Are you? Then again, as always, it doesn't really matter. The initial story hit the echo chamber and will be bouncing around in there for months. Retractions mean nothing (not that we'll see any official refutation of Putin's gift to Bush at all).
Russia warned the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks that Iraq's Saddam Hussein planned to hit targets on U.S. soil, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
Putin's remarks looked certain to help President Bush, but officials at the State Department expressed bafflement, saying they knew of no such information from Russia....
...State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters he did not know anything about the information that Putin said Russia passed on. No such information was communicated from Russia through the State Department, he said.
"Everybody's scratching their heads," said one State Department official, who asked not to be named.
But the Kremlin leader's comments seemed certain to bolster Bush, whose campaign for re-election in November is under pressure from the Iraq crisis.
Posts
June 21, 2004 8:22 AM
Not sure though what helping President Bush buys Putin. Whatever Putin is going to extract from the USA he's going to receive regardless of who is living in the White House or which party controls Congress.
TJI
TheJacksonIndependent.com
June 21, 2004 11:23 AM
That might be an issue if Putin were acting independently and wasn't providing information that specifically benefits Bush. But he isn't and he is. There is undoubtably some sort of quid pro quo involved here, we just don't know eneough to see what it may be. It might be as simple as oligarchs sticking together.