Perino Brushes Off Powell WMD Anniversary: ‘I Didn’t Realize It Was Today, Glad You Keep Tabs’

Today marks the fifth anniversary of Colin Powell’s presentation on Iraqi WMD before the United Nations. In today’s White House press briefing, a reporter noted the milestone and asked Perino what the White House is doing to “make a repeat of that kind of blunder impossible.”

Perino laughed at the question, stating, “I didn’t realize that was the anniversary today.” She then sarcastically replied, “I’m glad you keep tabs on it.” Watch it:

Some others keeping tabs on this tragic anniversary: Attaturk, Scott Lemieux, Mother Jones, and Greg Mitchell.

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Transcript:

QUESTION: Dana, today’s the fifth anniversary of Colin Powell’s U.N. presentation on Iraq. I’m wondering whether you think that the intel reforms (inaudible) since then make a repeat of that kind of blunder impossible.

PERINO: I didn’t realize that was the anniversary today.

(LAUGHTER)

I’m glad you keep tabs on it. I think there is no doubt that this administration took a lot of input from a lot of different places — independent commissions, including the WMD Commission — to establish reforms throughout the intelligence community, which are working very well.

And I remember Fran Townsend, at her last briefing here before she left, indicated that, in her experience, that the agencies were giving — sharing a lot more information, and that was making our nation safer.

QUESTION: Do you have any reaction to Britain’s Prince Andrew criticizing the U.S. for not following the advice (inaudible)?

PERINO: No.