Did Condi lie to Congress about Iran?

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 8:12 AM on February 16, 2007.

A few weeks back, Colin Powell's former aide, Lawrence Wilkerson, told BBC that Cheney rebuffed an offer from a more moderate pre-Ahmadinejad Iran, "to help the United States stabilize Iraq and end its military support for Hezbollah and Hamas." [VIDEO]

Now, a former aide to Condi Rice, Flynt Leverett, is accusing "[t]he Bush administration up to and including Secretary Rice," of not only missing this "serious proposal," but of "misleading Congress and the American public about the Iran proposal."

Last week, testifying before congress, Rice said: "I don't know what Flynt Leverett's talking about," and then faulted him for not telling her that "We have a proposal from Iran and we really ought to take it."

Uh huh. Oooooh that Flynt Leverett, concealing an offer from Iran on the most important foreign policy issue of the decade (shaking fist).

That's so ludicrous I'm surprised she wasn't struck by Zeus's mighty lightning bolt on the spot.

The terrible irony is that the administration's clear desire -- yes, desire -- to go to war with Iran has helped create an increasingly radical leadership there (although the Supreme Leader, who controls the military, is the same as it was).

An important thing to remember, as signs of yet another chance for a peaceful end to this neocon wet dream is extended, is that many in the military, intelligence and policy world have claimed for years that with regard to Iran THERE IS NO GOOD MILITARY OPTION.

Fortunately it appears that noone is drinking the Bush Kool-Aid on Iran...

Tagged as: congress, iran, neocons, intelligence, condi rice

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.