Condoleezza Rice becomes the third member of the Bush administration to accuse Cheney of lying in his memoir
By Rachel Rose Hartman
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the third senior official from President George W. Bush's administration to accuse Dick Cheney of lying in his new memoir, "In My Time."
Rice told Reuters in an interview Wednesday that she "kept the president fully and completely informed about every 'in and out' of the negotiations with the North Koreans," countering the former vice president's assertion that Rice misled the president about nuclear diplomacy with North Korea.
"You can talk about policy differences without suggesting that your colleague somehow misled the president," Rice said. "You know, I don't appreciate the attack on my integrity that that implies."
Rice also disputed Cheney's assertion that Rice "tearfully admitted" she was wrong for wanting the administration to apologize for President Bush's claim in the 2003 State of the Union that Iraq was searching for uranium for nuclear weapons.
"It certainly doesn't sound like me, now, does it?" Rice said."I would never--I don't remember coming to the vice president tearfully about anything in the entire eight years that I knew him."
Rice admitted that she told Cheney he had been correct about the press reaction to the uranium claim.
Rice is the third former official from George W. Bush's State Department to dispute parts of Cheney's memoir, which was published on Tuesday.
The book has provoked rebukes this week from former Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as Powell's former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson.
During an appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Powell defended himself, Rice and others against what he said were "cheap shots" lobbed by Cheney in his memoir to boost book sales.
Powell said contrary to Cheney's claims, the former vice president deserves no credit for Powell's resignation, that Powell presented dissenting views on the Iraq War to the president and that Powell and his former Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, are not to blame for the Valerie Plame scandal.
In an interview with "Democracy Now!" on Tuesday, Wilkerson asserted that Cheney's fears of being tried as a war criminal influenced how the former vice president characterized situations in his memoir.
"This is a book written out of fear, fear that one day someone will 'Pinochet' Dick Cheney," Wilkerson said, referring to Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator who was charged for war crimes.
Wilkerson said it was "utter nonsense" for Cheney to claim to have anything to do with Powell's resignation.
"The only person Cheney does not seem to find fault with is Cheney," Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson said he regrets not resigning for putting together Powell's February 2003 presentation to the United Nations on the supposed presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Creating that presentation "was probably the biggest mistake of my life," he said.
