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Bandar
acknowledged discussing oil prices with Bush, but said he had the
same conversation with Clinton in 2000 and Carter in 1979
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WASHINGTON,
April 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Saudi
ambassador to the U.S. denied Wednesday, April 21, that Riyadh agreed
to lower oil prices to help U.S. President George W. Bush's reelection
bid or was tipped on the Iraq invasion long before it took place.
There
was no "political quid pro quo," Prince Bandar bin Sultan
said, emerging from a meeting with White House meeting with
Condoleezza Rice, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He
said Saudi Arabia sought lower oil prices but that "it was not
for the benefit of the president's political needs."
Bandar,
serving as ambassador to Washington for more than 20 years, added that
a lower price of oil "is good for the American people, the
American economy, for the world economy."
In
his best-selling book, "Plan of Attack", star U.S.
journalist Bob Woodward said the Saudi envoy had effectively promised
Bush a boost in oil output to drop prices and strengthen the U.S.
economy ahead of the November 2 election.
The
Saudi envoy acknowledged discussing oil prices with Bush, but recalled
having had "the same conversation with President Clinton in the
year 2000 about the same issue.... I had the same conversation with
President Carter in 1979".
Bandar
said he hoped Bush's challenger, Democratic Senator John Kerry
"has heard my explanation about the oil and he can be assured
that we didn't make any deals that could interfere in our friend's
internal affairs."
"If,
as Bob Woodward reports, it is true that gas supplies and prices in
America are tied to the American election, then tied to a secret White
House deal, that is outrageous and unacceptable to the American
people," Kerry he said during a campaign stop in Florida.
"It
is fundamentally wrong," he said. "It's my prayer that
Americans are not being held hostage to a secret deal."
The
three top Democrats in the House of Representatives sent a letter to
the White House demanding that Bush "fully explain the agreement
that you or your administration reached with the Saudis to boost oil
production and disclose any promises or commitments that have been
made to the Saudis on behalf of the U.S."
War
Tip
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Woodward’s
best selling book has added to White House unease over Iraq war
preparations
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Tackling
another charge in Woodward's book, Bandar denied that he had learned
in early January that the U.S. would go to war - before even U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell knew.
He
said Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and
the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, had
told him how the war would unfold if Bush gave the order.
"The
vice president told me, 'The president has not made a decision yet.
However, here is the plan if everything else fails'," the
diplomat said, adding that Bush had roughly the same message for him
when they met two days later.
"I
didn't know about the war, actually, except one hour before the attack
when I was informed by the White House," said Bandar.
Woodward
reported in The Washington Post that Rumsfeld has shown Bandar a top
secret map showing how the war would unfold and said "You can
take that to the bank. This is going to happen."
Rumsfeld
was closely questioned this week about passages describing that
particular meeting.
He
told reporters at a briefing that he may have used the phrase
"take that to the bank" but that no final decision had been
made to go to war, said the Washington Post.
"
I can't believe the decision had been made by the president during
that period.
"There
was certainly nothing I said that should have suggested that, and any
suggestion to the contrary would not be accurate."
Shake
Up
Woodward's
"Plan of Attack" is the latest book to suggest that Bush
started planning for a war on Iraq soon after 9/11.
He
said Bush made up his mind that war would be necessary in early
January 2003 and then began telling his top advisers.
However,
Rice and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said the final
decision to launch military action did not come until March, after
Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the U.N. Security Council in
early February to make the administration's case for military action.
Publicly,
the U.S. was then committed to attempts to find a
"diplomatic solution" to the Iraqi crisis.
Woodward
agreed that the decision to go to war was not absolutely final until
it became irrevocable as the March 19 invasion approached.
But
he told CNN's "Larry King Live" that the source for his
assertion that the actual decision was made earlier was the president
himself.
Woodward
said Bush, one of 75 people he interviewed, told him that when he met
in the Oval Office with Powell on January 13, 2003, it was "not a
meeting to have a discussion.
"This
was a meeting to tell Colin Powell that a decision had been made and
that the president wanted his support."
Woodward
is known for his work in the Watergate scandal that led to president
Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.
Woodward's
work has become another instant hit, joining "Against All
Enemies" the book by former White House counter-terrorism advisor
Richard Clarke, who accused Bush of making Iraq the priority over Al-Qaeda
threat before 9/11.
Ron
Suskind's account of Paul O'Neil's tenure as treasury secretary,
"Price of Loyalty", also said that Bush was obsessed with
Iraq after he took office in January 2001.
