Abbas Denies Bush's 'Mission from God' Remark

IRIS Blog

Sunday, October 9. 2005

Abbas Denies Bush's 'Mission from God' Remark

From the Associated Press:

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has denied an account by another Palestinian official of a meeting with US President George Bush in which Bush is cited as saying he believed that God told him to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A statement in Abbas's name released by his office said an excerpt from an interview with Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Shaath due to be broadcast by the BBC in which Shaath described a meeting with Bush in June 2003 gave a "completely false" account.

In the interview for the series, Israel and the Arabs, Shaath described the meeting, at which he said Abbas was present.

"President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did. And then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq.' And I did,'" Shaath said.

"This report is not true," the Abbas statement said today. "I have never heard President Bush talking about religion as a reason behind the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush has never mentioned that in front of me on any occasion and specifically not during my visit in 2003."

Just one problem: Abbas is quoted by Ha'aretz as saying something nearly identical:

God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did

The problem is that the PA are incorrigible dissemblers. Here is a recent post on the topic and here is another.

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Posted by Barak at 07:45 | Comments (0) | Trackback (1)

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