I don't know anything about this source, but this reflects really poorly on Bush if accurate:
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1394192 ------------------------------------------------snip On Thursday Jan. 8, he had a problem. The U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was going to vote for a United Nations Security Council resolution that called on both Israel and its Palestinian enemy, Hamas, to accept a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Indeed, she had been largely responsible for writing it, and Olmert was furious. He wanted more time to hammer Hamas, so he phoned up George W. Bush and yanked on his choke-chain. According to Olmert's account of what happened, given in a speech on January 13, in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, "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 have to talk to him now.' They got him off the podium, brought him to another room, and I spoke to him." "I told him, 'You can't vote in favour of this resolution.' He said, 'Listen, I don't know about it. I didn't see it. I'm not familiar with the phrasing.'" So Prime Minister Olmert told President Bush: "I'm familiar with it. You can't vote in favour." Bush did as he was told: "Mr. Bush gave an order to Secretary of State Rice and she did not vote in favour of it -- a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organised, and manoeuvred for," said Olmert triumphantly. "She was left pretty shamed, and abstained on a resolution she arranged." The Security Council passed the resolution 14-0, but the United States, its principal author, abstained. Senior Israeli politicians are usually much more circumspect about the nature of their relationship with the occupants of the White House, and Olmert's colleagues were appalled that his anger had led him to speak so plainly. It is one thing to talk to the president of the United States that way. It is quite another thing to reveal to the American public that Israeli leaders talk to US presidents in that tone of voice. The Bush administration, deeply embarrassed, tried to deny Olmert's account of the conversation. The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said that the story was "just 100 percent, totally, completely not true," and the White House deputy press secretary, Tony Fratto, said more cautiously that "there are inaccuracies" in Olmert's account of events. Olmert's office replied curtly that "the Prime Minister's comments on Monday were a correct account of what took place." He really doesn't give a damn any more. -raghu. -- Q: What did the apple say to the orange? A: Nothing, apples don't talk. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
