at 7:23 pmSo either Olmert is lying, or Bush is lying.
Given The Weeds track record, it isn’t difficult to figure out which one to believe.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:24 pmWell, maybe the pissed Condi off enough so she won’t forget everything when she has to testify.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:28 pmSurely not THIS time?!!
Whoops, nobody cares, same as every other time.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:53 pmShayne Says:
Well, maybe the pissed Condi off enough so she won’t forget everything when she has to testify.
They can discard their stooges at will, since before turning on them the stooges would have to publicly admit their entire career was a cheap fraud. So far, the only one who’s managed that humiliating trick is Scott McClellan.
January 13th, 2009 at 8:03 pmIf President Bush is not in charge of America’s policies then does it mean that Ehud Olmert is in charge?
Why does Bush answer to Olmert?
January 13th, 2009 at 8:12 pmOlmert bragging to show who is in charge:
“In the night between Thursday and Friday,when the Secretary of State wanted to lead the vote on a ceasefire at the Security Council,we did not want her to vote in favor”.
Olmert said:
” I said get me president Bush on the phone. They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia.
I said: ” I don’t care, I need to talk to him NOW.
He got off the podiom and spoke to me.”
I said :” United States could not vote in favor.It can’t vote in favor of such resolution. He immediately called Secretaty of State and told her not to vote in favor”.
Olmert said of Rice:” She was left shamed. A resolution that she prepared and arranged,and in the end she did not vote in favor”…Speaking to a crowd in southen Israeli town of Ashkelon
January 13th, 2009 at 8:27 pm900 of inocent civilians are dead! Including up to 270 children! Gaza has been punished for the result of a democratic election that saw Hamas wining. What Israel/USA/UK call the Palestininan president, is not a legitimate politician.
January 13th, 2009 at 8:40 pmGaza in like a concentration camp. Where the TERRORIST STATE OF ISRAEL with the backing of the USA, has blocked medicine, food and water.
This adiministration is ‘blahbing’ blah blah blahs and the new administration is SILENT!
SHAME SHAME SHAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tarazan and acopena –
It appears as though Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was correct. The Jews really do control America.
Sharon’s words will haunt me for as long as I live.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:02 pmsacopenapa – I apologize for mispelling your name.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:05 pmThey’re starting to remind me of a bunch of gangsters.
Ohlmert: You calling me a liar?
January 14th, 2009 at 12:09 amGW: Yeah!!! What you gonna do about it?
Ohlmert: You dirty rat. (rat-tat-tat-tat)
OMG! This was hysterical.
http://www.broowaha.com/article.php?id=4468
January 14th, 2009 at 4:18 am